Art/Technology/Photoshop CS5

Advertisement

Expert: - 3/11/2011


Question

Smoke
I was wondering if you could help me out. I have an image of myself and an image of smoke. Im going to color the smoke so its colorful, I know how to do that. But I want to place my body behing that, and it's not as easy as using the pen tool because it's not like I'm not there, just slight faded behing the object. If you get what I mean. I'll attach the smoke picture so you can see. Any help?!

Answer

Judy behind Smoke 2
There is no easy way to do this as you want to put yourself between the black and the white smoke and that's not going to happen.  But there are a few tricks to make it look that way.  Start by using an image of yourself on a black back ground - I used a photo of my wife that I shot for one of her book covers.  

1. Fastest and easy: Put smoke over portrait, reduce opacity of smoke until both images have similar values, flatten, adjust levels to return image to approximate original values.  NOTE: this will flatten your tonal range but will look fine in small images on the web.  It also losses a lot of the drama of the smoke.


2. a Little more effort: Put two layers of smoke over portrait, turn off visibility of top layer, select black of first smoke layer and delete it.  Use a soft eraser to clean up smoke where it crosses portrait, turn on top layer, use soft eraser to remove opaque smoke just over the portrait region.  This allows for the full values of the portrait and the smoke to be use although they are fudged a little where the two meet.  Generally no one will notice at a quick glance.

hope this helps.  BTW - I'm still running CS3 but my tools are still in use in your version

Tom Riddolls M.A.C.

Expertise

As a conservator my focus is on the preservation/care of art objects as opposed to their value. I may assist in the identification of materials used in art making and some of the techniques in traditional art production. Please do not ask me about non-traditional medias such as computer software used to create "modern art". My three areas of specialty are: -European painting and sculpture (1600-1800) -The artifacts and documents of United Empire Loyalist (1770-1850) -Classic Fishing tackle (1850-1960) anything outside these areas may receive vague answers that merely point you in a fruitful direction.

Experience

I am a practising conservator and curator

Education/Credentials
I have a Master's degree in Art Conservation

©2012 About.com, a part of The New York Times Company. All rights reserved.