Composite Images

I refuse to be defeated! I seem to have mastered making a selection and changing the background but cannot seem to resize or add another object. To be fair I am doing this blind so I have ordered a book from Amazon to help walk me through this learning curve and I will try to look at YouTube when I get a moment. I also need to look into how to blend the edges as they still look too ‘cut out’.

 

 

 

The manipulated image – Exercise

Instead of using double exposures or printing from double negatives we now have the technology available to us to make these changes in post-production, allowing for quite astonishing results.
Use digital software such as Photoshop to create a composite image which visually appears to be a documentary photograph but which could never actually be.
To make a composite image you need to consider your idea and make the required amount of images to join together.
Upload the images and decide which image you’ll use as your main image and background. Use the magic wand to select sections of image from the others you wish to move into your background image. Copy via layer and drag into the background. Do this repeatedly until you have all the pieces of your puzzle in place. In order to make it more convincing, use the erase tool on each layer to keep the edges soft and to create a better illusion. Be aware of perspective and light and shadows for the most effective results.

Search YouTube for Photoshop tutorials; there will probably be a suitable upload. If not, ask your tutor or your fellow students for advice or find a digital technique book in your library for more specific instructions.
Have a look at Peter Kennard’s Photo Op series for inspiration:
http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2013/oct/15/tony-blair-selfie-photo-opimperial-war-museum [accessed 24/02/14]

I do have a subscription to Adobe’s Creative cloud however up until now I have only been using Lightroom. This has been a learning curve and I am aware that I have not yet mastered even 5% of what Lightroom has to offer so I was not confident in attempting this exercise in Photoshop!

The first issue I had was navigating from the initial page in Photoshop, it is very different from Lightroom. I have a book ‘Abode Photoshop CC for Photographers 2015 by Martin Evening which I think may have been my daughters, apart from not being able to following the instructions fully as I think the menu options are out of date I was pleasantly surprised by my first foray.

My starting images:

The end results:

I created the ‘giant’ image first and I tried to resize the tramp but was unsuccessful ( It was my first attempt after all!) I then replaced the background and stretched that to fit. Still not perfect as it has lost detail in the image but overall I think it is not a bad first attempt. I shall keep plodding on with this in the hope I can learn more about layers and composite images.