Thread:Barnswallow/@comment-25682257-20141206235751/@comment-25205196-20141209171811

I see. Did you use the pictures which were already here on the wiki or did you make your own? Because I've found that it's much easier to work with very big photos of very good quality. I've just finished working on the Sewing Machine pic and my original picture was at 2560x1600 pixels. Also nets are probably harder than other things because of all the holes. Anyway, here's what I did:
 * First I moved my Sewing Machine to a spot where all I had in the background was grass so that I had clear edges. Took the screenshot, loaded it in PS, saved in under a different name so I could keep the original pic as a reference.
 * Step 2 was cropping the pic so that I had only the machine and some grass in the background then adding a layer under my pic that I painted white (black can sometimes provide better contrast; it all depends on the colors of the foreground pic).
 * Step 3 was removing big chunks of the background using the Quick Selection Tool (size 10). Then I used the Magic Wand (Tolerance set at 10) where Quick Selection would remove too much. At this point, most of the background was gone.
 * Step 4: Iset the zoom to 200% and used the Lasso tool (anti-aliasing checked but I have the other option (feathering??) set to 0px) to remove the little bits left, getting as close to the edges of the machines quickly. This is the pic I had at this point (with the white layer): pic
 * Step 5: I don't know how other people do it but I set the zoom much higher (at least 800%) and used the Lasso tool to remove every extra bit and 'clean' the edges manually. This is quite time-consuming and requires patience and just learning how to do it (like going straight with your hand, not making big gestures, etc.). This is also where your reference pic comes in handy because at this level of zooming you don't always what the shape of the part you're working on should be. The easy part is that you know that everything green must go. If I notice a little bit is missing because the Magic Wand did too good a job I use the Pen to add some pixels back then the Lasso to smooth the edge. Also, with a pic this big, I don't really worry about doing a perfect job because refining the edges and downsizing the pic will make it look neater anyway. This is what I had at this point: pic
 * Step 6 is selecting the shape (Ctrl + click on the layer) then going to Refine Edge (Selection menu; there's probably a shortcut) and setting it to Smooth 5px. Then I Reversed the selection and deleted the extra bits. That gave me smoother edges. I had a quick look to see if anything stood out too much, used the Lasso tool again until I was happy with the result.
 * Last step was resizing the pic (down to 250px here), sharpening it (10% here I think) the adding a drop shadow (Layer Effect menu; I set it at 40%, 120°, no global light) because it helps mask little imperfections and gives the pic a nice look. And that's it. It's not perfect but it looks good enough imo.