Bob Buchanan
Well-known member
Each year I spend Christmas with my brother and his huge family in San Jose. This past December on Christmas day, my grand niece, Erin, took a photo of my niece Gloria (her mother) and me. Actually, she took two images to make sure she had good expressions.
Gloria sent me the image of the two of us that she felt had her best expression. She then cut my picture from the second image and sent me that as well -- because she felt that was my best expression. She didn't want me to even see her expression so cut that photo in half removing herself.
The first attached is the image of the two of us with Gloria's best expression.
The second image is my image with Gloria's image removed. She liked this one of me the best.
The third is the final image I came up with after switching my head in the photo of the two of us with the single image of myself that Gloria liked best.
So now she has a single photo of the two of us with the best expressions in her mind of us both. Unfortunately, skin tones take a beating either way when shot with a point and shoot with non defused flash built in. And with the flash so close to the lens, red eye is almost always lurking.
I did this using Paint Shop Pro. She had done some editing on the single image so the exposure was a bit different. The background was easy to fix, but the texture in my sweater had to be smoothed - and a bit of that bled over into Gloria's hair. I can fix that as time permits - but these are low res and smaller than displayed here that she wanted for FB so I doubt it will be noticed. Also, note that a bit of her hair existed in the cut off image of me.
BTW, I shot Gloria's pre-wedding stuff 25 to 30 years ago. HERE is a black and white of her and her fiancee that was used on their wedding announcements. I had my own studio then, but enjoyed environmental portrait work equally as well. She now has two daughters, both graduated from college. One is married with a Masters degree in divinity living SCal while here husband works on his doctorate. Obviously, I am very proud of Gloria and love her very much.
Gloria sent me the image of the two of us that she felt had her best expression. She then cut my picture from the second image and sent me that as well -- because she felt that was my best expression. She didn't want me to even see her expression so cut that photo in half removing herself.
The first attached is the image of the two of us with Gloria's best expression.
The second image is my image with Gloria's image removed. She liked this one of me the best.
The third is the final image I came up with after switching my head in the photo of the two of us with the single image of myself that Gloria liked best.
So now she has a single photo of the two of us with the best expressions in her mind of us both. Unfortunately, skin tones take a beating either way when shot with a point and shoot with non defused flash built in. And with the flash so close to the lens, red eye is almost always lurking.
I did this using Paint Shop Pro. She had done some editing on the single image so the exposure was a bit different. The background was easy to fix, but the texture in my sweater had to be smoothed - and a bit of that bled over into Gloria's hair. I can fix that as time permits - but these are low res and smaller than displayed here that she wanted for FB so I doubt it will be noticed. Also, note that a bit of her hair existed in the cut off image of me.
BTW, I shot Gloria's pre-wedding stuff 25 to 30 years ago. HERE is a black and white of her and her fiancee that was used on their wedding announcements. I had my own studio then, but enjoyed environmental portrait work equally as well. She now has two daughters, both graduated from college. One is married with a Masters degree in divinity living SCal while here husband works on his doctorate. Obviously, I am very proud of Gloria and love her very much.
