Background Assistance Needed

[CJ Max]

I've been trying to capture an Indian Paint Brush flower image today - very difficult with digital as the colors are orange/red/pink - of course my camera of choice has problems with orange/salmon colors. As it was too windy outside, I set up a studio inside at home with my studio lights and used a black background.

By the time I got the colors in the flower close to the actual subject in Photoshop the background was a sickly gray-black shade. What I am trying to do is to isolate the flower against a black background so that it appears to just float. I used the paint brush tool and got most of the background a lovely rich dark black (piece of cake), but as I got close to the flower petals I noticed under magnification that there are a lot of fringe hairs. So I backed off.

Question: Is there an easy way to select just the gray-black background color and just change it to solid black without losing the details of the fringe hairs on the petals? If so, how is it done?

Thanks.

Cliff.

[cardmnal]

CJ,

It would help if you posted the image.

If you are using PS I recommend using the extract command. Try a fairly large brush where the hairs are present (you can roll right ove the hairs) and smart highlight elsewhere.

[JayNads]

Originally Posted by cardmnal

CJ,

It would help if you posted the image.

If you are using PS I recommend using the extract command. Try a fairly large brush where the hairs are present (you can roll right ove the hairs) and smart highlight elsewhere.

Since the background is black, (I assume you're using PS), look at the channel palate. Examine each color channel to see which one has the most contrast between the background and the flower. Duplicate that channel, run a levels adjustment to lighten the flower even more (don't be afraid to run it more than once), then right click and load the selection. Then you can use that to make your masks to adjust color, etc, while leaving the background alone. You can use the minimize or maximize filters to polish your masks if necessary.