Tips on masking in Adobe Photoshop CS5

My last post was on a similar subject but the video had no sound. I hadn’t mastered Adobe Captivate 5.5 trial version. I still haven’t but at least I can give you sound . I have now figured out how to stop the panning but I am afraid you will have to put up with it on this one.

This is all about how to create a mask and change the background on your image, hope you get something out of it.

Masking with Adobe Photoshop CS5

Here is the video

and here is the final image

Tips on masking in Adobe Photoshop CS5

Adobe Photoshop – Tips on masking

I cannot believe I haven’t made a post since Easter. I won’t make an excuse because excuses are like a***holes….everybody has one.

Instead I am going to try and help someone who asked me today how to use masks to replace a background. Here is a little demonstration using Adobe Photoshop CS5. There is no sound as I am using Adobe Captivate 5.5 Trial version and sound isn’t included.

Hope you get something out of it.

What to do when plans don’t go exactly as you would like

I had the pleasure of shooting with Kimberley yesterday. We had discussed a latex outfit and doing a studio shoot but I really fancied the latex with a backdrop of street graffiti. I edited an image I had taken of some graffiti in Volgograd.

I arrived at Kim’s house using my trusty Sat Nav and during our initial chat it became obvious that a location shoot would not be appropriate as she was just over the flu and it was a little chilly outside. She has a well equipped studio with Bowens lights, just what I am used to. Remembering the lighting from my graffiti, I set up a soft box low on her right and used a beauty dish on her face to the left. Beauty dish a stop brighter than soft box.

Here is the result and the graffiti

Volgograd Graffiti and Studio Shot

Into Photoshop and using the select colour range tool I selected the background, with the quick selct tool I refined the edges and created a new layer masking out the background. Copy and paste the graffiti below my masking layer and blended.

Here is that result.

Street Latex

I also wanted to try out my new Lencarta Ringflash. I had used it at Studland but only for fill so not mounted on the camera. This time I used it as it should be and was very pleased with the results and the ease of use. Nice and light and the battery recharges quickly. Also you have good control over the power with an easy read LED.

Here is the result and you can see the distinct halo effect with the shadow which is what ringflash is known for.

Ringflash Portrait

And here is another example but this time in contrasty black and white.

Ringflash contrasty black and white

Have you tried Silver Effex Pro by Nik Software?

I downloaded a trial of Silver Effex Pro by Nik Software.

What a find. It operates in Lightroom and CS5 smoothly.

There are a lot of presets which can be tweaked very precisely. I am impressed at it’s ease of use and flexibility.

Here are a few results, hope you like them

Sinopa Rin at Studland

Sinopa Rin at Studland

Ivy Grant in my studio

Ivy Grant, taken in my studio

A little fashion at Studland

A little fashion at Studland

Gothic Lolitas in my studio

Gothic Lolitas in my studio

My favourite shoes

Favourite Shoes

Cheryl Elizabeth at Studland

Cheryl Elizabeth at Studland

Sinopa Rin Again

Headshot at Studland

And again

Headshot in black and white

Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 4 – a review

A beta version of Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 4 has just been released and as many have recommended this product as both an editing tool and a way to manage a large catalogue of photographs, I downloaded a copy and tried it out.

This is the first time that I have ever used Lightroom and at first glance it looks like a great tool. This beta version has no help in the upload but it was easy to navigate, import to a catalogue, name sets, add tags and metadata. I then tried some editing and again was surprised at the ease of use but when I uploaded it to Flickr….not the same as my screen at all. I then did the same tweaks in CS5 and uploaded to Flickr and got what I saw on the screen. Checked all the colour settings which all match up to SRGB. Baffling.

So verdict, great for catalogueing but as for editing won’t change yet until I know what is going on with the upload process. If that was sorted would be great for batch processing and reduce workflow considerably. Never did find out how to re-size an image for different mediums but I am sure it must be there somewhere.

Here are the two edits and before downloading they looked identical

Lightroom

Edit with Lightroom 4

CS5

Edit with CS5

Do you re-touch your portrait photographs?

This is another question I am often asked. The answer is in most case almost certainly especially if the subject is female.

I was talking to a wedding photographer one time and I asked the same question. He told me that if he doesn’t re-touch he gets far less final sales.

The key is not to do too much. Don’t make a sixty year old look like a 30 year old but taking 5 or ten years off will almost certainly get you a sale.

You saw some images of Annie Moya yesterday. At 26 she has beautiful skin and to skin smooth her until she looks like a plastic mannequin would be a sin. She had a few small spots on her chin, you poor girls must hate those hormones doing that to you, and so a little spot removing with the clone tool is all that is needed.

Here is a before and after to show you what I did to her.

After Photshop

You will also find a few more examples here.

New Front to my business card

Playing with those images to imitate a Calvin Kline ad gave me an idea. I thought why not use one as a front to my business card. I think this fits in with the new branding.

Do you?

Business card - Fashion and Beauty

If you want to know how it was done, click on yes in the poll below, if I get enough responses I will do a blog on it.

Photographing Bottles

It was back to being Billy No Mates today as I had a number of bottles of smellies for men to photograph. Always a challenge. I also went to the shop of the client today. 4 large pictures going to be hanging in the windowsso I better be good.

He tells me that he wants to make sure that when I photograph the hunks in trunks that they appeal to women in an edgy way. Now there’s a brief.

Pecksniff's Mistral

Another day in the orchard

We were very lucky with the weather despite being on a hurricane watch.

The theme for the photo-shoot was The Gun Club Collection and so a shot gun was in evidence throughout. Charlie had never held a gun before nor had she been in front of a camera for real. Didn’t she do well?

So Innocent

Stock Photography

Always tell a story when you take photographs for stock libraries, you are far more likely to have them accepted. It helps to have a smile too. Raphaella and Monika were very obliging at Studland and we produced a number of successful images. So thanks to both of them.

Girly Giggles