a candid moment at a party

[SJH Foto]

A DPS friend suggested that I get the extemporaneous stuff out of this picture:



and then post it as a portrait critique. Which I did here:



But then it occurred to me that this also would make a great before & after shot.

Now, let's see, what did I do?
First, I used the easiest and fastest way I know of to remove the background-cropping! After that I laboriously cloned out Mage's mom on the left, and took the little section of open window by the man walking by, and cloned that and the ceiling over him. (This took 15 minutes, and is the reason why I say it wouldn't benefit me to post-process most of my pro images.) After that, I sharpened the edges (not as well as I should have I'm afraid), and slightly burned Mage's forehead.

I think I'm getting this cloning buisiness down. I need to learn layers next. What do you think? Please feel free to make constructive suggestions.

[Nicole]

For the cloning, watch out for repetition. You can see a bit of it on the window that you cloned (look for the repeating horizontal lines which probably wouldn't be in a window). Also, one trick for when you're cloning an area that should have straight lines, make a selection first, that way your cloning shouldn't go outside of the selection (e.g. the top of the window). You mentioned about learning layers, those will be helpful in learning cloning because then you can clone on a new layer which lets you change the opacity of things and see if anything's gone wrong. Good luck in the long journey that is learning post-processing.

[SJH Foto]

Originally Posted by Nicole

For the cloning, watch out for repetition. You can see a bit of it on the window that you cloned (look for the repeating horizontal lines which probably wouldn't be in a window). Also, one trick for when you're cloning an area that should have straight lines, make a selection first, that way your cloning shouldn't go outside of the selection (e.g. the top of the window). You mentioned about learning layers, those will be helpful in learning cloning because then you can clone on a new layer which lets you change the opacity of things and see if anything's gone wrong. Good luck in the long journey that is learning post-processing.

Thank you. What do you mean, make a selection first?

[lissykeeper]

Nicoles advice is spot on, but at least you are giving it a shot now. I like the way these two are interacting with each other. Keep working on that pp. You'll be a pro before you know it.

[Nicole]

Using the marquee tools (you know the dashed lines) or using the quick selection tools (if your program has something like that). Either way, search for "selection" in your program's help file. It will help you get those straight lines straight, which helps to fool the eye since then the shapes are right.

[Loose_Canon]

I'd suggest blurring the foreground and background - will isolate the subjects and solve your cloning issues.

To do that, click the lasso tool and draw around the heads and upper torsos. Then go to Select - click Inverse. Go to Filter / Blur / Gaussian Blur, tick Preview On and blur the background to taste. Save as filename_blur.jpg.

For careful detailed blurring of selected areas, use the blur tool and a medium sized soft brush.

[candleman]

the cloning is off (as Nicole has said)
it needs to be either crisp, or blurry.. this one looks blurry behind him and a crisp wall above.. doesnt work.
keep this picture and come back to it in a few weeks.. give it another go.
its alll a big learning curve
good luck!