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Extracting peacock feathers


jazzglenn

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I'm not entirely sure this is the correct thread to post in, but tried to get as close as possible, so apologises in advance.


I photographed multiple peacock feathers (apart of a larger production) and I need to extract the in-between dead space to allow the other layers (and other peacock feather layers) to come through.

So far I used the magic wand, which has done a fairly good job on removing large parts. I've masked and brushed up the edges as much as possible but there's still a huge amount of work to do (around 30 individual feathers). My deadline is Thursday.

Does anyone know of a way to extract the intricate detail (the background colour is yellow, and the feathers are peacocks, not close in colour in terms of what we see, however when I do zoom there is a lot of bleeding of pixels that makes it hard to have an easy contrasting extraction and I think the pen tool is out the question, that would literally a good week)

I'd highly appreciate and suggestions and will give them all a go.

Thanks in advance.

Screen Shot 2017-05-16 at 15.08.58.png

(what I'm working with)
 

fredfish

Guru
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First of all I looked at the thread title and thought it sounded a bit cruel :)

Personally I would try using the select by color range option (select/ select by color range). I had a quick try and turned the fuzziness up to bout 120 and got a reasonable result.

I am at work at the moment o can post a screen shot - will do later if you need it.

Cheers

John

*EDIT Post crossed with gedstar - I didn't use the levels adjustment first.
 
Last edited:

jazzglenn

Member
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Ah, thats perfect thank you. I'll give it a go and let you know how I get on!

Very much appreciated Gedstar!

Thanks!
 

jazzglenn

Member
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Thanks a lot John, will also try this out, see which works best!

Haha, I felt like a grabbing headline would get a quicker response ;)!

I'll let you know how I get on!
 

MrToM

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You could also try using a Channel, in this case, the Red channel, to create a marquee and subsequently a layer mask.

The Red channel does a pretty good job of the initial separation and by using a 'Levels' adjustment on a copy of the Red channel you can get a reasonable result...

peacock_MT_01.png

It really depends on what is going behind this as to how far you go with the mask....you would have to experiment with it.

Regards.
MrToM.
 

jazzglenn

Member
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Hey guys, I thought I'd update ya'll on the final image. The processes you suggested sped my time up x100 haha!

Very much appreciated.

(second self portrait of a series) ... and a screen shot because of re-sizing for the forum haha.
1.png
 

fredfish

Guru
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Great to have a follow up. Looks great :thumbsup:

Cheers

John
 

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