I am probably missing the obvious but am a little brain dead today....
I have a photo that I have cut the person out of and I am wanting to put onto a different background... that part I have down pact BUT the problem I am having is I can not smooth the image of the person onto the background and I am not sure quite what I am missing in this equation.. I don't want to blur the subject as its a baby but I don't want it to look like I have just placed it on either.
I've gone through 26 pages of tips here trying to find something and I am at a loss.. And I am aware that it is most likely a simple technique... so HELP!
@silverhorn Get the curves tool out, it's handiest since you can adjust colour and brightness, match in the image as perfectly as you can. Maybe have a two to five pixel feather on the edges depending image resolution...
@silverhorn Hopefully you get it, make use of the preview and hide layer tools, when it gets very close switching off the changes or hiding the layer for a few seconds then looking at it helps let you see what needs done or saves you from imagining faults. Good luck Rose...
@silverhorn it's getting there, the cut out is a little severe, also the background seems a little mismatched in terms of light and dark, maybe flip the shadows and darken a little?
@silverhorn When you cut out the person leave little details like stray hairs etc. Usually leaving bits of background for tricky spots and removing them when you have it placed in front of the new background helps.
For the gradient I just meant up the other way might help a bit
@silverhorn A little tip for cutting things out in Photoshop, after you have the main selection made before cutting it out etc Press Q (the hotkey for Quick Mask)
You should notice that your selection is now a Red Overlay
This mode basically allows you to "paint" your selection with the paintbrush tool
You can then use the Paintbrush to "paint" the selection for the finer details such as the hair. (Obviously easier with a Drawing Tablet but it can still be done with a mouse too)
This mode uses a gradient scale from Black to White for selected vs notselected
which means using a 50% grey will select that part with a 50% opacity (so its there but transparent like you would want it to be for a strand of hair)
After you finish painting Press Q again to exit Quick Mask and you will see your new selection show up as it did before (aka dancing ants)
For your Background issue:
The problem is that the BG is 'fake' looking b/c it lacks texture and subtle variations from lighting etc that you would find on a regular portrait background
I would suggest using a 'stock' image for the BG, which you can even shoot yourself, will probably work better. You will need to adjust the stock so that the lighting and color matches the baby.
Another tip for softening the selection, you can also right click on a selection and choose Feather and input about 20px (Really thats just a guess b/c it depends on how big your picture is that you are editing) and this will create a "fall off" for the edge of your selection
Hope it helps! I know its a lot to read..
Note: this is also why people use Green screens to make these tasks a heck of a lot easier ;]
@3nder - thanks for the awesome tips :) It won't be so bad once I get my background framing and sheeting but till I can afford that I was trying to be creative.. Most of the time I use natural light and settings for my portraits which is what I ended up giving them.. Thankfully they were over the moon happy with the shots they got so thats good.
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Sorry I am completely new at photoshop all my photos were sooc till recently
For the gradient I just meant up the other way might help a bit
You should notice that your selection is now a Red Overlay
This mode basically allows you to "paint" your selection with the paintbrush tool
You can then use the Paintbrush to "paint" the selection for the finer details such as the hair. (Obviously easier with a Drawing Tablet but it can still be done with a mouse too)
This mode uses a gradient scale from Black to White for selected vs notselected
which means using a 50% grey will select that part with a 50% opacity (so its there but transparent like you would want it to be for a strand of hair)
After you finish painting Press Q again to exit Quick Mask and you will see your new selection show up as it did before (aka dancing ants)
For your Background issue:
The problem is that the BG is 'fake' looking b/c it lacks texture and subtle variations from lighting etc that you would find on a regular portrait background
I would suggest using a 'stock' image for the BG, which you can even shoot yourself, will probably work better. You will need to adjust the stock so that the lighting and color matches the baby.
Another tip for softening the selection, you can also right click on a selection and choose Feather and input about 20px (Really thats just a guess b/c it depends on how big your picture is that you are editing) and this will create a "fall off" for the edge of your selection
Hope it helps! I know its a lot to read..
Note: this is also why people use Green screens to make these tasks a heck of a lot easier ;]