Monday, January 17, 2011

In Soviet Russia, Images Shoop You

And then there was one.
Figures airbrushed out of history as they were purged (shot) by Stalin.
(From The Commissar Vanishes by David King)



Small-Print Tutorial - Making Your Own Stalinist Purges

Messy divorce? Split-up with girl/boyfriend? Goofy looking stranger in the background? Removing embarrassing figures from images isn't just for genocidal Communist dictators any more. Here's how.

If the background is regular, without dramatic differences in shading, you may get away with just copying a suitable blank bit of the background and pasting it over the offending figure. Click the Free Select Icon in the Toolbox (or <Tools><Selection Tools><Free Select> or Shift+F). Then click around the area you want to copy. When you get back to your starting point the outline of the area will change to be a dashed line. Ctrl+C to copy and then Ctrl+V to paste. Use the Move Tool to move the pasted area into position, then click the anchor icon in the Layers window to lock it in place.

Often you can get away with cloning another region of the image. Click the Clone Tool icon in the Toolbox (or <Tools><Paint Tools><Clone> or Shift+C). Hold down the Control key while clicking on the area you want to copy from, then release the Control key and click and drag over the target area to paint a copy (clone) of the source area.

TIP: the source and target areas can be on different layers or even different images - just be careful! (Don't try this while drunk or high.)

Finally, a great tool for rubbing out blemishes or smoothing the edges of copied or cloned regions is the Smudge Tool (or <Tools><Paint Tools><Smudge> or Shift+S).

Tomorrow we'll post a step-by-step example of using these techniques on a "walking Leo" picture. For now, please play around with Smudge, Clone and Free Select.


As an exercise, edit out all the members of the Obama cabinet who've been accused of tax fraud or have resigned "to pursue other interests" since this first cabinet meeting.

45 comments:

  1. Stalin's moustache is too epic! Love the tutorial :D

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  2. makes you wonder how many of these little propaganda incidents went unnoticed...

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  3. Well, I am newly single with no suitable facebook pictures...

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  4. i was thinking, *************************************************************************************************************** afterall.

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  5. The soviets were masters of photoshop lol

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  6. I saw that and a song popped into my head and wouldn't leave, but I realize it's the perfect song, George Thorogood's "I drink alone, I prefer to be by myself."

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  7. Photoshopping using L-ate techniques such A-s the s-M-udge tool and the clon-E tool.

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  8. That not photoshop, that's Stalin raising his TK numbers.

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  9. haha send those annoying strangers you met in the club off the the gulags!

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  10. I didn't know they had photoshop back then. Awesome!

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  11. At first I had some trouble understanding what you meant, but I think i did an okay job after fiddling with the cloning tool. Except for one small part, everyone was hilary and the guy next to her on one side.

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  12. So true. Orwell wrote about it, just keep editing and don't acknowledge it and people won't be able to tell the difference.

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  13. Uh, would there be anyone left in the cabinet picture?

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  14. I'm much better with a magnetic tool than a lasso.

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  15. There are so many ugly people I want photoshopped out of my personal collection, I don't even know where to begin...

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  16. So the last picture... you'd be left with an empty table, amirite?

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  17. Photoshop can be an awesome tool :)

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  18. Photoshop in communism was amazing :) and thats not the only example there are so many images that were altered over and over until they were happy with it

    Good tutorial for those who don't know how to do it =]

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  19. No Movie Blogger! Stalin shopped all people away whom he killed... He didnt commit suicide though!

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  20. In Russia, blog writes you.

    The government is just as corrupt now as it ever was.

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  21. soviet russia jokes are funny. That's some nifty advice you have in the small print there.

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  22. Gotta love the old dictators. They knew how to get shit done.

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  23. LOL, it's gonna be hard to get rid of him in the front Sucio :) Good job adding a lil bit of current politics to the post though. Well played sir, well played. Vote Sucio!

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  24. I challenge thee to a Gimp vs Photoshop challenge contest face-off thing...

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  25. Stalin was the original king of photoshop.

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  26. Suciô...
    I love your very twisted sens of humor. Same as mine, I guess.

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  27. Hello lovely Sucio,

    I am very pleased with the picture. I love it. all images you take. thank you thank you thank you. very kind of you. I linked the picture to your page.

    wish you a nice day. Here in Germany it is very early .... need to work!

    Where are you from?

    greetings
    http://mar-iza.blogspot.com/

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  28. I used to let students erase the Twin Towers from the NY skyline...

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  29. I can't wait to try this. Last time I opened Gimp I didn't have a clue.

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  30. "Making Your Own Stalinist Purges" haha this is seriously brilliant stuff. And the guy who asked if they had photoshop back then is hilarious as well. "Removing embarrassing figures from images isn't just for genocidal Communist dictators any more. Here's how." Haha do you always talk like that? kind of genius. You should consider writing for the Colbert Report or something. By the way, is it me or is the font of your tutorial really small? Either I'm blind or the rest of your readers have incredible eyesight. And in response to your question on my blog, I'm not dyeing my hair, flashy colors aren't my thing and I'm simply not cool enough!

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  31. Heheh, ow this Stalin guy ,...

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  32. Brilliant as always. Time to shoop something!

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  33. Great post! In the cabinet picture, can't we just crop it down to Obama and Hillary?

    And do you have a picture of all the czars we can photoshop?

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  34. great Shoop blog, following

    http://funnyfunnyfinds.blogspot.com/
    http://aboyandhisbeer.blogspot.com/

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