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November 21, 2009 |
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Created and Maintained by: The Photoimaging Information Council |
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Articles |
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IN THE OLD DAYS, WHEN A relationship ended, you had to go to the trouble of setting a trash-can fire to obliterate those once-happy pictures of you and your ex. Now, in yet another case of saving labor digitally, when someone’s out of the picture you can simply, well, take them out of the picture. The technique here is not so different (in principle) from the one Stalin’s henchmen/artists used to remove traces of offed "enemies of the people" from the photographic record (see Snapshots: "Stalin’s photo purge," Popular Photography & Imagaing, April 1998). You won’t need as much talent as those airbrushers, though eliminating people from your photographs may give you a pleasant feeling of dictatorial self-confidence. Of course, you can use this technique for more noble purposes; it’s useful for assembling a family portrait or just bringing people closer together. The primary skill to practice here is creative cloning because, as we all know, when something disappears, it needs to be replaced with some-thing else. It’s possible to take the easier way out and do a major crop first, saving you most of the work, but then you risk losing the context and original feeling of the picture. BEFORE By way of illustration I present you with my ex, Tyrone (not his real name, or existence). We seemed so happy then... Who knew he was going to leave me to devote himself to stalking Angelina Jolie full-time? Here’s a picture from a rainy evening spent listening to bluegrass with our dear friends Franziska and Francisco, visiting from abroad. It was a lovely night--they’re rarely in town and I want to remember it. I just don’t want to have to remember Tyrone at the same time. I’ll show you two ways to do it: if you’re willing to stand alone, you can erase your partner and crop. If it’s too lonely that way, add a friend. BEFORE GONNA WASH THAT MAN RIGHT OUT OF MY FRAME STEP 1: First things first--make him disappear. Start by making a duplicate layer of the back-ground. Then use existing elements from the picture to cover him up. I selected a part of the black, painted area using the Lasso, then hit Edit >Copy and Edit > Paste to automatically create a new layer. The first time you paste your copied element, it will appear exactly on top of your selection. Thereafter, it lands in the center. After each paste, grab the Move tool and position the element over the figure until he’s completely covered. STEP 2: Blending. Now you’ve got your man covered, but the pieces are probably a little choppy looking. Merge the new layers together by first hiding the background and its copy, then going to Layer > Merge Visible. Use the Healing brush to blend the sections together. Turn all the layers back on.  The Ghost of Boyfriend Past SOLUTION 1: THE CHEESE STANDS ALONE STEP 1: Re-arm yourself. Now that you’ve blocked out your neighbor, you may find yourself with half an arm. If that happens, you’ll have to call on your remaining arm to substitute. Use the Lasso to select it, then copy and paste it. Maneuver it with the Move tool and Edit > Transform > Flip Horizontal, then Edit > Transform > Rotate to rotate into place. A quick way to blend the arm is to choose the Eraser tool and select a soft brush. Erase around the edges until the arm looks like it grew there.  Using the Transform Tool to Complete Myself STEP 2: Crop. Now crop out the ghost of the erased person until the picture looks like an original.  As If It Had Just Been the Three of Us SOLUTION 2: Bring a Friend STEP 1: Find a new companion. Look through your pictures and find one where the friend you’d like to add is standing in similar position to the erased person. Alternatively, find one of Brad Pitt or another celebrity who would have made a better date. Lasso the figure, select the Move tool, and drag her (or him) into your picture. STEP 2: Size her. If she looks tiny compared to everyone else, she’s too low in resolution and you’ll either have to find someone else or shrink your original. If she’s too big, use Edit > Transform > Scale until she’s the right size. Hold down the shift key to avoid stretching her out of proportion. Then use the Move tool to place her. As with the arm, use a soft eraser to blend the edges. STEP 3: Match the color. Lucky for me, my friend Erica was there that night as well and I had a perfect shot of her to drop in. But if the person you’re adding wasn’t, use your favorite color-adjustment technique to match the replacement to the scene. If you want to get really fancy, or if he or she looks too pasted-in, try some lighting filters. .  After DEBBIE’S DIGITAL PICKS
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