Photoshop Experts Help with my Christmas Card Please

[funhouse8]

Hi, I have a problem. My DD and SIL married and I thought oh good I can use the family picture as my Christmas card. The photographer however took out the groom when he put in my furture DIL. So now my problem is I needed them both in the same picture. Do you think you can photoshop the groom into this picture, It is OK if you need to crop out Grandma. She doesn't need to be in our family card. Let me know if this is even possible. Thanks here are the pictures,

 

[funhouse8]

Hi, I have a problem. My DD and SIL married and I thought oh good I can use the family picture as my Christmas card. The photographer however took out the groom when he put in my furture DIL. So now my problem is I needed them both in the same picture. Do you think you can photoshop the groom into this picture, It is OK if you need to crop out Grandma. She doesn't need to be in our family card. Let me know if this is even possible. Thanks here are the pictures,

Anyone Please

 

[TC09]

Sent you a PM.

 

[disneyboy2003]

Ok, I gave it a try, and here's what I came up with:

It's not perfect. But hopefully, it's something you can use. You didn't post the original full-sized images, so I worked with the small images that you provided. The image size you provided was 639 x 425 pixels. As long as you're not looking to make the image itself larger than 4 x 2 inches (assuming a minimum 150 dpi), then I think your Christmas card with this image may look ok (ie. not look pixelated).

I think 200-300 dpi is supposed to be the preferred resolution for photos, so at 300 dpi, you can print this picture at 2 x 1 inches, and it should look pretty good.

I would probably do a test-print of this picture first, just to see how it looks (make sure it doesn't look pixelated) before committing it to your hundreds of Christmas cards.


It was a bit tough doing Photoshop "surgery" to cut out grandma and transplant DIL into the photo. If you're interested in the gory Photoshop details, let me know, and I'll post it here.

The couple self-critiques I have about my Photoshopped photo is the groom's hips look thick, and the DIL's left hand is a bit blurry.

Hope that helps. And congratulations on your daughter's wedding. They look like a beautiful couple.

 

[funhouse8]

Ok, I gave it a try, and here's what I came up with:

It's not perfect. But hopefully, it's something you can use. You didn't post the original full-sized images, so I worked with the small images that you provided. The image size you provided was 639 x 425 pixels. As long as you're not looking to make the image itself larger than 4 x 2 inches (assuming a minimum 150 dpi), then I think your Christmas card with this image may look ok (ie. not look pixelated).

I think 200-300 dpi is supposed to be the preferred resolution for photos, so at 300 dpi, you can print this picture at 2 x 1 inches, and it should look pretty good.

I would probably do a test-print of this picture first, just to see how it looks (make sure it doesn't look pixelated) before committing it to your hundreds of Christmas cards.


It was a bit tough doing Photoshop "surgery" to cut out grandma and transplant DIL into the photo. If you're interested in the gory Photoshop details, let me know, and I'll post it here.

The couple self-critiques I have about my Photoshopped photo is the groom's hips look thick, and the DIL's left hand is a bit blurry.

Hope that helps. And congratulations on your daughter's wedding. They look like a beautiful couple.

Thanks, I'm not sure what you mean by the full size images. I wanted to make my card 4x6. This isn't going to work? How can I post the full size images on the Dis. I uploaded them into photobucket from an email my daughter sent me. What did I do wrong? Thanks so much for you hard work. I think it looks great by the way.

 

[disneyboy2003]

Thanks, I'm not sure what you mean by the full size images. I wanted to make my card 4x6. This isn't going to work? How can I post the full size images on the Dis. I uploaded them into photobucket from an email my daughter sent me. What did I do wrong? Thanks so much for you hard work. I think it looks great by the way.

Thanks for the compliment.

Regarding "full-size images", I'll try to sound nontechnical as I try to describe this. Let's say your daughter gave you a wallet sized photo (2 x 3"). If you want to do a reprint of this photo, you would know not to make a 11 x 14" reproduction of this photo, since enlargements tend not to retain any details of a photo.

On the other hand, if your daughter gave you an 8 x 10" photo, you can easily make smaller 3 x 5" reproductions, and those reproduced photos would still look good. When you shrink photos, they still retain a lot of detail.

Now, think of these images as being made of thousands or millions of pixels (the digital equivalent to dots of paint). The more pixels you have, the larger the photo you can create. For example, a tiny image like this is only 15 x 15 pixels. When you shrunk your photo in the 2nd example, your 8x10" photo had a lot of pixels (millions of pixels?). You can imagine that if you wanted to create the smaller 3 x 5" photo, all the computer has to do is throw out the whole bunch of "extra" pixels, and you get your 3 x 5" photo.

Whereas in the first example where you make an enlargement, let's say you started with a wallet sized 2 x 3" photo. This photo would, perhaps, contain thousands of pixels. But if you wanted to enlarge it to an 11 x 14" photo (millions and millions of pixels), the computer would have to somehow create millions of pixels out of "thin air". You can imagine that in this case, an enlarged photo would not appear as sharp and may possibly appear "pixelated".

A general rule of thumb is that you can enlarge photos by about 10%, and they would still look pretty good. If you try to enlarge photos greater than that, then you run the risk of getting "pixelated" photos that are not as sharp.

So the 639 x 425 pixel photo that you provided would be considered "small". If you calculate this out, your 639 x 425 pixel photo is actually 0.3 megapixels! I'm sure that even your camera phone can produce photos that are larger than 0.3 megapixels.

I'm going to guess that your daughter's wedding photographer probably had a camera that can produce pictures of 12 to 16 megapixels in size. Her photographer likely took pictures that were full-sized, but sent your daughter small preview/proof samples to share with everyone (ex. by e-mail, on Facebook, etc.). The photographer will use the full-sized photos (ie. the 12-16 megapixel photos) to create larger prints, wedding albums, etc.

These small preview photos look good on the computer screen and on tiny smart phones only because both of these are low resolution. However if you try to make a print of a photo, you actually need high resolution photos (lots of pixels / megapixels).

You can try asking your daughter if she has larger versions of these 2 photos. I'm going to guess that she doesn't. You can also try asking your daughter's photographer to see if they can provide you with a larger (or even original) digital version of these two photos. However, professional wedding photographers tend not to give out original-sized digital photos, unless you're willing to pay a high price.

(Craigslist wedding photographers will happily give you all the original-sized digital photos on a CD/DVD for free. However, the whole topic of Craigslist wedding photographers is a completely different discussion...)

If your daughter's wedding photographer only provided her with these small preview versions of these photos, then I'm afraid that this may be all you'll have to work with.

Disboards does allow you to post larger photos, if you have them available.

Again, if you're looking to print a 4 x 6" version of this photo, I would go to a photo store and order a test 4 x 6" print out this photo, just to see how it looks. If it ends up looking good, then you can feel confident that your Christmas card of this picture will look good as well.

(I would also order a test 3 x 5" print, as well. If this smaller print ended up looking better than the 4 x 6" print, then perhaps you can still use a 3 x 5" size photo in your Christmas card, but add a flowery, decorative holiday border around the photo to make it 4 x 6" total in size.)

Hope that wasn't too confusing. I tried to use simpler numbers so as not to be too technical.

 

[photo_chick]

Thanks, I'm not sure what you mean by the full size images. I wanted to make my card 4x6. This isn't going to work? How can I post the full size images on the Dis. I uploaded them into photobucket from an email my daughter sent me. What did I do wrong? Thanks so much for you hard work. I think it looks great by the way.

Don't upload the image to photobucket. It will alter the image when it optimizes them and it makes it difficult to do the editing. If you want someone to help you out, arrange to send files via email or a file sharing site that does not compress the images.

As far as the size, look at your pixel dimensions. You really want to have enough pixels to print at 300 DPI. To know how many pixels that means at a given size you use the formula inches x DPI = pixels. so for a 4x6 image at 300 DPI it will be 1200 x 1800 pixels. You can get buy with less, but your final print quality will diminish the lower you go.

And lastly... since these are professional photographs make sure there is not a clause in their contract regarding editing. Just because you were given a digital file, probably with a license to print them, does not mean that you can alter them and does not give you any copyrights. It is becoming more and more common for photographers to add a specific no editing clause in because they want people to come to them if they want the photo altered. That said, while some photographers are sticklers and control freaks about this, some don't care what you do to the files. You might want to make sure which type you're dealing with because some of the control freaks I've known have taken legal action over things like this.

 

[funhouse8]

DisneyBoy - Thanks so much for explaining this to me. I do have the original picture in my Email but didn't realize photobucket would alter the size.

Photo_Chick you are right I did upload this to Photobucket because it is the only way I knew how. Didn't realize it would change the picture. Oh the things I find out on the Dis. Thanks

We do own all the pictures and can do whatever we want with them. My Daughter paid for the rights so she could make her own parents books.

Is anyone willing to try this if I Email you the orignals. Is this asking too much? If so I'm sorry. What program do you use maybe I can have my son atempt this. Thanks so much for all you help.

 

[wenrob]

*snip*
And lastly... since these are professional photographs make sure there is not a clause in their contract regarding editing. Just because you were given a digital file, probably with a license to print them, does not mean that you can alter them and does not give you any copyrights. It is becoming more and more common for photographers to add a specific no editing clause in because they want people to come to them if they want the photo altered. That said, while some photographers are sticklers and control freaks about this, some don't care what you do to the files. You might want to make sure which type you're dealing with because some of the control freaks I've known have taken legal action over things like this.

This.

*snip*
We do own all the pictures and can do whatever we want with them. My Daughter paid for the rights so she could make her own parents books.

I sincerely doubt the contract says you may do "whatever" you want with them. More likely it gives you the right to print them. Most pro photographers (and semi pro and serious enthusiasts as well) are going to be very specific about not altering their images. I would suggest going over the contract and your print release to find out specifically what you may or may not do with the images. You don't want to find yourself in court over Christmas cards.

 

[photo_chick]

Photo_Chick you are right I did upload this to Photobucket because it is the only way I knew how. Didn't realize it would change the picture. Oh the things I find out on the Dis. Thanks

We do own all the pictures and can do whatever we want with them. My Daughter paid for the rights so she could make her own parents books.

If you "purchased" digital files you most likely only have a license and the photographer still holds the copyright. even though it's often said that they're selling the rights to make prints it is rare that a photographer would truly sign over the copyright to an image as most photographers really only give a license for printing and social media. You can rarely do whatever you want with the image and simply buying an image does not give you that right, though many consumers assume you can. You are far better off here going back to the photographer and seeing if they can accommodate you. Not only would it be the right place to start but they have the original files and you will most likely get a better result from those.

And that's all I'm gonna say about that.