8 Replies Latest reply: Jan 29, 2011 1:34 PM by acresofgreen RSS

    Please help with my babys picture

    ngraci Community Member

      I want to print this as a poster and gift it to my husband for our anniversary...I tried to extract it but couldn't get it right.

      I would like to give it a more professional look by changing the background to plain or any texture.

       

      I have 3 pictures in the link and I am not sure which one would be a good one to use.

       

      Any advices/help would be greatly appreciated.

       

      http://cid-71af37ec07ce01a6.skydrive.live.com/redir.aspx?page=play&resid=71AF37EC07CE01A6! 324

        • 1. Re: Please help with my babys picture
          Curt Y Community Member

          Follow this link for a good written tutorial on seperating subject from background.  Takes a little time, but you can get professional results this way.

           

          In step 1 I have found I can see what I am doing better it I right click on the background layer and choose DUPLICATE layer rather than convert background layer.  Follow the rest as posted.  http://www.muvipix.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=23&t=6754

           

          Hope this helps.

          • 2. Re: Please help with my babys picture
            Community Member

            ngraci wrote:

             

            ...I would like to give it a more professional look by changing the background to plain or any texture...

             

            With no offense to your idea, that is not typically what a professional would do. Excessive modifications to a photo distract from the subject, even extremely cute little lady bugs. A well placed crop would likely do better than any artificial background. You might also fake depth of field to focus on the subject.

            • 3. Re: Please help with my babys picture
              ngraci Community Member

              Thanks for your response Marian...I am no expert so wasn't quite sure how that would turn out...Can you please elaborate on faking depth...

              I want  it to look professional when printed large size...Blurring background or adding depth would certainly be  something I'd want to look at.

               

              Thanks again.

              • 4. Re: Please help with my babys picture
                Community Member

                http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wi90bHVPtI4

                 

                He uses the gradient tool in one quick move but you can also follow up with brush painting of the layer mask to make sure your little bug remains crisp.

                • 5. Re: Please help with my babys picture
                  Terri_F Community Member

                  Another option is to use a touch of Lens Blur  along with an Alpha mask. I usually add a little grain maybe 1 along with the blur when I use this method.

                   


                  You can find a the video on the subject called "Hocus Pocus Focus". It's located in the list of videos under the heading "Adobe Photoshop CS tips".

                   

                  http://www.russellbrown.com/tips_tech.html

                  • 6. Re: Please help with my babys picture
                    acresofgreen Community Member

                    I like the second photo the best. Cropping and blurring as others have suggested can make beautiful portraits out of photos that have distracting backgrounds.  Here I've added some light on the face and a darkening in the corners to draw attention to the face. The resolution should be good if you want to enlarge the photo and you may have to remove noise. I am not a professional like other folks here, so this is not a professional example.  I have found it wise to crop my photos in the proportions that my online printing service recommends, otherwise parts may get cut off.

                    Capture small.JPG

                    • 7. Re: Please help with my babys picture
                      ngraci Community Member

                      Thank you all for all the answers.

                       

                      acresofgreen - Thanks for working on my baby's picture. I love the lighting effect  and blurring effect at the same time. Could you please explain what you did or if possible email me the psd for the picture. I really appreciate it.

                       

                      Thanks.

                      • 8. Re: Please help with my babys picture
                        acresofgreen Community Member

                        I'm glad you liked the example.  The layers are gone because I merged them, so the PSD wouldn't help you.  I would be glad to do it again and post it for you to download if I could figure out how to download the original photo.  The link you originally posted pointed to a slide show and the screenshot I made of your photo had a really low resolution.

                         

                        To give the photo a quick color boost I duplicated the background layer, set the blend mode to multiply, and merged the two layers, but normally I would have loaded the photo in Camera Raw and done adjustments there to give the photo more contrast and vibrance..

                         

                        For the lighting effect I duplicated the layer and set the blend mode to screen.  Then I lowered the opacity to the desired lightness and added a layer mask. I filled the layer mask with black, and with the layer mask still selected, I used a soft white brush to paint over the facial area, which made that area appear lighter.

                         

                        I merged all the layers again.  To make the background blur, I duplicated the layer and added a Gaussian blur (Filter - blur - Gaussian blur).  I added a layer mask to this blurred layer and with the white layer mask selected, added a black to white gradiant to the mask from the bottom up to mask away the blur from the bottom of the photo. With the layer mask still selected, I used a soft black brush to paint over the baby and the costume to mask away the blur.

                         

                        In Camera Raw I cropped the photo and added a vignette to darken the edges and corners a bit.