Thanks for earmarking a question just for me, Bryan! I'll take a
preliminary tilt at this windmill, and we can follow up with a game of
"Clarification Ping-Pong" if more information is needed.
The first thing that I generally do when making a photo collage that
involves placing one person's head on another person's body is to
locate images online to use as transplant "donor" and "recipient". I
use Google Image Search for this purpose.
As an example, I've found a photo of Hugh Hefner surrounded by pretty
ladies, and I have decided to replace Hef's head with the image of
George W. Bush (might as well let Dubya have a little fun.)
Here is the original image of Hefner and the women:
http://www.mortalwombat.com/PhotoChop/Hefner.jpg
I've selected this head-shot of Bush that looks as if it will
transplant well:
http://www.mortalwombat.com/PhotoChop/GeorgeWBush.jpg
I begin by re-sizing the pic of Bush so that it is approximately the
size of Hef's head in the original. Since I am basically a
seat-of-the-pants artist, I don't have any magical formula for doing
this. I just use a guesstimate, and tweak the size of the image until
it "feels" right.
The Bush image was originally 108 X 108 pixels. I took it down to 80 X
80. Here's George W's new, downsized head:
http://www.mortalwombat.com/PhotoChop/GeorgeWBush_v2.jpg
In order to have some blank workspace on the original image, I have
enlarged the canvas size, using dark blue as my canvas color:
http://www.mortalwombat.com/PhotoChop/Hefner_v2.jpg
Next, I color-adjust the Bush head so that it will look more natural
in its new setting. Again, this is a seat-of-the-pants guesstimating
process for me. I add magenta to Bush so that his skin-tone will look
good in the new setting. This is easily done in Photoshop under
Image/Adjustment/Variations.
http://www.mortalwombat.com/PhotoChop/GeorgeWBush_v3.jpg
Now I'm ready to cut Bush's head from the background, and save the
cutout to the Clipboard so that it can be pasted onto Hef's body.
Using the Lasso tool, I draw a rough outline around Dubya's mug. This
does not have to be particularly precise, since I'll be cleaning it up
later. Having surrounded the head with the Lasso, I copy it to the
Clipboard (Edit/Copy). I open an edit window on the Hef image, in the
blank area at the top which I created as a workspace, and I paste the
Dubya head there.
http://www.mortalwombat.com/PhotoChop/Hefner_v3.jpg
Using the Move tool, I reposition the head atop Hef's shoulders:
http://www.mortalwombat.com/PhotoChop/Hefner_v4.jpg
Now some cleanup is needed, so that the neck and collar joins will be
relatively natural looking. For this purpose, my preferred method is
to use the "Smudge" tool, which is accessed under the "Blur" tool. I
love the "Smudge" tool. In my view, it's one of the most versatile and
indispensable items in the Photoshop toolbox. I flatten the image to a
single layer, enter a zoomed mode so that I can see what I'm doing,
and -- using the "Smudge" tool, set at a 3-pixel size and a 70%
strength -- I nudge the pixels in the area around Bush's head and
shoulders until I have this result:
http://www.mortalwombat.com/PhotoChop/Hefner_v5.jpg
This still doesn't look quite right. The Bush face is too contrasty,
and is sharper than the faces of the Playmates. I surround the Bush
head with a Lasso and alter both the contrast and the brightness
(reducing each by 15 points), then apply a "Blur" filter until it
looks right. I crop off the blue workspace area, since it is no longer
needed:
http://www.mortalwombat.com/PhotoChop/Hefner_v6.jpg
This has been a "quick & dirty" Photo-Chop, just for demonstration
purposes. Much more tweaking and twiddling could improve the result
considerably, but the basic steps are here. I believe the description
above is applicable to Photoshop 6.0, but I can't be certain, since I
upgraded from 5.0 to 7.0 without going through the intermediary
upgrade.
I'm tossing this out as a rough outline; anything that I have left
unclear is open for discussion. Keep in mind, though, that this is the
sort of process that is best learned by doing. I am totally
self-taught, having started my computer graphics career more than
twenty years ago (with the Commodore 64, for which I wrote
graphics-generating software that I marketed myself.)
I hope this is helpful. Photoshop's tools, like those of most graphics
packages, are relatively simple to learn, but difficult to master. To
paraphrase Browning: A man's reach should exceed his grasp, or what's
a Heaven 4.0?
~Pink |
