I am an amateur and use Photoshop for pictures for my family, friends, and relatives. My friends recently got married and I selected their picture from the church scene and moved them to another background. I like the background with them in it, but it looks like my friends are ‘floating’ to heaven.

I would appreciate any hints/tips for ‘grounding’ people when one moves them to another background.

Bernie

It would help if we could see the original. It looks like they were standing on different levels (perhaps steps?). If this is the case, you might be able to compensate for that difference in elevation with some flat garden rocks cloned from another picture? Or use the "floor" of the original.

I did this real fast, and it's not a "finished product", but I wanted to illustrate how it might be fixed.

It is because of bad shadow. Make it stronger and left from he couple. See the sadow of flowers. Also give som more light to their boday and face!

Thanks for the ideas. I like the idea of putting rocks or something else under their feet. I am not sure how to do the lighting.

I looked at the original. They are not on steps. Attached is the original.

Bernie

swampy has the right of it. if you look at my attached image you'll see from the top horizontal line i drew through the couple that they are both the same relative distance from the camera. therefore, all others parts of their bodies shld be as well, with only slight differences. however, when you look at their feet this is not the case.

the next horizontal line, the one directly under her feet RELATIVE TO HIS FEET seem to say that her feet are further back or up from his. his are more forward or down from hers. this translates into a perception of a difference of distance from the camera.

additionally, his right leg has what seems to be a bit of a bend in it, raising it up a bit, so it looks to be slightly floating also. yet, his left leg is the only one in the group that seems to be fully grounded because it's more forward or lower or closer in the foreground.

so this is all basically a matter of perception. if you want to change it you have to either shorten his leg or lengthen hers. or, if this was done during the extraction somehow, then do it over or, like swampy said, if they were on steps then include the steps in the extraction.

off hand, his legs look a bit odd anyways, and i suspect something occurred when you did the extraction. his upper leg looks longer than it shld be while his lower looks shorter. so, i'd check over my extraction technique.

i'd also be interested in seeing the original.

craig

Even looking at the original, it just doesn't seem "right". His shoulders are square, but it appears his lower body is turned slightly to his right.

Also, in looking at the original. There are soles on her shoes that tend to "ground" her, but you've erased them to the point that she almost looks bare footed.

ok, thanks for the original.

and again, as swampy points out... no soles. study my attached here and you shld be able to spot what's wrong ;) ( i purposely left one part out to show you)

craig

Putting the area under their feet really does ground them. I will have to work on my selection again and put something under their feet that jives with the background. Also I think if I can add shadowing, it will help a lot. I have tried the shadowing, using a video clip from the NAPP website, but am having a hard time with it.

Thanks for everyone's help. When I get a good product, I will post it.

Bernie

Before you extract the couple from the original background you can use the Edit > Transform > Warp in Photoshop-CS2 to correct the perspective so that the Lady's feet are level with the Gentleman's.
Regards, Murray

Doesn't look to bad this way.... but this is not my strong suit.

Butch

bk..I wonder why you are wanting to put them on a different background? I like the real scene very much. It is as it was!!

a suggestion..why not leave it as is and blur the background some to have the lovely couple just stand out a bit from it. I like the origional. Just me I guess..like to keep things real I guess!! Neb :rainbow:

Daviskw, forgot to say what you did is very nice. Neb

to nebgranny:
I am making a print of the couple in church with a soft white vignette around them (see attachment), but I also wanted to have them on a different background. In addition, I am practicing my skills for a number of other pictures for my daughter's wedding in September. A few of the grandparents' wedding pictures include the whole wedding party, so I have to separate the newlyweds from the others.

to daviskw:
The shadows really ground them; very nice job. I just don't know where to put my shadows or how short/long to make them. Can you give me some ideas on making shadows seem real?

Thanks to all for your input.

Bernie

Hi Bernie

The shadow length is up to you. Just imagine where the lights are located or the time of day and sun angle. Then you can get a good idea how long shadows should be. Unless the sun is close to overhead, I make two selections of the subjects. Then fill one with a dark gray, set the opacity to around 75 percent and the blendmode to multiply. Then I use free transform to move the shadow to where it looks right.

I’ll often add a mask and gradient to the shadow layer to keep it sharp close to the subject and fade as it moves away by applying some gaussian blur.

Butch

Hi Bernie.

I’m not really sure if I improved this?
I merged the two pictures together. I used the floor and shadows from the original and blended in the background.
I also added a layer set to colour to remove the colour casts from the original.


Ken.

Butch,
Thanks for the shadowing info; it helps! I just need to keep working at it.

Ken,
Your picture does ground them more. My attempt really had them floating. Thanks.

Bernie

Hi Bernie

The shadow length is up to you. Just imagine where the lights are located or the time of day and sun angle. Then you can get a good idea how long shadows should be. Unless the sun is close to overhead, I make two selections of the subjects. Then fill one with a dark gray, set the opacity to around 75 percent and the blendmode to multiply. Then I use free transform to move the shadow to where it looks right.

I’ll often add a mask and gradient to the shadow layer to keep it sharp close to the subject and fade as it moves away by applying some gaussian blur.

Butch

Excellent job on your shadows! The only added tip is if you use the lens blur filter and base the focal length on the mask, then the shadow becoming gradually more blurry with distance is a bit more realistic.

Bart

I have tried playing with the shadows, but don't know how to 'bend' the woman's shadow on the left side, like Butch did. Here is my attempt.

Thanks.

Bernie

I have tried playing with the shadows, but don't know how to 'bend' the woman's shadow on the left side, like Butch did. Here is my attempt.

Thanks.

Bernie

After you warp the shadow down onto the horizontal surface, then select just the part that needs to be bent vertical again and do ctrl-t (free transform) and transform that part back up again.

I decided to have a go at it. I re-extracted them from the original so I could remove the strong-bluish halo caused by the bright backlight. I also re-color-balanced them based on his shirt being white.

Bart

Bart,

Looks great! I think that color balancing on the white shirt really made a difference, also. I am still working on the bent shadow.

Bernie