Assignment.. carefully add photographic detail to an oil painting.

Images can be downloaded here.

Be sure to keep it subtle. It can be very easy to over-do it.
When I am extracting photo elements, I like to pull info from the most contrasty channel to use as the basis of a mask.
1. On your photo fragment, look through the R, G, and B channels. Find the one which offers the most contrast on the area you want to extract.
2. copy and paste that area to the layer mask. (Alt-click on layer mask to show it full screen first)
3. Adjust brightness and contrast to maximize the area you want.
4. If additional cleanup or masking is needed, apply it to the layer mask with a brush.

Here are some videos showing how to extract photos using a luminance key.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hSNiRsWzq-c

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DPszOHLmSws

Masking can also be done using roto splines or painting a mask manually.

Also for next week, continue to develop thumbnails and bring in a folder of  photo research.