What's the best way to make an oval?

[rmartin]

I just wrote a long post in the advanced thread, but when I went to post, it said I wasn't logged in. When I went to log in, it lost my post. I hate that when that happens.

Anyway, long post shortened, I need to resize/upsize an oval image I made, but it doesn't look good when I make it as large as I need it. So I'm going to start over. The image has an oval, like a cameo in it, and I want to make the roundy parts look as smooth as possible. Any tips?

Thanks

[msbrad]

Are you using the eliptical marquee? Once it is drawn you should be able to re-size it. fill in the shape you have drawn, then ctrl/cmd t, and drag from the corners.
Hope this helps.
m

[rmartin]

Thanks Michelle,


I was using the elipse tool, but I noticed a tut by Wendy where she used the eliptical marquee tool. I only want the line of the oval to show, transparent on the inside. Should I click the anti-whatever it is you call it box? I think there's something about feather with that tool, does that smooth the rounded edges?

Oh, and I tried to work on a 2 foot by 3 foot image with 600 resolution, Elements had a hard time just putting a border around something that big. I'll have to scale back and hope the image still looks good when it's blown up.

[Karin Sue]

600 is an awfully high resolution. I would try dropping it down to 300.

The rule of thumb I have learned is that when printing you want a resolution of at least 150 at your chosen print size and that anything over 300 will not make much of a difference in quality but a lot of difference in the memory/processing power required.

I am not quite sure what you are trying to do with your oval. Have you tried doing an edit>stroke of a selection from the eliptical marquee?

You might want to post your image at pixentral so the forum could see what you are working with.

[frank abramonte]

I don't think you can stroke an oval made with the elipse tool, therefore, you would not be able to see the outline. You can with the eliptical marquee tool. I don't know about making the interior transparent.
Try stroking both types of ovals and choose the method you prefer.

[jo]

Make a new blank layer and name it oval stroke.
Use the elliptical marquee to make an oval whatever size you want.
Stroke it on the inside.
You can move that stroked oval around with the move tool.
You can select the inside or the outside of the oval, depending on what you want to do.

If you don't want to see that stroke on your image you can turn off the eyeball, but keep the layer so you have a ready-made selection.

And I agree that 600 is way too high on the resolution. Anything between 240 and 300 will be good for printing. I usually use 288 because my Canon pics can be resized nicely to 8 x 12 at that resolution, and that prints just fine.

[rmartin]

The reason for the size and high resolution is this will printed by a local sign company 2 foot high by 3 foot wide. They have photo paper in a three foot wide roll a hundred foot long.

What I've done so far is use the marquee tool, fill it with the border color I want, duplicate the layer, fill that with the background color, then resize it down just enough to make the edge of the first layer show.

I'm afraid I can't post a pic, it would be way to big

Thanks for the replies!

[rmartin]

Here's a pic of my business card, resized and stuff removed which will give you an idea of what I'm working with. This image, with modifications, will become a 2 foot by 3 foot framed picture.

http://www.pixentral.com/hosted/1k2eCHNnvId6HsfOjMdsuyDzpNfYL1_thumb.jpg (http://www.pixentral.com/show.php?picture=1k2eCHNnvId6HsfOjMdsuyDzpNfYL1)

[ljameso1]

It doesn't matter how big you are enlarging something, 300 is plenty of resolution(it refers to how many inkdots/inch the printer lays down). Unless the sign company has a printer capable of higher resolution printing won't need that much res.
To smooth the edge after making the selection choose selection>refine edge. After stroking oval can also go to enhance>adjust color>defringe layer.
I have worked on poster size images in elements. After getting it the dimensions you want just select view>fit on screen. That just makes it fit the screen without actually shrinking the dimensions.