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replicating "bleed" in clone photos....

Tinalera

Tinalera

So I've been playing with garbage matting for single shot photography-here's my best "attempt" yet (it's called "sisters")


4872279963_b3d590592b_z.jpg


One of the things I wonder-any way I can replicate the natural "bleed" between characters in for and background (trying to avoid the "cut and paste") look? I'm thinking about doing a short with the sisters using "clones". I didn't use green screen here, but I'm guessing with "moving" characters it might be preferable?

Any advice would be appreciated.

This was shot with one model.
 
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It's tough. The edges have to be soft and feathered, but at the same time not be too blurry.

A green screen would be the proper way to pull this effect off--especially while moving.
 
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Somehow I KNEW you were gonna that...(I"ve never done green screen.....)

Yea it is a tough "look" to replicate....oh well, so I start scouring the "green screen" threads lol

Thanks for the feedback!
 
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different actors is something to think about, certainly. But this is a more of a personal project, and I want to see if I can "pull it off" using one person (I'm weird that way! lol)
 
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wheatgrinder said:
For still photos?


Just take a lot of time with your masking.. zoom in to see the individual pixles.. and draw a great mask..
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Which masks? ;)

Seriously, I know what you're taking about, and I could do that-I just have to be in a totally detailed "damn the torpedos" mood to do it.

Works for still photos, but I'm gonna be green screening it I guess...should be fun! :D
 
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knightly said:
Just think... 2 months ago, you hadn't done any mask making either ;) Ever forward, the best friend of the indie filmmaker is that we don't know what we can't do!
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Right!:D And when we start to think we can't do it, we say "why the heck not?!" and do it anyway...I'm on a roll here.

My next trick after this will be to make the CGI in Cameron's Avatar look like a grade school project, because I don't know that I can't do it!:yes:

I will say I seriously am surprised at what I HAVE been able to do recently, thanks Knightly! :)
 
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I'm currently learning PHP, MySQL and Blender (not all together). I can't wait to see your next batches of masky things... using what you've learned on this one to improve. Will Vincent does a good bit of this kind of work, he may have some insights for you as well. You could PM him perhaps.
 
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knightly said:
I'm currently learning PHP, MySQL and Blender (not all together). I can't wait to see your next batches of masky things... using what you've learned on this one to improve. Will Vincent does a good bit of this kind of work, he may have some insights for you as well. You could PM him perhaps.
Click to expand...

Thanks Knightly-I'll see about getting in touch with Will Vincent-funny how I doing masking on footage involving masks! lol. It is a lot of fun, hard work but fun!
 
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Looking good!

The hair is going to be tough, but it can be done. Easier with still photos if you take the pictures against a solid background, preferably with a lot of contrast to the hair. Shoot the blond mask shots against black paper-board or something perhaps?

I find it is easier to select what I don't want, then invert the selection to get what I do want.
The Magic Wand is a good way to start selecting all the background, especially if it is a solid color.

Then zoom WAY in and use tools to follow pixel by pixel the line you want. I can't remember which selection tool it is, but it lets you draw from point to point. The other useful one draws a line as you drag the mouse. That one works great with a tablet/pen setup. Also, holding down <shift> will add to your selection and holding down <ctrl> will remove from your selection. Er, I think so. I sort of do that by rote now, so not sure exactly which key I am pressing.

With the hair, note any places where the background comes through gaps, and select those as well. Once you are happy with that, invert the selection and then use the "Feather" command to give it a very light fade around the edge. Usually 1-5 pixels, although 5 is pretty heavy and would only look ok on photos with giant pixel counts. I've most commonly used 1-3 I guess.

One other thing to experiment with would be lighting the portraits and the plate (whatever you are composting them into) with similar, stylistic lighting of some sort. Maybe a slash on the back wall, and similar slashy key light across the masked faces or something sort of contrasty and expressionistic.

Hope that wasn't stuff you already knew! :)
 
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David.rhsc said:
Looking good!

The hair is going to be tough, but it can be done. Easier with still photos if you take the pictures against a solid background, preferably with a lot of contrast to the hair. Shoot the blond mask shots against black paper-board or something perhaps?

I find it is easier to select what I don't want, then invert the selection to get what I do want.
The Magic Wand is a good way to start selecting all the background, especially if it is a solid color.

Then zoom WAY in and use tools to follow pixel by pixel the line you want. I can't remember which selection tool it is, but it lets you draw from point to point. The other useful one draws a line as you drag the mouse. That one works great with a tablet/pen setup. Also, holding down <shift> will add to your selection and holding down <ctrl> will remove from your selection. Er, I think so. I sort of do that by rote now, so not sure exactly which key I am pressing.

With the hair, note any places where the background comes through gaps, and select those as well. Once you are happy with that, invert the selection and then use the "Feather" command to give it a very light fade around the edge. Usually 1-5 pixels, although 5 is pretty heavy and would only look ok on photos with giant pixel counts. I've most commonly used 1-3 I guess.

One other thing to experiment with would be lighting the portraits and the plate (whatever you are composting them into) with similar, stylistic lighting of some sort. Maybe a slash on the back wall, and similar slashy key light across the masked faces or something sort of contrasty and expressionistic.

Hope that wasn't stuff you already knew! :)
Click to expand...

Some of it was. Some of it wasn't. Some of it was "I kinda figured" and some of it was "wow, I really had no idea!" :)

I do a lot of experiment with lighting, brightness, contrast, ect. Its getting into the "pixels" that's a lot of work, particularly with feathering and "blending". I admit I haven't gone to deep into pixels yet, that will probably be my next step.

As far the background colour, I tried with this a plain wall. I'm probably going to one day try it with a "busy" background, just because I'm masochistic that way.:lol:

I do get a lot of responses from these pictures, it is something that isn't done a lot, and having each character masked makes it even more surreal....

Just a lot of practice and learning-each one I do is a little bit better :) Thanks for the feedback, there's a lot to digest there! :)
 
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4889970136_a2a3ee5de9_z.jpg



Another one I did. I've been using a paint type program (don't have photoshop) to tidy up my Premiere stills. I've gotten to the "pixel by pixel" attempt, and using the eyedropper tool I am finding out how "bleed" in and out-some colours are tougher to work with than others!
 
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The matte edges are a little hard. If you could feather them, it'll be a little less noticeable... what program are you using? What kind of system are you on? (Windows, Mac, Linux)
 
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A lot harder in something paint-like than in something photoshop-like. Have you checked out Gimp? (in case cost is a factor with photoshop). I never took the time to re-learn the interface, but I have friends that swear by it.

Also, the mirror gave me an interesting idea for a cheat, nice clean edge on the mirror frame to work with - hall of mirrors thing with different reflections or something.
 
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David.rhsc said:
A lot harder in something paint-like than in something photoshop-like. Have you checked out Gimp? (in case cost is a factor with photoshop). I never took the time to re-learn the interface, but I have friends that swear by it.

Also, the mirror gave me an interesting idea for a cheat, nice clean edge on the mirror frame to work with - hall of mirrors thing with different reflections or something.
Click to expand...

I just got Gimp thanks to a certain poster :). I've redone this pic with Gimp, I should post it, just to see differences (I cried when I used Gimp on the photo, and the things I could do with it, it was wonderful!)

I've been wanting to play with mirrors, that sort of thing, see if i can get an Escher like effect :)

I'm still working how "feather" works, but even using "airbrush" or "smudge" does a good job of getting rid of the "cutting" lines, so to speak :)
 
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