Family Portrait

[VIDEOAV]

Hello. This is a family portrait I created. The problem with this photo is that it is a composite of many different pictures. Each person is their own picture and then I cut them all together. Therefore, there may be some noise around the edges. Also the lighting and hue etc. may be different on each person. Some of the people may appear to orange, red, or yellow. I would like all switched to a standard skin tone. I have been told that the edges on people need to be softened. In addition, the shadows, and the reflections which appear on the floor can be added/corrected. I would like to get some feedback. Is it possible that someone can so some work on it. Let me know. Thank You.

www.videoav.runtwo.com/Family Portrait.jpg

[creeduk]

The masking of the hair needs to be improved as you need some wispy details to the hair to get a feeling that they are really there and not cut out. The background has less resolution than the foreground and the skin is a little too softened. These are just my opinions. The composition itself looks good and they do feel like they have been shot together.

[mistermonday]

VIDEOAV, welcome to RP!
Nice composite but some areas could use improvement. Most notably the masking of the people. The complete body outlines have harsh transitions making them look like poor cut and paste efforts. The selections should be more accurate with slight feathering to smooth the transition into the background. Particular care should be taken around the hair to allow for some fly-away or whispy hair.
The faces, particularly of the people on the viewer's left side, have been overly smoothed and look a little to "plastic".
The reflection of the legs of the two ladies on the right (viewers right) do not fit. I would either remove them or add reflections to several other people to provide consistency.
Overall a good effort which, with some additional effort, can become an excellent composite.
Regards, Murray

[VIDEOAV]

Hi Murray. Would you be interested in taking a shot at helping me with this photo. Email me something where we can contact each other, your rates, and a website that you may have. If anyone else would like to contact me about this feel free too. My email is FIGURETIME11@AOL.COMthankks for the feedback--now i just need help applying it.

[Kraellin]

the link seems to no longer be valid. cant view the picture.

craig

[mistermonday]

Craig, there seems to be a problem with the html code. However, you can just highlight the text and copy / paste it into you browser address bar and it will take you there.
Regards, Murray

[Kraellin]

murray, thanks; got it now

videoav, welcome to RP.

all the things you mentioned in your original post are pretty much correct. the skin tones dont match, the images look cut and pasted and so on. it's also more desirable, usually, to narrow the overall image by putting each person closer together.

the best way for us to really help here would be to post the original pictures. or, maybe just post a few and start with just those. from there you could get the hang of it and do the rest yourself.

also in looking at your image i can see that you've done your extractions too close to the edges. it's often a good idea to add a bit of feathering to extractions which will give you a more natural look when pasted back. it can always be erased if it doesnt look right but much harder to add back if you left something out.

these are always a bit tricky. you also have to watch out for the size relationships of each object you extract. a few of the people look either too small or too large relative to the others. so either before or after (i usually do it after) you sometimes have to resize the image.

there are a lot of things you have to watch out for on these, relative size, the extraction(s), color balance and even relative noise levels, but most particularly lighting. and that one can drive you a bit nuts still, it's most likely do-able. i really would like to see the originals if possible.

craig

[VIDEOAV]

I would be glad to show you some originals. Just email me at FIGURETIME11@AOL.COM From there we can move forward. Thanks.