Practically Speaking; A Real-life Wedding Retouching Job

[deluco]

Here's a problem that Photoshop solved for me.* I had two shots of the bride and her father coming down the aisle.* In one shot, her father's eye's were messed up and in another, the bride's were nearly closed.* *The solution was to use layers in photoshop to move the father's head from one image to the other. These images are cropped in greatly to show the effects:

Here's the first image.* Dad's expression is great and bride's eyes are closing:

[deluco]

In the next image, the bride's expression is great but now dad's isn't so great:

[deluco]

The solution is to move dad's head from the first image to the second image in photoshop, using layers. Here's the final retouched image:

[deluco]

The steps are loosely as follows: Open both images in Photoshop. Use selection tool of your choice to select dad's head in the first image. I suggest using one of the Lasso tools. Use the Move tool to drag and drop dad's head into the second image. This will automatically create a new layer with just dad's head on top of the old layer. Put dad's head into appropriate position to match the other image. I then erase thu to the second layer around dad's head to bring thru the background. Flatten the layers and then cleanup using the clone tool. In my steps, some of dad's head came thru on the 2nd image so I had to clone it out.

[Michele]

WOW!! Excellent work and looks so natural.. Beautiful final image.. Michele

[Paul Shields]

Execellent retouching work. And who said the camera never lies?

[deluco]

Thank's. She will get to proof the originals but I will tell her that I can move the heads for the album and any orders.

[deluco]

Another example from the same wedding. Note the white infringing on the left side of the bride's face from the window in the background.* One problem with shooting at 1/20th second. Image cropped in for demonstration:

[deluco]

Edited version using the clone tool

[CyberPet]

Good job Jim! I move heads a lot when I edit, or eyes. Depends on the situation. This is especially good when you have to shoot a group of people. Take 3-5 images of the same group and then mix and match until you have a group where all looks at you - the photographer. Never fails.

[deluco]

Originally Posted by CyberPet

Good job Jim! I move heads a lot when I edit, or eyes. Depends on the situation. This is especially good when you have to shoot a group of people. Take 3-5 images of the same group and then mix and match until you have a group where all looks at you - the photographer. Never fails.

I agree. I usually just move the eyes but in this case his head was pointing in a slightly different direction and I thought that moving the eyes might make it more difficult. I prefer to just move the eyes. As you mention it comes in especially handy for group shots. It's one of the things I love about digital.