posted on February 10, 2001 09:27:06 PM
I bought the Jasc Paint Shop Pro (v. 6.02) about five months ago and am finally getting around to figuring it out. This program was highly rated (I actually researched and everything before I bought it <grin>. Supposedly it can do anything you could ever want to do.
Well, the stupid thing is so complicated, I can't figure out how to work it!!!
I don't want to do anything very hard. Let's say I take a picture of a dress (nicely hanging on a mannequin). All I want to do is remove the background (so it's just the dress on a plain background). Anyone have any hints!!
I went to the Jasc website, downloaded the tutorial and went through it. I think it's more geared to people who know what things like 'rasters' are (which leaves me out). Heck, I've just spent four hours with this stupid thing and I'm really frustrated!!
Any help or suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks.
posted on February 10, 2001 09:35:09 PM
I feel totally for you....**I** could have written this post word for word......I did exactly the same thing. Now the program sits on the shelf and I gave up on it. Maybe someone will help us both.........Or we could start a JASC support group....<g>
posted on February 10, 2001 09:36:56 PM
If you bought the full program, you should have a large book to go with it. When I first began using PaintShop Pro, I went to some of the individual tutorial sites, and when I encountered a problem I just wrote the individual, and zap I had my answer. I hate to say this, but it would have been just as easy to hang the dress in front of a plain background instead of trying to learn a more advanced area of a program you have not as yet learned. But alas, apparently you don't want to rephotograph, and I'd suggest going to one of the individual tutorials on the web for the solution or look in your book. You can paint out the background, or cut and paste the dress onto another background - but I don't think I can walk you through it....perhaps someone else can.
Oh the other hand, if you take the time to learn this program - it will make all the difference in the world in your pictures, particularly version 7......this is a priceless program, I wouldn't be without my paintshop pro7!
posted on February 10, 2001 11:38:36 PM
Over on the right-hand side, there is a palette of colors, with two boxes below it. The bottom box is the background color - click on that box and select white.
Look for the tool that looks like a rope and click on it. Now, draw around the mannekin carefully.
Now, click on crop. The majority of the background will be gone, and the image will be nicely cropped.
To clean up around the image, make the foreground color (top box) white, then click on the paintbrush and paint over the pixels that you missed when drawing around the image. If the brush tip is too large, you can make it smaller with its option box (if the option box doesn't come up, click on the CMD button).
posted on February 10, 2001 11:48:18 PM
Glenda. You should write a guide! I mean it. That was probably one of the easiest most concise and technically friendly explanations I've ever read.
How are you with networking. I'm trying to network my computers and every time I run into a problem I get 25 different things to try written in a language I barely understand. When the help section runs out of options it tells me to contact the "network administrator". Not knowing who that was or how to contact them I started bouncing through "hellp" yet again, then again then it dawned on me who the network administrator was!!
Is that TOO FUNNY or WHAT???
Anyway. Great post.
P.S. I'm still not networked%^( My network administrator is a real bonehead:^)
You decide....
If you aren't living on the edge..........You're taking up too much space.
There's more than one way to skin a cat...........Just no way that the cat's gonna like.
[ edited by horizonod on Feb 10, 2001 11:50 PM ]
posted on February 11, 2001 05:15:02 AM
I also LOVE Paint Shop Pro. I upgrade to the newest version every time they release one. I have not used 10% of the power that this program has, but still love it. I just photograph my stuff against a very plain background that contrasts well, crop, reside and then optimize the jpg for faster loading. Now, if you want some super fun, play with the function called paint tubes! What fun! I have found the program actually pretty easy to use and one of the few software programs you buy today that still comes with a book (I hate HELP that is a part of the program - I want a book to follow along)
posted on February 11, 2001 06:29:26 AM
IMO it's not a good idea to try to crop the item out of the background completely. You have to be VERY GOOD with the selection tool(I've been using PSP for six years and still haven't gotten the hang of it), or else you're going to have a lot of jagged edges and/or you'll end up removing part of the dress (in your example). It is also a long process if you want to get a clean edge, you're going to end up spending waaaaay too much time on your pictures.
What I do to bring the focus on the item I'm selling is to just place the item against a solid colored background for photographing (e.g., hang the dress on a solid color painted wall or lay it on a plain white sheet). I then use the "selection" tool and make a rectangular selection around the item as close as I can. I then do "crop to selection" and resize the resulting picture to 300-500 pixels on the longer side.
Another thing you can do is make your rectangular selection "feathered" so there is a fading border around it. Here's an example of what I mean.
edited to fix UBB
[ edited by joanne on Feb 11, 2001 06:38 AM ]
posted on February 11, 2001 08:06:01 AM
Barbara: I use an older version of PSP (3.0) and find it much easier to take out the backgrounds than with the newer version. It has an icon on the right side Paint Selection Bar (tipped paint can) that you can click on to add whatever background color you have selected. I then use the spray brush set at: Size 9, Flow 50, Opacity 50 to smooth out the edges.
Here is the result of a quick 2 minute editing job on Joanne's image that she posted above using a white background:
posted on February 11, 2001 08:27:32 AM
These are some Great answers....I went to the tutorial pages , basically looking for help making transparent gifs for my webpage as well as listings.......and I got really confused with rastors and vectors.....I would LOVE to learn to make transparent layers ie gifs ......Glenda??? Do you have another one of those WONDERFULLY SIMPLE directions like above for transparent gifs...???? Pam
posted on February 11, 2001 11:17:59 AM
minx4: Make the background a solid color. It should be a color that is not in the image - since the background will eventually be transparent, it doesn't matter which color you pick.
Make sure that the color in the bottom box below the palette remains the same color that you have just made the image background. Then click on Colors | Decrease Color Depth - set to 256
Merge layers if the box pops up saying it needs to be a single layer (answer yes then OK).
Then click on Colors | Set Palette Transparency | Set the Transparency to the Current Background Color
To doublecheck that you have made the background transparent, click on Colors | View Transparency; the background will change to a checkered pattern
--------------------------
Here's another way to remove the background that doesn't require as much concentration:
Use the rope tool to outline a "chunk" of the part you want to remove. Then, with the bottom box the color you want the background to be, just press enter. Keep doing this until you've replaced all the background. Each chunk will either become the background color, or will be checkered.
If the background ends up checkered, then when you're finished, click on Layers | Merge
posted on February 13, 2001 02:45:55 AM
Glenda.....THANK YOU so much for taking the time to post this great info.....on my way to try it out......Hugs to you!!!
posted on February 13, 2001 09:29:33 AM
I'm not sure what tutorial sites you have been to, but JASC has a Canadian site with very helpful info. There is a link for each tool and it tells you what it does and how to use it. I learned a lot from it.
It's at: http://www.jasc-canada-psp-edu.com/
Click on the first link under "Site Map" for version 6.
posted on February 13, 2001 10:06:50 AM
PSP rules, it's a low cost version of photoshop, so it's not a "push button" graphic software, but it's a very robust little bit o' software.
Rather than lower the color count (read lower resolution, lower quality image) just crop the picture.
Backgrounds should be taken care of when you are shooting. Move the mannequin away from the wall or hang up a sheet. Replacing the background has it's uses, but to be honest about the pix of the jewelry, I would say a lot of detail is lost. Otherwise I like the star filter and the light, but look at the detail, it's just not there.
Good luck
posted on February 13, 2001 10:40:51 AM
bawbaw....thanks for the great canadian PSP site......On my way there now......I am enthused to dust off that program and give it another try with all this great help...I can do fine once I get started with a little help.....it just overwhelms me at first ......Pam
posted on February 13, 2001 10:47:05 AM
The less editing you have to do the better. Set your pictures up well to reduce the amount of time and effort you have to put into them in order to use them. Time is money, and fussing with pictures if it can be avoided is a waste of time.
Use plain color backgrounds, and fill the frame with the object. The most you should have to do is crop and perhaps adjust the gamma a bit. Don't use editing to try and make a bad picture, or a so-so picture better. Learn to take good pictures instead. There have been tons of threads here on taking good pictures, how to light the items, what works for backgrounds etc.
To be honest, when I see a picture that has been obviously edited, such as the ones with clear backgrounds, it makes me wonder what else was done to enhance the item. If a person knows enough about photo editing to remove the background, they also know enough to fix a flaw or blemish. I have re-touched old family photos, and know very well what can be done to pictures.
. Supposedly it can do anything you could ever want to do.
....Or we could start a JASC support group....<g>
