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Old 06-07-2012, 09:51 AM   #2
frogfish
Taking the Monorail to EPCOT
 
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Join Date: Sep 2011
Location: MO
Software: Photoshop CS4
Camera: Lumix
Posts: 1,422
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3) Stray and missing pixels

Stray pixels are pixels that are not part of your element but appear in the blank space surrounding it. Stray pixels can cause a lot of nasty effects when shadows, etc. are added to the element. There are many reasons they can appear but they are fairly easy to get rid of.

Depending on the size/color of the stray, they can be very difficult to see. To make them more visible, add a fairly thick OUTER stroke (of a contrasting color) to the element. Note: make sure you are doing this in a nondestructive manner. In PhotoShop Elements you may need to duplicate the layer first.



Notice that the stray pixels are now outlined by the stroke making it very easy to see them. To get rid of them, simply erase them on the original image (you can do that with the eraser tool).

Missing pixels occur inside your element. They are parts of the element that do not have color, possibly because you missed them when coloring/shading with the pen tool. Again, they can occur many different ways and depending on the complexity of the element can be easy to fix.

Missing pixels are also difficult to see. To make them more visible, add a fairly thick INNER stroke (of a contrasting color) to the element. Note: make sure you are doing this in a nondestructive manner. In PhotoShop Elements you may need to duplicate the layer first.



Notice that the stray pixels are now outlined by the stroke making it very easy to see them. To get rid of them, simply fill them in with the appropriate color (you can do that with the pen tool).
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4) Jagged edges

The edges of elements should be smooth, but there are a lot of things that make them jagged. Enlarging an element too much, increasing the resolution of a low res element, or improperly recoloring an element are just a few things that will cause jagged edges. Note: recoloring an element with the paint bucket tool will cause jagged edges every time!

When viewing an element full screen, you may not notice jagged edges.



Be sure to check your elements at 100%. You can change the zoom in the lower left corner of your PhotoShop CS screen. This element is very jagged at 100%.



There are some actions that claim to remove "jaggies" from your elements, but I have honestly never used them. Use caution when using the BLUR tool to fix jagged edges because you may end up with a blurry element. Many times finding a different element that isn't jagged at 100% is easier than fixing a jagged one (depending on how bad it is).
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