How to get the perfect Xmas Family Photo
polycounter lvl 12
Hey guys just wanted to share with you what I did last night for the family photo. I am sure any of you who have tried have realized it can be almost impossible to get everyone to look their best, let alone smile, for a single shot.
I am curious as to how many of you actually do the same for your family photos.
Here is a little bit of a break down of what I did.
Top to Bottom; Left to Right
Me, My GF, Friend?, Brother in Law, Little Sister's BF, Little Sister, Older Brother 1, Aunt
Dad, Mom, Nephew, Older Sister, Niece, Older Brother 2
There are 3 Photoshop errors that I didn't catch. Finished at 6am... but it isn't anything the family will notice.
1) This is a "friend" of my older brother 2. Whole family met her that day. We will probably never see her again... Don't know why she wanted in the "family photo." Older Sister was initially upset she was in the photo so I said I would see what I could do.
2) The best photo out of all the ones we took and my little sister was sticking her tongue out... So I swapped her head out.
3) Older Brother was upset his belly was popping a little more in this picture. So got rid of the wrinkles in the shirt to get rid of that. He also had a stain on his chest that bothered me.
4) Aunt had a good smile but she was leaning her head back. Swapped her head out.
5) Niece was picking at her face... Swapped her completely out.
6) Filled in my Mom's hair here just for a prettier look.
7) We needed to be moved over and you can see the camera remote in my hand.
8 ) GF didn't like her photo. Picked a better one.
9) Did a tad bit o' cleaning on the curtain.
10) Brother in Law had an eagle on his shirt that was bothering me. Also had to rebuild his sleeve after cutting (1) out.
Outside of that, some color tweaking, levels, wrinkle clean up, cleaned the glares off of glasses, moles, ect.
Would love to see what you guys have done
I am curious as to how many of you actually do the same for your family photos.
Here is a little bit of a break down of what I did.
Top to Bottom; Left to Right
Me, My GF, Friend?, Brother in Law, Little Sister's BF, Little Sister, Older Brother 1, Aunt
Dad, Mom, Nephew, Older Sister, Niece, Older Brother 2
There are 3 Photoshop errors that I didn't catch. Finished at 6am... but it isn't anything the family will notice.
1) This is a "friend" of my older brother 2. Whole family met her that day. We will probably never see her again... Don't know why she wanted in the "family photo." Older Sister was initially upset she was in the photo so I said I would see what I could do.
2) The best photo out of all the ones we took and my little sister was sticking her tongue out... So I swapped her head out.
3) Older Brother was upset his belly was popping a little more in this picture. So got rid of the wrinkles in the shirt to get rid of that. He also had a stain on his chest that bothered me.
4) Aunt had a good smile but she was leaning her head back. Swapped her head out.
5) Niece was picking at her face... Swapped her completely out.
6) Filled in my Mom's hair here just for a prettier look.
7) We needed to be moved over and you can see the camera remote in my hand.
8 ) GF didn't like her photo. Picked a better one.
9) Did a tad bit o' cleaning on the curtain.
10) Brother in Law had an eagle on his shirt that was bothering me. Also had to rebuild his sleeve after cutting (1) out.
Outside of that, some color tweaking, levels, wrinkle clean up, cleaned the glares off of glasses, moles, ect.
Would love to see what you guys have done
Replies
Surely family photos are about capturing a moment, and not looking our absolute best?
Good call on removing your brothers 'friend' though, hideous beast!
Really good photoshop skills though. Seamless, I'd say.
We always do xmas, new years, holidays abroad etc with another family so theres 9 of us, 5 kids. Not once have we had a perfect group photo and theres no way i would change that. For example this year my friends dad was wearing the hat from his cracker upside down, just a little extra memory to take away.
Personally i do feel like a 'fake' family photo is pretty weird, but props!
lol yeah I agree it is disturbing. Though it is more common than you realize. It is something we see across magazines and ads everywhere and people think that that hyper realism is "realistic." I don't think anything I did is too far out of reach if you were to hire a professional photographer. I just saved myself about 1500.
We had about 15 of these pictures and I was just pulling heads from what was already there. Didn't necessarily change anyone. Sorry it disturbed you guys
imagine having to Photoshop out, freckles, braces, scars, tan lines, adding kids into pictures. Most disturbing type of work i've ever done.
Whoa! See now that is what I am talking about. Never would have known that this type of thing was done for high school pictures. They left all of that on me for my high school pictures
Thanks Jessica
I once volunteered to help my woman-at-the-time's brother with his wedding video. It was basically a 30-minute photo montage of hundreds of pictures of all of their family they played at the wedding. I went through almost every single one and did the same sort of work with cleaning stuff up, cropping people out, even a little lipo here and there (her sister was very self conscience about her arms...go figure) Everyone loved it.
I don't think there's anything "disturbing" about it. My god, you should see some of the most horrifying family photos from my past that my dad insists on showing the world. I would have given anything to go back and "adjust" some of those
For those like me, who have suffered through an endless amount of tortuous family photos, I give props!
I used to do this exact thing for a professional photo studio on group shots of various sizes. The other fun thing was adding in people who couldn't make the event shot, but came in after.. match the outside lighting as close as possible in a studio with a neutral background.. crop the person out, place in group shot either somewhere inconspicuous, or where they fit best. Hue adjust to match outdoor lighting better, paint in fake bounce lighting.. add drop shadows, paint fake bounce light from new person in scene onto people they're "standing" next to... etc.
Along with background removal/touchups etc since finding a big enough space to pose 10+ people in a house without some random lightsocket or annoying tangent of something in the background is damn near impossible.
And actually.. I just did this for a client at my day job (cause I can..) with her baby for a christmas card. She wanted a certain look, but didn't have a sharp photo with the right pose, but did have one that was close.. composite requested features and background etc for final card shot.
@Ott: oh god.. yeah painting in eyes that didn't exist due to having a badly placed light.. that was always fun too. Felt nice when the final prints looked "perfect".
Let the "phantom girl" there, your little sister showing her irreverence, your old brother with his belly (maybe this make him more determined to lose it) and all those little imperfections that make us humans.
"Oh, don't fix that seam, it captures the truth of the model and it will inspire you to do better next time."
FU #1
Because your clients won't pay you a cent for your truths
i mean, who doesnt want to look nice on a photo you will look at in maybe 10 years and remember that day. and you dont want to remember that girl who you met once, because she had nobody else to celebrate christmas with.
the "perfect moment" is in fact just a moment of coincidences.
they could have been like this without shopping, too. all he did is combine all the best coincidences into one cool shot.
Awesome work man, would have never noticed that it was edited had you not pointed it out.
Edit: oh yeah I also swapped some people around for a better overal composition of the photo
dude you just made my day
Agreed!
I'm not the type to care too much whether a photo is 'perfect' or not, but I know a lot of family who do, so i can understand why this piece was done, and I'm sure it went over really well. Great photoshopping dude!
Just had a thought - what if that random 'friend' ends up becoming a more permanent fixture in the family? I foresee some awkward conversations in the future 'Hey, wasn't I in that picture that year...?"
i come from a family where funny / embarrassing / ugly pictures are a common thing, so im with the others when I say it misses the point. but my dad did ask me to do that to one picture where it was all the girls in the family, but my sister was missing from it, so he wanted her in it. Never did get around to doing that. haha
all that being said.... I REEEAALLY hope that the "friend" you photoshopped out marries your brother and is forever in your family.. cause that would make for some awesomely awkward moments. haha
this belongs in P&P
+1 Very well said.
So sorry man! I will get right on that!
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Seems there is a fairly even split with people who would do it and not do it. Just thought I would share something with some artists. Wasn't looking for what was the morally right thing to do.
Got plenty of non fake/goofy moments I didn't share with you guys :P
We will see how you guys feel after those embarrassing New Year's pictures get out. lol
You should fix up this Christmas family photo Jeremiah lol