I am doing a fishing site for a friend and doing a vintage fishing theme. For that I'm using pictures of some lures that my great grandpa had, an old creel, bamboo poles etc.


I want to make them .gifs with transparent backgrounds. I need help with a few things.


Taking the Pictures





Obviously I need better lighting. Suggestions? Think I'll try some outside pics shortly sicne hte sun is really shining today.


Would it be easier to take the images one by one?


I had planned on just doing a picture with a bunch then cutting them up to edit.


For larger pictures like the creel, and the poles I want as much of a neutral background as I can get correct? They won't fit on a 8x11 sheet of white paper.


Making the Graphics


HELP?!


I've played a little with photoshop but a much older trial version, and The Gimp. Hated the gimp but that was probably because I had no idea what I was doing. I need to DL a trial image editing software or a free one so open for suggestions on which is the most user friendly.


If I recall correctly, last time I used Princess_Sara's guide from the tutorial sticky.


Any suggestions? Anyone want to hold my hand and walk me through a coupe image edits once I have some decent pictures to work with?

 

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For lighting get as much light reflecting off something to eliminate the shadows. Even a sheet of white paper held up on the side opposite the sun would help.

I built a lightbox for taking pics of small stuff like that. (Cardboard box with most of the sides cut out, thin white shower curtain wrapped around and bright lights shining in from the sides through the curtain. http://vnboards.ign.com/cb_photography/b23057/108793343/r108887509/ )

One by one is probably easiest. If you've got very little shadow and good light you can use the magic wand tool pretty easily to select white background and delete it. Then a quick zoom in and eraser stray bits. Save for web and devices and choose gif ad make sure transparency is on.

Shalis has a nice tutorial for using the pen tool to select an object, it's FAST for things with a lot of straight lines and smooth curves. You can find it in the tutorials section of http://vnboards.ign.com/graphics_insider_icons_and_website_design_board/b22598/105915504/p1/?13

 

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Awesome idea on the light box!! Will try that one out.

 

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you might want to check out PNG instead of GIF for transparency too.

Good point!

 

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IE (atleast the older versions) don't support transparacy for png unfortunatly.

 

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