After Before Friday
After Before Friday
This week for the After Before Friday Forum. I chose a photo I took the other day. This older Alpha Romeo was in Carefree along with all the other Italian sports cars I showed on Tuesday.
This is the after photo.
It was hard to get good images because the cars were parked close together, and the background was busy.
This is the original photo.
I started in Lightroom by adding a preset I have that gives it a vintage feel. The background was way to distracting, so I took the photo to photoshop. I am in no way an expert on getting rid of stuff in a photo. I played around with different brushes, and things in photoshop, but I wasn’t happy. If I really knew how to delete a background, this might have looked different.
I ended up using the healing brush. I first used it in Create texture mode, and that blurred everything out. I then went through with Content aware mode, and just cleaned it up a little. I liked the street, minus the line, so left that alone. I then added a dark vignette to the corners.
I was pretty happy with the end result.
To see more photo processing magic, visit Visual Venturing.
Very cool. Have a fabulous Friday.
Best wishes Molly
I like the effect, it gives more focus to the car.
MARY…You just opened my eyes to a very annoying element in my photos that I could never identify or articulate. You just did it for me: the distracting background.
First of all, your revision is SO STUNNING and perfect. The AFTER photo suggests a gorgeous vintage teal color to the car which is far more interesting than black. So here is the magic….the original photo, if I were to have taken it, I also would have though something is too “busy” or stark or has that “snapshot” look to it – it lacks MOOD. What you have done and most importantly for me what you’ve DESCRIBED here is taking away the distracting background. THen and only then can the focus strengthen on the subject and the rest is softened. I SEE IT NOW! This is what I want to do to my photos especially outdoor shots of gardens. I often feel my garden photos are too stark and way too busy with distractions.
THANK YOU SO MUCH for explaining this. My spring break starts next week and though our gardens are no where near being ready to photograph, I want to get outside to try and practice.
This car looks sensational! Anita
Anita, this is my first chance to reply to you. One suggestion I have for garden photos, is to use a wide aperture on your camera. If you are shooting close ups of flowers, that will blur the background and just give you focus on the foreground. Garden shots could be busy, so composing the shot carefully will help with that too. And, I am willing to share what little knowledge I have with you, if you need some help.
Your edit does add age to the photo in a really convincing way! Nicely done!
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Great edit and shot..Well done! Happy Friday!
Vintage vehicle shots are always fun to see.
Great edits and nice job on the bg on the right. Personally, I wouldn’t have it quite so dark on the upper left but it does have a convincing vintage feel to it.
nice. i do like the vintage touch.
Love that old car! I like using cloning to remove stuff like that.
That looks really cool! Good job, Mary, it looks so natural not at all edited. I love that in the Phoenix area there are SO many vintage cars. The lack of humidity really makes a car last long – we see some of the oldest clunkers out here, and they’re in pretty good shape!
Love & Biscuits,
Dogs Luv Us and We Luv Them
I love how the editing works! I am not very adept at Photoshop and need to spend more time playing with it. Thanks for the inspiration to get to it!
Very nice vintage look and a good approach to dealing with the problems typical of a car show.
I think you did very well with the processing of this old Italian. The vintage look fits perfectly for the car of this age. Love both the car and the photo. Just a tips (which you may already know about): Using the Lens Blur in Photoshop is a great way to throw a background out of focus. It looks quite like as if you have used a large aperture. It’s a little hard to make Lens Blur work – among other things you need to make a mask beforehand, and there is a whole array of adjustments – but if you get it right it makes a beautiful bokeh-looking blur.
Thanks so much!! I will have to try that out. I am still learning all the tricks of photoshop.
You did an awesome job with the editing Mary! I have looked at PhotoShop and decided it was WAY too complicated so I just stick with Picasa or PicMonkey for what I do…although I utilize a zillion other apps on the ipad! I love playing around with them! Vintage cars are great to photograph!
I very much like how you changed this! That vintage look is great and so was your solution to the busy background.
Nancy
I do think your modifications gave it a more vintage look. Very nice.
Mary, I think you did a wonderful job in getting rid of the background! I often play around in PS, not knowing what I’m doing either, and though I end up accomplishing what I want to do (well, sometimes, anyway), I am certain there are simpler ways, if only I knew them :) And I love the vintage look – adds so much to the photo!
I like the vintage look you achieved.