Help with background...

[embdude]

Here is a picture of baby Sabrina that I am mostly happy with my post processing efforts. However the background is still bothering me. It is a tad grainy, which usually dosent bother me but the grain is really ugly, just looks dirty.

Any help would be great!

Taken with 300D w/50 2,8 CZJ Tessar. raw processed in DPP and Elements 2.0

[embdude]

Also...
For this image I am trying out a layer mask technique like the one here:
http://www.luminous-landscape.com/t...-blending.shtml (http://www.luminous-landscape.com/tutorials/digital-blending.shtml)
but am not able to get it to work in Elements 2.0

I take 2 raw images one exposed for the highlights and one for the shadows and am able to get them togother ok. one as the background and one as layer 1.

However I am unable to paint on the top layer and get the bottom to shine through. I just end up really painting! Someone said I need to select the layer as a mask? How do I do this, I canot find such a command. I can create a blank mask but it dosent affect the other layers....

What am I doing wrong?

[rent]

used the Extract filter to isolate the background, 3 passes of despeckle and then slight lens blur. one pass of despeckle and very slight usm on baby Sabrina. what do you think?

-alex

[Titus213]

Or use one pass thru Neat Image....and it's free. I'll post the results if you would like.

[kalee]

what a beautiful girl...
here's my take on it.

http://tinypic.com/5kq4bl

[Titus213]

kalee, very nice. What did you do?

[kalee]

kalee, very nice. What did you do?

usm... my best friend.
i just wanted to make the eyes pop.
then i blurred the background a bit and ran softfocus at the lightest
setting possible... and cropped out the ?blanket? at the right.
my eye kept going to it, and i thought the focus should be on
that beautiful girl, not the blanket.

it's a stunning photo.
i really like the warmth.

[Sailfish]

usm... my best friend.
i just wanted to make the eyes pop.
then i blurred the background a bit and ran softfocus at the lightest
setting possible... and cropped out the ?blanket? at the right.
my eye kept going to it, and i thought the focus should be on
that beautiful girl, not the blanket.

it's a stunning photo.
i really like the warmth.

What USM settings did you use?

Mal

[mgbeach]

I may have gone a little far here, but I think it's a nice effect. I selected her with the magnetic lasso, contracted the selection by a pixel and feathered by 2. Then duplicated the selection of her to a new layer and inversed the selection. Chose the bottom layer (original image) and used an extreme amount of Gaussian blur. Cleaned up some edges around her with blur tool. Then applied USM (amount around 200-250, radius .3, threshold 0) on the layer that just had her on it. adjusted just her eyes with a curves adjustment. Saved, and ran through Neat Image with the ISO400 profile for the Digital Rebel.

[kalee]

What USM settings did you use?

Mal


hmmm... i don't recall exactly.
i usually go pretty high.
60 or so

[jimsolt]

used the Extract filter to isolate the background, 3 passes of despeckle and then slight lens blur. one pass of despeckle and very slight usm on baby Sabrina. what do you think?

-alex

Could you explain where to find the Extract filter in Elements 2?

Jim

[rent]

hi jim, i did this in PS CS. it's under the filter menu. i do not know if this is availabe in PSE. -alex

Could you explain where to find the Extract filter in Elements 2?

Jim

[Keiffer]

Job well done MG, I like it, hopefully so does he. Really wonderful!!

[Michaelmjc]

Great shot, MG you did a great job. I think the color suits her very well.

[mgbeach]

it was a great photo to begin with for sure. That's the only way to end up with good results, regardless of Photoshop skill. I forgot to mention that I also added a Hue/Saturation adjustment layer(-6 saturation,+2 lightness) and a photo filter layer (cooling filter 80 at 25% density)

[Sailfish]

it was a great photo to begin with for sure. That's the only way to end up with good results, regardless of Photoshop skill. I forgot to mention that I also added a Hue/Saturation adjustment layer(-6 saturation,+2 lightness) and a photo filter layer (cooling filter 80 at 25% density)

Simply stunning. Still soooo much to learn about PS.

Mal

[Fer]

I used Neat Image and then sharpened her face. I deleted the white part of the background too.

[embdude]

Thank you all for your help and advice. And also your kind words for baby Sabrina.

Rentboi-
Thanks, that really fixed things up! So much more depth. As I only have Elements I am beginning to see its limits. I might have to plunk some dough down for the real version.

Titus213-
I would very much like to see the results. Feel free to modify and post at will.

Kalee-
For some reason I don't see an image showing up in your post. Is anyone else having trouble viewing? If not would you try to re-post?

Mgbeach-
Wow! She looks like a real doll! I guess I will have to figure out Neat Image, I downloaded it last month but havent played with it much. Looked complicated, but I'll have another look. I am just begining to shoot RAW files and am learning DPP. I can already see some big advantages to using RAW, espically the batch processing available in DPP.
Your version really makes a point, as Kalee mentioned, about my poor choice of background. That darn blanket is starting to bug me now. With Sabrina as my model I rarely get to choose my backgrounds for more than a couple of snaps. Oh well, I got over it awhile back.

I sure have a lot to learn, but for me that is half the fun...

[embdude]

Thanks Fer,

Getting rid of that white-ish blanket really helps.

Ok, Neat-Image is on my to do list!

I think I need to work on the eyes too! They look a little red around the lids and somehow MGbeach you managed to brighten them as well as color correct them!