1st Weekly PhotoShop Challenge

chuckinsocal

Hi Gang,

I don't know if there is any such thing so I just made that up. Doesn't seem like a bad idea though.

Anyway, my challenge has been to remove the pavement from the attached photo, and others like it, while leaving the natural shadows with their soft edges intact so it all looks realistic.

Ive spent hours and hours on this and nothing I've tried has produced acceptable results. A couple of DGrinners provided some solutions but I can't get them to work. I'm sure they're great solutions and I thank them, but my understanding and execution is probably flawed beyond hope.

So, if anyone wants to take on the challenge, and they get acceptable results and provide me with easy to understand, replicatable, step by step instructions on how to accomplish this, then I will reward them with $1,000,000 in virtual and imaginary cash, really big hugs if they are willing to pay their own way to San Diego, and a ton of highly greatful "thank you"s either in one lump sum or spread out in installments, their choice.

I've llinked to the X2 sized image but if I need to do something else to provide an acceptable downloadable image to work on let me know and I'll do whatever I need to do.

Thanks in advance and good luck to all of those who take on this challenge.

Chuck Cannova
http://chuckinsocal.smugmug.com

pyrtek

What exactly are you having trouble with? You said you got some help, but were
unable to use it. Why? Which steps are you having problems with? I hope you
don't expect people to do this for you just because you put "challenge" in the
thread title. Most of us do have a three digit IQ, you know? Wink wink, nudge nudge.

Richard

I'm not sure I understand what it is you want here. Shadows on, what, a pure white background? I don't understand how that can ever look convincing.

chuckinsocal

One step in one suggestion was to select around the edges of the shadow, but with the softness of the edges and the lack of contrast between the shadow and the pavement, I've found this to be virtually impossible.

Another suggestion took me into areas of PhotoShop that I am not familiar with and I did not fully understand the instructions so I botched that.

Both suggestions can be seen in the thread Major Challenge (At Least for Me).

I don't expect anybody to do anything they don't want to do, but if someone, no matter their IQ, wants to fool with it and they find a solution, I'd be most appreciative.

If no one wants to mess with it, that's ok to. I'm just throwing it out to people far wiser than I. I thought that was the purpose of the forum. The challenge thing was pretty much all in jest, as should be evident, and shouldn't be taken all that seriously.

Thanks for taking the time to respond.

Chuck Cannova
http://chuckinsocal.smugmug.com

chuckinsocal

Hi Richard
I'm going to replace the background. I think the pavement is ugly and takes away from the beauty of the cars, which is what I'm trying to highlight, and I'd like to either replace it or eliminate it some how but keep the shadows as the shadows are what keeps the car visually on the ground and not floating in mid air.

More about what I am trying to accomplish is at http://chuckinsocal.smugmug.com/gallery/4149828

Thanks for responding.

Chuck Cannova
http://chuckinsocal.smugmug.com

pyrtek

chuckinsocal wrote:

One step in one suggestion was to select around the edges of the shadow, but with the softness of the edges and the lack of contrast between the shadow and the pavement, I've found this to be virtually impossible.

Perhaps a feathered lasso selection is what was suggested?

chuckinsocal wrote:

Another suggestion took me into areas of PhotoShop that I am not familiar with and I did not fully understand the instructions so I botched that.

Which areas are those?

chuckinsocal wrote:

I don't expect anybody to do anything they don't want to do

I wasn't suggesting you expected it, but perhaps you at least hoped for it, eh?

chuckinsocal wrote:

If no one wants to mess with it, that's ok to. I'm just throwing it out to people far wiser than I. I thought that was the purpose of the forum.

The purpose of the forum is to learn and to share knowledge with others.
If you want to learn how to do the things you're asking about, then please
help us help you learn them.

chuckinsocal wrote:

The challenge thing was pretty much all in jest, as should be evident, and shouldn't be taken all that seriously.

Of course not.

chuckinsocal

pyrtek wrote:

Perhaps a feathered lasso selection is what was suggested?

I've tried feathered selections with various tools, including the lasso tools, but nothing I do looks natural.

Which areas are those?

Here's the entire response:

I have never done it, but here is what I would try:

1. Duplicate the image on a second layer.
2. Convert that new layer to B&W
2. Clone out all the large detail on the ground (bit spots, lines, etc.)
3. Clone out the edges of the car. You want to work around 50-100 pixels in from the edge.
4. Paint the rest of the car over with a white brush.
5. Paint the background other areas with no shadow white.
6. Use a Gaussian blur to smooth out all the fine detail in the asphalt.
7. Invert this layer.
8. Using the layer you just created as a mask, create a new black color layer and place it between your extracted car and the background.
9. Adjust the levels on your new layer mask to taste.

Notice he says he's never done this but he'd try. I wasn't sure what he meant by cloning out the edges of the car. Clone out with what? The pavement? I'm not that fluent with masks.

I followed all the steps as I understood them but wound up with a big black blob behind the car.

I wasn't suggesting you expected it, but perhaps you at least hoped for it, eh?

When we post to a forum we always hope for whatever help we need. Most often we get it. Sometimes not. I was not expecting or even hoping someone would do my work for me. This is part of a much bigger project and I'll probably have many of these challenges. I need to learn how to do it and do it well (assuming it's doable at all). Check out http://chuckinsocal.smugmug.com/gallery/4149828 and you'll get a better idea of where I'm trying to go with all this.

The purpose of the forum is to learn and to share knowledge with others.
If you want to learn how to do the things you're asking about, then please
help us help you learn them.

That's why I posted the picture, so those who *want* to can try their own solutions and better understand the challenges. Most questions have answers that are easily stated. But sometimes even experts have to try different soutions in order to fully understand the problem and arrive at the best solution. It's not unusual for SmugMuggers and DGrinners to download someone's photo, do some work on it, then repost with the improvements and a little tutorial on how they were accomplished.

In any case, I wasn't expecting to spend all this time defending my question and I'm not sure why I did.

Thanks again for your response.

Chuck Cannova
http://chuckinsocal.smugmug.com

ChrisKraftPhoto

Hey Chuck; maybe put it on a black background?



Be nice; I'm on a laptop with a trackpad. Not the most accurate way of doing things

chuckinsocal

Thanks Dude ...
... but my goal is to put the cars in a more colorful and creative back ground. See http://chuckinsocal.smugmug.com/gallery/4149828 for a better idea of what I'm trying to accomplish.

Thanks again.

Chuck Cannova
http://chuckinsocal.smugmug.com

leuallen

Is this kind of what you want?

Larry

chuckinsocal

Hi Larry,
That's real close to perfect!!!

Can you share your technique? I have a gut feeling that I've over complicated the issue and overlooked the obvious (I hate it what I do that).

Thanks so much.

Chuck Cannova
http://chuckinsocal.smugmug.com

leaforte

Nice work Larry.

leuallen

The technique is too complex to show here without lots of illustrations.

I have, however, made a PDF tutorial showing the process in detail.

If you want the PDF, about 960k, email me and ask for Buick tut.

leuallen at mchsi . com (fix to send)

Larry