A Crowing Rooster at Sunrise

If one lived on a farm and waited and watched for 30 years, this image might come along; otherwise it has to be faked.

• The rooster was made by a taxidermist and posed in this crowing position.

• When the intention is to cut out an object, and the new background is going to be multi-coloured, then it's best to photograph against a white background.
  The Magic Wand can select most of the background if the colour is even enough. Fine tuning will have to be done by hand. There is no substitute for going round the edge of the object with the Brush Tool. The Brush needs to be used at different sizes and different amounts of Hardness as you move round the subject.

• It's worth photographing interesting skies as they come along and building up a collection of them. The sky used here was one such image. It was darkened to give it a bit more mood and drama.

• The line of trees on the horizon was a separate image. Photographing it against a white sky makes selection easier.
  It was darkened to match the tone of the sky.

• The rooster was dragged on to the sky background.

• To give it more movement, the head and neck were copied on to a new layer. The section was given some Motion Blur to add to the crowing effect.

• When selecting an object, some stray pixels will be left behind which can spoil the result.
  This can be removed with defringing, via Layer > Matting >Defringe.

• That's it. There were not many stages involved but the key to a successful image is the time and care taken in selecting the object from its original background.

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