Who green screens?

[Baitball Blogger]

Our family is spread out for Thanksgiving when we usually take the family Christmas photo so I'm going to green screen, though I don't suppose green would be the appropriate color since we'll all be wearing green or red. I have basic photoshop skills so I think I can bring two pictures together, but I could use advice. What background color is recommended if you can't use green? Do I need to worry about proportions for the people in both photos? I assume they don't have to be the same.

[forgotmylogin]

1. Color doesn't matter as long as they're on a contrasting solid background.

A white wall is fine. From separate photos, you can "magic wand" the background color and eliminate it - doesn't have to be green. Just ask them to take the picture in front of a solid wall or backdrop that doesn't match their clothing too closely. I use Sumo Paint, which then lets you "feather" the selected edge so it's softer and not pixelated.

You can scale people's size, but the photo resolution will be a factor if you have to make people really large. You could end up with one group looking blurrier than the others if the resolution is low and you had to blow them up a lot.

Worst case scenario if the blending together doesn't work, a really nice integrated montage can also look really cool.

[Baitball Blogger]

2. Questtions.

So, should I ask them to take full bodied shots without filling up the frame?

I'll look up the montage to see if it would fit in. Thanks.

[forgotmylogin]

3. Depends what you plan to do and what you want it to look like.

Using layers, you could move standing people behind sitting people.

With the montage, what I mean is worry less about making it look totally "realistic" and more about just featuring all your family together in one print, even if the pictures weren't taken simultaneously.

I did a quick search, and here's an example of montage:
http://www.georgehoffman.com/category/digital-art/photo-montage/

[Baitball Blogger]

4. Yes, I looked it up last night.

I'll give your link a looksee after breakfast. Thanks!