Help me put a background on this

[Stryker]

This is my 18 month old old nephew, Rohit. I took this photo during our recent visit to a hill station. It was a very bright day and he was sitting in the shade. I metered off his face and switched on the flash without giving a thought to how the background would turn out and this is the result.

From Madurai, Kodaikanal & Palani

I have no idea why the camera decided to make the background a completely washed out white. Some other photos taken in very similar situations have at least some semblance of the background. The photo is SOOC with the EXIF data as:

ISO : 200
Speed : 1/80 Sec
Aperture : f/5.28
Exposure : -0.33 EV
Flash : Fired
Flash compensation : -0.7

Actually he was sitting on a bench with a background that looked something like this:

From Madurai, Kodaikanal & Palani

EXIF:
ISO : 200
Speed : 1/400 Sec
Aperture : f/10
Exposure : 0 EV


You can see more backgrounds if necessary by clicking through to the Picasa link below the photos. Can anyone help me get a good background so that he doesn't look totally isolated? Or is there any other way to edit it to make it better? I tried a high key look, but it somehow doesn't suit the subject.

Any help is appreciated. You can download the original 6MP image by clicking through and selecting the enlarged view. Unfortunately, all other photos in that album have been resized to 1024W to save on disk space. I have the originals with me of course, so please ask if you want any.

P.S.: I am not 100% sure this is the right sub-forum to post this thread. Mods may please move it if necessary.

[Nicole]

You're posting in just the right spot

I have to admit, I actually really like the shot just on white.

In any case, just to make sure you get the best help possible (so you can learn how to do it in the future if you wish), what program are you using to try to put the photos together?

[Stryker]

Oh, I am using Photoshop CS4. It is not as much as trying to put the photos together, it is about having the right perspective. I actually tried several backgrounds in a different layer with various effects like blurring added to them, but somehow I am not able to match the perspective of the subject to that of the background. I know that short of having the background taken from the same spot, it will be difficult so I am open to any suggestions.

[Nicole]

No worries, that's definitely helpful for trying to help you I get what you're meaning with trying to get the right perspective since when I put them together that looked a bit off. However, if you could get that perspective right, I also found that blurring the background layer a bit using Lens Blur helped to get it look a bit more natural.

[Stryker]

OK, I tried what you said. Here are some results (I used different backgrounds from the same set):

From DPS

From DPS

From DPS

The background in the last image is very close to what was actually there, but if you observe the perspective is not quite matching that of the subject. And also observe the lighting, it definitely looks awkward with the backgrounds in place.

Is it better to play with the white background and see what can be achieved with that? Any pointers there?

[teaking]

I think the reason it looks un natural is that he has been lit from the back so when put on the other images this causes a high contrast between the edge of him and the background, a bit like how sharpening works and this makes it very noticeable. I think you are going to need a bright background to make it look more natural.

[Stryker]

Thanks for replying, teaking. Yeah, the unnaturalness of the lighting is what I am bothered about. I am not sure what could be the correct background for this though. Maybe I should just try editing the original whited out photo, instead of trying to add something to it.

[edbayani]

here is what i did. i'm using cs2. i used color range to select the white bg of the boy and double clicked on the layers pallette to mage the bg to an ordinary layer and deleted the bg to make it transparent. i dragged the bg image and adjusted with curves to lighten it and blurred it a bit. i adjusted the layer of the boy to brighten it a bit, and with the blur tool, set at 40% and brush size at 4 px, blurred the edges of the boy and flattened.

[Stryker]

Good job, edbayani! Thanks for taking the time to help. The difference between what I did and what you have done seems to be the brightening of the boy to reduce the change in lighting (and of course the blurring bit). Now I am wondering, if scaling down the subject to suit the background will enhance the image. Looks to me like he is too much in the foreground, if you understand what I am trying to say.

Hmmm, something to try out...

/Edit: OK, here it is:

From DPS

What do you think?

[edbayani]

i think it is better scaled down.