[Canna W]

I would be very grateful for some advice with this image. I am still in the process of softening the edges of the dog I have introduced into this pic, and giving it fine hairs, but I don't know if it is worth going on.

As often happens, it is only after I have processed a pic (months on) that I decide to try and introduce a new factor.

As can be seen I have given the dog grain, also shifted the colours to increase cyan and yellow. I also lowered the contrast and increased the brightness (that is still on a separate layer.)

Right now the dog, for me, sticks out like a sore thumb, but I'm not sure if I can improve matters.

I could easily re-introduce the dog if that would help, and just throw away my existing efforts.

I'm not even sure I will keep the dog, but my lack of skill in integrating it is annoying me. I would very much like to learn how to do this better.

I use Photoshop CS2.

[johnnieB]

imo, not a bad extraction at all, but definitely a color issue. i copied the dog to its own layer and adjusted with selective color; next underneath that layer adjusted the color of the background and here's what i got.

[Canna W]

Many thanks! I think that is a great improvement. I never thought of altering the background... It is amazing what a difference you have made.

Many thanks indeed

Caroline.

[johnnieB]

hey caroline, thanks and your welcome. the only other thing i would add is a shadow under the dog.

[Swampy]

Here are some suggestions.

Photo needs rotation. The wall is falling away from the straight on dog.
Color correct the background. I have pumped up the reds here and opened up the midtones.

Without the original dog photo, it is difficult to match lighting and color, but I did a color adjustment on the dog to bring back more reds.

[Canna W]

Swampy,

Thank you! The moment you said about the wall I wondered how I'd missed it...

I've done a rough cloning on your version, just to show better how the wall should sit.

I may be completely wrong about this, but I'm wondering if I could make the dog less smooth and shiny (or something.) To me he still feels more modern than the rest of the pic.

I think this is very difficult - that is why so many people (me included) often resort to giving the whole thing a very strong style (like ageing, or heavy sepia) which helps mask the differences. Or am I wrong about there being a problem with the finish of the dog versus the garden & wall. Maybe I've just looked at it for too long.

Thank you for your help.

[Canna W]

Johnnie - thank you for the shadow reminder

[Swampy]

Canna... What may be bothering your eye is depth of focus. The dog is in the foreground so should have sharper detail as well as be a bit darker, but the wall, being further away would normally be slightly blurred. As you see it now, there is a lot of detail in the wall (bricks are rough, cracked mortar etc.) and not as much in the dog. As close as the dog is, you expect to see individual hairs.

[Peter S]

To me the scale is not quite right, the dog looks too large against the wall.

Peter

[philbach]

Well ignoring the wall I felt the dog lacked sharpness and contrast compared to the background so thats what I adjusted.

[Canna W]

Thank you very much for the input....

I think I've now finished to a degree that I'm satisfied with, but I work always in a very backwards and forwards (and sideways) way, so I just kept in mind what everyone had suggested.

I used an earlier version of the pic - I think maybe the one johnnieB posted, where adjustments have been made, and where I like the colour a lot.

I then selected and altered the wall as suggested by Swampy.

I selected and copied the shadow and ivy from the first buttress on the wall back to the second buttress on the wall. (There was too much going on in the brickwork before I think...) I filled in the foliage.

I still wasn't happy about the dog's integration - so did something I have never tried before. I selected dog and saved the selection via the selection menu. I then copied the dog onto the clipboard. I went back to the selection menu and reduced the selection by about 5 pixels, I then gave it a feathering of about another 5 pixels. It was therefore reduced in size by about 10 pixels in total from the original selection. I picked up a colour in the wall (the yellowish wall) behind the dog. I used the paint bucket to fill the new selection area with the yellow-ish colour at 100 opacity. I then pasted the original dog back into the picture, and reduced his opacity by about 5%. I felt quite pleased the colour shift this produced.

I added some shadow for the dog.

Because I was working with an earlier version the image was quite soft all over. Given the nature of 'oldness' that the scene has for me I felt that was okay. I sharpened the dog a bit, but not much. Maybe I did so more locally on the eyes and nose?

I then darkened the image leaving the centre lighter.

Peter - what you say about the dog is I'm sure right. I quite often do stuff with mild distortion - this size of the dog being typical. I've decided to keep him big, though understand many might prefer him smaller, because it would be more realistic.

Many thanks for the suggestions. This pix was heading for the bin - it works for me now - though it might not for others

[Canna W]

Okay

Now a few minutes later.

I selected the dog, inverted, and added a blur of just 0.2 to the rest of the pic


Later add....
I can also see some crude cloning problems, but will sort those if I do it bigger.

[Swampy]

Much, much better than the original, Canna!

I find that much of what goes into doing a project is analysing what the problems are within the given photo(s). Through years of experience and observation of "life" your eye and senses become attuned to what "looks right".

In digitial editing you can almost make a check list.

1. Perspective (as the wall)
2. Over all photo quality (JPEG artifacting etc.)
3. Output size and resolution requirements (72 PPI or 300 PPI)
4. Natural colors (what might the camera settings have done to effect the shot)
5. Distractions (what might be drawing the eye away from the focal point, phone wires, litter etc. that might need removing)
6. Sharpening, Cropping, etc.

[Canna W]

Many thanks Swampy - and that list looks very useful, I shall make a note of it