tips for photoshopping this pic

[speedychrissie]

hey all,

i have a few days off and if i have time i would like to improve my photoshopping skills enough to be able to get most out of my pictures.

i have chosen the picture below to try and experiment on but i thought that i would ask others for any pointers as how to approach it best.

the main thing that i want to try and do is remove the reflected shadows from the dashboard where possible.
to do this should i be individually selecting those areas and altering them to try and match the surrounding areas or should i attempt to clone most of it out using other similar bits?



cheers in advance, and hopefully there will be an update from me soon

Edited by speedychrissie on Sunday 4th June 17:19

[beano500]

I'd consider cloning for the reflections, adding some contrast and perhaps a little something for the weekend.... er, I mean "sky"....


I would suggest it would be possible to select some of the reflections and alter them to be the same shade as the rest of the road - but it won't necessarily be that easy....

[flameop]

Clone.. or cut and paste layers, then distort to fit, then erase to blend in.

[beano500]

flameop said:

...or cut and paste layers, then distort to fit, then erase to blend in.

Yup maybe a better option.

Cloning isn't necessarily so neat either...





...and I know - that sky is HIDEOUS!!!! But then, it just shows what you can do in five minutes...

[Mad 20v]

Any better ??



Just used a mix of

Selective colour
Replace colour
Brightness/Contrast
Tweaked the curves
Cut the dash onto another layer and tweaked that with the above
And put a sharpen mask over it.

Edited by Mad 20v on Sunday 4th June 18:35

[speedychrissie]

thanks for the replies so far, very useful.

[Gemm]

This is a very quick job and it's a bit patchy but this is where Healing Brush Tool comes in handy.

[speedychrissie]

Gemm said:

this is where Healing Brush Tool comes in handy.

that is certainly a very good start.
i currently only have photoshop 6 and i cant find any healing brush on it. do i need to have a later version?

[Gemm]

speedychrissie said:

Gemm said: this is where Healing Brush Tool comes in handy. that is certainly a very good start. i currently only have photoshop 6 and i cant find any healing brush on it. do i need to have a later version?

I think the healing brush was introduced in Photoshop 7.

[te51cle]

Gemm said:

I think the healing brush was introduced in Photoshop 7.

Yep. I don't use it very often, but it can be very useful indeed.

The reflections on the road would be a good exercise for the clone tool though. I'd use a fairly hard brush set to about 97% opacity. Do the thinner stripe first, then the thicker one. The reflections on the trees are where the healing brush would earn its keep.