Monday 9 September 2013

Photoshopping a composite together



I don't use Photoshop as much as I do Illustrator. The few functions I do use relate to a little post production work on my photography. But this weekend I was in a tight spot. I needed photographs of a person wearing my new product - a hooded top - but I was running out of time before the product went live.

The above photo was produced by compositing a photo of me onto a stock picture of a brick wall. Here's how I did it...




I arranged two flash lights on stands. One positioned high above my head and placed in front of me. The second flash was placed behind me but equally high above my head. This was to create the illusion of street lamps shining down on my body.

I then used the magic wand too to select my outline.


The magic wand tool is a bit rough and ready so after completing the outline, I then used the lasso tool to go over bits that were missed. The result is an exact outline of me in the hoodie. I find that dumping the selection onto another image straight as it is gives a very fake look. The edges would be too sharp. So I feathered the selection by 2 pixels to create a soft blur around my body.


I searched online for a brick wall. I wanted a wall with a worn look, but not too battered. Some lighting would help too. I found this wall which was perfect for my needs.


So I went to the website and bought a royalty free license from 123RF. I think it cost me around £15 to buy a bunch of credits. The resolution I needed wasn't too big so the wall cost only around five pounds.


I added a lighting effect on the brick wall for further emphasis on that street overhead lighting. I also used a minor bit of the burn tool around the edge of my body to tone down the outer highlights.



The hooded top is available at my store here.



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