First try - DPChallenge Forums

Canon EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 IS

06/03/2006 01:49:11 AM · #1

I am not an expert with photoshop. This is my first try with using layers. what do you think? Thanks.

HBunch

HP PhotoSmart 315

06/03/2006 01:53:20 AM · #2

I think it looks too 'fake'. the original looked good to me. maybe if you listed your editing steps, people might be able to offer you more advice? I don't know crap about editing, but someone might.

justin_hewlett

Canon EOS-1000D Rebel XS

06/03/2006 02:00:34 AM · #3

I think it looks good for the most part. Just off the top of my head I can see a few things that could be improved. Around the horse's mane the "line" is pretty hard and the hair looks fake and chopped off. If you open both photos in separate windows and look at each simultaneously you'll see what I mean. This could be fixed by using a softer brush.

Also, I would crop out the ground at the bottom. In the edited version it just becomes a distracting yellow blob.

The blur (guassian blur?) could be toned down a bit. Does look a bit "fake" as Heather mentioned.

So what exactly did the editing entail? Did you duplicate the layer, apply guassian blur, and erase the blurred parts that you didn't want? Or did you use a layer mask?

Edit: Also, are you sure you want to blur the chain at the bottom as well? If you just want the background to be blurred, you might consider keeping this sharp.

You might also consider cloning out the hand since it becomes indistinguishable in the blurred version anyway.

Message edited by author 2006-06-03 02:03:46.

06/03/2006 02:01:24 AM · #4

I was mainly trying to figure out how to blur the background. I also tried to make the hand and chain on the halter less noticable. I tried to follow the tutorial on Blurring the background to do this.

ignite

Canon EOS-500D Rebel T1i

Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 II

06/03/2006 02:01:32 AM · #5

What were you trying to do? If you had something in mind, tell us and also what you did in Photoshop so we can help you. Just editing a photo without a specific need always destroys it ;-) I don't think the original photo needs much editing, just a few basic adjustments.

06/03/2006 02:04:03 AM · #6

Originally posted by justin_hewlett:

So what exactly did the editing entail? Did you duplicate the layer, apply guassian blur, and erase the blurred parts that you didn't want? Or did you use a layer mask?

I duplicated the layer applied the guassian blur and erased the parts I didn't want.

I haven't figured out layer masks yet.

fotomann_forever

06/03/2006 02:04:09 AM · #7

Originally posted by LKMote:

I also tried to make the hand and chain on the halter less noticable. I tried to follow the tutorial on Blurring the background to do this.

Both the hand and the chain look like they would be pretty easy to clone out of the photo, which would give you a more natural look.

Quick run with the clone tool to get rid of the hand

Message edited by author 2006-06-03 02:08:12.

Canon EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 IS

06/03/2006 02:12:00 AM · #8

Originally posted by fotomann_forever:

Originally posted by LKMote:
I also tried to make the hand and chain on the halter less noticable. I tried to follow the tutorial on Blurring the background to do this.

Both the hand and the chain look like they would be pretty easy to clone out of the photo, which would give you a more natural look.

Quick run with the clone tool to get rid of the hand

Thanks, I agree it looks better this way.

Thanks everyone for the help.

fotomann_forever

06/03/2006 02:17:37 AM · #9

Lori, the blur method you used is fine with a bit of tweaking. The major thing that made it look sort of fake is that you are blurring foregound objects along with background objects.

As far as the hair is concerned, hair is HARD to work with and requires a LOT of patience and a really small brush.

justin_hewlett

Canon EOS-1000D Rebel XS

06/03/2006 02:18:37 AM · #10

Ok, I had a quick go at it and here's what I came up with.

I cloned out the hand and a few other small distractions. I cropped a bit, eliminating the ground. I duplicated the layer, applied guassian blur with a radius of about 15. I masked out the parts I wanted to keep sharp (similar to erasing unwanted parts in your method). Then I applied a quick levels adjustment to boost the contrast a bit, then sharpened with a radius of .3 and percent of about 60%.

Anyway, is this kind of what you're going for? If you have any questions about my steps I'd be more than happy to help you out.

Message edited by author 2006-06-03 02:19:38.