It's driving me round the BEND!!

[Slovensky]

Apologies in advance if this is waffly and pretty incoherent.....

I have been trying various things with this picture on and off for days and it's driving me MAD!


I want the pooch and the basket to be the only thing you really notice. So I've tried everything I know (which admitedly isn't much) to get rid of the background without it looking naff. I've tried: extracting him; layer masking him, cutting him out; painting the cat and other malarky out and then desaturating the carpet and lightening it a bit.

But it still looks RUBBISH Look.....


There MUST be a way to do what I want.

Any suggestions (other than the recycle bin for the lot ) could save my sanity

OH I suppose it would be helpful to know that I'm using PS CS2.

Sarah

[ThatCameraThingy]

Slovensky

why do you want the pooch on;y ?? just 4 a nice pic or to convey a storey.

have you tried warping, twisting , twirling or motion bluring the Background?

might be worth a shot.


otherwise go take a pic of a nicer background and cut and drop poochie into new BG.

Hanno

[Slovensky]

Hi Hanno

There are two main reasons why I want the pup on his own. One - I think the background is distracting and two - I'd like to be able to effectively remove a background in photoshop and end up with something that is simple, without it looking odd....if you see what I mean.

Other than that there is no need to have him on his own

I hadn't thought about warping the background though! Thanks - I'll give it a bash

Sarah

[Meysha]

Why don't you add a corner to the photo by just drawing a line on that wall section at the back. If you look at the carpet angles in the pic - it's as if they're going towards a corner. Then after you've put the line in, you might want to play around with a slightly different colour on one of the walls to give it a little shadowy/depth feel.

[JohnMF]

what about something like this, he stands out a little more now?...

just blurred the background a little and messed with the colours



hope you dont mind me editing your picture

[Unimaxium]

First of all, I think some good cropping could help this photo a lot. If you bring the top, left, and right edges so they come right up to the edges of the basket, then you'll cut out a lot of the distracting background. After that, you can try using the clone tool or the healing tool to get rid of the leftover things like the legs of the table and those boxes on the right. As for the couch, it might be tricky to get rid of that, but probably not impossible. Personally I think you did a pretty good job with making it a plain wall behind the dog. The main reason it doesn't look quite right is because the wall and carpet are unnaturally grey, which makes your brain spot it out as a fake background. If you maybe made it so the wall and carpet the same colors as in the original photo, it might look better.

[Slovensky]

Quote: Originally Posted by JohnMF

hope you dont mind me editing your picture

Hi John

I don't mind at all - thank you very much, he looks much better

Sarah

[Slovensky]

Quote: Originally Posted by Unimaxium

First of all, I think some good cropping could help this photo a lot. If you bring the top, left, and right edges so they come right up to the edges of the basket, then you'll cut out a lot of the distracting background. After that, you can try using the clone tool or the healing tool to get rid of the leftover things like the legs of the table and those boxes on the right. As for the couch, it might be tricky to get rid of that, but probably not impossible. Personally I think you did a pretty good job with making it a plain wall behind the dog. The main reason it doesn't look quite right is because the wall and carpet are unnaturally grey, which makes your brain spot it out as a fake background. If you maybe made it so the wall and carpet the same colors as in the original photo, it might look better.

Hi Unimaxium

I've become quite a fan of cropping over the last few days with a lot of my pictures I think there is a lesson to be learned somewhere, but most of the pictures I've taken over the past few years are MASSIVELY improved when I take the virtual scissors to them

Thanks for your suggestions about this picture - they are most appreciated.

Sarah

[Slovensky]

Quote: Originally Posted by Unimaxium

First of all, I think some good cropping could help this photo a lot. If you bring the top, left, and right edges so they come right up to the edges of the basket, then you'll cut out a lot of the distracting background. After that, you can try using the clone tool or the healing tool to get rid of the leftover things like the legs of the table and those boxes on the right. As for the couch, it might be tricky to get rid of that, but probably not impossible. Personally I think you did a pretty good job with making it a plain wall behind the dog. The main reason it doesn't look quite right is because the wall and carpet are unnaturally grey, which makes your brain spot it out as a fake background. If you maybe made it so the wall and carpet the same colors as in the original photo, it might look better.

Hi Unimaxium

I've become quite a fan of cropping over the last few days with a lot of my pictures I think there is a lesson to be learned somewhere, but most of the pictures I've taken over the past few years are MASSIVELY improved when I take the virtual scissors to them

Thanks for your suggestions about this picture - they are most appreciated.

Sarah

[OnlinePhotoDoc]

You might try adjusting the levels in the dog/basket selection to make it look more natural with the background. You could also burn the corners or add value gradients in the corners to focus attention on the portrait of your dog. By "value gradients", I mean having the corners dark and getting gradually lighter towards the center.

OnlinePhotoDoc