Need a photoshop expert - a big favour

synchronicity

It's a bit tricky though as the background is mostly off-white & some parts of the image are also white/cream. I would basically like to make the background pure white as it is a product item and it needs to stand out & not interfere with anything.

Here's a quick-loading jpg preview of the image.

Is anyone up for the task?
Hopefully this 1024 x 768 tiff image will suffice for a proper edit, otherwise the full-res 5Mb tiff version is 12Mb or something.

Hoping someone can help... it just doesn't look quite right the way it is now...

Thanks,
Les.

Red Rock

Is this okay ?



Only spent a couple of minutes on it so it's not perfect.

synchronicity

Yes, that is basically what I am looking for - thanks for that attempt.
Although remember that this is to go on the homepage...

[fussy mode]

But the only thing now is that the ferrules look a bit "over chopped". Is it possible to do something similar but blend the shadow into the white nothingness... or else create an artificial shadow?

Keep in mind that it took half a day to get the original photo... the more I look at it, the more I realise that it is still not perfect...

Also, while we're at it, is there some way to get the orange housing to sit down a bit, and raise the black one?

[/fussy mode]

Chip \'oyler

synchronicity wrote:

Yes, that is basically what I am looking for - thanks for that attempt.
Although remember that this is to go on the homepage...

[fussy mode]

But the only thing now is that the ferrules look a bit "over chopped". Is it possible to do something similar but blend the shadow into the white nothingness... or else create an artificial shadow?

Keep in mind that it took half a day to get the original photo... the more I look at it, the more I realise that it is still not perfect...

Also, while we're at it, is there some way to get the orange housing to sit down a bit, and raise the black one?



[/fussy mode]

:roll: Photoshop is great but it doesn't half make people lazy. The problem with the orange housing should have been sorted at the photography stage.

The amount of times I've been on photoshoots and someone's said "oh don't worry about that, you can photoshop it later" :evil:

downfader

Ahem. Guy I knew on a tog forum was a touch up artist and PS dude for an ad agency. He gets an assignent involving a perfume ad featuring a top model. The guy paying gives him a list of things to sort including

reshaping the jawline (WTF!?)
removing facial hair - eyebrows
making the skin look like wax
changing the hairstyle
changing the eye colour and background colour

Cost them a fortune for that little lie.

Le Commentateur

I reckon making a basic alpha channels mask with a mix of magic wand and paint brush will enable you to isolate cables and plugs (including the tricky out of focus white bits) from the background and then using a selective colour adjustment layer based on an inverse selection of the mask will allow you to knock out the unwanted tone in the white without affecting the shadows too much (but be subtle).

Like someone said, it would have been better if it had been properly lit in the first place. Did they do any test shots to check the colour balance?

Crapaud

Le Commentateur wrote:

... Like someone said, it would have been better if it had been properly lit in the first place. Did they do any test shots to check the colour balance?

The colour balance isn't too bad. I've seen a lot worse. Using the white paper background as a reference, there's a slight blue cast. I'd suggest that the cables are a warm white, making them look creamy (correcting for the cables leaves the background blue and leaves the overall blue cast making the coloured cables look 'dirty').


The top half is corrected for the background, the bottom is the original.

Chip \'oyler wrote:

Photoshop is great but it doesn't half make people lazy. ...

I'd have said stupid. They seem to have unreasonable expectations of what PS can achieve, the time involved and, therefore, the cost.

Chip \'oyler wrote:

... The problem with the orange housing should have been sorted at the photography stage. ...

I used to make product mock-ups and shoot them for a blue chip co. I'd have Blu-Tacked or double-sided sticky taped the cables into position before shooting.

synchronicity wrote:

But the only thing now is that the ferrules look a bit "over chopped". Is it possible to do something similar but blend the shadow into the white nothingness... or else create an artificial shadow?

This, IMO, is the way to go. Making the mask to isolate the cables is a problem though - none of my usual techniques'll work and I don't think the usual selection tools'll do a very good job (but I rarely use them 'cos I don't like them, so others might be more successful). However, I'll have a think and give it a go tomorrow.

Synchronicity, is there a deadline for this?

Crapaud

Well, here's my effort....

Before



After...



I'm kinda peckish for Liquorice Allsorts now.

synchronicity

That looks much better Crapaud. THANKS VERY MUCH!
Did you work on that in 1024x768 or do you just have the version shown here?

There is no deadline by the way... just that the photo on the website looks too amateurish, and looking around at other professional product manufacturer's sites, I can very much appreciate the difference.

I've had several hundred new visitors in the last 2 or 3 days, so I want to make the best possible impression about this product...

However, I don't think I'll get much better than that using the original photo. I took it myself by the way. :oops:

Other things that stand out and bug me are the ferrules appear to be oval... and the teflon liners look a bit squashed. You can also see the flash lines from the mould. All of this could have been seen to during setup, but I do not have any pro photo or lighting equipment...

It was taken using a Minolta Dimage Z5... I really need to get myself an SLR (when I can afford it)

I've got 4 new colours coming out in the next 2 or 3 weeks, so I'll have an opportunity to re-do the photo making sure everything is PERFECT. Thanks for the blu-tack idea... that would have helped immensely.

Any ideas on how to take a photo of the white and "glow in the dark" versions? Should I separate the actual colours from the white/clear, or bundle them all together like I've done here? :?

jairaj

synchronicity wrote:

Should I separate the actual colours from the white/clear, or bundle them all together like I've done here?

Maybe put the white/clear ones inbetween the colours so they have more of a contrast compared to the white background?

Anonymous

What is it ?

jairaj

outer cable, click on the link in synchronicity's sig for more info

Red Rock

Nice work Crapaud, glad I looked on hear before having another go at it.

synchronicity

I've already uploaded it to the website & it's lookin' good my friends... but the link to the full size image is still the original.

In fact I'm so pleased, I am thinking of reducing it to about 200x150 pixels or there abouts and displaying it in the top right hand corner so it's on every page...

Crapaud

You should now have the full size file, Synchronicity.

synchronicity wrote:

Any ideas on how to take a photo of the white and "glow in the dark" versions? Should I separate the actual colours from the white/clear, or bundle them all together like I've done here?

I'm not too sure what you mean. :? My initial thought would be to take a normal pic, shoop it dark and put in a false glow. You'd probably have to put in some sort of disclaimer: 'Representation only' or something to that effect.

[whisper] Incidentally, the blurb on your site claims '12 vibrant colours'. There are only 9 in the pic and 4 more coming out, making 13!. [/whisper]

balthazar

synchronicity wrote:

That looks much better Crapaud. THANKS VERY MUCH!
Did you work on that in 1024x768 or do you just have the version shown here?

There is no deadline by the way... just that the photo on the website looks too amateurish, and looking around at other professional product manufacturer's sites, I can very much appreciate the difference.

I've had several hundred new visitors in the last 2 or 3 days, so I want to make the best possible impression about this product...

However, I don't think I'll get much better than that using the original photo. I took it myself by the way. :oops:

Other things that stand out and bug me are the ferrules appear to be oval... and the teflon liners look a bit squashed. You can also see the flash lines from the mould. All of this could have been seen to during setup, but I do not have any pro photo or lighting equipment...

It was taken using a Minolta Dimage Z5... I really need to get myself an SLR (when I can afford it)

I've got 4 new colours coming out in the next 2 or 3 weeks, so I'll have an opportunity to re-do the photo making sure everything is PERFECT. Thanks for the blu-tack idea... that would have helped immensely.

Any ideas on how to take a photo of the white and "glow in the dark" versions? Should I separate the actual colours from the white/clear, or bundle them all together like I've done here? :?

It's all in the prep, as with most things. If you reshoot the picture, take more care than you've ever given anything to get the cables even and level. Your camera is fine: use its integral white balance calibration to establish a baseline for colour value, (and ideally, manually adjust it a few degrees each side for supplementary pictures). Photoshop manipulation can handle white balance stuff but it's enormously helpful to get it near in the first place.

Upload the highest resolution image your camera produces. The compression level is less significant than the sheer number of pixels. Crapaud has put considerable effort into redrawing your original picture, but his efforts have been hampered by the low-res original and the colour artefacts show.

Have a look at this video for an insight into how they do this stuff professionally, and think about what parts of it you can integrate into your problem. A simple packshot is amongst the trickiest things. You have gracious and helpful people here, who will help you produce a lovely result, but you need a better original picture.

synchronicity

Crapaud wrote:

You should now have the full size file, Synchronicity.

Where? :?

Crapaud

synchronicity wrote:

Crapaud wrote:

You should now have the full size file, Synchronicity.

Where? :?

I e-mailed it to your hotmail account via the e-mail link in your post.

synchronicity

Just noticed. Thanks very much... got to go to sleep now, but will send you a PM / email tomorrow...