toltec

What type of "stage" did they have in mind ? 

 

You could do things like this as an Outline in Layer Effects. No need to alter the text outline or do anything at all with the text. You can use any colours you like on any colour text you like, etc.
 

 

This has a slight gradient but it can be removed.
 
You can also do it as a double step

 

 
Set Fill Style to Contour
 
Click on the Gradient swatch  and Insert a new Mid Point.
Set the Mid Point Opacity to 0% to make the inner bit transparent.
 
You can play around with transition handles or add new points to control how the outline transitions for some cool and interesting gradient effects or just a hard step.
 
 
Once done, you can right click on it, Create a Style and it will then be in the Styles panel ("No fill", below.)
 

 
That makes it incredibly to add to any text you need or reuse at any time.

For some reason, it refuses to remove all the gradient on the Outside edge edge, no matter where I put the transition handle. Not sure if that is a bug or a "design parameter" thing. I'm pretty sure I did it once but that might have been due to the colours I used.
 
However, if you want it simple, and hard, there is a much easier way to achieve it in Designer.
I did this in white on an orangey background to make it easier to see.
 
Duplicate the letter and convert the duplicate to curves. 
Hide the bottom text layer for now
 
On the duplicate, set a thickish stroke and go Layer > Expand stroke.

 
 
Set the fill to transparent and the stroke to what you want, colour or thickness.

 
This is what you get

 
Show the bottom text layer to fill it

 
I have uploaded that file for you.
 
Use either method described by me or by firstdefence
 
Choice is always good 
 
 
 
expanded.afdesign

You could do things like this as an Outline in Layer Effects. No need to alter the text outline or do anything at all with the text. You can use any colours you like on any colour text you like, etc.
 

 

This has a slight gradient but it can be removed.
 
You can also do it as a double step

 

 
Set Fill Style to Contour
 
Click on the Gradient swatch  and Insert a new Mid Point.
Set the Mid Point Opacity to 0% to make the inner bit transparent.
 
You can play around with transition handles or add new points to control how the outline transitions for some cool and interesting gradient effects or just a hard step.
 
 
Once done, you can right click on it, Create a Style and it will then be in the Styles panel ("No fill", below.)
 

 
That makes it incredibly to add to any text you need or reuse at any time.

For some reason, it refuses to remove all the gradient on the Outside edge edge, no matter where I put the transition handle. Not sure if that is a bug or a "design parameter" thing. I'm pretty sure I did it once but that might have been due to the colours I used.
 
However, if you want it simple, and hard, there is a much easier way to achieve it in Designer.
I did this in white on an orangey background to make it easier to see.
 
Duplicate the letter and convert the duplicate to curves. 
Hide the bottom text layer for now
 
On the duplicate, set a thickish stroke and go Layer > Expand stroke.

 
 
Set the fill to transparent and the stroke to what you want, colour or thickness.

 
This is what you get

 
Show the bottom text layer to fill it

 
I have uploaded that file for you.
 
Use either method described by me or by firstdefence
 
Choice is always good 
 
 
 
expanded.afdesign

You don't need to do anything with text.
 
The text I used is standard. I did it all with a layer effect.
 
I have included the .afphoto file for you to see, with the two types saved as styles.
 
just click on the layer effects and play 
sytles.afphoto

After clicking on the Gradient swatch, I just clicked on Insert to add a new control point.
 
 

 
Click on the new middle handle (Mid point) and set the opacity to zero.

 
Drag the Transition handles to control where the blends change.
 

You could do things like this as an Outline in Layer Effects. No need to alter the text outline or do anything at all with the text. You can use any colours you like on any colour text you like, etc.
 

 

This has a slight gradient but it can be removed.
 
You can also do it as a double step

 

 
Set Fill Style to Contour
 
Click on the Gradient swatch  and Insert a new Mid Point.
Set the Mid Point Opacity to 0% to make the inner bit transparent.
 
You can play around with transition handles or add new points to control how the outline transitions for some cool and interesting gradient effects or just a hard step.
 
 
Once done, you can right click on it, Create a Style and it will then be in the Styles panel ("No fill", below.)
 

 
That makes it incredibly to add to any text you need or reuse at any time.

I
 
Hi Sven
 
Do as R C-R suggests with 135 : 100 or set a custom ratio of 27 : 20.
 
That works for me.
 
If I set a custom ratio of 27 : 20, crop the image and then enter 135 in the Resize Document, Size box, the other dimension becomes 100
 
P.S. No calculators (online or otherwise) were abused or injured in the making of this post 
 
 
 

To be honest Bob, it is going to be next to impossible to give completely accurate guidance without seeing the image, mainly what you have done so far. However, as it is family I assume you would not want to post it, so I will describe a couple of things that will help using this Public Domain image. It is not very high resolution but it shows the effect. The young lady was on a white background and you can see that "reflected" on her shoulder.
 
To avoid every possible scenario and keep it fairly basic to start with, what I would suggest you try first is Refine the edges after making a selection, but to see what you are doing, change the Preview setting to Black Matte. That will be a huge help.
 
DO ANY ADJUSTMENTS AFTER GETTING THE SELECTION RIGHT !!!
 
Plan A.
 
Here is the original, with Preview set to Overlay.
.
 
Change the Preview to Black matte.

 
See how much easier it would be to see a light outline ?
 
Now, try changing the Refine panel settings, such as Border width and so on, to see it that gets rid of the issue.
 
Plan B. Next thing to try,  go back and after you make the initial selection, shrink the selection by one or two pixels. Enter - 1 or - 2 in the entry box
 
Select > Grow / Shrink
.
 
Then Refine again, using the same Black matte preview so you can see what you are doing.
 
 
Where you see the Adjustment Brush, (at the bottom of the Refine panel) you can use that to remove the white outline if it is not too much. Set a smallish brush size and select Background. If you paint around (outside) the selection edges, it removes from the selection. i.e. removes the outline. More useful if there is not too much.
 
You can also set this Adjustment Brush to Feather and paint around the edges where needed. That might help.
 
There are plenty of other methods but try these first. Play around with them and see how you do and let us know  Plenty of good people on this site willing and able to help you.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

To be honest Bob, it is going to be next to impossible to give completely accurate guidance without seeing the image, mainly what you have done so far. However, as it is family I assume you would not want to post it, so I will describe a couple of things that will help using this Public Domain image. It is not very high resolution but it shows the effect. The young lady was on a white background and you can see that "reflected" on her shoulder.
 
To avoid every possible scenario and keep it fairly basic to start with, what I would suggest you try first is Refine the edges after making a selection, but to see what you are doing, change the Preview setting to Black Matte. That will be a huge help.
 
DO ANY ADJUSTMENTS AFTER GETTING THE SELECTION RIGHT !!!
 
Plan A.
 
Here is the original, with Preview set to Overlay.
.
 
Change the Preview to Black matte.

 
See how much easier it would be to see a light outline ?
 
Now, try changing the Refine panel settings, such as Border width and so on, to see it that gets rid of the issue.
 
Plan B. Next thing to try,  go back and after you make the initial selection, shrink the selection by one or two pixels. Enter - 1 or - 2 in the entry box
 
Select > Grow / Shrink
.
 
Then Refine again, using the same Black matte preview so you can see what you are doing.
 
 
Where you see the Adjustment Brush, (at the bottom of the Refine panel) you can use that to remove the white outline if it is not too much. Set a smallish brush size and select Background. If you paint around (outside) the selection edges, it removes from the selection. i.e. removes the outline. More useful if there is not too much.
 
You can also set this Adjustment Brush to Feather and paint around the edges where needed. That might help.
 
There are plenty of other methods but try these first. Play around with them and see how you do and let us know  Plenty of good people on this site willing and able to help you.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

To be honest Bob, it is going to be next to impossible to give completely accurate guidance without seeing the image, mainly what you have done so far. However, as it is family I assume you would not want to post it, so I will describe a couple of things that will help using this Public Domain image. It is not very high resolution but it shows the effect. The young lady was on a white background and you can see that "reflected" on her shoulder.
 
To avoid every possible scenario and keep it fairly basic to start with, what I would suggest you try first is Refine the edges after making a selection, but to see what you are doing, change the Preview setting to Black Matte. That will be a huge help.
 
DO ANY ADJUSTMENTS AFTER GETTING THE SELECTION RIGHT !!!
 
Plan A.
 
Here is the original, with Preview set to Overlay.
.
 
Change the Preview to Black matte.

 
See how much easier it would be to see a light outline ?
 
Now, try changing the Refine panel settings, such as Border width and so on, to see it that gets rid of the issue.
 
Plan B. Next thing to try,  go back and after you make the initial selection, shrink the selection by one or two pixels. Enter - 1 or - 2 in the entry box
 
Select > Grow / Shrink
.
 
Then Refine again, using the same Black matte preview so you can see what you are doing.
 
 
Where you see the Adjustment Brush, (at the bottom of the Refine panel) you can use that to remove the white outline if it is not too much. Set a smallish brush size and select Background. If you paint around (outside) the selection edges, it removes from the selection. i.e. removes the outline. More useful if there is not too much.
 
You can also set this Adjustment Brush to Feather and paint around the edges where needed. That might help.
 
There are plenty of other methods but try these first. Play around with them and see how you do and let us know  Plenty of good people on this site willing and able to help you.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

To be honest Bob, it is going to be next to impossible to give completely accurate guidance without seeing the image, mainly what you have done so far. However, as it is family I assume you would not want to post it, so I will describe a couple of things that will help using this Public Domain image. It is not very high resolution but it shows the effect. The young lady was on a white background and you can see that "reflected" on her shoulder.
 
To avoid every possible scenario and keep it fairly basic to start with, what I would suggest you try first is Refine the edges after making a selection, but to see what you are doing, change the Preview setting to Black Matte. That will be a huge help.
 
DO ANY ADJUSTMENTS AFTER GETTING THE SELECTION RIGHT !!!
 
Plan A.
 
Here is the original, with Preview set to Overlay.
.
 
Change the Preview to Black matte.

 
See how much easier it would be to see a light outline ?
 
Now, try changing the Refine panel settings, such as Border width and so on, to see it that gets rid of the issue.
 
Plan B. Next thing to try,  go back and after you make the initial selection, shrink the selection by one or two pixels. Enter - 1 or - 2 in the entry box
 
Select > Grow / Shrink
.
 
Then Refine again, using the same Black matte preview so you can see what you are doing.
 
 
Where you see the Adjustment Brush, (at the bottom of the Refine panel) you can use that to remove the white outline if it is not too much. Set a smallish brush size and select Background. If you paint around (outside) the selection edges, it removes from the selection. i.e. removes the outline. More useful if there is not too much.
 
You can also set this Adjustment Brush to Feather and paint around the edges where needed. That might help.
 
There are plenty of other methods but try these first. Play around with them and see how you do and let us know  Plenty of good people on this site willing and able to help you.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Try this as a quick method. Use Affinity Photo.
 
Open your photo, then go Layer > New Fill Layer. That will completely cover your photo.
 
Don't do anything else, just go to the Swatches panel and click on the white swatch to set the colour of the Fill layer to white.

 
Click on the little down arrow to the right of the Opacity box and drag the slider to about 50% or whatever you like.

That's where I've been going wrong.

This is akin to having shoes that have shoelaces, then getting shoes that have velcro straps and trying to tie them up the same.

So technically, the money in my bank account is merely invisible, not missing. That's good news 

So technically, the money in my bank account is merely invisible, not missing. That's good news 

Good point, from reading the OPs post, I took it he wanted separate recolour adjustments but unless the subject has Heterochromia  (or the OP wishes to simulate the condition) I guess that does not make much sense .I edited my first post to avoid confusing him.
 

Hello LvH  
 
You have to apply a new Recolour Adjustment Layer to the second selection.
 
One Recolour Adjustment layer for each.
 
Edit. The method above is if you wish to apply a different adjustment to each selection area.
 
To apply the same adjustment to more than one selection area, select all the desired areas first, (making sure Add is selected.on the Context Toolbar)

 
then apply the adjustment layer. It will be applied to all the selected areas at once. e.g.
 
Original

 
Both eyes selected

 
One Recolour Adjustment applied.

 
Result

 

Sadly, after Brexit, I'm not sure if we will still be related ? 

Good point, from reading the OPs post, I took it he wanted separate recolour adjustments but unless the subject has Heterochromia  (or the OP wishes to simulate the condition) I guess that does not make much sense .I edited my first post to avoid confusing him.
 

Because, if say the birds and trees are bitmaps it's easier and quicker to set the blend mode to Erase than it is to change the colour of them all to white. Especially if they are not created in black i.e. if the trees had been set as bitmaps in green, Erase is easier.
 
However, in this case you are correct. It would work just as well. If I was creating the artwork from scratch, I would use black on a white background. Simples.
 
Edit. Actually on reflection, you are right. It was because the OP was talking about transparent areas, I sort of followed that line of thought, answering that question before I realised it was not really the right way to do it 
 
Ignore everything I said.

Because, if say the birds and trees are bitmaps it's easier and quicker to set the blend mode to Erase than it is to change the colour of them all to white. Especially if they are not created in black i.e. if the trees had been set as bitmaps in green, Erase is easier.
 
However, in this case you are correct. It would work just as well. If I was creating the artwork from scratch, I would use black on a white background. Simples.
 
Edit. Actually on reflection, you are right. It was because the OP was talking about transparent areas, I sort of followed that line of thought, answering that question before I realised it was not really the right way to do it 
 
Ignore everything I said.