Add a person to a photograph
A photograph is a memory, and sometimes we go through a lot of trouble to capture just the right image. There a quite a few things that can factor in to the memory we want to capture. For example, suppose you wanted a photograph commemorating dear Aunt Mildred's 90th birthday. You went through tireless hours of calling relatives and coordinating times to get everyone in one place. The setting is perfect, Aunt Mildred's in high spirits everyone is happy and as you snap the picture you realize that her dear friend Muriel is no where to be found. Muriel couldn't make the party, her cat choked on a fur ball and she rushed her poor kitty to the vet. Damn, the perfect shot of Dear Aunt Mildred's 90th and the memory is ruined. What to do, what to do. You can't very well ask everyone to get together again the next day to reshoot the picture. Stumped? Well with the magic of Photoshop there will never be a need to have less than perfect memories again
Utilizing Photoshop's powerful masking capabilities we can add Muriel into the picture and save the day. First off, you need to open the photo in Photoshop. Now you want to analyze the picture to assess the most believable place to set Muriel in the photo. Remember, you want to look for a place in the photo to add Muriel that will look realistic, and not disturb the feeling of the photograph. One you've decided where Muriel should be placed you will need to take a photo of her. Try and match lighting conditions if you, but if this is just not possible I will show you how to fix that with Photoshop. Note the angle of her pose, keeping in mind the place in the photo you will be placing her. Take a few, slightly altering poses and conditions so that you will have a choice when you get back to the computer.
Once back at the computer open up the photos of Muriel in Photoshop and compare them to the birthday photo. Assess which photo of Muriel would look the most realistic in the place you have designated. The chosen photo will now need to be prepped for transfer. Select the MASK option from the Photoshop tool bar. Once the mask option is selected, select the brush tool from the tool bar. Select the style of brush head you wish from the brush palette. Make sure you choose a brush that has a hard edge, hard edges make from cleaner masks and better transfers. With your chosen brush carefully fill in the part of the photograph you wish to transfer, in this case, Muriel. If you go over the edges that fine you can always remove bits and pieces later with the eraser tool.
Once Muriel is completely masked go back to the mask option to turn it off. You will notice right away that the mask disappeared and a marquee line (dotted line that moves) appears in its place. Now go up to the SELECT Menu and choose the INVERSE option. This step will ensure that you will transfer Muriel over to the other photograph. Now that we have Muriel selected copy her over to the birthday photo by way of the CNTRL + C keystroke. Hit CNTRL + V to paste Muriel into the new photograph. Notice that she has made her own layer. Move her into position noting where you will have to remove overlapping areas. Remove the unwanted information using the eraser tool located on the tool bar (Figure 2).
Now that Muriel is in place and pared down to fit her into the scene, we must adjust her lighting. Go up top to the IMAGE menu and select the ADJUSTMENTS. Under the ADJUSTMENTS menu lay a treasure trove of useful tools. For this lesson we are simply going to use the BRIGHTNESS and CONTRAST tool. Move the Brightness and Contrast sliders around to capture the right lighting condition for Muriel. Remember we are striving for realism here, so if you need to do any other kinds of adjustments to achieve this, do so. Sometimes there is a need for color adjustments to compensate for lighting conditions. Using the SHADOW and HIGHLIGHT option (CS2) or the PHOTO FILTER option (CS2) can help tremendously in this instance. For the purposes of this tutorial the brightness and contrast are the only things we are adjusting. Once the desired effect is achieved take one last look at Muriel. Make sure she looks appropriate to her surroundings. If you need to blur her a little or sharpen her up, look no further than the FILTER menu under the BLUR and SHARPEN options. Most tools in Photoshop work with slider adjustments like the BRIGHTNESS and CONTRAST tool.
Muriel looks great, everything is wonderful, the memory has been recreated to your satisfaction, now go up to the LAYER menu and FLATTEN IMAGE (Figure 3). Good work!
