Clone tool - feathering edges to blend

I resurrected this thread partly to share an interesting observation or two or more.

The first is using selection to separate the primary object,

< http://www.pixentral.com/show.php?picture=1ACuzBzqwkHVj4kVO9 46ak2CgCMvNm>

And the second is

< http://www.pixentral.com/show.php?picture=1QWnYxkmbAAKYjrutC 6JgId4k1KEw71>

Using a large brush to paint in the background, add some GB at about 40%

Cloning is great but doesn't allow such versatility 8)

there are at least 3 ways to do anything in photoshop.

so WHAT DO YOU DO FOR A LIVING DEEBS?!! :)

you don't have to get specific? i don't want to know who you work for (if you work or if you go to school). just curious so i can get a better handle on where you're coming from.

I am a fully qualified under achiever 8)

Now for ze last time: ze names! vee vant to know vat is ze name of ze organizatioon zet you work for!

You refuze?

Helga! Brink ze grammophone with ze terrible Haendel muziek! Zet vill make him talk!

just curious so i can get a better handle on where you're coming from.

You mean you just want to know what makes Deebs tick?

.... and go cuckoo on the hour every hour! <grin>

It's always better IMHO to let the childern play :)

Deebs, I hope you are still monitoring this thread. I wondered how you achieved such crisp separation from the background in your shot. It looks very natural. I'm STILL struggling with rough edges in the shot I posted.

Is the issue how cleanly it's separated rather than how to fix it after separation? Thanks, Bob

Hi Bob - I think everyone has their favorite selection techniques. This image took less than 5 minutes to select by:

1 - copy background layer (just in case I mess things up) and work on the background copy

2 - use magnetic lasso at 100% zoom (too much zoom seems to make it go iffy too little introduces larger margins of error) If you run out of screen realty press H to temporarily obtain the hand tool

3 - selecting such a lovely object in the above way should take no more than 2 minutes using a non-W***m tablet

4 - fine tune the selection (it is surprising how tolerant you can be on this) by Shift to add to selection, ALT to subtract from selection
This should take no more than 2 minutes

5 - when not sure about how the image will develop at this creative point (after the selection has been finetuned) CTRL-SHIFT-J then CTRL-J)

You will now discover why background copy is important

But deebs! Do I hear you ask (or is it gg approaching?) you I mean we now have 2 copies of the same object, why?

Well, to be safer still do CTRL-J again - users of layer blending options will know that it's nice to limit a blend (no, not single malt this time :) ) That should make it 3 copies of the primary object

6 - activate the top copy and move to layer blending options Maybe a dash of Multiply with tweaked Opactity & Fill?

At this stage it really is better to play with the effects to build a personal memory of what they do

<http://imageshack.us>

I tried to send this as a layered TIF (apparently imageshack supports TIF TIFFs) as a way to get a layered image to you but - well, it eventually appears as a PNG

<http://img425.imageshack.us/img425/710/aha4smallest4qf.png>

Wow, thanks. I'll need to play with this a bit and see what I can get. Much more sophisticated than I expected but then that's probably why it looks great.

I'll let you know how it goes (the next question!!).

The extra copy of the primary object - say the lowest one in the list - can be dragged above the layer blended one. This removes it form the layer blend effect. (layer blends work from that point downwards and not upwards unless tweaked otherwise)

Use CTRL-T to transform the image by rotate, resize whatever then Image > Adjustments > use one of the color tweaking options to add just a hint of another shade to enhance color complexity in the overall image.

If you turn the background off - well, that really should be up to you to explore and enjoy 8)