Photo Compositing - - Adding Someone to a Photo

nebgranny · #1 01-10-2006, 10:38 AM

Hello Everyone:
I have a family photo and at this point I do not have permission to post it , may be able to get their permission to do so soon. I made a collage for a 70th birthday gift this past week. The family picture was taken a couple of years ago. The granddaughter in the photo was married in July and so the lady would like me to add the granddaughters new husband to their family picture.

I am going to give this a try , but I did want to pose a question to all of you about doing this task. I would like any suggestions that might help make this work look good. I understand it is like working in the dark without the picture but just general rules of thumb if there are any would be great. I know lighting is sometimes a problem shadows and things as well. Any help or ideas would be greatly appreciated. Thanks Neb

RL Design · #2 01-10-2006, 03:53 PM

This type of retouching work is my least favorite. When adding people to photos, no matter how good you are as a retoucher, the artist (at least in my case) can always "see" where the person was added.

Some of the main issues are lighting, shadows, contrast differances, resoultion differances, background differances (is one party on a light background and the people needing to be added on a dark one)... Some of these problems can be compinsated for, however, matching is next to impossible... At least it has been for me. Customers always seem to give me photos where all of the above are issues, sigh.

I would advise to add as little of the people as possible, put them behind other and try to limit to head and sholders for the added subjects.

I would love to tell everyone who comes to me with this problem to "take a new photo", however that is not professionally polite...

I do caution my cliets that the outcome is not going to be perfect. I hope this helps and good luck!

Swampy · #3 01-10-2006, 03:59 PM

Robin, I couldn't agree with you more. The group photo shot is a moment in time. To add a "new husband" to the group is, to me, tinkering with history and I've never seen good results.

Much better to take the group picture and create something new. Perhaps a montage of faces in vinettes and adding the "new hubby" to the family that way.

chrishoggy · #4 01-10-2006, 04:36 PM

I like this kind of stuff, because it's so hard to get it looking real

Keep your added person in it's own layer and once you get the position right, it's then time to change the persons image levels. Trying to get the image lighting and levels as near to the original image as possible, is the most important bit IMHO.
Quick example of 2 people put in to one image, can you guess which one is in the original ?

PS: It's a photo of my son, and I do only have one

chrishoggy · #5 01-10-2006, 05:50 PM

Tony Blair some times pops round for a pint and a smoke too

nebgranny · #6 01-10-2006, 11:43 PM

Thanks Robin and Swampy. I might get lucky as the is family seated with the kids standing behind. I will only need to add a head and shoulder amount to be behind the wicker seat.

Chris personally I think Tony looks quite comfortable on that couch..nice job. Neb

nebgranny · #7 01-13-2006, 12:32 PM

I am trying to add a person to a photo. Seems like the only way to do so is to clone them in? The color is just not matching , can someone give me some suggestions PLEASE??

NEB

RL Design · #8 01-13-2006, 02:04 PM

It may not be possible for exact color match. There are just too many variables with different images. However, I would recommend trying to use the adjustment layers of color balance, levels, brightness/contrast and even Hue & Saturation to get close colors. Good luck!

nebgranny · #9 01-13-2006, 05:15 PM

Thanks Robin:
I am going to try doing as you suggest. Now I would like to ask if cloning is the only way to put this person in the photo having not done this much before??? Neb

maureeno · #10 01-13-2006, 05:44 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by nebgranny

Thanks Robin:
I am going to try doing as you suggest. Now I would like to ask if cloning is the only way to put this person in the photo having not done this much before??? Neb

I've masked them, created a selection, and saved as a .psd. Then I can place them in a photo.

I'll post an example in a few minutes.

Maureen

PSPuser · #11 01-13-2006, 05:48 PM

Neb without seeing the photo along with the light differences, skintone matching can also be a problem, ive done quite a few, if you need help just
yell!

nebgranny · #12 01-14-2006, 09:21 AM

Hi Maureen :
I would like to see what you have done when doing this action. How are you coming with it? Neb

Kraellin · #13 01-14-2006, 09:48 AM

neb,

generally speaking, on this sort of job, cloning is not the way to go; not on the main image you're trying to import into another. normally, the way to go is as if you were working on paper. you cut out one picture and add it behind another. you said this was just going to be a head and shoulder shot, the one you're adding, so i assume this is going behind the other people on the main image.

so, you cut out the image you're going to add and make it a completely separate image with a transparent background. you want to make sure it's a transparent background because you're going to add this behind the other folks on the main image and dont want any background on the cutout showing up.

once you have your cutout, you make a new blank layer on the main image. next, copy your image into the clipboard with 'copy'. on that blank layer you simply paste your cutout onto it, move it to where it needs to be and paste it down. because this layer is on top of your other layers it shld show completely, and quite possibly be blocking image data from the main image, at least in part.

with your eraser simply erase those parts from the cutout that are blocking the parts of the main and that's mainly it. you can use a bit of a blurring tool or light smudge/push or something of that order to make the blend lines a bit smoother and more natural now.

the tricky part is now making the cutout match with the main image in shadow/light, saturation and color balance. for this you may want to group your next layers so that it only affects your cutout layer.

add a color balance adjustment layer to your cutout layer group. since there is no example image posted here, you're going to have to work that out for yourself as to how you adjust this. it may not even need it... if you're lucky.

you might also want to saturate or desaturate the cutout to match the main image. i normally use the Fast Fix plugin to do this.

lighting is the harder one. if the light source of the cutout and of the main image are from different angles and directions, you've got your work cut out for you. you're going to have to change the entire shading on either the cutout or the main. normally, it's easier to change the cutout. i think first i'd try a global fix on the cutout layer with whatever the equivalent tool is in ps. in psp it's 'illumination' found in the 'effects' menu. just change the lighting as best you can keeping the relative strengths the same as the main image.

you can also use curves or levels on the cutout to help out here as well. or, you could use psp's lighten/darken tool for tricky areas or more detail work. you might also want to try another grouped adjustment layer of contrast/lighten.

it's a bit difficult to advise any given thing here without seeing the various images involved, but those are the tools to work with and one general method of getting what you want.

good luck, and if you can post those images, we could most likely direct you a bit better.

craig

Swampy · #14 01-14-2006, 10:04 AM

What others said about masking and placing rather than cloning.

If you are using Photoshop CS you can try the Color matching option under Image->adjust-match color.

maureeno · #15 01-14-2006, 12:57 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by nebgranny

Hi Maureen :
I would like to see what you have done when doing this action. How are you coming with it? Neb

Here's one I did last year. We weren't even in the same state when the pictures were taken. I wanted to create a portrait illusion.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...stPortrait.jpg

Maureen