Toto Photo
Posts: 1,112
San Francisco, California, US
Is there a better solution than: a) cut the legs mid-bone with a selection tool encompassing the leg and entire torso; b) lift the selection upwards; c) clone in the empty space inbetween?
Please don't answer "Liquify." as some have suggested unless you can spell out which liquify tool used and how, as I find one-word answers difficult to reconstruct.
Toto Photo wrote: Is there a better solution than: a) cut the legs mid-bone with a selection tool encompassing the leg and entire torso; b) lift the selection upwards; c) clone in the empty space inbetween?
Please don't answer "Liquify." as some have suggested unless you can spell out which liquify tool used and how, as I find one-word answers difficult to reconstruct.
I have a solution that's in between your solution and liquify. You take the selection tool and select the entire legs between joints depending on where you want the length to go you'd choose from feet to below the knee or from feet to mid thigh..... I recommend going to the thigh if possible as that will minimize any stretch marks,
Okay after you have the legs selected ctrl J then Ctrl T you know the drill drag the bottom of the legs down to where you like it.
I'm not sure of the quality you need, I know this isn't a high end technique but it works well in alot of media as long as the adjustment isn't too serious.... you stretch those legs too far and there's going to be a problem so keep that in mind
Brian Ziff
Posts: 4,086
Los Angeles, California, US
Chuckarelei wrote: Content aware scale? I suppose feaeture is not in CS3? May be I should really cough up some $ to upgrade?
You don't necessarily need to. You'd just have to do it two steps otherwise, which would be to lengthen the legs with one step, and then do a separate selection from the bottom of the canvas to just above the ankles to return the feet to a non-silly proportion.
Joann Empson
Posts: 234
Walnut Creek, California, US
I've been doing some research on the differences between GIMP and Photoshop, and I discovered GIMP's Liquid Rescale, which was first released in December 2007.
Here's how to extend legs with GIMP Liquid Rescale (click on the images to view the full-sized screenshot):
The original image:
Select Liquid rescale... from the Layer menu:
Under Feature preservation mask, click on New:
This will create a new alpha layer that will be used as the "preservation mask":
Paint over the parts of the image you do not want to rescale, then click on OK:
Edit the image dimensions (here, I've changed the height from 600 to 700), then click OK:
Hide or remove the "preservation mask" layer:
Edit: Here's the result of the liquid rescale with the knees painted in the "preservation mask".
I always lengthen legs... but I just simply select a rectangular area from just below the hips down... ctrl-T to transform, and drag them longer.
That's it.
If it makes the feet look funny, I then deselect, and go in with the liquify tool on the 'push' setting, and push the ankles down a bit.
Every girl in my portfolio is portrayed with longer legs than they really had in real life.
It's more tricky if they're sitting, or squatting, but I basically use the same technique, repeated times, to allow for distortion.
Sometimes I will clone in (on a masked layer) the background around the legs, if the background gets warped and I intend to keep the background in the final image.
Toto Photo
Posts: 1,112
San Francisco, California, US
Lars R Peterson wrote: ...Every girl in my portfolio is portrayed with longer legs than they really had in real life.
It's more tricky if they're sitting, or squatting, but I basically use the same technique, repeated times, to allow for distortion...
"more tricky" seems like an understatement. Are you saying you used this technique on a shot as difficult as this?!:
Toto Photo
Posts: 1,112
San Francisco, California, US
Sorry I was away so long.
Thanks for all responses, everyone's generosity never ceases to amaze me. Since I'm a visual guy, I'm particularly grateful to Peano, Joann (may have to try GIMP) and Brian. Although Sunkissed, bobbyjolon and Lars text is so clear I'll probably be able to follow those also.
Dan, that's sick! Actually saw a documentary on the technique with someone going through the excruciating stretching to gain, I believe it was, one- or two-inches.
| 
| 
| edu