Photoshop advice on removing text from a gradient background

Darkst4r

Darkst4r

Darkst4r

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Hi, I've been using photoshop for a while but just wanted to pick some of your brains on the best and easiest way of removing say, white text from a gradient background ?

I've had a go at clonestamping but it took ages and looked rubbish, I tried using the blur tool afterwards but it still didnt look right.

Tried the content aware spot healing brush etc and still looked crap, leaving artifacts behind and not matching the gradient.

Heres the image incase it helps, I dont want it actually doing for me, just advice on the right tools to use :

http://i275.photobucket.com/albums/jj293/D4rkstar/09911440.jpg



I want to remove the Parkoz hardware community text from the image, I hope this isn't violating any forum rules, if it is ill upload the image again with blurred out text.
 
I'm using CS5, I'll have a look. Do you have to mask off the area before filling ? Could you guide me through the steps you used ? Cheers.
 
P_A_N_I_C said:
think i'd cut that whole ring out and try to recreate something similar.
Click to expand...

Spot on. Sample the top and bottom of the ring, mask it out and slap down a fresh gradient over the ring and the text.

Darkst4r said:
I'm using CS5, I'll have a look. Do you have to mask off the area before filling ? Could you guide me through the steps you used ? Cheers.
Click to expand...

Use the eyedropper to sample the colour at the top and the colour at the bottom as your foreground and background colours.

Make a fresh layer, then get the circular marquee tool, and select the outer edge of the ring. Then hold alt and select the inner edge - this will remove what's inside that from the selection, leaving you with an o shape.

You will need to transform the selection to get the shape right as it is skewed by perspective.

Use the gradient tool to replicate the gradient underneath. Use ctrl-z to undo it and do it again until you get the angle and shade right.

Steps are simplified but experiment and you'll get the gist :)

Edit: on second thoughts I would personally fill the ring AND the inside part, then make that layer invisible. Then I would make a completely fresh selection of the inner ring on a fresh layer, fill it, and use that layer to make a selection. Then I'd delete the centre section of the first layer I'd made, and delete the second layer I made.

I work a bit cackhanded so it might sound a bit roundabout. It's just the way I'd do it.
 
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Bah, content aware makes a hash of it the way I'm doing it. I roughly made a selection around the text, pressed delete, chose content aware and it ended up including loads of mess from around the chrome ring.

How do I make a selection on the inside and outside of the troublesome circle ?
 
amdse.jpg


Easy just paint in the new colours within a mask, 2 min jobby.
 
Darkst4r said:
Bah, content aware makes a hash of it the way I'm doing it. I roughly made a selection around the text, pressed delete, chose content aware and it ended up including loads of mess from around the chrome ring.

How do I make a selection on the inside and outside of the troublesome circle ?
Click to expand...

I have no idea what you mean by content aware, I learnt all my photoshop from work so I have a bit of a sledgehammer approach to most things. I'll try and explain it as best I can.

This is very manual but the shapes you're dealing with are simple so it will work well.

Make a fresh blank layer, get the circle marquee and select the outer edge of the ring. You'll do this by making a circle roughly the right shape, then using transform selection. Once you've got the box around the selection, you need to skew it by using a combination of ctrl, alt + shift and dragging the handles- try it and you'll get the gist pretty quick, it lets you skew it. If I'm honest I forget which keys do what at this moment. I use a Mac as well which doesn't help when trying to explain things to PC users because the keys are muddled up. I'm pretty certain it's ctrl and then drag the handles that are on the edges, not the corners. You'll see what I mean.

Get that selection right, and fill it with your gradient.

Then make that whole layer invisible, make a fresh one, and do the same thing with the inner ring. Get the circle and skew it til it's right. (you could also ctrl click the first layer and then shrink that selection, it'll scale). Now fill it. Just with black or anything. (Or make a path out of it. Both work. I fill and select though because I'm cackhanded so I'll explain it that way).

Then ctrl click that layer in the layers palette - this will make a selection of that smaller circle. Make this layer invisible now or delete it, your selection will stay put.

Go back the first layer you made, and delete the middle. You should be all done now.

As I said, I do work a little cackhanded but I get stuff done!

The 'right' way to do it is masks but I started doing it this way before I learnt masks and still find this was easier for some reason.
 
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PardonTheWait said:
I have no idea what you mean by content aware, I learnt all my photoshop from work so I have a bit of a sledgehammer approach to most things. I'll try and explain it as best I can.

This is very manual but the shapes you're dealing with are simple so it will work well.

Make a fresh blank layer, get the circle marquee and select the outer edge of the ring. You'll do this by making a circle roughly the right shape, then using transform selection. Once you've got the box around the selection, you need to skew it by using a combination of ctrl, alt + shift and dragging the handles- try it and you'll get the gist pretty quick, it lets you skew it. If I'm honest I forget which keys do what at this moment. I use a Mac as well which doesn't help when trying to explain things to PC users because the keys are muddled up. I'm pretty certain it's ctrl and then drag the handles that are on the edges, not the corners. You'll see what I mean.

Get that selection right, and fill it with your gradient.

Then make that whole layer invisible and do the same thing with the inner ring. Get the circle and skew it til it's right. (you could also ctrl click the first layer and then shrink that selection, it'll scale). Now fill it. Just with black or anything. (Or make a path out of it. Both work. I fill and select though because I'm cackhanded so I'll explain it that way).

Then ctrl click that layer in the layers palette - this will make a selection of that smaller circle. Make this layer invisible now or delete it, your selection will stay put.

Go back the first layer you made, and delete the middle. You should be all done now.

As I said, I do work a little cackhanded but I get stuff done!
Click to expand...

Thanks a lot, I'll have a go and post the results
 
^ way too complicated.

All you need to do is mask out the current green bit, pick the nearest dark colour, paint round, do the same with the lightest.
 
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Pinter75 said:
^ way too complicated.
Click to expand...

It is to explain! As I said for some reason doing it that way just makes more sense to me, I think it's because I did it that way, then learnt masks, and just.. kept doing it the way I did before. It doesn't take any longer but it's a pain in the arse to explain. Knowing the right shortcuts makes it take no longer than masking.

You're right though I am a photoshop cackhand. I did photoshop/quark/illustrator as a job for about three years and every single person I worked with did things differently to each other, but we all worked at the same speed because we worked the way we found easiest.
 
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