Learn more and more about Photoshop
By: David Peters
A fun idea to do is create an abstract picture, you can do anything you want to it. One fun idea is the add a fire look to a picture, here is a step by step way to do it: First thing's first, get a nice stock photo. I used a stock photo of an eye from deviantART.First of all I opened the photo and resized it to 75% of it's original size.
1. After you've opened your photo up, duplicate the background layer then apply Filter > Distort > Twirl and use the default setting. That should have just distorted it slightly. Now change the layer mode for your duplicated layer to Lighten. That will have made the eye look a little bit alien-like.
2. Now brighten up the picture a little bit by adding in a Brightness/Contrast adjustment layer (Layer > New Adjustment Layer > Brightness/Contrast...) Now this is the part where you choose the fiery color for your photo. Go to Layer > New Adjustment Layer > Gradient Map. I changed the layer mode for this layer to Linear Light and lowered the opacity to 85%.
3.Ok, here are some nice optional effects.Before adding effects like these, you'll probably need to flatten your image (Layer > Flatten Image) then duplicate the one remaining layer. First, I applied Filter > Artistic > Rough Pastels with the default settings. Now change the layer mode for this layer to Lighten and maybe lower the opacity if you see it need sit. I lowered the opacity to 70%.
4. To finish this tutorial off, I flattened all the layers, applied Filter > Sharpen > Sharpen, faded the sharpen to about 40% (Edit > Fade) then I added in a little bit of tech and grunge.
A useful tool in photoshop basics is how to clone. Cloning can be important when you want to know how to take something off of one picture and putting it onto another. When you are cloning you can do anything you want to. You can put someone in a different place, create a "clone of them" Anything you do is quite simple, here is a step by step tutorial on how to do it.
1.Click CLONE TOOL in toolbar
2.Click right click and set HARDNESS to 40.
3.Click what you want clone and hold. Hold mouse and press ALT.
4.Hold and move mouse where you want clone.
Digital art is a fun thing to experiment with, you have all probably sometime seen picture that is entirely made of text. Here's how to do it...
1. Go to "Image -> Adjustments -> Threshold", and move the slider left or right, until you get satisfying picture...
2. Open the notepad, and type the words you want it like this:
3. Next, copy that text, and paste it in new text layer you have created. After that, set up style and size of font, and rotate text until you are satisfied.
4. Next, right click on text layer, and click "Resterise Layer". Select the template layer and with the magic wand at a tolerance of 32 select the white area. Go to select>similar to select all of the light areas and then select the text layer from the layers palette. Next select text layer, and hit delete to clear the excess text and drag the template layer into the bin icon. Back the image up in white by making a new layer (Go to "Layer -> New Fill Layer -> Solid Color") with a white fill and dragging it underneath the text layer.
When you are doing photo effects you can create those images that sometimes ipods use, the first thing you should do is de-saturate the photo. Change the levels so the range is closer. (Basically slide the black and white sliders towards the gray slider.) Create a new layer. Fill it with #fb4700. Set blending mode to Hard Light. For the Person Duplicate the photo. Take out the background by either the selection tool. Create a new layer. On that new layer, take the character, and paint the person black where you want it black.Set the person layer to blending mode overlay.
This will have the part that is not black come through to reflect that red and orange colors. For the Graffiti create new layer just below the layer with the solid color set to hard light. Take a black grunge brush and start grunging the layer. Then again add grunge with the color set to white. Take the eraser tool and take a grunge brush. You can then delete some of the grunge on the layer. Create new layer above all. Set the foreground color to #e6ff8e. Grunge this layer a little. Use it for accents.
While texturing you can add cool looking scan lines to your picture. This is easy enough: Open Photoshop and click on File > New and set the width to 1 pixel, the height to 3 pixels and set the "Contents" section to "Transparent" for this tutorial. You will have to click on View > Zoom In a few times so you can see the palette.Now, right click on the "Brush Tool" and select the "Pencil Tool" and at the top of the screen set your "Brush " to 1px, your "Mode" to normal and your "Opacity" to 100 percent.
Take your "Pencil Tool" and click in the center of your new palette so the top and bottom third are still transparent. Go to Edit > Define Pattern and save your new image as a scan line pattern like the example below. Next, open any photo you want to add scan lines to. Click on the "Rectangular Marquee Tool" and drag it over the photo. Now right click on the photo and click on "Fill" and set your properties to the image below. The "Custom Pattern" will be the one you just created. You can set your "Blending" options to what appears best for your photo.
Want to create a web 2.0 label? This is easy enough just follow the steps:
Step 1) Create your canvas, I suggest a large size so you create lots of detail, the final image can be scaled down later.
Step 2) The next step is to draw your shape, this can be any shape. Use the preset shapes in Photoshop or download some new ones off the internet. It doesn't matter what colour it is.
Step 3) Next apply a layer style to the shape, I recommend using the Web 2.0 layers and gradients pack, here. Although you can make your own.
Step 4) As well as this I suggest using a bevel and emboss. Use are large size and reduce the opacity of the shadow.
Step 5) Add you text. I've used Trebuchet MS. Use the character palette to move the letters into a good looking spacing.
Step 6) Again, use one of the white layer styles in the pack and apply this to the white text.
Step 7) You now have a cool looking Web 2.0 label to add to your web pages.
Step 8) One optional step that I suggest adding is a drop shadow, this adds a lifted effect to the label.
Step 9) Flatten and remove the background and save as a .png. This can now be added to any web page.
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