Replacing bad head shot - composite?

[crooker]

I'm not even sure what the technique is called but I think it might be "creating a composite"?

I am trying to replace a face in a picture with the same face from another picture taken a few minutes later.

The woman in the middle back row is the 'problem'.

I've scanned these 2 pictures myself and I'm using PSP V7.04.
In the attached, "bad head" is the image I'd like to keep if I can use the woman's head image from "good head".

I've tried selecting the woman's 'good' head image and pasting it over the 'bad' head image using the "Paste into Selection" but I have 2 very obvious problems:
- the head size is not the same in each image
- the head angle is not the same in each image.

So, I am 'over my head' replacing this woman's head! Any pointers on how to go about this are very welcome.
thanks

[Caitlin]

I am using Photoshop, rather than PSP, so I am not sure how these steps apply exactly in your software.

In photoshop there is a tool called transform. With this you can rotate, scale, skew etc an object. In this case I cut the 'good' head out roughly, and pasted it into the 'bad' picture. I then selected transform scale and then transform rotate, adjusting the opacity of the layer as I went to test if I had the two layers aligned well. I used a soft edge eraser to blend the new head in with the surroundings.

One problem you do have in this case though is that the shadows on the faces do not match. Though the photos may have been taken minutes apart, I think they must have been taken from a different angle.

[Caitlin]

That shadow was bugging me - so I've lightly dodged the shadow on her face, and upped the saturation a little.

[Gary Richardson]

Hi Crooker, have had a quick play with your image.

Did loose selection round "Good" head, copied and pasted to new layer on "Bad" image.

Used Move tool to position and size image. Applied layer mask to pasted head, and masked to blend new head into image.

created new layer set blend mode to Soft Light, fill with 50% grey, and using soft white brush at 5% opacity, lightened shadow areas on woman's face to match lighting in image.

Cropped picture to frame subjects better.

Hope this helps.

[crooker]

Many thanks for your input and explanations Caitlin and Gary! I'll try to get mine as good as the ones you've posted,
regards,
Brian