I need some help and hoping some one will help me

[Catkramer]

I am using Photoshop CS2. Mostly I use it for photography. But I am planning on another trip to Disney soon and I don't want to have to bug people to make my designs for me. I looked up "Layers" on you tube and FINALLY understand layers. YEAH! Which will really help me when I am dealing with photographs as well.

However, I am trying to mess around with some of the basic designs here and I am having trouble with something.

Right now, I have a black mickey ears open, and then a picture of Snow White. Both are JPG format. (I can't figure out how to use the GIFs that I found at the links here on the Dis Boards. Seems like I need to some how change the format for GIFs and I haven't figured that out yet.)

But here with two Jpgs, when I use the Magic Wand to highlight Snow White, it is highlighting her full body and then also the back ground. If I try and move the magic wand around her, I might get sections of her dress, or hair, or face. I can't seem to just get her body and NOT the whole photo or parts of her body. How do you get JUST what it is that you are wanting using that Magic wand?

Another thing is I was going to make a name for my friend's son, and I can't figure out how to get the wall paper INSIDE of the lettering. Are you guys using a certain type of font, or will any font work if you make it big enough?

I am not sure if the designers here want to give away any secrets, but I could really use some help. You can always PM me if you want. We are planning a trip to Disneyland with 6 kids, two of the Autistic and one having a birthday. It would just be a lot easier for me to try and just design my own rather than bothering someone else with the amount of shirts that I need, especially with all of the shirts for the two boys to have autism stuff added to them.

I would appreciate the help. Thank you!

 

[Catkramer]

HAHA! I found the magic wand tool tutorial on You Tube and it told me how to "deselect" and make the highlighting around Snow White smaller. So I figured that out.

Any help on the lettering would be appreciated. I am still working on getting Snow White on to some black ears. LOL

 

[Maize&Blue]

I am using Photoshop CS2. Mostly I use it for photography. But I am planning on another trip to Disney soon and I don't want to have to bug people to make my designs for me. I looked up "Layers" on you tube and FINALLY understand layers. YEAH! Which will really help me when I am dealing with photographs as well.

However, I am trying to mess around with some of the basic designs here and I am having trouble with something.

Right now, I have a black mickey ears open, and then a picture of Snow White. Both are JPG format. (I can't figure out how to use the GIFs that I found at the links here on the Dis Boards. Seems like I need to some how change the format for GIFs and I haven't figured that out yet.)

But here with two Jpgs, when I use the Magic Wand to highlight Snow White, it is highlighting her full body and then also the back ground. If I try and move the magic wand around her, I might get sections of her dress, or hair, or face. I can't seem to just get her body and NOT the whole photo or parts of her body. How do you get JUST what it is that you are wanting using that Magic wand?

Another thing is I was going to make a name for my friend's son, and I can't figure out how to get the wall paper INSIDE of the lettering. Are you guys using a certain type of font, or will any font work if you make it big enough?

I am not sure if the designers here want to give away any secrets, but I could really use some help. You can always PM me if you want. We are planning a trip to Disneyland with 6 kids, two of the Autistic and one having a birthday. It would just be a lot easier for me to try and just design my own rather than bothering someone else with the amount of shirts that I need, especially with all of the shirts for the two boys to have autism stuff added to them.

I would appreciate the help. Thank you!

I have cs4,so i hope they are basicly the same.

issue 1 - If you look under file and then place. should open up another widow so you can look for the file you would like to place in the picture. But you may need to "cut" out the image on the picture you are trying to place. You'll know this if it's a White background. Each Picture you place will create a new layer.
Also you may need to save each jpg as a PSD file (thats a Photoshop file)

Issue 2 - The wand is a tricky thing to use. I usually just erase arouns what i want to cut out instead of using the wand. one thing you could try is the lasso tool or polygonal tool. Us them to trace around the image you want to cut out.

issue 3 -make sure the wallpaper is in a layer directly about the text layer. Then right click on the wallpaper and then click on create a clipping mask.

The best thing to do is just play around with Photoshop. Thats how i have learned 90% of what I know. Have fun!! And if you need any further assistance please don't hesitate to drop me a PM!

 

[Catkramer]

Thank you!!!! My husband actually just upgraded us to CS4 and I was actually messing around with it when I saw your reply. It works pretty much the same way cs2 does, so far.

The information you gave me really, really helped. Most of the knowledge I have about Photoshop has either been self taught or from really cool people, like yourself, who have taken the time to give me a few tips.

Thank you! I will definitely be in touch if I have any more questions.

 

[Dom13]

The reason you are getting the background too is that there is one. If you erase it it will just grab Snow White. You can try using the Magic Eraser (right click on the eraser tool) to erase the background. This will give you mixed results if the background is close in color to any part of what you want. If it is a solid color it will work great. You can also experiment with the other selection tools (the Magnetic Lasso tool might be a good start) then use the eraser to erase what's missed.

Gifs have a limited color range and need to be converted to RGB color in order to use most of Photoshop's features. You can convert them easily by going to Image>Mode>RGB Color.

 

[Catkramer]

Awesome!! Thank you! I really appreciate all of the help. The more I am learning about PS the less it seems like you all are speaking a foreign language.

I am starting to actually understand it. Thank you again, and I have saved this thread to refer back to when needed.

 

[Catkramer]

Ok, I do have some questions. I have the Snow White thing figured out. This one isn't perfect, but it was my first attempt and I have to say I am pretty proud of myself. I know I have to practice and that is fine. At least now I know how to do it.

Now I am having trouble getting my font started. Are you using a special font or something? I have an Autism wallpaper, and I am trying to just make a name with that wall paper as the filler. Figured I would start with something easy, right?

Well, I can't make the font any larger than the 72 that it offers. I have the layers set up, I think... I have searched You Tube looking for something that would show me how to do this, and so far, nothing. Everything is for logos and I haven't really seen anything that is close to what I am trying to do. I included a picture of where I get stuck. I am probably WAY off.

I hope you guys don't mind that I am asking for help on this. So far everyone has been so nice to help me. And I really appreciate it.

In the mean time, I am going to keep searching You tube in case I can find something on there that will show me.

 

[Maize&Blue]

Ok, I do have some questions. I have the Snow White thing figured out. This one isn't perfect, but it was my first attempt and I have to say I am pretty proud of myself. I know I have to practice and that is fine. At least now I know how to do it.




Now I am having trouble getting my font started. Are you using a special font or something? I have an Autism wallpaper, and I am trying to just make a name with that wall paper as the filler. Figured I would start with something easy, right?

Well, I can't make the font any larger than the 72 that it offers. I have the layers set up, I think... I have searched You Tube looking for something that would show me how to do this, and so far, nothing. Everything is for logos and I haven't really seen anything that is close to what I am trying to do. I included a picture of where I get stuck. I am probably WAY off.

I hope you guys don't mind that I am asking for help on this. So far everyone has been so nice to help me. And I really appreciate it.



In the mean time, I am going to keep searching You tube in case I can find something on there that will show me.

There is no issue with me helping you out with any questions you have. So, if I know it, I'll help you out. If I dont know it, We will learn it together.

Your font - You can use whatever font you want. Click on the "T" in the left hand column, Then move the curser up to the top and you'll see a white box with a little arrow pointing down. Click on it. That is the fonts you have installed. Choose what ever you like. Now just click on the design where you want to place it. You dont have to be perfect, You can resize and move the text when finished. Now type away. I rarely adjust the size with what PS give you. I do it manually. After you type out what ever you want, hit enter. Now in the left hand column, the very top option (the move tool) click it. There should now be a box around your text you just entered. Click and hold on one of the little boxes around the text, also if you hold your curser by one of the corners you can rotate the text too.

Now that you have your text the right font and size, you want to add a design to it. "Place" the wallpaper or what ever image you want over the text. Make sure the image layer is above the text layer. Otherwise it will not work. If you place the wallpaper and it is not above the text layer, simply move over to your layer panel click and hold the image layer and move it up. Once again you can resize it by using the same technique as above if it doesnt fit. With your image in now in place. Move over to the layers panel (bottom right of your screen) Right click on the wallpaper layer and click "Create Clipping Mask". And boom you have now added an image to your font.
From there you can double click on the text layer , which should bring up your
blending options and make it look pretty. Play with the options and see what they can do for you.

Hope this helps

 

[Dom13]

You can also enter a number manually in the box. There is an upper limit but it's pretty big.

Another common question I see with PS and PSE is outlining. Outlining anything is called stroking in PS and PSE. If the item is not a vector image (text or a shape) you can go to the Edit menu and choose Stroke. It will give you options to choose color, thickness and whether you want it on the inside, outside or centered. There's also many other options available on the effects menu which can be accessed by clicking on the fx icon at the bottom of the layers palette. If the item is a vector you can choose to rasterize the layer, right click on the layer in the layers palette, or go to the effects palette and you'll see a stroke option. This one only allows an outside stroke but it will allow you to keep the text editable.

I strongly recommend the tutorials on Planet Photoshop. I'd recommend you go back a few pages and start there as some of the more recent ones are a bit involved.

Feel free to post your questions here and we'll do our best to answer them.

 

[Catkramer]

Wow! First, let me say, you guys ROCK!!! I have to tell you that I was a bit nervous about asking for help here. I should have known that the Dis boards would be better than the photography boards. When I have questions there about PS, they get a bit snooty with me. Probably because a lot of them have gone to college or to school just to learn about photography and how to use Photoshop. They don't seem eager to give away the secrets and teach someone else how to use it for free. And I can understand that to a point.

(making a book mark of the photoshop tutorial site now)

I really, REALLY, appreciate the help. You guys are very awesome and I know that a lot of this can't be THAT hard, it is just understanding this huge program and knowing what it can do. Now that I am no longer working, I finally have time to mess around with it and maybe, eventually, I can start helping you guys out and make some disigns myself. But I know that will be months down road.

I will be working on this today after I take the kids to school and hit my local Starbucks and talk about our upcoming trip to Disney with my friends.

I will be back if I have more questions. Thank you!

 

[Maize&Blue]

Just an FYI, Before you start post pics of your designs here you may want to open up a Photobucket or 4shared site. SO you can link your pics from there to the Disboards. I use photobucket but they are both free.

 

[Catkramer]

Just an FYI, Before you start post pics of your designs here you may want to open up a Photobucket or 4shared site. SO you can link your pics from there to the Disboards. I use photobucket but they are both free.

I actually have a photobucket pro account that I have been using to store all of the designs that other people have made and that I like. Usually I try and go for the blank designs so that I can try and customize them myself. So once I start getting any type of collection together, I will certainly be placing them there or get a 4shared site. Thanks for the tip.

 

[Catkramer]

YES!!!!!!!!!! I did it!!!

 

[Maize&Blue]

YES!!!!!!!!!! I did it!!!

Looks good! Soon you'll be a pro!!