am a gardener who does a lot of installation and design work and i am looking to use photoshop to create a photorealistic design so that potential customers can visualize what kind of garden i can create for them. my idea would is to take a picture of someone's house or yard and transfix images of trees, shrubs, rocks, etc. onto to it. most landscape design is an overhead architectual drawing with different circles representing different plant material. so boring and dry. i want to produce a three dimensional design with a photo-realistic feel to it. i am wondering if photoshop can be used in this way or if there is another program out there for me? maybe i could use a plant library file to import images and manipulate them in photoshop?
#1
I think what you purport to do will take pretty sophisticated blend of artistic talent and Photoshop mastery.
Also, Photoshop is a 2D program; matters of scale and perspective can certainly be done, however. But taking a pic of an oak and working it into an existing photo, for example, is going to be tedious. There are matters of matching color balance, lighting, transparency, etc, if you want it to really look "non faked". And finding actual photo images, unless you take them yourself, is tough. Corel Photo CD series has any number of trees, shrubs, flowers, etc collections, but they are not produced now (mostly had on eBay - 18MB images).
Other than those considerations, it's certainly easily doable :)
Mac
#2
The time spent achieving what you envisage in Photoshop may not be worth it compared to a less photorealistic but more flexible approach taken by one of the garden design programs. These give real 3D rendering and walk-through ability for a small price.
They also have comprehensive libraries of trees, shrubs and plants. Try Google with "Garden design software".
Cheers - John
#3