Creating a Family Portrait from Multiple Images

Forum|Forum|8 years ago
August 18, 2017
1 reply
10387 views

I am having trouble finding a tutorial that will help me accomplish exactly what I am trying to do.

Essentially, I am wanting to create a family portrait from multiple images as a Christmas gift for my great-grandmother. My goal is to make it look similar to a family portrait one would receive at a photo studio. I would have to pull the individuals from multiple, previously taken photos (none of which were taken at the same time). Basically, I am wanting to composite 3 or so couples portraits into one group photo. Any help would be greatly appreciated!

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Correct answer Chuck Uebele

To do a convincing job will be very difficult do to the different perspective and lighting that each of those individual photo will have. You most likely will have to spend hours hand painting in light and shadows to make things match, but the perspective will be the killer. It's very difficult to correct issue with that, and while you might achieve a somewhat decent image, it will leave people with an odd feeling that something isn't quite right. Frankly a collage would be easier and serve the purpose just as well. I used to have to insert people into photos, and we took great pains to shoot the images with the same lens, same angle, and attempt to use the same lighting, and it could still be a challenge.

Chuck Uebele

Correct answer

Community Expert

To do a convincing job will be very difficult do to the different perspective and lighting that each of those individual photo will have. You most likely will have to spend hours hand painting in light and shadows to make things match, but the perspective will be the killer. It's very difficult to correct issue with that, and while you might achieve a somewhat decent image, it will leave people with an odd feeling that something isn't quite right. Frankly a collage would be easier and serve the purpose just as well. I used to have to insert people into photos, and we took great pains to shoot the images with the same lens, same angle, and attempt to use the same lighting, and it could still be a challenge.

ctoombs12Author

Participant

I figured as much, especially considering the three differing points in time when each photo was taken. Thank you for your response; while I may attempt to create the photo, I will look into other options to achieve something like what I'm hoping for.

Trevor.Dennis

Community Expert

As it's so difficult to make a convincing composite using images you have no control of, then you could maybe look at other approaches that will achieve a similar result while still being creative. Check out the highest resolution version of this composite for instance, which uses a combination of hard edged contact sheet like intersections between the different images, and overlapping, selected elements. It gives the image a sort of 3D effect with some of the characters seeming to pop out of the screen/page.

I worked at a higher res than I needed, which made the selections much easier to do as the subsequent downsizing helped to hide any imperfections. It was a lot of fun to do as well.

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