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Howto divide an area into adjacent selections?


raananh

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Hi,
I have a black and white picture which I want to colorize, so I want to make selections of various elements in the picture, then apply different colors to the selections.

For example, a dress with a belt in the center: there are three selections: the upper part of the dress, which shares a selection border with the belt, which shares a selecton border with the lower part of the dress.

What is a recommended way to do it?

It seems intuitive to me to use the pen tool to make an outline path of the whole dress, then use it again to outline the belt inside the whole dress path, which will essentially divide the dress into three (upper, belt, lower), but I could not find info on how to turn this structure into three adjacent selections which make up the whole dress...

Thanks for any help,
raananh
 

IamSam

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Hey,
Each time you make a path surrounding one of the dress sections, save the path. You may then return to the path, then make it into (or back into) a selection.

For me, after each Pen Tool path was made into a selection, I would highlight the main image layer and press Command/Control + J to copy that selection to it's own layer, thus dividing the the dress into three separate sections with three separate layers.

Hope I understood your question.
 

raananh

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Thank you!
I just wanted to avoid drawing the shared edge of adjacent selections twice, for example one time as the lower edge of the upper dress selection, and the second time as the upper edge of the belt selection. Drawing twice can lead to gaps and overlaps between the selections, as the second drawing may not be exactly like the first drawing.

But you gave me an idea (maybe that is what you meant) - I'll draw the path for the upper part of the dress, save it. Then delete all path segments except for the lower edge (which is also the upper edge of the belt), and draw the rest of the path for the belt, save it. Then again delete all path segments except for the lower edge of the belt (which is also the upper edge of the lower part of the dress), draw the rest of the lower dress part, save it too.

Then I will turn the saved paths to selections (yes using layers), and voila, I got the three selections without redrawing the shared selection borders...

Does this process look good to you?

Thanks,
raananh
 

IamSam

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Sorry, got busy!

I now understand your dilemma!

You have the right idea! And your solution is almost exactly how I have handled the issue in the past!

However, not all is lost if you have two separate paths, like for the lower portion of the dress and the upper portion of the dress, and you want to use parts of the existing paths to select the belt.

Since both paths are saved, in my paths panel, I create a new path layer, then I will select/highlight the upper portion and copy the path and paste it into the new path layer. Do the same for the lower portion. Now that both paths are combined, I can open both closed paths, delete points, and then close the ends (following the belt) of the remaining upper and lower portions.

Make sense?
 

raananh

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Oh thank you, yes, it makes a lot of sense.
Reading your reply I now understand much better about how to reuse paths.
Thank you very much,
raananh
 

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