background

To those who Photoshop...

What do you do about background when it distracts?

Using http://tonycooper.fileave.com/pete.jpg as an example, I can do a
layer mask and apply a heavy Gaussian blur to the background, or I can
drop it out and replace it. This was taken inside a building, and a
quick snap of a guy that did something for me and wanted his picture
taken.

I've got a stock series of images I've taken of various things that
can be used for backgrounds...brick walls, stucco walls, sky, outdoor
scenes, etc. I can put Pete up in front of something that wasn't
there, but I'm wondering what others here do.

This one would mask easily because there's no hair tendrils floating
around or fuzzy edges, but I thought I might do something a bit
different.

What do others do?



--
Tony Cooper - Orlando, Florida

tony cooper wrote:
To those who Photoshop...

What do you do about background when it distracts?

There are three techinques that I use, in varying proportions:
Reduce sharpness, reduce brightness, reduce color.

Blurring out the background will queue the viewer to ignore it.
Reducing brightness (or, occasionally, increasing brightness)
separates the background visually from the foreground object.
And reducing color saturation for the background can also make it less
noticable.

Using http://tonycooper.fileave.com/pete.jpg as an example, I can do a
layer mask and apply a heavy Gaussian blur to the background, or I can
drop it out and replace it. This was taken inside a building, and a
quick snap of a guy that did something for me and wanted his picture
taken.

Replacing it would be an approach. Depends how the result looks.

I've got a stock series of images I've taken of various things that
can be used for backgrounds...brick walls, stucco walls, sky, outdoor
scenes, etc. I can put Pete up in front of something that wasn't
there, but I'm wondering what others here do.

Replacing the background can be chancy because of the lighting doesn't
match then the result will look odd.

--
Ray Fischer

tony cooper wrote:
To those who Photoshop...

What do you do about background when it distracts?

Using http://tonycooper.fileave.com/pete.jpg as an example, I can do a
layer mask and apply a heavy Gaussian blur to the background, or I can
drop it out and replace it. This was taken inside a building, and a
quick snap of a guy that did something for me and wanted his picture
taken.

I've got a stock series of images I've taken of various things that
can be used for backgrounds...brick walls, stucco walls, sky, outdoor
scenes, etc. I can put Pete up in front of something that wasn't
there, but I'm wondering what others here do.

This one would mask easily because there's no hair tendrils floating
around or fuzzy edges, but I thought I might do something a bit
different.

What do others do?



Are we to assume that those of us who don't 'PhotoShop' need not reply.
Whatever the response (and you seem to have answered your own question),
I would have thought any half decent photo editor is capable of the same
steps (at about 1/10th the cost).
Dave Cohen

On Sat, 17 Jan 2009 21:51:07 -0500, Dave Cohen
wrote:

tony cooper wrote:
To those who Photoshop...

What do you do about background when it distracts?

Using http://tonycooper.fileave.com/pete.jpg as an example, I can do a
layer mask and apply a heavy Gaussian blur to the background, or I can
drop it out and replace it. This was taken inside a building, and a
quick snap of a guy that did something for me and wanted his picture
taken.

I've got a stock series of images I've taken of various things that
can be used for backgrounds...brick walls, stucco walls, sky, outdoor
scenes, etc. I can put Pete up in front of something that wasn't
there, but I'm wondering what others here do.

This one would mask easily because there's no hair tendrils floating
around or fuzzy edges, but I thought I might do something a bit
different.

What do others do?



Are we to assume that those of us who don't 'PhotoShop' need not reply.
Whatever the response (and you seem to have answered your own question),
I would have thought any half decent photo editor is capable of the same
steps (at about 1/10th the cost).
Dave Cohen

I'm guilty of using "Photoshop" in the generic. If you can work the
twist out of your y-fronts, and have a suggestion or observation about
what can be done with any editor, please feel free to comment. Or, if
you prefer, sulk.


--
Tony Cooper - Orlando, Florida

On Sat, 17 Jan 2009 21:51:07 -0500, Dave Cohen wrote:

tony cooper wrote:
To those who Photoshop...

What do you do about background when it distracts?

Using http://tonycooper.fileave.com/pete.jpg as an example, I can do a
layer mask and apply a heavy Gaussian blur to the background, or I can
drop it out and replace it. This was taken inside a building, and a
quick snap of a guy that did something for me and wanted his picture
taken.

I've got a stock series of images I've taken of various things that
can be used for backgrounds...brick walls, stucco walls, sky, outdoor
scenes, etc. I can put Pete up in front of something that wasn't
there, but I'm wondering what others here do.

This one would mask easily because there's no hair tendrils floating
around or fuzzy edges, but I thought I might do something a bit
different.

What do others do?



Are we to assume that those of us who don't 'PhotoShop' need not reply.
Whatever the response (and you seem to have answered your own question),
I would have thought any half decent photo editor is capable of the same
steps (at about 1/10th the cost).
Dave Cohen

I would say that the more correct statement would be that any half decent
photo editor is capable of SIMILAR steps (at about 1/10th the cost) Most
other photo editors even if they match the PS features do not have as good
a quality algorithms.

tony cooper wrote:
To those who Photoshop...

What do you do about background when it distracts?

Using http://tonycooper.fileave.com/pete.jpg as an example, I can do a
layer mask and apply a heavy Gaussian blur to the background, or I can
drop it out and replace it. This was taken inside a building, and a
quick snap of a guy that did something for me and wanted his picture
taken.

I've got a stock series of images I've taken of various things that
can be used for backgrounds...brick walls, stucco walls, sky, outdoor
scenes, etc. I can put Pete up in front of something that wasn't
there, but I'm wondering what others here do.

This one would mask easily because there's no hair tendrils floating
around or fuzzy edges, but I thought I might do something a bit
different.

What do others do?

Since this particular subject is so easy to SELECT, I'd use the
Polygonal Lasso Tool to select him. (Enlarge the image to ~300% for
precision selecting).
Then I'd create a NEW file and apply a B W gradient to it.
Then paste the selected subject onto the B?W gradient.
Makes a very profesional looking Portrait.
Bob Williams

tony cooper wrote:
To those who Photoshop...

What do you do about background when it distracts?

Using http://tonycooper.fileave.com/pete.jpg as an example, I can do a
layer mask and apply a heavy Gaussian blur to the background, or I can
drop it out and replace it. This was taken inside a building, and a
quick snap of a guy that did something for me and wanted his picture
taken.

I've got a stock series of images I've taken of various things that
can be used for backgrounds...brick walls, stucco walls, sky, outdoor
scenes, etc. I can put Pete up in front of something that wasn't
there, but I'm wondering what others here do.

This one would mask easily because there's no hair tendrils floating
around or fuzzy edges, but I thought I might do something a bit
different.

What do others do?

I never use other backgrounds, partly because it's just not my thing,
but also because unless the lighting and colour balance gels, it just
won't work. Plus you have to be mighty careful about the edges.

In that case you are lucky to have the subject well isolated from the
background, so I think a moderate background blur would look quite
'real'. At that size, I reckon a gaussian blur of about 5-8 pixels
works pretty well. If it was me, I'd desaturate the background a bit as
well to get rid of the impact of Mr Brightshirt. I would be leery about
darkening the background - watch them edges carefully!

(I'd also tone the saturation down overall - maybe it's me, but it looks
a bit strong..)

"tony cooper" wrote in message
...
To those who Photoshop...

What do you do about background when it distracts?

Using http://tonycooper.fileave.com/pete.jpg as an example, I can do a
layer mask and apply a heavy Gaussian blur to the background, or I can
drop it out and replace it. This was taken inside a building, and a
quick snap of a guy that did something for me and wanted his picture
taken.

I've got a stock series of images I've taken of various things that
can be used for backgrounds...brick walls, stucco walls, sky, outdoor
scenes, etc. I can put Pete up in front of something that wasn't
there, but I'm wondering what others here do.

This one would mask easily because there's no hair tendrils floating
around or fuzzy edges, but I thought I might do something a bit
different.

What do others do?


Hi Tony!
I downloaded your photo, brought it into Photoshop CS3, selected the
background with the "Quick selection tool", clicked on "Filter", "Gaussian
blur" at 6,1 Pixel. That's it. I could have blurred it more or even less,
but it might not look natural. Had this been shot with a 24-105mm Canon f/4
L IS, the background would be slightly out of focus. Marcel

"tony cooper" wrote in message
...
To those who Photoshop...

What do you do about background when it distracts?

Using http://tonycooper.fileave.com/pete.jpg as an example, I can do a
layer mask and apply a heavy Gaussian blur to the background, or I can
drop it out and replace it. This was taken inside a building, and a
quick snap of a guy that did something for me and wanted his picture
taken.

I've got a stock series of images I've taken of various things that
can be used for backgrounds...brick walls, stucco walls, sky, outdoor
scenes, etc. I can put Pete up in front of something that wasn't
there, but I'm wondering what others here do.

This one would mask easily because there's no hair tendrils floating
around or fuzzy edges, but I thought I might do something a bit
different.

What do others do?


Sorry, Tony... I forgot:
http://celestart.com/images/publiques/blurred.jpg
Marcel

Celcius wrote:
[]
Sorry, Tony... I forgot:
http://celestart.com/images/publiques/blurred.jpg
Marcel

I think a slight darkening of the background would aslo help.

David