Well, *this* will save me some time...
.
I have plans to finish Fandom Snowflake, by my muse hijacked me with another cover idea. Okay, that will fill in the "create a fanwork" part of the challenge, but there's a lot of bits and pieces, so it will take a few days.
The thing is, I use Photoshop Elements, which is less flexible than the full Photoshop, and I use an older version -- 9, I think; I bought the program outright, when that was still a thing. I don't need much more flexibility than I already have, and I refuse to pay a yearly subscription fee to be allowed to use the newer versions. But, many times, I don't know what I don't know, so I make things harder for myself.
My method is to choose my elements (cup of coffee, plate of cookies, whatever), then use a neutral color to paint over the entire background of stuff that I don't want in my finished cover. When that's done, I can tell PS to "erase" (make transparent) everything of this color. Then I can "slide" that image onto the background I've chosen, and play with sizing and positioning until I'm satisfied.
The really time-consuming part is painting next to the edges of the item in question. I have to enlarge the picture hugely and use a tiny "brush" -- 10 to 25 pixels, depending on the degree of enlargement -- and creep along the edge of the item, trying to produce a smooth line. It ain't easy; my finger tends to drag on the mousepad of my laptop, and my stylus control is shaky; I have less smooth lines when I try to use one. I even bought a mechanical mouse, thinking that would help, but it didn't. So I just go slow, then enlarge even more to smooth out the 'bumps', one click at a time.
For most picture-elements I've chosen, there's no other way; the edges are irregular (someone's hair, a leaf, a cookie), and the standard round "brush" -- which may hit the edge of the element with only 3-5 pixels is okay. (Though if I had my way, the brush would be pen-nib shaped instead of round -- 3-5 pixels at a point, with the "brush" streaming back from that point in a kind of V-shape, or even a U. A round shape makes it hard to get into the teeny spaces, like between tufts of hair.)
But occasionally, I need to clean a straight-edge -- the side of a building, or a book, or something similar. Making a perfectly straight line with a round "brush" is impossible, at least for me. Gee, if I had a square brush, I could click-move, line up-click-move, etc, etc. So I went Googling to see if I could find a square brush.
<sigh> I found that it should be possible... if I had a newer version of Elements, or the full PS program. The problem is, even when I specify "Elements" in my search, many of the articles I click on are giving directions for the full program. <sigh>
But then I stumbled across this wonderful hint:
To draw a straight line, click a starting point in the image.
Then hold down Shift and click an ending point.
Wheeeee!!!
All of a sudden, straight edges are so easy; my time to clean those edges has decreased by at least 75%. I still have to line up carefully, or try again when I wasn't quite close enough, or do it in short sections because it's not completely straight, but it's a huge time-saver. My current cover has straight edges on two pens and a notebook. (But it's spiral bound; cleaning between those spirals is a real treat.)
I'm so pleased to have found this... but I sure wish I'd gone looking a year ago. I just went through my previous covers; 23 out of 51 -- almost 50% -- had elements with straight edges, where I could have used this technique.
Oh, well. As always, better late than never. And now... another hour of spiral-cleaning, then I'll eat supper.
.
.
Comment at Dreamwidth by Name, Anonymous, or Open Id -
I have plans to finish Fandom Snowflake, by my muse hijacked me with another cover idea. Okay, that will fill in the "create a fanwork" part of the challenge, but there's a lot of bits and pieces, so it will take a few days.
The thing is, I use Photoshop Elements, which is less flexible than the full Photoshop, and I use an older version -- 9, I think; I bought the program outright, when that was still a thing. I don't need much more flexibility than I already have, and I refuse to pay a yearly subscription fee to be allowed to use the newer versions. But, many times, I don't know what I don't know, so I make things harder for myself.
My method is to choose my elements (cup of coffee, plate of cookies, whatever), then use a neutral color to paint over the entire background of stuff that I don't want in my finished cover. When that's done, I can tell PS to "erase" (make transparent) everything of this color. Then I can "slide" that image onto the background I've chosen, and play with sizing and positioning until I'm satisfied.
The really time-consuming part is painting next to the edges of the item in question. I have to enlarge the picture hugely and use a tiny "brush" -- 10 to 25 pixels, depending on the degree of enlargement -- and creep along the edge of the item, trying to produce a smooth line. It ain't easy; my finger tends to drag on the mousepad of my laptop, and my stylus control is shaky; I have less smooth lines when I try to use one. I even bought a mechanical mouse, thinking that would help, but it didn't. So I just go slow, then enlarge even more to smooth out the 'bumps', one click at a time.
For most picture-elements I've chosen, there's no other way; the edges are irregular (someone's hair, a leaf, a cookie), and the standard round "brush" -- which may hit the edge of the element with only 3-5 pixels is okay. (Though if I had my way, the brush would be pen-nib shaped instead of round -- 3-5 pixels at a point, with the "brush" streaming back from that point in a kind of V-shape, or even a U. A round shape makes it hard to get into the teeny spaces, like between tufts of hair.)
But occasionally, I need to clean a straight-edge -- the side of a building, or a book, or something similar. Making a perfectly straight line with a round "brush" is impossible, at least for me. Gee, if I had a square brush, I could click-move, line up-click-move, etc, etc. So I went Googling to see if I could find a square brush.
<sigh> I found that it should be possible... if I had a newer version of Elements, or the full PS program. The problem is, even when I specify "Elements" in my search, many of the articles I click on are giving directions for the full program. <sigh>
But then I stumbled across this wonderful hint:
Then hold down Shift and click an ending point.
Wheeeee!!!
All of a sudden, straight edges are so easy; my time to clean those edges has decreased by at least 75%. I still have to line up carefully, or try again when I wasn't quite close enough, or do it in short sections because it's not completely straight, but it's a huge time-saver. My current cover has straight edges on two pens and a notebook. (But it's spiral bound; cleaning between those spirals is a real treat.)
I'm so pleased to have found this... but I sure wish I'd gone looking a year ago. I just went through my previous covers; 23 out of 51 -- almost 50% -- had elements with straight edges, where I could have used this technique.
Oh, well. As always, better late than never. And now... another hour of spiral-cleaning, then I'll eat supper.
.
.
Comment at Dreamwidth by Name, Anonymous, or Open Id -