Creating Composite Images in Photoshop

My oldest daughter is completely obsessed with animals. She is always telling my husband and I the most unusual animal facts, we used to fact check her but now we don’t bother because she is always right, ha! The other night at dinner she was telling us about how many spiders will eat their own silk webs again after spinning them which helps them to conserve protein and therefore energy by recycling it again. I had no idea, she is always teaching us something new!

When she said she wanted a safari party for her birthday this year I knew these animal images would be the perfect surprise for her. I printed a couple for her room from my lab and they turned out beautiful! We were also able to use them for her birthday invitations and for Valentines as well, I love being able to kill a few birds with one stone!

 

In this post I will teach you the steps to create composite images. I’m going to use this zebra image as my example. This is a tutorial for someone who already has a basic knowledge of Photoshop. You’ll need to have an understanding of layers, masks, adjustment layers, etc… If there is an interest for a more introductory course for Photoshop let me know and I will design one.  Composites have a lot to do with the coloring and highlights/shadows of the images. Such a fun process and unique way to create a new form of art! If you would like one of these images for your child contact me and we will dream up something special for them to hang in their bedroom.

1. Take the image you want to make a Composite out of

The very first thing you want to do is get your child to act out the image of how you want it to appear in your composite. If you are taking the picture outside it is really important to make sure the sun is coming from the same direction that it is in your digital backdrop. You want the highlights and shadows to hit the subject in the same way as they are in the digital backdrop. Since I took these inside (because it was negative degrees outside) I didn’t need to worry about that but I knew I would need to compensate even more for the highlights/shadows on the final image.

I put a white sheet on their rocking horse so it would be easier to select and remove from the image. And then I told her to act out exactly what she’d be doing in the image. For this one I said, “Pretend you are riding on top of a zebra!” If you know my daughter at all you know this put a huge smile on her face!

2. Make a selection of your subject

After you have your image you want to use you are going to pull it into Photoshop and use the ‘quick select’ tool or ‘pen tool’ to create a selection of the part you will want to remove. I used the quick select tool. You just need to click and drag the tool over the part of the picture you want to select. If you need to add more to your selection or take some away you can use the + and – buttons on the top tool bar. And you can adjust the size as well.

Now you can duplicate that bottom layer, by Command J on a mac, or drag that layer down into the “new layer” icon at the bottom of you layer panel.

Add a layer Mask.

3. Refine Edge

Once you have your subject selected you are going to Right Click on the selection and click on the “Refine Edge.” You can adjust your settings accordingly in the area to help get a smoother more consistent selection. Make sure that “smart radius” is selected.

I like to adjust approximately as follows;

 radius 2 px

smooth: 3

shift the edge: +35.

Play around with these and see what looks good to your eye.  

 

 

Now add a new solid color fill layer and change it to a gray color so that you can really see the image you have and what is selected or not selected.  

4. Clean up Selection with Paintbrush

Now you refine your selection by using the Paint brush tool to Paint back in and back out different areas of the selection with a soft brush. Make sure your layer mask is selected first.  Anything that you paint with the color white will be added to your selection. Anything that you paint with the color black will be taken away from the selection. I find this particularly helpful for detail items like hair. Make sure the brush is soft by adjusting to a low opacity or flow so that you don’t get stark lines. Zooming in on the subject is very helpful as well to be able to see those little details better.

 

5. Use Smart Radius

You can also further refine by clicking on your layer mask the layer panels and right clicking to Refine mask. Make sure that “Smart Radius” Is selected and paint white and black again to help add and take away from your selection. Select “Okay” when complete.

 

6. Moving your subject into the Digital Backdrop

Phew are you still with me??? This work will all be worth it in the end. Getting a great selection of your subject and taking the time to do it correctly will pay off in the next part! Once you’re ready to move your subject into the new backdrop Right Click on the layer mask and select ‘Apply Layer Mask” Now you can use your move tool (Top Left tool) and move the subject into your other image.

 

7. Adjust Subject size and Direction

You’ll notice right away that the subject is the wrong size, or wrong direction or area of the picture. This is where you need to use the Free Transform Tool. On a Mac its Command T, or you can to go the Edit Menu and select Free Transform.

This is really important hold the Shift Key while you are adjusting your image so that it doesn’t change the ratio of the image. Move until your image is in the correct place. Once you have it where you want it right click on the image in the layers panel and select “apply layer mask.”

 

Now that your subject is correctly positioned, we need adjust the image so that they match the same coloring and lighting.

First select Layer, go down to Matting and defringe, just one pixel this will help to make a more even transition from your subject to the background.

 

8. Brightness and Contrast

Next select the “new adjustment layer” at the bottom of the layers panel and select Brightness/Contrast.  We need to create a clipping mask so that what we’re doing only effects the subject that needs to be adjusted to match the backdrop and not the entire image.

You can create a clipping mask by selecting Layer and ‘Create Clipping mask.” Not that you’ve completed that adjust both your brightness and contrast so that it matches more closely to your backdrop. For this example I need to decrease my brightness and increase my contrast.

As soon as you’ve done this Invert your layer by selecting Command I and paint this off the one side of your subject where the sun is hitting it. You want to remove this from where your “highlights” would be and keep the shadow you’ve created for the rest of the image. Look at the animals or other subjects in the area and see how the light is hitting them and match it. So I’ll take this effect off of the left side of my subject, along her back, some of her right pant and arm and the left side of her face and hair. This is the areas that would be more illuminated by light.  

 

9. Dodge and Burn

This is another method that helps to create highlights and shadows. These are the subtle differences that will make your image stand out and look blended “correctly.” Select a New layer and then Right click with your mouse on that layer to create another “clipping mask.”

Next if you select Shift F5 it will give you the option to fill that layer with a color, select 50% gray and select okay. Next we need to change this layer to an “Overlay” in the blending Mode. Now you can use your dodge and burn tools to emphasize the highlights and shadows even more. With the Dodge select midtones and about 50% and brighten the highlights. And then burn the shadows using the same settings. Emphasize underneath the subject where they are sitting and leaning against something because that is where the shadows would naturally fall.

10. Saturation

My subject is more saturated then the background so I need to make a new adjustment layer with hue/saturation and adjust my subject until they match more closely to the background. Remember to make another clipping mask by right clicking on the layer so that what you’re doing only effects the subject and not the entire image.

11. Color Balance

The background has more red and yellow tones then the subject so I now need to adjust these in the color balance layer to match. Create another new adjustment layer with color balance and increase the yellow and red.

12. Curves

I wanted some more defined shadows under her leg so another trick I wanted to show is with the curves tool, again I make a new adjustment layer and I pull down in the shadows a little bit. And then invert your mask by using command I and paint that underneath the leg, and arm, and anywhere where you would need more shadows.

13. Cleaning it Up

It’s important to keep zooming in and out on the image to make sure that the subject and background are matching more closely. I will keep tweaking things a little bit here and there as I do this. For example as I’m zooming in and out I see that we do not need her left arm in this selection because the Zebra’s mane does not go back that far. So I will use the paintbrush in a new layer to gently paint the background color over that section. I can then use a layer mask to delete any painting that I overdo.

14. Adding Animal Hair

Add a layer mask to your layer where the child is and then grab your paintbrush. Change the shape of the paintbrush to the “grass” brush. (This can also look like animal hair) Then turn OFF color dynamics in the paintbrush panel. Make sure that you are painting in the mask and that the black paint color is the foreground color. You can change the direction of the paint brush be selecting “flip x” option in the paint panel. Gradually add in paint brush strokes and they will be the same color as the animal hair. If they aren’t recheck these steps something has probably been selected incorrectly. ­­

15. Applying Adjustments to Entire Image

Up until this point we’ve mostly just worked with the part of the image that we inserted. One good tip that I’ve learned is that at the end if you make a few adjustments to the entire image of at least some of the subject and background it will help them to blend more seamlessly. For this I’m going to use my curves tool again to make a spotlight over the subject and the zebra she is riding on to draw our eye to them. Then I’m going to put a warm butternut colored vignette and even emphasize the sun flare behind them with a warm circular gradient. For both the vignette and gradient I used some of my actions from Greater than Gatsby.

 

Once I’ve completed these steps I spend some time zooming in and out to make finishing touches. Sometimes it can even help to walk away for a little while and then come back. When you look at it too long you might not be seeing it as clearly and missing mistakes you’ve made. If you could see more of the shadow cast from the Zebra in the grass I would of also added a shadow cast for the subject but in this image you can not see it. You can create your own digital backdrops or purchase some online. These I found on etsy, they can be found here; https://www.etsy.com/transaction/1443377766

Let me know what questions you have! Thank you for following along, and if you want me to create one of these images for you, direct message me and we will create! 🙂