proportion issue when merging images

JC
Posted By
Jodi_Comm
Aug 10, 2008
Views
201
Replies
1
Status
Closed
I have photographed 19 individuals (full body shots, same lighting, same backdrop, etc.) and I am now trying to merge the individuals onto a background to create a group photo.

I can not grasp how I keep the individuals in proportion to each other. I am familiar with holding the shift key when transforming but how do I know that John is in proportion to Steve is in proportion to Mike etc. in the finished product?

I photographed the background with no one on it to use as the background for the group. I open each individual’s photo and lasso their image and use the move tool to bring that image onto the background. But I get nervous and can’t seem to get anyone to look in proportion and natural.

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C
Curvemeister
Aug 10, 2008
In this case it is a big help that you have each person photographed in the same setting, so the sizes and lighting should be about right from the get go. I’d suggest keeping each person on their own layer, and avoid scaling them at all for your first pass. Don’t arrange them too rigidly, but do feel free to put them closer together than would be natural. Once you have the images set up, save this version, since you may want to return to it later.

For a natural look, the people in the front need to be made somewhat larger, and moved down so they don’t look like they are floating. Group each row together and flatten them into a single layer (or make them into a smart object) so that you can transform them all at the same time. Make the rows in back somewhat higher.

Fine-tune the heights at the end, perhaps with feedback from someone who knows the people in the group.

Chances are, the result at this point still won’t look right. One big reason is that people in a group normally cast shadows on one another. You can accomplish some of that with a dodge-burn layer and manual painting. They also tend to lean toward one another, react to each other, and group themselves randomly. You can mess with this forever if you want to. At some point – particularly if this is a paid job – you need to count your minutes and stop adding changes.

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