A Halloween Menagerie (More Phun with Photoshop)

Click any image below for a larger view.

I have to admit to sweating a little when I heard of the client's original photo request for this Halloween-themed ad. The client was very specific about what he wanted in the photo. He requested, “...a photo with Dracula, a werewolf and a witch holding a pumpkin.”

I did not have a budget for setting up a photo shoot, hiring models and renting costumes so I was limited to using stock photography. Anyone who has used stock photography knows that finding a stock photo with such a specific variety of subjects is next to impossible. So what does the resourceful graphic designer do when faced with such a seemingly impossible task?

If you can not find one photo with all the elements you need, find separate photos of each element and combine them to look like one photo.

Here are the separate images I combined in this composite. 

Obviously there was a lot more involved than merely cutting and then pasting each subject into the image. The subjects have to actually look like they were photographed together. Visit any of my previous Phun with Photoshop articles to see the techniques I usually use to blend images together.

This is the completed photo composite.

And this is the completed ad.