)(picture from Anne Geddes)
(picture from Barefoot Photography)
Since we snapped all of the photos in the co-worker's house, the background in most of the pictures often looks too busy. We took some cute ones of them on their bed but their bedspread was red & tan with a crazy pattern. I feel like its a little distracting in some of the photos.
So I've been reading endless tutorials on blacking out the background. This is such a pain in my ass! Have I said that enough? Any tips to make this easier on an amateur?
8 comments:
In my opinion the best way to black out the background would be to make a layer of the baby, then slowly using multiple layers so you don't accidently black out part of the baby and have to start over work your way to you have finished blacking out the background. I know it sounds like it will take forever but it should work and give you good results. Or you could try cropping out parts of the background and then save the final layer of just the baby and past it on a black background
Magic Wand, maybe? Though it will take a while :)
Thanks white meat for your suggestions! I'll def. give it a shot with the layering and the cropping.
Lspoon - the magic wand gave me some funky results. :-(
Argh - this is so tough!
Are you using photoshop? If so, just crop the whole way around the part you want to keep and then add a layer of solid black. Then move the cropped part to the front layer. White meat is right. Layers are your friend.
I also love the blur tool. Blur the hell out of it. I took a couple of photojournalism courses and I learned that all my pictures looked better in black and white and with everything blurred in the background to the extent that you couldn't discern much.
I have a tip prior to taking the pictures-- for next time. I bought a black fabric and a white fleece blanket (personally I like white for babies)... I just drape it on a chair or on a chair and onto the floor... you can take the picture on that and it makes editing easier. I'm also going to get a piece of plexiglass to put on top of the fabric to get a reflection off it... looks pretty cool. Hope this helps!
oooh, sorry this is so hard. i can barely resize photos in photoshop. . . william said he would be willing to help you if you send the photo to us...the extract tool can be reallyhelpful but he says the crop can be tough because you get awkward outlines. he's a pro, so let know if you need some help.
yup, blacking out the background is a HUGE pain and in my opinion, it's not worth the stress - unless you're only going to do it to a few pics. have you tried using a vignette to bring more focus on the baby instead of the background? i'll send you an email w/ some options that might help!
Hey Kim. I wouldn't bother at all. Just don't shoot on any more busy bedspreads. Try shooting with a shallower depth of field if you find background elements to be distracting. I actually prefer shooting portraits at people's homes rather than in a studio, I think it's so much more personal. BTW, I don't like that Anne Geddes picture above at all...I just see a wrinkled bowling-ball looking head...absolutely no impact at all for me.
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