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gmc9987
Jul 25, 2007
nahanahs: Make sure the tool is set to draw a shape layer, not a path. Make sure that the little button I've circled below is selected, not the middle one:



That one took me forever to figure out, I have no idea why they changed that.

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nahanahs
Mar 26, 2003

<3 Shantastic <3
Oh, I love you. Thank you. I was so sick of making a circle, then drawing in tha layer.

n2o
Nov 8, 2004

biohazard
I found my dad's old Asahi Pentax K1000 tonight and spent a few hours learning how to use it, I'm hooked. I'll go out tomorrow and take some more photos.

Before I go to bed tonight I'd like to take some self-portraits with it, though. I guess there is some sort of automated mechanism or doohickey I can hook up to the camera itself, but I don't have anything like that. It doesn't appear to have a internal timer; pardon my ignorance if I missed that functionality somehow.

So, my question: Can anyone recommend a way to take a self-portrait with a K1000 where I don't actually have to hold the camera?

Maybe someone knows a clever trick with some string or a sippy bird or something, I dunno. In terms of materials I have an entire toolshop I can build something in, I just need a little direction.

RGBRIOT
Apr 19, 2009

"Beauty, packaged for a digital world."

nahanahs posted:

I just made a jump from Photoshop CS to CS4 and, when using the pen or creating shapes, it doesn't make a new layer. It just draws in some invisible layer, I guess.

EDIT: misuse of terms

EDIT2: ok, I tried again and, when creating a shape, it makes a new layer, but not when using the pen. I guess I can just make a small shape, then start drawing with the pen in that layer, but I'm used to it creating a new layer when I start drawing with the pen. Can I turn this back on?

On PC:
With the pen tool selected, check just below the File Edit Area, right of the Pen Icon. Is the far left icon (Shape Layers) toggled on, or is the next one (Paths) toggled on?

I've never had the pen create a new layer using paths, only with Shape Layers.
I hope that helps.

I also crawled all over Photoshop CS4's options and have yet to turn up anything that could relate to what you're talking about. :(

RGBRIOT fucked around with this message at 00:23 on May 21, 2009

The Psyentist
Apr 7, 2008
I've never really worked with moving objects in photography before (aka people) and would love to know how to get a shot with wind blown hair without the hair itself being blurry (or anything that is moving, for that matter).

I feel really stupid asking this.
:(

gmc9987
Jul 25, 2007
You'll have to crank up the shutter speed, probably to around 1/100.

Shutter speed controls how long the lens stays open when taking the shot - 1/100 means one hundredth of a second.

If your camera is digital, you might have to switch to manual mode in order to change the shutter speed.

vonnegutt
Aug 7, 2006
Hobocamp.

nahanahs posted:

I just made a jump from Photoshop CS to CS4 and, when using the pen or creating shapes, it doesn't make a new layer. It just draws in some invisible layer, I guess.

EDIT: misuse of terms

EDIT2: ok, I tried again and, when creating a shape, it makes a new layer, but not when using the pen. I guess I can just make a small shape, then start drawing with the pen in that layer, but I'm used to it creating a new layer when I start drawing with the pen. Can I turn this back on?

It's putting it in the Paths menu. The tab for Paths is next to the one for Channels on the Layers palette. You should be able to draw a path, and then save it and be able to use it from the Paths menu.

Toadvine
Mar 16, 2009
Please disregard my advice w/r/t history.
Not really a question but on observance that someone can maybe shed light on. I bought a box of ten crayola markers but the box holds eleven markers.

Dvega
Aug 2, 2006

The most magical song of all.
I finished inking a drawing and was planning on shading it with an ink wash, only somehow neglected to realize the pen I had inked the panel borders with wasn't water resistant. Luckily I found out on a test paper before I started on the actual page but it still renders it basically unusable. Is there any possible solution to this or do I just toss it in the bin and learn from my mistake?

Shmoogy
Mar 21, 2007
I wasn't too sure where to ask this:

I'm looking to buy my first dSLR and want to find a store that carries lots of dSLRs and actually has functioning demo units. I'm in Chicago, and the local Best Buys have only a few SLRs out and like one turns on and actually works.

I really would like to side by side compare Nikons Canons and Olympus (I'm looking specifically for the 410, which the Olympus site told me that only two stores in the area carry it, so I have to head over to there to try it)

vonnegutt
Aug 7, 2006
Hobocamp.

Dvega posted:

I finished inking a drawing and was planning on shading it with an ink wash, only somehow neglected to realize the pen I had inked the panel borders with wasn't water resistant. Luckily I found out on a test paper before I started on the actual page but it still renders it basically unusable. Is there any possible solution to this or do I just toss it in the bin and learn from my mistake?

I say keep the original drawing, and trace/scan/project it onto another piece of paper to use inkwash with. Don't throw away your drawings!

Alternately, try using a brush soaked in a small amount of water to "bleed" out the ink that is already present. If you're careful, you might be able to use your problem (runny ink) to make an interesting wash drawing!

Arch-Curiosity
Jun 9, 2004

So please direct me to the golden path if there's a better place to ask this, but I figured someone here might be able to answer a grammar question...

"Soon you must return to from where you came."

Does this sentence work, grammatically? It seems a little clunky, especially considering it's a song lyric. Is there a better, similarly concise way of saying this? The idea is that this person has been selfishly traveling but must return to their place of origin because their journey is unsustainable. I wondered about using the word "whence," but I don't want to throw around ye olde wordes without knowing that they work grammatically. Anyone have any ideas?

Slashie
Mar 24, 2007

by Fistgrrl

Arch-Curiosity posted:

So please direct me to the golden path if there's a better place to ask this, but I figured someone here might be able to answer a grammar question...

"Soon you must return to from where you came."

Does this sentence work, grammatically? It seems a little clunky, especially considering it's a song lyric. Is there a better, similarly concise way of saying this? The idea is that this person has been selfishly traveling but must return to their place of origin because their journey is unsustainable. I wondered about using the word "whence," but I don't want to throw around ye olde wordes without knowing that they work grammatically. Anyone have any ideas?

I would say "You must return to where you came from soon."

But if you're writing a song lyric and not quoting a song lyric, I'd use more informal language like "You've got to go back to where you're from soon" or something along those lines.

Chip McFuck
Jul 24, 2007

We droppin' like a comet and this Vulcan tried to Spock it/These Martians tried to do it, but knew they couldn't cop it

n2o posted:

I found my dad's old Asahi Pentax K1000 tonight and spent a few hours learning how to use it, I'm hooked. I'll go out tomorrow and take some more photos.

Before I go to bed tonight I'd like to take some self-portraits with it, though. I guess there is some sort of automated mechanism or doohickey I can hook up to the camera itself, but I don't have anything like that. It doesn't appear to have a internal timer; pardon my ignorance if I missed that functionality somehow.

So, my question: Can anyone recommend a way to take a self-portrait with a K1000 where I don't actually have to hold the camera?

Maybe someone knows a clever trick with some string or a sippy bird or something, I dunno. In terms of materials I have an entire toolshop I can build something in, I just need a little direction.

I'm not sure if you've had this question answered already, but you might want to look into buying a manual cable release. Basically, it's a wire, extending from the camera, that has a button trigger at the end of it. When you press the button, the camera takes a picture, easy as that. You can find cheap ones for under $20.

Also, congrats on the camera! That's an excellent camera to be learning on.

BaronVanAwesome
Sep 11, 2001

I will never learn the secrets of "Increased fake female boar sp..."

Never say never, buddy.
Now you know.
Now we all know.
I started writing for Screen stuff again (just purely for fun), and I've run into the same issue that I do every time:

Dialogue.

I don't know if I channeling George Lucas or what, but I can't seem to give my characters any real weight to what they're saying - they just seem to talk and talk without really saying anything.

The other issue is just making things funny - I've been writing short little comedy scenes, but the spoken "jokes" just seem really flat on the paper. They're funny when I think about them, but two people exchanging them seems...not funny.

So, uh...are there any easy tips for making my dialogue less wordy and better shaped?

Slashie
Mar 24, 2007

by Fistgrrl

BaronVanAwesome posted:

I started writing for Screen stuff again (just purely for fun), and I've run into the same issue that I do every time:

Dialogue.

I don't know if I channeling George Lucas or what, but I can't seem to give my characters any real weight to what they're saying - they just seem to talk and talk without really saying anything.

The other issue is just making things funny - I've been writing short little comedy scenes, but the spoken "jokes" just seem really flat on the paper. They're funny when I think about them, but two people exchanging them seems...not funny.

So, uh...are there any easy tips for making my dialogue less wordy and better shaped?

Screenwriter here. Can I see some examples? I'll resurrect the old screenwriting thread and you can post there.

Link

gmc9987
Jul 25, 2007
Alright, I finally have a question to post in this thread.

I am in the process of creating my personal portfolio website. One of the many sections that I have is for animations that I have done over the last several years. I have worked on multiple educational cartoons. Some of them have been created entirely by me, some of them with the help of other co-workers, some of them are for playback within the larger framework of an educational game, and some are standalone. All of them were created while employed by a company.

My question is whether I am allowed to display these animations in full on my website. If I can, do I need to include the copyright bumpers that surround each video? My own personal thought is that this is OK - all of our videos are available free of charge to everyone, and all animations are officially hosted on youTube by my employer. Our policy is that everyone deserves access to educational materials regardless of budget. As long as I clearly state what I am and am not responsible for in each animation, is it OK to host them on my site?

If that is not OK, I assume that I can embed the YouTube videos without a problem.

I suppose I could also bypass this issue and make myself a demo reel.

thanks in advance, I appreciate it.

EDIT: I should also note, the youTube quality is kind of poor on these animations. Otherwise, I would have no problem just linking to the youTube videos.

gmc9987 fucked around with this message at 02:55 on May 26, 2009

SirRobin
Mar 2, 2002

gmc9987 posted:

All of them were created while employed by a company.
Then you should ask the company. Nobody here has a copy of your contract or any agreements you or they might have made regarding copyright.

vonnegutt
Aug 7, 2006
Hobocamp.
You should ask the company, and if there is a copyright issue, you should ask if you can use the images/animations solely for personal promotion and not for profit. Most companies will allow this, but you should be specific, because if you were to generate any income from them, there might be an issue.

In the future, you should try to negotiate for personal promotional rights up front, as they are very important for your career, but often overlooked by companies.

The Psyentist
Apr 7, 2008
I don't know all too much about DSLR cameras, but I've got a Canon EOS 400D with me at the moment. Was hoping to do a little long exposure night photography, but I can only have the shutter open for 30 seconds and with an aperture of 3.5 (uhh, I think that's the one).

Is there a way I can increase the shutter time?

Note: Camera isn't mine. Don't really wanna gently caress around with poo poo if I can help it. >_>

Chip McFuck
Jul 24, 2007

We droppin' like a comet and this Vulcan tried to Spock it/These Martians tried to do it, but knew they couldn't cop it

teh_Shane posted:

I don't know all too much about DSLR cameras, but I've got a Canon EOS 400D with me at the moment. Was hoping to do a little long exposure night photography, but I can only have the shutter open for 30 seconds and with an aperture of 3.5 (uhh, I think that's the one).

Is there a way I can increase the shutter time?

Note: Camera isn't mine. Don't really wanna gently caress around with poo poo if I can help it. >_>

You can set the camera to it's bulb exposure setting, which will keep the shutter open for as long as you hold the button down.

The Psyentist
Apr 7, 2008

Side Effects posted:

You can set the camera to it's bulb exposure setting, which will keep the shutter open for as long as you hold the button down.

Haha, thanks dude. Found it shortly afterwards but SA wasn't loading for me, so I couldn't edit my post. ;/
Now I've got one more thing to ask.

What's the best way to go about getting as much light into the shot in as little time as possible?

I'd like to get a night time shot that looks day time, with stars in the sky - however I don't really want the stars to appear as massive streaks careening across the photo.

SirRobin
Mar 2, 2002

teh_Shane posted:

What's the best way to go about getting as much light into the shot in as little time as possible?

I'd like to get a night time shot that looks day time, with stars in the sky - however I don't really want the stars to appear as massive streaks careening across the photo.
Open up your aperture as wide as it will go, turn the ISO up to 11 and hope you're good at picking faint stars from noise.

The trick to astrophotography isn't in minimising shutter time it's in following the movement of the stars with a long exposure

SirRobin fucked around with this message at 12:29 on Jun 4, 2009

zynga dot com
Nov 11, 2001

wtf jill im not a bear!!!

A dossier and a state of melted brains: The Jess campaign has it all.
I'm desinging a business card at 400 dpi, and I'm having a hell of a time getting the black text (8 point) to not look smudged or as if the color bled due to PS's anti-aliasing when I actually print it out. I just got back from Kinko's with a mock-up printed on card stock in each of smooth/strong/crisp/sharp and they all look terrible in black. Non-anti-aliasing looks even worse, so I'm not sure where to go from here. I have text in dark green and gray as well and that looks fine. Oh, the font is Franklin Gothic Medium Condensed, if that helps. Any suggestions?

plaguedoctor
Jun 26, 2008

I CAN DUMP MY GIRLFRIEND CAUSE SHE'S LIKE A WHORE, RIGHT GUYS? RIGHT???

Flashdance posted:

I'm desinging a business card at 400 dpi, and I'm having a hell of a time getting the black text (8 point) to not look smudged or as if the color bled due to PS's anti-aliasing when I actually print it out. I just got back from Kinko's with a mock-up printed on card stock in each of smooth/strong/crisp/sharp and they all look terrible in black. Non-anti-aliasing looks even worse, so I'm not sure where to go from here. I have text in dark green and gray as well and that looks fine. Oh, the font is Franklin Gothic Medium Condensed, if that helps. Any suggestions?

With text, you really should be using Illustrator or some other vector based program. Photoshop will output a raster image, which might be the cause of the color bleed you are talking about.

Also, check what color you are actually using. I don't know what kind of printers Kinkos has, but check with them and see what inks they use. For very small graphics or text, you want it to use only one ink. In process printing (CMYK), most text will use 100% K and no other inks. Except, Photoshop does wierd things with blacks -- often, R0G0B0 is black in Photoshop but ends up as C45M32Y34K100 or some other odd combination of colors.

gmc9987
Jul 25, 2007

Flashdance posted:

I'm desinging a business card at 400 dpi, and I'm having a hell of a time getting the black text (8 point) to not look smudged or as if the color bled due to PS's anti-aliasing when I actually print it out. I just got back from Kinko's with a mock-up printed on card stock in each of smooth/strong/crisp/sharp and they all look terrible in black. Non-anti-aliasing looks even worse, so I'm not sure where to go from here. I have text in dark green and gray as well and that looks fine. Oh, the font is Franklin Gothic Medium Condensed, if that helps. Any suggestions?

Are you flattening and rasterizing the image before you give it to Kinko's? Try giving Kinko's the un-flattened document and see if that makes a difference.

throat luv
Aug 17, 2005

mad fly with esophagii
I am trying to make a collage in Photoshop CS4 that contains 16 pictures. I have horrible skills using photoshop, I followed some guides online but these will only support like 6 images. I have tried to up the size of the new pallet to 1680x1050pixels to match my desktop ratio but when this happens the pictures appear to be like 1/20 there normal size:eng99:

Any assistance would be marvelous !

Travakian
Oct 9, 2008

throat luv posted:

I am trying to make a collage in Photoshop CS4 that contains 16 pictures. I have horrible skills using photoshop, I followed some guides online but these will only support like 6 images. I have tried to up the size of the new pallet to 1680x1050pixels to match my desktop ratio but when this happens the pictures appear to be like 1/20 there normal size:eng99:

Any assistance would be marvelous !

When you make your canvas bigger, the photos appear small because, well, they probably are. You could work at this size, zoom in and work in there, then afterwards use the CROP tool (3rd down, I believe; looks like a little square with a line through it IIRC) and shrink the canvas down to size. May make it easier for you.


Otherwise, what sort of collage are you trying to make?
Just soft blending from one into the other?

Bring all of the photos into one document as separate layers, then you can either place them and use the eraser tool to blend into eachother (not a good way at -all-), or on each layer create a mask (at the bottom of the the layers menu there's a button that looks similar to: [ O ] -- click this and you've created a layer mask!).

Paint on this to hide parts of your layer. This is the better method because if you screw up or want to change something, you can easily go back and paint the image back in, whereas if you deleted it you'd be... screwed.

If you just want your photos to be their normal square/rectangle shapes and placed over eachother, bring them into one document (each as a separate layer), and use the TRANSFORM tool to rotate them to fit.


If this doesn't answer your question any, I can explain further/provide other alternatives. Let us know.

throat luv
Aug 17, 2005

mad fly with esophagii

Travakian posted:

:words:

Great advice! If you got the time-- do you have an AIM/skype name I can reach you at, I had miscellaneous other questions and didn't want to clutter the thread.

zynga dot com
Nov 11, 2001

wtf jill im not a bear!!!

A dossier and a state of melted brains: The Jess campaign has it all.

plaguedoctor posted:

With text, you really should be using Illustrator or some other vector based program. Photoshop will output a raster image, which might be the cause of the color bleed you are talking about.

Also, check what color you are actually using. I don't know what kind of printers Kinkos has, but check with them and see what inks they use. For very small graphics or text, you want it to use only one ink. In process printing (CMYK), most text will use 100% K and no other inks. Except, Photoshop does wierd things with blacks -- often, R0G0B0 is black in Photoshop but ends up as C45M32Y34K100 or some other odd combination of colors.

It's for gotprint.com so I'm actually already working in CMYK. I never really thought about the ink blending like that though - is that really a problem when inks get blended like that, or is it more for RGB->CMYK conversions? The green looks fine on the mock-up I printed. I'll go give Illustrator a run in the lab and see how things come out, though. I didn't consider the raster image part of it, that's a good point and goes into this:

gmc9987 posted:

Are you flattening and rasterizing the image before you give it to Kinko's? Try giving Kinko's the un-flattened document and see if that makes a difference.

I am, yes - I wasn't sure if Kinko's could print directly from a .psd so they've all been flattened .pngs so far. The business card site will print from a .psd however, so if that's all it is then maybe I'm already set. I'll have to get a printer set up somewhere in here to test.


EDIT: It was the flattening/rasterizing that was doing it. Managed to print directly from the .psd and it looks great. Thanks guys!

zynga dot com fucked around with this message at 01:08 on Jun 6, 2009

plaguedoctor
Jun 26, 2008

I CAN DUMP MY GIRLFRIEND CAUSE SHE'S LIKE A WHORE, RIGHT GUYS? RIGHT???

Flashdance posted:

It's for gotprint.com so I'm actually already working in CMYK. I never really thought about the ink blending like that though - is that really a problem when inks get blended like that, or is it more for RGB->CMYK conversions?

Well, conversions are a whole other topic, and they are a huge problem and pain in the rear end. Especially if you have to get true color accuracy, like with clothing photos.

But with process printing, traditionally they used 4 different plates that would each print on the single paper. One plate had only cyan, another magenta, another yellow, and the last key (black) ink. These days I think it's all done with kind of "digital plates" rather than actual metal things.
But the problem lies in that the plates won't align with pinpoint precision. With photos and such, there is so much going on that it's hard to see when something is off by a small amount. But with small text or graphics, mixing ink colors (thus, using multiple plates) can result in uneven overlapping and thus smudgy or "blurry" text.

Travakian
Oct 9, 2008

throat luv posted:

Great advice! If you got the time-- do you have an AIM/skype name I can reach you at, I had miscellaneous other questions and didn't want to clutter the thread.

e: nvm

Travakian fucked around with this message at 05:44 on Apr 19, 2012

No. 9
Feb 8, 2005

by R. Guyovich
Can anyone recommend a good intro drawing book? I cannot sketch/draw at all and I wanted to work on that just as something to pass the time. I guess I'm looking for something like "Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain" but better? Is there a definitive good intro book? :cheers:

Beat.
Nov 22, 2003

Hey, baby, wanna come up and see my etchings?
I think the best thing to do is take a class, that is what got me over the initial "hump" of getting into drawing...one that I've used that is decent is Drawing: A Contemporary Approach by Claudia Betti and Teel Sale but really it was my first drawing course that really got me into it.

No. 9
Feb 8, 2005

by R. Guyovich

Beat. posted:

I think the best thing to do is take a class, that is what got me over the initial "hump" of getting into drawing...one that I've used that is decent is Drawing: A Contemporary Approach by Claudia Betti and Teel Sale but really it was my first drawing course that really got me into it.

Yeah I figured I'd get told to take a class. Ill check out the book thanks!

Sundae
Dec 1, 2005
One of the stories in the daily thread made me wonder for a moment, and I can't remember what the rule / convention / normal approach is for this.

Let's say you want to describe something with a color, and the color uses two words. Examples: sea green, navy blue, cornflower blue. I was under the impression that you're supposed to, when describing an object as "a(n) COLOR [object]", hyphenate the color if it's a two-word color, but damned if I can remember when/from whom I learned this.

So which of these would be correct (or if there isn't a rule, more suitable instead)?

"a cornflower blue gel"
"a cornflower-blue gel"

I would have said the latter is more suitable, but now am not sure... What say all ye CC Gods o' Grammar?

Travakian
Oct 9, 2008

Sundae posted:

:words:

These are called compound adjectives. I like compound adjectives. Hyphens are required.

Wiki for more (very short article).

Sundae
Dec 1, 2005

Travakian posted:

These are called compound adjectives. I like compound adjectives. Hyphens are required.

Wiki for more (very short article).

Thanks! I'm glad I had it right at least, though I hate when I can't remember crap from grammar school. :( Much appreciated.

Krispy Wafer
Jul 26, 2002

I shouted out "Free the exposed 67"
But they stood on my hair and told me I was fat

Grimey Drawer
I've restored old photographs in the past with good results, but I'm at a loss on how to fix the following picture:



I've fixed most of the face and I can clear up the fingerprint near the hands and other scratches, but the image is so washed out that I'm having fits trying to increase the contrast and bring out the right shoulder. Nothing I seem to do in Photoshop can modify the levels.

Does anyone with more knowledge have a suggestion where I can go from here? Here's the PSD I'm working from if someone wants a crack at it:

http://bobscola.com/gemina-retouch.psd

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vonnegutt
Aug 7, 2006
Hobocamp.
Honestly, that image is so degraded that it'll be hard to make perfect again, the information simply isn't there. However, you could try this:

After cleaning the majority of the dark scratches (the white ones won't matter in this method), copy the image layer, and set the copied layer on Multiply on the layer option. Add as many of these copied Multiply layers as you need to get the photo to clear up, then, you can flatten them and fix the white scratches as you need.

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