Some basic (?) Photoshop questions

[Fishman Dan]

I'm using Photoshop pretty broadly, I'n not at all an expert but I have enough knowledge to do what I need, and a little more bit (especially with the help of search engines).

I have two specific questions that I am hoping someone can provide some guidance. They both arise from my current project, which is essentially sports memorabilia from an indoor shoot. Due to poor weather I shot kids in front of a white screen, and masking them has been wonderfully easy.

However;

1. I can do my adjustments etc, then I need to place that image onto a background to create a composite. Not my favourite routine but given the weather here there was no choice.

What is the best way to take image A (the player) with all adjustments and changes, and paste into image B (background/scene).

I have tried masking the player, and then "Copy Merged", and pasting. From my naked eye it looks like some adjustments such as Vibrance are *stronger* when pasted. Note it might just be standing out more on the different background.

Also note that a simply Cmd-C copy/paste will seemingly do the above without the adjustments.

2. As a result of where I had to shoot, some kids have a very slight yellow tinge on their arms.

I have tried Colour Balance and playing with Selective Colour and channels, but my issue is when I get the face/nose/eyes/forehead right, the arms (folded in front of them) get a yellow hue in the shadowy areas. It seems any adjustments to fix one thing alters the other in a negative way.

I am currently experimenting with a Solid Colour / Colour Fill, using the eye dropper to find a neutral skin tone on the child, inverting the mask and then painting that into the main pic with very low flow/opacity.

The colour might even be a reflection from the bricks in the room.

Any advice or techniques greatly appreciated. I have about 50 kids portraits that might need this process, so I'm not looking to do anything really extensive, just a bit of a cleanup.

 

[Fishman Dan]

I appreciate you taking the time to post, and as much as it irks me to see my images reused, I like what you have done.

Don't get me wrong, I love technology (I gave up a "life" of IT before realising I was better at photography), but AI is one of those things - I'll need it at some point, no doubt, but where I can do without in the meantime, I will.

As mentioned in a previous reply, I have a 3rd light ready to go (Godox AD300 Pro with Elinchrom adapter/reflector) but in the haste of the event, decided against it. The parents won't flinch at the result - last year weren't nearly as good (old lights and less experience using them) and the response was incredibly positive.

I tend to put up a hair light at 45* behind, elevated. I could even do as you suggest and recreate the outdoor light, indoors.

The other thing with the 'magazine cover' - this is something I intend to avoid with my product. No offence, but I find it 'tacky' if I'm perfectly honest.

Being in a rural area has really given me an opportunity to stand out from the crowd, and just this morning I have taken 2 phone calls with work leading towards and including these team photo products. If this keeps up I can do-away with the Santa photos I tend to do with the local council!

 

[Major Jack]

I appreciate you taking the time to post, and as much as it irks me to see my images reused, I like what you have done.

I understand, I truly do. I have been here for many many years, and I have seen people get very angry when their work it retouched. In this case, it was just a suggestion, and that is it. I have another suggestion for you below, for YOUR image though.

Don't get me wrong, I love technology (I gave up a "life" of IT before realising I was better at photography), but AI is one of those things - I'll need it at some point, no doubt, but where I can do without in the meantime, I will.

As I said, I respect your opinion, and your choice. My rendition was simply to give you another option. Sometimes those options that we give, are simply NOT what people want, and I have no problem with that.

As mentioned in a previous reply, I have a 3rd light ready to go (Godox AD300 Pro with Elinchrom adapter/reflector) but in the haste of the event, decided against it. The parents won't flinch at the result - last year weren't nearly as good (old lights and less experience using them) and the response was incredibly positive.

If your clients are satisfied, that is ALL that matters.

I tend to put up a hair light at 45* behind, elevated. I could even do as you suggest and recreate the outdoor light, indoors.

That is perhaps the ONLY other thing I would suggest, in making sure that an indoor photo is color matched to reflect the outdoor scene. That is what I tried to do HERE, with your photo. This is a .gif (animated file) to show you the before and after of what I suggest. You will need to click and OPEN the file to view the full size file, and see the Before and After in Animation form. NOTE: I did this manually with "Paint with Light" and also using Blur to slightly blur the background, as others mentioned. The NEW "Harmonize" tool in Photoshop, will do this automatically and save so much time. I do not have the Harmonize tool yet, because I do not use Photoshop BETA software. I just wait for the final product to be released. LOL




Click on the Above file and View at FULL SIZE to see the Animation of Before and After.

The other thing with the 'magazine cover' - this is something I intend to avoid with my product. No offence, but I find it 'tacky' if I'm perfectly honest.

Perfectly fine. I am not offended at all, as it was just to give you another OPTION.

Some people like it, others do not. I have SEVERAL Templates for Sports that I have made over the years, and some people love them, and some don't. Personal Choice. Yours is more of a template design than a Magazine Cover.

Being in a rural area has really given me an opportunity to stand out from the crowd, and just this morning I have taken 2 phone calls with work leading towards and including these team photo products. If this keeps up I can do-away with the Santa photos I tend to do with the local council!

LOL. Good for you. You sound like someone who truly enjoys Photography. Best Wishes to you.



--
Major Jack
"You are welcome to retouch any photograph I post in these forums without prior consent from me". Have fun, and play as you wish.

 

[Matt2134]

The issue for me here is the use of AI.

It's not that I'm dead against it, but if I don't need AI to touch my photos, then I will use other methods (or in this case not at all).

Absolute perfection is not required here so I'm happy to move on as shown.

I guess that if you are taking that stand for some reason, it is up to you, completely your choice or course! FWIW my counter view is that 'AI' is really a nonsense term. PS is just using more advanced methods to automate, it has no intelligence - I don't think your images immediately become inauthentic by using some automated features. You aren't using it to generate anything, just simplify manual processes.

I imagine when you took the shot of the person you let your camera analyse the light in the scene for you, and you let the camera AF system manage the focussing for you, you probably let photoshop help with the masking of your person. For me there is no seismic shift to let it analyse and adjust your light and colour settings on your pasted image. AI is here and everything will soon be at least assisted by what everyone will call AI - you'll be blowing against the wind if you try and ignore it!

All that said, I wouldn't let AI generate put elements into my photos, so until we all level out in the new AI normal, I guess we will all individually pick the point we do and don't want it introduced to our workflow.

The piximperfect video may still be worth a watch if you haven't seen it, even if you don't adopt the harmonise part in your workflow now.