Cheers, Creative Enthusiasts,
I hope you are all well and getting super stoked to watch the commercials this Sunday during the Super Bowl Game. What... you mean there’s another reason to watch the game? Not unless the Eagles are playing! (hey, you can take the girl out of Philly but you can’t take the Philly out of the girl).
Previously, I had done a blog post showcasing my band’s new website that I had recently designed. I thought with this blog post, I would “lift the hood” so to speak on some Adobe Photoshop magic that was required to be able to launch the website showcasing the current band members. We had a very productive photoshoot several years ago with the incredibly talented photographer and artist, William LeDent, who captured the striking image below in a beautiful wooded setting in front of a gorgeous barn. I personally love this photo... What a happy crew!
Original photo with our former drummer, Dan, on the right in the shot.
But alas, as happens with bands, we had member changes with the musicians. First, we found a second guitarist, Matt Rowan, to add to our lineup. And later, we needed to replace Dan as the drummer with Steve Synder. Given everyone’s hectic schedules and it being the middle of winter right now, we have not had time to schedule a new photoshoot, scout a location to do it, etc. So in walks Photoshop magic to save the day! The photo below shows how I created extra layers in Photoshop to begin “erasing” Dan from the photo so that I can seamlessly place the new band members over that area of the photo.
Photo showing interim work of “making Dan disappear” after he decided to leave our band to pursue other dreams.
The photo below is the “After” photo showing the two new band members placed in with some color correction to adjust how the lighting is hitting their face and clothes. I also needed to add some shadows behind each of them to help make them look more incorporated into the photo. The template that I used in Squarespace for our new website at www.surrenderfriday.com has a tint over the main image, so that helps make it even more forgiving.
Current photo on the home page of our website with Matt (our newer guitarist) and Steve (our newer drummer) “photoshopped” in.
Once it gets warmer and we can get everyone’s schedules to line up, we will be replacing this photo with an actual photo of the entire current band all in the same shot, with proper natural lighting and shadows. But I love me some Photoshop to save the day when I need it!
I’ll periodically share case studies of how I use Photoshop to create illusions that serve the task at hand. Photo editing and manipulation is one of the services that are available here at Giant Leaps Creative. Please feel free to us on Facebook for fun updates and free information about graphic design, marketing and advertising.
I hope you have a magical day! And don’t forget to try to pay attention to the commercials on Sunday as you watch the game! Hopefully there will be some great creativity there to inspire us.
To your creative endeavors!
Onward and upward.
Cathy Broadwell
Giant Leaps Creative LLC