Post by popcorn on Aug 1, 2021 20:43:45 GMT
Hi,
I using Elements 2018 with Windows 10 on a lap top.
I keep a photographic record of all the birds that come into our garden.
Most of the images are taken at very short notice and when I don't have a camera at the ready.
Even when the images are not very high quality I try to get the best out of them with as little editing as possible.
In order to make the duck more prominent , I wanted to blur the background and lighten the background shadows at the top of the image
I have attached a psd file of a duck which landed in the garden on Friday.
I processed in ACR including cropping and exported to Elements 2018 Editor.
In Editor I then;
duplicated the background leaving it named as "Background copy"
I created another duplicate of the background and named it Blur
I hid the original background layer.
I used Gaussian blur on the blur layer to produce the effect I wanted on the background.
I added a mask to the Blur layer and created a gradient on the mask.
I made a selection of the Duck, which I wanted to keep as sharp as possible, made the mask active and filled the selection with black.
I selected the ducks eye on the Background copy and used an levels enhancement layer to lighten the eye a little
I renamed the layer Eye Level.
I now wanted to lighten the very dark top background and bring out some detail
I made a selection of the dark shadow area and again applied a levels enhancement layer to lighten it.
When I reduced the mid-tones a line appeared on the selection edge.
( if you decrease the mid-tones in the image the line becomes more pronounced )
I hid the blur layer and the lightening was increased and the line disappeared.
I am assuming that the line is a result of an interaction between the blurring and the lightening.
It seems as if my choice is blurring or lightening, I want both!! ( without the line )
I want to keep both!!
Can you please explain what is happening and what I can do to overcome the problem.
I also added a Title.
I using Elements 2018 with Windows 10 on a lap top.
I keep a photographic record of all the birds that come into our garden.
Most of the images are taken at very short notice and when I don't have a camera at the ready.
Even when the images are not very high quality I try to get the best out of them with as little editing as possible.
In order to make the duck more prominent , I wanted to blur the background and lighten the background shadows at the top of the image
I have attached a psd file of a duck which landed in the garden on Friday.
I processed in ACR including cropping and exported to Elements 2018 Editor.
In Editor I then;
duplicated the background leaving it named as "Background copy"
I created another duplicate of the background and named it Blur
I hid the original background layer.
I used Gaussian blur on the blur layer to produce the effect I wanted on the background.
I added a mask to the Blur layer and created a gradient on the mask.
I made a selection of the Duck, which I wanted to keep as sharp as possible, made the mask active and filled the selection with black.
I selected the ducks eye on the Background copy and used an levels enhancement layer to lighten the eye a little
I renamed the layer Eye Level.
I now wanted to lighten the very dark top background and bring out some detail
I made a selection of the dark shadow area and again applied a levels enhancement layer to lighten it.
When I reduced the mid-tones a line appeared on the selection edge.
( if you decrease the mid-tones in the image the line becomes more pronounced )
I hid the blur layer and the lightening was increased and the line disappeared.
I am assuming that the line is a result of an interaction between the blurring and the lightening.
It seems as if my choice is blurring or lightening, I want both!! ( without the line )
I want to keep both!!
Can you please explain what is happening and what I can do to overcome the problem.
I also added a Title.
