Getting Off Auto – Producing an Impossible Picture

I had a conversation the other day with another Minsmere regular about how to merge a couple of pictures into one. Whilst producing such composite pictures is frowned upon from a puritan photography perspective, it’s a common technique when making artwork from photographs (and as long as it’s clear which your work is intended to be, it can be fun to have a go).

When I suggested the simplest way to approach the task was to use layers, it became clear that words alone wouldn’t help too much & that a few pictures would be required. So here we are!

There are all sorts of ways to achieve this sort of result with editing tools (this is using Photoshop Elements 14) and there’s no right or wrong method. This is one way to do it, but it would be interesting for others to comment on their own approach – or to have a go and add some results :-)

Usual disclaimer, this thread uses Canon and Photoshop Elements terms as that is what I use, but the principles will apply to anything. Earlier GoA threads can be found by following these links to Settings, Exposure+, Post-Production, Choice & Extras.

OK, so first we must select our source pictures & open them in Elements. I’m going to re-visit an idea from a while back and sit a Kingfisher on a Bittern (just for fun!)

You can see the two pictures opened in Elements here (circled in red)

This is the Expert view in Elements (Layers aren’t available in the Quick mode which is ideal for basic tweaks). Using the Quick Selection tool (circled) I select the Kingfisher (you click & drag (or just keep clicking) the tool over the subject until you’re happy).  You can see the dotted line around the subject.

Zooming in (Control +) allows tidying up – in this case to include the feet that I missed on the first pass (red circle). I notice however that Elements has got a bit carried away and selected some extra background (blue circle) so we’ll sort that out next

Swapping the Tool Option to “Subtract” from the default “Add” (red circle), means I can de-select the bits I need to (blue circle)

There are still some bits that aren’t right, but we’ll sort those out in a minute.

OK, time to get my Kingfisher into the same image as the Bittern. Copy the selected Kingfisher (Edit, Copy) and swap to the Bittern image (blue oval shows the tabs at the top where you can see the two pictures).  Before you paste in the Kingfisher, add a Layer (green circle).  You’ll see this new blank layer on the right hand side (circled in yellow).  Make sure this layer is highlighted as shown (click once on it if necessary) then use Edit, Paste.  This will stick the Kingfisher in the middle of the screen, but selecting the Move tool (red circle) will allow you to shift it about.

We can now tidy up the Kingfisher. De-selecting the eye on the Background layer (blue circle) means you can now only see the layer that has the Kingfisher (I’ve zoomed in using Control + again).  The grey checked background means there’s nothing there – it’s bird on fresh air.  Think of the layers as being sheets of clear glass you can sit on top of each other.  By de-selecting the Bittern background, we’re only seeing the Kingfisher’s piece of glass.  You can see bits of unwanted green on the kingfisher now (circled in red).

I can now use the Eraser tool to clean up the edges. You can adjust the size of the tool (blue circle) and zoom in and out of the image to get into all the nooks & crannies (as you can with most of the tools) until you’re satisfied (red circles)

Now we can finish things off. Click on the (pink circled) eye in the Layers section again so you can see the Bittern once more.  Use the Move tool (green circle) to drag the Kingfisher to where you want it (red circle).  It’s a little bit big, so shrink it by dragging the corner (blue circle) and rotate it using the yellow-circled node.

Once you’re happy, use the menu in the Layers section to flatten the image (red circle). This removes all the layers and flattens them into a single image

You can now finish the image off, doing any final crops, lighting tweaks, sharpening etc that you wish before saving the file as a final image

Ta dah!