Does this look fake?

[kimberley]

I tried something today for the very first time adn Im sure it apparent, but its my first time. maybe you guys can help me do it better and more perfect.

The parents wanted a pic with hats on the baby would keep hers on she I found another that she kept it on for 1 second but screaming with it on so I cut and pasted.


How is a better way to do this, and what else can I do better to make it look right?

[Ray]

I think it just needs a small, light shadow around the bottom of the hat on the skin?

[kimberley]

would i just use the clone tool for that or dodge it a bit?

[Ray]

Probably 10 different ways to do it. I made another layer, selected the area, feathered it slightly, painted with black and then dropped the opacity.

[jeffkohn]

My suggestion for doing stuff like this, rather than try to past the hat into the smiling photo, you might try pasting her smiling face into the other photo. I've found that lasso-ing the face, feathering the selection, and then pasting it onto the other image usually works very well. In your particular situation this may not be the best approach because I think both the father's and the child's poses are better in the first shot, unfortunately. So my approach may not be the best here but might be somethign to keep in mind for the future.

Here's an example from some snapshots I took for my friends at their son's baptism. Assuming the exposures are close enough, you can do this pretty seamlessly, just make sure to feather the selection before copying/pasting.

[Allen]

To be honest, I think the card would look just as good without her wearing the hat. At least she has the bow in her hair that adds something to it.

[kimberley]

yeah I have one of those also without the hat, but they really wanted to hat, sooooo Im trying to go a bit extra, good friends and all....

Kimberley

[bear1962]

Once it's down to card size I doubt anyone would be able to tell.