Hey all, I have some specific needs and things I need to do in Photoshop I am hoping you all can help me with. I just got Photoshop CS. I have been using photo shop since V 3 but have for my normal use a probably only use about 40% of the tool set. So I am looking to accomplish the following. All of the following questions are related to images with people in them. I have played with quite a bit of Photoshops tools but just not getting what I need. I need to do these functions on the fly with lightning speed. 1. I need to be able to very quickly mask or select (hair, eyes, & teeth) I have been playing with the plug in Mask Pro 3. Is this the best and fastest plug in to use for good selecting? 2. After making the selections I then need to change the hair color (regardless of the original color) to light blond or silver grey. The hair MUST be natural and convincing as far as color. I must keep the highs and lows in the tones. What would be the best approach to doing this. And is there a plug in that would fit this bill. 3. I need to take any dark and light areas or colors in the image and get them to a average mid tone range. In other words I need the entire image to be in the same tonal range or value scale. If you think of the image as black and white and pick the most mid tone color what I need is to change the image to stay within a range of say 16 colors of black and white. So the darks are lighter and the lights are darker sort of thing. Any suggestion for plug ins or Photoshop commands would help so much. Thanks

Attached Link: http://graphicfantastic.com/galleries/covers/senseofawoman.html

1. I use Corel KnockOut. I don't know which is better, but I like how my KnockOut works. 2. For color shifts, try the following tools under Image > Adjust: Hue/Saturation, Color Balance, Channel Mixer, Replace Color, and/or Variations. You might even try the Adjustment Layers version of these, so you don't permanently change the original. Anyway, some of those are what I used with the graphic linked above (the woman's hair was originally black), so I know they should work for you. You just have to play around with them to get what you want. 3. If I understand your question correctly, then Adjust > Curves is your best friend. Bring the top-right point down a little, and bring the bottom-left point up a little. I hope that helps! :)

Good points April, with the exception to the plugins mentioned (MaskPro and KnockOut) i am a control freak when it comes to tweaking things. I haven't found a "plugin" or "action" yet that gives me the control i get from doing it by hand. Sorry BillB, but having things "on the fly" and with "lightning speed" will cause you to give up something and often its "control". April, i like your idea of using "adjustment layers" this is a non-destructive approach which is ALWAY the best route when experimenting.

scott

LOL, I'm a control freak with my Photoshop work, too. But I found KO to be quite the time saver and good for semi-transparent objects. There are at least 7 or 8 separate stock photos in the linked image above, and I used KO on at least 5 of those, champagne glasses included. I'd have broken down and cried if I had to do it all without KO. Don't get me wrong -- I still had to pay attention to detail in KO and "do it by hand" within the program itself; it was just faster for me with the plug-in. :)