Photo Manipulation - Halloween Costume

[Tim Edwards]

One of my manipulations, for my son near Halloween of this year...

Took 3 (tripod) pictures with my trusty Canon G1:

1) Buzz with helmet shut
2) Buzz with helmet open
3) Aidan in the same setting (same lighting)

I subtracted 1 and 2 to get the reflective highlights on the helmet.

I pasted Aidan's head from 3 into 1, and overlayed the highlights (masking out those highlights not actually over his face, since they're already visible in the underlying image).

I added shadows under his chin and to the lower half of his face (burn tool, airbrush).

I added plastic reflection and refraction look to the top of his hair (gaussian blur, smudge tool, brightness/contrast).
Fun stuff!

[kathleen]

fun stuff indeed! pretty cool.

don't exactly understand what you mean whe you said <I subtracted 1 and 2 to get the reflective highlights on the helmet.>, tho I can kind of infer.

want to do something of this nature for my niece; looking for appropriate princess-equestrian photo or illustration to insert her into.

i bet aidan thinks you're endlessly powerful and cool, as he should.

[Doug Nelson]

Very fun. Well thought out.

[CJ Swartz]

Good job - looks very realistic!

[T Paul]

Ditto on the realism; outstanding job Tim! I bet your son just loves it! Now you will just have to get him the real Buzz uniform for Christmas!

-T

[Tim Edwards]

Thanks, guys...

Kathleen,

The two Buzz images were subtracted by putting the top layer in 'difference' mode and then merging them. The resulting layer, in 'screen' mode, put the reflections over the pasted-in face.

Here's a closup, with a portion of the screen disabled. You can also see more of the details of the hair-through-plastic effects, which I was rather pleased with.

Regards,
_Tim

[kathleen]

tim,
i'm glad i asked because that's not what i was guessing. i have almost never used difference mode, new concept for me. thanks! and i agree, the plastic-distorted hair is really neat.

[DJ Dubovsky]

Tim
That is sooo cool. I bet your son was thrilled to become Buzz Lightyear. You did a fantastic job putting him in that suit and making it look real. Can't find anything wrong with your results. Great job!!!
DJ

[cendres]

Great Job Tim,

I bet your son thinks that is so cool, the reflections truly made it very realistic looking. Next thing is he will want you to put him into outer space!

I have practically learned photoshop and other photoediting programs doing fun projects just like the kind of project you did here.

They have brought a lot of laughs from my son and his friends, although it's not too hard to impress a 6 yr. old.

If you want to take a peek at a few go here

http://12.250.0.140:8080/carl/paintshop%20pro%20projects.htm

Again great job Tim