Sometimes a picture is worth the extra effort.

Final image

Original #1

Original #2

Yesterday, my wife and daughter and I went with some Malay friends to the Kampon or village. We played in rice paddies and ate a lot of good food and drank a lot of fresh coconut juice. I took a few images of our host’s children. One was particularly nice, but… not quite. It looked as if I had started taking pictures of war amputees. Poor girl. Poor me, what a lot of potential! So, I decided to work a little extra on this image. I thought you might like to see how I did it. It wasn’t really that hard. I don’t normally work on an image like but, this there was something about this little girl and the setting that I wanted.

First I took the images that had the “good” face, and simply copied the face.

Then I pasted the good face onto the not-so-good face but good body of the next image. I then made a layers mask and softened the edges so it would blend well. I also transformed the size of the face to match the size of the host image. To do that select the layer of the image that needs to be sized. Then do a Command T (Control on a PC). This gives you a selection that you can now size. To size uniformly hold the shift key and then pull the corners till the image looks right. It is all subjective.

I also cloned out some of the “old” face to make the blending easier.

Here you can see all the layers and masks. Click to view larger for more detail.

Then I added some more room below the coconuts and did the same thing. Made a layer mask and softened the edges.

Trust me, this is pretty simple. Anyone can do it, but you have to start using layer masks. I am always amazed at how many people use Photoshop and do not use layer masks. It is very simple and non-destructive. I am sure there are other ways I could have blended these images but this was quick and easy.

Any questions, just email me or skype me. Here isone more shot from yesterday. These kids are just too cute.

Oh! and Salamat Hari Raya Aidilfitiri!