Beyond The Camera - Photoshop Compositing

Last week in this lecture I discussed my ideas with the lecturer about my Photoshop compositing image. Throughout this week I have been creating the image that I set out to make. I went out and took photographs for the background of my Photoshop piece. Here are a few of the photographs I took. 

 I wanted to get an image of a long brick wall for the subject to 'walk through', so that I had plenty of space to work with. This street was perfect because there were a lot of walls to take photographs of. After this I went to the TV Studio in university and used the green screen to take photographs of my subject - Ian!

As you can see I tried a few different thing with Ian; body shape, lighting, etc. I wanted in the end to get him as if he was walking in to the wall rather than just standing still. I thought this would look better because then he would be travelling. On the image with flash, the shadow was too harsh and so I used the image without the flash in the end so it would be better for me in post production.

From this I began to play around with Photoshop, I wanted him to be travelling through the wall like it was a portal or he was a sort of ghostly figure. This is the first image I created.

In this image Ian looks like he is a ghost walking through a wall. I wasn't exactly happy with this image because it isn't what I envisioned. I wanted it to look more 'alien' rather than ghost-like and so I decided to create another image using the same photographs. I spoke with the lecturer and he said that I should stick with the portal idea and so I developed this final image.

Firstly I used the background eraser tool to get rid of the green screen behind the subject. I then used various tools, such as burn, to get rid of the green screen bleed that occurred on the figure. I put the subject on top of the background layer and positioned him accordingly. I then added a drop shadow to the subject to make the images more compatible.

Something that I played around a lot with is the brightness and contrast of the images. I needed to make them more attuned to each other. I think next time I should take a tripod out and take the background image without the subject, and then with the subject. This will have been easier to manipulate and I am going to think about this next time.

To create the portal, slight adjustments to the wall area were made using the zigzag filter, giving the wall a waving effect where the subject is contacting it. I also changed the opacity of the edge of the subject so he is blending in to the wall - as if he is going through.

My Reflection

I know that this image could be a lot better than it is; however I think that my original idea of the film screen was too elaborate for my first attempt at compositing.

Something that I really wanted to do was use the green screen for this small project; which I did. However, it proves that more image manipulating, green screen is not always the best route to go.

Over the next few weeks I intend to carry on using Photoshop more and working harder to understand how to manipulate images as this will help me with after effects when making my films this year.

Personally I am disappointed in the image as I know I can do so much better; but I suppose practice makes perfect! So I better get practicing. 

You Learn Something New Everyday

I think the biggest thing I have learned through this exercise is to keep things simple. Coming up with ideas is something I do pretty well, but I need to be realistic when it comes to Photoshop because it can be difficult when it comes to using some of the tools that I haven't before.

Speak Soon!