Old bus in museum

[Dave Humphries]

Hi all, I spent last Saturday at a transport museum.

I'm sure you all know the problem, what looks like a good picture through the viewfinder is full of 'issues' when you see it in more detail on a bigger screen.

I attempted to split this on two layers, bus from background, so I could sharpen the bus to separate it from the all background distractions. I have succeeded upto a point, but I'm not that happy with it, certainly not enough to stick it in the challnge.

I still can see stuff I'd like to remove; e.g. the huge words on wall behind, the pillar and sign on the step, etc., but I'm beginning to think it's a lost cause, there's just too much "going on", even with a tight crop, bluring, cloning and all sorts that I've done already.



Anyone got any ideas or shall I give up now?

[Colin Southern]

Hi Dave,

With Photoshop (et al) nothing is ever impossible - probably more a question of is it worth the effort?

Looking at the image, I don't think a blurring of the bus behind is "going to do it" - waaaay too many acreas of red paint. Possibly a select on the front bus - inverted - and then a levels to drop the levels of the background might help?

[David]

Hi Dave - I sympathise with the dilemmas posed by this type of image. The impact of the scene is there, but when you look at the shot there is too much going on. As "busyness" seems to be the main issue here, I thought of severe cropping as the solution. Here is a quick attempt. I also used a blur tool to make the background less obtrusive and have sharpened the foreground. Having looked at this again, it is probably over-sharpened, but this was a quick and dirty try.




I realise that I have been "kidnapping", editing and redisplaying other people's images a lot recently. Is there a policy for the site on doing this? I don't want to tread on toes or upset anyone, but sometimes this seems the best way of illustrating what I want to say.

Cheers

David

[Dave Humphries]

Thanks Colin,

I hadn't considered that (levels on bg), as you say, is it worth it? and complicated by the bus having windows we can see through.

Unfortunately, I got my undergarments in a twist with the layers, although I got what I wanted, I did it in what now seems the daftest way imaginable; duplicated bg layer, sharpened background, erased a bus shaped hole in the blurry top layer to see the sharp bus underneath Is there no limit to my silliness?

I also thought I had saved the psd, but do you think I can find it now, doh!

I won't be that silly next time, I'll do something else stupid instead!

Cheers,

[Dave Humphries]

Thanks David,

Yes that does have a lot more impact.

I don't mind about the hijack, as you say it's often the easiest way.
For short time I even had something in my signature saying as much, but it looked untidy.

When I do it, I tend to use my imageshack attachment allowance here at CiC rather than put other's work up in galleries on my own PBase or Picasa websitea, that way there's no way I can be seen to be passing it off as mine. Just an idea that I am comfortable with, no more than that.

I am not aware of any rules.

Thanks,

[Colin Southern]

How'd I do?

[Dave Humphries]

HA, Ha, ha

Laughed so much I think I woke the cat.


I dunno, such wanton vandalism, there ought to be a law against it

Needless to say, there's one bit that helps and one bit that doesn't

Cheers,

[Colin Southern]

But seriously ...

What I did was ...

- Dropped both the levels and saturation of the background

- Blacked out the distracting letters behind the bus

- Slight burn on bright floor area in front of bus

- Added a little "personalised branding"

We're going to have to get you over your fear of masks and layers Dave - they're your best friends in PS

[crisscross]

as a slight alternative, after getting the front bus masked and layered (or in NX2 just minus brush de-selected) a 'gaussian blur' has a very similar effect as having used a larger aperture and reducing DOF correspondingly. Very useful for exhibitions and events when background distractions are so prevalent

When you move to DSLR (if you haven't already Dave), I think you will find the aperture/DOF is much more potent than on a zoom, indeed one of the specific advantages

Not going to play with yours, you need an original, but a similar problem/example where the background was seriously distracting

[Colin Southern]

Hi Chris,

Sent you a PM about this ... not seeing any of these images from my end (3 now). Not sure if others can or not.

[atvinnys]

it works for me Colin....(maybe you have a Canon filter and this was taken with "you know what" brand....)

[Colin Southern]

Ah - OK.

Been doing some more testing - I appear to have something weird happening with my internet connection. Sorry for the false alarm Chris!

Think I'll just go to bed and let the internet gnomes sort it out somewhere in the world!

[The Blue Boy]

Mr Southern, you are cordially invited to join a brand new group [COLOR="Red"]here, on flickr. So is anybody else with a flickr account BTW

[Colin Southern]

Mr Southern, you are cordially invited to join a brand new group here, on flickr. So is anybody else with a flickr account BTW

Hi Mark - thanks for the kind offer ...

... but I'm trying to "unify" my online presence to just here (and images on pbase.com) (have forgotten all about my Flickr account). But thanks for thinking of me!