Edge of Selection too sharp

[cedwar]

Hi everyone... This is a picture Ive been working on colorizing. Its from 1914 or 1915 during WWI. Im wondering first of all, what do you think about how it looks, and second, Im having trouble getting the top of the trees to blend in with the sky better. I have a couple dozen different layers with layer masks on them to add each color. I think most of the rest of the picture looks ok where the different layers blend into each other, but that sky is tough.

Thanks...

cedwar

[Mike]

Well you asked how it looks, and I as person who does not do a good job at colorizing, thinks that it looks OK. But that being said, why are you doing that to this photo?

They did not have color photography in that era, and in my opinion, the colorizing just leaves me thinking that some one took a very good representative photo of the era and messed it up. Maybe its because I have seen so many of the BW's, or something, but to me the color just does not fit the photo. Does the saying "Just because we can do it doesn't mean we should do it" fit this? I get the same feeling when I see movies of the same era shot in color. But, strange enough, I do not feel that way about movies made of say Roman times.

To me a good sepia tone would be a lot better, leaving it in BW would be next, or try to recreate the hand tinting they used to do would be last.

Anyway, please do not take this for anything but my 2 cents worth, and if you paid me the 2 cents, I would be way overpaid

Mike

[cedwar]

Well... the person that wanted me to work on it said she wanted her father, the soldier, to stand out more in the picture (or in her words "to be able to see him better") I had originally tried to boost the contrast a little, and make it black and white as opposed to the yellowed look from years of wear and tear. So I decided to add color as a different way to bring him out from the background without altering the actual makeup of the picture.

She actually was impressed with the end result, but of course she doesnt have the expertise and experience of people here on the website. So thats the story of my decision.

cedwar

[kiska]

Have you tried the blur or sudge tool along the top of the trees? kiska

[Flora]

Hi cedwar,

For the harsh tree-line Kiska pointed you in the right direction .... in (Image1) of my attachment I did exactly that .... I just extended the very light blurring the the whole far trees ....

As for "being able to see him better" .... why not crop the image? (Image2)...
Would your client accept it?

[cedwar]

Thanks Kiska... I never thought of blurring or smudging after flattening the image. I kept trying to blur the edge of the selection before flattening and couldnt seem to do it.

Flora... after I originally cropped it and then printed it, even on the dye-sublimation printer we have here, it still didnt seem to make him stand out, plus the clarity suffered. So I colorized it, then printed the whole image for her (which I personally thought was interesting, it puts him in perspective of where he is if you dont crop), then I did do a second print of him cropped even though it wasnt as clear. She really liked the skin tones.

cedwar

[Gary Richardson]

If you want to blur the edge of the tree layer, control click on the tree layer, then select-modify-border, set to suitable radius, then select-feather, set radius to about half border selection, then filter-blur-gaussian blur, and play with radius until result is satisfactory to you. Hope this helps.

[Chip Hildreth]

You might try a different approach from blurring and go for more detail. I made a treetop brush and cloned in some extra detail in the treeline.

I like the colorized style because the pastel effects make no pretense about the fact that the rendering has been altered. I don't think it will come off well on photo paper though. I would print it using an inkjet on a smooth fine art paper like Somerset Velvet.

[cedwar]

Chip...

I like it, but how do you do it?

Cedwar

[Chip Hildreth]

I made a custom brush in PS7, a treebrush, attached below. Then I just cloned in a few treetops, tried to keep it simple and kept the exposed trunks below in mind as I added the tops. Oh, and I rotated the brush pretty frequently trying to keep a random apprearance.

If you look close at the large brush stamp you can see the little maple leaf brush combined with a couple of the chalk brushes that are included with PS7.

You create a brush by selecting a shape, color or grayscale, with the rectangular marquee and then going "Edit-Define Brush..."

Enjoy.