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 p.3 #15 · (final) Basketball Team Photo Tutorial | |
Okay, well, let's get the ball rolling...
BASICS:
Program used: PS CS4 Extended, but earlier versions of PS will work fine.
Intended output: Web, or Print up to 20 x 30 or larger depending on the camera used to capture the source file.
Nomenclature: You'll actually be working with two open windows during this tutorial. For the purposes of this tutorial, "source file" will be the window referring to the actual file photographed and "output file" will be the name of the window that the source file cutout is extracted to (ie, the photoshopped file)
Total Time: 45-60 minutes depending.
PREQUESITES: This tutorial assumes a basic understanding of Photoshop. Prerequisites for this tutorial include cropping a photo, resizing a photo, understanding aspect ratio, understanding ppi, making a selection using the lasso, how to contract, smooth and feather a selection, saving a selection, how to create layers and switch layers, basic masking, as well as a few other basic things. If you get stuck on something, PM me.
PART 1: TECHS ON THE TEAM SHOT
Suffice to say, the better the shot is technically, the better the overall aesthetics will be in the final output file. The photo was initially shot with a simple two strobe setup. Using AB800s the lights are placed on the left and right end of the team, raised to about 8-10 feet high and bounced off a large umbrella. That's all I'm going to say about that as I'd like to spend the time discussing the actual PP that's done. I will stress a few important things though and if you don't do these things, you won't get a photo that's conducive to the reflection effect, so listen up!
#1: YOU MUST LINE UP YOUR FRONT ROW PERFECTLY!
You'll see in the intial source file how I used the line on the floor to do this. The toes of the kids sitting criss-cross are lined up near perfect to the edge of the tape on the floor. You'll actually want to look over the top of their sneaker straight down and ensure that the tips of the toes line up as close as possible to the tape. Don't be afraid to tell the kids this. They like the reflection effect and if you explain it to them, they'll cooperate. If the toes don't line up, you'll run into problems when it comes to creating the reflection. Trust me, I learned the hard way. It's a matter of optics. If the bottom row isn't dead balls straight, the reflection is going to float and the only way to fix it is to start actually cutting out the players from the team photo... a major headache.
#2: YOUR BOTTOM ROW OF PLAYERS IS YOUR BASELINE FOR THE REFLECTON TO BE EFFECTIVE. DON'T LET ANYTHING TOUCHING THE FLOOR DANGLE OR EXTEND BEYOND THE BASELINE!
Very simply, there cannot be any kids kneeling or standing beyond the edges of the row that's sitting. Your bottom row has to be the widest with the kids knees in the middle row behind the kids sitting and the kids sneakers in the top row behind the kids that are kneeling. If any part of the team extends beyond the bottom row and is touching the floor, you'll have to hide it behind a prop like a basketball or helmet and that prop must be perfectly in line with the toes of the kids in the bottom row. Same reason as #1. If anything extends, it floats in space when you create the reflection and doesn't look right.
#3: TRY TO KEEP YOUR PLAYERS TIGHT!
If you have too many gaps between players, it will take longer to do the cutout. Lassoing the tween spaces should be kept to a minimum during the cutout.
PART 2: THE CUTOUT
I'm not going to spend a great deal of discussion on the cutout. Everyone has their own technique for what works best. I will tell you that it's the part of the process that takes the longest... about 30-45 minutes depending on how well you captured the team photo. I currently use CS4 extended, but all the things I speak of will work just fine with earler versions of PS even if the actual menu items may be found in different spots. Sorry, but I'm not familiar enough with PS Elements or whether all this can be accomplished in that program.
First, what you'll want to do is set your intended image output size BEFORE you begin to work in your source file. I wanted this big enough to get a 16 x 20, so using the crop tool, I set my width to 20 and my height to 16 and at 300ppi. YMMV though... if sending to a printing lab, you may be able to get away with working in a lower ppi environment and let the printing company upsize with their own RIP. After cropping tight, I'll also eliminate any dead space above and below the team photo since I'm just going to be throwing that away anyway. Before you do that though, be sure to clear out the numbers for height, width and ppi in the crop boxes. It's also pertinent to mention that the intended output size need not be perfect. As long as it's in the ballpark, you can use Edit/Free Transform to tweak your team size when actually working on the output file.
After the resizing, I duplicate the layer (CTRL+J), select the duplicate layer and create a loose selection around the team using the magnetic lasso. I then tighten up that selection at about 300% magnification making sure to get my selection as precise as possible. Since you are going to be placing the team photo on a black photshopped floor, you can be less vigilant about making your selection precise around the shadows that are being cast on the floor with the row that's sitting. If you happen to select pieces of shadow, so be it... it will blend in with the floor anyway. Do be precise though in everything else... sides, jerseys, hair, and yes...those tweeny spaces where you have background leaks between players. I have a few tricks with cutting out hair that I won't outline here, but be careful with hair... it can be a dead giveaway that it's a cutout if you don't take extra care in selecting hair.
After my final selection, I will save that selection as "Team". Then I contract the selection by one pixel, smooth the selection one pixel, and feather the selection one pixel. All three of these can be found under the menu item Select/Modify...
On earlier versions of PS, the feather tool is simply under the Select menu.
You are now ready to set the mask for your team cutout in your source file and create your output file. Yes, we want to MASK the team selection, NOT cut it out or copy it. Masking gives us tremendous ease and flexibility later on when refining everything. Trust me... don't "extract" or copy your selections!
I'll also be able to provide screenshots from here on out. To be continued tomorrow...
Edited on Dec 16, 2009 at 10:38 PM · View previous versions
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