Precambrian Stromatolite Digital Reconstruction II

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After my earlier digital reconstruction of Precambrian stromatolites - click here - I decided to create a second. I felt that one of the best aspects was the water that had an altered transparency, giving the illusion of water, while showing the stromatolites. This was effective but when overlaying images it is important that the photographs are taken at the same angle. Without the images, in particular the water, being taken at the same angle, the final product looks unnatural. 

NB: since creating this piece, I have taken a number of photos of clear water at different angles for future projects. 

Above: this is a base layer of adjoining stromatolites bioherms from the Precambrian, with dark shading around the bioherms (added later). On top of each bioherm another image is added: photographs of modern stromatolites (living stromatolites in the UK from a undisclosed location). 

Above: all the modern stromatolite photo layers have been added to the Precambrian stromatolites, and more shading has been added (at varying transparencies) and then a photograph of sand has been put in between the Precambrian and modern stromatolites. This completely removes the Precambrian stromatolites from view while, the modern stromatolites are shaped to an accurate position and orientation as they are 'traced'.

Above: the final image. A final photograph of water has been added (at mid-transparency) on top of the other layers. The photograph is clear water from the Isle of Barra, Outer Hebrides.

Overall, I has happy with this second piece. Although, some refinement is needed on some of the edges. One of the difficulties is that the contemporary stromatolites are on a flat surface, no the spherical shape of the stromatolites, hence lots of shading is required. One aspect I prefer to the first reconstruction is that the modern stromatolites give a far better, and more accurate, texture to the growth structures.