Ghost effect ?

[saur]

How can I create a ghost effect?. For example, in one photo I have a couple of persons and I want to add somebody behind them with a nice ghost effect. How can I create the feather effect to the figure that I want to add?

[saur]

How can I create a ghost effect?. For example, in one photo I have a couple of persons and I want to add somebody behind them with a nice ghost effect. How can I create the feather effect to the figure that I want to add?

[Mark (theKeeper)]

Hi saur,

There's just a few general steps to producing the effect you want.

1) Extract the 'ghost person' from their original photo. You can use the Magnetic Polygon selection tool, or just the Polygon selection tool, or even the Path tool to create a tight, clean selection around your ghost person, the copy that selected person to the clipboard.

2) Now, working in your main document (your compositie image), Paste the ghost person into this document. The image will been pasted into it's own new layer.

3) Duplicate your ghost person layer so you have a backup. Then click on the eye icon of that layer to turn the layer off for now.
Ctrl-Click the original ghost person layer to select the person. Open the Select menu and choose Feather. Set it to 2 pixels and apply. Press Ctrl+Shift+I to Invert your selection. Then press Delete. This softens/blends the edges of your ghost person.

4) Add a Layer Mask to your ghost person layer, and make sure it's been activated in the palette.

Grab the Airbrush tool and a round brush; about 20-30 pixels in diameter will do. Also, switch your Foreground colour to black.

Now... click on the "Quick Mask" button on the Toolbar (dark square with white circle in it). Then, paint over top of all the people in the photo that are standing in front of your ghost person. Paint as clean as you can, and zoom in if you need to.

Once you've completely this painting step, click back on the "Normal Mode" button (left of the Quick Mask button). You'll see a selection has been created - but it's opposite of what you need selected. So... press Ctrl+Shift+I to Invert this selection. Then, while still on the Layer Mask, press Ctrl+Delete to Fill the selection with the Foreground colour (black). Depending on where you placed you ghost person, you might notice now that this has hidden the ghost person behind the other folks in the photo.

IMPORTANT TIP:
Once you have this mask created, click on the small chain link between the layer and it's mask. This will unlink/disconnect the two so that if you want to move your ghost person around in the photo, the mask you created for that layer will NOT move; it will remain in place where you painted it. Therefore it is now safe for you to move you ghost person around anywhere in the photo. Just make sure you've clicked on the ghost person image first before moving it around.

Not so difficult an effect really. Just a simple extraction, some slight edge feathering, and a layer mask. [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_smile.gif[/img]

Hope that helps.
Take care,
Mark...

[saur]

Thank you!