Photo Compositing

Your mission is to create a believable, but impossible situation, using photos that you have taken and then manipulated in Photoshop.

Putting various photos together to create a new, unique image is an essential skill of any designer. Photo compositing can range from the simple (changing out a sky or background) to the complex (creating an entirely new image from a collection of different photos).  The reality is that you will be hard-pressed to find a design project that doesn’t require some form of photo compositing. Even if you aren’t creating a fantasy scene, you may be required to add a product to a background or combine two elements into a single image. However large or small your photo compositing project, there are certain basic principles that will help get you the best results.  Read further to learn the 7 Essentials of Visual Magic.

Planning the Impossible

Sketch out your idea on paper and get feedback and approval from the teacher.

• How do your characters need to pose?
  • Pose them against a blank wall so that it is easier to make good selections.
• What kind of setting or scenery do you need for the background?
• Remember that you'll need 3 or more photos.
• Is your idea creative & original?
• Is the idea believable but the situation impossible?

See some Mission Impossible Examples (some are from previous students, some are from the internet)

Taking Photos

You must take at least 2 of the photos yourself (or 50% of the total number of photos). After those, you can search for copyright-free photos that will complete your composition. There is no limit to how many photos you can use in your composition, but you must have a minimum of 3.

• Make sure camera lens is clean and subject is in focus.
• Consider your lighting in all of the photos. If the lighting is coming from the left in one photo, but from the right in another, then you cannot make the image believable.
• If you can take a photo of the item instead of finding it online, you should.
• It's best to take all of the photos with the same camera so that the resolutions will be the same.
• Remember that this is Mission Impossible. So you are creating a fantasy picture.

Editing

IMPORTANT: Before you begin merging photos together, you need to make sure that they are all the same resolution and change them if not. You can go down in resolution, but not up.  Image > Image Size to check and change.

Are the photos trimmed correctly or do they look like you need new scissors?

QUICK MASK MODE is your friend - when you make your selections, you will need to refine them using this method.  Your selections MUST be high quality to make this work.

Have you adjusted the color and lighting so that the assembled images match?

White Space is not believable. There must be a photographic background or setting.

Save as:  #_lastname_Mission_Impossible.PSD every day - early and often
Save as: #_lastname_Mission_Impossible.JPG when you are totally finished and ready for it to go on your ePortfolio

Turning it in...

Add this post at the top of the appropriate page of your ePortfolio. Remember that new posts are at the top.
Also - with your PSD file named properly, please copy and paste the file into the Campus Share Drive > Samuelson_Drop > Mission Impossible folder.

1. Write the Title of the Challenge
2. Answer the reflection questions
   1. How much time did you spend on this assignment from planning through posting?
   2. Explain any adjustments or changes you made to color or lighting.
   3. Which photos are from the internet and which are yours?
   4. Does it look believable, but still impossible?
3. Embed your JPG image below the questions. Please keep it large enough to see details (500-700 pixels)