Bringing your composites to life requires perfecting every detail and Photoshop's Generative Fill makes it easier than ever.
My name is Jesús Ramirez.
In this video, I'll show you how to use Generative Fill to add realistic shadows, reflections, and other tricky elements to your composites.
In this project, we have two images, a background and a woman sitting on a stool.
The goal is to place the woman over a new background in a photorealistic way.
To start, select the main subject layer, then from the Taskbar, click on the Remove background button.
In this case, Photoshop does a fantastic job of removing the background.
In your image, you may have to fine-tune the mask a bit.
You can use the Brush Tool and paint with black to hide additional areas, or paint with white to reveal hidden areas.
Notice how the new background has a strong yellow color cast.
For this composite to look realistic, we will need to apply the yellow color cast to the foreground layer.
One easy way to do so is to go into the Adjustment Layer icon and choose Color Balance...
Then press Control Alt G on Windows, that's Command Option G on the Mac, to create a clipping mask.
Notice the down-pointing arrow next to the Color Balance layer.
This icon indicates that this adjustment layer will only affect the layer directly below it and nothing else.
In other words, we will adjust the color of the woman layer without affecting the background.
Now, from the Properties panel, drag the Yellow slider to the left to about -40 to add yellow to the image.
You can also add a bit of red by dragging the Red slider to the right.
In this case, about +20 should work.
It's a subtle effect, but it helps make everything look more cohesive.
You can click on the Color Balance's Eye icon to disable and enable the effect to better see how these adjustments affect the image.
Now we need to remove the remaining part of the stool and create contact shadows and reflections on the floor.
This could be quite a tricky task, but with Generative Fill we can complete it with just a few clicks.
First, enable the Selection Brush from the Toolbar, then tap on the right and left bracket keys on the keyboard to resize the brush.
In North American keyboards, the bracket keys are located to the right of the letter P.
Make the brush small enough to give you control over small areas, and brush over the parts you want Photoshop to merge.
In this case, her legs, feet, the stool, and the floor.
The overlay indicates the areas that will be completely replaced by the generation.
Notice how the Generate button is grayed out in the Taskbar.
This is because the adjustment layer is active in the Layers panel.
To generate a layer above this adjustment, all you need to do is click on the New Layer icon.
Now simply click on the Generative Fill button, no prompt is needed, then click Generate.
Photoshop will then create three images that combine these layers.
You can click on this arrow icon in the Taskbar to cycle through the results.
They're all incredible, but I like the first variation the best.
The contact shadows and the reflections look great, and our composite looks very realistic.
Now that you know how to use Generative Fill in Photoshop to merge tricky elements in your composites, try it with your projects.
Again, my name is Jesús Ramirez.
Thank you for watching.
