Locked lesson.
About this lesson
This is a special effect tutorial that also introduces you to the power of Layer Masks. You will learn how to integrate elements of different photos to make an image that is not physically possible. Mostly for evil purposes, but fun nonetheless.
Exercise files
There are no related exercise files for this lesson, or we cannot provide them due to copyright issues.
Quick reference
Topic
Making the same character occur multiple times in one image.
When to use
This is a special effect tutorial that also introduces you to the power of layer masks. You will learn how to integrate elements of different photos to make an image that is not physically possible. Mostly for evil purposes, but fun nonetheless.
Instructions
Take photos
- Camera on tripod with still background
- Take multiple photos of same subject in different positions
- Avoid overlapping subject positions
Bring photos in as separate layers
- From the options dropdown choose ‘Files’ and ‘Strips’ and ‘Load Files Into Stack’
- Select files and press OK
- Or using ‘Bridge’ (as in video): select files and from Dropdown Tools, select ‘Photoshop’ and ‘Load Files as Layers’
How to edit each image starting from the top of the layers
- Take note of where subject is
- Go to dropdown ‘Layer’, ‘Layer Mask’ and ‘Hide All’
- Grab a white brush and paint in the area where the subject is
- Use the square bracket keys to increase and decrease the brush size
Repeat process on each layer going down the layers
Tip
If needed, add back any layer mask by changing brush color to black.
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- 00:04 Hey everyone. I haven't done a Photoshop disasters video in quite a while, but I
- 00:08 checked out the latest post from PSdisasters.com this morning
- 00:11 and I thought it was quite funny. By the looks of it, they ran out of models for
- 00:14 this poster,
- 00:15 so they decided to use the same guy in the blue shirt four times.
- 00:18 But I couldn't really think of something fun to fix for this disaster,
- 00:21 so I've decided to show you guys had to do something similar.
- 00:25 What if you wanted to clone yourself multiple times in a photo?
- 00:27 Something like this one in front of us. This is what we're going to be
- 00:31 creating today.
- 00:32 But before we begin the actual editing, we need to discuss how this is done from a
- 00:35 photography standpoint.
- 00:37 It's really nothing too advanced, but in order to make the editing simple,
- 00:40 you should take the pictures properly. Here we are in Bridge, and you can see the
- 00:44 five photos that we are going to use.
- 00:49 There are a few things they should try to do in order to better
- 00:53 your result.
- 00:53 First, use a tripod. This is certainly going to help keep the images in line.
- 00:58 Second, set your camera to manual focus:
- 01:01 this will help with the continuity of the image and will keep your hands off the
- 01:05 camera.
- 01:05 Third, if you have one, use a remote. Again this going to help keep
- 01:08 your hands off the camera and keep the image aligned.
- 01:12 And fourth, if you can, try to avoid overlapping of the subject.
- 01:16 As you can see from these images, my dog is spread out across the couch.
- 01:20 We won't have much overlapping going on. Good, now that we've covered that, let's
- 01:24 get these images into Photoshop.
- 01:26 There are a few ways to do this, but if you're using Bridge, which you should,
- 01:29 simply select all 5 images, head up to Tools
- 01:32 down to Photoshop and then 'Load Files into Photoshop Layers'.
- 01:36 This will take all 5 images and put them into one document for us.
- 01:40 Now that we're in Photoshop, as long as the images were taken using the tips that I
- 01:44 mentioned, the editing process is very simple.
- 01:45 We're going to repeat the same process for
- 01:49 each image.
- 01:50 First take a mental note of where your subject is,
- 01:53 it's going to disappear in a second. Next, head up to Layer,
- 01:57 Layer Mask and then 'Hide All'. This will hide everything on that layer,
- 02:01 revealing the layer underneath. But, as long as you know approximately where
- 02:04 your subject was,
- 02:05 we can go ahead and grab a white brush and paint in that area.
- 02:09 You'll notice that the dog is coming back in to view.
- 02:13 As long as you don't have major overlapping of the subject,
- 02:16 you're brushing doesn't have to be 100% accurate - you can always go back
- 02:19 and make changes later on.
- 02:20 Now that the 1st dog is done, let's move on to the second layer.
- 02:25 Again, head up to Layer, Layer Mask, ‘Hide All’.
- 02:29 Grab a white brush and paint over top of the dog that just disappeared.
- 02:32 I'm going to speed this up a little bit and repeat the same process on the remaining
- 02:36 two layers.
- 02:37 We won't have to touch the back earlier at all.
- 02:45 Now, pausing for just a second, you can see that there is a little bit overlapping
- 02:48 in this area.
- 02:49 When you run into a situation like this, because we're using layer masks,
- 02:53 we can easily switch to a black brush and fine-tune the area.
- 02:56 You might have to zoom in a little bit to see the small details.
- 03:02 And there you have it. Like I mentioned, the editing process is super simple in these
- 03:05 types of images.
- 03:06 As long as the photos were shot well, you might have to go back and fine-tune
- 03:10 some of the layer masks later on,
- 03:11 but you get the picture.
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