Well another year has passed, and it was time to do the annual Christmas Card.  We got started a little earlier this year, and did a photo shoot to get our base pictures, which we would then end up compositing into a picture of some Christmas ornaments on a white background.  Here’s the end result:

For more “behind the scenes” pictures and information, click on the “Continue Reading” link:

We started by finding a picture of ornaments that we could all hold up.  This one came from www.fotolia.com for just a few dollars.

Then we took pictures of everyone separately (except for the boys) against a gray backdrop, as we didn’t have a white one handy.  To get the feeling of holding something large like the ornaments we would then add in later inside Photoshop, we had people pose holding a couch cushion.  We setup lights to the left of the camera and bouncing off the white ceiling to get roughly the same lighting direction that the ornament picture had.

Inside Photoshop we cut the people out of the background and placed them with ornaments from the stock photo, rotating each ornament, erasing the chains, and recoloring one of them for variation.  It ended up helping to put a white inside glow on the people, except in areas where they connected with ornaments or the ground, to give a better feel of the white background “blooming” around the sides of the people.  The original shadows on the ground were too wrinkled from the fabric to be usable directly, but they were useful as reference in painting in shadows.  We also added shadows and reflections in the ornaments of our hands and heads to give a better feel of integration between the two elements.  The text was spherically warped, and layered on with a blend mode that allowed the highlights to show through, and make the lettering feel like it was part of the ornament.  There was also the typical color correction to get everyone in the same color range, and retouching of things like white specks on black shirts.

We’d love to see what other people did for their cards this year, too.  If you have an online version of yours, leave a link to it in the comments section so we can all take a look.  Happy New Year everyone!