Head Swaps

I thought I'd throw out a tutorial on how I do my head swaps, because they are actually pretty easy to do. There are probably a million ways to do this, and there may be a better way out there. But through trial and error this is what I came up with and it's fast, easy and works for me. These are a couple photos my brother sent to me today needing a head swap. So check it out. I did this in under 2 minutes.
My rules I try to go by before doing head swaps:
1.As long as the camera is at the same angle in both the shots, and the lighting hasn't changed drastically, it can be pulled off pretty simply. These are the 2 shots I'm working with.

So I'll pick a base shot. I'm using the one where everyone is smilling but Miss Chilly there.

On the other image, I'm going to select the polygon lasso tool and cut out the good section of the photo I want to insert. Can you see the "marching ants"? The little white lines outlining part of the image. That is our selection. I will then copy and paste that selection on to my base. (I could have completely cut her out by herself with the polygon lasso tool, but to make it even easier, since Miss Peachy to the right of her looks great in both shots, I'm going to cut this out in one giant chunk, which will require much less blending, and make this really easy and fast.)
Which brings me to another rule that I go by.
#2 Cut in as big of chunks as you can. This works for me. Obviously it's a case by case basis, but overall I've had the best luck going this route.

This is to show you just how large a chunk I am pasting onto the base image. Another rule I follow is:
#3. In using the polygon lasso tool to cut out your image, try to follow lines that are in your image or any implied line. This makes blending really easy. I followed the line down the center of the window. Again, if I had to just cut her out alone, and leave Miss Peachy on the end out of it, you can look above her and see exactly which lines I would include while cutting her out. There is a perfect line to the right of her head that goes right on up to the top. I would have chunked it out exactly that way.

After I have copied and pasted the selection onto the base image I carefully match up the pieces. (copy and paste keyboard shortcut, command c and commad v) Now I'm working with 2 layers. In the layers palette, I adjust the opacity to around 50% or so. This allows our selected piece to be transparent. Notice that we can now see through it. This allows me to line the piece up to the image underneath. I want my image to line up in the center. Her blouse, and the hand on her shoulder. If the outside doesn't line up perfectly, I can easily crop that tiny bit off. Once I have lined it up, I turn the opacity back to 100%.

Next, in the tool palette, you want to select the eraser tool. Make sure it's a medium sized feather brush. With this one I started at 65% opacity and I adjusted it up as I went. Usually I end up at 95% or higher depending on what area you're blending. The shirt I blended at a lower opacity. (Also, when blending greenery you can get away with a lower opacity.) Next tip: Before you flatten it, look really close for stupid mistakes. I ocassionally forget to do this. Sometimes I turn off the bottom layer so I can see where I have erased. That's a good way to discover glaring errors that were totally overlooked. Okay we have none, so next step...

If it looks good, I just flatten it, rename it and done. Next I email the file to whichever friend asked for the photoshop favor. Now my brother can finally post this photo on his photo blog of his internet friends who he met in real life. He even, married one of them. (Miss Peachy on the far right.)
If these tips helped..yay! But if you are now dumber, than before you entered this blog, I apologize. They're not all winners.

Textures

I have finally learned textures and I love it. I did some samples on just some of my own pictures to learn how. This first sample is the evolution of the shot. I was doing some experimenting with blending modes and came up with something that to Jonathan looked like a similar effect to the bleach bypass effect in film. (I liked it so I did a few more like that.) The next image is the texture I used. Water dancing on the side of the boat. The next shot is the two images combined using that texture. I backed it off on our skin tones but kept the color by using a gaussian blur to blur out any texture that would be too distracting on us.



So then I played with texture on a few more shots. And One of them is me in a swim suit!

See..technically I'm in a swim suit. But that's as racy as it gets.

With these two I just used them as backgrounds. I need to find more shots and different textures that I can apply to the entire image. Anyway it was fun to learn work on this new photoshop trick today!

Alyssa

There are a few beliefs that I have adopted in the last 8 months. One is that there is no competition, it's just something we create in our minds. This is a truth that has been so freeing to me as a photographer. The other truth is this. What you give out, you get back multiplied. I've had amazing photographers share knowledge with me, and I've done my best to share everything I can with others who seek guidance. I took a new photographer shooting with me and also did some photoshop workshops and I feel like I got so much out of the experience. It was amazing how together, with each of our strengths, we created something bigger than the both of us. I came home that evening beaming, I had so much fun, and can't wait to do it again.

Here is the quote from the Law of attraction. Something I live by now.
"Since every request is granted there is no competition.
Each point of view matters. Every request is granted and as this amazing universe unerringly expands, there is no end to the universal resources that fulfull these requests. And there is no end to the answers to the never ending stream of questions. And for that reason, there is no competition.
It is not possible for someone else to receive the resources that were meant for you, and you cannot selfishly squander resources that were intended for someone else. All desires are answered, all requests are granted and no one is left unanswered, unloved or unfulfilled. When you stay aligned with your energy stream, you always win, and somebody else doesn't have to lose for you to win. There is always enough.
If someone is not receiving what they're asking for, it's not because there is a shortage of resources. It can only be that the person holding the desire is out of alignment with their own request. There is no shortage, there is no lack, there is no competition for reources, there is only allowing or disallowing of that which you are asking for."

And now some shots of the Lovely Miss Alyssa


I call this the Blue Bayou shot. She was nice and humored me and jumped her way into the tiny island in the middle of the creek. And I did some photoshop doctoring. I should really write down what I do because I couldn't quite duplicte it a second time. I got close, but not exact. I played with the blending modes on several versions, and tweaked the hue and did a crazy hybrid. I probably should use adjustment layers, but they slow me down and make me crazy.


A sort of teal version. These may or may not work, but hey, it's fun to play!


She wasn't looking, so I fired away.


Downtown Brentwood using my 80-200, which I am trying to use more. Cropped sensors just make that lens a little tricky sometimes.


The grass really was that green.


I always try to get a close up eye shot. The mom's love this one.


This was my first experience with photshop CS4's black and white. You can adjust every color for black and white individually. Ah-Mazing!


She was so shy, so any candid relaxed shot I could slip in there, I went for it.


I learned that with the 80-200, it doesn't even matter what your background is. This background happens to be a cottage behind an Italian restaurant. For the record.


And that is the Italian restaurant, but not the 80-200.


Slipping in more candid. She wasn't a fan of the hat, but her mom was. So argument over. I think she looks amazing. She was a gorgeous subject and very sweet.

Little Sadie

I had officially called off doing any more baby sessions. It was always difficult for me take the girls to the babysitter, lug everything to someone's home, set everything up, tear down and take it back home. So it's been awhile. But my friend had a baby and I had her just come over for a play session. It was much easier to have people come to my home, that I'm seriously considering offering them again. I have a blog friend Melanie who does really beautiful work. She has given me lots of good advice at how to expand and create mini set pieces. So this week I'm going to try to create my first little hardwood and fabric backdrop set piece. I can't wait.



This is the shot I always try to get and it sometimes doesn't work. I love this laying in the hands shot, but it doesn't work unless the baby looks relaxed and peaceful, and the hands holding the baby look just as relaxed. The face can't be squished and the arms can't be flailing. The facial expression is so important with a shot like this. You can have any stress. This is probably the most nerve wracking shot for the parents because it feels a little vicarious. This took us a couple attempts to get it good and relaxed. I'm glad I pushed to try one more time before the end of the shoot.


Unexpected shot. In between naked shots, the moms wrap them up and cuddle them. My friend Brooke had her wrapped in a towel because Sadie had just peed on the backdrop. (I tell them this always happens and it's no big deal, but the parents feel so bad about it anyway.) So Sadie was wrapped up in a towel with her Mama and it was so adorable how she was peeking out. We quickly threw a blanket around the towel and voila, precious shot.
In photoshop I did a slight glow, a gaussian blur, pulled out the eyes, and burned in the eyes and lips. I also found a soft action that was really pretty although I use those sparingly. I also didn't like the direction of the original, so I tilted her head to be more diaganol. Then eliminated the black backdrop and parts of Brooke that were in the shot and replaced with a blur to nothing. Maybe it's C- photoshop but it works.




It's the really big towel illusion! A total of 9 towels were used to get this look. Also I have to square off the towels in photoshop. I usually fluff the bottom towel back out in photoshop, but I forgot to do that. The bottom one always gets more squished.


This ws a crazy big flower. I finally just took a shot of her without the flower, shrunk the flower from the previous shot, and put it on the plain headband. Ths is more C- photoshop.


This was an experiment. It would probably be prettier on a hardwood floor set piece.
The baby was off center, and it bugged me, so I shifted her to the right and had to stitch together the blanket top on the left with an ealier image that had that info. I'm so neurotic sometimes.


We thought it needed a bow, so I grabbed the only bow I could find, which was green. I knew I would change the color later. Once I changed the color I didn't like the multi colored quilts, so I changed them to rose tones.


Did the same with this as the eye's opened shot before.




I always soften the skin with a slight glow and gaussian blur. The original wasn't balanced right (in my opinion) for this aspect ratio so I moved the baby up closer to Brooke. (which eliminated the surplace of black space up to the left, that was throwing me off.) I was toying the cropping really tight and cutting off most of Brooke's hands, but I settled on pulling the baby closer.

Aria and Megan

My foto phriend Ethan came into town, so we set up a workshop day just for fun with Aria and Megan. I've never actually tried for sun flares in any of my photos, so I thought I'd give it a whirl. Here is is at f22. I'll have to play some more soon.


I love shooting in Livermore. It's a developing wine country. It's not just in Napa anymore. This park we went to was surrounded by vineyards. We hardly even set foot into the park, we were just steps from the parkinglot but had so much fun with area up front we didn't get to explore much.





I like this one.


I've been dying to shoot at this little wine tasting store front. It's a cute little brick building with wine barrels and a courtyard. I'm glad we did this. Ethan was fun to bounce ideas off of. I need to do more days like this to help keep it fresh. I think it's time to go back to the NCPP meetings too. (If the baby would be good to daddy while I'm gone.)


I look at this kind of shot and think, "the brick, the wall, the pose...it's been done a million times". It's time to go way outside the box. I'm tryin'. But the girls loved it and were happy with the shots. I just get bored with the same old shots.

I got Lightroom. I am not proficient on it like I am with photoshop. I need lessons, or I need a full weekend with just my computer.

Sam

This is Sam a good friend of my photo buddy Ethan. She came out from Brentwood and I met her at the bart station. I was so excited to go shoot in Livermore that day since I'd driven by so many times, drooling at the awesome downtown locations. I had been dying to shoot over there since I moved. So from bart we drove out to Livermore and it was a complete mad house downtown. It was wall to wall people and cars. They had blocked off the streets for some festival of some sort. Who knew? So...we made an honest effort, found a parking space forever away and did a few shots not in the location I was hoping for. But it worked out anyway. It forced me to drive around think outside the box. I found some locations I never would have found otherwise. Like the Alameda firehouse. We ended up in downtown Pleasanton.

Making do with a tiny patch of grass across from Safeway, thanks to that no good festival!


Stumbled upon the firehouse.


Probably wondering about this location. I confess...This was a hybrid of a different location (Brentwood) and a little mini park location across from Safeway. Throw "across from Safeway" on the end of anything and it makes it sound so glamorous.


Earlier in the day I picked up this chair. It's 90 years old and from Austria. I got it at a garage sale. He just gave it to me. I think he wanted to get rid of it. I actually didn't want it, but I turned around and he was stuffing it in my car..along with a parrot and two goldfish.




Sam has traveled to India through her church group, and India means a lot to her. This quilt is from India, so it's a little tie in to something that is important to who she is. And that's the only personal tie in I was able to pull off.


Under the hose drying shelf at the firehouse. I love high school seniors. They're on board anywhere you want to put them.

Erica

This was a shoot with a client who made quite a drive out to me. That was really nice. As you can tell, she was tall, (really tall), and beautiful, and a lot of fun to shoot. This was my first ever shooting in Pleasanton. I'm still learning the area. But we went downtown, to a cool little trail off of Bernal and to a beautifully landscaped area inside a...wait for it...business park.