Publishers of technology books, eBooks, and videos for creative people

Home > Articles > Digital Photography

Portrait Photography FuelTip: Three Keys to a Successful Composite Portrait

In this excerpt from Introduction to Compositing: Creating Your First Composite Portrait, Eric Doggett offers some tips that will give you the best results when creating a composite portrait.

Fuel Books

From the book

In compositing, it’s important to match (as much as possible) all of the camera details related to your background, subject, and other elements. Some items to take note of are:

  • Matching the lens, ISO, and aperture of all the pieces of your image.
  • Matching the lighting of the subject with the lighting of the background.
  • Matching the camera height and angle of the subject with the background.

Now, on complex images, all of this talk of matching, angles, etc. can be quite overwhelming! For the project in this book, we’ll be going for an image that’s simple but realistic. To make the process as easy as possible, I’ve specifically chosen a subject and location that will look convincing with minimal effort. If you follow along with my thinking, your composite can be just as simple yet realistic. Here are some of my key decisions.

Shoot in Open Shade

I looked for a background location that was shaded, and then I photographed the subject in a shaded area. This meant that I didn’t have to worry about what the sun was doing. I didn’t need to match lighting direction or color.

Photograph from the Waist Up

It turns out the feet can tell you a lot about a composite image. Our brains can look at an image—specifically, where the feet touch the ground—and instantly decide whether it looks real or not. Unless you carefully match a subject with a background, all of your work on an image can be wasted if the feet look wrong. That’s why you don’t see the feet in a lot of composite images—it takes lots of thought and planning to get it right. For an example, take a look at the undisputed king of all composite categories, the movie poster. The next time you are at a theater, look at all the composited posters. Count the number of designs that have a full body shot, head to toe, composited into a different background. You won’t find that many, compared to tighter shots where the feet aren’t shown. It simply takes more time to get those feet composites right. It also locks you in to the composition, by which I mean that when you photograph someone (and their feet), and your camera is six feet off the ground, you pretty much need to find a background that you shot six feet off the ground. To make it easy for this project, I’ve photographed the subject from the waist up.

Showing the feet here means that I must photograph the background the same way as the subject.

As an example of where things can go wrong, look what happens when I take one of the kids from the previous image and move him into a background that I photographed randomly (A). Ignore the lighting and color differences—just look at the overall image. At first glance, it might look okay. We might think that we just need to add some shadows under his feet, match the exposure a bit, and we’ll be set. For this background, though, I intentionally shot it at an angle different than how I shot the subject. Let’s zoom in to the foot and see where this is a disaster (B).

A

B

Look at the contact area where his left foot hits the ground. We can actually see under the bottom of the shoe in this shot. The only way we would be able to see that in real life is if we were practically at ground level shooting him (which I was). But the background wasn’t shot that way. It was photographed with the camera high and pointed down. No amount of color correction, shadow creation, etc. is going to make this image work. It really cannot be “fixed.” In fact, this image would be easily eligible for PSDisasters.com! So let’s avoid showing the feet this time around!

Make Room for the Subject

When I photographed the background, I mentally placed the subject in the frame. I imagined her about six feet in front of me when I composed the image. I also made sure that the camera was about as high off the ground as it would be if she was there. Photographers sometimes get hung up on this; they pick a great background but the height isn’t convincing. As a viewer, we look at a waist-up image and mentally walk ourselves down to where the feet would be if they were in the scene. If the image doesn’t look like it would work (perhaps the angle on the background was too high, for example), then we instantly think “fake” and move on. So it’s important to think about this when taking your background picture. In fact, I always shoot several images of the same location at various heights, just to have options later on in post.

As you get further into compositing, you can experiment with matching background lighting with artificial lighting when you photograph your subject. In fact, many photographers will have a computer loaded with the background image handy when they are photographing their subject. That way, they can do an instant composite test to see how things are working out. But for now, we are starting simple: natural light, no feet. Now let’s talk a little bit about the background paper I used when shooting the subject’s portrait.

Peachpit Promotional Mailings & Special Offers

I would like to receive exclusive offers and hear about products from Peachpit and its family of brands. I can unsubscribe at any time.

Overview


Pearson Education, Inc., 221 River Street, Hoboken, New Jersey 07030, (Pearson) presents this site to provide information about Peachpit products and services that can be purchased through this site.

This privacy notice provides an overview of our commitment to privacy and describes how we collect, protect, use and share personal information collected through this site. Please note that other Pearson websites and online products and services have their own separate privacy policies.

Collection and Use of Information


To conduct business and deliver products and services, Pearson collects and uses personal information in several ways in connection with this site, including:

Questions and Inquiries

For inquiries and questions, we collect the inquiry or question, together with name, contact details (email address, phone number and mailing address) and any other additional information voluntarily submitted to us through a Contact Us form or an email. We use this information to address the inquiry and respond to the question.

Online Store

For orders and purchases placed through our online store on this site, we collect order details, name, institution name and address (if applicable), email address, phone number, shipping and billing addresses, credit/debit card information, shipping options and any instructions. We use this information to complete transactions, fulfill orders, communicate with individuals placing orders or visiting the online store, and for related purposes.

Surveys

Pearson may offer opportunities to provide feedback or participate in surveys, including surveys evaluating Pearson products, services or sites. Participation is voluntary. Pearson collects information requested in the survey questions and uses the information to evaluate, support, maintain and improve products, services or sites; develop new products and services; conduct educational research; and for other purposes specified in the survey.

Contests and Drawings

Occasionally, we may sponsor a contest or drawing. Participation is optional. Pearson collects name, contact information and other information specified on the entry form for the contest or drawing to conduct the contest or drawing. Pearson may collect additional personal information from the winners of a contest or drawing in order to award the prize and for tax reporting purposes, as required by law.

Newsletters

If you have elected to receive email newsletters or promotional mailings and special offers but want to unsubscribe, simply email ask@peachpit.com.

Service Announcements

On rare occasions it is necessary to send out a strictly service related announcement. For instance, if our service is temporarily suspended for maintenance we might send users an email. Generally, users may not opt-out of these communications, though they can deactivate their account information. However, these communications are not promotional in nature.

Customer Service

We communicate with users on a regular basis to provide requested services and in regard to issues relating to their account we reply via email or phone in accordance with the users' wishes when a user submits their information through our Contact Us form.

Other Collection and Use of Information


Application and System Logs

Pearson automatically collects log data to help ensure the delivery, availability and security of this site. Log data may include technical information about how a user or visitor connected to this site, such as browser type, type of computer/device, operating system, internet service provider and IP address. We use this information for support purposes and to monitor the health of the site, identify problems, improve service, detect unauthorized access and fraudulent activity, prevent and respond to security incidents and appropriately scale computing resources.

Web Analytics

Pearson may use third party web trend analytical services, including Google Analytics, to collect visitor information, such as IP addresses, browser types, referring pages, pages visited and time spent on a particular site. While these analytical services collect and report information on an anonymous basis, they may use cookies to gather web trend information. The information gathered may enable Pearson (but not the third party web trend services) to link information with application and system log data. Pearson uses this information for system administration and to identify problems, improve service, detect unauthorized access and fraudulent activity, prevent and respond to security incidents, appropriately scale computing resources and otherwise support and deliver this site and its services.

Cookies and Related Technologies

This site uses cookies and similar technologies to personalize content, measure traffic patterns, control security, track use and access of information on this site, and provide interest-based messages and advertising. Users can manage and block the use of cookies through their browser. Disabling or blocking certain cookies may limit the functionality of this site.

Do Not Track

This site currently does not respond to Do Not Track signals.

Security


Pearson uses appropriate physical, administrative and technical security measures to protect personal information from unauthorized access, use and disclosure.

Children


This site is not directed to children under the age of 13.

Marketing


Pearson may send or direct marketing communications to users, provided that

  • Pearson will not use personal information collected or processed as a K-12 school service provider for the purpose of directed or targeted advertising.
  • Such marketing is consistent with applicable law and Pearson's legal obligations.
  • Pearson will not knowingly direct or send marketing communications to an individual who has expressed a preference not to receive marketing.
  • Where required by applicable law, express or implied consent to marketing exists and has not been withdrawn.

Pearson may provide personal information to a third party service provider on a restricted basis to provide marketing solely on behalf of Pearson or an affiliate or customer for whom Pearson is a service provider. Marketing preferences may be changed at any time.

Correcting/Updating Personal Information


If a user's personally identifiable information changes (such as your postal address or email address), we provide a way to correct or update that user's personal data provided to us. This can be done on the Account page. If a user no longer desires our service and desires to delete his or her account, please contact us at customer-service@informit.com and we will process the deletion of a user's account.

Choice/Opt-out


Users can always make an informed choice as to whether they should proceed with certain services offered by Adobe Press. If you choose to remove yourself from our mailing list(s) simply visit the following page and uncheck any communication you no longer want to receive: www.peachpit.com/u.aspx.

Sale of Personal Information


Pearson does not rent or sell personal information in exchange for any payment of money.

While Pearson does not sell personal information, as defined in Nevada law, Nevada residents may email a request for no sale of their personal information to NevadaDesignatedRequest@pearson.com.

Supplemental Privacy Statement for California Residents


California residents should read our Supplemental privacy statement for California residents in conjunction with this Privacy Notice. The Supplemental privacy statement for California residents explains Pearson's commitment to comply with California law and applies to personal information of California residents collected in connection with this site and the Services.

Sharing and Disclosure


Pearson may disclose personal information, as follows:

  • As required by law.
  • With the consent of the individual (or their parent, if the individual is a minor)
  • In response to a subpoena, court order or legal process, to the extent permitted or required by law
  • To protect the security and safety of individuals, data, assets and systems, consistent with applicable law
  • In connection the sale, joint venture or other transfer of some or all of its company or assets, subject to the provisions of this Privacy Notice
  • To investigate or address actual or suspected fraud or other illegal activities
  • To exercise its legal rights, including enforcement of the Terms of Use for this site or another contract
  • To affiliated Pearson companies and other companies and organizations who perform work for Pearson and are obligated to protect the privacy of personal information consistent with this Privacy Notice
  • To a school, organization, company or government agency, where Pearson collects or processes the personal information in a school setting or on behalf of such organization, company or government agency.

Links


This web site contains links to other sites. Please be aware that we are not responsible for the privacy practices of such other sites. We encourage our users to be aware when they leave our site and to read the privacy statements of each and every web site that collects Personal Information. This privacy statement applies solely to information collected by this web site.

Requests and Contact


Please contact us about this Privacy Notice or if you have any requests or questions relating to the privacy of your personal information.

Changes to this Privacy Notice


We may revise this Privacy Notice through an updated posting. We will identify the effective date of the revision in the posting. Often, updates are made to provide greater clarity or to comply with changes in regulatory requirements. If the updates involve material changes to the collection, protection, use or disclosure of Personal Information, Pearson will provide notice of the change through a conspicuous notice on this site or other appropriate way. Continued use of the site after the effective date of a posted revision evidences acceptance. Please contact us if you have questions or concerns about the Privacy Notice or any objection to any revisions.

Last Update: November 17, 2020