advice on technique

[jocose]

Hey gang,

As usual, I'm not sure if this is the right forum or not. I figure it is because I'm looking for specific comments/suggestions on technique.

I did these shots the other night and spent about 1/2 working on the final. This is my very first attempt at anything like this, and while I'm not happy with the details, I'm happy that I was able to do it better than I expected.

I recognize immediately that the center Me is too light compared to the rest (actually that whole picture was lighter than the rest). I also see that I messed up in my positioning so the center Me and the right Me overlap...this wasn't supposed to happen, but after switching from layer to layer over and over again, I decided that it looked more "real" for the center Me to be in front of the right Me (imagine how much worse the right Me in front of the center Me looked ).

So, what I'm looking for is comments and suggestions of my techinque of merging the 3 pics, my PS work, lighting (so all 3 Mes are equal), and how to set up the shot so there is less risk of overlap. I'm not so interested in compostion (I picked a cliche because it was easy and an experiment shot), but you are of course welcome to comment on that as well if you would like.

Thanks for looking and your comments.

 

[Vmann]

I would first start by saying shoting in aperture priority would keep the light more consistant so long as you are not adjusting the lighting alot. I would also shot in front of a backdrop or a plain solid backdrop so the background doesn't interfer with the shot and all you would have to move would be the three of you around... keep the seat the same just change the hand postion then take yourself and move around instead of trying to get three shots to merge.

 

[jocose]

Vmann,

Thanks for the reply. So, just to make sure I understand, you are saying that I should have a neutral backdrop and 1 chair. Do 3 pics of the chair in the same position (but different facial expressions), and then cut and paste to the center, right and left. Right?

If so, I will definitely try that.

Thanks.

 

[PlasticSpanner]

There is also a slight, bright halo above the centre me's head where it meets the picture.

 

[Garbz]

I've done something similar before and it's rather fun to do. Some things I did figure out though is it's best to do this at night where the light is constant so you can manually set the shutter and aperature. Then everyone stays the same brightness. Unfortunatly my digital camera's white balanced drifts which can slightly effect tones.

THe other thing to remember is if you're getting creative enough to change cloths during the procedure don't kick the tripod

 

[Rob]

It's a great idea for a picture. I don't happen to think it's too clichéd, but hey. I think you've already noted the weakness in your image - the notable brightness issue with middle you. I would think it could be fixed in PS pretty easily, but I would really suggest having another go with a better background, perhaps black clothes (to draw more attention to the actions) and setting the camera on manual so the lighting is consistent.

As soon as I get myself a dSLR I'm going to be doing one of these!!

Rob

 

[jocose]

thanks for the comments guy.

Rob, actually, I don't have a DSLR (yet). I'm using a Canon S2. It usually rocks.

I've posted this one now in 3 different threads, but it's still approriate to each. Here you go. I think this one turned out better. It was actually taken the same night, but I futzed with PS more for this one.