Compositing course......planning ahead?

[Henri33]

I'd love to find a superb A-Z* course in choosing, replacing backgrounds for studio shot models- either with studio or nat window light.
A DVD would be ideal.
* *With comprehensive info about MATCHING lighting and any considerations when PLANNING shoots intended for extraction.
* *I don't wanna plough through 5-6 resources, so an all in one course would be ideal that addressed* the planning process- if I had a background file or was going to shoot the background myself.
As I'm thinking about artful composting rather than digital art-painting ..... things done routinely for beauty-fashion ads.* I know there are a gazillion resources about composits but, I haven't yet seen anything dealing with the planning-visualization process to be sure the elements will work together before they're created, selected.

If anyone would point me to information, threads or video presentations- DVD's that address preplanning ... I'd be very grateful.

[lokki]

Dan Moughamian and I wrote a book on this topic (Real World Compositing), which deals more with setup attention to detail than it does actual Photoshop techniques:

http://www.amazon.com/Real-World-Com...dp/0321604539/

In a nutshell, we go over language and perception for getting to a realistic final composite image, but we don't give you the Photoshop steps or recipes. We talk about previsualization, planning, lighting differences, keeping notes, looking for visual cues to help match (and when to ignore) things like focal length, depth of field, areal perspective, shadow/highlight interactions, etc. We also talk about how to fake some of these things in post processing, but at a high level.

If you'd like a RetouchPRO webinar on some of these topics, drop a suggestion to Doug.

[Henri33]

Thanx Dan,
I purchased Kathrine Eismanns compositing book & this is exactly what I need.
Just ordered it from an Amazon affiliate. Any info is useful to lessen the trial & error learning curve.

Henry