Matt Kloskowski - Photoshop Compositing Secrets: Unlocking the Key to Perfect Selections and Amazing Photoshop Effects for Totally Realistic Composites

Unlocking the Key to Perfect Selections & Amazing Photoshop Effects for Totally Realistic Composites

PUBLISHED BY
Peachpit Press

Copyright 2012 by Kelby Corporate Management, Inc.

The Photoshop Compositing
Secrets Book Team

CREATIVE DIRECTOR
Felix Nelson

ASSOCIATE ART DIRECTOR
Jessica Maldonado

TECHNICAL EDITORS
Kim Doty
Cindy Snyder

TRAFFIC DIRECTOR
Kim Gabriel

PRODUCTION MANAGER
Dave Damstra

PHOTOGRAPHY BY
Matt Kloskowski

SETUP SHOTS BY
Rafael Concepcion
Brad Moore

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form, by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without written permission from the publisher, except for the inclusion of brief quotations in a review.

Composed in Univers, Interstate, Tertre Extra Bold, Mentone, and Openhouse by Kelby Media Group, Inc.

Trademarks

All terms mentioned in this book that are known to be trademarks or service marks have been appropriately capitalized. Peachpit Press cannot attest to the accuracy of this information. Use of a term in the book should not be regarded as affecting the validity of any trademark or service mark.

Photoshop is a registered trademark of Adobe Systems Incorporated. Photoshop Lightroom is a registered trademark of Adobe Systems Incorporated. Color Efex Pro Complete is a registered trademark of Nik Software, Inc. Topaz Adjust is a registered trademark of Topaz Labs.

Warning and Disclaimer

This book is designed to provide information about compositing photography in Adobe Photoshop. Every effort has been made to make this book as complete and as accurate as possible, but no warranty of fitness is implied.

The information is provided on an as-is basis. The author and Peachpit Press shall have neither the liability nor responsibility to any person or entity with respect to any loss or damages arising from the information contained in this book or from the use of the discs or programs that may accompany it.

ISBN 10: 0-321-80823-1

ISBN 13: 978-0-321-80823-3

9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Printed and bound in the United States of America

www.peachpit.com
www.kelbytraining.com

To my grandparents, Catherine and Carl Zumbano. As a child, you were there to spoil me. And as an adult, Im proud to say Im able to share my children with you, so they can see just how blessed Ive been to have you in my life. The strength, wisdom, and unconditional love you two have given me is something Ill always treasure. I love you guys!

Although my name appears on the cover of the book, creating what youre holding today is in no way a one-man job. It takes the support, hard work, and help from an entire team. One of my favorite parts of writing a book is that I get to thank them publicly, in front of the thousands and thousands of people who read it. So, here goes:

To my wife, Diana: No matter what the day brings, you always have a smile on your face when I come home. I could never thank you enough for juggling our lives, for being such a great mom to our kids, and for being the best wife a guy could hope for.

To my oldest son, Ryan: I love watching you grow up. Thanks for being my trusty photo assistant on several shoots for this book. I love that were able to share in one of my passions and, whether or not it becomes one of your passions too, Ill always treasure those moments.

To my youngest son, Justin: I have no doubt that youll be the class clown one day. No matter what I have on my mind, you always find a way to make me smile. And, its just what I need to remind me whats most important throughout the day.

To my mom and dad: Thank you for giving me such a great start in life and always encouraging me to go for what I want.

To Ed, Kerry, Kristine, and Scott (my brothers and sisters): Thank you for supporting me and always giving me someone to look up to.

Thanks to Scott Kelby for not only becoming a great mentor to me, but for also becoming such a great friend. As I wrote this book, the advice and help you gave me was huge and I cant thank you enough. Thanks man!

Thanks to the folks that made this book look so awesome: Felix Nelson, Jessica Maldonado, and Dave Damstra.

Everyone should have a Corey Barker in their creative arsenal. Corey is the guy I turn to when I need to take things to the next level. Whenever I finished a composite for this book, Id show it to Corey and hed always have that one little tweak (or sometimes several tweaks) that helped take it up a notch. Plain and simple, Corey rocks and this book is much better because of his input.

Thanks to my other fellow Photoshop Guy here at NAPP headquarters, RC Concepcion. Your help in setting up photo shoots, lighting, and direction for several of the shoots in this book helped me in a big way.

I owe a huge thank you to Margie Rosenstein, Nicole Procunier, Calvin Hollywood, Eric Doggett, and Russ Robinson for allowing me to bounce ideas and images off them from time to time.

To my two favorite editors in the world, Cindy Snyder and Kim Doty: Thanks for making me look so good and keeping me on track.

To Dave Moser, the business powerhouse behind Kelby Media Group: Your militaristic, yet insightful, comments throughout the day help me way more than you know. Thanks for continuing to push me to be better each day.

I owe a special thanks to someone who has become a good friend of mine during the production of this book, Joel Grimes. Joel is one of the best compositors out there, and he was kind enough to share his techniques, thoughts, ideas, and overall creative approach with me.

Thanks to all my friends at Peachpit Press: Ted Waitt, Scott Cowlin, Gary-Paul Prince, and Sara Jane Todd. Its because you guys are so good at what you do that Im able to continue doing what I love to do.

Thanks to all of my friends at Adobe for making a killer piece of software that I truly love to work with every day. Id especially like to thank the team behind the Refine Edge dialog in Photoshop CS5: Sarah Kong, Alan Erickson, Jeff Chien, Gregg Wilensky, Scott Cohen, and Jue Wang. It sounds silly to thank someone for creating a dialog or feature, but Ive gotta tell ya, without that feature in Photoshop, I dont think I wouldve even attempted to write this book. Selections have long been the bane of many digital artists existence. But in Photoshop CS5, Adobe changed all that with Refine Edge. Selections that were once nearly impossible now happen in just a few minutes. No third-party plug-ins, no nuthin. Thanks guys!

To you, the readers: Without you, well...there would be no book. Thanks for your constant support in emails, phone calls, and introductions when Im out on the road teaching. You guys make it all worth it, and I feel honored that youve chosen me to help you learn more about Photoshop and photography.

Thank you.

Matt Kloskowski