Rrase function poor

[arbernstein Profile]

I have been frustrated when using the erase function. I do not get a clean erase.
This photo has virtually a white sky. I am trying to erase a pole that is behind my subject with the plain, white sky. Should be simple but I always get a ghost image of what I an trying to erase. Also, around the edge I never get a clean, sharp erase. Any suggestions?

When I attempt to "upload attachment" I cannot see what I have uploaded. Is that normal?

[eadams Profile]

The erase function is pretty good at erasing objects from an image and replacing them with a selection from another part of the image. The edges of the erased area are intentionally soft so that the replacement part can blend in. If the edges were sharp the replaced area would be obvious. I am assuming that you are familiar with the erase tool tutorial that is displayed on the SPE opening screen when you start the program.

If you upload your image (or the part of it that you want to edit) I'm sure someone can give you some tips.

This is the way I upload an attachment:

• Click on the Upload attachment tab
• Browse for the file on my computer
• Click the Add the File button
• Position the cursor in my text where I want the image to appear in my post
• Click the Place Inline button

At this stage you only see the "attachment" tag and the file name in the post. Click on the Preview button to see what your post will look like when the image is displayed.

The only annoyance is that if you don't position the cursor immediately before clicking the Place inline button, the attachment tag is placed at the beginning of the post. If this happens, you can cut and paste the attachment tag to the correct position in your post.

[admin]

Thanks for that assistance, Eadams! In addition I'd add: The most likely thing to have happened if you see patches of your pole after erasing is that you didn't quite get over the edge of the pole. It's ok to select a bit too much to erase but won't work at all if you select too little. I'll be able to give better help if you manage to upload a picture showing your problem.

Kind regards

Tony

[arbernstein Profile]

(Sorry I spelled Erase "Rrase" in the title)
The erase function is still not "clean". I have used it more than a hundred times. In "busy" areas the faults may not be as noticeable. But in this one and others I have tried, I always get "ghost" marks.
* I made certain that I erased a bit more than I needed. I did it in sections due to the size of the pole.
* The edges of the erased images being intentionally soft is often a problem. The "soft edge is not only soft but is a MUDDY, WIDE EDGE. A choice of hard vs. soft with a slider would be nice.
* On the photo, the subjects hair strands are on the "pole" area. It would be beneficial to be able to select a general "tone" that could be erased and replaced so that the hair strands would remain. It is impossible the go around the hair strands.
* I realize that after multiple tries at erasing I can get an "acceptable" image, but when I enter photos in competition, they do not hold up to the judges scrutiny. The results are often sloppy and blotchy.
I don't know if I can upload multiple images. If I can, image 1 will be the original, image 2 will be the image after several overlaying attempts to erase, image 3 will be after numerous erase applications to the image over and over again.
* Thanks to eadams for giving me directions on how to upload. The directions on SME are not clear.

[eadams Profile]

Hi again arbernstein!

I think you did a great job on this photo of the beautiful singer, considering the limits of the erase tool and difficulty of the shot. I have to say it is not an edit that I would even attempt with the erase tool. The erase tool works similarly to the Patch tool in Photoshop, and I don't think a professional retoucher using Photoshop would use that tool exclusively to fix this image. If you are entering your images in competitions, I would expect you would be using Photoshop and not SPE for such delicate and tricky edits.

Using SPE, I think it would be much easier to replace the entire background on this particular image rather than using the erase tool to erase the pole. The masking capabilities of SPE using the selection brush are very good. Although the hair strands can't be perfectly selected, it is much easier and quicker to get a satisfactory looking result of the hair area than with the erase tool. You only need a suitable background image (I didn't have one) that you can add as an underlay and mask out the background. It would be ideal if you had a shot of the original background without the pole, because then the colors would match perfectly.

replace background.jpg (161.91 KiB) Viewed 5077 times

EDIT: I just realized after posting this that you can even use a copy of the original image as the underlay. You merely need to shift the position of the underlay image to get the "poleless" parts in place. I tried this out, and the edit was really quick. By sliding the underlay version of the image to the right and masking out the pole, I ended up with only a small portion of the pole up in the sky that I was able to erase with the erase tool.

This solution was really quick (only took around 2 minutes to do), but the problem remains that the frizzy strands of hair can't be perfectly selected. The first image I posted with the bluer sky looked more natural when zoomed in because the pole itself was greenish blue and the contrast between the color of the hair and the color of the sky wasn't as great.

Underlay original image.jpg (151.88 KiB) Viewed 5077 times

[arbernstein Profile]

Thanks so much for your reply and your useful suggestions.

Allen Bernstein