Cheek blending

[Lofty1967]

Hi Guys,
Can someone give me some advice on how you would copy and paste part of a left cheek on a face to the right side of the face making it look seamless.
Many thanks
Lofty

[John Wheeler]

Hi Lofty
Any chance you could post an image. The issues involved depend on the image such as tone, color, texture, shadows, perspective. Much easier to talk about specific image than generalities at least for me

[Lofty1967]

Hi John,
Thanks for your reply. I have attached the photo.
Kind Regards
Lofty

[John Wheeler]

Hi Lofty

I am not sure if this is the real image you are working on or just a sample for an example. If this is a real image (assuming you have permissions) another alternative is to find a version of the Mona Lisa released to the public (no derivative copyright issue) and just substitute the whole image.

If this advice is not on track, to try and demonstrate would require a version of the image cropped to just the face or a link to a higher resolution version.

In general I take the same approach for eyes

- Create copy of original layer
- Create selection of good cheek and create Layer Mask from that selection with Reveal Selection
- Flip this new Layer horizontally
- Use free transform to fine tune position/rotation/perspective/etc
- Use refine mask on Layer Mask for blending in with cheek (e.g. adjust selection edge/feathering/etc
- Add clipped curves adjustment or levels adjustment layer on top and adjust tone
- optional, also add clipped hue saturation to adjust color to match as desired

That gives you a general idea of what I would do for duplicating a cheek. Hope that helps. Other forum members may have better suggestions.

[Lofty1967]

Thanks John, will try out your advice, the picture was actually taken out in the beer garden of a pub, could this cause me an issue as I am new to all this?
Regards
Lofty

[John Wheeler]

Hi Lofty

I am not Lawyer yet my understanding is that the Mona Lisa image is no longer protected under any copyright. Your image does not look like a derivative work with any substantial difference from the original so that would not be protected as a derivative work. All of this is assuming that there is nothing else in your image that was a work protected by copyright as well. So most likely you are OK.

That said, it is always good to know the basics of copyright and there are many threads on the topic. Hope that helps.

BTW - here is a link on the internet that actually refers to the Mona Lisa image as an example in copyright law (take all internet stuff with a big grain of salt yet I believe this is all correct): http://www.photolaw.net/faq.html