Joiner portraits

Portraits are great but sometimes they need a little something to make them stand out. Well, how about creatively slicing someone up (not literally) and sticking them back together in Photoshop?


Gear
Your standard lens and DSLR will do the job nicely but you could also use a compact camera and as you need to move to frame different parts of your subject it's best to work hand-held.

Technique
You need to capture several shots of the person, 5 or 6 should do the trick but  you can spend as long as you like capturing as much or as little of the person in each shot. It doesn't matter how you work or in what order you capture your images as they'll all be put together at the end in Photoshop. You don't have to be precise, so don't worry if you think a shoulder strap doesn't line up with the rest of the top as this adds to the quirkiness of the final image. Do look for interesting backgrounds but make sure they don't taken the attention off your subject. Bright coloured or white walls work well as do textures such as brick walls and shop shutters. You can shoot your friends and family but if you're feeling brave venture into your town, park or any other busy location and find some subjects to snap. Remember, it's always polite to ask first so don't just walk up to someone and put your camera in their face. Whoever you photograph, make sure you fill the frame with a tight crop so they're the focus of the image.

Once you have your images you need to create your joiner in Photoshop. To do this:

Open all of your images on separate layers in one Photoshop document and make any changes you think need making to the brightness, colours etc.


Move the images around, adjusting the the size if needed until you're happy. You can do this by going to Edit>Free Transform then hitting the enter key to apply your changes.

To add more definition you can add a drop shadow to each layer by double clicking on the layer and clicking the drop shadow option. You can adjust the shadow if needed.


You've read the article, now go take some fantastic images. You can then upload the pictures, plus any advice and suggestions you have into the dedicated Photo Month forum for everyone at ePHOTOzine to enjoy.