Assistance with photo editing.

Hi guys, I have what I think is a good photo save for a hugely distracting
background.

I was wondering if anyone here could offer any tips on how best to edit the
photo in an attempt to improve it.

I use Corel PSP XI and have already tried the de"depth of field" tool and
some other techniques to limited effect.

The subject and myself would be most gratefull for any assistance.

Photo available here
http://mail.fireflyuk.net/users/ross...G_0407.JPG.htm

Thanks

--
rda
30D
300D
D30

rda wrote:

Hi guys, I have what I think is a good photo save for a hugely distracting
background.

I was wondering if anyone here could offer any tips on how best to edit the
photo in an attempt to improve it.

I use Corel PSP XI and have already tried the de"depth of field" tool and
some other techniques to limited effect.

Do you have reduced versions to show what wasn't working? That's what
I'd do but it just looks like a long tedious process of making
selections. I don't know PSP though.

The subject and myself would be most gratefull for any assistance.

Photo available here
http://mail.fireflyuk.net/users/ross...G_0407.JPG.htm

--
Paul Furman Photography
http://edgehill.net
Bay Natives Nursery
http://www.baynatives.com

On Sat, 25 Aug 2007 13:53:53 +0100, "rda" wrote:

Hi guys, I have what I think is a good photo save for a hugely distracting
background.

I was wondering if anyone here could offer any tips on how best to edit the
photo in an attempt to improve it.

The subject and myself would be most gratefull for any assistance.

Photo available here
http://mail.fireflyuk.net/users/ross...G_0407.JPG.htm

I'm using Photoshop 7.

Duplicate the layer 2 times. Take one layer, blur it, duplicate it,
transform the duplicate, lock scale and drag from the top right corner
in about 25%. This is to move the blurred bits of the subject (and
her roses) down behind the subject. (You can also clone over those
edges before you blur - cloning the background over the subject. I
should have done this - I didn't and you can see a red glow behind the
roses.) Merge the 2 blurred layers, then use the clone tool to
obscure the edge between the layers - you don't have to be precise
because you will blur the layer again when you are done cloning. You
can fix the red glow behind the roses now if you want by cloning over
it with some of the non-red blurred background.

Top layer use Filter - Extract and draw a line around from the edge
of the shoulder on the left, over her head, down the right and on top
of the roses. Fill on the subject, extract.

As you can see, I didn't do a very fussy job of extracting the hair.
This is the HARD part of a project like this - deciding how much of
that fly-away hair you want to retain in the "in focus" layer and then
drawing your extract lines carefully to get the hair but not the
background. Here are the results:

http://jcdill.com/misc/IMG_0407-copy.jpg

If you want to use my PSD file, it's at:

http://jcdill.com/misc/IMG_0407.psd

I didn't do this in my extract - but if you copy the background layer
and do another extract and move it to the top, one trick is you can
use the history brush to paint back in missing bits of the extracted
layer. This is one way to re-capture fly-away hairs. This works best
if you do the extract last so that the "history" of the image before
the extract is the prior step.

jc

p.s. It helps if you link to a small file so people can see the
problem (as I have done here with my solution file), and then also
offer a large file if someone wants to help by working on the
original. Linking to a large file only is somewhat rude - it makes
everyone download the huge file just to *see* your photo.

On Aug 25, 8:53 am, "rda" wrote:
Hi guys, I have what I think is a good photo save for a hugely distracting
background.

I was wondering if anyone here could offer any tips on how best to edit the
photo in an attempt to improve it.

I use Corel PSP XI and have already tried the de"depth of field" tool and
some other techniques to limited effect.

The subject and myself would be most gratefull for any assistance.

Photo available herehttp://mail.fireflyuk.net/users/rossallan/Pictures/IMG_0407.JPG.htm

Thanks

--
rda
30D
300D
D30

If you don't know your way around the software, the easiest thing to
do is to print it out and buy an oval matte for the frame.

JC Dill wrote:

Duplicate the layer 2 times. Take one layer, blur it, duplicate it,
transform the duplicate, lock scale and drag from the top right corner
in about 25%. This is to move the blurred bits of the subject (and
her roses) down behind the subject.

Yes, this is the problem I've had with similar work, thanks for that
idea. I've tried cloning before blur but it's true if the whole thing is
going to be severely blurred, it doesn't matter much.

(You can also clone over those
edges before you blur - cloning the background over the subject. I
should have done this - I didn't and you can see a red glow behind the
roses.)


--
Paul Furman Photography
http://edgehill.net
Bay Natives Nursery
http://www.baynatives.com

"rda" wrote:
Hi guys, I have what I think is a good photo save for a hugely distracting
background.

I was wondering if anyone here could offer any tips on how best to edit the
photo in an attempt to improve it.

I use Corel PSP XI and have already tried the de"depth of field" tool and
some other techniques to limited effect.

The subject and myself would be most gratefull for any assistance.

Photo available here
http://mail.fireflyuk.net/users/ross...G_0407.JPG.htm

I replaced the entire background with a shade of gray
that is close to the shades of grey that shine through
the hair in some parts on the right side of her head.

If you would like to see it, send me an eamil and I'll
give you an address where you can download it.

--
Floyd L. Davidson http://www.apaflo.com/floyd_davidson
Ukpeagvik (Barrow, Alaska)

"Floyd L. Davidson" wrote in message
...
"rda" wrote:
Hi guys, I have what I think is a good photo save for a hugely distracting
background.

I was wondering if anyone here could offer any tips on how best to edit
the
photo in an attempt to improve it.

I use Corel PSP XI and have already tried the de"depth of field" tool and
some other techniques to limited effect.

The subject and myself would be most gratefull for any assistance.

Photo available here
http://mail.fireflyuk.net/users/ross...G_0407.JPG.htm

I replaced the entire background with a shade of gray
that is close to the shades of grey that shine through
the hair in some parts on the right side of her head.

If you would like to see it, send me an eamil and I'll
give you an address where you can download it.



Emailed

Thanks

--
rda

----- Original Message -----
From: "JC Dill"
Newsgroups: rec.photo.digital.slr-systems
Sent: Saturday, August 25, 2007 4:10 PM
Subject: Assistance with photo editing.


On Sat, 25 Aug 2007 13:53:53 +0100, "rda" wrote:

Hi guys, I have what I think is a good photo save for a hugely distracting
background.

I was wondering if anyone here could offer any tips on how best to edit
the
photo in an attempt to improve it.

The subject and myself would be most gratefull for any assistance.

Photo available here
http://mail.fireflyuk.net/users/ross...G_0407.JPG.htm

I'm using Photoshop 7.



I really *must* start using photoshop :s

Thanks for the tips though.

--
rda

On Aug 25, 8:53?am, "rda" wrote:
Hi guys, I have what I think is a good photo save for a hugely distracting
background.

I was wondering if anyone here could offer any tips on how best to edit the
photo in an attempt to improve it.

I use Corel PSP XI and have already tried the de"depth of field" tool and
some other techniques to limited effect.

The subject and myself would be most gratefull for any assistance.

Photo available herehttp://mail.fireflyuk.net/users/rossallan/Pictures/IMG_0407.JPG.htm

Thanks

--
rda
30D
300D
D30

I'm learning PSE 5, not unhappy with http://scienceteacher.biz/IMG_0407c.jpg.
The edges of the hair are the hard part!

Paul B.

"rda" wrote:
"Floyd L. Davidson" wrote:
Photo available here
http://mail.fireflyuk.net/users/ross...G_0407.JPG.htm

I replaced the entire background with a shade of gray
that is close to the shades of grey that shine through
the hair in some parts on the right side of her head.

If you would like to see it, send me an eamil and I'll
give you an address where you can download it.

Emailed

Well, others are putting theirs up in public places, so
even though I just emailed how to get it from a private
URL, I decided to go ahead and put it up on my web page
for a few days.

http://www.apaflo.com/floyd_davidson/IMG_0407.jpg

I used The GIMP rather than PhotoShop.

I do it in a single layer, and took the entire
background out. The background could be fuzzed up and
put back in, but I prefer the results without it.
Sometimes I do put another background in, but often just
leave it like this one is, with just a single color.

The trick for the color to use is picking something
from the colors that are shining through the subject's
hair. The most prominent color (which would be
extremely difficult to get rid of) is usually the best
one to choose.

I then use the "path" tool to make a selection that
includes the entire background, but not the subject.
A path tool allows generation of a path one line segment
at a time. With the view zoomed in close enough to see
individual pixels, the path can be positioned *very*
precisely. Since each click of the mouse adds a segment,
any mistakes made can be removed one step at a time with
the "undo" command.

That can be very precise, but when zoomed in it is hard
to tell what does or does not look good. The best
results come from leaving more in the subject area than
in the selected area. Trimming away what does not look
good is much better than erasing a mask to uncover what
does look good (because with the erase command you have
to go just a little too far to know it's not good).

Hence after the path selection is filled with a color,
then a hand drawn selection tool can be used to touch up
small areas that don't look right. Also a smudge tool
and a blur tool can be used to do the same, and to make
sharp edged transitions look natural again.

--
Floyd L. Davidson http://www.apaflo.com/floyd_davidson
Ukpeagvik (Barrow, Alaska)