Task: Add Three People To The Group Photo, Creating a Seamless Photo Composite
A Scheduling Challenge of Herculean Proportions
What do you do when you need to bring twenty-four people together for a group photo, but everyone hails from different parts of the world?
Even when people live in the same city or state, gathering a group of executives the size of this group is a scheduling challenge of Herculean proportions. There’s always one or two people who are not available. This was the problem facing the art director and photographer working on the IMF (International Monetary Fund) annual report. In this case, it was three people who could not make the scheduled date of the photo shoot.
Photoshop Compositing to the Rescue
The next time you need to coordinate a large group, and are facing the same scheduling problem, know there is a viable solution. Plan a couple of photo sessions. Then, turn to photo compositing to seamlessly blend the photos together.
The Photo Shoot
The success of the project relied highly on a detailed comp and two carefully planned photo shoots. Pre-visualization of how the images would be merged was the key.
I was provided with the two photos pictured below. By posing the three people on the platform, in the position where they would be placed in the in the group shot, the photographer provided me with the raw material I needed to build the composite image.
Two Become One
Building the composite required attention to sizing, lighting, and color balance. In an upcoming blog, I’ll elaborate more on the considerations and attention to small details that are necessary to execute a composite that is undetectable. (Edge control and shadows are everything.) Join my newsletter list and I’ll reach out when the article is available.
The Takeaway
If you’re tasked with gathering a large group of people together for a must-have group photo, and everyone can’t be present on the same day, collaborate with a studio photographer and a photo retoucher deft at photo compositing.
The Annual Report Design
This photo was Part 1 in this annual report project. More imaging work was needed. The design of the annual report called for the board of directors photo to be used across a double-page spread. That presented the challenge of accommodating for the gutter.
Click to the next image in this portfolio (Retouching & Composites) to see how we arrived at the final photograph that appeared in the annual report.
Client: Beth Singer Design, LLC
Art Direction: Howard Smith, Principal
Photography: IMF (International Monetary Fund) In-House Photo Studio
Copyright Belongs to the Respective Image Owners
