tutorial: compositing
Andy
Registered Users Posts: 50,016 Major grins
okay guys, it's time for me to fess up on a particular photo that many of you liked very much
i'm aware that there are many purists out there that believe that a photo should be an exact replica of what the scene was like. and while for the most part, i'm in agreement - i also feel that as artists, we should feel free to
explore our creativity, and use the amazing tools that are available to us in the digital darkroom.
compositing is not something that i do very often, but i'm glad that i know how to do it. within six hours of finishing off this shot this morning, i had sold it three times, and one of those sales is in multiple quantity. all three buyers are "horse people."
and so, on to the "how to" part. this photo is a composite. let's take a look at how i made it.
let's first look at the background scene. i shot it in raw, and this is what the original file looks like.
okay, i can work with this..in photoshop camera raw i developed two exposures, one for the sky and one for the foreground. moments later i had this
and hey, this isn't too bad, not bad at all. but the problem is i have lots of scenes like this one, and in fact just a few days ago i got a lovely sunrise in the very same spot. so, i began thinking, okay..what can i do with this scene to jazz it up? i recalled the positive feedback i'd received a few days ago on this image:
and thought that maybe i could copy and paste the fog into my sunrise shot. the first step here was to make a selection of just the fog area (i used the polygonal lasso to do this) and then copy and paste into the background scene...where it becomes a new layer all by itself. the problem is, it doesn't fit. so, turn to our friend the "distort" funciton (edit>transform>distort) and
essentially what you do is grab the fog by the handles and stretch it to fit your scene. i had to stretch it horizontally and vertically, as the fog in the orig pic didn't cover enough area in the new background photo. that's okay, because i wanted the fog to be thinned out, almost like vapor.
at this point, we can see that the pic has improved somewhat, at least imo. the fog adds an element of mystery or such to this otherwise calm dawn scene.
okay but i'm thinking, i've added fog, what else can i do here? i'd like someting in the foreground for visual interest, to further engage the viewer in the full scene, rather than just being focused on the sunrise. i first thought about a tractor or wagon, and went looking in my archive for one. but i came to the horse pic, first, and thought "hey now!"
using the magnetic lasso, i made a selection of the horse. i copied him and pasted him into my background scene .psd file as a new layer. here's where it got very difficult, at least for me.
once the horse was in my working psd, i then had to clean him up from some stray elements that came along in the selection process. i used the eraser, starting big and working to smaller sizes. as i got smaller, i activated the "brushes settings" menu and selected "brush tip shape" and selected a hardness of 80 percent. why? this seems to give the most realistic edge to the horse. (i was taught this tip by a fellow dgrinner).
the important things to watch for when compositing is to think about orientation, perspective, size and lighting. there's probably more gotchas but these are the things i concerned myself with at this point.
first, the placement, sizing and perspective. use the edit>transform>scale and / or perspective functions to change these. play around, to get it right. size is also related to placement, so decide placement really before you size him.
lighting ... as you can see, the horse is well lit from the front, but my scene dictates that he should be backlit, or silhouetted even. i experimented with various blending modes in the layers pallete, different opacities, and even levels and curves, all on the horse layer only. i found that the best looking result came from a blending mode of "darken" and an opacity of around 40
percent. as i lowered the opacity, the horse became more transparent.
ok? all done? nope - the horse's hooves were a bit hinky, and he appeared like he was floating on top of the grass. not realistic at all... no problem, grab the clone stamper, set opacity to 40%, pixel size appropriately, and clone some grass & fog right over his hooves. there now, he looks quite content there, staring right back at me, eh?
i'd like to thank my photoshop mentor very much for his guidance, tips and encouragement.
enjoy (getting the most in post) photography :andy
i'm aware that there are many purists out there that believe that a photo should be an exact replica of what the scene was like. and while for the most part, i'm in agreement - i also feel that as artists, we should feel free to
explore our creativity, and use the amazing tools that are available to us in the digital darkroom.
compositing is not something that i do very often, but i'm glad that i know how to do it. within six hours of finishing off this shot this morning, i had sold it three times, and one of those sales is in multiple quantity. all three buyers are "horse people."
and so, on to the "how to" part. this photo is a composite. let's take a look at how i made it.
let's first look at the background scene. i shot it in raw, and this is what the original file looks like.
okay, i can work with this..in photoshop camera raw i developed two exposures, one for the sky and one for the foreground. moments later i had this
and hey, this isn't too bad, not bad at all. but the problem is i have lots of scenes like this one, and in fact just a few days ago i got a lovely sunrise in the very same spot. so, i began thinking, okay..what can i do with this scene to jazz it up? i recalled the positive feedback i'd received a few days ago on this image:
and thought that maybe i could copy and paste the fog into my sunrise shot. the first step here was to make a selection of just the fog area (i used the polygonal lasso to do this) and then copy and paste into the background scene...where it becomes a new layer all by itself. the problem is, it doesn't fit. so, turn to our friend the "distort" funciton (edit>transform>distort) and
essentially what you do is grab the fog by the handles and stretch it to fit your scene. i had to stretch it horizontally and vertically, as the fog in the orig pic didn't cover enough area in the new background photo. that's okay, because i wanted the fog to be thinned out, almost like vapor.
at this point, we can see that the pic has improved somewhat, at least imo. the fog adds an element of mystery or such to this otherwise calm dawn scene.
okay but i'm thinking, i've added fog, what else can i do here? i'd like someting in the foreground for visual interest, to further engage the viewer in the full scene, rather than just being focused on the sunrise. i first thought about a tractor or wagon, and went looking in my archive for one. but i came to the horse pic, first, and thought "hey now!"
using the magnetic lasso, i made a selection of the horse. i copied him and pasted him into my background scene .psd file as a new layer. here's where it got very difficult, at least for me.
once the horse was in my working psd, i then had to clean him up from some stray elements that came along in the selection process. i used the eraser, starting big and working to smaller sizes. as i got smaller, i activated the "brushes settings" menu and selected "brush tip shape" and selected a hardness of 80 percent. why? this seems to give the most realistic edge to the horse. (i was taught this tip by a fellow dgrinner).
the important things to watch for when compositing is to think about orientation, perspective, size and lighting. there's probably more gotchas but these are the things i concerned myself with at this point.
first, the placement, sizing and perspective. use the edit>transform>scale and / or perspective functions to change these. play around, to get it right. size is also related to placement, so decide placement really before you size him.
lighting ... as you can see, the horse is well lit from the front, but my scene dictates that he should be backlit, or silhouetted even. i experimented with various blending modes in the layers pallete, different opacities, and even levels and curves, all on the horse layer only. i found that the best looking result came from a blending mode of "darken" and an opacity of around 40
percent. as i lowered the opacity, the horse became more transparent.
ok? all done? nope - the horse's hooves were a bit hinky, and he appeared like he was floating on top of the grass. not realistic at all... no problem, grab the clone stamper, set opacity to 40%, pixel size appropriately, and clone some grass & fog right over his hooves. there now, he looks quite content there, staring right back at me, eh?
i'd like to thank my photoshop mentor very much for his guidance, tips and encouragement.
enjoy (getting the most in post) photography :andy
0
Comments
Hutch
As for purity... Nothing wrong IMO to create an image ,especially if it puts bacon in the pan.
Good work there
Tim
Catapultam habeo. Nisi pecuniam omnem mihi dabis, ad caput tuum saxum immane mittam
http://www.mcneel.com/users/jb/foghorn/ill_shut_up.au
I think that's it.
Catapultam habeo. Nisi pecuniam omnem mihi dabis, ad caput tuum saxum immane mittam
http://www.mcneel.com/users/jb/foghorn/ill_shut_up.au
Thaks again to all of you that share your techniques. as a complete newbie, to digital photos and Photoshop, I really appreciate the time you put into them for us!
well, i would tell you but then i'd have to kill you. hehe okay i'll write that up shortly ;-) i'm busy for a while but i promise to get to it.... thanks sid
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Catapultam habeo. Nisi pecuniam omnem mihi dabis, ad caput tuum saxum immane mittam
http://www.mcneel.com/users/jb/foghorn/ill_shut_up.au
It was just a marquee selection, with a lot of feathering, nothing special really.
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Andy...really nice photo and nice job compositing...
One thing:
Rather than using the eraser, put a mask on the copied layer and paint away the extra stuff on the mask in black that came with the horse...this way, you can always paint it back in in white if you get sloppy. It'll save you a ton of time!
- Gary.
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You know, I always forget to look at the post dates...when threads get revived, I get fooled!
- Gary.
www.ivarborst.nl & smugmug
Hey ...check the record
I'd like to get into selling pics but don't know how
...pics..
Great Job on this photo Andy. I have to laugh
Andy
"It was just a marquee selection, with a lot of feathering, nothing special really."
I will look for your well thought out response in November of 2010.:D
Just kidding Andy. You do a great job monitoring all of the threads that you do!!!
i have same question and really want to know how to do that!
My photos
Paint over the area you want to select - eg: the fog in this image. Once you have painted over the area desired ( it will turn pink in the default mode ) - hit the 'q' key again to drop out of Quick Mask mode. You will see your selection outlined by the dancing ants dotted white line.
You can add to this selection with any of the typical selection tools, or you can use the Quick Mask mode to add to a selection already chosen with the selection tools.
Now you can do a Curve or whatever desired to the selected area. CTRL-D deselects the area when you are done.
Easy Peasy!
Moderator of the Technique Forum and Finishing School on Dgrin
2- Speaking of heavily retouched photography, one of my favorites is Dave Hill:
http://www.davehillphoto.com/
Still not quite sure how he does it!
(Sorry about the late post btw. I don't mean to zombify this thread.)