How to create a pure white background in photoshop

[Mani Gill]

Hi guys, I have CS5 and Lightroom 4 and I was hoping someone could help me, I took some pictures against a cream wall, however I would like to make the background pure white and get rid of shadows if possible, is there an easy way to do this? I'm new to CS5 but I am reasonably okay with Lightroom, can it be done on either?

Thank you for your help in advance.

 

[jon ryan]

Depends on...stuff. If its a simple, uncluttered background it should be pretty straightforward. Best thing would be to stick it up on here and let people have a go.

 

[Mani Gill]

Depends on...stuff. If its a simple, uncluttered background it should be pretty straightforward. Best thing would be to stick it up on here and let people have a go.

Cheers Jon,

Yeah it is a blank cream wall as the background, no clutter whatsoever. I was looking to learn how to do it initially then loading the photos on, but if I cannot prevail then I will give in and load them on.

 

[jon ryan]

It pretty difficult to suggest things without seeing it Mani. (And not knowing how far along you are with PS). Open it in the RAW dialogue and move some of the sliders around? Extract the background, paint it white, paste it back in?

 

[Mani Gill]

It pretty difficult to suggest things without seeing it Mani. (And not knowing how far along you are with PS). Open it in the RAW dialogue and move some of the sliders around? Extract the background, paint it white, paste it back in?

I think I will need to upload one on to here. Cheers Jon. I'll get to a laptop a little later and start to upload.

 

[Mani Gill]

Can I load original Raw files onto here? I don't think I can load large file sizes.

 

[Deleted member 34016]

post a smaller JPG image say 800 x 600

Les

 

[jon ryan]

There a guide to uploading here in the 'help' bit. I'm pretty sure you can't upload RAWs.

 

[kry10]

If the main subject is not too complex (no hairs or fur) then, you can use the quick select tool, or, use the refine edge tool.
Then, with a white background selected, hold shift and press backspace, I think that will throw a dialogue window up asking what you want to fill with.

 

[Mani Gill]

Hi guys here are the pictures I would like to have a plain white background in, this was the first time I had used a 430 ex ii and a tripod using a remote, so I thought I would take some self pictures with the Mrs prior to attending a wedding.

1

This was the first, I wish I had composed it a little better.

2

Second picture, we are actually in the frame in this one

I used a Canon 24-105 with a 550D and focused towards the eye as advised, however they are not sharp at all, I was a little disappointed in that respect.

 

[wallyboy]

mani this took 3 0r 4 minutes

quick selection tool on couple,
ctrl/j to make layer without BG,
create new layer in layers pallette,
go to edit fill layer, then choose your colour,
drag couple over white layer
if you spent more time on pic it would be better,
just done quick edit to show how its done

 

[jon ryan]

Yup, that's do-able. Very rough effort here, Mani: you're a bit fuzzy around the edges I'm afraid, but more time & care would fix this - done on a laptop, in a hurry.

I used the quick selection tool on the background, put that into a new layer, used fill to make it white, then put it back. I also sharpened the whole image a bit.

Edit to add: Wallyboy beat me to it - and did a better job. :razz:

 

[Mani Gill]

Thank you both guys, fantastic.

Cheers again. I was spending ages reading Kelby's Lightroom and CS5 book, then trawling the net.

Cheers again.

 

[casts_by_fly]

Many,

Are you sure about the lens you used? The EXIF viewer I have is showing a 50 1.8 lens used at f1.8. If you used the 50 at 1.8 and did a focus/recompose, that would explain the lack of sharpness. It looks like their hands are sharper than their faces.

Thanks,
Rick

 

[Mani Gill]

Many,

Are you sure about the lens you used? The EXIF viewer I have is showing a 50 1.8 lens used at f1.8. If you used the 50 at 1.8 and did a focus/recompose, that would explain the lack of sharpness. It looks like their hands are sharper than their faces.

Thanks,
Rick

Hi Rick, yeah I did use the 50 1.8 at 1.8, I should have used the 24-105 at f4 or higher as it may have come out sharper. I think the focus points may have focused on the hands rather than the eyes. Will keep trying.

 

[gridlock]

Thought I would try with Lightroom only. I used a big fat brush with the exposure turned up to max and Auto Mask selected. About 2 minutes work, though it needs more care on the edge of her skirt. There isn't enough contrast there for auto-mask to work.

 

[casts_by_fly]

mani,

I'd have used the 50 at 2.8 roughly. That would be much sharper than the bigger lens at f4 (which is wide open I believe).

Thanks,
Rick

 

[Mani Gill]

Thought I would try with Lightroom only. I used a big fat brush with the exposure turned up to max and Auto Mask selected. About 2 minutes work, though it needs more care on the edge of her skirt. There isn't enough contrast there for auto-mask to work.

Hi, that's a good idea to do it this way. Thanks for this, I'll have to attempt this and the other methods.

 

[Mani Gill]

mani,

I'd have used the 50 at 2.8 roughly. That would be much sharper than the bigger lens at f4 (which is wide open I believe).

Thanks,
Rick

Cheers Rick, I have only even managed to get one sharp portrait image and that was by accident! I've been trying since using tripods etc, so I will try 2.8, it could be the camera.

 

[jon ryan]

I think it's more likely to be about depth of field than focus, Mani. A 50mm @ f/1.8 is going to be tiny - probably less than a foot at ten feet. Guessing here - I don't know how far away the camera was. I'd try f/5.6 or more.

 

[St-ephen]

just to take this dof thing a bit further; the following table shows focus details at 1-5 metres using 550D with 50mm at 1.8 and 2.8

all this is from an app. on my phone. There're loads available - some free. Just search for dof.

Back to the white background. I know its easy after the event, and it'd involve some expense, but I'd get an extra flash or two with some cheap shoot through brollies for this sort of shot. So much easier to get it right in camera.

 

[Mani Gill]

Cheers for the above guys, been a great help.

 

[stupar]

I had a quick run through CS5 with one of the shots a quickly came up with this by using the quick selection tool to outline them both, then the refine edge to pick oup the soft line of the skirt using the smart radius tool and a small amount of edge smoothing.
Copy as new layer and then whiten the original background layer.

Hey presto

 

[Mani Gill]

I had a quick run through CS5 with one of the shots a quickly came up with this by using the quick selection tool to outline them both, then the refine edge to pick oup the soft line of the skirt using the smart radius tool and a small amount of edge smoothing.
Copy as new layer and then whiten the original background layer.

Hey presto

Thanks Stuart, I really wish I had taken more time on the actual photo now

 

[chunk]

about 30 seconds more time could remove shadows thou lol

Select the whole image
image-adjustments-replace colour and play with sliders and fuzziness

saves cutting things out which never looks right again lol still dark at the bottom but you get the idea

 

[markseventphotos]

Photoshop
select Dodge>adjust highlight ONLY
100% strength brush on the main background.then reduce to 50% and clean up around the edges of the body

,less than a minute to sort out,a bit more time would get it spot on

This took 3 mins from start to finish,both cleaned up,placed on a 8x10 background,main picture slightly angle to the right,smaller image placed as a smart object then drop shadow etc added,all done in PS elements 7,never upgraded from elements.7 works a treat for me,i do use LR4 tho as well

Obviously more time spent on them would get them better and they are only low res images,i dodged his left ear a bit ;-)

 

[Mani Gill]

Photoshop
select Dodge>adjust highlight ONLY
100% strength brush on the main background.then reduce to 50% and clean up around the edges of the body,less than a minute to sort out,a bit more time would get it spot on

This took 3 mins from start to finish,both cleaned up,placed on a 8x10 background,main picture slightly angle to the right,smaller image placed as a smart object then drop shadow etc added,all done in PS elements 7,never upgraded from elements.7 works a treat for me,i do use LR4 tho as well

Obviously more time spent on them would get them better and they are only low res images,i dodged his left ear a bit ;-)

Hi Mark,

I really like what you have done with these pictures, it is actually of me and the Mrs, I'll need to find out how to do this, it would work really well for prints that I'm doing to place around the house.

Thank you.