Is there a better way?

Hi all,

After editing a flower photo today in photoshop CS3 I decided a soft focus look would be nice. However, I was unhappy with the bright section above the flower. As I wanted to have that section match more closely the green background with the "gradient" feel to it, this is what I did:
1. Sampled the "greenish" colour using the dropper tool (foreground colour)
2. Made a selection from the top of the petal and around the bright section
3. Feathered the selection by 15 px
4. Applied a linear gradient from left to right (foreground colour)
Is there a betterway to do this in order to match the background shades of green?

The before and after photos can be seen here:
http://paulburdettphotography.fotopic.net/c1480341.html

"Paul Burdett" wrote in message

Hi all,

After editing a flower photo today in photoshop CS3 I decided a soft focus look would be nice. However, I was unhappy with the bright section above the flower. As I wanted to have that section match more closely the green background with the "gradient" feel to it, this is what I did:
1. Sampled the "greenish" colour using the dropper tool (foreground colour)
2. Made a selection from the top of the petal and around the bright section
3. Feathered the selection by 15 px
4. Applied a linear gradient from left to right (foreground colour)
Is there a betterway to do this in order to match the background shades of green?

The before and after photos can be seen here:
http://paulburdettphotography.fotopic.net/c1480341.html

Hi Paul,

Your result looks pretty good to me, particularly the look of the background, which matches the rest of the image nicely.

As with most things Photoshop, there are any number of ways to do this. I would have probably cloned from the lower left corner to get rid of the distracting background, perhaps cloning to a new layer for more control. Selecting, or better yet extracting, the target area first would probably be a good idea, and would maintain more of the "sharp edge plus halo" appearance of the rest of the flower.

—
Mike Russell – www.curvemeister.com