Adobe Photoshop Help

http://img140.imageshack.us/img140/9444/kdlogo0001yp1.png

What is the most effective way to:

1) change the background color to whatever gradient I want.
2) Select the Ducks-- the Kirsten logo and the little line under the name and change it to whatever color I want.

I tried to utilize various selection methods-- but every time I select using the magic wand it destroys some of the clarity of the picture-- and everytime I lasso select, I grab too much of the surroundings. Perhaps there is just a way to change all the colors effectively and easily?

Thank you,

 

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First you want separate layers for the background and the foreground. Then you can change the colors and gradient to whatever you want.

I would suggest using the color selection feature to select the white in the ducks and the text. Then use the magic wand to add that red wavy line into the selection (hold the shift key when you do it, so that it adds to the selection, rather than making a new selection). If the magic wand doesn't work very well, remember that you can adjust the tolerance of it, and you can undo your magic wand without undoing the whole selection.

Then after you have all that selected, make a new "layer via cut" (in the layer menu).

Now you can easily do whatever you want with the background gradient, and you can easily alter the foreground, since it's not joined to the background.

 

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make the ducks more transparent and use some blur.

 

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Thank you Rubiks... I suprisingly have done everything that you told me-- what is the best way to use color selection? When I try to do it-- it misses some of the pixels I desire and it destroys the clarity and sharpness of the image-- is there a way to remedy that?

 

You might try messing with the tolerance controls on the color selection tool.

I notice now that the anti-aliasing on that script makes it sort of bleed into the red, so it's going to be very difficult to select. I'm assuming it's that fancy script that's the problem. For that normal text, you can probably get away with selecting the white pixels, and then expanding or contracting your selection, and applying a 1-pixel feather.

Here's what I would suggest for the script:
Do it in two parts. First do the part that overlaps the black portion of the gradient. Just use your rectangular marquee and draw a box around that lower half of the writing. Then use the magic wand to subtract the red bar. Make a new layer from that, and then work on the portion that overlaps the red. That's going to be hard. You can probably get a good result by just selecting the white pixels (or whatever color that really is) and then applying a 1 or 2 pixel feather.

It's hard to try to explain a technique like this over the internet. If you want, I can try it myself, and then give you a psd of the result. I used to be a graphics design artist for a TV show, and this is basically the sort of thing I did all day.

 

Stuck at this point

Hey Rubik's I really appreciate your help,

I tried to do everything you told me (I have little expertise in Photoshop)

http://www.filefactory.com/dlf/f/0cf3ca/b/2/h/f67df81f2ea3faf3/j/9515912811
That's the direct link to my current psd.

http://www.filefactory.com/file/0cf3ca/
That's the indirect link if it matters

As you can see the ducks and the lettering are granier than the original (as seen in the original post) is there a way to make it smoother? I really don't know how. And I think I erased the smoothness by using color range selector and deleting some of the key intermediary colors within the logo.

I really appreciate your help--- these are the colors that are desired--- I just need the logo smooth like the original. Crisp. Nice to look at.

 

Sorry I haven't gotten back to you on those. I couldn't find my photoshop disc, and then my hard drive crapped out (again!

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). To make matters worse, my CPU keeps overheating, because I need a new heatsink. Right now I'm trying to figure out if anything can be salvaged from my hard drive.

 

Fair enough,

I appreciate your help nonetheless.

 

If you have Illustrator, you can easily trace the duck and reproduce the swirling line—by importing them into Illustrator as templates (they would appear into a sub-layer, on top of which you would trace with the pen tool.) Then, you would import the elements into a new PS document using the same dimensions as the logo. The script font, though, you should already have, or something quite similar. So, in PS, each element would appear independently, thus be treated separately.

 

Hey Chewing Gum,

No, I do not have Illustrator-- is there anyway that you can seperate everything but the script font into layers for me? I would really appreciate it. I am working on looking for a font that is similar to the one used, I could compensate you by giving you some photo-editing programs I have purchased-- such as Photoshop CS3

Thank you,
Evan.

 

I already started tracing the duck in AI (Adobe Illustrator), but your pic, to begin with, is, as was already pointed out, not the easiest thing to work with because of the jaggies (visibly pixelated edges), which is attributable to low rez quality.

However, your pic has a resolution of 200.254 ppi (pixels per inch), which is of sufficient quality (web stuff is typically at 72 ppi), so the jaggies in your pic must be coming from somewhere else. Guess: the objects have already been lifted, right? Normally, lifting objects with the wand or whatever is not the brightest solution (masking is—but that's a whole different ball game) for you will always be clipping away at the outer edge. However, with masking, you'd also be picking up unwanted background noise, but there are tricks around that.

Anyway, I'll be continuing with the job after I've done a few things around here, like going to the grocers, jog, shower, etc, since I don't have much else to do these days, and I'll attach or email or link you with the PS file.

I already have CS3 but haven't installed it yet. Thanks anyways, right?

 

My God ChewingGum,

Thank you so much-- I have been pulling my hair out over this banner for weeks-- staring senselessly at the same image for hours at a time. I really appreciate your word... is there anything I could do to compensate for your time?

Thank you,
Evan.

 

I would have sent a link last night but SF's server apparently was down. Anyway, I'm glad I didn't for I ended up retouching it this morning. The renditions are not exact since subtle detail had been lost in the duck's contour. Also, I didn't like the swirl so I had to redo it with AI's Twist filter—the curve is different, although low-pitched as the original.

I assume you can wander through the layers' palette?

I used Modes from the layers' palette so you can easily select 'normal' instead. All objects can be quickly colored with the shortcut key Option-Delete, which is what? in Windows? I'm assuming you're on Windows.

Anyway, call me if you have any questions.

Banner

p.s.: I'll delete the file after you've gotten it.

p.p.s: The fonts I used you won't have, so you can choose to rasterize them then and there (otherwise PS will post a warning upon selecting said layer and Type tool). If you don't rasterize them, Photoshop will replace the type with your default font, upon which you can reassign a new font—and you'll have to return the tracking to 'zero' from the Type's preference palette, if you want.

 

Got it! This is amazing-- thank you so much.

 

I'm glad you're pleased.