There are tons of ways to perfect your selection making. I have to venture a start, though, since I didn’t see you mention QuickMask. It’s one of the single most helpful selection tools I’ve learned. Have you as of yet touched on the brilliance that is QuickMask?
~Em
To soften the edges of selections, paint with a soft brush in Quick Mask mode, or, use Select > Feather, or, apply a Gaussian Blur to a Quick Mask/Alpha Channel. Also try experimenting with the Background Eraser tool.
Another interesting technique is to use the Extract Filter. Then use a blur brush and trace it.
I’m going to try these suggestions. I already see the value of your comments. I had already used quick mask but had not seen far enough along to implement said suggestions. Thanks for bringing me full circle. Derek.
If the options of your selection tool does not have anti-aliased checked, this certainly could result in rough edges.
Having lots and lots of pixels makes the process smoother–maybe a bit easier, too. It’s easier to believably cut out around an object, if that object is floating in a sea of tiny pixels. Reduce the resolution later for output, if necessary.
thanks again. I really appreciate this forum. I hope I can help someone some day.
derek,
you help now by posting and resolving your problems here rather than in some other more private way so that others w/the same problem in the future will see this thread and maybe find a fix.
thank you!
dave
The mighty pen tool is the answer to your dilemma. Read about it, practice with it, go down to your local service bureau and offer to pay one hour of shop time to watch an experienced user demonstrate it’s capabilities to you. Get a Wacom tablet if you want to become a successful Photoshop person. Within a few weeks you will be on track and you will never look back.
Best Wishes,
Ken
PS: once you have mastered the pen tool, come back here and we will tell you the many tricks you can do with your outlined images.
Ken,
The pen tool could be much better. It’s spline modifiers are years (at least 5 years to be exact) behind (3D studio Max for instance). The sad thing is that Photoshop only needs to worry about 2 Dimensions yet it makes a simple task much more complex than it needs to be.
Sorry Adobe but using the pen tool is just painful when you know how powerful it could be. Take some lessons from the competition.
Ken,
What exactly is a Wacom tablet? That box you draw on? Also, do you know of any Adobe services based in Houston? The last time I checked it out, only Austin offered the ACE programs. I appreciate it.
