City - Baltimore State - MD Country - United States
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I could really use some help with this photo.
This is pretty much straight out of the camera except for very slight levels adjustment. The beige background is a wall that was behind the flower. What I don't like about this photo is that there are brownish areas in the bottom left corner, which were probably brown areas on the wall.
I tried to get rid of them using Photoshop, but I can't figure out what tool to use. I tried selecting everything but the flower and using a Gaussian blur, but it just smeared the color of the flower out into the beige area. I also tried cloning areas, but the edges of my cloning tool were too obvious. Does anyone have any suggestions about how to fix this?
I was also wondering if I should be trying to fix it. I'm worried that if the background is too uniform, it might just look artificial, like I cut and pasted a flower onto this flat beige background. What do you think?
I definitely should carry colored posterboard around with me, because you never know when you'll find a lovely flower up against a dirty wall! :)
I liked what you did with the second image you linked to. Are you saying that you combined the two images, and the flower was cut out of a different photo?
Thank you Angelo! That is so incredibly helpful. I really like the version you came up with. I think the lighter background helps brighten up the flower as well. Comments like yours are one of the reasons I love usefilm.com!
The flower is very pretty and the composition is perfect. If you're displeased with the background try a piece of colored posterboard a an out of focus distance like this: http://www.usefilm.com/image/730601.html or on this one I took an out of focus picture of pool water and added the flower as a layer on this one: http://www.usefilm.com/image/716333.html I hope these help.
Was this the true colour of the wall? I think it is a very pretty photo as it is. But... if you really want to mess around with it, here's what I would do... (btw, I am using PS 6)
. Use the magic wand to select the wall area (a tolerance of 55 selects most of it. . Select>Feather... 10 pixels . Layer>New Fill Layer>Solid Color - set the colour to white . Double click on the layer. There should be a "Layer Style" dialog popup. Play with the Blend Mode and Opacity values to get something that pleases you. I am attaching the results of using a "screen" blend with 50% opacity. You should play with this until you get something you like.
Alternatively, if you just want rid of the brown patch, the clone tool can be used, but you should use it in the right mode. I experimented a bit and find that if you select a brush of 65, Mode: Lighten and Opacity: 30% it should work fine.
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