posted 08-09-2001 00:34            

But the magic wand isn't so useful in retouching. It's mostly very careful lassoing. The rubber stamp tool is also very very important, especially for editing out stuff, like when you have idiot clients who constantly send you press pictures for publication that have a date in the corner in glowing orange letters. *sigh*

you also must come to know the smudge tool.

posted 08-09-2001 08:28            

1. Get used to zooming WAY the fuck in on the picture so that only about 1/4 of what you want to select fits in your screen - then lasso it a piece at a time. (Shift+click-and-drag adds to the selection rather than simply starting the process from scratch. Alt+click-and-drag removes from the selection.)

2. Paste your selection as a new layer. ALWAYS, ALWAYS, ALWAYS work with layers!

3. Use the Magic Wand tool to select the transparent area surrounding your pasted stuff in your new layer. Then use "Select-Modify-Expand" to expand your selection one pixel.

4. Use alt-click with the Magic Wand tool to remove the transparent areas - your selection area should now be (only) a 1-pixel border at the outside of your pasted thingy.

5. Use the Blur tool with "work with all layers" turned on in order to create a softened, "natural" border area for your pasted whoozit.

posted 08-09-2001 12:44            

Pretty trees, pretty trees...