Post Processing #2 - Straightening & Cropping

[Scottes]

OK, this one is pretty simple but it has to be done to my image, so what the heck.

My image isn't very straight. It seems that I always tilt to the right when I freehand with the wide angle. I'll have to work on that.

http://www.itsanadventure.com/postimages/5337_levels.jpg

I'm going to grab the Measure Tool, which is hidden underneath the Eye Dropper.

http://www.itsanadventure.com/postimages/5337_measuretool.gif

To get to it, click on the eyedropper and hold the mouse button down a second to get the flyout menu. Then click on the Measure Tool. Or simply press "I" a few times - the first time will select the Eye Dropper, then the Color Sampler, then the Measure Tool.

Now that I have the Measure Tool I want to measure the angle of something that's supposed to be straight. I'm going to pick one of the trees over on the right, click in the center of the trunk at the bottom, drag up and click again in the center of the trunk at the top.

http://www.itsanadventure.com/postimages/5337_prestraight.jpg

Next I choose Image... Rotate Canvas... Arbitrary. You'll see that Photoshop has automagically entered the angle of the line that I drew with the measure tool! (BTW, thanks to Chris Bailey for pointing this out - I used to do this the hard way!)

Click on OK, and:

http://www.itsanadventure.com/postimages/5337_poststraight.jpg

Now we have to crop the image to get just the good stuff. I usually use the Marquee tool for cropping, but this calls for the Crop Tool. With the Crop Tool you can grab the sides and change the dimensions until you get it perfect. Note the little squares in the middle of each side - grab one of them and drag to resize the Crop window.

http://www.itsanadventure.com/postimages/5337_cropping.jpg

I will usually zoom in to make sure that I'm getting the maximum area out of the original.

When satisfied, choose Image... Crop or simply double-click inside the crop area.

http://www.itsanadventure.com/postimages/5337_postcrop.jpg

Notice that I lost a bit of the image due to the tilting. The original was 600x400, but now I'm down to 591x387. A small price to pay for a straight image.

[tommykjensen]

You have been busy, thanks for sharing.

[IanD]

We want more! We want more!
*banging mouse on computer desk while shouting the above*

[Scottes]

We want more! We want more!
*banging mouse on computer desk while shouting the above*

Well, what do you want? It can be quite difficult to come up with a tutorial, and/or a whole smorgasbord of "make this picture look good." It can be overwhelming - to do and learn. Even these 3 very simple tutorials took me an entire night.

Do you have a specific thing? (Or anybody for that matter!)

Give me/us some specific things: How do I clone this telephone pole out of my picture? My picture is too blue. I don't know how to sharpen this image! How do I get rid of red-eye? How do I get that "soft glow" for my portraits?

Sometimes it's easier to learn with specific questions. And it's certainly easier to answer them! Post an image an ask a specific question and you'll get overwhelmed with answers here.

[IanD]

See PP #3 pls. :lol:

[tommykjensen]

Do you have a specific thing? (Or anybody for that matter!)


I have a suggestion.

remember my photo of a girl a the carnival (http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=34030&highlight=). 4walls suggested that I make the background black and white to enhance the girl. I did this using the history brush but I am missing the last 5% or so. If You look at the sample 4walls posted You can see that the thin hairs on the girls left side are black and white too. My question is how to make it look good with details like that. The attempt I have made on those hairs look terrible, it is so obvious that I have edited it. I hope You understand what I mean.

[KevinO]

I could be wrong here, but...... :?:

Be careful - If you set levels by sliding the white and black markers to the extreme edges of the histogram, don't forget that by cropping the picture, the histogram could well have altered.

As long as you set the levels after the crop, you'll be ok.

Erm, out on a limb here......

[Scottes]

remember my photo of a girl a the carnival (http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=34030&highlight=). 4walls suggested that I make the background black and white to enhance the girl. I did this using the history brush but I am missing the last 5% or so. If You look at the sample 4walls posted You can see that the thin hairs...

Hair is always a pain. I personally end up just giving up on it when it's too tough like that. About the only think to do is to zoom *way* in and use a 1-pixel brush to do the work. Very painstaking.

[Scottes]

Be careful - If you set levels by sliding the white and black markers to the extreme edges of the histogram, don't forget that by cropping the picture, the histogram could well have altered.

As long as you set the levels after the crop, you'll be ok.

That's a very good point. It's not a bad idea to crop first, or at least rough crop.

[chris.bailey]

remember my photo of a girl a the carnival (http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=34030&highlight=). 4walls suggested that I make the background black and white to enhance the girl. I did this using the history brush but I am missing the last 5% or so. If You look at the sample 4walls posted You can see that the thin hairs...

Hair is always a pain. I personally end up just giving up on it when it's too tough like that. About the only think to do is to zoom *way* in and use a 1-pixel brush to do the work. Very painstaking.

as long as there is some level of contrast between the hair and the background, the knockout (or whatever its called) filter in CS works quite well or at least as the starting point for then cleaning up.

[tommykjensen]

as long as there is some level of contrast between the hair and the background, the knockout (or whatever its called) filter in CS works quite well or at least as the starting point for then cleaning up.

How do I use that?

[Scottes]

as long as there is some level of contrast between the hair and the background, the knockout (or whatever its called) filter in CS works quite well or at least as the starting point for then cleaning up.

How do I use that?

I think he's talking about the Extract filter.

Filter... Extract. You get a brush circle. Draw over the edges where the hair meets the background. The Extract tool tries to figure out the contrast edges and then extracts the "inside".

Original
http://www.itsanadventure.com/postimages/wolvescrop.jpg

Outlined with the brush. I would then take the Paint Bucket tool on the left and click on one of the wolves - this tells PS what part to save
http://www.itsanadventure.com/postimages/wolvesextract.jpg

Finished extraction. Not a great example because of the grass but you get the idea.
http://www.itsanadventure.com/postimages/wolvesextracted.jpg


And then the *real* trick is blend the edges into the new background image... You'll notice that they are fairly white and each hair is not totally separate - you still have to blend to the background. Alas I don't have time for this as I'm in work - I'd have to try a few things to explain it well.