Damien Symonds

You know I can't talk about raw processing here. Go back to your class notes.

No, it's definitely NOT ok.

Ok, your file has no layers, so you DEFINITELY didn't need to save it as a tiff file. PLUS it is 16-bit, which is entirely unnecessary, and it's made the file twice as big as it needs to be.

Jpeg. I don't think the site accepts PSD, and anyway, you'd never post anything other than jpeg on a website.

Oh, yeah, I'm all for practice! Let's do this! I'm keen. So, go ahead and do your raw processing on whichever photo you'd like to use, then post it for me and we'll play with the background.

Oh, you've raised a few more good topics here. Yes, TIFF files sure can be big, but it's very possible that yours were bigger than they needed to be. Do you happen to still have one of those TIFF files, easily accessible? If so, could you send it to me? I'd be interested to take a look. Well, there's a good argument for NOT keeping tiff files for archiving. Once you've finished the job, and are about to put it onto an external (or cloud, or whatever), it's quite logical to convert the tiffs to jpegs for that purpose. I talk about this in some detail in the Bridge Class. Tiff files, or PSD files, are so important while a job is live. But if space is an issue, you certainly can consider converting to jpeg for archiving. Having said that, thankfully disk space is becoming much cheaper with each passing year, so it's not as big a deal as it used to be.

Just to check, you've read this? https://www.damiensymonds.net/2015/07/blue-or-green-screen-for-background.html

https://www.damiensymonds.net/art_tscs2.html

The other thread you linked was very specific, because that poster actually needed the subjects extracted. But that's very rare. Most people only need to change the background colour, or swap another background in. So, tell me about your circumstances. What's your end goal with these photos?

@FlawlessFacesAndPhotos?

This is relevant too: https://www.damiensymonds.net/2015/07/blue-or-green-screen-for-background.html

It looks fantastic, well done.

So, if you're going to be doing this a lot, you need to make sure you get the background as bright as possible in camera. It doesn't have to be pure white, but the closer the better.

Actually, I think it looks ok: Download the PSD It uses this method: https://www.damiensymonds.net/sky-replacement-method.html Notes: You'll see I added an extra white "Solid Color" layer, because while the Levels layer does a good job at the tree line, it left some darker areas of sky at the top Notice that I blurred the sky. This is SO important. One of the most common novice mistakes is putting an in-focus sky behind an out-of-focus horizon. Also notice that I lowered the opacity of the sky layer. It looked too implausible if left darker.

Absolutely.

https://www.damiensymonds.net/replace-background-hair

May I see it? Be very very careful. The complete absence of any distinct shadows in this photo makes it VERY obvious that it was taken under a heavily overcast sky. Any attempt to add a happy sunny sky will look instantly implausible. Of course there are some benefits, but none of them relate to this particular editing issue. Don't upgrade because of this.

Hi @Trudy, may I see the original photo?

I'm so sorry, I don't understand. Why can't you use the marquee tool?

She can have it sized exactly as a FB cover pic, and suitable for nothing else, for a small fee. Or she can have the whole file for ... https://i.imgur.com/NDBB96K.png

Yes, isn't that what you meant? If I buy a photo from iStock I expect it to be full resolution. And I would expect to be able to print it. AND I would pay for it appropriately.

Every pixel you captured.

Excellent! Then yes, crop it to exactly 851x315 pixels, and sharpen for web. That will be much too small to print, so you'll be quite safe. NFI, sorry.

Oh, good question! Do you know the exact purpose they'll be using it for? I mean, will they be adding text and making into an advertisement? Or will it be their cover photo? The more we know, the safer we can be.

Download PSD The first two layers (the Levels ones) are kinda like dodge and burn layers, but I've used Levels because it's a bit safer for the hair. The top three layers are from this method. You can make the Levels layers first, but don't actually do anything with them until after you've done the gradient layers. I hope you like it.