I just thought you should know!

Bitfik

One of the secrets of image extraction lies in placing the achieved transparency (i.e., the extracted subject) onto a background that blends with the foreground edges in such a manner as to disguise any flaws and residual color from the original background.

For example, if your original subject was shot against a white background, you’re going to either see white and gray edges if you place the extracted subject on any dark colored background, or you may lose important detail. On the other hand, if you use a mottled, muted sky with clouds and light blues and grays scattered about, you will achieve a ‘perfect‘ composite image.

Your question indicated you will be using nature scenes for your backgrounds. If that means lots of trees and/or green fields, and/or other mottled images such as mountain or valley scenes, you can use green or blue screens for your initial background.

Another of the secrets is matching the quality and directionality of light – the best resource here is serendipity – i.e., have the good fortune to have a desirable background where the light is appropriate for your imported foreground. It may be necessary to light your subject during the shoot in such a way as to match the lighting of your planned new background. You want the finished composite to appear natural and authentic – not like a scrapbook pasteup.

Speaking only about color and ignoring the lighting issues, here are a few ‘answers’:

1st short answer is, shoot against a solid background color that is most invisibly blendable with the planned new background color.

2nd short answer is, one background may not be best for all your planned new backgrounds.

3rd answer is, the color of your initial background will always have an effect on the hair and skin tones of your subjects, and even on the colors of their clothing. Therefore, you are dealing with a number of variables that must blend into your replacement background. These variables will not be visible to you until you replace the background – then it can be like night and day.

Best Advice: Don’t make any assumptions and don’t just jump into the job. Take one of your models and produce an image that will be typical of what you intend for your job – use any color background – then do an extraction. Import the resultant test extraction onto your various nature backgrounds, and see what happens. The more you become familiar with the problems of dealing with extracted images, the more likely you are to ’solve’ them in advance. When I say ’solve’, I mean solve to an acceptable degree – not to perfection.

You may find few, if any, difficult problems. Or you may find major complications.

There are ways to solve any problems, but they all take time, patience and practice. Send me an example of both your model and the new background – I can then be more specific.

I’ll likely get Mask Pro for this job as it seems like a good balance of what I’ll need.