The visual image on any project is going to be the primary focus. And that image has to be perfect. Very often, in a photo shoot or a purchased stock photo, the image is exactly what is needed. But many times, it needs some correcting. That can be minor, such as a color enhancement or it can be major such as the project we are highlighting here.
We had a client who manufactured stickers and needed a catalog. In the catalog we had intro pages to highlight different categories. We originally quoted on a photo shoot with models and some minor setups. But the cost was out of budget and they asked for another option. So we proposed purchasing stock images of children and using PhotoShop we would retouch the images to have the children interacting with the products we would add.
We started by selecting a stock image of some children who seemed to be playing dress-up.
Our intention was to create a scene of the children playing with the sticker sets. So we wanted to have them in front of the table full of products. We masked over some of the elements on the table, plus the child in the foreground. We also added some stickers to the shirt of the girl in the center.
Next we added images of some sticker sheets in front of the girls and we added some shadows to give them a realistic appearance on the table top.
Here we've added some plastic sticker cases along with more products inside the cases. This covered up the gold box in front of the girls but we've also covered up their arms.
We added back in the arm of the girl on the left and tucked a sticker sheet under it. We've also added some stickers to the hat of the girl in the middle.
Here we've replaced the arms of the girl in the middle and added some sticker sheets so it appears as if she is holding them. And we've added some stickers to the girl on the left. We also added a sticker box and other products on the right
Finally, we placed some sticker boxes and chests as a display at the bottom of the image.
We have now created a sticker party scene without the expense of a photo shoot. To complete the catalog page, we added a border and a section heading.
We created other pages for this project using the method described above. In the images below, you can see the stock image we used on the left and the final retouched image on the right.
