First Topaz Remask Attempt

After reading Kerry's well written Topaz Remask tutorial (thanks Kerry :))I thought I'd give it a try. I used an image taken in May of 2006 that had a rather cluttered background. I apologize for not knowing the species of bird.

Equipment Used:
Olympus E-1
Takahashi FC-60 refractor
1/500 sec
f8
ISO 800
Tripod

The background was created this morning (something shot around the home). About 35% of the original image was cropped out before using Remask (brought all four sides in). Nik's tonal contrast filter was used to bring out more detail, noise reduction and sharpening were applied.

Attachment 86669
copyright reserved 2006-2011, Richard Lovison

Richard, I think you did a really good job for your first remask. I see some artifacts on the perch and tail but all else looks clean. The BG looks nice. I might add another round of selective sharpening to the bird if it were mine and maybe add a catchlight to the eye. Nicely done.

Richard, this looks good for a first attempt with the plugin. I can see that Remask has great potential!

Thanks Denise and Ken.

I have a great deal of respect for those that do this sort of thing. I spent a lot of time with the mask and as Denise pointed out, there is still more work to be done. I used a mouse to do the editing. Would using a pen tablet make the editing any easier? If anyone has any advice on using a tablet I would appreciate hearing from you either in this thread if appropriate or by personal message.

Richard

Richard, I have a Wacom tablet and I never use it. I have used it once to create my signature. I use a trackball to do all my editing ,creating, etc.. My good friend uses his Wacom and feels he could not live w/o it. I think it all depends on what you get use to. For the first time using the program you did a very good job.

Richard, it looks great to me. I think Kerry had some comments about a tablet he was using. Maybe you can find the thread or pm him. By the way, I love your website and your philosophy presented there. It's very inspirational.:)

Nicely done, Richard. I just got Remask 3 for Christmas and need to sit down with Kerry's tutorial and have a go at it.

I would also suggest maybe a little more feathering or softening of the edges at it does have a slightly masked feel to it. If there's a way to soften/blend the two together a little more I think that would hide the cut and paste even more.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Julie Kenward

I would also suggest maybe a little more feathering or softening of the edges at it does have a slightly masked feel to it. If there's a way to soften/blend the two together a little more I think that would hide the cut and paste even more.

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Julie,

Thanks for the great suggestion as I also felt the image looked slightly unnatural.

Good to hear from you again. :)

Richard

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Cheryl Slechta

By the way, I love your website and your philosophy presented there. It's very inspirational.:)

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Oh thanks :o... it's always nice to know someone is looking at it. :)

Thanks for your suggestions and kind words.

Richard