Help with crop and Gaussian Blur

[eastcoast909]

I am using PSP 8 and trying to edit a picture of my daughter. I have managed to clone out the clothes line and want to futher blur the background. I tried to use Gaussian blur by selecting everything in the picture except my daughter. It worked fine except for the portions that I could not select in her hair. I did not like the effect as there was too much contrast between the blurred background and thebackground in the edges of her hair.

How do most people handle situations like this. Do you use layers? I have not used these and am unsure on how I might try to do a background blur with them. Do you just spend more time getting all the pieces that you want in the foreground? The fringes of the hair and trees in the background would require a tremendous amount of patience to get the selections you need. :? :?

I am also looking for more help with the crop in this. Is this crop acceptable or should it be changed? If so how?

Any and all suggestions/tips and help is appreciated.

Here are the links for the original picture with the clothesline in the background and the cropped one before I used the gaussian blur function.

http://img78.photobucket.com/albums/v335/eastcoast909/pjportrait.jpg

http://img78.photobucket.com/albums/v335/eastcoast909/pjportrait3.jpg

I listed the url because I am unsure if it is proper to put the img files directly in this forum.

Thanks once again,

[Scottes]

Well I wouldn't touch a thing. I think it came out very well. I can barely tell some of the places where you cloned out the clothesline - there's a couple small spots where you've got the duplication indicative of cloning. But I had to look for them.

I think the current blur looks fine - why would you want to change that? You will have a tough time - selections around hair are a pain - patience is the most important tool. For something like this I would use layers - duplicate the image, blur the top layer, then start erasing what I want to stay crisp. Patience and a 1-pixel brush at times.... Again, though, I think it looks just fine.

The crop also is good - it works for me.

I would whiten her teeth. Do this by carefully selecting the teeth, then desaturate - maybe not all the way if you want it to look natural and leave a little yellow - and brighten if necessary.

To be very nit-picky you might want to clone over the small white fence on the right. The spot of brightness is a little distracting. And the spot of white sky on the top right, which is actually more distracting.

And it could use a bit ofsharpening.

But those really are nit-picks - the image looks very good, and what you've done works very well.


As to posting images in this forum you can feel free, but please size your images to 800 pixels wide - otherwise the forum software will do so and it won't look very good.

[maderito]

I agree with Scottes: nice composition, pretty face, good job of cloning out the clothes line, and excellent reminder to check backgrounds before shooting candids and portratis.

It is tempting to spend a lot of time in PS trying to isolate subjects from the backgrounds. The reward is you get good practice on the various PS functions and tools. The payoff is typically minimal. Extracting images - especially those with fine details like hair - requires real expertise is better done with the dedicated (and somewhat expensive) spoftware tools that are far superior to what you get with PS (e.g. Extensis Mask pro (http://www.extensis.com/en/products/product_family.jsp?locale=en_US&id=1018)).

Sometimes you can use "local contrast enhancement (http://www.luminous-landscape.com/tutorials/contrast-enhancement.shtml)" to help isolate a foreground subject or generally improve a low contrast, lackluster image. Just watch out for shifted colors, especially if the subject in your best friend.

I've generally stopped trying to blur anything but very simple backgrounds - even though there are fairly good PS tools to do so. I do spend more time trying to get shots right in the camera before working on them in PS. I know this may sound like gratuitous advice - "I've been there and I now better than you" -- but perhaps you'll accept the advice as noncritically as it is given. :)

BTW - do learn how to use layers -- in all their various forms. They are useful for almost everything you do in PS. For background blurs, the standard approach is to isolate (i.e. extract) the subject onto a separarate layer and overlay it on a blurred version of the entire image. Very hard to get it right. Very hard. :x PS 8/CS also has a new "lens blur" filter. Check it out; it may be an easier way to accomplish what you are trying to do.

[eastcoast909]

Wow! Talk about a fast response! :shock: :shock:

Scottes, tried the layering and erasing, much easier than trying to select all you don't want. Followed your instructions on the whitening of the teeth and removal of the white distractions. I did not even notice them! :oops:

I really need more experience and feed back, I've almost worked up enough nerve to try and post to the ciritique forum.

Maderito: I really do appreciate the feedback and take absolutly no offense. I am starting to pay more attention to the settings and background in the pictures I am taking but still find surprises after I download the images. :oops:

After I completed the blur and compared it with the original background I find that both you and Scottes are right that the original background is probably just fine. I do enjoy tweaking the picture though, and I could spend forever trying to make my "little girl" look her best.

Once again thanks!

[Scottes]

I do enjoy tweaking the picture though, and I could spend forever trying to make my "little girl" look her best.

I know what you mean - I'm not sure if photography is the hobby which allows me to play with Photoshop or if Photoshop is the hobby and photography just gives me an excuse to use it. If I could draw I probably wouldn't photograph anything... Hmmm....


Scottes, tried the layering and erasing, much easier than trying to select all you don't want.

Hah! You fell into my trap!

If you found erasing easier than selecting you will want to take a look at Masks. All you did was create a mask, really. But instead of drawing in black you erased - which is really a one-time thing, really. Masking gives you more power. But I find more people afraid of masks than of erasing.

Take the layer where you erased your girl. Magic wand select the transparency. Fill with black. Inverse the selection and delete. Guess what? That's a mask. Now blur the image using the mask and you end up with the exact same effect.

(OK, PSP is a little weird, but somehow you have to convert that layer to a mask. Then make a selection based on the mask (Selection... From Mask). Invert the selection, and blur. Your girl won't be blurred, but everything else will be.)

But now realize that masks affect operations based on black, white, and shades of grey. Guassian Blur the mask a little and you'll have smoother transitions from sharp to blur. The image isn't a great example for this, but suppose you had background objects at different distances. By painting over them (in the mask layer) with varying shades of grey you can vary the blur. So close objects get a dark grey, while further objects get a very light grey. And thus the blur effect will vary from object to object.

Or, with the mask, you could desaturate everything except the girl, leaving her in color with everything else black and white.

Welcome to masks - they're extremely powerful.