Re: Aligning A Mask Free Hand

"Chris Nicola" <chrisnicola@hotmail.com> wrote in message 
news:4784faf5_3@cnews...
>
> There is an old picture I wish to restore which has an oval background 
> which is damaged. I intend to make an oval mask which exactly corresponds 
> to the oval shape which will guide me to use the clone tool to restore the

> damaged picture according to the oval shape only and not beyond. However, 
> getting the mask to the perfect size and into position is the problem.
>
> I would be interested to learn if there is a way to align the oval mask 
> free hand or with the positioning arrows before locking it into position 
> and making the selection. Also, is it possible to expand or contract the 
> mask using tabs to fine tune it to the perfect size?
>
> Your advice would be appreciated.

Chris, why worry about making it the perfect size during the restoration 
process? When I've done restoration stuff, I have many layers/objects that I 
work on and use lots of clipmasks to fine tune (erase) stuff I don't need 
when I'm finishing up. Perhaps if you could link to a sample of the image 
(or attach a smaller version of it here) people could get a better idea of 
what you're working with and give you ideas. 

There is an old picture I wish to restore which has an oval background which 
is damaged. I intend to make an oval mask which exactly corresponds to the 
oval shape which will guide me to use the clone tool to restore the damaged 
picture according to the oval shape only and not beyond. However, getting 
the mask to the perfect size and into position is the problem.

I would be interested to learn if there is a way to align the oval mask free 
hand or with the positioning arrows before locking it into position and 
making the selection. Also, is it possible to expand or contract the mask 
using tabs to fine tune it to the perfect size?

Your advice would be appreciated.

Kind Regards

Chris 

Hunter, thanks for the reply. Actually, as I am not very experienced making 
the mask spot on from the begining is the only solution I can think of. 
There may be better solutions I would be interested to learn about. However 
I would also like to learn how to change the size of a mask and  move a mask 
into position before locking it and making the selection, if thats possible.
I have tried to attach the image to this message. (I hope it works) As you 
can see I need to rebuild the oval background with the clone tool, and later 
the square border around that.
Kind Regards
Chris
"Hunter Elliott" <nospam@gatewaycity.com> wrote in message 
news:47850387_1@cnews...
>
>
> "Chris Nicola" <chrisnicola@hotmail.com> wrote in message
> news:4784faf5_3@cnews...
>>
>> There is an old picture I wish to restore which has an oval background
>> which is damaged. I intend to make an oval mask which exactly
corresponds
>> to the oval shape which will guide me to use the clone tool to restore

>> the
>> damaged picture according to the oval shape only and not beyond.
However,
>> getting the mask to the perfect size and into position is the problem.
>>
>> I would be interested to learn if there is a way to align the oval
mask
>> free hand or with the positioning arrows before locking it into
position
>> and making the selection. Also, is it possible to expand or contract
the
>> mask using tabs to fine tune it to the perfect size?
>>
>> Your advice would be appreciated.
>
> Chris, why worry about making it the perfect size during the restoration
> process? When I've done restoration stuff, I have many layers/objects that

> I
> work on and use lots of clipmasks to fine tune (erase) stuff I don't need
> when I'm finishing up. Perhaps if you could link to a sample of the image
> (or attach a smaller version of it here) people could get a better idea of
> what you're working with and give you ideas.
>
>
> 

"Chris Nicola" <chrisnicola@hotmail.com> wrote in message 
news:47853af7_1@cnews...
>
> Hunter, thanks for the reply. Actually, as I am not very experienced 
> making the mask spot on from the begining is the only solution I can think

> of. There may be better solutions I would be interested to learn about. 
> However I would also like to learn how to change the size of a mask and 
> move a mask into position before locking it and making the selection, if 
> thats possible.
>
> I have tried to attach the image to this message. (I hope it works) As you

> can see I need to rebuild the oval background with the clone tool, and 
> later the square border around that.

I don't know that *I* would see a need to "lock" anything into any
position 
at all, but that's just me.

well, first off, if you have access to the original, I'd rescan it. This is 
an 8-bit image and you're going to want a full 24-bit image for restoration. 
Rescan it as a COLOR image and not grayscale. Why? Well, even though it's 
not a color image, the color scan will pick up tonality in the other 
channels that may show less damage, etc. I'd also scan it in at a higher 
DPI/PPI. By having a higher pixel count, it will be a larger image w/in PP 
and that will give you more detail to work with during the restoration 
process. (especially since this one has a LOT of JPG artifacting)

Personally, I'd probably work on this in many separate parts. I know my 
process is probably more tedious than others, but I would make a rough mask 
around each area I wanted to work on, then promote that area to a new 
object. I'd work on it, then make a clipmask of that object and "erase the

areas of that object I don't need. Not knowing how familiar you are with any 
of these processes, I'm not sure how far to continue on here - have you done 
much restoration stuff or just playing around with cloning and various 
objects/layers, stuff like that? 

> I would be interested to learn if there is a way to align the oval mask 
> free hand or with the positioning arrows before locking it into position 
> and making the selection. Also, is it possible to expand or contract the 
> mask using tabs to fine tune it to the perfect size?

Hi Chris,

Yes all those things are possible. Have a look at 'Help' under:

Contents/  Image Editing/  Masking Images/  Moving and aligning editable 
areas/  To move an editable area.

1 Open the Object tools flyout, and click the Mask transform tool.
2 Drag the editable area to a new location in the image window.

If you click on the mask the handles will change as they do when you click 
on an object, so you can resize, rotate, and distort as well as move.

Regards

Gareth