Looking for a program

Discussion in 'other software & services' started by bgoodman4, Nov 4, 2009.

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  1. bgoodman4

    bgoodman4 Registered Member

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    I am looking for a program like the one linked to below,,,but one that actually works as described. I found the program on todays Givaway of the day, downloaded it, and was surprised to find it did not work at all on my images.

    The program is

    Inpaint 2.0 and the home page is http://inpaint.smartcode.com/info.html

    It is off course possible that I was not using the program correctly but it seemed very straight forward and the help files provided (which were/are minimal to say the least) offered no clue as to what I may have been doing wrong.

    I would prefer a program that could process 16 bit tiff files (Inpaint could not handle tiffs at all and was unable to import 16 bit jpgs or bmps.

    Free of course is good but shareware would be fine if it will do the job.

    Thanks
     
  2. acr1965

    acr1965 Registered Member

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  3. bgoodman4

    bgoodman4 Registered Member

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    Actually I am looking for something more specific. I have PhotoShop CS3 and so a general editor is simply replicating more or less of the tools I already have available. What I am looking for is something that will fill or rather blend sections of the image. A typical example (though not my concern) would be to remove an object from an image without leaving any indication that it was ever there (such as an ex-spouse). Specifically for my purpose I want to be able to remove holes from a photo of an object (the holes are in the object not the photo). I can do this reasonably well with PS's clone tool or smudge tools but I was hoping there would be a less labour intensive way to get the job done so when I read the description of The Giveaway Of The Day product I thought I had found what I had long been wishing for.

    However the more I think of it the less I believe such a product could work for me. The contours of the "fill" area would have to be rather specific to present a realistic impression and I don't see how this could be accomplished by an algorithm.

    Still,,,,I can dream and hope....
     
  4. Huupi

    Huupi Registered Member

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    As you explained to get rid of the holes with the brushes,i fear that its the only way to do that,painfully slow but as you said it can be done perfectly with the clonestamp and then finishing up with the healing brush.

    One neat other way is to make a selection of each hole,then soften the borders.
    Drag the selection to an suitable area, then keep ctrl and alt pressed and drag this selection back covering the original hole.
    Yes its time consuming,but i dont know other ways to do it more easily.
    Have a good time though.
     
  5. Seer

    Seer Registered Member

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    There are many editors, free and paid, that can work with 48bit color.
    But as Huupi pointed out, the best cloning results are achieved by manual editing. How painful and slow that process will be would depend on the area you're cloning. If it is a uniform color, this can be done in a few seconds with a larger cloning brush, but if it is a complex part of a picture, well, this can be a time consuming task, as you need to do this on a smaller scale (greater zoom). An advice - do your cloning in small steps and always have your history at hand in case something goes wrong.

    Ouch. :D
     
  6. bgoodman4

    bgoodman4 Registered Member

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    Sounds like an interesting idea but I do not understand what you are doing when you

    What happens when you get to the "suitable area" and what might a "suitable area" be? The only thing I can think of is "a suitable area" is an area where there is a nice blend between the softened boarders and the "suitable area" once you drop the softened boarders there (well I am not sure what happens).

    Could I trouble you for a bit more detail?
     
  7. bgoodman4

    bgoodman4 Registered Member

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    I do this now in PS but as noted its time consuming, I was hoping I could save time but understand its not likely to happen.
     
  8. Huupi

    Huupi Registered Member

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    If you really get into Photoshop,first is to have a basic knowledge of the tools and the different ways to use them.
    Katrin Eissman books have a wealth of knowledge in them and sure she is a very good teacher.
    But for now,by what i mean with ''suitable'' is an nearby area next to the hole that can be used to cover up the hole.
    If for example you edit a face with blemishes on it then ''suitable'' is a sound skin area next to the blemish that can be used to cover up that area.
    Key in here is to soften the selection to a degree that u get a seamless fit at the moment you place it on anything you try to hide.
    Yes the use of history and/or snapshots is your escape route if something goes wrong but history has many other uses though.

    From PS CS and up most tools work with 16 bit files.
     
    Last edited: Nov 4, 2009
  9. bgoodman4

    bgoodman4 Registered Member

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    Interesting approach, I like it.

    I am reasonably competent with PS (the version I am using is CS 3). To do this sort of work I mainly use the clone tool at a 60% opacity or there abouts. I am generally using a soft round brush with a hardness of 0. Sometimes I will enable airbrush mode but I am better with it off (need to work with it more to get comfortable with it). I never spent much time with the healing tools and probably should get more familiar with them as well but....

    .....still it would be nice if the magic wand really were magic and I could simply click on an area and have it transformed to exactly what I want it to be......mind you, it would not be as much fun if it worked this way.

    Thanks for the name of the authour of the books on PS that you mentioned. I will make a point of looking for them.
     
  10. Huupi

    Huupi Registered Member

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    Your better off with the colorrange tool,its a nice tool to make initial selections.
    If you have created a selection with colorrange then hit Q to make a softmask of it,from there you can fine tune the selection with brushes.
     
  11. bgoodman4

    bgoodman4 Registered Member

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    I have never used that tool. I am going to look into it, thanks for bringing it to my attention.
     
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