{"id":2180,"date":"2011-11-15T16:47:13","date_gmt":"2011-11-15T16:47:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/anotrealdomainfortesting.wordpress.com\/2011\/11\/15\/converting-a-photo-into-a-vector\/"},"modified":"2011-11-15T16:47:13","modified_gmt":"2011-11-15T16:47:13","slug":"converting-a-photo-into-a-vector","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bigstockphoto.com\/blog\/uncategorized\/converting-a-photo-into-a-vector\/","title":{"rendered":"Converting a Photo into a Vector"},"content":{"rendered":"

A tutorial by Art Director and founder of Pureworks<\/a>, Victoria Jordan.
\nIn my last tutorial we looked at importing vector files into a Photoshop document<\/a>. In this tutorial, we\u2019ll be bringing photos into Illustrator in order to create vector files.<\/p>\n

Picking your image…<\/strong>
\nLet\u2019s say I\u2019m working on a baby shower invitation and they\u2019d like to use a baby\u2019s footprint. I usually have no problem finding the perfect illustration, but every once in a while, I can\u2019t find the exact one I want so I have to create my own. Let’s start with this image of footprints by contributor “Actionsports.”<\/a><\/p>\n

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I really like this one, but I might also want to use it on a banner to hang at the baby shower, so I need it to be scalable.<\/p>\n

\u201cVector-fying\u201d your image…<\/strong>
\nAfter I buy and download my image, I open it up in Illustrator. I select it, and go up to the Live Trace button in the Control window (Window > Control. The Live Trace feature can also be found in the Object menu.) Clicking on the triangle next to the button will trigger a drop down menu of all the tracing options. Depending on the type of image I\u2019m working with, I can create a color image, a technical drawing, and an illustration with a comic book feel as well as a myriad of other options.<\/p>\n

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For this baby footprint, I\u2019m going to choose Simple Trace and see what happens. With this option, I get a pretty rough version of my photo. (Tip: You\u2019ll always lose some of the detail when you create a vector file from a photo this way, but the higher in resolution and size the photo is, the less detail you\u2019ll lose, ie., the more detail you start with, the more you\u2019ll end up with.)<\/p>\n

The next step in the Live Trace process is to Expand the tracing that\u2019s just occurred. Basically, I\u2019m rendering the tracing so I can see and edit the points and paths that have been made. To Expand my image, I can either go back to the Control Window or go to the Object menu and choose Expand (Fig. 3)
\nSo here\u2019s what we get after we click Expand\u2026<\/p>\n

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Now I can proceed as I would with any other vector file and make all the changes I want.<\/p>\n

For color images…<\/strong>
\nColor images can get a little tricky, but the results can make all the work worth it. Let\u2019s try to convert photographer Laurin Rinder’s <\/a>awesome football action shot into a vector file.<\/p>\n

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This time, let\u2019s try the Color 16 option (meaning I\u2019m converting the photo to an illustration with 16 colors in it). Once I select it, and it gives me the preview rendering, notice that the Control Window format has changed. Now I can cycle through the other options in the Control Window to see if I like what I did best, or would like to try another option.<\/p>\n

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After I decide which option I like best, I\u2019ll Expand my image and edit away!<\/p>\n

Custom Tracing…<\/strong>
\nThe last option we\u2019ll go over is the Tracing Options selection.<\/p>\n

\"<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s where I can really tailor the way Illustrator reads my image. In the dialog box that pops up, I\u2019ll find all the editable variables for converting a photo to an illustration. I have a beautiful autumn image that I\u2019d like to make a little more abstract, so let\u2019s play with the variables.<\/p>\n

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The first thing I\u2019m going to change is under Adjustments. I\u2019m going to change the mode to Color.
\nThen, I\u2019m going to change the Max Colors to the greatest amount (256) because I really want to capture the nuances of the colors in the photo.
\nI\u2019ll also add a very slight blur to adjust for any sharp edges that may occur during conversion.
\nHere\u2019s what I get with those settings\u2026<\/p>\n

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That worked really well, if I\u2019m looking to do a very similar illustrated interpretation of the photo. Now, let\u2019s try editing the other options.<\/p>\n

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Here, I\u2019ve upped the Path Fitting (control over the distance between the traced shape and the original pixel shape [lower values create a tighter path fitting, higher values create a looser path fitting], Minimum Area (the smallest feature [in pixels] that will be traced [e.g. 4 pixels = 2 pixels wide by 2 pixels high]) and Corner Angle (the sharpness of the turn in the original image that is considered a corner in the tracing result path) to see the difference. (Don\u2019t worry if you forget what some of these variables do, their functions pop up when you hover over them in the dialog box.) Check it out!<\/p>\n

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There\u2019s a lot you can control within this dialog box. Let\u2019s try one more set of variables that will make our illustration a little more abstract.<\/p>\n

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So now I have achieved the abstraction I wanted with the Live Trace tool and I have an image that I can print as big as I like. Why not buy some great photos and \u201cVector-fy\u201d yourself?<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

RELATED POSTS:<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"<\/a>
Combining Photos and Illustrations to Make Your Projects Shine<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"<\/a>
An Intro to Working with Vectors<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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A tutorial by Art Director and founder of Pureworks, Victoria Jordan. In my last tutorial we looked at importing vector files into a Photoshop document. In this tutorial, we\u2019ll be bringing photos into Illustrator in order to create vector files. Picking your image… Let\u2019s say I\u2019m working on a baby shower invitation and they\u2019d like…<\/p>\nRead More<\/a>","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2180","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","col-sm-6"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pcS8aA-za","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bigstockphoto.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2180","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bigstockphoto.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bigstockphoto.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bigstockphoto.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bigstockphoto.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2180"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.bigstockphoto.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2180\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bigstockphoto.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2180"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bigstockphoto.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2180"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bigstockphoto.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2180"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}