separating similar colours with Corel

[David Ford]

Hi Creekers,

I took on a small job I wish I hadn't but one that should lead to more/better work via this customer. I'm sure you know that drill.

Anyhooo, it's a pet memorial, to be etched on granite, of a grey cat. The problem is he's sitting on a grey sofa in the photo and both colours are very similar. Of course it's also a 72dpi photo, very grainy. I want to get rid of the sofa clutter and just show the cat, highlighted by a vignette. I used the eraser to contour around the cat and completely eliminate the sofa but the resultant pure white didn't etch well at all. What is your recommended procedure for this task using Corel X3?

Thanks a heap for any advice.

[Chuck Stone]

Can you drop in another uncluttered background? Clouds perhaps?
That way, you can control what the background looks like, too.
Should be able to do that easily enough in PhotoPaint

[Mike Chance in Iowa]

It would depend entirely upon the photo and the position the cat is sitting/laying in. You might want to keep the sofa there so the cat is not "floating on air" and simply lighten or darken the sofa so there is more contrast.

If the background can be completely removed and not cause the cat to look unnatural, and you are engraving on black granite, add a black background so only the cat is engraved when you flip the colors to negative.

[Jack Burton]

Convert the grey cat to black then run it.

[Tom Bull]

Use the pen tool and the bezier tool (will take some practice to do quickly, but I can cut out the average pet in a few minutes) to draw an outline around the critter, then powerclip it out. Be sure to do sizing, grayscale, invert, contrast adjustment, etc, etc before you powerclip. Once it's cut out put the cat at the bottom as though setting on the edge of the memorial with the inscription above.

[Bill Cunningham]

A lot of your problem is going to be the 72 dpi. Thats just not enough res for a photograph. At 300 dpi. it's going to be 4 times smaller. If you have to enlarge it, you may find quite a few artifacts, particularly on the lighter areas.. I would ask the customer for the actual photo, and scan it myself. Most customers think that if it looks fine on the screen, it will look fine anywhere. I simply refuse to use low res photos for any work. If it's going to look like crap, I don't want them telling any one I did it.. Food for thought..