Photo Restoration - - How to blend photo into background

Gerald McClaren · #1 02-19-2006, 11:12 PM

I had lifted this photo off its background and made a new one, but it is not blended smoothly into the new background. Can someone please tell me what mistake was made and how to correct it. Thanks.

Gerald McClaren

Gerald McClaren · #2 02-19-2006, 11:20 PM

This is the original photo that I'm restoring.

Gerald McClaren

imann08 · #3 02-20-2006, 12:32 AM

One way I use is to select the layer with the guy on it the choose Select/Modify/Border and choose a width for the border selection. Then blur the area within the selection with Gaussian Blur or something. That's just one way.

bart_hickman · #4 02-20-2006, 12:55 AM

Hi Gerald,

The restoration of his face and suit are wonderful. Nice job there.

The first thing that hits me is the hat looks painted--probably because it's so uniform and bright--ie., no shadowing left. I think it also looks too bright. To brighten the hat without making it look painted, selectively apply a curve to that hat that boosts its effective exposure. You can paint it a new color using a color-blend layer, but use the curve for brightening.

The extracting itself looks pretty good, it just needs some feathering and the boundary along the top of the hat looks bumpy. Try setting the boundary using vector-based curves and then derive a selection from that.

The brown on his left neck appears to extend beyond his neck. Whatever mask or selection you used to extract the man from the original should also be used to mask the coloring--that would solve the color-overrun problem.

A somewhat non-uniform background would also help I think.

I attached what I did following my own advice--I didn't do anything to restore his face or suit because you've got that down, but I did do some noise reduction on his hat. I actually used a combination of background eraser brush and curves to extract him from the background.

Bart

philbach · #5 02-20-2006, 05:17 AM

Well the lighting is important in this photo. Its frontal and slightly above the subject so there are shadows under the front part of his hat and the front part of his face is fairly high key.

So this restore I did tried to preserve the general luminosity of the original picture.

Also its a good idea to post a larger size photo since its easier for the rest of us to study it.

studioj · #6 02-20-2006, 08:17 AM

I could describe Russel Brown's method, but please check this video, maybe the first half it's not what you'r looking for, but the way he creates a layer mask it's great...

http://av.adobe.com/russellbrown/ExtractSM.mov

Gerald McClaren · #7 02-21-2006, 10:55 PM

Thanks imann08, bart, philbach and studioj. Studioj, I had checked out the video and it was awesome. I thanked everyone for their help and and info.

Gerald McClaren

Gerald McClaren · #8 03-08-2006, 10:32 PM

Philbach, how did you reduced the highlights from the whole face? In the originial, the whole face is highlighted.

Gerald McClaren

philbach · #9 03-09-2006, 04:08 AM

Hi Gerald. I forgot to be honest with you. Chances are I used the Image/Adjustments/Shadow Highlights command in photoshop. That really works well to easily remove highlights.

When using this notice that I placed the shadow slider to zero to just focus on bringing down the highlights.

ifixpix · #10 03-10-2006, 05:54 PM

Another effect that I think is useful to use on backgrounds is to simulate a backlight for more of a studio effect, rather than a flat solid color.

I duplicate the background layer and blend the 2 in Multiply mode.

Reduce the opacity as needed.

Apply a layer mask to the duped backgound layer and apply a Black/White radial gradient to the layer mask.

The focus of the gradient will prob be around the middle of the subject.

I will provide screenshots, if this is too confusing.

Cheers
Bob

bart_hickman · #11 03-10-2006, 07:06 PM

That tutorial has some great techniques in it, but I just noticed your post and thought I'd caution folks that Brown's tutorial has a glaring error in it (as of about 2 weeks ago.) Ie., he says that using the extracted mask is identical to using the original extract result. This is not true.

When you use the extract filter in Photoshop, it does two things: 1) reduces opacity of background pixels according to how closely they match the background color, 2) removes color components derived from the background colors and replaces them with foreground color. In extracting a mask, Brown eliminates #2, thus leaving behind the color halos that plague the simple masking method and missing out on one of the great features of the extract filter. In his tutorial, he goes on to adjust the mask to erode the halo, but this necessarily over-erodes the foreground as well. The distinction becomes more noticeable as the background becomes more different from the original.

For the magic extractor tool (not the same as extract filter) in Photoshop Elements 4, what he says would be correct. Adobe has left out this critical feature of color decontamination from the magic extractor.

Other than that, the tutorial has great pointers on how to use alpha channels with the extract filter and, of course, is very entertaining due to his hilariously enthusiastic tone.

FYI,
Bart