Masking - A beginners effort

[Apple fanboy]

Most of you will probably have seen this shot over in Decembers POTD thread. I thought I would see if there is an easier or better way to achieve what I wanted. I don't have Photoshop (or the funds to get it!) but do have Lightroom 5, OnOne Perfect Photo Suit 7.5 and the Nik Complete Collection. Oh and DXO Optics 8 but thats not really relevant here. First of all here is the photo without any masking.

Straight away I liked the car in the shot (as it was under some nice lighting) but knew I wanted to de-clutter the background.
My first thought were to add a vignette, but the results didn't really get me where I wanted.

It still looked like an advert for the food hall at the NEC.
So I thought I would have a go with Masking. Fist of all I thought I would see if the Auto mask function in LR would get me what I wanted.

As you can see, it was fine when there was a good contrast like the bottom of the car, but where it was a bit busier there were problems.
Finally I just zoomed in big time (like until you can see the pixels) and drew round it with my mouse. I'm not very good at drawing but am pleased with the results.

I did this in a couple of sittings (to rest my eyes) and took me a couple of hours. My question is, is there a better way with my current software? I tried the drop and keep colours in Mask Pro but didn't really get what I was doing or like the results.
Any comments welcome about this Transformer transforming photo!

 

[Alexander.Of.Oz]

I don't have Photoshop (or the funds to get it!) but do have Lightroom 5, OnOne Perfect Photo Suit 7.5 and the Nik Complete Collection. Oh and DXO Optics 8 but thats not really relevant here.

Doesn't the OnOne package have a masking component to it? I'd investigate this, or look at taking up the current Photoshop & Lightroom pricing for $10 per month, fixed price for 12 months.

 

[MacRy]

Masking - A beginners effort

I have no help to offer whatsoever, sorry. Just wanted to say that's a pretty good job though.

Edit: You can just see the Fire exit signs so I would suggest cloning them out in LR.

 

[Apple fanboy]

Doesn't the OnOne package have a masking component to it? I'd investigate this, or look at taking up the current Photoshop & Lightroom pricing for $10 per month, fixed price for 12 months.

Yes I tried the OnOne element called Perfect Mask but found the results similar to my second effort in LR.
I really don't want to get used to having PS for 12 months. After all that's why they want to hook you in. Then when you can't do without, they hike the prices up.

I have a number of similar shots from Comic Con where I'd like to mask out the background. Trouble is this was the easiest of the lot as it has lots of straight lines. The others are of people in costume with lots of other people in the background.

 

[swordio777]

For this kind of task you definitely want to be working in an image manipulation programme rather than a raw converter. For a cut-out job of this kind you really need to be using the pen tool - That'll make it FAR easier than trying to do it freehand.

Pixelmator has a pen tool and is considerably cheaper than photoshop - about £20 on the Mac App Store.

It can seem difficult to use at first, but with a little practice you'd be able to create a perfect mask of an object like this in 2-3 minutes.

Hope that helps