HappyScot
Junior Forum Member
Posts: 111 
Open to constructive criticism of photos: Yes
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Post by HappyScot on Sept 4, 2018 20:41:43 GMT
I have been trying to 'cut out' an image and put it on to a different background. I have spent hours watching all the youtube videos and trying to do it. I have failed miserably. The image is of a dog with quite distinctive hair round the mouth and the eyebrows. I can get the dog ok, but when I go into refine edge after making my selection, …….I choose the pink overlay, all the sliders set to zero, I then try to paint over the hairs. - I can see the hairs in green as I paint, I then release the mouse and the green reverts to pink. If I output to a mask, the screen then goes back to the normal elements screen, the dog is on a transparent background but no hairs round mouth or eyes. It is driving me crazy!! I know there must be a way but I think I have tried so many different combinations now...…………..and failed miserably each time. This is the photo. I'm hoping someone can help.  |
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Post by Major Major on Sept 4, 2018 20:56:57 GMT
HappyScot -
Is something like this what you're looking for? I have the psd file with the mask if you'd like that, too.
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Post by Sydney on Sept 4, 2018 21:29:50 GMT
Wow, I can't imagine that it could be done any better than that!
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Post by vladimir on Sept 5, 2018 1:15:13 GMT
WOW is right, Sydney. Major Major did an excellent job.
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Post by Tpgettys on Sept 5, 2018 4:53:41 GMT
I think that she is after those eyebrow hairs and hairs around the snout. So far I have not been able to isolate them. I don't know how to use refine edge well enough to know if that is possible or not.
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Post by Sepiana on Sept 5, 2018 5:09:29 GMT
the dog is on a transparent background but no hairs round mouth or eyes.
You could try painting the whiskers back after you are done with Refine Edge.
- Use a hard brush, low opacity, different sizes, color similar to the one in the original whiskers.
- Do the painting on a new blank layer.
- Turn on the visibility of the background layer. This will enable you to see the original whiskers location/direction.
You can also use a custom whiskers brush such as Arty Shrew's Whiskers Brushes
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HappyScot
Junior Forum Member
Posts: 111
Open to constructive criticism of photos: Yes
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Post by HappyScot on Sept 6, 2018 14:51:25 GMT
You are correct Tpgettys, those are the ones giving me bother. Thank you all so much for your help. I have tried both (painting and Arty) and between the two of them, I do get what I want. I thought I would be able to pick them up with Refine Edge and that I was doing something wrong, so never thought to paint them in manually. A bit of a cheat I know but it has done the trick. One whiskery dog done! Next time I will know just to photograph the dogs with least whiskers! |
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Post by BuckSkin on Sept 14, 2018 9:19:24 GMT
I have been trying to 'cut out' an image and put it on to a different background. I have spent hours watching all the youtube videos and trying to do it. I have failed miserably. You are not alone in this. After seeing several You-Tube videos on the subject, I bought Elements-12 specifically for the "refine edge" feature, in hopes that I would be able to separate out the flyaway strands of horses manes/tails and also the occasional female with a wild head of hair. I have read and watched and tried on numerous images, carefully following the instructions and suggestions to the letter, and have only managed to frustrate myself further. Then I realized that, in every video I had watched, they were working with a subject that already was on a perfectly clean background --- not the busy camouflaged briar-thicket backgrounds that are in real world pictures. |
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HappyScot
Junior Forum Member
Posts: 111
Open to constructive criticism of photos: Yes
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Post by HappyScot on Sept 15, 2018 21:10:26 GMT
I have difficulty even on the ones with relatively clean backgrounds. I think we need a webinar - is that the right term?
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Post by Tpgettys on Sept 16, 2018 1:56:10 GMT
I have difficulty even on the ones with relatively clean backgrounds. I think we need a webinar - is that the right term?
I found this particular explanation very helpful, as he talks about how each of the available components of the refine edge tool are used, complete with several screen shots of each setting.
Here is the same tutorial in video form:
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HappyScot
Junior Forum Member
Posts: 111
Open to constructive criticism of photos: Yes
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Post by HappyScot on Sept 16, 2018 18:34:14 GMT
I have watched that video a few times. Still struggling with some photos! No hope for me!
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Post by BuckSkin on Sept 17, 2018 5:53:54 GMT
I found this particular explanation very helpful, as he talks about how each of the available components of the refine edge tool are used, complete with several screen shots of each setting.
Here is the same tutorial in video form: Thank you for bringing this tutorial to light. I have been reading it; but, I have not as yet had opportunity to test it out; hopefully, it will shed some light on why I can't seem to get refine edge to work. As for the color cast he mentions in the first paragraph or so, I believe he would have best remedied that BEFORE separating the dog; someone here provided a recipe for eliminating color casts and I now employ it as step one in all of my editing. It is surprising how much of a color cast is on images that don't even appear to have it; but compare before to after and it becomes obvious. My apologies to HappyScot for muddying up your thread. |
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Post by Tpgettys on Sept 17, 2018 6:21:32 GMT
No worries BuckSkin ! In this case I think the color cast is local to a small portion of the image, not to the entire image as has been treated else where, and so requires a more refined approach. |
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Post by Bailey on Sept 17, 2018 6:29:52 GMT
[offtopic] ... It is surprising how much of a color cast is on images that don't even appear to have it; but compare before to after and it becomes obvious. ... All digital cameras will try to convert everything to an 18% grey, so if your camera's white-balance setting is not correct you will get a colour cast and incorrect colours. Sometimes it will be obvious and sometimes not. One huge advantage of raw files, at least for me, is that since your raw editor simply applies the camera's white balance setting to the raw unprocessed data from the camera for the original image display when the raw file is opened, you can adjust the white balance in the raw editor to whatever it should have been and so correct the colours in the image. If needed, you then can fine tune the white balance and/or remove any residual colour cast by setting the black, white and grey points correctly using a Levels Adjustment layer. [/offtopic] |
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Post by Tpgettys on Sept 17, 2018 20:50:23 GMT
Here is another on the same topic: |
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