need some assistance, where to start...

[capburl]

Hello,

Thank you for reading my post.

The photo below is in need of some color correction and eliminating of the shadows and haze. I noticed a very harsh shadow on the right when I was attempting to correct and color balance it. The background will be replaced. Any guidance would be great.

Thank you for your help.

[Jobu]

I'm a bit of a novice, but on such a small jpg I was able to do handwork in 5 minutes.

eraser tool hard brush 19
selection
refine edges
dodge edges with large brush to remove haze
I'll leave the color corrections to you

JPG
http://img835.imageshack.us/img835/9244/cakeff.jpg

PNG
http://img864.imageshack.us/img864/9012/cake.png

PSD
http://www.mediafire.com/?xdeau2d8xysdys2

[lucija]

hello
i strongly recommend to use pen tool in this case to take the cake 'out from the background'. make a copy of your layer and put blend soft light. then make a new layer with 50% gray, linear light and dodge the dark parts of the cake... do the colors stronger on original layer in selective color- add some magenta in red color, cyan in cyan... play a little bit :-))

i'm not so good at explaining so look at the photo and feel free to ask if you don't understand anything :-)))
http://www.mediafire.com/?2su6g0pyzrptmz9


the cake is little bit distorted so i would use some transform tools, liquify or even drow the bottom again (make shapes with pen tool, feather 1-2, big brush tool 30-40% opacity, at the and add noise 1 gaussian...) anyway, do it nicer than me, i just wanted to show you how to do it :-))

[capburl]

Jobu.

Thank you for the quick response, and no need to apologize for you being a novice. How else are we going to learn, if not to start somewhere. Keep up the great work. Maybe others will provide us both with some additional advanced technique and suggestions and we can all learn together.
-

lucija.

Thanks for working with the image. However, I am not able to download the file, I think it may be something with how my web browser is setup. Maybe there is another way to post on a 3rd party site that would display the image.
-


For all,

I will keep this forum open to allow others to provide additional guidance so we can all learn from each other.

Thanks so much all.

[lucija]

i hope it's not to small now :-) and i agree that retouchpro is a great site, i learned here a lot :-)

[lucija]

hope this can help...

[capburl]

Hi All,

I have included some questions below, feel free to add your responses below. Thank you all for working with me.

Originally Posted by lucija

hope this can help...

Originally Posted by lucija

hello
i strongly recommend to use pen tool in this case to take the cake 'out from the background'. make a copy of your layer and put blend soft light. then make a new layer with 50% gray, linear light and dodge the dark parts of the cake... do the colors stronger on original layer in selective color- add some magenta in red color, cyan in cyan... play a little bit :-))

i'm not so good at explaining so look at the photo and feel free to ask if you don't understand anything :-)))


the cake is little bit distorted so i would use some transform tools, liquify or even drow the bottom again (make shapes with pen tool, feather 1-2, big brush tool 30-40% opacity, at the and add noise 1 gaussian...) anyway, do it nicer than me, i just wanted to show you how to do it :-))

Lucija
You are doing fine with the explanation. I am fairly new at working with this so I do have a few questions. I ask simply because I am not sure of the answers. Feel free for others to respond as well.

All Members and Lucija

1. how come you chose to use the pen tool and not the magnetic lasso? I assume the pen feature does something different then the lasso.

2. I tried selecting the cake using the pen, but having difficulty getting "close enough" for a sharp edge of the cake. It also seems as if you need a very steady hand, unless I have certain features enabled/disabled that should/ should not be.

I also tried with the magnetic lasso, seems I did a better job, but still having issues with getting those sharp edges. I am guessing it has something to do with the feather feature.

I also tried my hand at working with the quick mask, but after I created the marching ants (selection), I was not clear on how to create a mask layer or how to "cut out" the image or mask it to get to the next step.

Maybe I need to a tutorial or written direction.

3. How did you make the 50% gray feature, I know how to create a new layer?

I probably have more questions but will wait to hear back from the forum.


Thanks to all for assisting me and working with my questions. Much appreciated for all your help.

[lucija]

you're welcome, other people helped me too, so will you soon :-))

1) you can never get such a precise, sharp and clean cut with magnetic lasso as with a pen tool. you can always add later feather 1 or 2 % to soften the edge but it's still nicer than lasso. when you use lasso or magic tool then use select - refine edge to get it better

2) you have to work on the picture zoomed out on 300-400%. it takes practice but it's much better trust me :-)

i'm not sure that i understand your next problem... after you get marching ants just make layer via copy (edit-new). copy that layer and make the blend option soft light.

3) make a new layer, fill it with 50% grey (edit-fill- choose option ) and give him blend mode linear light. get the cursor on that layer in the layer panel, press the right button on your mouse and then choose create clipping mask


did i help? ask all you don't understand

[lucija]

when you work with pen tool, you klick to the next point but don't let the mouse but drag so you you get a curve that follows the edge in the way you wont it.... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IDrtyNmp3A4

[Jobu]

1. I think the longer you use the magnetic lasso tool the more you will see it's limitations. Especially in those low contrast areas like your shadow.

2. The video should clear this up, just wanted to add, be sure your points are on target. If you click in the wrong place just ctrl Z or option z? (mac) to re-enter your point.

Once you have your marching ants make sure the proper layer is selected before you cut or copy. Only thing I can think of that you might be having problems with. Ctrl J or option J is the shortcut for copying the selected area from whatever layer is selected.

[capburl]

For All Members including Lucija and Jobu:

Lucija:

I had written a long-form response to your postings, but for some reason it did not post correctly and I do not have a copy. So I will try my best to recall my questions. Here we go again with an abridged version. If you have follow up questions, feel free to ask for clarification.

1) I am now understanding how the magnetic lasso has its limitations and trying my best to work with the pen tool to get closer to the image pixels. It certainly does take some time to get used to and understand how it functions.
I am still a bit off with how to feather correctly along with the edges. Any suggestions or tips?

2) I did come across an issue, which I still do not understand the outcome. During the first couple of attempts when creating a path, I was not able to select it and make a copy. I tried to replicate my steps, but was not able
to figure out where I went wrong (maybe a missed step or added step.) I started from the beginning and was able to work through and create the copy with ease.

3) thanks for creating screen images, sometimes it's a bit easier to follow along with the text and refer to a true image for comparison.

4) when I tried to create a clipping mask, I referenced your screen image of 'create clipping mask,' but my right click properties do not offer me the same options. Maybe my version differs from yours or I missed a step. However I was able to consult the 'help' files and able to find the directions on how to create the clipping mask by hovering inbetween the two layers and clicking alt-click. I understand this too be a short-cut, so do you or anyone know if there is a 'long-form' or regular way of reaching that step?

5) I worked with the linear light, but I my edited version is not as 'washed out' or 'bright' as your screen shot. suggestions?

6) when you are using the dodge on the dark parts of the cake, were you seeing that it removed the "haze?" How much of the dodge tool do you use? I am not sure I was using it correctly, because I found myself removing a lot of material on most of the image to have it color match.

7) in reference to your quote "do the colors stronger on original layer in selective color- add some magenta in red color, cyan in cyan... play a little bit :-))" I guess this a very subjective topic. can you or others recommend where to read up on how to work with these selecitive colors.

8) I see that you had created two additional layers to work on the "plate" - how did you go about working with those two layers?

9) I will soon make my way through the video.

I guess those are enough follow up questions for now, I am sure I will have more questions once I hear back.

Thanks for assistance in helping me work my may through the corrections.

========================================

Jobu:

I guess practice makes perfect, I will surely be working on learning the technique with the pen tool. Thanks for the
recommendations on the shortcuts, I can now understand how much less time it would take to work on this, if I could learn these shortcuts.

Thank You for responding to my posting and I hope to continue to learn the functions.