Little Helper

As is true every year, this year's Wallflower/Schoeggl Christmas card features our golden retriever Bailey. She graciously agreed to share the spotlight this year with Caleb, who is now seven and a half months old!

We shot this photo in front of Caleb's closet, and getting our two subjects to perform together, on cue, was a fruitless endeavor. Yes, even photographers can fail to have a perfect family photo! Reviewing our shots afterwards, we found that every photo had some flaw — so we broke out the advanced Photoshop skills to synthesize a "perfect" shot.

The base photo that we chose had Caleb tucked perfectly into Bailey, who moved just a second or two after the shot was taken. But in that photo, Bailey wasn't smiling and Caleb's left elf-ear was drooping.

We ended up using a total of four photos to make the one you see above. In addition to the base photo, we borrowed Bailey's smile from one, a perky left elf-ear from another, and a section of Bailey's leg from a third to patch the part of her leg that had been blocked by the droopy elf-ear. Voila!

We use this technique for our clients, too. For example, big group photos at weddings often have someone blinking, frowning, or otherwise not looking their best, but we can borrow open eyes, smiles, or even whole faces from other photos to create our final image. Our clients never know, and that's how we like it.

Merry Christmas from our family to yours! We wish you all the best in 2010.