Simple Help for a Total PS Idiot

KED

I haven't begun to figure out CS3, but I am working on some photographs right now, one of which cries out for basic PS help. It's a shot of a lacrosse game, and the ball is in flight toward the net. It's a great capture, but the ball is kind of lost against the background. With my daughter's help, I have succeeded in "lassoing" the ball on a new layer, but we can't figure out a way to brighten it relative to the background or otherwise improve its contrast. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

jjbong

KED wrote:

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Posting the shot would help. It's really hard to respond to a description alone (unless it's something pretty mechanical and context-independent, which this isn't).

KED

jjbong wrote:

Posting the shot would help. It's really hard to respond to a description alone (unless it's something pretty mechanical and context-independent, which this isn't).

I was hoping to fix the shot before posting it on SM; however, it's too big an image to post here as an attachment, so I have some work to do on my site then I will post it here. Thanks.

joshhuntnm

KED wrote:

I haven't begun to figure out CS3, but I am working on some photographs right now, one of which cries out for basic PS help. It's a shot of a lacrosse game, and the ball is in flight toward the net. It's a great capture, but the ball is kind of lost against the background. With my daughter's help, I have succeeded in "lassoing" the ball on a new layer, but we can't figure out a way to brighten it relative to the background or otherwise improve its contrast. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

good news is, therea are about a gazzelian ways to do it. I would use levels: ctrl l, and move the middle slider to the right. You could also use brightness and contrast. make sure that you have the right layer selected. that is what drove me wild about PS at first is you try to select something and can't or unpredictable things happen because you have the wrong layer selected. it is a steep curve; enjoy the ride.

KED

jjbong wrote:

Posting the shot would help. It's really hard to respond to a description alone (unless it's something pretty mechanical and context-independent, which this isn't).

Here it is:


Here are directions to the ball: find man in red polo in background; see player whose number ends in "2" to his immediate right (HIS right, your left); scan directly up from the 2 on his jersey and you will see the ball seemingly part of his helmet visor.

Sam

OK, here is a fast try at it. Pretty hard with that background.

Sam

KED

Sam wrote:

OK, here is a fast try at it. Pretty hard with that background.

Sam

Thank you Sam. Someday I will understand how you actually managed to move that ball without leaving a big gaping hole behind!

KED

joshhuntnm wrote:

good news is, therea are about a gazzelian ways to do it. I would use levels: ctrl l, and move the middle slider to the right. You could also use brightness and contrast. make sure that you have the right layer selected. that is what drove me wild about PS at first is you try to select something and can't or unpredictable things happen because you have the wrong layer selected. it is a steep curve; enjoy the ride.

Thanks -- I'll be playing around with that over the next few days. This seems like a pretty challenging "first assignment" in CS3 (round trips out of LR for Noiseware don't count).

jfriend

Here's a try and what I did:

• Put the ball onto the red shirt (Sam's idea from earlier in the thread)
  • Made a circular selection around the ball
  • Feathered that selection 3 pixels to soften the edge
  • Copied that selection to a new layer
  • Moved the ball in that new layer over to the red-shirted coach to make it a lot more visible
• Replace underneath old ball location to make it go away
  • Notice that the player to the left of the one with the ball is nearly identical to the one behind the ball. Plan to use a copy of that player's head to obscure old ball location
  • Made a rough selection using the polygon selection tool around the players head to the left of the one behind the ball
  • Copied that to the clipboard and pasted into a new layer
  • Set opacity of that layer temporarily to 50% so I can see both the new layer and the old layer
  • Move the head in the new layer on top of the player that had the ball in front of them
  • Set opacity back to 100%
  • Create a mask on the layer with the head
  • Set tool to brush.
  • Pick black foreground color
  • Set brush size to soft edged brush about 1/3 the size of the head
  • Lightly paint around the edges of the head to mask out the background of the new head (letting the old background show through so that only the part of the head we need to show through can show
  • At this point, the old ball is gone
• Darken everything in the image except the new ball
  • Make a round selection over the ball
  • Feather that selection 3 pixels
  • Invert the selection
  • Create a new curve adjustment layer - it will automatically inherit a mask based on the selection we have
  • Pull the curve down in the middle to make everything in the image except the masked ball be darker

Here's what I ended up with:


And your original:

WilliamClark77

jfriend wrote:

Here's a try and what I did.... And you original:

I have nothing constructive to add to this thread except a thank you for that explanation.

KED

jfriend wrote:

Here's a try and what I did:

• Put the ball onto the red shirt (Sam's idea from earlier in the thread)
  • Made a circular selection around the ball
  • Feathered that selection 3 pixels to soften the edge
  • Copied that selection to a new layer
  • Moved the ball in that new layer over to the red-shirted coach to make it a lot more visible
• Replace underneath old ball location to make it go away
  • Notice that the player to the left of the one with the ball is nearly identical to the one behind the ball. Plan to use a copy of that player's head to obscure old ball location
  • Made a rough selection using the polygon selection tool around the players head to the left of the one behind the ball
  • Copied that to the clipboard and pasted into a new layer
  • Set opacity of that layer temporarily to 50% so I can see both the new layer and the old layer
  • Move the head in the new layer on top of the player that had the ball in front of them
  • Set opacity back to 100%
  • Create a mask on the layer with the head
  • Set tool to brush.
  • Pick black foreground color
  • Set brush size to soft edged brush about 1/3 the size of the head
  • Lightly paint around the edges of the head to mask out the background of the new head (letting the old background show through so that only the part of the head we need to show through can show
  • At this point, the old ball is gone
• Darken everything in the image except the new ball
  • Make a round selection over the ball
  • Feather that selection 3 pixels
  • Invert the selection
  • Create a new curve adjustment layer - it will automatically inherit a mask based on the selection we have
  • Pull the curve down in the middle to make everything in the image except the masked ball be darker

Here's what I ended up with:


And your original:

All I can say is WOW. Thank you; sorry that it took me a few days to say that, I've been offline shooting lots more lacrosse. Really awesome; thanks for the effort and the explanation.