Complicated Background Extension

[yyhow]

Hey guys, my first time posting on this forum.
I've messed around with this image for quite some time and I have no where else to turn to.

So originally this image was in a portrait layout and I want to switch it to landscape. So I've copied and pasted to extend the background.
Within the image there's straight lines that runs up and down the wall (like a carpet wall)
Problem is, the lines aren't in a straight line, and varies through out. Giving me an uneven extension of the background

I've tried cutting out at specific angles and using that to extend the background, but you can still see the color distinctions.
I've used Frequency separations to try to balance out the colors, but it didn't work so well either.

I've tried content aware, and it just comes up with complicated patterns.

I am super bummed that I can't figure this out, and I hope someone to on this forum can give me a direction go to towards.

I just want to make a seamless extension of the background.

Thanks in advance for your help

[philbach]

Re: Complicated Background Extension

The extension you placed was in a different color than the original. At any rate, perhaps make your own background would be the way to go. I suspect the background on the photo was manufactured as well.

[seattle-light]

Re: Complicated Background Extension

You might be able to get away with cloning portions of the background to create a new flat background and then add the lighting to match what was there, but it already looks like there's already been a lot of rough rubber stamping work done on the background (hard to know if there was enough there to work with in the beginning. If you or the client really love that background, you could shoot a new background from the same location with close to the same lighting to get the horizontal background that you need and then combine your new background image with the existing image as best as you can. The lighting variation on the empty areas of the existing image is going to make it painful to extend it out by cloning, and you're not really going to be able to use the healing brush to clean things up. But it's not really an amazing background. Not worth spending ten hours to create a large field of believable, high-resolution, nondescript carpet on the wall out of a tiny swath of usable stuff. I've spent enough time retouching images of carpet to know that it's not worth your time unless the texture of the carpet is the focus of the piece. Here, it seems that the subject of the image is not the carpet. My suggestion is that you create a new background to closely match (or maybe improve upon) what it was originally shot with and then recreate the shadows and lighting on it to fit with the image. This would even allow you to create a great background that would be impossible, or prohibitively expensive, to shoot (say a warm charcoal gray flannel with a fine pinstripe) that would provide an interesting textural backdrop for an ad and some tonal contrast to make the cooler, shinier suit pop a bit more. The carpet on the wall isn't exactly luxurious. As long as you need to spend some time working with the image, you might see what you can do to make it work better. Simplify the background or make it better support the image as it will be used. Most of the delicate silhouetting work would be pretty forgiving because you're replacing dark gray in shadow with a slightly lighter dark gray in shadow. Anyway you look at it, you're probably going to have to do some work to separate the model from the background, as you'll be putting the existing image together with something else. I hope you will find this helpful. Good luck to you.