Shooting and Post-Processing a Multiple Composition – Photo Premium

When a challenge was issued by Adobe to the beta testers of Photoshop CS5, we were asked to push Photoshop through a heavy work load and produce something interesting. There were five subjects under which to enter, and this piece took first in “Intelligent Selection Technology.” In today’s tutorial, I’ll be walking you through the whole process of shooting and post-processing this composition.

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Tutorial Steps

This tutorial walks you through a series of steps, right from thinking about composition and the scene, through to putting the finishing touches in Photoshop. You’ll learn:

• Photograph the Series – Camera set up, environmental conditions, and placement are key to this type of work. You want a scenario where the wind is not gusting, the sky is overcast (as shadows don’t play well together here), and you really don’t want to see a thick cloud in the sky. We’ll walk you through the correct camera settings, and considerations you need to take into account.
• Checking Continuity – We’ll perform some basic editing, to ensure that each image has the same exposure, white balance, and general “feel”.
• Stacking the Images – This section walks you through the process of merging the images together, so that we’re able to work on this as a single piece and start blending the photographs together.
• Masking – This is the particularly interesting step, where we take you through the process of using masks to merge the relevant parts of each photo together and create a multiple composition.
• Setting the Mood – In this final step, we put the finishing touches to the post-processing by adjusting various settings and changing the lighting effect in the photograph.

Tutorial Images

Here are a few example images, taken straight from the tutorial:

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