Yesterday I posted these guitar photos:
Then Henrik, a new regular who wandered this way via that mention in Scott Kelby’s blog (thanks, Scott!), made this suggestion:
How about an experiment? I think the guitar looks better white than yellow, but I think it would pop even more if you kept the colour of the wall behind it (or tinted it in a bluish white, perhaps)?
Now, Henrik knows his black and white business. If you need proof, check it out for yourself.
Because I’m such a generous and secure person, I told Henrik to feel free to play with the file if he wanted to. (Okay, it was also partly because I didn’t know where to start trying to do what he suggested. But “generous and secure” sounds so much better than “clueless.”)
This morning, he sent me this:
Here’s the result of me playing with your guitars. Show/hide the Hue/Sat adjustment layer for different versions. I actually used paths (not often I feel confident enough to do so, but the curves of the guitar were fairly easy to work with) to mask the outline and side panels of the guitar. I let some of the colour shine through on the side panels to catch some of the reflection of the wall.
Then I scratched my head because that was a bit over my head so early in the morning. But when I opened the file, it all made sense.
Groovy, eh?
He was also kind enough to send a screenshot of the layers and paths panels for those of you who want to see it and are wide awake and capable of comprehending these technical details so early in the morning. (Fine. I know it’s already past 11:19 AM, but as far as I’m concerned, if McDonald’s still serves breakfast, it’s still early morning to me.)
Groovy, eh? (Wait. I said that already, didn’t I?)
I’m such a morning person.
Groovy indeed! Henrik we’re not worthy. Er, I mean I’M not worthy. I have no capacity to understand how you got there (even with the screenshots), but the final result is WAY cool.
Brc, if you think I looked at that screenshot and said, “Aha! So that’s how it’s done!” then you’re as wrong as an outfit of leg warmers and Depends.
Henrik, I like how you added a tint of color to the guitar side panels. Great move there.
It’s not actually as complicated as it looks – which is easy to say if you know how to do it… Here’s the play-by-play of what I did:
1) Open both the b/w and the colour version of the photo, drag the b/w version on top of the colour version using the move tool – hold down the Shift key to get the b/w pinned to the exact centre of the colour image. As they are esentially the same picture, they will register exactly on top of each other.
2) Using your favourite selection tool, make a selection of the wall. As the guitar has a very sinuous shape, I decided to try the pen tool for this and create a path which I converted to a selection (Cmd/Ctrl-Enter). (I won’t attempt to explain the pen tool. I hardly understand it myself.) Add a layer mask to the b/w image while the wall is selected, this should let the wall shine through from the colour version.
3) Although the guitar is still white (and should be), the side panels would reflect a certain degree of colour. Therefore, I made selections of the two sections of the side panel (again with the pen tool, but the Quick Selection tool or the Tragic Wand would work nicely here too) and paint them in with a gray tint (I simply used a black brush at 20% opacity) to reveal SOME of the colour from the below layer.
4) Just a little enhancement – I duplicated the top layer (Cmd/Ctrl-J), made a selection of the hole in the body and added a mask to just show the label inside and changed the blending mode of that layer to Screen to brighten it.
5) Optionally: I created a Hue/Saturation adjustment layer above the background, checked the Colorize option and chose a light bluish hue. This turns everything that is visible from the background layer into another colour – it doesn’t actually show up in the version above.
It’s actually a fairly quick job. The selections take a bit of time, but the beauty of doing them with the pen tool is that you can actually save your selections (as paths) with the image. Hope it inspires someone!