tips for masking blured objects?

SP
Posted By
steve_peters
Jul 30, 2004
Views
353
Replies
12
Status
Closed
I have to mask out a pier that was shot out of focus on a sunny day. Then put this bridge into a shot with stormy dark clouds. Any ideas on the best way of going about this? I have got the pier masked out, which is made of wood, but since the pier is out of focus, there are light areas that are surrounding the pier. I have created a layer mask and am blurring it, But now I have to try and figure out how to get rid of the light halo that is surrounding the dark wood, so that it will look right when I put it into a dark sky?

Master Retouching Hair

Learn how to rescue details, remove flyaways, add volume, and enhance the definition of hair in any photo. We break down every tool and technique in Photoshop to get picture-perfect hair, every time.

CB
charles_badland
Jul 30, 2004
Target the layer of the masked pier. Select its mask and go Filter>Other>Minimum. Usually 1 or 2 pixels will get rid of your halo.
There are other ways to do it, this is one.
Charles
SP
steve_peters
Jul 30, 2004
This would work if the image was not blurred. If I choke the mask to get rid of the halo, this also gets rid of part of the pier, becasue in that halo is also some of the dark wood.
I am familiar with other methods of choking masks, such as blurring and then using levels to choke the mask, but this will not work for this particular image.
PF
Peter_Figen
Jul 30, 2004
Just paint with a soft edged brush on the layer mask of the pier until you’ve eliminated the amount of sky you want. Experiment with the degree of softness and size of brush that works best.
SP
steve_peters
Jul 30, 2004
This still is not what I am looking for. I know how to blur a mask. Blurring the mask or painting with a soft brush still does not eliminate the problem. There is yellow sky that is being blurred into the dark wood. If I blur the mask or paint with a soft brush, I either eat into the pier to much or leave a yellow halo around everything. If I was just dropping this into another shot with a light sky, this would not be a problem, but I am putting this into a dark background.
I appreciate every ones help, but what I am looking for is more advanced technique, not just simple masking.
I probably should have stated this before, but I have been using Photoshop since 2.0. I am self taught and work alone. So I am always curious as to how other people accomplish these sort of tasks.
M
merge
Jul 31, 2004
Using the same selection mask as the Pier, could you use the Select Color adjustment layer over your Pier layer and torque on the "yellow" until it matches what it mixes with?
CB
charles_badland
Jul 31, 2004
Steve,
I’ve used a version of this technique before: (It is a little mickey-mouse but…) Duplicate your masked layer. On the top layer choke the mask to hide the halo, then apply the mask and trash. Now on the lower layer, use the blend palette to make transparent the lighter tones (i.e. your halo). Now you have two images: one retaining the central part of the pier, the other making transparent the lighter halo. I’ve done something like this before in a similar situation and it worked, (to a certain degree). Also try blurring your pier image a little with its mask unlinked. I’m newer to PS than you (4.0) but maybe this may help? or maybe not…
cb
SP
steve_peters
Jul 31, 2004
Charles, I am interested in this technique, but what do you mean by use blend palette?
DK
Doug_Katz
Jul 31, 2004
steve, I re-read your posts here to try to understand the problem to be solved. Is it that you need to "subdue" (i.e., reduce the brightness levels of) this blurry halo? Or both subdue the halo and alter its color? Or am I missing the point entirely?

When I first read the post, I thought: How ’bout an empty layer above the pier+mask that’s set to soft light and that’s filled with 50% gray. On this layer with a soft brush set to a lower opacity, gradually and selectively paint over the unwanted bright areas of the halo with black. Now this approach offers (me) quite a bit of control over lowering tonal values — I much prefer it to the burn tool for darkening an area — but it won’t help for color alteration… for matching the hues and saturation levels of the new background. So if you need the latter, why not first reduce brightness, then separately use the new (CS) color replacement tool to match the halo’s hues to the new background?

That’s what I thought. But as I say, I may be misunderstanding your need entirely.
CB
charles_badland
Jul 31, 2004
Well, I should not have said "palette". Open the layer style window (double click on the layer or go Layer>Layer Style>Blending Options). At the bottom of the window (forgive me if you are familiar with this) are some blending sliders. Use the top right white slider to make lighter tones of that layer transparent. Hold the option key to split the slider to make a smoother blend. Also, I was looking at the file I used this technique on, and you may not have to trash the upper mask like I said, I don’t know why I did it. It shouldn’t make a difference.
You still may have to finesse it some. If the pier darer than the new background; try setting the clone tool to "darken" and "use all layers" to work more on the edge…maybe.
Good Luck
cb
RL
Ronald_Lanham
Jul 31, 2004
Steve

What Doug said.

From what you’ve described there’s no getting around having to finesse (i.e. paint) to minimize the halo. No technique is going to achieve a one-two-punch quickly and virtually eliminate the halo (though it may be minimized this way).

Another alternative (in addition to… not instead of the above) would be to use Curves to select the halo and change it so its colors blend better with its surroundings.
P
PShock
Jul 31, 2004
Why fight it? Loading the mask as a selection, simply clone out the offending lighter bits with the darker bits? Set the Rubber Stamp to darken mode and/or adjust opacity to taste. I’ve used this many times for getting rid of stubborn halos – it works fine.

-phil
B
Buko
Jul 31, 2004
Not sure this applies but you can make a mask for you object.

and where you have a motion blur say, use the smudge tool on the mask to show the blur and fade it out.

Must-have mockup pack for every graphic designer 🔥🔥🔥

Easy-to-use drag-n-drop Photoshop scene creator with more than 2800 items.

Related Discussion Topics

Nice and short text about related topics in discussion sections