Background Help

[maverick911]

Could I have some suggestions for the best way to deal with the fence in the background of this image? The grass makes it quite difficult?

[mistermonday]

The extract filter would likely give you the best results with reasonable speed.
Regards, Murray

[Daviskw]

Hi there

The sky may not be the right background but i used it as an example.. I used the extraction filter along with the history brush to just get the separation close. Then I used the default grass brush with foreground and background set existing grass colors to fill and blend.

Butch

[des151]

some cut and paste and the patch tool.
Ray

[Daviskw]

That worked good ray

[maverick911]

Wow guys, they are both fantastic!! I have had a shot at it, but I think I had better focus on taking better images.

[des151]

Thanks, Daviskw and maverick911

[Graphics23]

Hey Des151,

Well done.

I took your version and added a little DOF effect.

I used Lens Blur and created a depth map based on a modified A channel of LAB.

Oh, and Maverick, nice shot.

Regards,

Michael

[des151]

Nice touch Michael.
Ray

[maverick911]

Thanks Michael. Great job on an already great job! I only wish I knew what you were talking about :o). I had a shot at cloning the grass but....not good. My effort looks what it is, just a repeat of a small area. Any chance of some tips Ray?. Michael is there a tutorial on what you have done? I've just gotta do this. I am really pleased with the shot but clearly my background is naff! Stunning efforts guys, its a real education in what is achievable in PS. Would be real grateful for some help guys.

[Graphics23]

Originally Posted by maverick911

Michael is there a tutorial on what you have done?

There will be as soon as I finish typing!

I liked what Des151 had done and thought a little depth of field would kick it up a notch.

The first question is, how do I quickly and easily separate the tiger from the grass?

Having a knowledge of the Ten Channels is invaluable here. See this tutorial if you want more info http://retouchpro.com/tutorials/?m=show&id=291

Since the tiger is more magenta than green and the grass is more green than magenta, I knew right away that the A channel of LAB is were I would find the start of my depth map. A depth map is used by the Lens Blur filter to simulate the depth of field effect. More on this later.

So the first thing I did was convert to LAB and copy the A channel. This created an Alpha channel which I labeled "tiger mask". I then used levels to bring in the white and black points, the median filter to even out the jpeg artifacts, and a soft white brush set to overlay for final cleanup.

This left me with a very serviceable mask which separates the tiger from the grass.

Then I created a new blank alpha channel. Using the Gradient tool set to the black and white preset, I created a gradient which went from black at the bottom to white at the top. I labeled this "dof". This is what creates the illusion of depth needed by the Lens Blur filter. But now we must combine the two alpha channels so the tiger isn't affected by the filter.

For combining channels nothing beats the Calculations command! So we go to Image>Calculations.

Source 1; the working document. Layer; Background. Channel; tiger mask.
Source 2; the working document. Layer; Background. Channel; dof.
Blending; Subtract. Opacity; 100%. Offset; 0. Scale; 1.
Result; New Channel. I labeled the resulting alpha channel "depth map".

Now we have the depth map needed by the Lens Blur filter.

So we go to Filter>Blur>Lens Blur. I used mostly default settings except for setting the Depth Map source to my depth map and cranking the blur focal distance all the way up.

That's it! It was actually very quick and easy. The hard part was gaining the experience to know where and how to apply the various resources and techniques used.

Regards,

Michael

[des151]

maverick911,
Michael nice pickup on the dof. Maverick911 would of used a long focal length lens or be lunch for such a beautiful animal.
1st I used the green channel to make a selection of the area that I didn't want. 2nd Then I used the selection to mask out the unwanted area. 3rd I selected different areas of the grass (ctrl j float them to seperate layers). 4th Move the grass areas to fill the void and blend them with a layer mask for each one. 5th Merged the layers (not the org,). 6th Used the patch tool to clean up any repeated grass etc. (when useing the patch tool, I made jagged edges, It helps if you drink a-lot of java). 7th I used a 50% grey layer to d&b. I hope this helps.
Ray

[maverick911]

Thanks very much for your trouble guys. Here's my shot. Just one thing, I masked out the Tiger to clone the grass, but the edge of the ears is not great? I used the lasso tool at a feather setting of 2. Any way to improve on this? Reckon I can have this on my wall now
Mark

[Dave.Cox]

Nice job Maverick. It looks really good.

I noticed you said you used the Lasso tool to make the selection around the ears. I find the pen tool much easier and quicker to use when making a selection like that. Although it does take a little effort to learn the pen tool, it is well worth the effort.

[des151]

Maverick
very nice. You can make a more accurate selection with the pen tool.
Ray