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shadows. I painted on the ground around the tree a little, and also on the front of the couch. Don’t forget, shadows and highlights are one of the hardest parts about putting together a composite like this. Even though it’s fake, it has to look like a real fake image, and shadows are a dead giveaway that things are out of place. So, spend some time here searching around your image for things that look out of place. Think about where the light is coming from. Look at real objects around you to see what happens to the shadows (like the couch here) and use low Exposure (or brush Opacity) settings to paint them. It’s on a separate layer, so you can always go back and change it if you need to.

STEP 20:

We’ve got to tie everything together here, so it all has a unified color and tone. Let’s use the blurred layer trick we used back in Chapter 10. Press Command-Option-Shift-E again to merge everything together into a new layer. Then, go to Filter>Blur>Average. This blurs the entire image into one color that is the average color of everything in the composite. Change the blend mode of the layer to Color, and reduce the Opacity to 20%. This unifies everything in the photo and gives every object and person we added a common color tint.

STEP 21:

Finally, press Command-Option-Shift-E to merge everything together one last time. You can use the High Pass filter trick for some extra sharpening and contrast (we covered it at the end of Chapter 8), but I’m going to use my personal favorite, here: the Tonal Contrast filter from Nik Software’s Color Efex Pro Complete. I used the default settings, here, and I also added a layer mask and painted the effect away from the couple’s faces and arms, and the clouds, since it made them a little too contrasty.

Here’s our final image (on the next page) with the fictitious TV show name added to it.

Final Image

Where to Go Next

If you’re reading this, then I figure you’re probably looking for more information and inspiration on compositing. So, I thought I’d take a quick minute to point you to some of my favorite resources for inspiration.

KELBY TRAINING (www.kelbytraining.com):

We’ve recently released some online classes from German retoucher and photographer, Calvin Hollywood (who you can find at www.calvinhollywood-blog.com). He does some awesome work with compositing, as well. Plus, we’ve got work from Corey Barker and Jim DiVitale, and we have videos coming soon (Fall 2011) from Douglas Sonders and Justin Paguia.

JOEL GRIMES (www.joelgrimes.com):

I’ve mentioned Joel Grimes several times here in the book. He’s been a pioneer in portrait-related compositing. Joel will also be doing some classes over at Kelby Training, so keep an eye out (most likely Fall 2011). He’s also teaching at the Photoshop World Conference & Expo (www.photoshopworld.com), and you’ll definitely want to check out his website and video tutorials.

DAVE HILL (www.davehillphoto.com):

Dave Hill caused a big stir a few years ago with his signature postprocessing look. He really does have a great finishing style, but Dave’s work is so much more than that. He’s got some of the absolute best commercial compositing work that I’ve seen out there, and his website is definitely worth a look.

TIM TADDER (www.timtadder.com):

Tim Tadder is another commercial and advertising photographer with some awesome compositing work. He’s got everything from one-person portraits to group composites.

ERIC DOGGETT (www.doggettstudios.com):

Eric is a commercial photographer based in Austin, TX. He’s got some really clever and incredibly creative composites. In fact, he’s got a band composite that I thought would have made a great tutorial for the book. But fortunately, he had already done a tutorial on it on his blog site, so I figured I’d point you there so you can read it and see his work. Here’s the tutorial link: www.doggettstudios.com/blog/creating-a-composite-image-for-meagan-tubb-shady-people.

JAMES QUANTZ, JR. (www.quantzphoto.com):

I first noticed James Quantz’s work in the NAPP members’ Image of the Week contest.