photography questions

[Prodigy Shamen]

hello everybody

ive recently started experitmenting with photography in s/l and have a couple of questions....

firstly i ws wondering how i remove the green background when taking photo this wait like the professinals do...ive tried using the magic ward features in photoshop but allways get a slight green border around the avatar image?

could anyone give me some ideas mof good links to website explaining how to do this.

 

secondly i was wondering if anyone knew any good websites where i can good background images as ive looked around alot of photo studios and they have some great ones but can never find anything like it on the internet...

 

any help would be greatly appreciated

 

thanks

 

Prodigy

[Janelle Darkstone]

The magic wand works in a pinch but usually the green screen is removed by Select > Color Range; adjust sliders until you get a good, crisp outline and then maybe even Select > Expand pixels by 1, then Delete.

Try YouTube.  Just do a seach for green screen.  :smileywink:

[Peggy Paperdoll]

Here's the way I do in GIMP.  Select by the green background by region (the same feature I think Janelle was discribing using Photoshop).  Then I duplicate the layer.  Make the top layer active and invert the selection.  Delete the part you just inverted the selection to.  Then select again by region the transparent part you just deleted and turn off the layer's visibility and make the duplicated layer the active layer (turn visibility back on for that layer.  Now invert the selection again and delete the background.  No taletell green pixels around the edges and you get a nice crisp edge to the desired part of the image you wanted to keep.

[Prodigy Shamen]

hanks guys very helpful still need some links for backgrounds if possible

[Peggy Paperdoll]

Backgrounds?  You mean backgrounds to place under your cut-out part for the final image?  I generally use either some picture I've taken with my digital camera or something I drew in GIMP.  Not sure if that is what you are asking though.

[StoneDwarf]

Heya Prodigy!

Welcome to the wonderful world of SL photography and Photoshop. Removing a green screen is easy – granted you know how complicated selections work. Assuming you have the worse case scenario (Freddy Krueger-like semi-transparent hair with purple glowing edges, for example) there are several options you can do. Speaking for myself, I am a big fan of the color range tool (select → color range) Click that and a menu pops up and the mouse cursor changes into the eyedropper icon. Sample the color you want to remove (the green screen) and play with the fuzziness slider. When you see a nice silhouette of your model – or whatever it is you are trying to extract from the green screen) hit ok and immediately, and with your selection still active, hit the 'add layer mask' button. As a general rule you should -always- work with layer masks, instead of erasing parts of your picture to strive for a non-destructive work flow.

 To remove the remaining green stuff: Create a new layer and set the layer blending mode to colorize. Sample different colors from the hair with different opacity values (dark and light, highlight and shadows, create some depth) and change the green stuff into the desired color.

 This all may sound complicated, but it's a 3 clicks job and can be done within a minute while maintaining every detail of your photograph.

 You said backgrounds? Try deviantart.com, Flickr.com or search in the freebie archives on various Photoshop-related tutorial sites. And don't forget to credit appropriately!



[Prodigy Shamen]

thanks again for all your suggestions and help very useful information :matte-motes-big-grin-wink:

[Maddie Diker]

Well about the background green screen, I use the background eraser tool and set it to pick up color and non contigious and make its strength about 30 or 50% to start with, then i click on a green area next to the avatar and drag it around the hair and body edges. This helps tremendously when it comes to green tainted hair or translucent clothing.

 

Then i select the green screen thats left and delete. But i always leave a small sample on the side for touch ups. Using the background eraser is much easier than colorizing a layer and sort of painting in original hair color over the green. If theres still a green tint, i select around the hair and use the hue/saturation adjustment and change the greens to the color that matches the hair and thats the final step ( which i dont do a lot due to the fine work the background eraser tool does).

 

Hope this helped! Good luck.