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C:\Users\Marty\Documents\HCC documents\Tutorials\Compositing-Adding Subjects to an Image.doc

Compositing - Adding Subjects to an Image

By; Marty Kesselman

6/24/2015

Often we have what we feel is a lovely image but it needs something to focus attention.

Consider the image below left:

This is an example of a nice rustic creek taken at a

local park from a bridge that crossed it. I decided it

might look better if there were some geese in the

creek.

Placing the birds into the image provides a

strong subject to add substance to the

composition.

The birds were in a separate image taken

the same day at a pond in the park.

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The pond was calm and the birds

had created small ripples as they

moved.

I selected this image because I

thought that their orientation and

lighting might fit the picture I

intended to put them into.

This process is a subset of a much

larger one referred to as

“Compositing”. I strongly

recommend the reader consider

additional references. One which I

enjoyed is; “Photoshop Masking & Compositing” by Katrin Eismann. This an old book but a

very good one that goes into many aspects of the compositing effort.

This tutorial will discuss the following concepts, tools and subjects. Mastering them will require

practice. Tutorial references, from the Tutorial Section of the Huntington Camera Club website,

www.hccny.org , is provided for added reading.

1- Keyboard Shortcuts

http://hccny.org/web/tutorials/Photoshop/Useful%20Photoshop%20Keyboard%20

Shortcuts.pdf

2- Layers

http://hccny.org/web/tutorials/Photoshop/Layers%20and%20Masks/Selections%2

0Masks%20and%20Layers.pdf

3- Copying layers within an image file

See Keyboard Shortcuts #1 above

4- Copying an image from one image file to another image file

http://hccny.org/web/tutorials/index.php?dir=Photoshop%2FAdding%20to%20Images

5- Using the “move” tool

http://hccny.org/web/tutorials/Photoshop/Selections/Selection%20tools%20-%20part%205%20-

%20Move%20tool.pdf

6- Making selections

http://hccny.org/web/tutorials/index.php?dir=Photoshop%2FSelections

http://www.hccny.org/

http://hccny.org/web/tutorials/Photoshop/Useful%20Photoshop%20Keyboard%20Shortcuts.pdf

http://hccny.org/web/tutorials/Photoshop/Useful%20Photoshop%20Keyboard%20Shortcuts.pdf

http://hccny.org/web/tutorials/Photoshop/Layers%20and%20Masks/Selections%20Masks%20and%20Layers.pdf


http://hccny.org/web/tutorials/index.php?dir=Photoshop%2FAdding%20to%20Images

http://hccny.org/web/tutorials/Photoshop/Selections/Selection%20tools%20-%20part%205%20-%20Move%20tool.pdf

http://hccny.org/web/tutorials/Photoshop/Selections/Selection%20tools%20-%20part%205%20-%20Move%20tool.pdf

http://hccny.org/web/tutorials/index.php?dir=Photoshop%2FSelections

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7- Making masks



8- Changing blending modes

http://hccny.org/web/tutorials/Photoshop/Adjustments/Blending%20Modes%20fo

r%20image%20Enhancement.pdf

9- Changing layer opacity

See “layers palette” in:



10- Creating texture overlays

See end of article.

Summary of Steps

The major steps are outlined below. The details used to accomplish these steps are described in

detail within this tutorial. In many cases I present a number of ways to accomplish each step.

These instructions will introduce you to many features of Photoshop and explain how to use

them. Tips are included along the way and separated from the text by bold type and italicized.

All the detail has added to the length of this tutorial, however, it may well be worth your reading

through to the end.

A. Move the two pictures into a single image file.

B. Save your layers as “Smart Objects.

C. Fix the subjects and the reflections or shadows.

D. Review your work and add any background information that needs to be more

pronounced.

E. Final addition of any ripples or texture that might be necessary to add realism to the

added subjects. You may want to use overlays.



http://hccny.org/web/tutorials/Photoshop/Adjustments/Blending%20Modes%20for%20image%20Enhancement.pdf

http://hccny.org/web/tutorials/Photoshop/Adjustments/Blending%20Modes%20for%20image%20Enhancement.pdf



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How do you get the birds into the other picture?

Open both images in Photoshop. I am using CS 5 but this process should work on all versions of

Photoshop. There are numerous ways to do this step and I tend to do it the following way since

it seems straight forward to me.

A. Copy Paste technique – This is a very good general technique using the “COPY and

PASTE” commands after making a selection. This is available in most software

programs and will work in WORD, EXCEL, PHOTOSHOP etc.

a. Activate the image you want to copy. Make any selection. To select an entire

image on the screen use the keyboard shortcut “ctl+a” (select all). This will select

the entire image and place the common “marching ants” outline around the entire

image.

b. Once you have a selection you can copy it to the “scratch pad memory” of your

computer by using the keyboard shortcut “ctl+c” (copy selection to scratch pad).

The selected image is now in a special section of your computer’s memory.

c. Now activate the image file that you want to move it to. Use the keyboard

shortcut “ctl+v” (paste) to paste the image into the active file. You will see the

image appear in a new layer at the top of the original active layer.

TIP: If you didn’t select the layer you wanted the new image to be created above, you

can simply highlight the new layer by clicking to the right of its name and dragging the

layer to where you want it in the layer stack.

B. Drag and drop method – Difficult to write down but easy to do.

a. With both images open in Photoshop grab the title bar of the image you want to

make the main image and drag it down from the title bar to bring the image into

the image area on the screen.

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b. Here is the screen image:

The image I pulled down is now shown on the screen with the other image behind it. You can

choose to work on either image by simply placing your cursor in the image of interest and left

clicking your mouse. As you can see the image that is active is highlighted by a nice edge. The

layer pallet is shown to the right.

c. Activate the image you want to move by left clicking

in it. Select the move tool.

d. Hold the “ctl” key and the “shift” key down

and “left press and hold the mouse key” and drag

the image to the other picture and release the mouse

key and the keyboard keys. Holding the shift key

will deposit the image centered in the image you

are moving it to. You can always reposition it later

so do not worry about the position. You need not hold the “shift” key. If the moved image

completely covers your original you may think you lost your original image since you can’t

see it (it is covered by the new image layer). Have no fear it is there. Click the “eye” icon on

the new layer to turn it off and you will see the original image beneath it. Click the “eye” icon

again and it will turn the layer back “ON”.

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TIP: You can also move “layers” from one image to another by dragging a “layer” that is

selected. Holding the “shift” key down will position the information on that layer exactly

where it was located in the original. This can be important if positioning is important to you.

Once you have moved the second image onto the first you can reconnect your image to the title

bar by placing your cursor on the title of the image to be reconnected and dragging it to the title

bar and releasing. This will reconnect it and your usual working display will be reinstalled. You

will now notice that the second image is on its own layer. You can do anything that you can do

to a layer that you have moved as it now belongs in the image file that it is in. Save your image

as a PSD or TIFF to avoid losing your work and maintain all of your layers. Notice the layer is

still in the original image file and nothing has been changed.

CONTINUE WORKING

Once you have moved the image you want to the file you want, you are ready to continue with

image manipulation.

1- Save your layer as a “Smart Object”.

Since you are probably going to want to resize your subjects you do not want to lose resolution

by shrinking and enlarging trying to get the correct size. Shrinking and then enlarging is

destructive unless you do it on a “Smart Object”.

a. With the layer of your new subject highlighted, “selected”, go to

Filter>”Convert for Smart Filter”. If an information window comes up, Click

“OK”.

b. Name this layer “subject” or “Birds” or anything that will mean something to

you. To do this double click the name of the layer to highlight it, and type in

the new name then “CR” (carriage return).

c. You can now select the “Move” tool as before or type “v” on the keyboard to

activate the tool. Dragging inside the box boundary will move the image in the

layer. (See “Selection Tools, Item #6 above has a link).

i. You can now move the subject so that you can select it easily. Select the

subject with its shadow or reflection since that will add realism to the

image. The better your selection the better the result.

ii. Use the “Refine Edge” tool to improve and feather your selection. Every

selection tool has access to the new refine edge in most of the more recent

versions of Photoshop. After completing your selection create a separate

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layer for your selection. Use “ctl + j’ or the refine edge tool to create a

new layer.

d. To change size, hover your cursor at a corner handle of the move tool frame till

a diagonal double arrow appears. Hold the “shift” key to preserve aspect ratio

and click and drag toward the center to reduce size or toward the outside to

increase size.

TIP: It is important to maintain aspect ratio since dragging an edge will

compress or stretch causing image distortion.

e. After you have created a layer with just your subject you should change the

new layer to a “smart Object” as before and make final positioning and size

adjustments using the move tool.

f. Once completed you can turn-off the initial smart object (click the “eye” icon)

or delete it since you no longer need it (I usually do not delete layers until I am

all done).

g. Now if we zoom in on the

subjects we may see that they

look pasted onto the picture. This

may require a more feathered

selection and additional work on

the reflection or shadows.

2- Fix the reflections or shadows.

To create a more real-looking

reflection or shadow, often the shadow or reflection requires additional work.

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a. The shadow can be lightened, the reflection made slightly transparent (less

opaque) to allow more of the water or background to come through from the

original image. To achieve this type of effect we can do a number of things.

i. Separate the shadow or reflection from the subjects to work on it

separately

ii. Blur if necessary, rotate and elongate and apply more perspective if

necessary.

iii. Make them less opaque

iv. Add back some of the original background and adjust the opaqueness to

suit

v. Add an overlay of just ripple texture to the original water to add realism to

the scene.

b. In this case, I decided to try to reduce the opacity of the reflection in the

first bird.

i. I first made a selection of the reflection only to assure I protect everything

else from where I will paint. If you do not have a mask on your new

subject layer you can create one once you have made a selection by adding

a mask to the layer.

TIP: With any selection active on the screen, “adding a mask” will

create the mask with the selection. This is also true when adding any

adjustment layer since all adjustment layers come with a mask.

1. The mask icon is circled in the figure below showing the bottom of

the “Layers Palette”.

2. Once you have a mask added to your layer you can select the mask

by clicking in the mask icon on the layer. This will highlight the

mask, indicating it is active.

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TIP: If you “ctl+click” any mask it will use the mask to create a

selection with the marching ants. Also, if you “ctl+click” a layer

icon that contains image pixels, it will create a selection of those

image pixels that have an opacity level greater than zero. This

provides a quick and easy way to recall selections.

a. Set the default colors to “Black & white”. Press the letter

“d” on the keyboard (for DEFAULT colors). The

“foreground and background” colors indicated on the tool

bar will be Black and white.

b. You can “toggle the colors by pressing the “x” key on the

keyboard. The foreground color will be the color your

brush tool will use to paint with.

c. Select the brush tool.

The brush tool has a tool bar of its own. The “drop-down”

menu arrow will open the brush selection window with the

sliders for “size and hardness”. Set your brush how you

like it. I use a soft brush with hardness near 10%. The size

is easily adjusted with the keyboard “left and right square

bracket” or the slider. Set the “opacity” to something small

(about 10%) so that it takes numerous strokes to paint the

color, making it darker with each stroke. This permits fine

control over the black that you will paint on the mask to

slowly hide your reflection.

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d. Here is the mask, enlarged, so that you can see what I did.

While having the layer with the birds active, and the mask

activated, I painted on the image with my brush in the

“image area”. The 11% black opacity brush paints with a

light gray with each stroke. The “selection” protects

everything outside the selected area from getting any paint.

This will make the reflection somewhat transparent. Doing

this with the brush, allows me to direct the transparency

where I want it. You can also see the result in the image

while you are doing it.

3. Fix the ripples in the water.

When I had finished with my reflection I felt the ripples from the original image in the

reflection did not match the ripples of the creek very well. So, I decided to add the creek

ripples back in.

a. Add in the background ripples. This time I made a selection of the water

around the bird that I was working on. This was done by simply making a

selection of water and “subtracting the bird and reflection” selection from it.

TIP: To subtract a selection that you have a mask for from one you have just selected, use the

“ctl+alt+click” method. Start with your selection, “marching ants” then hold ctl and alt and

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then click on the mask icon that has the selection you want to subtract. To add a selection

from a mask, hold “ctl+shft+click” on the mask to “add”. For an “intersection use

“ctl+alt+shift” and click on the mask. This keyboard shortcut is very useful when dealing with

masks and it is not well publicized.

b. I set the opacity of the ripple layer to a small number about 23%. You need to

choose this yourself to your liking. This allows you to add some ripple above

the reflection so that reducing the opacity will permit you to see the reflection

information on the layer below

c. Another method which sometimes works better is to add the ripples back

using an “overlay.

i. For this I will select the broader ripples from the image of the birds to try

to introduce some additional ripples to those already in the river. I already

have the bird image properly sized so all I need to do is invert the mask to

allow the water to be selected and the birds and reflections not selected.

1. To do this I copied the layer so as to not accidentally lose any of

my work, activated the mask by left clicking inside the mask icon

and to invert the selection I used the keyboard shortcut “ctl+i”.

This changes all the whites to black and all the blacks to white and

everything in-between.

2. This provides me with the water ripples in the pond. To make this

an overlay, I changed the blending mode to “overlay”. This

provides color contrast to the water area. I want just the texture, so

I need to change this layer to black & white.

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a. I chose to create a “Hue & Saturation” adjustment layer

and set the saturation slider to -100%. This removes all

color. I do not use the “Desaturate” command since it is

destructive. I also did this so as to have the adjustment

layer apply the adjustment ONLY to the layer below.

i. To do this I held the “alt” key while pressing and

holding the black/white cookie icon at the bottom of

the layers palette to bring up the menu of

adjustment layers. I then slid my mouse to get the

cursor over the “HUE & SATURATION” selecting

it, and releasing the mouse button.

ii. This brings up the Hue & Saturation adjustment

window and then I could move the saturation slider

to the extreme left (-100).

iii. Then after accepting the adjustment, I activated the

ripple water layer below it and set the blending

mode to “overlay”. Then activated the “Hue &

Saturation” layer and set the blending mode to

“overlay” as-well.

b. With all of this completed, I now went back to the water

ripple layer and set the “Opacity” to something that looked

good to me. In this case about 24%.

c. The last thing to do now is to try to softly blend the new

ripple layer with the rest of the creek water to hide the

transition between the two pictures. This was

accomplished by bringing the mask up on the screen so that

I could paint directly on it with black.

i. Hold the “alt” key while left clicking the mask icon.

This will allow you to view the mask on the screen

in the image area.

ii. Assure you have black & white as your default

colors, press “d” on the keyboard for default colors,

and press “x” to get the black into the foreground.

iii. Select the brush tool with the soft (10%) hardness

and low (10%) opacity. Paint all around the edge

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with numerous strokes to blend the black slightly

into the active image area.

iv. Check your work by clicking on the layer to the

right of the title name to make the layer active

again. Check your image.

TIP: This can also be accomplished by selecting the “mask” icon to make it

active and painting with black directly in the IMAGE area around the

obvious edges. The more you paint with black on the mask the more

transparent the layer will become. The advantage is you can see the results

immediately.

Here are the results:

Layers shown above, and mask shown at right.

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Original before adding ripples from pond:

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Completed image: