Wednesday's Lesson

How create a "twin" in Photoshop

•  Photograph the same person in two places in the same scene.  Don't have them overlap the same space in the scene.
• Use a tripod, or stay in the same place for each shot, aiming at the same scene.
• Open both portraits in Photoshop.
• Click the Lasso Tool.  Roughly select the subject in one of the portraits (with the background showing).
• Edit >Copy.
• Click on the other portrait and Edit > Past.
• Click on the Move tool.  Hold and drag the pasted selection so that it matches the background.
• Use the eraser tool and in small movements, erase the overlapping images without erased the people.

How to fill a picture frame with another image

• Click on the Magic Wand tool.  Click on the white space inside the frame.  If the selection did not include all the white, hold the Shift key and click on the other spaces.
• Open an image to be pasted into the frame.
• Select All (or select a part of the image).
• Edit > Copy.
• Click on the image with the white areas selected.
• Edit > Paste Into.
• Edit > Transform > Scale.  Hold the corner anchors to adjust the size and hold in the inside of the selection to position the scaled image.  Hit the return key.

Portraits and Self-Portraits

•  Shooting with a solid background is great because all of the focus is on your subject.
• If you don't have a solid background make sure it is blurred out so that any images in the background do not take away from the attention to your subject.
• Adjust your angle... Don't always take the shot from straight on.  People look different from different angles and it will have a different effect.
• Lighting is extremely important.  Noon and early-mid afternoon lighting is very harsh (keep that in mind).  You may want to diffuse your lighting (make it softer).  Lighting from different angles adds a lot.  If it is coming from the side it is called Rembrandt lighting (a Phil favorite).  If you aim into the light you will get a silhouette.
• You don't have to capture a face for it to be a portrait or a self portrait.  You can take pictures of body parts (i.e., hands, feet...), shadows, etc.
• Although shadows can be very artistic... watch for unwanted harsh shadows (such as on someone's face).