Extractions

That's it in a nutshell. Like most photographers that don't work in a studio, I've got this issue with backgrounds. There's always somebody's foot intruding on my photo, or there is a piece of trash on the ground looking like an ad for a fast food place, or a pole coming out of the top of someone's head. In one shot I took, there was a HUGE sign for the restrooms right above the heads of everyone in the well exposed, otherwise well composed photo.

If you extract the subject, it's like cutting them out of the photo like a paper doll from the paper. There is no background any more. If I were not digital scrapping, it would look really stupid. But in digital scrapping, I can then put the people into a background of my choosing. No shoes, poles, trash or obnoxious signs. I can create a fantasy background, I can come up with something neutral. It all depends on what I feel like doing and what will work with the photo.

I've been looking at a lot of gallery images. Other people's work. It has given me a lot of ideas. I'm no longer limited to a simple rectangle, nor even a shape with borders or fancy corners.

This is what I was hoping to transition to, truly digital scrapping. I don't want to create a layout that I could reproduce in paper, I want to create layouts that are digital. I'm not there yet, but I can see what I need to work on.

Extractions are not always easy to do, especially if the subject has wispy hair. My hair isn't wispy and Bud shaves his head. Easy extractions? Possibly, and possibly not. But I'm sure going to try.