A background re-worked.

[vlarcombe]

Hi,

Back in December I was lucky to have one of my pictures selected as picture of the day. Ian commented that the bokeh in background (doughnuts characteristic of a mirror lens) was rather distracting. This spurred me on to having a go at replacing the background. I also tweaked the colours and saved the image in sRGB instead of Adobe RGB colour space.

The only problem is that I'm not sure it's an improvement. What do you think?

Re-worked image:



Original image:



I have also uploaded the pictures taken seconds either side to show the luck in getting this pose!

Seven seconds in time:



Vernon

[Stephen]

Re: A background re-worked.

The background and colour are both definitely better in my opinion Vernon. There is some fuzziness round the sheep now, perhaps where you have feathered your selection, but that's probably being over critical

[vlarcombe]

Re: A background re-worked.

Thanks Stephen.

I think the fuzziness is a combination of some poor masking and white of the sheep bleeding out into the blurred background. I was getting worried that the picture was starting to look to "layered" and artificial but I might see if I can find a bit more time to clean up around the sheep.

[Graham_of_Rainham]

Re: A background re-worked.

I think we have come to expect a "quality" in images that previously we accepted. Mirror lenses have that effect associated with them and while what you have done is very clever, the "originality" of the image has been rendered more towards "run of the mill" out of focus.

I agree that it is eye catching and could be a distraction but once you know what the effect is and why it is like that, it can easily be discounted in the same way as other OOF effects.

The same can be said for the adjustments to the colours. If it were me I'd ask how close to the real world the new colours are, and how do I want to present the image. As it's a sheep I'd go for the original colours. Had it been a lamb I'd likely go for the new colours (what's that old adage about "Mutton & Lamb")

So while you have asked for comments, what are your thoughts

This certianly is an interesting image and the series that you have added provides a good story line to the production of the picture

[rogleale]

Re: A background re-worked.

Hi Vernon,

I don't know what software you are using, but selecting hair or fur is always difficult. The best way I have found in Photoshop is to use the Quick selection tool, but to take several minutes first to teach the tool the colours that you don't want it to select. ie the greens and yellows of the background. Select the sheep, ctrl+j to put it on its own layer, tweak the background, post the sheep back on top.

I had a go, but still had to go down to pixel level to extract more wool! I think that we all have pictures in our files that we feel could be improved with a bit of work, and I know that I often feel that it isn't worth the trouble. You made a valiant effort with a good result.

My try



Roger

[vlarcombe]

Re: A background re-worked.

Hi Graham,

Thanks for your comments.

I think the original colours are probably closer to the new than the old. While I did adjust the colours in the new image the original (before posting) is somewhere between the new and the old, the greens in the displayed image are more muted as the file is in Adobe RGB and browsers expect sRGB.

You raise an interesting point regarding the different treatment of colours depending on the subject (in this case I suspect a shearling between a sheep and a lamb). I lifted the colours and they now are more spring like and perhaps this is another factor making me uneasy about the image (it was actually autumn). I also suspect that my treatment of colours is influenced (dare I say coloured ) by my mood at the time, I wanted a more uplifting image but perhaps have forced it too far for the image.

I'm really not sure if I like the original or the new better. I do feel that something has been lost and not just around the sheep (which I can certainly improve with work). Looking at the gorse on the right it now seems to sit above the image and not be part of it.

Vernon

[vlarcombe]

Re: A background re-worked.

Hi Roger,

Thanks for your time. It looks like you converted the colour space to sRGB as well.

I think working at the pixel level is the only thing that's going to work for this sheep! I actually did this in the reverse to you, created a blurred copy on top and then masked out to expose the sheep and gorse, this does allow very fine control but is fiddly and time consuming. I've never had much joy selecting such things with the selection tools (perhaps I need more practice).

Vernon