(upbeat music)
- In this composing lesson,
we gonna be talking about matching
the subject with that of the background.
We'll look at different features that we need to look for,
different criterias we need to maintain
and different adjustments we need to make,
to blend the subject with that of the new background.
So what are those criteria's?
What are those parameters we need to look for?
Well, that's what this lesson is all about.
So without any further ado, let's get started.
Now let's get started with a question
and I have a question for you.
So I tried my best to match this subject
with this new background.
So if you have a look,
here we have a new background.
On top of that.
I placed a subject and I have made a lot of adjustments
to match this subject to this new background.
I have created the shadows.
I have added a lot of curves, adjustment layers,
tried to match the colors as you can see.
if I've done all of these on one by one.
And by the way, let me give you a tip.
If you wanna over turn on layers in a succession.
Well you just press and hold and drag.
That's it.
If you want to turn off layers in succession,
well, click hold, and just keep dragging on that line.
Anyway, now when I turn on all of these,
you'll notice that I've tried my best to match the subject
to the background.
Now, no matter what I do,
let's go ahead and add one more curves adjustment layer.
Maybe I need to brighten the top area.
So I'll take a hand and click and drag up right here
just to brighten this particular area.
All right, now I want to limit it to the subject.
So hold the Alt key option key and click on the line
between these two lists.
We have learned about clipping masks before,
or you can also click on this button.
This also creates a clipping mask.
Now we only want it on the top area.
So select the mask, press Control or command I,
and if I just been this area in white,
only that area will have a little bit of the brightness.
All right, that looks about right to me,
but still it's just not matching no matter what I do.
Let's decrease the opacity of this one to about 60%.
What is wrong here?
That's my question to you actually.
Also let's turn on the global effects.
These are the effects that we apply both to the subject
and the background.
It can be a simple color look up table
or simple curves for color, grading,
something to bring it all together.
I even did that, but still the subject is not matching
with that of the background.
What is going wrong here, can you tell me?
and that actually brings us to the first criteria
and the first thing we need to look for
when we are matching the subject with dat of the background,
and that is perspective.
The perspectives should match.
Coming back to our image.
What is wrong here?
It seems right.
If you look at the perspective aspect of it
whoever it isn't right, let's open up the subject group.
And if I show you the subject with its original background,
you will notice a discrepancy here.
So here's the subject mask.
If we turn off by holding the Shift key and clicking
on the mask button, have a look at the perspective
that is with the ground in the subject layer,
it just isn't matching with the existing background.
So how do we match it?
How do we actually exactly measure
it so that it completely matches?
We'll there is a way actually.
So just on the top layer,
let's create a layer at the very top and let's take a brush.
All right, and now we're gonna dig a hard drawn brush,
and this is just for indication purposes.
Let's take a color for the subject.
For the subject, we're gonna take red as our color
and try to draw lines along the lines of the ground.
We are trying to draw the perspective here.
We are trying to find the vanishing point here.
We are also trying to find the horizontal line.
So we'll start right here and hold the Shift key
and click to create a line.
We'll start right here as well.
Hold the Shift key.
Just make sure when you click, it just is on the line.
This is not on the line.
So we'll try again,
click all the Shift key click on here.
It's just about right.
It might not be accurate, but the that do.
Now from here, we will draw a horizontal line
where it intersects.
So just click and hold.
And if you hold the Shift key,
and if you take it to the right or left,
it's gonna draw a straight line.
So this line that you see right over here,
this is the horizontal line and that is the line
that we need to match.
Also, it would be a bonus.
If you can match the vanishing point as well.
Now let's turn this layer off for a second and create
a brand new layer.
For the background, let's choose green as the color
and let's figure out the vanishing point
and thus the horizon off the background.
All we need to do is to match the horizon
and the vanishing point.
Now let's turn off the subject for a moment.
Also, we can turn off the global effects.
It doesn't really matter at the moment.
Now in here, this is for the background
and this one was for the subject.
Reminds me of subway.
Anyway, so if you have lines,
it just makes it more convenient,
click and make sure it's on the line.
There we go.
It looks to be, and in here as well,
we can just click and drop.
Now, if you wanna be super accurate now,
of course you can draw a rectangle, something like this,
and then you can rotate it the way you'd like it.
So I can rotate it and make sure that it's perfectly
on the right angle.
So let's put the anchor point that you see here
in the corner.
So I'm gonna to try to move that.
That's actually a very tiny rectangle.
So I'm gonna move the anchor point right over here,
and then you can try your level best to make sure
it's very accurate.
So we can say the horizon is about right here.
This line might not be accurate, but it's about right there.
Now let's take the brush.
It's just giving a warning that it's gonna turn a live
ship into a regular, but yes, I want to continue,
simply click on yes.
And I'm just gonna merge both of these lens all right.
Let's take the brush and draw the horizontal line
of this one as well.
So we have both the vanishing point and the horizon
of the background and the subject as well.
So let's turn on the subject one
and we just have to bring it here.
That's all that's done on the subject as well.
You can turn on the global effect.
Now let's select the subject lines,
hold the Control or Command click on the subject
so that the subject is selected as well.
And it moves for those lines,
Press Control or Command D.
And now when you bring her down here
and try to match all that,
you will notice that it just sits perfectly.
Now you can turn off these lines, okay.
Let's just done on the mask off the subject
by holding the Shift key
and clicking on the mask that we turned off
and now have a look,
suddenly they can still match.
Now I think I would need to turn off this layer,
but have a look.
Let me share with you that before and after now,
we need to make some adjustments along the mask of the hair,
but you get the point, look at the before.
So this is the before and we couldn't deal
with what was not matching.
It was just looking absurd,
but look at the, after just that little change
makes so much of a difference.
Now of course, since we don't have time limits
in this video,
we can definitely make the hair a little better.
So just above the subject,
I was thinking that we can create a brand new lamp.
Here's the subject right on top of that.
Let's create a brand new lamp.
And then we're gonna take the brush.
We're gonna take a sample of this one and just paint
on the outside with a soft round brush actually,
or there's one more thing you can do.
You can choose the clone stamp tool as well.
Make sure sample is current and below hold the Alt key,
or the option key click take a sample and paint.
This will fill up all the edges,
make it look more and more natural.
Sometimes it works sometimes doesn't.
So in those cases, I'll just take the color
and just start painting for some outside areas.
(upbeat music)
Areas like this, and that the backlight here
looks all right, to me,
you can just give a little bit of paint here
and that is fine.
Maybe painter a little bit.
And there you go.
That fixes it.
Also, if you want to add an overall noise,
you can do that because in the subject, as you can see,
there is noise, but in the background, there is none.
So you can do that.
So if I go to the background,
I've already added some blurred gallery to it.
And the advantage of adding blurred gallery
is that if you go there and at the bottom,
you'd see some effect.
You can also add some noise to match
that with that of the subject.
So if I increase the noise, have a look,
if it's just matching.
So just about right there, hit, okay.
And there we go.
Now it's matching so much the data, the subject,
and we have fixed the issue that we were facing.
Look, now it's on the ground.
Now it's looking much closer to the new background.
So that is the number one thing which you need to look for.
And that is perspective.
Now, keep in mind.
It is not always possible that your perspective
will fit perfectly.
In cases where you have no lines on the ground
or no reference point to draw those lines,
to create a vanishing point.
Well, in those cases as well, you can guess a little bit,
but there are some cases where it just won't work
where the angle of the camera is just too bizarre
to be able to match the perspectives.
Let me share with you an extreme photo.
Take a look at this photo of this adorable baby,
no matter how much you try to draw the lines to create
the perspective and find out the vanishing point
and create the horizon.
It is just not possible here.
It's a completely different top angle.
There is no way you can put this baby on the ground
of this new background.
It is just not possible.
So sometimes, and this is an extreme example,
but sometimes the angles are so odd that it's not possible.
Also, if you look at this photo, this subject.
For this subject, have a look at the ground, right?
It seems to be taken from an eye level,
which looks all right.
However, it would be very difficult to place this subject
on this background because have a look
here the ground is going downwards
and the perspective is whole lot different.
So it's not always possible,
but this is something which is an important criteria to look
for when trying to match subject
with that of the background.
Although it is not always possible to match,
but when it's not possible to match,
it just won't look right.
And that's a given and therefore perspective
is very important criteria
when matching your subject to the background.
Let's move on to the second criteria.
So up until now, what have we learned?
Number one, we need to make sure that the perspectives match
when trying to bring new elements into new background.
Number two, we learned how to match the perspectives.
Number three, we also learned that it's not always possible.
Sometimes when the angle of the camera is just bizarre
and too different.
It is not possible.
Also let's say you took a photo of the subject
with a telephoto lens, all right.
And you took a photo of the background
with a wide angle lens.
It is also not possible in extreme cases.
Alright, now this brings us to our second adjustment
that we need to make when matching the subject
with that of the background.
And it is related to perspective,
and that is atmospheric perspective.
Now, what is atmospheric perspective if you might ask?
When you look at a scenery, even outside of your window,
or maybe outside of your balcony,
do you notice something interesting?
The further away areas have lesser contrast as compared
to things which are closer to you, right?
When you look at a scenery,
let's say the mountains and stuff,
look at the ones which are very further away.
They're very faded and grayish, right?
But look at the ones which are closer to you.
They have higher contrast.
Secondly, if you look at things which are further away,
they are more hazy.
Look at things which are closer to you.
They are more clearer.
Look at things which are further away,
they are less saturated.
The things which are closer to you have more saturation.
So these are couple atmospheric properties
that you would see occurring within distance.
And that is atmospheric perspective, makes sense?
There are lots of features actually,
if you look at the science behind it,
there's lots of things,
but a couple of things in Photoshop's world
that you need to keep in mind are contrast and saturation.
Let's take a look at this example.
Let's give it a more dramatic background
and we're gonna sidetrack a little bit
and learn a new masking technique here.
You might've already covered it before,
but this is actually an interesting one
and needs to be repeated.
So have a look at this background right here.
What color is it first of all?
It is blue.
Also what other property there is in the background.
It is also bright.
What if you could delve Photoshop that remove everything
which is bright and also blue.
We can do that.
And also non-destructively.
And the way we do that is by using blend if.
Now we have the subject and at the bottom,
we do have a background,
but we need to remove the existing background off
the subject to see it.
Double-click on the right side of the subject layer.
This opens up the Layer Styles, style box.
Now, if you just take away the bright areas
of this layer of this current layer,
by taking the slider on the right to the left
parts of the subject, also erase,
but we only want the sky to erase
We want the blue sky to erase.
Remember you want to remove everything
that is bright and blue,
not just bright so far that instead of staying
in the gray channel, let's go to the blue channel.
Now, when you try to do that, it's much cleaner,
have a look.
It's just amazing.
So at this point,
I see that it's also removing parts of the subject.
So we're gonna to stop right over here.
And then the rest will just break up the slider
by holding the Alt key or the option key,
click the slider to break it apart
and just take it apart like this.
Now I understand there are little parts of the subject
that just becomes hollow.
We need to fix that, no problem.
Just make a copy of the subject.
So with the subject selected press Control or command J
right click on it and choose clear layer style.
This would remove all of the layer style properties
that we had changed.
In this case, it would be blended,
hold the Alt key or the option key
and click on the mask button.
This creates a negative mask.
You dig the brush white as the foreground color
and just paint over the areas which are gone.
That's it just literally areas which are gone.
That fixes the issue.
And we didn't have to spend too much time creating a mask.
This was the best thing.
So now we just have to fill up some areas
instead of trying to create a very minute selection here.
So one of the easiest ways to make selections
and masks in Photoshop, and once this is done,
the background is replaced.
Also, there are some areas here as well that we need to fix.
So these are the areas that we need to remove.
So select the subject layer and create a mask here
and take black as the foreground color
and just paint over those areas to remove those extras.
Okay, this is gone.
Now the background perspective is, all right,
the clouds should be like this because the angle
is at the top.
It's taken from a low angle.
It looks all right, but there's something that is off.
You know what is off?
The thing that we just talked about,
atmospheric perspective, look at the sky.
It is even more contrasty than that, of the subject.
As we learned the things that are further away
would have less contrast.
So let's first of all, work on that.
So just above the background layer,
we can create a contrast, brightness contrast,
adjustment layer, and just take down
the contrast like this, it helps.
So here's the before here's the after.
It's a really good way to decrease the contrast.
You can also do it with curves.
Now, the second thing that is not matching
is definitely the saturation.
So if we create a hue saturation adjustment,
let's just decrease it a little bit by about minus 15.
Now it is beginning to match so, so much.
Let's take a look.
Here's the, before here's the after work.
Now it's looking as if the sky is behind the subject.
Also, if you look at the original sky,
let me quickly show that to you.
The background is a little blurry,
so why don't we add a little bit of blur to it?
So let's go to filter blur, and then Gaussian blur,
it's up to you.
This is optional.
So maybe just a little bit of blur, not too much,
just a little bit about eight, or maybe let's go for 5.6
and this adds a lot to the photo.
If you want to create an even stronger sense of separation,
you can create one more curves adjustment layer
and just faded even more.
So take the leftmost mind and just bring it up like this
and dig the right most point and you can bring it down
just so slightly, not too much, just so a little slightly.
If you want to create a stronger sense of separation,
you can even de-saturated further.
And that too naturally by using vibrant.
So let's create a vibrant adjustment layer
and just take it down.
And as soon as you do that,
look at how natural it begins to look.
So we're gonna go with minus 55 and take a look
at the before and after.
So this is the before.
Absolutely no difference at all.
And this is the after, there we go.
And it's up to you,
whether you want to blur the background or not,
but I would still blurry just a little bit.
I think the blur here is just too much.
So maybe blur of three would work there.
Now, if you zoom in, you'll see much better, isn't it?
Before, no separation after.
And that my friend is atmospheric perspective.
The fact of the matter is that there are certain properties
of the atmosphere that make us distinguish
that helps us distinguish between the things
that are closer to us and the things that are further away.
Apart from having two eyes,
which helps us determine how far a particular thing
is from us.
There are some cues in the atmosphere like contrast,
like saturation, like haze that allows us to guess
the distance as to which object is further away.
And which object is closer to us.
Now, let us move on to the third thing
we need to match while matching the subject
for that as the background.
And that is simply color.
Without matching the color, it just will seem out of place.
And I'm gonna share with you one of the easiest ways
to match color and Photoshop.
Although there are really hundreds of ways
and you can create your own way once you know,
the basics of how things work in Photoshop.
But in this lesson, I'm gonna share with you one
of my favorite and easiest ways to do it.
Let's take a look at this example.
Again, we have a background and on top of that,
we have a subject I've already masked it,
so that it's easier for you to get from here
so that we don't waste time masking.
You have already covered masking and selection before.
All right, so we have the subject,
we have the background not matching at all.
Let's match the color and then we'll move on
to the fourth thing that we need to match
in the same exempt.
So to match the color using this technique
that we're talking about, let's first of all,
create a curves adjustment layer.
All right, now we're gonna match the highlights,
shadows and the mid tones after background
with that of the subject.
And how do we do that?
First of all, figure out what is the light source
in the background?
So in the background, nothing can be brighter
than the light source and the light source here
is going to be definitely the sky, right?
So double click on the white eyedropper right here,
the one with the white or the bright tip double-click on it.
This will help us select the target color
and set the target color to this one.
Now it's not just sampling anything.
You know why?
Because the mask is selected.
Make sure that the symbol is selected.
Adobe needs to fix this by default
this needs to be selected anyway.
So double click here and click on in here
and take this sample.
As you can see, it okay.
Now it's gonna to ask you a question.
Do you want to save the new target colors as defaults?
Now the default for the white eyedropper is absolute white
and it is asking you, do you wanna change the defaults?
Probably, I don't want to change the defaults so hit no.
So the next time you work with it,
it's going to be white automatically.
Make sure you hit no there,
unless you want to change it to a default color.
Anyway, now click on an area off the subject.
That is the brightest.
That's gonna to be absolute white hip or the brightest.
It has to be neutral.
Now I feel that this area is a good example.
So I'm gonna click on one of these pixels here.
You can choose the sample size to three by three,
and let's click on that.
And there you go.
The highlights instantly match.
Now the changes we have made here,
we only want the subject to have those changes.
So make sure you click on this button.
So they go, take a look.
Here's the, before here's the after we are getting closer,
we are not there yet.
We are getting closer.
Now let's do it with a dark eyedropper,
the black eyedropper black point, or whatever you,
my friend wanna to call it.
So double click on it and this time choose the darkest point
or choose any dark point in the background.
So this seems to be a good symbol.
Something that is prevalent.
No, I don't wanna save it as default and click the darkest
point of the subject.
This part of the hand,
I think would be a great symbol.
Click on that and suddenly my friend, take a look.
Here's the, before here's the after
we're getting so much closing,
let's do the same with the mid tones double click on it.
Let's set it to the road.
The road is supposed to be neutral it okay.
And no, and I feel that this button
is a good example of gray area.
Click on that and it just takes it even close it.
So there you have it my friend.
Now there's one more step after it.
Here is one more step.
So the other thing about color
is that although we might get the exact same color,
sometimes the saturation is just different.
So to mask the saturation,
you can just create a vibrance adjustment layer
and also create a clipping mask and decrease the vibrance.
It just helps, but also there's one more way to do this.
And it's in fact, a better way
because it adds a little bit color of the background
in order to desaturation at a little bit.
And that is with the background selected press Control
or Command J, and place it at the very top.
So we made a copy of the background,
or you can just simply hold the Alt key or the option key
drag the background at the top.
It also makes a copy and takes it to the top.
Now you want to limit the background just to the subject.
So hold the Alt or the option key and click on the line
between these two.
Now this background is limited to the subject.
Now, whatever you do here will be limited.
So if I change the blend mode of the background to color,
you will notice the colors of the background
fall onto the subject.
But with color, there are differences in color.
Look, some areas are blue,
some are reddish that we don't want any of that.
So let me share with you what we are actually doing.
So we are blurring it.
Let's go to filter blur,
and then Gaussian and blur, and now let's blur it.
So you can see that that area will get blurred.
We don't want any details here.
Only color information.
Let's go for about, how about 300?
Yes it, okay.
Now change the blurred mode from normal to color.
There you go.
You have the exact color of the background.
The thing is it's absolutely de-saturated
so definitely decrease the opacity to about 40
or 60 or whatever that suits you.
So I'm gonna go with about 40%, there you go.
Let's take a look at the before and after.
So here's the before here's the after so much more closer.
So that is how we match the color.
Now there's a lot of things we need to do here,
but the color is matched.
Now, after the color is matched,
how can we forget matching the lights and shadows?
We cannot ignore this.
Usually sometimes when I feel the colors are too different,
I start with colors and then move to lights and shadows.
Or sometimes when I feel the lights and shadows
are too different,
I start with lights and shadows and then move to color.
It depends upon your image as to how you approach the steps.
And I would highly recommend always
not to memorize the steps.
You are the artist and Photoshop is an artists tool.
Go how you like it, experiment.
See what works for you.
As for the lights and shadows are concerned.
We gonna do a very simple adjustment here.
First of all, let's take a look
at where the light is coming from
and where can the shadow be?
So in this example, we can guess that the light
is coming from this direction
and somewhere in these areas, there can be shadow.
So let's do a slight adjustment.
Before doing that, let's dark in the subject.
I feel it's too bright.
Now to check the luminosity,
you can create a solid color adjustment, left,
choose any color, which doesn't have a saturation like gray,
white, black, and change the blurred mode
of this one to color.
So that takes away all the colors
and it shows us only luminosity
without making some additional adjustments.
So you might ask, oh and Mitch
and make sure why didn't you just create
a black and white adjustment layer.
If I created a black and white adjustment layer
would be different because the reds
are rendered differently, yellows are rendered differently.
We don't wanna take that risk.
Also creating a hue saturation adjustment layer,
and simply decreasing the saturation
also might be misleading in showing luminosity values
as far as human perception is concerned.
So let's turn this on and we're gonna create
another curves, adjustment, layer, and limited again,
just to the subject by simply clicking on this button.
And we'll just take the hand free to point here
and take this down, zoom out, take it down,
just stop at the point where you feel it begins to match.
At this point, I feel it matches,
but the dark areas have gotten too dark.
So let's check it up to fade it a bit,
according to the new background.
And there we go, just by adding this here's
the before here's the after we have gotten much closer.
Now you can turn off the check layer at the top
and now have a look.
Here's the before here's the after even more closer, right?
So we are matching the lights.
Now let's go with creating some highlights and shadows.
So let's create a curves adjustment layer and take it up.
There are ton two ways again,
to create highlights and shadows and click on this button
to create a clipping mask, select a mask,
press Control or Command I.
Now take the brush white as the foreground color,
you can decrease the flow to about 5%
and then just start drawing some highlights
over here with white.
You can take a soft round brush.
See these little highlights,
really bring a lot of realism to the image.
The more time you spend here,
the better your images are going to look.
But in this case, we didn't have to add much highlights.
There we go.
Just a little bit of highlights.
Here's the before here's the after.
You can decrease the opacity according to your preference.
So I'm gonna go with about 70% here.
Now let's start with the shadows.
We're gonna create a curve adjustment layer,
bring it down like this,
and also bring down the highlights as well.
Select the mask, press Control Command I
also create a clipping mask out of this.
So click on this button now select the mask again.
And let's try painting here with white and to bring out
these areas to bring up shadows in these areas.
Now keep in mind, these areas cannot be brighter.
The light is coming from the right and side.
So we need to paint that accordingly.
Now the shadows look all right, but they're less faded.
So let's go back here and just increase the fade back in
just so that it matches.
Now, as we add shadows, I feel that those areas
need to have more color of the original background.
And that way we can do that is we can make one more copy
of this press Control or Command J and place it at the top.
Make sure you just create a clipping mask,
come back of everything that was there.
And for this one, this has an opacity of 40%, right?
Let's increase it all the way to a 100.
Also limited by holding the Alt key, the option key
and click on the line between these two layers.
Now we only want to limit it again to the shadows.
So we're gonna copy this mask here.
So hold the Alt key, the option key
click and drag it and drop it to this copy.
Now have a look,
the shadows are colored like the background.
So here's the before here's the after
it looks more realistic.
Now also we need to decrease the opacity here.
So let's set it to about 40% and there you have it.
Now I would just take it and paint a little more
in these areas a bit.
(upbeat music)
Boom, here's the before here's the after
matching a lot more.
So let's take a look before highlights and shadows.
So this is before highlights and shadows.
The light is absolutely different coming
from a whole different direction.
And here's the after the light is according
to that of the background.
Now on top of that we do some color grading.
You can do have some global effects
to bring it all together.
In this case, I would go and create
a color lookup table because that's the easiest thing to do
and add something like crisp, warm,
and let's decrease the opacity to about 30%
just to hint of let's add one more color, look up table,
and let's go with film stock 50.
Just adds a little boost again.
This one let's go 30%.
Now you can add an overall noise here if you want to.
That's up to you.
I feel that this area has gotten a little too dark.
So I might have to go to the mask here and beam
that area a little bit in black.
That fixes it.
Let's take a look at the before and after.
So this is before not matching at all.
And this my friend is after so much more closer.
And even in here,
you can add a little bit of background blur,
select the background,
then go to filter blur gallery
and let's add tilt shift blur.
We have learned how tilt shift works.
Let's start the blur or right here.
Let's bring it down.
It's taking a little while that started the blur right here
and take it to this area.
And how much blur do you wanna add?
How much do you think would be nice?
15 is not bad the way it already is over here, it, okay.
Now, if you want to add a little more noise here
with the blurry, you can do that.
That's up to you,
but this is how basically we would match the color first
and then lights and shadows.
So that wraps up this lesson.
So there are four things that you need to keep in mind
while matching the subject with that of the background.
Number one, definitely perspective,
number two, atmospheric perspective,
or you might correctly say it has atmospheric properties.
Keep in mind the atmospheric properties like haze,
keep in mind the atmospheric properties,
like the further away areas of lesser saturation
due to the same thing.
Number three, color.
And we learned a technique where we used curves
and these eyedroppers,
we said the eyedroppers to the colors of the highlights
mid-tones and shadows off the background
and simply applied that automatically do the subject.
And number four, definitely lights and shadows.
I hope this lesson helped you.
I'll see you on my next fun
till then stay tuned and make sure that you keep creating.