Requesting help processing this image

[bheiser]

Hello,

I am preparing a photo for use in a product catalog and on a company website, and am unsure how to handle part of it.  Here's the situation:

I took the following photo:

[attachment=11006:_DSC8738...ith_wine.jpg]

The final image needs to have a medium blue background. The challenge is to make the background appear properly through the glasses (and perhaps even the wine bottle, to some extent).

I got the image to this point by creating a background layer filled with the background color, then on the "subject" layer, using the eraser tool to delete everything except the subject ... letting the background show through.  What I haven't figured out is how to do that for the glass (for example, you can still see the light tent fabric texture thru the glass, in the area between the glasses and the bottle)... and the bg color doesn't show thru the glasses.

In Photoshop (CS3) I have the following Layers listed as they appear in the Layers Panel:

Brightness/contrast layer
Levels 1 layer
Background Copy (the subject layer)
Background (with the background color)

Because of the Brightness/contrast and Levels layers up above, the background color doesn't appear the correct shade of blue unless I merge the brightness/contrast, levels, and background copy layers via either "merge layers", or (preferably) by merging them as a "smart object".

I've tried using the brush tool, with a low Opacity, to paint the glasses with the bg color.  That works fine until I merge the upper layers, then the brushed area is the wrong shade of blue.  And I still havent' figured out how to "erase" the texture of the light tent in that area between the glasses.

So these are the questions:

1.  how do I erase the light tent texture in the area between the glasses and the bottle
2.  how do I make the bg color "show thru" the glasses, with the right shade, even when the upper layers get merged?

Any suggestions on how to handle these issues would be greatly appreciated.

[Wolfman]

Hello,

I am preparing a photo for use in a product catalog and on a company website, and am unsure how to handle part of it.  Here's the situation:

I took the following photo:

[attachment=11006:_DSC8738...ith_wine.jpg]

The final image needs to have a medium blue background. The challenge is to make the background appear properly through the glasses (and perhaps even the wine bottle, to some extent).

I got the image to this point by creating a background layer filled with the background color, then on the "subject" layer, using the eraser tool to delete everything except the subject ... letting the background show through.  What I haven't figured out is how to do that for the glass (for example, you can still see the light tent fabric texture thru the glass, in the area between the glasses and the bottle)... and the bg color doesn't show thru the glasses.

In Photoshop (CS3) I have the following Layers listed as they appear in the Layers Panel:

Brightness/contrast layer
Levels 1 layer
Background Copy (the subject layer)
Background (with the background color)

Because of the Brightness/contrast and Levels layers up above, the background color doesn't appear the correct shade of blue unless I merge the brightness/contrast, levels, and background copy layers via either "merge layers", or (preferably) by merging them as a "smart object".

I've tried using the brush tool, with a low Opacity, to paint the glasses with the bg color.  That works fine until I merge the upper layers, then the brushed area is the wrong shade of blue.  And I still havent' figured out how to "erase" the texture of the light tent in that area between the glasses.

So these are the questions:

1.  how do I erase the light tent texture in the area between the glasses and the bottle
2.  how do I make the bg color "show thru" the glasses, with the right shade, even when the upper layers get merged?

Any suggestions on how to handle these issues would be greatly appreciated.

I can possibly answer one of your questions. I used the replace color brush and sampled the background color and painted the color in the areas of the glasses where the background shows through and faded that layer so the color was slightly muted taking the glass and reflections into account.

I guess some careful cloning would take care of the light tent reflection.
[attachment=11008:_DSC8738...ine_copy.jpg]

[bill t.]

The BandAid tool can take out the tent reflections in very little time.

First create a layer on top of your image, set the BandAid "Sample" box to "Current & Below".  With the new layer selected pound away on the reflections, the band aid effect will be copied to the new layer without messing up your original image.  You can then slightly blur the new layer (which will contain only your corrections) to get a schmoozier effect.  Try not to totally remove all the artifacts, keep some suggestion of an environment.  You can erase on the new layer if you want to.

[fennario]

Tough edit... LAB may be the best colorspace to make these edits.  Check out Margulis' "LAB Color" (I know it has issues, but for this project it may be your best bet)

1. Selections/Masks.  See if the A or B channel provides enough separation between the towel wrapping the bottle and the light tent to make an effective mask

2. Color edit.  LAB will allow you to match the background color while still maintaining the reflections on the glasses.  Will probably require the Blend-If function.

[bheiser]

Hey, thanks very much for all the useful replies.  Sorry it's taken me so long to get back to this - was sidetracked on some other issues.

I'm trying out your suggestions - when I finish it I'll let you if I've succeeded or not

[deon]

Hello,
I am preparing a photo for use in a product catalog and on a company website, and am unsure how to handle part of it.  . . . . .
Any suggestions on how to handle these issues would be greatly appreciated.

hi bheiser,
pardon me for being late, i've just arrived - here's my take on the doing , although i'm not sure how much reflection you want -

1. copy enough of the blue bg to paste over the cups and move it over the cups on the next layer up -
2. make a mask of the glasses where you want to see the blue thru - i did it with magnetic lasso, save it in channels and place this mask onto the blue layer you've just copied above - this will give you the blue bg in the glasses with a slight outline of the glasses -
3. duplicate the original bg scene layer, place the glass mask you saved onto this copied bg layer, move this layer to the top -
4. in my version - in blending options for this top layer use "this layer = 191/237 blacks, 255 whites" "underlying layer = 12/255 blacks, 255 whites"
5. you can then paint on the mask to add or remove any reflections you want without damaging the original + the reflections can be faded off somewhat if you want them less solid -

ps. - i forgot to say that when painting on the mask (because i thought you probably knew) white reveals the current layer and black the layer below and selecting the shape again before painting will restrict the painting to the area within the glasses of course -

i didn't touch the bottle as i didn't think you would see the blue through it - the above is all easy and fast - i hope this is what you want -

[bheiser]

hi bheiser,
pardon me for being late, i've just arrived - here's my take on the doing , although i'm not sure how much reflection you want -
...

Wow, that's perfect!  Thanks very much.  Now I"ll try and see if I can repeat that myself .

[Eyeball]

If you are going to be doing more glassware like this, you might want to view the Quicktime tutorial that Russell Brown posted just a few days ago.  It covers some pretty sophisticated techniques for glassware.

The tutorial is titled "CS4: Advanced Techniques for Masking Glassware" and can be found here:

http://www.russellbrown.com/tips_tech.html#CS4Tips

[bheiser]

If you are going to be doing more glassware like this, you might want to view the Quicktime tutorial that Russell Brown posted just a few days ago.  It covers some pretty sophisticated techniques for glassware.

Excellent, will do - thanks!