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Dappled shade and grass

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Posted by Eric: Fri Apr 12th, 2013 09:51

1^st Post

As mentioned on another thread I was recently challenged to insert garden furniture (photographed in flat studio lighting, against white background) into some stock garden shots.

One of the biggest problems was getting the lighting right...because many stock 'garden' shots are taken when the sun is out...unlike the studio shots!!!!

The client selected some photos to use with my guidance but they specifically wanted to use the image below....which had dappled shade and leaf shadow.

So I thought I would share a couple of very simple techniques I used to get the result they wanted.

Clearly for the furniture to sit under the tree, the leaf shadow needed to be projected onto the parasol and any exposed seat mats. Additionally the dappled sunlight had to be removed from anywhere under the parasol's shade!

What I did was to take a section of lawn on a layer, desaturate it, boost the contrast to a black and white version, delete the white, blur it all slightly and overlay it on the areas like the parasol and seat cushions. Then erase the areas you dont want 'dappled' and drop the opacityto suit. (Might be a bit too light in my example here)

And the grass bits?

Well placing objects on grass can be difficult to 'ground'. Adding realistic shadows around thin legs is awkward...so i cheat. Take one of the custom brushes ( like a trident ) drop its size right down and clone some grass 'blades' around the leg ends. Not completely...just at points where the grounding looks the worst. It gives the impression the legs have 'sunk in' a bit! ;-)

Attachment: dappled shade and grass.jpg (Downloaded 40 times)

____________________
Eric

Posted by blackfox: Fri Apr 12th, 2013 13:27

2^nd Post

respect eric ,i reckon i,m fairly good at what i do ,but you have lost me completely :doh:

Posted by Eric: Fri Apr 12th, 2013 14:39

3^rd Post

blackfox wrote:
respect eric ,i reckon i,m fairly good at what i do ,but you have lost me completely :doh:

Well it was a bit of an oddball request but the technique of creating a mask from part of another image may be of interest to someone out there.

Besides ...there haven't been any posts in this section for a long time, so I felt it needed the cobwebs moving .
:rofl:

____________________
Eric

Posted by Robert: Fri Apr 12th, 2013 16:46

4^th Post

Thanks for this Eric, one of the things I enjoyed so much on this forum in the early days was Carol Steele's discussions about using Photoshop.

http://www.carolsteele.co.uk

Apart from occasional issues we rarely seem to discus processing any more.

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Robert.

Posted by richw: Fri Apr 12th, 2013 18:14

5^th Post

Thanks Eric, that'd great. Could you drop the final image in too look at also?

Posted by Eric: Fri Apr 12th, 2013 18:36

6^th Post

richw wrote:
Thanks Eric, that'd great. Could you drop the final image in too look at also?
Will do Rich...but not at home at the moment. Posted this before I left for a few days away in Suffolk. Have discovered a former work colleague from 40 years ago, and we are chasing him down. They can't hide from me for long...errr well maybe. LOL

It will hopefully also give me an opportunity, at last, to try the EX1.

____________________
Eric

Posted by jk: Fri Apr 12th, 2013 18:41

7^th Post

Rich beat me to it. I would like to see the final image as well.

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Still learning after all these years!
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Posted by Kathy Baker: Mon Apr 15th, 2013 02:14

8^th Post

I seem to be understanding less and less these days but oddly enough, this time I understood the whole process. Good job Eric. I might have done the same thing but it would have taken me a week to figure it out.
:baffled:

I also would like to see the finished image.

Posted by Eric: Tue Apr 23rd, 2013 19:23

9^th Post

richw wrote: Thanks Eric, that'd great. Could you drop the final image in too look at also? Forgot about this request Rich DUH!

The final result...sampled down of course!

Attachment: 1366.jpg (Downloaded 14 times)

____________________
Eric

Posted by Judith: Mon Apr 29th, 2013 10:44

10^th Post

Very convincing!! :bowing:

Posted by jk: Mon Apr 29th, 2013 12:14

11^th Post

Very good. I need more tuition!!

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Still learning after all these years!
https://nikondslr.uk/gallery_view.php?user=2&folderid=none

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