Photo Background change

[okyou]

Hello,
I have a photo of a page from a aged book as shown. I would like to remove the dark ledge on the left and the shadow on the lower left but maintain the vintage background look throughout. I tried to use layer to solve this problem but duplicating the vintage background was not successful. Appreciate if anyone can give me any suggestions or tips how to solve my problem ?

Thanks much

[migf1]

Hi okyou,

I would go with a white layer on top of the photo, then applying a B&W gradient mask on it.

You can then fine tune specific areas of the mask (like the bottom left and maybe the top left too), by brushing over them in the mask layer using white color (for lightening) and black (for darkening). I'd set the brush hardness to 0, and the opacity to a very low setting, in order to have more control.

PS. The Gradient Fill tool is not available in PSP X9, so it will be a little harder to gradient-fill the mask in the 1st place (you will have to experiment with the gradient angle before applying the fill... the Gradient Fill tool allows for adjusting the angle and the color stops dynamically via that horizontal line you see over the picture, in my screenshot above... we can also add more color stops on the line).

[okyou]

Hello mifg1,
Thanks for your good idea. I will experiment with your idea. Do you know in PSP 2018 there are any feature to create customized gradient ? I meant to copy an area in the photo and use it to gradient fill the whole layer ? In this case I can create a vintage gradient layer, then used the background eraser to erase all the background in the copy of the original and then superimposed onto the newly created customized gradient layer. Is this possible ?

Thanks

[migf1]

Hello okyou,

I didn't really understand the process you described, but as far as custom gradients are concerned, you can customize any of the presets and ideally add it as a new gradient in the list. You can do that by clicking on that plus icon (+) BEFORE starting customizing (see the screenshot below). Give it a new name and modify it to your hearts liking, as described in the corresponding Corel help page: http://help.corel.com/paintshop-pro/how ... ients.html

Btw, here is a perhaps better fine tuned version of the mask I described in my previous post:

okyou-vintage.jpg (21.31 KiB) Viewed 1845 times

[Jean-Luc]

Appreciate if anyone can give me any suggestions or tips how to solve my problem ?

Try this:

Fill Light Clarity.jpg (15.68 KiB) Viewed 1819 times

After the Fill Light/Clarity is applied, if you want to remove the left orange cast, select the color on the page on the right (see Foreground Color in the Materials Palette).

Select the Change to Target Brush set on Color Mode, Hardness 0, and Opacity approx 60.
Drag from top to bottom on the left side (see attached)

[migf1]

Nice one Jean-Luc... I keep forgetting that Flll-Light is made especially for lighten the darker areas.

I think good results come when combining both techniques:

[Jean-Luc]

I meant to copy an area in the photo and use it to gradient fill the whole layer ? In this case I can create a vintage gradient layer, then used the background eraser to erase all the background in the copy of the original and then superimposed onto the newly created customized gradient layer.

Like this (not a gradient but under layer filled with an area of the page):

[okyou]

Hello Jean-Luc,
How do you filled a under layer with an area of the page ? If I use flood fill, then it's one color. If I used gradient fill, then I can only select from the presets or modified presets.

Thanks for your help

[Jean-Luc]

Hello, Okyou

Make a Selection, Feather 0, Anti-alias unchecked.

Promote Selection to Layer
In the Layers Palette, drag the layer with the selection on the PSP workspace.
This creates an image containing the selection.
Effects / Images Effects / Seamless Tiling / values by default

Create an empty layer in the original image
Select the Flood Fill Tool
In the Materials Palette, select Foreground color and Pattern where you will find the image with the selected area.

Fill the empty layer.
If the filled aspect shows a too visible repetitive pattern, you may alter it using the Clone tool.

[okyou]

Hello,
In relation to this topic, would you like to show me how to do color match on patch edge. As in the attached pic, I want to cover the left brown spot in the layer. What I did is to copy part of the right area and cover up the brown spot. However, there is a noticeable vertical line in the overlap area. What is the best way to smooth out this line.

Thanks

[okyou]

Hello Jean-Luc,
Really thanks for your help. I tried to follow your steps but when I tried to drag the layer to the workspace. Nothing happened. Did I miss some steps ?
Thanks

[okyou]

Hello Jean-Luc,
I got it. I just copy and paste as new image. Thanks. Will do the rest of the steps.

[okyou]

Hello Jean-Luc,
I was able to follow your steps up to setting up the pattern with the selection. However, after I create a layer to the original pic and tried to select the pattern for flood fill, an error pops up as follow

Do you know what did I do wrong to get this error ?

Thanks

[Jean-Luc]

In relation to this topic, would you like to show me how to do color match on patch edge.

You don't need to do so. If you have the filled layer under, use the Eraser tool on the top layer.
The yellow you see here is the color of my transparency.

I erased around the letters with the Background Eraser Tool.

[Jean-Luc]

Really thanks for your help. I tried to follow your steps but when I tried to drag the layer to the workspace. Nothing happened. Did I miss some steps ?