Dramatic Portrait Compositing: From Capture to Completion Video Tutorial Series
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Watch the Introduction
It is with utter delight that I announce the release of my latest video tutorial series, “Dramatic Portrait Compositing: From Capture to Completion.” I’ve never been this excited to launch anything!
Whether you’re familiar with compositing or you’ve always wanted to explore it, you’ll love this series because it reveals every secret you need to accomplish mind-blowing composites. Although the specific focus of this series is on creating a dramatic portrait composite using a studio-lit model and an edgy HDR background, the concepts covered here apply to every type of compositing, whether the subject is a person, a pencil, or anything in between.
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Through precise control of light, color, texture, and atmospheric effects both in the studio and in Photoshop, it’s possible to craft scenes that would be nearly impossible to capture solely with a camera. This enlivening process has been the center of my creative ambitions for the past year and it is my goal during this series to share all that I’ve learned.
You’ll learn how to…
- Light and photograph a subject for compositing
- Capture a striking background
- Make accurate selections
- Use Photomatix Pro to stylize the background
- Merge the subject with the background by balancing light and color
- Add dramatic atmospheric effects that help sell the composite
- Finish the composite using Nik Color Efex Pro Complete
- Create the popular edgy look made famous by Joel Grimes
I hope you decide to join me for this exhilarating ride!
Mark
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I recently created a fireman composite where my goal was to produce a scene filled with billowing smoke and a torrential downpour. Since I was compositing, I relished the idea of learning how to manufacture the smoke and rain. In next week’s installment of the Workbench, I’ll show you the techniques that I came up with for producing smoke effects. This week, however, we’ll focus on rain. I’ll show you two approaches; neither is difficult, but the second can definitely be time consuming. To accomplish the second technique, we’ll use a water splash photo from iStockPhoto.
Click here to purchase the complete Dramatic Portrait Compositing video tutorial series for $24.95.
My live portrait compositing demo last night on Google+ was packed with tips for creating striking portraits, and the Aftershow segment evolved into a discussion about finding inspiration and pursuing your passions. If you’d like to view these, go to Jan Kabili’s YouTube Channel and click on Segments 8 and 9.
To view a larger version, please click the image above.
Photo composite of a mountain biker in Boulder, Colorado.
Click here to purchase the complete Dramatic Portrait Compositing video tutorial series for $24.95.
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Click here to view the Photo Vault Archive
Photoshop CS5’s Refine Edge/Mask dialog is remarkable for refining selections, yet its weakness is that it doesn’t provide a good solution for controlling hair edges independent of skin/clothing edges. The Refine Radius tool is useful for refining hair, yet it makes a mess of skin/clothing. The Radius, Smooth, Feather, and Shift Edge sliders are ideal for refining skin/clothing, yet they destroy hair detail. To circumvent Refine Mask’s shortcomings, I suggest making two passes through the dialog, then combining the best of each mask to generate one nearly perfect mask. Here’s how…
Click here to purchase the complete Dramatic Portrait Compositing video tutorial series for $24.95.
