Digital Processing Issues and Fixes: Challenge, Can you extract this from its background?

[Asher Kelman]

Can you put this vase of flowers on a new background, keeping as much of the detail as possible and share your approach?

Notice on the left, some detail is cut off. That’s part of the challenge.

Use any software. Today AI is employed in PS, ON1 and others. This is an opportunity to compare different choices in this recurrent photography challenge.


Asher

 

[Maggie Terlecki]

saw this challenge today and since it seemed like nobody was going to do it, I thought It'd give it a go but will admit it's not a great image to work on. First thing I did was crop out the people and make it more pleasant to work on. I then added a bit to the canvas size with black to the left and imported into Lightroom.

Created a bit of vignette.

Brought back into Photoshop. Selecting the subject in photoshop was not doing a great job, but was pretty good on the top of the bouquet.

Selected portion of the top, copied and put on a new layer then using the select and subject, and then I inversed the selection,and blacked out were we could still see people behind. This PS selection did not select in between the ferns, so selected all those areas with the lasso and alt key and filled all those areas with black.

Then drew in some weird flower on the left side that was definitely not a sunflower and a few ferns. Just a shape and coloring ... I know how to draw so it is what it is!

Copied a fern from the right side and rotated it horizontally and moved it to the left.

added some tiny sprigs to both sides. and then cleaned out the bottom portion to leave something for the vase to sit on but not all the junk.

I guess there are easier ways to do with AI but I haven't tried them as I haven't done anything like this in ages, and don't know the tools, so went old school. I also got distracted with Biden dropping out and listening to stuff about that, then supper and just before going to take a shower, passed by my comp and realized I hadn't finished.

Do I like it? not really but it fills the brief. I wouldn't do it for a client because they would probably want something better.

But hey, I tried and hope someone else does too. As I said earlier, it is what it is! :-D

 

[Asher Kelman]

Actually, Maggie you have done a splendid job.

I chose it because there are so many difficulties but after all, they hired a professional flower arranger artist to improve the standing of the entire space. It works.

But can we now present it as a photographic print to stand on a wall and uplift new people again.

I welcome that you took artistic license and added foliage where needed.

I was wondering what AI would do but have had multiple and long model shoots where the post processing vacuumed up my time.

I like what you have done. The only suggestion I would add would be, if you might, would be that the base, perhaps, might be the top of a pedestal. That would allow more surrounding black space around it to place it in a milieux where it is present, but not overwhelming.

I would say in summary your processing and presentation is first class.

Asher

 

[Andrew Stannard]

Hi,

The below was achieved in about 3 or 4 mouse clicks using the website: https://create.pixelcut.ai/background-remover

It won't add in the missing section - that would have to be done manually afterwards, but the backgrond extraction is pretty good for pretty much a single mouse click! The program then lets you add from a few preset backgrounds as well. I was only using the free version, so resolution of the output is limited - a pro license needed for high-res output.

I've never used this tool before, it was a case of seeing the challenge and carrying out a google for AI Background removal - amazing what technology can do!

[EDIT - I realise now that it has also added a base to the vase! This was part of the automatic background adding. The 2nd image is just the background extraction, with it being replaced by black]

Andrew.

 

[Maggie Terlecki]

I won't be trying it again with AI. Just saw that it had been several days and nobody had tried it, so yes, it was not 3-4 minutes but maybe an hour. It's also a pretty old-fashioned bouquet that I don't like, but you can go ahead Asher and put it on a pedestal which is a good idea. The one Andrew did is alright but again not good enough for a print or for a client. It lost too many floral touches and chopped flowers off, in both the top and bottom and there are only a few sprays. I think if you want a really good print, you should basically do a decent shoot with or without a background. Challenges are good though, as they make us more skilled. I do congratulate Andrew of giving it a go! Maggie

 

[Asher Kelman]

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Andrew,

I would never have thought of searching for AI but you found a fabulously fast tool for showing a client how it might look but then one might follow Maggie’s one hour path with repair and replacement as the delicate edges are what makes this composition fresh and a delight.

The spacial advantage of this is the ability to add a support below it that really makes sense and is good looking. I’d give the software 5/10 for the convenient 3 second cut out and 8/10 for this fabulous indoor scene that’s totally welcoming and believable!

Thanks for doing your bit!

Asher

 

[Andrew Stannard]

View attachment 12050
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Andrew,

I would never have thought of searching for AI but you found a fabulously fast tool for showing a client how it might look but then one might follow Maggie’s one hour path with repair and replacement as the delicate edges are what makes this composition fresh and a delight.

The spacial advantage of this is the ability to add a support below it that really makes sense and is good looking. I’d give the software 5/10 for the convenient 3 second cut out and 8/10 for this fabulous indoor scene that’s totally welcoming and believable!

Thanks for doing your bit!

Asher

I'd agree that the AI does a good quick job to give an idea of what a more thorough background removal would look like.

I also noticed that it had lost a lot of the delicate detail around the edges, which as you say is what makes the arrangement.

The trouble with a lot of AI tools, this one included, is that you can't easily really refine the result. That's where I think ultimately you have to put in the manual editing hours, as Maggie did.

Past experience with other subjects suggests that background removal is easier with a more distinct background blur - so increasing distance between subject and background can often help.

Andrew.

 

[Asher Kelman]

…….I also noticed that it had lost a lot of the delicate detail around the edges, which as you say is what makes the arrangement..



Andrew.

Andrew,

One would think that the AI program should be able to recognize and identify all the fine structures penetrating outside the main bulk of the object to be preserved and selected.

It should be straightforward to reconstruct the type of protrusion as all the plants are available in their AI library!

Asher