Removing Noise from a Background

If all went well, you should have the following layers


hosted at pbase
  1. Duplicate the blur layer (this becomes 'blur copy')
  2. Apply the layer mask to the 'blur copy' layer (right mouse button)
    in this way we prevent the colors of the subject to be spilled into the background of the photo if we apply the gaussian blur.
  3. Set the view to 100%
  4. Apply a gaussian blur on the 'blur copy' layer. Most of the times a value between 2 and 5 pixels is enough. But you could take a higher value if you like.

hosted at pbase | Selling photos

plugins
plugins




  
 

Hide text














 
  1. Now move the layer mask of the 'blur' layer to the 'blur copy layer'. You'll see that the subject is cleared of any background colors which could have come into the subject by the blurring.
  2. Delete the 'blur' layer
  3. Set the view again on 100% (if necessary)
  4. By checking the eye of the 'blur copy' layer on and off, you can see the effect of the blur layer. Most of the times this is not perfect straight away. You can clean up the edges by painting on the layer mask with a soft black brush.
hosted at pbase | selling photos

  
 
 



The Before and After :

Just watch the details along the edge of the leaf ! See how well it is 'cut-out'. There is a little detail lost on the leaf itself. This was caused by Neat Image and not by the extraction method.

hosted at pbase
Remark : if you blur with a very large radius, you could get banding. (In this picture I blurred with 250 px)

hosted at pbase
You can hide the banding by adding some noise (between 0.3 and 0.7%) (filter - add noise) after you blurred the image (step 11).

Note : Mind that the noise created in this way is much less annoying than the digital noise from the camera. Also keep in mind that you won't see the banding that good in a print as you see it on your screen.
  
 















 
Hide text
 
 
 
Back to Page 1 		 

 
This page is a part of www.perrush.be


valid 4.01
© 2006 Perrush
Contact me






Hide text