Photoshop Compositing Secrets - Matt Kloskowski [33]
STEP THREE:
Now, you’ve got the nurse selected from the background with a layer mask. If you wanted to put her onto a white background with the other office staff, then you could probably skip this step. But for this tutorial, she’s going to end up on a slightly darker background. Not black, but a light gray. To simulate that and to help refine the selection to make sure she fits, click on the Create a New Layer icon at the bottom of the Layers panel. Drag the new layer to the bottom of the layer stack and then go to Edit>Fill. For the Use setting, choose 50% Gray and click OK. Now you’ve got a slightly darker (but not black) background to preview and refine your selection on.
STEP FOUR:
Next, zoom in to any areas that still show the original white background—I noticed a small area near her arm on the left that still shows white. Click once on the layer mask to target it, select the Brush tool (B) from the Toolbox, and with your Foreground color set to black, paint with a small brush to get rid of it. Do the same for any other white areas that still show through. Like I said earlier, though, don’t bother with this if you’re putting the subject on a white background. You won’t ever see these little problems, so it’s not worth the extra time.
STEP FIVE:
Remember that fringe problem we learned about in Chapter 1? Well, zoom in on her shoulder on the left side of the photo. See that little tiny white line that still remains? It’s not a major problem, but it’s just going to look weird when we place her onto another background, so we have to get rid of it.
STEP SIX:
In order to do this, we need to put the nurse onto a regular layer without a layer mask. So, Command-click (PC: Ctrl-click) on the layer mask to load it as a selection, click once on the image thumbnail to target it, then press Command-J (PC: Ctrl-J) to copy the selected area onto its own layer. Once you have that new layer, click on the Eye icon to the left of the original image layer to hide it, since we don’t need it (it’s there if you ever need it to change the mask edge, but we don’t need it to be visible anymore).
STEP SEVEN:
With the new layer of the nurse active, go to Layer>Matting>Defringe, enter 1 pixel for the Width, and click OK. The fringe will immediately disappear and you didn’t have to do any detailed masking work to get rid of it. You gotta love that little Defringe feature!
STEP EIGHT:
Time for some quick retouching to remove any blemishes. Press J to select the Spot Healing Brush and make sure that Content-Aware is chosen in the Options Bar. Then, simply click on any small blemishes to remove them.
STEP NINE:
Lastly, let’s fix her scrubs. Notice how the sleeves on her shirt flare out quite a bit? It’s a little distracting and now’s the best time to fix it. So, go to Filter>Liquify to open the Liquify dialog and select the top tool in the Toolbox, the Forward Warp tool (W). Use the Left ([) and Right Bracket (]) keys on your keyboard to resize the brush, so it’s about the same size as one of the flared-out sleeves (as seen here).
STEP 10:
Now, position the middle of the brush on the area you want to move, and just click-and-drag it in the direction you want to tuck it in. You’ll find tiny clicks and small moves work best when you’re dragging. Then, do the same for the other sleeve. I even zoomed in on the bottom of her shirt on the left and pushed that in slightly, because it was flaring out there, too. Click OK when you’re done.
STEP 11:
All right, the first portrait is done, so go to File>Save and save it as a PSD file. You’ll do the same thing to the rest of the portraits that you did to this one: open the photo, make your selection, Defringe if needed, and finish each one up with minor retouching, like we did here in Steps 8–10.
Creating the Composite