HOW? Removing textured paper/shadow from detailed subject

[simbrie]

Hi everyone!

I would be grateful for any nugget of advice...
I've tried everything (that I know of or can find info on masking, color channels, blurring) to remove this background and keep the crisp details of the tiny grasses. This image is going to be printed at a large size so it needs to be super smooth and tidy. How should I go about doing this?
I've made it halfway through hand-removing the background but that doesn't even look that great.
I thought maybe trying to figure out how to get Photoshop to recognize the repeating pattern of shadow and light on the paper grooves so I could select and remove that?
I'm LOST.
Please for the love of dog, someone halp meeee.
Thank you, thank you, thank you, for your time and expertise.

Sarah

 

[MentosCubing]

Have you tried the Blend If sliders?

 

[simbrie]

Have you tried the Blend If sliders?

Hi MentosCubing!
Thanks for responding. I have played with it a little bit but maybe am doing it wrong... I wasn't sure if I should use blue or gray or both or manipulate all of the color sliders. Any thoughts?

 

[MentosCubing]

Hm. I actually don't own Photoshop myself, but I've seen some amazing things done with Blend If, especially on PiXimperfect's YouTube channel.
If any individual channel/slider is going to get you much luck, it's probably either the blues or the luminosity.
Perhaps try duplicating the layer, adding a ridiculous amount of contrast, and performing the extraction on that layer instead, then just using that layer as a mask for the original?

 

[chrisdesign]

I used the curve tool to reduce the white paper background as much as possible.
For the rest of the shadows I used the pen tool to make the selection. The actual selection I softened 0.6 pixel before deleting the shadows.
Finally I sharpened the image a bit.

 

[thebestcpu]

I tried a different approach that removed the texture yet mostly in the wide space areas
I duplicated the Layer and turned the duplicate into a Smart Object
Applied a Saturation mask to that Layer and Inverted
Used the camera raw filter and turned down texture slider all the way and then applied the camera raw filter again with texture slider all the way to the left again
On this same camera raw filter I turned up the clarity to enhance the shadows
Back in PS, I adjusted the saturation mask with a curves adjustment and played with it to taste.
Was just experimenting around and hope this gives you a path to possible explore
John Wheeler

 

[simbrie]

I tried a different approach that removed the texture yet mostly in the wide space areas
I duplicated the Layer and turned the duplicate into a Smart Object
Applied a Saturation mask to that Layer and Inverted
Used the camera raw filter and turned down texture slider all the way and then applied the camera raw filter again with texture slider all the way to the left again
On this same camera raw filter I turned up the clarity to enhance the shadows
Back in PS, I adjusted the saturation mask with a curves adjustment and played with it to taste.
Was just experimenting around and hope this gives you a path to possible explore
John Wheeler

View attachment 107340

Thank you, John!
These are great avenues for me to explore. I will forever be a student of PS!

 

[simbrie]

I used the curve tool to reduce the white paper background as much as possible.
For the rest of the shadows I used the pen tool to make the selection. The actual selection I softened 0.6 pixel before deleting the shadows.
Finally I sharpened the image a bit.

View attachment 107335

Thanks, chrisdesigns! Looks really nice. I'll try these methods out!
Sarah