Tutorial: 1 subject, multiple times in one photo

[jennyf92]

ONE SUBJECT, TWO OR MORE TIMES, IN ONE PHOTO!


Here's how you do it. It's a lot easier than you may think!

The key to making this work is starting with a good series of photos. You should choose a photo with a background free of clutter. By this I mean, no distractions in the background. This makes it easier on you and is a lot less work. In addition, I try to stand in the same spot, so my background doesn't change much. And finally, when you shoot, shoot with your subject off center so you have room to add him (her) over and over again!

So, to begin, I selected my background photo. As I said, I chose one that was off center left with a lot of background. However, there wasn't enough room, so I copied a portion of the photo by dragging out my marquee tool and duplicating the selection [Ctrl + J (Mac: Cmd +J)]. Then I just slid the new layer into place to the right. I linked the two layers and merged them. However, you can see a seam:

http://i873.photobucket.com/albums/ab296/jennyf92/MScraps/Seam.jpg

I'm sure there are several ways to correct this, but I use the clone tool.

http://i873.photobucket.com/albums/ab296/jennyf92/MScraps/Cone.jpg

For this particular photo, my setting were:

http://i873.photobucket.com/albums/ab296/jennyf92/MScraps/Settings.jpg

However, you may have to adjust yours depending on your photo, how closely zoomed in you are, etc. You just have to play with it.

To use the clone too, you just Alt + Click on a section of the photo that you want to copy and then Click on the area you want to change. I use a hardness of 0 because I want my edges to blend in better.

Here is what my seam looked like after I was done. Not perfect, but certainly good enough for me!

http://i873.photobucket.com/albums/ab296/jennyf92/MScraps/Cloned-Seam.jpg

Next, I went to the photos I was adding and used my lasso tool with a feather set to 10 pixels. Anti-aliased was checked.

I made a fairly tight selection around my subject and plopped him on top of the background photo:

http://i873.photobucket.com/albums/ab296/jennyf92/MScraps/1st-Pat.jpg

I applied a layer mask to that photo and with a soft (0% Hardness) black brush, "painted" away the parts of the background that were too harsh. As I got closer to the body, I increased the hardness to remove the "halo" that remained. If I made a mistake, I painted it back on with white and tried again. Ah! The beauty of layer masks.

http://i873.photobucket.com/albums/ab296/jennyf92/MScraps/1st-Pat-2.jpg

Once I was happy, I repeated the same steps with my third photo. And voila! The finished photo:

http://i873.photobucket.com/albums/ab296/jennyf92/MScraps/patx3.jpg

[mum2gnt]

OMG! Jen!!!!!!!!!!! I never saw this before! What a great tutorial hun. I do it slightly differently and blend the photo but this method sounds so much easier! Thank you gorgie! You rock!!!!!!!!!!!! :worship:

[Milatolela]

wow, Jenny, thats rocks!!

I saw such a page in our gallery and was thrilled! I'm going to try tonight.
I have no time for Lo `s so many great tutorials! :rofl2:

thanks so much

[mum2gnt]

Hun I just made this with your tut. It's wall art - so I'll print on canvas:

http://i54.tinypic.com/2ypang4.jpg

[Joyce]

OMG! Jen!!!!!!!!!!! I never saw this before! What a great tutorial hun. I do it slightly differently and blend the photo but this method sounds so much easier! Thank you gorgie! You rock!!!!!!!!!!!! :worship:

That's probably because I just moved it to the tutorials section ;)
She made this for the May Misc. Challenge ;)
I moved all challenge tutorials to the tutorial section! ( incl. yours!)

[Joyce]

Oooh, gorgeous layout, Suzie!!

[justjen]

Hun I just made this with your tut. It's wall art - so I'll print on canvas:

http://i54.tinypic.com/2ypang4.jpg

GASPO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Suzie do you know how AMAZING this would look with the colors in my house?????????????????????????????????????????? HOLY COW! :worship::worship:

JEN YOU FREAKIN ROCK TOO. WOWA BOWA SHOOOOKA LOOOKA!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[justk]

oh my freaking word that is totally awesoem!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And SUzie all I can say is WOWZERS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!! i totally love that!!!!!
:worship::worship:

[DoggiNo]

Suzie, that is freaking awesome !!! :worship::worship:

[jennyf92]

Thanks, guys! I'm so glad you found it easy to follow. Thanks for moving it here, Joyce!

And, Suzie, that LO is amazing! You should definitely print that on canvas! It's awesome!

[mum2gnt]

AH thanks girls! I tell you it took me no time to do all the Georges - the time was in the blending what startd off as 1 paper and I just blended and filtered and re-coloured!!! :giggle:

[Romy]

Suzie's signature all over it...........breathtaking, my girl!!

[France]

That's probably because I just moved it to the tutorials section ;)
She made this for the May Misc. Challenge ;)
I moved all challenge tutorials to the tutorial section! ( incl. yours!)

that's a great idea Joyce! I was going to give Jenny the credit!! hehehe!!!
:yourock:

[aichaku]

jen! i just saw this!! awesome gotta try it some time!! wonderful wallart suzie!! :worship::worship:

[gateausoso]

Great tutorial! I loooooov ethis technique. Thank you for sharing, Jen!

[PLM]

This is fun! I once did something like that in the very beginning I scrapped for my wedding pics, but never looked at the light directions. Had to through it aways afterwards.
So, as you said, it's important to look at position and lightning!