Just for Beginners, post your questions, ask for help, get opinions...
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John, the tutorial is great. I'm a visual learner, so the photos really helped me, plus the directions are simple and clear.

Reka, thanks again for the information about feathering. I remember once when I was practicing seeing it set at 40. Even though I didn't know what it meant at the time I reset it to zero. Then somewhere along the line it got set back to 40. Maybe when I did an undo. I'll watch it closer from now on.

Michel, I appreciate the tip about keeping the history palette open while adjusting the histogram. I had not discovered I could do that.

I think I can get a handle on using the histogram and selection tools now, with some practice. Then I'll come back with more questions.

:thanks:

alpha
Keep at it and holler if you need to,

One thing to understand is that the Levels adjustment acts to stretch out or change the histogram as you apply it.

If you move the white slider to the left (brighten) to the tail area of the histogram and the click OK, the histogram you will see look at the Histogram window will be the "stretched out" histogram that you have selected.
John
By the way

There is a neat feature of the levels adjustment that works for both blacks and whites sliders.

If you press and hold the Alt key, then click on the white slider and start to move left, the screen image will turn Black and as you continue to slide left, it will start to turn white in spots. These white spots are the points in the picture where the image is being re-scored or upgraded to pure white. Pure white is where clipping will occur - i.e. you have lost detail and your choice in many cases is or should be "So what". Slide left (in the case of whites) until the picture looks right or until you start to see clipping occurring where you don't want it to occur.

For the black slide, ALt + mouse click turns the screen white and starts to turn to black as clipping occurs.

Some times I adjust for looks, sometimes for clipping avoidance. Practice will tell you what is right for you.
John
There's no exact science to making selections. Everybody here has "methods" that work for them. As previously noted, very seldom will you be able to select one single selection tool and make your entire selection with that. It's usually: pick a tool, make initial selection, pick another tool and "clean it up".

Pay attention to the place up at the top where you tell the selection tool what it is supposed to be doing when you are attempting to clean up your initial selection.

selections.jpg
selections.jpg (162.49 KiB) Viewed 1021 times


I get screwed up all the time when I have the wrong one selected. Just rest your cursor ovet the "blocks" and it will tell you which one is which. In this instance i made an initial, rough selection with the lasso. Now I would go back with maybe the polygon tool, or maybe still the lasso, to pick out the edges I want to Remove from selection and, when I screw up and remove something I want to keep, switch over to Add to selection to put that piece back in.

You will find that the Magnetic lasso tool seldom works well (at least for me) unless you have something with sharp, defined edges along with good contrast in color or luminosity. Otherwise, it just gets lost and jitters around.

Practice, practice, practice :biggrin:

Rusty
There is a very fine line between "hobby" and "mental illness" - Dave Barry

If your pictures aren't good enough, you're not close enough. - Robert Capa

www.prestophoto.com/photos/gallery/19932
14 posts Page 2 of 2

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