adjusting portraits

Mikkelina · Posted: Tue Apr 26, 2005 9:29 am Post subject: adjusting portraits

Hi,
I'm in the process of adjusting all aspects of a portrait. Part of that is to change the background color. When I do that, there are a few things that I don't know how to fix.
1. the little hairs that "stick out" into the background color get chopped off when I change the background color by using the wand tool and bucket. How to I avoid that and make it look more natural?
2. Because of the way the photo was taken, there is a slight "glow" within the edges of the person's hair and face (usually same color as the original background color. So when I I change the background color, that look awful. How do I make these colors blend better with the skin and hair color?
For this one I have tried the color range, layer via copy and use the hue/saturation adjustment. It works alright, but really not perfect. I'm sure there's a better way!
Thanks!
ps: I'm attaching a portrait...I'v changed the background layer from a greenish tint to light blue. You can't see it very well, but maybe it helps to understand what I mean.

witam · Posted: Tue Apr 26, 2005 2:18 pm Post subject:

Did you try using colorrange?

qubert · Posted: Tue Apr 26, 2005 3:46 pm Post subject:

I can't personally help you out, but I know of someone who can. Alex Lindsay at Pixel Corps is the name, just go to this link and click on questions and tell Alex what your problem is and I am sure he can point you in the right direction.

http://www.pixelcorps.com/contact_us.php

qubert · Posted: Tue Apr 26, 2005 3:48 pm Post subject:

Mikkelina · Posted: Wed Apr 27, 2005 8:43 am Post subject:

I will try the link. I'm trying all sorts of things, getting better, but still not perfect.
thanks for the tip.

cbadland · Posted: Wed Apr 27, 2005 9:34 am Post subject:

I’d try going back to the original with the green background.

Create an Adjustment Layer for Hue/Saturation and set its Edit color to green. As long as there is no similar green in your subject, you can alter the hue affecting only the background. If any unwelcome hue changes occur in the subject, use the Adjustment Layer Mask to mask them out.

teddc · Posted: Wed Apr 27, 2005 4:07 pm Post subject:

For my two cents worth.
The deep etching of the image would have been better achieved in a commercial masking program such as Knockout or Extensis,placing the image on a seperate layer then removing the black matte.

I did a lot of this stuff recentley for a national website

ted

thehermit · Posted: Thu Apr 28, 2005 6:02 am Post subject:

I have to agree with teddc on this. It is a simple masking exercise at the end of the day.

It looks like masking the subject is going to be the easiest option rather than the background. So duplicate the channel with the most obvious difference between foreground and background and get masking.

Here's a nice easy tutorial for you to follow, hope it helps.

www.gurusnetwork.com/tutorial/replace_background/

cbadland · Posted: Thu Apr 28, 2005 9:46 am Post subject:

I agree; the best and most versatile way to do this is by making a mask. However for a novice making a hair mask can be tricky. Under certain conditions, adjusting the hue to only change the color of a solid background (which is what she said she wanted) can be effective and easy, especially around hair.

thehermit · Posted: Tue May 03, 2005 7:47 pm Post subject:

A fair and valid point cbad. It probably would be easier in many circumstances. Thanks for showing that PS has many options, some easier and more rewarding methods for certain techniques than others.

Good call

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