Lessons
Class Introduction
04:41 2Composite Examples
10:58 3Set-Up for Photoshoot
11:17 4Live Shoot: Model Placement
15:20 5How to Choose Images for the Composite
04:59 6Introduction to Selections
08:32 7Selections Q&A
09:40 8Start Post Processing in Photoshop
03:27Lesson Info
Class Introduction
portrait compositing from start to finish. If you're wondering what that is I'm kind of with, you know, it's Ah, this is so I have to open this up. Somebody had said to me earlier, and they're like, You know, I love watching your classes because you make mistakes And I'm like, Well, I got to tell you what you're in for, a class you will love today because this is a live portrait composite where we're actually going to shoot it and do it. I really haven't done any of the the preproduction work you would normally do other than a couple of test shots. But the idea behind this class is we're going to We're going to talk about how to set up a successful portrait composite. So you're in a shoot a person in one location and you want to go put them into another location. So we want to talk a little bit about how do we set it up? What kinds of things do we think about in the beginning? Get into the technical stuff to about the lighting and the camera gear, which is honestly, very, very simple f...
or for this type of work, here. Um And then what we're gonna do is in the second part of the class, we'll do what I really think is actually one of the harder parts in this, and that's actually pulling off the composite. It's actually getting it into photo shop, making the selection happen, putting it into the background. And as I'm sure you guys will find its its its process where you're going back and forth a little bit, there's no like, you're never, ever going to take a person, one photo placement of the other photo and they're gonna look perfect right off of the bat. So there is a lot of little things that we can do and trust me to. The person that said, You like to see me make mistakes, you're gonna see me make 50 of them throughout this class as yeah, we've put this into a different background and try to make it work for that background kind of the thought process behind. So by the end of the car, don't even know that we're going to Porcher composite. We might just do something else, but, um, and as far as questions go, I think Canada takes care all the questions and you guys can raise your hand if you give me a couple of minutes toe to shoot through and talk about the different sections that we're going to talk about here. But so I'm going to start this off. This is Ah, I think this is a really important message. The secret to success. I'm going to give you guys the secret to success for composites. And it I think that some of you, it's gonna sound be a normal into something you're gonna be like. You know, it depends where you're coming from, what you're looking for from a portrait composite. The secret to success for this is to plan for it. You're never gonna make a beautiful, great composite that inspires you but inspires the people that looks that look at your never going to make that by taking a random photo of somebody you took on a trip out to a park and by plopping them into a different background. Okay, it's not gonna happen. So the thing that I wrote a compositing book and years ago and I remember a lot of the feedback I got it was kind of polarized. It was like all of it was done pretty much in studio and a lot of feedback O's got great. It's a great formula. You can follow it. But a lot of the other feedback I saw from it was people were hoping like they could go out and take family photos at a park one day and then see that family photo be like, You know what? I don't like the background, so I'm gonna replace it. Um, it doesn't really work that way. So it's I can I can promise you this much. Whatever got you into this class? Whatever got you watching this class? You You've seen some type of a composite before. Whatever composite that was, it was plans. Whatever inspired you to want to do this, it was planned. The photographer planned it. The photographer photographed it in a place where they knew that they'd be able to select it. And that's in the next thing is like, Oh, you're backgrounds are always perfect guests because its plans all right, there's no Photoshopped trick that I can teach you that like there's there's a black backdrop back there. If I have you with dark hair standing in front of that black backdrop and I don't have any lighting or anything like that, and I just take a quick snapshot. There's no photo shop truck in the world that can teach you to select your hair off of it. It just doesn't exist. So so whatever got you in here? And I can tell you the photographer planned there was some planning to get that picture off of the background. And then some thought process on what they might want to do after. So it sounds kind of silly. Sounds almost you, almost the common knowledge. But the secret to success for this really is toe planet. You have to plan this stuff out.
Class Materials
Bonus Materials with Purchase
Ratings and Reviews
Lael
Matt is just so easy to listen to and follow, this course was particularly good to give you a well prepared framework to create a composite. Really fine step by step details on unifying the composite, creating lighting & atmosphere. His tips are clever and give great results.
Justin
The class was good for me as a beginner in this field, it covered the studio shot well and the use of photoshop, lightroom is clearly very powerful. I would have liked a segment on shooting the background particularly getting the angles correct so that the subject fits the background, just the pitfalls and must do's would have been nice. But overall I learnt a lot. Justin
a Creativelive Student
Not a big fan of this class...didn't offer much
Student Work
Related Classes
Adobe Photoshop