[The1]

I want to play with the pic and see what i can do, but i'm on a netbook with no photo editing software for about another week while i'm away from home.... Sad...

[The1]

lol, edited as quickly as i could using windows live photo gallery.

and my monitor is so small, i can barely tell what difference i made, but i straighted the picture though trying to play with the histogram a little bit too.

[FrankiE90]

Originally Posted by Chewy734

Me too... that's what makes it so fun!

I tried to add a sky like Jeff did in his recent pic, but I failed. My problem was the difficulty in masking out the sky in my pic, since there are a lot of leaves and branches.

try using the blending option on the layer - "darker color"
then erase out, with the "hardness" set to 0 and mess around with the
opacity and flow. Just dab at the tree branches before hitting the sky line.

here's quick example // u can see that
u can dab/erase the leaves for a better blend


oh, alt to fire clouds.

[AllydNYC]

Originally Posted by The1

I think he meant for the bench to be the subject and the train is the distraction. Was just bad timing....


kidding....

[bosstones]

Originally Posted by FrankiE90

oh, alt to fire clouds.

Nice. The sky looks much more dramatic (and cool) in this version. The leaves on on the street around the car are too saturated for me, but we all have our own preferences. Nice work.

Now add your fire clouds to Chewy's pic!

[M_Six]

Finally figured this one out. Since the sky in the original pic is mostly white, just use the background eraser tool. Set it for Discontiguous and be careful about what you swipe over with the circle (it's easier to place your crosshairs and click so you get one area at a time). Once the sky is gone, just find a nice sky image to drop into a layer behind the train pic and viola, new sky.

[Chewy734]

That's pretty cool Mark. I'm gonna have to try that out myself. Thanks for the info!

[M_Six]

Originally Posted by Chewy734

That's pretty cool Mark. I'm gonna have to try that out myself. Thanks for the info!

Here's a little more info on the background eraser tool.

[gary88]

[UdubBadger]

is that lucis filtered?

[LOLrance]

Heres a few i did a while back

[Chewy734]

^ nice! I like what you've done with the 2nd pair.

[gary88]

Originally Posted by UdubBadger

is that lucis filtered?

No, just some clarity/levels/saturation in LR3.

[UdubBadger]

nicely done

[Chewy734]

So, I was wondering...

Let's say you have a pic of an object with a busy background. In that background you have something you want to get rid of (e.g. tree, pole, lighting flare, person, etc). Now, let's say that the photo itself needs some post-processing, such as sharpening, adjusting its exposure, maybe changing its white balance, highlights, contrast, colors, etc.

Do you remove those unwanted objects in the background first? Or, do you do all your post-processing on the image and then remove those unwanted objects? Which is better and why? Or would this be determined on a case-by-case basis? And if so, how would you make that decision?

I have some ideas... but I'm wondering what everyone else thought.

[UdubBadger]

I would usually remove it 1st then work on it. the removal is usually best done on the base/baclground layer anyway right?

[M_Six]

Originally Posted by UdubBadger

I would usually remove it 1st then work on it. the removal is usually best done on the base/baclground layer anyway right?

What he said.

[bosstones]

I usually do it after any color correction and have a separate 'touch-up' layer I add specifically for getting rid of stuff. I find it easier to redo something if I'm not happy w/ it. Personal preference, I suppose.

[Chewy734]

So Jeff, you generally use PS in your workflow? or does LR also do that layering stuff?

[bosstones]

I use PS, Ashu. I've never used (or seen) LR. I googled it quickly, though, and it doesn't seem that LR offers Layers. PS Elements, however, does.

[Chewy734]

Using PS for editing all your photos individually has to be a PITA

[UdubBadger]

it is... i have LR also though and it's good but just doesn't do EVERYTHING I want it to a lot of the time.