Fading Shorts

[Anthony]

I am working on a color image for a models portfolio. The model is wearing white (light grey) shorts and the background is white. He would like the shorts to disappear into the background at the bottom. I tried feathering it and just about every technique I know, but I just can't get the shorts to gradually lighten and disappear. Any suggestions?

[chiquitita]

Could you post the picture (or a portion of the picture)? it is hard to picture what you are talking about.

[Guest]

In general, using a mask with a b/w gradient over it would fade anything away gradually. Or just put a white-->transparent gradient on a layer over it and adjust. To work on just the shorts, try a white gaussian-blurred patch on the layer above and play with opacity, or use a mask and paint with successive shades of gray on the shorts.

But this all depends on the rest of the background. So, as Chiquita says, you should post the picture.

Phyllis

[Anthony]

OK here's the picture.

[CJ Swartz]

Anthony -- your whole picture "faded" away

Do another post and try to attach it again -- sometimes we forget to do the attachment, and sometimes the forum software "eats" it -- either way, we'd love to see the image.

[Anthony]

That was very funny!

Ok here it is - maybe it was to large or the forum did eat it.

[Anthony]

I don' t know why its not showing.

[KenB]

Is this what you have in mind? If it is I just used a gradiant on a layer with a layer mask.

Ken

[Anthony]

yes it is. I tried it several times with no luck. Thank you I will try it again.

[Mig]

Everything that's been suggested so far will work well. A fairly easy way to do it (if you understand layer masks) is to first duplicate the bg layer, then increase the canvas size (not image size), making sure white is the bg colour when you do this. (Essentially you want to have more room to work with at the bottom of the picture and increasing the canvas size will settle this.) Next, put a new blank layer in between those two layers and fill this new layer with white. Then go to the top layer and add a layer mask. Then, with black & white as the default colours, paint with black on the layer mask of this top layer where you want to remove the shorts. (Paint with white on this layer mask where you want to put the shorts back in.) Also, you can be pretty messy with this procedure because you can actually blur the layer mask itself, which you should do to make the transition smooth.
One thing worth pointing out too is that there's a part of the bg next to his left hip that has blue in it. It's not quite white, so be careful here. You may have to cut him out of the bg and copy paste him onto a new layer.
Also, the scan itself has problems. I know it's a small file, but you might want to consider adjusting things a touch so bring out the best in the scan itself.
Good luck - pm me if you have any questions, I'd be happy to explain something if it's not clear.

mig

[Anthony]

Thank you for your help. My masking skills definitely need sharpening. I had to get that completed for this morning - talk about down to the wire, so I had to apply a much simpler technique. I created a blank layer and painted out the bottom of the shorts with white using a brush at around 35%.

[CJ Swartz]

I had to get that completed for this morning

Whew! You got it done -- good job! Now you can take time to practice doing it other ways via masks.