[AtlanaAnna]

Look at these pictures.

Broadretouched.jpg is a restoration of the original image.
Broach1_filtered.jpg is a background change.
Broach2 is a slightly changed background.

I wasn't sure I liked the colors used in the original picture so I played around with it a little. What do you think? Opinions? Critiques? Favorites?

Thanks.

Sylvia Morris

[AtlanaAnna]

Oops! I forgot to attach the images.

[leuallen]

If you have the liberty, change the color completely.

Warm background usually do not go well with portraitsof this type. Try a cooler color, blues or greens. Muted, grayed down, with not much intensity.

Larry

[Karyn]

I think the original colour is the better one of the three. The other two colours make the woman's skin sink into the background and then the skin starts to look sallow.
But I agree with Larry, if you have the liberty to change the background, try a cool colour and see what you think. A cool colour will make your portrait stand out a bit better.

Karyn

[Panpan]

I found the coloring a little timid and the face contrast a little low. I also cooled the background as recommended.

Pierre

[AtlanaAnna]

I definitely like your background better, PanPan. How did you accomplish that?

[Panpan]

Originally Posted by AtlanaAnna

I definitely like your background better, PanPan. How did you accomplish that?

Hi Sylvia
I selected the background to a color mode layer and used hue/saturation/lightness to modify the hue. I don't remember if I modified its saturation also.
Pierre

[twinkissed]

One of my favorite things to do and I've had a really good response with is when changing a plain background color, I try to use the eye color or a shade of the eye color if it's a blue, green, etc. The browns don't work too well on brunettes. Still I notice by using the eye color it helps bring them out and there is so much story through the eyes. I would do it on this picture for you but I have a cold today and I think I'm ready to go lay back down Panpan that background definately looks better

[AtlanaAnna]

Okay. Here are 3 more versions but I still don't think I'm thrilled with the results. Also, I know there's a way to save a lasso selection so you don't have to keep selecting the same selection but don't know how. That would make this process quicker and easier.

[Nanls]

Used twinkissed suggestion and went with a background "similar" to eye color... didn't take time to mask real well...
~Nancy~

[AtlanaAnna]

Very pretty!!! Awesome! That's the look I want.

[Nanls]

Glad you like it.
Here are the steps:
Dupped original layer, masked her out ( I used channels and then soften mask edges with gaussian blur);
Inverse selection to select background - Select > Load Selection (loaded the mask), Select > inverse and filled with a sky blue (A9BAC7).
Dupped that layer, reset your background to black, foreground to white, follow steps above but instead of filling with blue; Filter >Render >Clouds
Set top layer (blue background) to 66%
Set middle layer (clouds) to 77%
Bottom layer original.

~Nancy~
-----------------------------------------------
www.datepixs.com
www.fixthepixs.com

[ray12]

To save your selection go to the main menu and choose Select > Save Selection and then name it something relevant. Select > Load Selection allows you to load them back in.

I use this feature extensively - who wants to re-do a 20 minute selection all over again! Once you recall the selection - if you hit the mask button on the Layers Pallette (Square with a circle in it) - it will make a mask for you using that selection - then you can change the face or the backgrounds at will.

[NancyJ]

Another way of making a reusable selection is to create an alpha channel.
If you go to the channels tab and select new channel you can paint on the areas you want to select, you can even use shades of grey to 'partially' select an area, then you can 'load channel as selection', you can make as many of these channels as you like and you can edit them any time