Mommy's Beloved - Photoshopping Heads and Faces

When Vitafamiliae (check out their blog here) posted about taking photos of their family and how it was impossible to get everyone to look good, I jokingly said something about photoshopping heads til you got a picture where everyone looked good.  But thinking about it later, I realized it might not be a bad idea to do a post about it.  Because I love some Photoshop!

With each person you add to a photo, the challenge of getting everyone to look better goes exponentially harder.  And with each decreasing year in age, the challenge also goes up exponentially.

When my grandparents had all of their kids and grandkids in town for Thanksgiving a few years ago, they really wanted a family picture.  But with an almost 2 year old and a grandmother who can't keep her eyes open for a picture to save her life...it was going to be tough.  Not to mention I had to also be IN the picture...so I couldn't be looking through the viewfinder telling people to stop making silly faces.  So I sat there, and smiled, and clicked like crazy on the remote.

OK, so here's your first challenge: which people in this photo had their faces or heads photoshopped? (I even made these photos super big so you can see details)

Hint: There are 3.

Below is the photo I started with, You'll notice from the original that the photo isn't black and white.  It's amazing how many little defects switching to black and white covers!

Did you find them all the first time around?  Hopefully not, because if they were that easy to spot then I shouldn't be doing this post.  If you need help finding all 3 even looking at the original, let me know and I'll do an edit with the answers.

So, not that I'm a pro at this or anything, but I do have some hints if you want to try this.

- Ask everyone who is old enough to do so to try to stay in the same position for the entire set of shots.  It makes the shopping easier.  The difference between photoshopping in a new set of eyes and photoshopping in a whole new head on someone who decided to stand up when they used to be sitting is totally different, as you would expect.

-Click away for as long as people will sit there.  More options increases the likelihood of turning out a decent face for someone. Use rapid fire and don't stop clicking!

- Use Photoshop CS5.  Photoshopping out crazy things in a picture used to require some talent.  But CS5 makes it immensely easier because it sort of figures out what should go in a particular spot.  So if you do need to delete a person and stick them in standing up, it's doable without looking silly.

As for the particulars, if you want a play by play in photoshop, let me know in the comments.  I'll do it if there is demand for it.