Comments on: Tutorial : How To Do A Precise Selection!

By: Adrian

Adrian — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 18:55:02 +0000

Hm…
I haven’t used a gradient tool for masking. I will give it a try.
Thank you!

By: Zul

Zul — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 17:45:02 +0000

Well, if you’re working on a complicated image, then you’d have to do some complicated masking… If I’m understanding you correctly, you’d probably need to do some minor (and careful) masking with the gradient tool to achieve what you want…

All the best!

By: Adrian

Adrian — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 17:29:33 +0000

Thanks!
I’ve considered your approach, but sometimes the feathered brush is not a solution. This is usually when the object you are separating has a logical direction of lines and some gradually changing or constant width – in such cases the small irregularities in the lines direction or width are pretty obvious even on 50% magnification.

By: Zul

Zul — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 17:06:50 +0000

Adrian :

Well, sometimes you have to make a(n artistic) judgment call. Most of the time, I just get rid of the parts which are out of focus. That is, the “new” edge would be the nearest solid area after the blurry parts. Most times this would work well enough.

If you really want to maintain as much of the unfocused area as you can, then what I usually do is use a feathered brush to mask those boundaries. It’s tedious, but that’s what you have to do to be a perfectionist.

Cheers!

By: Adrian

Adrian — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 14:54:24 +0000

Hi,
I’ve been cutting a lot lately and I am familiar with those methods.

However can you explain how do you cut areas of objects which are out of focus and blurry on a noncontrast background?

(You see, the bounadries of such areas are sometimes impossible to discern when zoomed to 800%.)

By: Pancakes

Pancakes — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 13:30:27 +0000

ok, lol i found another way to make the background black and white but it isnt as good as your technique. lol

By: Pancakes

Pancakes — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 12:44:56 +0000

lol, i’m not. its just a typo. its supposed to be “got the hang of it”. hehehe

is this how you change the color of the background to black and white? because if it is, then mine is not working. when i apply the gradient it isnt fully black and white even if i change the opacity. =(

By: Zul

Zul — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 12:07:54 +0000

Pancakes :

Erm, are you mocking my detailed tutorial? lol. If you’re not, here’s how to do it :

Create a new layer above your photograph, and using the Gradient Tool (shortcut button G), left-click on one part of your new layer to set where to start the gradient, and drag the left-click until the point you want the gradient to end before you release the left-click.

The trick is to set one end of the gradient a colour, and the other end a 0% opacity so that the gradient fades nicely into your photo. Click on the gradient image on the toolbar to change it!

Cheers!

By: Pancakes

Pancakes — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 11:55:11 +0000

thanks, and i have the handle of it except i dont know how you applied the gradient

By: Zul

Zul — Sun, 30 Aug 2009 14:03:29 +0000

izuan, glad to have helped!

By: izuan

izuan — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 18:25:21 +0000

salam.. thanks.
i was looking for this technique using photoshop for quite a time. thanks again.