It is taking me ages

[Leerod]

I have just been recommended by your site by a fellow photoshop user. I am a little problem. I am trying to create a photo of a couple with the background being a wine glass. The outcome that I am looking for is that it looks like they are inside the wine glass..... i have seen this kind of photo in wedding albums. Can anyone assist me on how to do this. Please.

[Ed_L]

Leerod,

I'm familiar with the look you're after. I can help, but it's time for work. If you don't get an answer before I get home, I'll reply then. Re: It's taking forever -- we all begin that way.

Ed

[DJ Dubovsky]

Hi Leerod,
Welcome to Retouch Pro. I don't know how good this will be but here goes. If you have questions just let me know.
First of all, I assume you have a picture of a wine glass you want to superimpose over the picture of your couple. I would have the wine glass on a layer above the couple. If it's not the size you want just lower the layer opacity to see the couple beneath and use transform and hold the shift key as you transform it to keep it in proportion until you have it the size you want. Center it over your couple the way you want, then create a layer mask. (Go to layers > add layer mask > fill with white so all of your glass is visible) Now have the black as your foreground and with a very soft brush, start painting out the area of the glass that you want your couple to show through. Make it 100% in the center where the couple is and soften it more as you move outward to the edges of the couple but not the edges of the glass. When you get the results you want, return the glass layer opacity back to 100%. For a touch of romance you can add a cut rose at the stem of the glass and maybe some star light sparkles to certain bright spots on the edge of the glass. A dark background looks real good against the brightness of the glass. Hope that helps. It's pretty generalized but I can't see exactly what your pictures look like so that's the best I can do.
DJ

[cendres]

Hi Leerod,

I am sure this will not be as nice of an effect as using DJ's recommendation, but here is my quick and dirty stab at what I think your going after

http://members.home.net/cendres3/images/fun_games_images/weddingbeer.jpg

I took the image of the couple on one layer and had the image of the beer on a layer below. I highlighted the couple layer and choose blend -luminosity and set the opacity at 60%. I created a layer mask of the couple and masked a little bit around the bottom edges.

The beer image came from Hemeras photoobjects (trial version) the couple is me and my wife Pam.

Don't ask me how I got so lucky, still trying to figure it out even after 10 happy years of marrage. Our wedding was pretty low budget, we could only splurge for beer... just kidding.

Best of luck - Carl

[DJ Dubovsky]

Carl,
You make a good looking couple no matter what beverage you're in. Looks like you had a pretty good method and at least you can prove your results. At anyrate, it's always good to have several good techniques under your belt.
DJ

[Ed_L]

I just knew I'd get off the hook on this one!! I think Carl and his wife certainly look more like champagne than beer !

Ed

[Leerod]

Thanks very much everyone for your reply.

DJ Dubovsky I took your advice and tried your technique it seemed to look OK, for what I was looking for. I liked the idea of your sparkle, just not sure how to do that, could you advise of that as well thankyou.

Also do you have an attachment of the one that you were describing to me on how to do, that would be good also, but not absolutely necessary.

Thanks very much for your help

[DJ Dubovsky]

Leerod,
I'll see if I can find that picture I have in the goblet setting. But here is how to do the starburst effect. There may be an easier way but here's what I do.
Find the brightest spots on the goblet sides, stem or rim for your stars. It works best against a darker background.
On a seperate layer, select the airbrush and depending on your image resolution set the brush to fade by x amount of pixels. I tried it on a 100 dpi image and set the fade to 50 and the larger ones at 70. You may want to set it alot higher if you are running it on a higher resolution image. Experiment until you get the length you want.
Using white set at about 20% (you may want to choose brighter or dimmer pressures depending on your picture. You want them to catch the eye but not out do the subjects) and using a small soft brush, left click on the center of where you want the star and then hold down the shift key and move the cursor up to make the first beam of light. Now go back to the center and left click on center and again hold down the shift key and move the cursor downward. Do the same thing to the left and right sides.
You should now have a star frame that tapers off at all 4 points. Holding the shift key down after clicking on your center point keeps the brush strokes straight. Next, choose a larger size soft brush (diameter about half the size of the star and center it and left click to create a soft glow. That should give you a nice star. The longer you hold it there the brighter your glow. I usually try to just obscure the lines below but for the sake of demonstration I left them visible in this attachment.
DJ

[Leerod]

DJ Dubovsky thankyou very much, that is very helpful. I will definitely try. Look forward to your future attachment. Thanks again.

[DJ Dubovsky]

OK here it is. I removed the couple because of privacy issues but I maintained the background behind them. It's a low res image but if you want I will send you the larger size image just send me an e-mail here. All you have to do is lay your couple on top of it and with a layer mask filled with black and with a soft brush brush paint in your couple softening at the edges. Using a radial gradient on the mask will work also. Then I would say put a about 3 stars on the edge of the glass. One on the right side, one at the top left rim and maybe a small one at the base by the rose. Hope that helps.
DJ

[Rick]

DJ:

That's SOO cool, I've actually been looking for something like this in awhile. LOL.

It's amazing how many people want this particular type of picture.

I've thought about having a friend in a studio do several different glasses for different occasions, including wedding drinking glasses, or even having it done for individuals that have custom glasses made.


Happy (Late) Turkey Day everyone.


Rick

[Ed_L]

Rick,

If you go to a processing firm that offers custom prints, you should have no trouble getting a few different images to use with your wedding couple. Just tell them what it is you're after, and they should be able to make a print for you in a short time since they should have negatives on hand.

Ed

[Leerod]

Thanks DJ Dubovsky that looks great. Thanks for taking the time to search through your files to make the attachment. Did you create that glassy shine, or was that just the luck of the camera?

Thanks again .... for all your help