Need Pure White Background with Shadows

[Kristen Tyler Photo]

Hi everyone!

I had a shoot yesterday with a model in a milk bath, and I have a great amount of shots that I love, but I am running into some serious post work issues. Spent 4 hours in Photoshop last night trying to tackle this, and again this morning, and have decided to turn to you all for help.

The trick here is that I want the bathtub part cloned out, which I did. But in the process it caught and transferred a lot of the grayish tones. I also need the edges to be white without making the grey areas noticeable, while still keeping the model, and the water line on her body.

I've attached the version that I came up with last night, but upon uploading to the web, the gray areas are VERY noticeable and it looks awful. The only way I was able to get to where I arrived was by adjusting levels, saturation, curves, exposure a bit.. a lot of adjustments that I don't know if they were really the best way to get where I need to be.

I've also attached the original.

Can anyone help me figure out a method of attacking this issue so that I can get the post work done correctly on the rest of the images? Btw, these will be going to print, so they have to be correctly done

THANK YOU!!!

 

[Kristen Tyler Photo]

Here is another version I did. It looks great in photoshop, but not so much on the web

 

[ALB68]

Possibly this will help. Try using the Camera Raw filter from within Photoshop. Use the Whites slider. Also I noticed that the photo I downloaded did not have a color profile. If your publishing to the net it needs to be in the sRGB profle. Here is an example with ACR. You can adjust shadows and highlights there also. I left a little on the right side to demo. Edit: Didn't you shoot this in RAW to start with? You could use ACR for the original.
Also, if editing from PS use the convert to Smart Filters, then when ACR is finished, you will have a layer mask to use in further editing.

You could also duplicate your layer and change the blend mode to Screen, but you would have more control with the filter. Your choice.

 

[Kristen Tyler Photo]

Possibly this will help. Try using the Camera Raw filter from within Photoshop. Use the Whites slider. Also I noticed that the photo I downloaded did not have a color profile. If your publishing to the net it needs to be in the sRGB profle. Here is an example with ACR. You can adjust shadows and highlights there also. I left a little on the right side to demo. Edit: Didn't you shoot this in RAW to start with? You could use ACR for the original.
Also, if editing from PS use the convert to Smart Filters, then when ACR is finished, you will have a layer mask to use in further editing.
View attachment 54335
You could also duplicate your layer and change the blend mode to Screen, but you would have more control with the filter. Your choice.

Thank you. Yes, these are shot in RAW. When I saved, they were saved in sRGB. I guess I can play with the settings in RAW further. Although then the entire left side of the image is yellowish and will again look weird on upload.

 

[Kristen Tyler Photo]

Also, silly question but what is ACR?

 

[ALB68]

Also, silly question but what is ACR?

Adobe Camera Raw
Kristen, if you use the filter from within Photoshop and go to Filter/Convert for Smart Filters, you can control any of that with the mask that is created as the filter is applied. You can do further editing of the image in PS also.

 

[Kristen Tyler Photo]

Adobe Camera Raw
Kristen, if you use the filter from within Photoshop and go to Filter/Convert for Smart Filters, you can control any of that with the mask that is created as the filter is applied. You can do further editing of the image in PS also.

you know, that's probably where I went wrong. Somewhere along the way, It ended up in JPEG, so I have just been damaging the pixels.

I'm working with another image now, and I did more adjustments in the ACR.. but now that I have it in photoshop, I need to do some clone stamping..will it stay a .NEF file? I don't want it converting to a jpeg until I am totally finished. (Thank you btw!!! )

 

[ALB68]

you know, that's probably where I went wrong. Somewhere along the way, It ended up in JPEG, so I have just been damaging the pixels.

I'm working with another image now, and I did more adjustments in the ACR.. but now that I have it in photoshop, I need to do some clone stamping..will it stay a .NEF file? I don't want it converting to a jpeg until I am totally finished. (Thank you btw!!! )

No, saving as a JPG does not damage the pixels as such. You do your work in Camera Raw with the Raw file, then Open in Photoshop and do your edit, it can be any format you want it to be when saved from Photoshop. If you know you are going online with it use the Save for Web under File. I would save as a PNG which is a good format and is not "lossy" as JPGs are sometimes described.

There is also an option in ACR to save as a Smart Object in PS and the ACR edit will be available from PS. Suggest you do some reading on the use of ACR particularly since you are a photographer.

 

[Kristen Tyler Photo]

No, saving as a JPG does not damage the pixels as such. You do your work in Camera Raw with the Raw file, then Open in Photoshop and do your edit, it can be any format you want it to be when saved from Photoshop. If you know you are going online with it use the Save for Web under File. I would save as a PNG which is a good format and is not "lossy" as JPGs are sometimes described.

There is also an option in ACR to save as a Smart Object in PS and the ACR edit will be available from PS. Suggest you do some reading on the use of ACR particularly since you are a photographer.

well, I opened the image in RAW, then saved it as a JPEG, then re-opened it to edit it later. Dumb move.

Either way, yes I have some major stuff to learn about RAW

Thank you for the help!

 

[ALB68]

well, I opened the image in RAW, then saved it as a JPEG, then re-opened it to edit it later. Dumb move.

Either way, yes I have some major stuff to learn about RAW

Thank you for the help!

Not necessarily dumb. ACR will edit JPGs and Tiffs also. If you have an image as a jpg in Bridge, you can open it in ACR and have the all features available. I think there are a couple of small limitations if used as a filter from PS. The ACR edit is always there, it is saved in a folder by ACR to preserve it. If you get proficient in using ACR with RAW, your going to find that you can do a huge amount to your image and sometimes not even have to open it in PS.

 

[Kristen Tyler Photo]

Not necessarily dumb. ACR will edit JPGs and Tiffs also. If you have an image as a jpg in Bridge, you can open it in ACR and have the all features available. I think there are a couple of small limitations if used as a filter from PS. The ACR edit is always there, it is saved in a folder by ACR to preserve it. If you get proficient in using ACR with RAW, your going to find that you can do a huge amount to your image and sometimes not even have to open it in PS.

Good to know. When I re-opened, I didn't open in ACR though. Just started my post work on a JPEG heh.


I'm still struggling to get the whites "WHITE", but I got a bit better on this image that I was messing with. It still isn't white though

 

[ALB68]

Good to know. When I re-opened, I didn't open in ACR though. Just started my post work on a JPEG heh.


I'm still struggling to get the whites "WHITE", but I got a bit better on this image that I was messing with.View attachment 54348

That white isn't white. (Good work though)
Try this
Duplicate your layer.
Open the Dodge tool
Set it to Highlights- Exposure 100%
Then paint in the image, the whites will be white and you can manually work around your shadows.

 

[Kristen Tyler Photo]

That white isn't white. (Good work though)
Try this
Duplicate your layer.
Open the Dodge tool
Set it to Highlights- Exposure 100%
Then paint in the image, the whites will be white and you can manually work around your shadows.
View attachment 54349

ahhh yes, that definitely gave me WHITE white white lol

interesting, I will have to play with that. I've decided to give another shot a try since I'm going cross eyed looking at these two haha
we'll see who this goes.

 

[ALB68]

ahhh yes, that definitely gave me WHITE white white lol

interesting, I will have to play with that. I've decided to give another shot a try since I'm going cross eyed looking at these two haha
we'll see who this goes.

All kinds of ways to do this. You learn by experimenting and get pointed in the right direction. That's what I do is to try and "lead the horse to the water", it is now up to the horse to drink. Let us know if you need more help.