A creative way of photo manipulation where the combination of multiple images is involved. Initially, you should start with two pictures and proceed with more as required (8 minimum).
An interesting fact is that the pictures you’re using to create combinations don’t necessarily require to be actual photos. You can combine various media to get diverse effects in your results.
International, P. by C. E. (2024). 23 Creative Photoshop Ideas for Beginners To Try in 2024. Retrieved from https://www.colorexpertsbd.com/blog/creative-photoshop-ideas-for-beginners/
The following tutorial may be very helpful when creating your own composition.
When doing a composite, photoshop can get messy really fast. With multiple backgrounds, foregrounds, adjustment layers, and clipping masks all over the place, it’s a good idea to have them all organized. Before I start each of my composites, I create a folder structure for my layers in Photoshop.
This is the foundation of your composite. Your ability to cut your subject cleanly out of the background can make or break your composite. There are many ways to do this procedure in Photoshop; however, my preferred method is to use a fairly new feature available in the most recent edition of Photoshop. Select the layer with your subject, and up in the menu, go to Select > Select Subject. Photoshop will work its magic and select your subject for you.
However, this selection isn’t always perfect, and this is where you will need to use the Lasso tool by hitting L on the keyboard to adjust the selection manually. Holding the shift key will add to the current selection when using the Lasso tool. Holding the option (alt) key will subtract from the current selection.
Cleaning up the selection Photoshop made for you is usually the most time-consuming part of the composite. While there are other tools that can be used in this step, like the Pen tool, I find that the Lasso, too, allows me to be very quick and efficient at this step. That said, it still takes me ~30 mins to get a super clean selection that I’m happy with.
Once your selection is made the final part to this step is to go to Select > Select & Mask. In the dialog box, you can adjust the Global Refinements settings to suit your needs; however, the more important step here is in the Output Settings. Ensure that ‘Output To’ is set to ‘New Layer with Layer Mask’ and click Ok.
Now that your subject is removed from the background, move the new layer to your Subject Folder. At this step, you can now add a new background! It’s important to note a few things, however.
If these steps are followed correctly, your composite will feel harmony and look more believable which is the goal in good compositions! At this stage, I also like to add subtle flares and other effects in my FG_Elements folder. Adding these elements often seems to interact physically with the subject, which adds to the overall believability of the composite.
Now you have all the meat to this sandwich of a composite; you can now finish it off with a few layers on top, In the Finishing folder, the first thing that I always do is add a Selective Color Adjustment layer. I use this adjustment to adjust the colors of all the layers beneath globally.
Houstons, A. and Alice Houstons Here at SLR Lounge (2020) 5 Beginner Steps to Create a Great Composite in Photoshop, SLR Lounge. Available at: https://www.slrlounge.com/adobe-photoshop-composite/ (Accessed: 23 February 2024).