Combining photos into a single image.

Eric and Kathryn (left) and Howard and Lori (right) in a coalesced image.

It is not always easy to take a photo of everyone in your group, including the photographer, when you don't have a tripod handy.  In the past, I have tinkered with various immediately available platforms such as rocks, plants, or structures in order to secure the camera.  The height has not always been right, and inevitably the odd stone or stick was added to facilitate a desirable orientation.  If luck held, the rigged structure would remain in position.  The click of the shutter inevitably causes camera motion to unhinge everything and the whole thing would tumble to the ground.

Instead of trying to rig such a contraption, it seemed wise to take two photos and combine them later using the magic of Photoshop.  The two original shots, shown at the bottom of the above image, were taken and processed in post.  Flash was used as the scene was backlit.  The two photos were combined by copying one (lasso tool) and pasting it into the other.  I erased unnecessary edges, rotated and manipulated the pasted image to align the two backgrounds, and then flattened the end result.  Anything that did not mesh was cleaned up using the clone tool.  The end result was good.

I have used this technique in other situations when I needed to add a missing person to a group or to include myself in the montage.  It is often necessary to resize the pasted bit and refine edges, especially for frilly parts like hair.  Lighting is always an issue when multiple images come from different lighting situations.  In this particular situation, lighting was identical and this facilitated the relatively seamless process.

Thanks for reading.

Eric Svendsen     www.ericspix.com