Advice / Guidance needed on this image! CS3

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pixman

Guest
Hi all,

I did a shoot recently, and have realised that i didn't give enough thought to the background - The doors, etc that are visiable that make the picture messy.

I'm learning CS3 fairly quickly, but this is baffling me. I have tried to keep the black and white tiles at the lower end of the picture, and then to paint over the background with a simple colour... maybe with some shades to make it look like a white backdrop.

All my efforts have failed, or look rubbish.

Would anyone be so kind as to give me some simple instructions on how to achieve the above to a good effect?

Many thanks for any responses!

Dave

(Larger image can be seen on my flickr)

3317226346_23de7f0623.jpg
 
Try this, but it isn't going to be quick.

Make a clipping path around the subject. I'd probably use the area you want to exlude as the path to follow.Do this on a layer. Now convert this path to a selection. This is done by CTRL or CMD clicking on the mask layer.

I'm suggesting a clipping path as it's easy to delete points on the path if you make a mistake. I've found the magnetic selection tool fairly poor at selecting subjects like this.

Now although this is a selection you can't do a lot with it, so use the magic wand to select the selection. Don't know why you can't just select it but it doesn't work, you have to go this way.

Now you have the unwanted area selected you can fill this with a colour or background or whatever you want. If it's a colour it will look as though you have simply dropped them into a background. Now the way round this is to simply clone a very very small part of the background to the edges of the main subject. This gives a soft "flare" effect. I do this at about 200-300% mag.

Yes it it time consuming but if you want it to look real then you ahve to take time and make the effort. If you fill the background with white, don't use value of 255, for all 3 colours. Try 245 or similar to put a bit of density into the background. Also a small level of Gaussian blur may help

I've used this technique on several complex subject and it works. You can with clipping paths break the job down into segments so it makes things slightly easier
 
Thanks Chappers for the reply!

I totally understand what you are saying regarding dropping in a background, that would look bad.

I'll be honest, I don't understand this bit "Now the way round this is to simply clone a very very small part of the background to the edges of the main subject. This gives a soft "flare" effect. I do this at about 200-300% mag."

Do you mean clone the background colour and slightly wash over the subject?

I follow everything else!
 
Theres actually not a lot wrong with this that a very strong S in curves wont put right.
I downloaded the Original to have a look at.
1. Its very flat.
2. There is far to little separation between the subjects and everything else.
3. Its not very sharp looking at the Original.

Will have a quick play with it but it wont be perfect, just to show what might work a little better.
 
pixman said:
Thanks Chappers for the reply!

I totally understand what you are saying regarding dropping in a background, that would look bad.

I'll be honest, I don't understand this bit "Now the way round this is to simply clone a very very small part of the background to the edges of the main subject. This gives a soft "flare" effect. I do this at about 200-300% mag."

Do you mean clone the background colour and slightly wash over the subject?

I follow everything else!
Click to expand...

Yes you've got it. You don't need to make this very obvious, probably a couple or so pixels is all you need just to break the edge up. Don't use the blur brush it gives an unacceptable result
 
I had a look and it was going to take a while to achieve what i thought you were after.
So i decided on an alternative, still quite rough but i took the subjects and thought "very street" looking so i came up with this.
Like i said its a little rough as i dont have time to properly blend it but it an option i think.

Click for the larger Image.

 
A 5 minute try - With more care you'd get it right. Made a slection mask, added a balck layer and added a large soft white "dot" to create the vignette effect.

Used the mask to delete around the black layer -not perfect as I did it quickly

Not_perfect.jpg
 
Wow craig, thats a cool photo! Definitely going to have a play around with that.
EOS, very nice and certainly works for me.
Chappers, fully understand now!

Right, going away to have a another play with this image!
 
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