Portrait Artwork - combining subjects from different photos

Author: John Burton

I am often asked if I can produce a portrait of more than one subject, using separate reference photos.

My ability to make the subjects look as though they really were together is highly dependant upon the compatibility of the reference photos. The key considerations are as follows.

Relative scale

When subjects are in separate photographs it can be difficult to estimate what size one may be relative to the other. For example, is one subject taller or shorter than the other, and if so, by how much?

Often the client can provide additional information, or a photograph of the subjects together for reference only. Sometimes, other items in the photographs can provide clues as to relative sizes, such as a fixed object common to both photos.

Most of the time, relative sizes can be deduced.

Lighting

Lighting of subjects must be compatible in terms of both direction and intensity. For example, a person lit from the left, and another from the right will not go together. Similarly, a subject shot in bright sunlight will not go with another photographed in soft light.

Some adjustment can be made, in some cases. For example, dogs and cats can be reproduced as mirror images to change the direction of the light from left to right (and vice-versa), and their identifying features re-mapped (e.g. a black left ear can be transposed back to the left), but human faces are too complex and unsymmetrical for this approach to work.

To unify the angle of illumination, the cat on the right was drawn as a mirror image, and the dark markings transposed to their original locations.

Generally, subjects photographed in completely different light cannot be combined successfully. Only when the illumination is similar can modest adjustments be made to equalize the lighting.

Pose compatibility

The single most important objective here is to connect the subjects in some way (e.g. looking at each other, looking at a common point, or touching in some way). Animals and humans relate to each other differently. Dogs or cats can be placed together far more easily than people. Impediments to successful combinations are usually where the subjects are people, and doing completely different things, or in very different postures.

Composition

Attempts to combine several images into one picture frequently hit compositional problems. The simplest example of this is something like two reclining dogs side buy side. One lying dog has an overall shape that fits a "standard" image proportions (a "landscape" format that is 1.5 times wider than it is high). However, side by side, the overall shape of the subjects becomes 3 times wider than it is high. To avoid odd shaped images, the dogs need to be placed one in front of the other, or the background detail has to be more expansive.

Perspective

Subjects in separate photographs can often be shot from different perspectives: for example, a photograph of one dog at eye level, and another seen from above.

Subjects captured from differing perspectives can rarely be combined successfully.

Workarounds

In many cases, the most viable method of depicting subjects from different photographs in one image is via a montage. This merely places the subjects into an overall design, and does not attempt to deceive the viewer into thinking the subjects posed together.

Portraits by John Burton

About the Author:

Portrait artist working mainly from clients' own photographs.

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