I HATE Branches

[Flora]

..me again...

I'm posting this second version 'cause I noticed that in my previous one there was a hard withish edge along the roof's line (leftover from the old background) ... (attachment 2)

[Gary Richardson]

Hi Doug, as an alternative method for creating a mask, try this tutorial by russell brown www.russellbrown.com/tips_tech.html scroll down to find Advanced masking.

Using his techniques I did a very quick job on your picture. With a
little more time I'm sure you could do it better.

[jclguru]

Thanks Gary, I'm looking at it now. The actual url is tips_tech.html
(no hyphen, its an underscore).

Doug

Originally Posted by Gary Richardson

Hi Doug, as an alternative method for creating a mask, try this tutorial by russell brown www.russellbrown.com/tips-tech.html scroll down to find Advanced masking.

Using his techniques I did a very quick job on your picture. With a
little more time I'm sure you could do it better.

[jclguru]

Flora,

OK, here's my latest version. The only real problem I'm having is losing
the branches. If I move the slider to far to the right, to much gets washed
out. If I don't move it enough, not enough is covered. Hope that makes
some sense

Right now I'm using the clone tool to rebuild the branches, but I doubt thats
what you did.

Yours (and everyone elses), looks so perfect. Guess I'm just not sure what I
should do to correct my problem.

Doug

Originally Posted by Flora

..me again...

I'm posting this second version 'cause I noticed that in my previous one there was a hard withish edge along the roof's line (leftover from the old background) ... (attachment 2)

[Gary Richardson]

Oops sorry about the mistype Doug. I had a bit of spare time, so I refined my original post a little by lightening the sky and hand touching the mask a little.

One of the reasons you notice the imperfections in your mask Doug is that you are using a very dark sky which contrasts strongly with the original sky. Therefore even the slightest defect in your mask will be noticeable. By lightening your new sky any "faults" in the mask will be less noticeable.

p.s I've corrected the typo on my link.

[Stroker]

What Gary said. That's what I'm talking about.

Another trick is to actually modify the photo. Not many people do this, either.
The sky around the branches, just turn that area into the colour of the trees.
I usually do this with two different mask, one tight and one loose.
Apply the masks, copy, Gauss, Merge Down, and all that jazz.
Or you could use other tools.

Wish I had more time for this.

[philbach]

I used a few more clouds in the background so the proper foreground contrast would be a little more forgiving

[Flora]

Wow!!!

Great job everybody!!!!

Stroker,

Originally Posted by Stroker

The sky around the branches, just turn that area into the colour of the trees.

Very interesting tip!!! Never done it before, but I'm surely going to try it .... Thanks for sharing!!!

jclguru,

You surely are on the right track!!!
You are right .... the clone tool is not what I used ....

What Stroker jokingly called 'cheating' is actually the 'recomended' way for an easier change of dull backgrounds/skies ..."try to stay as close as possible to the original to avoid the headache of 'bleedings' and 'haloes' etc. " ...

A drastic change, like in this case, from a bown-out, nearly-white sky to a very dark one is, in my opinion, one of the most difficult tasks...

It wasn't easy, but I think I got close enough .... still used the 'Blend if' technique, but played with the blending ...

I'm going to write a detailed explanation of what I did tomorrow ....

[Stroker]

Here we go: Whispies.
In the second half of that tutorial, Curves are used to modify the halo immediately around the hair.
There is another tutorial out there along the same lines, but I can't find it right now.
When it comes to modifying the halo, use whatever tricks strike your fancy.

Tuck it in your bag and save it for a rainy day.

[Gary Richardson]

Outstanding job Flora, considering the extreme difference in the before and after skies. The foreground lighting does'nt seem quite right somehow, but the mask for the trees is peerless. Will have to study your tutorial in more detail, I did'nt get nearly as good a result when I tried it.

Awaiting your detailed break down with keen anticipation.

Stroker, nice tutorial, thanks for the link, will definitely be using this one.

[Flora]

Stroker,

thank you so much for the link!! Great Tutorial!!!

Gary,

thank you so much for your kindness...

...and here is my "detailed break down" :

• Duplicated the background.
• Dragged the new Sky layer between background and duplicate.
• Changed the Sky-Layer Blending to 'Multiply'. (This is what actually makes the difference!).
• Activated the top(duplicate) Layer, named it BlendIf, run the 'Blend-If Options (values in Attachment 1), changed the Blending of this Layer to 'Multiply' and lowered its Opacity to 28%

What I was trying to do was creating a nice dark definition of the branches against the dark sky which I now had, but it looked a bit dull and colorless so,

• I duplicated the BlendIf Layer (BlendIf copy), changed its Blending to Color and increased its Opacity to 45%.
• I duplicated the BlendIf copy Layer (BlendIf copy1) , changed its Blending to Soft Light and increased its Opacity to 62%. (this brightened up the trees a bit).
• I duplicated the BlendIf copy1 Layer (BlendIf copy2) , changed its Blending to Normal and increased its Opacity to 100%.
• This brought back the lighter, muddy branches, so I created a Layer Mask and, with a soft black brush (Opacity 30%), I carefully deleted them to reveal the underlying dark branches' outline.
• To further brighten the branches I created a new blank Layer (Blending Overlay) and with a soft white brush (Opacity 10%) I painted some 'light' on them. (Layers' sequence and Opacities in Attachment 2)

I now had the 'branches' where I wanted, but the bridge looked very muddy and the lower sky outline was still clearly visible.... To correct that...

• I merged visible (the action for merging 'visible' without losing the underlying 'steps' can be downloaded here.)
• I hid from view all the layers but Background and Merged Layer (top).
• I created a Layer Mask for the Merged Layer (Attachment 3) and with a black brush (adjust Hardness and Opacity) I revealed the 'clear' parts of the original background.

[jclguru]

OH MY GOD!! Thats it!!

THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU!

I think I'm going to cry

I can't thank everyone enough who contributed to this thread to help me
out!

Now...for my next problem....

Doug

[Flora]

Hi Doug,

you are most welcome .... I'm so glad we were able to help!!!

Originally Posted by jclguru

.....Now...for my next problem....

Noooooo please ..... no more branches!!!!

[Gary Richardson]

Thanks for the break down Flora. That's some piece of work. I think it's going to take me some time to analyse it and hopefully understand the reasoning behind your steps. But thanks very much for taking the time to post, I'm sure I can learn some valuable technique from this.

[Duv]

Excellent job Flora. Ditto what Gary said. I'm still trying to find ways to capture the fine branches. Here I tried to use a modest levels adjustment and then Burned the top branches. May need to use a finer brush. Anyway, always a work in progress.

Cheers
Dave