Misting and Tubing

The graphic I used for this tutorial was sent to me through a share's group by email. I just learned that this beautiful piece is done by Josephine Wall. I believe I am using it in accordance to her guidelines in her FAQ.

A reminder to anyone who is looking for artwork on the internet for use in your own creations.

The artist spends time and money and talent and skill to create each piece. That they share their work on the internet does not mean they are giving their work away for us to rip and claim as our own. They are sharing it with us and are being very generous, indeed. It is with great respect that I use Ms. Wall's work in this tutorial.

Although this tutorial looks complicated, once you get the hang of it, you will discover that this is a very easy technique.
For beginners and advanced PSP users, these misting (and tubing) techniques are far less time consuming than erasing the background around your subject.

You need no outside filters to do this tut. Just good old PSP and a graphics file.

When you have a picture that you are trying to cut out from the background, to make it into a single image, you have several methods to choose from. Misting has become a popular technique as it does not require the exactness that tubing does. You can "miss a whole bunch" and the feathering and soft effect will cover a lot of "errors".

Tubing is a time consuming process, but you end up with an image that can be used in many other graphics and tags.

Some people use both in one process.

Open your image in PSP. Make a habit of duplicating the image you want to "tube". Press Shift + D at the same time. Close your original and work with the copy.

Make sure the layer palette is open. Right click on the background layer and choose Promote Background Layer.

Study your image and visualize what you want it to look like when you are finished. Look at the edges in comparison to the borders of your image, and make sure there is room to work around, no matter what technique you are going to use.

I cheat. I duplicate my Raster layer. Right click on Raster and select duplicate. Make sure the top layer is highlighted.

I want to do the mirror image of the woman in this picture.

There is very little room at the bottom of her skirt, so I will need to add some room to the bottom of the picture.

I also want to crop away the dark part of the picture.



I use my rectangle selection tool to draw a square area around the woman on the top layer.

I have all of her selected with some room to spare.

Go to Selections, Invert.

Tap your Delete key.

Can't see any difference between top and bottom layer, yet? Click on the bottom layer.

Adjust > Blur > Gaussian Blur > Radius 45.

Click on the top layer and use the mover tool to drag the picture up toward the top.

When you mist a picture, you have to be careful that you do not let the misted boundaries go across a straight edge. It will ruin the mist by leaving an unerasable straight line in an otherwise soft aura. I use my smudge tool to go around the outside edges of the top image and smudge all the straight lines out of the image before I do anything else.



It's much easier to cut the background away from the subject than to try to erase it. Use the various selection tools to pick the parts that you don't want out and cut them away. Unless I am lifting an image from a solid color background, I start with the lassoo tool, and clip my way around the object.

If you are going to mist the image, merge visible layers now. Right click on one of the layers, and choose Merge Visible.

Use the Lasso tool to loosely continuous draw a line all the way around the image that you are going to mist. When you come back to the beginning, double click to connect and surround your image.

Sometimes when you are clicking your way from point to point, you miss the place you want to click. To undo the last point, tap your delete key. Each tap will undo one point clicked.

Go to Selections > Modify > Feather Number of Pixels: 32.

Window 1 shows you where your selections are...

Window 2 shows you what the edges will look like with that much feathering... and

Window 3 is your working window... andit shows you where the feathered edges are in full preview.

Make sure that the marching ants do not go off the edge of the picture.

If they do, lower the number of pixels until the marching ants are back inside the picture. Click OK.
Select > Invert. Tap the Delete Key Once.
Select > All
Select > Float
Image > Crop to Image

I did not defloat the image for a reason. Sometimes, a feathered image comes out too light.

If you crop to image without defloating, you get a promoted layer that may be just enough added depth to make your mist look clearer.

You can always delete the layer later.

Choose a light color from your image for the foreground color in your materials palette and a darker color for the background.

Change the foreground color to Gradient and select Foreground / Background gradient.



Add a Raster layer to your misted image. Right click on it and click: Arrange > Move to Bottom.

Click on the bottom raster layer and floodfill it with your gradient.

I like to set my gradient opacity to 45%, and flood fill til I have the blend that I want. I change things around til I find a pattern or fill that I like. Sometimes I use an alternate color, grey and the blend ... just depends.

When you find a look you like, add your watermark the image.
You don't have to merge any of the layers to save as a PSP image.

In fact, I recommend that you don't merge the layers at all. Save it as is.

That way, you can eliminate or change the background, go back and change the layer properties and get completely different results in a few clicks.



The first is an exported jpg with the single misted layer.

The second is the mist with the double misted layer.

I got a different look by playing with the layer properties settings...



You can save your image without merging it as a pspimage.

I save almost everything I do for awhile as a psp image and export a copy as a jpg to send to the group.

I have alot of extra harddrive space and it makes it easy to go back to when I want to use the image for something else.

First: Save your file as a PSP Image.

Exporting as a jpg.

The reason for exporting the file as a .jpg is to make it smaller for emailing and viewing over the internet.

JPG's reduce to smaller sizes than almost any other format.

First, reduce the size of your image to no more than 400 for the longest side.

Click on File > Export > JPEG Optimizer

The first window will ask you how much you want to compress the image.

The more you compress, the smaller the file size, but remember, when you compress JPG's you lose quality.

Try to keep your image small enough to email but with the least amount of loss.

I export screen shots at a high number to keep the file size down but the files I send as finished work, I will leave at a low compression and larger file size.

Beginner's Tubing Tutorial