Photo refresher

**ss-kalm** · 18 April 2021, 12:31 AM

I find the BACKGROUND ERASER almost foolproof, but I went to the SELECT COLORS TO ENHANCE to try and do it better. On a white background it looks like it did a great job until you compare the two and then move off the white background. The background erase did just that ... the select colors to enhance seems to have deleted most of the shirt colors too. Obviously not FOOLPROOF enough (either that or I'm a really good fool) ... in my personal experience, the background erase is almost as quick to use and does a far better job.

Click image for larger version.

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**Chris M** · 18 April 2021, 01:12 AM

The spade and circle took 4 minutes, the tree 6 minutes. Both done with the Shape Tool and can be resized, joined and exported as whatever.

The symmetrical shapes are all in 2 halves and I didn't do the text as bending text to curves in Xara is one of those things that I can never seem to achieve effectively.

>>> bwood graphics.web <<<

**gwpriester** · 18 April 2021, 01:22 AM

Another tip, higher resolution images work better.

**Egg Bramhill** · 18 April 2021, 01:34 AM

With text on a curve Chris.

**Chris M** · 18 April 2021, 01:52 AM

I instinctively draw a text box (area) as opposed to a text line. Then I forget to centre it. Want to have the text bend the other way, or have it on the top and bottom half of a circle?....YouTube and several hours go missing before I send a tear stained email to my designer friend who sends me exactly what I want within 2 minutes. I then have to go around to her place with a 6 pack of donuts...I regret the day we started that tradition.

**Chris M** · 18 April 2021, 12:33 PM

I passed a lazy hour and redrew the graphics on your home page, with one cheat...I used Egg's bent text, no need to alter what's workin'

>>> bwood graphics.xar <<<

**bwood** · 18 April 2021, 07:48 PM

Thank You Keith. I’ll be using background erase. The erase function worked very well on the photo above, and the logos sent to me are proprietary. Don’t want to mess with corporate when you can. The logo on the right is corporate, and the blocked logo in the middle is homemade. I’ll erase the white on the right jpeg, and with the homemade logo in the middle is the one I think I’ll carve up.
It’s a challenge working with number of jpegs, pngs, and images that arise from multiple social media platforms. Interesting discussion, many thanks for the tips.
-Bill

**bwood** · 18 April 2021, 07:51 PM

Brilliant. Thank You Keith, Chris, Egg and Gary.
-Bill

**bwood** · 18 April 2021, 08:24 PM

@egg. That tutorial is awesome Egg. So many tips, so little time. I’ll await your digital book!
W

**bwood** · 19 April 2021, 05:34 PM

Originally Posted by Egg Bramhill

I prefer to trace with the Shape Tool first but secondly I like to use the Select Colours to Enhance method. I find the eraser tool very clumbsy.

Egg - your exercise was outstanding. Appreciate the effort you made to make it. I ended up with a slight snag though. As you can see the background of the completed logo took on the background of the photo. I can't understand why, because the logo was worked on a different file. I'll have to redo and take the pristine logo and start again with a clean file. Some of my editing must have been done on the canvass. Photo is stretched full width.