September 20

THE HEALING BRUSH
BY GEORGE GEDER
A Monthly - Weekend With Shades - Column

Background Check

I was thinking about this online opportunity to write articles about genealogy for Examiner.com. You have to apply to be accepted. They also do a background check.

Then I was thinking about all of the pictures that we take of our family and friends these days. We all have pocket size digital cameras that we take everywhere with us. We just snap away because it's relatively cheap and easy with digital. Unfortunately, we seldom do a 'background check'. When we take the time to look at the images we see a number of distractions, in the background, that compromise our shots.

Well, I started to use this technique to save some of my pics. I render the background in black & white, or monochrome and keep the foreground or main subject in color.

This technique can easily be done in Photoshop CS2/3/or4 or in Photoshop Elements. You just need to use layers. Here's how it's done in Photoshop CS3.

Let's say you're at the family reunion and the best snap of your Elder is this.
See how distracting the background is?

In Photoshop or any image editing software that can handle layers, duplicate your background layer.

Next, create a black & white adjustment layer.

Then take your paintbrush and 'paint' back in the color you want. In this case, it's our Elder.

To top it off, I like to do a little cropping and add a simple border.

I think the finished product saves the moment. Now it will go into my genealogy software and slide presentations. Enjoy!