Photoshop help/question-unicorn

How hard do you think it would be to photoshop a unicorn into this picture?

My daughter wants to have a unicorn party for her birthday - getting started on making invites and was wondering if this would be at all possible..

I tried to find a white horse to use for the picture but had no luck

IMAGE LINK: https://flic.kr/p/mGrk​wD

It would not be excessively hard if you had a suitable stock of photos to work from. Hopefully someone can point you to a suitable source, as I have no solid suggestions.

Hardest part is matching the texture of the images (photo you posted has a noticeable grain, and adding images from something not sharing similar effect and size will be very noticeable) along with the shadows.

Not to mention matching the shadows. Chrisa has added a shadow under the unicorn, but the shadow of its head on it's chest is clearly going the wrong way, as the light is coming from the left, and all other shadows come from light to the right.

How hard this is to do will depend very much on the source image you use for the unicorn, as you need to match the technical aspects as well as the lighting strength, contrast and angles.

You may be better off finding a picture of a horse and photoshopping a horn onto it - you will likely have more choices with which to match the scene, lighting/shadow, etc.

kirk

Have you tried searching for images of unicorns? Is that what you are looking for, or are you looking for tips/advice as to how to "photoshop" a unicorn image into your shot?

Here's a quick search:

https://www.google.com …&espv=2&es_sm=9​3&ie=UTF-8

here's the original.. I didn't even think about the shadows/direction of light.

IMAGE LINK: https://flic.kr/p/mHZ1​cr

tony - both I guess #1 how difficult it would be to do so.. I am doing a search for white horses as well to Kirk's point..

of course any help from folks is appreciated! my ps skills are subpar

Another issue to keep in mind is going to be scale. You have a little bit of leeway in how large the horse/unicorn is, and how deep into the photo you place it, but you still need to ask yourself how large would a horse look if it was standing there.

If I get time this evening I'll take a crack at it, or at least sketch up some images that would help guide you.

Also watch out for the copyright on the source images! Try to avoid accidentally stealing someone's work, and look for something with a license (Creative Commons or similar. Watch the details) rather than just assuming that because it is online it is 'free'.

Good luck. Take your time and don't get frustrated. Doing stuff like this well is a rather complex skill after all.

I think the key is to place that unicorn and shadow in the original then apply your affect. Just a real quick example.

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And here I thought the toughest part would be finding a unicorn to photograph.

acevesf wrote in post #16804779
here's the original.. I didn't even think about the shadows/direction of light.

IMAGE LINK: https://flic.kr/p/mGH1​w4 [/IMG]

That isn't the original original. There is a huge great swipe across the ceiling where a cloning brush was swept across accidentally, which isn't in the first version of the shot you posted.

You need to be sure which one people use, if they do this for you. Dave3222 obviously used this one, as his features the streak, whereas Chrisa used the first one (no streak).

stupid trackpad - I must have accidentally touched it, i looked at the psd and it was my last action lol.. I had to clone stamp a kid riding a bike in the right corner which is why I was using the clone stamp. I've uploaded another image.

Dave I really like how you did that - how did you do the shadow on the floor?

IMAGE LINK: https://flic.kr/p/mHZ1​cr

I made a layer copy of the unicorn, then flipped it vertically. I warped the copy and elongated it to sort of align with the angle of the other shadows, desaturated, filled with the shadow color, then overlay at reduced opacity. My post was crude at best but just to give you an idea. With a little more time and a high res file you can get the look you want.