Background BEGONE!

[Mica]

I got lucky and took this adorable image of my son and a little girl kissing. Really a shame my husband and his friend's laps are so prominent in the background. I've done some blurring and burning (conjures up a bad image!). I cropped and did some clone stamping. Some it came out okay, but the burning is looking sort of bad on the adult's leg in the background, and that white tennis shoe...begone!

Any other ideas to obscure the background better?

[Dave.Cox]

Hi Mica,

So, what is it you want to accomplish? You could remove them completely and put them on a new background. You could blur the back ground to draw focus to the image. And what software are you using? In photoshop, I would start by selecting the children, and making a new copy of them to a new layer. This way, what ever I decided to do with the background, I can put the children back in front with sharp focus.

Take a look at this for an example
And if you still don't like the foot, try something like the second example.

[Mica]

Thanks for the ideas and examples, Dave. What I'm trying to accomplish is the obscuring of the background, sorry if I didn't make that clear in my original post.

I've been using PhotoshopCS and recently upgraded to CS4. I usually retouch product photos, so I find people rather challenging. For instance, I use the pen tool to make selections on objects, but that's not the best choice for people (with hair).

I play around with the blurring and shading more myself and post again when I've got something to show.

Thanks again!

[0lBaldy]

Had to have a play with the cute couple... he will be soooo happy when you show this to his girlfriend when he is a teenager!

new layer filled with white
copy background.. place above white layer.. Filter>extract on a copied background layer
Played with various fill patterns... shapes and styles

[Vernon]

Here is my 10-minute attempt:

• Duped layer
• opened channels and selected highest contrast of children to background
• Duped this channel (Red Channel for me)
• Applied a levels to duped channel to heighten contrast
• painted in grey areas with black or white as needed to get a black to white selection.
• converted this to selection
• Switched to layers with selection in place and applied a lens blur
• cloned out white shoe, right foot

Oh, I use Photoshop CS4

[Gary]

Caught in the spotlight..

Cloned out the BG; set an elliptical marquee to form the lighted area, used curves to lighten within the marquee and by inversing the selection, darkened the BG; curves adjustment layers for contrast.

Great shot!


Cheers.

[Dave.Cox]

Tee Hee,

OlBaldy, That's what we used to call a bribe photo. Lot's of fun.

[GemGem]

Totally adorable.

Check it out. hope you like it.

[0lBaldy]

Originally Posted by GemGem

Totally adorable.

Check it out. hope you like it.

Welcome to RetouchPRO

Kewl arch.. luv it.. wish it was a bit larger though...

If you are using Photoshop.. You can post a fairly large pictures which is under 100k using the save for web function in Photoshop as described here:
Size, Quality and/or Format your Attached Images.. (Click here)
This may also help some... How to attach Files/Images to your Posts or Threads?(Click here)

If you want to post a larger resolution that is over 100K then you can host your image on your own site or elsewhere and attach a link, but also please attach an under 100K version here (so the thread remains useful in the future, regardless of external links).
Alternative Image Hosts are: ImageVenue.com (3Meg max, free) or pixentral.com (2Meg max, free) or photobucket.com (1 Meg max free,... 5 Meg PRO)-- then post a link here in the thread to the site that is hosting your larger image.

[0lBaldy]

Originally Posted by Gary

Caught in the spotlight..

Cloned out the BG; set an elliptical marquee to form the lighted area, used curves to lighten within the marquee and by inversing the selection, darkened the BG; curves adjustment layers for contrast.

Great shot!

Cheers.

Plain, Simple Spotlight ON! Great rendition! Good Job!

[GemGem]

Originally Posted by 0lBaldy

Welcome to RetouchPRO

Kewl arch.. luv it.. wish it was a bit larger though...

If you are using Photoshop.. You can post a fairly large pictures which is under 100k using the save for web function in Photoshop as described here:
Size, Quality and/or Format your Attached Images.. (Click here)
This may also help some... How to attach Files/Images to your Posts or Threads?(Click here)

If you want to post a larger resolution that is over 100K then you can host your image on your own site or elsewhere and attach a link, but also please attach an under 100K version here (so the thread remains useful in the future, regardless of external links).
Alternative Image Hosts are: ImageVenue.com (3Meg max, free) or pixentral.com (2Meg max, free) or photobucket.com (1 Meg max free,... 5 Meg PRO)-- then post a link here in the thread to the site that is hosting your larger image.

Thank you!
Ok. let's see if it worked

[Gary]

Originally Posted by 0lBaldy

Plain, Simple Spotlight ON! Great rendition! Good Job!

Thank you! Yur comments are appreciated. Such a great shot!

[Mica]

Thanks for the great replies! This gives me some great ideas to work with. Thanks for the tips on selections, too.