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Kyra

© Kelly Plitt

Kyra

Uploaded: July 19, 2005

Description

This photo was taken last Easter in my mom's living room with window light. Kyra was sitting on a couch, and I completely switched out the background to emulate a studio setting. Underneath her you can still see the pattern of the couch which has been colorized via a color layer to match the background. I'll try to upload the original if I can figure it out... :)

Comments

Kelly Plitt July 19, 2005

Here is the original image (hopefully I can upload it correctly.) #281000

Kay E. Mahoney level-classic July 19, 2005

Beautiful picture Kelly. Love the change of the photo. She is beautiful. #1611439

Donna Dunbar July 19, 2005

If you never would have told me this image wasn't in a studio I never would have know. Great job and what an adorable little girl!!!!!!! #1611495

Margot Petrowski July 19, 2005

WONDERFUL WORK ON THIS....DARLING IMAGE TOO!!! #1611570

Amanda Price July 19, 2005

Wow! Fantastic work! #1612322

Kelly Plitt July 20, 2005

Thanks everyone for your very kind comments! :) #1613124

Wendy Jones July 20, 2005

Great job on changing the background! Very sweet image. #1614002

Anita Taylor July 21, 2005

This is incredible work, Kelly! You can't even tell! #1618720

Sara Jensen August 21, 2005

Fantastic job on that...how long did it take you? #1744185

Melissa L. Zavadil August 21, 2005

You have me blown away by this shot!! This is very neat!! I love the way that you kept the pattern in the couch!! Very well done and just fabulous PS work!! Incredible!! Congrats on this image!! #1745398

Laura E. OConnor August 21, 2005

WOW! WHAT SKILL!! I need to find out how to do this...and SO WELL!! WONDERFUL IMAGE and TRANSFORMATION!!! Congratulations on it being a finalist! #1745469

Kelly Plitt August 21, 2005

Thanks everyone for your nice comments! In response to a couple of your queries, I really don't know for sure how long this took because I kept revisiting it for tweaking as I do for LOTS of my images. Maybe 3 hours total?

As far as technique - PHOTOSHOP LAYERS is the answer. Isolating the main subject in it's own layer and making sure the edges are properly blended means zooming in very close and erasing away bit by bit with the proper eraser brush size. (I don't use clipping paths/vector graphics with this because I need to vary the feathering as I go around the edges.) Then I further lifted parts and pieces out in to their own layers for editing(especially her right side of her face) to adjust levels, remove dribble, etc. and then blended the layers back down in various ways.

Keeping the couch coushion (essential for proper "grounding" of the subject) in another seperate layer required I use a color layer over that which would blend in with the background I could continue to tweak that color layer until it was right.

The background was taken from of an outdoor shot I took with some bushes nicely blurred. I messed with it until it appeared to be a studio background, and colored it (again with a color layer, and also with color balance) to contrast nicely with the pink clothes.

As with this image, I keep all my "working" layered files intact, so I can go back and tweak it more as I learn new techniques.

Thanks again! -Kelly #1745668

Sara Jensen August 21, 2005

Your 3 +/- hours spent was worth it. You turned a photo that was cute because of the subject, but nothing exciting into a really nice one! #1746290

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