What PS effect have I used here!?

[NiceCupOfTea]

Can't remember how I blurred out this numberplate - anybody advise?

[trackdemon]

I dont know, but please dont use it again

[cy88]

IMHO blurring the plate in that way spoils the whole picture (assuming you took the picture to show off the car).

Why not just use the clone tool to make the plate the same colour white all over?

[Mrs Fish]

Smudge tool by the looks of it

[bulb763]

Select one or two letters/numbers then paste them over some other letters/numbers - it'l be about as distracting as the original plate then. Never done it myself, but that'd seem to be the best, least obvious method.

[NiceCupOfTea]

Thanks peeps

Been looking for a decent way to blank it without creating too much attention and I thought I'd found it there

Never found blanking it very easy but I am a PS numpty...

Maybe I should just invest in a set of show plates.

[matthew_h]

bulb763 said:

Select one or two letters/numbers then paste them over some other letters/numbers - it'l be about as distracting as the original plate then. Never done it myself, but that'd seem to be the best, least obvious method.

That's the method I've started using as I hate having a big white rectangle in shot.

Making a nonsense plate from the letters and numbers already in the plate means that all identities remain hidden but the plate looks normal.

[TonyHetherington]

Or, something which has been taught to me recently (sounds kinda silly to say really) but try and take the plate off when you take the photo! (I realise that's no good for this shot, but just a thought next time )

[trackdemon]

matthew_h said:

bulb763 said:

Select one or two letters/numbers then paste them over some other letters/numbers - it'l be about as distracting as the original plate then. Never done it myself, but that'd seem to be the best, least obvious method.

That's the method I've started using as I hate having a big white rectangle in shot.

Making a nonsense plate from the letters and numbers already in the plate means that all identities remain hidden but the plate looks normal.

This is exactly what the magazines do to preserve photographic integrity. The EVO top 10 article did exactly that to Flemke's plates on his F1 and also the Panda 100

[TonyHetherington]

Did they do that in post, Steve, or did they actually attach nonsense number plates to the car? (I thought the latter?)

Not trying to be picky, just curious that's all

[matthew_h]

Exactly Steve, that was where I got the idea and I did it to Flemke's plates in my shots to match the magazine.

[matthew_h]

Oh, and yeah, it is done in Post Production generally. Certainly, Flemke's plates were real when on the shoot then changed later for the magazine.

[TonyHetherington]

Blimey, they looked EXCEPTIONALLY well done then!

[matthew_h]

Tony, if you look at the shot of my M3 with the Cosworth that I posted in Steve's thread about the Diablo then you can see that the Cossie plate is nonsense. This was done in PS.

I left the M3's plate alone as I am not that bothered about it.

[NiceCupOfTea]

OK, say I have a rectangular pic that I want to paste over a numberplate - is there any way of doing it in PS so that it is stretched to follow the perspective of a plate if it is at an angle?

[stuart b]

Cloning numbers and letters is relatively easy. Use one of te lassoo tools to select the letter, copy, paste. Optionally then reduce the opacity of the layer with the duplicate letter so you can see the position and size of what you are pasting over.

Then CTRL+T to Free Transform it. This allows you to adjust size and perspective to match the underlying letter.

Yes you can match a rectangular image over a plate, but how easy or hard this will be will depend on the angle of the original. Matching basic perspective and size is not too bad. Copy the image into a new layer, adjust the opacity so you can see the plate underneath. Then use one of the transform tools (Free transform or Distort often works best) and drag the corners of your image over the corners of the original plate.

Stuart

[gfwilliams]

I bought plates with GFWILLIAMS on them and just stick them over the original plate

works well

I'll post a picture later

[matthew_h]

That works well for single car shots but I'm not going to buy umpteen sets of plates for multi car shoots when I can sort them for free in PS.

gfwilliams said:

I bought plates with GFWILLIAMS on them and just stick them over the original plate

works well

I'll post a picture later

Where did you get that done?

Have just PS'ed a Saab font "turbo" plate onto the front of my car - I daresay with some skill it could look quite good - needless to say it looks shite when I do it

Probably a bit silly really, not sure anybody's interested in cloning a 17 year old Saab or a 13 year old Mazda...

[chris.mapey]

Why not clone the whole thing out entirely?

I'm sure that it can be done better than my 30 sec effort!



Chris

Edited by chris.mapey on Tuesday 3rd April 19:14