Linda’s Tip
Week of July 30, 2007
What's the Difference?
by Linda Sattgast
Have you ever tried swapping heads in a photo? You might want to do this
when you like everything about a photo except the facial expression. Another
similar photo might not be as nice overall, but the facial expression is
good.
When you swap heads you can use the Opacity slider to help you position
one head over the other, but there's another tool that sometimes works better:
the Difference mode.
Here's how to swap heads and use the Difference mode to help position the
new head so it looks natural.
- With the Lasso tool, draw a selection outline around the head with the
good expression. Include some extra room around the head, if possible.
- Choose Select > Feather. When the dialog box comes up, type in around
5 pixels for the Feather Radius. (You may need to use higher
feathering for photos with high resolutions.)
- Choose Edit > Copy to copy the selection.
- Move to the photo that needs
a new head and choose Edit > Paste.
- Click on the menu at the top of the
Layers palette that says "Normal" and
change it to "Difference."
- Press Ctrl + T (Mac: Cmd + T) to get a transform outline around the
new head.
- Click inside the transform outline and move the new head over
the old head.
- When you're not lined up, you can see the face showing
through.
- Use the arrow keys to move the face into place, or, as in this case,
I want to line up the shoulders and jacket.
- When an area is lined
up perfectly, it turns black. You may not get a perfect match,
but get as close as you can.
- Double click inside the Transform outline to accept it, and change the
Blend mode back to "Normal."
- If you see some edges, get the Eraser
tool, select a soft brush from the Brush Picker, reduce the opacity
in the Options Bar to 50% and erase the edges.
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