A Digital Demo--Page Five, Selection Paths and Effects
Kalamazoo College
Richard Koenig

Office Location: Light Fine Arts 203, Phone: 337.7003

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More on Selection & Effects










selection using magic wand, quick mask, paths, & intro to layer effects

copy the above four pics to "visifun" folder for use in these tutorials





selection using magic wand
    open "littlerich.jpg" and "house.jpg"
    let's work on "rich" first
    tool box, click on the magic wand tool--look up at options bar for any options for any particular tool
    set the tolerance at 30 and put a check in the anti-alias box
    touch the tool on the background of the pic
    look at the marching ants--the background has been selected

    let's say you want to select Richard instead of the background--menu bar, select, inverse
    let's also say you want to make the edge soft--so it your subject will blend nicely against a new background:
    options bar, refine edges, feather, set at 1 pixel
    this softening of a selection can also be set on the options palette with some tools such as marquee and the lasso

    let's see the effect:
    while rich is selected, use the copy command
    click on "house" paste him down
    move him to the corner with the move tool
    at this point you could color figure (warm) and ground (cool) if you like
    when happy, flatten (apple "e")







selection using paths



creating a path
    this is good when you need to make curves
    it is also a way to save a selection and it won't take as much room--object oriented

    work on the little crustacean once again ("crustwo.jpg" this time)
    re-grab from the web page if you've not got a clean copy
    look at the layers palette, click on paths tab
    look for tiny pull-down menu on that palette
    say "new path"
    "path 1" is ok

    first, use apple "+" to make the image larger
    tool box, pen tool, click around the edge of the jar
    use normally and you will get straight-line selections
    quickly rough out a path around the jar
    notice how the cursor changes when the circuit is complete
    look at the paths palette--you can name this path or photoshop will call it "path 1"
    you can discard the path like a layer now

    let's try a curve now--click, move mouse, click again but hold down and drag one way or the other--you can follow the contour of an object this way
    this will make a continuous curve, not too useful here, but we'll come back to it

    and now for non-continuous curves:

    • after making curve, let up of mouse

    • hold down option key, go back to last anchor point and click--the directional handle will disappear

    • now you can change direction and continue your little trip around the vessel

    notice once again when you come all the way around to see small circle by cursor when circuit is complete.
making the selection
    paths palette, make selection, don't feather this one
    copy and paste this in "earth.jpg"
    saving this file will save the path for future use

    if you're having a rough time with paths, grab this version of the picture, crustw.jpg--it should have the path saved with it



more on layers, effects, and "transform"




creating some effects
    with the vessel on the earth image, go to menu bar, layer, layer style, drop shadow
    make sure the proper layer is active--the layer palatte is with the path palatte: look at the little tabs
    use these settings

      opacity 75%

      distance 30
      spread 30
      size 30
distort the effects
    to do this we need to move the effects of this layer to a new layer--the effects only
    menu bar, layer, layer style, create layer
    a new layer with appear with only the drop shadow on it
    select that new layer
    now go to menu bar, edit, transform, distort
    grab the box at the top and shift to the right to make it look like the shadow recedes into distance
    hit enter to finish the transform
color the earth
    select background layer and tint with a color (remember, image may be grayscale, make rgb under menu bar, image, mode if need be)
    flatten the image and save

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