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For the Photoshop gurus(cutting out things)
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Wrao
Yarp
 
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Road Warrior
 
2004-09-17, 18:17

So, I've been using Photoshop since version 4.0, though I've never really learned how to use it, I mostly watched my sister(she's an artist, very creative, and she knew how to use photoshop pretty well) I'm not that great at photoshop, but if I spend enough time on something I can usually always get it how I want it. But I always feel like I do things the hardest way possible. Since I've never really read any books or taken any classes.

So, here's a basic question I wanted to throw out here and see what other photoshop users do. When you want to cut out a part of an image for use with another image or to animate with imageready, or whatever. What do you do usually?

Do you use the magic wand tool?
lasso?
polygon lasso?
magnetic lasso?
Circle or square select?
Color range select?
The eraser?

What's your basic process?

Up until recently, I usually used the magic wand to get a vague idea of the object, then I'd grow the selection by a couple pixels for safety, then I'd copy-paste, and proceed to erase unwanted bits, which was usually a lot. This generally worked pretty well, but it was pretty time consuming.

Recently I've started using the polygon lasso tool, which enables me to get a little closer, then I erase unwanted bits once I've pasted it.
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johnq
Multi-touch Piñata
 
Join Date: May 2004
 
2004-09-17, 18:59

Quote:
Originally Posted by Wrao
Do you use the magic wand tool?
lasso?
polygon lasso?
magnetic lasso?
Circle or square select?
Color range select?
The eraser?


Yes.





Actually, depends on what it is.

The thing about Photoshop is that there are many ways to do something and most are adequate. Some just better suit the task or the user.

I tend to use the path tool if it's something I am going to be picky about.

Other times (most typically) I'll use a mask/alpha channel.

Or you can use the rubber stamp to paint the object onto a new layer in the other document. (That's a bit bizarre though).

Sometimes, if it's a quickie, I'll go into quickmask mode and paint out the area I want.

But I also am a fan of option-shift clicking around an object using the eraser for something relatively unimportant or something I'll be scaling down.

I can discuss those further later if you like.

But basically it depends on the output resolution, amount of detail, need to be precise etc.

Others will probably recommend 3rd party plugins...keep playing around and asking...

"Peace cannot be kept by force. It can only be achieved by understanding." - Albert Einstein

Last edited by johnq : 2004-09-17 at 19:10.
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ast3r3x
25 chars of wasted space.
 
Join Date: May 2004
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2004-09-17, 19:40

The right tool depends on the task.

No third-party program does as good as it says Heck, extract does just about as good of a job as knockout.
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Wrao
Yarp
 
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Road Warrior
 
2004-09-17, 20:13

Yea, see, this is stuff I'm talking about, Quick masking, alpha channels, jello pudding? wha?

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johnq
Multi-touch Piñata
 
Join Date: May 2004
 
2004-09-17, 20:40

Give us some typical scenarios or examples of what you might typically need to do. They'll all require different methods. A girl with hair blowing in the wind standing in front of a bunch of tree branches will make you use one method. A baseball cap (product shot) sitting on a white backdrop will require another method.

A mask is essentially a kind of layer (although not in the actual layer stack) that defines what is visible and what is not visible (and optionally values that define translucency). For example a mask of a car would look like a black silhouette of the car on white but the windows might be gray tones to allow you to see through to objects behind the car while still retaining hilights and shadows and tints on the glass. The black would let the car color and details be visible and the white would be mapped to invisible.

You see the effects of masks all the time, you just don't realize it. Mac OS X icons use masks to define what the irregular shape of the icon is (compare this to NeXT which only had solid tiles for its Dock icons).

"Peace cannot be kept by force. It can only be achieved by understanding." - Albert Einstein
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ast3r3x
25 chars of wasted space.
 
Join Date: May 2004
Send a message via AIM to ast3r3x  
2004-09-17, 20:59

Car would happen to be a prime use for the pen tool and masks

Girl with brown hair blowing in the wind with brown tree stuff in the background...good luck That'll take some time.

Wheat with a red barn in the background...extract tool all the way!
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Wrao
Yarp
 
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Road Warrior
 
2004-09-17, 21:24

Hm, so how do you use masks? or is that opening up a huge can of worms(there have probably been whole books on the subject )

As far as a typical scenario...none really. I do photoshop work for fun, whenever I get a good idea of something funny to make, these things have been as varied as robots, cats heads(with fur and whiskers), bass guitars, other people, cat bodies, cars...etc. So some are easy, some are more difficult, I use slightly different techniques each time, but like, I have no clue how to use a mask, and yet that sounds like a very useful tool.
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Akumulator
Senior Member
 
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Atlanta
 
2004-09-17, 21:34

The quick mask is just below the forground and background colors in the tools palette. Click the right one and paint the area (it'll look red) to mask. You can switch the forground/bg colors to erase areas. Once you have the mask exactly the way you want it, click the left mask button and your area will become a selection. You may need to invert the mask and then hit delete to erase. Got me?
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Wrao
Yarp
 
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Road Warrior
 
2004-09-17, 21:38

groovy! that's neat.
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DMBand0026
Veteran Member
 
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Chicago
 
2004-09-17, 21:59

It's all about quick masking. I've been using that one since I discovered it so many years ago in PS. The pen tool is good too, but that one is pretty much exclusive to Illustrator for me.

Come waste your time with me
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Akumulator
Senior Member
 
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Atlanta
 
2004-09-17, 22:36

Yeah, you can also make a nice ramp if you use the gradient tool within quick mask.
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