Photoshop contest,help the noobs pls

Discussion Open Forum
1

that thread got me to buy photoshop C2

i followed some of the tutorials,and i had a look online for “simple” steps,but all of them speak in geeky language…

i tried a link offered by dragonbone and it was pretty good explanations, however it’s not enough.

i’ll send the ball rolling with this Q:

the clone stamp tool is pretty usefull for erasing some small part of a picture,however, for a larger part (imagine a brick wall, you want to erase a window…)it’s time consuming and the result isn’t perfect.

what would be good is to crop a part of the brick wall,then paste it where the window is…

how do i do that???

(told ya it was a noob question :smiley: :blush: )

2

Why don’t you post the picture, so we can help you out. There might be other ways to do it.

3

ok but if you do it for me…where do i learn?

4

here are the 2 pics

i wanted to cut the sky from this

and replace it with the sky in this

5

Let me do it, and I’ll write a tutorial for you.

6

cheers

7

OK, nothing fancy.
1 duplicate your background layer (the queen one)
2 use the magic wand to select the sky, Shift click to add to your selection so you have the whole sky.
3 go to edit and cut.
4 go to your sunset and press ctrl A or command A for Mac, this will select your whole picture.
5 go back to your queen picture and Edit-copy.
6 drag the sunset layer below the queen layer.
7 Edit-free tranform and hold shift and drag the sunset to the size of the queen image. position it and click enter.
Basically you are done, but you could add another step, go to Layer, New adjustement layer and photo filter.
Click on the orange icon and choose the color you like for the filter, more or less your sky color, adjust the density and click OK.
Voila, again nothing fancy but will do the trick.
Hope that helps.

8

[quote=“dablindfrog”]

what would be good is to crop a part of the brick wall,then paste it where the window is…

how do i do that???

(told ya it was a noob question :smiley: :blush: )[/quote]

Try the “patch” tool. (right click on the healing brush and select the patch tool from under it)

Use any of the selection methods to make a selection of the window. (basically, draw an outline around the window making it the only active part of the image). Choose the patch tool (you could also make the selection with the patch tool), then drag the selection over the brick wall. PS will then perform a calculation that will essentially replace the window with the bricks.

9

here is an example with the clone stamp tool, that took 2 minutes:

10

[quote=“igorveni”]
[/quote]You added the mountains too! DBF asked for the sky dude. Only the sky! :stuck_out_tongue: Get back to work you slacker! :wink:

11

Dablindfrog, if there were any steps there you couldn’t follow, just let us know and we’ll walk you through it. :slight_smile:

BTW, did your Photoshop come with a tutorial on the CD? If so, you’ll want to invest some time using it, and perhaps also pick up a book like thisand do an hour a day for a couple of months. It’s not easy software, just because it’s so powerful and flexible, so you should expect to spend some time learning it before you’re proficient. It’s a lot like karate … you have to spend a long time practicing it before you’re a black belt. But it’s fun learning along the way! :slight_smile:

12

he did?

13

There’s a computer bookstore on Chongqing S Rd that has a lot of PS books in English. The store is across from the Thai restaurant near 228 park. I think there’s a Chinatrust bank on the corner. It’d be worth your time to go in and have a browse through some of the books. Authors to look for include Martin Evening, Bruce Fraser, Scott Kelby, Andrew Rodney, Katrin Eismann, Russell Brown and Matt Kloskowski. All are PS gurus, one or more good PS books are a must, IMHO.

14

In Photoshop, there’s usually more than one way to skin a cat. Here’s another:

1.Choose the rectangular marquee tool (top left) or any other selection tool.
2. Use it to select a suitable area of the brick wall (we say ‘select’, not ‘crop’ :wink: ). I chose the top right area of the wall.
3. Ctrl-C for Copy (or go to Edit – Copy), then Ctrl-V for Paste (or Edit > Paste)
This has created a copy of the selected brick wall area, in a new layer atop the rest of the picture (like a transparency sitting atop the main pic). You can see these layers if you open the Layers window via Windows > Layers (F7).

Next you want to drag this pasted overlayer to the window area. Hold down ctrl and drag the mouse from the selected brick wall area. You’ll see the pasted image slid over the top of the pic. Move it into place over the window. Line it up so the bricks are suitably placed.

Now to get rid of the sharp edges of the overlayer, select the Eraser tool (left column, 6th tool). Go up to the tool presets bar, which is the bar just below the File/Edit/Image words. Where it says Brush and then it has a round dot and a number, click the down arrow. Select a fuzzy-edged brush (2nd group), of about 21 diameter. Go further right to opacity, and select about a 50 or 60, which means it will make the erased area transparent with fuzzy, soft edges, ideal for blending layers.

Go to the pasted overlay, and gently erase some of the edges to try to get it to blend into the pic better. If you erase too far into the window area, the dark window will show. Use UNDO or step backward to undo the erasing if you go too far. (Edit menu) Experiment with brush sizes and opacities until you get the effect you want. Don’t be afraid to play around and screw up – that’s how you learn.

Finally, if you really want to get it perfect, since the bricks you copied might be lighter or darker than those surrounding the window area, you might not get a perfect match. Just use ctrl-L or Image > Adjustments > Levels to open the Levels window, and pull the center arrow right or left to adjust the brightness of the pasted area until it matches perfectly.

If the alignment is still a little off (since the brick wall is a bit wavy), you might want to rotate the pasted area slightly (Ctrl T or Edit > Free Transform, then move the cursor outside the box which appears, and drag clockwise or counterclockwise for a slight adjustment; hit Enter when you’ve got it right.

Layer > Flatten Image will then collapse your two layers into one pic, and you can save it. Here’s my result: Just a quickie of course, so it’s not perfect, but you get the idea.

15

[quote=“igorveni”]OK, nothing fancy.yeah thanks…makes me feel even more nooby :frowning:
1 duplicate your background layer (the queen one) ok
2 use the magic wand to select the sky, Shift click to add to your selection so you have the whole sky. done that
3 go to edit and cut. done this too(i get chequered sky on the duplicated icon at bottom right of screen…)
4 go to your sunset and press ctrl A or command A for Mac, this will select your whole picture. done that too
5 go back to your queen picture and Edit-copy. rodger that too…
6 drag the sunset layer below the queen layer. now that’s where it’s not going right…
[/quote]

not sure why,but when i drag it, should it appear as sunset already,then i make the slight position changes???

really tough

i see the potential for a lot of fun and many usefull work applications,but i guess i better get one of them books suggested above… :blush:

16

[quote=“igorveni”]he did?
[/quote]

that’s what i wanted
:bravo:

17

thanks DB,brickwall wise i tried the 1st way,and it was a doodle, your way might be usefull in the future for a different subject.

thanks a lot everyone,let’s keep the tricks coming

18

Go to Window > Layer to ensure you have the layer window open. You should see that the sunset pic is higher than (i.e., in a layer above) the queen image. In the Layer window (not the main image window), grab that layer and drag it down to below the queen image, and the layers will swap sequence; the sunset will now be below the queen.

19

20

i’m surprised that the “rectangular marquee tool” doesn’t select a custom area,or can i make it do custom selects?

anyway,more of that tomorrow