Traveling the world by replacing the background

Without any discussion, there is not a cheaper way to go around the world than replacing the background of your pictures. 

I know, you may think that I'm cheating, but I'm clearly explaining every time I post one of these altered pictures, that the background has been replaced to avoid any confusion. 

I'm getting old, and the odds of me taking our grandsons to all these places are getting lower with each passing day. So I decided to dream a little bit and pretend that we are doing that.

 I have experimented with two different ways to do it. One is very simple: taking the picture I want to modify, uploading it to Google Gemini or ChatGPT, and asking them to replace the background. The results using this method are good, but from time to time, these AI tools change the faces to match the lighting from the background, and I'm not that pleased with that.

The second method is to create the background using these two AI tools or to use a picture you have taken of a place to replace the background. In this second method, I have been using Luminar Neo, a tool that is very simple to use and allows you to remove the background of any picture. Then you use a new layer behind the subject layer to introduce the new background. The most difficult part in this second method is that you need to match the light and mood of the layer that contains the subject with the one in the background layer. I'm not that good at that part, but I feel that I'm getting better with every new picture that I edit.

Another difficult part of this second method is creating shadows under the subject. This is the main reason why, in some of these edited pictures, you’ll notice that I cropped out the subjects’ feet. Here’s a little bonus trick.

Besides having a lot of fun doing this, altering these pictures allows me to improve my editing skills. Replacing the background is a skill often used by photographers in newborn photos and weddings.

 

 If you have any ideas for a new place where I can take our grandsons, please let me know, and I'll do my best to create this new scenario.