Font size is way too small

[Phelon Profile]

Font size is way too small on Pop-up boxes. I can hardly read the thing, and then it disappears a little too fast. I'm having trouble getting the small tree branches from turning white in my replacing skies, so I resort to studying the pop-up boxes on the brushes, thinking I could get help there.

Phelon

[admin]

Hi Phelon,

The best way to deal with trees is to play around a lot with the holding shift feature. Position the inner circle so it completely covers a large branch, then hold down shift and move the mouse around. When it looks like it's doing something you like, click once to apply the erase then repeat.

Tony

[Phelon Profile]

Thanks Tony,

Yes, I really find the "Smart" brushes so useful, and using the shift key when on a tree branch or sky color when selecting or erasing is a great help. I've spent hours on probably hundreds of pictures using this feature, and the use of brushes is my main tool. After selecting my sky area, I go back and clean up any color smudging seen in the black and white view. This cleaning might be done before or after selecting "confirm".

It's after confirming and selecting the black and white "Tag", that I can see the quality of my selections. When I show the new sky selected and have the blk/wt tag selected, it's here, as you know, that I can give the final retouches to the image. Many times I have not been perfect on my selections for the sky area and I need to use the "Soft-edge" brush, which I can adjust the size and come close to an edge watching as it may then clean the area as I left-click the mouse. I sometimes need to also switch to the subtraction brush, because I went over a border with my addition-selection brush.

Then, it's on to the tree branches, leaves, bushes, power lines, radio antennas, etc. Having several choices to view the brush selections, I generally use the solid black and white and the full color image views. I'm delighted to see in my blk/wt view that the small tree branches and other fine detail are showing nice and crisp; if not, I can then use your suggestion of hovering over a branch or other fine object (the mouse view will definitely change it's flashing view to a more solid view) and left-click the mouse with the SHIFT KEY DOWN to select that color. And then keep going "till you're satisfied with the blk/wt and color views.

It's right here that the brushes or my technique begins to fail. The process has been tried many times--many hours spent trying to get "perfect". When I look at my color image (sometimes), the fine branches or antenna wires, have turned from black to white on the COLOR image. They look frosted and not real. I have tried switching to the AIRBRUSH and reducing the opacity to 10% or so, go clicking using both the subtraction and addition selection brushes--sometimes I've had success use this airbrush, but many time I have to go back to soft-edge brush.

I generally end up with something that looks pretty good, and I move on to the next picture.

There is one final brush I would like to have and that would be a brush I could go over the top of a mountain range or other CUTOUT to soften the edge. Many times the edge looks too sharp.

Thanks a lot for a great and improving program!

Phelon

[admin]

Hi Phelon,

Some interesting points there, thanks. I was wondering if you could post a picture of your result and a picture of the mask, there might be some more tips I could give or it might spark an idea, although it sounds like you know it all anyway!

Tony

[Phelon Profile]

Hi Tony,

There are some pictures in Dropbox for you to analyze.

Phelon