Changing the background?

I have seen some pics where they changed the background and left the subject in place. One pic I seen somewhere was they changed the color or a wall behind the subject but made it go from a light color to a darker color. Is there any instructions for this?

Are you using Photoshop?

Yes, CS2

There are plenty of tutorials on this. Try googling?
You can use the quick mask mode to 'colour in' the subject.
When you exit QM mode it has a marque around the whole image minus the subject you coloured in.
Then you can copy and paste the selection on to another layer to adjust.

I'm sure there are other/better ways to do it.

I did try googling it to find any tutorials but it comes up with mainly changing color in the pic itself.

TeriD wrote in post #3408331
I did try googling it to find any tutorials but it comes up with mainly changing color in the pic itself.

Fair enough.
Hope my previous post gives you a guide on how to do it.

Thansk Ed, I'll give that a try.

I'm with Ed. I was going to recommend Quick Masking too.

It's not terribly "quick" while you're learning it, but before too long you'll find it indispensible.

to change one color u use the replace color tool :

image>adjust>replace color its pretty easy to do.

to change the background totally, u need to use quick mask to select the subject or background (whichever is easier), then either copy the subject to a different bg or delete the old one and put in new one.

If your just wanting to change a wall color......hue/sat layer works and adjust the hue for that color. Or use master color mode and change hue for alot more different colors then layer mask to keep all your other colors the same.

Chuck

Teri,

What you are asking involves two sets of skills, and I am not sure which you are trying to learn about.

First, there is altering the color. In the Photoshop Help Section, use the index and look up words like "Color" and "Hue" and study all sub-sections pertaining to "changing". Also, look up "Blending" and "Blend Modes" as that can come into play as well.

Second, there is altering part of the shot, but not all. In the Photoshop Help Section, use the index and look up words like "Selections", "Layers" and "Masks" and study all sub-sections pertaining to "tools" and "using".

Brush up on those two skills and you will have it.

Oh, notice that in both cases, the first step is to open the Photoshop Help Section. This is a little known and under-utilized technique that can assist with a multitude of Photoshop questions.

But now you have two places to start.

Rad

I followed the instructions above and created a new background Layer but cannot see it and don't know how to view it. I have gone through help but no help with this! What do I do now? If it is there, I can't find it.

Here is a screen cap from the Layers Palate Elements 2.0

The information holds true for all iterations of PS and PSE.

Notice that I have an image with two layers. Can you see the difference? On the right hand layers palate, there is a little eyeball that is in a tiny box. Notice that the eyeball is not "turned on" on the left layers palate. The eye is turned on and off simply by putting the mouse pointer in that little box and clicking. When the eye is there, that layer is visible.

Also notice the word "Normal"

That drop down menu gives you the different "Blending Options". They are categorized by what they do - there are Darkening, Lightening, Contrast and a couple of Miscellaneous options.

Play around with them.

Rad

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are you working in the layers pallete? Is the eye icon on that layer so you can view it?

TeriD wrote in post #3406661
I have seen some pics where they changed the background and left the subject in place. One pic I seen somewhere was they changed the color or a wall behind the subject but made it go from a light color to a darker color. Is there any instructions for this?

didn't notice it mentioned on here, but a great way to drop the background is the extract filter. google russel brown...he has a tutorial on his website.