Where did I see this Unique Technique?

[VPUA]

I saw a tutorial somewhere for isolating headshots of individuals in a group photo. The particular example
used was a photo of bridesmaids in which the face of each young woman was extracted and brought forward, basically highlighting that person, then moved back, perfectly in place on the shoulders. I can't remember if I saw the technique on this forum or somewhere else. Does anyone have ideas on where I may have seen it?

[mark healey Profile Private messageWebsite]

Hi. i hope this helps a little. i have uploaded a couple of small video tutorial to Utube on how i would achieve the result i "think" your after.
Would have postered it here but unaware of how to do that yet... but i will learn
It's in two parts one using photoshop to create the images and the second using Proshow gold to enhance the slide show.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bfi3yxeho_4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_jujhNsellw


i do hope it answers your question. if it doesn't please let me know and we'll see if we can't figure a way round it

Yours
Markhealey58

[bjquilts63 Profile]

Very interesting Mark. I like that technique. I wonder if it would work to lower the opacity of the whole picture while the head shot is enlarged? Wonder how that would look? I may have to try this. Thanks for doing the tutorial.
Barbara

[mark healey Profile Private messageWebsite]

sounds like a fine idea. Also to have the background fade into black and white whilst concentrating on the foreground works well. have fun with it let me know how it goes

yours

Mark Healey

[Lenora Profile Private message]

I looked at the video for selecting an individual in a group. I have paint shop pro. I selected the person and in the video he said to delete. I did that but it deleted the whole photo and not just the background. How do I get the selected image to stay and delete the rest of the photo. As you can see I am not an expert on the program.

[pd Profile Private message]

In photoshop you would invert the selection (Ctrl I). Paint shop will definetly have something similar.

[cherub Profile Private messageWebsite]

In photoshop you would invert the selection (Ctrl I). Paint shop will definetly have something similar.

Yes, precisely.

But, first and foremost, your picture should not be marked as a background layer in the document.
Here is how I do it in PaintShop Pro:

Duplicate layer. Your picture now appears twice. Delete the layer marked as background.
Insert a new raster layer (transparent) and drag it beneath your picture layer.
Now you can select the head of the person.
Then: Selection > Invert > Delete
Save this new picture as a png file.

That's it.

[Lenora Profile Private message]

Thanks - still having problems and I am sorry I am so dense. I have the picture which says it is the background l then went to Layers tab and selected Duplicate and then it says copy of background but there is only 1 image and not a 2nd copy of the image. I think I am selecting the wrong Duplicate feature and I don't know which one contains the duplicate you said I should use. Sorry.

[cherub Profile Private messageWebsite]

Hi Lenora,
Is your Workspace set to display the layers?
If so, it really doesn't matter how you do it, as long as the image appears as "copy of background" in your layers.
You can duplicate layers either from the upper menu (Layers > Duplicate) or by RIGHT clicking on the layer itself, exactly as in ProShow. The result should be the same.

Starting with version X4, that I'm now using, when you right click on the background layer, there is also the option of "Promote background layer". I don't know which version of the program you are using, so that's why I haven't mentioned this before.

In any case, if the picture is not set as "background" layer, you should be OK with deleting the selection.

[pd Profile Private message]

. . . I wonder if it would work to lower the opacity of the whole picture while the head shot is enlarged? Wonder how that would look? . . . .

It depends on the original photo. If it is high resolution you will have no deterioration. That is why you should not resize photos before inserting them in Producer.
If the original is of poor quality and Producer pixellated results, your best option is to reduce the original image size and of the the cutout layer to 80%.
For the effect to take place then zoom in to say 105%. This keeps picture acceptable to the viewer.

Hope that helps.
pd

[Zane9 Profile Private message]

Nice post!