Photoshop Creative - Issue 104, 2013

ALL THE TUTORIAL FILES YOU NEED Available to download from blog.photoshopcreative.co.uk/tutorial-files

PLUS! GUIDE INSIDE A PHOTOGRAPHY

MASTERCLASS

REPAIR YOUR PHOTOS

FIX ALL YOUR PHOTOS TODAY!

ADD VIBRANCY AND DETAIL

✓ Retouch skin ✓ Improve lighting ✓ Boost colours ✓ Sharpen blur

MASTER RETOUCHING

IMPROVE LIGHTING WITH CURVES

FIX EX P

OSURE

REDUCE N

OISE

IL INCREASE DETA

CREATE STUNNING WATERCOLOURS Become a Brush tool expert in less than 2 hours

MASTER LAYER MASKS Discover one of Photoshop’s most powerful devices

ALSO INSIDE DRAMATIC PORTRAITS CAMERA RAW TOP 10 LIGHT EFFECTS TEXTURE FILTERS

ESSENTIAL TUTORIALS

✓Amazing layer secrets ✓ Turn photos to sketches ✓ Stunning compositions ✓ Mosaic photo montage ✓ Fantasy brushwork

ISSUE 104

CORRECT COLOUR

Upload your images to our website

www.photoshopcreative.co.uk Become part of our Facebook crew

search for photoshopcreative

You can create this fantastic piece of digital art (and master a few tools on the way) right now! Turn to page 40 for the complete step-by-step tutorial

Welcome 5

things you will learn this issue

What happens when you’ve got the perfect shot that captures perfect memories, but the colour, lighting or composition isn’t quite right? Well, Photoshop happens – that’s what! In our unmissable eight-page special, learn how to boost colours, improve lighting and retouch portraits, 01 The wow-factor with texture turning lacklustre photos into stunning snapshots (p16). Achieve amazing effects that you never knew you Get a little painterly with our classic watercolour effect could pull off by using Photoshop’s Texture filters over on page 76, or turn your portraits into sketches our step-by-step guide on page 64. We’ve got a 02 Great new skills for hybrid fruits with pretty amazing montage mosaic for you to try your Master techniques like clipping masks and layer styles hand at too (p90), and we’d love to see what you come up with. Be sure to upload your creations to 03 Stunning light effects www.photoshopcreative.co.uk and your work just Get our expert’s top 10 secrets for amazing light effects might appear in the next issue. Happy editing!

04 Dramatic monochrome photos Learning how to turn photos into incredible black-andwhite shots is just one question answered in our Q&A

05 Mosaic photo montages

Creating a stunning mosaic is easier than you think!

Charis Webster Editor [email protected]

ISSUE 105 ON SALE 19 SEPTEMBER!

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Contents Essentials 06

Readers’ gallery

Be inspired by a collection of our readers’ work

14

Readers’ challenge

16

Feature: Repair your photos

Your chance to win a cosmic set of Actions worth £79

Retouch skin, boost colour and fix lighting in this 8-page special

26

Tutorials

96

Reviews

Your practical, step-by-step tutorials kick off here From smooth-skin plug-ins to scrapbooking websites

102

Subscribe

104

Q&A essentials

Great savings when you subscribe (US readers p80)

www.photoshopcreative.co.uk

16

Repair your photos

Fix common photo problems with our essential 8-page guide

Your Photoshop and Elements questions put to our experts

112

On the disc

114

Expert interview

Discover all the freebies that come with the video disc Meet photographer and digital artist Ian David Soar

Top tips

4

38

Top five

54

Quick tip

69

Quick tip

70

Top 10

Check out five great creative edits to revamp portraits Create stylised text with incredible grunge brushes How to superimpose one digital image onto another Add a stunning final flourish with vivid light effects

Readers’ gallery 06

Q&A: Your Photoshop questions answered P104

Subscribe now SAVE Turn to page 102 to get this

30%

amazing deal! US page 80

Tutorials 32 Re-create the Orton effect

A classic photography technique in no time

40 Master

layer masks

Discover the power of this incredible editing tool

62 Stormy

compositions

One talented reader breaks down his brilliant composite

64 Turn photos to sketches

Why not give your photo a real-media makeover?

RAW filter 72 Dodge and 46 Camera See how Photoshop Creative Cloud has improved editing

50 Blend for incredible composites

Use blend modes, filters and brush work in one great image

56

40

Master layer masks Achieve incredible composites

Compose textured portraits

Amazing portrait effects with the Texture filters

Burn portraits Get to grips with these two powerful tools

76 Create stunning watercolours

Comp together photos and turn them into a painting!

76

64

and learn essential skills

32

Visit the Photoshop Creative online

72

shop at

dise for back issues, books and merchan

New to Photoshop? Check out our introductory guide

cut-outs photo montage 82 Quick 90 Mosaic Discover Elements’ Master the Quick Selection tool for editing made easy

56

Textured portraits Make eye-catching filter effects

Digitally frame 84 your photos Give your portraits a final framed flourish

Effects 88 Elements Have a closer look at the Elements Effects panel

guides and tile tricks

exposure 94 Double A stunning photo technique in a few simple steps

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READERS’ IMAGES Behold this awe-inspiring collection of Photoshop creations made by none other than you

E G A M I THE

T

ake a little time out before you dive into our tutorials to see exactly what your fellow Photoshop Creative readers have been up to. There’s much to take in here – with some truly imaginative concepts – so sit back, relax and enjoy! From Bandula Samarasekera’s life-like portrait painting to Lisa Bagherpour’s fantastic fire effect, there’s much to marvel at in this issue’s gallery. Matheus Rungue shows us his kooky animal concepts, and Kgaogelo Mphela reveals his best piece of artwork and the techniques he used to make it. We also showcase Nyle Okomah, who shows us how he uses Photoshop, while Richard Davis looks beyond the surface of the image for deeper meaning. For a chance to have your artwork appear on these pages upload them to the site now to www. photoshopcreative.co.uk.

Bandula Samarasekera www.photoshop creative.co.uk/user/ bandulabcomarts

“I used airbrush techniques with different opacities and an overall smudge to create this great effect, with more than 1,167 layers in the process. I really enjoyed the challenge of creating authenticlooking hair, eyes and skin tones.”

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OF NTH MO

Get in touch Create your own gallery online PhotoshopCreative.co.uk Upload your images to Facebook. Search PhotoshopCreative Tweet us your creative artwork @PshopCreative Alternatively, you can email: [email protected]

Chantal Keller

www.photoshopcreative. co.uk/user/bonheur

“I followed the ‘Master mixed media’ tutorial from issue 102. I cut out the model, converted it to black and white, changed the blend mode and, with some splatter brushes, created depth. Finally, I added shapes and text.”

Ocelio Targino

www.photoshopcreative. co.uk/user/Ocelio_Targino

“For Super-Machine, I combined a VW Beetle, tires and the background picture. I worked with layers and blur effects to create soft snow, and also varied colours and gradients to give realism to the overall composition.”

Photoshop Creative

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Ricardo Ambrósio

www.photoshopcreative. co.uk/user/RDOS11

“I was with my kids watching the movie Sponge Bob, and I saw his house and thought to make a watermelon version. My kids liked it!”

Kgaogelo Mphela

www.photoshopcreative. co.uk/user/WadeGraphics

“Affection (above) is inspired by the look on a girl’s face when she seeks love. I created a scene that’s based on her wishing for that one thing she wants the most in her life. The Sculpted (right) was worked on in Photoshop CS5. I started with the stock photo of the statue, and had to do a lot of work in terms of adding the Black & White adjustment on each subject. The rest came after the main model was completed. Finally, I added an image of a mountain and turned it upside down, as seen on the bottom part of the subject.”

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César Oliveira

www.photoshopcreative. co.uk/user/ [email protected]

“The image of the model was duplicated to keep the original intact. With a soft brush, I deleted the edges of the model and preserved the details of the face.”

Photoshop Creative

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Hélène M

www.photoshopcreative. co.uk/user/HélèneM

“I applied freehand sketches and mixed colour with the Mixer Brush tool, and for the fur I painted with a soft brush that I created myself. Details were added with a fine brush, retouching the lighting and contrast as I went.”

Paul Flower

www.photoshopcreative. co.uk/user/Ouroboros

“Leading The Way was inspired by my passion for F1, and drawn in CS6 with a softedged brush. Using the Mixer Brush resulted in a smooth, vibrant finish on the cars. Layers and custom brushes helped create depth and detail, and simple adjustment layers were used for finishing. I chose not to include sponsors on the cars as I wanted to accentuate their colours and curves.”

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Nyle Okomah

www.photoshopcreative. co.uk/user/NyleLevi

“I find working from online briefs a great way to challenge myself, and Forest Shaman (above) was no exception. I added details such as the face and body paint, and also the skulland-bone necklace, to give her that shamanistic look.”

“TigerWolf (right) was a way to practise designing believable creatures. I like to experiment with mixing different animals together to create something that’s interesting and new. This one is a tiger-wolf hybrid.”

Nikos Apelaths

www.photoshopcreative. co.uk/user/apelaths

“I was looking for photos for a composition in DA, when quite by chance I found this portrait at http://faestock.deviantart. com and together with the wings of JinxMim I arrived at this result using the proportional editing.”

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Thomas Lennon

www.photoshopcreative. co.uk/user/LittleTimmy

“This image was created through the applyication of new techniques I’ve learned and by letting my creativity flow. My passion always shows through when I really enjoy my projects.”

Lisa Bagherpour

www.photoshopcreative. co.uk/user/ fairiegodmother

“This image (lower left) was something completely different for me. I followed the video tutorial from issue 101 by Digital Tutors, and wanted to try and see if I could do it. I’m very uncomfortable with freehand painting, which this particular image required for the fly-away embers.”

“I created this work (lower right) with the intention of learning how to make a more realistic underwater work. These images are kind of tricky because of all the elements you need to work with.”

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Matheus Rungue www.photoshopcreative. co.uk/user/Rungue

“Here (above) I used the Liquify filter and Warp tool. Colour was added using a lot of layers with different blends. That way, I could achieve a realistic tone.” “The Warp Transform was used here (left), as well as techniques for making shadows using the Burn tool. Filters like Liquify were utilised too.” “Peachsland (below) is a little village located on a peach tree where all the fruits are houses. The most difficult thing was to create realism. To make precise shadows, layers were used with the Multiply and Overlay modes.”

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READERS’ CHALLENGE Charis’s choice

Challenge entries

“Theresa made a great polaroidstyle photo stack using all four of our images for a clean comp”

The finest entries in our readers’ competition Entries have been counted and the winner of our creative competition has been announced. After much deliberation and thought, Theresa Dickerson was crowned the winner of this issue, taking home this great prize. Other entries that caught our eyes were created by Lisa Davies, Andre Van Graan and Heather Dove, with their creative artworks featuring our supplied photos. You can get involved in the next issue and be in with a chance of getting printed here just by entering this competition. We’ll pick the best entries each time for all to see, so give it a try!

1 Theresa Dickerson

Combination “I decided to take all four of the issue 102 pictures and sandwich them together into one collage. The challenge was to transform and blend each into a pile of photographs. The lighting was especially tricky.”

2 Lisa Davies

Butterfly Woman “I airbrushed the model’s face to give it a digital painting effect and used the Fill adjustment to create the orange and blue colours. To finish off, I added shadows and highlights to the image.”

3 Andre van Graan

Nebula Splat “I layered Media Militia’s free splashes onto her face and also used adjustment layers to get the skin colour onto the splashes. A HDR effect was applied last.”

4 Heather Dove

And A Dash Of Orchid “My professor set our final piece to be a composition using only the pictures given. I came up with this combo.”

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1 2

Readers’ Challenge WINNER

Upload your images to

photoshopcreative.co.uk

Download our images Think you can do better? Prove it!

Get creative with the images on your disc and you could win a fantastic prize! Remember, you can use as many of the images as you like (from previous issues too!) and include your own photos if you wish. Just head over to www. photoshopcreative.co.uk and hit the Challenge link to get hold of previous images, check out the competition and submit your entries. Good luck!

3 4

THE PRIZE Cosmic Pack 3 plus add-ons

Enter this competition and you could win a great set of Actions from www.digital heavens.co.uk. Cosmic Pack 3 will help you make advanced planets to add to your projects. On top of this, an array of add-ons guide you through the process of making your own space art. Upload your images now for your chance to win!

WORTH £79.70! Photoshop Creative

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R I A P E R s o t o h p r u o y From bad lighting to problem skin, check out our essential photo-fix guide!

C

ameras do a good job of helping us come close to the perfect image, but there are still so many snaps that don’t come out the way we want them to. This could be due to awkward lighting, poor colour or general blurriness, and it’s enough to render a good image useless. To tackle the issue, we’ve compiled our best tricks and techniques for improving your images, and fixing those common problems that every photographer faces on a daily basis – no matter how good their camera is. We look at the processes and tools that form part of these essential rescue techniques, all in aid of the pursuit of photographic perfection. So take a moment to round up all your images that you think could do with sprucing up, and try out some of the following tricks. From controlling colour and exposure to bringing back detail and cropping for visual impact, these simple processes are designed for speed and effectiveness. Let’s face it, if you’ve come back from a trip away, or have been outside shooting lots of images, then you probably don’t want to sit down for hours to edit them all. Check out pages 20-21 for a round-up of our best quick fixes, which take no more than a couple of clicks to apply. You’ll be impressed with what can be done using the right tools and adjustments, and how a ‘bad’ image can be transformed into an artful composition.

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INSTANT RESULTS Don’t underestimate the power of Levels

Lack of light

01

Sometimes, there’s not enough light to expose the subject. Apply Levels as a new layer and slide the Highlights and Midtones left to correct for the main subject.

Mask exposure

02

Using the Levels adjustment’s mask, paint away the background with a soft brush to reveal the unedited original. You may need to go over the subject’s edges.

PROBLEM BAD LIGHTING

Capturing perfect exposures is the biggest challenge for every photographer. Incorrect exposure is usually down to the differences between the background and the main subject in terms of brightness. This can make it very difficult for cameras to capture the two extremes for a balanced overall exposure.

SOLUTION LEVELS ADJUSTMENT

We can separate the subject from the rest of the image to rescue the exposure. The Levels adjustment is a very dependable one that will help us fix problems such as bad exposure in no time at all. Split into three areas, Levels contains a graph showing the distribution of light through shadows, highlights and midtones. Controlling these regions is very simple to do.

SHADOWS/HIGHLIGHTS

Call up the Shadows/Highlights adjustment from the Image menu to bring back details in dark and light areas of an image. This will also help improve exposure, giving you lots of control over the midtone contrast, colour and brightness of all areas of your image. Push this too far, however, and you may end up with a very peculiar exposure. Be sure to have Preview ticked and click on Show More Options to adjust the Tonal Widths and bring your image to life.

Select background

03

Hide the Levels adjustment and locate the Quick Selection tool (Q). Select the background around the main subject. Reveal the Levels adjustment and go to Select>Inverse to flip the selection.

Trim excess

04

Use the Eraser tool (E) to remove excess dark parts over the edges and hit Cmd/Ctrl+D to remove the selection. You should be left with a more balanced exposure. Lower the Levels’ Opacity to suit.

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REPAIR yourphotos

BOOST COLOUR TONES Make colour a bigger

Sponge to start

01

Select the Sponge tool (beneath Dodge and Burn). Once it’s selected, you can hit O to quickly jump to it. Press Cmd/Ctrl+J to duplicate the Background.

part of your image

Clipping control

02

In the Options bar, set the Sponge to 200px with Hardness: 0%, Mode: Saturate and Flow: 60%. Also tick the Vibrance box to prevent over-saturation.

PROBLEM DULL COLOURS

Colours can make or break an image, and that’s why it’s important to be able to control exactly how much of it is there. Images can suffer from poor colour when there’s not enough light or contrast, and also if the subject is lacking vibrant colour in the first place.

SOLUTION SPONGE TOOL

The Sponge tool is a lifesaver when it comes to rescuing colour, as we can selectively bring back colours. Using layers, we can control the opacity of parts of the image, and as the Sponge works in the same way as a brush, we can apply a soft, selective adjustment with lots of control.

Balance colours

Brushed colour

03

Paint over the subject and any areas lacking colour to bring saturation back to normal. Apply the brush in strokes to control the changes. Lower the Flow to apply more subtle colour to areas, if needed.

After

Remove ugly tints with a Color Balance layer White balance, or the colour temperature of light, is something that cameras usually take care of when the image is shot. If you find that colour just doesn’t seem to turn out right, head to the Layer menu and then the Color Balance adjustment option. When correcting blue tints, slide towards the red and yellow sides of the three sliders. You may need to go all the way to the plus or minus 100 extremes in order to bring the image back to a more normal colour.

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Blend layers

04 Before

Watch out for colour banding; this occurs when the Sponge is applied too heavily. Apply the changes to a duplicate layer, so you can lower Opacity to fade the effect and try blend modes like Saturation.

CLEAR SKIN Put your portraits under the care of Photoshop’s trusty healing brushes for perfect complexions

REDUCE AFFECTS BRUSH CONTROL

The Spot Healing Brush tool can be used like a paint brush, which is handy when dealing with long, thin blemishes.

It’s important to set the Spot Healing Brush tool slightly larger than the area being healed to reduce pixel distortion.

PROBLEM SPOTS AND BLEMISHES

Images rarely come out spotless straight from the camera, and when it comes to spots and blemishes we can retouch them to make faces appear clear. Using tools such as the Clone Stamp, the Patch and the Spot Healing Brush, there’s nothing that can stand in the way of a spotless image.

SOLUTION

MATCHING AREAS

When using the Patch tool, be careful to line up the new area with any existing patterns, such as lighting and skin texture, in order to get the best replacement possible.

PATCH AND SPOT HEALING BRUSH

These two tools are vital in the retouching process for removing spots and other marks or blemishes. The Spot Healing Brush is ideal for those small areas on a person’s face that need removing. The Patch works wonders for getting rid of larger blemishes, by copying and then blending the clear areas over the top of undesirable ones.

PATCH IT UP!

The Patch tool will sort out any larger areas of your image that need clearing up. Simply draw around the area and drag it to a ‘good’ part of the subject, then watch how it instantly vanishes.

Expert tip Better complexion To improve the overall complexion of the skin, select the Brush tool and set it to Screen in the Options bar. Pick a light skin tone from the person’s face by holding Opt/Alt. Then, on a duplicate version of the Background layer (press Cmd/Ctrl+J), brush over the skin to apply soft and subtle blemish removal. This quick process is great for reducing reddish skin, where the person may have severe sunburn.

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REPAIR yourphotos

QUICK FIXES Here are a few Photoshop secrets to help quickly banish common problems

We don’t always have the time to sit down in front of an image and undergo time-intensive edits; we need quickfire, effective techniques. To take any image and make it better instantly, we can call upon a number of adjustments that will quickly adapt the colour, lighting and tone of an image. These easy edits involve nothing more than a click or two of the mouse for great results.

BRIGHTEN UP WITH A CURVES ADJUSTMENT

One very easy way to instantly brighten up a dull exposure is to press Cmd/Ctrl+M to open up the Curves adjustment. Click on the diagonal line in the adjustment and push it upwards. Placing one or more points along this line will help you to control light in the highlights, midtones and shadows of an image.

INSTANT COLOUR IMPROVEMENTS

The fastest way see an improvement in the colour of an image is to head to the Hue/Saturation adjustment inside the Image menu (or simply press Cmd/ Ctrl+U). Inside the adjustment, look to the Saturation slider and increase this to between 10 and 30 to see a significant improvement.

After

Expert tip

Before

Add stunning light The Screen blend mode is perfect for creating glows of light. You can create a subtle glow and simulate light leaks or sunlight by using a big soft brush and a grey tone. With one stroke, it will add a cinematic effect that makes images stand out. It works best on portraits, but you can also use it to enhance existing light or create focal points.

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AUTO CONTRAST, TONE, COLOR

These commands offer a standard correction for tweaking colour casts, dull tones and poor contrast. They could save those vital few minutes in the editing of an image, and provide just enough correction to make the image more appealing. These can all be found at the top of the Image menu, or you can use the shortcuts for each one, such as Cmd/Ctrl+Shift+L for Tone.

GRADIENTS FOR BOOSTING SKY CONTRAST

Sometimes we just want to improve the sky or clouds in an image, so they have more impact. The Gradient tool is ideal for this. Press G to select the tool, and then D to reset your Foreground and Background colours to black and white. In the Options bar, choose a Solid to Transparent gradient, setting it to a Linear style and changing Mode to Overlay. Click and drag a gradient from the top of the image down to the ground and watch how the sky pops!

STRAIGHTEN HORIZONS

Wonky images are quick to sort out using the Crop tool. Press C to jump straight to the tool, and then look inside the Options bar and click on the Straighten command. Simply draw a line over an obviously straight edge that’s wonky, such as the horizon, and the image should readjust itself. Hit Return to confirm the correction, or rotate the crop box to angle it to perfection.

AUTO LEVELS

The Levels adjustment is one of the most effective adjustments for adapting exposure. It also comes equipped with an Auto button that will make sure the highlights, shadows and midtones are balanced correctly. Press Cmd/ Ctrl+L to load up the adjustment on any image for a handy one-click fix.

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REPAIR yourphotos

GET PERFECT COMPOSITION

Turn amateur shots into professional pics

PROBLEM AWKWARD COMPOSITION

In the pursuit of better images, look to the Crop tool to compose images for maximum visual harmony. It’s usually a good idea to capture just a bit more of the scene than less of it when you take the photo, as you can always crop in later on.

SOLUTION CROP TOOL

Photoshop’s Crop tool is our saving grace, and is one of the most important in any photo project or quick fix. It’s simple yet has the power to completely transform your images into eye-catching or emotive composites. The tool is key to improving the composition and visual balance of an image, and you’ll be pleasantly surprised at how much of a difference cropping an image will make.

…ON BUILDINGS …ON ANIMAL PHOTOS

When working with photos of animals, it’s important to show as much of the animal as possible, and to remove anything uninteresting from the background. To do this, crop in tight to the animal’s fur and match the posture of the animal with a portrait- or landscape-style crop box.

With shots involving architecture, it’s all in the details. Crop in for a better look at patterns and brickwork, and cut out any distracting objects around the edges. The crop box can be used to level the image by rotating one of the four corner points, and you can use the Grid overlay to level the image out.

…ON LONG SHOTS

The way in which the image is cropped will help better determine its meaning or message. A wellcropped image guides the eye towards the most important part of the frame, such as where the main action is happening.

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UNSHARP MASK FILTER

PIN-SHARP IMAGES Explore the best

Although this sounds like it will have a negative effect, the Unsharp Mask filter actually makes an image much crisper. It does this by increasing the contrast between neighbouring pixels.

filters to correct out-of-focus shots PROBLEM BLURRY SHOTS

A big concern when shooting images under poor light conditions, or where the subject is moving, is blurriness. This can prove impossible to eliminate in the most severely affected images. However, if an image comes out blurry then there are usually a number of tools and filters that we can use to help reduce this and improve the way that an image looks.

SOLUTION FILTERS

Filters in Photoshop are not just for arty effects, but also for practical photo fixes. The Sharpen and High Pass filters offer ways to redeem image detail that was lost due to blurring. You’ll find even these filters have their limitations, so learning how to control them is crucial for the best results.

THRESHOLD

Zoom in and assess the final image with Preview ticked. The Threshold slider will reduce the appearance of halos and distortion if you need to control these further.

AMOUNT

Increase the Amount slider until your image appears visibly sharper. Depending on the extent of the blurring, this value will be different each time.

FEWER HALOS

There’s no hard and fast rule for sharpening an image, but try to keep Radius as low as possible to reduce halo effects around a subject.

Expert tip High Pass route If Photoshop could have a secret weapon, then the High Pass filter would be it. Hidden in the Other filters, High Pass brings details back to dramatically improve any image. To use the filter, duplicate your Background layer (Cmd/Ctrl+J), change its blend mode from Normal to Hard Light and apply the High Pass filter using a Radius setting to suit your image.

Photoshop CC Creative Cloud users can use new features

If you’re using Photoshop CC then you’ll be able to take advantage of the new Shake Reduction filter. Use this to compensate for subtle blurring that can appear in images shot with long exposures, or when the main subject moves slightly. The filter will track the direction of the movement and compensate to make the image appear in-focus.

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Tutorial Fantasy compositions

Start images

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Photoshop Creative

Share your enchanting comps

Tweet us @pshopcreative

On the disc Use the brushes and images to re-make this!

Essentials Works with

Photoshop CS2 and above and Photoshop Elements

What you’ll learn How to extract and manipulate photos to create a fantasy scene

Time taken

3 hours

Fantasy compositions Produce stunning works of vibrant fantasy art by using a compilation of photos and few handy Photoshop tricks

T

he idea of a composite is to take elements from various photos and combine them together into a single convincing montage. One intriguing genre of this is the fantasy composite, in which creativity can really spark with the freedom to explore and create romantic, surreal and

ethereal scenes. Photoshop makes this process very simple, giving us the tools to achieve that desired artistic expression. In this tutorial we will take you through all the steps you will need in order to extract photos, alter their lighting and colour to fit a scene, use painting techniques to manipulate

Expert Sara Biddle “I’m a huge fan of all things fantastical and enchanting. Composites are a great medium for producing that effect, with endless potential to create beautiful scenes. This tutorial covers many of the techniques that I often use in my work as a freelance illustrator, which I have been enjoying since I began in 2009. Creating art is something that I have always been and continue to be passionate about!”

and add your own unique touch, use the Clone Stamp to sample and place photo texture, and even create your own additional elements from scratch. By the time we hit the finale, you will be able to successfully take your own images and create your own one-ofa-kind fantasy composite.

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Tutorial Fantasy compositions

Start the background

01 

Run some filters

Begin by downloading the background photo from the supplied resources. Use Free Transform (Cmd/ Ctrl+T) to resize and position the image. Crop (C) along the outer edges of the canvas to remove excess. Duplicate the layer and choose Filter>Artistic>Palette Knife.

02 

Duplicate this new filter layer and use Filter>Noise>Median. Merge down with Cmd/Ctrl+E and duplicate this layer. On the new duplicate, apply Filter> Blur>Gaussian Blur and then reduce the layer’s Opacity by half. Merge down again.

03 

Background effects

Introduce the foreground

Erase the background

04 

Create a new layer by hitting Cmd/ Ctrl+Shift+N. Use a soft brush in a light colour with low opacity to paint over the image, creating an ethereal glow. For a bokehlike effect, make various sized dots with a hard round brush, set to a low opacity.

05 

Bring in the model image. Press Cmd/Ctrl+T for Free Transform, then hold Shift and drag a corner handle to resize proportionately. Duplicate this layer and then hide the original, just in case you need to start over again at a later stage.

Adjust the colours

Duplicate the filtered layer and hit Cmd/Ctrl+U for Hue/Saturation. Adjust the sliders to taste. You can use a soft round brush (B), set to the Color mode, to control colours manually. Merge down again.

06 

Select the Magic Eraser tool (E) and click on the white area of the image to instantly erase it. Areas around the edges will need some cleaning up, so use the Background Eraser (E) here, sampling with the hotspot in the centre of the brush.

Expert tip Managing layers Layers are a convenience that allow us to try out anything without the worry of affecting the image permanently. Use them to your advantage by working on a new layer until you are satisfied with the look, then merge it down into your main layer. Duplicate this main layer often and hide it – just in case you’d like to revert further back than Undo History will allow! Grouping and naming layers will help you stay organised. Checking Large Thumbnails in the Layer palette’s options will help you see what is on each layer.

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Blend with the environment

07 

Now go to Image>Adjustments>Hue/ Saturation (Cmd/Ctrl+U). Adjust each of the sliders as needed to lessen or boost the Hue, Saturation and Lightness, in order to blend with and better match the environment of the background.

Alter the pose

08 

Remove the hands with the Eraser (E) and then crop to the edges of the canvas. Now apply Filter>Liquefy and hit W to grab the Forward Warp Tool. Use it to push the sweater folds over to accentuate the change of posture.

Share your enchanting comps

Tweet us @pshopcreative

Expert tip Complex extractions

Make it artistic

09 

Now for a more painted look. Use Median (under Filter>Noise) lightly; enough to remove the crisp detail but so that the natural features are still retained. For an added effect, follow it up with Paint Daubs (Filter>Artistic) on a low setting.

Clone Stamp the neckline

11 

Make a new layer. Sampling from the hand’s sweater cuff, use the Clone Stamp (S) to make the neckline hem with -35 degree rotation. Erase to remove excess and create ridges for fabric. Use Burn (O) along the hem’s bottom edge for shadow.

Paint in hair strands

14 

Customise the clothing

10 

On a new layer, make a selection along the desired neckline of the sweater. After colour picking from the face using the Eyedropper (I), use a soft brush to fill in areas of skin, avoiding the hair. Deselect with Cmd/Ctrl+D when you’re all done.

Create the ear

12 

Again on a new layer, make a selection of the ear shape. Fill with a base skin color, then use the Eyedropper to sample colours from the face to develop the inside of the ear. Look in the mirror for reference.

Grab the Eyedropper again and begin by sampling a hair colour. Using a tiny soft round brush, create strands that are flowing in the same general direction as in the photo. Include strands that overlap others, as well as a few in opposing directions, for a natural look.

You may want to use different photos for elements in your composite – the process is simple and we’ve discussed many of the tools you’ll need. However, extracting them from their backgrounds may require more effort. Quick Mask (Q) makes short work of such challenges. In Quick Mask mode, paint over the area to be selected in Black (which appears as a vibrant, translucent red). When you’re done, hit Q and a selection will be made of the painted area.

Clone the hair base

13 

Hit Cmd/Ctrl+Shift+N. Now use Clone Stamp – sampling the hair often – to create a volumised base for the hair coming over the shoulders. Use a soft round brush, as it allows samples to blend with each other.

Merge and enhance

15 

Hold down Shift and then select all the layers from the top of the stack to the model layer that we worked on. Press Cmd/Ctrl+E to merge them together. Now use a soft brush on the face – in the Normal, Hard Light and Color brush modes – to enhance the makeup.

Photoshop Creative

29

Tutorial Fantasy compositions

Add some enchantment

16 

Create a new layer. Use the Brush tool to paint over the figure, adding lights and visual effects. To add lighting around the edges of the hair, jump over to the model layer and run Dodge (O) along the edge.

Insert the crown

17 

Now make a new document and use the selection tools in conjunction with Edit>Stroke to create the shape you want for the crown. Or, if you’d rather, paste our pre-made crown (supplied in your resource pack) into the composite.

Make the crown fit

18 

Free Transform again to resize the crown if necessary. Use Edit> Transform>Warp to conform the crown to the curve and perspective of the forehead. Use an opaque brush to make a chain – a custom chain brush makes quick work of it!

Finish up the crown

19 

Lock the crown layer’s transparency and then colour with a brush in the desired shade. Use Layer>Layer Styles>Bevel and Emboss and Drop Shadow to instantly add form to the crown. The Dodge and Burn tools – used lightly – can make some nice metallic finishing effects, too.

Adding the glow effect

21 

Now let’s add a glow around the pixie with Layer>Layer Styles>Outer Glow. Choose a light pink colour and make sure the blend mode is set to Linear Light, and that the Opacity is around 30%.

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Photoshop Creative

Bring in the pixie

20 

Now we can get things going by adding extra elements. Bring in a prepared photo of your choice or use our prepared pixie. Use Free Transform if necessary to resize or position as desired.

Create the pixie dust

22 

Make a new layer right at the top and then set the blend mode to Linear Dodge. Create ‘pixie dust’ special effects using a hard round brush with the Spacing and Scattering options set as desired.

Finish things up

23 

Press Cmd/Ctrl+Opt/Alt+Shift+E to merge all of the visible layers together on a new layer. Harmonise and bring everything together with any final blending or painting effects. Filters such as Paint Daubs can also be used, if set lightly.

Tutorial Re-create the Orton effect

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Photoshop Creative

Share your Orton sandwich

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Re-create the Orton effect This classic photography effect named after Michael Orton can be re-created in Photoshop using adjustments and filters

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Start image

sherlock © www.flickr.com/photos/i

hoto editing apps like Instagram and Photoshop Express are flooding the market, and their use is becoming ever more commonplace among mobile device owners. They provide one-touch results on a small screen that are comparable to those of high-end software like Adobe’s CC and Elements, and there are a multitude of effects resurfacing that, in some instances, have been overlooked for other, newer and more innovative techniques. In this tutorial, we are looking at the Orton effect – aka the Orton slide sandwich. Originally conceived to make imagery look dreamlike and add a watercolour quality, the effect stemmed from darkroom techniques that originally used two exposed slides, layered on top of each other and projected through to create an individual exposure. Now, though, with layering being a common practice amongst image editors, the concept of adjusting and manipulating layer stacks and blending options means that these techniques are literally a fingertip away. When shooting and editing for this particular effect, images with broad strokes of detail and colour sometimes work much better than those with finer detail.

Photoshop Creative

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Tutorial Re-create the Orton effect Essentials Works with

Photoshop 7 and above, CC and Photoshop Elements

What you’ll learn

Ordering and naming layers; creatively using Blur filters and blend modes

Time taken

Fix lens distortion

01 

Depending on your image, a great starting point is usually the Lens Correction tool, as you can attack any barrel distortion or pinching of the image. Head to Filter>Lens Correction – or hit Cmd/Ctrl+ Shift+R – and then alter the slider bars accordingly.

Sharpen image

02 

Now go to Filter>Sharpen>Unsharp Mask; you can bring a good amount of detail back to the edges of the image. In this instance we have used an Amount of 160, Radius of 2.0 and a Threshold of 0.

1 hour

Expert James Sheppard

“I am a photographer and visual artist with 17 years’ experience working with Photoshop. I’ve been using it from version 3.5 through to CS6, and have been working in commercial photography for over a decade. I live in the UK, create new imagery daily and am always keen to add to the skills and experience I have learned so far.”

Enhance the colour

05 

Reduce noise

03 

By going into the noise reduction filter (Filter>Noise>Reduce Noise) and inputting Strength: 7, Preserve Detail: 63%, Reduce Color Noise: 45%, Sharpen Details: 72% and ticking Remove JPG Artifact, we can remove some of the digital noise.

Since the main result of the Orton effect is to instill a dreamy, colourful feeling in an image, why not enhance the colours slightly? By using the Hue and Saturation commands (Cmd/Ctrl+U) to raise the master Saturation to 31 and reduce the Red channel’s Saturation to -27, you get a nice punch to the colour tones without the reds dominating too much.

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Photoshop Creative

Boost contrast

06 

Bring back the detail

04 

Next, we will help force some detail into the image by using the Dodge and Burn tools (O) to bring some light and dark detail into areas such as the windows. Here, we’ve burned using the Midtones at 50% and without the Protect Tones box ticked.

To add contrast, why not use a colour curve? Cmd/Ctrl+M will bring up the Curves adjustment. Here you can add and control the contrast as much as you see fit. We have used two points on our curve: one that has an Output value of 54 and an Input value of 68, and another that has an Output of 181 and Input of 171.

Remove artifacts

07 

Our next step is to remove any blemishes from the image, such as bugs in the water or bits of twig, and for this we will use a combination of the Spot Healing tool (J) and the Stamp tool (S). Keep the Content Aware option ticked for the Healing brush, and if you use the Stamp too then watch where you’re cloning from.

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Expert tip Filters, Noise and blending

Crop for composition

08 

The last stage of our preparation is to make sure that we are happy with our composition, and in order to finish this off we will use the Crop tool (C) to make our image fit into the shape that we want.

Duplicate layer

09 

Select the Background layer and duplicate it with Cmd/Ctrl+J, or by dragging the layer onto the New Layer button. After that, rename the layer to Sharp by double-clicking on the layer title.

To create the diffused effect of the image, why not try using one of these options? By adding noise to the image and blending it on a separate layer, you can achieve a similar result to the diffuse glow, especially if you double up the noise layers and then merge them. Alternatively, you can use other textures on separate layers and, again, blend each one differently in order to add a pattern to the glow. This can be an interesting result, especially depending on the texture.

Fade the High Pass

Sharpen your new layer

10 

Select Sharp and then sharpen the image some more, but this time by using Filter>Sharpen. This will give the new layer an extra, but subtle edge.

Duplicate the background again

13 

It’s time to get the ball rolling with the next stage. Once you are done with the Sharp layer, duplicate the Background layer again and rename it Soft.

High Pass layer

12 

Multiply the Soft layer

Adding the blur

11 

Now your new layer is looking rather sharp, another tip is to use the High Pass filter to add a slight hint of tonality, as well as further sharpness to the image.

14 

Now that you have identified the layers, you can start to alter their properties a little more, helping you lead up to your final image. Look to the layer properties of the Soft layer in the Layers palette and change it’s mode to Multiply.

The next thing to do is hit Cmd/ Ctrl+Shift+F to fade the results of the High Pass slightly. Once you’ve done that, set the layer’s blend mode to Hard Light, making the image more detailed but also more tonally rich around the edges.

15 

Now for the most important part of the Orton effect: the blur. For this, we have selected the Soft layer and applied Filter>Blur>Gaussian Blur, set to a radius of 130px. As you can see, it’s already softening out the colour and detail nicely.

Photoshop Creative

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Tutorial Re-create the Orton effect

Lighten the Sharp layer

16 

For this part of the image we are stepping back to the Sharp image. This is because, at the moment, the overall feel of the image is slightly dark, so we need to head back to the Sharp layer and use the Curves adjustment again. This time, just use one point with an Output value of 153 and an Input value of 102 in order to lighten the whole image.

Burning back the Sharp layer

17 

Now that the Sharp layer has been lightened, it’s time to use the Burn tool to outline areas that need darkening so as to keep detail and interest elsewhere in the image. So, setting your Burn tool at a sensible size and 50% Exposure on the Midtones range, begin painting back into the image.

Dodge the Sharp layer

18 

Now we’ll do the same with the Dodge tool. Use the same settings as the Burn tool – stick to the Midtones range and work at 50% Exposure – and paint in where you feel necessary. In this instance, though, painting in the shadows is advisable.

Expert tip RAW like a monster

Giving you ultimate control over baseline image quality, RAW editing is a must. You can alter colour, exposure, curves, contrast, vignetting and make re-editable images in the form of Smart Objects, as well as output to PSD, TIFF, DNG or JPG. The only downside to RAW editing is the inclusion of sidecar data – an XMP file that holds all of the image’s editing info – so if you lose that file, you lose the edit. A conversion to DNG will stop this, as DNGs roll up the XMP, RAW file and JPG preview.

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Photoshop Creative

Diffuse Glow

Flatten the image

19 

Time to flatten the image. You can do this by either Ctrl/right-clicking on the layer stack and selecting Flatten Image, or by going to Layer>Flatten Image.

20 

This step is not a necessity, but you can add a touch more glow to the image. Go to Filter>Distort>Diffuse Glow and then set Graininess: 0, Glow: 5 and Clear: 5. Instantly, you will see the image become lighter and more diffused.

Fade the glow a little

21 

Diffuse glow is a filter that can very easily dominate the content of an artwork and cover up the work that has already been carried out, so we’re going to fade it out a little. Choose Edit from the main menu and hit Fade. Now bring it down to 35% to get a nice, subtle presence.

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Other popular photo effects

Expert tip

Start image

Re-create a few other popular photographic effects with a few simple tools

D

epending on what you want to go on the poster, you need to change the colour palette and the design the poster to fit it. There’s so much room to play around with simple bold ideas, it’s no wonder that there are hundreds of re-imagined film posters out

there. It’s best to take inspiration directly from the idea, rather than trying to imitate the exact look of another poster that you like. This way, you’ll come up with something new, using a style and method that’s very much in vogue.

Hard-contrast Black & White

Split toning

Sepia toning

Photographic bokeh

You can create this effect using the Channel Mixer; it’s simply a combination of selecting channels – be it Red, Green, Blue or a mixture – and converting them to greyscale, then converting back. The manual mixing of channels and control over your conversion method (ie CMYK, RGB or Greyscale) make this method great for quick results. You can push contrast further with Curves and Levels.

Sepia, the ‘other’ black and white. Representing the fine line between vintage and timeless photography, sepia lends itself to a multitude of disciplines, including landscapes, architecture, portraits and, intriguingly, abstract still life. The typical method is to use Hue/ Saturation and tick the Colorize option. Another is to use a layer style with warm-up filters, then add detail with Dodge and Burn.

Another retro technique, this style can be created in many different ways. You can select a new gradient overlay in Layer Styles or use separate colour layers and adjust their blend modes. For this image, we shot in RAW and made adjustments in Adobe Camera RAW 7.4, then applied the Split Toning tool. This is a straightforward method, especially if you export as a Smart Object to allow for later editing.

To manually achieve bokeh, use a shallow depth of field. This causes the background to lose focus, creating a bokeh’d result. Again, there are many ways to falsify depth of field, whether by gradients in RAW or selective blur adjustments in Photoshop. By using the Maximum filter and adjusting the results with blend modes or the Fade option in-edit, you can create trace shape elements for a bokeh likeness.

Photoshop Creative

37

EXPERT TOP TIPS WITH CYBELE ELOY

TOP TIPS

Quick portrait effects

Give your photos a creative quick fix with these fun five-minute edits

01

S

ometimes you want to give your portraits a quick zing of Photoshoppery, but you really don’t have the time to go composite-crazy and spend hours making tweaks. If you want a bold boost of energetic editing, though, here are five solutions for you that won’t take long. Our outcomes are vivid, but feel free to vary the settings on each for a subtler result. You can highlight one colour for an eye-catching close-up, focus on highlights and a softer tonal range for a high-key look, make cartoon-like cutouts and more – give them all a go!

01 CUTOUT EFFECT

Just a single application of the Cutout filter can – and often does– need a little further attention, as its harsh processing is so basic that you lose a little too much detail in portraits. So, on a duplicated Background layer, first head to Filter>Artistic>Cutout. There should still be detail showing but enough of the effect to be noticeable. Now duplicate this layer and change its blend mode to Overlay. Shiftselect all your layers and Ctrl/right-click>Merge Layers. Apply Filter>Curves and make an S-shape, adding more points and experimenting with different effects and outcomes.

02 HIGH KEY

High key works better with portraits. The main techniques used are adjustments, blend modes, brushes and dodge/burn. First, make a duplicate of the Background, then open the Channels palette. Select the red channel; generally, this tends to be the lighter of the three colour channels, which means it holds the most information. Select a channel and press Cmd/Ctrl+A to select them all, then paste them into your Layers palette using Cmd/Ctrl+C,. Make a duplicate and change its blend mode to Screen; the whole image should become brighter. We want a white background, so pick the colour white,

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Photoshop Creative

Top tip: Overly

enhance colour and detail if the image is small, as the effects will be less noticeable

Start image

select the Brush tool (B) and grab a large soft brush. Paint carefully around the edges of the image, Dodging or Burning areas (O) of the image for the final touches.

03 LOW KEY

In contrast to high key, low key can often express or represent feelings of intimacy, mystery and gloom. The driving force of the effect is a strong light source that creates strong shadows. Duplicate the Background and then apply Filter>Black & White to create more impact. Add a Curves adjustment layer and create points of light and shadow in different areas by moving the curved line. Duplicate the layer and select Overlay as the blend mode. Merge the layers and hit Filter>Render>Lighting Effects to create a point of light in the image.

04 VIVID COLOURS

You can make use of other adjustment layers for a more vivid boost of colour. Ideal for small profile pictures (as seen on social/blogging sites), the idea is to make your image jump out, and overly enhancing facial features is one way of doing it. Again, start by duplicating the Background layer and setting the new layer’s blend mode to Soft Light. Add a Brightness/Contrast adjustment layer from the Filter

02

03

menu and move the sliders so that the highlights are vivid and the shadows stark. The contrast should be high enough to fade that subtle background almost completely into white. Now head to Image>Replace Color and select the parts of the image that you would like to be more saturated. Then go for the Photo filter (another adjustment, and not actually a filter at all!) and choose a soft blue. Finally, apply the Dodge and Burn tools for areas of light and shadow.

04

05

05 SELECTIVE COLOURING

By highlighting specific parts of images, you can really express a particular feeling, and in just a few short steps – using nothing more than a selection tool, an adjustment layer and a layer mask – we will achieve this result. Draw around the eyes with your choice of selection tool (round eyes lend themselves to the Elliptical Marquee, shortcut: M). Reverse the selection using Cmd/Ctrl+Shift+I and then everything other than your selection will become selected. Create a new adjustment layer via the button at the bottom of the Layers palette and, by applying a Black & White adjustment layer, you can then fine-tune the results and create your own monochromatic outcome. Reverse the selection back again and then use a Color Balance adjustment layer, this time to edit the actual eye colour.

Photoshop Creative

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Tutorial Master layer masks Essentials Works with

Photoshop CS versions, CC and Photoshop Elements

What you’ll learn

Crafting surreal scenes, sharpening detail and fine-tuning adjustments

Time taken

2 hours

Expert Andre Villanueva

“I’ve always loved surreal artwork and visuals. It’s great to be able to form fantastic scenes digitally using everyday pictures. I discovered Photoshop in the early 2000s while earning my web design degree. After graduation, I taught in the Media Arts department for five years. Now I’m a multimedia designer for a broadband and technology company, soothing my inner instructor by sharing techniques with readers.”

Frame the horizon

01 

Master layer masks

Using an assortment of photos and an array of clever techniques create an illogical scene with one world spilling into another

S

urrealism is a place where reality and dreams converge. The individual elements of a surrealistic piece can be mundane, but the combinations they form are often unreasonable, forming scenes that evoke wonder, laughter and sometimes even shudders. Here we’ll combine photos and effects in order to create a surrealistic scenario, then control tone and colour to meld everything perfectly. We’ll clip an ocean scene inside an ornate picture frame, then hang it underneath a motorway overpass. We’ll form an out-of-bounds effects by having the

Step by step Hang a surreal frame

Make a window onto another world to blend fantasy and realism

Open ‘Frame.psd’, then File>Place ‘Horizon.jpg’. Opt/Alt-click between the Horizon and Mask layers to clip. Add an Inner Shadow to the Mask layer (via the Layers palette’s Layer Style button) at 75% Opacity; moderately increase Distance and Size.

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Photoshop Creative

framed scene literally spill into our world. We’ll steal water from waterfall photos with the help of the underused Blend If sliders, then add a few birds courtesy of Sias van Schalkwyk. (Users with versions lacking the Blend If sliders can try using the Eraser tool or layer masks to help remove the areas around the waterfalls.) The Unsharp Mask filter will bring out exaggerated detail, and the Color Lookup adjustment – which debuted in CS6 –will be used to achieve a deliciously bleak look. Users without CS6+: see the boxout on page 44 for advice.

Hang it

Place the frame

02 

Open ‘Surreal.psd’. Go to File>Place, and choose ‘Frame.psd’. Before confirming, scale the frame down and rotate slightly. Add a Drop Shadow at about 50% Opacity, with increased Distance and Size.

03 

Set the Foreground colour to white. Use the Rectangle tool (U) set to Shape to create the wire. Add a Bevel and Emboss layer style. Now create a new layer. Opt/Alt-click between the layers to clip them, then set your Foreground to black. Shade with a soft round brush at 30% Opacity.

On the disc All the start images you need to make this!

Start images Photoshop Creative

41

Tutorial Master layer masks Expert tip Wild ideas Sometimes, the hardest part of a composition is defeating the blank, white page (or screen) and coming up with a concept. The next time you’re in the middle of a creative drought, try something wild and surreal! Gather some photos from your camera, hard drive, and/ or free stock sites. Concoct a crazy situation and select the images to best tell that story, or pick several photos at random and then merge them together. The only rule is to have fun and get Photoshop practice while you’re at it!

Leakage

04 

Now set the Foreground back to white and then grab the Lasso tool (L). Create some dripping selections, then fill with white. Apply a Bevel and Emboss layer style using the Inner Bevel. Drop the Shadow Opacity to 25%.

Water thief

05 

Drop the Layer’s Fill to 40%. This only affects how opaque the layer fill is, leaving any layer effects intact and giving us a translucent look with the unaffected Bevel and Emboss.

Gushing overflow

06 

07 

08 

Extract bird

Fast bird

Extract eagle

Now we’ll steal water from a waterfall scene. File>Place ‘Waterfall1.jpg’ and situate it so that it looks to be gushing from the frame’s scene. From the Layer Style menu, pick Blending Options. You’ll see the Blend If sliders at the bottom.

09 

Open ‘Bird.jpg’. Use the Magic Wand or Quick Selection tool (W) in order to select the areas surrounding the bird. Hit Cmd/Ctrl+Shift+I to invert the selection. Now click and drag from within the selection into the main composition. Position in the frame.

42

Blend If slider

Translucent effect

Photoshop Creative

Drag the dark slider inward to make the darkest parts of the layer hidden. Opt/Alt-click and then drag the slider to break it apart into two, creating a smoother transition. Fine-tune by adjusting both halves, then click OK to apply.

10 

Ctrl/right-click on the Bird layer and choose Convert to Smart Object. Go to Filter>Blur>Motion Blur. Set to 30 pixels, and align Angle with the bird’s trajectory. In the Smart Object mask, paint some black at 13% to restore just a little of the bird.

Do steps 6 and 7 for ‘Waterfall2.jpg’. Duplicate with Cmd/Ctrl+J and go to Filter>Blur>Motion Blur; use a Distance of 60-70 and dial Angle to align with the action. Combine and duplicate a few times, painting with white to blend and masking as needed.

11 

Open the eagle image and extract it as you did the bird in step 9. Bring it into the main composition and position it as if it’s bursting free from the confines of the frame. Create a layer below it and use a soft round brush at 15% Opacity to add shading.

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Escaping eagle

12 

Ctrl/right-click on the Eagle layer and choose Convert to Smart Object. Go to Filter>Blur>Motion Blur. Set to 65 Pixels and dial Angle accordingly. In the Smart Object mask, paint some black at 80% to restore some of the eagle.

Linear Burn

Blur

13 

Place ‘Blur.jpg’. Set the blend mode to Color Burn. Opt/Alt-click the Layer Mask icon in the Layers palette to create a mask filled with black. Paint back in with white at 80% Opacity to add areas to darken.

Soft Light

15 

Click on the Create New Fill/Adjustment Layer button in the Layers Palette and choose Solid Color again. This time, pick #00baff and then set the blend mode to Soft Light. Paint black inside the mask at 80% Opacity in order to remove the top and a few other select areas. Once finished, press Cmd/ Ctrl+J to duplicate.

14 

Click the Create New Fill/Adjustment Layer button in the Layers Palette and choose Solid Color. Pick #e7ec65. Set the blend mode to Linear Burn. Now fill the mask with black, then paint back in with white at 40% Opacity to add the colour.

Layer structure A breakdown of the process

Final adjustments

Colour adjustments

Birds

Spill

Framed horizon

Color Burn

16 

Hit that same button in the Layers Palette once more and choose Solid Color. Pick #f7bd81. Set the blend mode to Color Burn for this one. Paint black in the mask at 60-80% Opacity to remove the colour in areas that became too dark.

Frame

Overlay is handy

17 

Now go to File>Place, and add ‘Hand. jpg’. Set the blend mode to Overlay. Paint black in the mask at 60-80% Opacity in order to remove the colour in areas where you don’t like the newly added colour.

Background

Photoshop Creative

43

Tutorial Master layer masks Expert tip Surrealistic colouring Surrealistic visuals can often have an HDR-like feel. In this tutorial, we use the Unsharp Mask filter with high Amount and Radius to bring out gritty details. This is applied to a stamped composite of all layers and set to Luminosity. The Color Lookup adjustment (CS6+) was also used and set to Futuristic Bleak. For a different approach, CS5+ users can play with this adjustment: HDR Toning. There are several surrealistic presets, but it’s usually best to twiddle with the settings. Users of other versions can play with a combination of available adjustments, such as Curves, Shadows/Highlights and Photo Filter.

Gradient Map

18 

Click Create New Fill/Adjustment Layer again, choosing Gradient Map. Pick the Black, White preset. Fill the mask with black, then paint back in with white at 80% Opacity to remove colour in areas.

20 

Go to Filter>Sharpen>Unsharp Mask. Set Amount to 300% and Radius to 80 pixels. Click OK. With black, paint out areas you don’t want sharpened. Set the blend mode to Luminosity.

22 

Duplicate the Color Lookup adjustment with Cmd/Ctrl+J until you are satisfied with the resulting look. Edit each mask as needed. Here we’ve duplicated three times, and successively painted more black in each mask to selectively fine-tune the effect.

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Photoshop Creative

19 

We’ll now merge all the layers so we can sharpen everything at once. Hit Cmd/Ctrl+Opt/Alt+Shift+E. Ctrl/right-click and pick Convert to Smart Object. The next step’s effect will now become a Smart Filter.

The future is bleak

Exaggerated detail

Even bleaker…

Merge layers

21 

Click the Create New Fill/Adjustment Layer button, picking Color Lookup this time. Choose Futuristic Bleak, because this will heighten the drama and surrealism. Add black to the mask in some areas in order to restore some colour.

Lighten up, it’s okay!

23 

Finally, let’s lighten up a bit. Click your new favourite button once more, this time choosing Levels. Drag the Midtones and Highlights input levels leftwards to brighten things, then paint black in the mask edges and some select areas.

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Tutorial Camera RAW filter

NEW!

Creative Cloud series continues

On the disc Use the image on the disc to test your skills!

Essentials Works with

Camera RAW filter

Start image

Explore the new ways to apply Camera RAW editing straight from Photoshop’s Filter menu

Photoshop Creative Cloud

What you’ll learn

Using the Camera RAW filter to improve image detail and exposure

Time taken

30 mins

46

Photoshop Creative

P

hotoshop Creative Cloud features Adobe Camera RAW software inside the Filter menu, meaning we can now apply precise edits to any layer, and no longer to just RAW files. The Camera RAW filter is exciting to photography fans as it contains everything a photographer would ever need. It can improve lighting, undergo retouching, apply gradient effects, create black and white conversions, and even finish off an image with a vignette or some grain, for example. We can take advantage of the array of tools CC provides – including the Adjustment

Brush, which we demonstrate in this tutorial – in order to help bring this image to life. So being able to incorporate Camera RAW editing into a composition is by all means helpful. Of course, Photoshop has all these edits and more, but Camera RAW has its own tricks. Graduated filters enable the instant application of photo effects and edits that would otherwise require an extra layer or two to reproduce in Photoshop. Grab our image from your resources to start off, or select one of your own, and prepare yourself for the amazing power of the Camera RAW filter!

Share your beautiful RAW photos

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Expert Simon Skellon “With each new version of Camera RAW there’s always something special. In CC, it’s now right there inside my Filter menu, which is handy. As Photoshop Creative’s features editor, I have been using Photoshop ever since version 7. I’ve combined my passion for photography with Photoshop, and enjoy nothing more than composing photomanipulations. With years of editing experience, I have built up a large catalogue of top techniques.”

Smart Filters

Smart Objects

01

Open up ‘Landscape.jpg’ from your supplied resources. We must make the image a Smart Object first, so we can edit the Camera RAW filter at any point. Head to Filter>Convert for Smart Filters.

02

Go to the Filter menu and down to Camera RAW Filter. This opens the Camera RAW editing software as a Smart Filter, so whatever changes are made are re-editable by double-clicking on the layer.

Work up close

03

The Camera RAW filter window can be enlarged or made smaller to suit your screen by dragging the bottom-right corner. The filter opens by default with the Zoom tool selected. Click five or six times on the small blue object floating on the water to zoom into it.

Clear up

05

Tool editing

04

Locate the Spot Removal tool (B) from the top of the Camera RAW filter. Set the Size of the tool to 16 and Opacity to 100. Set its Type as Heal. Click over the blue object to remove it completely.

When using the Spot Removal tool, the red circle shows the area cloned and the green shows the area used. You can move the green circle for a better result, if required. If you make a mistake, press Cmd/Ctrl+Z to undo. Click the Show Overlay box to turn off these circles.

Retrieve shadow detail

06

To rescue lost details in darker parts of the image, such as the trees, push the Shadows slider up to 60 and the Blacks to 25; only these areas are affected by the changes. This creates a more balanced image in terms of exposure.

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Tutorial Camera RAW Filter

Warm up

07

We can increase the warmth of this image to make the sunset colours more obvious. To do this, boost the Temperature slider to 25. This will add some orange to the image to tint it slightly.

Noise reduction

10

Control highlights

08

To instantly make the image more dramatic, reduce the Highlights slider to -100. Also increase Exposure to 20 and Contrast to 10 in order to help make the overall image more dramatic and also to intensify the atmosphere.

The Adjustment Brush lets us apply edits selectively to parts of the image. Notice that the blue parts of the image suffer from noise. Increase the Noise Reduction slider to 60 and then brush over the blue parts of the sky and water. ADJUSTMENT PINS Using the Adjustment Brush, subjects can be edited away from other parts of the image – the grey pins on the canvas show you which areas have been altered.

REVEAL PINS

Click on the Show Pins box under the list of adjustments to either hide or show the positions of each one. Click on a pin to tweak the slider settings.

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Clever brushwork

09

The Camera RAW filter contains a useful tool called the Adjustment Brush (K). Locate this tool along the top bar and notice that a range of adjustments appears on the right side of the filter, which are dedicated for use with this tool.

Next adjustment

11

The Adjustment Brush lets us control many attributes of the image, from Exposure to Sharpness. Look closely at the trees on the right side. Click the New button at the top to start editing a different part of the image, set Clarity to 60 and Sharpness to 15, then brush over the trees. NEW, ADD OR ERASE?

Select one of these three options before using the Adjustment Brush. Add will continually apply the same adjustments, while New starts afresh.

BRUSH SIZE

The Adjustment Brush works just like a normal brush, but applies whichever edits you tell it to using the long list inside the filter.

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Expert tip Adjustment overflow When using the Adjustment Brush, you can help reduce the spilling of the effects from one area into another by lowering the Size and Feather sliders. This will make sure targeted adjustments are accurate, and your image will look much better for it.

Graduated edits

12

The Camera RAW filter contains tools that photographers will use on a regular basis. The Graduated Filter tool (G) lets you apply subtle or strong changes to colour, exposure, sharpness or noise. Select the tool from the top bar.

Improve sky contrast

13

On the right side is a list of adjustments for this tool. Boost Exposure to 0.5 and Saturation to 30. Drag a line from the top of the image downwards so that the gradient only affects the sky. Increase the distance between the red and green pins to soften the gradient.

Vignette to finish

14

The fx button in the Camera RAW filter has options for applying Grain and a Vignette. Add a new Vignette with Amount set to -32, Midpoint to 66, Roundness to 14 and Feather to 53. This makes the image look more ominous.

Before and after

15

Hit OK in the Camera RAW filter to apply all of these changes to the Smart Filter. Flick between the before and after views by clicking on the eye symbol inside the Layers palette.

Top new feature Creating fake mist Play with the Clarity slider to produce misty water or a HDR look The Clarity slider in Camera RAW Filter determines how soft or sharp the image looks. Reducing the Clarity slider for this image can actually create the effect of mist running gently over the water. Going to the other extreme with the Clarity slider, however, will take the image into the realms of HDR. The Clarity slider can also be used with the Adjustment Brush, meaning that this pretend mist can be applied selectively.

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Tutorial Blend for incredible composites

Start image

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Photoshop Creative

On the disc Find all the images and files used on your disc

To discover more editing techniques

search for photoshopcreative

Essentials Works with

Photoshop Elements 11 Photoshop CS3 and above

What you’ll learn Conquer several tools from brushes and filters to the Clone stamp and Dodge and Burn

Time taken

2 hours

Expert Daniel Sinoca

“You can create eye-catching photo edits using just your creativity and Photoshop Elements. The secret is all about achieving a seamless blend of images and working with different shades of light. I started to get involved in the digital world of editing more than ten years ago and have been working as a freelance artist ever since, working on all kinds of projects and writing tutorials. ”

Create a new document

01

Blend for incredible composites

Learn how to make an eye-catching photomanipulation using several tools and filters in Photoshop Elements

Y

ou can easily create fun and unique photomanipulations; all you need is a bit of creativity and Photoshop! We used Photoshop Elements here but the full CS version will do the trick too! The secret to a successful edit is knowing how to seamlessly blend images together, and how to use shade and light to set ambience and add a certain level of realism to your work. Here we’ll guide you through a simple but

effective process to help you create a believable (well, maybe not quite!) hybrid fruit. Learn how to combine brushes, the Eraser and Clone Stamp tool with other filters to achieve this incredible result. Once you know the right techniques to use and the tools available, you can develop your skills and create the most amazing art. Download the resources to get started and don’t hesitate to open the full PSD file to check how the layers are distributed. Enjoy!

Step by step Make a tasty montage Combine imagery to create a realistic photomanipulation

Begin by creating a new blank file. Hit Cmd/Crtl+N to open the New dialog box, name your project Fruit tutorial, Then set the Width to 235mm, the Height to 300mm and the Resolution to 300. Confirm this by clicking OK.

Add a gradient background

02

Select the Gradient tool (G) and click on Edit to open the Gradient Editor. Create a new gradient using the colours #fdfdfe and #afafb3 and add more colour stops to reduce the blend. Set it to Linear and drag it from top to bottom.

Place the first image

03

Go to File>Place and select ‘Apple. jpg’ from the free disc. On the Tool Options bar, tick the Constrain Proportions box and resize the image to around 65%. Ctrl/right-click on the layer and choose Simplify (CS users click Rasterize layer).

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Tutorial Blend for incredible composites

Refine edge

04

Grab the Quick Selection tool (A), and select the apple. Go to Layer>Refine Edge. Tick the Smart Radius box and set the Radius to 5px, Smooth to 50, Feather to 2, Contrast to 0, and Shift Edge to -50. Click Decontaminate Colors and set the Amount to 100%, then press OK.

Add the bite mark

07

Now grab the Lasso tool (L). Duplicate the Apple layer again and name it ‘Apple copy 2’. Click on the Eye icon to hide the extra layer. Drag the Lasso tool to create an irregular selection on the apple and then press Delete.

Remove hard shadows

Enhance the image

06

Place the kiwi image

Duplicate the Kiwi layer

Hold Cmd/Ctrll and click on the Ctrl/right-click on the layer mask and Apple layer to select it. Click the choose Apply Layer Mask. Grab the Clone Stamp tool (S), set the Opacity to Spot Healing Brush tool (J), set Type as 40% and choose a soft brush size at 120px. Proximity Match, choose a soft brush at Press Opt/Alt to sample the image and paint around 80px and remove the imperfections. over the areas with hard shadows.

05

08

Go to File>Place and choose ‘Citrus. jpg’. Ctrl/right-click on the layer and choose Simplify Layer. Grab the Quick Selection tool (A), and select only the kiwi image. Cut and Paste into a new layer, rename it ‘Kiwi’, and delete the Citrus layer.

09

Ctrl/right-click on the Kiwi layer and choose Duplicate layer. Drag the Kiwi copy layer under the Apple copy 2 layer. Hold Cmd/Ctrll+T to open the Free Transform tool. Grab the handles to scale, skew and position the kiwi image.

Expert tip Liquify Filter

Use this to adjust sizes, and to push, pull, skew and reshape your image. To open the Liquify workspace, go to Filter>Distort>Liquify (CS users go to Filter>Liquify). The key to success using Liquify is to apply a very low brush pressure and use a larger brush. The Liquify tool moves the pixels around, so using a small brush only affects a small group of pixels, creating rough edges. A larger brush will affect a larger group, resulting in very smooth lines.

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Apply a Shear filter

10

Now head to Filter>Distort>Shear. Tick Wrap Around, click on top of the vertical line, and then drag to create a curve point and drag another point to create a subtle curve. Press Cmd/Ctrll+T to resize and use the Eraser tool (E) to rub out the edges.

Adjust the lighting

11

Select the Kiwi copy layer and go to Enhance>Adjust Lighting>Levels or hold Cmd/Ctrll+L. Drag the Highlight adjustment slider to 220 or type 0, 1.00, 220 in the text boxes. Click OK.

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Expert tip Photoshop CS users

Create a clipping mask

12

Add highlights

Hold Opt/Alt and click Add New Layer. In the dialog, enter Name as Dodge, set mode to Overlay, and check Fill with overlay-neutral color (50% gray). Click OK. Press Cmd/Ctrll+G to create a clipping mask.

13

More highlights

Create inner shadow

Now let’s add some highlights. Grab the Dodge tool (O), set the Range to Highlights, pick a soft brush at size 500px and change the Exposure to 40%. Paint around the kiwi edges.

Add a border

14

15

16

Form a shadow

Lighting effects

Final step

Now click on the Apple copy 2 layer and repeat Step 12. After, create the layer Overlay, grab the Dodge tool (O), set the Range to Highlights, pick a soft brush, size 200px, and change the Exposure to 60%. Carefully paint around the bite mark.

17

On a new layer above the Background select the Elliptical Marquee tool and draw an ellipse, then fill it with black. Go to Filter>Blur>Gaussian Blur, change the Radius to 60px and press OK. Hold Cmd/Ctrll+T and adjust the perspective.

Add a new layer and rename it Inner Shadow. With the Magic Wand tool (A), select the bite mark. Grab a soft brush (B), size 300 px, set the Opacity to 40%, and paint over the Inner Shadow layer to create a very soft shadow.

18

Click on the Background layer. Now go to Filter>Render>Lighting Effect. Choose the default Spotlight and reposition the light. Set Intensity to 10, Focus to 21, Gloss to 55, Material to 50, Exposure to 10 and Ambience to 20. Then click OK.

In Photoshop CS, you can use the Warp tool instead of the Shear filter to transform objects. It lets you freely move and position elements as if you were trying to warp a surface using the handles. Select the layer and press Cmd/Crtl+T to open the Free Transform. Ctrl/right-click and choose Warp from the pop-up menu. Grab the corner handle and drag in any direction to create a warp effect. You can select anywhere on the bounding box to transform your image.

Create a new layer and name it ‘Border’. Make sure the bite mark is still selected, then go to Select>Modify>Border, set the Width at 15px and click OK. Grab the Brush tool (B), select the colour #7d5149 and paint the selection.

19

Finally, select the Apple copy 2 layer and press Cmd/Ctrl+F to apply the lighting effects again. Now click on the Border layer, grab the Eraser tool, and using a very small tip, rub out some areas to create a more realistic image.

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EXPERT TOP TIPS

WITH ELLA CARTER SUTTON

Add grunge styling Create gritty text art and inject your composition with instant attitude

S

ometimes, plain text just isn’t enough. It’s a sure fact that if your lettering looks the part, it’s guaranteed to have twice the impact. Handily, Photoshop has got your back on this one. There are plenty of tools available to unleash on your word art, enabling you to create some killer text that’ll give any digital canvas a boost. Here we’ve kept things

super simple yet super effective. With the Eraser and Brush tools applied in the right places, you can easily project a grungy, urban vibe onto your words to give their meaning some extra-cool clout. We downloaded some great free brushes from Brusheezy. Head over to www.brusheezy.com/brushes/1476-splatter to grab them and give this text a go!

Tool tip: Work

splatter brushes to the max by rotating them in the Brush palette – just drag the Angle pointer

Quick fix Splatter typography Learn the art of distressing text

Get set up

01

Hit File>New and then fill with a dark colour using the Paint Bucket (G). Grab the Horizontal Type tool (T) and draw a box. Pick a large, bold font in a contrasting colour and type your grunge-style word. On the text layer, Cmd/Ctrl-click>Rasterize Type.

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Get your grunge on

02

Select the Eraser (E) and head to the Brush Presets palette. Pick a textured brush like Chalk or Dry Brush. Use the [ and ] buttons on your keyboard to alter the brush size, and start gently chipping into the text’s edges to create a worn, gritty style.

Add final flourishes

03

For texture, grab the Brush (B) and explore more presets, or download some splatter-style bushes. Experiment with brush sizes and paint splatters both on the letters and extending behind them. As a final touch, rotate the text using Move (V).

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On the disc Use the files on the disc to re-create this!

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Photoshop Creative

Made a sparkling mosaic?

Tweet us @pshopcreative

Essentials Works with

Photoshop CS4 and above, CC and Photoshop Elements

What you’ll learn Using Texture filters to create a fresh piece of art with just two photographs

Time taken

1 hour

Expert Andre Villanueva “Filters play an important role in my work. From subtle blurs to crazy distortions, they help me achieve my visual goals. I discovered Photoshop in the early 2000s while earning my Web Design degree. After graduation, I taught in the Media Arts department for five years. Now I’m a multimedia designer for a broadband and technology company, and share my techniques with readers.”

Dandelion drop

01 

Compose textured portraits

Here we show you how to create a fun, colourful image using only two photos and a host of filters, blend modes and masks

S

tarting with only a few photos, we can come up with a lively, textured piece of art by utilising Photoshop’s filters and tools. Using a dandelion as a backdrop, we’ll first introduce a model photo and then go bonkers with a full-on filter barrage. The Texture filters will enable us to introduce roughness and depth without the need to import actual texture photos. Blend modes and layer masks will be our trusted partners throughout the process, and we’ll use them to mix each filtered reinvention of the original photos with the evolving composite. You’ll see the incredible value of merging layers together as a flattened stamp, in order to apply

Open the supplied ‘Dandelion.jpg’. To vary our colours, let’s punch out a transparent hole. Add a layer mask via the Layers palette icon. Use a soft, round brush at 80% Opacity to paint out over to the right.

Mosaic Tiles filter

02 

overall sharpening and to fill in some decorative circles as a final touch. After completing the tutorial, you may want to try it again with your own photos – just use the steps and filter values as a rough guide, and check out the alternate image we came up with for further ideas. Experiment with other effects and filters. Your only obligation is to stick with the ‘two photo’ restriction. Any users of Photoshop versions lacking Smart Objects can simply apply filters directly to layers instead. Plus, Vibrance can be replaced with Hue/ Saturation, if needed. With Photoshop’s tools as your faithful allies, though, you’re bound to surprise yourself with what you can achieve.

File>Place the supplied ‘Model.jpg’. Go to Filter>Texture>Mosaic Tiles. Set Tile Size: 52, Grout Width: 7 and Lighten Grout: 7. Add a layer mask, paint a little black in the bottom right and set to Vivid Light.

Facial restoration

03 

Duplicate the Model layer via Cmd/ Ctrl+J. Drag the layer’s Smart Filter to the Trash. Fill the mask with black to hide everything, switch your Foreground to white, then paint to reveal the unaltered face.

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Tutorial Compose textured portraits Expert tip Make use of the Filter Gallery Use the Filter Gallery (Filter>Filter Gallery) as a laboratory for testing and creating filter recipes. The middle pane shows the filters you can try. Simply select one and the preview pane on the left will reflect your choice. The right pane is context-sensitive, showing the options and settings for the current filter. At the bottom-right, you can stack multiple filters for potentially mindblowing results.

Eerie colours

05 

Restore lighter colour

A bit of cool

06 

Opt/Alt-click and drag the Model layer above the Levels adjustment layer. Now Ctrl/right-click on its mask and choose Delete Layer Mask. Set the blend mode to Lighter Color.

Stained Glass filter

08 

Duplicate the layer once more then set its blend mode to Color Burn and Opacity to 80%. Go to Filter>Texture>Stained Glass. Set Cell Size: 19, Border Thickness: 4 and Light Intensity: 3. Click OK and paint black onto a new mask at the top, reducing the impact in areas.

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Lighten up

04 

In the Layers palette, hit the Create New Fill/Adjustment Layer button and choose Solid Color. Input #c4ac81, set the blend mode to Difference and drop the Opacity to 90%. It’s an interesting effect, but the image is now a tad dismal. We’ll correct it.

Add a Levels adjustment layer using the same button in the Layers palette. Drag the Midtone and Highlight sliders to the left to brighten the image. Notice we still need to restore the skin tone and lighten colours from the original photo.

07 

Duplicate the layer again with Cmd/ Ctrl+J. Set the blend mode to Hue to add some cool colouring. Add a layer mask, switch the Foreground colour to black, then paint out areas surrounding the model.

Even more burn

09 

Duplicate the layer, bump the Opacity back up to 100% and then fill the mask with black. After that, set your Foreground colour to white and then lightly paint some of the central area back into the image.

Made a sparkling mosaic?

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Merge layers

10 

Press Cmd/Ctrl+Opt/Alt+Shift+E to create a merged copy, then Ctrl/ right-click and choose Convert to Smart Object. Go to Filter>Texture>Stained Glass. Set Cell Size: 19, Border Thickness: 4 and Light Intensity: 3, then set it to Hard Light.

Duplicate and blend

11 

Duplicate the layer and drag the Smart Filter to the Trash. Set the blend mode to Multiply and layer Opacity to 50%. Now paint with black onto the mask to reduce some of the darkened areas.

Add an illustrative touch

14 

Merge your layers again and convert to a Smart Object. Now apply Filter> Sharpen>Unsharp Mask. Set the Amount to 80% and the Radius to 5.5px. Click OK and, with a black brush, paint over any areas that you don’t want sharpened.

Smart editing

Merge your layers and convert to a Smart Object again. This time, head over to Filter>Stylize>Find Edges. Now add a layer mask, fill it with black, then paint over some of the areas with white at 80-100% Opacity in order to add some illustrative flair to your growing mosaic artwork.

Pick Vibrance from the Adjustment layer list in the Layers palette. Drop Vibrance to -50. Paint black in the mask to restore some colour. Add another Vibrance adjustment, this time with Vibrance: 30 and Saturation: 20, then tweak with the mask.

12 

Expert tip

13 

Vibrance control

Looking sharp!

When is it a good time to use a Smart Object? Any time! Keeping a layer ‘smart’ gives you the flexibility of being able to resize the layer without the fear of losing any of the original clarity. Also, any filters applied to a Smart Object become Smart Filters. These are nondestructive and do not permanently affect the layers. Edit these any time by double-clicking on them, and use the Smart Object’s mask to hide parts of the effect.

Circling shapes

15 

Merge and convert to a Smart Object, then tick the eye icon to hide the layer. On a new layer, use the Ellipse tool (set to Shape in the Options bar) to create a circle, holding Shift as you drag. Add a slight Drop Shadow via Layer>Layer Style.

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Tutorial Compose textured portraits

Zoom effect

16 

Turn the visibility back on for the merged layer. Opt/Alt-click between the circle and merged layers to clip them. Use Free Transform (Cmd/Ctrl+T) to scale and position the merged layer. Enlarge and zoom in on an interesting area of the effect.

Three’s company

17 

Now create two more circles of differing sizes. Apply Drop Shadows. Duplicate the merged layer twice, then position and clip with the other two circles. Free Transform the merged layers to scale and rotate, or even try warping them.

Alternative effect Endless variation Vary shapes and colour settings for a more subtle result

Levels to finish

18 

We’ll finalise with a Levels adjustment. Use the sliders to fine-tune contrast, then paint black on the adjustment’s mask over areas that don’t benefit from the adjustment. You can even add another Levels adjustment for extra tonal control.

EXPERIMENT

By means of trial and error, you can edit the settings at the Mosaic Tiles stage to achieve a lighter outcome.

This tutorial is just one of many possibilities. Every step can be modified, replaced or discarded – it’s all up to you! Here we’ve used the same model and tried a lighter approach. The Mosaic Tiles and Stained Glass filters were used, but with different settings. As a counterpoint to the inverted triangle (formed by the model’s arms), we’ve created some upward-pointing triangles, with a few facing down for variation. Go ahead and use the same photo (or your own) to create a new outcome. Use the Texture filters or try some from other categories, such as Artistic and Stylize. When it’s time to blend layers, cycle through the various blend modes (Shift and +/-) until you get the right mix.

RETRO SHAPES

Vary the shapes for a different effect and copy/paste your main image for a ‘magnifying glass’ result.

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KEEP IT THEMED

Replicate shapes to continue the theme throughout and use similarly-toned colours to highlight them.

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EXPERT ADVICE

Start image

WITH STEVE JAGGER

Stormy compositions Photographer and Photoshop Elements artist Steve Jagger reveals the core techniques behind his image ‘Guiding Light’

S

teve Jagger has an eye for good images, and he calls upon his experience as a photographer to capture all the stock photos himself. He then carefully pieces everything together using the tools and adjustments available in Photoshop Elements. ‘Guiding Light’ was composed using selections and layering techniques, which are shown in the steps below. What makes this image stand out the most is Jagger’s application of Blur filters and lighting effects, all of which make you feel as though you’re really part of scene. From adding extra waves to editing the details in the clouds, there’s much to admire in his work. Follow along with our guide and apply some of Jagger’s techniques to your own images for the same stormy effects.

Quick tip: The Clone Stamp tool is

perfect for blending layers together, and varying the opacity

The artist Steve Jagger

Steve Jagger began his creative career running a part-time photographic business. Lack of the right technology, though, led to a 10-year hiatus, which all changed after Jagger discovered Photoshop Elements; this re-ignited his passion for digital art. For more images by Jagger, head to www. photoshopcreative. co.uk/user/ STEVEJAG1969.

HOW TO How to make Guiding Light The techniques behind Steve’s terrific composition

ARRANGE LAYERS

01

On a skyscape image, cut and paste a seascape into the composition and crop until happy with the arrangement. Use a Levels adjustment on both layers to enhance the mood. Select a boat and lighthouse using the Magnetic Lasso tool.

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SCALE TO FIT

02

Individually cut and paste the lighthouse and the boat into the main composition. Use Image>Transform> Free Transform (if you’re in Elements) to place and scale the boat on the wave at an angle. Resize until the composition is correct.

EDIT WAVES

03

Adjust the lighting on the lighthouse and boat using Levels. To create the wave, select a part of the seascape’s wave with the Lasso tool and copy it twice. Use the Lasso tool to select the area to place and then use Free Transform to flip and resize.

Start image

Expert tip Beams of light The use of the Vivid Light and Soft Light blend modes when using Fill layers, or the Brush tool, will help to bring out the highlights in your subjects. Vary the opacity of the layers too. You’ll find these techniques are invaluable for the creation of realistic beams of light.

Now you try it... Share your custom-made, 02 moody maritime scenes:

I set that layer to Multiply (Opacity 80%). I created an adjustment layer and put that at the top of the stack then used theimages Solid Color Upload your on option with and set that layer to ourbrown Facebook page Multiply (Opacity 50%).

PhotoshopCreative Create your own gallery on our website photoshopcreative.co.uk Alternatively, you can email:

[email protected]

REFINE EDGES

04

Flatten your layers. Now the Clone Stamp tool can be used extensively to blend the background in with the boat. Look to refine the edges of the lighthouse and apply light to its layer, using a soft brush at 2 px with the Vivid Light blend mode.

REALISTIC EFFECTS

05

Add waves to the base of lighthouse and motion effects to the clouds and waves by hitting Filter>Blur>Motion Blur. Apply extra lighting to the lighthouse by using the Lasso and adding a white fill (Edit>Fill, with Soft Light or Vivid Light blending).

BRILLIANT LIGHT

06

The lighting makes this piece work. Use Dodge and Burn techniques on the waves, and other objects, to bring them to life. For beams of light, use the Lasso to select an area and then fill it with white. Sharpen with Filter>Sharpen>Unsharp Mask.

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63

Tutorial Turn photos to sketches Essentials Works with

On the disc Re-create this image using the start model

Photoshop CS2 and above and Photoshop Elements

What you’ll learn The secrets to the artistic use of layer masks and dry media brushes

Time taken

2 hours

Expert Jenni Sanders

“Digital painting is a skill that not many of us possess. When you begin with a photograph, though, the hard work is already half done! My first experience with photomanipulation was watching wide-eyed as my Dad cloned out holidaymakers from our family beach photographs. From that moment I was hooked, and subsequently began working entirely within the industry of photography and Photoshop.”

Prepare your portrait

01 

Turn photos to sketches Go a step further than basic filters to achieve an impressive sketch effect and learn effective editing skills on the way

U

sing sketch filters is a good place to start when trying to re-create a hand-drawn look in portraits, but with a few extra layers and a little bit of time you can create a really vivid and professional result. The style reflects a thick sketch, emphasising the hand-drawn, rough nature of a graphite pencil – a realism that will leave your friends wondering if you did actually draw it! Instead of spending years honing your drawing skills, getting high-quality paper and pencils you’ll

Step by step Paint with shadows Discover the trick to draping shadows over portraits

Open ‘model.jpg’ in Photoshop and, using the Heal tool (J), neaten up your image – focus on things that you wouldn’t include if you were drawing a portrait, like blemishes, scratches, dust, etc.

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soon be creating digital art masterpieces effortlessly with new-found skills. You could call it cheating, but it’s good to think of it more like using your initiative. The main focus here will be on working with layer masks and using artistic license to manipulate the contours of the portrait, accentuating the shadows in a lovely two-toned digital painting. If you have a graphics tablet handy then it will be invaluable for this tutorial, else a mouse will work just as well.

Get rid of the colour

02 

Duplicate the Background (Cmd/ Ctrl+J) and desaturate (Cmd/Ctrl+ Shift+U). To get a better texture, hit Filters> Noise>Add Noise, set to Amount: 12%, Distribution: Gaussian, Monochromatic.

Get a high-contrast base

03 

Duplicate your black and white layer by pressing Cmd/Ctrl+J and invert it by pressing Cmd/Ctrl+I. Set the blend mode to Color Dodge. Your canvas will go white – don’t panic, this is meant to happen!

Show us your sketches

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Start image

Photoshop Creative

65

Tutorial Turn photos to sketches Expert tip Improve brushwork Speed up your brushwork by using the keyboard shortcuts [ and ] to quickly decrease or increase (respectively) your brush size. Pressing D will set your Foreground and Background colours to the defaults of black and white, and by pressing X you can switch between the two. Hit Return and use your mouse wheel or the arrow keys to quickly change the Opacity. By combining all these useful shortcuts, you can become more proficient using the Brush tool and, with practice, will improve your digital art.

Add Gaussian Blur

04 

With the inverted layer selected, go to Filter> Gaussian Blur and set the Radius between 150-250px. Create a new group through the Folder icon an the bottom of your Layers palette called Base Image, and drag these two layers into the group.

Load Dry Media Brushes

06 

Set the blend mode to Multiply and add a layer mask through Layer> Layer Mask>Hide All. Now select the Brush tool, expand the Brush Preset window and click on the arrow on the right-hand side of the panel. Select Dry Media Brushes.

Add in the detail

09 

Using your custom brush, paint just the main shadows on your Texture layer mask in white. Use varying opacities of 5-35% and alter your brush size using [ and ] to give it a more realistic hand-drawn look.

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Setting up the brush

07 

Prepare for sketching

05 

Add a new layer by pressing Cmd/ Ctrl+Shift+N; call it Paper and drag it beneath your existing layers to stop any colour coming through. Now duplicate your original black and white layer then drag it to the top, outside the group. Call it Texture.

Extra brush control

The brushes appear at the bottom of your Brush Preset Picker. Chose Small Pastel on Charcoal Paper and open the Brush palette. Drag the adjustment circle into an oval using the anchors on the sides to stretch, then rotate to a diagonal.

08 

Start with basic shadows

Boost the contrast

10 

Keep it simple for now. This layer is only the second layer to keep the Noise texture in the shading, so strokes here can be quite big and messy, focusing on larger areas. Midtones, highlights and shadows are to be added soon.

Select Shape Dynamics and set the Size Jitter to 100%, Angle Jitter to 2% and Minimum Diameter around 10-20%. All other settings can be left at their defaults. Elements users: just increase Spacing by 5%.

11 

To quickly increase the contrast, Ctrl/ right-click and duplicate the Base Image group, then Ctrl/right-click on the copy and select Merge Group. Drag this layer to the top, set the blend mode to Overlay and the Opacity to 50%.

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Utilise Glowing Edges

12 

Go back into your Base Image group and duplicate the black and white layer via Cmd/Ctrl+J. Drag it to the top and call it Brighter. Now go to Filter>Filter Gallery>Stylize>Glowing Edges, and set Edge Width: 1, Edge Brightness: 20, Smoothness: 7.

Add important highlights and midtones

13 

Hit OK. Invert the Brightness layer by pressing Cmd/Ctrl+I and set the blend mode to Screen. Add a layer mask through Layer>Layer Mask>Hide All. Go back to the still-customised brush tool; begin to paint bright areas with a low-Opacity brush.

Get the balance

14 

Remember that we are emulating a hand-drawn style. Effectively, this layer is the equivalent of using an eraser, or of not drawing at all. Avoid drawing bright lines to create shapes, and use the highlights simply to enhance the shadows.

Expert tip Keep it real – pay attention to detail

Remove detail for realism

15 

To keep it looking like a drawing, remove the edges of the brightest side to make it fade into the paper. Select the Base Image group and then go to Layer> Layer Mask>Reveal All. Now draw in black at a low Opacity over some of the edges.

Add essential toning

17 

Add a Hide All Layer Mask to this layer, select the Brush tool (B) and begin to paint in white more details and shadows onto the image at a low Opacity. With this layer, concentrate on smaller, rougher strokes and focus on edges and features.

Prepare for main tones

16 

Duplicate the original colour layer and desaturate. Drag to the top and name it Smoother; this layer will be for the main tones without the Noise texture. Hit Cmd/Ctrl+L and make the Midtones darker.

Always bear in mind that your intention with this tutorial is to make your image appear to be genuinely hand-drawn. Don’t neglect the ‘paper’ background, and be sure to add larger, softer tones to give the impression that the greys have been blended using smudges, or have been rubbed by hand while drawing. Also, the majority of people will tend to draw with strokes going diagonally from the top-right to the bottom-left – try to keep this consistency throughout the image by using only a few strokes that run in the opposite direction in order to emulate a realistic drawing style.

Keep adding shadows

18 

Spend a bit of time getting the texture and look right on this layer. Then, you can add even more shadows using a Curves adjustment layer (by dragging the centre of the curve down) and also the same layer mask technique. Imagine yourself actually shading the photo.

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Tutorial Turn photos to sketches

Replace lost detail

19 

When increasing the shadows, some lighter details may be lost. Replace lost detail Create a duplicate of the original colour layer again and desaturate– Set the blend mode to Soft Light and then add a Hide Cmd/Ctrl+J, Cmd/Ctrl+Shift+U – and drag it to the top. Press Ctrl/Cmd+L All Layer Mask. Use the Brush tool (B) to paint in white and drag the Midtones and Highlights up until there’s no black in the layer. over all of the areas that you’d like to brighten up a bit.

Add manual strokes

21 

Now for a tricky bit. Create a new blank layer by pressing Cmd/Ctrl+ Shift+N. Name it Manual Strokes. Using the custom Brush tool that was set up at the start, paint with black and white using a low Opacity to draw in manual shading.

20 

Add manual strokes

22 

These strokes of simple shading will add a roughness to the image that moves it away from a photograph and towards a drawing. Keep varying the Opacity and brush Size, keeping the strokes small, and focus in on edges and facial features.

What can go wrong Rough it up Neat, perfect strokes lead to imperfect images Be careful to avoid harsh edges within the image; these will give it away as a photograph. Instead, be sure to utilise the manual black and white strokes to give the impression that the edges have been hand-drawn – so keep it slightly shaky, imperfect and a bit more tonal. Don’t forget to zoom in while doing details like this: what might look good at 20% may look very amateurish at 100%. Hold the Spacebar to move around the image while working.

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Wrong

Right

Final contrast and tweaks

23 

Add a Curves layer and choose Increase Contrast from the presets to bring more contrast into the image. Levels can also be added to increase it even more. Remember to use the layer masks to control which areas are affected… and you’re done!

EXPERT TOP TIPS WITH STEVEN USHER

On the disc

Put your art on paper

Download this sketchpad and the drawing too!

Before

Superimpose your favourite artwork onto a sketchbook image using simple techniques

E

ver wondered what your Photoshop creations would look like in a sketchbook? With this tutorial, you’ll be able to find out. Along the way you’ll discover just how useful Grids and Guides can be for changing the perspective of a layer accurately, especially when used in conjunction. You’ll also learn how to use a number of essential Transform tools, such as Perspective and Rotation, as well as discover how effective blend modes can be when superimposing one image onto another.

Top tip: To avoid

accidentally moving your guides, you can lock them via View>Lock Guides

After

Quick fix Effective results Three steps to realistic sketchbook effects

Setting up the composition

01

Drag ‘sketchpad.jpg’ into an empty project to import it. Import ‘sketch. jpg’ and scale it down, so it’s slightly smaller than the sketchbook page, by holding Shift and dragging a corner in using the Move tool (V). Turn on the Grid by pressing Cmd/Ctrl+’.

Perspective and rotation

02

We can get accurate perspective using the grid. Drag Guides from the top- and left-hand sides of the main view so they intersect at the corners of the page. Use the Perspective and Rotation Transform options to align the sketch to the corners.

Blend the sketch

03

Rescale the sketch so that it fills the page. Change the sketch layer’s blend mode to Darker Color to reveal the texture of the paper. Finally, using either the Pen (P) or Lasso (L) tools, trim off any excess that spills over the sides of the page.

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EXPERT

TOP TIPS WITH ANDRE VILLANUEVA

DRAW VECTOR SHAPES

TOP TIPS Use creative

Use the Shape tools to add vector objects such as circles and lines. Also try to blend in other photos and textures.

ADJUST LENS FLARES

Add Lens Flares to complement the lighting. Use Adjustment layers like Color Balance and Hue/ Saturation to tweak the colouring.

light effects

Try out these ideas and make your next imaging project stand out in glowing fashion

L

ight effects can be the perfect finishing touch for your images. From basic applications of the Lens Flare filter through to more intricate combinations of techniques, these lighting tips and tricks can lend your visuals a glimmering sheen of sophistication or eerie mystique. Experimentation is key to good lighting effects so be sure to vary the settings according to your start photograph.

TUNE THE SETTINGS

Use the settings in the Properties palette to fine-tune the current light, switch the light type and also to change colours.

LIGHTING EFFECTS

01

Go to Filter>Render>Lighting Effects to begin adding lights to your image. Either start with the customisable presets or choose from the three light types: Spot, Point and Infinite. Add multiple lights, and use the intuitive on-image controls to manipulate them. Mix and match light types and colours for a dynamic illumination.

LENS FLARE

MANAGE YOUR LIGHTS

Keep track of and delete light sources in the Lights palette. Use the eye icons to toggle visibility, just like in the Layers palette.

02

Before applying a Lens Flare filter, first Ctrl/right-click on the layer in the Layers palette and choose Convert to Smart Object. Then go to Filter>Render>Lens Flare and customise. Since the filter is applied to a Smart Object it becomes a Smart Filter, which can be edited at any time.

LAYER STYLES

03

Don’t neglect the basics! Prudent use of the Outer Glow and Inner Glow layer styles (click the fx button at the bottom of the Layers palette) adds a boost of beautiful illumination to your images. Try setting the Fill to 0% on your text or shapes for a glowing outline effect.

DRAMATIC LIGHTING

04

Use the Dodge and Burn tools (O) to intensify highlights and shadows. Also, create a beam of light with the Gradient tool (G). Set it to the Reflected style, choose the Foreground to Transparent preset and make sure your Foreground colour is white. Click and drag, then apply an Outer Glow layer style.

PAINT WITH LIGHT

05

Create a new layer and apply an Outer Glow layer style. Doodle with the Brush tool (B) and you’ll be painting with light! Try out different brush presets and settings, or create Paths with the Pen tool (P) then stroke them with the Brush by using the button in the Paths palette.

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LAYER STYLES

Bright neon outlines are easy to create if you head into the Layer Styles dialog and play with the Inner/Outer Glows.

RADIAL GRADIENTS

Add focus to the subject of your image by setting a radial gradient right behind its centre of gravity.

DRAMATIC LIGHTING

Gradients are your friend. Set them up, add layer styles, then use Dodge/Burn to add rich shadows and highlights.

LENS FLARE

Position the Lens Flare in the filter’s dialog box. To enable precise placement, Opt/ Alt-click in the preview and then set the flare centre’s pixel coordinates.

RADIAL GRADIENTS

06

To help set off a subject from its background, use some radial gradients. Select the Gradient tool and set the Foreground colour to white or a suitably light colour. Next, choose the Radial style and the Foreground to Transparent preset in the options. On a blank layer between the subject and background, click and drag out the gradients.

GLOWING EDGES

07

Use Glowing Edges (Filter>Stylize>Glowing Edges) to make a neon outline version of your image reminiscent of the Tron effect. Boost the effect with a Levels adjustment layer and pump up the highlights. Use radial gradients together with a range of colours and blend modes to add colour surges.

COLOR DODGE

08

Use the Gradient tool or the Brush tool on a layer set to the Color Dodge blend mode to create delicious light glares. Experiment with the colour of the gradients to determine what looks best, and be sure to test out other blend modes too.

PAINT WITH LIGHT

Apply an Outer Glow layer style in your desired colour and then grab the Brush tool to start painting in style!

STREAKING LIGHT BURSTS

09

For these, select the Gradient tool and pick the Angle style. Click the gradient preview. Set the Gradient Type to Noise, then tweak the settings. When done, click and drag in your document to create the burst. Fine-tune with layer masks.

ALL TOGETHER NOW

10

Take some time to test out and practise the previous tips. See what works for you, and don’t be afraid to add your own unique touch. Then combine it all with other tools and techniques to create a brilliant spectacle that’s all your own.

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T t rial Dramati DODGE TOOL

Add dramatic definition to your portrait by lightening up the existing highlights found in the face of your subject.

SOFT ROUND BRUSH

Use light, controlled stokes with a big, soft brush with a low opacity when using the Dodge and Burn tools in order to achieve an even and realistic effect.

SPOT HEALING BRUSH Clear your portrait of any distracting marks or spots with the Spot Healing Brush before you start adding more dramatic effects.

Start image

On the disc You’ll find this portrait in your resources

Essentials Works with

BURN TOOL

Brush over darker areas of your image with the Burn tool to deepen them and increase the gap between light and dark in the image.

Dodge and Burn portraits Darken shadows and lighten highlights with two easy-to-use tools to create a striking effect and instantly dramatise portraits

Photoshop CS4 and above, CC and Photoshop Elements

What you’ll learn

Using the Dodge, Burn and Brush tools, layer masks, selections, the Sharpening and Blur filters

Time taken

1.5 hours

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D

odging and burning are two techniques that have been used in photography for many years, and have found their way from the traditional dark room to the digital dark room used today. The basic idea behind these is to selectively change the exposure in an image by darkening some areas and lightening others, while leaving the rest of the image untouched. The result is a striking image that offers the eye plenty of contrast to gaze upon.

Photoshop CS, CC and Elements all include these techniques as part of their standard toolkits. The Dodge tool lightens areas while the Burn tool makes them darker. You can approach dodging and burning in many ways, from using the built-in tools to simply wielding a black or white brush. We’ll be using the Dodge and Burn tools, and painting with them on layers filled with 50% grey, as well as enhancing the burn effect with a black paintbrush and applying some standard retouching.

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Expert Angelica Jopson

“To use Dodge and Burn effectively, change the way you look at the image. Instead of seeing shapes, see shades, and match your light and dark brush strokes to the light or darkness already present. I came across Photoshop while studying Multimedia Journalism and have used it for five years. I’m a freelance writer and regular contributor to Photoshop, design and photography magazines. I’m inspired by images that challenge my perspective.”

Open and duplicate

01

Open your image in Photoshop. If you’re using Elements, make sure you’re on the Expert tab. Ctrl/right-click the Background layer and select Duplicate, so you can revert to the original if needed.

Smooth skin

Heal blemishes

02

Zoom into the subject’s face and then select the Spot Healing Brush (J) from the left-hand Tools palette. Brush over any spots and blemishes on the face of your model to clean up his skin. Also smooth over the cracks in his lips.

Paint in layer mask

Enlarge eyes

03

04

05

Smooth lips

Create grey layer

Paint with Dodge

Ctrl/right-click the Background Copy layer and select Duplicate – rename it Gaussian Blur. Select Filter>Blur>Gaussian Blur and set the Radius to 4 px; the whole image will look blurry. Click the Add Layer Mask icon at the foot of the Layers palette.

06

Grab the Magnetic Lasso (L) and select the lips, ensuring the edge is smooth, then copy/paste onto a new layer. Go to Filter>Filter Galley and choose Plastic Wrap. Add a Color Balance adjustment to redden the lips and reduce Opacity to 20%.

Select the layer mask, grab the Paint Bucket (G) and pick black as the Foreground colour. Fill the mask with black to make the blur effect invisible. Choose a soft white brush with an Opacity of 70% and paint the cheeks and forehead to reveal it.

07

Create a new layer by selecting Layer>New Layer. Now select Edit>Fill and choose 50% grey; your whole canvas will turn grey. Select Overlay from the blend mode drop-down in the Layers palette and then rename this layer Dodge.

Select Gaussian Blur. Select the model’s eyes with the Marquee tool (M) then copy/paste onto a new layer. Head to Edit>Transform>Scale (Elements: Image> Transform), increase Height and Width by 5%. Blend with a black brush on a layer mask.

08

Select the Dodge tool (O), set the Exposure to 20% and choose a soft brush. Zoom into your image and start painting in all the light areas with the Dodge tool. Look out for areas such as the ears and the line along the chin.

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Tutorial Dodge and Burn portraits

Fill in hair highlights

09

Zoom into the hair area and, again, paint with the Dodge tool over any areas you want to highlight. Any lit areas on the face and hair that you want to downplay, such as beneath the eyes, should be left out.

Extend shadow

12

In the Spot Healing step we cleaned up the face, including a darkened area on the forehead. To restore this shadow, use the Burn tool to extend the shadow on the head to the position that it would naturally fall upon. Paint slowly and build up colour.

Set up Burn tool

10

Create a new layer by selecting Layer>New Layer and then fill it with 50% grey. This time, set the layer’s blend mode to Soft Light, and then pick up the Burn tool and set it to 15% Exposure.

Burn clothing shadows

13

Zoom out and increase the Exposure of the Burn tool to 25%. Now paint over shadowed areas of the model’s clothing in order to highlight the contours and details of the jacket and shirt.

Burn shadows

11

Zoom right into your image and start painting over the dark areas of the model’s face. The low exposure on the tool makes it easy to build up colour, so use what you can see as a guide and then paint darkness into the darker areas.

Merge Visible Layers

14

To dramatise the effect we’re going to darken the edges of the image with a vignette. To apply it evenly over multiple layers, we’re going to merge the ones we’ve created. Hide the original Background layer and the select Layer>Merge Visible.

Expert tip Adjust your brush

When painting with the Dodge or Burn tool, change the Size of your brush and the Exposure to match the area you’re painting over. For example, if you’re using Burn and painting a small, very dark area, set the Exposure to about 15% and select a brush Size of 50 px. By continuously changing these values, you increase your chances of creating a realistic effect. If in doubt, always go for a low Exposure and work your way up, rather than the other way around.

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Lens Correction vignette

15

With your merged layer selected, go to Filter> Lens Correction and untick all options expect Vignette. Pick Custom then move the Amount and Midpoint sliders down to add an even vignette. Use a layer mask with a black brush to hide part of the effect.

Paint in shadow

16

Make a new layer and set the blend mode to Soft Light. Grab a big, black, soft brush. Set its Opacity to 40% and Flow to 30%. Paint from the top-left corner into the face of your model, darkening the area.

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Expert tip Check your painting The idea of painting over an image can be nerve-wracking at first, but if you follow the natural lines of the image you’re working with you’ll be off to a good start. Since you’re painting on a different layer, you can go back and forth as much as you like. To check what you’re doing, hide all the other layers. You’ll be surprised to see your brush strokes take on the shape of the image.

Add Brightness adjustment

17

Select Layer>New Adjustment Layer and then Brightness/Contrast. Lower the Brightness slightly to -6 while bringing the Contrast up to 20. Click OK. Make sure the adjustment sits at the top of your layer stack.

Apply Color Balance

18

Select Layer>New Adjustment again and pick Color Balance this time. Introduce a slight blue tinge to the image by moving the Yellow-Blue slider right to 17. This will lift the black background slightly.

Merge Visible again

19

Before adding the final touches, flatten the image by hiding only the original Background layer, to preserve your image as it was. Then choose Layer>Merge Visible. You will now have two layers.

Sharpen features

20

Final Dodge and Burn

21

Duplicate the Background layer and Create another new layer and fill it name it Sharpen. Select Filter> with 50% grey again. Repeat the steps Sharpen>Unsharp Mask and set a value of of the previous Dodge and Burn, using a low 50%. Add a mask and, as before, fill it with Exposure brush to fill in the highlights and black. Grab a white brush and paint over the the shadows in the image and to increase eyes and mouth to reveal the sharpen effect. the contrast between light and dark.

Curves adjustment layer

21

To round things off we’ll apply one last adjustment. Select Layer>New Adjustment Layer>Curves. Make a very slight S-shaped curve to increase the contrast in the image and enhance the overall effect of the dodging and burning.

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Tutorial Create stunning watercolours

REALISTIC PAINT EFFECTS Use a variety of real media paint splatter scans to produce convincing digital watercolour paint effects.

COLOUR BLENDING Use brush blending modes in conjunction with layer blending modes to mix vibrant paint colours.

PEN AND INK

Try your own hand at producing line art for the base drawing or feel free to borrow our artwork for your own use!

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HIDDEN BRUSHES

Use Photoshop’s little-known Splatter brush set to create drops of far-flung paint and add a sense of energy and excitement to your painting.

Show off your digital paintings

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On the disc Use the assets on the disc to re-create this

Essentials Works with

Photoshop CS4 and above, CC and Photoshop Elements

What you’ll learn How to use custom brushes, blend modes and tool presets to create watercolour effects

Time taken

1 hour

Expert Kirk Nelson

“As a digital artist, I love finding new ways to create digital effects that look like they were done in real media. It’s fun to fool people into thinking your work is actually painted or sketched! I’m a Certified Adobe Expert in Photoshop and have been a professional graphics artist for 15 years. I’m the original friendly neighbourhood graphics geek! I’m constantly looking for new and interesting techniques for creating stunning effects.”

Create stunning watercolours Use a combination of custom brushes, clever techniques and blend modes to achieve a realistic digital watercolour effect

U

sing watercolour in real media can be a creative expression of shape and colour. The water-based properties of the paint allow it to soak into the canvas and blend with other colours in a way that creates beautiful and vibrant paintings. Splattering the paint can produce particularly enjoyable and unexpected results. Creating the same effects digitally can be somewhat challenging. The math-ruled world of computer processors prefers order over chaos. This makes the production of the barely controlled watercolour splash effects alien to the perfect lines

Step by step Master brushes Mimic real media using custom brushes

Starter line art

01 Start image

and rules of digital artwork. Fortunately, Photoshop provides the means to using real paint splashes and splatters as custom brushes to simulate the effect. In this tutorial, we will show you how to harness the power of those custom brushes to create a brilliant and believable watercolour painting that is as vibrant and engaging as any real media piece. We’ve included the starter drawing and the required brush sets with your resources for your personal use. So grab those files, launch Photoshop and join us on a wonderful watercolour journey!

In the supplied resources, we have included the original photos of musical instruments to use to generate your own ink drawing. If you’d rather shortcut this stage, we have also included our own artwork for you to use, ‘MusicLineArt.png’.

Load custom brushes

02

Go through the Window menu to open the Brush Presets panel. In the flyout menu at the top-right of the panel, choose the Load Brushes command. On the supplied resources, you will find four sets of brushes to be loaded.

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Tutorial Create stunning watercolours

Prepare a brush

03

Create a new layer for the green wash effect and set the blend mode to Multiply. Select one of the watercolour brushes and open the Brush panel (F5). In the Options Bar, set the Mode to Colour Burn and the Opacity to 60%.

Apply the wash

04

Set the paint colour to a bright green. Don’t drag the brush along the canvas, but use single clicks to stamp the brush stroke shape. Use the Brush panel to adjust their size, angle and roundness so that they don’t all look the same.

Add splatters

06

Use the CustomSplatter brushes in combination with the Splat brushes to add an explosion of colour around the trombone horn. Using the brush Mode at Colour Burn means each stamp reacts to the pixels beneath it, even if these pixels are on the same layer.

Set up the splatter

05

Repeat Step 3, this time selecting one of the CustomSplatter brushes and boosting the brush Opacity up to 100%, but keep the brush Mode at Color Burn. Use the brush outline to help determine the best brush rotation setting.

Border treatment

07

Cmd/Ctrl-click on the thumbnail for the splatter layer to create a selection around the paint splashes. Then go to Select>Modify> Border. Use a pixel setting of 5. This creates a 5px-wide selection border around the layer.

Expert tip DIY paint splatters

Why not create your own custom brushes to use in projects like this one? Start with plain white card with no visible texture, then lightly splash it with some watercolour paint or ink. After it dries, scan in the splatter and open the file in Photoshop. Desaturate the image and use a Curves adjustment to enhance the contrast. Clean up any stray marks with a regular white brush. Then select the splatter area and go to Edit>Define Brush Preset.

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Create wet edges

Refine edge

08

Grab any of the Marquee tools to gain access to the Refine Edge dialog box in the Options Bar. In the Adjust Edge area, set Smooth to 50 and tweak Contrast to 40%.

09

Press Cmd/Ctrl+J to copy the border selection to a new layer. Keep the blend mode at Multiply but set Opacity to 100%. This will simulate the wet edges of real paint. Reducing the opacity of the splatter layer can enhance the effect.

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Blur it up

10

Cmd/Ctrl-click the splatter layer thumbnail again to create the selection. Use the Add Layer Mask button to create a mask for the splatter layer. With the mask targeted, go to Filter>Blur>Gaussian Blur and use a setting of 2.0px.

Group the layers

12

Select all the green paint layers and press Cmd/Ctrl+G to group them all together. Then add a layer mask to the group and use a brush with black paint on the mask to remove the green splatter from the trombone shape.

Open Brush Tool Presets

15

With the Brush tool selected, look at the far left of the Options panel for a drop-down of Tool Presets. Open this and hit the Gear icon to get the flyout menu, then select Splatter Brush Tool Presets.

Have a splash attack

11

Add another new layer for additional splash, splatter, and splat paint spots. Remember to set the layer blending mode to Multiply and the brush Mode to Color Burn. Now use a variety of different brushes to build up the full painted effect.

Repeat on the drum

13

Go through the same painting process for the drum set using a magenta paint colour. When working the mask on the group, a soft brush with white paint and low opacity can fade the colour into the shaded regions.

Add realism

16

These presets give even more options for creating realistic paint splatters. The Spatter Drop brushes are particularly useful for painting small drops of flying paint. Mix these in with the other splatter stamp brush marks on a top layer.

The right layer structure

14

Go through the process again with the blue paint splashes on the guitar. Be mindful of how the groups are layered. The blue paint group should be on top and the green should be on the bottom. This agrees with the position of the instruments.

Final flourish

17

Use a final paint layer to add in the final few splashes of paint. Set this layer to Multiply and use darker colours on this one. Set the previous layer to Pin Light for brighter colours.

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The easy way to learn Adobe Photoshop

Simple guides For Photoshop & Photoshop Elements Learn how to make…

Vivid photo montages Turn your photos into amazing tiled mosaics with a easy-to-follow guide (p90)

14-page beginners’ section starts here

Step-by-steps…

Practical guides to make editing fun Master Quick cut-outs .......................82 Digitally frame photos ....................... 84 Elements Effects panel.................... 88 Mosaic photo montage ................... 90 Re-create double exposure ........ 94

Need to know…

Re-create a double exposure

Conquer this beautiful photography technique in a few simple steps (p94)

Photoshop for Beginners

Tree line challenge

New horizons

Seamlessly replace an old, drab sky with one that holds more drama and excitement.

Quick Selection tool...

Master quick cut-outs Conquer quick selections with one of Photoshop’s most innovative tools Editing selections has been described as one of the original core functions of Photoshop, and over 20 years later this still holds true. One of the primary purposes of the program is to enable the editing of specific regions of an image. So instead of applying adjustments or filters or effects to the entire image, only certain areas should be affected. Whether this area is a person, a background or a sky, you need to be able to communicate to the program which pixels you want changed, and which ones you don’t. The means by which Photoshop accomplishes this is through selections. Selections you’ve created are usually displayed by a blinking selection line, affectionately referred to as ‘marching ants’. Photoshop Elements provides users with several different methods to help create a selection. Each technique has its place, according to the type of selection you wish to make, but the most versatile and user-friendly method of them all has to be the Quick Selection tool. This tool provides an excellent means of quickly crafting an otherwise difficult and complicated selection. Follow along as we show how to use this tool in order to create a selection along a stubborn tree line, so that we can replace a drab sky with a better one.

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Tilted skies

Uneven horizons are not a problem when dealing with selections created by a brush-based input tool.

See how to use the Quick Selection tool to deal with this out-of-focus tree line can be a problem area for many selection techniques.

Fix a dull sky Use Quick Selection to work with the tree line

Set yourself up

Start image

Transform the sky

03 

Notice the transformation handles surrounding the sky layer. Position your cursor just outside one of the corners and click to drag a rotation transformation so it matches the horizon angle. Then drag a corner out to resize the image, covering the old sky.

Hit Refine Edge

06 

Now layer up

For the purpose of this digital experiment of ours we chose a dull sky photo and a good sky photo to replace it with! But you can test your Quick Selection tool techniques on any photo(s) you have at hand. Open them up in Elements via File>Open.

01 

02 

Hide the sky

Make a selection

04 

Look at the far-right of the workspace, where the layers are displayed. To the left of the cloud layer is a tiny eye icon; click on it to hide the cloud layer. Now click on the car layer to make it the active layer, and then find the Quick Selection tool in the toolbox.

Click the Refine Edge button to bring up its dialog. Click the Smart Radius option, set Radius to 5px and set Edge Feather to 5px as well. On the canvas, brush along the very edge of the tree line. This helps the selection align with that blurry edge of the trees.

With your first start image open (in our case it’s the car photo), find the Photo Bin button at the bottom-left of the screen. This will open the panel below the workspace showing the open files. Drag your second image onto your first.

05 

Brush across the sky area just above the tree line. The Quick Selection tool creates a selection of the sky area. Look closely at the tree line and then use the brush modes in the Tool Options to add and subtract areas of the selection that require adjustment.

Add a mask

07 

With the selection still active, reveal the cloud layer by clicking on the eye icon. Make the cloud layer the active layer, and look for a small icon of a circle within a rectangle at the top of the panel. This is the Add Layer Mask button; click it to transform the selection into a mask.

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On the disc Download the frames we used here!

Essential techniques...

Digitally frame your photos Learn the basics of scaling photos to fit frames and show off your family portraits

Adding a photo frame to your image is a great way to make your photos stand out. In this tutorial you will learn a simple technique for adding a decorative photo frame to your images using Photoshop Elements. We will show you how to work with layers and also use layer styles for that extra creative touch. It’s a very handy technique for making photo

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albums and scrapbooks; first you will work with a very simple frame to get familiar with the process. You will use the selection tools to cut and create a transparent background, before adding your image, adjusting its size and placing it behind the frame. You will also learn how to use some autoenhance tools to fix and correct colours in

your photos. Finally, you will learn how to save and print your work. In your resources you will find all the files you need to work with this tutorial, and we’ve included four different frames to use in your own projects. So go ahead and download the files you need, and get ready to begin creating your own photo frames and scrapbooks!

What does it mean?

A basic frame Start from the beginning to master the effect

PNG This stands for Portable Network Graphic. It is a lossless compression format, which means that there is no loss in image quality during compression. PNGs also support an alpha channel (ie transparency), allowing you to create an image without a background and place it on top of others.

Open Image

Start images

Quick Selection

Open Photoshop Elements in Expert Mode. Locate your supplied resources and then go to File>Open, and select the ‘Frame1.jpg’ file. Now, place your mouse cursor over the Background layer, Ctrl/right-click and choose the Duplicate Layer option. Name the layer Frame1 and then click OK.

01 

02 

Place your photo

Rearrange Layers

03 

Now let’s place the photo inside our frame. Head to File>Place, find the ‘Woman.jpg’ file and then click Place. On the Tool Options bar, check the Constrain Proportions box and then resize to around 250%. Click on the green checkmark to commit the current operation.

Hide the Background layer by clicking on the eye icon. Now select Frame1 and grab the Magic Wand tool (A). On the Tool Options bar, click on New Selection, set the Tolerance to 100 and check the Anti-aliasing box. Click on the centre of the image and press Delete on your keyboard.

04 

On the Layers panel, drag the Woman layer and place it behind Frame1. Press Cmd/Ctrl+T to open the Free Transform tool. Now, hold the Opt/Alt key and drag the corner handles to resize and reposition the image behind the frame. Again, click on the green checkmark to commit the operation.

The magic of Magic Wand

Make use of one of one of the easiest selection tools The Magic Wand tool works best when there are large areas of similar colour (like skies or plain backgrounds). Simply click once and Elements estimates where you want your selection. You can add areas to the selection using the Add To Selection and Subtract From Selection tools in the Options Bar, or by using shortcuts the Shift (to add) and Cmd/Ctrl (to subtract).

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In your toolbox

Here’s a quick glimpse of the main tools used

Selection tools

The selection tools allow you to isolate an area of your image and make specific corrections or precise modifications and adjustments to it.

Auto Smart Fix

05 

Auto Smart Fix

Let’s improve our image’s colour and detail by using the Auto Smart Fix command. This command will improve the shadows and highlights, the details and correct the colour balance automatically. Make sure the Woman layer still selected. Ctrl/right-click on the layer and choose Simplify Layer, then go to Enhance>Auto Smart Fix.

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Layer styles

Use the Auto Smart Fix tool to automatically correct the overall colour balance and improve detail in your image. You can experiment with each of the auto commands.

Layer styles allow you to make your image jump off the background by adding shadows, bevels, glows and strokes to elements.

Layer Style

06 

Simplify Layer

Convert a Smart Object into an image layer. You need to simplify these layers before you can apply filters or edit them with the painting tools.

Now select the Frame1 layer. Go to Layer>Layer Style>Style Settings. Change the Lighting Angle to 145˚, then click on Drop Shadow and set Size: 20px, Distance: 15px and Opacity: 90%. Now click on Stroke and set Size to 4px, Opacity to 80% and then click OK.

Save File

07 

It’s time to save our project. Go to File>Save As (Cmd/Ctrl+Shift+ S). Choose the location to save in. For the file name, type in Frame1, and then choose Format: PNG. Check the Include in the Elements Organizer and Save in Version Set with Original tickboxes, then click Save. In the PNG options, check Interlace None and hit OK.

Another view

Go further with alternative designs

Print your work

08 

Go to File>Print (Cmd/Ctrl+P). Select a printer from the drop-down list and choose a paper size. Click Portrait or Landscape to specify the orientation. Select Print Size and check the Crop to Fit box. Choose the number of copies and hit Print.

Classic

Download classic photo frames from free stock photos sites like sxc.hu.

Ornamental

These frames can be a little trickier to cut out! Patiently use selection tools to do the job.

You can create your own photo frame using brushes. First create a new layer, then grab the Gradient tool (G) and apply over the canvas. Now grab the rectangular Marquee tool (M), select the centre and press Delete. Now search online for a decorative brush; download and save it to your desktop. Select the Brush tool (B), Go to Edit>Preset Manager, select Brushes and click Append to load your decorative brush. Create a new layer and apply the brush around the frame. Go to Layer>Layer Style>Style Settings. Select Bevel, change the Size to 3px and change the Lighting Angle to 115˚, click OK.

Business

Add corporate class with a bold frame. Choose a wooden texture for interest or go with a neutral colour.

Child-friendly

Create your own frames using custom shapes and bright colours, or download this exact one from your resources.

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Lens flare

A lens flare effect has been created using the FX palette in Photoshop Elements 11. This re-creates the real-world optical effect that can result when shooting into the sun.

Canvas look

The Old Photo effect has created a texture across the image, giving the photo the subtle impression of a canvas.

Image borders

The edges of the image have been given a border effect as a by-product of the Old Photo effect. Converting the blend mode to Screen has retained the original image colour.

Adjustments

Blend modes, opacity adjustments and adjustment layers have been used to fine-tune and modify the final appearance of the image, after using the various FX palette options.

Panel focus...

Use the Elements Effects Panel Produce great images quickly and easily using the automated effects built into Elements 11

Photoshop Elements 11 may be a strippeddown version of the main Photoshop application, but it’s actually incredibly powerful. It contains a plethora of adept tools for producing a very wide range of great effects. One thing that Photoshop Elements 11 does a little differently to its big brother is to provide, throughout the software, a number of automated and semi-automated facilities

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to ensure that, even if you are completely new to image editing, you can still create advanced image adjustments without spending hours learning the program. Photoshop Elements 11 builds this automation into the user experience in various ways, depending on whether you are working in the Quick, Guided or Expert modes. Remarkably, even the Expert mode of Elements 11 – which actually features

much of the same functionality as the main Photoshop program – provides a set of automated image adjustment effects. Once you’re in the Expert mode, accessed at the top of the Photoshop Elements 11 interface, simply head to the bottom-right and click on the button with the FX symbol above it. The FX (Effects) panel is subdivided into three subsections: Filters, Layer Styles and Photo Effects.

Working with Effects Adjust settings to suit your photo

Quick look: add instant effects Elements Effects make great imagery easy and instant

Add Lens Flare

Old Photo Effect

Start in the Filters section of the FX panel. Use the drop-down above the thumbnails to select Show All. Half the way down, you’ll find an effect called Lens Flare. Double-click on this and the effect will automatically be applied to your image.

01 

02 

Change the blend mode

Hue/Saturation

03 

Though the FX panel mostly features completely automated effects, you’ll find that tweaking somehow gives even better results. Head to the Layers panel, change the blend mode to Screen and lower the Opacity of the Old Photo layer to around 40%.

Now visit the Effects submenu of the FX palette. Once again, use the dropdown above the thumbnails to select Show All. Fourth down in the centre column, you’ll find the Old Photo thumbnail – simply double-click on this to apply this effect to your image.

04 

There’s a strong possibility that, when you apply an effect using the FX panel, you’ll adjust the colour or saturation of the image in an undesirable way. This is an easy fix: stay in the Layers panel and select a Hue/ Saturation adjustment from the drop-down.

Saturation boost

05 

Dragging the Saturation slider to the right is all that’s required to improve the impact of the colours in the image. Be careful not to overdo adjustments like this, though, as they can end up making the image look strange and ruin the effect that you have just created. The key with adjustments like Hue/Saturation is lots of small steps.

Here’s a closer look at eight of the adjustments found in the FX panel in Photoshop Elements 11. First up, the Fibers effect can be used to add texture to an image; useful when combined with a blend mode and opacity adjustments. The same is true of Clouds, which can be used to re-create not only actual clouds but smoke and steam as well. Colorful Center and Tint Sepia apply colour-altering effects to your images quickly and easily, while Pencil Sketch and Lizard Skin are there for those who want to get even more creative with their artwork. Drop Shadow Frame is ideal for applying the final presentation touches to an image. Check out a few of our favourite effects below to see their instant effect on this main image.

Fibers

Clouds

Pencil Sketch

Colorful Center

Drop Shadow

Lizard Skin

Tint Sepia

Blizzard Photoshop Creative

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Photoshop for Beginners Start image

Repeating pattern

Our mosaic effect comes from the same 3x3 grid of images applied over and over as a pattern.

Blending and opacity

The mosaic effect is achieved by using the Overlay blend mode and lowering the opacity, allowing the original image to show through the pattern of images.

Amazing effects made easy...

Mosaic photo montage This eye-catching effect is a lot easier to create than you might think at first! Give it a go...

Here we show you how to create a mosaic effect; a true mosaic is different to what we are doing here. It is an image created from lots of tiny different photos, pieced together like a jigsaw. To create this would take hours, patience and a great deal of skill, as you select hundreds – if not thousands – of individual photos to build up a new image.

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Luckily, we have a workaround for you that involves a lot less time. What we are going to do is create a grid of just nine images. This grid is then turned into a pattern, which is applied over and over to a layer. This layer is then added to a main image, and blended into it, to give the effect that the image is in fact made from lots of tiny images.

You will learn how to use guidelines in order to create the grid, how to resize photos and get rid of the bits that you don’t need, how to make your own pattern and then how to apply it to a layer. You will also play with the various blend modes and the layer opacity to fine-tune the effect. So grab your resources and start up Elements.

Fiddly process

The actual mosaic effect is the easy bit. It takes the longest amount of time to create the grid of images that we use as the base for our pattern.

Stick to a theme

We have chosen to have a car theme – all of the photos in the pattern and the main image are of cars, which helps to create a great, unified final effect.

Start your pattern

01 

Open Photoshop Elements 11. Go to New>Blank File. In the dialog that appears, give your document a name (ours is called Photo Square). Next, change the Width and Height to 500 pixels each, the Resolution to 300 pixels/inch and then hit OK.

On the disc All the images to make this are on the disc!

Create some guides

02 

We need to use guides to create a grid that will help us with our pattern. Go to View>New Guide and a dialog box will pop up. Make sure that the little circle next to Horizontal is selected, and then enter 33% in the Position box. Hit OK.

Finish the grid

03 

Follow the last step to add another Horizontal guide at 66%. Next do exactly the same, but select the Vertical option before adding guides at 33% and 66%. What you will end up with is a 3x3 grid (don’t worry, the lines will be removed soon!)

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Add an image into the grid

04 

We are going to fill each square in the grid with a different image. Go to Edit>Open and then find and click on the first image that you would like to use in your grid. It helps if you have all the images you want to use organised into one folder.

Copy and paste image

05 

When your image opens, go to Select>All. Next go to Edit>Copy. Switch back to your new grid document and then go to Edit>Paste, which will place a copy of your image over your grid. It will be far too big for now!

Select your square

07 

Hit the tick icon to confirm your new image size and location. Select the Rectangular Marquee tool (M) from the toolbar. Draw a square selection over the top of your image, following the guidelines of the grid to select the first square.

Delete what you don’t need

09 

Check your Layers palette and select the layer that has the original image on it, not the one that is a square. Delete this layer using the little bin icon at the top of the Layers panel. Once you have done that, you should be left with a neat square image that fits perfectly into your grid.

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And repeat...

10 

Resize your image

06 

Select the Move tool (V). Grab a corner of your image and hold down Shift, then drag to make your image smaller. You might need to move the image around the screen. Try to get the bit of your image you want to keep inside the first grid square.

Create a new layer

08 

Go to New>Layer via Copy. This creates a brand new layer in the Layers panel that just has the bit of the image you selected in Step 7 on it. You will see that you have two layers containing your image – one with just the square and one with the original image.

Now you need to go back to Step 4 and start again with a new image, this time resizing the image so that it fits into the second square in the grid. Repeat the whole process from Steps 4-9 until you have all nine images in place, filling the grid.

Flatten image

11 

This grid is going to be the base pattern for creating our mosaic. We need the image to be on one clean layer, so go to Layer>Flatten Image to flatten everything down onto one single layer. Also, go to View> Clear Guides to get rid of our guidelines.

In detail: Fill Layer

Apply pattern

When you hit OK, the pattern will be applied over and over again to your image seamlessly, filling the whole layer.

Not just a paint bucket, you can apply patterns with this tool

Contents

In the Contents section, you can define what you want to fill a layer with. There are loads of options, but for this tutorial we want to hit Use>Pattern.

Other settings

Make sure that the blend options are left at Normal and 100% Opacity for this tutorial.

Make a pattern

12 

The trickiest bit of this tutorial is now finished. With your nice, neat photo square, go to Edit>Define Pattern. A dialog box will pop up and ask you to name your pattern. Give it an obvious name, as you will need it in a moment. Ours is called Photo Square.

Select your pattern

15 

In the Contents section of this dialog box, click on the drop-down menu next to Use. Select Pattern, and then a new menu with all the available patterns will come up. Scroll through these to find your new pattern, which will be at the bottom. Hit OK to apply.

Pick a pattern

A Pattern menu will come up, from which you can scroll down and select your new pattern. This is at the bottom of the built-in patterns.

Open your main image

13 

Go to File>Open and find the image that you want to apply the mosaic effect to. You can do this on any image – as the pattern can be applied to landscapes and portraits of any subject – though it is nice to stick to a theme, as we have done with cars.

Get ready for the pattern

14 

Add a new blank layer to your main image by going to Layer>New>Layer and then hitting OK to the dialog box that comes up. With this layer selected in the Layers panel, go to Edit>Fill Layer and a dialog box will pop up.

Change the mode

16 

The pattern will be applied to the whole of the blank layer, completely hiding your main image. You will need to change the blend mode in the Layers panel to see your mosaic effect properly. We have changed it to Overlay, as it works best for this image, but you could experiment with the other options.

Adjust the Opacity

17 

We felt that the effect was still a bit strong, so we have taken the Opacity of the pattern layer down to 80%. Again, you can experiment with this to find the look that you want for your image. And we’re done!

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On the disc Get the start images and make this now!

Start images

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Photography effects...

Re-create a double exposure Give your photos a beautiful twist with this classic photographic technique

Start images

01 

A well-known and much-used effect, double exposure effectively merges two different photos together. Traditionally, it’s a camera trick done in the shooting stage, courtesy of multiple exposures and a keen photographic

eye. More recently, though – amid the rise of the digital and mobile phone cameras – beautiful effects like this are becoming lost. Never fear, though, as this kind of effect is easily re-created in Photoshop. Here’s how.

Open your two photos in Elements via File>Open. We’re using the photo ‘Flowers.jpg’ for the top image and the photo ‘Model.jpg’ for the background. Download them now or experiment with your own shots. Try a variety of flower photos and portraits.

Copy your photo

Model adjustment layer

Flowers adjustment layer

02 

Now let’s copy the photo that will go on the layer above the Background (Flowers). First go to Select>Select All, then Edit>Copy, then Edit>Paste. You’ll now have two layers. Tip: to view just the Background, click on the top layer and then the eye icon.

Merge the two photos

05 

Now we bring our photos together. In the Layers panel, click on the blend mode drop-down. Change it from Normal to Overlay. Now move over to Opacity and set that to 90%. Click OK and the photos merge.

03 

Select the Background layer. Now head to Layer>New Adjustment Layer> Gradient Map and then click OK. After that, go back to apply Layer>New Adjustment Layer> Levels, setting the values: 30, 1.50, 190 and also the Output levels: 0, 255. Hit OK to finish.

04 

After adjusting the photo of the model (the Background), let’s edit the top layer: Flowers. Click the eye icon beside that layer in order to reveal it again. Now head over to Layer>New Adjustment Layer>Gradient Map and then click OK to apply.

Merge Visible Layers

Resize the flowers

06 

Hold down the Shift key and then drag the corner handles to resize the Flowers layer. Shrink it so that the flowers fit into the model’s face (Background).

07 

Now we’ll properly merge them. Holding down Shift again, select the Background layer and the top-most layer of Adjustments (Gradient Map). Now select Layers>Merge Visible Layers. Your double exposure photograph is now ready.

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REVIEWS ACTIONS

SMOOTH SKINS 2

Price £39.95 ($60US approx) Web www.digitalheavens.co.uk

Smooth Skins 2 We take a look at the latest Action pack from Digital Heavens, built to help us master photo retouching

The specs Company

Digital Heavens

Additional Specs Mac and PC compatible Supports Photoshop CS3 and above, plus Photoshop Elements 11 Digital Heavens Panel is only compatible with Photoshop CS5, CS6 and CC versions

FIND THE ACTIONS

Once we activated the Actions by double-clicking the Smooth Skins 2 file, we were able to find them in the Actions palette by selecting Window>Actions.

WORKING FROM THE PANEL

If you find the Actions panel too fiddly then work from the Digital Heavens Panel. You can find this by selecting Window>Extensions> Digital Heavens Panel 2.

NON-SMART FILTERS

Smooth Skins 2 nonSmart Filters apply all filter effects on a fixed layer. This can make editing your effects slightly awkward.

Exclusive 20% discount! Just for Photoshop Creative readers, get a 20% discount off the price of Smooth Skins 2 so that you can enjoy all these expert Action effects for less! Just enter PSC2013 at the checkout. Offer ends 25 November 2013.

Working with Smooth Skins 2 Discover ways to improve how your portraits look, fast

Clipping Warning

01 

Want to know if your image will print perfectly? Use the Clipping Warning Action. Add it and you’ll notice red and blue noise marks. Add a Levels adjustment under your Clipping warning layer, move your sliders and, when the noise disappears, you can print.

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Check Layer

02 

Even the most confident retoucher can miss a blemish here and there, but it’s a good idea to give yourself a fighting chance not to. The Check Layer Action lets you do this; it simulates a high exposure Channel, which picks out all facial contours.

Eye Sparkle

03 

Boosting colour and lighting in the eye yet retaining detail is a hard effect to achieve. Smooth Skins 2 just aced it in one click. Be sure to paint to your mask with a low Opacity soft brush, though, for best effects.

Before

S

mooth Skins 2 is the latest set of Photoshop Actions from developer Digital Heavens, which looks to make retouching as painless as possible. Still in the beta phase, it’s pleasing to see that Digital Heavens has already assured us that Smooth Skins 2 will be available for Photoshop CC and Elements 11 users. It’s also backwards compatible, so works with earlier versions of Photoshop too. Even more exciting is the fact that these Actions are available in two separate versions – as Smart Filters and non-Smart Filters. The former are especially advantageous as they let you work non-destructively, and are fully editable through attached layer masks. They make the editing process more approachable, so we recommend you use the Smart Filters version, like we have. If you’re not familiar with working in this fashion, though, then you do have the other version as an alternative. Smooth Skins 2 has its limits, and you’ll need to know how to use Photoshop’s cloning tools along with it for the best effects. Also, there are a few things you should know before running the Actions as a dedicated Panel inside Photoshop, which is really worth taking advantage of (this is only available for CS5 and later versions). But forget the why for just a minute, and lets explore the how – as in, how to install the dedicated Panel. This is pretty straightforward, really. Working from a Mac, we had to locate the Smooth Skins 2 ZIP in our Downloads folder, then double-click to open the Smooth Skins 2 folder. Within this is the Adobe Photoshop Panels sub-folder, and inside this are Panel files for Photoshop CC, CS6 and CS5. Choose your version and double-click the corresponding ZXP file to launch the Adobe Extension Manager.

After The process doesn’t get any harder from here. Just click Accept then Install and it’s done. It’s that fast. Just make sure Photoshop is closed when you do this. Now find the Smooth Skins 2 Actions folder, double-click the Smooth Skins 2 ATN file and Photoshop fires up, ready to play. The set is found within Window>Panels>Digital Heavens Panel 2. From here, we could apply all the effects Smooth Skins 2 has to offer from a set of one-click options. Applying them really is straightforward. However, you’ll want to know what does what and how good it is at doing it, right? The Smooth Skins 2 Panel is laid out in five subsequent categories, which promotes the correct retouch workflow. What’s instantly noticeable is that the Action set does much more than merely smooth skin, which is great. Categories begin with Helpers, which are there to help you first establish correct lighting in your images and combat what’s known as banding – you’ll notice this when adding radial lighting or gradient backdrops. Helpers also automate day-to-day routines, like dropping layer opacity and merging all to a new layer, and improves workflow times in the process. Skin Smoothing Actions follow and there’s

lots of choice, from natural looks to the more synthetic ones that you can see in creative retouch projects. Other cosmetic effects such as teeth whitening, boosting eye colour and detail, and enriching lip colour are also applicable from the Eyes, Teeth, Lips and Cheeks categories. It’s an incredibly handy little toolbox. The final two categories, Image Effects and Looks, let you apply specific photo styles to make your images that little bit more professional. Every Action is represented as a set of layers, grouped in your Layers palette. Each and every adjustment layer and Smart Filter inside is wholly customisable, which is great news for those who are adventurous enough to personalise each effect.

The verdict

9

Smooth Skins 2 provides fun and professional one-click effects. It makes retouching much faster, but still wholly customisable if you wish to delve into your layers.

Standout feature THE DIGITAL HEAVENS PANEL

Cartoon Effects

04 

Smooth Skins 2 doesn’t forget to have fun, either. Cartoon Effect gives images a dreamy oil-painted effect, which looks great in landscapes and family portraits. Combine this with Add Overall Sharpen for real intensity.

Run All Looks

05 

We love the fact that you can choose to add every single Action with the Run All Looks option. Each Action group is hidden, and you can deliberate about which looks best, comparing as you go. Delve in and personalise layer effects once you’ve found your favourite.

We’ve already mentioned this, but it really is the best thing about Smooth Skins 2. However, ‘seeing is believing’, and in our example you can see how this panel is presented inside Photoshop. Categories are presented in order and are also colour coded, so you can easily identify what you need from one place, rather than search the Actions.

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REVIEWS

MYMEMORIES.COM

FIND A THEME

You can easily search for kits and templates by theme, such as Birthday or Holiday, in order to help you find exactly what you need.

GRAB A BARGAIN

There is a large selection of free and low-priced kits and templates available, so you can scrapbook on a budget.

MEET THE DESIGNER

Search for scrapbooking kits by their designer. Each week there is a new Featured Designer to discover, with a short biography about them.

WEBSITE

MyMemories.com Web www.mymemories.com

Here’s our verdict on MyMemories, the one-stop-shop for digital scrapbooking kits

D

igital scrapbooking kits are an easy way to give your creations the ‘wow’ factor. The graphic elements included in each kit at MyMemories vary, and they all follow particular themes and colour schemes to suit the style you want to create. Elements are downloaded as high-resolution JPEGs or PNG files, ready to open up in Photoshop. You can download a range of photo album or book templates to enhance your photo collections, or dive into Craftable templates to create envelopes, flags, gift boxes and more. Kit prices range from free to about $20 (£13 approx), so you can get creative no matter what your budget. You can even buy gift certificates to give to fellow enthusiasts, so they can download the kits they want.

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To download a kit, you first need to create an account on the site. Once paid for, you can re-download items as many times as you like. It is even possible to make money from your creations via the MyMemories Marketplace. Contributors can set up their own store to sell artwork, clip art or stock photography. If you already sell your digital artwork, then you can apply for the Design Program. MyMemories is more than just a website; it is also a community for digital artists. You can chat to fellow members via the forum and share your own artwork by creating a gallery. To keep up with all of the latest MyMemories news and find out about who the featured designer is, check out the interesting blog that’s just for scrapbookers.

The verdict

8

This website has everything you’ll need to turn your images into works of art that you can share with family and friends in a number of exciting ways.

Standout feature CREATE CUSTOM GIFTS

Turn your digital scrapbook creations into prints, wall art, cards, stationary, clothing, accessories or homeware, all on the site. They’ll make great gifts for your loved ones, or you can keep them for yourself.

DISCOVER THE PAST! w w w.histor yanswer s.co.uk

Available from all good newsagents and supermarkets ON SALE NOW ● War & conflict ● The Black Death ● Babylon ● Birth of the FBI KEY EVENTS

GREAT BATTLES

EYE WITNESS

ILLUSTRATIONS

YOUR HISTORY

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Print edition available at www.imagineshop.co.uk Digital edition available at www.greatdigitalmags.com Available on the following platforms

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twitter.com/abouthistorymag

REVIEWS HARDWARE

BENQ GW2760HS

BenQ GW2760HS Price £244/$368US (approx.) Web www.benq.eu

BenQ’s new Eye-Care LED monitor has been designed for maximum visual comfort – we put it under the microscope PORTABLE

The monitor’s large widescreen is contrasted by its slim profile, making this lightweight and easy to manoeuvre.

NOT TOO SHOWY

The monitor’s glossy black trim makes this less about its design and more about what you’re working on inside its big 27-inch panel.

The specs EASY ON THE EYES

With a handful of clever technology on the inside, the monitor reduces the strain on your eyesight, whether that’s from editing in Photoshop or simply reading lots of text.

W

orking for long periods at a time in Photoshop is something we’re well accustomed to, but BenQ has carefully considered the impact this has on our health. More specifically, our eyesight, and in the hope of reducing the visual strain we suffer and improving our levels of comfort, the company’s new Eye-Care monitor comes with lots of clever technology working hard behind its screen.

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A MULTIMEDIA PLAYER

The monitor’s built-in speakers and HDMI connection means enjoying video tutorials and listening to music is something we could take advantage of when it was time for a break.

The GW2760HS offers a large playing field for editing photos and creating Photoshop artwork. The monitor’s 27-inch HD VA panel is just about big enough for watching video tutorials while working in Photoshop. The sense of screen space is further heightened by its extra-thin bezel, and if we really wanted to then we could join two of these monitors together, leaving only a thin join (saying this, a single 27-inch screen felt ample enough).

Company BenQ Additional Specs 27-inch VA LED 16:9 widescreen Senseye 3 Full HD 1080p

This monitor is all about comfort for your eyes, and comes with luxuries that not all monitors can profess to having. Helping to maintain picture quality and reduce the risk of potential eyestrain, this HD monitor is equipped with BenQ’s Senseye 3 technology. This incorporates a range of presets that include Movie, Game, Standard, Photo, sRGB, Reading, Eco and a user-definable mode for manually setting up the display to suit your

Pros for using with Photohsop Having the skills, technique and know-how is all well and good, but when you’re spending hours working with Photoshop what you really want to know is: how will this monitor help my creative flow?

✓ Bigger screen ✓ Better resolution ✓ Eye-Protect technology ✓ Multi-platform editing 27-inch screen means a larger playing field in Photoshop

Full 1080p HD resolution for detailed edits

Health monitor Eye-Pro long-lastitencgtpSensor for rojects

Connect to devices for multiplatform editing

own working conditions. All of these take advantage of the monitor’s Flicker-free technology for optimum image quality. We were impressed at how easy the monitor was to use, with the option to link up via an HDMI connection straight out the box. A specially designed Reading Mode balances contrast and sharpness levels for larger bodies of text (it looks to imitate the tones of real paper). The displayed blues are dramatically reduced for a warmer tone, which makes it ideal for extensive on-screen reading. Digging deep into the menu options, we could experiment with custom gamma and colour temperature settings to further control exactly what’s on our screen. The monitor’s wide viewing angle meant that visuals had clarity even when viewed offcentre. This seemed somewhat redundant, however, as the monitor can’t be rotated when fixed to its round base. A fast response time of 4ms meant that there was minimal image distortion or lag in moving visuals when watching videos or gaming. The on-screen menu is activated using buttons located on the back of the monitor. Thankfully, small dots positioned strategically on the front help to guide you to the right

buttons. Among quick-select options for hopping between the eight preset modes, there’s a quick access button to the volume controls for utilising the built-in speakers, as well as input selection and the main menu. What we really like about this model is its slim design and near-flatscreen dimensions. We found the monitor to be limited in terms of its range of movements, with only a tilt control allowing slight angular adjustment. However, a wall or arm mount will offer greater flexibility, which would help to increase its range of movements if your workspace requires this. This is an excellent option for those looking for a size upgrade. There are some great features that will help reduce eye strain and make for a generally more comfortable viewing experience.

The verdict

8

Affordable and stylish, with some handy features for improving visual comfort to boot. With control over image quality, it’s also good value for money.

It’s a combination of expert features that make this model more intelligent than most. Eye comfort is improved with this monitor’s Flicker-free backlighting that forms part of BenQ’s Eye-Care series. The screen is versatile for working in and out of Photoshop, and to make the most of its Full 1080p HD resolution, its HDMI interface could be linked up to a laptop, PC or games console for extending across multiple platforms. The monitor also has an automatic Eye-Protect Sensor that gradually adjusts the brightness setting according to the surroundings, for the best possible viewing. In our test, it did well to adapt to the picture we had in front of us, with a wide dynamic contrast ratio of 20M:1, adapting to heavy blacks and bright whites quickly. From a technical point of view, this model didn’t let us down.

Standout feature READING MODE

Using the buttons along the base of the monitor’s panel, we could quickly select the dedicated Reading Mode to make text easier on the eyes. This adjusts the colour and contrast of the picture to imitate real paper.

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QA

Common problems solved

+

PHOTOSHOP

PHOTOSHOP Our panel of Photoshop professionals answer your niggling questions about fixing photos, making creative image edits and designing inspirational digital art

Meet your experts…

Kate Rose

“My favourite aspect of Photoshop is having the ability to transform photographs into magical images, merging the real with the surreal.”

Charis Webster

“Photoshop’s HDR Toning is incredibly useful, with Curves and saturation controls all forming part of one powerful adjustment.”

Andre Villanueva

“I’m a graphic designer and digital artist from Alabama, USA. My main loves are family and Photoshop.”

Moe Hezwani

“Combining photography and illustration is a great way to improve your skills in Photoshop and boost your inner creativity.”

Joseph Ahmad

“Photoshop has a virtually limitless artistic environment that allows for lifelong learning and style development.”

Deep space glows HOW CAN I MAKE A SURREAL SPACE SCENE? David Jackson, via email

Get in touch Share your tips with us on Twitter @PshopCreative Post queries on our Facebook page PhotoshopCreative Alternatively, you can email: [email protected]

104 52

Photoshop Creative

You’ll need high-quality images that communicate your concept. This image uses fractal brushes to create the impression of light and dark auras around the birds. To deepen and vary colour, use brushes with different hues and blend modes. The Liquify filter helps to give the auras the impression of motion. For the starfield, fill a layer with black and go to Filter>Noise>Add Noise, setting Amount to 130%. Apply Layer>New Adjustment Layer> Levels and slide the left handle to the right to deepen shadows.

Paste your images, such as birds, into the composition and desaturate them (Image>Adjustments>Hue/Saturation). Use a Curves adjustment to boost contrast and Blur filters to soften layers. Using a large, fuzzy brush, add colour by painting with a variety of hues in Overlay, Color, Multiply and Soft Light. Now hit Select>All, Edit>Copy Merged and Edit>Paste. Apply a Gaussian Blur filter with Radius: 80px, set to Soft Light at 40% Opacity. Turn the layer on and off to see the difference a glow can make!

PHOTOSHOP

Common problems solved

Joseph’s How can I use texture in my portraits? expert edit

01

Retouch your portrait using the Spot Healing Brush (J) and the Dodge and Burn tools (O). The Dust & Scratches filter smoothes and removes blemishes.

02

03

Apply a background texture. Add soft, blurry specks to Duplicate the portrait and the image and duplicate set it to Darken. The Eraser (E), with onto the final comp. Set the layer to Opacity set to 70%, is helpful for Screen and then erase some of the clearing the background of noise. specks from the face.

04

With an Opacity of 15%, paint a black vignette around the edges using a soft brush. Apply Hue/Saturation, lowering the Saturation of the image to -18.

Dramatic cityscapes WHAT ARE THE KEY TECHNIQUES BEHIND MAKING A MOODY BLACK-AND-WHITE CITYSCAPE EFFECT? Gerry Spring, via email

It’s easy and fun to transform mundane city shots into dark, eye-catching compositions. We started out with an everyday scene, which is available in your supplied resources, and applied a Radial Blur filter with the Zoom Method to draw in the viewer. The Unsharp Mask filter was applied to a duplicate in order to bring out detail. A blank layer was filled with black and the Add Noise filter was used to create grain. The layer was set to the Overlay blend mode and dropped to 50% Opacity.

All of the layers were then merged using Cmd/Ctrl+Opt/Alt+Shift+E and the Unsharp Mask filter was called upon again to bring out even more details. The Levels adjustment was used to regulate tone. Black Color Fill layers set to Overlay were added to create a vignette, while black was painted on the mask so only the edges were affected. Finally, the Black & White adjustment layer was added to the top to remove colour and stylise the effect.

NOISE CONTROL

LAYER MASKS

Layer masks enabled us to be selective with adjustments and fills. Apply black using soft brushes and gradients to hide unneeded areas.

To add noise, fill a layer with black and go to Filter>Noise>Add Noise. Choose 200% for the Amount and set the layer’s blend mode to Overlay at 20-30% Opacity.

A DARKER LOOK

BRING OUT DETAIL

Merged layers were converted to a Smart Object. The Unsharp Mask filter (Filter>Sharpen>Unsharp Mask) was applied to bring out more detail.

RADIAL BLUR FILTER

A Radial Blur set to Zoom provides an engaging warped effect. Increase or decrease Amount to vary its intensity.

The Black & White adjustment layer was used instead of Hue/Saturation for finer control.

Photoshop Creative

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Common problems solved PHOTOSHOP The Instagram look HOW CAN I RE-CREATE THE INSTAGRAM STYLE? Rose Salley, via Facebook

Instagram is an app that quickly converts photos taken with a smartphone into stylish and vintage images. To re-create one of these, open ‘PhotoTemplate.psd’ from your resources. We’ll put everything in the group, which is masked with a rounded rectangle, to keep things tidy. Make sure the blank Picture layer is selected, then go to File>Place and add a photo. To get some vintage colouring, click the Create New Fill/Adjustment Layer button in the Layers palette and choose Solid Color. Pick a colour such as #A79F66, then set the layer to Overlay. Apply a black Color Fill layer, fill its mask with black, switch the Foreground colour to white and then use a soft, round brush at about 20% Opacity to carefully add black to the edges. If needed, apply a Levels adjustment to lighten things up. Use this template over and over with other photos, and experiment!

Digital doodling I LOVE DOODLING, BUT HOW CAN I MERGE PORTRAITS WITH SKETCHES? Alice Green, via Twitter

Here’s your chance to play with mixed-media techniques by digitising your hand-drawn artwork. We’ve supplied ‘Before_Doodles.jpg’ and ‘Doodle. jpg’ so you can jump right in, but, if you want to begin your own piece, print a portrait image and trace a doodle on plain paper over the image (use a black pen while drawing). Scan your drawing and take it into Photoshop. Then, using the Brightness/Contrast adjustment layer, boost the Contrast slider to 100%. Use the Channel palette to get rid of the white. Start by duplicating the Red Channel, then using the Dodge tool (O) set to Range: Highlights to make the background whiter. Switch over to the Burn tool (O) set to Range: Shadows to boost the black. Double-click on the photo’s layer to open Layer Styles and then add the Color Overlay option. Set Mode to Color Burn and pick a colour of your choice to tint the photo. Lower the Style’s Opacity to reduce the strength.

HDR effect WHAT’S THE BEST WAY TO CONVERT AN IMAGE TO HDR? Laura Muschall, via email

HDR (high-dynamic range) images are popular for their intense detail and bold effects. To apply this effect to any image, head to the HDR Toning adjustment (Image>Adjustments). In this adjustment, increase the Detail slider to around 200%. Lower the Strength slider down to 0 and gradually increase it again until bright and vivid edges appear around the objects in your image. The Radius slider at the top will determine the boldness of the HDR effect. A low Radius will make for finer detail, whereas a large Radius setting will widen the HDR look from subject to subject, and generally create a softer effect. Use the Vibrance slider instead of using Saturation, because Vibrance will keep colours from oversaturating. The Curves graph at the base of the adjustment lets you take control of highlights and shadows for the perfect HDR effect.

PHOTOSHOP

Common problems solved Moe’s expert edit

WHITE FUR

We wanted to make sure that the animal’s fur was as a white as the T-shirt. Use a Brightness/ Contrast adjustment to bring up the highlights and whiten the photo.

LEVELS FOR THE LIGHT

To make sure each painted layer worked with the composition of the design, the Levels adjustment was used to lighten certain layers and darken others.

Make trendy T-shirt designs with photos

01

Find a paint splatter brush set online and start cutting away the edges of the image. Add more layers, and use different colours and brushes around the animal.

02

Gradually build up the layers of splat brushes. Use the Custom Shape tool (U) to add simple elements to complement the design. Control the shapes’ opacities and layer position.

03

Set the shapes’ blend modes to Hard Light. Cut out the animal’s face and copy/paste to a new layer (Cmd/Ctrl+J), so a white layer can then be added to act as the T-shirt.

LAYER MASKS

LAYERING TECHNIQUES

The great thing about layer masks is that by hitting the X key you can paint over the areas you want back.

This image started out as a plain photo of a dog, but by using the Pen tool we could cut out the animal and edit on a layer mask.

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To complete the effect, use Levels and Brightness/ Contrast to control the impact of each layer. Use the adjustments’ masks to brush out areas and create depth.

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QAELEMENTS

Common problems solved

+

PHOTOSHOP ELEMENTS

PHOTOSHOP

We’re here to solve your editing problems with tips and techniques made especially for Photoshop Elements users

Before

After

Meet your experts… Daniel Sinoca

“Elements is great for achieving striking effects. My favourite techniques are masking and working with colour adjustments.”

Kirk Nelson

“Photoshop Elements holds a great number of powerful hidden options. You just have to know where to find them!”

Simon Skellon

“I find myself discovering new ways of creating simple effects in Elements each time I use it.”

Get in touch Share your tips with us on Twitter @PshopCreative Post queries on our Facebook page PhotoshopCreative Alternatively, you can email: [email protected]

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Photoshop Creative

Realistic tornado HOW CAN I CREATE A REALISTIC TORNADO IN ELEMENTS? Robert Tapia, via email

You can do this with brushes and filters. First find a background image. Grab a hard-edged brush and draw the tornado shape. Select the tornado, set the Foreground and Background swatches to default by pressing X, then go to Filter>Render> Clouds. Deselect the tornado and apply Gaussian Blur with 5px Radius. For the shadows along the shape, click Layer>Layer Style>Style Settings then tick Bevel and change Size to 19px. Make a

new layer and choose a Spatter Brush. Set it to Hue Jitter: 20, Scatter: 20 and Spacing: 2. Draw some dust and debris and apply Gaussian Blur to soften. Finally, make another layer and apply the Clouds filter. Go to Filter>Blur>Radial Blur, set the Amount to 50 and the Blur Method to Spin then click OK. Press Cmd/Ctrl+T to resize the image, grab the centre handle and move it up. Use the Eraser tool (E) to rub out the edges – finished!

PHOTOSHOP ELEMENTS

Common problems solved Alter eye colour HOW CAN I ADD COLOUR TO SOMEONE’S EYES USING THE TOOLS IN ELEMENTS? Sylvia Amadio, via Twitter

Before

After

Photoshop Elements offers many different tools to alter the colour of eyes in a portrait. The easier way, and probably most effective, is by forming a selection around both eyes using the Quick Selection tool (A). While the selection is active, add the Hue/Saturation adjustment layer (from the black and white circle in the Layers panel). Notice how the mask of the adjustment picks up the selected areas. Inside the adjustment, tick Colorize and adjust Hue to the desired colour and nudge Saturation slightly for better tone. Eyes can be brightened too by Cmd/Ctrlclicking on the mask to reactivate the selection, then adding the Brightness/ Contrast adjustment. Use the two sliders in this adjustment to improve the impact of the eye colour and they’ll jump right out of your image.

Easy artistic frames in Elements Kirk’s expert edit

01

Open your photo in Expert mode and go to Layer>New> Background From Layer, so it’s no longer a Background layer. Add a layer below that and fill it with black.

02

03

Grab the Rectangular Grab the Brush tool (B) and Marquee (M). In the Options, select the Special Effects set Feather to 50px and select just Brushes set from the menu in the inside the edges of the photo. Go to tool’s Options and then pick the Layer>Layer Mask>Reveal Selection. Drippy Watercolor Brush.

04

Change the Size to around 80px and the Opacity to 100%. Make sure you’re working on the mask of the layer and gently paint around the frame borders.

Creative lighting HOW CAN I ADD BOLD LIGHTING EFFECTS TO MY PORTRAITS? Zara Boothman, via Twitter

Starting with a good resolution portrait is key here. You want to make sure you have enough pixel information to work with. Open the portrait in Expert mode and begin by using this dramatic sharpening technique to pop the highlight areas. Duplicate the image layer and invert it by pressing Cmd/Ctrl+I, and change the blend mode to Vivid Light. Then run the Surface Blur filter with high Radius and Threshold settings. Create a merged layer on top of the stack by holding down the Opt/Alt key and going to Layer>Merge Visible. At this point, you can hide or delete the first duplicate. Then set the merged layer’s blend mode to Overlay to reveal the sharpening effect. Now create another merged layer, just as before. Go to Filter>Render>Lighting Effects and use the 2 O’Clock Spotlight preset Style. Adjust the light position to match the natural lighting of the portrait for the finishing effect.

Before After Photoshop Creative

109 53

Common problems solved Holiday scrapbook WHAT’S A CREATIVE WAY TO PRESENT MY HOLIDAY PHOTOS? Alison Jones, via Facebook

BACKGROUND TEXTURE

Choosing the right background image is critical to setting the theme and tone of the layout. This rough decking is perfect for our rugged mountain getaway.

There’s nothing quite like a scrapbook layout to capture the feelings of those cherished memories. It’s an easy enough process to accomplish in Photoshop Elements. Begin by starting a new blank file in the Expert mode, and make sure the document is large enough to contain a full layout. Then open up the photos you wish to use, as well as any other resources for the layout. Drag the items from the Photo Bin onto the canvas to begin assembling your layout. To remove the white backing from a file, use the Quick Selection tool to select the subject and then press the Add layer mask button at the top of the Layers Panel.

REMEMBER THE TEXT

Capture moments and memories with short descriptions or photo captions. Be sure to select a typeface that represents the occasion.

PHOTO BORDERS

Keep the photo borders on a layer separate from the photo. Then use a layer mask to knock out the picture window area.

Expert tip Scrapbooking in Elements Photoshop Elements come prepped and ready with lots of assets for scrapbookers. The Graphics panel is the hub for all things scrapbooking, and has everything from frames and themed backgrounds to textures to use in and around your images. Find assets by colour, event or mood. You’ll find yourself creating a multitude of scrapbook designs using different images.

Start images

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Photoshop Creative

PHOTOSHOP ELEMENTS

Daniel’s expert edit

SUBTLE EFFECTS

Some texture elements are as easy as setting a blend mode. These background boot prints were positioned and set to Multiply.

How can I improve my macro photos?

OTHER ELEMENTS

Look at some free stock sites online to find supporting elements to go with your scrapbook layout. We suggest sites like www.sxc.hu and www.morguefile.com.

01

Grab the Quick Selection tool (A), click Add to Selection, choose a hard Brush and then tick the Auto-Enhance box. Select the background and hit Backspace.

02

Create a new background layer. Go to Layer>New Fill Layer>Gradient. Open the Gradient Editor and choose one of the presets, or create your own gradient instead.

03

Go to Select>Refine Edge and tweak the settings. Ctrl/rightclick on the mask and choose Apply Layer Mask. Grab the Quick Selection tool and select mid-ground subjects.

04

Head to Filter>Blur>Gaussian Blur and set the Radius to 15px. Deselect the image and grab the Blur tool (R), then choose a soft brush and drag just around the petals.

Photoshop Creative

111 53

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Interview

A Simple Truth

The Gap Of Ellundi

“My compositions are, for the most part, real places that I’ve visited – places I am inspired by”

Ian David Soar

The making of A Simple Truth

The Pathway

Inspired by the countryside surrounding him, we meet the artist who turns his photos into mysterious works of art

P

hotographer and artist Ian David Soar is surrounded by beautiful nature in Derbyshire, England. The untouched countryside of his home inspires him, and he enjoys nothing more than photographing his picturesque county. Photoshop gives him the tools needed to create fantastical and mysterious compositions from his photos.

images to DNG and bring them into Photoshop as Smart Objects. I always use an over-sized canvas, as it helps me to visualise everything I’m working on. I edit nondestructively, drink lots of coffee and always take my time.

Why did you start learning to use Photoshop?

I hope to achieve a feeling of reality with a little touch of fantasy. My compositions are, for the most part, real places that I’ve visited – places I am inspired by. I think creating a composition that starts to tell a story, and has the ability for others to expand on that story, is always a good way to get people engaged in my work

I have always wanted to apply the best editing that I could to my photographs. In the early days of digital cameras, I used the proprietary software bundled with the camera, but soon after realised I would need more control to achieve what I was after. So I downloaded the free trial of Photoshop and got to work using the new tools I had at my disposal. It was soon evident to me that Photoshop was going to play a big role in my creative process.

Could you describe your creative process?

I think of myself as a photographer, so I’m always out and about with my camera, capturing things that inspire me. It’s sometimes helpful not to see the world as a photographer but to see it through the eyes of Photoshop. I convert my

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Photoshop Creative

What do you aim to achieve with your compositions?

What are you favourite tools in Photoshop, and why? Adjustment layers and clipping masks are my favourites. I also use the Pen tool for accurate selections and the cloning tools for removing little elements I don’t need. I use the Smart Sharpen filter early on in my workflow – applied as a Smart Object – and use an edge mask to sharpen just the areas I need. Visit www.photoshopcreative.co.uk/user/ iandavidsoar for more from David Soar.

Learn how Ian used Photoshop for this moonlit, misty landscape

Mask and blend to start

I started with the foreground layer and added the church. I used a layer mask to blend the mist in front of it, using a soft brush with a low opacity.

Use gradients to add light I selected the window with the Quick Selection tool, and added light as a gradient. I used some layer styles, adding Outer Glow using a soft brush.

Forest and sky blend

The sky was then added and I reduced its saturation. I added the trees and used the Multiply blend mode to help blend them into the background.

Custom brush effects I added the moon and set the layer to Screen. The stars were added using a custom brush. I finished with tonal adjustments, sharpening and noise for effect.

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