Before And After Thread

[Luke W]

Vickie.

Here's the photie. I'd be happy with anything

That one is easy enough to remove the handler and the orange rope in the background.

If nobody beats me to it - I'll have a go tomorrow.

Edited October 11, 2008 by Luke W

[rugerfly]

Thankyou that would be really awesome

[Luke W]

For others who might be interested:

I traced around the dog using the pen tool. This creates a path. Then I turned the path into a selection, then inverted the selection. The means that everything EXCEPT the dog was selected.

I then used the stamp tool to copy grass over the top of the handler and rope. Because the dog was NOT selected the stamp tool avoided the dog.

Small contrast changes using curves adjustment layers.

The hardest part is learning to use the pen tool.

I didn't spend a lot of time on this one - the tracing could have been more carefully done.

Edited October 13, 2008 by Luke W

[~*Shell*~]

With the pen tool, do you have to use a continuous line or can you do it in bits? I'm trying to work out a lot of the tools in CS3 at the moment and without having a great knowledge of the program, I'm finding it a little difficult.

Since i suck at using my mouse to draw anything I mostly use my graphics tablet when I'm editing and because the draw space is so small (it's a graphire 4) it's really difficult to be able to trace around one thing without taking the pen off the tablet.

[Luke W]

With the pen tool, do you have to use a continuous line or can you do it in bits? I'm trying to work out a lot of the tools in CS3 at the moment and without having a great knowledge of the program, I'm finding it a little difficult.

Since i suck at using my mouse to draw anything I mostly use my graphics tablet when I'm editing and because the draw space is so small (it's a graphire 4) it's really difficult to be able to trace around one thing without taking the pen off the tablet.

Are you really using the pen tool? Shortcut is P.

Note the pen is good for longer hard lines, straight lines, nice curves, sharp angles etc.

Work in full screen mode so you can move the image around with the hand tool.

If, while using the pen tool, you need to move the image around to access areas currently off-screen, simply hit the space-bar and the cursor will turn into a hand. You can then use the hand to move the image around. The let go of the space bar and the pen continues where you left off.

The pen tool is the hardest tool to use in photoshop.

Here's a tutorial:

http://www.thegoldenmean.com/technique/pen1.html

Edited October 13, 2008 by Luke W

[rugerfly]

Luke, its so clever, I cant believe what some people can really do here.

[Luke W]

Can someone tell me a quick way I can replace the colour in a background? I took a shot of an buzzard/eagle on a telegraph pole in silhouette and the background is grey as it was coming on dusk, not a sunny day that day. Would I use the quick selection key but I have CS2, not CS3. Photo is on OH's laptop still but bascially I have a raptor on a pole in the left hand side, some telegraph lines leading to the right and a boring bland sky behind it. I don't want a fake sunset, just to make the colour richer in the background without affecting the bird and pole.

Here it is - I underexposed by 1 stop as I wanted a silhouette. But I'd like a nicer background. Can this be done in a few easy steps? No idea what this raptor is - I'm guessing hen harrier or eagle?

Untouched in PS, out of camera. Lens 70-200mm Canon, Exposure f/13 @ 500, hand held, slowly reversing car and creeping up on bird before he flew off. Wishing I had a longer lens but was surprised I even got this close.

Hi Ripley

I played a little with this one too.

This is a pretty advanced technique but very handy...

CTL-SHFT-ALT-~ to create a luminosity selection. This selects the pixels in the image darker than 50%.

Then invert the selection - CTL-SHFT-I. Now you've got all pixels brighter than 50% selected.

Now create a curves adjustment layer. The mask will be based on the selection.

Click on the mask and then Image-Adjustment-Curves. Use the curves to make the grey in the mask white and the darker areas black.

Now you've got curves adjustment layer that targets the sky.

You can also use the same mask (CTL click on the mask) to create a HueSat adjustment layer in colorise mode, again, just targeting the sky. In the screenshot below, I used an extra gradient (black to transparent) on the HueSat layer to punch some blue into the lower part of the sky.

Here's a screenshot. Just to show you the basic structure of the adjustment layers and masks.

Note:

The JPG artififacts could have been avoided if I was working on the original image. They could be tidied up in any case.

Edited October 14, 2008 by Luke W

[Danois]

Ok PS gurus - Can I call on your skills too?

I took this photo of my new boy Baloo today and love it - taken with a basic Canon IXUS 80IS. I don't like the background - is there anything that can be done to remove it, blur it or put a different background in without making it look like a cut and paste job?

Anyone want to have a go?

[rocco]

Just quick 2 mins blured and darken. I am sure someone could do a tighter job on it. Might be better to pass on a higher-res to work with if you wanted if for further reasons then computer viewing.

[rocco]

Rugerfly gorgeous pic of the GSP moving. Luke nice job on removing the handler.

[rugerfly]

:rolleyes: thanks Rocco, its my fav passtime at the moment, getting the dog in a perfect stride.

[shoemonster]

Im home sick with not much to do, here is my couple of minute version, might be a bit girly coloured though

[rugerfly]

ohhhhh how cute.....pink bits

[Chloes Dad]

i was happy with this retouch. nothing OTT we were there in the fading light and this was all handheld so to be able to not only rescue this shot but to be happy with it was GREAT!

i used an effect called orton (good tute here http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=BLQfva4kWbY)... amongst other things. i ended up with quite a few layers!

Before:

After:

Edited October 29, 2008 by Chloes Dad

[Miss Helena]

Wow, that is a fantastic landscape shot CD!

[Luke W]

Great work CD!

[Poo d'état]

i was happy with this retouch. nothing OTT we were there in the fading light and this was all handheld so to be able to not only rescue this shot but to be happy with it was GREAT!

i used an effect called orton (good tute here http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=BLQfva4kWbY)... amongst other things. i ended up with quite a few layers!

Brilliant shot Chloe's Dad!

**note to self - must visit Loch Ness one day......

[~*Shell*~]

The pen tool is the hardest tool to use in photoshop.

Here's a tutorial:

http://www.thegoldenmean.com/technique/pen1.html

Thanks Luke!

My computer has totally died (goodbye 5 month old hard drive - that'll teach me to want 500gigs!) so i'll have to have another go when it's fixed.

[Ashanali]

My computer has totally died (goodbye 5 month old hard drive - that'll teach me to want 500gigs!) so i'll have to have another go when it's fixed.

Have you asked if it can be salvaged? My old old old hard drive was salvaged recently and is now in this new computer that I am on right now.

[Chloes Dad]

here is another I am happy with. It is a HDR merge from one raw photo, good flickr group here, which i know isn't a real HDR but it certainly does help bring the image to life. I also blurred the people in the foreground to take the emphasis off them and played with the sky a tad.

before:

after: