Akita

[Maritimer1]

Donald's and Richard's Doodle and Setter photos prompted me to post this shot of a friend's Akita that was taken last weekend as we were taking a stroll through a local nature trail.

If anyone has successfully removed collars and leashes successfully, I'd love to know your secrets. I splurged and bought the photoshop component of CS5 a few weeks ago (educator's version), but I couldn't get the hair to look natural when using the content fill or the healing brushes.

Myra



Akita October 2011 by M.J. Hencher, on Flickr

[FrankMi]

Hi Myra, if content fill and healing aren't giving good results for a particular image, try the Clone Stamp tool.

[Donald]

Yep, I'm with Frank. I go for the clone tool every time.

I've done it many times. Blow it up large, get a soft-edged brush. You can even turn the opacity down and gently brush over the area several times. But I find with the likes of dog hair, that it's better to leave the opacity at 100% and do the clone in one pass. That way you give yourself more chance of holding on the the detail in the hair and getting a better match with the adjacent area from where you're taking the clone.

Once you've got the leash, collar etc covered, you can 'fine tune' the clone to get the blending right.

ps - What a beautiful looking animal. I wonder about just coming back a bit, overall, on exposure?

I hope you don't mind, but as a quick example of what I mean re cloning..............

[Maritimer1]

Thanks for the advice, Frank and Donald. Donald, what a super job of removing the collar/leash and the new exposure looks much better! Did you "eyeball" this for a correction or use the histogram? I am still mind-muddled when it comes to histograms.

Myra

[Maritimer1]

Donald, I tried getting a more accurate exposure on this one. Better?

Edited with larger photo:


IMG_0038 by M.J. Hencher, on Flickr

[Donald]

Myra

It looks like it, but you've posted it at very small size so it's difficult to tell.

[tb72]

Very nice shot myra and with the removal of the collar it becomes a top shot.

b&w conversion perhaps ?

[Maritimer1]

Fixed it, Donald. Thanks!

B&W is something I am trying, but struggling with. My conversions seem to produce rather flat images and often seem more blue than gray to my eyes. When time permits, I need to brush up with some tutorials.

[Donald]

Fixed it, Donald. Thanks!

That's better.

And the answer is definitely 'Yes'.

The 'problem' with that one, in my opinion, is that bit of tree we see at the left-hand edge. Get rid of that and you have a lovely woodland walk scene.

[rpcrowe]

Absolutely handsome animal and a nice portrait of it. Akitas are powerful and beautiful dogs. The first Akita I ever saw was in the mid-1960's in Japan. The animal was monsterous and the owner held it by a lead of rope that was probably about one inch (25 or so mm) thick. But the owner was less than five feet tall and didn't weigh one hundred pounds. Probably right about the same weight as the dog. It was quite a humorous pair especially with the heavy rope connecting the two...

I will also use the clone tool to remove leads or other unwanted areas from an animal.

Additionally, I will use the clone tool at about 50% or so opacity to clean up the faces of some dogs that have brown stains under their eyes and around their mouths. A lot of our rescue Maltese arrive stained like that. It takes a couple of weeks of TLC to get rid of those stains but I can do that in PP with a couple of sweeps of the clone tool...