Blending images successfully

D

David Gethin

Suspended / Banned
Messages
219
Name
David
Edit My Images
Yes
Here is one of my most recent submissions to the TP Photo52 that I embarked upon at the start of the year:


Week 22 - Hidden by morganthecat, on Flickr

It is a 9 shot composite where each row was shot separately using the same lighting set up for each shot (hence the light fall off towards the back). I am rather clumsy in my blending so that the black hands of the troopers are 'lost' on a number of occasions and there are black halos around the body and helmets not so obvious on the right hand column but definitely so in the centre and left hand columns.

Methodology:
My edit was to take the first layer (front row), apply and adjustment mask, use the magic wand with a low tolerance to select the black background and delete to reveal the troopers in the second row (layer below). I then painted back some of the top layer using the history brush such as the black T-visor and belt that had been selected by the magic wand and deleted. I merged these two top layers and then repeated the same methodology to reveal the third row.

Conclusion:
Crude edit and not particularly successful in dealing with the dark detail of the hands.

Help needed:
I can supply a much higher res psd file of the 9 layers if someone would like to demonstrate their better Photoshop skills (is there a way I could share this online?). I have CS3 so whilst a wonderful edit in CS5 would be nice to see, I would rather learn a technique that I could practice and hone my skills on using CS3 or below.

Many thanks
 
Hi

All 9 shots were taken with the figures placed on a black polished tile and with a piece of black card at the back. Perhaps that's causing the problems as there isn't much differentiation between subject and background?

thanks
 
David Gethin said:
All 9 shots were taken with the figures placed on a black polished tile and with a piece of black card at the back. Perhaps that's causing the problems as there isn't much differentiation between subject and background?

thanks
Click to expand...

I think that's either the only problem or it made your life when blending a lot harder.
 
What about something like this (very rough edit):

DavidGethin1.jpg


New layer
blend to soft light and 50% grey
Use white brush with 40%(ish) opacity and flow over darker areas
 
The black halos of the helmets etc are due to the fact that you've taken them against a black background. It's the reflected light from the background creating a shadow on the helmets. As the characters are now standing in front of each other, this shadow won't be so dark, it will have reflected white light from the row behind. Rather than black, maybe a mid grey background would be better for taking the rows of character, leaving the black background for the last row only?

Using a magic wand tool to make selections on it's own, it's not necessarily the most accurate solution. You would have to go in at pixel level and add to the magic wand selection with other selection tools (lasso etc.). Especially for the black on black areas (hands).

Another useful technique is to duplicate the layer you are masking and apply various filters and or adjustments to this layer to bring out the differences between your subject and the background. Extreme levels, high pass, find edges... all useful in various ways and combinations to see what you need to see. Once you can see the edges of your subjects more easily, you can create your mask using this layer and then apply it to the actual layer.

It is a case of taking the right images for your comp to start with and then, trial and error making the most perfect selections you can.

I work in animation film-making and we will make many passes of a scene in various lighting states in order to create good layers for use in the composite process. You are working with a still life, so it should be relatively easy to take alternative images for use as masking layers.

Also, take a look at some of the green and blue screen tutorials or hair selecting tutorials on the internet. They will use many of the techniques you can adapt for this image.

I hope that helps a bit :)
 
Thanks for the suggestions. I am at work, so will need to have a proper look at this later. Because of the rough edit I initially did the hands were 'lost' I wanted to get suggestions on how to make it easier to select or paint them back in first (or however else it would be done) before I go back and re-do the edit.

It seems there are two separate issues:
1. the haloing can be dealt with quite effectively by the use of a second layer, thanks for that suggestion.
2. the selection of the hands will be more problematic and that's down to how I shot the original. Not much I can do about that in PPing other than it may be less time consuming to go back and re-shoot using a green screen.
 
David Gethin said:
Because of the rough edit I initially did the hands were 'lost' I wanted to get suggestions on how to make it easier to select or paint them back in first (or however else it would be done) before I go back and re-do the edit.
Click to expand...

If you have your photos as raw files. Try changing the exposure to see if you can see the hands against the background. I'm sure there will be some details there that you can use to create your masks.

Save these revised exposure images as separate images, then add them as layers to your original comp, it may help in adjusting and creating your masks better. Would definately save on reshooting if you can use the raws in this way.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top