Removing Texture

I am a commercial photographer - my client needs an image of a smooth gray plastic container - problem is - it has not been produced yet - all they can offer me is the same plastic container with a red granit texture - how can I create an image of this container and remove the red granit texture - creating a gray plastic without removing all the highlights and shadows that make it have shape ? I don't want to completely redraw the image and have it look like an artist rendering rather than a photograph.

Can you post a link to a decently hi resolution image of the container you presently have?

A lot depends on lighting and how evident the present texture is.

It might require a complete re-airbrushing.

at this site you will find a low res image of the basket - , http://EtterWeb.com/EtterPhoto/Clntpg2/clntpg2.html > I'm not sure how to make a link here so you will have to copy and paste - thank you for your reply - ( how do you make a link on this site ?

TEtter

( how bout that - the preview says I already did make a link - learn something new every day ) ?

Like Utopian said, that will likely take some manual airbrushing to get a consistent color throughout. If you could desaturate the image, and separately select the different areas of the container, you may be able to simply "Gaussian Blur" the selected areas. This of course probably isn't going to look pretty. Airbrushing would yield the best results.

Here is a little example of what it would look like "Gaussian Blurred":
http://www.startuplink.com/images/tpshelp_container.jpg
This method could produce better results if the settings were tweaked a bit, but that gives you an example.

EDIT: I worked at McDonalds not so many years ago and they have gray plastic containers that exact same size and shape. You might want to find a McDonalds employee and have them look around. I remember specifically one being in the grill area at the end of the prep table.

Thanks for your reply - have tried gaussian blur - it seems to come out a little to much like a rendering and not a photograph - I may work at it a bit longer. Do you know anything about a filter called alien skin ?

TEtter

Yeah its actually a company that produces many varied filters. However in all likelyhood, you are reffering to their product, Image Doctor (I think, that's their one).

Total truth is, I find it a dissapointing product. I bought it when I first strarted retouching and found it's results lacklustre, compared with doing it the 'hard way'. I tend to steer clear of most plugins (though there are some worthy ones) and develop or find custom convolutions. Not that this helps you any though (sorry was rabbiting).

Now that I realise I havent helped you, let my try. Have you looked at the channels and seen if you can isolate a bad channel. If RGB shows no sign convert to CMYK and look. If you need to replace a channel, convert a duplicate of the picture to LAB space and replace the bad channel with the Lightness channel. If not, tough titties and back to the drawingboard ;)

Now I have gone on so, I will actually take a look at picture for myself.

I tried replace colour also and that sucked.