I have a full color file where there is alot of stuff going on in the background. Massive fire from half way up to the top, and the bottom is a collage of various scenes from a movie.
At first we were going to paint this on the back of a fifth wheel. Now the customer is thinking he won't have it more than 4 or 5 more years and wants to be able to remove the graphic since it is so personal to them.
They asked if the edges could be faded out so they would be soft like an airbrushed pictorial instead of a hard edge as in a picture frame. The guy printing it on the Edge for me said he can print it on clear vinyl. Is there a way to do this in Photoshop 7.0?
I've figured out how to give it an irregular shape with the extract tool, but I'm not that familiar with version 7 yet and don't have time to spend the whole weekend figuring it out.
Posted by Alan Ackerson (Member # 3224) on :
Hi Dave,
There a couple of ways of doing this.
The first would be to use the alpha mask and a big honkin paint brush. Using white or black to add/subtract. Paint the edges and watch them disapear.
You can lower the opacity/pressure of the brush to feather it.
To get the alpha to work you can select your layer, click the icon on the bottom of the layers pallett. It's the square with the circle in it.
This will add the alpha channel. The layer will have two boxes now instaed of one.
Once that is established BE SURE TO CLICK ON THE ALPHA (The layer-box on the right) BEFORE YOU PAINT.
If you can dupe the layer first or save a second version of the file.
Any questions give me a call.
Posted by John Milleker (Member # 4572) on :
I would do this by using the magic wand to select all the area outside the graphic (If the graphics are sharp and contrast the background - shouldnt be a problem). Then inverse the selection. Or if the graphics are on a layer you can merge the layers and shift-click that layer to get the selection just on the item.
From there you can use the 'Feather' command to feather out the selection (and you would need to paint this featured area) or 'Border' it and use your blur filters.
Bunch of ways to do this, all with small differences in the results.
quote:Originally posted by Dave Sherby: They asked if the edges could be faded out so they would be soft like an airbrushed pictorial instead of a hard edge as in a picture frame. The guy printing it on the Edge for me said he can print it on clear vinyl. Is there a way to do this in Photoshop 7.0?
Posted by Doug Allan (Member # 2247) on :
I've done this a few times, but not enough to remember how I did it. Both replies sound a little different then what I've done, but the feathering the selection & using the blus (and maybe transpariency) sounds most familiar. I'll be watching here for further replies but I would like to add another photoshop question (hopefully Dave wont mind)
Somehow I must have changed something that has been haunting me for days & I can't figure out how to fix it. When I draw a square marque selection it has rounded corners, & when I select an area to crop, it crops the image a few pixels larger then what I selected. There are more cluse but I don't remember them all exactly. I tried to zoom in real close & change brightness on a few pixels, but I could not select one pixel at a time with the magic wand even when I took the threashold all the way down (or up... whichever way it was) So it is like a feather command has locked onto my selection capabilities & I can't seem to find where to go to toggle it off. Under select menu the feather is set at .2 pixels which has always been the lowest you can set it at, not zero, & it is set at .2 so where else might this problem be turned off???
Posted by Alan Ackerson (Member # 3224) on :
Doug,
If your using PSH 7 there should be a menu bar across the top when the marque tool is selected. It has all of the settings you described.
If you go to the far left up top there is another pulldown that lets you select select the individual tools or reset your "PreSets".
I'm looking for some other clues, this is the best I can come up with for now.
Posted by Doug Allan (Member # 2247) on :
thanks a million Alan!!!
that has been creating havoc with my ability to work for over a week. I wish I asked sooner, but anyway. I owe you one!
(don't know how that box got checked I swear I didn't do it?... it was set at 2 pixels)
Posted by Alan Ackerson (Member # 3224) on :
Glad to help you out Doug.
I think it might have been one of them gremlins. They get you when you're not looking.
edit -I wonder how Dave made out?
[ June 04, 2004, 05:10 PM: Message edited by: Alan Ackerson ]
Posted by Scott Niska (Member # 4350) on :
To make an irregular shape, select the area you want to keep with the lasso, inverse it (shift-ctrl-i) and use a big ol eraser with a soft edge to get rid of the parts that you don't want. Hope this helps.
Posted by Ian Stewart-Koster (Member # 3500) on :
I find the EASIEST way to get an irregular selection, is to use Quickmask- that's by clicking the box with a circle in it, which is almost at the bottom of the toolbar on the left.You then 'paint' in the areas you want to keep. You can alter the brush size as you go. To check how it's going,just click on the quickmask box beside that one,and the painted areas instantly become a 'marching-ants' selection.If not enough is selected, just click the other quickmask box, and keep painting or erasing, then click the first one to turn the painted bit into a selection. For a faded edge, go to select>feather (Ctrl-alt-D I think) and set the pixel blur range,and/or use the menu bar at the top.
Either that, or use the lasso, and trace the area with a mouse, and select the inverse.
The layer-mask icon (at the bottom of the layers pallette) is a really good feature for blending layers in making collages. I haven't heard the alphamask name for it though. Painting with black or white makes that picture opaque or transparent under the brush.
[ June 05, 2004, 10:04 AM: Message edited by: Ian Stewart-Koster ]
Posted by Dave Sherby (Member # 698) on :
Alan, your method worked great. You the man.
I know of several ways to make the irregular shape, but a nice oval, cameo shaped looked the best. I simply took the oval selection tool, made my oval, selected inverse, deleted it, then followed Alans steps via phone. Made the alpha mask, pulled it to the bottom of the layer pallette, selected a big honkin paintbrush with the feathered style, selected black for the color and set the opacity to around 60%. Went around the edge. Then I made a new white backgound, then cleaned it up a bit with the opacity at around 20%. Looked great.
Thanks again.
Posted by Alan Ackerson (Member # 3224) on :
You welcome Dave. It was a pleasure talking with you, getting to put the voice with the face is always kind of fun too.
![[Smile]](smile.gif)
![[Dunno]](graemlins/dunno.gif)
I swear I didn't do it?... it was set at 2 pixels)