Composite images or photography is the art of integrating two or more similar images to produce a single picture. This may seem quite simple but it requires great handiwork and skill. If one is passionate about this work then spending long hours on it won’t be a problem. They will have the patience necessary to produce believable composite images with great precision and neatness. Adobe Photoshop is the perfect app you can employ for creating composite images to your liking. These will help you choose a suitable palette of vibrant colors that appeal to the eye of the viewer. Particularly, the art of composite image creation is used by conceptual photographers for they like to add a touch of surrealism. This gives your ideas or images an otherworldly quality. The viewers of these images can thus be transported to some imaginary realm via artistic editing. What is hot or not composite images?
How to create composite images?
To save yourself the effort and wasting of time during shooting and editing, make sure to write down important steps. These will define your entire process and help you categorize the mood, light, story and props you need to invest on. This will give you an estimate of how much time should be spent on editing and visuals. You can even doodle what you want your final image to look like. Hence you can remember to photograph elements that you want to be a part of the composite image. Moreover, one important piece of advice for composite photographers is to not break their shoot into multiple pieces. Meaning you should capture all elements on site in the same window of time once you begin shooting. You can create images that are ‘realistic’ and not overly edited. Take shots which are centered at a larger main frame. This way you can expand the image and incorporate more details into it without compromising on the quality. You definitely would not prefer a small frame when you are in the editing phase.
Photoshoot Part:
Moving on from the photoshoot part, editing on Photoshop will help you realize how Layer Mask is your top favorite. This simple tool helps you create great composite images. First of all you need to choose a main frame around which you will construct your image. Additionally another important tool is the Free Transformation Tool called Warp Function. You can easily adjust the pieces you are adding to the main frame. Fix any distortion and make it seem like a perfect fit. Next step is to clean by removing any element that distracts your image. Use the Clone Stamp and Layer Mask for this task. For coloring and toning use adjustment tools like Curve and Selective Color along with Saturation, Brightness and Contrast.
Specific steps for creating composite images
Choose a picture that you want to be the background of the final image. Then choose the picture which contains the element that you want to add. Use the Magic Wand or any other selection tool. Then click on the ‘Mask’ button between the layers to mask out the element. Then paint the mask square white to remove the background of the object that you want to add in the final image. Click the ‘Mask’ button below the layers or just cut the selection into a new layer. When you choose Layer Mask you can just hide or reveal parts of the original photograph. This is by coloring the mask layer in black or white. 5 Ideas for Your College Dorm Party | You Should Know That
Ways in which composite photography can be used
Composite image photography is a great contributor especially when creating believable and photorealistic images. This is known as the deceptive photography type and it is meant to trick the audience. This is very common on the internet where seemingly realistic photographs turn out to be fake. For instance you can customize composite images by placing together people in a photograph where they never were actually present. Apart from realism, composite images can also aid in creating fantastical portrayals that are somewhat still photorealistic. These images do not intend to trick the viewer. They just show something which is impossible. This helps you execute quirky ideas by placing together two images very seamlessly. Very ordinary and mundane objects are thus placed in seemingly extraordinary and magical environments. Many photographers claim that their images are composite while others advocate that theirs are entirely real. Thus, the World Press Photo (WPP) organization made this bias clear in 2015. According to their record 20% of the images that were sent to them for a photo contest were faked.
Advantages:
Moreover, the motion effect is another of its many advantages to show movement of specific individuals. Here each and every step of the movement of a subject within a given frame is observed. This is especially true for the genre of sports photography. You can track the movement of the player as his entire form is visible at every phase of the game. A benefit of this is that if you were watching the live game you would not be able to process the rather quick movements. Sports like track, diving and basketball all use composite photography for this purpose. Hence you can evaluate the kind of pose that a diver makes before taking off or the position of a runner just before he begins the race. This is because composite images break the action of a gymnast or high jumper unlike ordinary images. Lastly, composite photography assists an image maker to make a story telling moment much more effective. It can be done instead of making a video or taking a series of photographs. The photographer just needs to make one image that tells all the storytelling aspects. The experts only need to break down and control all the elements of an image. For instance composite images bring together many elements of the story and prove to be amazing movie posters. Be it the characters, setting, genre, plot or theme. Everything is cast into one frame all thanks to composite photography.