|  | New to Adobe | | |
| | | babypink2807@googlemail.c |  |
|  Posted: Sun Aug 03, 2008 10:40 am Post subject: New to Adobe |  |
After hours of frustration I somehow (and dont know how) managed to
put my object (horse) onto a black background. It looks awful and the
problem was using the magic wand tool and that when I tried to remove
the background ie sky and trees, it actually removed my object
(horse).
I then created a new layer with the background in black and somehow I
managed to merge the two please see the examples (apologies it is bad)
What I cannto seem to work out is how I got it back to front and also
how do I make the edges ie object to background look more
professional.
LINK
Thanks |
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| | | Mike Russell | |
| | Posted: Sun Aug 03, 2008 10:40 am Post subject: Re: New to Adobe | |
| |  | |
On Sun, 3 Aug 2008 03:40:45 -0700 (PDT), babypink2807@googlemail.com wrote:
| Quote: | After hours of frustration I somehow (and dont know how) managed to
put my object (horse) onto a black background. It looks awful and the
problem was using the magic wand tool and that when I tried to remove
the background ie sky and trees, it actually removed my object
(horse).
|
The magic wand always leaves jaggies. Here's a tutorial that shows a
better way: LINK
| Quote: | I then created a new layer with the background in black and somehow I
managed to merge the two please see the examples (apologies it is bad)
What I cannto seem to work out is how I got it back to front and also
how do I make the edges ie object to background look more
professional.
LINK
|
The kicked up gravel is seme-transparent, which makes this a difficult job
to do by hand. I think this is a job for the extraction tool.
LINK
Or you may be able to use the a or b channel from Lab mode, as I mentioned
in the previous post, to get a good mask that looks natural.
Another thought would be to keep the wall and use a dark brown background,
but then you'll need to recreate the shadow. Less may be more, in this
case - another tack would be obliterating the house and other distracting
background elements with the clone tool, then defocus the background
slightly and drop the saturation.
--
Mike Russell - LINK |
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| | | tony cooper | |
| | Posted: Sun Aug 03, 2008 11:52 am Post subject: Re: New to Adobe | |
| | | |
On Sun, 3 Aug 2008 03:40:45 -0700 (PDT), "babypink2807@googlemail.com"
<babypink2807@btinternet.com> wrote:
| Quote: | After hours of frustration I somehow (and dont know how) managed to
put my object (horse) onto a black background. It looks awful and the
problem was using the magic wand tool and that when I tried to remove
the background ie sky and trees, it actually removed my object
(horse).
I then created a new layer with the background in black and somehow I
managed to merge the two please see the examples (apologies it is bad)
What I cannto seem to work out is how I got it back to front and also
how do I make the edges ie object to background look more
professional.
LINK
This is not a comment on the technique you are looking for, but a |
comment about what should come before attempting any technique:
consider what the most effective end-result will be.
A dark horse with a black tail is never going to be a good picture on
a black background. The image of the horse itself is not that sharp,
especially around the head. Placing that horse against a black
background will not give any "pop" to the horse.
Consider other backgrounds. You could photograph a blank wall -
wooden or brick - and place your horse against that background and
achieve more contrast between the horse and background. The soft red
of brick or the light gray of aged wood would provide contrast.
A black background can be dramatic, but it's not always the right
visual when the object can't be discerned from the background.
I have a library of backgrounds in a file. They are photographs that
I've taken just for this purpose. Whenever I see something that might
be used as a background in the future - a stone wall, an old barn, a
plastered brick wall with missing bits of plaster, etc - I photograph
it and add it to my background file.
If I later take a photograph of a subject that is in front of a busy,
unattractive, background, I can extract that subject and place it in
front of one of my backgrounds. The only problem with this is that
the extraction itself has to be well done. Otherwise, the contrast
shows the flaws in the extraction.
--
Tony Cooper - Orlando, Florida |
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