Molly B Posted March 1, 2016 Share Posted March 1, 2016 I have a newborn shoot in a week. Is it possible to achieve this look in CS5:http://www.techeblog.com/index.php/tech-gadget/photographer-wants-newborn-son-to-think-she-s-cool-blackboard-adventures-ensue By drawing on an image in post-production like in these images (scroll to bottom of post)?http://inspiremebaby.com/2013/08/23/special-baby-z/ I am using a piece of black foam core for the black background. Though I will need to do some work to lessen any shadows. Thanks for the help. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Damien Symonds Posted March 1, 2016 Share Posted March 1, 2016 Well yes, but nothing beats actually drawing it for real, with chalk on a blackboard, then photographing that and merging the two. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Molly B Posted March 1, 2016 Author Share Posted March 1, 2016 Wow. I'm glad I posted this. I actually agree with you. I let someone else convince me that drawing on the final image would be easier. I assumed the baby was actually on the blackboard with the drawing. So is the baby on a blank blackboard? Do you have a tutorial that shows the essence of how the two are merged? I need to track down an actual blackboard! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Damien Symonds Posted March 1, 2016 Share Posted March 1, 2016 1 minute ago, Molly B said: So is the baby on a blank blackboard? Not necessarily a blackboard. Any black surface would do. As long as it was quite flat and evenly lit, and nice and dark. A wrinkled black blanket would be a bad idea, if you know what I mean. 2 minutes ago, Molly B said: Do you have a tutorial that shows the essence of how the two are merged? The way I see it, there are two options: Start with the photo of the baby on a black background, and Place the picture of the drawing, and set it to "Screen" blend mode to merge it. This way should be the easiest, if we can pull it off. Start with the photo of the drawing, and Place the baby onto it, and mask it. Either method should give great results. I can't wait to work with you on this project! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Molly B Posted March 1, 2016 Author Share Posted March 1, 2016 Whoo hoo! Now I'm really pumped about this. Thanks for the encouragement and offer to help. So will it make a big difference if the chalk drawing is photographed in a different location than that actual shoot? Of course the concern being inconsistent lighting. I ask because the actual shoot will take place in the baby's home. It would be really nice to have the flexibility of creating a handful of different drawings and photographing them in my own time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Damien Symonds Posted March 1, 2016 Share Posted March 1, 2016 1 hour ago, Molly B said: It would be really nice to have the flexibility of creating a handful of different drawings and photographing them in my own time. I agree. You don't want to be rushed with this part. As long as you can work in quite even lighting, it will be fine to be in different locations. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Molly B Posted March 19, 2016 Author Share Posted March 19, 2016 I'm back to embark on this baby-on-a-chalkboard adventure. These are just trial attempts. A lot to be worked out yet. I need to add a couple more coats to my chalkboard and need to play around with the placement of the characters. This was a very difficult shoot from very aspect. The baby was super fussy and lighting less than ideal. I probably have a lot more editing on the baby, but I don't know how much will be fixable with the shadows. I would like a perfect image, but knowing the parents, they will be more excited about the overall idea of the picture. The first image I tried the dissolve method as you (Damien) suggested, but I don't know how to make that work. How do I dissolve only the background and not the baby along with it? The second image I masked out the background around the baby. I prefer the dissolve method if we can get that to work. Using that method puts the baby layer under the chalk drawing (so baby's hand is under the lightsaber) rather than on top of it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Damien Symonds Posted March 19, 2016 Share Posted March 19, 2016 Dissolve method? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Molly B Posted March 19, 2016 Author Share Posted March 19, 2016 Oops. I had dissolve in my head. I meant "screen" method. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Damien Symonds Posted March 20, 2016 Share Posted March 20, 2016 May I see the two separate images? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Molly B Posted March 20, 2016 Author Share Posted March 20, 2016 Here they are. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Damien Symonds Posted March 20, 2016 Share Posted March 20, 2016 You really messed up your lighting, didn't you? The practice doll photo you took the other day was really well lit. The actual baby photo has horrid mixed lighting. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Molly B Posted March 20, 2016 Author Share Posted March 20, 2016 Yes. It was a horrible situation. Wish I could have done the shoot in my own home where I took photos of the baby doll. I do have better lit images (not as good as the one with the doll). I was trying to use this one with his arm up so I could use the lightsaber, but it might be a lost cause... Let me look for some better lit images. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Molly B Posted March 20, 2016 Author Share Posted March 20, 2016 Very, very quick and rough edit here. posting to check if the lighting on this one will be workable. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Damien Symonds Posted March 20, 2016 Share Posted March 20, 2016 Both of them will work, you'll just need to spend some very patient time fixing the warm cast. I'd say that we'll have to abandon the Screen method. The masking method it will have to be. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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