Paul Stenquist wrote
> Lasse Karlsson wrote:
> I decided to try to pull them out by desaturate the colours around them.
> > This was done in Photoshop
>
> Hi Lasse,
> Did you select the runners and then go to the inverse? Did you use the
> wand or the pen or both? I think you did a very credible job, certainly
> adequate for a lo-res jpeg. And I think the effect is dramatic and fascinating.
Thanks.
Your questions make me have to admit that there is a lot more to be desired regarding
my yet primitive command of Photoshop.
(First of all (in case there is anybody who thinks there is anything special to what I
did): Anyone with even a cheap freeware program that allows Selecting and Saturation
(and preferably Zooming) can do what I did to this picture.
Anyone, even only slightly more experienced in using Photoshop, could have done it in
a fraction of the time I spent doing it, and much more perfectly at that.)
At first glance, once having decided to go this route, I was naively thinking: Oh,
yeah, I will select the runners one by one using the magic wand, inverse, and then by
a click on desaturate the picture would magically and instantly appear as intended.
I immediatley noticed that the runners weren't that easily selected (at least not to
me). The wand, of which I am not a master, would crawl out in all directions and it
also proved to be too slow for me to try to add or subtract to the selection, so I
gave it up at this stage.
(Btw. I didn't even use layers. (Each time I do, sooner or later I seem to get stuck
in some mysterious function that I don't understand yet.) Furthermore my version of
Photoshop (v4) has only one level of undo, why you have to be careful at each command.)
What I did at first was simply "panorama"-selecting close to the runners, inversed the
selection and desaturated. Then I simply went by using the various types of selection
tools, the wand, the square, the circled, the elliptic etc., which ever seemed useful
for any particular area. This was roughly my time consuming method -
Select/Desaturate/Select/Desaturate (often at high magnifications.)
You asked about the Pen tool, and I have to admit that there are a few Tools that I
haven't yet used or learned how to use. The Pen is one of them.
I did use the Lasso though. (Unfortunately my mouse is not very good. Sometimes when I
move it an inch, the cursor/pointer won't move at all. Then all of a sudden that ball
in the mouse makes a jump and the line I am about to draw will also jump into areas
where it is not supposed to. I am dreaming about when I will afford that Wacom(?) pen
and tablet.)
As far as I recall I didn't have to use any "corrective" tools, like the Smudge,
Rubber stamp (Clone) etc.Nothing was added or cleaned up.
Normally I would have taken some time working with levels, colors, contrasts etc, but
I was very late for the submission deadline so everything had to be done very hastily.
> A commentator wrote:
> > > I agree with some others that I would
> > > like the shot to include more of the stadium and less of the track in front
> > > of the runners. <snip> I would also like to see a little more space to each
>side,
> I like the way the photo is cropped. The lanes extending into the
> foreground give it a scope and power that might be lost in a crop that
> included more background. I think it's an excellent photo and is
> certainly among my favorites in this month's gallery.
Thanks, you read it the way I was hoping for.
(I guess we're suspects of having founded a mutual admiration society though... :) )
Lasse
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