Dave Buckley - Foreground/Background Imaging

If I've had any real reaction to any of the digital work I've done on photos, it was the backgrounds I added to a few of the Celebration II photos sent to the group.

I'll go through the steps to add your own Star Wars Background to a photo, or to place yourself on a panoramic Background.

You are going to need:

A good quality background image
A quality foreground image

(It's important to note at this point that the two images should be taken from approximately the same ground height. Adding an aerial photo to an image taken by someone standing on the ground is not going to look right!) I was fortunate enough to find an aerial photo of Coruscant for the shot of the group near the window that was taken from somewhere overhead - Not entirely accurate, but it worked a treat! The guys look like they're standing on the edge of a building.

Let's use this shot as the example.

I worked from two photos - the group by the window and the aerial shot of Coruscant.Start by examining the two images -
I decided to make the two images the same width for ease in matching the two photos.

We are going to make use of layers again, and this time, we are going to add the background image to a layer placed BEHIND the group shot, and not in front as we did in the Lightsaber tutorial.

Take the group photo and make a duplicate layer by selecting Layer/Duplicate Layer from the top toolbar.

What you have now is place the group image on both layers(Background and Background Copy) Select the Background Layer and delete the image. It is not important that you do this, but it allows you to see where you have actually removed portions of the background from the image in the Background Copy Layer. For more complex images, I like to rename the layers to assist with locating components on different layers, but this is a 2 layer example, and there is no advantage.

I like to zoom in on the image to either 200% or 300% depending on the detail of the shape I am tracing, so hit "Ctrl"and"+" to zoom in to the right detail level for you.

Select the Polygonal Lasso tool from the tool pallete and select an edge to start tracing the outline of the group. We are going to trace the group outline, click outside the boundary of the photo, go up and over the top of the photo, and come back in athte oint we started to remove the window frame behind.

Check the top toolbar. I like to set the "Feather" option to 1 pixel to give a slight blur to the edge of whatever I have cut out. there is nothing worse than a harsh edge to ruin your layered effects. (matte lines were the cause of slight registration defects in aligning layers of film while entering the compositor during post production and were the bain of film compositing before the advent of computer assisted effects)

Trace the image in small steps and stay tight to the outline of the group.

Time spent in the preparation of any prject makes for success. The work is slow and painstaking but again, the results are eyecatching.

You will notice as you trace to the edge of the window, it will automatically scroll - sometimes to the extreme of the direction in which you were heading. Don't panic - nothing changes until you click on the image to markthe next point in the series. If it scrolls too far, patiently move the cursor until the area you need to work on reappears. You will get better at this with practice.

When you have reached the start position again, you will see the lasso tool cursor has a small circle to the lower right. This indicates you are ready to close the selection you have made to a single area.

Hit the 'delete' key to remove the section you have marked. Repeat the process for the areas between bodies, legs and arms.

Using the paint bucket tool to colour the background layer a bright green or similar is a good way to see the areas you have removed from the top layer, and where you still need to remove pieces to complete the composite.

When you have completed removing all the areas fro the top layer, select teh background layer and "copy and paste"the entire background image into the background layer. (cut and paste will alter the original image, so be careful if you want to save the original for use later).

The background can now be moved up or down to its correct position - you will learn to judge what looks "right" and what doesn't.

You can save this image as a native .PSD or .PDD image and preserve the layering for manipulation later, or you can flatten the layers to save the image as a .jpg file.

This is a brief tutorial, in that I have not held your hand through tool selection and option setting for Photoshop 7. Graphics packages will vary, even between versions, but the principles remain the same. I have assumed a basic level of competency in using your chosen software package.

The key to all this is to have fun - try putting your car in the death star docking bay or Obi-Wan in your loungeroom. I'd like to finish by posting my son's favourite picture.

I have it printed as a photo and framed in his room. He took it to school for show and tell and had one of the other kids tell him:

"Man, your dad looks angry!!"

Enjoy!

Dave Buckley
(Ramjet)