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Help me switch heads on a picture


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Hi everyone, I am very new to photoshop and am just starting to try my hand at photography. I have a delma with two pictures I recently took at an event.

in the first image I like everything except for the one lady has her eyes closed.

In the next shot, a different lady has her eyes closed.

I need to somehow swap the faces on the white lady so the final image has her eyes open.
here are the two pictures.
 

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Hi Michael

Is this what you want, it's quite easy to do, all I done was make a selection around the eyes with the rectangle marquee tool copy and pasted it onto the other image, adjusted the size to match. Then add a layer mask and masked out some of the area's and then use the clone stamp tool on a new layer to finish off.

View attachment 56970
 
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I tried to duplicate this using the steps you mentioned and I still couldn't get it to look this good. I need the picture in it's original size. how could I do/get that?
 
I was in the area and had a spare moment so...

http://www.mediafire.com/download/odd3dok2t6mn2dd/DSC_2893_MT_01.zip

Its a ZIP file of two files:

DSC_2893_MT_01.psd
DSC_2893_MT_002.png

The png is highly compressed and although you'll find it difficult to see any colour shift I've included the PSD so you can just open it and save out to whatever file format you need....or you can just use the png....whatever.

DSC_2893_MTPSG_02.png

Regards.
MrToM.
 
...Thanks!! that was exactly what I needed. interesting note, I've never used Mediafire before. Is it as good as dropbox?...

No worries.

Mediafire is a good, solid, no frills file sharing utility.
Those wishing to download do not need to be registered or logged in....they can just download.

If you do create an account you can set a folder to be a 'dropbox' style folder....those with the link can just drag and drop stuff in there....and you'll be notified if they do.

There are no limits as far as I know....Its done everything I've ever tried and more so have been using it for years.....no quibbles.

You can also use it as an image host too if you need to.

A good egg all round really.

Using 'the' dropbox just seems 'clumsy' by comparison......personal preference I guess.

Regards.
MrToM.
 
Since you said you were new to photography, when you do a group shot like this, little things count, so I hope you don't mind if I suggest some improvements:

a) Clean the sensor on your camera. A tiny water drop that dried on your sensor is causing the big smudge above, and centered between the 3rd and 4th woman (from the left)

b) Feather your lighting. The row of faces is the most important area of the image. Everything else should be slightly darker, and possibly less contrasty, especially the background. This isn't a suggestion to darken the entire image. You nailed the exposure of their faces. Rather, it's a suggestion of how much spread to give your light(s).

c) It looks like you used a single flash. If that's all you have at the moment, so be it. However, lighting makes or breaks portraits. As soon as possible, get a few more lights and learn lighting.

d) There is an old saying in art, "warms advance, cool tones recede". In this case, since you are using a near-gray background, it will look more like a background if it has a slightly cooler cast. OTOH, if you are intentionally using a warm background and making it an important part of the composition, then the above rule doesn't apply.

e) Throw your backdrop in the dryer for 10 minutes to get the creases out just before you take the shot. Doing so will save you time and effort in post processing cleaning up the background.

f) If you see shiny areas on people's faces, graciously suggest that they either apply some makeup, or at minimum, have a box of tissues / wipes nearby. (e.g., 1st woman from the left).

g) If you see skin imperfections, especially on women (eg, the stretch marks on the right-most woman), do her a favor, say nothing and get rid of them, or if you think they will be missed, add back in 10% of the original in this area.

h) When you have light and dark skinned people (or very light and very dark clothing) in the same image, be sure you don't burn out (ie, overexpose) the fair skinned individuals, and control the extremes of contrast between them either with very fine adjustments to the lighting, or, more likely, after the fact, in PP.

Attached is an animated GIF that illustrates some of these suggestions. Doing it correctly in-camera, instead of after the fact in post processing will be vastly better, and as you learn these techniques, will actually save you more time in post processing than it takes to do it right in the first place. BTW, I left the processed frame of the GIF a bit dark and slightly over saturated to make the changes clear when viewed on the web. If I were printing this, I would probably brighten it up a bit and slightly reduce the saturation..

HTH,

Tom M

DSC_2893_MT_01psd-tjm01-ps03_for_GIF-8bpc-698px_wide.gif
 
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PS - I forgot to mention that when posing the subjects for a picture like this, group them more tightly, not all in an almost perfect straight line.

For example, you could have the left-most woman (who appears to be the shortest) sit on a posing stool in front of the rest of the group. This will allow you to crop away all the wasted empty space at the top of the photo, as well as crop efficiently for larger print sizes such as 5x7" and 8x10". If the only use of the image is for viewing on the web, just crop away the empty top quarter of the present version.

Tom M
 
Thank you for the suggestions. I havent' been doing this long. To be completly honest this wasn't my best shoot. I was told there would be power at the venue, but when I got there, no power was turned on (it was held in an out door pavilion at a park.) so my lighting kit could not be used. I was also told that I would have a wall to set up against, and there were only pillars, about 20" wide and just over 10' apart. As such I had wind issues with my backdrop. The back-drop is a grey paper that is pulled down, not my best investment choice, but it's all I have right now. Perhaps my biggest mistake was not insisting on meeting in advance on location to scope out the area. We met at an office, but not the venue. Oh well, it was my first, and last time making that kind of mistake. I honestly hate studio-style photography, but I'm so desperate for money right now I'll try anything. I've been doing this free-lance thing for about 3 months now. I worked for Sears Portrait studios in college so I thought I knew more than I am finding out I do.
 

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