Is there a quick fix? - DPChallenge Forums

Canon EF 100mm f/2.8 USM Macro

03/03/2007 12:32:08 AM · #1

My best friend needs headshots for her grad school department. We were in a hurry with this setup since the light was fading, so I didn't have time to iron the background. I've tried healing brush, which looked like crap, cloning, which looked like crap, and blurring, which looked like crap. I don't mind shadow variation in the backdrop, but the wrinkles are terrible. How would you go about fixing this in PhotoShop?

Link to the full size original is available in the photo notes. Thanks in advance, guys.

TechnoShroom

Canon EOS-30D

03/03/2007 12:35:09 AM · #2

I'd mask it out and put in the background of my choice but that's just me.

Brad

Olympus OM-D E-M1

Olympus 40-150mm f/2.8 PRO M.Zuiko

03/03/2007 01:21:35 AM · #3

-- to -->

Only took a couple minutes.
Selected the background, added a sandstone texture and a soft focus, cleaned up the edges, the using the clone tool in darker mode, blended some of the harder edges of the background and finished up by using the healing tool to soften some of the transitions of light & dark.

Shadowi6

Nikon D200

Sigma 10-20mm f/3.5 EX-DC HSM

03/03/2007 01:23:22 AM · #4

I just selected it and gaussian blured it & then did some cloning, + played around with her a bit, cloned some spots, whitened the teeth + Eyes, darken the hair Sparkle the eyes etc :) hope you dont mind.

Message edited by author 2007-03-03 01:27:57.

yanko

Canon EOS-5D Mark II

Carl Zeiss 50mm ZE f/1.4 Planar T for Canon

03/03/2007 01:23:33 AM · #5

If it were me and I had a lot of these to do I would just replace the background with a gradient. That would be the quickest and is typical for headshots like these.

You could also clone out those creases if you take more time with it and use a small brush in a blending mode other than normal which will help you maintain realistic texture.

Message edited by author 2007-03-03 01:24:27.

Telehubbie

Canon EOS-40D

Canon EF 24-70mm f/2.8L USM

03/03/2007 02:25:33 AM · #6

How's this for 3 minutes? I selected the background (could've done better, but quick for here), then inversed selection, copied/pasted her into a new layer. On the background layer selected gradiant overlay at 100% with green and black for colors, and also pattern overlay at 40% with the bubble texture scaled at 144% to give it a little texture. I also toned down some of the reds to her face and gave a slight vignette to her layer to darken her top a bit down there and bring attention to her face.

CalliopeKel

Canon EOS-5D

Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS USM

03/03/2007 11:45:58 AM · #7

I chose to get rid of the green bg, it detracted from the woman.

03/03/2007 12:28:44 PM · #8

Okay, next question - how are you selecting just the background? Every time I magic wand it, it comes up with a lot more than I want, and color range selction on green isn't much help, either.

fotomann_forever

03/03/2007 12:34:30 PM · #9

Another option instead of smoothing the existing B/g is to hide it in texture.

I added a metal texture on a layer in softlight mode and then used a layer maks to let her come back through. Then using the same selection I added Hue/Sat layer to desaturate the b/g

Message edited by author 2007-03-03 12:37:15.

fotomann_forever

03/03/2007 12:35:45 PM · #10

Originally posted by Rebecca:

Okay, next question - how are you selecting just the background? Every time I magic wand it, it comes up with a lot more than I want, and color range selction on green isn't much help, either.

I made my layer mask with the Magnetic lasso tool, but I did have to clean it up a little, manually with a paint brush.

Olympus 40-150mm f/2.8 PRO M.Zuiko

03/03/2007 12:43:00 PM · #11

Originally posted by fotomann_forever:

Originally posted by Rebecca:
Okay, next question - how are you selecting just the background? Every time I magic wand it, it comes up with a lot more than I want, and color range selction on green isn't much help, either.

I made my layer mask with the Magnetic lasso tool, but I did have to clean it up a little, manually with a paint brush.

I totally love you. That's pretty much what I want to do with the background. Thank you.

Brad

Olympus OM-D E-M1

03/03/2007 01:58:51 PM · #12

Originally posted by Rebecca:

Okay, next question - how are you selecting just the background? Every time I magic wand it, it comes up with a lot more than I want, and color range selection on green isn't much help, either.

Using the magic wand works well, just have to adjust the tolerance. 0 will get you only that pixel hex value, 30 will get you often too much. Try a tolerance of 5-10, hold the Shift key and keep clicking around / selecting until satisfied - oh wait - you're a woman - that may never happen.. :P

kashi

Nikon D60

Nikon AF-S Nikkor 50mm f/1.4G

03/03/2007 02:28:49 PM · #13

I just tried Leroy's technique - this is what I got (used a "canvas" texture)

fotomann_forever

03/03/2007 03:51:38 PM · #14

Originally posted by kashi:

I just tried Leroy's technique - this is what I got (used a "canvas" texture)

The masking looks good to me, but I think you need a larger texture.

Here's where I get mine. //www.mayang.com/textures/Metal/html/Flat%20Metal%20Textures/

I use these quite a bit for various projects.

Such as here:

Message edited by author 2007-03-03 15:54:58.

yanko

Canon EOS-5D Mark II

Carl Zeiss 50mm ZE f/1.4 Planar T for Canon

03/03/2007 05:24:24 PM · #15

Originally posted by fotomann_forever:

Now the texture here looks realistic as if it was there originally. Some of these other textures being applied look way too fake.

03/03/2007 05:38:37 PM · #16

Originally posted by fotomann_forever:

Here's where I get mine. //www.mayang.com/textures/Metal/html/Flat%20Metal%20Textures/

I use Mayang's as well, excellent resource.