Two years ago The Image is Found went to Italy and posted about some self-portraits they did. Two years, and I still remember that blog post! (That’s how you know it’s a good one.)
I thought of it often in Italy when we were taking pictures of each other, or asking other people to take one for us. We aren’t the sort of people to be dragging a tripod around, and I long for beautiful, effortless looking portraits like those Nate and Jaclyn created. I thought maybe this little hike up to a church in Bologna with the gorgeous light would be our chance to create something awesome for the two of us.
First I took a picture of him.
Then had him take a picture of me, trying to stand in the right spot. My plan was to layer the images on top of each other in Photoshop and make it look like we were holding hands and looking at each other when the picture was taken. So ambitious of me!
First I dropped my picture on top of his in Photoshop, and created a mask, erasing out everything around me. That’s when I realized that this was not going to work out. 
I was standing too far forward, we were holding our hands wrong, and he was looking too high, while I was looking too low.
Oh well, I figured I’d forge on ahead anyhow and show you the finished product (along with a short description of what I did for those who are slightly PS savvy and would like to try this out on their own (or in case a PS expert sees this and would like to let me know if there is a faster/better/easier way to do what I did!)
I moved myself up so our hands would match.
Then set my brush on low opacity and erased back the stuff around me. My description makes it sounds like this was really fast, but I don’t do much detailed work in Photoshop so I felt it took a long time.
I decided I wanted his hand to be in front.
Ran my default brightening/sharpening action, and decided that was the best I could do and called it good.
So self-portraits still aren’t my specialty. It was a fun shot to set up though!
Anyone know the secret to great self-portraits on vacation and want to share it with me?
September 26th, 2011 on 7:16 am
I tweeted you a while ago about this woman: http://selfiemagic.com/
She has amazing portraits and tips! I think you could look around her site and her tutorials and find some great stuff. If you do, could you post about it?
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September 26th, 2011 on 8:10 am
Oh, this is cute! I’d love to try something like it sometime, but I am NOT photoshop savvy. I heart Lightroom ^_^
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September 26th, 2011 on 10:21 am
My sister did this with pictures of me and my husband for our Christmas cards last year. Me and my husband took pictures of each other and sent them to her and she stuck us together. She posted about it briefly on her blog:
http://niftytable.blogspot.com/2010/12/more-christmas-cards.html
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Jenna Reply:
September 26th, 2011 at 10:32 am
I really love that! Your sister did a great job blending them together (and you guys did a good job looking in the appropriate direction
)
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September 26th, 2011 on 10:31 am
This looks great! You really rescued the composite shot, and if I hadn’t known it was made from two photos, I’d think it was an actual photo.
I played around with composites in PS, with self-portraits, but I had the camera on a tripod and self-timer, just so I wouldn’t have to touch it and risk moving it even a tiny bit. Makes putting things together in PS much easier.
When my husband and I travel, I usually try to find a spot to perch my camera on, like a low stone wall or something, set it on timer, and pose away!
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September 26th, 2011 on 10:45 am
I know basically nothing about taking good photos. However this product looks cool for taking those otherwise elusive self portraits: http://www.amazon.com/GP3-Gorillapod-SLR-Zoom-Flexible-Tripod/dp/B000KFRSG4.
Has anyone used it (=worth buying)?
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Jenna Reply:
September 26th, 2011 at 11:09 am
I’ve seen it as well! Would love to hear if others liked it (and does it handle a dSLR plus super heavy L series lens?)
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Kristin Reply:
September 26th, 2011 at 4:31 pm
My Hubby bought me one for Christmas and it holds my Nikon D300 really well, but I am usually using my 50mm so I’m not sure how it would do with a heavier lens. I can try it out when I get a spare minute and let you know though!
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September 26th, 2011 on 11:30 am
It looks good — I think you were really ambitious wanting you two to hold hands and look at each other. Had you leaned up against a column and looked at the camera maybe it would have been better? Though you’d have to make sure the camera was in exactly the same spot. Maybe if you both looked off at the same focal point?
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September 26th, 2011 on 12:50 pm
It turned out great!!! I love it!
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September 26th, 2011 on 2:11 pm
This is really cute, despite the “issues.” You and TH are an adorable couple.
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September 26th, 2011 on 2:14 pm
Oh – I just thought of something else… My husband and I have a “gorillapod” which has come in handy a lot. It’s a flexible mini tripod that has twistable legs, so you can attach it to all sort of things (fence posts, tree branches, what have you). Not sure if it would work with every kind of camera (we just have little digital cameras), but it’s super light and great to travel with.
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September 28th, 2011 on 2:34 pm
My husband and I do this a lot…although your hand holding was super ambitious! We try to match it up with something…
http://tinyurl.com/4ybanj3 and http://tinyurl.com/3s84pbo were “faked”
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Jenna Reply:
September 28th, 2011 at 3:46 pm
I love the one with the green hat! I want to try again and do something like that next time.
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Jennifer @EsqEvents Reply:
September 28th, 2011 at 9:28 pm
The hat really came in handy: it was sooo hot in Southern Italy this month!!
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October 11th, 2011 on 11:57 am
We sort of did something similar this weekend but not as good as yours: http://southafricameetsbelgium.blogspot.com/2011/10/paris.html (it’s at the end of the post).
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