I need to select only the text

[Antonio Correia]

I need to select only the text from the image at the bottom which I have scanned as a displacement map.
I have done the selection before but now I want to do it again more precisely.
This was before when I made my 1.st DM with a more or less clumpy selection of the text

But now I want to use another text and I have been struggling to get it over a transparent background and save it as a Photoshop file.
A *.psd file in fact.

I do have tried with the magic wang tool and refine the edges but I have been struggling for so long now... May be if I would select through the channels...

Who can give me a tip please ? Thank you

[Antonio Correia]

I came to this so far...
What do you think ? Can I make it better ?

[Antonio Correia]

After working hard on this I did by myself.
This is just a test.

[ANSORB]

After working hard on this I did by myself.
This is just a test.

Antonio it looks like you have solved the problem. You haven't said how you did it but that it was hard work. This is a way which may be simpler. It doesn't need any selections at all and uses only two blending modes. I took your text and blended it with one of my photos to get this:



So if this is what you were trying to do here is the method.

1. The scanned text: Duplicate the background layer and set the blending mode to Overlay or soft light or whatever in that group of blends gets the best result. That is to clean up the background. I can't tell from the small image you posted if the text will still look OK but with a good scan I think it should. Flatten the image.

2. With the Photo open, drag the text file on to it to create a new (text) layer. Position as required and set the blending mode to multiply.

And that's it. Two blends and you might not even need the first. It works because multiply blend kills white, so the white base of your scanned text becomes transparent.

It should work in any editing program with layers and appropriate layer blending modes and I thought it might be of general interest.

[Antonio Correia]

Thank you John from Cambridge UK
Nice of you to have all this trouble now that I have solved the problem.
And no, that is not what I wanted to do or I have misunderstood.
-
When I posted I had been only "around" a video which method was a little different from the way I did it.
Surfing a bit - Google has everything, even bad, very bad infos as well as good ones, it is true - I landed on a video by a Brazilian. It was not very good but good enough.

I then followed his instructions and I came to what I wanted.
Now I will tell you how I did it.

1. I opened file Car and adjusted it in ACR

2. Image/Mode/8 bit
3. Rasterize layer
4. Save as Car 01.tif for security reasons.
5. Image/Duplicate = Car 01 copy.tif
6. Image/Adjustments/Desaturate
7. Image/Adjustments/Levels (brutal change)

8. Filter/Blur/Gaussian Blur (50)

9. File/Save As Photoshop File with the name Map
10. Close Map.psd as well as the duplicate
11. Open file Text.*

12. Drag this file over Car 01.tif
13. Adjust accordingly to wish

14. Bending Mode to Multiply with layer text selected
15. Filter/Displace (50 and 50 for values) twice, (Command F) with the Map file previously saved
16. Indeed i duplicated this layer to increase the density of the Multiply Filter.

I hope I have not missed anything. In fact, I was doing and writing here at the same time.

Now I wonder which diference does it make to blur more or less

[Antonio Correia]

Another one for the night sleep
The paper was not converted to black and white. I wanted to see what happened

[ANSORB]

Hi Antonio

After I posted last night I had another look at your first composite and very nearly wrote again. I thought you could have used multiply as the result was so clean. Then I thought maybe this property of the multiply blend is still worth drawing attention to on the list, so I left it. (I have a vague feeling it is mentioned in one of Sean's tutorials but I could be wrong).

Whatever, you got a good result and reminded me about displacement maps, which I must take another look at.