Replacing path with grass

wezza13

wezza13

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Name
Wez
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Hi all,

I have this image here, which I would love to get printed for my mother-in-law (it's her dog).

The thing that bothers me though is the path.

What would be the best way to replace the path with grass?

I've tried the spot removal tool in LR, both heal and clone, and also tried the spot removal tool in PS.

Just can't get it looking acceptable though.

Is there any other tools that I could try and use?

Really stumped on this one.

Many thanks,
Wez

Bailey by Wez Filtness, on Flickr
 
try the clone stamp tool Wez ..9 down in PS

press alt key and click on patch you want to copy/clone
 
It will be a bit more difficult than that, Bill, with the dog's paws on the path.

Wez, Bill's idea is correct in theory, but the paws need masking first so you don't clone them out and that's a more involved job. Also because the DOF of the grass is quite shallow, there's not much you're able to sample to cover the path. The 'depth' of grass you need to cover the bottom left for example is what, 2cm? (at least on this sized image), whereas the amount of in focus grass you have to clone isn't the same depth. Obviously you don't want to be cloning OOF grass into an area which would, on a photo, be in focus. If it was me, I'd look at getting a photo from google of grass at a similar angle, and then putting that in on a new layer, matching up the colour to the current grass and then masking the areas you don't want. You'd have to use a variety of brushes to mask effectively and blend the two together. It's a bit of a difficult job if you're not used to it and may be beyond your abilities at the moment, I'm sorry to say.
 
Ok great! You're right it's not perfect and as someone who does this often in his job, it's immediately obvious to me, but I'm sure your mother in law won't have a clue! It's the small touches that give it realism though - if it was mine, I'd go a little further and add some blades of grass going in front of the paws as they would do in real life if the dog had its paws in the grass.

*edit* I should add, sorry for ever underestimating your skills haha! I won't do it again! ;)
 
Last edited:
htid said:
Ok great! You're right it's not perfect and as someone who does this often in his job, it's immediately obvious to me, but I'm sure your mother in law won't have a clue! It's the small touches that give it realism though - if it was mine, I'd go a little further and add some blades of grass going in front of the paws as they would do in real life if the dog had its paws in the grass.

*edit* I should add, sorry for ever underestimating your skills haha! I won't do it again! ;)
Click to expand...

Haha it's quite okay!

Just made a few subtle changes and will be using this one.

Trust me, she'll never know! :D

Bailey Final.jpg
 
Looks good, although you can tell it's a clone. Good effort though :)
 
juggler said:
Sorry but the cloning is way more distracting than the path. Just leave it :)
Click to expand...
Yes that's what I thought
It's a very nice shot as it is :)
I have tried to clone in grass like this before and never got it to look right
 
Cloning in grass is never as much fun as the old fashioned method of reproduction! [/banter]
 
Try cloning a few bits of the grass over the feet a bit. Thats why it looks wrong, if he was lying in the grass his feet (especially the front) would be in not on the grass. Does that make sense ? :thinking:
 
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