Adding multiple images

Sgt Pepper 64

I know there is many ways of doing this, but what is the best method do you think?

I want to take a single image of a room for example and then add a person from a different photo into that scene.
So you have the same person sitting down, standing up, drinking tea etc etc. all in the same room as if they were clones

Is it best to take the say 4 photos seperately and then edit the person out of them and into the master image, so they blend into the background more easily?

Whats the best software do this? Photoshop? Hopefully the cheap version.
lasso tool?

thanks

Kenny Logins

Multiple images of the same scene, same camera settings (manual), tripod. Move the person for each shot, and it should then be very easy to combine with mask layers (I'm sure PS Elements has these).

As said, just layer the photos on top of each other. Then erase the parts of the upper layers to show the person underneath.

Use manual mode so all the photos look the same (brightness, etc.) and try to avoid having the person crossing over with himself as this complicates things when editing (unless you need him to be physically interacting with himself, of course).

On the left of the image sitting down and on the right of the image standing up will be very, very simple, compared to hugging himself, for example.

PCPhoto

cheapest way ....

to start from scratch ... buy a manual film camera....shoot multiple exposures without winding the film on - you have to ensure correct exposure levels to compensate for the amount of time the shutter will be open.... with a bit of trial and error you can do it, and would be cheaper than purchasing a digital SLR, Lenses and post processing software....but the downside is that this method will take time to practice and make plenty of notes so you learn your mistakes from each roll of film.

if you have the digital camera/software ....it a matter of taking the same image with the person in different positions then using post processing software using the techniques to create layers you place the layers over each other and remove whatever looks wrong and merge the layers/flatten image.

or .....buy a camera which allows/creates multiple exposures (pretty sure there were some floating around a few years ago, possible some compacts with the function...the new Canon1d X is supposed to have it but thats expensive and you want the cheapest way) .... quick google tells me pentax K-5 has multiple exposure facility and a Nikon D40 has the ability to combine 2 RAW images in camera !!!

magicbastarder

PCPhoto wrote: »

to start from scratch ... buy a manual film camera....shoot multiple exposures without winding the film on - you have to ensure correct exposure levels to compensate for the amount of time the shutter will be open.... with a bit of trial and error you can do it, and would be cheaper than purchasing a digital SLR, Lenses and post processing software....but the downside is that this method will take time to practice and make plenty of notes so you learn your mistakes from each roll of film.

one issue with this is that each 'instance' of the person in the shot will be translucent, and the more shots you are taking, the more translucent they will be.

5uspect

Just use (free) GIMP and layer masks to do the editing.

ThOnda

Check this guy's page, he has excellent video tutorial (courtesy of Petapixel).
http://photoextremist.com/

PCPhoto

magicbastarder wrote: »

one issue with this is that each 'instance' of the person in the shot will be translucent, and the more shots you are taking, the more translucent they will be.

selective exposures during processing/printing (creating a mask to expose persons longer - with film you can do all of the things you can do on digital with the click of a button , it takes a lot longer but can be done - just need to know how)