Creating Your Reality with Composite Photography

With the right Adobe® Photoshop® know-how and studio shoot experience, you can merge fact and fiction into a reality that lives up to your imagination. Renee Robyn has made a career of turning everyday photos from her travels into eye-catching images. Robyn will teach you how to add people and other elements to your existing landscape photos using ethereal custom effects.

In this class you’ll learn:

• How to choose or set up a shoot for your background image
• How to direct posing during a shoot, and work with directional light in-studio to make your subject fit into the background image
• How to composite your subject into your image using Photoshop

Photo compositing allows you to breathe interesting ideas into your photos. Open your hard drive, walk into your memory, and turn past experiences into fantastic new realities.

• Class Introduction
• Why You Should Sketch Your Composite
• What to Look for in Your Background
• Posing Your Model
• Communicate with Your Team
• Elements of Compositing
• Learning from Failure & Criticism
• On-Location Safety Tips
• How to Nail the Right Perspective for Your Composite Photo
• Gauging Light & Exposure On-Location
• On-Location Posing
• Cliff Shoot Location Final Thoughts
• Tips for Culling Images
• Culling Images Q&A
• Preparing Your Image for Composite
• Composite Image Cleanup
• Adding Background Image to Composite
• The Difference Between Flow & Opacity
• Composite Sky Elements
• Using Curves to Color Match
• Adding Atmospheric Depth to Image
• Using Color Efex Pro to Manipulate Color
• Using the Liquify Tool
• Color Theory & Monitor Calibration
• Adding Smoke Layer to Image
• Selective Sharpening
• Crop Your Image
• Goal Setting for Digital Artists
• Review of Location Composite
• Understand Angle & Height for Your Base Plate Image
• Base Plate Focus Point
• Base Plate Lighting Tips
• How to Use a Stand-In for Base Plate Image
• Capture On-Location Base Plate Image
• Student Positioning Demo
• Base Plate Sketching
• On-Location Sky Capture
• What to Look for in a Base Plate Model
• Building Composite Model Lighting
• Composite Model Test Shots for Angle Matching
• Composite Model Shoot: The Art of Fabric Throwing
• Composite Model Shoot: Working with Hair
• Composite Model Shoot: Posing Techniques
• Composite Test with Final Shot
• Lighting Setup Overview
• Culling Model Shoot Images
• Adjusting Skintone Colors
• Merging Background with Model
• How to Mask Hair
• Creating a Layer Mask with the Brush Tool
• Creating Shadow Layers
• Removing Visual Distractions with Stamp Tool
• Replacing Sky with Layer Mask
• Drawing Hair Strands and Atmospheric Depth
• Creating Contrast in Your Composite
• Adding Atmospheric Elements
• Using Particle Shop
• Selective Color Adjustments
• Cropping, Sharpening, & Final Touches
• Closing Thoughts