Following some much appreciated crit on a couple of images I have posted on here, I set myself a task to work on backgrounds in the forthcoming weeks.
Today I was out shooting Great Spotted Woodpecker, and pleasing as it was I found myself more drawn to some pesky Grey Squirrels that were posing too well to not photograph. (well, I thought anyway).
So whilst waiting for the GSW to perch, I glady took a few snaps of the Squirrel with a view to start work on my bg's.
This was the first result...my only nit would be the light patch to the left of his head, I wanted it darked but was stumped in PP as to how to darken it without making it too obvious?!?
Had a go with the healing brush but for some reason it was leaving defined circles which were easy to spot, not as obvious a a clone brush would look though.
Sorry to disagree Paul, but I think Dan will be wasting his time with the healing brush, at least in Photoshop iterations upto and including CS4 - not sure about CS5 as I haven't bought it yet.
Areas with multiple tonal gradients like the one you are attempting to deal with are, in my experience, very difficult to remove convincingly unless you have additional frames of adjacent background shot using the same focus and exposure as the shot you are trying to correct. In this case you can select a large area of adjacent background and copy it into the frame that you are trying to correct and blend it in using layer opacity, masking layers and/or blend-if sliders.
Paul, if you know a better or quicker way that works, please elaborate: we are all here to learn
Edit:
By the way, I like the image as it is, without removing the lighter background patch.
Thanks for the info Phil, and I have to agree from what I tired and I found it on other images too, that tones like the one I mentioned are tricky to deal with.
Nothing wrong with that background as it is Dan. Lovely sharp shot of the squirrel. Having read Phil's comments it's easy to see now why I screw up any Photoshop work !!
Nice picture as presented - background looks perfectly ok and non-intrusive.
I sometimes find the 'patch' tool quite good at diguising large distracting blobs though if you want to edit it.
For me a slight reduction in contrast would help what is a pleasant image, Leave the healing brush, patch tool etc alone, you really should be trying to get it all right in camera, however if you do need to cover a slightly lighter area in an otherwise reasonable bg then sample the darker colour, then using a low opacity, very feathered brush, dab the darker colour carefully over, but leave the area slightly lighter so that it does not start to look worked on...
Discussion
12 repliesFollowing some much appreciated crit on a couple of images I have posted on here, I set myself a task to work on backgrounds in the forthcoming weeks.
Today I was out shooting Great Spotted Woodpecker, and pleasing as it was I found myself more drawn to some pesky Grey Squirrels that were posing too well to not photograph. (well, I thought anyway).
So whilst waiting for the GSW to perch, I glady took a few snaps of the Squirrel with a view to start work on my bg's.
This was the first result...my only nit would be the light patch to the left of his head, I wanted it darked but was stumped in PP as to how to darken it without making it too obvious?!?
Thanks for looking ;)
Tech info:
Fuji S3 Pro, Sigma 100-300mm + 1.4x TC. Manual, F/9.5, 1/320s, ISO 200, 420mm.
Simon
Had a go with the healing brush but for some reason it was leaving defined circles which were easy to spot, not as obvious a a clone brush would look though.
Will have to try again see what I can do :)
Areas with multiple tonal gradients like the one you are attempting to deal with are, in my experience, very difficult to remove convincingly unless you have additional frames of adjacent background shot using the same focus and exposure as the shot you are trying to correct. In this case you can select a large area of adjacent background and copy it into the frame that you are trying to correct and blend it in using layer opacity, masking layers and/or blend-if sliders.
Paul, if you know a better or quicker way that works, please elaborate: we are all here to learn
Edit:
By the way, I like the image as it is, without removing the lighter background patch.
Glad you like it as-is though, much appreciated
I sometimes find the 'patch' tool quite good at diguising large distracting blobs though if you want to edit it.
Simon
Also thanks Simon, look forward to grabbing some more now
For me a slight reduction in contrast would help what is a pleasant image, Leave the healing brush, patch tool etc alone, you really should be trying to get it all right in camera, however if you do need to cover a slightly lighter area in an otherwise reasonable bg then sample the darker colour, then using a low opacity, very feathered brush, dab the darker colour carefully over, but leave the area slightly lighter so that it does not start to look worked on...
HTH
well done