At the railroad museum I snapped two shots without actually looking through the view finder. I’m practicing shooting from the hip and aiming without looking because, well, I’m lazy.
Garrett is 32″ tall, and I’m about 66″ tall. Ok, maybe 65″. Instead of bending over and crawling around on the ground, it’s much easier for me to hold the camera down on his level and snap shots rapid fire in the hopes that I’ll catch a good one.
If you don’t do this, you should try it sometime. I’ve gotten some of my BEST shots that way. That’s how I got this picture, in fact. I’ve also noticed that it is one of the ways to get Garrett to actually look into the camera lens when I don’t have it pressed up against my face. Weird, but it works.
Anyway, I shot these two pictures during our photo session at the railroad tracks.
The first one:
The second one:
When I saw these two I thought, AW MAN! If only I had gotten the overall shot of that because THAT would have been a great photo.
So I started playing around with the two images in Photoshop Elements. I’ve used the Photomerge Panorama before to make goofy pictures like merging my head onto a $100 bill and stuff… but never for an actual photo that I want to show to anyone.
But this one is different. I’m going to let you guys be the judge on this one.
Here is the result of merging the two images:
Here is how I did it:
In Photoshop Elements open the two photos that you want to merge together.
Click File –>New
Click Photomerge Panorama
Drag and drop the two images into the box until they are overlapping. They will snap together automatically, but just keep moving them around until you are happy with the way it looks.
Click OK, and it will spit out a new merged image.
Crop it to your liking!
Sorry, but I have no idea how to do this in Photoshop CS3 or any of that newfangledness. I know you CAN do it, but don’t ask me how.
I can’t decide if I like it or not. So, you tell me… creepy or not?
If I had not told you that this was a merged photo would you have known it?
Garrett’s shoulders look kinda wonky, and his lapel is doubled up. But aside from that, you’d have to really zoom in to see that the pattern in his flannel doesn’t exactly match up.
Hmmm…
I’d love to hear feedback on this one. Please comment and let me know what you think.
If you hadn’t said anything, I don’t think I would have noticed at all.
Looks good. Only because I was staring at the picture and you said it was merged did I notice that his left arm (the right arm looking at it in the picture) looks a little over-stretched. Cool way to edit though!
Something about it makes me dizzy. I’m not sure if it’s the ‘stretched’ arms or the lighting… Maybe if I hadn’t known, I wouldn’t have noticed but there’s something about it that I can’t put my finger on.. Cute picture though!
Love that first shot. My friend Kyle gets great shots that way all the time. My fancy camera that I almost never use has one of those LCD screens that pop out a bit to make it easier to see what you are getting in those shoot from the hips shots.
I’m with superchixor on the merged pic. It kind of makes me dizzy.
Although again like her I don’t know that I would have really been looking at it so carefully without knowing you merged it. His left arm looks a bit odd with the merge though.
He’s still adorable.
I wouldn’t have known, if you hadn’t pointed it out. Even knowing it was merged, I didn’t see what was “wrong” with it until you explained the error of the lapel and the plaid. You’re right, it is a bit off (and the 2nd commenters is right about the arm stretched). But, I’d still keep it. It’s super cute.