Help with Joey please

[Keltic Ice Man]

Hi - I've spent all day with CS2 trying to alter this picture of my friends donkey Joey.

The problem is the lambs bottom in the top right corner.
I have tried cloning the lamb out, but as there is very little grass on the pic of the right colour have ended up with these 2 attempts

#1

#2

I think that neither look very realistic - what do you think?

Is there a better way, or a technique I'm missing

Feel free to have a try

Thanks

Allan

 

[CT]

That's difficult Allan. The problem with both your attempts is that the repetitive cloning pattern leaps out at you straight away. Try doing a selective mask of the adjacant grass - promote it to a layer, then stretch it to fill the space as much as possible, which will give you a good start. Beyond that you can clone grass fom the lower corners using a low opacity to blend it all together. You'll probably need to do some pixel pushing with a smear type tool to blend it all together and some selective softening to keep the DOF looking right. Make sure you don't lose those stray hairs in the process, which will be a dead give away.

It's do-able, but far from easy. You'll be doing well if you can make a good job of it. I might have a go later on but I can't promise.

 

[DJW]

If you haven't enough background to play with for decent cloning, then why not import a new background into a layer & then mask back the donkey . quick example below that could be lot better with time, especially around the hairs.....but at least it gives another option. You could also try & blend the texture slowly into the grass area....play play play

 

[Keltic Ice Man]

You could also try & blend the texture slowly into the grass area....play play

Thanks CT and DJW for giving me some suggestions. I'm busy trying a quick mask out (haven't used them much before) - not sure how I go about blending the texture as you suggest DJW - I have the blending as Normal at the moment, have tried multiply etc but none look too good. Were you meaning the opacity or is there something else I'm missing

Many Thanks

Allan

 

[Keltic Ice Man]

Ok so what do you think? - combination of masking, a different grass layer, and blurring.

Does it look real, or stuck on?

Thanks for all the help

Allan

 

[CT]

It's better Allan, but the far background looks more in focus than the middle distance. You've got a noticeable white halo along the donkey's nose too. Try using the colour replacer tool set to a low tolerance to replace the white halo with the background colour, gradually increasing the tolerance as you go on.

Don't be disheartened mate - you shouldn't under-estimate how difficult the job is, and grass is one of the most difficult things to clone convincingly.

Sometimes, it's just a lot better to take the shot again.

 

[Keltic Ice Man]

Thanks CT I'll keep trying - learning new techniques all the time so its great

Allan

 

[CT]

Thanks CT I'll keep trying - learning new techniques all the time so its great

Allan

Good man.

 

[Keltic Ice Man]

I've blurred the grass in the top right a bit to give it a greater DOF, and also used the colour replacer to take out some of the halo

Next time I think I'll kick the lamb out of the field first but this was useful to get to grips with some of those techniques I haven't mastered yet like masking.

Thanks for your help CT

 

[CT]

Next time I think I'll kick the lamb out of the field first

That's the best idea. That's not a job I'd relish tbh. It's very difficult to do well as I'm sure you've found out. The time you've spent on it is invaluable though.