Fun with photoshop

[SirNathanQ]

Those look awesome Sir Ed, thanks! 

I think BJ got her hands on a green background. I think I'll use it for maille (less reflection of green upon the armour) and black for the plate kits.

[Sir Edward]

OK, we can try that.   In this last one, the background removal felt almost automatic. I only needed to make some minor tweaks around the edges instead of manually erasing the whole background. That's really what made it such a quick hack. After that I just adjusted color and contrast a little, stuck in a background, and added a blur to the castle. Poof, done.

[Sir Brian]

Those look great Sir Edward!

[SirNathanQ]

OK, we can try that.   In this last one, the background removal felt almost automatic. I only needed to make some minor tweaks around the edges instead of manually erasing the whole background. That's really what made it such a quick hack. After that I just adjusted color and contrast a little, stuck in a background, and added a blur to the castle. Poof, done.

Hey, anything that makes the photoshopper's job easier 

[Sir Edward]

I didn't spend much time on this one either. The floor and window don't match at all, but I took the intense glare out of the pommel, color adjusted a little, etc.

[SirNathanQ]

Hey, to the untrained eye such as mine it still looks pretty good! 

[Sir William]

Looks really good...now we just need a photo shoot w/various poses so Sir Edward can make us into movie stars!  lol

[Sir Wolf]

ehehe that would be cool.

[Sir James A]

That one looks pretty darn good at first couple glances. Other than the lighting, I barely see anything 'out of place'.

[Sir Edward]

Those look awesome Sir Ed, thanks! 

I think BJ got her hands on a green background. I think I'll use it for maille (less reflection of green upon the armour) and black for the plate kits.

Oh, one thing I just thought of to try to remember to do-- with a brighter, non-black background, it would be good to make sure there's some illumination on the background itself. That is, if you're using just a camera flash, it'll leave a black shadow all around one side (usually the right side) of the person, which details can also be lost into. There's a whole art to doing "studio lighting".

[Sir Edward]

A simple job with doing black-and-white and some gradients.

[Ian]

For a strong black and white image I think you really need to have an absolute black and and absolute white.  Real chunky contrast makes a B&W photo stand out.  I'm assuming you were going for the look of a low-key image (i.e. totally black background with properly exposed subject), so I retouched the background, and made the subject, stand out a little more.  Gray scale can look very flat if there's  not enough contrast.  Lemme know if you like it!  (photography is one of my many hobbies)  The gradient looks good to cast a shadow, but if it's a very subtle gradient, you'll lose your subject in the background instead of making him emerge from the shadow and stand out.



Oh, and btw, the Photoshop CS6 beta is available for 60 day trial for free right now!

[Sir Edward]

Awesome, that does look better. The monitor I did it on initially made it look a little more contrasty, but you're right, it needed a lot more.

Here's another go, working from my original PSD:

[Ian]

The surcoat really pops in that one Sir Edward!  Love it!

[Sir Edward]

The surcoat really pops in that one Sir Edward!  Love it!

Thanks I think clicking for the larger size makes it look a lot better than the smaller inline image. I probably over-did it a bit, but there's something like 4 "levels" layers and 3 "curves" layers, all using gradient masks.

I haven't done much photography for its own sake; just enough to take some decent photos of my stuff, so I'm learning.