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Question from Denise: “I am struggling with putting subjects onto backgrounds that don’t look copy and pasted. There’s always that outline”
Christy: I use Fluid Mask and shoot on a white background. Clients still don’t believe it’s digital
Brian: If so…I usually use both a clipping path and layer mask to knock out the background. 1) I first create a clipping path around the subject. Draw the path slightly inside the edge of the subject. 2) Use the clipping path to create a selection. 3) Create a layer mask. This should knock out the background. 4) Use Gaussian blur to slightly blur the edge. Maybe .25-.5. A crisp edge usually looks like a paper cutout. 5) if there’s still an outline you can select the black areas of your layer mask and expand it by a pixel and add more black. 6) Clipping out hair is tricky. I use topaz labs remask for really hard to clip hair.
Brian: There is no one way to do this. It really depends on the image. The nice thing about layer masks is that any changes are not permanent, so you can adjust and change it as needed.
Denise: thanks Brian. very helpful
Sandy: I always burn the edges of the image. it works for me and then it leaves a little bit of a shadow effect behind the subject.
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