Photos

[zucciltd]

Hi

I am having trouble taking good photos. On our site we sell designer clothing and we feel the quality of the current photos is letting us down.

I am taking the photos myself problem is the colours just look rubbish. In most cases its the background colour..

eg http://www.zuccionline.com/acatalog/...Stone.html#a54

On some photos the background is white others cream.

We are getting all our new stock in now and its the best time to get this sorted so any help would be most welcome.

OOOh by the way i have tryed cutting the photos out in photo shop but the edges just look really rubbish. Am i doing it wrong?

Anyone got any ideas??

[Duncan Rounding]

I think you'll find this useful:
http://community.actinic.com/showthread.php?t=18481

[jont]

OOOh by the way i have tryed cutting the photos out in photo shop but the edges just look really rubbish. Am i doing it wrong?

How are you cutting them out? What setting do you have on the tool?

You are often best doing it little and often rather than trying to blitz it away in one shot. For the very complex parts I tend to switch to "manual mode" using the polygon tool and zoom right in. If you have undefined edges you can also set the feathering to ensure a smoother transition.

Removing the background is much easier if there is a greater contrast to start with.

[RuralWeb]

Try the extract tool, I find it much easier than anything else and it gives a good edge.

[zucciltd]

How are you cutting them out? What setting do you have on the tool?

You are often best doing it little and often rather than trying to blitz it away in one shot. For the very complex parts I tend to switch to "manual mode" using the polygon tool and zoom right in. If you have undefined edges you can also set the feathering to ensure a smoother transition.

Removing the background is much easier if there is a greater contrast to start with.

Hi, We've been using the Extract tool in Photoshop CS2. Sometimes this works really well with smooth edges but other times it's horrible, with chunks missing from the top andrandom pieces of background stuck to it. Is it a bad idea to be using a white background? Would a more high contrast colour be better?

[jont]

Depends on the colour of the products - plain white is generally an good all round option but I have seen some use say a bright lime green - the only issue with coloured backdrops is they can cast a colour from the reflected light - hence white is generally best.

Try changing the settings on the tools - this may make it slower but you do get better results

[RuralWeb]

Always consider the contrast between the subject and background, I sometimes use a split card with black/white or other combination to ensure maximun contrast between the background and subject all over the image. Using the extract tool it does not matter what colour the background is as long as it contrasts well with the subject ie not white against white which will cause odd effects.