In this video, I'm going to show you how to blend images together
and create realistic composites in Photoshop.
Hi!
Welcome back to the Photoshop Training Channel.
I'm Jesus Ramirez.
In this video, I'm going to show you how to create realistic composites in Photoshop using
three techniques to match luminosity, saturation, and color.
The goal of this tutorial is for you to learn how to put two images together that were shot
at different times, and make it seem like one cohesive composite.
Okay, let's get started.
We're going to work with this document.
It contains two layers - this background layer, and this foreground.
Of course, we want to make it seem as if she was really standing in this scene.
To do so, we're going to use three adjustment layers to match luminosity, saturation, and
color.
In this tutorial, we really don't have to worry about perspective, but in your composite,
you may have to worry about it.
If you don't know what I mean by perspective, I have a tutorial that covers everything you
want to know about perspective.
I'll post a link to it right below on the description, but I must say that it's really
important for you to get the perspective right.
But as I said in this case, we really don't have to worry about that.
We're going to start by selecting the portrait layer.
We're going to make a selection so that we can mask her out.
You can simply use the Quick Selection tool and click and drag over her body.
If you're in Photoshop CC 2018, the Quick Selection tool will also give you access to
the 'Select Subject' button; you can click on that.
In this case, I already have a selection active, so Photoshop is going to ask me if I want
to disregard my current selection.
I want to do that and press okay.
Then, Adobe Sensei, Adobe's artificial intelligence that is found inside of Photoshop, will analyze
the image, and select the main subject.
In this case, it does a really good job.
The only issue is here in this area, I'm going to hold Alt, Option on the Mac, and click
and drag to subtract from the selection.
We have a really good selection here, so all I really need to do now is click on the new
layer mask icon to mask the background from the foreground.
We can of course fine tune the mask, but in this tutorial, I'm not going to do that.
I want to spend most of the time on the actual compositing.
If you want to learn more about masking, especially on masking long flowy hair over busy backgrounds,
then I have the perfect tutorial for you.
It's called Advanced Hair Masking in Photoshop.
I'll post the link right below on the description.
Anyway, in this tutorial, we're okay with this mask.
For this composite to look realistic, we need to match luminosity, saturation, and color.
We're going to start with luminosity.
The first step is to create a black and white adjustment layer, which of course desaturates
the image, so we're only looking at the Luminance value.
This is going to be a luminosity check layers, so I'm going to call it just that.
Luminosity check.
I'm going to delete the layer mask, just so that it stands out.
To make it stand out even more, I'm going to change the layer to label to red, that
way we have this red label here.
It really doesn't do anything.
It just allows you to see that layer more easier in the layer stack.
Now that this adjustment layer is showing us the image without any color, we can see
that the background is brighter than the foreground, so what we need to do is match those.
In some cases, it may not be easy to see what the darkest and brightest colors of the image
are.
We need to know so that we can match those to the foreground.
To find out what they are, we can create a Levels Adjustment Layer.
Hold Alt, Option on the Mac, and click and drag on the black point; the image will turn
white.
As soon as you start dragging to the right, you're going to start seeing some shades of
gray.
The first areas that turn black will be the darkest parts of this image, so the shadows
that you see here.
If I do the same on the white point, click and drag to the left, the image will turn
black.
Whatever areas turn white first will be the brightest parts of the image, so these buildings
here.
I'm going to delete this adjustment layer because we don't need it anymore.
We now know that the brightest colors are here, and that the darkest colors are down
here.
If I enable my portrait layer, I can do the same thing.
I can create a Levels Adjustment Layer.
But in this case, I'll use curves.
You can use curves or levels for this, it really doesn't matter.
Whatever you feel more comfortable with.
I prefer the Curves Adjustment Layer.
Then I'm going to clip it to the layer below, so that this adjustment layer only affects
the model layer.
I'm going to hold Alt, Option on the Mac, and click and drag this black point to the right.
The areas that turn black first are the darkest areas.
In this case, the shadows here.
If I click and drag this point while holding Alt, you'll see that the first areas that
turn white are the highlights on the jacket, her hand, and her nose.
I'm going to reset the layer by clicking on this icon.
I want you to notice one thing.
If I select the Eyedropper tool, and select the darkest point of the background; in this
case, it's not working because I have the focus, the white outline on the layer mask.
The layer is white.
Make sure that you actually have either a pixel layer, or in this case, the adjustment
layer thumbnail selected, and then click on the darkest part of the image, or the background.
You'll see that that black is not really black.
It's 12%; 0% is black.
The darkest point of my background is a brightness of about 12%.
I can do the same thing, and select the color from the shadows here under her hoodie.
You'll see that the darkest points are almost black, 1%.
So, that means that I need to make this black point brighter so that it matches the background.
If I select that color now, you'll notice that it's 8%, so a little closer,
and we can even go brighter.
So, about this point will be good enough.
We can do the same thing for the whites.
It's not really white.
It's an off-white.
I'm looking at the white here to match this area here, so that's very similar.
The black and white image looks much better.
One thing that I will do is create a point here and drag it down.
Another point here and drag it up, just to increase the contrast.
I'm not really making the darkers any darker; I'm just creating more contrast in that image.
That's before and after.
When the black and white version of your composite looks good,
then the colored version will look good as well.
One thing that you need to do is select your Curves Adjustment Layer, and rename it
So, that you can recall what it's controlling.
Also, change the Blending Mode to Luminosity.
If I change the Blending Mode to Luminosity, you're going to see a very subtle change,
but there is a change.
And Actually, to make it more obvious to you
why I'm doing that, I'm going to create another Curves Adjustment Layer,
and I'm going to create an extreme adjustment.
I'll also clip it to the portrait layer.
I'll zoom in, notice how we made an extreme adjustment, but it really show us how we increase
the saturation of the image.
Once I change the blending mode to luminosity,
you'll see that we don't actually adjust the saturation.
The Blending Mode set to Normal, curves will also adjust saturation, and I don't want that.
I only want to control the luminosity,
which is why I changed the Blending Mode to Luminosity on this layer.
Thus, the change was much more subtle of course, but I still didn't want any saturation adjustments.
So, I'm going to fit the image to screen, and we're going to move on to the next part,
which is controlling the saturation, or matching the saturation rather of the two elements.
To do so, we're going to use something called a saturation map.
I'm going to create a Selective Color Adjustment Layer.
Make sure that Absolute is selected.
Then going to the reds, and bring the black all the way down to -100%,
and do the same for all the colors.
Then, when you finish adjusting the blacks to -100% on the colors, and the whites, neutrals,
and blacks, change the black to +100%.
You're going to get a black and white image.
This black and white image show you how much saturation there is.
It's doing so by making the saturated areas bright, and the desaturated areas dark.
If I create a hue/saturation adjustment layer, and increase the saturation, you'll see that
the image will get brighter because there is more saturation of course.
If I bring the saturation down to a -100, the image turns black because there is no saturation.
This saturation map will allow you to see the saturation differences between your background
and foreground color, and then you can match those.
We're simply going to do that by using this hue/saturation adjustment layer, clipping
it to the layer below.
I'll call it saturation, because that's what that adjustment layer is controlling.
Of course, I'll change the blending mode
to Saturation, so that that's the only thing that it controls.
Then I can increase the saturation of my model layer because I want the brightness to be
similar to the background.
However, notice that in this case, when I increase the saturation so that the jacket
matches the rest of the image, the skin tones get too bright,
which means that they're highly saturated.
Something that you can do is click on this icon here.
Click on the skin tones.
Notice how it automatically selects reds.
No matter the ethnicity, skin tones are mostly found in the reds.
And then you can click and drag to the left to reduce the saturation.
If I enable my saturation map again, you can see that the image looks better, and I can
continue adjusting the saturation of the skin tones,
and then I can also adjust the jacket independently.
If I click on the jacket, notice how it now selects the blues,
and I can enable my saturation map again, and increase
the saturation so that the jacket, the face, and the background
have similar levels of saturation.
This is before and after.
I still think that maybe the face might be a little too highly saturated, so I'm going
to go back into the reds, and reduce the saturation even more.
Before and after.
You can also adjust the yellows because there are
some yellows in the skin tones as well,
so reduce those a little bit.
I think this looks much, much better.
I'll also delete the layer mask from my saturation map.
I'll call it saturation map, and change the label to red, so that we can see it better
in the layer stack.
So, Saturation map,
and luminosity, check.
What we're going to do now is match the colors of the image,
so that they look like they're in the same scene.
To do so, I'm going to show you a cool trick with a Solid Fill Adjustment Layer.
I'm going to create a solid color fill layer.
It really doesn't matter what shade of gray you use, as long as it's gray, meaning zero
hue, and zero saturation; 60% is fine, and press okay.
I'm going to put that right here above the saturation layer, and I'll call this one
color
check.
And I'll delete the layer mask; change the label to red.
And I'll change the Blending Mode to Luminosity.
What this does is that it evens out the luminosity of all the pixels,
and it makes the colors
easy to see.
You could also create a hue/saturation adjustment layer, increase the saturation,
and it makes it more obvious.
So, what I'll do is I'll select that layer, hold shift, click on the color check, and press
control G, command G on the Mac.
I'll also call this group color check.
I will change the label to red as well.
There you go.
We have our color check layer.
What we want to do now is match the colors that are found in the background to the colors
that are found in the foreground.
Notice there's a lot of blues in the shadows and the highlights, and no blues in the background.
We want to add the colors that are found here, these oranges and reds and pinks onto her
jacket, and her body so that the image matches.
To do so, I'm going to click on the saturation layer, create a Selective Color Adjustment
Layer, clip it to the layer below, change the name to color, and also change the blending
mode to color, because that's what we're controlling.
As I said before, we're going to use this adjustment layer to match the colors of the
background to the colors of the foreground.
Essentially, we're changing the ambient color so that it matches, and it looks more realistic.
We're going to start out by changing the blacks, so select blacks on the dropdown.
This is going to control the shadows of course.
If you look at the background, you'll notice that in all the shadows, there is oranges,
magentas, and even reds; but no blues like we have here in the foreground.
We can adjust the cyan, magenta and yellow.
These colors have opposite colors.
The opposite of cyan is red.
The opposite of magenta is green.
And the opposite of yellow is blue.
If you don't remember that, you can create a Color Balance Adjustment Layer.
As you can see, the relationship between those colors
is better represented in the labels in this layer.
I'm not sure why Adobe didn't use the same labeling color system
for the Selective Color Adjustment Layer,
but you can use the Color Balance Adjustment layer as a reminder.
Anyway, I'm going to delete this layer,
and work with the Selective Color Adjustment Layer
that we labeled color.
With black selected, I'm going to reduce the cyan to get red.
Notice how now we have a lot of red in these shadows, and these colors are more similar
to the colors of the background.
Then I'm going to increase the magenta, and increase the yellow just a little bit.
If I disable the color check adjustment layer, you can see the before, and the after.
Also, I want to point out that if you can't really see the colors in here, you can always
come back into the solid fill adjustment layer, and just make it brighter or darker.
Maybe that will improve how the colors are shown.
Anyway, we are now going to collapse this group, go back into the color adjustment layer,
and we're going to work with the neutrals, and we'll do the same thing.
We'll reduce the cyan, increase the magenta and increase the yellow.
Finally, we'll work with the whites.
Those are the highlights.
You can see that the highlights right here on the arm, they have a lot of blue.
If I disable this group, you can see that there.
What we want to do is reduce the cyan, increase the magenta, and also increase the yellow.
At this point, we have done a really good job in matching those colors.
You can see that before and the after.
What I'm going to do now is work with the colors that are found in the image, so I don't
really need my color check layer because I already matched the main colors, which is
the important part.
Now I'm going to work on the finer details.
The finer details include obviously her jacket.
Her jacket is blue.
I can go into the blues, and reduce the cyan, and increase the yellows.
Notice how by making that simple adjustment, the image matches much better.
I could also go into the cyans, and do the same thing.
Reduce the cyans, and increase the magentas.
Before and after.
If you affect the skin tones, you can always go into the reds.
No matter the ethnicity, the skin tones are found in the reds for the most part.
I can increase the cyan.
The reason I'm increasing the cyan is because we were reducing it and all the other colors
that we use, so I'm off-balancing that adjustment by increasing it.
The reason I'm doing that is because I want to keep skin tones that are fairly natural.
You could also go into the yellows, and add a little bit of cyan because there is a little
of yellow in the skin as well.
We'll increase that just a tiny bit.
That's before and after.
What I'm going to do now is work on some details; not all of them because a lot of the details
are particular to this image.
I want to show you a couple of tricks that you can do,
and hopefully it helps you on your image.
What I'm going to do is work with the highlights.
Notice how we have a highlight here on the left.
It's a yellow highlight that's hitting the buildings, and maybe I want some of that highlight to hit her jacket.
If I want to add yellow to these highlights,
I can go into the whites, and increase the yellows.
See how I just added just a little bit of yellow here.
I think that helps the image look a little more realistic.
Look for things like that on your image.
It helps the realism.
Also, you can always go back, and fine tune the saturation, and the luminosity if need
be, just to make it look a little more realistic.
In this case, I think we did a really good job, so I'm not going to adjust it too much.
This is the original image, and this is after we applied those three adjustment layers to
make it look more realistic.
Now that you've adjusted the luminosity, saturation, and color, I want to show you what you can
do to finalize the composite, and make it all come together even more.
I'm going to select the color adjustment layer, then hold shift, and click on the background.
Then I'm going to right-click and select convert to smart object.
Then I'm going to go into filter, camera raw filter.
We're going to use this filter to enhance a composite.
I'm going to increase the clarity, which is adding contrast to the midtones.
Then I'm going to increase the shadows just a tiny bit,
and make the highlights a little bit darker.
I'm going to go into the detail panel, and increase the sharpening of the image.
I'm going to go into the effects tab, and add a little bit of grain.
I'm going to zoom in so you can see what happens.
I'm going to zoom in, and I'm just going to add grain that is going to make everything
seem a little more cohesive with this digital noise.
I'm going to right-click, and select fit and view, and add just a little bit of vignetting
to the image, like so, and press okay.
That's before and after.
It just makes the image come together a little bit better.
Let me know in the comments below which of these three techniques, or four rather, were
new to you, and which ones you're planning to use on your future composites.
Also, if you decided to make a composite with this tutorial or any of my tutorials, don't
forget to share it on Instagram with the #ptcvids.
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Thank you so much for watching, and I will talk to you again in the next tutorial.