Artist creates ad using 1,000 Photoshop layers

Most Adobe Photoshop users have often wished for more time to complete a project. One artist took more than 300 hours and used more than 1,000 Photoshop layers to create an impressive composite from many individual images as part of a campaign designed for Adobe Systems.

Adobe ad uses 1,000 layers to create colorful image
The final images encompasses a colorful view of Times Square in New York City, complete with skyscrapers, shops and people, shot by the photographer across multiple locations, and composited together.

According to Composite Planet, a digital imaging site run by Josh Rossi, the artist behind this project, he took thousands of pictures and combined them all using more than 1,000 Photoshop layers. He began with the background, using images of skyscrapers and buildings as the basis for the image. From there, he started to add in additional elements, such as the sky, the ground and the sidewalk. The people came last as he continued to sprinkle the picture with vibrant colors and shapes. 

"The perspective was tricky and needed a high angle looking down," he explains on his site. "It was inefficient to bring a ladder around New York City and shoot the 50+ elements so Josh decided to put the camera on a tripod and hold it in the air with a 10 second timer. He needed a high shutter speed as well as a small f-stop to get a deep depth of field to achieve the effect he wanted."

The source also noted that lighting was one of the largest issues Rossi faced when both taking and editing the image, but since Photoshop houses a number of features ideal for perfecting an image's color, Rossi was able to fix the images to get the final product he desired.

Understanding the complexities of Photoshop
Rossi's image illustrates what you can create when you have a solid knowledge of Adobe Photoshop. American Graphics Institute also helps artists to unlock the power of Photoshop through Photoshop training courses, ideal for artists of any expertise level.