Trial And Error

I felt that the I needed to do further experimentations before rushing to get it finished, So I started again.
This time I used a setting known as HDR toning to try and enhance the images that I had taken.

But I felt that the effect didn't work for what I had in mind, it made them look too bright and I found it hard to try to get the right effect, I felt less in control of the image.

But I kept on going to see if I could make it work, So I started to cut out some foliage to see if it would help make the image better, for this I used the channel masking technique and painted out any excess pixels

I placed the object in the image but yet I felt the image wasn't feeling natural so I left it there. 

Then I started to play around with other objects I had cut out to give myself a idea of how the composition would look . The hands do look ok but there is work to be done to make them feel as if they belong in the image as opposed to looking cut and paste, burning some shadows and dodging some highlights will help me with this.

Then I had ago with a custom brush named storm cloud and painted in some cloud effects. With some care and attention this could work.

Now I am starting to build this image towards a final out come. I started as I did before pasting photos, altering there perspective and blending them using layer masks.

I yet again used channel masks to cut out complex parts of the image 

Blended them in within the screen

Until I ended up with this. I am happy with this start, It looks natural the rivers flow the right way but and the perspective looks right in my opinion. I thought of placing more elements within the screen but I thought there was enough within the screen.

Now I tried out a technique so I could control the light in the image.(this is something that would be done in the final stages as you have to flatten the image to achieve this effect). I flattened the image duplicated it, lowered the brightness on one layer and brightened it on the other, then I applied a layer mask which then gave me the freedom to pain light as I pleased. This will really help give the image some atmosphere. 

Now I started to think out of the box or out of the screen if  you will.

I started to place other images to see what fitted in with the image It was case of trail and error, flipping images horizontally,  

Blending them In

Using the pen tool for more refined selections 

Until I ended up with this, This is as far as I have saved up to, in other words I am happy with this. now I want to play around with the composition and effects to get a idea of how I can take this further

This just seemed (the fountain) too out of place.

Same with this it didn't seem natural and was hard to try and blend in.

Now this is better I like how this part of the fountain fits, I can see how I can redirect the flow of the river and have a natural cut off point of the image

This Image gives me the idea of where to go next and gives me confidence that this image will look good and not a total disaster. With more refinement and care I could do this project justice.