Masking, Channels or the dreaded pen tool

suechamp

I am trying to find the most time efficient way to path out our merch. The stuff ranges from shirts on models to chandeliers. If you know of a good program or trick in Photoshop let me know. I need a way to get a close of an outline as possible. A lot of times we are outlining and shadowing the merch (yes the chandeliers too) so a time saver is what I'm after with great results. The average chandelier takes 3hours so I am desperate and blind. Any ideas?

DavidTO

Of course there's tons of ways of doing that...but you know that.

We've had two reading groups here on dgrin that both would be a big help to you. First off, LAB is often an excellent space to use channels for selecting. Our LAB reading group is here of particular interest is Chapter 9 and you should check out Rutt's post here, which covers some of the ground in Margulis' book, but is not strictly a chapter summary.

Also we have the reading group for Katrin Eisman's book. This group is just getting started, but both of those should be a big help to you in your search for easy selecting.

suechamp

I have been reading both of those thanks!! I was wondering if there is a program that acutally works for making the paths? Hmmmm...

wxwax

My suggestion would be to post some examples of the images you're talking about. It's the best way to galvanize the group. I would imagine that different backgrounds require different solutions, for example. I suspect that one size may not fit all.

Dee

It all depends

suechamp wrote:

I am trying to find the most time efficient way to path out our merch. The stuff ranges from shirts on models to chandeliers. If you know of a good program or trick in Photoshop let me know. I need a way to get a close of an outline as possible. A lot of times we are outlining and shadowing the merch (yes the chandeliers too) so a time saver is what I'm after with great results. The average chandelier takes 3hours so I am desperate and blind. Any ideas?

Are the finished pieces being offset printed? Are they going on different colored backgrounds?

If the answer is yes -- then yeah, 3 hours for a chandelier is about right in my experience. In particular if the item is going over some color. If the path is not tight enough, some of the previous background will show.

If it's for web stuff, then yes, there are probably quicker ways to cut down the time.

A good masking tutorial his here: http://av.adobe.com/russellbrown/AdvancedMasking.mov

There are also some extract tool tutorials too.

If you are using the pen tool, sometimes the magnetic lasso is a shortcut, and final paths can be adjusted by hand.

I'd be interested to hear of quicker ways to do this myself!

We were taught to do very precise clipping paths (as we call them) and we learned the hard way one time when the four color film was produced and the proof showed where we goofed! We had to run all new film $$$$.:-( Boss man was not very happy!

gluwater

Are these studio shots? Shot in front of a white or solid colored background? If that is how you are taking the shots and you do many of these it may be cost effective to to use Green Screen software. Katrin covers this in her book and from the looks of it the programs work quite well but they do cost money. When I get home I'll post what software she recomends.

suechamp

I am not "allowed" to post the pics here but it is a great suggestion. These images are being printed, not web. We basically make a clipping path for everything on that will be on the spread so we can color cx from there. For fashion that is flesh, shirt, pants, hair (ugg!), eye whites. And for Hardgoods it would be more of bed shots so all bedding, headboard, wall, chandelier... Our cutomer is in charge of art directing the shot so we don't have any say in how they are produced. I just thought I would pick your brains to see what is out there.
Maybe LAB is the way to go. I know we looked into using it but we are still with CMYK.

bugzie

suechamp wrote:

I am not "allowed" to post the pics here but it is a great suggestion. These images are being printed, not web. We basically make a clipping path for everything on that will be on the spread so we can color cx from there. For fashion that is flesh, shirt, pants, hair (ugg!), eye whites. And for Hardgoods it would be more of bed shots so all bedding, headboard, wall, chandelier... Our cutomer is in charge of art directing the shot so we don't have any say in how they are produced. I just thought I would pick your brains to see what is out there.
Maybe LAB is the way to go. I know we looked into using it but we are still with CMYK.

i don't have any suggestions. it's the dreaded pen tool for this job. changing to lab won't achieve anything. even if you get a good selection, you're going to have to spend hours cleaning the paths up. it's easier, in my opinion, to put the paths in yourself. i find this much faster in the end. one tip i can give you if you're drawing lots of paths is use a tablet and stylus. manipulating bezier curves for hours can be killer with a mouse.

bugzie

i just read your post again. are you creating clipping paths to remove backgrounds or a you creating paths so that you can colour correct different elements?

for clipping paths, the pen tool.

if you're colour correcting, i'm sure you can get away from having to clip seperate areas and correct separately with some clever colour correction techniques.

LuckyBob

I saw this a few days ago but I don't know anything about it. It's made by the company that bought Genuine Fractals. Anybody used it?

OnOne's Mask Pro: http://www.ononesoftware.com/detail.php?prodLine_id=4