Creating Believable Fake Wedding Photos: A Step-By-Step Guide

Creating fake wedding photos has become a lucrative business, particularly in Europe, where couples travel from all over Asia to pose in wedding outfits at famous landmarks. These are pre-wedding events, where couples, dressed in wedding attire, create romantic fantasies in front of iconic sites. The images are then used at the real wedding, often months later, as slide shows, posters, and videos. This trend has sparked a new industry, with couples investing thousands of dollars in photographers, costumes, hair, makeup, and exotic locations to fulfil their dream of a perfect wedding portrait.

Combine two images to create a photo of the bride standing with her mother

Combining two images to create a photo of the bride standing with her mother is a task that can be achieved using photo editing software such as Adobe Photoshop. Here is a step-by-step guide on how to do this:

Step 1: Select Compatible Images

Choose two images that will work well together. Ensure that the bride and her mother are facing in the same direction and that the lighting, focal length, and quality of the images are consistent. This will make the merging process easier and more seamless.

Step 2: Open Images in Photoshop

Open both images in Photoshop. You can do this by going to "File > Open" and selecting the images. It is recommended to duplicate the background layers by dragging them over the "New Layer" icon.

Step 3: Cut Out the Subjects

Use the "Quick Selection Tool" to brush around the subjects (the bride and her mother) in both images. This will create a dotted line around them. If your line extends beyond the subjects, you can use the "Subtract From Selection" brush to remove the unwanted areas. Once you are satisfied with the selection, inverse it by pressing "Cmd + Shift + I" on Mac or "Ctrl + Shift + I" on Windows. This will create a selection around the entire image, including the background.

Step 4: Isolate the Subjects

Delete the background by pressing the backspace key. You will now have the subjects isolated on a transparent background. Create a new file (File > New) that matches the dimensions of the images you are combining.

Step 5: Arrange the Layout

Drag and drop both subject layers into the new file. Arrange them so that they are standing next to each other or in a desired pose. Use the "Move Tool" to adjust their positions and the Layers Panel to move them in front of or behind each other.

Step 6: Adjust and Refine

Use the "Brush Tool" to make adjustments and refine the combined image. Set the foreground color to black and zoom in on the parts of the image you want to correct. Painting with black will mask the top layer, while grayscale will create partial transparency, and white will restore the layer. You can also adjust the opacity of the layers to achieve the desired effect.

Step 7: Save Your Work

Once you are happy with the composition and adjustments, save your work. You can save it as a PSD file to retain an editable version or flatten the image and save it as a different file format.

By following these steps, you can create a fake wedding photo of the bride standing with her mother. With Photoshop, you can combine images seamlessly and make any necessary adjustments to lighting, color, and composition to create a convincing fake wedding photo.

Remove people from the background

There are several ways to remove people from the background of a photo to make it appear as though they were never there. This can be done to create fake wedding photos, remove unwanted people from wedding photos, or to combine two images to create a photo of the couple together.

One way to remove people from the background of a photo is to use a photo editing application. There are many apps available that offer this feature, such as Photo Retouch-Object Removal, Remove Unwanted Object, and Fake a Photo. These apps often have simple, user-friendly interfaces that allow you to select the objects or people you want to remove, and then automatically process the image to erase the selected elements. Some apps offer additional features such as removing pimples and blemishes, adjusting face and eye shape, and adding image filters.

When using these applications, it is important to note that the quality of the results may vary. Some reviews mention that the edited photos can appear blurry or obviously manipulated. It may take some experimentation with different apps and tools within the apps to achieve the desired result.

Another way to remove people from the background of a photo is to use professional photo retouching services, such as those offered by Fake a Photo. These services can manipulate images to create fake wedding photos, remove unwanted elements, and combine multiple images. They can also perform additional retouching tasks such as airbrushing, beauty retouching, colour correction, and adding lighting effects to enhance the overall appearance of the photo.

By using these techniques, you can effectively remove people from the background of wedding photos to create fake or enhanced images that meet your desired outcome.

Remove lens glare

To create fake wedding photos, you can use various techniques and tools to manipulate images and remove unwanted elements, such as lens glare.

Lens glare can be caused by a bright light source shining directly into the camera lens, resulting in haziness, reduced contrast, incorrect exposure, and a distraction from the main subject. Here are some methods to remove lens glare:

Change Your Camera Position:

Move to a different angle or position so that the light source is no longer shining directly into the lens. This can be done by moving slightly to the left, right, up, or down, or by hiding the glare behind another object in the frame.

Use a Lens Hood or Shade:

Many lenses come with a lens hood designed to block light from entering the lens directly. If the lens hood is not sufficient, you can get creative by using your hand, a hat, or another object to shield the lens from the light source.

Use a Polarizing Filter:

Attaching a polarizing filter to your lens can help reduce the amount of glare. By rotating the outer ring on a circular polarizer, you can block certain forms of light from entering the lens, improving the overall appearance of the photo.

Adjust Camera Settings:

You can control the amount of light entering the camera by adjusting the exposure, aperture, shutter speed, or ISO settings. Reducing the exposure or using a narrower aperture, faster shutter speed, or lower ISO can help minimize glare.

Post-Processing Techniques:

If you are using photo editing software like Photoshop or Lightroom, there are several tools and techniques to remove glare:

• Dehaze Tool: This tool can be found in both Photoshop and Lightroom. It helps to reduce haze and improve clarity in the image.
• Shadows and Highlights Adjustment: Create a duplicate layer in Photoshop, then go to Image > Adjustments > Shadows and Highlights. Adjust the Amount slider in the Highlights and Shadows sections to darken the glare and improve overall clarity.
• Clone and Patch Tools: These tools are useful when the light is entering the camera from behind the subject. They allow you to clone or patch a part of the image to remove the glare without affecting the rest of the photo.
• Spot Removal Tool: This tool is useful for removing coloured glare, such as reflections on eyeglasses. It clones another part of the image to match and reduce the effects of the glare.
• Adjustment Brush: This brush can be used to target a specific area of the photo and adjust settings like exposure, contrast, highlights, shadows, and saturation to minimize the glare.

By following these steps and techniques, you can effectively remove lens glare from your wedding photos, creating a more aesthetically pleasing and focused image.

Change the background

Changing the background of a photo is a great way to create a fake wedding photo. There are several ways to go about this, depending on the desired result.

One option is to use a photo editing tool that allows you to change the background of an image. Fotor, for example, offers an AI-powered background changer that can automatically detect and remove the original background, allowing you to replace it with a variety of new backgrounds, such as solid colours, patterns, textures, or landscape photos. This can be done in just a few seconds and requires no image editing skills.

Another option is to cut the subjects out of the original photo and paste them onto a different image with a wedding theme background. This can be done using a photo editing app, such as the "Wedding Dress Photo Editor" app, which offers a variety of traditional wedding backgrounds and the ability to erase the background of the original image.

Additionally, you can also adjust the focus and blur of a photo to shift the attention to the subjects and away from an unwanted background. This can be achieved using tools like Funky Focus, Blur, or Lens Blur in photo editing software.

By changing the background, you can transform an ordinary photo into a beautiful wedding photo, creating the illusion of a different location or atmosphere.

Remove dust and scratches

When creating a fake wedding photo, you may need to remove dust and scratches from your images, especially if you're scanning analog photos, slides, or prints. Here's a detailed guide on how to do this using Photoshop and other software:

Using Photoshop:

• Open your image in Photoshop.
• Press "Ctrl+J" to create a copy of your image.
• Go to "Filter > Noise > Dust & Scratches".
• Adjust the "Radius" to blur the dust without losing too much detail.
• Set the "Threshold" to retain some of the details and click "OK".
• Go to "Layer > Layer Mask > Hide All".
• Set the foreground colour to white.
• Select the "Brush Tool" and choose a soft round brush.
• Ensure the "Layer Mask" is selected, then paint over the areas you want to remove dust from.
• You can also use the History Brush to selectively apply the Dust & Scratches effect. Change the brush mode to "Darken" for white spots or "Lighten" for dark spots, then dab the brush on the dust spots and scratches.

Using SilverFast SRDx:

SilverFast SRDx is a software-based solution for removing dust and scratches, especially from black-and-white film, digital camera images, and Kodachrome film. It uses advanced algorithms to detect dust and scratches by identifying areas with significantly different image information from their surroundings. The software then removes these flaws while preserving image details. SilverFast SRDx offers fine-tuning capabilities and can also work with print scans.

Frequently asked questions