Soft transitions

Hello everyone, I'm currently using Adobe photoshop element 7.0 to color drawings. (And I have a hard time...)
I have a problem with transition of color. Usually when I try to add shadows or to lighten the color, the result is something like that:
I would like to know how to make softer shadows. I've tried the "blur tool" (I'm not sure it's called like that because I have the French version.) and I've tried to lower the opacity of my brush but it gives poor results.
I would be really grateful if anyone could help me or show me a tutorial which could.
Thank you.

http://www.pixentral.com/show.php?picture=1cDuOMoLKrwZoeyxTNNl57zOoid6Zx1
This can be done with a gradient, and also with a mask. I used a mask here - see above print screen for the layer structure.
I placed overlapping ovals on 2 layers and filled the oval selections with different colors
Placed an adjustment layer between these layers in order to hijak the mask, and linked to top 2 layers
Clicked on the mask (white rectangle)
Accessed a soft black brush at 22% opacity, and painted to mask some of the color. If you go too far, correct with a white brush. The transition is infinitely variable.
Hope that this helps.

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Soft brush - Why color gradations instead of soft transitions?

I've just noticed that when I use the soft round brush tool in normal mode at 100% opacity to superimpose its color on another, the brush produces a series of distinct color gradations (fading out from dark center to lighter edges, for example) instead of the evenly-feathered transition that I've come to expect.
Can anyone advise me as to how I can achieve a "feathered" transition without distinct gradations of color?
Thanks!

Ensure you're using these settings for the brush:
Ken

Recommended transition solution for ISP:s with enterprise customers?

What would be the recommended solution(s) for ISP:s with enterprises only as customers?
It both needs to support IPv6 and at the same time save IPv4 resources.
Thanks in advance!

Hi,
There are many possible choice for a soft transition of the Service Provider:
- Dual-Stack
The SP can run both protocols in the backbone for a while so he can test IPv6 Service by switching some part of the Network to IPv6 Only and see if it is OK. In case there is a problem he can get back to dual-stack, fix the issue and resume its testing until it is Ok and he can allow IPv6 Only.
- It is possible to provide IPv6 Service without upgrading the backbone to IPv6 Immediately using 6RD if the backbone is IPv4 or 6PE /6VPE (I did the dev-test for 6PE and 6VPE for CISCO for 3 years) if the backbone is IPv4/MPLS. This way the SP can start providing both IPv4 and IPv6 without upgrading the backbone. He can then move slowly to IPv6 with a Dual-Stack period not to switch immediately to IPv6 and allow to fallback if soething is not properly configured to work in IPv6 Only.
With 6VPE, the customer benefit of a dual-stack VPN and recently, CISCO has improved the Support of Multicast in MPLS which was main weakness of MPLS based solutions.
Once the SP has migrated to IPv6 Only, it is still possible to offer dual-stack, IPv4 and IPv6 service to its customers using DS-Lite or better, A+P when it will be available as A+P (dIVI-pd based) does not rely on CGN which has a couple of drawbacks for the SPs.
Once the Customer has migrated to IPv6 Only, it is also still possible to access some IPv4 resources (Networks, servers, applications) using NAT64.
I have a presentation for you:
http://www.slideshare.net/fredbovy/transition-to-ipv6-and-security
And you will find more on my page:
http://www.fredbovy.com
I will be glad to help you further.
Fred Bovy
15 years ccie #3013
18 years ccsi #33517 (former #95003)
IPv6 Forum Gold Certified Engineer
IPv6 Forum Gold Certified Trainer
Email: [email protected]
Web: http://www.fredbovy.com
Wicki: http://www.fredbovy.com/MediaWiki
Twitter: http://twitter.com/#!/Fr

Save As PNG Adds Hard Transition to Gradient

I have an image that I have created which includes a gradient with a soft transition from the light tone to the dark tone. When I save as PNG, the resulting image displays a hard transition to the gradient. How do I create a PNG image which maintains the subtlety of the gradient?

Well, I found a setting in the Save for Web dialog where the gradient doesn't show as a smooth transition:
But that's only in the Save for Web preview window -- using the browser preview button or saving the file shows a smooth transition....
Ken

How can I have 2 different tones in one photo, please?

Hi
I am completely new to this photo package. I love to take photo's and wanted to do something special with a few I took at my brothers wedding.
I'd really like to know, please, if anyone can help me?
I have (for example) a picture of my sister in law holding her flowers. I'd like to leave the flowers in colour, but the rest of the photo in black and white, can I do that? I've tried the few fade options, but it doesnt' do quite what I want.
Also, the weather was awful, and I didnt' get chance to take all the photos I wanted.
I'd like to lift them out of one photo, and add them to the back drop of the venue they got married at, is that possible too?
Thanks so much, I really look forward to hearing from you, any help, greately appreciated.
Best wishes, Clair

Clair, As to you first question, converting to B&W but leaving a portion in color, here are several ways. The first is probably the easiest but I included the rest since they are in my "bag of tricks". In all of the methods, use a soft brush or eraser if you want a soft transition between the color and b&w portions. Method 1 1. Add Hue/Saturation layer, move Saturation slider all the way left to remove color. 2. Set Foreground & Background colors to B&W defaults. 3. Paint with black to reveal color, paint with white to remove color. Tip: type "x" to toggle black & white. Method 2 1. Duplicate Background layer. 2. Remove color: Enhance > Adjust Color > Remove Color Enhance > Adjust Color > Hue/Saturation, move Saturation all the way left. 3. Use Eraser tool to reveal color from Background layer. Method 3 1. Select the area you want to keep the color, make it a new layer. 2. In background layer, Enhance > Adjust Color > Remove Color Enhance > Adjust Color > Hue/Saturation, move Saturation all the way left. Method 4 1. Create a blank layer above the Background layer and set its Blend Mode to Color. 2. Paint with default black or white to remove color. 3. Use Eraser to restore color. Method 5 1. Create blank layer above Background layer and set its Blend Mode to Color. 2. Select the area you want to keep the color, and invert the selection. 3. Fill the selection with default black or white to remove the color, and deselect. 4. To remove excess color paint with default black or white. To remove excess b&w use the Eraser. As to your second question, moving a person from one pic to another, this is also easy to do: 1. Use the various selection tools to select the person. 2. Copy the selection to the clipboard (Edit>Copy, or Ctrl-C). 3. Open the destination pic, and paste from the clipboard (Edit>Paste, or Ctrl-V). This places the person on a new layer with transparent background. 4. Use the Move tool to reposition or resize the person as needed. When resizing, hold down <Shift> while dragging a corner handle; <Shift> preserves the aspect ratio so that the subject is not distorted by the drag. Tip: after you select in step 1, feather the selection 1 or 2 pixels so the pasted person does not look so "pasted".

Slideshow gallery in Dremweaver CS5

I believe on older verions of Creative Suite there was a tool to put in a slideshow. Is it possible to do this or do I need to use a program like Flash to do so? If that's the case, is there an easy way to do this that doesn't involve a great dela of knowledge of Flash? What I'm looking to create is something like the link below. I don't necessarily need the pop up bar that shows when you put the cursor over the gallery, but I would like the soft transition between images to insert into my homepage.
http://www.winkreative.com/

If it is help with Flash that you need/want, post your question in the Adobe Flash discussion forum, since this one is devoted to Dreamweaver solutions.
If you are interested in learning to code the cycle solution I mentioned, just google "jquery cycle tutorials." You'll find a number of them.
Good luck.
Chris
www.cdeatherage.net

How can i create a mask of grays?

Hi
i did learn how create a saturation mask (a mask that contains the colors)
how can i create a mask with the grays ?
can i do it? how can i create it ?
the only way i can thing it's use a color selective adjustament layer and set to +100 black every sliders outside grays
but i don't think it's a mask with all the Grays
thanks

If you start out with, say, this image in Lab:
Then duplicate the layer and set Blend If, in both the a and b channels, to 123 - 133. That layer will then look like this:
You see you have all the neutrals from black to white, but not the saturated colors. You can load transparency here as a selection the normal way - ctrl+alt+2, or ctrl-click the L channel. Save the selection and you have your mask.
How much fuzziness you want in the neutrals is determined by where you set the Blend If sliders. You can also split the sliders with the alt key for a softer transition. Here it includes 5 values either side of strict neutral.

Clipping Path vs Alpha Channel

Not sure if this is the right place to ask, but wondering which is better for outlined images (no soft transitions, just hard outline.)
I've used both and don't see an advantage to either EXCEPT when converting an InDesign file to PDF. Files with PSDs with clipping paths seem to make much larger pdfs than same file using PSD with alpha channel. Not important for a final press file, but when I have to email screen proofs, then it's a big deal.
Anyone care to weigh in? Thanks.
Ringo

Hi, there,
I found this discussion during a search for alpha channels vs. clipping paths for clipping (for a job I'm working on), and thought I'd offer my own feedback based on my own experiences w/ similar files. I can't really offer a printer perspective, however, although we do work closely with many and also print film fairly regularly for local printers who are not yet Direct-To-Plate.
For what it's worth, I use paths, myself, and save the file as a TIFF. Then I use the Object: Clipping Path menu in InDesign to select the path (I don't specifically designate a path as an actual clipping path in Photoshop anymore, as sometimes an image will have more than one path to isolate different elements).
I find that alpha channels don't look very good when used in InDesign. They're just not that smooth/precise, in my admittedly limited use.
I've uploaded a quick sample to http://i486.photobucket.com/albums/rr222/Xiebinrui/Alpha_vs_Clipping.jpg -- it's pretty self-explanatory, but the left side shows the bottom of an image using an alpha channel created from the original clipping path (cmd-click on the path to create a selection and then click the "create channel" button in the Channels tab, which automatically creates an "Alpha 1" channel), with the original clipped version on the right. I've tried adjusting the threshold and tolerance in InDesign, but it just always looks bad.
I also haven't used the behemoth Photoshop EPS format since my QuarkXPress/Mac OS 9 days (even then, it eventually became possible to use TIFFs w/ clipping paths -- I could finally see my photo correctly instead of with the horrible Quark EPS preview).
Anyway, re: alpha channels, maybe it's just that I don't know the right way to use them, but they don't seem to be very smooth when importing into InDesign (I was working on a job yesterday and today for which I had to download hi-res images from the client -- many of which used alpha channels instead of actual paths, but they're used on white backgrounds in InDesign, so I just didn't use the channels).
So, anyway, I personally use and recommend paths (vector masks, as Artdirectorringo mentioned, seem to work fine, too) as opposed to standard pixel-based alpha channels, in general, if you're going to be placing the file into InDesign.

Elements 4.0 Question

I am using photoshop elements 4.0 and have a face shot but would like to add like an oval cloudy border around it. I'm new at using this program, did it several months ago to a different picture but now can't remember how to figure it out. Can anyone help me?

Christy,
After reading your question again I see that I gave you a soft transition between the subject and border, but I missed the "clouds" part. Let's try again...
1. Set Foreground/Background colors to light and dark shades shades of your border color.
2. Create a new empty layer.
3. On the new layer, make your oval selection, invert it, and run Filter->Render->Clouds.
To generate starker cloud pattern, hold Alt while doing the render.
If too stark, soften with Gaussian Blur filter or Median Noise filter.
Of course you might also want to feather the selection.

PSE 4 Layering Questions

I am new to PSE and am having a hard time getting the layering right, I need some "laymans" terms and easy first steps to work with, any help is greatly appreciated. For example I wanted to change an image to B&W (no problem doing that) then colorize the flowers the girl is holding, but I just couldn't get it to work. I'm lost, please help!! Thanks so much,
PSE Dummy

Alison,
To add to what Charles said..
If you paint too far and reveal excess color, simply switch to white and paint to "erase" the excess. That's the benefit of using an adjustment layer.
You might also want to use a soft brush if you want a soft transition between the B&W and color portions.

Just learning iMovie & after much research in help & online still issues...

I've tried to find my answers in help & search here as well with little luck.
Can anyone point me in the right direction?
I'm making a photo montage (a 1/2 hour slide show w/ music in the background) for my Grandmother's 90th birthday. I'm really struggling with the following:
1. Transitions
I'm using both a fade-in & fade-out for every picture as the 2 transitions together seem smoother to me. I want my total duration to be about 5:30 seconds with a :30 fade in and a :30 fade out. I'd expect total picture time then to be about 4:30 once you account for transitions. But when I add a 5:30 picture (actually 5:29 - imovie seems to default to a :29 ending rather than 30) and then add both the fade-in & fade-out, my picture time ends up being 4:03! Why isn't it closer to 4:30???? If I try to up the total picture time to 6:00 that doesn't do the trick either! HOW DO I FORCE MY PICTURE VIEW TIME TO BE 4:30?
2. Titles
For some pics I add a title to display for 3 seconds of the 4:30 picture display. But once I add a title I can't edit it. I have to delete it & recreate it - what gives?
3. Themes
I've added some themes to the beginning and between sections of my montage. But once I create a themed item (like the montage opener) I can't edit it! I'd have to recreate the whole thing if I want to change wording. I must be doing something wrong?
SINCERE THANKS FOR YOUR ASSISTANCE! I'M IN OVER MY HEAD HERE I THINK & GRANDMA'S PARTY IS NOT FAR AWAY!
Tricia
iMac 5, 1 Mac OS X (10.4.9)
iMac 5, 1 Mac OS X (10.4.9)

Tricia,
I can imagine how frustrated my 90-yr-old grandmother would get if every time she was about to figure out what was in the picture, it changed. You're dad has a good point. It's probably better to err on the side of leisurely. (See how much more appealing it is when you call it leisurely instead of slow? lol)
Since you're open to suggestions I'll tell you why I like the Overlap transition so much. It looks very much like Cross Dissolve, and gives a soft change from one slide to the next. But unlike Cross Dissolve, which shortens the playing time of your movie, Overlap is one of the few transitions that does not. It makes the math much easier. If you had, say, 7 seconds per photo, with a 1 second overlap, you still can do your calculations based on 7 seconds per photo. You'd get a nice, leisurely pace with soft transitions than don't induce eye strain. If you're adding a music track to your movie, you could use those fade outs where each song ends. If the song helps to divide the sections of the movie, that is.
One last idea. If the photos are already assembled in an iPhoto album, you could create an extra feature to go on your DVD. Once you are ready to place your iMovie project into iDVD, you could add an iDVD slideshow with the same photos. It would be different from your more produced slideshow that you are creating in iMovie. You can only choose 1 slide duration (or complete manual control), 1 transition type, and no Ken Burns. But what you can do is have the next-slide arrows show onscreen, so that a viewer can manually click forward and backwards through the photos. That way, when the party is over, the folks can sit down with a remote control and click through the iDVD slideshow manually as they take a walk down memory lane. And Grandma can take as long as she needs to focus and remember the significance of each precious photo.
I haven't ventured into the themes in iMovie, so I can't answer that question without further experimentation.
Have fun and happy 90th to Grandma!

Best format for saving & resizing photo with transparent background

I have some product shots where I cut out the background, so the background is now transparent. What is the best format to save these in to preserve the transparency and also resize the photo in the future? I seem to remember from long ago that Tiffs don't resize easily? but when I saved the shot as Eps I couldn't find a way to preserve the transparency. These are for a client who wants to send these shots to various publications for ads, so I need something they can resize. Thanks for your help!

Transparency is only saved in EPS files with an embedded clipping path. EPS files limit you to 1-bit transparecy, meaning you either show a portion of the image or you don't. This kind of transparency means hard edges around your subject.
If you use PSD,PDF,PDP files, you can offer a soft transition from opaque to transparent in as many as 256 steps. If you have already removed the background in your layered file, then this would be the way to go. The latest releases of QuarkXPress and all releases of InDesign support PSD.

Photoshop or Illustrator to create bumps like a cupcake would have?

Which is better to use? Photoshop or Illustrator to make the bumpy lines a "flat" (ex. think of the shadow of a cupcake maybe) cupcake icing at the top would have? Like this except more professional looking (made this in a couple minutes):
And how would I make it?

I prefer Photoshop, because a) I am shite with Illustrator, and b) IMO a thing like this is all about shadows and highlights, with pretty much no lines at all. So my version started with a number of vertical black lines, which I copied and inverted. That gave me the case flutes, so I Free Transformed using Perspective to taper the two layers.
The wavy lines are something I could not have done so easily even a week ago, as they were very easily produced using the new Distortion effect in Lazy Nezumi. That tool is the best $20 add on for Photoshop by miles. I just laid an arbitrary sine wave across the page, and used FT to match the pitch to the case, and Warp > Curve to make the curve. The lines were used to mask the case to, and then turned off.
The pink top started with a flat ellipse filled with pink. That layer was copied three times and spaced out using the Move > Align tools. Then FT to make the perspective.
OK, it did get just a tiny bit tricky here, but only because you need a lot of layers, and need to keep track of them. I made a selection of all four layers combined, and used that to add a layer mask to all the topping layers.
Each pink oval has two versions - one sharp, the other blurred, so I could have a soft transition between the layers.
The hard versions also have drop shadows, which are there to give the shadows between the pink layers. I had to rasterize all those drop shadows with Create Layer, so I could mask out the over flow, but the afore mention layer mask took care of most of that.
It would be nice if I could have used Layer styles for the highlights, but that would have been tricky because of the curves, so I ran a straight white line which I FT'd to shape and then blurred.
The cherry is all layer styles.
Hundreds & Thousands used brush dynamics. 100% scatter jitter. 100% Hue jitter. Fully hard brush. The the smallest drop shadow I could manage to make them look real.
There is an upside down drop shadow on the case layer, to make the pink top look like it is overflowing the case, and a tiny Bevel & Emboss because it looked better.
Two shadows beneath the case, one hard and small, and one big and soft. That is the minimum I'd do for shadows.
About an hours work, but if I wasn't doing that, I'd be practicing some other way, and if we didn't enjoy the process, we wouldn't be here.

Adding Color to White Background

I have a photo of a silver object taken on a white background. I would like to change the white background to some other color, but have been unsuccesful in doing so. Any ideas?

Mindy,
As Byron hinted, there are lots of ways to change the background. Here is another one:
If the background is solid white or close to it, you can try the Magic Wand tool. Click anywhere on the white and hopefully the entire background will be selected. If not all of it is selected or the selection drifts into the object, try adjusting the Tolerance or add/subtract from the selection using the Lasso tool. Feather the selection a few pixels if you want a soft transition between the object and background.
With the selection active, create a new layer above the image and fill it with your color. You can then adjust the layer's opacity to get the shade you want.
Mark

Smudge Tool

Hey there, I'm an two week Illustrator [CS4] newbie and well I haven't been able to find this tool [and its in Photoshop 7...]. The Warp and other tools are cool, but not the same thing, so is there a smudge tool at all is what I'm wondering?

No, there isn't. There couldn't really be one - smudging is a pixel operation whereas AI is still a vector graphics program. You can deform the paths and contours and in turn this will affect rasterization, and you can use gradients, meshes and blends for soft transitions, but that's as good as it gets. True blending of pixels is only possible in PS.
Mylenium

Soft transitions

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