Project3.Frankensteins, or I ve Created a Monster

Project 3. Frankensteins, or I've Created a Monster

Frankenstein is one of my favorite monsters. The guy was definitely misunderstood, though. That seems to be the case with the so-called Frankensteins you see on the Web all the timethose photos where some industrious digital artist has pasted the head of one person onto the body of another.

Some of these are quite good, but others are simply awful. Let's enlist the so-called Frankenstein technique for good instead of evil. A while back a client approached me with two photos. One of the photos was from an office Christmas party and the other from another office get-together. The trouble was that she liked everything about the Christmas snapshot except for the fact that she had her eyes closed in the photo. She proposed I use her image from the photo of the other get-together and see whether I could fix something up for her. I was able to with a little pixel pushing and pulling, and the client was very happy. This next project shows you how that kind of work can be accomplished. Let's dig in.

1.

Open the two files you will be combining. You can see the photos I will be using in Figure 1.13. If you want to work along with me using these exact images, you can download them (Drummer01.tif and Drummer02.tif) from the companion website.

Figure 1.13. Igor, prepare the switch.

If you take a close look at Figure 1.13 you'll notice that in the action shot (the one where the drummer still has his body) the face isn't quite in focus. The other face, though, is in focus. Dr. Frankenstein would be pleased.

You can see form Figure 1.13 that I've already started the process of removing the background from one of the photos. Which one, you ask?

Here's the trouble: The two photos involved are from a series of shots taken during a brief couple of moments. Of course, the photographer relied on her camera to do the right thing by setting it to fully automatic.The trouble is that in some situations, the camera's auto-focus guesses wrong and doesn't focus on the right area. In the photo in which the drummer is visible, his face is not in focus and, as a result, it is a little soft. Earlier in the series, though, there is a shot in which his face is in much better focus. You can see that shot with the background removed in Figure 1.13. If you need help with removing the background of the photos you're working with, take a look at Appendix B.

Two Heads Are Better than One

After you've removed the background from the photo, or the head from the background, if you will, it's time to get the two heads together.

2.	With the image that contains the head active, choose Selections, Select All. Select Edit, Copy to copy the head to the Clipboard (I know that sounds a little weird!).
3.	Make the full image active by clicking its title bar. Then select Edit, Paste As New Layer. As you can see in Figure 1.14, the extra head won't be pasted in the correct place or even at the right size, necessarily. This project's images were taken at almost the same time, with the same camera and the same settings Figure 1.14. Igor, is that the right head? They look like twins.

Preparing the New Head

Okay, that sounds a little weird, too. Next, we need to clean up the area around the pasted-in head. Essentially, the head must appear to belong in its new location.

Select View, Palettes, Overview to add the Overview palette to your arsenal of digital tools (see the following figure). With this palette open, you can easily zoom in and out and navigate within your image while zoomed-in. Having this type of tool at your fingertips can help to speed your workflow, especially when doing this type of work where you need to clean up an image without removing too much.

Use the Overview palette to help you zoom in on the troublesome areas.

Note

Use the Zoom tool or the Overview palette, as outlined in the sidebar, to zoom in so you can place the head in position and do any necessary cleanup of stray pixels.

4.

Use the Pick tool to put the head into position. Use the Eraser tool to remove any stray bits around the head that might have been left over when the background was removed. Zoom back out, using the Zoom tool or Overview palette, to take a look at your work so far. You can see my effort in Figure 1.15. Figure 1.15. Step back and take a look at the overall picture. I know there are a few things that need to be fixed. For example, I don't like the tilt of the head. That can be fixed easily with the Pick tool. As well, I'll need to check around the neck on the left side of the head. Example of a bad Frankenstein. If you're working with your own photos on this project, there are a couple of things you should watch for. Watch for things like collars and clothing matching up, the relative sizes of objects, the placement of objects, the lighting (angle and color), and overlapping. Here you can see that the overlapping is a problem. Obviously, the cymbal needs to be in front of the head. If I needed the head to remain this big (please, no comments from the peanut gallery), it would be best to clone part of the cymbal over the head, perhaps on a new layer to help keep the illusion intact. As I mentioned earlier, there's a problem with the neck area on the left side of the photo. By lowering the opacity of the layer with the new head, I can get a better look at how the two layers are interacting. Lower the opacity to see how the two layers interact. Based on what I see in the second image, I've decided to erase the neck area on the head layer. This will make the neck area look more natural.

5.

To make one last check, and so that you can clone/erase any boo-boos you might find, zoom way in and use the Pan tool to move around the image. Make your way around the perimeter of the head to make sure everything looks good. If you're unsure about something, zoom back out to see the big picture. Ultimately, the photo should look as though it was not tampered with. You can see my final image in Figure 1.16. Figure 1.16. It lives! Note Now, remember to do only good with this technique. No pasting the head of your little brother onto the body of the cat. Well, okay, okay, but only this once.