Photoshop help - how to blend inn a subject to a background

stk

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I've taken a few long exposure photos and combined it with a shorter exposure where I add in the (not so still) subject. My problem is how to best combine these two exposures in Photoshop..?

Here's an example, a test shot with my daughter:
DSC_5403-Edit.jpg


I'm not happy with the way it looks when it comes to the job done in Photoshop. Does anyone here have any good tips, or even better know of a good tutorial on Youtube?
 
Looks great to me. What, exactly, are you not happy about?
 
The selection, and how it blends in to the background; she looks as if she's cut out and pasted on to the background (which she is). I've seen this done way, way better and want to learn how.
 
I can't see it with what I assume is an image that's been reduced in size for posting.

Are you cutting using a sharp edge? Perhaps using a softer / fuzzier cut would reduce the harsh transition.
 
Yes the image is reduced in size for posting.

Using a softer cut is probably a good idé. I used the "quick selection tool", went in to "select and mask" and used "refine edges" for the hair and then saved the selection as a new layer with layer mask and used the brush to manually fix the areas where the quick selection tool didn't work that well.
...and that's about where my Photoshop skills ends.

I want to bring a modell, or at least someone else than my daughter, to a shoot like this, and I really feel like I need to up my game before that's a good idea.
 
I'm also thinking there's something off about the lighting on the subject. It looks like the light is coming from her right side but yet the sun is behind the clouds behind her. Just feels a little off. Just something I noticed. Otherwise I love the concept and pose.


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I'm also thinking there's something off about the lighting on the subject. It looks like the light is coming from her right side but yet the sun is behind the clouds behind her. Just feels a little off. Just something I noticed. Otherwise I love the concept and pose.


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I agree, but the two pictures where taken within seconds of each other (and no artificial lights where added), so the direction of the light shouldn't be that different.

This was a test of concept, and when it comes to the pose it was just done so that I didn't have to blur here face before posting it. But thank you!
 
I would paint in black set to Multiply on the girl. Start at .05% and build up. More on the white line on her pants. The shoes look too bright too. You could then add a color filter over the whole image and play with the blend modes and opacity.
 
I would paint in black set to Multiply on the girl. Start at .05% and build up. More on the white line on her pants. The shoes look too bright too. You could then add a color filter over the whole image and play with the blend modes and opacity.
Thank you!

I don't have time to be really precise now, but my short test of painting black with blend mode set to multiply shows that this will help a lot.

When you say color filter, do you mean a solid color layer?
 
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When you say color filter, do you mean a solid color layer?

The Photo Filter in PS. Here is a tutorial which is an extreme color change example, but shows what you can do in PS.

I like using the Cross Processing filter in the Nik Collection. Either way you can paint in the areas you want adjusted. Another option is to create a gradient and play with the blend modes and masking. I've also used a sky photo blended over a photo and low opacity and painted.

Your background photo is very nice and I would add a little blue to the girl to blend her in. You could also lower the saturation of the pink. The options you use is your vision of the final photo.
 
There are many ways to select, mask, change, it depends on the application. Sometimes all you need to do is add a mask on your selection layer and use a soft black brush to ease the edge. Or even quicker is to change the properties of the mask to feather the edge. Sometimes (with hair) I've found this method useful. The music is irritating, but the directions are simple enough.

Color and filters are useful, used them a lot as Cheryl described above. Lately I've been leaning more toward LUT's because of the variety available, and effects. You can stack them, change the blend mode and opacity. I've built a library of them some paid, some free, some custom generated.
 
I noticed a couple of things that would help to improve your composition.

Look at the scene more carefully, note there are shadows on the camera side of the rocks. Yet there is no shadow cast by your daughter, that alone gives the impression of a cut and paste. Create a drop shadow that has the same density, direction and distance that looks convincing. I am assuming you know how to do this already.

The other issue for me is the bright centre halo around your daughter and the odd density and colour banding in the sky and water. Even these elements out and it will look like an in camera capture. You may have to do some luminosity masking of the model to bring out more detail and shape.
 
I've just realized that I like the photography way better than editing, so I went out for a new try...and just put them together without trying to improve my Photoshop skills.

This time with a selfie!
DSC_5462-Edit-2.jpg DSC_5483-Edit.jpg
The second image even has a blurry subject as my girlfriend couldn't stay still for even 1/3 sec.
 
I've just realized that I like the photography way better than editing, so I went out for a new try...and just put them together without trying to improve my Photoshop skills.

This time with a selfie!
View attachment 179664 View attachment 179665
The second image even has a blurry subject as my girlfriend couldn't stay still for even 1/3 sec.

Love the colors in the 2nd one.
 
Speaking of the image, especially when seeing a larger version there are a few areas you might want to look at:

  1. The non-convincing light. Especially when you look at her legs seeing the bright halos there that could not have appeared had she been really be there. That could be improved by adjusting your selection here -- say contracting and blurring your selection, using refine edge, masking whatever. I generally use channels for masking and those tend to provide more gentle selections
  2. Also, the light fall off there would be greater meaning the shoes are too bright as well. You could fix that with a slight curves adjustment. Or experiment painting with a soft brush on a empty layer in Color Dodge mode. This will impact the bright more leaving the darks intact.
  3. Look at the stones and their shadows. What kind of shadow would the girl cast? Paint that with a brush on a multiply layer or curve it in.
  4. Once you understand the shadow direction, you will get an idea where the light comes from. From there you can work out (eg Dodge and Burn on a Softlight layer) to remove highlights from the areas they couldn't exist there.
 
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