[caraewilton]

Hi all. I need a little help making photo look more realistic. I have been asked if it is possible to remove the door, gorilla and extra kids from this photo so only the boy playing the marimba is left.



Using Corel PhotoPaint 11 I have managed to do the following:



Basically I cut out the kid and his marimbas. Then I created a wall using a portion of the original wall as the "paint" and the same with the carpet. It all looked too "smooth" so I fiddled around and eventually settled on adding noise which seems to make it look better. The kid had very straight edges so I used a thing called feather to blend him in a little better.

I am still not happy though. It still looks a little cut and paste to my liking. Particular areas of annoyance is the "halo" above his head and the flat look of the front marimba.

Is there anything I can do to make this look a little more realistic?

I have only ever cut out logo's before and worked with text. I do a lot of work with vector graphics, but this is a bit new for me. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks
Cara

[PopPicker]

Well done .... excellent job of isolating the subject.

In order to take away the cut and paste look, you'll need to create a new background that a) looks realistic b) softens the edges.

Personally I'd choose a room setting as the subject has been flash illuminated. Finding something with a similar perspective is the hardest thing.

Good luck

PP

[colinsp]

If you have all the background on a separate layer (wall and floor not child or marambas) apply a little gausian blur or a little noise to this layer it will help to soften the cut out look or as poppicker says use a whole new background and when you cut the child out use a feather of about 3-5 pixels this will help soften the selection edges.

[caraewilton]

Thanks Guys. I had a chat to the person who took the original photo and suggested that she take another picture of the room without the children, gorilla and what ever else. Then we could put the marimba boy back in the empty room. She has decided that she will just use the original picture. Oh well, guess you can't make everyone happy. On the upside learned a few things so guess not a complete waste of time!

[PopPicker]

I bet you mentally thought of where that marimba could go !!