Photo Editing Software???

[dizneegirls]

Can anyone tell me which software is the easiest for beginners to do selective coloring-yet expand later on?

 

[Amy]

I use Photoshop Elements 4 - I believe Elements 6 is the latest version. It's fairly easy to do some of the basic stuff - crop, red-eye, selective coloring. And it's got tons of other stuff you can do, too. I took an Elements class this spring to learn some more advanced stuff, but I don't use it often enough so I still need to consult my book when I need to use the advanced stuff.

 

[dizneegirls]

Hi, I hate to sound crazy-but I have never done any of the selective coloring. Could someone give me some step by step info o how to get started? I downloaded a trial version of Photoshop Pro X2 if that helps.

 

[MICKEY88]

Hi, I hate to sound crazy-but I have never done any of the selective coloring. Could someone give me some step by step info o how to get started? I downloaded a trial version of Photoshop Pro X2 if that helps.

do you possibly mean paint shop pro photo x2 ???


if so there are several ways of doing it.. the easiest way is to open your picture, then click layer-duplicate...then effects--photo effects===b&W film.

then pick your eraser tool,, and very carefully erase the parts of the pic that you want colored.. you are erasing the b&w layer exposing the colored layer beneath, when finished pick layers===merge---merge all

 

[dizneegirls]

Hi, yes that's the program-I will go and try that and see if I can figure it out I'm not very good with the eraser tool-do they make any programs where you can just click what color you want?

 

[dizneegirls]

THANKS I did it!! I'll have to practice a bit, but it looks pretty good for the first one! Again, thanks for the help!

 

[Amy]

THANKS I did it!! I'll have to practice a bit, but it looks pretty good for the first one! Again, thanks for the help!

Well, c'mon.....post your picture! We want to see it!

 

[dizneegirls]

I know I must sound like an idiot-but you'll have to tell me how to post the picture

 

[poppyolivia]

THANK YOU MICKEY88!!!

I never knew how to do this and yesterday I followed your instructions..and I have done loads!!! Didn't even realise I had the software to do it!

I am going through all my Disneyland photos and putting them black n white and then leaving the character coloured..if you know what I mean!..They are really good!!

If I printed them would they look ok?...oh yeah and I put a black border round them too...I'm on a roll!!!

DIZNEEGIRL....thank you for posting the question!

 

[10dedfish]

Have you tried using GIMP? Its a free photo editing program. Its about 24M in size and works fairly well. I know that it has a help program, but its web based which is the only problem. Ive used it several times and as I said, it works well.

10ded

 

[MICKEY88]

THANK YOU MICKEY88!!!

I never knew how to do this and yesterday I followed your instructions..and I have done loads!!! Didn't even realise I had the software to do it!

I am going through all my Disneyland photos and putting them black n white and then leaving the character coloured..if you know what I mean!..They are really good!!

If I printed them would they look ok?...oh yeah and I put a black border round them too...I'm on a roll!!!

DIZNEEGIRL....thank you for posting the question!

they should look ok printed, i've printed several of mine...


you are saving as new files and keeping your originals intact I hope...


please post some for us to see...

 

[10dedfish]

way to go with the pix. I am just starting out as well, and I hope to start trying my hand at the picture challenge soon.

 

[poppyolivia]

they should look ok printed, i've printed several of mine...


you are saving as new files and keeping your originals intact I hope...


please post some for us to see...

Yeah after 2 attempts I realised I lost the original..but I have it else where on the computer so not lost completely....I will post some once I know how!! AND I don't mind people telling me how to improve..as long as its not nasty!!

Thanks again xx

Can someone tell me how to make them small! Boy you can see the mistakes in the tigger one big style!haha!

 

[10dedfish]

Its so fun to play with the colorization in a b&w pic. I just recently figured out how to do it as well. I will post some if I feel froggy. But they are nothing major.

10ded

 

[MICKEY88]

Yeah after 2 attempts I realised I lost the original..but I have it else where on the computer so not lost completely....I will post some once I know how!! AND I don't mind people telling me how to improve..as long as its not nasty!!

Thanks again xx

Can someone tell me how to make them small! Boy you can see the mistakes in the tigger one big style!haha!

I have found that making the pic large to work on it, and changing brush size depending on the part of the pic, helps a lot..

great job, you are a good student....LOL

 

[poppyolivia]

I have found that making the pic large to work on it, and changing brush size depending on the part of the pic, helps a lot..

great job, you are a good student....LOL

Thank you!

On the third photo there, I realised you could enlarge it and do different size brushes!!...but the 2 before was guess work at the edges!! ...

I've re done the beach ones (there is 5 different ones) and ordered them in a size 7 x 5 (cause I saw lovely frames that have a mount and everything!!)..hopefully they will look half decent!! My 2 year old recognised himself in the photo so gonna let him have them on his wall next to his bed.

Since finding this site (photography bit)..I have turned into a photo freak...everyones photos are amazing...I got a new camera (just a fuji S5700 to start with) which I've hardly used yet cause I'm not sure about the settings but you guys are helping! Once I get into the hang of it I will post photos from that camera for people to help improve..if they don't mind Gonna take it with me to Disneyland Paris in 4wk and 6 days!!!

Cheers yet again xx

 

[DBL101]

Learning to use a mask layer instead of erasing portions of the picture makes it a lot easier. Primarily to fine tune the edges. With a mask layer it's much easier to put back a section that you removed by mistake. When you create a mask layer it's simply black and white (you can use shades of gray, but that dims instead of removing so we don't want to get into that). Where the mask is white you see your image (or layer), where it's black you see the layer underneath. If you paint over a section in black to hide it and paint too much you simply paint back over it with white and it reappears. This is a very powerfull technique when trying to remove sections of a picture. The biggest plus is that it's non-destructive.

 

[MICKEY88]

Learning to use a mask layer instead of erasing portions of the picture makes it a lot easier. Primarily to fine tune the edges. With a mask layer it's much easier to put back a section that you removed by mistake. When you create a mask layer it's simply black and white (you can use shades of gray, but that dims instead of removing so we don't want to get into that). Where the mask is white you see your image (or layer), where it's black you see the layer underneath. If you paint over a section in black to hide it and paint too much you simply paint back over it with white and it reappears. This is a very powerfull technique when trying to remove sections of a picture. The biggest plus is that it's non-destructive.

actually if you erase in small sections at a time, you just click the back arrow if you mess up, and it's instantly back rather than having to brush it back in..