Cutting out background :

[terri01p]

Hello- I wanted to ask you all a question please, I have a photo that I wanted to have printed out, it's of a man and woman, the woman just passed away and I thought it might be nice to give it to her dh since it was just taken back in November...my problem is, it has people sitting in the background that will take away from the picture...is there away of doing away with the background and just leaving the couple ? Thanks for your help.

 

[mabas9395]

There is often a way but it depends on how complicated the background is. Can you post a sample of the picture in question?

 

[terri01p]

Well I would post the picture but like I said the lady has passed and I'm not sure it would be right to post it, I know if he found out , he would not be too happy. It's of two people sitting at a table but the group of people sitting at the table behind them can be seen too. I don't mind emailing the picture to someone ?

 

[safetymom]

I use a program called Mask Pro from OnOne software. It is very quick and easy to use.

 

[terri01p]

Is there a way to do it with adobe photoshop ?

 

[ktulu]

It can be done in photoshop, but it depends on the background and such. When you cut something out of the photo, you need to replace it with something else.

 

[terri01p]

Is there a way of maybe just bluring the background ?

 

[jann1033]

you might be able to select the background out then blur it with the filter-blur- gaussian blur just enough to make the background people not recognizable and therefore not stick out so much...you could use the magic selector or depending on how good the contrast is, use the magnetic lasso around the group you want to keep with the foreground then use the inverse in the select( i think that's where it is) to select it out
or create a duplicate layer, blur that then remove the offending parties () on the other layer with the eraser, or what ever you want to use and put the blurred one underneath

 

[Amy]

you might be able to select the background out then blur it with the filter-blur- gaussian blur just enough to make the background people not recognizable and therefore not stick out so much...you could use the magic selector or depending on how good the contrast is, use the magnetic lasso around the group you want to keep with the foreground then use the inverse in the select( i think that's where it is) to select it out
or create a duplicate layer, blur that then remove the offending parties () on the other layer with the eraser, or what ever you want to use and put the blurred one underneath

Totally OT, but I actually understood everything you just said Jann1033!! That's one part of PSE that I now know how to do!

Anyway, to the OP, what Jann1033 said is right - I've done that with a picture of my parents - they're standing in front of a wall with a lot of photos on it. So I used the lasso to select just my parents, did the "inverse" and then blurred the background. If you want to go the layer route, you can even make the background black & white (and blur it, too). There's a whole thread below on selective coloring.

 

[Charade]

I use a program called Mask Pro from OnOne software. It is very quick and easy to use.

Wow, their stuff is expensive!

 

[jann1033]

Wow, their stuff is expensive!

my thoughts exactly... guess that will be on the wish list a little while longer

 

[MarkBarbieri]

I think that you've got three options.

1) Blur the background. I think Jann1033 described the process well. The only thing that I would add would be to feather your selection so that the transition from people to blurred background is smoother.

2) Clone the people out. If you just erase them, their will be a glaring hole. The cloning tool allows you to copy other parts of the picture on top of the offensive part. This works really well when you are cloning in something smooth like the sky or something with random detail like leaves on a tree or grass. It doesn't work well when you need to clone in something with recognizable detail. For example, if they are sitting on a lawn, you can just copy grass over them. If they are sitting in front of a painting, you would have to draw in the parts of the painting that they are covering...that's hard.

3) The last option would be to cut them out and paste them onto a different picture entirely. This is hard to do well, but if the first two options don't work, it's got possibilities. The hardest thing when doing this is matching the lighting. To do it well, you need to make the brightness, color, and direction of the light match. If you don't, people might not be able to say why, but they'll know that the picture doesn't look real.