"Misted" Tubing
You may have seen tutorials for "misted tubes" on the internet. This is a different technique for tubing that works well with graphics that not well defined. The focal point of the image will sort of fade into the background. The look is soft and works well for certain tags or graphics you create. Below is the image we are going to tube - see how our lady here sort of disappears into the background?
If you would like to use this image to practice on, simply right click on the image and click on "save as" in your browser. Open this image in PSP9, duplicate it, close the original (just in case!), and promote the background to a raster layer.
Take your Freehand Selection Tool set at a Tolerance of 0 and a feather of 30. Take the Freehand Selection Tool, starting close to the image (see screen shot below) and follow around the part of the image you want tubed.
This is subject to your own interpretation how close and how much you want to select. Each image is unique and truly what you want in the tube itself is your artistic decision. It is not precise and no rules about it.
When you gone completely around your image to your satisfaction, right-click the mouse button. The marching ants now appear softly away from your image. See below.
At this point, you have two options. You can go to Image, scroll down and click on "Crop to Selection". In the alternative, you can invert your selection, then go to Image, "Crop to Selection". In the screen shot below, I chose to invert my selection for this graphic. It is your choice here and some "mists" are nicer with more of the background visible and some are not. Still, this is your decision and your chance to take artistic license.
At this point you can leave it like you see it above. This is an area that is subject to your own particular tastes. For me, I want to blend the edges a bit more. To do this, add a layer, then send it to the bottom of the Layer Palette. Fill the new layer with a dark color from your graphic. Go back to Layer 1, grab your Freehand Selection tool but reduce the feather to 10 to 15 (again, your choice).
See screen shot below that shows what areas I trimmed away.
When you have cut away the sections, make sure you select all, click on the image and check to make sure there are no "floating pixels" outside your tube. If there are, make a selection around the pixels, hit the delete key several times. Above is the finished tube on the dark color.
Copy the tube layer, paste as a new image. Save as your new tube. To see how it looks with the same color in the tube, use your Color Dropper to pick the background color. I clicked on her hat. Add a layer, move it to the bottom and fill with the foreground color you just picked. Below is my finished tube on the dark color.
As I said above, this is just the way I do these. Some images I refine more or less. Below are some others I have done so you can see the differences. I would love to see your results! Please email me if you have any questions too.
