Matching the Light

If you're like me, every now and then you find yourself needing to insert a subject image into a background where the lighting between the two doesn't quite match. Your subject image may be flatly lit, while your background contains crisp shadows and highlights -- and if you don't correct the problem you run the risk of getting a load of critical comments.

Often times the wisest thing to do is to keep hunting for source images where the lighting does match. But sometimes you can effectively fix lighting problems and an example of how do to this can be seen in the giant elephant image named One Way Street.

Here, seemingly, the lighting matches pretty well. But it didn't start out that way...

Building the Image

The image started off when I fell in love with this dramatically lit street scene. To me the busy street with its long, late afternoon shadows begged to have a giant "something" inserted into it.

I first tried to insert a giant robot, but eventually realized I would go mad. A giant animal would be a good deal easier, so I began searching for a source image of an elephant that matched the perspective and lighting of the street.