Unwanted Background

[paulnaude]

Dear Gimp users

I would like some help getting rid of an unwanted background. This is a classic case of trying to save a badly composed photo, but one in which the moment it captured, can never be repeated.

The problem is the fact that the bright green dustbin in the background shines through the subject's hair and that in-camera softening, blurred the boundary between foreground and background, making it impossible to simply select the background and replacing it with say a neutral black or white to let the subject stand out.

Selecting by colour also doesn't help since the noise in the picture presents the same colour pixels in both the wanted foreground and the unwanted background.

I am hoping that there is a way to manipulate the green channel to turn it into the subjects' hair colour or something so that the background can be faded into oblivion!

agtergrond.jpg

Paul

[raeaven]

Hi Paul, why don't you try this link - http://www.photo-info.co.nz/articles/re ... ounds-gimp

You will be having a hard time with that since we are dealing with hair. You can just ask someone to render it but even an experienced one will take some time to accomplish it.

[virtualTune]

It will be easy to render it out when using Photoshop CS5 since it has a new tool for that. I dont know for sure, but maybe it will be a part of the free downloadable trial version of photoshop CS5.

Photoshop CS5

https://www.adobe.com/cfusion/tdrc/inde ... collection



A helpful video that explains what i was talking about above.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LJrvihPXLTo

[David Wood]

Whoa, that was awesome VT!

[raeaven]

PS is really amazing. Good job with the link vT.

[paulnaude]

Thanks for both Gimp and PS tips! I didn't know about the quick mask tool which is much faster to use and cleaner to look at than the marching ants!

I will see if I can get my hands on the PS trial and test my image, especially the 'de-contaminate' tool will be very useful!

[virtualTune]

hehe didn't think id know guys, did y'all?!