silhouette

[Clive Kirby]

I like to keep posting regularly or else I get out of the habit. Here is a silhouette I took last year. Comment if you will - hope you enjoy.

[Donald]

Impressive. I'd want to clone out, at least, that little twig at the top right. Probably also want to clone a bit of the branch where it hits against his rump, so as to create some space between the two.

[Daisy Mae]

Amazing image. I agree about the cloning Donald suggests...it looks like the leaves are tickling his behind.

[Bobobird]

Excellent shot.

[Clive Kirby]

I agree about cloning - I have tried it a couple of times now. I'm not a stranger to minor asthetic adjustments to images but I found that the subtle gradational changes in the blue made it difficult to do without leaving traces of the work. I'll no doubt try again, hopefully with a bit more success.

[FrankMi]

I agree about cloning - I have tried it a couple of times now. I'm not a stranger to minor asthetic adjustments to images but I found that the subtle gradational changes in the blue made it difficult to do without leaving traces of the work. I'll no doubt try again, hopefully with a bit more success.

Hi Clive, in a case like this, duplicate the image and use low opacity (around 20% should do) and a large soft brush. Brush as many times as needed to completely eradicate the twig in the upper right corner. For the rump, first use a small sharp brush to get the branch out then go back over the same area with a low opacity soft brush to make the blue blend smoothly. If the soft brush leaves any traces of sky on the rump, use layers to mask (blend) back in that area from the original image with a fairly hard brush to recover any area where the rump was affected by the soft brush.

[Clive Kirby]

Thanks Frank. After talking about my previous attempts, I couldn't resist another attempt last night. I did end up using a larger brush than I normally would have, but not as big as I think you are suggesting. I certainly didn't try the opacity as low as you suggested, but I will next time. Anyway I have managed to remove the rump tickling twig and the leaves in the top right corner. Away from this it's more problematic. As I said, I think it is the tonal variation of the blue sky, both vertically and horizontally, that is causing difficulties. There is not a lot of variation, but enough to see a difference against the cloned areas. Will try again experimenting with brush size and opacity.

[Bobobird]

It is now superb. Well done.

[Donald]

It is now superb. Well done.

Agreed.

[Mike Buckley]

This is such a dramatic image. I wonder if I would like it better if the leaves were also in complete silhouette, as they are the only part of the image that are not so.

[FrankMi]

Much better! Whether cloning or layer masking you can usually use a soft brush for softening/blending the edges and a hard brush for sharpening the edges. Nicely done Clive!

[Dave Humphries]

Hi Clive,

I definitely like the second version.

Well done,

[WV1]

Clive...

The second version is excellent !!!