photoshopped

I had the job of photographing our UK development team for the Belgian company magazine.
But one person was only in on Monday and then not returning until after the print deadline.
So I had to do a little creative editing.
The original wasn't quite straight-on.
So it needed to be de-skewed.
Then colour corrected to the group shot.
I used the wall outside the office main entrance, I had the poster of "the usual suspects" in mind.

I thought I could sent the two shots over to the marketing team and they'd photoshop it.
Oh no, they had no one who could do it technically, and their agency didn't either !

So I spend my lunch hour on a quick edit.
The wall helped me establish the correct scale and positioning the individual shot in the group scene, I wanted something to enable me to match the two images.
Then after colour matching and scaling, the hard work began !
Many layers later, there's the corrected group shot.
Replace the big window with new wall, recolour the sunlight off the paving, layer the leftmost person forward, as he's standing at an angle.
Insert the missing person behind his arm, and then clean up the edges pixel by pixel.
A few extra shadows on the wall to match the group, and around the feet.
Keen observers will notice I cloned in smiles from other shots onto the final poses.

I think if you look carefully at 1:1 you may be able to see the joins.
But not when printed on an A4 page.

Result !

He looks a tad out of place, but otherwise I think it looks really good. It's one of those things that you'll only notice if you're looking for it.

Paul, Excellent work.
If we ever make it back to UK I'd like to watch you work.
If you had not shown/explained the processes you went through I don't believe 1 in a million would know how the final photo was done.

A friend was here for a visit last week and gave me a brief lesson on "layers" but it didn't "take".:D:D

My mother had a saying," Don't believe anything you hear and only half of what you see."
Now with talent like yours ..... "Don't believe anything you see."

Pretty seamless work! The exposure is slightly different, but at this scale it doesn't intrude.

How did the magazine print come out?

I haven't got a print copy yet.
Must ask if they can mail one over...

I based the adjusted image on the wall and flesh tones, matching it to the main image.
I only had an hour :)

Very nice work Paul, especially for only having an hour - love the 'shopped smile, very convincing :)