Help please fixing photo

[twoaussies]

I am not at home, so dont have PS books with me. I can lighten this photo, but need to get rid of the horrible background. Thought I would give it a studio background, sort with a lightened area around my son. I know what I have in mind is in one of my books.
So, please, need some help. Any other ideas would be welcomed. Jean
http://www.pixentral.com/hosted/19d21zK2r7mpj3469b3nMts5UAl3re1_thumb.jpg (http://www.pixentral.com/show.php?picture=19d21zK2r7mpj3469b3nMts5UAl3re1)

[Wendy]

Hi Jean ...

Have a look in the Subscriber area>Tutorials and you will see one called making a portrait background ... I think that may help you :)

Wendy

[twoaussies]

Wendy - just what I wanted. Didnt even think to check the tutorials. Many thanks. Jean

[Wendy]

Hi Jean ..

Glad to help :)

Wendy

[JulieM]

That is a lovely picture. Hope you post the completed version! :)

[Juergen D]

Jean,
This uses one of the Artwork & Effects backgrounds, Spring01. It originally comes in yellow. I used Hue/Sat to colorize it.

http://www.pixentral.com/hosted/1DZiWNGKxC0OoxSRMkDrgCWRrEnjX1_thumb.jpg (http://www.pixentral.com/show.php?picture=1DZiWNGKxC0OoxSRMkDrgCWRrEnjX1)

Juergen

[Daviskw]

Hi Jean

I gave it a try as well…I am terrible at picking background colors but you get the idea.
My daughter is always telling me I must be color blind… maybe she’s right.

Hear is what I did;

I first used ACR by open as raw. I increased exposure then opened in the editor. If you don’t want to use ACR then the same can be done with levels and shadow/highlights.

I duplicated the background

I then made a careful selection with the selection brush… I did not worry about the hair I just selected the scalp line.

I used Grants tools to add a layer mask to the top duplicate layer…filled the mask with black then used the selection and filled the selection with white.

The above procedure masked the background .

Now between the two layers I opened a blank layer… remember this layer is below the masked duplicate but above the background.

I picked a brown color and filled this layer… if you need to now is the time to click on the duplicates layer mask and adjust edges as needed.

Back to my new background layer I loaded some smoke brushes by Nagel… I think Nagel42. I picked some smoke and changed the foreground color to white and clicked all around the background until things looked right. If you want group a levels layer and increase contrast as needed.

Above this layer I added another blank layer filled with 50 percent gray and applied 2 pixels of noise. I blurred this noise 0.9 pixels then changed the layer mode to overlay… this added a little texture to the background.

Now the last thing I wanted to do was add a little hair along the top of the head. It was too hard to select so I will add some by hand.

I used another Nagel set of brushes… hairbrushes. I found a brush that looked close and on a blank layer at the top of the pallet I added as needed. The fist application was light so I duplicated the layer until it was dark enough… then, after I combined the hair layers with "Ctrl E", I used a mask or eraser to get rid of what I did not need.

That’s about it I think… Good luck


http://www.pixentral.com/hosted/1t4MBeqUkkR4jJmeMP0EvsATBzs86N_thumb.jpg (http://www.pixentral.com/show.php?picture=1t4MBeqUkkR4jJmeMP0EvsATBzs86N)