Replacing cluttered and ugly backgrounds with a single color

[birder4life]

Hi All,

Very grateful for any assistance offered here in order to proceed without being even more inefficient and this edit quickly becoming an inordinate time sinkhole.

As you can see, I'm endeavoring to and am in the process of trying to replace a dark and ugly looking background (which was full of branches and distracting clutter) with a more pleasing fake "sky" look.

My immediate goal is to extend the area blue covers to almost touch the feathers and branches. Color tweaking will occur after that stage is reached.

The hard way (which I want to avoid as it is energy draining) is to continue to clone areas with the picture blown up to 1500 percent to replace the remaining area bit by painstaking bit.

I have a lot of pictures with relatively decent birds with poor to undesirable backgrounds that generally fall into the same condition so if I could be guided step by step with one picture, hopefully I can then be graciously enabled to "fish" for life!!

Thanks so much for taking an active interest in advance.

My picture under discussion is not on the web but on the computer.

Sorry,  how do I post it here for demonstration and help purposes?

[birder4life]

[Major Major]

birder -

What I would try is to use the quick selection tool to make the best selection I could of the bird, branch, twigs and berries. Then use Refine edge to get the fiddly bits of the twigs and such. Then use control/command J to put the selection on its own layer. From there you can add another layer as a background.

[Sepiana]

Hi birder4life, welcome to PSE&M!

I am on the same wavelength as Craig. The key to the success of your project is to start with a clean and well-defined selection. I believe the Quick Selection tool would be a good one to use. However, just making a selection is not enough. You need to fine-tune your selection before you place it on a new background. That’s where the Refine Edge command comes into play. It will allow you to remove the jagged edges around your selection; soften the edges; and adjust the size of the selection.

[Sepiana]

I am back with a question. Which version of Elements do you use? If Elements 11 and above, you are in for a surprise. Starting with Elements 11, Adobe introduced a new updated Refine Edge (brought over from Photoshop). Now, after you fine-tune your selection edges, you have several options how to output your selection -- on a new layer, with a layer mask attached, etc. This is very handy if you need to do further fine-tuning.

[cats4jan]

you have several options how to output your selection

Another thing I didn't know about PSE11 - thanks Sepiana.

[birder4life]

PSE 14

[Sepiana]

Feb 25, 2016 2:16:46 GMT birder4life said:

PSE 14

Thanks! You got it made. Take advantage of the "deluxe" Refine Edge in this version to fine-tune your selection edges.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=4RZyRX6yw9g

NOTE:  This tutorial applies to Elements 11 and above.