Outlining lines is way too thick

[Xogroroth666]

Greetings:

I've been outlining a few pictures, but no mattewr what, the lines are way too thick, and this in the lowest thickness (bar all the way to the left).
It's horrendous!!!

Been looking for an outlining action, but to no avail:
All yield the same thick effect.

How can I fix this?

Thank you.
Ben

[J453]

You will have to post more details (screenshots of dialogs/settings and results) for someone to be able to help.

[Leslie Moak Murray]

Do you mean you're applying a stroke?

-Select>All

-Edit>Stroke

And from the dropdown menu that appears, choose the pixel width. - Edit- And you can choose the color of the stroke

[Xogroroth666]

Thank you for responding.
Apologies for the late reply, things have been very hectic here.

"Do you mean you're applying a stroke?"
Excuse me, I am not familiar with drawing program terminology.

So, I load an image, as per the Youtube video that I follow.
Then (if needed) make it 8-bit (odd, that in this time of age, 16 or 32-bit cannot be done in Filter Gallery: most pictures are no longer of 8-bit), go to Filter Gallery, make photo copy, slider of detail to left ... and here all goes very weird:
Where in the video a nice thin-lined picture appeares, mine is thick-lined, making it horrible.
And I mean, HORRIBLE (I am autistic, and these thick lines trigger me immensely, especially since in the video, the result is so nice).
No matter what I try, these lines just won't slim down.

So, figured to get me an Action, such as Concept Sketch, Construct Photo Action or Sketch Photoshop Action, which are free until you select them which brings you to a payment bill (since when is free no longer free, for that matter?  o_O ), so I cannot get this.
Reason is:
The computer belongs to the company (logical), and I cannot instal anything on it (also logical).
And these actions are "not in the line of what the company uses", wich means, it is not used enough to bother and get it.

Which in turn means, I am a wee stuck.

How can I proceed now, please?

Thank you.
Ben

[Xogroroth666]

PS: Forgot to mention, I am totally not familiar with drawing programs ...

Ben

[josephlavine]

You can apply a Stroke down to a single pixel. However, keep in mind that how thick the line appears is relative the ppi of an image. For example, a 10 pixel stroke will seem much thicker on an 72 ppi image then 10 pixel stroke on a 300 ppi image.

warmly/j

[Xogroroth666]

Thank you for replying.
I am aware on the quality of a picture influencing the thickness of a line, sir.
One cannot a finer work than that of the quality of the photo.
The photos are around 1000p x 1800p x 300dpi.
Which is why I am so annoyed by the result of the lines given.

I do not think that a 1 pixel line will show in this case, being them too fine (if that is what the issue is, I wiill go check right now).

So, it went from 10 to 1, but it makes no difference in the photocopy from the filter gallery.
Made it 100, still no difference, sir, the lines just stay the same?

It is if as photocopy has it's own minimum setting it refuses to pass by.

Oi?
Now not only the lines did not change, but the photocopy turned inverted:
Original:

 became:

... and this happens now with all pictures.
These now "auto-invert" apparently ...
Weird, all I did was mess with the line thickness?  o_O
Any idea what is going on, please?

[Xogroroth666]

Forgot to mention:
This is a 72dpi ...
Notice the hair ...
And this also occurs in 300 dpi, which is the issue.

[Xogroroth666]

Anyone, please?

Thank you.

[PECourtejoie]

Hi, set your colors to default (hit D) this might influence the output of some filters.

You can also adjust levels, especially with an adjustment layer,  or the amount of details with a Blur Filter beforehand.

[SJRiegel]

I don't know how my settings differ from yours, but this is what I get wtih the photocopy filter on your image

another option

Filter > Stylize > Trace Countor

[Xogroroth666]

Thank you, sir.

Once I can I will try this.
I will keep you posted.   🙂

Again, thank you, sir.
Most appreciated.

[Xogroroth666]

Hmmm, pressing D does nothing in PS, seems (Windows).

"You can also adjust levels, especially with an adjustment layer, or the amount of details with a Blur Filter beforehand."
I'm sorry, sir, I have no idea what you mean here.
I am a total newby in these things ...

What I try to achieve is lining like:
https://elements-cover-images-0.imgix.net/830801be-1e35-4c62-93c2-b798927b9f4c?auto=compress%2Cforma...

You can see how fine the lining is there.
No matter if I outline a building, a car, a person or animal, those extremely ugly, fat lines persist, no matter what I do ...

[c.pfaffenbichler]

Hmmm, pressing D does nothing in PS, seems (Windows).

Keep an eye on the Forground and Background Color fields in the Toolbar. 

If they are black and white already then the change would naturally not be noticable but set one of them to another color and hit D again. 

[Xogroroth666]

Yes, BW (B foreground).
Hence.

But how do I get fine lines now, sir?

[PECourtejoie]

Hi, I can confirm that Photocopy gives a black image with white lines when the foreground color is set to white, and the BG to black. Hitting D while the filter is not running would solve that issue.

Now the photocopy filter will change the results according to the sliders position, (usually, finer lines at the left of the sliders) and also the image characteristics.

If the image has really few details and contrast, you will get different results than if the lighting is contrasted, and the skin is rough.

You can adjust the contrast by using a levels or curve adjustment layer (go to the menu) layer>new adjustment layer, adjust the settings, then select the original image thumbnail in the layers panel as you go for the photocopy filter.

[Xogroroth666]

"Hi, I can confirm that Photocopy gives a black image with white lines when the foreground color is set to white, and the BG to black. Hitting D while the filter is not running would solve that issue."
Yes, before it was changed from BG to FG, I must have accidentally hit D ...
Or my cat, as it often comes terrorising my keyboard ...   🙂

As mentioned, the bar from Detail is totally to the left, yet, the fat lines persist, driving me insane ...
Example:

I notice, that the lines are thick at a curving, but it still makes me insane.
I need fine lines overall, but no matter how or what I try, it only becomes worse over my experiments ...

[Xogroroth666]

With "simple cars" like the Reus, it is not too bad.
Doing it with:

either results in severe loss of detail, or extremely fat lines ... neither is acceptable ...

Thank you.

[PECourtejoie]

What happens if you increase the number of pixels of the image by going to image size, then run the filter?

You can also use levels to remove the greyish areas once the filter has been run. 

[Xogroroth666]

I will try this right now.

I had to bring Detail to 10, to get the engine detail, but again this resulted to very thick lines ...
Lowered value looses the engine and other details, but the lines do thin out ... a bit ...

Anything else you want me to try, sir?

[PECourtejoie]

Did you try to double the number of H and V pixels?

[PECourtejoie]

You could also try to touch up with dodge and burn.

[Xogroroth666]

"Did you try to double the number of H and V pixels?"
Excuse me?
Newby here, sir ...   🙂

"You could also try to touch up with dodge and burn."
No idea what Touch and burn is, sir ...   😞

So, I gather, there's no straight-forward setting to alter that would make the thick lines thin?

[vickim68445947]

There is really no automatic filter to give you the look you want. I would suggest to become more familar with Photoshop, so that you can gain a better understanding of how to accomplish what you want. Do you have a link to the video you are following?  Sometimes, certain actions and filters work better on some images than others. The person who created the video may have picked an image that showcases their particular action or filter. Sometimes it may not work on all images.

[Xogroroth666]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=trGTKZymi4M
The requested video.

I was thinking, to try through an action (such as DaVinci Sketch or any other technical based action) but though "free", picking it brings me to a payment part.
Seems "free" ain't free any longer.   o_O

It's bizarre, to see this line, in this day in technological age (considering all we do and can do, these days, with a PC):
"There is really no automatic filter to give you the look you want. I would suggest to become more familar with Photoshop, so that you can gain a better understanding of how to accomplish what you want. Do you have a link to the video you are following? Sometimes, certain actions and filters work better on some images than others."
It's SO darn illogical, that no matter what, I fail to comprehend it.

We're so far behind on Moore's Law, that it became truly depressing ...    :'(