Editing Tips From The Pros? Pic Inside

[newb]

Ok, to start, this is the type of photo I will be dealin with most. By that I mean a car with a distracting background, and dull colors. Next, Ill be editing this with GIMP. Before I ask any questions, heres the photo:

Now, as for the back ground Im thinkin I can get rid of the other cars by cloning them out. Would this be best? Next, Id like the clouds in the sky to be more defined, but when I get em where I like em the car is way too dark. How do I get around that? Finally, Id like the red of the car to be richer, but then I throw the color in the rest of the photo off. What do I need to do?

Answers to these questions would be great, but all tips are appriciated. Thanks.

 

[bburzycki]

Well - I am not a GIMP user so I cannot help there but some pointers would be up the saturation a bit - just about every shot can use that....

Then burn in the sky with a burn tool or similiar in gimp..

Then you can play around with other settings likes curves to get the right pop.

It really matters what you want specifically..

That said I have found cloning out mush harder to do right or easily vs. just moving the car or shooting the car in a more interesting way that does not show off the background as much or in a way it interfears with the subject.

 

[Bitter Jeweler]

You could also mask out or select only the sky and adjust it, and it alone. Faster than using the burn tool.

 

[zeto88]

Bam!

 

[newb]

Awesome! Thanks everyone!

Bburzycki, that's the effect I wanted in the sky. Looks great.

How do I go about masking the sky? Put it on its own layer?

Zeto did you use the clone tool to take the other cars out

 

[zeto88]

Clone tool, patch tool, and healing brush tool.
Little combo of all 3.

 

[newb]

I see. Thank you very much!

 

[bburzycki]

For me burn is faster than clone... but its all personal preference - also to me its more about burning specific areas...and control.... so you have to play with it and see...

Truly playing with photoshot is the fun part and with all the free tutorials its easy.. as I said GIMP i know nothing about but since its open source i assume there are tutorials all over the place...

 

[Dominantly]

Ok, to start, this is the type of photo I will be dealin with most. By that I mean a car with a distracting background, and dull colors. Next, Ill be editing this with GIMP. Before I ask any questions, heres the photo:

Now, as for the back ground Im thinkin I can get rid of the other cars by cloning them out. Would this be best? Next, Id like the clouds in the sky to be more defined, but when I get em where I like em the car is way too dark. How do I get around that? Finally, Id like the red of the car to be richer, but then I throw the color in the rest of the photo off. What do I need to do?

Answers to these questions would be great, but all tips are appriciated. Thanks.

If you like it, I can tell you how I did it...... tomorrow (tired )

 

[newb]

^ Yes, please share.

I did play with the clone and heal tools last nite, and I was able to get the cars out with nice results. I tried the dodge/burn tools in the sky, but I didn't get what I was lookin for.

 

[Dominantly]

I used this Topaz ReMask - Masking Made Easy to remove the car from the background, and edited around it.

First you create 2 copies of the photo (ctrl + J). Label the top one Car, the middle one sky, and the bottom of course is just background.
Highlight the top one and then remove it from the background. I used that program above and it made it a snap.
After you remove the car, then select the middle layer and use the clone tool to recreate the bush where you want to cover distractions. When you do it like this you can just go over the whole thing without worrying about the car, it's safe on the top layer.
Once that is done, separate the sky from the rest of the photo.
Now edit all sections individually (I use Topaz Adjust 3).

I then "merged visible" layers (only the sky and background layer, not the car). Then I ran a denoise on that part to smooth it out.

When happy, flatten image and enjoy.

 

[newb]

So, Topaz ReMask is its own editing program, and not a plug in?

 

[Dominantly]

It's a plug in for PS

 

[newb]

Ok, I took the tips you guys gave me, and kinda followed the examples and came up with this...

I really like it. I learned some new tricks this time, and found some things Ill do different next time. Thanks for all the help everyone!

 

[Timothy]

hey that looks really good, well done