Why We Work Like This

We take 2 photos of each subject on a green screen and then we cut them out. We put these subjects into groups, each group has it’s own photoshop file (PSD) containing both photos of each subject. These files use linked photoshop layers, so you can edit the individual photos very easily. Inside the file there are some layers that don’t appear to to do anything but are needed so that you can run our actions and scripts on the file. Please don’t delete, rename or re-order layers, they are all there for a reason.

A Quick Overview Of The Task

1. Open the group’s file
2. Open and save the better photos to the bottom rows
3. Check for players leaning and cut-out issues, correcting if needed
4. Run the action
5. Space the players out correctly trying to fill the image as much as you can
6. Save the file and do the next one

Example video showing 2 rows of subjects (including 1 member of staff), how to choose the best photo and correct simple cut-out issues.

All Steps With Instructions

Open the PSD file for a group, each subject has 2 photos in each group but we only use the bottom set of photos, the photos at the top will not be used. For this reason we need to check which of the two photos taken is the better photo and make sure that photo is on the bottom.

Choosing The Best Photo

Choosing the better photo is really important, it will be the difference between someone buying the photo or not. You must consider

• Is the subject smiling and is one smile more relaxed/natural than the other?
• Are they looking at the camera or have they been distracted?
• Does their pose look uncomfortable or arkward?
• Are there any other problems with the better photo (poor lighting or a big cut-out issue) that mean it can’t be used

If the top photo is better:

1. ‘Crtl+Click’ that photo to highlight the layer
2. Double click the layer preview to edit it
3. When it opens, ‘Save as’ and overwrite the other PSD file in the folder
4. Close that file. Because the layers in the main PSD are linked layers, when you overwirite the file, it will update and the changes you made will show in the group PSD.
5. Check every subject in the group.

Quality Check

Now we must check if any of the bottom photos need correcting, this could be becasue the subject is leaning or there is a cut-out problem. If you see any of the problems shown below follow the instructions to correct them.

Players Leaning

Subjects can sometimes lean to one side when photographed. To fix this you must:

1. ‘Crtl+Click’ that subject to highlight the layer.
2. Double click the layer preview to edit it.
3. All of the layers inside the subject’s PSD are locked together so you can simply use the Box-bounds to rotate them so that they aren’t leaning.
4. ‘Save’ and ‘close’ to update the group photo

Logo, Strip or Glasses Cut-out Problem

If part of the subjects clothes like a badge or their shorts, match the colour of the screen behind them, that part of the photo will be cut-out too when we remove the screen. This is also applied to the reflection of the screen on the arms of the subjects glasses. To fix this you must:

1. ‘Crtl+Click’ that subject to highlight the layer.
2. Double click the layer preview to edit it.
3. This will open up with the ‘Foreground’ layer already highlighted. Select the layer mask by either clicking on it or pressing Ctrl+\
4. Use your brush tool, with white as the forground colour to correct the cut-out problem.
5. You may also have to select the spill correction layer mask and fill in the same spots as any colours matching the screen will be desaturated by this layer.
6. ‘Save’ and ‘close’ to update the group photo

Cropping The Photo Manually

If the camera has not been centered correctly or the photographer has zoomed too far out there may still be parts of the photo that we need to crop. To fix this you must:

1. ‘Crtl+Click’ that subject to highlight the layer.
2. Double click the layer preview to edit it.
3. Using the rectangle ‘marquee’ tool draw a box around the subject leaving space so that you do not crop any of the subject.
4. Select ‘Crop’ from the ‘Image’ menu. You can do this quickly with ‘Alt+i’ > ‘p’.
5. ‘Save’ and ‘close’ to update the group photo

Once all the problems have been corrected select and play the ‘Group’ action from the actions panel. This will arrange all of the subjects in group for you. Note: On some jobs we will photograph staff. Staff photos will need to be treat like any other photo until after the action has ran. Once the action has ran, Ctrl+click and delete the staff layers. You should do this before you space out the subjects.

Spacing the Subjects

All you have to do now is make some small adjustments to make the photo look better.

1. Make sure the spacing of the subjects is even by selecting all of the players in the ‘front’ group and using the ‘distribute horizontal centers’ alignment tool.
2. If you have to make any manually adjestments, hold down the ‘Shift’ key so that they’re only moved horizontally.
3. If there are any players that stand out becuase they’re too tall or too small, either move them up or down or resize them a very small aount. Do not resize them too much! If one person is smaller in real life but are the same size in the photo this will be very noticable to the customer.

Groups With Two Rows of Players

Some groups where there are more than 14 subjects will be spread over two rows, these work exactly the same until after you have ran the action. You will be left with the bottom row as normal and the back row slightly above them layered in it’s own group. This 2nd row will need to be spaced out evenly.

1. The position of the left and right end layers decide how spaced out the row will be. Move the 2 players at each end as far apart as you would like to space the row out. Hold ‘Shift’ so that they only move horizonaly, rather than up and down.
2. Select all of the layers in the ‘back’ group.
3. Now space the back row using the ‘distribute horizontal centers’ alignment tool.
4. If you have to make any manually adjestments, hold down the ‘Shift’ key so that they’re only moved horizontally.

If there are only 1 or 2 players in the back row, you can move 1 or two from the front row (try to select the taller players) into the back row to give a better balance.

1. First, move the layer(s) into the ‘back’ group in the layers pannel by selecting them with ‘Crtl+Click’ and dragging the layers into the group.
2. Then align the bottom edges to match the layers already in the ‘back’ group.
3. Now space the back row just as normal, using the ‘distribute horizontal centers’ alignment tool.

If you run into any problems with any group PSD files, make a note of the file name in the spreadsheet so we can take a look at it.