August 19, 2012 - Magical Umbrella

[glatt]

You put the camera on a tripod. You put the camera on manual exposure mode so the exposure stays the same from one picture to the next. You take a picture of the background. Then you send the kids in with a step ladder and take a picture of them doing some pose on a step ladder, making sure none of their body is behind the ladder. Then you open the background image in GIMP, and create a new layer and paste the image of the kids into that new layer. And you get out the eraser tool and erase the ladder. The background image will show through where the ladder was. Just make sure that when you create the new layer, you do it as a transparent layer.

It's easier than typing this post. The hard part is carrying the tripod and ladder outside, and then putting them away again.

[footfootfoot]

Originally Posted by glatt

You put the camera on a tripod. You put the camera on manual exposure mode so the exposure stays the same from one picture to the next. You take a picture of the background. Then you send the kids in with a step ladder and take a picture of them doing some pose on a step ladder, making sure none of their body is behind the ladder. Then you open the background image in GIMP, and create a new layer and paste the image of the kids into that new layer. And you get out the eraser tool and erase the ladder. The background image will show through where the ladder was. Just make sure that when you create the new layer, you do it as a transparent layer.

It's easier than typing this post. The hard part is carrying the tripod and ladder outside, and then putting them away again.

That is the truth.

Most of the ads you see today are done that way. It's a very popular technique.

[glatt]

Here's another one I did. This one, I had to paint my son's shirt back in right at his gut because he was lying on the top of the ladder too far over, and when I erased the ladder, I erased a huge chunk of his gut. So if you look closely, you can see his gut looks a little weird. But I really like the way the rest of the image looks. They posed well for this one. He was really precarious up there, so his acting is only partial acting.

The camera was on our front porch, and you can see the geraniums in the foreground on the porch railing.

[Sundae]

Excuse me, am I the only one getting the important information from this post?

Originally Posted by glatt

This one, I had to paint my son's shirt back in right at his gut because he was lying on the top of the ladder too far over, and when I erased the ladder, I erased a huge chunk of his gut.

Glatt, baby.
Do your magic on me.