Photoshop Buffs Help Please

[ShesaLikeableBiBear]

Have just started a course on photoshop but its only once a week and cant possibly wait until next Wed for help. :D

We touched on using the Clone stamp tool and spot and healing brushes on Wed. (First week)

Using this piccie as an example, how do I get rid of the handler. :D

[kja]

That's a huge task you've chosen LOL You might be better off choosing something a little less ambitious than this. It can be done but it's going to be a huge project, I'd think.

I always think of cloning and healing as minor changes only or it just gets too time consuming for my tastes! I'll be interested to see what the more prolific photoshoppers have to say on this one.

Did you learn about the patch tool? I love this tool and it works well for a variety of things. Not really for this one, but I wanted to mention is as I didn't know about it until a friend told me!

[helen]

Not sure how to do it but you would need to read up on advance selection tools so you can select all the hairs of the dog so you are not loosing the coat

[Zhou Xuanyao]

I think this image is probably well out of your capability at this time, and still will be long after Wednesdays lesson. Replacing a background is an advanced skill to master with just about any image. The one you have chosen is harder still to get an acceptable result (perfection, if you need it to be passable) due to the low image resolution and the dogs coat, particularly around the head, chest, and underside.

Some of the tools to look into for this image are the magic want, polygonal lasso, and pen. You'l also be using "feather", and adjusting hue saturation, levels, and others to give you the contrast between background and foreground you need to make accurate selections. Then you still have to reconstruct the background.

Edited February 23, 2008 by calsonic350z

[ShesaLikeableBiBear]

Bitten off more than I can chew then for the moment, LOL.

It was just an example, had re-sized it and was shot originally on full auto 16 months ago. Becoming a little more proficient at manual settings.

Will see what eventuates in the next few weeks with the course.

[Gayle.]

Think of the clone and healing tools as little touch up tools.......to remove small temporary blemishes from faces, get rid of small bits of rubbish in the background, cover over dust spots when you forget to clean your sensor.....all that kind of thing.

You might have success using quick mask mode, select the dog, feather the edges then blur the background. It would make the handler a lot less obvious but one way or the other, it's a long and tedious job. Best to do that kind of thing in-camera and shoot with a large aperture in the first place.

[Muttaburra]

Okay, it took me about 1 minute to do the following.

Using the Magic Wand tool "Shift Select" - hold down the shift key on the keyboard.

I selected as much of the Red Jack and the handler as I could without accidentally catching the collies body.

I then used the Clone tool, took my sample holding down the Alt Tab from the blue sheet background and cloned across to the selected area.

The reason for selecting an area first is that it helps to confine the cloning action in hard to negotiate areas.

Here is your picture back, maybe you could try to finish the rest.

[ShesaLikeableBiBear]

Thanks Gaylek and InDogWeTrust, will have a play in the morning.

IDWT he is a bi-black sheltie Gaylek the dad of Satchi whom you have seen a piccie of elsewhere in the forums

[Gayle.]

He is an amazing looking dog. The bi's are absolutely beautiful, definitely my new favourite colour for Shelties (I used to like the tri's best and they are still gorgeous).

[Muttaburra]

IDWT he is a bi-black sheltie

Oops, my bad He's stunning. Actually I love Shelites they are on my list of dogs to own one day. :D

Gaylek's suggestion was also very good, and yet another approach would be to select the dog with the magnetic "lassoo" tool, Invert that selection then apply various filters to neutralize the background by darkening or blurring.

Always a hassel with high contrast subjects like a black and white dog! I have big problems with Maxi's face, him being a Tri-colour, and even more so now he is going grey in the muzzle.

Whenever possible you can save yourself a lot of grief by trying to get portrait subjects against a good background whenever possible. For a black and white dog that would be something in the mid-tones like a mid-grey or mid-blue.

In order to get a camera to take a portrait photo of a subject in focus and background blurred, (shallow "depth of field) providing you have good lighting etc, you set Aperture (f stop) fairly wide, something below 4 is good, allow the speed to go on automatic (it should anyway, see your manual). This is provided the subject is keeping fairly still and roughly the same distance from the camera if there is movement.

[Dragondrums]

Hi, I have gotten rid of all he handler but dont know how to put it up on here to show you. i retouch old photo's and am a whiz so to speak on this kind of thing. Sadly I dont know how to upload it on here :D

[dogsong]

ok, this is my try at it.

1. i select the dog with the lasso too, copy and paste it as top layer.

2. i add another layer between the first (original picture) and the second layer (just the dog)

3. i clone the bottom layer (orig. phicture) into the second layer

4. i touch up on the dog (ie. erase extra bits, add on extra on stuff)

5. i kind of blurred the background a bit

6. add a bit of a drop shadow, which allows you to see stuff you've missed erasing, and so i'll touch up a bit more...

[ShesaLikeableBiBear]

Thanks again, new at this so will have to print off your instructions, be patient and practice :D

Dragondrums, if you have the re-touched photo saved, you will need to re-size it (we use jpegsizer) then hit add reply here, scroll down to browse, click that, select the photo, click upload, then scroll down again until you have add reply.

Here is another bi-black, Maddie at 5 months.

PS The dog in my siggie is also my bi-black Panda

Edited February 24, 2008 by Hesapandabear

[Muttaburra]

Dogsong, you won't believe this!!! Here is my work from last night, I wasn't going to put it up because there are a couple of unresolved areas in it, but it's so similar to yours! :D amazing!

Hesapandabear, he looks great against that green grass background! It was hard to find grass like that during the drought.

Dragondrums, looking forward to seeing your version.

[blackwolf]

I know this is far too late to reply since you have already gotten your picture corrected with removing the handler, but I spend 90% of my computer time in Photoshop.

What I normally do for pictures like that one of your dog where you have a large section of the image you want to get rid of is to put a Layer Mask on the image so you can correct any mistakes if you erase too much and then just use the erase tool to eat away at the background. For the details around the dog, with the fur for example, I find it better to zoom in close enough that you can see the pixels clearly and shrink down your brush size and be much slower in eating away at any unwanted background. And some minor correction around the edges to correct any tinges of red you can detect in the fur (I can see a few places, but it's not too bad)

Well, that's just my method... but since you have done your pic, it isn't important

Lovely looking dog, btw!

Edited February 24, 2008 by blackwolf

[ShesaLikeableBiBear]

Thanks blackwolf, never too late to reply. Havent actually done the piccie myself, and open to all suggestions.

DOL never ceases to amaze me with the amount of talent that is here, so many with so many different backgrounds.

[blackwolf]

Thanks blackwolf, never too late to reply. Havent actually done the piccie myself, and open to all suggestions.

DOL never ceases to amaze me with the amount of talent that is here, so many with so many different backgrounds. :rolleyes:

Yes, there are some truly amazing signatures on DOL. I was quite surprised with the range of techniques I can detect them.

If you need any help when you get around to doing your piccie, let me know. I'm more than happy to help.

[ShesaLikeableBiBear]

Wow, blackwolf, appreciate the offer which will no doubt take you up on. :rolleyes:

[Leema]

My approach would be:

Duplicate the layer

Erase all the 'background' and probably some of the edges of the dog

On the background layer, using copy paste and then the clone and retouch tools, create a background as you please - e.g. the whole blue thing as seen on the left

Then, on the top layer featuring just the dog, use the smudge tool to pull out hair so it doesn't look 'cut out'.

I have done a tutorial on the smudging (I think... if not I should), but it's on a site you have to sign up to to see it. Would you like me to post it here?

[blackwolf]

The smudging way is one way to do it, but I find with finer stuff (like the coat of the dog where it ruffles) it isn't always the way to do it. Unless you have a background that you can sort of blend the picture of the dog into it so the edges don't stand out so much if they're blurry or distorted.

Smudging is a useful technique for a great many things, but I wouldn't use it here. But that is just a personal preference because I have a different method.

A lot of Photoshopping is finding a method that works best for you to achieve the result you have in mind.

I'm in the mood now for a little tinkering, so if you don't mind Hesapandabear, I will run off with your picture and have a little play around and then post my results. It shouldn't take long, I'm quick with Photoshop things when I have something in mind :rolleyes: