Help please

ChaKiraChaKira Registered Users Posts: 163 Major grins
edited November 15, 2011 in Finishing School
Hi

How do I make this pic have a total black background?

383558_10150506267748272_691548271_11282552_1810758161_n.jpg
Until one has loved an animal, a part of one's soul remains unawakened - Anatole France

Megan Amelia Photography

Comments

  • pathfinderpathfinder Super Moderators Posts: 14,708 moderator
    edited November 12, 2011
    People will need to know what image editing software you use to answer your question.

    If you have Photoshop ( or many other image editors ) you could just use a soft black brush and paint black into the corner, or as a vignette around the dog.
    Lightroom will even do a vignette for you with the Post Crop Vignetting tool found in the Effects panel of the Develop module.

    If you prefer the head selected and the rest of the image black, then you are going to have to use a Selection Tool of some sort, to select the dogs head, to paint around.. I wrote about swapping backgrounds here - http://www.dgrin.com/showthread.php?t=116223

    More specific answers will depend on what software you are using.
    Pathfinder - www.pathfinder.smugmug.com

    Moderator of the Technique Forum and Finishing School on Dgrin
  • PeanoPeano Registered Users Posts: 268 Major grins
    edited November 12, 2011
    In Photoshop, you can paint the background black on a blank layer, then use the blend-if sliders and a layer mask to restore the whiskers. I would
    also recommend setting white point, sharpening, and using the shadows/highlights filter to open the shadow details on the nose a little more.

    blackback.jpg
  • ChaKiraChaKira Registered Users Posts: 163 Major grins
    edited November 12, 2011
    Peano wrote: »
    In Photoshop, you can paint the background black on a blank layer, then use the blend-if sliders and a layer mask to restore the whiskers. I would
    also recommend setting white point, sharpening, and using the shadows/highlights filter to open the shadow details on the nose a little more.

    blackback.jpg

    WOW that's incredible!

    Thanks so much for the help - think I'll have to book onto a photoshop course. I have PhotoPlus X2 software
    Until one has loved an animal, a part of one's soul remains unawakened - Anatole France

    Megan Amelia Photography
  • pathfinderpathfinder Super Moderators Posts: 14,708 moderator
    edited November 12, 2011
    Nicely done, Peano. Blend-if sliders are a great tip!!
    Pathfinder - www.pathfinder.smugmug.com

    Moderator of the Technique Forum and Finishing School on Dgrin
  • IcebearIcebear Registered Users Posts: 4,015 Major grins
    edited November 13, 2011
    Peano wrote: »
    then use the blend-if sliders and a layer mask to restore the whiskers.

    I, for one, have no idea what this means. I can find the blend-if sliders, but can't for the life of me figure how to use them "to restore the whiskers."
    John :
    Natural selection is responsible for every living thing that exists.
    D3s, D500, D5300, and way more glass than the wife knows about.
  • PeanoPeano Registered Users Posts: 268 Major grins
    edited November 14, 2011
    Icebear wrote: »
    I, for one, have no idea what this means. I can find the blend-if sliders, but can't for the life of me figure how to use them "to restore the whiskers."

    Google is your friend.
  • IcebearIcebear Registered Users Posts: 4,015 Major grins
    edited November 14, 2011
    Peano wrote: »
    Google is your friend.

    OK, thanks, but nothing I've read tells me how to use it with a mask to restore whiskers, as in this shot.
    John :
    Natural selection is responsible for every living thing that exists.
    D3s, D500, D5300, and way more glass than the wife knows about.
  • PeanoPeano Registered Users Posts: 268 Major grins
    edited November 14, 2011
    Icebear wrote: »
    OK, thanks, but nothing I've read tells me how to use it with a mask to restore whiskers, as in this shot.

    Blend-if is just one way to darken the background while preserving the whiskers. Another
    way is to build a mask that isolates the whiskers from the background. Put that mask on
    a blank layer and paint with black. But masking is sort of an art unto itself that takes a
    good deal of practice. In this case you could use the calculations panel to create a mask,
    then refine it with the mask-edge feature (CS5). Here's my result using that approach:

    blackbg.gif

    Yet another way to do this is simply paint with black (on a blank layer, of course) to
    cover the background, whiskers and all. Then, on another blank layer, sketch in some
    whiskers. They're just little hairs, so they don't have to precisely match the original.
    For that, use a small brush and set it to fade. The number of pixels you set in the fade
    window will determine how long the hairs are, so you'd want to vary that to get
    different lengths. Here's how that comes out ...

    hairsu.jpg
  • pathfinderpathfinder Super Moderators Posts: 14,708 moderator
    edited November 14, 2011
    Icebear wrote: »
    OK, thanks, but nothing I've read tells me how to use it with a mask to restore whiskers, as in this shot.

    John, the beauty of the Blend IF sliders is that no mask whatsoever is needed.

    You have the dog head on the bottom layer, and the black ink sprayed around the edge of the upper layer, being careful not to paint over the black areas of the dog.

    Now click on the button in the upper right of the Palette menu to open the Blend If command menu.

    At the bottom are a set of sliders for the Grey channel - since the dogs whiskers are almost pure white move the sliders on the upper layer to allow the white whiskers to show through the black vignette painted on the upper layer, and Photoshop will do the selections for you without a mask.

    If you read page two in this link it will explain what I am talking about. -- http://www.photoshopessentials.com/photo-effects/blend-if/

    Blend If sliders were discussed a while back when we reviewed the The Canyon Conundrum/ Photoshop Lab Color book by D Margulis, but I can't sem to dig it up right now.

    Here's another link using the Blend If sliders for correcting purple fringing

    http://www.dgrin.com/showpost.php?p=189066&postcount=7
    Pathfinder - www.pathfinder.smugmug.com

    Moderator of the Technique Forum and Finishing School on Dgrin
  • IcebearIcebear Registered Users Posts: 4,015 Major grins
    edited November 14, 2011
    Many thanks Honorable Pathfinder. Been driving myself nuts. bowdown.gif

    Now to figure out WTF this means: "In this case you could use the calculations panel to create a mask," and this: "For that, use a small brush and set it to fade. The number of pixels you set in the fade window will determine how long the hairs are." headscratch.gif

    Never heard of the "calculations panel" and damned if I can find any way to set a brush to fade, much less find a "fade window". I've dug through all my CS5 books and wasted an unconscionable amount of time in tutorials from numerous PS geniuses, and guess I'm just learning disabled. ne_nau.gif
    John :
    Natural selection is responsible for every living thing that exists.
    D3s, D500, D5300, and way more glass than the wife knows about.
  • pathfinderpathfinder Super Moderators Posts: 14,708 moderator
    edited November 14, 2011
    Maybe Peano will enlighten us.
    Pathfinder - www.pathfinder.smugmug.com

    Moderator of the Technique Forum and Finishing School on Dgrin
  • PeanoPeano Registered Users Posts: 268 Major grins
    edited November 15, 2011
    Have you guys ever heard of Google? :confused

    Calculations.

    Brush fade.
  • IcebearIcebear Registered Users Posts: 4,015 Major grins
    edited November 15, 2011
    Peano wrote: »
    Have you guys ever heard of Google? :confused

    Calculations.

    Brush fade.

    Sorry to bother you.
    John :
    Natural selection is responsible for every living thing that exists.
    D3s, D500, D5300, and way more glass than the wife knows about.
  • PeanoPeano Registered Users Posts: 268 Major grins
    edited November 15, 2011
    Icebear wrote: »
    Sorry to bother you.

    You don't bother me, you puzzle me. Google turned up answers to your questions
    in, literally, five seconds. I was puzzled as to why you wouldn't think to just punch
    "photoshop calculations" into Google and pull up a ton of answers. I realize this is
    challenging, technical stuff, but finding tutorials is so easy to do.
  • pathfinderpathfinder Super Moderators Posts: 14,708 moderator
    edited November 15, 2011
    I quote from deke at the first link I found with Google for "Calculations" rolleyes1.gifrofl -- "Today's video covers one of the oldest, most abstruse, downright incomprehensible commands in all of Photoshop: Calculations."

    You can find it here - http://www.deke.com/content/photoshop-top-40-feature-33-calculations
    Pathfinder - www.pathfinder.smugmug.com

    Moderator of the Technique Forum and Finishing School on Dgrin
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