Photoshop :: Remove / Blur Distracting Background From The Photos
Jan 16, 2013
I'm hoping to get some tips on new techniques I can use to blur or remove distracting backgrounds from photos.
The usual kinda photo I'm working with is a portrait of someone in a challenging situation where I have no control over the background, usually there are people and bright colored objects behind my subject.
First I applied lens-blur and masked the subject but it takes time and my subject is usually white and it creates a blurry edge that looks ugly but by masking back and forth and a little cloning I can usually make it nice but it takes to much time..
After doing that for some time I created a background with a pixelated mosaic filter, it looks nice and people are pleased with the result but the problem is that the squares sometimes bleed color on the edges what makes it time consuming again.
So long story short: How to take the focus of distracting backgrounds in a way that is fast to produce but looks classy at the same time?
I only have Photoshop CS5 and would like to edit video footage I have of my college fashion show, my portion of which is about 3-4 minutes long. One video I have is taken by a hand held camera and I would like to somehow blur or crop out the distracting audience, which I know will be difficult because the camera is a little unsteady.
My other footage is from the official DVD and is taken straight on from a steady camera. I want to splice the two videos together so you can see all angles of my designs. I think I will need to overlay a new soundtrack (just a song in my library) as well. How much of this is possible in Photoshop, and for an advanced Photoshop user but a complete novice at anything video related, how difficult will this be to acheive? How time intensive? Before I delve into researching tutorials and online resources, I really would like to know if it's even a feasible project.
how to remove any background from photos..specially grained and low contrast ones....like this: I know that using channels is useful in this case..but I need more experience with this way..plus I tried it and I can't keep the smoothness of the image...is there any other ways ?
I'm trying to work with a brag ad that will run in a high school football program. She's got 3 great photos of her son. I think that they would look better if 1-3 of them had the background taken out...
I don't need the photo(s) back until tomorrow. I'm thinking that I'm going to use them on either a Blue, Black or White background and the 'message' is going to be VERY simple!! Until I can spring for Photoshop - and commit to learning it - I'm just using Apple's Pages application to design these ads.
Using PS CS4 on XP. I just got a job back from the printer company & I am noticing some lines that didn't appear on my print out here (on xerox color printer machine) to compare. I didn't really catch them on the proof either, but they used an epson proof and we printed on 100# gloss text stock for the final.
What I have going on is a gradient background (using shape layer and gradient layer style effect) from a white to a light tan. Top to bottom on a regular Letter size sheet. In the upper right hand corner I have a image of a face that had that same light tan in the background. I faded this image into the gradient background by using gaussian blur.
This is not very noticable in the file, but I can tell that it is there...you have to really focus your eyes to see it, but it's there, a line going around the image where the gaussian blur is. I'll attach a photo of the edge. I guess what I'm saying is it is not smooth - the image edges being blurred into the gradient background, but printed off a regular printer, it looks smooth. Is there anything I can do to prevent this in the future?
I want to have a Blur Oval Vignette feathered on the inside on a transparent background to use as a template. So then I could open an image, then open the template on top of the background image and would automatically have a Blur Vignette image without having to create it from scratch each time.
Im trying to motion-blur the background on an automotive photo I shot and didnt slow the shutterspeed down enough. So, using the quick selection tool, I selected the car, zooming it in to make sure I got every pixel, then Cntrl-C, then Cntrl-V to save as a layer. Then, I reselected the background layer and applied motion-blur which got me the effect I want.
The problem is now the edges of the car have a ghost outline which will decrease if I lessen the blur to under 12 pixels. Which defeats the purpose.
I have a picture has hard edges and I was able to blend these edges using lasso, mask and then Gaussian blur, check attached picture. is there a another way can produce better result or that result is enough ?
I've been using PS and PSE since 2003 so I'm not what you'd call a new PSE user. I upgraded to PSE9 a few years ago but now I can't get the clone stamp to work correctly. I keep getting black spots on the distracting elements that I want to remove. I've gone through Scott Kelby's PSE9 book a million times but still can't get the tool to work correctly.All I get are the black spots. I'm working on photo submissions and time is running out. Here's what I'm doing.
1) First I select the Clone Stamp tool and then the brush size I want to use (usually around size 45)
2) Then, I sample the area just to the left of the distracting element that I want to remove. (I use Alt + left click)
3) Then I run the tool over the distracting element and left click. But instead of getting my sampled area clone, I get a black spot.
I thought that maybe I was using too big of a brush but that's not the case. So, what the heck am I doing wrong or is there some kind of an update or tool that will allow me to remove distracting elements more easily?
I have a picture of a baseball player with grandstands and spectators in the background. To focus attention on the subject, I want to blur and slightly darken everything but the player (subject).
So I duplicated the background layer and created a mask over the player. Then I selected the background layer, added lens blur, and darkened it.
The problem is that this step blurs the image of the subject in the background, causing it to extend out beyond the masked image of the subject on the foreground layer, creating a ghostly "halo" effect.
I've tried creating an inverted mask on the background layer, but that doesn't work.
I'm using CS5 to edit DSLR photos, I want to do a big radial zoom blur on the stormy clouds in the background without touching the building in front of it. I tried a mask and a cut'n'paste but the blur brings in unwanted stuff at the edges. What's the best way to do this cleanly?
Working on a header. I would like the background of the header to be blurred (gaussian blur). How to do this or post a link to a guide? If so, do I need any plugins?
I have some random curves (already created) and I want to blur them just from one side to have the same blur distance and effect one the whole curve.
To more precisely describe what I need, I need to create gradient with direction of normal for every "point". The best example I have found so far are borders in Civilization IV game. Here are two examples:
As you can see, there is a solid curve, which gradually blends (i.e. alpha channel is lowered) till the gradient disappears. I have the solid curve and the question is, what would be the simplest way how to do this (the number of curves is around 100) gradient.
I just got PSE CS6 and the blur too will NOT work ....blur filters work, but not BLUR in the tools panel I have tried: unintstall/reinstall, updating, using it no a picture straight after opening it, duplicate layers, selecting an area and then blurring....flattening an image, every single different setting in the the blur tools menu bar NOTHING works. And everything I find about blur is the new blur filters....
i have outlined this pic and used the Gaussian blur , but how would i soften the edges of the blur so it doesnt look so "sharp"? I want it to kinda blend in so to say here is the pic.
i'm trying to build a web site and the logo i want to use has a white background. I want to place it on my menu, but can't align the graphic from the menu prorperly...
I was wondering it there was anyway i would be able to remove the background?
I made the picture into a circle, this is what makes it really difficult for me? I know photohsop makes transparent background, but would it do the same on a icture that already exist? And is there a way of cropping into circles?
I used the Flaming text effect, and I was wondering if there was a way to have just the text (with flames) and no background. I am trying to use this text to put on a video clip with effects, and would like to have the text on clip, but if I use the background You will not be able to see video effect I want behind the text. I tried the wand, and unless I missed a step or something different, it didn't work. I am a noob, but trying to learn.
I am trying to incorporate some business logos into a brochure I am creating. The problem is, most of these logos have a white background. How can I remove this and make a transparent background?
Is it possible to remove the background from a video in Photoshop CS5 and replace it with a still image? The video is really simple (black and white). I know it's possible in After Effects or Premiere Pro but I need to stick to Photoshop. Also, I cannot do anything that involves manually adjusting images frame by frame as I work with really high frame-rate videos (10000/sec).
I have a logo with a white background, i want to remove it and make logo much bigger so it can be printable. I have tried to copy it and resize, but quality becomes really bad.. Logo is on URL... at the homepage.What tools should i use for non quality lose, when i resize?
Remove the background of this picture...and make it transparent... Im using this for xat avatar Its really nothing but I really want to have this picture without a background!
