change the background by magic wand tool!

MH
Posted By
mengxue_hu
Jan 30, 2004
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409
Replies
9
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Closed
I took some photos of our company staff in front of white wall. and I am tring to change the background. however, when I use magic wand too–deleting those shadow or so, it just make the photo lose true feeling…
I also searched that I could use feather tool to smooth edges, but it does not work well.

what is the best solution….

Thanks advance!!!

by mengxue
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background change tool wand

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DM
Don_McCahill
Jan 30, 2004
When you put a completely flat background on a picture, it will look unnatural. Even if you have a normal colored wall, the light makes parts darker than others.

Here are some ideas. Select the wall with your tool, but instead of deleting it, just blur it. With the people in focus, and the wall blurred, you might get a good picture.

Or, with the background selected, paste in a scenic shot. You can make it look (sort of) like everyone was lined up in front of a mountain, or a lake.
MH
mengxue_hu
Jan 30, 2004
Thanks, I will try this way tomorrow at work.

by mengxue
MH
mengxue_hu
Jan 30, 2004
by the way, I am new to photoshop and illustrator. however it is hard to find the right book(clear explaination with example) for them, will you recomend one…i need the book to build foundation.

appreciate
AP
Alpha_Papa
Jan 30, 2004
In my opinion when it comes to PS, there is no alternative to printing the Help file that comes with your disc or going through it step by step on screen. If you are lucky, you may have an out of the box manual – but not so if you’ve bought a new "Creative Suite".

In the case of PSCS you’re effectively looking at 600 relevant pages. Print them and read them 20 a day if you must, There is no short cut and whatever you do – ensure you’re learning hands-on.

I am in fact, reading a newly released PS-CS text right now (no names will be mentioned) and in just 12 chapters I have already found 38 typos excluding 8 separate issues I’d like to bring up with the author. There’s 2 more chapters to go.

My hat goes off to the writer in question but when you’re trying to rewrite 600 tighlty printed A4 pages into a book just 300 long – nicely spaced and accompanied with big glossy pictures, many things will unavoidably be left out and others covered without sufficient depth.

Adam.
B
Buzzard
Jan 30, 2004
Eisman and Kirby are two authors you should/must have in your library if you want to use Photoshop well. "Down and Dirty Tricks" is great and Photoshop for Digital Photographers is an awsome foundation of knowlege.

John Hart
Photograhic Memory
www.photographic-memory.biz
wrote in message
by the way, I am new to photoshop and illustrator. however it is hard to
find the right book(clear explaination with example) for them, will you recomend one…i need the book to build foundation.
appreciate
JJ
John_Joslin
Jan 30, 2004
Since Adobe do produce a user guide for PS CS (got mine with the upgrade) I would have thought you could buy one from them. (You can buy Macromedia manuals)

John
MM
Mick_Murphy
Jan 30, 2004
I don’t think the manual is designed as a learning tool. It’s a reference. It outlines how to do a lot of things but it doesn’t tell you why or when or what you should use for what. A bit like learning a language from a grammar book and dictionary I think.

For practical instruction in a wide range of techniques, Adobe Classroom in a Book series is a good introduction. Full of well laid out basic tutorials. There are also a lot of other independent tutorial style books which offer more impartial advice (like what tools and techniques you should never touch) and loads of free tutorials on the web.
MH
mengxue_hu
Jan 30, 2004
thank you all!
AP
Alpha_Papa
Jan 31, 2004
Mick normally you’d be right but in this case imo starting from the section "Looking at the work Area" which gives a very nice tour of each application each manual relates to, it’s best to then proceed in an organized and hands-on fashion where PS is to be a serious tool and not a mere hobby/occasional photo correcting utility.

PSCS I feel just has to be treated with respect and to be able to use it to it’s limit, the tiny little things need to be understood in context – how aspects inter-relate so that the potentialities can begin to fester in the imagination. Pretty poetic huh 😀

For a hobbyist/bare bones user, people should buy PS Elements and an Idiots Guide – which of course is a total misnomer… they’re not really guides at all! No, they actually are fine books and have helped me with various things over the years. Go and buy ’em folks.

Talking of which John, yes I’ve called Adobe locally and the CS manuals are not for separate sale at all.

CS it seems also means "Cost Saving" and I was actually told by Adobe, to quote "re-buy the series as separate boxes" – where the manuals do exist or funnily enough, to call the publisher of the Classroom series, whom they have deal with. This was Adobe Customer Service in Sydney, Australia and I was none-too-impressed.

Adam.

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