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digital props?

Prop - digital backgrounds. i.e. placing subject inside of or in front of a digital image. This is done taking the original subjects photo & editing it within Photoshop & adding to the digital prop.
 

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
Prop - digital backgrounds. i.e. placing subject inside of or in front of a digital image. This is done taking the original subjects photo & editing it within Photoshop & adding to the digital prop.
Kathleen,

This is such a common practice. The picture looks natural if there is no mismatch between the lighting and the quality. So a highly detailed background with a poorly imaged subject wont work well. Harsh mid day sun with evening golden sunsets is a give away. The quality of the edge of the foreground subject is critical. Extracting objects is an art in itself. If you can do that, then the rest is easy. As long as one takes care of those things that the eye is used to, then it will look real.

Asher
 

Ken Tanaka

pro member
Kathleen; This is not commonly called using "props", but rather "compositing".

Despite the power of commonly available tools, creating a convincing digital composite still requires a great deal of production planning and skill. It's done all the time in commercial ad photography (and a top-notch digital retoucher could earn a quarter of a million in the bygone heyday of big ad budgets).

But, frankly, most hobbyist compositing looks like hobbyist compositing.
 
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Compositing makes more sense then prop. Prop was a word used in an article that I read. Lighting was a puzzle to me I must admit. Difficult to match the extracted image I'm sure as you say to make it look real. Extraction is not a difficult task for me, but matching the lighting is. Company's sell the background images & for the sell make it appear easier than it is. I guess the answer to my question is no they do not look real.

with thanks, Kathleen
 

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
Kathleen; This is not commonly called using "props", but rather "compositing".

Despite the power of commonly available tools, creating a convincing digital composite still requires a great deal of production planning and skill. It's done all the time in commercial ad photography (and a top-notch digital retoucher could earn a quarter of a million in the bygone heyday of big ad budgets).

But, frankly, most hobbyist compositing looks like hobbyist compositing.
Ken,

Yes, hobbyist compositing will look exactly like that!

Top end retouchers can earn that $250,000 and even more today! If it was easy, such sums would not be reached since self marketed "retouchers" are everywhere and if they were so good, market value of the top workers would drop.

Still, if an artistic person applies themselves, the skills are straightforward. It just requires organization and thought. My own efforts involve planning as to kind of background, lighting, color palette, where shadows are going, what camera is used for both images, the transparency and blend of the edge of the foreground object. I do drafts, that's easy and impressive. In the end, it's always is a major thing for me to do the actual final composite as perfectly as I want and I think I'm pretty skilled.

Asher
 

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
Prop - digital backgrounds. i.e. placing subject inside of or in front of a digital image. This is done taking the original subjects photo & editing it within Photoshop & adding to the digital prop.

Kathleen,

It's always better for most folk to do it the way you want it at the time of a shoot. However, many times clients have little critical response to a picture of themselves transported into in the redwoods, delicately lit with filtered light as dawn breaks. If the picture is flattering then they will likely be happy. Of course, this does not alter the kitsch-gimmicky quality of what the photographer delivered.

To get an Irish women in front of a castle, do that and it will be satisfying. Think a composite will suffice and you will invest in a lot of technical challenge and it may not work anyway. However, one still should learn to do composting as one may want to repair an image that is missing an important feature present in another picture.

I had occasion to rescue pictures taken by another photographer of a family and their high bred pooch by their brand new red enamel letter "O"14 foot sculpture. It was for a christmas greetings card. The lady suffered from a condition where almost always her eyes are completely shut, especially if you wanted them open! The dog likes to look away and the husband is always perfect. I simply cloned the ladies open eyes from a photograph where she was fine but the dog was off doing his thing. The eyes needed to be at a different angle so I altered that with the transform function (Selected that area, edit, Transform, free transform/distort/warp) and then it fitted perfectly. Well the ighting was different and when that was corrected it fused perfectly.

Such minor alterations should be in our capability "just in case". So it's very worthwhile to gain the skill to bring in objects to a new background or change backgrounds. Still, everything is best done right at the time of capture.

For my own artwork, however, I plan from the beginning to have a new background from before I've shot the first model. On the flip side, I may start with the background and then I have mapped out precisely where and how a person might be fitted in seamlessly. Since I'm imaging things that only exist in my head, I have an excuse for compositing. I still find it as frightening as it's wonderful! Just overlook one parameter and the thing can look fake!

You might share what about compositing appeals to you that you can't get from using a painted wall, a board, cloth or real life background.

Asher
 

Daniel Buck

New member
sounds like you just need to get out and start shooting some backgrounds that you would like to have against your subjects! (or vice versa?)
 
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