This is awesome!!
How did you do it? (or do you want to share?)
I'm really impressed by this.

Posted by Karrie on March 12, 2008 at 10:03 PM CDT #

I am happy you like this image! Sure, I will try to explain how I did this, it was very fun to make! I put a tripod up on top of a table and lined up the scene and didn't move the camera during any shots. Then I used a cable release that hung down so I didn't have to climb up on the table for every shot. I started by taking the shots of me playing cards with myself. I am pretty good at visualizing things, so I was pretty good at imagining exactly where I should be if I was really interacting with all of these people. I took about half the shots, then loaded them into my computer and started with the base image of just one of me playing cards. I added the other one of me playing cards, and used a technique in photoshop called Layer Masks...which is kind of erasing through an image to the layer below...just leaving the pieces you want. Oh, that is a horrible explanation, but I am not good at explaining photoshop. Basically I had all these layers of different images and erased everything in each layer just leaving the new person I wanted to add. It was the toughest when one of me overlapped another of me...I really had to be detailed with my masking. After getting about halfway done, I visualized the scene in my living room again and figured out where I wanted to have more of me without getting too crowded. Then I took more shots. I put a lot of thought into it and tried to make it look seamless. After I was done, the photo was so convincing to me that I kept looking into the living room expecting to see people. By the way, there is water in the wine glass, because I started this project at Noon, and knowing myself, I knew if it was really wine, I would be toasted and wouldn't be able to finish this. I finished the project at 6 p.m., it took a while for me to visualize what I was doing, plus change clothes in-between the shots, plus all the photoshop compositing, and of course I had to have lunch in there somewhere. When I had my finished project, I celebrated with a few glasses of wine! I sent this out as a Christmas card to everyone I know, with the caption: "Merry Christmas, from all of me to all of you!"

By the way, my very last shot was the one of me outside on the deck. The rest of me thought it would be funny to lock me out there, and they didn't let me in for an hour!

Posted by Debbie Hartmann on March 13, 2008 at 04:53 AM CDT #