Photoshop! *lost*

[snookyjojo]

okay, since I didn't get a thing of what steve and cyn were trying to tell me about making good photoshop pictures by cutting out the major thing and putting it into other backgrounds I thought I'd start a thread about that. ok, now guys...tell me firts WHICh programmes you use! haha, because I only have Coral and Migrografx Picture Publisher...HELP!

[DazedOblivion]

Well, Cynni is learning fast and I'll be happy to help. It's hard when you're using a different program. I use Adobe Photoshop. It's a good program but it's surely not the only one. Many things should be the same, though.

[cynthia]

Hey Caro! I also use Adobe Photoshop (version 8). I am still learning the ins and outs of it. But I also found out that a lot of websites are dedicated to photoeditingsoftware. Maybe you could Google yours???
I surely wanna help you. One tip: check if the program supports "undo" and/or "step back". That way you can try a lot of stuff and with undo, your picture will not be lost. Another tip: save the original pic you wanna use as background as "newname.TIF" first, since tif files work with layers AND will not waste your quality...

Good luck and if you have questions: just ask 'em here

[snookyjojo]

oookay!
Thanks for your nice replies first sooooo, I think I have this Adobe Photoshop thingie somewhere on my brother's computer, gonna check that out! YES! hehehe

Ahm...my other programmes of corrs have the undo function, hihi, and I also know how to work along with them, the problem is only thaaaat each time I want to cut out something that has also round shapes I put a mask on it and then cut it out: BUT it's never that cleanly cut like I want it to! There are mostly still little white dots or something left...and I didn't get what Steve said about cutting out the stuff UAH! So...could you maybe explain it again...a little more...ahm...caro-friendly? hahaha ;D

[cynthia]

More Caro friendly? I will give it a shot:

In Photoshop you can set a background color. You find 2 squares in the left, one on top of the other. The lower one is for the background. Set this to a color that is NOT in your picture (blue, limegreen.....). With the Lasso took you select the stuff that you DO NOT want to be in the picture. Select and press delete. You will see that you now get the selected background color around your cutout.
Once you have deleted everything you want out of the picture, you go to: Select - Color Range. You see that the image gets selected. Then go to Select - Inverse to select the cutout picture you want.
Then select the MoveTool and drag the image to the selected background.
IF you have troubles with strange dots still surrounding your cutout, go to Layer - Matting - Defringe. Set the Defringe to 1px and you will see it takes off one line of 1pixel from your image. That normally does the trick.

I hope that helps you in the way.... Good luck!!!

[rfewrewr]

I'm waiting for your first Photoshop, Miss Caro!!!! ;D ;D
What will you make with photoshop?
I think Photoshop is easier to use than Corel Draw or the other programmes, especially if we want to crop something. I love their "Lasso Tool". It is easier to use than "shape Tool" in Corel Draw.

[snookyjojo]

Oh cool! thanks guys that was already a great help! Now I only have to test if I really got it right! hahaha. I'll definatly try to find this Acrobat Photothingie ...gonna ask my brother heheeh And then I'll test it aaaaand let ya know!!!!! hehehehe.

Another question! What about changing pictures in their colour? You know? Ahm...make it a black and white pictures and so on. Did you already try THAT? I did and it really works fine with me when I use the Micrografx Picture Publisher. That's a real good programme! And it makes the black and white stuff really realistic I think and if you want to change that you can always put more contrast in it! hehee (see the trainstation picture in black and white that i once posted under "some photos") that's where I for example did it...but now a queeeestion: Do you like the normal nblack and white contrasts more than the edited stuff?

[DazedOblivion]

That's a very good question. My own guess is that a knowledgable professional photographer using black and white film can probably get a better result than by using photo editing.

This man below, Ansel Adams, developed a system called the Zone System that allowed him to have the most possible shades of gray in his photographs (see some samples of black and white photos taken using the Zone System HERE).



His results are pretty remarkable. It's impossible to show the real quality of his photographs because, of corrs, your computer screen is digital. But here's one of his photographs:



But I think that, for most purposes, taking a color photograph and turning it black and white with a photo editor works real well. Adobe Photoshop is good at this too, I think. Caro, your photograph of the train station is a great example of how it can be done.

Here's a color photo of a fern and redwood that I took that I have turned to black and white with Adobe Photoshop:

[snookyjojo]

aha! Mr Adams, wow, his photos are really great!
Hey steve? I think the black and white one you posted of your's...changed with Adobe to black and white looks a bit.....flat? Sorry, I just wanted to ask if we maybe could compare some photos edited with different programmes? I mean you could send me the original in colour pic, and then I'll try it with Micrografx and then we'll compare? Maybe I'm also wrong with the "flat" which is not meant to insult you or anything! NOT AT ALL...just what I think...hehe C'mon let's try this comparing, what do you say?

[DazedOblivion]

No, I see what you're saying. It does look kinda flat, especially compared to the other pictures in my post. I may not have done everything right. But that sounds like a great idea, and I'm gonna email you right now the original color picture of the fern and redwood and you can use your Micrografx on it! ;D

[cynthia]

Owwww looking forward to your magic



This is something I made. It is not 200% perfect yet, but.....

[snookyjojo]

Hm, okay, I'll try my best with the photo steve thanks

I'll maybe post some different versions of the pic...and then we'll see which one you like best You can try it with your Adobe thing of course,too hihihihihi.

Hey Cyn, this one looks good! Though I think that there's such a little film of "white" not really white...but this thing, when you start to brighten up the photos a bit...you know? Maybe you could put a little more of contrast in it so this milky thing goes away? But ...actually it looks good, that's only what I saw...haha, if you like it that way it's cool, of corrs
BTW, haha, a really strange...vampire woman hahahaha...SCARY! hahaha ;D

[snookyjojo]

okay, I finally found the time.

They're not perfect I think but just what my programme gave me:


that's the softer one.


The one I put some more contrast on.

okay, so what do you think?

[SingleTunePoet]

I like the second one better! I can´t tell you why but I just like it way better. "Liking Steve´s pics with Caro improvement is by far my favorite!!!"

[DazedOblivion]

That does look better, Caro!

I tried the contrast thing myself to see if I can try the same thing with Photoshop.

The original and the "re-do":



I don't trust my monitor. I did an Andrea wallpaper for Andrea Day that looks okay on mine but, when I viewed it from my work computer, Andrea looked a bit like a vampire (like Drusilla!). Not my intention, really!