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murreywalker
murreywalker
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Change The Background Color And Hold The Shadows

Mar 26, 2011 1:49 PM

A photographer and I (art direction and styling) shot this image yesterday on a white background. It was shot with a Hassie, and the image is quite large (and the detail and shadows are great).

 

I want to change the background color (white) to something else. And I want to hold the shadows created by the candies. Katrin Eismann's book Photoshop Masking and Compositing is a little older.

 

Does anyone have some thoughts using PShop CS5 as the app, to achieve what I see as a very tedious task?

 

ASweetHeart.jpg

538 Views   6 Replies   Latest reply: murreywalker, Mar 28, 2011 4:58 AM
 
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  • Gary Politzer
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    1. Gary Politzer,
    Mar 27, 2011 12:05 AM   in reply to murreywalker
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    There is no magic bullet for this problem. You are going to have to make a very complex selection. Hope you're good with the pen tool, and have a couple of hours to burn.

     
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  • c.pfaffenbichler
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    2. c.pfaffenbichler,
    Mar 27, 2011 1:31 AM   in reply to murreywalker
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    As none of the RGB-channels seems to provide a good separation of foreground and background one might try if the a- and/or b-Channels of an L*a*b-copy of the image might provide a starting point for a Layer Mask.

    And then go over that with a fairly hard edged Brush … which again would take time.

    ASweetHeartMask.jpg

     
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  • murreywalker
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    3. murreywalker,
    Mar 27, 2011 8:36 AM   in reply to Gary Politzer
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    I started using the pen tool in Illustrator 1.0.

     

    Thanks

     
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  • murreywalker
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    4. murreywalker,
    Mar 27, 2011 8:38 AM   in reply to c.pfaffenbichler
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    I haven't given LAB a try. I'll check it out.

     

    If ever there were an area for PShop to work on, this is one; at least for me.

     

    Thanks

     
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  • c.pfaffenbichler
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    5. c.pfaffenbichler,
    Mar 27, 2011 11:00 PM   in reply to murreywalker
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    I do not recommend working in L*a*b, though, it’s just that with some photograph the a- and b-channels offer a fairly good basis for selecting color regions so I usually transfer them back from a converted copy of the image.

     
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  • murreywalker
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    6. murreywalker,
    Mar 28, 2011 4:58 AM   in reply to c.pfaffenbichler
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    That's exactly what I did.

     

    LAB did offer a better way to get more blacks, and after I had a decent mask, I moved it back to the original (isn't there a saying about "great minds"?).

     

    And, of course, after a couple of hours of work, I had achieved my objective.

     

    I still wish there were a quicker way of getting this done, and perhaps someone out there will give me an education.

     

    Thanks

     
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