Centurion Camera Club CCC Club Night February 2014: Chante
Chante
On the 5th of Dec 2013 I arranged with Chante and a friend of hers to take some photos. Because I do not have lighting equipment or a studio to shoot indoors we were forced to shoot outside. However my models viewed this as a casual shoot and were not prepared to start early to get the advantage of “good” light. By 01:27:20 PM we were on the roof of Menlyn (at drive-in) as they wanted photos of themselves in the old cars. Obviously at this stage the light was everything but perfect. Luckily some clouds would pass every now and then. We would run out and shoot a few shots before the sun is back. While waiting for the clouds to come we would hide under the “ 
Afdak” at the back of the drive-in. during one of these waits, motivated by boredom more than anything else I told them that since they are in the shade maybe I should try and take some pictures. I took quite a couple of pictures (I always take to many and then hate myself for having to go through all of them). When I looked at the pictures (See original below)I realised that even after cropping I did not like the background since it had lines and blemishes on it.
Original
I spend I couple of hour trying to remove the blemishes using the clone tool, brushes and any other tool I could think of. Finally I gave up and started the devious task of “selecting” the model in order to cut or copy her to a new layer as I realised that I will have to create a complete new background. The fact that she has dark hair helped as I have tried doing the same to blond models and it was not very successful as the outer edges of the hair would fade and give a unnatural photo.
New layer model only
Next I played and experimented with different colour backgrounds and by I stroke of luck I saw that brown below
Brown
Worked well when adding a gradient overlay.
Gradient overlay
To be honest it was more luck than skill.
Johan Bester
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