Cutouts

Photo 1 & 2. Water Fairy: 8-20-2010; 12:33 a.m.; Athens, AL; f 6.9; 1/400; Fujifilm JV100
 The only edits made to the original (photo 1) included  a change in brightness, green saturation, and a heightened contrast. 

Photo 2 & 3. Kid: 8-25-2010; 5:31 p.m.; Athens, AL; f 3.2; 1/84; Fujifilm JV100 
Edits made to the original (photo 2) include color balancing, saturation, contrast, and brightening. 


I selected my 'Water Fairy' photo to partially cut because it looked like it would be a challenge. In addition, since the photo was taken with the light slightly behind the fairy, I thought having a partially white background would create an interesting effect. While the quick selection tool is amazing, I found myself selecting most of the subject by hand with the magnet lasso and regular lasso tool. Between the holes in the fairy's wings and the cement back drop in the left corner, the job was much easier to do with the lasso. Once my subject was cut, I decided to make the contrast more defined within the refine edge tool. Sadly, this made the picture much more dark than the original. However, once I made the layer with the white deleted section visible again, I felt that the darker shadow fit quite well. 

While I felt the 'Kid' picture was not as difficult to select and refine, once I moved the cutout onto a transparent document and then dragged and dropped the baby goat onto a white background, I realized I could not remember how to make a shadow. For a moment, I even contemplated creating a new layer and painting in a shadow. Luckily I then found the drop shadow button which put a nice light shadow around the whole cutout.