I need some help - bad background

I have this photo of a tree frog that I like in many ways, but as with so many of the night insects, they are always found on the siding of our garage and it looks so "not nature" related. I don't do much outline tracing or cloning of massive areas and especially where the outline of the subject, that I want to keep, is complicated as is this one. Are there methods some of you use that you can suggest I try. I've learned so much on NPN and wonder if there is some tool that some of you use that you would use for a situation like this.

I've used the Topaz Remask plugin for Photoshop/Lightroom to extract complex shapes from photos. It seems to handle complex masking quite well, better than other tools I've tried (Photoshop CS3 and various basic photo editors). You can download a 30 day free trial from the Topaz Labs website. I've read that the masking tool in Photoshop CS5 is also very good, though I haven't used it. I'm still in CS3. A web search will find some good reviews and comparisons of the two tools, Topaz & Photoshop CS5.

Having said that, I like the photo as is. The background is simple, not distracting and complements the colour of the frog. It's a good portrait of the frog. I understand the desire for a more natural setting, but ultimately your garage is part of the frog's natural environment. I'm sure you have good reasons for wanting to change this image, though. Anyway, I like the shot.

Regards,
Chris

Thanks for all the references Chris and for liking the shot. I'll look into all of them in the next day or so. I have many photos that are worse BG than this and have a need to learn to mask complex subjects to change the BG.

Hi Charlie: Here's a quick masking job using CS5 and the Refine Edge functionality. I know it is far from perfect, but it was pretty quick. I don't know if you are using CS5. If so, learning how to use Refine Edge may solve many of the issues you described. I just picked that awful Green background to make the frog and the selection obvious.

Keith

That's great that you did that Keith. I use PS Elements and will look into "masking" and "fine edge" functions. I have quite a number of images that I'd like to improve the BG. The green did indeed show the extent of the alteration that was accomplished.

I like your original backround a lot.

Charlie,

For me the original background is much more appealing. It does not detract from the frog and it look more natural.

Thanks all for comments. I do feel better about the original BG with your comments that it is more acceptable than I had thought. I don't and won't always follow critiques but overall the flavor of critiques on NPN I have found to be where I want to be in my photos.

Charlie, I really like your last sentence above. I also wanted to tell you that your image of this frog is so well done as far as the frog is concerned. To me it captures everything there is to be captured about a tree frog. You can almost feel its little body. The detail is absolutely perfect.

Should you ever have time and want to just see how this would work, you could also try applying a realistic texture, like a wood texture, with something less than a 100% opacity, and then using a mask to remove it from the frog. Once you figure it out it doesn't take all that long, but I know that for a lot of people this much processing is just not fun at all. I just wanted to mention it in case you wanted to ever try it.

The image is beautiful.

When dealing with not so nice backgrounds, shooting in a way that blurs them may also be part of the solution. It appears that you shot with the sensor plane almost parallel to the background, rendering it all sharp. If you'd have shot with some tilt, only very little of the background might have been in focus, reducing the background's unpleasantness (even though I have to say it's not such a bad background, IMO). This may also lead to somewhat more dynamic compositions. That said, if you wanted the entire frog sharp, then shooting the way you did was probably the only solution...