Photoshop help request

[Patrick]

I am in need of some Photoshop assistance. Although I use Adobe Photoshop from time to time, I admit that I am not well versed in it's more advanced features. Ive only managed to master some of the basics but that's fine for most of my photo work. However, at the moment, I'm working on a project which requires me to delve a little bit deeper in Photoshop's capabilities. Most of the time, I use Photoshop 5.0 LE but as we are currently moving house, the computer with that particular version of Photoshop is currently in storage. There is another computer which I am using at the moment and I have downloaded a trial version of Adobe Photoshop CS3 for 30 days and I'm still trying to come to terms with it.

What I need to do is shift a section of an image from one image window to another image window within Photoshop. I have succeeded in doing that by using the 'lassoo' tool to select the area I want to move and using the 'move' tool to shift it to the other window. Though now I have a dilemma. The cut-out section of the image is too big in the new window and is out of proportion with the other elements within that image window. How can I reduce the size of the selected area of the image I cut out? And should the resizing be done before or after I move it to the new window?

Additionally, there's something that's really frustrating me with this version of Photoshop and it is the tool that looks like a paint bucket, a very familar looking tool to anyone working with graphics programs. Forgive my language but it seems to be demented. When used in my 5.0 version of Photoshop, this tool fills a section of an image with a colour you've selected. However, with Photoshop CS3, it fills nearly the entire image with colour, regardless of whereabouts I click the tool. I'm actually tempted to use Microsoft Picture It for filling in colour for this project if that software has this tool. Hell, even the Paintbrush program has that tool and it works normally in it. Hmmm...could it be that there is another version of this tool hidden somewhere within Photoshop that fills colour within a boundary like I'm used to? Though I have searched all over the visible options and I can't find it, if it does exist. Any ideas?

[MovieStuff]

Okay, here are the two answers:

The reason that the image is the wrong size is because the resolution is different on one picture than the other. If you look at the DPI setting on each image under "image size" you will find that one is different than the other. If you reset the DPI setting on one of them so they are the same, then you should not have a problem, assuming that the overall picture or canvas size of the target canvas you are pasting into isn't smaller than the picture/canvas size of the one you are copying from. Once it is on the target canvas, you can select that layer by using "select all" or by hitting "control a" on a PC, the go to edit > transform > scale, which will put a box around the image that you can grab and make bigger or smaller. However, before doing that, make sure that you hit the small icon that will constrain the aspect ratio of the image so it won't get distorted during scaling.

Regarding the paint bucket, I use it only for pouring paint into an entire layer. If you only want to fill a specific area that has been highlighted, right click and a drop down menu will come up and choose "fill".

Hope this helps!

Roger

[Patrick]

Thankyou very much, Roger! Very informative. I'll do just what you've explained. Oh one thing, the icon that constrains the aspect ratio, I assume that would be located somewhere near the layers pallets?

[MovieStuff]

The icon for constraint is located between the width and height data windows at the top of the frame. It looks like 3 interlocked chain links oriented vertically.

Roger

[supa8]

hi.
If you want to fill in areas with the brush or the bucket tools, you'd be better off to use masks in order to do non destructive editing.
Make a selection with anything you'd like, lasso tool, magic wand/quick selection tool (etc), then hit the mask button in the layer pallete, next to fx button (note that you can't create a mask from a locked layer such as the background layer_which means you might have to duplicate (by right clicking or hitting Ctrl+J) and delete the background layer first, that way you wont have any lock icon next to your layer).
When your mask is created, select the layer you want to work on by clicking on its corresponding mask, then use the brush tool to make some areas appear/disappear.
If you paint in black, it will make parts of the layer under appear. Painting white will make them reappear. Painting grey for instance would only partially make image disappear.
Also check out the refine selection tool in cs3 that allows you to expand/contract/smooth your selection before creating a mask.
On the picture I uploaded, I selected the white area around the camera with the magic wand, created a mask, then painted inside the selection in black to make the sky from the layer underneath appear.
http://img216.imageshack.us/my.php?image=maskshl3.jpg

[Patrick]

With regards to filling in colour, I'm still having no success. When I right click on the image area with the paint bucket tool, I get a lot of options like Normal, Behind, Dissolve, Clear, Darken, Multiply, Colour Burn etc but there is no Fill listed. And when attempting to do masks, when I choose the magic wand tool and click on the image area, I get a message that says: "Could not use the magic wand because the target is a fill layer." The image file is a psd and the image itself is composed of drawn lines using the Line tool, and the Elliptical tool. I don't suppose this is creating problems?

[MovieStuff]

Again, you do not need to use the paint bucket tool to fill in an area; only a complete layer. Just do as I previously outlined: Use the lasso to outline an area that you want to fill. Then right click while still on the lasso tool and choose "fill". That's all there is to it.

Roger

[Stephenbyron]

To resize. Once a selection is made. Apple T..... hold down the shift button and drag corners in or out...viola!

[Patrick]

Apple T?

[Patrick]

Thankyou again, Roger. Though after tracing around with the lassoo tool and right clicking, the option for Fill is transparent and non-clickable. In other words, nothing happens when I click on Fill.

Though really, what I am after is a way to fill in colour like used in the older versions of Adobe Photoshop and Paintbrush. I am sure that normally, using the lassoo tool and right-clicking does pretty much the same job but that method requires great precision and a very steady hand from the user who must trace a path exactly around the image area. What I liked about the traditional paint bucked tool of old is that all that was required was to click within a section of the image that had a single, uniform colour and the new colour change would be contained exactly within the boundaries formed by other colours, shadows and / or highlights. Quick, easy and precise. I am really surprised that with all the sophistication that Adobe Photoshop CS3 has, it cannot do this simple task that I have just described. Hmmm...out of curiosity, would the Paint Shop Pro software have the older style paint bucket tool?

With regards to the Constrain Proportions icon, I can see something resembling a tiny, vertical chain near data windows for height and width in the Image Size window. I can't see anything like that description on the normal screen. I can actually see two of these little chains in this window- one in the Pixel Dimensions section and the other in the Document Size section. Can I click on either one of them? I also note, within the same window, that the check box for Constrain Proportions is ticked.

[MovieStuff]

Thankyou again, Roger. Though after tracing around with the lassoo tool and right clicking, the option for Fill is transparent and non-clickable. In other words, nothing happens when I click on Fill.

I dunno. Are you on a Mac? If so, then the right click thing might not work. I know on a PC this is exactly how it works and I've done it thousands of times. Just did it about 10 minutes ago on another photo I'm prepping for a painting.

Though really, what I am after is a way to fill in colour like used in the older versions of Adobe Photoshop and Paintbrush. I am sure that normally, using the lassoo tool and right-clicking does pretty much the same job but that method requires great precision and a very steady hand from the user who must trace a path exactly around the image area. What I liked about the traditional paint bucked tool of old is that all that was required was to click within a section of the image that had a single, uniform colour and the new colour change would be contained exactly within the boundaries formed by other colours, shadows and / or highlights.

It still works that way but you have to set the tolerance values, just as you did on the old Photoshop. It's always been that way. If the tolerance is set too high or too low, it will affect how much the paint flows and stays in a given area that has values that are similar to surrounding areas.

With regards to the Constrain Proportions icon, I can see something resembling a tiny, vertical chain near data windows for height and width in the Image Size window.

That's it.

Roger

[Patrick]

Yea, I'm using a PC. When right-clicking with the lassoo tool, most of the options like Deselect, Inverse, Feather etc are clickable. Only a few of the options like Fill appear transparent and cannot be clicked on. I'm using the 30 day trial version of CS3 but I would have my doubts that Adobe would place restrictions on it like with the LE edition I have of 5.0. I'm assuming it would be the full version.

My gosh, this thing is driving me nuts. I have set the tolerances with the paint bucket tool to both high and low levels and the colour is still filling almost all of the image area window. By the way, the image is composed of basic shapes of black and white so I would think that the colour would normally be well contained within each of the shapes, regardless of the tolerance value. Though even setting the tolerance from 5 - 200 makes no difference. I am seriously considering using another software program for filling in colour.

[MovieStuff]

Yea, I'm using a PC. When right-clicking with the lassoo tool, most of the options like Deselect, Inverse, Feather etc are clickable. Only a few of the options like Fill appear transparent and cannot be clicked on. I'm using the 30 day trial version of CS3 but I would have my doubts that Adobe would place restrictions on it like with the LE edition I have of 5.0. I'm assuming it would be the full version.

My gosh, this thing is driving me nuts. I have set the tolerances with the paint bucket tool to both high and low levels and the colour is still filling almost all of the image area window. By the way, the image is composed of basic shapes of black and white so I would think that the colour would normally be well contained within each of the shapes, regardless of the tolerance value. Though even setting the tolerance from 5 - 200 makes no difference. I am seriously considering using another software program for filling in colour.

Some functions do not work in modes such as greyscale, etc. Make sure that you are working as a Photoshop file and not in some other format. The easiest thing to do is to change to RGB mode and then to "save as" and choose PSD from the drop down menu. Once you save it that way, close the file and re-open the PSD version. Then you should be able to work with everything straight away. If it still gives you trouble, make sure that you have actually selected the layer that you want to work on. Also, you can try copying the desired layer to another layer and see if that kicks things in.

Roger

[Patrick]

Roger, that's it! It was the different layers that was causing my grief. I flattened the image and this allowed me to fill in colour wherever I wanted. Progress at last.

[MovieStuff]

Roger, that's it! It was the different layers that was causing my grief. I flattened the image and this allowed me to fill in colour wherever I wanted. Progress at last.

Okay, it would appear that you simply did not select the layer that had the image you wanted to pour the color onto. You do not have to flatten the image to make the paint bucket work like you wanted but if you pour into a layer above your target layer, then the upper layer will fill up with paint out to the edges. If you want to pour color into a specific area of the image, then you have to select the layer that contains that image. New upper layers will be empty unless you simply copy a lower layer and pour into that.

Hope that helps.

Roger