[M1ke A]

Mucking about with my new 5D and I thought I'd try some HDR merges.



Now this has merged quite well but I think it'd look better with a de-saturated background?

Trouble is the flowers are quite a complex shape and I don't know best to select / mask them to leave them untouched?

[Markulous]

Rather agree that the BG is rather bright. For something like saturation you really don't need to be that exact - especially as there're only a few colours in the flowers. Here's the selection and the overly desaturated result - deliberately desaturated so much to show that it doesn't have that much effect (and easy enough to tweak small areas with the sponge if necessary)

[M1ke A]

Thank you sir

Did you just do a rough lasso to select that shape?

I've also got a friend who wants a print of his tattoo'd back. He wants it predominately monochrome with just the ink colours showing. Trouble is it's an intricate design and manually selecting the required bits is quite time consuming

[Markulous]

Originally Posted by M1ke A

Did you just do a rough lasso to select that shape?

Yup! Very rough and ready as you can see!

Originally Posted by M1ke A

I've also got a friend who wants a print of his tattoo'd back. He wants it predominately monochrome with just the ink colours showing. Trouble is it's an intricate design and manually selecting the required bits is quite time consuming

Copy whole layer, mono the image and then 'paint' back the colour from the layer - make a mistake and use eraser to take it out

Not so intricate but the principle applies (excuse the noise and dust!):

[M1ke A]

Originally Posted by Markulous

Yup! Very rough and ready as you can see!

Copy whole layer, mono the image and then 'paint' back the colour from the layer - make a mistake and use eraser to take it out

Thanks again . And to be a pain once more, what method did you use to 'paint' the colour back in?

On my friend's shot I selected the background in to a layer to make further adjustments to it. I selected the tattoos using the select tool and reversed the selection to create another layer to leave a very faint skin tone. I then tweaked the colours in the tattoo layer.

Does that make sense?

This kind of worked but the tattoo selection was a bit hap hazard with some of the skin (tone) being selected as well. I can PM you a shot tonight if you can't work out what I'm trying to explain?

[marcinklysewicz]

i have just one advice here - when taking photo like this one try to choose better background. your's is as colorful as flowers.

[Markulous]

Originally Posted by M1ke A

Thanks again . And to be a pain once more, what method did you use to 'paint' the colour back in?

On my friend's shot I selected the background in to a layer to make further adjustments to it. I selected the tattoos using the select tool and reversed the selection to create another layer to leave a very faint skin tone. I then tweaked the colours in the tattoo layer.

Does that make sense?

This kind of worked but the tattoo selection was a bit hap hazard with some of the skin (tone) being selected as well. I can PM you a shot tonight if you can't work out what I'm trying to explain?

I create additional layer (copy of background), hide, mono the background layer and then paint the colour back in - will do an example later (no time now). I respect the environment first - very much secondary there is the photograph!

Originally Posted by marcinklysewicz

i have just one advice here - when taking photo like this one try to choose better background. your's is as colorful as flowers.

LOL! This is what this moth caterpillar (Cinnabar) eats, so not much choice of background. I never disturb/alter/modify what I photograph (or the surroundings) so they're always natural in their own habitat. Of primary importance is respect for the environment, very much secondary is my photograph

[marcinklysewicz]

Markulous i was writing about those flowers . hehe. sorry i should say that it's advice for M1ke A.

[M1ke A]

Originally Posted by marcinklysewicz

i have just one advice here - when taking photo like this one try to choose better background. your's is as colorful as flowers.

Fair point but I was deliberately after something with strong colours and tones as I was a) trying out the 5D's capabilities and b) I've not done any HDR for a while.

[marcinklysewicz]

i understand. and i know how tempting are those false flowers in churches because i was trying the same with HDR some time ago.



too much stauration - i know.

[john crossley]

Try:
Duplicate layer
Convert to mono
Then paint colour back in using the erase tool.

(Some people use layer masks)