GayleSalamone Loc: Tampa Bay area

Impressive job of adding bricks. How do you do that? I tried cloning but the vertical lines were off a bit.

llindstrand Loc: Seattle Metro

It is a relatively simple job with layers. The first step is to straighten the image which I did in Smart Photo Editor. It allows one to straighten 3 sides of the image. So turn the image 90 degrees and line up the three indicators to the slanted portions and apply the edit.

Then I used Photoshop to cutout a layer of the faces and the lower part of the image. Then there is a section of clean bricks between the adult heads so I cut it out, duplicated it and flipped one of the duplicates end for end. I merged the brick layer together so this gave me a full straight row of bricks.

Next start a new page that is larger than the original in height. Transfer the brick row to it and duplicate the bricks. Slide one row so it offsets the bricks vertically. You may have to add another short row of bricks to make it long enough. Line up the two rows of bricks and merge them. Duplicate the brick layer and now you have 4 rows. Line them up and Merge them.

Now bring the people layer to the image and place on top of the bricks and position it in the appropriat place. Then flatten the image. I cropped off the excess and a little of the couch. Then I opened it in Smart Photo Editor and they have an edit for portraits which I applied. I will admit that I am not adept at portrate enhancement so I will leave that to those more skilled than I. If you have any questions please feel free to PM me.
Swede

OonlyBonly

agilityk9 Loc: Goodyear,AZ

Thank you, Gayle. That does look a lot better. And thank you for the tip.

GayleSalamone Loc: Tampa Bay area

You lost me at Smart Photo Editor. I use Elements 9.

llindstrand Loc: Seattle Metro

Smart Photo Editor is a very simple editing program that sells for the terrible price of $29.95 and is probably the most bang for the buck around. The edits I did in Photoshop you can do in Elements. Check their website--you can get a 30 day trial free.
Swede

agilityk9 Loc: Goodyear,AZ

Oh wow, Swede! That looks great. Now I just need to learn to do it. I was in Smart Photo Editor working on straightening it -- but never thought I could add some bricks.

llindstrand Loc: Seattle Metro

Now you have the whole cookbook so I can expect great things from you now. Have a Merry Chiristmas and do not hesitate to ask questions.
Swede

Old Veteran Loc: Georgia

It looks like the sofa isn't "square" with the wall/ fireplace. Same thing can happen with other back grounds. The idea is to look for this before releasing the shutter. I learned to do this after spending 45 minutes trying to get the perfect angle for a photo of an Albatross sitting on a nest. The background was perfect (grass). When I got the photo back, sitting in the bottom of the picture was a bright shiny red Coke can. I just didn't notice the can because I kept focusing on the bird and the background. I made it a point to look at every point of the frame and when it all looked good I took the photo. :)

agilityk9 Loc: Goodyear,AZ

Thank you for looking and commenting.

You are most likely correct -- the sofa and wall were not lined up correctly. I was so focused on my subjects that I did no notice the rest of the frame. Lesson learned. So much stuff to think about -- but that is what keeps it interesting and fun. Plus it gave me some practice in PP. :-D

marcomarks Loc: Ft. Myers, FL

You'll notice the sewn seams in the back of the sofa are also bent in the same manner. That's called barrel distortion caused by using a short focal length on your zoom. Get back a little and zoom to at 35mm and preferably 50mm and you won't see that effect.

romanticf16 Loc: Commerce Twp, MI

But then the line of the sofa won't be strait anymore. With Photoshop Elements 12 the couple and sofa could be separated from the fireplace and wall, and the wall could then be straightened, using the new fill feature to fill in the gaps.

marcomarks Loc: Ft. Myers, FL

I don't know what you're seeing but the left and right vertical sewn lines of the sofa aren't perfectly vertical. They are slight angled inward at the bottom, probably at the same angle that the left and right sides of the wood behind the subjects is bowed. The brick lines also aren't precisely horizontal so the photo needs to be rotated slightly to get that in order after the barrel distortion is fixed.

Your brain recognizes a very slight angle error on straight lines as being bigger than they really are - if you focus on the error. I have to do it 45 to 75 times a day with door frames, walls joints, cabinet doors, bedside table legs, shower doors, home foundations, etc. in my real estate photography. Lightroom can handle almost all of it except extremely difficult ones where I go to DxO Viewpoint to get 'er done. Fortunately my chosen lens stays at mostly one focal length and the barrel distortion there is a common denominator that is almost always the same. But me leaning left or right, or leaning forward or backward, even a little bit can what things out too.

Dave_TX

One thing to remember folks is that the original photo is not art but rather is a record of family in a joyous situation. I wouldn't worry too much about the lines and barrel distortion.

Old Veteran Loc: Georgia

Not to argue with your point about the vertical seams on the sofa, but wouldn't that be similar to looking down an elevator shaft? The back of the sofa must "slope" down and away from the lens to cause this. There would be no way to prevent this as to getting lower would create this problem in another way. I know there are programs that can digitally change or modify the image and I guess that is a good thing. :-)