Suggestions on how to alter this photograph.

[Oh for Chrissake!]

Hi folks,

Which tools would you use to get rid of that bright lettering above the subjects head, and so that it looks natural not patchy?

Feel free to do it yourself if you want to, and let me know how you did it, but I'd rather hear suggestions and hints pointing me in the right direction indicating the tools I would need.

I imagine you might suggest the healing tools.

Thanks!

OFC

 

[ALB68]

I don't understand the image's intent. My guess is though the lights are not germane to the intent. That being the case, I think I would try just using a simple blur to remove emphasis from them.

 

[Oh for Chrissake!]

Yes, the image's intent is just to showcase the center subject. It'd be nice if there were less distracting parts, like the lights, or the hand coming out of his shoulder.

 

[ALB68]

Yes, the image's intent is just to showcase the center subject. It'd be nice if there were less distracting parts, like the lights, or the hand coming out of his shoulder.

If you want to get rid of the man behind the subject, I think you could probably use the burn tool set to to highlights and midtones to just black it out to the dark background. This way you can avoid knocking out any of your main subject and less work than trying to mask it and all that work. You can also try the burn tool on the lights.

Here is what I did FYI. I used the burn tool to black out the things I didn't want that were distracting. (Mainly all those people etc to the right of the subject. I used it on the lights too to just take the brightness down, yet leave them in the photo) Next I made a layer above the main layer and filled it with black. I cut the opacity down to about 50% or so. Then I added a layer mask so I could apply the black from the layer where I wanted it, leaving the main subject bright. I did a little bit of color correction with Nik Vivesa. I also used an Exposure adjustment layer to tweak that a bit. Here's what I got.

 

[IamSam]

I've been playing with this edit. The lights were straight forward. I tried just removing them and it did not look right to me so I opted for a semi Bokeh effect.

I just selected the area and copied the selection to it's own layer. I added a Stained glass filter (10,9,10) and then a Gaussian blur. I copied this layer and set the blend mode to soft light. (Run through the modes using shift and + -) Then I reduced it's opacity.

I didn't but I would probably enhance the effect with some Bokeh brushes.





I have not found a good way yet to help the guy in the BG. It's those derned hurls on the Peacock feathers! They're making the selection very difficult!

 

[ALB68]

"I have not found a good way yet to help the guy in the BG. It's those derned hurls on the Peacock feathers! They're making the selection very difficult!"
Your right and I messed mine up right there in that area. I'll look again.

 

[iDad]

I am looking at this on an iPad to me it looks as though over his right side (the black area) take a big chunk of it, duplicate it and then size it over the lights. Feather it to blend in.I think that'll cover it then you're done

 

[ALB68]

Here's another one. I used Topaz ReMask to cut it out. Then made a layer of black behind it. Then I took the lights from the original layer and made a new one with Quick mask, then lowered the opacity of that lay
er.

 

[bgoodman4]

How about this? Content Aware Fill, burn & dodge, Clone tool