Selecting things your best friends are the History list on screen, the spacebar used along with the left shift key, and the left alt key. Your worst enemy is that stinking piece of dog dung bill gates stuck in between the left ctrl and the left alt key. If you can get a nice new keyboard that will allow you to program the keys, you can disable that @3$%^$#@% thing.
Ok rant out of the way, here is why. Holding the left shift key depressed adds a little + sign by the selection tool you are using. That means you can add to your existing selection with your mouse without loosing the already selected area. Holding the alt key depressed while you use a selection tool will put a little – sign by the selection cursor. That will allow you to select things already selected to be removed from your selection. Pressing the space bar and the hand pops up so you can move your image around on the screen for closer attention. Holding the control key depressed with the spacebar will let you zoom into the image without loosing your selection. Holding the alt key depressed along with spacebar will let you zoom back without loosing your selection. All very nice and wonderful for making very precise selections. If you screw up, just back up a step in the history menu.
BUT!!! If while you are paying close attention to your picture, your fingers accidentally press that %^&%$#*&^#% dirty rotten SOBing piece of crap foisted on us by the Gates gang in between the alt and ctrl on the left side, you pop up that useless piece of sh*t menu and loose all of your work to date when you have to leave photoshop to get rid of it. Same goes for that silly damn spacebar alt key when the alt key is pressed first crap. At least pressing escape dumps that without loosing anything.
R. Joanne Johnson wrote:
"Shishimai" wrote in message
Try this: hold down the space bar, which turns the cursor into a hand,
allowing
you to yank the image in any direction. When you release the space bar,
your
Mag Lass work will still be there, and you can continue where you left
off.
You don’t need to touch the sliders to move an image in CS.
Now, if anyone has any suggestions on how to *draw* smoothly and cleanly
with
this tool, I’d love to see them. <g> When I use it, no matter how
carefully
or slowly I go, it grabs bits and pieces I don’t really want, and I really can’t understand why.
Shishimai
Might add that the Space Bar thing works with any tool(paintbrush, pen, etc.) you are using and need to change the position of the canvas.
I agree about the Magnetic Lasso…it ALWAYS grabs stuff I don’t want and sometimes
just closes itself before I want it to do that.
That makes no sense to me, the magentic pen tool isnt configurable that I can see, unless it pulls its settings from the mag lasso which I doubt, because mine works like shit while my mag lasso works fine.
"Don Belgum" wrote in message
At best the magnetic lasso is a crude tool. Use the pen tool instead, in much the same way and when you have finished and joined the ends, right click and you will find an option to turn it into a selection instead of a path – with a little practice it is tons better than the lasso. Don
Not sure what you mean about having to leave photoshop to get rid of the windows pop up. Just hitting escape gets rid of mine, hit ctrl z and theres your selection back.
"Bob G" wrote in message
Selecting things your best friends are the History list on screen, the spacebar used along with the left shift key, and the left alt key. Your worst enemy is that stinking piece of dog dung bill gates stuck in between the left ctrl and the left alt key. If you can get a nice new keyboard that will allow you to program the keys, you can disable that @3$%^$#@% thing.
Ok rant out of the way, here is why. Holding the left shift key depressed adds a little + sign by the selection tool you are using. That means you can add to your existing selection with your mouse without loosing the already selected area. Holding the alt key depressed while you use a selection tool will put a little – sign by the selection cursor. That will allow you to select things already selected to be removed from your selection. Pressing the space bar and the hand pops up so you can move your image around on the screen for closer attention. Holding the control key depressed with the spacebar will let you zoom into the image without loosing your selection. Holding the alt key depressed along with spacebar will let you zoom back without loosing your selection. All very nice and wonderful for making very precise selections. If you screw up, just back up a step in the history menu.
BUT!!! If while you are paying close attention to your picture, your fingers accidentally press that %^&%$#*&^#% dirty rotten SOBing piece of crap foisted on us by the Gates gang in between the alt and ctrl on the left side, you pop up that useless piece of sh*t menu and loose all of your work to date when you have to leave photoshop to get rid of it. Same goes for that silly damn spacebar alt key when the alt key is pressed first crap. At least pressing escape dumps that without loosing anything.
R. Joanne Johnson wrote:
"Shishimai" wrote in message
Try this: hold down the space bar, which turns the cursor into a hand,
allowing
you to yank the image in any direction. When you release the space bar,
your
Mag Lass work will still be there, and you can continue where you left
off.
You don’t need to touch the sliders to move an image in CS.
Now, if anyone has any suggestions on how to *draw* smoothly and cleanly
with
this tool, I’d love to see them. <g> When I use it, no matter how
carefully
or slowly I go, it grabs bits and pieces I don’t really want, and I
really
can’t understand why.
Shishimai
Might add that the Space Bar thing works with any tool(paintbrush, pen, etc.) you are using and need to change the position of the canvas.
I agree about the Magnetic Lasso…it ALWAYS grabs stuff I don’t want
and
sometimes
just closes itself before I want it to do that.
Does no one notice that the magnetic lasso jumps to wherever you used the hand tool to push the viewed image area?? It seems that the tip of using the navigation window is the safest way to scroll the image when the lasso tool is active. Maybe I am blowing it, but using the hand tool ruins my lasso selections nodes.
"Bob G" wrote in message
Selecting things your best friends are the History list on screen, the spacebar used along with the left shift key, and the left alt key. Your worst enemy is that stinking piece of dog dung bill gates stuck in between the left ctrl and the left alt key. If you can get a nice new keyboard that will allow you to program the keys, you can disable that @3$%^$#@% thing.
Ok rant out of the way, here is why. Holding the left shift key depressed adds a little + sign by the selection tool you are using. That means you can add to your existing selection with your mouse without loosing the already selected area. Holding the alt key depressed while you use a selection tool will put a little – sign by the selection cursor. That will allow you to select things already selected to be removed from your selection. Pressing the space bar and the hand pops up so you can move your image around on the screen for closer attention. Holding the control key depressed with the spacebar will let you zoom into the image without loosing your selection. Holding the alt key depressed along with spacebar will let you zoom back without loosing your selection. All very nice and wonderful for making very precise selections. If you screw up, just back up a step in the history menu.
BUT!!! If while you are paying close attention to your picture, your fingers accidentally press that %^&%$#*&^#% dirty rotten SOBing piece of crap foisted on us by the Gates gang in between the alt and ctrl on the left side, you pop up that useless piece of sh*t menu and loose all of your work to date when you have to leave photoshop to get rid of it. Same goes for that silly damn spacebar alt key when the alt key is pressed first crap. At least pressing escape dumps that without loosing anything.
R. Joanne Johnson wrote:
"Shishimai" wrote in message
Try this: hold down the space bar, which turns the cursor into a hand,
allowing
you to yank the image in any direction. When you release the space bar,
your
Mag Lass work will still be there, and you can continue where you left
off.
You don’t need to touch the sliders to move an image in CS.
Now, if anyone has any suggestions on how to *draw* smoothly and cleanly
with
this tool, I’d love to see them. <g> When I use it, no matter how
carefully
or slowly I go, it grabs bits and pieces I don’t really want, and I
really
can’t understand why.
Shishimai
Might add that the Space Bar thing works with any tool(paintbrush, pen, etc.) you are using and need to change the position of the canvas.
I agree about the Magnetic Lasso…it ALWAYS grabs stuff I don’t want
and
sometimes
just closes itself before I want it to do that.
In the image that I have posted here: <
http://homepage.mac.com/krstone/samplelasso.JPG> there is a blond boy in the bottom right corner whose image I want to select with the magnetic lasso tool. I can select the rough edges with this tool but I am having trouble closing his selected image with the straight edges on the right and bottom.
How do I close his image with both his irregular outline and the straight edges of the picture? I find that the magnetic lasso keeps indenting a few pixels from the edge of the image.
I hope that I have explained my question.
Thanks
ken
Hi Ken….
I see what you mean. I would suggest that once you’ve used the magnetic lasso, switch to the regular freehand selection tool and ensuring that you have Add to Selection set, just go over the R.H. and bottom edges of the shot to add this part in.
Colin
A neat little trick is you can temporary switch types of lasso being used while drawing with the magnetic lasso. Hold down the alt key to temporarily change lasso type. (Reg lasso= alt and drag, polygonal=alt click.) When alt key is released the magnetic lasso you originally were using is back.
Terri
Thanks Terri. I have saved this tip for future reference: it sounds very useful.
BarbO
Also, when you are using the lasso tool near the edges of an image, it sometimes helps to enlarge the work are so that you can see the gray area beyond the image. I’ve had better luck with more room around the image.
Dick
The magnetic lasso tool often can’t follow the edge you want it to. The other lasso tools rely on a steady hand, which I don’t have, so I always clean up my lasso selections with the selection brush. Enlarge the image nice and big, set a suitable brush size (depending on how fiddly the detail shape is) and it’s quite easy to correct your rough efforts made with the lasso tools.
The polygonal lasso tool is another possibility, you just do a series of clicks for the anchor at short intervals around the perimeter. One can let go of the mouse button and retain status quo.
Using CS2. I’m not new to PS, but I’ve only used an older version to do the most basic of functions–crop, resize, sharpen, etc. So, my knowledge is VERY limited.
I’m currently shooting jewelry, and using lasso to select an area–such as a stone in a ring, to sharpen, adjust color, etc. Tracing an area with lasso is tedious and slow. I just acquired a Wacom 6×8 tablet. It makes tracing easier, but, at least for me, it’s still very slow. Some rings have multiple stones, and they are quite a lot of work. The shape tools, especially the elliptical tool, would be much faster for selecting an area for editing, but I’m unable to make it work. Apparently those tools perform a function I’m not familiar with.
Is there any way to accomplish what I’m trying to do?
Thanks!
Phil
Is there any way to accomplish what I’m trying to do?
Only about a hundred. Seriously.
You can try quick mask – activated from the tools palette it allows you to paint a selection in with a brush. You can use it to tweak or fine tune a selection you’ve made by other means, or you can use it to create the entire selection.
The Pen Tool is closer to what you’re doing now, with the added benefit of tweaking your lines, but it’s still tedious.
If the object is on a solid background, you can use Magic Wand to try and select the background, invert the selection, then tweak the ring.
So if you post an example of what you’re trying to isolate, you may get better help, just tell us the link to where you post the picture.
Keep in mind, that selecting/isolating objects is a developed talent, and no one size fits all.
Peace,
Tony
Tony,
Thanks for the response!
This is not a very good pic, but it’s a good example of what I’m typically working with. How would I select a single diamond to edit?
Phil
Phil,
Not an answer to your question, but a tip from an aging Fellow of the Gemmological Association…<g>
Idealy diamomd needs to be photographed with a point light source. Only then will you get the proper sparkle and specular colours from the high IR of diamond. Unfortunately, this itends to be fairly lethal for the setting quality, so it’s not unusal to make two exposures for diamond-set pieces, one with point-light source and one with difuse lighting and combine them.
Duh! Well a quick glance at the manual solved my problem. It has a page that groups the tools into categories. I had been trying to use the shape tool which is intended for drawing. The Marquee tool was listed as a selection tool, and I just tried it and it does exactly what I need to do. I use the marquee tool for cropping (I like it better than the actual cropping tool), so I lost site of it’s actual function.
Len,
I’ve shot a lot of jewelry in the past and know all too well what hard lighting does to the metal. I have some small LED lights that I experimented with as direct lights in combination with my diffused light. It worked ok, but the LED lights are very blue and it throws the color balance way off. I just bought some LEDs off ebay that were suppose to be 5000K, but they throw a spot that’s part blue and part yellow-green. Simply horrible looking. I’m waiting to here from a guy that supposedly can help me find suitable LEDs.
I’m shooting tethered with the camera mounted, so the thought of combining two photos had crossed my mind. Knowing so little about PS, I wasn’t sure it was even possible, and assumed at very best, it would be extremely difficult. What aspect of PS do I need to study to learn how to do that?
PS: I’ve had a little success using semi diffused light and sharpening the crap out of it. The drawback is it only works on certain pieces. Not anything a knowledgeable photographer would be impressed with, but I’ve got a lot of compliments from normal people.
The problem here is, your background. The only way to isolate the your items efficiently is to change the background color when you shoot. Then you can place them on any background you wish, later. But as it is, especially with the gradient, it makes it difficult to select the background so as to isolate the object. You need more contrast to do it effectively.
Peace,
Tony
Hex,
and assumed at very best, it would be extremely difficult.<<
No, it’s quite easy…
As Photoshop supports layers, you can have both images superimposed. Then it’s a matter of deleting the area of the stones from the soft-lit shot on the uper layer leaving the hard-lighted stones visible. You can even use a layer mask rather than deleting so it remains editable.
As to the hard light source, it really needs to be continuous spectrum, something like a high-intensity halogen – a slide projector bulb in a tiny reflector works well as do the small halogen spots used for shop window display.
Sorry for the late reply. Busy week.
Tony,
I actually like the fading background, but now that you point it out, there isn’t enough contrast in forefront of the photo. I’ll see what I can do about that.
Len,
Actually the LEDs are a lot brighter than you would think. The problem is the color of the light, which would also be a problem for me with halogen lights. I’m using constant 5000K florescent lighting. MK Digital makes a setup for this purpose: <
http://www.mkdigitaldirect.com/LED-lighting/products/mk-mini -lite-350-2-gooseneck_LED_lighting.htm> . I bought a couple of these for $20 each: <
http://www.pegasusassociates.com/BarbecueLightLED.jsp> . I just need to find true 5000K LEDs to replace the very blue LEDs in barbecue lights and I should be good to go.
I haven’t had much time, but did figure out how to do layers as you suggested. My table isn’t stable enough. It moves when I change my lighting. Once I get that sorted out I’ll report back.
