help needed....

[BARBARA LUKE]

HI guys ... need you help once again....I nee to get the background in this pic all white...Now the way i have done it looks tacky....all your ideas will be much appreciated.... :cheers: Barbara

[paulc]

what a great picture, how did you do your background? I suppose i would make a solid white layer in P/s and then use the history brush to reveal the little chefs and then adjust the white layers properties to suit my liking.

I am no expert though Barbara and am renowned by my friends for botching my way through things...photos included. :)

[BARBARA LUKE]

well paul i haven't use that way so i will let you know how i get on..... :cheers:
Barbara

[rekhon]

My own opinion of th e easiest way: Add a layer on top, fill it black, set the transparency to 60 or something'. Then use an eraser, 72 softness (my favorite i don't know why) erasing the chefs. then transparency back to normal, invert the color of the layer and voila!

later edit

Something like that, I did not use a pure white background in order not to blend the little ones too much. But by using a layer paint on top of the existing one, you can change it's color and get anything you want out of it.

[Tom V]

Barbara,

There are 100s of ways to do this, some better than others, some easier, some simpler, etc. I do most of my masking in either of two ways.

Your shot should be easy to mask because the good contrast between the foreground and background. You only have to watch for dark edges of your subject showing up against your new artificial light background.

One method I use iis to make a quickmask, and paint inside all (or outside all) the edges, then fill in the centers. I use a softer brush for softer subjects (hair, clothes, etc.) and harder brushes for hard subjects (shoes, motorcycles, metal tools, etc.). My infamous tutorial (http://www.fmount.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2037) explains this method in detail.

http://www.fmount.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2037

The other method I use is quicker, and often does a pretty good job on hair, especially if the unwanted background is something like the desired background. I use the EXTRACT tools in Photoshop's FILTER menu. It brings up a whole new window, and you can trace around the edge of the subject, and then paint-bucket fill the center of the image.

One of my recent ad series included people ( complete with hairy arms and rumpled hair) that is a takeoff on the "Mac vs PC" ads. I shot each person separately on a white seamless background. I wasn't too concerned if the background stayed really white, but did want to make a fairly clean backgound (we shot this in a warehouse), that would be easy to mask away from. The hardest part of the mask was the edge of the palette closest to the light source. Some of my exposures are a bit dark, because I was shooting a bit faster than my flash system could recycle. Photoshop to the rescue!

[BARBARA LUKE]

Thank you guys.......As this shot was taken while on holiday i didn't have any backdrops with me......There was no free white walls to use as a B/D also the food needed to be one show.....Anyway i will see what i can do as it's not a paying job for me so they can always get a pro to do the job....I will have a play today see what i come up with...... :cheers: guys.....
Barbara
PS Tom i have had a look at your link... looks like i just might be able to do this......I have had a go at this way before but never manage to get it right ........now i have it step by step.....cool.....Barbara