First compositing attempt

[jimalexander]

took my first stab at compositing today, would love some C&C. Had 4 sick kids today, but naptime gave me an hour to play. I know the color is kinda gloomy, but I found yellow/cyan made color unity a little easier between subject and sky. Here's the raw material and final.

[Manfred M]

It looks like a nice first try Jim; but the images are so small it's very difficult to critique and comment on the work you did. Hair tends to be problematic in photocomposites, but seems to be good. The leaves on the right look strange, even at this scale.

[IzzieK]

Loose a bit of the green, Jim. Sorry about your kids. Isn't it their spring break yet?

[loosecanon]

what method did you use.
For images like this I tend to do a simple job, with the background as the top layer, blend mode Darken, quick rough mask round figure so any highlights on foreground don't get filled with background. This method has the advantage of removing the light "rings" around the leaves which seem unnatural.

[jimalexander]

GrumpyD,

Sorry about the low-res images again- a better presentation is on my hotlist. And, you're definately right about the leaves. My selection of the sky (to be deleted) was feathered to do the best around the girl's head, and I should have done the other areas with a different feather in another step. Thanks for pointing that out.

Izzie,

I'll tweak some of the green out and take a look at it. My wife said "kinda green, don't ya think?" when she saw it too. I think it came from some of the other galleries I've been marinating in lately.
Thanks for asking about my children. They are in homeschool, so a little off-time is easier to get and compensate for in the long run.

loosecanon,
Method: kept it simple, which is where my skill level is! I'm more familiar with GIMP but want to make the change to PS.
1. removed sky from main photo and laid it over the cloud image. Brought the saturation down in the background and the main image but kept the sat at it's previous level in the girl's eyes. Color tweaked the hue in the eyes, then expiremented with different color balances to unify the light color in the background to the foreground. my layers were set to normal, would like to try darken, thanks for the suggestions.

Thanks all,
Jim

[rpcrowe]

First off, I have no connection whatsoever with NIK Software or OnOne Perfect Photo Suite except that I use both in conjunction with my Photoshop CS6. Both can be used in conjunction with Photoshop Elements and/or Lightroom plus Perfect Photo Suite can be used as a stand-alone program.

Although, masking can be done very adequately in Photoshop, I find that the masking process is easier when using the Perfect Mask Component of OnOne Perfect Photo Suite...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IIj-BHENt9Y

http://www.youtube.com/results?searc...0campbell&sm=1

[Geoff F]

Personally, Jim, I think you are attempting the impossible here.

Your portraits look 'flat' and were taken against 'the wrong type of sky' which has over exposed.

Masking to change a background sky is just about possible with simple landscapes but when you come down to working with fine hair you are in a different league. A real expert with one of the newer Adobe CS programmes (or an alternative) might just about get away with it. But this would always be a struggle.

A better solution, in my opinion, would be to shoot under different conditions and angles so you had what you desired at the time of shooting or shoot against a clear plain and suitably coloured backcloth which would make masking easier. But only if you really needed to change the background and were aware of this at the time of shooting.

Faced with this shot, my first choice would probably have been to use fill flash (or better still, proper studio type lighting) so the main subject was correctly illuminated but the background remained natural.

If you really 'need' to work on this image I think you have to totally exclude the leaves and be prepared to lose some of the fine hair detail.

[jimalexander]

Geoff,

you hit the nail right on the head. I lost my sky trying to get my sync speed with my flash. I was shooting into the sun, my girl was in full shadow on this shot (the sun was literally hidden behind her head). At the time I took this pic, I had only a kit lens and had the aperture closed down as small as it would go, with fill flash at nearly full power from 10 feet in front of her. Now, I have better lens (f32) and can get both fore and background. I wanted to be able to do something with this photo because it really captures an element of her personality that my wife and I like.

Thanks alot for the heads up with the difficulty level involved in this type of image work. I will keep tweaking it as best as I can (which isn't saying much and be content with my best effort, and probably ditch the trees, and maybe try a different kind of sky or something akin to a studio background.

'preciate the insights,

Jim

[Manfred M]

Jim; rather than trying to get things corrected in post; getting things right in the camera always works better.

The open sky rarely makes a great background; it tends to be way too bright and will tend to get blown out, even if you pump in the fill flash. I do like shots with the sun behind the subject as you get a "natural" rim light / hair light that adds punch to the image. The fill flash is necessary as the face is in shadow in that shooting situation.

When you compose, pay attention to the background; not just the subject, as both have to work together to get a great image.

[Geoff F]

Well I had a little quick go at this job, Jim, but had to make some compromises over her hair. There is a bit of light fringing on the sides and I should have adjusted the selection size to cope with this.

Anyhow, this is what I came up with. A little more time and care should produce better results.