seemless white background

[speedneeder]

Hello
I recently purchase a dirt cheap roll of white paper and though I would try it for some seemless white background photos - full length was my goal. Below is the result. I typically shoot RAW and use DPP for quick simple adjustments to brightness, just a little 'capture sharpening', occasionally some saturation, and usually some cropping/straightening. For this image I then used the GIMP to fill in the REST of the background, lol. The paper I used is only 4' wide. I basically cloned to the background to fill in the edges and then did a curves adjustment with a layer mask to make the entire background whiter. Any suggestions on an easier way to do this? Two things I didn't like about his were - when cloaning, the background whiteness was uneven, and I would rather not take so long filling a background!

Before:


After:
(I know still some unevenness in the background, but I just felt DONE with this part of this experiment )

[speedneeder]

OK, just in posting the thread I got the idea to use IWarp - aka liquify I think for adobe users.
Interestingly it left compressed artifacts at the edge of the frame, which obviously would be very easy to get rid of with just a little cropping.

[Goldcoastgolfer]

Works for me! Nice job!

[GrahamH]

Instead of cloning out the edges, make a rectangular selection of the visible backdrop avoiding your subject. You can then stretch that to cover the edges. Colour matches immediately of course.
Rather than using curves/levels to lighten backdrop, you could add a new layer blending as overlay or softlight. Paint on in white.

Every method has it's pro's and cons. These may be better or not. Suck and see .
Graham.

[speedneeder]

Thank you Malcolm.

Graham, I hadn't thought of selecting and stretching? I'll give that a try.
I understand what you mean about the overlay layer. For the second image above, I did the curves adjustment with a layer mask so I could not mess up my son's appearance - doesn't he look thrilled to be taking photos with me
Thanks for the ideas.

[Peter Ryan]

Just try a simple Selective Colour adjustment layer, select White and move the Black slider to the left. Works well but you will have to consider what other areas are white on your subject.

[speedneeder]

Instead of cloning out the edges, make a rectangular selection of the visible backdrop avoiding your subject. You can then stretch that to cover the edges. Colour matches immediately of course.

Hey, this worked pretty well! I couldn't figure out how to 'stretch' a selection in GIMP, though I could scale it. This is what I ended up with.

[speedneeder]

Just try a simple Selective Colour adjustment layer, select White and move the Black slider to the left. Works well but you will have to consider what other areas are white on your subject.

This must be Photosop terminology, or maybe I'm just a gimp with GIMP! lol
I don't understand this.

[Ken MT]

I found that the easiest was in Elements 9, was to use colour picker on a suitable area of the background, then use the paint bucket with a tolerance of about 40, contiguous, to replace the background colour. About 3 keystrokes.

[Colin Southern]

I often use a more complicated technique; apply a severe gaussean blur - roll it back to it's original state from the history - then use the history brush set to lighter to roll it forward over the problem areas. If the lighting is basically OK to start with, then it does a nice job of ironing out the creases and dirt.

[Andrew76]

Hey Brian - what are you using to light the background?

[speedneeder]

Hi Andrew, aside from the spill from two shoot through umbrellas, I also have one flash on the floor behind my son aimed at the background. After a few shots I added the one on the floor, otherwise the BG was just too dull - at least for what I was going for here.

[Andrew76]

So they're just speedlite's? That's kind of what I was considering doing until I can get the $$ for some real lighting! I have 2 speedlite's now, and the temptation to grab a third one is hounding me. I'm going to Florida in the new year, and of course (like everything else), I can pick up another 430EX II for a fraction of the price I can get it up here for.

You're starting to confirm my suspicions!! My wife will be very upset with you!

[speedneeder]

I found that the easiest was in Elements 9, was to use colour picker on a suitable area of the background, then use the paint bucket with a tolerance of about 40, contiguous, to replace the background colour. About 3 keystrokes.

Ken, interesting new trick for me! Thanks for sharing.
Can anyone help me though? I used the bucket fill with a nice rich blue, then it came out pink????? I dunno why that is.

[speedneeder]

Andrew, yes - I currently have 1 580ex ii, 1 430ex ii, and 3 YN-560's.
For me working with speedlites is the only way to go - I don't have a 'studio' which makes storage space, size, weight, and portability all very important!

[Andrew76]

Nice. Then my mind is made up. Thanks for the help!

And have a great Christmas with your family!

[speedneeder]

Merry Christmas to you as well

[Ken MT]

Blue looks better for a boy



Merry Christmas

[speedneeder]

Blue looks better for a boy.

I agree completely!
I dunno why I picked the color blue and it was filling in pink!

[shreds]

Brian,

The blue also seems to focus attention on your lads face. The blue and red colours work great together being strongly contrasting colours.

I think we have all learnt a lot regards PP fill etc

Of course your original question asks "how could I easily", to which the answer is buy bigger widths of paper!

Sooorrrry

Merry Christmas to you and everyone else on CiC

Ian