What use are tubes?

	This is the top most layer. I used the "Fish" tube and then just deleted the fish I didn't want. The right most sea-horse has also been rotated slightly using the deformation tool.
	This layer is a very heavily modified photo. The main weirdness is that the lower torso has been stretched with the deformation tool. Obviously there has also been all sorts of other hacking around. Actually, this image was originally created for a Bryce 3D project, but more on that another time.
	Next comes the first of the leaves. This leaves layer down in size from top to bottom, so leaves at the top are largest. But all the time, on each of the layers, I am varying the size of the leaves to avoid each layer looking too obviously tubed. The layers are also blurred, in general applying more blur as I work down through the layers. In general we perceive distance through blurring and this is a useful trick for any kind of photo manipulation.
	Now some smaller leaves, covering a wider area.
	And then some stones.
	Then just one startlingly red leaf. Hang on then, why are all the other layers that sort of sepia tone? OK, this is a good merging trick (indeed often vital). Ensuring that the general colour ranges of merged layers is very similar helps the whole image gel together. In this case, each layer has been processed with the PhotoLab filters to give variations on sepia and old gold type colour schemes. You can achieve the same effect though by using the Hue, Saturation, Lightness controls. Generally speaking, I'm bringing each layer down to a relative monochrome (but not black and white).
	Getting darker gives another impression of depth to the picture.
	Some very blurry leaves, that also have their opacity reduced. These are used to hide a bright patch in the next layer.
	Finally we come to a real photo. Well if that's the right word. The original photo was taken with a disposable underwater camera. It was good fun trying to get the hang of it and I'll warn you now - it is trickier than it looks. However, the disposable camera was dead cheap, we rented a private swimming pool for an hour to take the pictures. The clarity from the camera was very impressive, although maximum visibility would be about 10 feet. Again this picture has been heavily worked on. The whole lower portion fades away, while light shines up around the arms and shoulders. This has been achieved by a mixture of masks, clones, filters, layers and goodness knows what else.
	And then some more leaves, but much darker as these are the background. They are heavily blurred. These leaves are merged with the previous layer using "screen". This means that I have had to delete everything from underneath the swimmer and anywhere else I didn't want the leaves to come through. Of course, there has also been the ubiquitous finishing off of a little drop shadow around the whole ticket.