I see it all the time. Nice galleries, nice content, and a nice tour when it's pay sites.
But then I look at the header again and any time a girl is cut out and put in the header graphics it looks like someone used fabric shears to cut her out and the skin is all grainy because you had to compress the images to make the page loadable.
Do you know how to do it properly or are you just lazy and don't think it really matters? It does matter. If your site header looks like the cookie monster cut it out then people get a bad impression.
For this tutorial I will use an image from the mobbucks promotional tools. To sign up for mobbucks please click the banner in my sig. Much appreciated.
1) Chose your image. Find one with general good composition and no extremely bright or extremely dark backgrounds.
2) Next, lets correct the brightness and colors. Go to Image, Adjustments, Brightness/Contrast and set +18 on brightness and +11 on contrast. Depending on your image the values will be different. You want it to 'pop' and look sharp. Now, by adding contrast things tend to redden a bit. So go to Image, Adjustments, Hue/Saturation. Chose "reds" from the menu and set saturation to -14.
3) lets clean her up a bit. Select the healing brush tool. Select 7 for size, hardness at 34% and spacing at 25%. Hold down your Alt key and chose an ear next to one of the moles and click the left mouse button. Now let go of the Alt key and rub the mole with your left mouse button then let the button go. Repeat for each mole, stretch mark, blemish or oily bright skin patch such as on her nose. Sometimes you will find that when you are rubbing an area that is next to a dark patch of pixels that it will create a dark grey patch. To combat this just use the lasso tool and select as close tot eh dark pixels a possible and also select a large enough area to do the Alt-click thing then rub the blemish or mole.
4) In your history swatch click the Middle icon at the Bottom then click the new history save point. This gives you a spot to go back to should you mess something up and need to go back some. Do this often. After a good dozen actions have been performed.
Your image should look something like this
5) Now lets cut her our from the background. In your layers pallet drag and drop the layer onto the "Create New" incon which is the second from the right. Next hide the original layer and select the new layer.
To do this there are many ways of cutting out objects but the most effective and accurate is to zoom in, select the eraser tool and set it 5 pixels feathered. Click an area right on the edge of her skin then while holding the shift key move it along the edge to another close point about 20 pixels away and click the left mouse button again then move another 20 pixels and while holding the shift key click the mouse button again etc etc etc until you are finished. You may need to use the lasso tool to get into tight corners. Get as close as you can but leave some of the "fuzz" left. if you leave a jagged edge that you are not happy with on a curve then select about 20 pixels diagonally across from the jagged piece them move another 40 pixels in opposite diagonal directions and using shift key click the mouse button. I think you guys get the point with how to cut her out now. Don't forget to remove the excess background with the lasso tool.
6) Now to get rid of those fuzzies all around the cutout. Hold down the CTRL key and click the layer in the layers pallet. You should now have a selection around your cutout. Go to Select then Feather and chose 2. Click the lasso tool button then right click your selection and chose 'Inverse Selection' then click the delete Key. One click should do it but sometimes 2 is needed. You now have a perfect cutout.
Your image should look something like this.
7) Make a new history save point as described in step 4.
8) Now, lets make her skin nice and smooth. There are two reasons for doing this. One being that it drops the file size down when compressed and also stops the image from getting grainy when compressed. Select the magic wand tool and start by setting tolerance to 15. Chose a spot on her chest and click it. Now, while holding down the shift key at all times select the rest of her skin. Don't get every little piece. Leave her hair alone, the cock alone and the nose, eye lashes, eyebrows and dark creases in her hands and around her nose alone. Not every pixel of teh selected area needs to be selected. Leaving a few spots left unselected here and there leaves a more natural look to her. Now go to Filter, Blur and chose Gaussian Blur. 1.1 radius should do fine.
9) Resize the image to the size you need it in your graphics. I'll resize it to 300x200 for the sake of the tutorial. Next, go to Filter, Sharpen ..Sharpen. This may create grains to appear on certain parts of her face and the edges of her skin. Also, it may appear where the skin meets hair. To combat this, zoom in and select the area with the lasso tool then repeat the Blur as described in step 8. Do this until her skin looks uniform and smooth.
10) Repeat step 6 if necessary but only use a 1 pixel feather.
11) Zoom in at the edges of the cutout and repair any darkened or jagged edges using the eraser tool.
12) You now have your graphic cutout for your header, banner, whatever etc etc etc. Minor repairs may need to be done to the outline of the cutout once you drop the cutout into your graphics.I haven't bothered to do the minor repairs in this step because, well... It all depends on what the background is going to be.
Enjoy!
Link to tutorial for bookmarking.
But then I look at the header again and any time a girl is cut out and put in the header graphics it looks like someone used fabric shears to cut her out and the skin is all grainy because you had to compress the images to make the page loadable.
Do you know how to do it properly or are you just lazy and don't think it really matters? It does matter. If your site header looks like the cookie monster cut it out then people get a bad impression.
For this tutorial I will use an image from the mobbucks promotional tools. To sign up for mobbucks please click the banner in my sig. Much appreciated.
1) Chose your image. Find one with general good composition and no extremely bright or extremely dark backgrounds.
2) Next, lets correct the brightness and colors. Go to Image, Adjustments, Brightness/Contrast and set +18 on brightness and +11 on contrast. Depending on your image the values will be different. You want it to 'pop' and look sharp. Now, by adding contrast things tend to redden a bit. So go to Image, Adjustments, Hue/Saturation. Chose "reds" from the menu and set saturation to -14.
3) lets clean her up a bit. Select the healing brush tool. Select 7 for size, hardness at 34% and spacing at 25%. Hold down your Alt key and chose an ear next to one of the moles and click the left mouse button. Now let go of the Alt key and rub the mole with your left mouse button then let the button go. Repeat for each mole, stretch mark, blemish or oily bright skin patch such as on her nose. Sometimes you will find that when you are rubbing an area that is next to a dark patch of pixels that it will create a dark grey patch. To combat this just use the lasso tool and select as close tot eh dark pixels a possible and also select a large enough area to do the Alt-click thing then rub the blemish or mole.
4) In your history swatch click the Middle icon at the Bottom then click the new history save point. This gives you a spot to go back to should you mess something up and need to go back some. Do this often. After a good dozen actions have been performed.
Your image should look something like this
5) Now lets cut her our from the background. In your layers pallet drag and drop the layer onto the "Create New" incon which is the second from the right. Next hide the original layer and select the new layer.
To do this there are many ways of cutting out objects but the most effective and accurate is to zoom in, select the eraser tool and set it 5 pixels feathered. Click an area right on the edge of her skin then while holding the shift key move it along the edge to another close point about 20 pixels away and click the left mouse button again then move another 20 pixels and while holding the shift key click the mouse button again etc etc etc until you are finished. You may need to use the lasso tool to get into tight corners. Get as close as you can but leave some of the "fuzz" left. if you leave a jagged edge that you are not happy with on a curve then select about 20 pixels diagonally across from the jagged piece them move another 40 pixels in opposite diagonal directions and using shift key click the mouse button. I think you guys get the point with how to cut her out now. Don't forget to remove the excess background with the lasso tool.
6) Now to get rid of those fuzzies all around the cutout. Hold down the CTRL key and click the layer in the layers pallet. You should now have a selection around your cutout. Go to Select then Feather and chose 2. Click the lasso tool button then right click your selection and chose 'Inverse Selection' then click the delete Key. One click should do it but sometimes 2 is needed. You now have a perfect cutout.
Your image should look something like this.
7) Make a new history save point as described in step 4.
8) Now, lets make her skin nice and smooth. There are two reasons for doing this. One being that it drops the file size down when compressed and also stops the image from getting grainy when compressed. Select the magic wand tool and start by setting tolerance to 15. Chose a spot on her chest and click it. Now, while holding down the shift key at all times select the rest of her skin. Don't get every little piece. Leave her hair alone, the cock alone and the nose, eye lashes, eyebrows and dark creases in her hands and around her nose alone. Not every pixel of teh selected area needs to be selected. Leaving a few spots left unselected here and there leaves a more natural look to her. Now go to Filter, Blur and chose Gaussian Blur. 1.1 radius should do fine.
9) Resize the image to the size you need it in your graphics. I'll resize it to 300x200 for the sake of the tutorial. Next, go to Filter, Sharpen ..Sharpen. This may create grains to appear on certain parts of her face and the edges of her skin. Also, it may appear where the skin meets hair. To combat this, zoom in and select the area with the lasso tool then repeat the Blur as described in step 8. Do this until her skin looks uniform and smooth.
10) Repeat step 6 if necessary but only use a 1 pixel feather.
11) Zoom in at the edges of the cutout and repair any darkened or jagged edges using the eraser tool.
12) You now have your graphic cutout for your header, banner, whatever etc etc etc. Minor repairs may need to be done to the outline of the cutout once you drop the cutout into your graphics.I haven't bothered to do the minor repairs in this step because, well... It all depends on what the background is going to be.
Enjoy!
Link to tutorial for bookmarking.
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