Extract and Compose
In this post I am going to explain how I extracted elements out of multiple photos using layer masks (not deleting!) and how I brought them together to make a beautiful composition.
My theme for this composition is based on the current state of America and how we have lost sight of people as human beings.
First, extracted the little girl from the background of the photo.
It wasn't easy because the photo is monochromatic and the areas that I was trying to mask (hair, shoulders) are not the same brightness. I went into the channels tab and clicked through the R, G, & B, channels to see if I could get a better contrast. Blue seemed to work well, so I copied the blue channel, then used the CTRL+left mouse button and it will make a selection. I clicked back over to layers, making sure I was on the layer I wanted to mask, and then I masked the selection. I opened up the mask and made fine tune adjustments to the mask myself.
I was still having some trouble with the edges of her hair though. I created a new layer and made it a clipping mask of the previous layer. I changed the layer mode from normal to darken. Then I took the clone tool and grabbed a sample of her hair from the darker parts. Then I carefully stamped around the edges of her hair to try to darken them up and create more definition.
Before Clone After Clone
Next, I needed to work on the layer that would go above the little girl. I wanted her to be behind a chain link fence, like how the illegal immigrant children are being kept in cages. I picked the following photo and used the quick selection tool to select the diamond spaces in between the links.
I didn't want to keep the arm on the left so I ended up having to clone in a couple of the fence links. Overall, this is what I ended up with.
Next, I increased the size of the little girl to make her more proportionate to the size of the hand and moved her over. I also applied a black and white adjustment layer to the girl. To better match the hand to the girl, I applied a brightness/contract to the hand and also added a Noise Filter.
I then added in the background (image source: https://pixabay.com/photos/abstract-backdrop-background-blur-19505/) To give the elements more depth, I added drop shadows to the hand, fence, and girl. To complete my composition, I added a black rectangle with a texture at the bottom with text and hashtag.
Hope you enjoyed!