Help..enhancing

[Bama]

Hi,

New to photography and to Photoshop CS.
Took this pic during my relative's wedding.

Can someone teach me how you can blur out or remove the background?

Thanks in advance.
Bama

[ayotnoms]

here's a try.

BTW, someone has himself a beautiful wife. :)

[Skip Souza]

Now that you've shown him what can be done. Tell him how you did it ;-)

[Salleke]

Now that you've shown him what can be done. Tell him how you did it ;-)

Thank you for mentioning, I was to embarresd to ask...:oops:

[ayotnoms]

You weren't supposed to notice I didn't describe HOW, Skip.:o

This is what works for me (and I learned in PS3 so it's definitely Old School compared to what current the versions are capable of doing):
Inspect each color channel and copy one or more that show good contrast between light and dark portions of the image. You'll often find the green channel to be the most contrasty channel. This is the one I used for this image.

Rough cut the main, desired image from the background with the tool of your choice. I use a combination of the lasso, eraser, and pen tool (pen, if there aren't alot of control to manage afterward). Whatever is white is going to be kept in the final image. In this case the very pretty bride.

Rough out the part of the image you want to blur, eliminate, or whatever. Use a tool you're comfortable with...perhaps the same listed above.

At this stage you're left with 3 parts. The part you're going to keep (white), the part you're going to blur or eliminate (black), and the last--most difficult-- part that contains the edges of stray hairs, jewelry, or a tiara such as that in this image.

This last portion is where you'll spend most time. I toggle back and forth between the color channel and the RGB image to find where my edge is exactly; paying close attention to the fine detail I want to be careful I don't ruin. I find the Burn and Dodge tools most effective for the fine work needed to protect the parts I want to keep and further isolate the portions I'm going to change or eliminate.

I used the dodge tool around the top of her head to isolate the tiara (..I think that's what it was) and the burn tool to darken the areas in between the decorative beads; not doing so will leave them grey which in turn will give the final product that blurry cut-out appearance that's a dead give-away of a badly modified image.

That's the Cliff Notes version. I'm sure others will chime in with their favorite techniques. Check your library for Photoshop books. I've yet to see one that didn't include pages and pages of how to create nice, clean masks.

Cheers!!

[RAitch]

Create a copy into a new layer (CTRL-J) and apply a gaussian blur to the image to your liking. Then create a layer mask and paint with a soft black brush over your foreground. To reverse, paint in white. You'll be revealing (white) or concealing (black) your effect.

I use a similar approach for sharpening.

[Bama]

Hi Ayotnoms,

Thank you for the detailed explanation on how you blurred out the background.
It looks much much better. The "tiara" is actually flowers.

Thank you again for the time/effort. I know now how much this forum means to me.

Thank you
Bama

[Skip Souza]

Thanks ayotnoms. I'm as good at post processing as I am at gardening. I tried a rock garden once and all the rocks died. :oops:

[elbirth]

I just wanted to chime in with some of my experience with blurring backgrounds in postprocessing.

when trying to simulate depth of field blur, the "proper" way in Photoshop is to use the Lens Blur filter.

Begin by using quick mask (press Q on the keyboard and paint with the paint brush). set the foreground color to black and paint over your subject- it will have a faint red being painted over it. You'll either want to use a soft-edged brush or later use a feather. paint all the way over the subject, then press Q again to get out of quick mask mode, and you'll notice that you have a selection around the background. You can also use other methods of selecting the background, but using Quick Mask is pretty effective, especially if you have a Wacom tablet and have pressure sensitivity active. Now go to Select>Save Selection As and save it as a new channel.
Now go to Filter>Blur>Lens Blur and choose your new channel for the source and play with the settings to taste.

Hope this helps some

[ayotnoms]

Thanks ayotnoms. I'm as good at post processing as I am at gardening. I tried a rock garden once and all the rocks died. :oops:
Now that's funny. :-) :-)

Post processing ain't so bad. It's just a challenge to maintain interest because let's face it, it's b-o-r-i-n-g to do.

Not nearly as much fun as taking the photo itself.

[ayotnoms]

I just wanted to chime in with some of my experience with blurring backgrounds in postprocessing.

when trying to simulate depth of field blur, the "proper" way in Photoshop is to use the Lens Blur filter.

Begin by using quick mask (press Q on the keyboard and paint with the paint brush). set the foreground color to black and paint over your subject- it will have a faint red being painted over it. You'll either want to use a soft-edged brush or later use a feather. paint all the way over the subject, then press Q again to get out of quick mask mode, and you'll notice that you have a selection around the background. You can also use other methods of selecting the background, but using Quick Mask is pretty effective, especially if you have a Wacom tablet and have pressure sensitivity active. Now go to Select>Save Selection As and save it as a new channel.
Now go to Filter>Blur>Lens Blur and choose your new channel for the source and play with the settings to taste.

Hope this helps some
Using the quick mask is a very good technique...and you're right, with a Wacom tablet, you can make short work of a masking chore.

many, many, many ways to skin the cat...

:-)

[Bama]

Wow, for a newbie like me, this is a lot of data to absorb.

Thanks guys, this means I do have to stick around here for a long time to come.

Thank you
Bama

[George Chew]

Greetings,
If your idea is to isolate the background on this photo, may be you should crop it.

George Chew

[Bama]

Greetings,
If your idea is to isolate the background on this photo, may be you should crop it.

George Chew

Hi George,

Thank you but do feel that the cropping kills off the essence of the picture.

Bama

[DOrtiz]

I agree with the cropping. If you're interested in the background, they why blur it? Here's my version, but you'll soon discover I need LOTS of post processing practice. I also use PaintShop Pro v9.10 where many of the "heavy hitters/pros" use PSCS, etc..

http://photos.imageevent.com/dortiz/general/variousimagefolder/test.jpg

Regards,
Dave

[mgbeach]

My version makes her look different, and maybe not herself, so as a wedding photo probably doesn't work. I did a motion blur on a duplicate layer and then added a layer mask to paint her back in. Added levels and curves layers and used the clone brush to even her skin tones. Probably too much, but fun to play.

[DOrtiz]

mgbeach.. your version RULES my friend. I only wish I knew how to manipulate images like that, it looks a thousand times better (skin tones and all).

Regards,
Dave

[berrylish]

mgbeach: hehe i also played with her pic for fun (never thought of that motion blur idea before..thanks)....my goal in life is to exceed u in image manipulation!

[DOrtiz]

Berrylish, if that's a picture of you -- you're already "exceeding" :-)

[Chazs]

Here's my try. A little softening; clearing up with the healing brush; blurring the background and creating a little vignetting. (Some of the graininess and artifacts are due to compressing for the 100K maximum)