Photoshop & Gimp Tutorials

Rain Effect

2008-08-29T02:59:00.000-07:00

Learn how to create an artificial rain effect. Follow this simple tutorial that gives a rain effect to any image using Photoshop CS.

Step 1

Open an image and on the layers panel add a new layer by clicking on the fifth icon below the layers panel. A new layer is created with the name 'layer 1' and your previous layer would have the name 'background' These names can be changed by you. For now we'll leave them as they are.

Step 2

With the new layer selected click on Filter>Render>Clouds. Change the Opacity to 63. (This is present on the top right of the layers panel)

Step 3

Click on Filter>Noise>Add Noise. Your image looks grainy! Don't panic. We'll turn

these grains to rain drops in a moment. Give the settings as in the image on the left.

Amount - 60

Distribution - Gaussian

Check Monochromatic

Step 4

Click on Filter>Blur>Motion blur. The Motion blur window appears. Give the values Angle - 73 and Distance 10 as seen in the snapshot below. You can try varying the values and when a suitable image appears you can click OK.

Step 5

With 'layer 1' still selected, move your mouse over the Layers panel. There is a drop down menu on the top left of the panel, this is used to set the blending mode for the layer, now set the blend mode to 'screen'. Check your image now.
Can you make out the difference now!

Here is my result with the artificial rain effect!

Shape your Text

2008-08-29T00:40:00.000-07:00

You can make your text look creative by using the warp tool in Photoshop. This allows you to shape your text in different styles. Shaped text gives a designer look on icons, banners and headers.

Step 1

Open an image. Select the horizontal type tool from the toolbar and type your text near or on the image - wherever you want it.

Step 2

Select the text and right click the mouse, from the pop up menu select Warp Text... The Warp Text window appears.

Step 3

Click on the Style drop down menu and you get a list of styles from which you can select.

Step 4

Select the orientation of the warp effect - Horizontal or Vertical. To adjust how much warp is applied to the layer, drag the slider for Bend until you achieve the desired effect. To change the perspective of the warp, drag the sliders for Horizontal Distortion and Vertical Distortion until the perspective is as you want it. When you are satisfied with the text, click OK.

Step 5

The result.

Create a Collage using Photoshop

2008-08-29T00:25:00.000-07:00

Learn how to blend images or photos and create a collage with them using Photoshop. Mostly used for making headers of a website.

We will create a simple collage of 3 photographs named photo1, photo2, photo3 in here, but you can add as many photos as you want. A collage is made of a minimum of 2 photographs.

Follow the steps and respect the rules:

Step 1 : Creating the file with the photographs of the collage
Create a new file in Photoshop by clicking on File>Open. Open 3 photographs or image by clicking on File>Open and choosing the 3 images you would like to blend. Drag the photographs to your new file canvas in 3 different layers. Adjust the size of your photos to your canvas size.

Photo1 in layer 1

Photo2 in layer 2

Photo3 in layer 3

Step 2 : Filling the background color for the canvas
If you want to put a background color choose the same color of the photo1, in here choose blue color and paint the background with Paint Bucket Tool.
Method: Click on Set foreground color. Choose Blue color. Go to Paint Bucket Tool. Click on your canvas in the background layer. It will fill the background with Blue color.

Step 3 : Blending the photographs

Work on layer1 Photo1. Select with Marquee Tool the rectangle you want to blend. Click on Select >Feather. A screen named Feather Selection will appear. Click 30 pixels on Feather Radius. Click OK.

Copy the selected rectangle and paste it inside the feathered selection.
A new layer will appear. Name it collage1. Delete layer1.
Follow the same steps for Layer2, photo2 and layer3, photo3. You will find that the feather effect blends the images with each other. You can adjust the amount of feathering and the area of feathering to make the images blend more smoothly. Finally, you can double click on the layer and adjust the opacity in the blending options for the collage to blend with the background.
Your Layers panel will look like this:

Bravo! Your collage is ready!

Beginner's Guide to Adobe Photoshop

2008-08-19T05:40:00.000-07:00

Introduction to Photoshop

Ever wanted to learn how to use Adobe Photoshop, but had no idea where to start?

Most Adobe Photoshop tutorials (including my own) are for people who are already familiar with Adobe Photoshop. This tutorial goes right back to the DAWN OF TIME! and is designed for the Adobe Photoshop beginner.

This basic, thirty-minute tutorial is not a comprehensive instruction manual. It only gives you the very basic features you need to know to start using Adobe Photoshop. From there, you'll quickly discover most of the other features of the program.

The images in this tutorial are from Adobe Photoshop 7.0, but they're very similar to those from earlier versions of Photoshop.

Let's get the tutorial started...

Click File > New, and create a new image of any size you desire.

1 – Setting Adobe Photoshop's Undo option

Press Ctrl+K to bring up the Preferences window. (In Adobe Photoshop 5.0, you'll need to click on the Settings tab, on the File menu.)

Change your "Redo Key" to Ctrl+Shift+Z. This enables you to press Ctrl+Z while working to undo your last actions. Remember this.

2 – Using Adobe Photoshop's Layers window

The Layers window shows the various layers that your image is made up of.

To make a new layer, click the New Layer button, as shown by the red arrow.

To work on a different layer, click on that layer. The eyeball will appear next to that layer.

You can drag layers up and down the list.

Remember – create a new layer for each part of your image. This allows you to go back and edit the layers individually. Every Adobe Photoshop novice at some time makes a masterpiece, only to find out that they did it all on one layer, and now they can't remove those pink clouds they put on it.

Selection and Manipulation

3 – Learning about Selection

One of the most important concepts in Adobe Photoshop is Selection.

This is the Rectangular Selection Tool.

Use this tool on your image to select an area of the image. This lets Photoshop know that that's the area you want to work on

4 – Adding to a Selection and making a square

To add to a selection, hold Shift before dragging.

To make the selection exactly square, start dragging, then hold Shift.

You can press Ctrl+D to "deselect" and remove the selection at any time.

5 – Elliptical Selections and subtracting Selections

Hold down on the Selection Tool on the Toolbar, and choose the Ellipse.

To move the selection, just click inside it and drag.

Holding Alt while selecting subtracts that area from the selection. I've done that with the Ellipse Selection Tool.

If you're following this tutorial in Adobe Photoshop, see if you can make these shapes.

Other relevant Adobe Photoshop tools

Lasso Tool – Allows you to draw a selection area with the cursor.

Magic Wand – Summons elves. (Also believed to select an area of one colour.)

Colouring Your Selection

7 – Choosing a colour

Now that you know how to select an area in Adobe Photoshop, we can look at some tools that can do something with that area.

Before we get started on colouring your selection, you'll need to pick a colour.

This part of the Toolbox is where you select your colours.

The top square is the foreground colour. If you use a brush or paint bucket, it will apply this colour.

The bottom square is the background colour. It has various purposes, but it's also a good place to store a second colour that you're using.

Click on either square to change its colour.
Click the arrow to swap the two colours.
Click the little squares to reset the colours to black and white.

8 – The Paint Bucket and Gradient tools

These two tools are on separate buttons in Adobe Photoshop 5.0, but share a button in Adobe Photoshop 6.0 and Adobe Photoshop 7.0. To select one, click and hold.

On a new layer, just click the Paint Bucket tool inside the area of your selection to fill it with the colour you've selected.

Click and drag from one area to another to fill the area. The point where you started to click will be the colour of your foreground colour, and the point where you took your finger off the mouse button will be the colour of your background colour. The area in between will gradually change from one colour to the other.

In this case, I went from corner to corner, with the default white and black selected.

9 – A colour exercise

With what you've learned so far, you should be able to recreate this piece of hippy history. :)

Remember to create each step on a new layer.

Other Adobe Photoshop tools of interest include

The Text Tool – Just click it wherever you want text to appear. Choose a font, colour, and size, and start typing.

The Move Tool – Use this tool to drag things around. If you have a selection, it will drag the contents of the selection. If not, it will drag the contents of the layer you're on.

Blending Options & Special Effects

10 – Adding Effects

Now that you know the basics, it's time to start adding some easy special effects.

To demonstrate Adobe Photoshop's special effects, here's an unembellished button for a website.

Each part of this image is on a separate layer.

11 – Key Adobe Photoshop Blending Options

In the Layers list, right-click on a layer, and select Blending Options (Adobe Photoshop 6.0 & Adobe Photoshop 7.0) or Effects (Adobe Photoshop 5.0.)

This is a picture of the left-hand portion of the Blending Options window that will appear. (The window is much smaller in Photoshop 5.0.)

Drop Shadow
Selecting this option will make your layer cast a shadow on layers below it.

Bevel and Emboss
Makes the layer like a block of gold bullion - raised in the centre, with edges that slope down. (This is a good effect for creating buttons.)

Texture
Makes the surface of the layer look like it's made of wood, stone etc. Use the "Overlay" setting.

Stroke
Stroke is just another word for "outline". A Stroke is useful to make an object stand out from its background. (In Adobe Photoshop 5.0, this option doesn't exist. Use Outer Glow as an alternative.)

12 – The end result

Other than using some of the Blending Options, nothing else has been done to this button.

It's really that easy.

A final few Adobe Photoshop features

Zoom: Press (Ctrl and +) to zoom in. Press (Ctrl and -) to zoom out. This is very useful if you're a bit of a pixel pirate.

Transformation: To Transform (resize/rotate/distort) an object, press Ctrl+T. To Transform a selection, click Select > Transform Selection. Use the Shift key while transforming to stop the image distorting.

I hope this tutorial has helped you get the idea of Adobe Photoshop.

Happy Photoshopping!

Eery-Eye Photo Manipulation

2008-08-19T01:28:00.000-07:00

In this Photoshop tutorial I will be walking you through the making of an interesting art piece, “The Eye, the Key of the Soul.”

In this tutorial we will use the burn tool, dodge tool, brushes, layer modes and more to add an interesting effect to an otherwise regular stock photo.

Preface

Before we get started I would like you to know that this tutorial was written by Krinos, and the stock photo used is by xerolime, you can download it from here.

1.

Open up the stock photo you’ve chosen to be working with for this tutorial. Duplicate it once (just in case!) Find and get out the Burn Tool, change the range/mode for it to ‘midtones’ and set the opacity to something light-medium.

Using the burn tool now, pass in turn of the pupil of the eye and in turn of the eye. Now get out the Dodge Tool and set the mode to midtones again. Use the dodge tool to lighten up the pupil and also among where you used the burn tool to darken.

2.

Again using the dodge tool, make some ‘rays’ just outside of the iris, and lighten up any other areas you think may need it.

3.

Now use Lighting Effects (filter > render > lighting effects) to add an interesting lighting effect to the overall photo, you may want to mess around with the colors for the lighting effects filter. Try not to over-saturate the photo though on this step, if your lighting effects affect it too much, go to edit > fade lighting effects and put it at around 50%.

4.

Now it’s time to recolor the center of the eye. Do this by making a new layer (layer > new > layer) and brush a little bit inside of the eye with a soft brush, using the color of your choice (orange). After you’ve made your little bit of brushing inside of the eye, change the layer mode to Color and lower the opacity to around 50-60%.

5.

Using the dodge and burn tools again, add more light/darkness to the pupil to give it a stronger effect.

6.

To add more feeling to the photo, go to layer > new adjustment layer > gradient map and made a black & white gradient map. Change the layer mode for this layer to Luminosity and leave the opacity in tact. Repeat step 4 with the eye color part, you may want to use a lower opacity though, and a different color for the brush.

7.

A little more dodge & burn tool here, remember to mess with the ‘range’ and opacities for the brushes as well, get creative.

I also create another pupil-color layer, brushed inside of it it with a yellow-orange, changed the layer mode to Linear Dodge and lowered the fill to 10%.

8.

To finish off, apply a Selective Color adjustment layer (layer > new adjustment layer > selection color) and use the settings that you find look best. Again, in finishing, apply lighting effects again, but this time lower the opacity afterwards to around 35%.

Thank you for reading this tutorial, I hope you enjoyed it!

Photo to Illustration (Quick Vector Art)

2008-08-17T04:40:00.000-07:00

I am going to show you that is quick and easy way to convert a picture in illustration vector effect. Here we go!

Step 1: First I will start with an image.

Step 2: Duplicate the Background layer.

Step 3: Now apply the Cutout filter (Filter => Artistic => Cutout). On the left side the amount of detail in the vector can be controlled by adjusting the Number of Levels, Edge Simplicity and Edge Fidelity sliders. For this example I am using 5 levels, with the Edge Simplicity set to 3 and Edge Fidelity set to 3. Click OK.

Step 4: You can trace the areas of color divided by the Cutout filter with the Poster Edges Filter. For this example the Edge Thickness is set to 2, Edge Intensity to 1 and Posterization to 4. Click OK.

Step 5: The color can be changed subtly with a Photo Filter adjustment layer.

Step 6: And finally, to add to the 'colored' effect, a Brightness/Contrast adjustment layer will help take away the natural highlights/shadows even more.

Step 7: Here is my final vector image:

Brighter, Whiter Smiles with Photoshop

2008-08-16T04:05:00.000-07:00

Everyone wants a brighter, whiter smile... at least that's what my television tells me every 15 minutes. This Photoshop CS2 lesson will demonstrate how you can brighten and whiten the smile in any of your digital portraits.Along the way you'll discover how to use the Magic Wand and the Lasso selection tools and you'll learn about the Hue/Saturation adjustment
dialog.

Making the Selection:

As with many of my Photoshop photo-editing tutorials, you'll start by making a selection so that the selected area can be corrected without disturbing any other areas of the photograph. In this case the Magic Wand tool (see figure) will be used. The reason is that the Magic Wand tool is great for selecting oddly shaped areas, such as someone's teeth.

The Magic Wand tool:

The Magic Wand tool is a bit tricky to understand, but well worth learning about. Once you've selected the Magic Wand tool from the Toolbar take a look at the options (see figure) which can be found just below the menu choices in the main Photoshop window.

In figure you can see that I've set the selection type to "Add to Selection" and the Tolerance to 20 (the default value is 32). By default Anti-alias and Contiguous (pixels must be touching one another and not separated by any space) are on and Sample All Layers is off.

The "Add to Selection" setting means that I can click different ares of the image and the tool will keep adding to my selection rather than creating a new selection each time.

The Tolerance setting defines how pixels are selected when you click with the tool on your image. When you click in your image the underlying pixel is selected, the tool then checks pixels around the perimeter (i.e. neighboring pixels are checked to see whether or not they fit within the tolerance you've set). If any pixels falls within the tolerance (0 means no other pixels will be selected and 255 means all pixels will be selected) that pixel is added to the selection and the tool keeps checking neighboring pixels.

Figure shows the same area being selected with the Magic Wand tool using varying Tolerance settings.

You can see from figure that increasing the Tolerance value increases the number of pixels the tool selects. Ideally, you'd like to set the tolerance such that all of the pixels you need are selected... ideally :) What I do is choose a setting (the default setting of 32 is a good place to start) and click in the area that I want selected. If too many pixels are selected, I choose Edit, Undo (CTRL-Z, of course, for you keyboard shortcut users out there), lower the Tolerance value and click again. I won't do that if too few pixels are selected, though, which is why I set the tool to "Add to Selection" mode. If too few pixels are selected I can simply click again in the area that I want selected and have extra pixels added to those already selected.

In fact, after deciding on a Tolerance setting of 20 and placing a few clicks on the teeth I want selected, I have the selection you can see in figure .

You can see from figure that the selection is pretty good. It does need a couple of small adjustments, though. I found the problem by zooming-in with the Zoom tool.

The trouble is that some edges have too little of the teeth selected and some edges have too much of the gums selected... I wonder if Dentists go through this :)

Correcting those slight misses from the Magic Wand can be accomplished fairly easily with another Photoshop selection tool... the Lasso. The Lasso tool is easy to operate... though it is easier if you have a graphic tablet and pen, but a good job can be had with the mouse, too.

To operate the Lasso tool, set the selection type to either "Add to Selection" or "Subtract from Selection", (leave the other settings at their defaults, for now) depending on whether you need to add or remove areas from your selection and simply click-and-drag around the areas that you want added to or subtracted from your selection.

In figure the Lasso tool is being used to subtract some of the pink gums area that was selected by the Magic Wand tool.

Brightening the Smile:

Once you're satisfied with the selection you've created, save it by choosing Select, Save Selection... In the Save Selection dialog box choose the document that you're working on and give the New channel a name. I named the channel "Teeth" for obvious reasons.

With the selection still active choose Select, Feather and enter 1 in the dialog box. Doing so will smooth out the transition between the original photo and the edits to the smile that are about to be made.

I prefer to keep my edits as re-editable as possible and to that end this correction will be accomplished with the use of an adjustment layer. Better still, because a selection is active, a mask will be automatically generated and the correction will be limited to that selected area.

To make the adjustment to the smile, choose Layer, New Adjustment Layer, Hue/Saturation... and click OK in the dialog box that pops up.

To correct the smile in your digital photographs adjust the Saturation to the left (i set it to -67 for this image) and adjust the Lightness to the right (I set the value to 20). Decreasing the saturation removes the color and doing so removes the yellowish stains that many adults have from tea, coffee, etc. Increasing the lightness obviously brightens the smile.

Figure shows my final result and the settings I used.

TIP: It's best to zoom-out and take a look at your image in its entirety to see how the correction fits in. The idea is to brighten and whiten the smile of your portrait subject while keeping the photo as original-looking as possible.

As always, make sure that you save a copy of your image as a .psd file so that you can come back to it later if necessary and make any subsequent changes or re-edits.

That's it for now... Be sure to check out some of our other