help on this back ground

[mtpfamily]

Need help with the back ground of this picture. I would like to keep the hair detail. I have tried just about everyback ground I can think of and am out of ideas. So thought I would give your creative minds a try.

[TommyO]

Re: help on this back ground

Removing the background should be quite easy on this image, as there is good contrast between her hair and the background. Most people would simply build a mask and save to a new channel (as a way of saving the mask). The mask would be built by increasing the contrast to the extreme, such that the portrait is black and the background white. You would manually fill in the smaller spots that need it in each of those areas on the mask. At that point the mask is loaded as a selection and the selection copied to a layer. Now you can add a new background easily. Fine tuning the mask is all that's required afterward, with a small soft brush along the edges.

If you have a larger image you want us to use, please provide a link. Otherwise we can use this one, but it may not suffice for larger prints. Just let us know !

[mtpfamily]

Re: help on this back ground

Is there a tutorial on that some place? I have not change a background that way before. I will also look in the tutorals here as well. Anyway my problem was finding the right background to use to make Her stand out(my wife Tracy). I would have changed the back ground the hard way with a mask and alot of painting but your way sounds a little faster than mine. Here are two links to the original and the one I touched up. Feel free to do what you can.
My fix so far http://i145.photobucket.com/albums/r..._2539after.jpg
the origanal http://i145.photobucket.com/albums/r...2539before.jpg

[lurch]

Re: help on this back ground

I used the Photoshop Extract Filter (with a lot of cleanup to preserve the hair detail as much as I had patience for). There are lots of other, and maybe better, ways to make masks - Katrin Eisman's 'Photoshop Masking and Compositing' is an excellent reference. I just put a studio-type fer-instance backdrop behind the extracted image of your wife, but you can use just about any background you choose including the original one blurred or darkened or lightened or . . .

Also did a little color correction and a touch of touchup.

[0lBaldy]

Re: help on this back ground

After straightening and cropping, a blurred background doesn't look all that bad

[TommyO]

Re: help on this back ground

I created a Photoshop file for you that contains a proper mask. I chose not to post it publicly to an external site. However, just email me and I will be glad to send it to you. It should provide a nice starting point to add whatever background you wish. Just place the new background underneath the layer with the mask.
Hope this helps. Maybe later you can practice creating masks.

[ashphotoart]

Re: help on this back ground

Vertus Fluid Mask is Great tool for extracting Hair.

I used it for thousands of images. I will post you the extracted image.

Ash

[ashphotoart]

Re: help on this back ground

mtpfamily,

I want to send you .psd file. give me your e-mail address.

I extracted the picture. Hope you will love it.


Ash

[Swampy]

Re: help on this back ground

I did this is about 5 minutes using my Masking Sky tutorial as a starting point. Cleaned up the mask then did a little Dodge and Burn on the hair edges. Not the greatest work, because I didn't have much time to play, but it's a start.