PhotoShop talk by PhoenixRose

TALK STORY

PhotoShop talk

POSTED BY: PHOENIXROSE
UPDATED: Tuesday, February 27, 2007 20:51
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VIEWED: 3045
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Tuesday, December 19, 2006 12:06 AM

You think you know--what's to come, what you are. You haven't even begun.

So asarian and I have been talking a bit off-board about PhotoShop and blending and things that are very interesting if you actually know what I'm on about, so I thought I'd start a thread to more easily talk with him (waves at asarian) and anyone else who might want to jump in to learn or to teach (waves at anyone else who has PhotoShop)
So it started with a question about how I do near-seamless blends, and this is what I have on that:
Rule number one is to have a good eye. Rule number two is to have patience for miles. Okay, on to the actual PhotoShop tools…
I usually start with the magic wand selector and select the background (though I use the box selector for any big patches where I can get away with it). Often the sensitivity of the wand need to be adjusted. Between 15 and 30 seems to be good. Sometimes something on the subject to be isolated will be too close to the color of the background, and then you need to zoom in (the magnifying glass is your good friend) and use the lasso selector. Or you can leave it and use the eraser later. Both are detail work and tend to be pretty time-consuming, so it’s a matter of preference.
Once as much of the background as possible is selected, go to ‘select’ on the menu and go down to ‘inverse’. The subject is now selected, and you copy (Ctrl+C)
Now you go to your new image; whatever background you want to put the subject in. First order of business is to erase any remaining artifacts of background from around the subject. For this I recommend a fairly small, fuzzy-edged eraser tool, to be traced around the subject as closely as possible without deleting any of them. Let up on the mouse key often so you won’t lose all your work if you have to undo.
Blending of hair:
For blending hair, I use a very small eraser (2 or 3 pixels) and zoom in very close. I also turn the opacity of the eraser down to about 80%-60% and sometimes less. Then I erase any of the background that peeks through or around the hair. There are parts I run over twice so that they’re totally gone, and closer to the edges I just erase at the 80% so it looks more realistic. (I tried to use layer masks and they drove me absolutely batty with frustration. I could never get them to work just right and it could take hours and hours to blend and it never looked as good as I wanted it to. As soon as I learned about the changable transparancy on the eraser, it was like my world opened up and breathed again. It worked the same as the layer mask, only without the frustration and extra steps.)
For all types of outline, the blur tool is your friend. Also the smudge tool. The smudge tool can replace small details around the edges that might have been lost in isolation, just by smudging the skin/clothes/hair outward. This takes the good eye and the patience in spades because there will likely be many undos until you get it just right. The blur tool makes the edges fuzzy so that they blend into their surroundings. The good eye is also required here because you don’t want the entire outline to be blurry or anything to be over-blurred. You can change the strength of the blurring; I usually keep it around 50% or lower unless I’m trying to fix bad pixelation, which requires higher strength in most cases. Anyway, that’s a different subject.
Always, always, I zoom in as close as I comfortably can for maximum detail.
So, that’s what I can think of in a nutshell. If you have any questions, just ask and I’ll do my best to tackle them.

So, there it is. I posed a question to asarian about a fish-eye effect he used in one of his pictures through e-mail. Please share, asarian

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Tuesday, December 19, 2006 12:27 AM

FLATTOP

Similar topic:
I have a PC at work, on wich I did my sig banner (shhhhhh, don't tell) using MS Paint.
I have an iMac at home that has no graphics manipulating ability at all.
Which software would be for a complete noob like me? I imagine the full Adobe illustrator or Photoshop would do it, but I don't have a student ID (monster huge discount) or the $500ish needed to buy.

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Tuesday, December 19, 2006 12:39 AM

PHOENIXROSE

You think you know--what's to come, what you are. You haven't even begun.

I have to say that's pretty gorramn impressive for Paint.
The program you'd need would depend on what you want to do with it. Illustrator is very different from PhotoShop in terms of what it can do. It's great for logos, for example, but can't do anything with pictures. And, as you said, the Adobe programs are hellaciously expensive (which is why I only have one of them)
I've heard a few good things about a freeware program called Gimp (I think that's right) It doesn't have all the tools as PhotoShop, but it does have layers, which is always a plus. I'm not familiar with its capabilities beyond that, though.

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Tuesday, December 19, 2006 2:04 AM

FLATTOP

Thank you for the kind words. I can't take all the credit, the 76th logo was done by someone else. I just added the borders and text.

I've used GIMP before, on a Linux machine. I'll see if I can track it down again.
Maybe that for photomanipulation, and save pennies for Illustrator.

Thanks!

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Tuesday, December 19, 2006 3:20 AM

PDCHARLES

What happened? He see your face?

Flatop,

There is also the free "Paint .NET" for the PC. Nothing as advanced as adobe but far and away from regular Paint. Version I have at least lets you do layers and has a history, among other things. Requires, of course, the .NET framework, not sure if it installs this for you if it is not detected.

http://www.getpaint.net/index2.html

anyway, better than paint.

latest vid

the lyrics http://www.greenplastic.com/lyrics/lucky.php

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Tuesday, December 19, 2006 3:41 AM

11THHOUR

Quote:
Originally posted by FlatTop:
Similar topic:
I have a PC at work, on wich I did my sig banner (shhhhhh, don't tell) using MS Paint.
I have an iMac at home that has no graphics manipulating ability at all.
Which software would be for a complete noob like me? I imagine the full Adobe illustrator or Photoshop would do it, but I don't have a student ID (monster huge discount) or the $500ish needed to buy.

You can get Photoshop Elements, which is a somewhat streamlined version of the full Photoshop program. The program costs around $80 to $90, which is a lot less expensive than the full pro version.

Often Photoshop Elements is included as an extra with scanners or digital cameras, which is a really nice bonus item.

Here's the link to the "Photoshop Family" page on the Adobe website for more info:

http://www.adobe.com/products/photoshop/family.html

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Tuesday, December 19, 2006 5:57 AM

PHOENIXROSE

You think you know--what's to come, what you are. You haven't even begun.

I'm actually reading a very shiny book on PhotoShop Elements right now, and it sounds like it has a few options and tools that PhotoShop doesn't have. Does that seem right to you? Well anyway, I'd like to get it.

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Sunday, December 31, 2006 8:14 AM

PHOENIXROSE

You think you know--what's to come, what you are. You haven't even begun.

I wonder... should I have posted this in the Blue Sun Forum? Do the photoshop artists all hang out over there?

Happy New Year

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Sunday, December 31, 2006 8:19 AM

GOMITHROUS

Just got PhotoShop today, I was gonna grab a Quickstart guide but I don't really want to get out of my chair. I'll post later if I have any problems (which is likely). I do have quite a few ideas which will eventually make their way to the Blue Sun Room.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~> Scorpion owns all <~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

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Sunday, December 31, 2006 9:27 AM

CITIZEN

Quote:
Originally posted by PhoenixRose:
So, there it is. I posed a question to asarian about a fish-eye effect he used in one of his pictures through e-mail. Please share, asarian

Try the Spherize filter under the filter->distort->Spherize menu.

More insane ramblings by the people who brought you beeeer milkshakes!
No one can see their reflection in running water. It is only in still water that we can see.

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Sunday, December 31, 2006 11:07 AM

PETERG

Quote:
Originally posted by FlatTop:
Similar topic:
Which software would be for a complete noob like me?

GIMP is available for PC and Mac, not to mention free, and I was reading recently that someone has done a skin to make an interface pretty close to Photoshop (shh, don't tell Adobe). I think its called GIMPShop.

GIMP is also available for Intel Mac now (unlike PS!). So either wait 3 - 4 months and pay obscene amounts of money for PS or use Gimp now for free. Hmmm tricky choice... Course if you don't have a Mac, that's irrelevant.

Or try Elements for a trimmed-down verison of PS.

Failing that, Paint Shop Pro is pretty shiny too.

Hope that helps. Plenty of choice depending on the size of yer wallet

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Thursday, January 18, 2007 7:48 AM

XEYRA

Bumping this up since I was told to drop by. Hey! :)

"People tell you things all the time, without talking. The way they move, the way they aren't talking." - River Tam

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Thursday, January 18, 2007 7:57 AM

XEYRA

So, anyways, PhoenixRose asked me how I'd done the dust and scratches on my Wash & Zoe piece I just posted to the BSR (if you'd like to check it out). Actually, it was quite simple since, the gist of it is: I didn't. I used two textures I found on livejournal (you can find them in this site: http://tokyo.disparue.org./noir.htm), set them on Screen, and voila, instant scratches and dust. I did add some simple lines in the background (added in white and set to Softlight) to add a 'film-ish' feel to the piece.

Easy peasy. :)

"People tell you things all the time, without talking. The way they move, the way they aren't talking." - River Tam

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Tuesday, February 27, 2007 3:50 AM

PHOENIXROSE

You think you know--what's to come, what you are. You haven't even begun.

Quote:
Originally posted by Xeyra:
So, anyways, PhoenixRose asked me how I'd done the dust and scratches on my Wash & Zoe piece I just posted to the BSR (if you'd like to check it out). Actually, it was quite simple since, the gist of it is: I didn't. I used two textures I found on livejournal, set them on Screen, and voila, instant scratches and dust.

I feel like a photoshop novice again, but do you wanna put that in Captain Dummy Talk?

Human beings, who are almost unique in having the ability to learn from the experience of others, are also remarkable for their apparent disinclination to do so.

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Tuesday, February 27, 2007 10:31 AM

XEYRA

LOL. Okay, Captain Dummy talk with pictures it is. :)

I took this texture (

) from a set you can find in the site I link to above.

And then I set the blend mode to screen to get the scratches.

Hope this helps. :)

Also, to get some of the lines in the background that the texture doesn't have, I drew some lines in white and set the blend mode not to screen but to Soft Light.

PS: Can anyone tell me how to make functional links on this board? The usual HTML codes don't work well and I really want to link to these images instead of having them show up huge like this...

"People tell you things all the time, without talking. The way they move, the way they aren't talking." - River Tam

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Tuesday, February 27, 2007 8:51 PM

PHOENIXROSE

You think you know--what's to come, what you are. You haven't even begun.

Hmmmm, looks like I need to continue to tinker with blending things. Always stuff to learn isn't there?
The size looks fine to me. Linking to images can't really be done here, unless you link to a page where they appear.

Human beings, who are almost unique in having the ability to learn from the experience of others, are also remarkable for their apparent disinclination to do so.

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