Robert Cornelius

I often notice in composites that the subject can end up looking a bit cardboard-cut-out-ish. There are many different factors that lead to this appearance, but one of the main culprits is having the outer edge of the subject be too sharp. Humans are rounded. The edge of an arm for example is rolling away gradually. Therefore, more often than not (depending on what focal length you’re emulating), that edge is going to drop slightly out of focus. If it is too sharp all the way to the edge then it’s liable to look more like it’s all the same distance form the camera, aka completely flat across.

Did you ever sit down to edit something and think… “What the heck am I in the mood to listen to?” Well, you’ve come to the right blog post. I don’t know about you, but I’m the kind of human who is constantly soundtracking his life. I have playlists for everything and pretty much always have music on. If I were to ever go anywhere without my headphones I’m not sure I could function. When it comes to Photoshopping I’m all over the map - you know, the map of noise things to put in your ears. Anyway, below are some of the noise things I personally enjoy most while I Photoshop.

I’ve been working on a couple really cool collaborations lately and this newest image, well, it’s one of those collaborations. This one was a bit different for me though - You see, normally when I collaborate with another artist I prefer to actually shoot the images with them. At the very least we combine images we shot separately to create one final piece. For this picture though, none of the pictures are mine. Here’s how it went down …

Have you ever had a client shoot where they really wanted a picture done a certain way, and you just knew that it would look better if you did it a bit differently? Or like, entirely differently? Well, the trouble with clients is that they’re the ones signing the check at the end of the day, and if they are not pleased with what you did … you might just not get that John Hancock. Obviously, as we all know, the customer is always right … even when they are wrong. SO, I’ve learned a fancy trick (it’s not fancy) where I shoot until the client is happy, (hooray happy client!) and they feel they have the images they want, and THEN if I have the time, I’ll do it my way.

When it comes to composites I think people (and as you know if you read this post, I too) sometimes forget that a composite image doesn’t alway have to be cutting out a subject and putting them on a background. One fun and interesting way to spice up your composite game is to include elements of the actual surroundings along with the subject. As in only replacing part of the background in order to put the subject and part of their environment somewhere totally different rather than cutting out JUST a model. This works best when you aren’t in the studio and can shoot somewhere super cool, like IDK a rusty old railroad bridge perhaps?

It’s funny to me how the start of a new year is like a clean slate … not that my slate was particularly dirty …. 2018 was just fine. However, no matter what happened last year, the start of another year always feels exciting. “This is the year I’m really going to do it!” Whatever it is. January 1st is just another day; nothing is actually different other than the last number of the date that we write incorrectly for a couple of months. (Do eraser sales go up in January? Jk it’s 2019 who is writing things in pencil?) But hey, if we all get a solid boost of let’s-get-out-there-and-kick-ass-ness for no reason other than the fact that we watched a sparkly sphere lower on the top of a building while we collectively count backwards (like some kind of weird ritual happening all over at once if you think about it … just don’t think about it) … well that’s fine by me!

I’m a competitive person. I love contests. I love a challenge. So even though it’s wasn’t a contest, and no one “wins,” when it came to art class I wanted to push myself and try my very hardest. (I want to be the best, like no one ever was….) My BFF Veronica (who is a stupidly talented artist) and I were (and probably still are) my art teacher’s favorites. NBD. I’m getting side tracked, sorry to high-school-art-class-royalty-brag all up in your faces or whatever. What I’m getting at is that when I’m faced with a challenge, especially with a contest that has rules, guidelines, subject matter, and most importantly a time constraint, it always makes me create some of my best work. That was no exception when it came to the Dungeons & Dragons “Terror of Undermountain” monster creation contest that Adobe just hosted.

Sometimes even I forget exactly what the term “composite” actually means. Technically it’s just combining more than one image to make a single final picture, like when you do a family picture and Grandpa is looking confusedly off into space like he doesn’t know how to be in a picture. (He always does that. GRANDPA LOOK HERE!!) So, you take the one image where he is mostly looking at the camera and kinda smiling and replace his head in the other photo where everyone else looks good … That’s a composite. (Not to throw shade at my Grandpa, he is an 80-year old champion, whom I love.) I’m so used to shooting a subject in the studio and then clipping them off of their background to place them somewhere else, that in my brain, that process has taken the place of what it (my brain) believes is a composite. For the above image (and also below, I guess), I created the finished composited piece of art without ever cutting out the subject.

As I sat at my computer (almost exactly a year later) staring at the photos trying to decide which one to edit, and what exactly to do with it, I got inspired by a certain capture. There was just something about Loren’s pose/face/posture/movement that looked like she was leaving the cave on a hunt. When I showed the work-in-progress to Loren she said she did seem to be “channeling her inner velociraptor.” Then I thought to myself, “hey self, why would there be a lovely lady in a pretty pink dress leaving a cave like a glorious velociraptor?” My creative gears started to churn and I cranked out an idea that I’m quite pleased with ….

I had recently picked up these nifty blue shades for 3 dollars (because I have a nose for clearance sales). I brought those and a blue sweater I have and decided to base my image around them. Normally while creating a wizard image one might not think to include sunglasses, but I was imagining him summoning some crazy bright blue magic light and he would need these spacial glasses to be able to see by the light without his eyeballs melting out of his face ... or something. My brain is weird. So anyway, here is how I created said magical blue eye melting orb...

About a zillion years ago (ok, it was February ... so same thing basically), I created a self portrait image ( ... ok, so it was several images) using ONLY lights from around my house. I wanted an exercise in something outside my current comfort zone and to challenge myself to get back to my photography roots. I did a whole post about it. I encourage you to go and enjoy that blog post before reading this one, but it's not required... or is it!? No, it's not, but do it anyway. I then challenged any takers who might have felt like taking to also create a self portrait image without any traditional photography lights

As an artist who shoots mostly composites, more often than not I'm going to be cutting out my subject and placing them in a different scene. A lot of the time I only have a rough idea of what kind of a background I'll be using, so I just shoot my subject as best as I can and figure out the backdrop later. Sometimes I have no idea what I'm going to do with my model, but a wise and incredibly good-looking man once said, "You don't always need a plan." ... HOWEVER, if I do a shoot knowing full well what my background looks like before I even pick up my camera, it makes everything a million times easier. 

As an artist who primarily creates composite images, I find that one of my biggest challenges is hair - masking hair, to be exact. It can be nearly impossible to get all of those little individual hairs cut off their background so I can place my subject somewhere magical. NEARLY impossible ... Ok so it's actually not THAT hard, but there is one major tip that will make your life about a 1000 times easier. Shoot on the right background. 

Soooo yeah, remember that other time I created a baby dragon in Photoshop? Well, in the immortal words of Britney ... Oops, I did it again. (Yeah I went there.) I was thinking about how I'd love to grow my audience (weird, right?) and get more recognition for my work ... or whatever, and one of the best things you can do to stand out of the crowd is to figure out something you can do that not everyone else can, and you know, do it! Last time that I used my wizard-y-Photoshop-powers to craft a dragon, the internet sorta lost its mind. Ok, so not the whole internet, but those who saw it seemed to be pretty into it and that blog post is still one of my most popular. I say, give the people what they want! Also, I would be lying to your face if I said I didn't love anything and everything having to do with dragons. So without further ado, I grant to you kind readers, 4 tips for creating a dragon in Photoshop!

I'm charging into 2018 with a fire under my ass that hurts so good! There are already some really exciting opportunities on the the horizon that I can't even believe are seriously going to happen, but before I move forward I need to do some important reflecting (get it, reflecting? Cuz of the mirror photo ... ) and hopefully bestow upon you a lesson I learned that I definitely shouldn't have needed to learn. Meaning it should just obviously be taken seriously and tended to all the time, not merely after something terrible happens. Friends, I'd like to talk to you about ... backing up your files. 

Layers on layers on layers on layers .... I've been working on this image for far too long, just long enough, but also not nearly as much as I'd like to? Needless to say, I put a lot of time and love into this edit and really really enjoyed the process of adding in the countless tiny details. TBH it took some major restraint on my part to finally call it "done" and move onto the next project. Seriously though, people - I feel like I could continue to zoom way in and refine/add more details for-EVAH. Which is exactly what I'd like to talk about today: taking your time and adding more details! 

Did you ever finish an image (or think an image was finished anyway) and it just didn't seem to sit right? You look at it and it's almost as if your eye can't decide where to go? Well, if you, the almighty creator, are having this issue, then odds are anyone looking at said image is going to suffer from this problem as well. One of the most important things you can do to an image is to "tidy up." Aka attack your image with the patch tool, clone stamp, and whatever means necessary to get rid of anything that might beckon the attention away from your subject.  

First, let's get the tedious part of the process out of the way. For the most part, I hand paint each little particle so they fall exactly where I want them to go. I use Photoshop's default brush with zero percent hardness and click around constantly tapping the bracket buttons (right next to the "P" key - they are quick commands for enlarging and shrinking your brush size). I try to make sure there's a somewhat natural flow to them and not to have all of them too perfectly spaced out. There is definitely an art to particle placement.