How can I create a silky gauzy dress for a model in a photograph?

Question

I am trying to create fabric, a long white flowing dress for a model in one of my photographs. Does any one have any tips for a relatively easy way to do this in Photoshop. She is in shorts and a tank top and I thought I could figure out an easy way to paint on a dress for her, but so far I am not having any luck....Thanks for any suggestions.

Answer 1

Painting a dress from scratch is most difficult, unless you are an artist with a lot of experience.
The much easier way is to search for a photograph of a dress you like, then cut and paste it to the new photo.  The key here is to have both pictues with the same light angle so the shadows are in the right spot.
Once you get it pasted, click Ctrl T then size and rotate it.  The next stop is to use edit/warp to reshape dress to fit model.  You can fine tune it with puppet warp.
Final step is to erase any excess dress material and add body shadows as needed to match the original shot.
Take a New Snapshot every so often so if you make mistake you do not have to go back to square 1, but can restart at snapshot X.  Save PSD every so often in case program crashes.
Hope this helps.