Multiple exposures - First Attempt

[Andybazyoung]

These images should have been attached to my last post regarding layers/stacking/erasing.







I am concentrating on getting the multiple image process right & then the image quality. C&C most welcome though.
Thanks
Andy

[Geoff F]

You appear to have a little bit of sharpness issues with the first two images; but otherwise, everything has worked well.

[Shadowman]

Nice effort.

[Manfred M]

Very nice work.

Something to watch is the shadow direction and density. In the third image, the shadow of the main in the middle looks a bit too heavy and there seems to be some strange bit of ghosting around him. Is that just the lighting in the room?

There also seems to be a bit of a strange artifact on the middle man in the first image.

[Andybazyoung]

Yes Manfred, I tried to get rid of the artifact but couldn't. I guess that was done whilst erasing different layers. The shadow you are talking about needs to be removed.
Thanks for your help.
Andy

[Manfred M]

If you used the layer mask technique I recommended, it will be easy to get rid of the artifact and restore the original. Just use a soft brush with a relatively low opacity and use the color of the mask and paint on the mask until the artifact goes away.

As for the shadow, total removal is not a good idea; the shadows have to match the image otherwise it screams "fake". You need a shadow, but it has to look right.

[pnodrog]

Do as Manfred suggests - use layer masks. If you erase directly on a on a layer you have to undo via the history. Using masks allows you to go back and adjust the mask at any time. It will give you far more control once you get used to using them.

The first two shots would be better if you corrected the perspective/verticals and made sure the scaling or relative sizes of the people look a bit closer. The 3rd shot looks much better all round but you may want to do a little bit of lens correction to reduce the barrel distortion apparent in the columns.

Your model in the red top closely resembles a friend of mine - even the posture and expressions. I suppose we all have a double lurking somewhere in the world (I feel sorry for mine)

Certainly an interesting set of images.

[ajohnw]

I have had the same sort of "strange artefact" Manfred mentions removing moving people/objects due to lighting changes between shots. In this case the area under one of the people removed by making the them transparent had slight differences in light levels between shots. I did wondered if the camera selected a slightly different exposure but it hadn't. In doors via light from windows and a clear sky. The shots taken maybe I min apart so came as a surprise.

John
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[jcuknz]

The illustrations in this thread remind me about an Australian photographer who was placing live models on 'Old Master" paintings for advertising. He organised for the models to sit on replicas of the part of the painting she was going to occupy.

The idea is that a better merge occurs when you do not exactly match around the model but the 'change' is occuring a few pixels away from her.

So long as you have the archway etc to line up the three shots just a loose selection around each position should make it as easy job to make it work well.