Kristina Lingerie Photoshop / Photo Editing Project
A photo editing project using Photoshop to remove the subject from the original background and place her in a more professional setting.
The photo above is just one example from several images I have edited for this model. The intention was to separate her from the busy background of the original image and place her in a similar yet more professional setting, something like a studio photographer might choose.
I took three main steps when approaching this photo; they are quick to say but time-consuming to achieve. The first step involved separating the subject (Kristina) from the original background. It's easy to lose details in this step - hard lines or edges are relatively easy, but fine hair or frilly edges can complicate matters, as can where dark or black edges meet or, similarly, where light or white edges meet.
Once completed, the next step was to place the subject onto the new background. It involved a degree of rescaling the image subject (Kristina) so she didn't look too big or small in comparison to the new bed image.
At this point, I realized the background was almost distracting from Kristina. As she is the focus, I applied a degree of depth of field blur to the new environment, making the foreground appear more in the camera focus than the wall or pillow at the head of the bed.
But the fun didn't end there! One of the most time-consuming steps was adjusting the skin tone to better match the new background and the lighting on Kristina's skin, clothes, and hair. In the original photo Kristina provided me, there were two sources of light - an artificial room light and a ring light directly in front of Kristina. In the new background, the light source (the sun) comes from the right-hand side of the image, falling across the bed and the wall. It meant I had to look at the picture as if it were 3D and darken the left-hand side (as you look at the image) of the various surfaces of her body and lighten the right-hand side.
A few other "blink and you'll miss it" touches include a more pronounced "shine" to her hair, a very slight lens flare effect applied to her cross necklace, and giving her nose ring more of a glow. While it is barely visible in the original photo and may seem inconsequential, it's part of what makes Kristina, Kristina.