When I posted THIS POST, asking for help, and then sent an email to my bloggy friends, I never expected so many people to respond.I am blessed with wonderful friends, and I had a ton of ladies, who were more than willing to keep you all entertained while I get better, or get some sleep, or paint my garage, whatever, he he. The point is, I am SUPER LUCKY, super THANKFUL, and SUPER excited to introduce you all to Hanna (Mishmish) from DAILY VENTINGS & EXCLAMATIONS...
or the day to day of the Kupeczka's.
Ok so if you get a chance make sure you go over and read 100 things about her, it is amazing. This mama, has traveled to so many places, is super smart, she skipped the 5th grade, loves photography (hello check out her post), studied art, among other things, loves to cook, loves live theatre, has kept a journal since 1996, and has been blogging since 2001. I think she can teach us all a lot about blogging, don't you think? Oh and she's also half Egyptian, certified Texan, married to a Polish guy, isn't that neat!!! I'm so happy I found her, she has a super fun and very REAL blog.
So please girl, TAKE IT AWAY, and show us this great tutorial.
I was so thrilled when Bella emailed me to guest post on her site - originally I thought I would post a yummy recipe, but then I decided on something a little more fun!!
Can you count the Emmas???
No - I don't have quintuplets (quint is 5, right?? LOL)...
I've done a few of these before & they are so much fun!! Now that Emma is older, I can actually tell here where & what I want her to do in pics so I can pick & choose what kind of clones I want to make - Aaron isn't as cooperative yet, like his sister when she was his age, of course!!
So, the first thing you need to do is make sure you have a good tripod and a shutter remote for your DSLR. You'll also need a copy of Photoshop. There are some tutorials out there for Gimp and other platforms, but I like Photoshop (I have CS2 - yes, I'm behind I know), so this tutorial is based on PS! You could do this on the timer if you don't have a remote, but then you risk two things - 1) Actually pressing the shutter button could slightly move your camera & alter your view and 2) the remote is instant, you don't have to wait on the camera to count down so you're sure to get the shot you want.
So, why is stabilization so important for cloned pics...b/c if you don't have a constant background image then as you expose each layer something is inevitably going to not line up and your picture will definitely look very fake...
Now that you know what you need let's get started. Set up your camera with a good view of the entire area with plenty of room for your subject to move around - see, I got the entire swing set b/c I wanted Emma to post in at least five different places on it. Once you have it set up just start snapping!!
Here are the 5 pics I took of Emma:
You can see the background is constant throughout the pictures - only Emma is moving.
Once I had all the pictures I wanted I opened all 5 in Photoshop. Then you have to start layering the pictures on top of one another. There are several ways to do this, but I'll show you the easiest way for the tutorial. Simply start with one of your pictures, select all the image by going to Select and All in your menu...
After you do this you'll see the marching ants appear around your image. Then move to another picture that you have open and paste this image directly on top of it by choosing Edit - Paste in your menu.
Now you'll have two layers appear in your layer menu in Photoshop.
Your first image will be the Background image here & the one you pasted is Layer 1.
After layering your images you have to add a layer mask. Masking is a great tool that has a lot of functions, but today I'm just going to stay focused on how to use it for making clones.
Once your images are layered, while on Layer 1 go to Layer in the menu bar & choose Layer Mask - Hide All
What this does is basically hides everything in Layer 1 so what you see is only the Background image...and now your Layer menu will also change to look like this...
The additional black box I have circled is the layer mask and it's all black b/c everything is hidden. So, what we want to do now is unhide the portion of Layer 1 that we want to be visible...one Emma is visible already in the Background image, so we'll make the Emma that is hidden on Layer 1 visible now.
To do this we'll use the brush tool and pretty much Paint her back into the image.
So, choose the brush tool and make sure your color palette is set to black and white, with white as the foreground color. Notice that in the previous image the Layer Mask we created on Layer 1 is all black b/c everything is hidden - well, using the white now with the brush we'll remove that cloak so to speak to reveal what's behind it...another Emma!!
When you choose your brush make sure your brush is set to Normal with 100% Opacity & Flow. You can change the size of the brush to suit the image you're working with - either from the brush menu that appears when it's selected or you can use the [ and ] keys to change brush size from your keyboard...
As you brush your image you'll start to see what was hidden appear - my background image was the one with Emma standing to the side of her swing set - Layer 1 (hidden) has her sitting on the swing...as I brush over where she should be on the swing with the white she'll start to appear.You don't notice b/c they are identical, but the background behind Emma in the swing is actually from the hidden layer as well, b/c I didn't move my camera at all, though you can't tell that is being revealed so it looks like only Emma is appearing in my image.This is what it's so important that the background be steady - if it
weren't then maybe some of the plants behind Emma in the swing wouldn't line up as I brushed over it...
You see I have half of her there - as I continue to brush the rest will appear.
When she is completely revealed I now have two of her!
Continue layering on your images & brushing to reveal the clone images using these steps...and if you mess up don't worry it's easy to correct.
Like this image below - I had already revealed Emma sitting at the bottom of the slide - and as I revealed the Emma at the top of the slide after layering that picture on top I accidentally brushed over the Emma at the bottom of the slide which actually hid her again b/c I was unhiding the slide in the next layer...see her head fading away?
To correct this all you have to do is switch colors from white to black by clicking the arrows on the color palette - this brings the foreground color to the back and vice versa...
so by using black now instead of the white I hide the portion of the
slide I don't want visible b/c it was hiding Emma's head as she sat at
the bottom of the slide.
After you have layered all your images and unhid everything you want to show all your clones your layer menu will look something like this:
You can see each of my layers with a black mask next to each one & the areas in white are where I unhid all my Emmas.And your actual image should look something like this...
All you have to do now is flatten your image, save it & you can further edit however you choose the finished image...
To flatten your image right click on your layer and choose Flatten Image on the pop up menu - this will basically save your image as you see it and do away with all your layers. Now your Layer Menu will go back to one Layer as it was when you first opened your image.
After I finished I played around with my curves and made a few other adjustments with some Actions to get this image to look the way I wanted it...and viola I have cloned Emma!!
If you give this a try I'd love to see your finished result - either in the comments here or leave a comment back on my blog at http://mishmish.org...
For this tutorial I chose pictures with none of my clones overlapping - as you practice doing these, be daring - have your clones overlap a little...it'll give great pictures, you just have to be more careful and precise when you brush...and you'll have to pay attention to the order you layer your images b/c that'll make a big difference as well when you start revealing your images.
There are also great Clone Groups on Flickr that can give you lots of inspiration & ideas for some fun Clone pics! So have fun...
WOW, that was incredible, I can't believe how easy it actually seems. THANK YOU SO MUCH HANNA, I sure learned a lot.
Once I had all the pictures I wanted I opened all 5 in Photoshop. Then you have to start layering the pictures on top of one another. There are several ways to do this, but I'll show you the easiest way for the tutorial. Simply start with one of your pictures, select all the image by going to Select and All in your menu...
After layering your images you have to add a layer mask. Masking is a great tool that has a lot of functions, but today I'm just going to stay focused on how to use it for making clones.
Once your images are layered, while on Layer 1 go to Layer in the menu bar & choose Layer Mask - Hide All
To do this we'll use the brush tool and pretty much Paint her back into the image.
When you choose your brush make sure your brush is set to Normal with 100% Opacity & Flow. You can change the size of the brush to suit the image you're working with - either from the brush menu that appears when it's selected or you can use the [ and ] keys to change brush size from your keyboard...
As you brush your image you'll start to see what was hidden appear - my background image was the one with Emma standing to the side of her swing set - Layer 1 (hidden) has her sitting on the swing...as I brush over where she should be on the swing with the white she'll start to appear.You don't notice b/c they are identical, but the background behind Emma in the swing is actually from the hidden layer as well, b/c I didn't move my camera at all, though you can't tell that is being revealed so it looks like only Emma is appearing in my image.This is what it's so important that the background be steady - if it
weren't then maybe some of the plants behind Emma in the swing wouldn't line up as I brushed over it...
When she is completely revealed I now have two of her!
Like this image below - I had already revealed Emma sitting at the bottom of the slide - and as I revealed the Emma at the top of the slide after layering that picture on top I accidentally brushed over the Emma at the bottom of the slide which actually hid her again b/c I was unhiding the slide in the next layer...see her head fading away?
To correct this all you have to do is switch colors from white to black by clicking the arrows on the color palette - this brings the foreground color to the back and vice versa...
slide I don't want visible b/c it was hiding Emma's head as she sat at
the bottom of the slide.
After you have layered all your images and unhid everything you want to show all your clones your layer menu will look something like this:
To flatten your image right click on your layer and choose Flatten Image on the pop up menu - this will basically save your image as you see it and do away with all your layers. Now your Layer Menu will go back to one Layer as it was when you first opened your image.
After I finished I played around with my curves and made a few other adjustments with some Actions to get this image to look the way I wanted it...and viola I have cloned Emma!!
For this tutorial I chose pictures with none of my clones overlapping - as you practice doing these, be daring - have your clones overlap a little...it'll give great pictures, you just have to be more careful and precise when you brush...and you'll have to pay attention to the order you layer your images b/c that'll make a big difference as well when you start revealing your images.
There are also great Clone Groups on Flickr that can give you lots of inspiration & ideas for some fun Clone pics! So have fun...
WOW, that was incredible, I can't believe how easy it actually seems. THANK YOU SO MUCH HANNA, I sure learned a lot.
If you liked this post, then follow me dude!
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