Make a Joyful Noise (Behind-the-Scenes)

Psalm 100 is evidently one of my favorite passages in God's Word that speaks of music. Today, I took the first verse and added it to a violin picture that I took.

I played around with some layering and thought I'd give you a little behind-the-scenes.
(Disclaimer: I don't claim to be a layer master so if you know of something I did wrong, don't hesitate to show me a simpler way)

Program: Photoshop Elements 10

First Layer: Violin
Of course, I began with the violin! :) I lightly edited the image in Photoshop Elements 3, particularly upping the contrast. So, here is the almost-original image:

Second Layer: Blue
Next, I created a blue fill layer (color: 5c687a).
{Layer > New Fill Layer > Mode: Color Burn > Color 5c687a}

I set the opacity for this layer to 50%. This is what it did to the violin image:

Layer 03: Grass
I selected another image I had taken of simple weeds.

For this layer I selected opacity 15% just to give it that hint of texture. Not much.

Layer 04: Green Difference Clouds

Then I created a new layer with difference clouds.

{Layer > New Fill Layer > Color: 858142 - with that layer: Filter > Render > Difference Clouds}

This is what I got: 

Again, I chose the opacity to be 15% (if you can't tell by now, I like just the tiniest hints of change)

Layer 05: Another Violin

This is probably not how you're supposed to work Photoshop layers, but I decided that the image was a little darker than what I wanted so instead of working out the mathematics to lighten each layer, I just overlaid another violin picture: opacity 40%.

Layer 05: Text

The final step was adding the text. I used two fonts: Cardif (for the plain text) and Allura (for the fancy text). I played around with text styles (glow, simple sharp inner bevel, drop shadow) until I came up with the look I liked (yes, I could go more into detail, but it would seriously confuse you).

If you own Photoshop and haven't played around with layers yet, I encourage you to give it a try! Don't be scared to just click buttons (just observe what buttons you click so if you come up with something fantastic, you'll know how to replicate it).