Photo Clones

Many have been asking me how i have been making "Clone Pictures" . While i make them quick and simple enough , you do need to prepare & think it out. Technically what you will be doing is taking 2 (or more) photos and masking a layer from the second photo onto the first. It may sound hightech but there are tons of apps that have been made to help you do this. :) My favourite is Petavision's Clone Camera Pro. It has a clean and simple interface. It does have bugs and there are a few things it needs to improve, but all and all it does the job quite well and it will be what i'll be going thru here.





You start out using app by taking several photos. You can do this manually or automated via a timer. You will need to get the subject to shift around as many places as possible while maintaining the background. This is easier said then done! Please follow these steps first so you understand/ appreciate how difficult this is. I will come back to this a little later after we've gone thru the other steps. Once you've taken enough pictures its time to move on.

The second step is by far the easiest. Its determining the layer orders. Think of it as a 3D pop-up. Layer 1 being the background and and all the others layers coming increasingly forward. There is no rule for the picture order. But if your subjects overlap, masking a subject "from the back" on to a backgroud where the subject is in the front could be quite tedious so i make it my personal rule & practice to have the back ones first and the front ones last. Once done selecting the pictures and orders you want check on to the next step.

 Masking is the final step in making a clone picture.you will start out with the second furthest photo.. and mask up. Basically what you want to do is "color" the thing that you want to view on top of the background. Its simple. But make sure you use the preview button to always check the results. Just color over your "clones" and finish up by and publish to facebook / instagram or just save it to your phone library.

Now back to Masking

You will notice its extremely difficult to mask perfectly. This is due to
1) our finger is 10 times bigger then a cursor
2) Our fingers tend to "get in the way" of our view.

Masking incorrectly will cause
1) Overlapping images will over - overlap

2) the background to shift or not look as a single piece

To solve (1) .. there is really no real easy way to do this. mask extremely slowly & extremely patiently until its perfect.

To solve no (2) you can either, mask the subject perfectly (as per mentioned above) or make sure the background is always perfect and ensure that only the subject moves. This requires lots of practice, patients, an eye for detail & an extremely steady hand.
Notice when you take the second picture, the first picture "ghosts" the second ? use the ghost to line up the background to make sure the second picture and first have the EXACT same background. this is not easy,you will only have one chance (but probably take several pictures) before you succeed. But if you do this correctly, you can "Mask" more freely (with condition the subjects do not overlap) .

Align the ghost

An even easier way to do this is by using a mobile tripod like this one. It keeps the phone steady ensuring a perfect background, giving you more freedom during masking. Its a little more work to lug around a mobile tripod, and you need a table to use it, but the results are far better. Alternatively you can use some books or something. but the point remains to ensure the mobile is in a 0 movement position (not in your shaky hands ). This way you can mask even outside the subject, but it will not effect the background (noticeably)

Always remember when cloning, you want to clone the subject... BUT the subject sometimes has effects on the environment! While masking always consider shadows & reflections!