White out Images

borgman

Hi
is there a easy way to create white out backgrounds for images? I have tried to use photoshop but it keeps going wrong! Its basically a diamond ring with a grey background and i want to change it to all white. Is there better or easier software to use?
http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/62/2p025diaame.jpg/
this is the image
thanks
R

Mirno

I used GIMP rather than photoshop, but the basics should be the same.
I used the lasso tool to get most of what I needed, then zoom in to 400% (makes finding the edge easier, and means you don't have to be so steady to still get a reasonable result) hand added & removed the rest.

Then create a layer, invert the selection, and fill white.
Then create another layer (between the base and the mask) expand the selection by 2 pixels, fill grey - to soften the edge a little.
Finally merge the 3 layers together, save as jpeg.

I'm not a graphic artist by any means so this may be the wrong way to do things...
You may also want to hand soften the right hand edge as it's in shadow in the original - so the dark edge gives the matting away.
Again I'd create a layer, and then use a white brush, then fiddle with the opacity when merging back to get the desired result.

Mirno

yangptangkipperbang

borgman wrote: »

I have tried to use photoshop but it keeps going wrong!

Somehow, I don't think it is Photoshop that is going wrong...........:D

Try the colour replacement tool or the eyedropper - plenty of tutorials on Youtube.

Gunstar

Lightroom is what you need: http://www.adobe.com/uk/products/photoshop-lightroom.html

marleyboy

I crop the image and then invert the selection, allowing me to adjust the background without effecting the selected image.

AshleyPomeroy

A Coolpix 990, blimey. That takes me back. The depressing answer is that there is no easy way to white out a background. I used to work in a room of Photoshop people and it seemed that for all their education and training, the majority of their work involved masking out backgrounds. This kind of work is often outsourced to China, because it's time consuming but hard to automate (hair is particularly difficult).

It's also one of the things that keeps professional photographers in business; once the lighting is set up, it's quicker to photograph fifty rings against a white background than to photoshop fifty backgrounds.

Two tips. Either give up on the idea of a white backdrop, and photograph it against something neutral or classy. Or, do it ghetto-style and rest it on a sheet of glass held over a white piece of paper with some cans.

Just for the heck of it I did this exact thing right now because I'm bored:



Then look at the levels and chop off the peak:


Obviously this isn't how the professionals do it. I was using artificial light, the white balance is up the wazzoo, and you're supposed to light the backdrop and the subject separately. Ounce of preparation etc.

But overall it took less time to set things up, take the shot, edit it in Photoshop (remember to brush every last speck of dust off the object otherwise it looks horrible), and upload it here than it would to mess around with masks in Photoshop, and this isn't without taking into account the possibility that I might be selling two dozen items.

Albeit that in this case the object is rectangular, so it might actually have been quicker to mask it. Bad example. Imagine if it was a doily, or a necklace.