Need some cut-out advise please

csedgbeer

csedgbeer

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Name
Chris
Edit My Images
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Hi All

Need some advise on a few cut out's please, was asked to setup a mini studio at out local school fair to do some portrait work, had all the lights setup i thought ok, but mucked up the back light which didn't do much of a job at over exposing the backdrop! , and didn't help with little kids running around and creasing it up!

So I've given myself some work to do getting rid of the grey background, but it's only 20 odd shots to fix, people are nicely exposed so no real issue, but I'm having an issue with some of the kids and their hair

this is what I've been doing in PS, used the quick selection tool to select the kids, use the refine edge with some success (but not really sure I'm using it correctly)
inverting the selection
creating a new adjustment layer (basically now the grey background)
then adjusting the levels so the grey turns to white

it's worked well for some, things like clothes etc aren't a problem, but some of the kids have blonde wispy hair which I'm struggling with

you can see from the original and my quick cut out links below, the girls are generally ok apart from the odd bits which I know I've missed, but the blonde girls hair is a bit of a problem

Can some one point me in the right direction please

original
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B1f-yQNMHAoramhFakhaUVlkRHM/view?usp=sharing

"rough" cutout
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B1f-yQNMHAorTFFvTHY0Ti1GSXM/view?usp=sharing

Thanks

Chris
 
You could try selecting the background with the eye dropper tool, and just increase the exposure for that . I think the cut out looks odd, whereas an exposure increase ,so that there is some small detail in the background, looks better. You can use "Quickmask" to check the selected area and simply paint out additional areas and remove those you dont want included
 
After you get your selection go to the refine edge pallette, add a little feather just to soften the edge slightly, and where it says edge detection try a little radius, that'll help the edges a bit. I'd also leave or add a bit of shadow, people expect to see a shadow, even on white.
 
Chappers said:
You could try selecting the background with the eye dropper tool, and just increase the exposure for that . I think the cut out looks odd, whereas an exposure increase ,so that there is some small detail in the background, looks better. You can use "Quickmask" to check the selected area and simply paint out additional areas and remove those you dont want included
Click to expand...

might give that a go, I can see how you select the colour using the eye dropper, how do I then increase the exposure just for that colour?

Edit: just tried it, used the dropper worked quite well but over exposed their faces a little too much and having problems getting them back again!

Thanks

Chris
 
Last edited:
Honestly I don't think you should be aiming for pure white in this situation, it's going to look very artificial no matter what you do and it's going to be a big ask.
Can you share the RAW and I'll have a play?
 
A very quick 5 min go on one of them as I've just had a load of work dumped on me. Trying to cut these out with refine edge will be a nightmare due to the bright white fine detailing on the headband and isolating the child on pure white will just look odd, so here is an alternative:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B8DyWVVOwB5VQ3ZqYThocVBsZGM/view?usp=sharing

Surface blur with child freehand masked out with a large soft brush, some of the darker creases lasso'd and context aware filled followed by a Gaussian blur again with child freehand masked out. Followed by some quick dodging on the midtones on parts of the background to lighten it up. You'd prob want to spend a tad more time on the masking - I can see I've caught part of a leg on one of the blur layers, but use a soft brush.
 
Thats great Tom, thanks for doing that, your right it does look so much better than the cut outs, will revisit them tonight and see if I can recreate what you've done.

One question, how do you mask out the child so editing the background doesn't affect them, do you then create another layer? , i'm not great with photoshop, I normally use LR for all my wedding stuff so this is a new experimental venture for me!

Lesson learn't though, next time get the background right!

Thanks again

Chris
 
Chris

If you select the area as you did before, it will select similar tones, which in your case were the faces. If you do the same again, but before you make any adjustments, select Q on the keyboard. This selects the Quickmask option. Areas not affected by your selection will appear with a red overlay. You'll notice that the faces are probably clear of the overlay, which means they will affected by the brightness change. If you now select the brush tool, and select, black from the Foreground colour patch ( that's the Black/ White patches at the bottom of the tool bar). You can now paint additional masking over the faces and other areas that you don't want affected.

I would suggest though , as you are experimenting, you work on a duplicate image not the "live" one, until you are happy with your technique
 
thanks Rhodese, will watch that later, always find it easier to follow a video!
 
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