Video tutorial Composite Photography. Using Digital Backgrouds and Overlays.

The Composite Photography. Using Digital Backgrounds and Overlays in Photoshop.

Thanks to Photoshop any kid can be an apprentice wizard in the purest Harry Potter style. I always say that Composite Photography doesn't have to be a challenge, you just need to keep a few things in mind, I have already said the most important things to keep in mind in another post, but it is always good to remember:

- The light. It is the most important thing. Although lately there is a trend among many well-known photographers that is to illuminate the subject to attract attention to it, it must be borne in mind that in a real scene, with real light, this would not happen, the subject would have a light intensity similar to that of that have the objects that are next to him. It is nice to see the subject a little more illuminated, but we must bear in mind that the more we exceed in this detail, the less credible the scene will be.

- The color . The color that we perceive will be a direct consequence of the light, if it is warm, the colors will look warm, and if the light is cold, we will perceive cold tones.

- The perspective. Although it is not necessary that it be completely perfect and realistic because our brain is already in charge of interpreting the image and "tricks" some things in the perception so that we can understand it, it is always advisable that the perspective of the photos that we want to combine are as similar as possible, and if they are the same, then is perfect.

To all of the above, it must be added that it is necessary to have a good knowledge of the software we are using. If it is Photoshop, then it is necessary to know the basic tools, what they are for and how to use them. This is very important!

The Wizard's Apprentice

After this little introduction I am going to focus on the tutorial in this post. At the beginning I wanted to make a short video to show how easy it is to use this "digital backdrop + table overlay" pack. Being two separate layers it is no longer necessary to spend a lot of time to place the subject behind the table, but the work is easy and fast now. Well, that was the intention, but finally I decided to extend the video a little more, doing more things and adding more explanations, sharing some more techniques!

The 3 steps to get a similar work to the one on the example are these:

1. Optionally you can make a first skin "retouch" to your model in the original photo. You can use the technique that you like the most. If you use Photoshop CC you can use my Photoshop Actions for retouching.

2. Extract the model from his/her original photo. You can see a free tutorial showing how to do this on my youtube channel.

3. Follow the steps in the next video! :)