A Rough guide to Sig Creation

Step 5 - Manipulating The Images Part 2

To remove the parts of the photo which are not needed can be done a number of ways, we could use the Lasso tool, trace around the edges, creating a custom shaped marquee and deleting the area enclosed. I always find that the edges are too sharp with this method. By far the better method here is to create a mask and airbrush the parts we don't want out of the picture. I like to work the image as large as possible for this. The image below shows how I have magnified the photo and removed the background sunset (although you can leave the background in if you wish).
To create the mask, click on the photo layer (Layer 2 in this case) and drag it to the 'Add a mask' icon as arrowed in the enlarged layers box below. For demonstration purposes, I have also highlighted the areas I wish to remove.

The layer box will now show two thumbnails for layer 2.

The colour selector will also turn to black and white. You can work the layer in normal mode by clicking the colour thumbnail in the layer 2 slot or switch to mask mode by clicking the black and white thumbnail. As I have only just created the mask, I am in mask mode.

The mask mode is very useful. While the foreground colour in the selector is black, the airbrush tool will remove whatever I airbrush over. If I make a mistake and take out too much of the image, I can click the double ended arrow in the selector to make the white become foreground. This mode replaces the original image.

Select the Airbrush Tool. A circular cursor will appear when you move over the image we are working on.

I can now select the size of airbrush that I require. For this image I select the fuzzy icon two boxes to the left of the one marked 21, This should allow me to get into all the corners. I have also selected Normal mode and a pressure of 10%. If you use a pressure higher than this, it tends to leave the sharp edges again.
Airbrush away. Remember, if you make a mistake, switch the selector to white and airbrush the image back in. When you are satisfied that all the unwanted areas have been removed, take a look at it with the background back on. This sometimes shows up any missed bits.
The final result of my labours looks like this -:
When you have done, turn on the other layers once more and view the sigs actual size ('View' 'Actual Pixels').
It's coming on nicely. Next, we will add the text.

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