Backround removal with Topaz Remask 3

With animals you sometimes just have to 'grab' the shot. While doing chores yesterday, Morris ran past the fence line and got these mules attention.

I like how they had lined up, but did not like the fence post nor the wires:

So I opened up Elements 5 and decided to see what I could do.

Step one:
Used the 'Ctrl J' command and copied the layer. I wanted the hair to come a little more textured and desaturated the photo a bit.

Step Two:
I used Topaz ReMask 3 and outlined the fellas in Blue.

Three:
I used the red paint bucket and clicked on the area I wished to be removed.

Step Four:
I hit the compute button to see what was cut and see where I might have to do some fine detailing around the manes.
I didn't get super accurate as I was going to feather and blend in a back round that would fit nicely with the edges. I wanted a quick and neat edit.

Step 5:
Now back to Elements. I still have to get rid of that pesky piece of fence. I use the clone tool to fix that and the far left mule's nose.
Step 6:
Choose a nice backround for mine I picked a some swirling clouds and used an opacity of 53%, but use what you think would look pleasing.

Flatten and save or if you feel like changing things up a bit later keep it as a full .PSD file.

The result:

Topaz ReMask Review 2

I promised another ReMask 3 review, well sort of. This subject dealt with editing the faces of two subjects.

Here is the original shot.
I wanted to tone up the skin for the woman on the left and give her skin a less dark and sharp color that was the result of a flash.
I wanted to warm up the washed out color of the baby on the right.

Step one.
I opened up ReMask 3 and 'cut out the faces'. This is what it looks like when I 'cut' out the faces.
Here is what it looks like when I click on the 'keep' part.
Now that I had my faces separated from the original I could get to work on the skin tones.

Step Two:

I used two layers, one for the baby and one for the older woman. I used Topaz Detail 2 and used the preset 'Skin Soothing and Brightening by JD'. Then I used the plug in from Artizen 'Dreamy Effect' and softened the focus just a touch.

Step Three:

Back in PS5, I lightened the levels a bit.

Steps 4 and 5:

Lastly I used ReMask 3 again and edited the figures out of the back-round and use Topaz Simplify to give the back-round a slightly less important look so the view would concentrate on the baby and the woman.

So if you think ReMask is just for difficult subjects, mind you it works very well in the everyday editing.

The result. A much nicer skin tone on both subjects, I think. Yes it is just a snapshot, but Great Grandma is sure going to like this version than that of the original!