Watch Ian Mitchinson Composite a bunch of images into one!

This video is something I decided to do for fun.  I get so many emails from people asking me how I edit and what my “secrets recipe is” (yes I have had that one recently).   So I was editing away at this shot I took of Alexia and Daren and about 10 minutes into the edit, I thought it would be cool to record how I do it.

The thing is, and this really is the thing.  There is no right way or wrong way to do anything in photography.  And no matter what anyone ever shows or teaches you it will never replace being creative with the tools that are at your disposal.

The video is 5 minutes long – In this video I have shot a base image plate and about 4 or 5 images of the couple.  I use layer masks to composite the multiple images of my subjects in the correct location that I want them.  This concept is used by most commercial photographers when shooting ad campaigns.  Although in many cases it is impossible to shoot one frame to acheive the effect, it can be done sometimes using extensive lighting….but these days its much cheaper to shoot plates and then “comp” or composite them together.  I really like this effect, as it isnt something most photographers that have never worked in the commercial field will know.  If you do it all the time, it can become stale for your online portfolio, but every now and again its a lot of fun.  In the upcoming workshop I will be doing early in 2012 we will be going over how to shoot composite images in depth.  Let me know if your interested and I will send you details when the date is set.

In case your wondering further, the tools I used for this image are : The Pen Tool, Layer Masks, Shadows and Highlights amongst others.  Hope you like it….I didnt edit the video, as I just wanted to do this for fun.  The video is 5 minutes long and it took me 30 minutes to put together.  With editing you can edit forever, one has to decide when they are done, as someone can always add more or less.