Head Swap

[SouthernGraceNC]

I'm attempting to swap heads for the boy on the left. I've read through the tutorial on head swaps and tried it with these two photos without success - I think it's because the boy's head is obviously not at the same angle in both photos. And that's the original reason for wanting to swap heads - these two little guys were a little all over the place during our photo shoot, and it was pretty much impossible to get them to look at the camera at the same time. My intent is to at least have the boy on the left with his head raised, even if he's not looking directly at the camera. Any ideas? Thanks Damien!

 

[Christina Keddie]

Just a thought -- wouldn't it be easier to swap the parents' heads from the first one onto the second one?  You could also swap the youngest boy's head in as well, if you prefer the head with the hand in front of his chin.  Doing all three of those swaps would, I think, be significantly easier than trying to swap the older boy.

[SouthernGraceNC]

Thought about that, but I really prefer how the younger boy is lying in the second photo - I know, I'm making this suuuuper complicated, aren't I???

[Christina Keddie]

Honestly, I think even a full body swap of the younger boy (pulling in the entire lower right quadrant of the photo to make it easier to blend) would still be easier than trying to swap the older boy's face.  The older boy has different parts of his parents' arms and bodies right up against his head, making it much harder to line up or blend, and the angle will make it nearly impossible to make it look natural to have the second head on the first body.

(I do a looooooot of swapping -- I've got three little kids, and it's impossible for me to ever get one frame with all of them looking nicely at me.   So that's how I would approach this one...)

[Christina Keddie]

And, of course, you'd need to do your raw processing on both images first, before you start doing any kind of PS work.  

[SouthernGraceNC]

I was just thinking this same thing on my way home tonight...more work but probably the only way to go at it for the exact reasons you mentioned above. Thanks so much! I'll go at it again tomorrow when I'm not half asleep