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Archive 2013 · Batch processing & replacing backgrounds
  
 
Hockey_Nut
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p.1 #1 · p.1 #1 · Batch processing & replacing backgrounds


A photography company that took student portraits at the school where I teach offered families a choice of backgrounds, or "looks" as they called it ... they took the original photo using a grey backdrop and were offering this look along with other backgrounds such as fall colours, city scapes, solid colour backgrounds etc.

I'm curious to know how all the orders are batched processed whereby the new background (or look) is substituted for the original grey background. To go through hundreds and hundreds of orders an manually do this would be so time consuming.

I shoot sports so I have created some posters but the cut outs have been one offs ... not in bulk. However, I'm hoping to add a different product for families and this would entail making a quick composite of a portrait of the athlete placed on top of a background photo of my choosing but doing so in a batch fashion.

If anyone can point me in the right direction as to how to better understand the workflow that would be used to accomplish placing a different background on mulitple photos, I'd appreciate it.

Thanks,

Brent
Apr 23, 2013 at 01:36 PM
Mr Mouse
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p.1 #2 · p.1 #2 · Batch processing & replacing backgrounds


Gray is easy to blend search for Chips action in this forum retouching on Dpreview web site.
Apr 23, 2013 at 01:48 PM
mshi
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p.1 #3 · p.1 #3 · Batch processing & replacing backgrounds


record an action that puts the portrait layer in overlay blend mode on top of your intended background layer and export the final image to jpeg. Then run the batch from File->automate -> batch.


Apr 23, 2013 at 01:56 PM
Mr Mouse
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p.1 #4 · p.1 #4 · Batch processing & replacing backgrounds


If the gray is 50% gray the overlay blending will work very well. However if the gray is lighter or darker then 50% you may also need to add and adjustment layer with a mask to adjust the new background to lighten or darken its colors,
Apr 24, 2013 at 07:07 AM
Eyeball
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p.1 #5 · p.1 #5 · Batch processing & replacing backgrounds


Some of the companies that do these high-volume portraits use specialized "virtual background" systems of one type or another. Here is an example:



There are also specialized "green screen" packages of one sort or another that are meant for high-volume use. Here is an example:

http://fxhome.com/

As has been pointed out, you can do this on your own but these specialized solutions are focused on speed and consistency. Whether they make sense for you depends on things like volume and how you value your time.
Apr 24, 2013 at 08:15 AM
mshi
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p.1 #6 · p.1 #6 · Batch processing & replacing backgrounds


Green screen or blue screen is more suitable for video work. For still, gray is ideal since gray won't spill any color onto your subject like green or blue will.
Apr 24, 2013 at 09:11 AM
Mr Mouse
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p.1 #7 · p.1 #7 · Batch processing & replacing backgrounds


mshi wrote:
Green screen or blue screen is more suitable for video work. For still, gray is ideal since gray won't spill any color onto your subject like green or blue will.


White is also good for when original white background image layer is below the replacement background blending in the the original image into the replacement background layer set to multiply blending the white will not change the new background and fringe areas like stray hail will be recovered. All that is needed is a poor mask to let the subject show in the replacement layer.
http://www.mouseprints.net/old/dpr/TUpShrp800.jpg
http://www.mouseprints.net/old/dpr/Multiply.jpg
http://www.mouseprints.net/old/dpr/TryHard800.jpg
same image with replenishment layer set to normal so you can see how poor the mask is cut off lots of hair
http://www.mouseprints.net/old/dpr/TryHard800Normal.jpg
Apr 24, 2013 at 01:11 PM
BugLightGeek
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p.1 #8 · p.1 #8 · Batch processing & replacing backgrounds


Mr Mouse wrote:
Gray is easy to blend search for Chips action in this forum retouching on Dpreview web site.

Not having any luck finding it on here... do you have any more info to help in my search?
Thanks.
Apr 24, 2013 at 01:23 PM
mshi
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p.1 #9 · p.1 #9 · Batch processing & replacing backgrounds


Roger that. It seems to me the most important factor is to make subject blend seamlessly into ambient lighting in background. But, that's entirely another topic.
Apr 24, 2013 at 01:31 PM
James_N
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p.1 #10 · p.1 #10 · Batch processing & replacing backgrounds


Thread: http://www.dpreview.com/forums/post/37648570

Link to Chip Springer's InstaMask Actions: http://www.mediafire.com/?v3qsas23061ll



BugLightGeek wrote:
Not having any luck finding it on here... do you have any more info to help in my search?
Thanks.
Apr 24, 2013 at 01:43 PM
Hockey_Nut
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p.1 #11 · p.1 #11 · Batch processing & replacing backgrounds


Wow … thanks everyone for the replies.

I've got a home studio and I use white seamless paper as my background of choice and I'm going to read up on Chip's tutorials to learn more about this stuff. The fxhome product looks slick and I really like the batch feature that will allow for multiple backgrounds to be applied to one or many photos. I run a small business on the side and it's growing fast and I'm interested in expanding into some larger jobs and being able to handle hundreds of photos and getting the proofs to the clients quickly & offering a variety of backgrounds is something that appeals to me … I'll be giving this software a closer inspection.

Thanks for taking the time to respond.

Brent
Apr 25, 2013 at 12:26 PM
Mr Mouse
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p.1 #12 · p.1 #12 · Batch processing & replacing backgrounds


For White you may want to read my old Background Replacement Totorial
Apr 25, 2013 at 12:53 PM





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