Newbie ‘blending’ question

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"Pheare" <pheare_me@**yahoo.com> wrote in message

Hey all,

I have the following pic:

http://f1.pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/pheare_me/vwp?.dir=/Misc&am p;.dnm=final_ 01.jpg&.src=ph&.view=t&.hires=t

I want to ‘blend’ the edges of the photo of the 3 dogs so that it transitions more smoothly to the background.

Can anyone suggest how to do this? Or maybe suggest a better way to accomplish the following:

I want an overall picture that has an aspect ratio of 2 x 3.5 where the 3 dogs are also 2 x 3.5, but of a smaller size so that they only take up roughly 75% of the picture; idealy the entire background of the picture is same shade(s) as the background directly behind the dogs.
What I’ve done in the picture linked above was create a new canvas at say, 1430 X 920 pixels and gave it the color you see in the link. I then resized the image of the dogs to say 1000 X 643 and inserted that image onto my new canvas. I am left with the problem cited above.
Any suggestions are greatly appreciated.

Thanks.
—
Darren

"Don Coon" wrote in
news:JTAwb.220545$:

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http://f1.pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/pheare_me/vwp?.dir=/Misc&am p;.dnm=final_ 01.jpg&.src=ph&.view=t&.hires=t

Make sure you get the entire link, you may have to cut and paste the second line of the link separately

—
Darren

Try this…
Assumption – the dogs pix are separated from their backgrounds.

Create a canvas at finished size.
In your example, maybe 6" x 10.5"

Color it as appropriate,
In your example, ‘adobe’ brown.

Duplicate the canvas layer, turn off the new canvas layer.

Add the dogs, one at a time as separate layers between the two canvas layers

Arrange and resize the dogs to your artistic intent.

Turn on 50% visibility for the top canvas layer

Your layer palette should look like this.

Top Canvas 50%
Dog 1 100%
Dog 2 100%
Dog 3 100%
Bottom Canvas 100%

With the Top Canvas active,

Use the eraser tool with a large size, soft edges, and opacity at 30-50%.

Gently erase through the Top Canvas to expose the dogs underneath.

You will have to experiment with the opacity setting of the Top Canvas layer as you go along to see what you’ve missed and what the final result will be.

HTH

Mr3

"Pheare" <pheare_me@**yahoo.com> wrote in message

Hey all,

I have the following pic:

http://f1.pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/pheare_me/vwp?.dir=/Misc&am p;.dnm=final_ 01.jpg&.src=ph&.view=t&.hires=t

I want to ‘blend’ the edges of the photo of the 3 dogs so that it transitions more smoothly to the background.

Can anyone suggest how to do this? Or maybe suggest a better way to accomplish the following:

I want an overall picture that has an aspect ratio of 2 x 3.5 where the 3 dogs are also 2 x 3.5, but of a smaller size so that they only take up roughly 75% of the picture; idealy the entire background of the picture is same shade(s) as the background directly behind the dogs.
What I’ve done in the picture linked above was create a new canvas at say, 1430 X 920 pixels and gave it the color you see in the link. I then resized the image of the dogs to say 1000 X 643 and inserted that image onto my new canvas. I am left with the problem cited above.
Any suggestions are greatly appreciated.

Thanks.
—
Darren

"Mr3"
< &#106;&#104;&#097;&#114;&#114;&#105; &#115;&#051;&#064;&#115;&#112;&#101;
&#097;&#107;&#101;&#097;&#115;&#121; &#046;&#110;&#101;&#116; > wrote in
news::

Try this…
Assumption – the dogs pix are separated from their backgrounds.

The dogs aren’t separate from the background, nor are they separate from each other, but I think trying to sandwich the dog pic between 2 blank canvases and then erasing may still give reasonable results. I will give it a try when I get home.

Thanks.

Darren.

Hi Darren —

With a background like that, there are some nice broad areas of reasonably even texture around the edge which you can use as pattern templates (use the pattern maker to generate a full image template, then save it as a pattern sample, cancel the template, then use the pattern brush to paint in samples). I needed to use three or four different sample regions, because the tone of the background darkens towards the right, and bottom corner.

You can also duplicate strips of the background (above the heads, and also to the right), extending the background region outwards, then use the healing patch tool to fix the obvious boundaries between the copied strips. Again this can only be done where the tones of the background don’t vary too much.

I had a stab at it:
http://www.scifun.ed.ac.uk/tmp/final_01_copy.jpg

Trickiest was shifting the old dark corners and edges to the new edges of the picture, so that there was still a tonal gradient; I don’t think it worked out too well (certainly not on the right, perhaps better at bottom-left), but in principle I lassooed the old edges of the print, shifted them over, masked out (erased) the boundaries with the new underlying (lighter) background, and then adjusted the brightness to blend it with the surroundings. (There’s a gradient mask on the right-hand adjustment layer, but I think it’s too ‘even’; with more time the right-hand part of the image could be a lot better.)

In summary: pattern sampling (and simple lassoo-and-copy-to-new-layer), to replicate large parts of the surroundings; using the healing tools (those wonderful tools!) to get rid of obvious duplication marks; and finally shifting and adjusting the new edges of the picture, so it (kind of!) looks as though the tones and gradients extend naturally to that point.

Hmm — could be better.

Cheers,
Peter

PS: Are they your dogs? Nice sketch.

"Peter Reid" wrote in
news:bq0gud$s2s$:

I had a stab at it:
http://www.scifun.ed.ac.uk/tmp/final_01_copy.jpg

Hmm — could be better.

Cheers,
Peter

PS: Are they your dogs? Nice sketch.

Peter,

Thanks a lot, that looks great. I will try duplicate your efforts at home, but I suspect I may just end up using your photo.

They are my friends and her sister’s dogs. They have a dog training business and are doing up some promotional items, in which they want to use this image.

Thanks again.

Darren.

Thanks a lot, that looks great. I will try duplicate your efforts at

home,

but I suspect I may just end up using your photo.

No!!! I’m sure you’ll do a better job.
(Plus the image I dumped on the web page is a JPEG, compressed down a wee bit, so it’s probably lost some high-frequency bits and bobs (though the image is fairly jpeg-friendly :-))

(And of course I went to all that trouble to replicate (well, mimic) the shaded bits at the corner; perhaps you’d want a more even tone, in which case it’s less work…)

They are my friends and her sister’s dogs. They have a dog training business and are doing up some promotional items, in which they want to

use

this image.

It’s a nice sketch. What kind of dogs are they? [er, I’m not very good on the animal observation front…]

Cheers,
Peter

"Peter Reid" wrote in
news:bq0qee$6cr$:

No!!! I’m sure you’ll do a better job.

We’ll see…. 🙂

It’s a nice sketch. What kind of dogs are they? [er, I’m not very good on the animal observation front…]

They are all siblings, Huskey – Malamute cross. The sketch is nice; unfortunately I can’t lay claim to it….not in a million years 🙁

Darren