Suggestions please?

C
Posted By
Cerridwen
May 24, 2004
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295
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4
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Closed
Using v7 (I’d love to upgrade but finances won’t allow it). I have a picture of my mother and three work friends which was taken in a car park, hardly the most inspiring of locations, I’m sure you’ll agree. They were off on a walk as one of her friends was leaving.

What I thought I’d like to do is apply gaussian to the background, but I’m not sure how to mask off the figures. I don’t usually use PS, I’ve just started to realise how versatile PSP8 is. Failing that, does anyone have any other suggestions? There is one of them halfway up Coombe Hill, with the monument (memorial to our soldiers who died in the Boer War) behind, but the figures aren’t brilliant. Maybe someone can give me a link to a tutorial showing me how to take the figures from one photo and merge them into the background of another?

Any – and all – suggestions gratefully received.
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TD
The Doormouse
May 24, 2004
"Cerridwen" wrote:

I don’t usually use PS, I’ve just
started to realise how versatile PSP8 is.

You are an ideal PSP8 user – stick with that program.

The Doormouse

—
The Doormouse cannot be reached by e-mail without her permission.
R
ramcan
May 25, 2004
Try here : http://graphicssoft.about.com/cs/photoshoptutorials/index

Cerridwen wrote:
Using v7 (I’d love to upgrade but finances won’t allow it). I have a picture of my mother and three work friends which was taken in a car park, hardly the most inspiring of locations, I’m sure you’ll agree. They were off on a walk as one of her friends was leaving.

What I thought I’d like to do is apply gaussian to the background, but I’m not sure how to mask off the figures. I don’t usually use PS, I’ve just started to realise how versatile PSP8 is. Failing that, does anyone have any other suggestions? There is one of them halfway up Coombe Hill, with the monument (memorial to our soldiers who died in the Boer War) behind, but the figures aren’t brilliant. Maybe someone can give me a link to a tutorial showing me how to take the figures from one photo and merge them into the background of another?

Any – and all – suggestions gratefully received.

M
mdocert
May 26, 2004
This is fairly easy and I do it quite often to soften ‘busy’ backgrounds. First make a layer copy of your picture, (Ctrl+J) then grab your Lasso tool and set Feather to abot 10 pixels. Then carefully outline each subject in the picture. You may have to hold the Shift key for additional subjects. Once you have everything outlined that you want to keep in focus, go to Select and choose Inverse. Then go to Gausian Blur and blur the background just a bit more than you think is necessary. Now slide the Opacity of this layer down until it is blurred how you want it to be. Finally, merge all visible layers and you have it.
A7
aka 717
May 28, 2004
"Cerridwen" wrote in message
Using v7 (I’d love to upgrade but finances won’t allow it). I have a
picture
of my mother and three work friends which was taken in a car park, hardly the most inspiring of locations, I’m sure you’ll agree. They were off on a walk as one of her friends was leaving.

What I thought I’d like to do is apply gaussian to the background, but I’m not sure how to mask off the figures. I don’t usually use PS, I’ve just started to realise how versatile PSP8 is. Failing that, does anyone have
any
other suggestions? There is one of them halfway up Coombe Hill, with the monument (memorial to our soldiers who died in the Boer War) behind, but
the
figures aren’t brilliant. Maybe someone can give me a link to a tutorial showing me how to take the figures from one photo and merge them into the background of another?

Any – and all – suggestions gratefully received.

Switch to maks mode in the tool bar. It’s right under
the color selector. Use the black color with the paint
brush to outline the part you want to blur. Use the white color to remove parts that you didn’t mean to
color. After you have a nice outline click the box next to the one you clicked before under the color
selector. It will change the "mask", that part you colored into a selection. Under the selection menu
choose ‘inverse’ and you will have a nice selection
to use the blur tool on.

I love this tool because I invented it in an old version but in a clumbsy way and was surprised to see
Adobe do the same thing in a later version.

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