Create-a-Clone: A Lesson
Last Tuesday, when I posted this photo:
showing 5 different versions of myself in one shot, Dani commented:
"i've always wanted to do this with my digi camera but don't know how.
can you help please?"
I figured if Dani wants to know, maybe some other people do too, so here's a little rundown of what I did to create the "Creative Clones" shot.
There are two ways to go with this. For the first, you have no desire to duplicate the result, so you just say "it's magic" and call it a wrap. If that's what you want to do, I'm totally ok with that (it's pretty much how I got through every math class I ever took in school) and you're welcome to skip all this stuff below and just scroll down to the end result or come back tomorrow or something! {grin}
The second route is for those of you who want a more mundane explanation so you can try to do something similar at home without a magic wand. Read on to see how that one works.
First, and most importantly, you have to have three things:
*A tripod to hold your camera perfectly still in one position
*A timed shutter release (or a willing helper to push the button)
*Photo-editing software that allows you to work with layers (I used Photoshop Elements)
If you have all those things, then figure out where you want to stage your shot and set up your tripod and camera so you have a clear view of everything you want to include. For the Creative Clones shot (hereafter referred to as the CCS, to save some typing!) I set up the tripod just outside the door of my workroom, making sure the view on the camera screen included my computer desk and at least the beginning edge of my sewing table.
If you want to use props, including changes of wardrobe, it's good to organize those ahead of time too and have them outside the area you're photographing, but close by. It saves time in the long run.
When you have your clothes and props ready for one version of yourself, set the camera's timer and push the button and then go get into position. You might want to do this more than once in case you move or blink or something at the wrong moment. Once you've taken 2 - 3 photos in that position, switch position (and clothes and props if you want) and do the whole process again. Lather, rinse, repeat until you have 2 - 3 photos of yourself in every position you had in mind for the final shot. Then load them all onto your computer and look through and choose your favorite for each area and you're ready to start the photo editing magic!
I didn't save any in-progress photos of CCS, so I staged a much-simpler one yesterday with only two positions and no wardrobe change to show you what I mean. These are the two photos I decided to work with (small versions of them):
(not exactly flattering, but Oh WELL!)
Determine which figure is going to end up being the farthest back in the final photo and that's the one you use to create your background - your "canvas" to which you add all the other figures. You don't want to work directly on your original though, because sometimes you need to go back and fix things after you've been monkeying around for a while, so the first thing you do in the editing software is to create a duplicate of whatever photo is going to work as your background and the copy becomes your canvas:
(I know these photos are crummy...sorry! I should've used screen captures. Next time!)
Next you can open the file for the second figure. I don't bother duplicating this one because I can always undo any changes to it without affecting my work-in-progress. In this photo, if you look at the thumbnails at the very bottom, you'll see I have two versions of the first photo (the original and a duplicate) and one version of the second photo:
In looking at them side-by-side I can see where I need to draw lines to select part of the second photo to move over onto the first photo. When possible, I try not to draw around just the figure because you end up with really harsh, unnatural edges, especially in areas like the hair. So as you can see from the photo below, I mostly drew lines that selected the room and all, only closing in and drawing around the figure in areas where one figure will overlap the other, such as the arm and hand of the second figure:
Once I've selected that area, I just drag it onto the duplicate version of my first photo and line up any overlapping edges as cleanly as possible. In this photo I only have to do this once, but for the CCS I did that step four different times - once for each of the extra figures going into the final shot.
Then it's just a matter of doing the fiddly bits like cleaning up any lines that don't quite match perfectly. This is why the tripod is so important. The more still you've been able to keep the camera, the less of this part you have to do!
This step is also why it's important to keep a "clean" version of each photo, so in case you've gotten overzealous in how much of the room you've moved along with a particular figure and accidentally lopped off someone's head or leg or something (photographically speaking, of course!), you can go back to the original version of the mangled figure and draw a whole new shape around just the area that got messed up and slide that over onto your group shot to hide the BooBoo.
Once you're happy with how everything is arranged and satisfied that everyone has all the pieces and parts they're supposed to have, you can flatten the image (combine all the various layers into one image) and do the final touches to the image as a whole.
This is where I do things like use a smudge tool to ever-so-slightly blur any edges that look too harsh and "cut out" to me, or to blend edges that don't quite meet seamlessly. It's where I use the paint tool and a fairly transparent setting to add any shadows that should be there, but aren't. You can see that in the shot below if you look below the arm of the me that's standing - I added a shadow to the me that's sitting because there would have been one from the flash if there had really been two of me.
And that's about it - the bare bones of it anyway. The rest is just practice, Practice, PRACTICE!
Here's the result of this more simple version, which is also today's Daily Art Thang:
"Telling Myself What To Do"
showing 5 different versions of myself in one shot, Dani commented:
"i've always wanted to do this with my digi camera but don't know how.
can you help please?"
I figured if Dani wants to know, maybe some other people do too, so here's a little rundown of what I did to create the "Creative Clones" shot.
There are two ways to go with this. For the first, you have no desire to duplicate the result, so you just say "it's magic" and call it a wrap. If that's what you want to do, I'm totally ok with that (it's pretty much how I got through every math class I ever took in school) and you're welcome to skip all this stuff below and just scroll down to the end result or come back tomorrow or something! {grin}
The second route is for those of you who want a more mundane explanation so you can try to do something similar at home without a magic wand. Read on to see how that one works.
First, and most importantly, you have to have three things:
*A tripod to hold your camera perfectly still in one position
*A timed shutter release (or a willing helper to push the button)
*Photo-editing software that allows you to work with layers (I used Photoshop Elements)
If you have all those things, then figure out where you want to stage your shot and set up your tripod and camera so you have a clear view of everything you want to include. For the Creative Clones shot (hereafter referred to as the CCS, to save some typing!) I set up the tripod just outside the door of my workroom, making sure the view on the camera screen included my computer desk and at least the beginning edge of my sewing table.
If you want to use props, including changes of wardrobe, it's good to organize those ahead of time too and have them outside the area you're photographing, but close by. It saves time in the long run.
When you have your clothes and props ready for one version of yourself, set the camera's timer and push the button and then go get into position. You might want to do this more than once in case you move or blink or something at the wrong moment. Once you've taken 2 - 3 photos in that position, switch position (and clothes and props if you want) and do the whole process again. Lather, rinse, repeat until you have 2 - 3 photos of yourself in every position you had in mind for the final shot. Then load them all onto your computer and look through and choose your favorite for each area and you're ready to start the photo editing magic!
I didn't save any in-progress photos of CCS, so I staged a much-simpler one yesterday with only two positions and no wardrobe change to show you what I mean. These are the two photos I decided to work with (small versions of them):
(not exactly flattering, but Oh WELL!)
Determine which figure is going to end up being the farthest back in the final photo and that's the one you use to create your background - your "canvas" to which you add all the other figures. You don't want to work directly on your original though, because sometimes you need to go back and fix things after you've been monkeying around for a while, so the first thing you do in the editing software is to create a duplicate of whatever photo is going to work as your background and the copy becomes your canvas:
(I know these photos are crummy...sorry! I should've used screen captures. Next time!)
Next you can open the file for the second figure. I don't bother duplicating this one because I can always undo any changes to it without affecting my work-in-progress. In this photo, if you look at the thumbnails at the very bottom, you'll see I have two versions of the first photo (the original and a duplicate) and one version of the second photo:
In looking at them side-by-side I can see where I need to draw lines to select part of the second photo to move over onto the first photo. When possible, I try not to draw around just the figure because you end up with really harsh, unnatural edges, especially in areas like the hair. So as you can see from the photo below, I mostly drew lines that selected the room and all, only closing in and drawing around the figure in areas where one figure will overlap the other, such as the arm and hand of the second figure:
Once I've selected that area, I just drag it onto the duplicate version of my first photo and line up any overlapping edges as cleanly as possible. In this photo I only have to do this once, but for the CCS I did that step four different times - once for each of the extra figures going into the final shot.
Then it's just a matter of doing the fiddly bits like cleaning up any lines that don't quite match perfectly. This is why the tripod is so important. The more still you've been able to keep the camera, the less of this part you have to do!
This step is also why it's important to keep a "clean" version of each photo, so in case you've gotten overzealous in how much of the room you've moved along with a particular figure and accidentally lopped off someone's head or leg or something (photographically speaking, of course!), you can go back to the original version of the mangled figure and draw a whole new shape around just the area that got messed up and slide that over onto your group shot to hide the BooBoo.
Once you're happy with how everything is arranged and satisfied that everyone has all the pieces and parts they're supposed to have, you can flatten the image (combine all the various layers into one image) and do the final touches to the image as a whole.
This is where I do things like use a smudge tool to ever-so-slightly blur any edges that look too harsh and "cut out" to me, or to blend edges that don't quite meet seamlessly. It's where I use the paint tool and a fairly transparent setting to add any shadows that should be there, but aren't. You can see that in the shot below if you look below the arm of the me that's standing - I added a shadow to the me that's sitting because there would have been one from the flash if there had really been two of me.
And that's about it - the bare bones of it anyway. The rest is just practice, Practice, PRACTICE!
Here's the result of this more simple version, which is also today's Daily Art Thang:
"Telling Myself What To Do"
posted by Deb R at 7/31/2006 12:02:00 AM
I thought the shape where the poles met was kind of cool against that intensely blue sky.
And here's where I smudgified it to turn the photo into today's DAT:
"Beanpole: Smudgified"
(Smudgified is TOO a word, at least in Deblandia.)
I'll post a quiz result too, since I haven't done it for a while. This one was kind of weird though. It was supposed to tell you what your rising sign is if you enter your sun sign and time of birth, but it didn't work for me. I know what my rising sign is (Aquarius) and that wasn't the result it gave me! Soooo....I can't promise the quiz will work for you either, but if you know your rising sign, you can fiddlefart around the site until you find it and see if the description fits. For me, it was an ok fit I guess, although I don't really think I'd describe myself as misanthropic...at least not unless I'm dealing with idiot drivers. Heh.
Here's how it looks now using the recycled redwood lumber:
And here's a close-up so you can see the cool swirly handles I found on eBay and the variations in color in the wood:
I think that pretty much finished up our remodeling projects until J gets another wild hair.
Oh yeah, I had a purge and clean session in the pantry this week too, just to make things extra tidy. It looks purrrrty. :-)
2. I mentioned Schrodinger's Cat in my 
"Paintified Pears"
"Sunflower on Another World"
As for the last two parts of the question, the very first time I ever met anyone in person that I'd previously only met online, yes, I was nervous. Anymore, not so much. So far I've always had fun and if I ever don't...well, that's why it's good to do something like meet for coffee the first time. If you don't hit it off IRL as well as you did online, it's only an hour out of your life - not like you've committed to spend the next 5 years in a biosphere with them or something! But I've had nothing but good experiences in that area so far.
My expectations tend to be in line with whatever I've come to expect from that person in online encounters. I know there are lots of people who misrepresent themselves online, but so far the ones I've chosen to meet in person are exactly who I thought they'd be.
4. Are you and your blogging persona the same person?
Hhhmmm....Yes and no. I don't lie here or try to be something I'm not, so the person you see when you stop by RSR is most definitely me, but it isn't the whole me. This is the me who is talkTalkTALK (since that's kind of the point of a blog!), the me with the ON switch pushed over as far as it'll go.
In person, I think (I hope!) people would see that me, but I think they'd find the InPersonMe a bit quieter than BloggerMe. They'd find that I'm comfortable with companionable silence and that I'm actually a pretty good listener. They'd find that as much as I love talking about myself here - and sure, in person too - that I also love hearing other peoples' stories, looking at their photos or scrapbooks, getting insights into their lives.
And if they were around me long enough, they'd find I have an annoying-or-endearing (depending on your POV) habit of singing the oddest songs at the oddest times, often barely realizing I'm doing it.
(Any of you who've met me in person want to be brave enough to comment on this??)
5. How do you party?
I'm at my Partying Best in small groups of people I know well, where we can all cut loose and be silly and laugh our asses off. In larger groups, I tend to often gravitate toward smaller groups - a party within a party!
6. Has blogging changed your life? If so, how?
It's introduced me to people I otherwise wouldn't have known. It's gotten me to write more than I've ever written in my life. It's expanded my ideas about the world. It's awakened a new interest in poetry and reawakened an old interest in photography.
Whew! That got long! I'd originally thought I might answer another one or two today, but I think we'll call it a wrap and get back to the other questions another day.
Here's today's DAT, a photo of one of my favorite daylilies - an exuberantly messy double version of a typical orange ditch lily:
"Q of H: close-up"
For people who like to hear how these things are done, I started with a photo of an actual playing card and a photo of me. I reset size and resolution in both pics so that the size of my face matched the size of the face in the card. Then I removed the color from my photo, posterized it (a filter in Photoshop that reduces things to basic shapes), and boosted the contrast until it was a black and white image - no shades of gray at all. (I might have been able to achieve the same thing using the stamp tool, but I didn't think of it until later.)
Then I used the eye dropper tool to set my "paint" color to the same blue ink used in the card and turned the black parts of my photo to dark blue. I then drew a mask around just my face and moved it over onto the card twice - once for either end, rotating it as needed. Then it was just a matter of doing a little clean-up work on some lines and TaDaaa! I'm a playing card!
In case you haven't figured it out yet, I'm having entirely Too Much FUN with this theme! In fact, I'm having so much fun that I may do some more of the ideas on the RSR readers' suggestion list after the challenge is over and post them as Daily Art Thangs, just for fun. (No prizes on those if I do, I'm afraid. I wish I could keep giving away stuff past the challenge month, but I'd go broke! But you know I'll post another contest at some point.)
Speaking of prizes, this week's idea was suggested by 
close-up
*I'm not going to absolutely promise to answer anything and everything, as I reserve the right to maybe not want to post some things out there on the internet where anyone and everyone can find them. But I will answer anything within reason, and if I choose not to answer something you ask I'll tell you why.
"Poppy"
I haven't had any time the past couple of days to visit blogs, including all the poetry posts from yesterday, but I'm hoping to catch up this weekend!
"Self-Portrait as a Geisha"
Thanks for the ideas, Dara! Let me know if you'd rather have a 4" x 6" fabric postcard or an 8" x 10" photo print of one of my D.A.T.s as your prize (and if it's the latter, give me a choice of about three that you like, since I still have most of those files, but not all of them).
For other people who suggested ideas, there's still two more weeks to go, so check back!
And check out the birds my niece drew on her jeans:
She's always decorating her clothes. I love seeing what she's wearing when we get together.
Speaking of getting together, one thing I love is the fact that when my family gets together we always act very mature and dignified.
"Poppy Stem"
Actually, I have two blooming today. But that's a photo for another day.
I'm glad you were born.
2. I just finished reading "The Secret Life of Bees" tonight - yet another book that I put off reading for ages because it was so hyped that I was sick of hearing about it before I ever picked it up. But I'm so glad I finally did. Pick it up, that is, and read it. I loved it. This is one I think I'll be reading again and again.
3. J and I went to see "Superman Returns" a couple of days ago. Wait. Really, I should put that previous sentence in bold font or all caps or something to make it look more significant. Let me say it again: J and I went to see a movie together!
You see, J isn't into movies. Not at ALL. I usually go by myself, so when he's interested in going to see one with me, it's An Event! It happens maybe once a year, at most. And then quite often after we've seen it, his reaction can best be summed up as "enh."
But this time, he went with me, with no coaxing on my part, and he actually enjoyed it. He said the words "pretty good" afterward. Seriously, y'all, "pretty good" from J is practically gushing. You can take that as a glowing recommendation of this movie, if you like superhero films.
Oh yeah, and I liked it too. :-)
4. I've been meaning for weeks to take a photo of a sign that appeared in the window of a little local mom-n-pop store when it changed hands recently, but I never remembered when I had my camera along. Finally, the other day I did. Take a look and see if you can spot why I started laughing and had to take a photo (identifying info has been blurred to protect the clueless):
You may not be able to see what I mean in that photo, so how about this one:
What's wrong with this picture?
5. Speaking of pictures (says Her Royal Highness, Queen of Smooth Segue), here's today's D.A.T. - another sunset photo, taken the same night as the one I posted yesterday, but a few minutes later in the evening and from a completely different angle. Very different look, eh?
