Overlay impaired...

Kat Stokes

Kat Stokes

New member
I'm beginning to think I am Photoshop Impaired... :blink:

I've bought Penny's overlays, Danielle's overlays and Lynne-Marie's overlays. I've read the instructions, seem to understand them, follow them step by step and it still doesn't work for me. :(

I want them to cover a solid color paper and just cannot get it to work.
 
You are not alone! I bought some from Catscraps too and I can't figure them out... even following the directions.... this is why I haven't bought Penny's... lol
 
this is what i do in PS CS3 but I think you should be able to do this in PSE.

- position overlay above paper layer
- set magic wand tool so it has tolerance of 10 or less, check anti alias and contiguous
- click on the overlay layer in an area outside the overlay. (don't click on overlay itself)
- area outside of overlay should be selected
- go to Select, Modify, Expand to 1-4 pixels (will have to play around and depends on overlay edge)
- then ctrl shift i so that selection inverts
- create a new layer under paper layer
- make sure foreground color is a color (any color but not white)
- ctrl backspace so that selection, which should be on the new layer, fills with color
- ctrl d to deselect selection
- now you should have a clipping mask for overlay

so you should have these layers
- overlay
- paper
- mask

clip paper to mask.

you could skip the whole masking thing and instead of inverting selection, just delete it. But I prefer using a mask.

now you can play around with blend modes.

does that make any sense?
 
Ok, I finally got mine to work! I'm not sure why it worked this time and not the other day. Weird. Here's what I did.

Place paper under the overlay. Click on the overlay and get your magic wand. Click outside yout overlay. Then go to Select<Modify<Expand and I set mine to 2 px. Then click on your paper and hit delete. CTRL+D to deselect.
 
mturnidge said:
Ok, I finally got mine to work! I'm not sure why it worked this time and not the other day. Weird. Here's what I did.

Place paper under the overlay. Click on the overlay and get your magic wand. Click outside yout overlay. Then go to Select<Modify<Expand and I set mine to 2 px. Then click on your paper and hit delete. CTRL+D to deselect.
Click to expand...
Yep, these are the steps I use. Sometimes 1 px if the overlay edges are quite thin.
 
mturnidge said:
Ok, I finally got mine to work! I'm not sure why it worked this time and not the other day. Weird. Here's what I did.

Place paper under the overlay. Click on the overlay and get your magic wand. Click outside yout overlay. Then go to Select<Modify<Expand and I set mine to 2 px. Then click on your paper and hit delete. CTRL+D to deselect.
Click to expand...
this is how I've always done it. glad you got it to work! :)
 
i am mask addict! LOL.

also if you make the mask you can save and re-use.

(must admit, I don't save them though)
 
Kat, I posted this in another thread. Maybe it will help you?

Originally Posted by charlize
auch ... this may sound stupid LOL ... I know the magic wand ... I just don't know the meaning of the way to do it ... err ... let me bring up something here:

Drag the overlay into your layout. ---> I know this
Place it above your picture, and if necessary resize either your photo or the overlay to the size you want. ---> I know this too :D
In the tool bar, select the magic wand (it literally looks like a magic wand - a stick with a starburst kinda thing at the end). OK, I got it ;)
Make the overlay layer active (highlighted), and then with the magic wand click anywhere outside of the overlay. ---> anywhere outside the overlay??? what does it mean? the photo size should be as the same as the overlay, right?
Your photos/papers won't match the overlays perfectly. The overlay canvas is sized larger than the overlay so you can click the outside of the overlay easily. You select the area outside of the overlay because that's the area of your photo/paper you want to erase. Here's a picture.
click.jpg

Go to select > modify > expand.---> I can do this after I understand the one above LOL
Select 1 or 2 pixels depending on how thick the outside is. ---> this too :D
Now make the photo layer active (highlighted), and hit delete. Then unselect everything (no more marching ants), and you're done. ---> does it mean that I will delete the photo???
No, you will only delete the area of your picture/paper hanging out of the overlay area. I added the bluish background so you could see better.
after.jpg



I don't know if this helps, but I hope it does! Make sure you have the correct layer selected. If I'm messing up it's because I don't have the correct layer selected.

Or make sure contiguous is checked (I finally figured out how to do screen shots with my new monitor this morning.)

cont.jpg
 
Whoa Mimi! I don't do masks. Lol too complicated.

Thanks for the other way Megan. I'm going to try that today.
 
Thanks! I've been having trouble, too, so this really helped. Penny, thanks for the screen shot--I couldn't find contiguous! ;)
 
~Julie~ said:
Whoa Mimi! I don't do masks. Lol too complicated.

Thanks for the other way Megan. I'm going to try that today.
Click to expand...
Masks are awesome! So easy to switch out the papers or move the paper around. Of course, once you cut the paper to fit the overlay and you want to try a diff paper, you could use the cut paper layer to be the mask.

Hmm, I suppose instead of making a separate mask layer I could just be using the quick mask option in PS.
 
Oh, I think it looks great!!! Did you finally get it to work how one of the girls suggested? I must admit, when I used them previously, I had no idea there were easy ways, and I just zoomed in to full size and erased the pic to fit behind the overlay!! LOL Sloooooow and hard to get perfect! I'm glad you finally got it!
 
Brie - I just ended up taking my time and followed Penny's steps. My overlay was too big so I wasn't able to click outside of it. I think that's what the major problem was. :)

Thanks everyone for the suggestions!!!
 
Penny, awesome tutorial! That's the way I've always done them. I do that with funny-shaped frames too. Much easier than erasing the extra photo! lol
 
Love that page! The overlay looks great!

And can I say that the magic wand is my favorite friend? Followed closely by the magnetic lasso. :p
 
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