Photo editing question for screenshots

[Kymie]

I want to put together an album of screenshots of different buildings around my town, but I want to block out everything in the background, so all you see is the building in question. Currently, I'm just using iDraw, and using the line tool to 'colour in' the background, and it's coming out like this...



But what I want to find, is a programme that lets you black out the background, without having to cut across any trees, or signs that are sticking out of the road path around the building.

Does anyone have any suggestions on apps that can do this, or even PC programmes, and I'll do them on my pc.

I also hope this makes sense to everyone

[Kymie]

Also, sorry if this doesn't belong in this topic, I just thought people here may have some answers, as they are posting their own screenshots here

[Spider Pig]

Kymie I use paint.NET for mine, it's free and almost as good as photoshop. I only use desktop programs so I don't know any good apps, though desktop ones generally have a lot more features.

1) I generally draw a line (in a separate layer), of where I want to cut the image.
2) I then use the magic wand tool to select everything in that area which I want to delete.
3) Switch back to the lower layer (with your screenshot) and press delete.
4) Repeat the process for all edges, then delete the lines layer, leaving you with a finished image.

Sorry if its confusing, it's quite difficult to explain. If you need any help ask me, I may even make a guide how to do this

It makes pretty good results, and you can make it transparent (excuse the triangle cut outs, that's just my bad screenshoting)

[Kymie]

Thank you for the walk through, it does sound complicated but I'm sure once I've got the programme open and got used to it, it will be easier to follow
Yeah making a guide would be a great help for all other forum members curious about how to do this
Your a star hun thank you

[lakooo]

I've just (as in, yesterday) begun using the AutoStitch iOS app, and I notice that when I try to stitch together shots that should form a horizontal strip, rather than a solid rectangle, the system ends up overlapping everything into a weird melange. Even when I take pics of surrounding area to try to correct for this, if my "panorama" (such as it is) is supposed to be at least three frames across, I end up with everything lumped on top of each other instead of stitched alongside each other.

Anyone have ideas about what else I can try?

[lakooo]

Thought it might be helpful to show some examples of what's happening. (BTW, I'm using AutoStitch for iPad.)

When I try to stitch together my Squidport screenshots, it works if I do it in halves:




However, if I try to stitch together all of the images at once, it comes out as a mess.


Or if I try to stitch the two halves together, AutoStitch tells me it can't align the two images.

Maybe there's something I can adjust in Settings? Or maybe I can use another App to stitch together the two halves?

[Spider Pig]

lakooo Most of those stitching programs are designed to make a panorama shot of pictures you've taken with your camera etc, and it often adds a curve/orb effect to make it look as you would see it with your eye. Unfortunately panoramic shots for tapped out generally doesn't come into the features of any of them

I've often heard people have been able to do half of the panoramic, or that only part of the image is distorted, but I've never heard of a perfect program.

I don't know much about apps as I normally do panoramics manually, but I'll tag petergeenen as I think he might know

[lakooo]

Thanks, Spider Pig. I've been trying to avoid putting any additional programs on my poor, tired laptop, but between this and something else hypothetical, it may be time to clear off the hard drive and see if that makes the old gal run a little better so I can add some more software.

Thanks again!

[petergeenen]

Jul 26, 2013 13:37:47 GMT -5 Spider Pig said:

lakooo Most of those stitching programs are designed to make a panorama shot of pictures you've taken with your camera etc, and it often adds a curve/orb effect to make it look as you would see it with your eye. Unfortunately panoramic shots for tapped out generally doesn't come into the features of any of them :(

I've often heard people have been able to do half of the panoramic, or that only part of the image is distorted, but I've never heard of a perfect program.

I don't know much about apps as I normally do panoramics manually, but I'll tag petergeenen as I think he might know ;)

I can't add much more to this. I've searched and tried, but the only thing that works is manual stitching. Even the "Photoshop Photomerge Panorama" program can't handle the amount of pictures, and the horizontal & vertical challenges a tsto panorama faces. 
@lakoo987, if you can't get your "old gal" to run a bit better, you could send me a PM.

[A Bad Example]

Jul 26, 2013 17:28:46 GMT -5 petergeenen said:

Jul 26, 2013 13:37:47 GMT -5 Spider Pig said:

lakooo Most of those stitching programs are designed to make a panorama shot of pictures you've taken with your camera etc, and it often adds a curve/orb effect to make it look as you would see it with your eye. Unfortunately panoramic shots for tapped out generally doesn't come into the features of any of them

I've often heard people have been able to do half of the panoramic, or that only part of the image is distorted, but I've never heard of a perfect program.

I don't know much about apps as I normally do panoramics manually, but I'll tag petergeenen as I think he might know

I can't add much more to this. I've searched and tried, but the only thing that works is manual stitching. Even the "Photoshop Photomerge Panorama" program can't handle the amount of pictures, and the horizontal & vertical challenges a tsto panorama faces. 
@lakoo987, if you can't get your "old gal" to run a bit better, you could send me a PM.

lakooo, Stitch It! says it will stitch and edit screen shots from a phone. However, as its intended to capture conversations in iMessage, I'm not sure how it will do with these.