practise makes perfect

icklemiss21

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We have some new people getting into making sigs / working with graphics so I thought it would help if we had a thread where we show how we fix photos to make them work better in sigs when the photo is not the best it could be to start with.

For each one, post your 'fixed' picture/graphic at no more than 600 px wide with a shirt description saying how you fixed it and what tools you used (as well as what graphic software you used to fix it so people do not try and look for a certain feature in another program). Each set of challenges will be open for say a week? Then we can discuss and have new ones the following week.

To begin we have Boomer, who is not in focus (see I take as many bad pics as other people, I just usually delete them). So this challenge is to repost the pic as clear as you can get it.


big version here

Then we have Magnum who is a pain to cut out, so try cutting him out and placing him on whatever background you please


bigger version here

Then we have Scully who is a little out of focus and has bad flash eyes, I have chosen one that is fairly easy to fix, and this is a common problem with siggy makes, so please have a try


bigger version here

and finally we have Bumper who is cut off on both sides, try using him in a sig sized graphic (you can use a plain background etc - just show how you would cut him out)


bigger version here

Obviously there are many other things we get to fix in sigs, so if anyone else has any other pics that we can use to fix up, PM them to me and I will make a new thread each week with some graphic challenges.
 

reesespbc

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I'll work on the others, but I wanted to start with Boomer.

With an out of focus/blurry picture, there isn't a WHOLE lot you can do, but you can definately make it sharper than the original.

I usually don't have to do this, I usually skip pictures that are out of focus unless I really don't have a choice. But what I did was I opened the picture, then went to FILTER -> SHARPEN -> UNSHARP MASK. I then played around with the settings until I found something acceptable. In the example below for instance I used the settings of:

Amount: 53%
Radius: 28.5 Pixels
Threshold: 0

 
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icklemiss21

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My method is similar to Reeses, I used the unsharp mask at 97% but I use a larger threadhold (15 levels) and a smaller radius (just 2px), I then make two copies of the original unsharpened layer, set the opacity to 25% and set the lower to screen and the upper to soft light which gives it a more natural look
 

reesespbc

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Ok, here we have Scully who was out of focus and had "pet eye".

Well first I got rid of some of the picture "noise" by going to FILTER -> NOISE -> DESPECKLE and running that filter about 3 times. That worked pretty well at getting rid of all the noise and smoothing out the picture.

Then, just like Boomer's picture I used FILTER -> SHARPEN -> UNSHARP MASK at about the same settings above to fix the out of focus aspect.

Amount: 53%
Radius: 29.1 Pixels
Threshold: 0%

Again, it's hard to make an out of focus picture look 100% in focus, so you have to do the best you can with it. Also, making the picture smaller helps with it looking not so out of focus. The original is obviously no where near the size you'd use for a signature. Even the size I'm posting here (200 Pixels wide) is still too large for a signature, but it helps the picture look even more in focus than if I just ran the filter and left it at the original size.

Now for the "pet eye" I did the following:

1) I created a new layer on top of the original picture.

2) I used the circle marquee tool and made sort of an oval shape to select the pupil as closely as possible.

3) I copied this selection and pasted it to the new layer.

4) I then went to IMAGE -> HUE/SATURATION and moved the lightness setting all the way down to turn the pupil black. Going to IMAGE -> BRIGHTNESS/CONTRAST would have done the same thing as well. I could have also left the selection in place and filled it with black, but this was easier.

5) I then went to FILTER -> BLUR -> GAUSSIAN BLUR and used a setting of about 1 pixel or so. Whatever looks good. Just something to soften the edges.

6) I then went to the layers window and adjusted the opacity down to about 95% to soften the pupil a bit and blend it more to the rest of the eye.

7) I then made another layer on top of the pupil layer and set my foreground color to white. Then, I chose a feathered brush of 4 pixels and used it to make a "glint" in the pupil of the eye. I didn't care where I put it initially because I just used the move command to move the glint where I wanted it on the eye. I then went back to FILTER -> BLUR -> GAUSSIAN BLUR and used a very small setting of about 0.6 pixels and set the layer opacity to 70% to soften the glint and blend it in a bit.

8) I repeated the process for the other eye.

I'm not sure how natural this looks, as it's the first time I've done it.

 
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icklemiss21

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Looks good, but it helps to go with the direction of the cat/light with the 'glint' so with that pic, the angele and the shadow tells you that the 'natural' glint would be top left side of the eye
 

reesespbc

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This is what I did for bumper. Because the left edge of the picture was washed out it was hard to see the shape in which to cut him out, so I basically just cut all the washed out area out so it leaves a rounded sort of shape to Bumper's left side. Then I used the blur tool at about 80% to soften the edges a bit and applied a drop shadow.

 

reesespbc

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Originally Posted by icklemiss21

Looks good, but it helps to go with the direction of the cat/light with the 'glint' so with that pic, the angele and the shadow tells you that the 'natural' glint would be top left side of the eye
Ok, good point
I'm not great with shadows and lighting direction yet.

I redid the glint. How is this?

 

reesespbc

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Originally Posted by HopeHacker

Here's what I'd do with the Scully picture.
What did you do to fix the focus and make the color of her fur more consistant?

We should probably try and be as specific as possible with how we've done things so those who may not know can learn from this as much as possible.
 

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Since I think my methods are relatively crude, I should be able to learn a lot from this thread.

I took on Bumper first -

I used the magnetic lasso to do a rough cut, then erased the rest. Blurred the edges a bit, duplicated the layer and changed the top one to soft light.
 

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Magnum -

first thing I did was remove the color cast.

I did another rough cut with the lasso tool, then cleaned it up with the eraser tool, blurred the edges, then used the smudge tool to give him back some fur, then blurred again, then duplicated the layer and changed the top one to soft light.
 

reesespbc

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Originally Posted by AbbysMom

Magnum -

first thing I did was remove the color cast.

I did another rough cut with the lasso tool, then cleaned it up with the eraser tool, blurred the edges, then used the smudge tool to give him back some fur, then blurred again, then duplicated the layer and changed the top one to soft light.
What do you mean by "color cast"?

Also when using the smudge tool, what brush did you use? I was working on him and I couldn't find a brush that worked well and looked realistic.
 

reesespbc

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Originally Posted by icklemiss21

Looks good
I just noticed that Scully is your cat? Would you personally have adjusted the pupil width depending on the lighting situation? More light = narrower pupil?
 

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Scully -



Just used a round default brush and colored the pupils black, then added the glint. Duplicated layer, changed top layer to soft light and lightened it a bit.
 
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icklemiss21

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Yes (regardless of who the cat belongs to LOL) but sometimes depending on how bad the flash is, that is almost impossible.
 

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Originally Posted by ReesesPBC

What do you mean by "color cast"?

Also when using the smudge tool, what brush did you use? I was working on him and I couldn't find a brush that worked well and looked realistic.
See how in the original picture the sunlight gave a golden color cast? I adjusted the color and removed it.


Just a regular round brush.
 
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icklemiss21

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My version of Bumper is similar to Karen's



I cut him out using magnetic lassoo
Feather - 3
Width - 5
Edge - 10
Freq - 97

I then duplicated the image 3 times, set all to 45% opacity. The first (and lowest) was set to screen and the two upper layers at soft light. I then used the preinstalled soft edged round brush at 13px to blur his fur on the original layer and used a soft light around the lower layers to give the glow
 

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wow, this is going to be just a great thread to help us 'newbies' learn more tricks. I definitely have a loooong way to go with PS especially with adjusting pics of kitties to make them look their absolute best. I will definitely be reading this thread more in depth tomorrow. keep those tips and tricks coming!
 
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icklemiss21

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First I cut out the whole eye, took another picture with a non flashed out eye and cut around the eye out of that picture and set it to a new layer. I cut and pasted that layer with the eye onto my document with Scully, behind his picture and used the Edit > Transform > Scale tool to resize it to fit. I did the same thing again for the second eye, using the original left eye I had cut from the other pic and used Edit > Transform > Rotate to get it to 'fit' properly.

I then duplicated the layer with scully and set it to soft light and used a large round soft edged brush to blur the lower layer

To get a more natural look for daytime rather than one the same size size, I would use the eye from the faded image in my sig:
 
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