thomasholmphoto

AcroYoga failure

Added 2024-11-20 15:00:02 +0000 UTC

I was in doubt about whether or not to show you this, as I’m not happy with it:

It’s one of those things that bite you when you don’t do it right initially, and I've decided to tell the tale:

The Problem I had when shooting this from above was that the background was not large enough and lighter than their skin color.

But I wanted to please the model, so I first thought, "No problem; I’ll just enlarge it in Photoshop."

Second, I should have paid more attention to all the folds, which was very annoying.

Third, the light was not working for the ladies on the right side, so it needed extensive post-production dodge and burn.

Fourth, I skipped over it "the easy way" by attempting to have Photoshop make some AI masks.
Oh boy...

About three hours into editing, having refined masks, and trying to even out lumps and folds, I realized that the only way to make this truly work would be to delete everything.

Start from scratch.
Make paths around all the models.
Make paths around all the shadows.
Make a complete or 90% opaque background replacement.
Load the model's path as a selection, and burn in the reflection of the (too) light background.
And THEN restart all the dodge and burn.

That’s at least another two hours of work, and I’m not even confident it would be worth the effort.

So, I decided to declare defeat, show you the half-assed result, lick my wounds, and hope to save you from doing something similar sometime in the future.

Morale:
Don't "cheat" unless you are 100% sure you can get away with it and make it look good.