You Can Fly!
Here is a relatively easy Photoshop technique which, nonetheless, seems to amaze a lot of people when they see the results: making a subject float or fly.
For maximum effectiveness you really need a tripod. Start by setting the camera up on the tripod and shoot your subject sitting or laying on some kind of support.
After you get the shot, remove your subject and the support without moving the camera. Then, shoot the exact same scene again. (This second shot will capture the uninterrupted background.)
Open both photos in Photoshop at once. Select the entire photo with the subject (Ctrl+A) and copy it to the clipboard (Ctrl+C).
Switch to the photo with the plain background and paste in the photo with the subject (Ctrl+V). The pasted photo should end up on its own layer.
Convert this new layer with the subject to an adjustment layer by opening the layers palette and clicking the small icon at the bottom that looks like a square with a circle inside it. (The layer should be active when you do this.)
Select a brush and set the foreground color to black. Paint over the support and watch it disappear. You may need to zoom in and/or change brush sizes to get finer details. If the camera didn’t move between shots then the rest of the image should be fully registered (everything is aligned) so you really don’t have to worry about painting over anything but the support.
Putting this same technique to more practical use, I had this photo of my family which was taken at my daughter’s seventh birthday party. (Yes, it’s a low quality photo taken with a crappy camera but it has sentimental value and can’t be replaced.)
Its biggest compositional problem is that the person who took the photo got part of the door jamb and a light switch in the background. Sure, I could just clone them out but the background still leaves something to be desired.
Instead I had this shot, which I took of another family at the party and which had a much more satisfying background.
Since both had a similar composition, by following the above technique, I was able to clone the better background onto the shot of my own family.
One key difference with this pair of photos is that they were not perfectly registered. To overcome this problem, I simply reduced the opacity of the layer to 50%. That allowed me to see right through the layer to what would be exposed underneath if I painted over it. Once I was done painting, I bumped the opacity back up to 100% before flattening the image.
Jeffrey Kontur is the author of two how-to books on photography, which he promotes via his web site www.MoreSatisfyingPhotos.com
Tags: float, fly, how-to, Photoshop, post-processing, technique
Pure white backgrounds in product photography gray card
How to get a pure white background in product photography
If you do a lot of product photography, either for stock or ebay listings, you’d have probably realised by now that items that sell the most, are those that have a pure white background. Many photographers new to this style of photography, start off by placing a white background such as a sheet behind the object they are shooting, then change the exposure until they achieve the look they are after.
However, this isn’t always very effective. For example, recently I tried photographing a shiny tin bucket using the method explained above. After each shot, I viewed the image in the LCD screen then overexposed the photo one stop at a time until I had a completely white background. Unfortunately, after viewing it on my computer monitor, I found this method also took away the edges of the bucket.
It was then that I came across this video on Utube, that explains nicely how using a gray card (grey card, exposure card) can help product photographers to achieve a pure white background. Note: The video presumes you already know how to use a gray card. For those that have never used one before, I have some quick tips explaining how to use them further down this page.
How to use a photographers gray card (sometimes spelt grey card or called an exposure card)
Using a gray card is easy. First set your camera to spot or partial metering, then place the gray card near the object you are going to photograph and look through your viewfinder as if you are going to take a photograph of it. Get in close enough to fill the frame with the grey card, then lock the exposure (check your camera’s manual). Remove the card and take the image.
Where to buy a gray card?
The #1 selling gray card at Amazon is called a ‘Digital Grey Kard Premium White Balance Card / Gray Card for Digital Photography’.
Customer Review:
Before I used this product I used white paper as recommended by Canon for my 30D. I put lines on the paper for focus and set white balance as custom. The paper was difficult to use and keep with me. Since buying the gray digital card, I have found it to be more accurate than white paper and easier to use. The digital gray card produces perfect custom white balance and works every time. It has a focus spot to get the correct image for setting up in-camera custom white balance. One time I used both the gray card and the white card (on the lanyard) and found the gray card produced the correct white balance over the white card. Now I never take a shot without setting the custom white balance to the gray card.