IMT basic FAQ

Feel free to drop additional tips in the threads, I'll add them as noted.

IMT basic FAQ:

Q: What program do you guys use?
A: Most of us work off of Adobe Photoshop, though freeware programs like GIMP can do a lot of the same functions that are mainly used.
For windows users, Paint.net is a good program to get started with.

Q: How do you guys remove text?
A: Depends on the image. If the text is small and the spot doesn't have too many details, text is easily removed by the clone stamp tool.

If there's more text and it requires a lot of redrawing, the pen tool is great for redrawing implied (hidden) lines. Simply select a start and end point for the implied line, and keep your mouse clicked for the second endpoint. Drag your mouse around to add a bend to the line. Once you've finished redrawing your path, select the "PATHS" tab down by your layers. Right click the path, fill path, simulate pressure, and viola, you've redrawn an implied line.

Content aware tool can be used to replace a decent amount, though be aware it is not a fix all. The tool takes samples from various other spots around the image, so if there's nothing there, or a lot of complex details, the tool won't work overly well. Touch up anything the tool doesn't do too well with the clone stamp tool.

Q: How do you guys make transparents?
A: Transparents are pretty straightforward, using the magic wand tool will allow you to select the area around the part of the image you want to isolate. Touch up this selection with your tool of preference, generally the lasso tool due to its flexibility. Make sure you're either holding shift or have the "add to selection" feature enabled on your tool so that you don't lose your original selection.
Once you have the object in question isolated, there's a few things to try. You can either smooth the selection by a low pixel count, usually no more than 5, and manually touch it up from there, or you can expand the selection by 1 pixel, feather by 1 pixel, and delete.
All of those options can be found under Select -> Modify on the top level toolbar.

Another common method is to use the pen tool to make your selections. Using the same method as described above, outline the area you want selected with the pen tool. This time, instead of using "stroke path" however, select "make selection" and make sure that Anti-aliased is checked. You can also feel free to add a feather to reduce the "hard edge" effect. Usually you won't need a feather heavier than one or two pixels.

As stupid as it sounds, don't forget to save as a .png! The black background on images is due to .jpg's being unable to save as transparents, and we get a lot of requests where the image is a .png saved as a .jpg!

If there's any other tips or tricks fellow image adjustors would like to add to this, feel free to toss out any info in the threads and I'll gladly add it. This is really only intended to be a catch-all for the questions people ask a lot, not a comprehensive guide to Photoshop!