Project – Clones

This is a super fun project that teaches the masking tool in Adobe Photoshop. It is also a great way for kids to practice using a tripod to shoot each other’s photos and consider spatial awareness.

It also will fill up a whole week of lessons for Photojournalism, which is always nice and easy for planning purposes!

Shooting Directions

Copy and paste these right into Google classroom or your school’s assignment platform!

Allow for two 45-minute class periods – depending on how many students you have. I always had a few kids have to retake their photos (see why below.)

Intro the project by showing examples, and explaining that they will be using Photoshop to “clone” themselves 5 times into a photo. I always allowed them to do more than 5 if they wanted – as long as they were able to do so by the due date.

  1. With a partner or small group (model and photographer, then switch to take each other’s photos), set up camera in a location on a tripod. (Hallway, classroom, outside, etc.)
  2. Take a few test shots to ensure you have the correct settings.
  3. The model will pose (photographer, make sure they’re in the frame!) in at least 5 different locations: up against the wall, jumping (fast shutter speed!), laying down, walking, running, sitting, holding props, creeping around the corner, etc – get creative!

    Be sure to not “overlap yourself” – consider the end result and place yourself in a wide enough shot that you can be in 5 different locations without any overlapping parts. (This is why some kids end up retaking their photos.

    It IS possible to edit with overlapping parts, it just makes it a bit more tedious so try to avoid it.

Editing Directions

Allow for two-three 45-minute class periods.

  1. Upload all your photos to the computer
  2. Open one in Photoshop – DON’T EDIT IT YET (many kids will start to edit for brightness/contrast right away but this needs to be the last step for this project.)
  3. Go to File > Place Embedded and select the next photo. This will “Place” the photo on top of the other one. Do this with all the photos until you have all 5 in one document. Each photo will be on its own layer.
  4. OPTIONAL STEP if your images are not perfectly aligned: This effect only works with aligned photos. To fix this, hide all layers (eyeball icon) except the two you’re lining up first. Lower the opacity on the TOP layer to see how they are lining up. Use the MOVE TOOL and arrow keys on the keyboard to line up. Do this with each layer. (Align all to the BOTTOM layer – making sure you hide all the others so you don’t get confused.
  5. Hide all layers (eyeball icon) except the two you’re going to merge together first.
  6. Make the top visible layer a “layer mask” by selecting the icon at the bottom of the layers palette that is a rectangle with a circle in the middle (“Japanese Flag”).

    Think of the layer mask as masking tape when you’re painting your room. You “mask” off parts of the room (baseboards, door frames, etc) because you don’t want them to be painted.

    We want to “mask” the background of the photo in the top visible layer, so we can only see YOU and the background from the bottom photo shows through.
  7. Hide the bottom photo layer. This is so you can see what you are masking off.
  8. Brush away the background with a solid 100% black brush. Lower the hardness so the brush is “fluffy” and won’t create hard edges.
  9. If you erase too much, switch the brush to solid 100% white. Layer masking is a nondescructive way of “erasing” as you can always bring it back!
  10. Unhide the bottom layer and you should see the whole bottom photo (with background), and two people (one from the top layer).
  11. Continue this process with each layer until all 5 are on the bottom layer’s background.
  12. When you are still working on the project, save as PSD. This is very important!
  13. Edit the final photo however you’d like using the adjustment layer palette.
  14. When you are done, save your project as a .JPG with your LAST NAME as the file name.

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