Photoshop Editing for Comparison and Critique

[eric-holmes]

This is one of mine and my wifes favorite pictures. Unfortunately the white on the statues head and shoulders practically ruin the image for me. Its just too much. I tired to clone stamp and heal brush the white out. What do you think?

 

[pbelarge]

Sorry Eric, that does not work well. The color and texture do not match the rest of the photo.

Maybe one of the others here can help you some, sorry, but all I can do is complain about your results. :mrgreen:

 

[eric-holmes]

O well. Thanks for being honest. No sugar coating. I thought the shoulder looked ok but I wasn't sure about the head.

 

[pbelarge]

I did not even notice the shoulder, I think you did great with the shoulder.

I could not even tell you step 1, so I still think you did more than I could.

Work on the "skull cap" and I think you and your wife will be proud!!!:thumbup:

 

[pbelarge]

Or, you could label the photo


"old statue, new snow"


Sorry Eric, my sense of humor is pretty poor, I meant no harm with it.

 

[matfoster]

you made a decent fist of the monochrome conversion though, Eric. looks pretty good.

 

[camz]

Maybe try asking for an opinion without stating that a clone stamp was used?

You're right shoulder doesn't look bad however the head patterns that you fixed are too perfect compared to the rest of the statue.

 

[eric-holmes]

You would have to know something was used. The image just doesn't change on it's own. I have no problem telling people how I did it, that way maybe they can share a better way to do it.

 

[eric-holmes]

Any other thoughts or hints to make this better?

 

[adversus]

I took your original post and did some work on it:

 

[adversus]

Yoinks, I just realized your Photos were not ok to edit. Let me know if you wish and I'll remove it.

 

[eric-holmes]

No no it's ok. I asked for help.

 

[adversus]

Ok

I don't use photoshop, but here's what I did in case you want to try the same processing (using photoshop's equivalent of course):

1. Sourced a touchup brush with various areas around the shoulder/head
2. Used smallest touchup brush in small strokes to fill in the white. I used small strokes so it came out more "natural" and not just one giant brush texture that looked out of place.
3. Used Smoothing brush to smooth the area out a bit which blends all the individual brush strokes together
4. Used Burn to tone down the new brush strokes

Granted I was doing it fast last night, and the head I didn't "stay within the lines" so to speak, but given a bit more time I probably could have made it look 100% natural

 

[Guinness Man]

 

[joeamy05]

I assume you have already thought of this, but is it possible for you to do a reshoot?

I think your shoulder looks pretty good, it appears you lost some edge around her neckline though. Her head...what did you have the hardness set to? Maybe if you through a subtle texture over the entire image and blend it right it would mask some of the mottled look on her head.

Just my 2 cents.