Overlaying sparks from one pic to another

[zella]

The background, if anyone’s interested:
There is a photo comp at my uni: “how you see the mechanical engineering dept.”, which naturally I want to win, I’m no photographer, but I certainly need the money!
They clearly want to use the pics to sell the course to prospective students, so I thought I would try and get a cool photo with some sparks flying, has absolutely nothing with engineering in my department, but it looks cool. Anyways the health and safety police wouldn’t let them use the grinder, so I had to ask a technician to do the grinding.
So now I have two photos, one with all the sparks flying, and one with them standing there holding the bit of metal. Now I need to make it look like the machine is running and the sparks are flying in their pic. And this is where the gods of photoshop aka you guys come in.

The problem, for those who weren't interested:


Overlay the sparks from this pic:
s9.postimage.org/thkghoby7/sparks.jpg


Onto this pic:
s23.postimage.org/la1uzjwgb/students.jpg


I have already fiddled around with this one in RAW to get the sparks looking as fun as possible!

(Slight issue: although I left the tripod in the exact same spot, the zoom level in each pic is slightly different, so even if they are cropped to the same size, they can never be perfectly aligned due to perspective change.)

On the scale of 1-10 (noob to god) I’m about a 2, not a total beginner, but almost.
My plan of attack is as follows:
Painstakingly wand and brush out the background.
Paste the sparks onto the image, and then drop the opacity slightly. And hope for the best.
Even if this plan even works, it will take many many many hours for me. Is this the best/only way. And if it is can you please give me some tips on how to make the job easier.
Massive thanks in advance.
z

 

[Steve]

You can post your images directly in your post and we'll be glad to help you do it yourself, but we won't do it for you.
Post what you've done so far.

 

[Fatboy73]

The only thing I can see coming from trying to pull those sparks fro one picture to another is frustration, head-desking, and maybe even a few tears. The easiest way I could see at your stated level of PS skill, would be to search around for some free PS spark brushes to download. Find a brush pattern that looks good to you and draw the spark on separate layer(set to hard light or screen) from the background.
Once the sparks are drawn in, in the appropriate color, you can add slight outer glow with the F/X layer style button.
After you get an appropriate glow go and finish it off with the dodge tool to get those pure white and really bright areas on the sparks. Hope that helps.

Best,
Chris

 

[iDad]

View attachment 29638I just did it and it took 3/4 minutes. it was relatively simple procedure use your magic wand select the yellow sparks at about 5% tolerance select similar, you'll end up with some other parts the picture but just erased those and when you copy use feathering .5% then when you add the layer transform it to where you want and put in lighten mode if I thought it was going to be a problem I wouldn't of done it but 3 to 4 minutes I can handle

I am sure it could be much better 3 to 4 minutes not bad

 

[bgoodman4]

Any idea why I cannot see (or access) any of the images? Also, when I click on iDads link I am told its an invalid attachment.

 

[Fatboy73]

I would guess because it wasn't watermarked.

 

[MikeMc]

Here....I did a 2 min quicky that way....no feathering and it shows:mrgreen:

 

[MikeMc]

Any idea why I cannot see (or access) any of the images? Also, when I click on iDads link I am told its an invalid attachment.

not posted as images, I don't see IDad's either, and get the same message

 

[iDad]

I deleted mine it's a school project I didnt notice that on first read also posted the way to do it as I see mike picked up on.nice job Mikie

 

[zella]

[at]steve, i wasnt asking anyone to do it for me. read my post. i was asking for advice before i started and wasted any time, hence i cant post what iv done so far.

everyone else, than you very much for your replies.

[at]iDad, what is the relevance of it being a school project? which it isnt by the way, im an engineer not a photographer, i wish i was set photo assignments, but alas it a lot more boring than that.
its for a competition.

ok so i was going about it the wrong way, i was trying to select the background and delete that way round. your saying i should select the sparks themselves and do it that way round.

thanks a lot guys, i will post back once im done. take care

 

[ibclare]

Fatboy, watermarks are not required in any section but freelance. So when you find a dead link for an attachment, it has been deleted or there was a snafu in the uploading. The OP was asked to upload the original images but has not.

 

[IamSam]

Hey zella, I used a channels method to separate the sparks from the original photo. Google search "masking with channels", there are many techniques to choose from. Adjusted the colors and blended with the second photo. I added a reflective glow on the student doing the grinding with a large soft brush and just for fun I added some white hot sparks.

 

[zella]

Hi all, very late response I know, but if anyone is still interested I nailed it, won the competition!
here it is. Thanks for the help!

 

[IamSam]

Don't forget that there would be some cast light on the white shop coat.

 

[zella]

Yeah you're absolutely right, the coat is definitely too dark close to the grinder, ohh well, it got the job done regardless. The people judging the contest thought it was real

 

[zella]

Thank you guys.

 

[Paul]

Closing this now as the 'banter' is getting personal and silly.