Hockey Portrait

jmphotocraft · December 2, 2014

Trying to deal with a lousy background, what do you think?

1

2

3

4

5

Please vote or make suggestions. I can't get much more elaborate than this, I have about 90 to do. Thanks.

kdog · December 2, 2014

They look good. Nice job on the extractions. Can I ask how you did them?

As for favorites, isn't that for the customer to decide? For me it would be 2, 4 or maybe 5.

jmphotocraft · December 2, 2014

I've asked the customer, just want some more feedback, thanks. Extractions were done in PS with the Topaz ReMask 4 plug-in per Hackbone's suggestion. It works well and it's easy, I think I'll buy it.

I think I might like 5 best, but the customer was specifically worried that the rubber would look bad, and that she wanted them to look like they were on ice, so I tried 1 and 3.

moose135 · December 3, 2014

I understand wanting him to look like he is on the ice, but I prefer #5, if only because it looks like he is actually standing on the ground - the others make it look like he is floating above the ice. I haven't tried the software, so I'm not knocking your work, but I think the little bit of shadow on the ground makes #5 work for me.

jmphotocraft · December 3, 2014

Thanks. I added a little shadow under him in 1,2,3 as well, do you think it would be better if it was darker? Like this?

kdog · December 3, 2014

Why not drop them into some cool background, like an empty hockey rink? Shouldn't be any more work since they're already cut out, no?

jmphotocraft · December 3, 2014

kdog wrote: »

Why not drop them into some cool background, like an empty hockey rink? Shouldn't be any more work since they're already cut out, no?

With my ps skills I think that would just look fake. At least these are honest composites.

moose135 · December 3, 2014

I think I like your reworked #1 best. Enough of a shadow to give some definition, and with the darker backdrop, it looks more like he is at the rink.

jmphotocraft · December 3, 2014

Thanks moose. Here's one more take on that:

And now the headshot:

1

2

3

4

Comments/votes on both the headshot and full-body are welcome and appreciated!!

Cavalier · December 3, 2014

The reworked #1 is better than the others IMHO. They all look a little "floaty", but then masking without a shadow to work with or something to anchor the subject is tough. As for the Headshot - #3 is my favorite. Good sets!
I love Topaz Remask. It's the easiest masking s/w that I have found. Being on the Beta team for Topaz, I had the most fun with Remask during the Beta process.

Hackbone · December 3, 2014

I like #1, to me it's more realistic.

jmphotocraft · December 3, 2014

Thanks all.

Cavalier wrote: »

I love Topaz Remask. It's the easiest masking s/w that I have found. Being on the Beta team for Topaz, I had the most fun with Remask during the Beta process.

Please pass along my appreciation! I only wish there was a quick way to activate the hand tool to move the picture around when zoomed in, like ctrl+click or something. Or is there?

Cavalier · December 3, 2014

When zoomed in, you can use the H on the keyboard to switch to the Hand (pan) and then Q or W to switch back to Keep and Cut brushes respectively. I find that one hand on the keyboard and one on the mouse works for me.

jmphotocraft · December 3, 2014

Thanks!

Hackbone · December 3, 2014

This doesn't help for the hockey but Mark Bryant has some great sports backgrounds for other sports. I could not find a hockey rink however. As you do a lot of sports you might find these useful. Go to the Streetscapes section.

http://photoarttextures.com/index.php?splash=1

Dooginfif20 · December 4, 2014

To be honest I think the cutouts are ok not great. You need to have them on a masked layer and with a selection on the subject apply a Gaussian blur of about 3 pixels and then bring up the layers menu and grab the white marker and drag to the right to remove that white line around your cutout. If you are wanting a hockey background look at these.

http://easydigitals.com/epic-glory-dreams-layered-photoshop-backdrops/

Jabfinger · December 4, 2014

This type of thing is hard to do, takes some practice. Cutting out hair is tough almost have to shoot against the same color as the background you drop them in for that to turn out right. I like #5 best. Youtube Glyn Dewis. He is crazy good at composites. He has a few tutorials on hair cutouts as well as other interesting composite type stuff.

alaios · December 5, 2014

Hi,
I can not see 1 and 2... from the 3-5.. 3 and 4 looks fake and weird (like floating in "something") 5 looks intresting though

jmphotocraft · December 5, 2014

Sorry if the links aren't working anymore, I had to move things around. Suffice to say, a focus group of 2 board members and 2 parents favor the blue fade. Here's another example:

Here's the original:

Topaz Remask is giving results that are pleasing to me and good enough for this level of business, and it's fast and easy. Although next time I get a job like this I'll probably invest in a backdrop.

Foques · December 5, 2014

i'm spying a potential back drop hanging right behind the kid.

I know i'm in minority here, but If I dealt with this situation, i'd be asking for a reshoot rather doing edits.

jmphotocraft · December 5, 2014

Foques wrote: »

i'm spying a potential back drop hanging right behind the kid.

No, it wasn't big enough:

I know i'm in minority here, but If I dealt with this situation, i'd be asking for a reshoot rather doing edits.

That wouldn't be possible in this situation, there were about 90 kids there in all their gear just for this shoot. Anyway, so far I've only had to do extractions for the high school varsity players, as they are the only ones with head shots in the program book. (the parents of the two boys above are friends of mine, so I used them as examples) I've put proofs of the JV and middle-schoolers in my gallery as-is, with instructions to select their preferred background from a few samples at the beginning of the gallery when ordering. Then I'll only have to do extractions for people who actually order something, at the time of the order.

jmphotocraft · December 17, 2014

Just thought I'd let you know that the blue fade is the favorite among the hockey parents...

Bryce Wilson · December 18, 2014

For the half body shots, have you thought of doing a wide angle shot of the rink they play at, or even one they don't, and then doing a composite? I've had a fair amount of success sales wise with this process.

jmphotocraft · December 18, 2014

Bryce Wilson wrote: »

For the half body shots, have you thought of doing a wide angle shot of the rink they play at, or even one they don't, and then doing a composite? I've had a fair amount of success sales wise with this process.

I thought about doing that, but I would want to offer it for both the half body and full body to be consistent, and I'm not confident I'd be able to pull it off for the full body.