You teach me something, please

rutt

See this thread. My second post. How to get lose that cup? It's way beyond me. Calls for a different kind of weapon that I have.

Andy

rutt wrote:

See this thread. My second post. How to get lose that cup? It's way beyond me. Calls for a different kind of weapon that I have.

There's a trick to this.

* Duplicate the Layer - always - so you can use a mask to easily undo.
* Start with the fattest clone brush you can fit
* Start cloning
* Keep reducing the size of your brush, and increasing the ZOOM on screen to work finer and finer
* Some areas will benefit from a reduction in the opacity of the brush, to as little as 25%.
* Experiment.
This was about 3minutes work. I can do it bang-on perfectly with the full-sive image. Approach it methodically, and patiently. And don't forget to use the mask to undo - because your history won't out last the number of clone stamps you use

rutt

Thanks, Andy. It does look a lot better without that cup. I thought I was trying to do what you described with no luck, but I'll try again and try to be more methodical. Coloring inside the lines just isn't my strong point.

Andy

rutt wrote:

Coloring inside the lines just isn't my strong point.

That surprises the heck out of me

So, seriously - the trick, is practice, and also, zoom zoom zoom and smaller and smaller brushes. I was using a 2px brush at max zoom to at the end of my clone job for you.

You'll get the knack of it - it's just practice...

rutt

Here's one thing that confused me when I did it. The light shades from dark to light where that cup is. I was having a hard time at the point where the two end met up. Your shading seems nice and smooth. Was there some kind of planning and forethought involved?

Andy

rutt wrote:

Was there some kind of planning and forethought involved?

but it comes with practice. And, I suppose, I have a bit of an eye for these things. But don't sell yourself short, Rutt - you're plenty OC enough to do this perfectly

That particular area, soft touch, big zoom, teeeny tiiny brush and way low opacity. Brew some chamomile, put on some George Winston and have at it

edgework

rutt wrote:

Here's one thing that confused me when I did it. The light shades from dark to light where that cup is. I was having a hard time at the point where the two end met up. Your shading seems nice and smooth. Was there some kind of planning and forethought involved?

The trick is to clone out the major items and then blend the shades with the healing brush.

rutt

Hey, Andy, can you draw? Beyond stick figures?

I like the way you finished the shadow under the bench were the cup was. That seems very right and wouldn't have occured to me. Did you outline it first?

Do you use a mouse or tablet for this kind of work?

ginger_55

And don't forget to use the mask to undo - because your history won't out last the number of clone stamps you use
______________________ above written by Andy.

Andy, can you explain that to me? How do I use the mask to undo, and what difference does the history outlasting make?

or Rutt, can you explain?

Also, this going from large brush to smaller, perhaps when I try it, it will be apparent, but I wouldn't have guessed. Once I take out all the info with the large brush, how do I know what to do with the small brushes?

Ok, those are stupid simplistic questions. if they are too bad, please say, "oh, ginger, just do it", but I am seriously confused often and this is an example.

ginger

Andy

ginger_55 wrote:

And don't forget to use the mask to undo - because your history won't out last the number of clone stamps you use
______________________ above written by Andy.

Andy, can you explain that to me?

No, I can't explain it because I've explained it many, many times already

http://www.dgrin.com/showthread.php?t=1560&highlight=layer+mask+tutorial

Cheers Ginger

rutt

OK, when is it good enough? The worst thing about this kind of retouching is that you stare and you stare and zoom in and in and pretty soon all you see is that one spot and you know what's not perfect.

I got to this point:



[Original here.]

It won't fool an expert witness. I doesn't look as good to me as Andy's. But is it good enough so it's not distracting?

The thing that really drove me nuts was the texture in the concrete where the straw was and just to the right of that. That part of the shot should be in focus and it grades to less sharp on the right side. It didn't look right without some in-focus texture, but there was no place to find it. In the end I copied a patch from the darker section below onto a layer and used curves to lighten up and get the color closer. Then I used the clone tool to expand and shade into less sharp focus. Is that working?

jfriend

Looks good enough to me

rutt wrote:

OK, when is it good enough? The worst thing about this kind of retouching is that you stare and you stare and zoom in and in and pretty soon all you see is that one spot and you know what's not perfect.


[Original here.]

It won't fool an expert witness. I doesn't look as good to me as Andy's. But is it good enough so it's not distracting?

The thing that really drove me nuts was the texture in the concrete where the straw was and just to the right of that. That part of the shot should be in focus and it grades to less sharp on the right side. It didn't look right without some in-focus texture, but there was no place to find it. In the end I copied a patch from the darker section below onto a layer and used curves to lighten up and get the color closer. Then I used the clone tool to expand and shade into less sharp focus. Is that working?

It works for me as is. I agree with your comments that there are a few spots that are blurrier than they probably should be (that's a problem with using small soft brushes for cloning), but in the scheme of things, there is absolutely nothing that pulls your eye to that spot if you didn't know there used to be a cup there. Further, even if the eye wanders there, you will just think there's some sort of defect in the concrete which is a perfectly reasonable thing to be there.

Like Andy said, practice is the way you get good at this one. The right combination of cloning, spot healing, patch tool and copy/paste will make this pretty easy over time.

BTW, when you did your cloning, did you do it on a new blank layer. I love to do all my cloning on a new blank layer (not a copy of the layer underneath). In that way, it's completely non-destructive and you can just erase anything you don't like and do it over. It also allows you to use blend modes (sometimes I clone with lighten or darken mode), blend-if's (useful when cloning near a dark edge) and opacity.

rutt

jfriend wrote:

BTW, when you did your cloning, did you do it on a new blank layer. I love to do all my cloning on a new blank layer (not a copy of the layer underneath). In that way, it's completely non-destructive and you can just erase anything you don't like and do it over. It also allows you to use blend modes (sometimes I clone with lighten or darken mode), blend-if's (useful when cloning near a dark edge) and opacity.

Yes, I learned that trick by the end.

In the end, I don't think I'm a good enough draftsman for Andy's technique alone. I did use it, but also some variations on DM's "Best Retouching Space" technique. The healing brush is the one thing I really couldn't get to work for me. I might need to read up...

I'd still like Andy to answer the questions about wheter he can draw and wheter he uses a tablet.