Butterfly on b/w background

[tommykjensen]

Not sure if this works but just experimenting a little with black and white background. What do You think? Does it work or not?

http://photo.klein-jensen.dk/photo.php?n=butterflytest1.jpg


No it doesn't really work :(

[msol]

for me it works... very well actually.
Why did you try this? Just experimentation (always good :) ) or was there some problem with the original color version?

[tommykjensen]

Thanks

I don't think there was a problem with the original which can be found here. (http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=39984&highlight=)

I only did this to experiment and to try and improve my ps skills.

[msol]

Oh yeh... there was absolutely NO PROBLEM with the color version!
Well if you are working on your PS skills, I think they are very good.
Did you create two layers, desaturate the bottom layer and create a mask on the top color layer? That's what I would do I guess, but maybe you have a better trick?
Well, if you used the mask, then I think you need to tighten the mask a bit around the antennas. The background green is still a bit visible.
Those thin pieces are always SO difficult if you are masking.
Good luck!

[tommykjensen]

I am not so good at selecting yet so what I did was first I deleted the background using the magic eraser. Saved it, opened the original and turned it black and white with the Fred Miranda BW plugin. Then I copied the cut out butterfly back and added a little saturation on the butterfly.

[PhotosGuy]

I might have burned in the upper-right corner, but then there’s the bright area in the lower-left that fights for attention with the b-fly. So I might crop it down to the top-left quarter & keep it as a “B-fly” pic instead of a “B-fly with plants” pic.
Good experiment, but I liked the original pic better.

[tommykjensen]

Good experiment, but I liked the original pic better.

Same here, the problem with it to me is if You look at the top of the wing on the butterfly the redish parts of the wing form a line with the background and the wing to the left of this line almost blend in with the background.

[Sendide]

msol :
what is the difference between erasing the surrounding of the selected area and ""masking"?, sorry if this is a dum question
thanks
Kh

[msol]

Hi Sendide,

(dum questions don't exist! only dum answers. I hope this isn't one :) )

Considering only the final result, there is no difference between erasing parts of a layer or masking those parts. A layer mask is a grayscale bitmap that defines which parts of the layer shine through. Where the mask is white the layer is fully visible, where it is black, the layer is fully invisible, and all the grays in between indicate more or less partly visible.
All this you can achieve also with erasing, since erasing is the same as painting black on the mask. However, you can also paint white on the mask, implying that you redo some eraser steps. So in short, a mask is just a better tool to achieve the same result. Also, if you want to do difficult extractions (hair, for example) you definitely need to use masks.

Wanna know more on masking? Check out http://www.graphic-design.com/Photoshop/tutorials/0402-09.html for a lot of applications.

[Sendide]

thanks a lot msol for the explanation and the link

regards
Khalid

[Sailor Don]

Tommy,

Interesting effect with B&W background. My personal preference is the original full color version.

Either way, it is a really nice photgraph.

[Muffin Princess]

I really like both versions, can't decide which is my favourite, although in the B&W version, the butterfly looks like it's not quite all there, like it's been placed in afterwards. Still uber cool though :)

[Axxis22]

I like it alot. Here is a simillar effect i did:
http://images4.fotki.com/v46/photos/8/87269/478267/Redbw-vi.jpg