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By Root 383 0

while not investing the full amount of time, money, and resources to the photography and work it will eventually take. Let me explain: Once I had the idea, I built the background. Then, I took random photos from my surroundings or used free “comp” images from a stock photography website to start laying it out. Sure, the lighting was all off, the shadows were horrible, and the people weren’t really in the poses that I wanted. But, from seeing all of the things that I didn’t want, I was able to more accurately (and quickly) photograph the things I did want. Plus, the rough comp helps get people thinking and talking. Once they see it come to life, all-new ideas come out, and that’s exactly what happened here. Poses changed, placement changed, colors changed, and it was all because we had something rough to look at.

©FOTOLIA AND ISTOCKPHOTO

Creating the Background

One of the first trends you’ll notice in commercial compositing is that the background is rarely ever just one photo. In fact, it’s rarely ever even two photos. When you get to this style of compositing, the background that you need typically doesn’t exist anywhere. So, you’ll have to build it. In fact, in this example, I tried to photograph the background in one photo for this. I struggled with it for about a week, driving everywhere looking for the perfect place. Once I gave in and decided to build it myself, from several photos, the project became infinitely easier and began to take shape right away.

STEP ONE:

Open the photo of the sky. The foreground isn’t what we want here, but I like the trees in the back and the blue, partly cloudy sky. It shows a sunny day, but more of a late-afternoon sunny day, so nothing should be overly bright or contrasty.

©FOTOLIA

STEP TWO:

Next, open the grass photo. Using the Move tool (V), drag it into the cloud photo we just opened in Step One. Then, go to Edit>Free Transform and click-and-drag the top-middle transform handle down until the grass looks like it’s vanishing into the tree line. Press Return (PC: Enter) when you’re done to lock in the transformation.

©FOTOLIA/NEXUSSEVEN

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Tip: Rename Your Layers

You’re going to have a lot of layers when you’re done with this composite, so start descriptively renaming your layers (double-click on the layer name) right from the start. Trust me, you’ll be really happy you did for this image.

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STEP THREE:

Now, open the first tree photo. This one is a stock photo, too, so it’s got a nice white background. If it didn’t have the white background, I’d use the Quick Selection tool/Refine Edge combo and treat the edges of the tree just like I would hair. But, since it does have the white background, let’s go to Select>Color Range. Click once with the Eyedropper on the white background to select it, then move the Fuzziness slider to the right. I stopped around 135. You’ll want to drag until you start to see parts of the tree fading away—that means you’ve gone too far. Click OK when you’re done.

©FOTOLIA/BEBOY

STEP FOUR:

Since we’ve selected the white background, we need to invert the selection so the tree is selected instead. Go to Select>Inverse to invert the selection, and then copy the selected tree. Now, switch over to the background image and paste it in. Go into Free Transform, press-and-hold the Shift key, and click-and-drag a corner handle inward to make it smaller. Press Return when you’re done, and then move the tree to the top left. Then, press the E key to get the Eraser tool and, using a small, soft-edged brush, erase away the shadow around the tree, because we’re going to add our own.

STEP FIVE:

Add a new layer under the tree layer for a shadow, and then press Shift-M until you get the Elliptical Marquee tool. Drag a small, wide oval selection beneath the tree and fill it with black. Deselect, then go to Filter>Blur>Gaussian Blur, set the Radius to 15 pixels, and click OK when you’re done.

STEP SIX:

Reduce the layer’s Opacity to 30%, then press Command-J (PC: Ctrl-J) to duplicate it. Go into Free Transform and drag the middle