Just Peachy
A fellow photographer and friend from the UK wanted to learn more about masking in Photoshop, and Zoom to the rescue. I started with one of my shots that never thrilled me, but thought it was a good simple shot to start with. As far as the dime a dozen shots of '55 Chevys go, IMO, it was just OK, and it's color was not my favorite. Kind of a peach color, ergo the title. I showed him the power of the new Object Selection tool in Photoshop, and if any further cleanup is required a few other tools can be used. However, typically I use the Polygonal tool for that. I went on to tell him that if you are selecting the subject (car here) but want to do something with the rest of the image, (the background) and not the subject, you must click Inverse before doing any of that. I told him that if you are going to spray out the background like above, you can pick any color you want, but a color already in the image usually works well, or as in the case here, a complimentary color. Maybe a bit of a stretch here, and being that the cars color is in the red family, the compliment of red is green, and therefore my reasoning for going with a shade of green. So, as I'm working my way through this demo process with him my original feelings about not liking the image started to change, and I actually kind of like it now. I think it's proof as to how, with a little extra play, you can turn a mediocre image into something a little more special. So, the takeaway here is don't throw in the towel on those "so so" images, there just may be hope for them.
Just Peachy
A fellow photographer and friend from the UK wanted to learn more about masking in Photoshop, and Zoom to the rescue. I started with one of my shots that never thrilled me, but thought it was a good simple shot to start with. As far as the dime a dozen shots of '55 Chevys go, IMO, it was just OK, and it's color was not my favorite. Kind of a peach color, ergo the title. I showed him the power of the new Object Selection tool in Photoshop, and if any further cleanup is required a few other tools can be used. However, typically I use the Polygonal tool for that. I went on to tell him that if you are selecting the subject (car here) but want to do something with the rest of the image, (the background) and not the subject, you must click Inverse before doing any of that. I told him that if you are going to spray out the background like above, you can pick any color you want, but a color already in the image usually works well, or as in the case here, a complimentary color. Maybe a bit of a stretch here, and being that the cars color is in the red family, the compliment of red is green, and therefore my reasoning for going with a shade of green. So, as I'm working my way through this demo process with him my original feelings about not liking the image started to change, and I actually kind of like it now. I think it's proof as to how, with a little extra play, you can turn a mediocre image into something a little more special. So, the takeaway here is don't throw in the towel on those "so so" images, there just may be hope for them.