clipping paths

Compared to what?

Sami

Roland wrote:

Does anyone have any suggestions for the easiest way to make clipping paths in Photoshop CS, or an after market plug-in? Thanks. Roland

On 1/8/05 6:03 PM, in article KCZDd.18$, "Roland" wrote:

Does anyone have any suggestions for the easiest way to make clipping paths in Photoshop CS, or an after market plug-in? Thanks. Roland

The easiest and fastest method of creating a clipping path will depend a lot on the content of the picture. If you have an object set against a flat, single color, contrasting background, the magic wand is usually the best way. The magnetic lasso is another way. But unless you have professional photo shots, this probably isn’t what you have to work with.

Most often I find the best method for me is to use the magic wand and make the initial selection as comprehensive as possible, tweaking the tolerance level until you get the best results, then changing to Quick Mask mode and finalizing the selection by painting with the paintbrush. Switch back to Painting mode and your selection will be ready for you to turn into a clipping path.
—
Jeff ‘The Wizard of Draws’ Bucchino

Cartoons with a Touch of Magic
http://www.wizardofdraws.com

More Cartoons with a Touch of Magic
http://www.cartoonclipart.com

Roland wrote:

Does anyone have any suggestions for the easiest way to make clipping paths in Photoshop CS, or an after market plug-in? Thanks. Roland

Use the Pen. Turning a selection into a Path is asking for trouble.

—
Comic book sketches and artwork:
http://www.sover.net/~hannigan/edjh.html
Comics art for sale:
http://www.sover.net/~hannigan/batsale.html

"edjh" wrote in message

Roland wrote:

Does anyone have any suggestions for the easiest way to make clipping

paths

in Photoshop CS, or an after market plug-in? Thanks. Roland

Use the Pen. Turning a selection into a Path is asking for trouble.

A way to reduce the "trouble" associated with selections to paths is to do all the work at a high resolution. Then, when you finally convert the selection to a path, it will scale down more accurately, than if it had been done at a lower resolution.

Depending on the path you wish to make, modifying the selection first (Select > Modify > Smooth) using "smooth" at about 2 to 6 pixels can cut way down on the number of anchor points in the final path, which makes further altering or modification of the path itself much easier and faster.

Peadge 🙂

On 1/8/05 7:25 PM, in article 1S_Dd.140$,
"edjh" wrote:

Roland wrote:

Does anyone have any suggestions for the easiest way to make clipping paths in Photoshop CS, or an after market plug-in? Thanks. Roland

Use the Pen. Turning a selection into a Path is asking for trouble.

I’ve never had any problems with that method. Can you elaborate? —
Jeff ‘The Wizard of Draws’ Bucchino

Cartoons with a Touch of Magic
http://www.wizardofdraws.com

More Cartoons with a Touch of Magic
http://www.cartoonclipart.com

"Wizard of Draws" wrote in message

On 1/8/05 7:25 PM, in article 1S_Dd.140$,
"edjh" wrote:

Roland wrote:

Does anyone have any suggestions for the easiest way to make clipping

paths

in Photoshop CS, or an after market plug-in? Thanks. Roland

Use the Pen. Turning a selection into a Path is asking for trouble.

I’ve never had any problems with that method. Can you elaborate? —
Jeff ‘The Wizard of Draws’ Bucchino

Hopefully, Ed will elaborate more specifically, but the only thing I can think of that "may" cause problems is making a small selection at a low resolution. One more possibility could deal with having empty "holes" in the selection, or a lot of diagonal directions (non-vertical or horizontal) to the selection which at low resolution could cause stair-stepping.

I use selections a lot myself and haven’t had any problems converting to paths. I find it fast and easy, but I would still enjoy seeing Ed’s caveats.

Peadge 🙂

Pen tool.

Steve

— faith \’fath\ n : firm belief in something for which there is no proof. Webster’s Dictionary

From: "Peadge"
Newsgroups: alt.graphics.photoshop
Date: Sat, 8 Jan 2005 17:44:18 -0800
Subject: Re: clipping paths

"Wizard of Draws" wrote in message

On 1/8/05 7:25 PM, in article 1S_Dd.140$,
"edjh" wrote:

Roland wrote:

Does anyone have any suggestions for the easiest way to make clipping

paths

in Photoshop CS, or an after market plug-in? Thanks. Roland

Use the Pen. Turning a selection into a Path is asking for trouble.

I’ve never had any problems with that method. Can you elaborate? —
Jeff ‘The Wizard of Draws’ Bucchino

Hopefully, Ed will elaborate more specifically, but the only thing I can think of that "may" cause problems is making a small selection at a low resolution. One more possibility could deal with having empty "holes" in the selection, or a lot of diagonal directions (non-vertical or horizontal) to the selection which at low resolution could cause stair-stepping.
I use selections a lot myself and haven’t had any problems converting to paths. I find it fast and easy, but I would still enjoy seeing Ed’s caveats.
Peadge 🙂

On 1/8/05 8:44 PM, in article , "Peadge"
wrote:

"Wizard of Draws" wrote in message

On 1/8/05 7:25 PM, in article 1S_Dd.140$,
"edjh" wrote:

Roland wrote:

Does anyone have any suggestions for the easiest way to make clipping

paths

in Photoshop CS, or an after market plug-in? Thanks. Roland

Use the Pen. Turning a selection into a Path is asking for trouble.

I’ve never had any problems with that method. Can you elaborate? —
Jeff ‘The Wizard of Draws’ Bucchino

Hopefully, Ed will elaborate more specifically, but the only thing I can think of that "may" cause problems is making a small selection at a low resolution. One more possibility could deal with having empty "holes" in the selection, or a lot of diagonal directions (non-vertical or horizontal) to the selection which at low resolution could cause stair-stepping.
I use selections a lot myself and haven’t had any problems converting to paths. I find it fast and easy, but I would still enjoy seeing Ed’s caveats.
Peadge 🙂

I can see that as a potential problem, but when I’m making selections intended for clipping paths, I’m always working on a high-res image so I’ve never seen any difficulties with the method.
Like you, I’m always open to a different view.
—
Jeff ‘The Wizard of Draws’ Bucchino

Cartoons with a Touch of Magic
http://www.wizardofdraws.com

More Cartoons with a Touch of Magic
http://www.cartoonclipart.com

Wizard of Draws wrote:

On 1/8/05 7:25 PM, in article 1S_Dd.140$,
"edjh" wrote:

Roland wrote:

Does anyone have any suggestions for the easiest way to make clipping paths in Photoshop CS, or an after market plug-in? Thanks. Roland

Use the Pen. Turning a selection into a Path is asking for trouble.

I’ve never had any problems with that method. Can you elaborate?

Me either. I use it all the time.

—

x theSpaceGirl (miranda)

# lead designer @ http://www.dhnewmedia.com #
# remove NO SPAM to email, or use form on website #

Wizard of Draws wrote:

On 1/8/05 8:44 PM, in article , "Peadge"
wrote:

"Wizard of Draws" wrote in message

On 1/8/05 7:25 PM, in article 1S_Dd.140$,
"edjh" wrote:

Roland wrote:

Does anyone have any suggestions for the easiest way to make clipping

paths

in Photoshop CS, or an after market plug-in? Thanks. Roland

Use the Pen. Turning a selection into a Path is asking for trouble.

I’ve never had any problems with that method. Can you elaborate? —
Jeff ‘The Wizard of Draws’ Bucchino

Hopefully, Ed will elaborate more specifically, but the only thing I can think of that "may" cause problems is making a small selection at a low resolution. One more possibility could deal with having empty "holes" in the selection, or a lot of diagonal directions (non-vertical or horizontal) to the selection which at low resolution could cause stair-stepping.
I use selections a lot myself and haven’t had any problems converting to paths. I find it fast and easy, but I would still enjoy seeing Ed’s caveats.
Peadge 🙂

I can see that as a potential problem, but when I’m making selections intended for clipping paths, I’m always working on a high-res image so I’ve never seen any difficulties with the method.
Like you, I’m always open to a different view.

In general I work at 300-600 ppi. If that’s not high enough then what resolution do you suggest? I have found that making selections into Paths always results in a sloppy path that has to be modified, which usually takes longer than it would to just make the path manually. And yes, most of the Clipping Paths I have made are non-horizontal/vertical. Usually they are around figures or complicated shapes.

You want the path to be tight, without points way outside or inside the edges of the image. I have yet to see a tight path made from a selection.

—
Comic book sketches and artwork:
http://www.sover.net/~hannigan/edjh.html
Comics art for sale:
http://www.sover.net/~hannigan/batsale.html

On 1/9/05 5:29 PM, in article DfiEd.174$,
"edjh" wrote:

I can see that as a potential problem, but when I’m making selections intended for clipping paths, I’m always working on a high-res image so I’ve never seen any difficulties with the method.
Like you, I’m always open to a different view.

In general I work at 300-600 ppi. If that’s not high enough then what resolution do you suggest? I have found that making selections into Paths always results in a sloppy path that has to be modified, which usually takes longer than it would to just make the path manually. And yes, most of the Clipping Paths I have made are non-horizontal/vertical. Usually they are around figures or complicated shapes.

You want the path to be tight, without points way outside or inside the edges of the image. I have yet to see a tight path made from a selection.

Using the Quick Mask and brush tools to make selections, I haven’t had any problem making clipping paths on ~400 dpi photos. One of the most complex clipping paths I’ve created was a tennis player with a racquet. Each of the strings was included in the clipped path, not just the entire racquet. A small brush and a lot of patience, but it worked. Making the same path with Pen tool would have been too much of a pain in the butt when you consider all that was needed with the Quick Mask method to clip each string was a single click at each end while holding down the shift key to constrain the brush to a straight line. Then a *little* touch up with the erase color to tighten it up. Usually I’ll invert the selection in Paint Mode, then go back into Quick Mask Mode again to see the opposite mask and see if it can be touched up even better.

My supervisor used to feel that the Pen tool was the way to go, but when he realized I could work twice as fast as him with no discernable difference in the clipped path, he saw the light. YMMV.
—
Jeff ‘The Wizard of Draws’ Bucchino

Cartoons with a Touch of Magic
http://www.wizardofdraws.com

More Cartoons with a Touch of Magic
http://www.cartoonclipart.com

wrote:

On 1/9/05 5:29 PM, in article DfiEd.174$,
"edjh" wrote:

I can see that as a potential problem, but when I’m making selections intended for clipping paths, I’m always working on a high-res image so I’ve never seen any difficulties with the method.
Like you, I’m always open to a different view.

In general I work at 300-600 ppi. If that’s not high enough then what resolution do you suggest? I have found that making selections into Paths always results in a sloppy path that has to be modified, which usually takes longer than it would to just make the path manually. And yes, most of the Clipping Paths I have made are non-horizontal/vertical. Usually they are around figures or complicated shapes.

You want the path to be tight, without points way outside or inside the edges of the image. I have yet to see a tight path made from a selection.

Using the Quick Mask and brush tools to make selections, I haven’t had any problem making clipping paths on ~400 dpi photos. One of the most complex clipping paths I’ve created was a tennis player with a racquet. Each of the strings was included in the clipped path, not just the entire racquet. A small brush and a lot of patience, but it worked. Making the same path with Pen tool would have been too much of a pain in the butt when you consider all that was needed with the Quick Mask method to clip each string was a single click at each end while holding down the shift key to constrain the brush to a straight line. Then a *little* touch up with the erase color to tighten it up. Usually I’ll invert the selection in Paint Mode, then go back into Quick Mask Mode again to see the opposite mask and see if it can be touched up even better.
My supervisor used to feel that the Pen tool was the way to go, but when he realized I could work twice as fast as him with no discernable difference in the clipped path, he saw the light. YMMV.
—
Jeff ‘The Wizard of Draws’ Bucchino
Cartoons with a Touch of Magic