Blending images using photoshop

[Thrice]

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This tutorial is a beginner tut and shows how i cut out a head from one image, and blend in with the body of another image. It explains how i create a seamless blend between the two images, and match the colouring between the two images.

This is my technique, there are other ways of achieving the same result.

Im going to be blending carrot top’s head on bc’s body for this example.

Source pics:
http://socialitelife.com/images/carrottop.jpg
http://img121.imageshack.us/img121/2074/img08746og.jpg


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1. You need to cut out Carrot Top’s head.
a. Do this first by using the polygonal lasso tool to roughly select around his head.
b. Then hold down Ctrl + Shift hit I, and release. This inverses the selection you have made. Now press delete.
c. Then grab a soft eraser and tidy up the edges, being sure that you use a small brush near the edges of his head. Zoom in to get it more accurate.










2. You should now have carrot top’s head cut out nicely.



You need to place the head on bc's body now. Open up bc's image in photoshop, then either copy and paste carrot tops head, or just drag it across using the 'move' tool.






3. Resizing the head
His face will be way bigger that it should be, so hit Ctrl + T to get the transform tool, hover the tool over a corner until the resize icon appears, and shrink it smaller by clicking the the corner and dragging it inwards. Make sure to keep the face proportional.






4. His head should be the right size now. Time to blend that sucker.

[Thrice]

BLENDING



5. First part to blend is the neck area.
- Grab the eraser tool again with a SOFT, large sized brush (remember, right click, move slider along). I used 70px.
- position the brush below the part you're actually eraser, as shown in the picture and start slowing clicking. You want to gradually remove the rough line that is there at the moment.






6. Colour/brightness/saturation adjustments.
This is an experimental part, where you adjust everything slightly until you get what you want. we're going to be using these 2, possibly 3, menus...




- Start off with brightness/Contrast. Lower both of them, very slightly. I used -6B and -16C. Press OK.
- Next, go to Color Balance. This is experimental, i increased red, magenta, and yellow by vary amounts each. Only Little bits. +34, -8, -17. When it looks alright, press OK.
- You can repeat those two steps, in any order to make the color of the head and body match even better. Just play around with it, only adjusting the sliders a little bit at a time.

I wasn't quite pleased with the results at that point, so i adjusted contrast again, then changed colour again until i got it how i liked.


Touch up anything that doesn't look right with the eraser tool, or clone stamp if you need to.


Final Result
This isn't perfect, but you get the idea.

[Thrice]

let me know if i left anything out, if somethings unclear, or if you've got a question.

cheers.

[joshbond]

Great Tutorial!!!
Thanks.
I didnt' know about the contrast and color balance before. I'll have to try them out next time!
Thanks.

[Rod]

What exactly does the clone stamp feature do? I have never used it before.

[Thrice]

Originally Posted by cRod

What exactly does the clone stamp feature do? I have never used it before.

it 'clones' aka copies a selected area.

Define the area by holding down Alt, and clicking an area. Then move your mouse to where you want to start brushing.

When you brush, the pointer moves in relation to it. Play around with it, you'll soon get the hang of it.

[crombie]

hey can you fix the Red X's...although they are beautiful...they aren't much help in the tut

EDIT....that was wierd...after I posted this they appeared...

[BIGBOY]

Great tutorial....this is how mine came out...
how can i get the head to be praportional to the original...

[joshbond]

Originally Posted by BIGBOY

Great tutorial....this is how mine came out...
how can i get the head to be praportional to the original...

Try:
Ctrl T

[Vegeto]

EDIT:you beat me to it^

Originally Posted by BIGBOY

Great tutorial....this is how mine came out...
how can i get the head to be praportional to the original...

Your blending came out pretty good! Step 3 above covered the resizing. Hit crt + t, or edit + freetransform... (make sure you are working on the layer you want resized). Then use your mouse to grab the edge of the freetransform box and move the image until it's the size you want.

[bc_2005]

damn i look like a fatass there

[Thrice]

great tutorial A+ would read again *subscribed*

[Pleb]

nice :]

[bc_2005]

Originally Posted by Thrice

great tutorial A+ would read again *subscribed*