What is In My Back Yard: A Composite Image

My Own Backyard

My mom always asked me where all of the animals were in our backyard as she never seemed to see any. Although there is the occasional deer and squirrel running through during the daytime I set out to capture an image showing which animals share the space over the span of a few days. The results were amazing. Over that week I would check the camera every day to make sure everything was working smoothly and it was common to see Racoons and Opossums making night-time visits. The species that stood out the most as it is fairly uncommon to be seen in Knoxville is the Red Fox.

How I Captured the Image

Using a Camtraptions V3 sensor, paired with a Nikon D3100 DSLR, with one Nikon SB-28 flash to provide natural lighting. As a general rule of thumb when camera trapping at night time I set my camera's ISO to 800, Shutter speed at 1/60, and my aperture is set to F/11. The flash in this scenario was set to 1/2 as it was necessary for properly lighting this scene. I used canned tuna and apple slices in order to help bait some of the animals into the specific area so that the Camtraptions sensor would be triggered in turn capturing the series of photos.

Photoshop

It is important to start with a singular image and the camera is not moved in order to keep the image consistent. Once the desired images are in Photoshop go ahead and lock the base layer image so that as you isolate your subjects and erase around them they will be in the correct part of the image. Use selection tools like the Magic Wand, Lasso, or Pen Tool to carefully isolate each animal in its respective photo. Once selected, refine the edges using Select > Refine Edge to ensure a clean and accurate extraction. To seamlessly blend the animals into a cohesive scene, use layer masks and adjust the opacity as needed. Pay attention to lighting and color consistency. Apply adjustment layers for further refinement.