Nightmare on Toddler Street

    I have been learning a bit about making composite photos. I have a great book, "Adobe Photoshop Masking and Compositing" by Katrin Eismann. She begins with the basics and provides photos for the reader to practice with.

    Still, it is not easy for me. Perhaps I didn't get some of those basics. While working on this composite my mantra was "this is fun, this is my hobby." Otherwise I would have thrown the computer out of the door and into the back yard.

    The first photo was fun to make. I took this one over the Christmas holidays. My camera was set to shoot several frames per second and in one of them he had the expression I was looking for.

    Then I searched around the house for an old doll. It turns out, we don't have many old dolls here. But I found this one and she possessed just the right amount of creepiness for my second photo.

    I placed her against a solid red background. It should be easy to "cut her out" from that right? Not so much. But I finally got the job done. Then I moved her onto Jake's photo, blurred her a bit, and here you have it, one toddler nightmare! If you click on the photo below it should go to full screen for you.

    Compositing (or Photoshopping) could be a lot of fun. Imagine Jacob jumping out an airplane for the first time. Or Kira visiting Buckingham Palace and meeting the Queen's Corgis. If you have a suggestion feel free to place it in the comment section below.