I'll Bee
I'llBee ©2004,wolf dietrich
I'll Bee is one of my very favorite composited images. Freshly having completed advanced Photoshop training for Photoshop 6, I was fascinated with distortion using a displacement map. This technique was the basis for forming the transparent sphere. The digital painting began with one of my first entries to the Napa Valley Mustard Festival Photo Contest in 2004. I captured a truly exceptional image of a bee landing on a mustard flower. The original image is "worthy" already but I thought why not take it to another level. I created a doughnut-shaped greyscale image proportioned to the size of the sphere in the final image that accomodated the bee and mustard flowers. Mapping the circular selection of the bee and mustard to the greyscale displacement map created convex distortion. Duplicating the layer many times at very low opacity created the sphere. Using compositing techniques, I combined a shot of my hand with a background of mustard flowers and a shot of a flying bee yielded this rather awesome image.
Unfortunately this masterpiece failed to attract the scrutiny of the judges at the Napa Valley Mustard Festival Photo Contest. However I did achieve recognition! This image was published in Photoshop User Magazine in the January/February 2005 Issue.