Archive for January, 2009

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How To Create A Photoshop Zoom Effect

Friday, January 30th, 2009

Zoom effects can be done through using a camera, but you can also get some interesting results when you use certain filters in Photoshop. This effect works great when used on photographs of moving objects, especially motor-sport photographs, but the effect can be just as stunning when used on still images.

1.) The first step is to choose your image you would like to work with, and then choose the elliptical marquee tool from the toolbox. Once you have chosen the tool you need to make a selection on your image, you can also hold down the spacebar to reposition the selection as you are drawing it.

2.) Now, it’s important to feather the selection. If you don’t the effect will be too harsh and obvious. The feather creates a soft edge and a smooth transition to the blurred areas. So you need to choose the options Select > Modify > Feather. Change the size of the feather radius depending on the resolution.

3.) Right now you have a selection around the center of the image, and you want to select everything but the center. Choose Select > Inverse and you should see the selection go around the edge of your page now.

4.) Next choose the options Filter > Blur > Radial Blur and choose Zoom as the method, select good for quality. Choose your amount to suit. For a heavier blur use 100. You might have to test it and undo a few times to get exactly what looks best on your image.

5.) Changing the feather and the blur amount will change the effect. Experiment with different shaped selections and different amounts of blur. In some cases you may want to apply the blur more than once.

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Posted in Photoshop Effects, Photoshop Filters, Tutorials | 1 Comment »

Photoshop Keyboard Shortcuts

Wednesday, January 28th, 2009

This is a list of my favorite and most used Photoshop keyboard shortcuts and there’s nothing more damaging to your productivity than doing everything the long way round when using a programme. Searching for tools or buttons is a task that can easily be bypassed with some quick memorization of shortcuts.

Undo, Multiple Times – (Ctrl + Alt + Z)

Most programs allow you to press (Ctrl + Z) multiple times to perform multiple Undo’s, but Photoshop requires (Alt), otherwise you’ll just keep undoing then re-doing then undoing then re-doing then undoing then re-doing.

Hand/Move Tool – (Spacebar)

Holding the spacebar will turn your cursor into the hand in almost any situation… when using different tools, with dialog boxes open, etc… allowing you to quickly navigate your document no matter what you’re doing.

Switch Document Windows – (Ctrl + Tab)

Your Photoshop workspace can become a mess when working on multiple files, so being able to switch windows quickly is a must.

New Layer – (Ctrl + Shift + N) – with dialog?(Ctrl + Shift + Alt + N) – without dialog

Layers are the greatest thing(s) ever invented in any (design) program and being able to manage your layers properly is important.

Duplicate Layer – (Ctrl + J) – without dialog?(Ctrl + Alt + J) – with dialog

You can duplicate an entire layer, or, if you have a selection, the selection will be duplicated to it’s own layer. This is great when trying different techniques or effects without having to worry about errors.

Re-run Filter/ Fade Filter -  (Ctrl + F) – run filter again?(Ctrl + Alt + F) – run filter again, with dialog?(Ctrl + Shift + F) – fade filter

Even though Photoshop provides preview windows in the dialog box for most filters, there’s still no true way of telling whether you’ve achieved your desired effect until you see the full image. If something goes wrong, you can quickly undo, then go back to your filter and try again without having to go through the hassle of moving your cursor. 

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Creating A Clipping Path

Tuesday, January 27th, 2009

This tutorial will teach you how to create a simple clipping path, so you can add and background or colour to an element of a image in a few easy steps. 

1.) First you need to open up the image you want to work with in Photoshop to start you clipping path. Clipping paths are a vector-based version of a layer mask, a clipping path performs the same function as a layer mask, but contain smooth, hard, edges that do not allow for any shading. To create a clipping path, begin by drawing a path on your image with the pen tool. 

2.) Click the Paths tab on the Layers palette. Then select on Shape 1 Vector Mask path – the Save Path tab will pop up when you click on it. The default path name for the new path is “Path 1″.

3.) Then click on the upper right arrow button and select the option ‘clipping path’. 

4.) In the dialog, choose which path layer to assign a flatness value. Flatness value determines how closely the path conforms to the curves. The lower the number, the more closely the path will conform to the curves. Enter a value and click “OK”

5.) Delete background by pressing the ctrl key + select the path layer and press delete. And then fill with a new background colour, pattern or image you would like as your background!

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Combine A Colour And Black And White Image

Monday, January 26th, 2009

The effect of a black and white image with a splash of colour is a popular effect used in photographs and images especially for adverts in magazines and on the internet. This tutorial will teach you the basic instructions for different ways to achieve this effect. 

1.) To create an image to grayscale you need to begin by creating a duplicate of the original image, and then convert the duplicate image to grayscale by using the option Image > Mode > Grayscale, and then convert the grayscale image to RGB. 

2.) Use the appropriate selection tool to select only the portion of the image that you want to have in black and white in your final composition. What we are doing is creating a “hole” in the grayscale image so that the colour image shows through the hole when the two images are combined in the next step.

3.) Combine the selected portion of your grayscale image with a duplicate of your original colour image. One simple way to do this is to copy the grayscale selection and paste it on top of the colour image then combine/merge the two.

4.) Make a duplicate of your colour image and work with it. Mask (protect) the portion of your image that you wish to remain in colour. 

5.) With the mask in place protecting the part you want in colour, desaturate your image. The masked portion will remain in color. Image > Adjust > Desaturate. Do any other manipulations you care to make then, if the image is destined for print, convert to CMYK before placing the image in your page layout program. As a RGB image will not create the same given effect.

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Posted in Auto Tools, Layer Mask, Saturation, Tutorials | No Comments »

Create A Sunset In Photoshop

Friday, January 23rd, 2009

This photoshop tutorial will show you how to create a sunset on any image, this is ideal for beach photographs where you want to create an ideal sunset to finish your images off nicely. 

1.) You need to open the image that you want to work with and also open any image of a sunset.

2.) Choose Image > Adjustments > Match Color and the Match Color dialog box will open.  We will only need to use 2 settings for the task at hand. Under Source, click the drop down menu and select the image of the sunset. There will be a thumbnail for you to check that you have selected the correct image. Turn on the preview option if it isn’t already. The working image will now take on the color attributes of the sunset image. Most probably the effect will be a bit too much.

3.) Adjust the Fade slider until you are happy with the result. Move it to the left for more of the inherited color and to the right for the original color.

4.) When you are satisfied, click the OK button to apply the changes. There are many things that can be done with this new Filter in Photoshop CS including using the match color to remove a color cast in a single click.

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Blending Two Images With A Layer Mask

Thursday, January 22nd, 2009

Collaging means merging images together, a popular technique to do this is to merge images together with a layer mask. Merging images together is great to create collages and montages. In this tutorial you will be working with Layer Masks, Blending Modes, Gradients and Separate Layers and you will learn how to seamlessly blend two images together, using the layer masks.

1.) The first step is to get two images to work with. Make sure they are both in the same resolution, 72 dpi if you are using them for the web, and RGB colour mode, then open both documents in Photoshop.

2.) We will want to combine both images into one document. Now select the move tool “V” key. Drag one image into the other window and a new layer will be created automatically with the new layer on top. To center the new image in the window hold down the Shift key while dragging.

3.) Click on the add layer mask button, this will create a new layer mask. A layer mask is transparent. When you paint black into the mask it allows the image underneath to show through. Where it is white, the underlying layer will be hidden.

4.) Press the “G” key to select the gradient tool. Make sure the fore and backgrounds are set to black and white. Select linear gradient and foreground to background. Now drag the gradient diagonally across the image.

5.) You can see the gradient in the layer thumbnail and the result on the image. Where it is white, the top image shows and where it is darker the back shows through. Experiment with differant angles. You may also use any of the brush tools on the mask. Black will “paint away” the image and white will “paint it back”. Use a soft brush for best results.

6.) For an interesting variation change the layer blending mode to multiply. This makes the top image appear as if it is a reflection.

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Creating A Pattern Silhouette With A Layer Mask

Wednesday, January 21st, 2009

This tutorial works with images that have a good range of hightlights/midtones/shadows but lack of shadows obscuring any parts of the face if you are using this effect on an image of a person. Other images may need a lot of color correcting before they could be made suitable for use in this tutorial, especially as regards shadows on the face. Choose your images wisely before starting the tutorial. 

1.) Open your image. Duplicate the background layer and give it a useful name. Save to PSD to get your working file established.

2.) Make sure your new layer (not the background) is highlighted and run menu option Image > Adjustments > Threshold… The default value in the Threshold dialog box is 128 and then increase or decrease the threshold until you are satisfied with how it looks then press OK. 

3.) Highlight the threshold layer and go to Filter > Stylize > Diffuse then Select Anisotropic mode and press OK.

4.) Run menu option Select > Color Range and use the eyedropper to sample the black portion of the image, then run the Fuzziness slider in the Color Range dialog box up to 200. Press OK. The black portion of the image should now be surrounded by marching ants.

5.) Run menu option Select > Save Selection and give the selection a name and press OK. Press CTRL-D to deselect. You will reload the selection later.

6.) Make a new layer on top of the others. Select the Paint Bucket tool. Set the tool to fill with a pattern rather than a color and fill the new layer. You can use one of Photoshop’s built-in patterns. 

7.) Make another new layer on top of the others and fill it with white. Add a layer mask to this layer by pressing the Add Layer Mask button on the Layers palette.

8.) Run menu option Select > Load Selection and choose the selection you saved earlier from the dropdown menu in the Load Selection dialog box and press OK.

9.) Go to Edit > Fill and fill the selection with black (which should correspond to your current background color if the mask layer is highlighted). Though you’ve filled the selection with black, you won’t see black in the image. What you should see is the pattern fill from the layer below showing through where the selected mask was filled. Press CTRL-D to deselect. 

10.) With the mask layer still highlighted, select the Brush tool and choose a large, hard-edged brush – around size 19. Painting on the mask with white as the foreground color, paint over those parts of the image you might not need, assuming you see extra stuff that doesn’t need to be there.

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Posted in Photoshop, Photoshop Filters, Tutorials | 1 Comment »

Photoshops Auto Tools

Tuesday, January 20th, 2009

Auto Color

Image > Adjustments > Auto Color (Ctrl + Shift + B) For those of you that are professionals in the color-correcting field, this is a great feature to sometimes fix the poor colors a digital camera can capture.

Auto Levels

Image > Adjustments > Auto Levels or (Ctrl + Shift + L)?This is another quick way to do some minor color-correcting on your images. What this does is correct the black point and white point in your image automatically. It’s looking for the nearest-to-white color and setting that as the white point, then finding the nearest-to-black.

Auto Contrast

Image > Adjustments > Auto Contrast or (Ctrl + Alt + Shift + L) Auto contrast is another quick adjustment for Photoshop to automatically color correct your image. You usually don’t need to use this with Auto Levels, but sometimes it helps for images that look a bit more washed-out than you’d like.

Auto-Align Layers

Edit > Auto-Align Layers This feature is pretty cool as it attempts to align the content on your layers as close as Photoshop can figure out. When you run this command you’ll get a set of options as to how you want Photoshop to try to align. You’ll need to have your layers selected in the Layers palette by Ctrl-clicking or Shift-clicking on the layers. This is pretty much your savior for stitching together panoramas.

Auto-Blend Layers

Edit > Auto-blend Layers ?Like Auto-Align, this feature is probably most useful in photography situations. When stitching together a panorama, it will attempt to match and blend the color across all of your layers to make sure your stitch looks seamless.

Vertical + Horizontal Centering

Layer > Align > (options)…?This one is great when mocking up a new website design. This will allow you to align things vertically and horizontally to the center, left, right and top. Make sure your text layer is higher in your layers palette than the one you want to align with. Click on both layers by control-clicking or shift-clicking.

Vertical + Horizontal Centering (to a selection)

Layer > Align to Selection > (options)…?If you don’t have another layer you want to align something to, you can make a section and align your object to the selection. Just make sure the layer you want to align is selected in the Layers palette before going to the Layer menu.

Straighten Crooked Photos

You’ll want to start with the Ruler tool (located under the Eyedropper [I]) and draw a line for your horizontal axis to be straightened. After drawing your line, go to Image > Rotate Canvas > Arbitrary. Photoshop will have automatically entered the angle in degrees needed to straighten your image, so just click OK. After running this you will have white areas in the corners, so be prepared to crop a bit.

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Posted in Auto Tools, Photoshop, Tutorials | 1 Comment »

Creating A Two-Tone Silhouette Effect

Monday, January 19th, 2009

This tutorial will show you a quick way to use photoshop to create a trendy, effective, two-tone silhouette effect. Once you have mastered creating the two-tone silhouette effect you can experiment with different colours and filters. 

1.) First you need to start with the photo you want to apply the effect to, any photograph will work well with this effect as long as it is of a good quality. 

2.) You then need to duplicate your layer, this isn’t essential but it helps if you make a mistake when completing the design, then desaturate your duplicated layer, you do this by using Image > Adjust > Desaturate. 

3.) Now go to Filter > Artistic > Cutout and use settings similar to the following:

Number of Levels: 2

Edge Simplicity: 3/4

Edge Fidelity: 3

4.) The next step is to go to Image > Adjustments > Levels to bring up the Levels Dialog Box. Drag your sliders very close to each other, until your image is only black and white.

5.) Your image will probably have some pretty jagged edges. To fix this go to Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur. Enter a value of around 2.0 pixels, or whichever makes your edges look smoothed.

6.) Bring up the Curves Dialog Box by going to Image > Adjustments > Curves. Adjust the curves so the edge blurriness is gone, but there is still no jagged edges. You could get a little more advanced with this by masking your subject out (cutting out) first, then running through the steps, this could give you the option to have a coloured background etc. 

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Electrical Currents In Photoshop

Friday, January 16th, 2009

This short tutorial shows you how to create the effect of arcing current in the air. Because it uses the “Difference Clouds” filter, the effect can look different every time you try it, as that particular filter changes each time you use it. 

1. Open a new file. Make it 500 x 500 pixels, this is a nice size to work with for this tutorial. 

2. Next you need to set the foreground colour of the file to black and the background to a light grey.

3. Select the gradient tool and then in the tool options bar, set the gradient to Foreground to Background.

4. Drag the gradient tool diagonally across the image from one corner to another.

5. The next step choose Filters > Render > Difference Clouds, which as said earlier will give a different effect each time you use it. 

6. Now Invert the colours in the image by pressing Ctrl + I.

7. After doing this you need to choose Image > Adjustments > Levels to open the Levels dialog box. Drag the black slider to the right to dramatically darken the image, when doing this the effect of “electrical currents” should become apparent.

At this stage the electrical current looks very realistic but if you would like to add some extra colour to the image you can play choose Image > Adjustments > Variations. From the Variations dialog you can add colour by clicking directly on any of the preview images. Each time you click on the preview images the colour will change.

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