Photoshop Advanced Tutorial

How to Create a Space Girl Photo Manipulation

2010-03-19T23:58:00.000-07:00

In today’s tutorial I will show you how to create a space photo manipulation by mixing stars and different Photoshop techniques. Layered PSD file included. Let’s get started!

Final Image Preview

Start working by opening in Adobe Photoshop CS4 a space photo like this one:

Find a stock photo with a model represented on it, I used this photo from deviantart. I would like to thank the author of this photo:

Remove the background using your favorite tools like Pen Tool (P), Magic Wand Tool (W), Magnetic Lasso (L) or even a simple Filter>Extract and insert the image on a new layer in our main document.

Click on Add a layer style icon from bottom part of the Layers panel and select Inner Glow

We’ve got the next inner glow effect around girl:

Click now on the bottom part of the Layers panel on Add layer mask icon and choose after that the Soft Round brush of black color (Opacity 15%)

Using Soft Round brush paint on the mask to hide the girl’s legs as shown:

Create a new layer and select for it a Soft Round brush of yellow color (Opacity 10%) to paint the layer:

Set Blending mode for this layer to Saturation

Hold down Alt (Windows) or Option (Mac OS) and click between the layers of the yellow brush and the layer containing the girl (on the Layers panel) to create a clipping mask

Now we have the content of the layer containing the yellow color only visible within the content of the layer containing the girl

Create a new layer and select the Soft Round brush with #0000FF color (Opacity20%).

Paint the background as shown and place this layer under the layer with the girl on it:

On the next new layer we’ll apply the above used brush to continue painting the background with the color #00B4F6 (Opacity20%). This layer will be situated under the girl’s layer:

Create a new layer and apply here the Soft Round brush to paint the bottom part of the picture with violet color (Opacity 20%)

Set the Blending mode to Screen for this layer

Use again the Soft Round brush and paint with blue color on background. This layer will be situated under the layer containing the girl:

Next there will be used again the soft brush with green color this time and Opacity - 20%.

Create a new layer and apply on it the Soft Round brush to paint on the background as shown.

The brush’s color is yellow (Opacity 15%). Place this layer under the girl’s layer.

Set the Blending mode for this layer to Overlay

On the next new layer we’ll use the Soft Round brush of white color (Opacity 20%) to represent several lines, like those from below. This layer needs to be situated under the girl’s layer:

Set the Blending mode to Overlay for this layer

Let’s create the next new layer and apply on it the same soft brush of white color (Opacity 15%) to make lighter the girl’s body. This layer needs to be placed lower than the girl’s layer:

Next we’ll make the girl’s arm look more illuminated. In this case we’ll create a new layer and use here the Soft Round brush

Paint firstly with red color (Opacity 15%) the necessary element and then use the color #FDCD9E

Create A Flower Texture

2010-03-19T01:37:00.001-07:00

Step 1. Firstly open a new file, create 2 new layers. On the second layer, use rectangular marquee tool (M) to make a square selection (press shift to make square) like this picture below.

Step 2. Use Gradient Tool, I choose this one: (download this gradient at the end of this tutorial)

And make gradient like the picture below:

Step 3. This is an important step of tutorial, you have to remember this thing: Do not deselect your square selection. If you forget that, your artwork could be worse.
Ok, go to Filter > Distort > Wave and set the option :

Continue to Filter > Distort > Polar Coordinates > choose Rectangular to Polar. At this time, duplicate layer and hide the new one. Come back to the previous layer, go to Filter > Distort > Twirl > choose 100. Press Ok.

Open the top layer (the one that you duplicate), goto Filter > Distort > Twirl > choose -100. Press Ok. Set Opacity 55%

Link 2 this layer and merge them together, named "Flower". Come back to the first layer that you create it before, fill it with color #c78b8b .You will get this result:

Step 4. Choose Flower layer and duplicate it. In this new layer, press Ctrl + T to transform like the picture below:

Use Elliptical marquee tool and set option:

Make selection and press Delete. In this step, you will erase some areas on the layer to make 2 flowers look more pretty

Continue to erase until you see it's really pretty

Then set opacity 71% for this layer. Your result:

Step 5. Create new layer, repeat actions from step 2 to the end of step 3 with this gradient: (download this gradient at the end of this tutorial)

After all, you will get this result:

Named this layer "Flower 2", set it into screen mode and set opacity 71%.
Continue to use Elliptical marquee tool like step 4 to erase unnecessary areas:

Duplicate layer Flower 2, move it and erase like this:

Duplicate layer Flower 2 again, set opacity 55% then transform:

Continue to erase.

Create new layer and set on the top, set soft light mode. Use Paint Bucket Tool and set Foreground color #e29995 to cover this small area.

It looks more pretty than before.

Well, you've got the final result. (Click on the picture below to see full size)

CLICK HERE to download gradient files used in this tutorial

Advanced Day-to-Night Photoshop Tutorial

2010-03-18T02:37:00.000-07:00

In this tutorial I will teach you how to edit in photo in Lightroom and Photoshop to dramatically alter its appearance and mood. We’ll change a broad daylight scene into a night-time one, lit by a street lamp. I’ll also take the opportunity to describe some non-destructive editing techniques in Photoshop.
Below you can see the ‘before’ and ‘after’:

Day to night conversion: before and after

The original, straight from the camera image is mind-numbingly dull; it’s the very definition of dullness. It was shot in a overcast February afternoon. As boring as it is, it was perfect for my purposes. I wanted to convey a sense of ‘out of place’, of a person that doesn’t really belong there, forcing the viewer to create a story – who is this young and attractive woman and what is she doing in this miserable street?
The overcast day had the advantage of decreased contrast and a complete lack of shadows, allowing me a wide range of editing.

Creating the light/dark versions

First thing, I created two Virtual Copies in Lightroom:

Original, with default contrast. Slightly overexposed too.

The “lit” version, Contrast was set to 100, also Clarity was was to max, increased vibrance. White Balance was set to Cloudy

The “unlit” version. The image was underexposed by 2 stops. White Balance was set to Tungsten.

Same image with different WB settings

As you can see above, the altered versions are already better — especially the “night” one, dark and moody. However, the street lamp gave me the opportunity to go the extra mile in creating something realistic.

Mixing light and dark

Having exported the two versions as 16bit TIFF (for maximum quality), I opened both of them in Photoshop. I then copied the “dark” one and pasted as a layer over the “lit” version.

Creating a new layer mask

It was pretty clear already that quite a lot of trial-and-error was to be expected, so instead of simply using the Eraser to remove parts of the “dark” layer, I decided to use a mask instead.
I selected the Dark layer and from the Masks panel, I clicked on the Pixel Mask button to create a new mask.
A Pixel Mask works just like an alpha channel for the layer – it’s a grayscale bitmap where white is opaque and black is completely transparent. What’s cool about it is that you can alter the opacity of the layer by painting on the mask.

The effect of the layer mask in mixing the lit/unlit areas

You can see on the left how the mask affects the mix between lit and unlit areas.
I clicked on the mask in the Layers panel to select it and then I simply used a semi-transparent, highly feathered black brush to create transparent areas.
There are three main lit areas: the light on the wall, faing out, the light on the pavement the light spill on the roof. You can notice that I preferred to paint everything instead of using gradients, to avoid the artificial “perfect” look.

Adjusting the exposure

The light was still too even in the lit area; close the the light source I needed something much more powerful (remember that light falls off exponentially). To improve the realism, I added an Adjustment Layer just above the Lit layer.

The Exposure Adjustment Layer

The Adjustment Layer was set to Exposure (Layer –> New Adjustment Layer –> Exposure). I added a simple radial gradient as a mask for this layer the same way as previously and then I tweaked it to get a slightly overexposed look.

Adding the glow

By now I had the light on the wall and pavement pretty much in place; it was time to turn to the light bulb. For this, I simply used the Lasso tool to select the visible area of the bulb and then copied and pasted it as new layer. I then used the Curves to make the bulb much brighter. Finally, from Layer –> Layer Style –> Outer Glow I created a nice amber glow around the bulb.

Setting the glow on the light bulb

Below you can see the exact settings for the glow:

Light bulb glow settings

I still wanted to add some nice touches: the glow should not be that strong in the upper area. Can you guess what I used? Yep, another Layer Mask.
Please note: By default, layer masks do not affect the layer effects. To make a layer mask hide the effect, open the Layer Style window and go to Blending Options section. From there, check the “Layer mask hides effects” option.
In the layer mask, I painted in black the areas I wanted the glow to be weak. Below you can see the result:

Glowing behind the edges

As you can see, I did not eliminate the glow completely, but created a glow-behind-the-edges effect that is seen in high-contrast situations.

Lens flare

A simple lens flare

Most designers, upon hearing the words “lens flare” run away screaming. They are very often overused and cheesy. Even the new JJ Abrams’ Star Trek features some lens flares annoying as hell. Still, they an unavoidable part of photography and can add some realism if used wisely.

Subtle lens flare applied

Unfortunately, Photoshop’s Lens Flare effect is laughable. I think it’s the same effect as 15 years ago. I only know of two decent lens effects – one in the old plugin Kai Power Tools 6, the other is Corel Photo-Paint. Both of them allow you to control the size, glow, ring, stars, streaks and reflection trail. This is not a tutorial on lens flares, but modern, good lenses don’t create reflection trails, but only a nice star pattern with minimal interference or random streaks.
For this photo I created a very simple star pattern on black background and I put it as a layer with blending mode set to Linear Dodge (Add) at 33% opacity. You can see that the effect is barely there; its purpose is to enhance the scene in a minimal way, not to overpower it.

Shadows

Selecting the body shape

If you recall from the beginning of this tutorial, the original image had no shadows because of the overcast sky. Now, as I created a light source, I needed to create a shadow too.

Refining selection edges

With the background layer active, I started to make a simple selection on the girl using the Magnetic Lasso. I didn’t even needed to be very careful, but just to follow the contours.
Once this was done, I clicked on Refine Edge and increased Smoothness and Feathering. After that, I created a new layer and filled the inside of the selection with black.

Distorting the shadow

The next step was to convert the new layer into a Smart Object via Layer –> Smart Objects –> Convert to Smart Object. Why? It’s because a smart object’s original appearance is preserved so I could distort it any way I wanted without degrading its appearance on each step.
Finally, I set the layer’s blending to Multiply and its opacity down to 50%.

Final result

Here’s the final view with all the layers:

All layers

By Armand Niculescu

Shadows and highlights

2010-03-18T02:27:00.000-07:00

1. Open the photo
We’d like to lighten up the shadowy areas of the photo while preserving the ratio of highlights (the lightest parts). In fact, we’ll try to decrease this ratio a bit.

2.Double layer
Drag the original layer called Background upon the indicated icon to duplicate it. You can also click Layer/Duplicate Layer instead.

Make sure the newly created layer called Background copy is selected, and set the general effects mode from Normal to Luminosity so that the general effect of the colors won’t differ between the layers, only that of lightness.

3. An obscure feature
Click Image/Apply Image and set the values as indicated above. Make sure that Channel is set to Green for both Source and Target, and select Invert for Source. Set Blending to Exclusion.

Apply Image will only affect the second layer. It subtracts the green channel from its own inverse, so that dark areas get lighter, while light areas get a bit greyish.

4. Opacity
You can set the relative ratio of the two layers using the Opacity slider. By decreasing the percentage value, you dampen the effect of the change made on the upper layer. We have decreased it to 80% but you won’t necessarily need to do so every time.

5.Here’s the result!
The upper left area shows the original state while the lower right displays the modified one. You can see more details on the shadowy areas, and the strength of light areas have diminished. If you want an even more dramatic effect, duplicate the upper layer again, and set Blending for the new layer to Screen, then set Opacity to a value you like, just as in the previous step.
Finally click Layer/Flatten Image to merge the layers. Save the image, and you’re finished.

Hair dye

2010-03-18T02:22:00.000-07:00

1.Load the photo
Yes, it is red, _very_ red, but what if you'd like dark brown, blonde, or purple? No worries, each one is possible.

2. Get those lamps!
The essence of the whole procedure is to select the hair. Unfortunately, this will take the most of your time, especially when dealing with an unruly coiffure.

You have about 1001 methods to do this. We chose Quick Mask. To do so, click the indicated icon at the bottom of the Tools palette, or press Q. In Quick mask mode, you can paint onto the picture just like any other time, but the result of the painting will be a selection. Select the Brush among the tools (also indicated above), and choose a mid-sized soft one to paint over the hair. Don't mind if you touch other areas of the picture here and there, you'll have the opportunity to correct it. Of course, you won't be able to select every single hair with this method. On the other hand, it's fairly quick.

3. We need the other half
Press Q again to quit Quick Mask mode and get the selection you have painted. Well, the areas you went over make a mask, which means Photoshop will select all but these areas. In order to select the hair, you have to invert the selection. Right-click it, and click Select Inverse in the context menu.

If the selection marquee annoys you, press Ctrl+H. This makes the marquee vanish, but the selection remains active, so that from now on, you can work with just the hair.

4. From red to brown
To alter the hair color, click Image/Adjustments/Selective Color. This feature enables you to change colors using ranges. You can select the ranges at the top of the dialog. Make sure you select Absolute for Method.

For red hair, you should obviously select Reds as the color range. In order to eliminate reddishness and produce a brown color, drag Cyan to the right. We found the best brown hue when setting all the sliders to their maximum values. Black sets the lightness of hair. Increase it for darker hues.

5. Telltale signs
As the selection was not entirely accurate, other parts of the picture might have also changed their colors with the previous action. For example, the areas along the edges of the hair or the face, which have been touched by the selection, became a bit darker and browner.

Select the History Brush (indicated above), and select a small, soft brush to paint over these areas. History Brush restores the original state of the picture in the treated parts.

6. Even browner
As the first wave of Selective Color didn't provide us with the color we wanted—the hair remained a bit reddish—, we applied it once again with similar settings. If you get the hue you'd like, press Ctrl+D. This deletes the selection. You can now save the image.

7. I got my hair
You've got practically unlimited possibilities, just like with all the coloring materials available at your drugstore. Feel free to experiment with blonde, purple or anything you like!

Blonde is for advanced users, though, as you have to adjust significantly not only the hues, but also lightness. Besides Reds, we also fiddled about with Yellows, and dragging the Black slider strongly to the left was also an important step.

Have fun trying around!

Create a happy girl wallpaper in Photoshop and Illustrator

2010-02-24T08:41:00.000-08:00

In this tutorial, Childesign will teach you how to create a wallpaper of a very happy girl, who enjoys life. The tutorial is for Photoshop, but a small step is done in Illustrator.

Final result

Here is a preview of the final product that we are going to be making. Click on the image for a large version:

Tutorial

First, select and open a stock image of a girl that you like. Here is the one we decided to go with.

At the Layers palette overview, double click Layer Background, change to Layer 0.

Now, use Pen Tool to cut the image (the outside of the girl).

Press Ctrl + click left mouse on Layer 0 to make the selection surround the girl.

Go to Select/Refine Edge. Then use the settings in the image as below:

Creat a new document (1900×1113 px) and use Gradient tool, with the following settings:

Then copy the girl and paste to this document. Ctrl + T to resize the girl.

Press Ctrl + J to duplicate the layer with the girl. At the first layer, change the Blending Mode to Darken.

At the new layer, Blending Mode is normal, use Eraser tool (smooth) to delete the space outside the girl’s hair. Duplicate layer normal layer. At the new layer, change the Blending Mode for this layer to Hard Light, Opacity 35%. This is used to lighten the image.

Hide the background layer. Then press Ctrl+Shift+Alt+E to creat a new layer. Now make a selection like below:

Duplicate this selection to make a new layer. Press Ctrl + T, right-click right, choose Flip Horizontal and move it:

Add layer mask for this layer. Use smooth brush (about 200px) to clean up the girl’s skirt.

Repeat the above step, but move to another location (remember Ctrl + T to miniatures before move)

Repeat:

Now (hide background layer) press Ctrl + Shift + Alt + E to merge all layers into a new layer. Choose Clone Stamp tool with the leave brush

Press Alt and click left mouse on the location you want:

Then, don’t press Alt and click out side — this is where the magic hapens. Repeat this step until you re satisfied.

Choose Brush tool with the setting:

Set ForeBackground is white. Creat new layer, choose Pen tool draw the path. Then click right mouse, choose Stoke Path:

And more:

Now, add more brush

Creat a new layer. Use Pen tool draw the path (brush 1 px):

Use Shape tool to add more shapes:

Creat new layer, use Pen tool and draw:

Fill with any color. Then open then Blending Options. Setting: Choose Gradient Overlay

Repeat the above step, but with a different color and add more flower brush:

Now, we will add sunlight. Creat a new layer, use sunlight brush:

Creat new layer, use Pen tool and draw:

Fill with any color. Then open the Blending Options. Setting: Choose Gradient Overlay

Opacity should be about 20% – 50%. Press Ctrl + T to resize this layer.

Duplicate this layer and move it.

Now, we will use Illustrator to create the nets. Create a new document (in Illustrator). Use Pen tool and setting
<
Select all paths. Choose Object / Blend / Blend Options. Setting:

Then choose Object / Blend / Make (Alt+Ctrl+B)

Choose File / Export and save in PNG format.

Come back to Photoshop, open the net file that you just made, copy and paste to photoshop (below all layers, but not the background).

Press Ctrl + T to resize the net layer as you wish.

Change the color to white and add more nets as you like.

And finally we have our finished product.

About the author

TutsArena is dedicated to providing the best, free web design tutorials.

Visit TutsArena's Website | All Articles From This Author

Creating a Realistic Torn Photo Effect

2010-02-23T04:53:00.000-08:00

Creating a Realistic Torn Photo Effect – Image Preview

In this tutorial you will learn how to take a standard photo of a girl and tear it into pieces using some stock images and some nifty Photoshop techniques.
The image on the left is what your finished product will look like. OK, lets get started…
Before we start, you should download the source files…

Torn Photo Effect Source Files (ZIP)

Step 1 –

From the downloaded source files, open the image below in Photoshop, and duplicate the layer. On the duplicated layer set the Blend Mode to Screen and open the Blending Options.

Step 2 – Drop Shadow Settings

Firstly, we will start by adding some Shadow. Use the settings you see in the image below:

Step 3 – Inner Shadow Settings

Then we will need to add some Inner Shadow, using these settings:

Step 4 – Inner Glow Settings

… and then some Inner Glow with the following settings:

Step 5 – Bevel and Emboss Settings

Finally, a little Bevel and Emboss. Use these settings:

Step 6 – Merge layers

Hit OK and now Merge the original or Background layer to the duplicate one. Select the two layers and hit CTRL + ALT + E. You’ll now have a new merge layer.

This is the result so far

Step 7 – Torn Paper

Now open the below image with the several pieces of torn paper, from the source files.

Step 8 – Crop the Torn Paper

You will now need to crop the part that you are going to use, so that it is easier to select. Crop the piece of paper that is on the lower right corner of the torn paper image.

Step 9 – Select with the Magic Wand

Now you need to select the piece. You can select the white parts of the image and then invert the selection (CTRL + SHIFT + I). Use the Magic Wand tool to do this.

Step 10 – Scale and Rotate

Copy it and paste it onto the image that you are working with. Scale it down and rotate it until you get something like this:

Step 11 – Torn Background

Now we need to create the background for the torn photo. Open this image of a piece of cardboard:

Step 12 – Torn Background II

Select the white area, invert that selection. Copy and paste it onto the image you’re working on. Scale it and rotate it until it looks like this:

Step 13 – Torn Background III

Open again the image with the pieces of torn paper. Crop the yellow one. Select it as shown in the image below and invert that selection.
Remember to remove the clip. You can use the Clone tool or just cut a piece of plain paper and paste it over the clip.

Step 14 – Torn Background IV

Paste it onto the document that you were working on and place it as you can see in the below image:

Step 15 – Torn Background V

Now, the magic begins.
Set all the torn pieces of paper layers invisible. Now, open once again the image of the torn cardboard. Select the section that looks like a triangle; it’s the brownest part of the image.

Step 16 – Torn Background VI

Copy and paste it onto your current document like this:

Step 17 – Torn Background VII

CTRL + CLICK on the thumbnail of the piece of torn paper layer. Make it invisible and select the layer of the girl.

Step 18 – Copy and Paste the Selection

With the girl layer selected, copy the selection and paste it. Move the layer to the top (it may help to make all the torn paper layers visible). Now, rotate the part you’ve just pasted and move it like you can see in the picture below:

Step 19 – CTRL + CLICK

Now, CTRL + CLICK on the yellow piece of torn paper you have on the document.

Step 20 – Cut the image of the Girl

Make that layer invisible and use that selection to cut another part of the girl like this:

Step 21 – Position the Torn Paper

Copy it, paste it and move it to the top of the layers. Now rotate it a little and move it to the right just like this:

Step 22 – Applying Shadow

Now, you will need to apply some shadow to this particular piece. Open the blending options and Drop some shadow using these settings:

Step 23 – Positioning another piece of cardboard

You will now need to do something similar with the other cardboard piece. Select the cardboard layer on your left. Make that layer invisible and copy that part of the image of the girl’s layer and paste it. Place it on top of the layers and rotate it and move it so that it looks like the image below. Don’t forget to add some shadow to this piece as well, you can simply copy the layer style and paste it. (Step 22)

Step 24 – Repeat the process

This part is up to you. You will need to continue copying and pasteing parts of the photograph, and creating the final image how you would like it. Do this until you’re satisfied with the result, let your creativity rein free!
Continue copying and pasting the torn paper parts, you can even divide a part in two and rotate it like this:

Step 25 – Finished

The result could look like this, or yours may even be better!

The Author

Paola has been the author of todays tutorial, she is also known as Violet Bag and you can visit here website, Violetbag.com to view some of her awesome works and some more tutorials.

Design a Surreal Desert Scene in Photoshop

2010-02-22T05:53:00.000-08:00

In this tutorial I am going to show you how to create a surreal time-themed photomanipulation using Photoshop. The name of this photomanipulation is "Time Guardian" and it was originally created by Mariusz Karasiewicz (aka FISHBOT1337). I want to take this opportunity to thank him for collaborating with me on this tutorial.

Quick Nav:

Materials Needed:

I would like to thank the great photographers and artists for giving me permission to use their images: Rene Asmussen, night-fate-stock, vividlight, jdbartlett, Mind-Illusi0nZ-Stock, Amor-Fati-Stock, ewark, lpdragonfl, Andrew C., Sage-Dreamer, redheadstock.
Before you use any stock images from these photographers, please make sure that you read their stock rules and respect them. They have worked very hard to create all these stock images.

Step 1: Create a new document and add the sky

Go to File > New (Ctrl+N) and create a new document in Photoshop. Then download this sky stock image, open it in Photoshop and move it into your first document using the Move Tool (V). Then go to Edit > Free Transform (Ctrl+T), hold down the Shift key and resize this image. Name this layer "sky", hit Ctrl+G to put it inside a group and name the group "background."

Step 2: Add a small galaxy on the sky

Create a new layer inside the "background" group and name it "galaxy." Then download these brushes and install them. Select the Brush Tool (B), chose one of those galaxy brushes, set the foreground color to #8c8c8c and create a small galaxy on your sky. Then set the blend mode of this layer to Color Dodge 25%.

Step 3: Add the first desert stock photo

Download this desert stock photo and open it in Photoshop. Double-click on the background layer to unlock it, then use the Magic Wand Tool (W) to select the sky and delete it. Move this image into your first document using the Move Tool (V). Hit Ctrl+M to open the Curves window and use the settings from the following image. Name this layer "desert 1."
Note: You can also use the Eraser Tool (E) and a soft brush to erase some parts of the sky from this photo.

Step 4: Duplicate the "desert 1" layer

Duplicate the "desert 1" layer (Ctrl+J), and then go to Edit > Transform > Flip Horizontal. Use the Move Tool (V) to move this layer to the right side of your document and name it "desert 2."

Step 5: Add the second desert stock photo

Download this desert stock photo and open it in Photoshop. Double-click on the background layer to unlock it, select the sky using the Magic Wand Tool (W) and delete it. You can also use the Eraser Tool (E) and a soft brush to erase the top area of the desert. Move this image into your document using the Move Tool (V) and go to Edit > Transform > Flip Horizontal. Double-click on this layer to open the Layer Style window and use the settings from the following image for Gradient Overlay. Name this layer "desert 3."
Note: Arrange the image from this step in a way that makes visible the hills of the other two desert photos beneath it.

Step 6: Add the iron mask

Download this iron mask stock photo and open it in Photoshop. Use the Pen Tool (P) to separate the mask from the background and then use the Move Tool (V) to move it into your first document. Go to Edit > Free Transform (Ctrl+T), hold down the Shift key and resize this layer; right-click on the image, select Flip Horizontal and then hit Enter. Name this layer "iron mask" and put it inside a group (Ctrl+G). Name the group "iron mask" too.

Step 7: Add a Gradient Overlay layer style to the iron mask

Double-click on the "iron mask" layer to open the Layer Style window and use the settings from the following image for Gradient Overlay.

Step 8: Mask the bottom area of the iron mask

The bottom area of our iron mask should be buried in the sand. To make this happen, make sure that you have the "iron mask" layer selected, and then go to Layer > Layer Mask > Reveal All. Select a black soft brush (B) and paint with it over the bottom area of your iron mask.

Step 9: Add a Levels adjustment layer

Go to Layer > New Adjustment Layer > Levels, check the "Use Previous Layer to Create Clipping Mask" option and use the settings from the following image to make the iron mask brighter.

Step 10: Create a shadow for the iron mask

Ctrl-click on the thumbnail of the "iron mask" layer to select it, then create a new layer and fill it with black. Put this layer beneath the "iron mask" layer, then go to Edit > Transform > Flip Vertical. Move this shadow at the bottom of the mask. Then go to Edit > Free Transform, hold down the Ctrl key and transform the shadow like I did. Blur this layer (Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur) and then use the Eraser Tool (E) and a big soft brush with the opacity of 20% to erase some areas of this layer. Keep in mind that the shadow should be darker at the bottom of the iron mask and brighter at the other end. Name this layer "shadow."

Step 11: Add a sign on the iron mask’s forehead

Create a new layer, set the foreground color to #cca899, select a soft brush (B) with the diameter of 100px and click once in the middle of the iron mask’s forehead. Name this layer "forehead light" and set its blend mode to Overlay 75%. Then download the Celtic Rune Charm Pack, open the "Rune-Ger.jpg" image in Photoshop and use the Pen Tool (P) to separate the sign from the background. Move this sign into your first document using the Move Tool (V) and put it above the forehead light. Name this layer "forehead sign" and set its blend mode to Overlay.

Step 12: Add two scars to the iron mask

Download this tree texture and open it in Photoshop. Move the image into your first document, use Free Transform (Ctrl+T) to resize the image and put it on the right cheek of your iron mask. Set the blend mode of this layer to Soft Light and use the Eraser Tool (E) and a soft brush to erase the areas of this texture that you don’t need. Then duplicate this layer (Ctrl+J), go to Edit > Transform > Flip Horizontal, use Free Transform (Ctrl+T) to resize this layer and put this scar on the other cheek of your iron mask.

Step 13: Create some lights coming out of the iron mask’s eyes

Create a new layer, select a white soft brush (B) and use it to create some lights that are coming out of the iron mask’s eyes. Name this layer "eyes light" and set its blend mode to Soft Light 85%.

Step 14: Add a bronze hand

Create a new group and name it "hand." Then download this bronze hand stock image and open it in Photoshop. Use the Magic Wand Tool (W) to separate the hand from the background and use the Move Tool (V) to move the hand into your first document. Go to Edit > Free Transform (Ctrl+T) resize this image and rotate it. Then select the Eraser Tool (E) and erase the bottom area of your hand to make it look like it’s buried in the sand. Name this layer "hand."

Step 15: Make some color adjustments to the hand

Go to Layer > New Adjustment Layer > Curves, check the "Use Previous Layer to Create Clipping Mask" option and use the settings from the following image. Set the opacity of this layer to 80%.

Step 16

Add three more adjustment layers (Color Balance, Channel Mixer and Levels) using the settings from the following image. You can create all these layers from the "Layer > New Adjustment Layer" menu.

Step 17: Add a texture to the hand

Chose one of these rock textures that you like, or find another one on the internet, open it in Photoshop and move it into your first document using the Move Tool (V). Then use Free Transform (Ctrl+T) to resize this image and rotate it. Make sure that this layer is above all the other adjustment layers, then right-click on it and select Create Clipping Mask. Name this layer "texture" and set its blend mode to Soft Light 30%.

Step 18: Use the iron mask as a texture for the hand

Duplicate the "iron mask" layer from the "iron mask" group (Ctrl+J). Then move this new layer above the hand’s texture layer, right-click on it and select Create Clipping Mask. Set the blend mode of this layer to Soft Light.

Step 19: Create a clock needle

Download these Gearing Brushes and install them. Create a new layer, set the foreground color to black and use one of the brushes which you have downloaded to create a clock needle coming out of one of the hand’s fingers. Double-click on this layer and use the settings from the following image. Name this layer "clock needle."

Step 20: Color the hand in orange

Ctrl-click on the "hand" layer to select it. Then create a new layer and fill it with the color #d57426. Name this layer "orange hand" and set its blend mode to Soft Light 70%. Then use the Eraser Tool (E) and a big soft brush to erase the bottom area of this layer.

Step 21: Create some gears

Set the foreground color to black, create a new layer and use the brushes which you have previously download to create some gears inside the hand. Double-click on this layer to open the Layer Style window and use the settings from the following image. Then use the Eraser Tool (E) and a small hard brush to erase the area of the gears that you don’t need.

Step 22: Adjust the lights and the shadows of the iron mask

Double-click on your hand layer to open the Layer Style window and use the settings from the following image for Gradient Overlay. Then use the Burn Tool (O) and the Dodge Tool (O) to create the lights and the shadows. Experiment with the Range and Exposure settings from the option bar to get the effect you want.
Note: when you have the Dodge Tool or the Burn Tool selected you can use the Alt key to quickly shift between them.

Step 23: Create a shadow for your hand

Create a shadow for your hand using the same process which you have used for the iron mask.

Step 24: Add some clocks

Create a new group and name it "clocks." Then download this image and open it in Photoshop. Use the Pen Tool (P) to separate the clock from the rest of the image. Then move the clock into your first document using the Move Tool (V). Go to Edit > Free Transform (Ctrl+T), hold down the Shift key and resize this image. Then use the Eraser Tool (E) and a grunge brush to erase some areas of this clock.
Repeat this step to add more clocks to your image. Change the size of each clock and rotate them. Take a look at the following image for reference. Select all your clock layers and merge them together (Ctrl+E). Name this layer "clocks."

Step 25: Add a shadow to the clocks

Double-click on the "clocks" layer to open the Layer Style window and use the settings from the following image for Drop Shadow.

Step 26

Create a new layer and fill it with black. Set the blend mode of this layer to Linear Dodge (Add). Then select the Brush Tool (B), select a brush with the diameter of 2-3px, select a nice orange color and create some random lines around your clocks. Take a look at the following image for reference.

Step 27: Add some birds

Download these brushes and install them. Then create a new layer and use those brushes to create some small birds on your sky. Name this layer "birds."

Step 28: Final color adjustments

Go to Layer > New Adjustment Layer > Gradient Map and use the settings from the following image. Set the blend mode of this layer to Soft Light.

Step 29

Go to Layer > New Adjustment Layer > Gradient Map and use the settings from the following image. Set the blend mode of this layer to Soft Light 38%.

Step 30

Go to Layer > New Fill Layer > Gradient Fill and use the settings from the following image. Set the blend mode of this layer to Soft Light.

Step 31

Create a new layer, select a big soft brush (B) and paint with yellow in the left side of your image and with blue in the right side. Then set the blend mode of this layer to Color 25%.

Final Result

I hope you enjoyed this tutorial and that you learned something new. What we have obtained is a photo-manipulation with some ruins in the desert; the clocks, the gears and the clock needle make everything to gravitate around the time theme.

By Ciursă Ionuţ

How to Create a Grunge Web Design in Photoshop

2010-02-22T05:40:00.000-08:00

Final Image Preview

Before we get started, let's take a look at the image we'll be creating. Click the screenshot below to view the full-size image. As always, the layered Photoshop file is available via our PSDTUTS Plus membership. You can view the final image below or view a larger version here.

Step 1

This time we're going to create a full web design in grunge style using Photoshop and a lot of stock images. As this is a intermediate to advanced level tutorial, I'll skip the explanation of some basic steps. First create a new document 950 px by 800 px at RGB 72dpi. Show the rulers and drag four guides bounding the document, this will be the optimal area of the design. I'm planning to keep a fixed width layout.
Go to Image > Canvas Size and increase the width and height a lot more, 1200 px by 1000 px is OK, this way we'll be designing for wider screen resolutions. Then add more guides where you're planning to add the containers (Header, Navigation bar, Sidebar, Footer).
Let's imagine this design is destined for a Wordpress template, so we'll need a header, a navigation bar inside the header, and a right sidebar. Take a look at the bottom of the following image. Then fill a background with this color #7A8173.

Step 2

Now we're going to create a pattern for the header's background, which is fairly simple. Create a new document 50 px by 300 px and draw something like the image below. I'm using guides to make my shape as symmetrical as possible. Then go to Edit > Define pattern and save the shape as "pattern 1."

Step 3

On a new layer in our main design file, draw a 300 px height rectangle using the Rectangle Tool. Go to Filters, and add a Pattern Overlay, search for your brand new pattern and apply it. To make it look correct you must click the Snap to Origin button. Change the layer Fill to 0%, create a new blank layer above the shape layer, and merge both, this way you'll have the pattern ready to add some effects to it. Name that layer "Pattern 1."

Step 4

Select "Pattern 1" layer and apply to it some layer styles: Drop Shadow, a Gradient Overlay, and a Pattern Overlay. Try to get something similar to the bottom of image below, using following values.

Step 5

Now we're going to add the navigation bar background. Draw a rectangle hiding a little bit of the "Pattern 1" layer. Apply to that rectangle a Pattern overlay, a black to red black gradient overlay, and a soft Drop shadow. Use the values of the images below as a reference. Next, add a Layer mask > Hide all, and draw a black to white to black Reflected Gradient on the layer mask, you'll get something similar to the bottom image below.

Step 6

Now draw an ellipse (#691E1B) above the "Pattern 1" layer, name it "Light," and Apply a Gaussian Blur to it with a 50 pixels radius. I created an extra guide to draw the light in the center of the header. Delete everything below the navigation bar and change the layer's Blending mode to Color Dodge.

Step 7

To finish the first part of the layout, we're going to draw the sidebar's background. Draw some guides to delimit the sidebar and also edit the existing guides to make them fit on the actually design. Then draw a red rectangle (#3D100B) and apply the following styles: a Drop Shadow, a Color Overlay, and a Pattern Overlay.
At this point, you must consider the way you're going to cut the image into HTML + CSS; that's why I'm using Drop shadows with 0px of Distance the most of the time, and only horizontal or vertical gradients. The texture in this case has many horizontal lines. It needs to be easy to convert this into a repeating background for many areas. Also ,this is a good point to take a break and organize the layers in your folders to keep things organized.

Step 8

Now begin with the details, I want to add the site name in a prominent place, that's why I will use this nice grunge label image. Obviously you must extract the label and place it in the top left corner of our design. Try to get something like the first image below. Next, use the Magic Wand tool to select the little brown circle, then Command + Shift + I to inverse the selection. Adjust the Levels and Hue/Saturation using the values shown below.

Step 9

Now using the Eraser tool and an irregular Brush, delete some areas of the label's border. To add a paper cut effect, select the Dodge tool and use the same Brush shape to apply the dodge to the label's border.

Step 10

We're going to add a shadow to our label next. For this, duplicate the "Label" layer, change the Hue/Saturation > Lightness to -100, and apply a Gaussian Blur with a 10 px radius. Next, change the "Label copy" Blending mode to Multiply and set the Opacity to 75%.

Step 11

A last retouch for the label, change the Saturation to -40 to make it more gray.

Step 12

Now we'll add some support images, try to find images surrounding a concept, but as this is a tutorial about the techniques, I'm choosing a random one. This one is a beautiful picture of a vintage train here in the highlands of Bolivia. Extract the shape of the train however you want. Then change the "train" layer's Blending mode to Darken.

Step 13

Let's add some text, first the page name. Type something using a grunge font; you can find some interesting ones over here. For the title use a black type and change the layer's blending mode to Overlay, then duplicate the layer and change the copy's Opacity to 75%. To get a tiny blur effect, move the copied layer one or two pixels left or right. Add more text using this technique, like a slogan or something. Also, it's a good moment to add the navigation links as well.

Step 14

Now add more stuff, it's grunge style! I downloaded some Jenn B’s brushes from here, these brushes have restrictions. Using those brushes add some numbers, corners, masking tapes and whatnot, feel free to do whatever you want in this step. Just remember add all the layers below both the "Label" and "Label Copy" layers.

Step 15

Now we'll start adding the page sections. First of all, in the header we'll need a search bar. Type a search label. Next, draw a red (#6A0400) rectangle as a search input field, then apply a Stroke and a Pattern overlay layer effect.

Step 16

Now we'll start adding the main content of our design. First we're going to add a field to put some featured text on. Draw a dark gray (#0D0F0E) rectangle into a layer below the sidebar. I created four folders to keep the layout organized: One for the "Header" above everything, one for the "Sidebar" below the "Header," one for the "Content" below the "Header" and "Sidebar," and the last one for the "Footer."
You can add this rectangle into the "Content" layer, also you can add as many folders as needed inside these four folders. Once you've placed the rectangle in a proper place, apply a Drop shadow and a Stroke effect using the values below.

Step 17

Download some grunge corners and borders from here, and paste one over the gray background. Next, apply apply an Overlay effect to the corner with a color of #171612. Also, add another corner over the sidebar's background, but this time bring down its Opacity below 25%.

Step 18

Let's add some text. You can add any sample text, imagine that it's javascript driven text recent posts section, or a featured post section, something like that. I'm using the same grunge display typeface as used for the navigation bar with the color #4D0D0D and Arial with a color of #3F3F3F for the body text.
Apply a drop shadow effect to the title and add the same effect to the navigation items as well. When you convert this PSD into an HTML + CSS file, you'll need to convert these titles to images, so it's OK if you want to add more styles to them. Finally, use some guides to put the text layers into a proper place.

Step 19

Our featured bar is looking a little empty, so let's add a support image. In this case, I used a polaroid shot. You can download the polaroid picture from here. Extract the polaroid, paste it into a layer above the gray background and the grunge corner on the "Content" folder, then change the Hue/Saturation to make the polaroid a little more sepia (Select the Colorize option).
Use the same techniques for the "Label" layer's edges (Step 9). Erase and Dodge the edges of the Polaroid picture. Finally, add a drop shadow using the same technique as used in Step 10 of this tutorial.

Step 20

I had this sepia picture of myself so I'm adding it to the design. Add any image into a new layer above the "Polaroid" layer, select the black square of the polaroid, then Command + Shift + I to inverse the selection. Select the picture layer and Delete all the extra. Next, you can add more grunge details, like some masking tape over the picture, as shown in the images below. I applied a 1px Drop Shadow effect to the added tape as well.

Step 21

It's a good moment to add a RSS icon to the sidebar. Draw a Rounded Corner Rectangle (#99917E), then apply the following effects to it: an Inner Glow, a Pattern Overlay, and a Drop Shadow, use the values shown in the image below. Next, draw or paste into a new layer above the rectangle the standard RSS shape and fill it with black. Finally, change the "RSS shape" layer Blending Mode to Overlay.

Step 22

Now place the RSS icon on the sidebar's top left. Add some text like "RSS FEED." Draw another piece of masking tape, and write the number of subscribers over it. Remember, now we're working in the "Sidebar" folder.

Step 23

It's time to add a single post to our design. Just write some random text as a Title, another line for the date, category, and author. Also, some words as the text of the post. Typography is the most important in this step. I love to use Serif fonts for the titles and Sans-Serif for the body, but is just me. Decide what you feel is best for your design.

Step 24

To give our sample post a little more attitude, we're going to add a preview image, just like in the TUTS sites, but as this is a grunge design we need to add a grunge background to our images. This is as simple as adding padding top and bottom with CSS, then setting a repeating background image.
This image will be of 35mm film. Extract two small stripes from the film, and change their Hue/Saturation using the values in the image below. Next, using an irregular Eraser, Delete some areas of the stripes. Finally, add a Drop Shadow to each stripe. When you have finish with the film, paste any image below the film layers. I'm adding a picture of one of my travels. Finally, apply a Stroke Effect (#2F261D) to that image.

Step 25

Draw a 2px red line below the post and some text for the comments, it's a good idea to add all the post related layers into a new folder called "Post." Then increase the height of the document a little bit, you can do that by using the Crop tool, do this just to see how our design will look if it has two or three posts on it. Duplicate the "Post" group, and change the text and the image, as shown below.

Step 26

Actually it's looking pretty good, now add the titles of Sidebar's items. Yo can create a folder for each item as well.

Step 27

Now add a list icon. You can use any Custom shape. Add some random text, I'm using Georgia for the sidebar. Duplicate the icons and edit one to represent the hover state. Do the same for each Sidebar item.

Step 28

We're close to finished. Add some grunge details at the bottom of sidebar, by adding some grunge brushes into a new layer above the sidebar's background layer. Select the Sidebar's background layer, then go to Layer > Layer Mask > Reveal all. Next, hide some areas of the bottom left of the sidebar's background using an irregular black Brush.

Step 29

Finally, select the Sidebar's background layer and copy the layer style of it. Draw a rectangle at the bottom of the design inside the "Footer" folder and paste the layer style into it. Next, extract and paste this image above the Footer's background.
Adjust the saturation to make it a little bit more gray. Also, you can apply to that sheet of paper a drop shadow repeating the technique of Step 10. Add some text over the piece of paper, maybe a Slogan or something. And also add some footer text, like a quick navigation bar, and the copyright information.

Conclusion

Web design isn't an piece of cake, but I hope this tutorial will help you to improve your skills. It's up to you now, design your own, or sign up for PLUS to download the PSD source and play with it. I'd love to see some grunge web designs in the PSDTUTS Flickr group. You can view the final image below or view a larger version here.

Subscribe to the PSDTUTS RSS Feed for the best Photoshop tuts and articles on the web.

Author: Alvaro Guzman

Create a Dark Themed Web Design from Scratch

2010-02-22T05:33:00.000-08:00

Final Image Preview

Before we get started, let's take a look at the image we'll be creating. click the screenshot below to view the full-size image. As always, the full Photoshop file is available via our PSDTUTS Plus membership.

Areas of Attraction

Let's take a look at the areas of the site that will attract a visitorâ€™s attention the most. If you notice, the area with the most attraction is around the navigation and the first post. This is very important because it will give visitors insight into the sort of content the site contains.
The next main area of attraction is to the top right of the banner. The reason it is located here is that after the visitor sees the sort of content is on the site, they will see the title of the site, along with a small description. There is where important design and branding elements belong. Since most people decide whether they like a site in a matter of seconds, they now have most of the information needed to decide to whether to stay.
The other areas that direct attention are the titles of posts and entries. Whether they are in the sidebar or the footer, these areas will give a quick summary of the rest of the content.

Step 1

Now that we know what we are going to make, and the design decisions behind the layout, letâ€™s move onto the design process.
To begin, create a new document. Mine is 1024px wide x 1200px high. Though the main content will be contained in the center 800px, this document size will show how it looks on larger monitors as well. Next, fill our background with black.

Step 2

Now we want to add a stroke and a gradient to the background to give it more depth. Grab your Single Row Marquee Tool and select a row about 400px below the top of the document. Fill your selection with (#1b1b1b). Then make a gradient underneath the stroke. Set your foreground color to (#0d0d0d). Then make a selection 1024px wide x 20px high. With your Linear Gradient Tool selected, make a Foreground to Transparent gradient. Start at the top and end at the bottom of the selection.

Step 3

Now letâ€™s create the header of the design so we know where to place our graphics. Make a selection 800px wide x 225px high. Fill your selection with black. Then make a 1px border on the inside with the color (#0a0a0a). Make sure your Rulers (Ctrl+R) are showing. Then drag a guide out to 512px on the horizontal ruler. Now drag your black header until the middle of it snaps with your guide. This will center your header.
Let's add an outer glow to our header as well. Set the Blending Mode to Normal, Color to black, Opacity to 50%, Spread to 0%, and Size to 29px. You won't notice this right now, but later when we add graphics behind the header it will cast a shadow on them.

Step 4

We don't need a floating header, so letâ€™s add our body below. Make a selection 800px wide and the rest of the height under the header. Fill the selection with black and add an inside stroke of (#0a0a0a). Nudge our body up 1px so that it overlaps the header.
Be sure that the body layer is above the header layer, since we don't want the header to cast a shadow over the body. Letâ€™s add a 10px Foreground to Transparent gradient with a foreground color of (#0a0a0a) underneath the stroke.
Before we continue, letâ€™s make sure we have our layers grouped and ordered. Place the layers that have your header and body into a group called Body. Then place your background layer, and the layers that have your background stroke and gradient into a group below your Body group called Background.

Step 5

Letâ€™s create a new group called BehindHeader. Place it between the Body and Background groups. Then create a new layer inside this group. Grab your Polygonal Lasso Tool.
Select the triangular areas growing out from the header, and fill them with the color (#151515). The point of this is to create rays of light, so try to picture a focal point behind your header that these are being led to. To make it easier, only do one side of the rays, then duplicate the layer. Then go to Edit>Transform>Flip Horizontal
Now letâ€™s create a Radial Gradient from the center of the ray to the outside. Make it so that it fades into the background. Set your foreground color to white, and your background color to black.

Step 6

To create an effect like the heart logo at the top right of the header, download some splatter brushes. You can find some here.
Let's review the basic process of creating these graphics. Pick a splatter brush and a color that will fit your design, then brush it onto the canvas. Create a new layer above or below your previous one, depending on which color you want on top, and select a new color. Use another splatter brush and brush it onto the layer. You can also draw shapes, like hearts or circles on different layers as well.
You could use opacities or layer effects to enhance the design. Creating brushes or shapes with the same background color will knock out portions of the design, or you can delete portions of shapes or use masks to keep it nondestructive. Repeat this process until you have the effect you desire.

Step 7

Let's take a moment away from designing and examine what we have so far. We have a background with a gradient that adds depth to the design. We also have a body and a header with strokes to separate them from the background and each other. We have a set of graphics that are currently placed behind the header to give our design a unique look.
The things we still need are the inside of the header, the title and description, the navigation, the sidebar design, the content design, and the footer.

Step 8

Now that we have the area behind our header finished, letâ€™s work on the header itself. Create a new group above the Body layer and name it InsideHeader. Now that we have our group, letâ€™s duplicate the designs that we made earlier in the upper left, and upper right corners of the header so that we can get the hidden content inside the header.
Place the graphics inside the new group. The problem now is that the layer still shows outside the header, which is blocking our shadow effect. To fix this (Ctrl-click) on the thumbnail for your header layer. This will make a selection of the header. Now all we need to do is click the Add Layer Mask button on our InsideHeader group so all the contained layers show inside the header. Finally, letâ€™s change the Opacity of the group BehindHeader to 90% so that it appears darker.

Step 9

Letâ€™s place some text on top of the header and inside the header to introduce the site. Create a logo or graphic and place it to the left so that it draws attention to the main attraction area. You can also add a Foreground to Transparent gradient layer. I used (#030a0e) for mine. If you add this, be sure to create a stroke underneath it that is brighter than the gradient. For this I used (#0b1316). This will help to add a transition between the header and the navigation.

Step 10

Make a selection of your header area. Create a new layer effect. Apply the settings shown below. For the Pattern Overlay I used a pattern of a fleur-de-lis I had available. Then create a layer mask, by clicking the Add Layer Mask Button in the layers palette. Be sure to click this with the layer selected. Then draw a radial gradient that goes from white to black. Place it at the top center of the header and allow it to overlap past the top of the document. The effect is shown in the last image below.

Step 11

For the navigation, letâ€™s make a new group called Navigation. Then create a 35px high black bar underneath the main part of our header. Then letâ€™s add a Foreground to Transparent gradient with a foreground color of (#0c0c0c) starting at the top of the navigation. It looks good, but adding a 1px stroke of (#232323) at the bottom will make the transition between the banner and the main body better.
Add some text so that you know how the links will look. I used a basic Verdana 18pt size text with Strong enabled.

Step 12

Now create new group called Date. Create a new smaller splatter effect and keep it within a 100px wide x 100px high area. Then create a new layer above these splatters. Then grab your Rounded Rectangle Tool. Set the Radius to 5px. Then make a rectangle around 50px wide by 50px high. Then add an outer glow with a Blending Mode of Normal and set the Color to black.
You can also use the rays of light you created earlier, and place a smaller version behind your box. Add some text inside the date box so that you know what it will look like. I used 12px Verdana for the month and 24px bolded Verdana for the day.
Add a title and content to the right of the date box. I used 30px Verdana with a color of white for the header, and 12px Verdana (#dddddd) for the content text. I made a sample link with the color (#36ade1).

Step 13

To create the sidebar box use the Rounded Rectangle Tool with a Radius of 10, add a stroke of (#080808) and create two Foreground to Transparent gradients. Place one on top and one on the bottom.

Step 14

Finally, the last step is to create the footer. You can create it with the same technique used for the inside of the header. Create a layer mask on the group so that it stays in a 800px wide x 300px high. I decided to place an image in the top left position. I also created small boxes with arrows to use before links, as seen in the image below. There are also hair line separators between each link. I used a Foreground to Transparent gradient to separate the footer from the main content.

Final Result

We now have a completed dark Web design that is ready to be coded in CSS/HTML. Remember the strategic reasons for placing graphics in certain areas of attraction. Create your own unique awe-inspiring designs that pop with color set against a dark background.

Author: Tyler Bramer

2010-02-19T05:27:00.000-08:00

Fairy Night Photo Effect This task we'll learn how to correct the photos' colors, change the eyes color, work with the layers, applying ready brushes and designs, create your own design and to picture the stars.

Let's start. Open image:

Apply Image ? Adjustments ? Curves (ctrl+m) to correct the colors.

That is what we've got:

To change the eye's color we have to picture on a new layer several circles, using Ellipse Tool. (Use the fast button on the Layers window to create a new layer).

Apply to this layer Filter ? Blur ? Gaussian Blur.

Change the layer's type on Overlay.

Insert the grass and several trees along the lower edge. I used two kinds of ready brushes for this.

Represent the design now, which will be situated inside the eye. I combined a ready design and a butterfly's picture. To separate the butterflies from the background they are situated, just mark them out with Polygonal Lasso Tool and cut them out with Edit ? Cut (ctrl+x). Insert them on a new layer: Edit ? Paste (ctrl+v).

The butterflies need to be discolored: Image ? Abjustments ? Desaturate

(shift+ctrl+u). Increase their brightness and contrast, using Edit ? Abjustments ? Brightness/Contrast.

Make up now a design with a ready brush and butterflies. Copy the layer and apply Filter ? Blur ? Gaussian Blur. Merge the blurred layer with that one where it is situated the design itself, applying Layer ? Merge Down (ctrl+e). Change the layer's type on Multiply.

Take a sky's photo now.

Make it darker and contrasting, using Image - Adjustments ? Curves (ctrl+m)

Cut it out along the eye's line with Polygonal Lasso Tool.

Change the layer's type on Multiply. Take a ready brush now, imitating the marble veins and cover the entire picture with it. Cut the eye's orifice.

Change the layer's type on Soft Light. Take the next instrument: Brush Tool and picture with it many points of different sizes.

Apply to this layer Filter ? Blur ? Blur. Copy it several times and blur out each of them, setting different radius with Filter ? Blur ? Gaussian Blur.

Then apply to each of the new layers one more filter: Filter ? Blur ? Motion Blur. Merge all the layers that we've got, making use of the next command: Layer ? Merge Down (ctrl+e).

Add the same way in some places several stars' accumulations.

Finished!

+ View full size image

Made by Sigma

Using Ink Drops in Your Digital Compositions

2010-02-19T05:21:00.000-08:00

Final Image Preview

Step 1

The first and probably most fun part of this tutorial is to photograph the ink drops. Get some Indian ink and any type of clear container (I used a food container). Fill the container with water, then drop in the ink and snap away.
Tips: Constantly take pictures while the ink drops, as the shapes will change considerably over time. Photograph the ink drops in front of a white background to produce clearer pictures. Experiment with dripping the ink using pipettes and any other device you can get your hands on.
If you don't have access to ink and a camera then check out these images: 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5. Feel free to experiment with the ink drop images, but do pay attention to the usage license.

Step 2

Open a new document, set the background to black, and import the main image you want to use. I used a self portrait that I photographed myself. Cut out the image you'd like to use in your composition. After removing the background, we'll be able to focus on integrating the ink into the design.

Step 3

Adjust the levels and colors of the image using the Adjustment Layers (Layers > Create New Adjustment Layer). Using Adjustment Layers gives us greater freedom in case we need to undo something later on. Make sure all the Adjustment Layers are just above the "Man" layer. Then select them all, and create a Clipping Mask by right-clicking on them, and selecting it from the menu.
Use Levels to help create a darker, more subtle image. Also, use Hue & Saturation and Color Balance to subdue the colors and give the "Man" a tone with more yellow. Don't worry if the image looks dark at this stage, just make sure the hands stand out.

Step 4

To give the image a more defined look, we are going to add highlights. Put the "Man" layer and its Adjustment Layers into a folder. Then duplicate it. Change the Levels on the new Adjustment Layer so that the edges of the man's jacket are well defined.

Step 5

Add a Layer Mask to the layer of the "Man" by clicking on the Add Layer Mask Icon at the bottom of the Layers Window. Make sure the Layer Mask is black (which will make the layer disappear).
We are now going to bring out the highlights we want, which is mainly the prominent edges of the coat. Select the Layer Mask and draw over the parts you want to make brighter with a soft white brush.

Step 6

Its now time to select the ink drops we want to use inside the "Man." This can be as intricate as you want, however try to have a good idea of what you want the final piece to look like before you start. Once you have found an ink drop you want to use, copy and paste it into the current document.
Color doesn't matter at this stage; just pick the ink drops that have the best shape. Press Ctrl+I to invert the image, as the ink drop image will be on a white background. Then in the Layers Menu, change the Blending Mode of the ink drop layer to "Lighten", and resize the layer as necessary.

Step 7

Once you've placed all your drops, make two folders called "Ink drop - Front" and "Ink drop - BG," as we want to give some simple depth to the ink drops. Carefully choose the ones you want in the foreground and the ones you in the background. Then put the layers in the corresponding folders. Now select the "Inkdrop - BG" folder, and set the Opacity to 60%.

Step 8

We are now going to color the ink drops we have introduced. Use the Pen Tool to draw around the inside of the "Man," not including his hands or his face. Set the color of this layer to black. Then set the Blending Mode of this newly made layer to "Color," which will desaturate the ink drops.

Step 9

Duplicate the previous layer, and double-click it to bring up the Layer Styles Dialogue. Click Gradient Overlay and change the style drop down to Radial. Make the left hand color #cf2727 and the right hand #652727. Set the Blending Mode of this layer to Multiply. This step will create the impression of a glowing center in the image.

Step 10

You may find that the ink drops look quite flat now, so we need to add a bit more texture. Select one of your more intricate ink drops, desaturate the whole picture (Image > Adjust > Desaturate). Import it into your main image. Then resize it to cover your red ink drops.

Step 11

Change the Blending Mode of the layer to Multiply and the Opacity to around 20%. Ctrl-click on the previously made Layer Mask on the Color Layers. Then click back onto your new texture layer. Click Add New Layer Mask at the bottom of the Layers Panel. This will create a Mask around the image just in case you went over the edges.

Step 12

Now that we have the inkdrop sorted, let's start on the background. I used a stock image from Stock.xchng to give the background a bit of texture. You can download it here.
Desaturate the image and import it into Photoshop below the other layers. Change the Opacity of it to around 30%. Resize the photo so it touches the edges of the document. I also blurred the image slightly using Gaussian Blur (Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur).

Step 13

We are now going to Add a tinge of blue to the background. Add another 'Colour Balance' adjustment layer (Layer > Create New Adjustment Layer) and and a hint of both blue and green.

Step 14

To help give the piece some mood, use a large soft black brush to draw a vignette around the outside of the image. Then use a soft white brush to add a glow behind and above the "Man." Make sure to be subtle at this stage, as you want it to look as natural possible.

Step 15

We are now going to produce the inkdrop background. First, draw a black triangle, as seen in the image below.

Step 16

Next, paste the ink drops in you want to use. Change the Blending Mode of the layers to Multiply, so we are left with just the black of the images. This again is about choosing the right drops for the best composition.

Step 17

We are finally going to add the red inkdrop falling from the top. Choose the image you want to use. Then import it to the main document, using the same techniques as in Step 6.
Create a layer, and using the Rectangular Marquee tool drag a rectangle that covers the single inkdrop. Draw a rectangle over the inkdrop you just chose. Fill the rectangle with the color #912020. Then change the Blend Mode of this layer to Overlay.

Step 18

Now it's time to do a few finishing touches to the image. Add a few final white ink drops to the main background using the same techniques as before. However, make sure that the layers are desaturated, faded, and the Blend Mode set to Color Dodge.

Step 19

Decide whether you need to darken or colorize any parts of your main image. Then create layers accordingly. I decided I wanted the man's hands to glow from the red ink, so I drew over the hands with a soft red brush. Then set the Blend Mode to Multiply. Also, I added a few shadows and blue hues.

Step 20

Finally, adjust the brightness and color of the overall image by using an Adjustment Layer at the top of the document (Layer > New Adjustment Layer). Then I added a Brightness/Contrast to lighten the image, as shown below.

Author: Josh Smith

Electrifying Glow Album Art

2010-02-12T04:12:00.000-08:00

Introduction

This tutorial is a bit involved and assumes that you are proficient enough in Photoshop to follow along without me holding your hand. That being said, lets jump right in.

Step 1

I took this photo at a show The Killers played at Madison Square Garden in New York this past summer… packed house, great crowd… anyway, here’s the photo. The image is included in the lesson files available for download at the end of the tutorial.
Lets first start by drawing a nice curvy path with the pen tool that we’ll use as our main wrapping glow line. In the Paths palette be sure to rename the path so you don’t loose it when we create a new one.

Step 2

Create a new layer called "First Stroke" and switch to the Brush tool. Choose the 5 pixel round brush with hard edges, set the foreground color to white and click back to the Pen tool. Now simply Right-Click (Mac: Control-Click) anywhere on the path and choose Stroke Path. When the dialog box pops up choose Brush and Simulate Pressure. The pressure simulation will ensure that the stroke tapers off at each end.

Step 3

With your tool of choice remove the sections along the stroke that should be behind your subject. I use the Pen tool.

Step 4

Add an Inner and Outer Glow as shown below. The blue color I’m using in both styles is #6d9bff. This will be the only layer style we’ll be using and we’ll copy and paste this one onto subsequent layers as we go.

Step 5

Duplicate the "First Stroke" layer, clear the layer styles and add a 6px Gaussian Blur. This will add an additional glowing effect around the original stroke.

Step 6

Create a new layer called "Particles", activate the Path we created earlier and switch to the Brush tool. Choose a round brush of 3 pixels with a hardness of 0%, then under the Brushes palette set Shape Dynamics and Scattering to the following. (*note: make sure your foreground color is still white)

Step 7

Switch back to the Pen tool and stroke the path just like before, then remove the overlapping sections. This time the eraser tool will probably be the easiest way to remove the overlapping dots.
Copy the layer style from the "First Stroke" layer and paste them into the "Particles" layer. (*note: This can be done easily by holding down the Option (PC: Alt) key while clicking and dragging the style icon from one layer to the other.)

Step 8

Create a new layer called "Second Stroke", create a new path similar but not the same as the original with the Pen tool (or duplicate the earlier path and change it a little) then repeat steps 2-5 but this time use a 3 pixel brush and reduce your Gaussian Blur to 3 on the copy layer. Play with a lower opacity on these layers until the effect looks right to you and don’t forget to copy the layer style onto the "Second Stroke" layer.

Step 9

Now that the glow effects have been completed it’s time to really have some fun with this image.
Click on the Background layer and duplicate it by pressing Command-J (PC: Ctrl-J). Choose Image>Adjustments>Threshold from the main menu and use a setting around 85. This will obviously vary depending on your application of the technique.

Step 10

Grab the Magic Wand tool by pressing W and then click anywhere in the field of black. This may not have selected all the black if there are isolated pockets so choose Select>Similar from the main menu to ensure all the black pixels are selected.
Invert the selection by pressing Command-Shift-I (PC: Ctrl-Shift-I) then drag the layer to the trash and select the Background layer. (*note: your selection will still be active.

Step 11

Duplicate the selected area by pressing Command-J (PC: Ctrl-J). This will create a new layer with just the selection copied onto it. Call this layer "Partial".
The selection will be gone and it won’t look like anything has happened, so create a new layer between the "Partial" layer and the "Background" layer, call it "Black" and fill the entire layer with black.

Step 12

Click back to the "Partial" layer and use the eraser to remove all those annoying artifacts outside the artwork that we want to keep.

Step 13

For my finished image I added the graphic as an CD album cover.

Lesson Files + Additional Resources

Download the free .PSD file and other lesson files Right Here.

Adding Light Streaks To A Photo

2010-02-12T04:06:00.000-08:00

Let's get started!

Step 1: Add A New Blank Layer

We're going to be adding our light streaks on their own separate layer, so the first thing we need to do is add a new blank layer to our document. To do that, click on the New Layer icon at the bottom of the Layers palette:

Photoshop Tutorials: Clicking on the "New Layer" icon.

This adds a new blank layer, which Photoshop names "Layer 1", above our Background layer:

Photoshop Tutorials: A new layer appears above the Background layer.

Step 2: Select The Pen Tool

As I mentioned at the beginning, we're going to create our light streaks by drawing paths and then stroking the paths with a brush. To draw paths, we need the Pen Tool, so select it from the Tools palette. You can also press the letter P to select it with the keyboard shortcut:

Photoshop Tutorials: Select the Pen Tool.

Step 3: Select The "Paths" Option In The Options Bar

Photoshop gives us three different things that we can do with the Pen Tool. We can use it to draw vector-based shapes, we can draw paths with it (which is what we want to do), and we can draw pixel-based shapes. We select between these three options by clicking on their icons up in the Options Bar at the top of the screen. You'll see three little square icons grouped together on the left side of the Options Bar. Click on the icon in the middle, which is the Paths option:

Photoshop Tutorials: Click on the "Paths" icons in the Options Bar.

Step 4: Draw A Path Where You Want The First Light Streak To Appear

With the Pen Tool selected and the Paths option chosen in the Options Bar, we're ready to draw our first path. I want my light streaks to appear in the bottom half of the photo, somewhere around the woman's shoulders and neck area, so that's where I'll draw my first path. You'll want to add several curves to your path to make the light streak more interesting. I'll start by clicking somewhere in the bottom left corner of the image to add my first anchor point, then I'll drag out direction handles in the direction that I want my path to follow. Again, be sure to check out our Making Selections With The Pen Tool tutorial first if what I just said made no sense to you:

Photoshop Tutorials: Clicking in the document to add an anchor point, then dragging out direction handles.

I'll continue drawing the rest of my first path by clicking and dragging a couple more times with the Pen Tool to add the rest of my path segments. I now have my first path running from left to right across the woman's shoulders and neck area:

Photoshop Tutorials: The first path has now been added to the image.

Step 5: Select The Brush Tool

Now that we've drawn our first path, the next step is to stroke it with a brush. For that, we'll need Photoshop's Brush Tool, so select it from the Tools palette, or simply press the letter B on your keyboard:

Photoshop Tutorials: Select the Brush Tool.

Step 6: Select The "40 Sampled Tip" Brush

Photoshop comes with several brushes that would work well for our light streak effect, but after trying a few of them out, I've found one I like the best. To select it, we'll need to bring up the Brushes palette. There's a few different ways to bring up the Brushes palette, and one of them is to click on the Brushes palette toggle icon in the Options Bar at the top of the screen:

Photoshop Tutorials: Click on the Brushes palette toggle icon to bring up the Brushes palette.

When the Brushes palette appears, click on the words Brush Tip Shape in the top left corner of the palette. Then, in the Brush tip selection area on the right, scroll down near the bottom of the list and select the 40 Sampled Tip brush. It just says "40" in the preview area, but if you have Tool Tips enabled in Photoshop's Preferences, you'll see the words "Sampled Tip" appear when you hover your mouse over the brush:

Photoshop Tutorials: Click on the words "Brush Tip Shape" in the top left corner, then click on the "40 Sampled Tip" brush in the selection area.

Step 7: Lower The "Spacing" Amount To 1%

Down at the bottom of the Brushes palette, directly above the brush preview area, you'll see the Spacing option. Whenever you paint with a brush in Photoshop, even though it usually appears as though you're painting one continuous stroke, what Photoshop is really doing is "stamping" the image over and over again with the brush tip. If the "stamps" are close enough together, they appear as a continuous stroke. The Spacing option determines how far apart the stamps will appear, and by default, the option is set to 30% for our "40 Sampled Tip" brush. That's too much of a space for our effect. Use the slider bar to lower the Spacing amount all the way down to 1%. If you look at the brush preview area after lowering the Spacing amount to 1%, you'll see that the brush now appears as one continuous stroke:

Photoshop Tutorials: Lower the "Spacing" amount to 1% to smooth out the appearance of the brush stroke.

Step 8: Set The Brush Size Control To "Pen Pressure"

If we were to stroke the path with our brush right now, the light streak effect wouldn't look very good because the brush would appear at the exact same size all along the path. We need the brush to taper off at both ends to create the illusion that the light streak is actually beginning at one end and ending at the other. For that, we'll need to tell Photoshop to simulate pen pressure for us, as if we were drawing with a pen tablet.
Click directly on the words Shape Dynamics on the left of the Brushes palette, directly below "Brush Tip Shape". Make sure you click directly on the words, not just in the checkbox to the left of the words. Clicking inside the checkbox will enable the Shape Dynamics options but won't allow us to change any of them. We need to click on the words themselves to get access to the options. Once you've clicked on the words, you'll see the Shape Dynamics options appear on the right of the palette. At the very top, you'll see the words "Size Jitter" with a slider bar, and directly below the slider bar is the Control option. This is where we get to decide how to control the size of our brush. We want Photoshop to simulate pen pressure, so select Pen Pressure from the Control drop-down menu:

Photoshop Tutorials: Click directly on the words "Shape Dynamics" on the left, then set the "Control" option on the right to "Pen Pressure".

Now, at the moment, all we've done is told Photoshop that we want to control the size of our brush according to pen pressure, but what if you don't actually have a pen tablet? If you don't have one connected to your computer, you'll see a little warning icon appear to the left of the word "Control" telling you that a pen tablet is required, but don't worry about it. In a moment, we're going to be telling Photoshop to simulate pen pressure for us, so for this effect, it makes no difference whether you have a pen tablet or not.

Step 9: Set Your Foreground Color To White

We have our brush ready to go. Now all we need to do is choose the color we want to paint with. We're going to want to paint with white, which means we need our Foreground color to be white. Press the letter D on your keyboard to make sure your Foreground and Background colors are reset to their defaults, with black as your Foreground color and white as your Background color. Then press the letter X to swap them, making white your Foreground color:

Photoshop Tutorials: The Foreground and Background color swatches in the Tools palette. White is now the Foreground color.

Step 10: Save Your Path

We have our path, we have our brush, and we've set our Foreground color to white. We're ready to create our first light streak! Switch over to Photoshop's Paths palette, which you'll find grouped in with the Layers and Channels palettes. You'll see your path listed, which is currently named "Work Path", along with a preview of the path on the left, similar to how layers are shown in the Layers palette with their name on the right and a preview area on the left. Whenever you create a new path, Photoshop automatically names it "Work Path", which means it's temporary. If you don't save the path before drawing a new one, the new path will replace the previous one and you'll have lost it. In many cases, this isn't a problem, but let's save our path just in case we want to go back to it later.
To save a path, all we need to do is rename it. Simply double-click on the name "Work Path" and Photoshop will pop up the Save Path dialog box, with the suggested name of "Path 1" already entered for you. Click OK to exit out of the dialog box and Photoshop will rename the path "Path 1". The path is now saved:

Photoshop Tutorials: The Paths palette showing the path now saved and renamed "Path 1".

Step 11: Stroke The Path With The Brush

Let's create our first light streak. Click on the small, right-pointing arrow in the top right corner of the Paths palette, which brings up the Paths palette's fly-out menu, then select Stroke Path from the list of options:

Photoshop Tutorials: Select "Stroke Path" from the fly-out menu.

This brings up the Stroke Path dialog box. We want to stroke the path with our brush, so make sure the Tool option is set to Brush. Then, to tell Photoshop to simulate pen pressure for us, click inside the checkbox to the left of the words Simulate Pressure:

Photoshop Tutorials: Set the "Tool" option to "Brush" and make sure "Simulate Pressure" is selected.

Click OK to exit out of the dialog box and Photoshop will stroke the path with the brush, creating our first light streak. Notice how the brush stroke tapers off at both ends thanks to that "Simulate Pressure" option:

Photoshop Tutorials: The image after stroking the path with the brush.

If you think your brush stroke is either too thick or too narrow, simply press Ctrl-Z (Win) / Command-Z (Mac) to undo the stroke, then make your brush larger or smaller by pressing either the left or right bracket keys on your keyboard. The left bracket key makes the brush smaller, and the right bracket key makes it larger. Try again once you've resized your brush.
We've added our first light streak, but it doesn't look much like a light streak at the moment. It looks like a fancy white brush stroke, which is exactly what it is. To make it look more like a light streak, we need to add some color and some glow effects, and for that, we'll use a couple of simple layer styles.

Step 12: Add An "Outer Glow" Layer Style

Switch back over to your Layers palette. You'll see your white brush stroke in the preview area of "Layer 1". Click on the Layer Styles icon at the bottom of the Layers palette and select Outer Glow from the list of layer styles that appears:

Photoshop Tutorials: Add an "Outer Glow" layer style in the Layers palette.

This brings up Photoshop's Layer Style dialog box set to the Outer Glow options in the middle column. Change the Blend Mode option at the top to Linear Light, which will give us a much more intense glow than what we'd normally get. Then choose a color for your glow by clicking on the small color swatch directly below the word "Noise". This will bring up Photoshop's Color Picker. You can either choose your color from the Color Picker, or if you prefer, you can sample a color directly from the image. To sample a color, simply move your mouse cursor over the image. You'll see your mouse icon turn into the Eyedropper icon. Move the eyedropper over the color you want to sample, then click to sample it. I'm going to sample a light area of the woman's skin to use as my outer glow color:

Photoshop Tutorials: Sampling a color from the image to use as the color for the outer glow.

Once you've chosen your color, click OK to exit out of the Color Picker. Lastly, increase the Size of the outer glow to somewhere around 30 pixels. You may need to raise or lower that amount depending on the size and resolution of your image:

Photoshop Tutorials: Change the blend mode, color and size of the outer glow.

Don't exit out of the Layer Style dialog box just yet because we still have one more layer style to add. Here's how my light streak looks so far after adding my outer glow:

Photoshop Tutorials: The image after applying an outer glow to the light streak.

Step 13: Add An "Inner Glow" Layer Style

We've added an outer glow layer style to our light streak. Now let's add an inner glow style. With the Layer Style dialog box still open, click on the words Inner Glow on the left of the dialog box, directly below "Outer Glow":

Photoshop Tutorials: Select "Inner Glow" on the left of the Layer Style dialog box.

You'll see the Inner Glow options appear in the middle column of the dialog box. Once again change the Blend Mode option at the top to Linear Light. Then click on the color swatch below the word "Noise" and either choose a color from the Color Picker or, as I did with the outer glow, sample a color directly from the image. I'm going to sample a darker area of the woman's skin for my inner glow color:

Photoshop Tutorials: Sampling a darker skin color to use as the color for the inner glow.

Once you've chosen the color for your inner glow, click OK to exit out of the Color Picker. Finally, increase the Size of your inner glow to around 10 pixels. As with the outer glow, you may need to play around with this value a bit depending on the size and resolution of your image:

Photoshop Tutorials: Change the blend mode, color and size of the inner glow.

Click OK when you're done to exit out of the Layer Style dialog box. Your light streak should now have an intense glow to it:

Photoshop Tutorials: The light streak now appears with a bright, colorful glow.

That thin dark line we're seeing through the middle of our light streak is the path. Don't worry, it won't be there when we're done.

Step 14: Edit The Path To Create A Slight Variation Of It

Let's make our light streak a bit more interesting by adding a couple more streaks to it. We can do that easily by simply editing our path to create some slight variations of it and then stroking each variation with our brush. Switch back to your Paths palette so we can edit our path. Then, hold down your Ctrl (Win) / Command (Mac) key and move your mouse cursor directly over any part of the path. As soon as it's over the path, you'll see the cursor turn into a white pointer, which means you now have temporary access to Photoshop's Direct Selection Tool, which is the tool we need to edit our path:

Photoshop Tutorials: Hold down "Ctrl" (Win) / "Command" (Mac) and move the mouse cursor directly over the path to temporarily access the Direct Selection Tool (white pointer).

Click on the path with the Direct Selection Tool to select it, then make some minor adjustments to the path to create a slightly different path. You can drag an anchor point to a slightly different spot, or move direction handles to adjust the curves of the path, or even drag a path segment to a slightly different position. Just don't touch the anchor points at either end of the path because we want each variation we create to begin and end at the exact same spot. So other than those two anchor points, the rest of the path can be edited any way you like. We're not looking for major changes to the path. Small, subtle changes are all we need.
Here, I've changed the two main curves of my path slightly by dragging the two direction handles extending out from my middle anchor point. You can see how the curves of the path no longer exactly match the curve of the first light streak:

Photoshop Tutorials: Create a slight variation of the initial path by moving anchor points, direction handles or path segments.

We can now stroke this variation of the path with our brush. But before we do, we'll probably want to use a slightly smaller brush this time, so press the left bracket key on your keyboard a couple of times to make the brush a bit smaller.
To stroke the variation of our path, there's no need to go through the hassle of selecting "Stroke Path" from the Paths palette's fly-out menu like we did last time. Simply click on the Stroke Path icon at the bottom of the Paths palette:

Photoshop Tutorials: Click on the "Stroke Path" icon at the bottom of the Paths palette.

Photoshop strokes the new path we created with our brush. Since we're still working on the same layer in the Layers palette, the Outer Glow and Inner Glow layer styles are automatically applied to our new light streak:

Photoshop Tutorials: The new path has now been stroked with the brush, and the layer styles are automatically applied to it.

Step 15: Create A Couple More Path Variations And Stroke Them With The Brush

Repeat the previous step one or two more times to create more variations of the path and stroke each one with the brush. Try changing the size of the brush each time using the left and right bracket keys to add even more interest to the light streak. If you don't like the brush stroke you just added, simply press Ctrl+Z (Win) / Command+Z (Mac) to undo it, then re-edit the path and try again.
If you want to see what your light streak looks like without the path blocking your view, simply click anywhere in the empty area below the path in the Paths palette. This will deselect the path and hide it from view. To see the path again, click on it in the Paths palette. You'll need to have your path visible any time you want to stroke it with your brush. If the path is not visible, the icons at the bottom of the Paths palette become grayed out and unavailable.
Here's my image after editing my path a couple more times and stroking each new path variation with the brush. Again, since we're still working on the same layer, "Layer 1", in the Layers palette, the Outer Glow and Inner Glow layer styles are automatically applied to each new brush stroke. I've hidden my path from view so we can see more easily what the light streak now looks like with all its different variations:

Photoshop Tutorials: The first light streak after adding a few variations to it.

Step 16: Copy The Layer Styles On "Layer 1"

And with that, we've created our first light streak! You're probably going to want to add at least one more to your photo, and it's a good idea to place each light streak on its own layer, but we can cut down on some of the work we'll need to do by copying the layer styles we've already applied to our first light streak and simply pasting them onto each new layer we create. Switch back over to your Layers palette. You should still have "Layer 1" selected. Go up to the Layer menu at the top of the screen, choose Layer Style, and then choose Copy Layer Style:

Photoshop Tutorials: With "Layer 1" selected, go to Layer > Layer Style > Copy Layer Style.

Step 17: Add A New Blank Layer

Click on the New Layer icon at the bottom of the Layers palette to add another blank layer. Photoshop will add the new layer above "Layer 1" and automatically name it "Layer 2":

Photoshop Tutorials: Add a new blank layer above "Layer 1".

Step 18: Paste The Layer Styles Onto The New Layer

With the new layer selected, go back up to the Layer menu at the top of the screen, choose Layer Style once again, and this time, choose Paste Layer Style:

Photoshop Tutorials: Go to Layer > Layer Style > Paste Layer Style.

The Outer Glow and Inner Glow styles from "Layer 1" are now added to "Layer 2" and will automatically be applied to the next light streak we create!

Step 19: Add Another Light Streak

With a new layer added and the layer styles from "Layer 1" already applied to the new layer, we can easily create a second light streak. Simply draw a new path with the Pen Tool, save the path if you want by renaming it "Path 2" (or whatever you want to name it), then stroke the path with the brush. Once you've created the main light streak, hold down Ctrl (Win) / Command (Mac) to access the Direct Selection Tool and edit the path, moving anchor points, direction handles and/or path segments to create a few slight variations of it, and then stroke each variation with the brush, using a different brush size each time.
Here's my result after adding a second light streak to my photo:

Photoshop Tutorials: The image after adding a second light streak.

If you don't want both light streaks to be the same color, you can easily change the colors simply by editing the layer styles. Let's say I want my second light streak to be a different color. To edit the layer styles, all I need to do is double-click on the Layer Style icon on the far right of "Layer 2":

Photoshop Tutorials: Double-click on the Layer Style icon to edit the layer styles for that layer.

This will pop open the Layer Style dialog box for me. All I'd need to do is click on the words Outer Glow on the left side of the dialog box, which brings up the Outer Glow options in the middle column, then click on the color swatch and choose a new color either from the Color Picker or by sampling a different color from the image. Click OK to exit out of the Color Picker, then click on the words Inner Glow on the left to access the Inner Glow options. Click the color swatch, choose a new color, click OK to exit out of the Color Picker, then click OK to exit out of the Layer Style dialog box. You can edit the colors of the light streaks any time you want simply by editing the layer styles.
Here's my final result after editing the layer styles on "Layer 2" and changing the color of my second light streak slightly, using colors I sampled from the woman's hair:

Photoshop Tutorials: The final result.

And there we have it!

Dramatic Text on Fire Effect in Photoshop

2010-02-12T03:56:00.001-08:00

The End Effect

As always we'll begin with the final result, so you can see where we're going. It's on a nice big canvas so it can serve as the desktop background on my laptop for the next week or so! click to see the full 1920px x 1200px size.

Part 1—The Background

So create a new document in Photoshop at 1920px wide x 1200px high, and with the Gradient Tool (G), draw in a radial gradient of browns (#5c3d09 to #1f1409) so you get something like what is shown below.
Notice that the gradient is not centered vertically but sits toward the top. In this image we want the top of the text to be on fire, so the top part of the image should be a bit more lit up.

Step 2

As in the grass text tutorial, once again we're going to have a textured background. But rather than starting from scratch, I just copied the background from the previous tutorial, merged all the layers and desaturated to get what you see below.
If you need to make this from scratch, first visit Bittbox to get the original paper textures and then follow the previous tutorial's steps.

Step 3

Now we set the layer to Overlay and to blend the texture into the background and voila!

Step 4

Just to add a bit more texture though, let's run the Texturizer filter. To do this, create a new layer and fill it with a brown/beige color—#66500f. Then go to Filter > Texture > Texturizer and use the Canvas texture with 80% Scaling and Relief set to 4.

Step 5

Once you have your texturized layer, set that to Overlay. This adds some extra fine detail to our texture which is good because we're working on such a big canvas.

Step 6

Next we're going to apply a layer to slightly desaturate the bottom half of the image. This is so that the top looks like it has a warmer glow where the flames are, while the bottom looks a little colder.
So create a new layer and fill it with the color #4b4f3b. Then add a layer mask with a gradient to mask out the top and fade down (so you get the effect shown).
Now set the layer to Color and 45% Opacity.

Part 2—Text + Glow = Awesomeness

OK, we now have a nice background! So let's add some text. I've used the font Trajan because it's a really dramatic looking font. Here I've placed the text in the color #cb9328, then set it to Linear Dodge (Add) with an Opacity of 8%.
What we're going to be doing with our text is making it look like the top half of the text is coming out of the background and is red hot with flames flickering off. This means we're going to run a lot of effects and apply layer masks to them so that only the top half shows while the bottom half reverts to faded out text like we have currently.

Step 8

So first create a new layer group to put all the text layers in—because there will be a lot of them.
Then duplicate the text layer and set the color of the duplicate text to #5e3f1c.

Step 9

Now set the newest text layer to Overlay and 70% Opacity. It should look kind of reddish (as shown below).

Step 10

Now duplicate the text again and set the latest duplicate to a yellowish color—#cb9328. Then set this to Linear Dodge (Add) and Opacity 30%.
Next we add a layer mask and draw a gradient so the latest text layer fades out as shown below, and beneath you can see the reddish colored combination of the bottom two text layers.

Step 11

Next we duplicate the text layer yet again, but put this layer right on the bottom. Set the color to black—#000000. Then go to Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur and it will ask you to rasterize the text, click yes to that, and then set the Radius to about 4px.
Then Ctrl-click any of the other text layers and go back to the black layer and hit delete so you are just left with a sort of shadow. Then duplicate this layer and merge it with the first so the effect is heavier. You should have something that looks like the screenshot below.

Step 12

Once again, add a layer mask so the shadow quickly fades out as shown. This makes it look like the text is coming out of the page.

Step 13

Now duplicate our black layer again and using the Smudge Tool (R) and a largish soft brush you want to just smudge the shadow around so it looks like burn marks.

Step 14

Here's how our text is looking now. I actually created two sets of "burn" marks, and then four sets of the shadow layer each blurred a little more than the last and each faded back.

Step 15

Now it's time to make the top part of our text glow. So first of all, duplicate the text layer again and place this layer at the very top and set it to a yellow color—#dc9a08.
Then run a Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur over it with Radius of 8px. Then grab a large soft eraser brush and just erase away parts at the bottom so it's kind of uneven.

Step 16

Set our first glow layer to Soft Light. You might want to repeat the process, erasing even more so the top part is even glowier.

Step 17

Now duplicate the text layer yet again and place this at the very top. This one should be again the same yellow (#dc9a08).
Then go to Layer > Rasterize > Type and turn the text into a flat graphic. Then Ctrl-click the layer and go to Select > Modify > Contract and use a value of 1px. Then press Delete to delete everything except that 1px outline.

Step 18

Now set the 1px layer to Overlay, and you should have something like the image below.

Step 19

Now to our 1px glow add a layer mask to fade it out down the bottom as we've been doing with the other layers.
Then duplicate the layer, and run a Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur set to 1px. Then duplicate this layer again and blur it by 2px. Then duplicate the layer again and blur it by 4px.
Then Ctrl-click any of the text layers, press Ctrl+Shift+I to inverse the selection and go through each of the glow layers and press Delete to remove any of the blur that has strayed out of the boundary of the text.
The idea is that we want the edges of the text to look red-hot with it fading in to an overall hot glow on the text.

Step 20

Next we duplicate all four of the glow layers and merge them together. This should result in a layer on top which is the original bright yellow.
Grab the Smudge Tool and run over the text, smudging it up to look like heat waves coming off the text, as shown.

Step 21

Now set this latest layer to Overlay and you should have something looking like this!

Step 22

Now we've pretty much finished our text. I went through and duplicated some of the glow layers to make it look even more fiery. Feel free to experiment with getting a real red-hot glow look by doing so.

Step 23

Next, in keeping with the last wallpaper, I've gone and added a quote underneath my main text. This provides a nice embellishment to the page. Try to use colors that fit in with the background and text layer so it doesn't stand out too much, because we really want this to be a secondary element to the main text. I've used Swiss Light Condensed as my font and laid it out just like in the previous Grass Text tutorial.

Part 3—The Flames

Finally, with all our preparation done, it's time to add the actual flames! For this, we need some images of fire set against a plain black background. A good photo is hard to find, and try as I did, I couldn't find a really great free photo. So in the end I used this photo from Fotolia which you can purchase using the link below. There was also an OK photo from Flickr which I've also linked to and which I ended up using later for the "E". So you might want to grab that too.
AcheroN—Fotolia.com
Peasap—Flickr.com
Now the technique for copying the flames over is actually really simple. I actually only learned this technique recently when reading one of Nik Ainley's tutorials for DigitalArts magazine called Create Amazing Photomontages where he did it with water.
What you need to do is:

Open up the flame image in Photoshop
Go to the Channels tab and find the channel with the highest contrast, which for images of fire should be the Red Channel, and click on it
This will make your image appear black and white, and because we're on the highest contrast layer, it will seem really bright white. Now Ctrl-click this channel and it will select all the pixels in that channel.
Click back to the RGB channel and copy the selected pixels
You can now paste the flames into your main canvas!

This is actually a really, really useful technique for copying something translucent like fire off a flat background. And as you'll see by visiting Nik's tutorial, it's also great for copying water!

Step 25

OK, so here we've pasted the flames on to our main canvas. (For clarity I've also temporarily switched off the text layers). As you can see, we've got the fire without the black background and it's partially transparent, which means it'll look super on top of our text.

Step 26

Now the next thing to do is to cut up our one bit of fire into a few pieces. Just duplicate the layer and switch off one as a backup first. Then using the Pen Tool, cut up the fire so you work with the contours of the flame so it looks natural. Here you can see I've produced four pieces of flame from the one image. You can also try flipping bits around to make them seem more random.
Set the layers to Screen mode so that any remaining black parts are totally gone, and it's even more transparent.

Step 27

Now because my text is just four letters, I need four separate pieces of fire. For the fourth one (on top of the E) I actually grabbed that Flickr photo and repeated the same process as earlier to create another flame. Also the fire on the letter I has been squashed a little as well to make it look more random.

Step 28

Applying the fire is really as easy as moving the flames over the text. You want to try to match the flames to the shape of the letter so it looks like they are dancing off the letters.

Step 29

OK here I've placed all four bits of flame over the top. It's not bad, but you can see that the I and the R have the same flame and also all the flames aren't very tall.

Step 30

So here I've gone through each flame and using the Transform Tool stretched them vertically. Also I used a bit of judicious erasing to make the flame on the I look a little more unique.

Step 31

Now to make them look even more lit up, duplicate each flame layer, run a Filters > Blur > Gaussian Blur with a Radius of 3px and set the layer to 15% Opacity so it provides a bit of glow around the edges of the flames.

Step 32

So we're pretty much there! This is how the composition looks.

Step 33

Finally we'll add a last highlight. So create a new layer above all the others and draw in a white to black radial gradient as shown. Set this layer to Overlay and 40% Opacity.

Finished!

And there we have it, a text on fire effect! In the next tutorial in the series, we'll be producing the Air image, however it'll be in two weeks, not one—as I'm taking a few days off work!
If you're interested in creating flames from scratch in Photoshop, you might also like to check out this classic tutorial that coincidentally uses the exact same typeface! It's a Photoshop 6 tutorial, and I can still remember reading it like a half decade ago, but it's still very relevant, even if the screenshots feature a super retro Mac interface.

Create a Spectacular Flaming Meteor Effect on Text

2010-02-12T03:52:00.001-08:00

Step 1

First create a new document and fill it with a dark grey.

Step 2

Create a new layer, call it "Clouds," and using the Lasso Tool (L), make a selection similar to the one I've shown below.
Set your background color to a 50% grey and the foreground to a dark grey. Go to Filter > Render > Clouds and, holding the Alt key, create clouds. After that go to Images > Adjustments > Levels, and change the input levels and output levels until you make the clouds neither too dark nor too light (see the image shown).
This layer will be on top of the others.

Step 3

Create another layer and repeat Step 2, but this time just change the background color from 50% gray to a blue or green color. This will create a small cloud, lighter than the big one.

Step 4

Now we'll switch to Adobe Illustrator to create some text. I used Times New Roman for the font. After that go to Effect > 3D > Extrude and Bevel. Now we will create the 3D text. Rotate the object and change the perspective. You can use the same values as I did (shown below).

Step 5

Copy the 3D text and paste it in Photoshop.
Place it in the center and add some Noise (Filter > Noise > Add Noise).
Now let's change the Layer Style. First add Bevel and Emboss.
After that, let's add a Gradient Overlay.

Step 6

Duplicate the Type layer and add a Motion Blur (Filter > Blur > Motion Blur).
Set the angle of the blur to -53.
Change the layer mode to Linear Dodge (Add).
Create a Folder, call it "Typo," and move these two layers into it.

Step 7

Create a new layer and repeat the Step 2, this time using a selection as shown going out the back of the letter T. This will create the trailing smoke.

Step 8 Creating the FIRE

1 - Create a new layer and call it "fire1."
2 - With the Elliptical Marquee Tool (M), create a selection.
3 - Set the background color to light grey and the background to black.
4 - Create clouds as we did in Step 2.
5 - Change the Levels to increase the contrast;
6 - Change the Hue/Saturation with Colorize selected until you get an orange/yellow color.

Step 9

Create a new layer, call it "blazes," and repeat Step 8. After that, duplicate the layer and call it "flames." Create a folder and move the Fire1, Blazes, and Flames layers to this folder and call the whole folder "Fire." It will be on top of the Typo layer.

Step 10

Select the layer "blazes" and go to Filter > Liquefy. There select the Turbulence Tool (T). Now, on the edges of the fire, start creating some blazes. Use it like you would the smudge tool.

Set 11

After the Liquefy, go to Edit > Transform > Warp and change the blaze's form to something similar to the image below. After that apply Filter > Sharpen > Sharp.

Step 12

Create a new layer and call it "yellow color."
Create an ellipse selection with 30px feather and fill it with white.
After that edit the Layer Style and apply a Color Overlay using an yellow color and Multiply for the layer's blend mode.

Step 13

The order and the Blend modes for the fire are:

Flames: Lighter Color
Blazes: Normal
Fire1: Lighten
Yellow Color: Multiply

Step 14 Sparks

For the sparks we will use brushes. Create a folder and call it "Sparks." It will be on top of the Fire folder.

Inside the folder, add a new layer.
Fill it with black and change the Blend Mode to Color Dodge.
Select the Brush Tool and let's create a brush.
In Brush Tip Shape, change the Diameter to 12, and increase the spacing.
Select Scattering and set Scatter to the 1000% and Control to off. Change the Count to 2 and Count Jitter to 100%.
Select white and start painting some sparks.

Step 15

Create a new layer and repeat the Step 14 but now change the Scatter Option to 0%. Start creating some single line sparks like swirls.

Step 16

Here I used the Gomedia Spraypaint brushes to create those tiny little sparks, but you can repeat the step 14 changing the Brush size only. Basically, create a new layer, put it behind the others, fill it with black, change the Blend Mode to Color Dodge, see the color to white, and create the sparks.

Conclusion

Click the image above to view a full screen version of the final image
.Although it looks complicated, the process is actually very straightforward. I used only three or four filters, brushes, and of course, the Layer Styles. It is a mix of two other tutorials I wrote: Creating Smoke and Magic Lighting Effect in Photoshop. One thing I have to say is that itâ€™s impossible to create exactly the same fire twice, and thatâ€™s because the filter that renders the clouds does so randomly. As always, the idea is to play around with Photoshop to get your own unique results. Hope you enjoyed the tutorial!

Master Photoshop

2010-02-11T06:09:00.000-08:00

1 - Adhemas Batista (Brazil) - http://www.adhemas.com/

2 - Bert Monroy (USA) - http://www.bertmonroy.com/

3 - Derel Lea (Canada) - http://www.dereklea.com/

4 - Eduardo Recife (Brazil) - http://www.eduardorecife.com/

5 - Ian Keltie (U.K) - http://www.iankeltie.com/

6 - Joan Charmant - http://www.joancharmant.com/

7 - Joshua M. Smith - http://www.hydro74.com/

8 - Justin M. Maller (Australia) - http://www.superlover.com.au/

9 - Nik Ainley (U.K) - http://www.shinybinary.com/

10 - Scott Hansen (USA) - http://www.iso50.com/

Displacement Effect Tutorial

2010-01-22T06:23:00.000-08:00

Information:

In this tutorial I will be showing you how to use the displacement Filter to your advantage and create a stunning black and white illustration. You will learn how to create clipping masks by using splatter brushes and how to manipulate image adjustments to sort out coloring and shadow composition. This tutorial is very easy to follow and you will learn quite a few new little tricks by doing the tutorial. Hope you enjoy it and have fun.

Artist: An1ken from Creativeoverflow
Skill Level: Beginner to Intermediate
Time needed: 45minutes

Resources Used:

Final Preview

Step 1:

Letâ€™s start off by opening up the downloaded stock image in Photoshop and then duplicating the background layer by going to Layer>Duplicate Layer. This duplicates your base layer for you, I always do it because I often want to use the base image again and if I donâ€™t duplicate it I wonâ€™t be able to work with it. Moving on letâ€™s create a new layer, Go to Layer>New>Layer and then grab your Healing Brush tool from your Photoshop Toolbar (Shortcut: J).
Make sure your sample settings in the top toolbar is set to All Layers and not Current layer, this makes use of all the layers on the layers palette instead of the single layer your currently on. Now we are going to be removing her hair from her forehead, it totally conflicts the focal point as her face and distracts you from what you should be seeing. Hold down ALT on the keyboard whilst you have the Healing Brush selected and then click on a clean spot on her forehead and then let ALT go and brush over the hair that you want to remove. Set the brush size according to your desires.

Step 2:

Letâ€™s go to the Image Adjustments Menu on your layers panel (Half Black Half White Circle) and select Brightness and Contrast. The settings you will be using for brightness and contrast are -12 Brightness and +9 Contrast. Now letâ€™s create some clipping masks, create a new layer â€“ Layer>New>Layer and then grab your brush tool from your Tools, select a nice boasting splatter brush and add it into your image on the new layer. Hide the splatter image and create another new layer. Go to Image>Apply Image â€“ this copy merges your entire document into a single layer. Unhide your splatter layer and then select your applied image layer, go to Layer>Create Clipping Mask or (Shortcut: CTRL+ALT+G). You should now be able to move your applied image layer around within your splatter brush trails. I repeated this process 3 times and came out with the following.

Step 3:

Here comes the interesting part of the tutorial. We are going to be using the Displacement filter to generate a textured feel in the piece. Create a new layer â€“ Layer>New>Layer and then go to Image>Apply Image. Now you will have a merged image of all the layers in one layer, I have provided download links for the displacement maps that I used in this tutorial so that you can follow precisely. With your applied image layer selected go to Filter>Distort>Displace now you will find a option box that gives you options to set the scale and displacement map placement as well as areas. For the first displacement we are going to set the Horizontal Scale to 100 and the Vertical Scale to 100, we will keep the rest of the settings default and hit OK â€“ here is the part where you search for the displacement maps on your computer that you just downloaded and once you find them use the 01.psd file for this displacement and hit open. Suddenly you will see a major change take place on your image, set the blending options to Overlay and grab your Eraser tool. Erase all the unwanted areas in the image that you do not want and then make sure you are happy with the looks of things.

Step 4:

Create another new layer â€“ Layer>New>Layer then apply image once again by going to Image>Apply Image, now make your way up to Filter>Distort>Displace set your Horizontal and vertical scales to 80 and hit OK. Now use the 02.psd file and press open. Now grab your erases tool once again and erase the bit and pieces that you donâ€™t want to have in your final piece.
Now Create a new layer â€“ Layer>New>Layer and then apply image once again â€“ Image>Apply Image. Now go to Image>Adjustments>Threshold use the default value of 128 and press OK. Now go up to Filter>Blur>Radial Blur â€“ Use 100% Zoom blur and hit OK. Now set the blending options to soft light and your opacity settings to 74% erase over bright pieces on the image.

Step 5:

Time to create a few more clipping masks with splatter brushing.Â Create a new layer â€“ Layer>New>Layer grab your brush tool with a nice splatter brush selected and brush on the image. Now hide that splatter layer and create a new layer, apply image on this layer by going to Image>Apply Image and then unhide the splatter layer. Select the applied image layer and go to Layer>Create Clipping mask or (Shortcut: CTRL + ALT + G) move the applied image around until your happy with the outcome. I repeated the process 3 times once again and this is the outcome I got below.

Step 6:

Time to bring in some color to the actual black and white image.Â Lets create a new layer â€“ Layer>New>Layer and then fill the layer with black #000000 now that you have a filled black layer set your blending options to Linear Dodge. Next I grabbed my brush tool from the Photoshop toolbar and selected a nice big soft brush. I used pink – #ff0072 to compliment the black and white in this piece. Lets brush over her knee and hand to set the ultimate focal point. Next change the size of your brush to a smaller size and select white as your foreground color. We will use this to set the reflection and coloring of the point to a more vibrant expression. Brush inside the pink brushing you did previously. I have shown you the coloring layer below and then the outcome below that.

Step 7:

In this step we are going to be adding a gradient and another color brushing. Letâ€™s go to the adjustments menu (Half white half black circle on your layers panel) now select Gradient Fill â€“ we are going to be using a dark grey/blue to light grey. Color codes are #27333a – #737d86 – #b6bec9 keep the gradient fill settings default, Style: Linear â€“ Angle 90 degrees and hit OK. Change the blending options to overlay and the opacity to 37%.

Now we are going to be repeating the exact same process as in step 6 â€“ create a new layer â€“ Layer>New>Layer now fill it with black #000000 next change your blending options to Linear Dodge and grab yourself a nice soft round brush. I used Pink #ff0072 in this case and brushed it across her shoulder and bottom part of her chin. The color layer is shown below with the outcome of the two sections of this step.

Step 8:

In this step we are going to be adding some image adjustments to the piece to straighten out some coloring depths and composition effects. Firstly lets go down to the image adjustments menu (Half Black Half White Circle on the layers panel) in this case I used the default gradient â€“ Black #000000 to White #FFFFFF and hit OK. Now change your blending options to Multiply and drop your opacity settings down to 14% this will enrich the shadows of your image.
Next letâ€™s go back to the image adjustment menu and select Brightness and Contrast. Move the brightness up +17 and the Contrast to +25. This is going to bump up the brightness of the image and make the effects you created stand out quite a bit.
Last but not least create a New layer â€“ Layer>New>Layer then apply image by going to Image>Apply Image then navigate your way up to Filter>Other>High Pass use the default settings of 10.0 and hit OK this will turn your image into a grey scaling image. Change your blending options to Overlay and your opacity settings to 25% and youâ€™re done.

I hope you enjoyed this tutorial and had fun. Keep checking back for more.

Photoshop Quick Tips #3 - Enhancing Photos with High Pass Filter

2010-01-22T06:21:00.000-08:00

Step 1

Open a regular photo in Photoshop. I used a photo of a cat that I found on sxc.hu http://www.sxc.hu/photo/1069561

Step 2

Duplicate the layer and go to Filter>Other>High Pass. Use 5 pixels. Then change the Blend Mode of the layer to Hard Light.

Step 3

Duplicate the High Pass layer. Keep the blend mode with Hard LIght.

Step 4

Duplicate the original photo and change its Blend Mode to Screen. Then with the Eraser Tool (E) or with a Mask. Delete the dark areas of the photo. Leave just the light areas, the eyes, nose, and mouth. Below you can see the areas I kept, the marquee selection.

Step 5

Group all layers and convert them to Smart Objects, Layers>Smart Objects>Convert to Smart Objects. Or if you prefer just merge the layers. Then go to Image >Adjustments>Shadow and Highlights. Use the values from the image below. With this adjustment you can edit how the shadows and highlights will be displayed, and you can simulate the HDR effect by increasing the Tonal Width and Radius on the Shadow and Highlights, and, also the Midtone Contrast.

Conclusion

This is just one way to enhance your photos, you can use the Unsharp Mask filter as well. But I prefer the high pass with hard light, I think it gives a better result, however that will depend the photo you are working on. The most important thing is test and play with the settings and of course add more techniques to your repertoire. If you have a different quick tip, leave a comment sharing and explaining it to us ;).

Click Here for Full Preview

About the author

My name is Fabio Sasso, I'm a graphic/web designer from Porto Alegre, Brazil and I'm the founder of Abduzeedo. I hope we can share lots of information, tips, and ideas through Abduzeedo. Also you can follow me on Twitter or my personal site at http://fabiosasso.com

Warning: These 9 Photoshop Techniques May Result In Great Photos

2010-01-18T07:14:00.000-08:00

Post-Processing (or photo editing) is what makes a good photo great. Cameras produce a good starting point, but post-processing is where the magic happens. If you’re feeling a little bored with your current arsenal of Photoshop techniques, try out some of these creative post-processing tricks to boost your artistic style.

High Contrast Color
Boosting the contrast in a color photo can produce some stunning results. Bump up the contrast, play with the colors, and add that sort of “grunge” mood to your photo.

Photo by kk+. Kris Krug is also a
great Vancouver Fashion Photographer
High Contrast B&W
I love black & white photos, but I really love a good high-contrast black & white. This method creates a focus on the shapes, lines, and patterns rather than the tones. Also be sure to read my other black and white photography tips.

subway moments by Gregor Winter
High Color Saturation
One way to make your photo “pop” is to really push up the color saturation. Just be mindful of color clipping and banding if you push it too far.

Fishing Apocalypse by Anoop Negi
Anoop also has a photography blog
Vintage Look
Making a photo look older than it really is gives it a lot of character and mood. To get this look, you can toy with color saturation, color tinting, and adding imperfections.

Welcome to the past by Marko Kosovcevic
Lomo Look
The real lomo photos have a very distinct look to them, but it’s a look that can be replicated through post-processing. They tend to be saturated in a very interesting way.

Lomo by Sigh Lens
Oversharpen
Most photos need to be sharpened anyways, but some photos can actually benefit from oversharpening. This method gives the image a “harder” look and feel.

Blown by Brian Auer
You’re already at MY blog!
Texturize
Overlay texture to bring in subtle elements to your image. It’s a great way to deal with flat and bland portions of the photo by introducing detail and complexity into it.

Unflinching by Ali Sharif
Add Vignette
Some images really stand out with some applied vignette. It helps create a natural frame around the image and it draws the eye toward the center of the photo.

Sunflower through the Viewfinder by Kaddy
Add Noise & Grain
This is another way to spice up the bland parts of your image. Adding noise or simulated grain adds texture and feeling to a photo, and can sometimes produce very “gritty” results.

i wanted to walk over the edge by Emily Higginson

As you can see, many of these photos apply multiple Photoshop techniques in addition to other techniques not listed here. So if you see a photo that intrigues you, ask yourself why. If you like it partly due to the post-processing, try to imitate the technique on your own photos.
And as for how to do some of these things… maybe we’ll save that for another day.

The hidden power of Photoshop brush tool

2010-01-18T07:10:00.000-08:00

In this micro tutorial, I will describe my favorite features of Adobe Photoshop Brush tool. To learn all features, you can simply open Brush palette (Window menu - Brushes), change each setting and try the result when you draw a stroke. The first setting is Tip Shape. You can choose from pre-loaded shapes or you can create your own... more on that later!

Brush Tip Shape has one interesting setting: Spacing. It is usually around 20-25% but when you set it larger than 100-150% you will get very different result.

Using Shape Dynamics checkbox, you can randomize sizes and angles of brush dots.

Using Scattering, you can randomize locations of brush dots - as you draw a straight stroke, dots are added randomly around your mouse.

You can use Count setting to control amount of dots.

Dual Brush is very interesting feature, which will get you very different results depending on which brush and which mode you choose. Compare the two lines on this screenshot - first line made with simple brush, second - with Dual Brush enabled.

You can use Color Dynamics to randomize (or fade, or control with tablet pen) brush color. I do not use this often, though :-)

Wet Edges is simple and self-explanatory feature :-)

The most exciting thing is that you can easily create your own brush. Let's make a star brush for example. Create new image with transparent background (square for our star). Set foreground color to Black, switch to Shape tool (U), select Polygon tool on toolbar, open Polygon options, check Star checkbox, set Indent sides = around 90%, and sides = 4.

Draw a shape, rasterize it (Layer - Rasterize - Shape). Select all (Ctrl-A).

Go to Edit menu - Define Brush preset. Choose name for new brush, click OK.

Now, when you open Brushes palette window (from Window menu), you can see your new brush in Brush Tip Shape list.

Now you can enable and adjust Size Jitter, Scattering and Color Jitter, and with single mouse move, get result such as this!

Another example - I took the shape of snow flake, created brush preset from it. With Size Jitter, Scattering and Color Jitter, this is what single brush stroke looks like.

And another example - heart-shaped brush. Again, this screenshot made with only one brush move!

Author: Vlad Gerasimov
URL: http://www.vladstudio.com

You Will Stand Alone Photomanipulation

2009-12-24T07:47:00.000-08:00

You Will Stand Alone Photomanipulation

Another photomanipulation tutorial from PSD Essential, this time called You will stand alone. In the tutorial you’ll learn to create a dark and creepy effect by blending various images together and adjusting several settings.

adjusting several settings.

Finished Preview

Step 1 - Preparing background

In this step we will blend sky and desert together.
Open the picture with desert. We have to change size of the canvas too, so we can add some sky. Click on Image -> Canvas Size and set it like on the picture below

Now open the photo of sky and drag it into the desert picture.
Good.
We have to blend them together. Click on the “sky” layer and add vector mask

You can find it on the same palette as you have your layers. If you don´t see the Layers palette just click F7 on your keyboard.
Click on the vector mask like so; . Press B on your keyboard (it chooses the brush tool). Choose a soft round brush and pick a solid Grey color. Now start painting on the areas of the sky you want to have hidden.
Don´t worry about changing the brush size and color, just do it as much as you need to.

TIP: If you choose black color it is similar like if you use eraser tool with 100% opacity. White color means 0% opacity. The advantage of using vector mask instead of the eraser tool is that you can reverse every step you don´t like. You just simply start painting with white brush over the areas which you want to have visible again.

After you finished this step your manipulation should look like this:

Step 2 - Adding footprints

Now It’s time to add footprints. Open the picture with them and drag them into the manipulation.
We have to blend them with the desert. So we will use the vector mask again.

As you can see it is far away from being well blended. We have to do them darker and change color.
First we’ll add an adjustment layer You can find in on the right side of the Add vector mask button. Choose Brightness and Contrast and set the values in the same way as on the picture below:

We want it to effect only the layer with footprints, not the whole picture. Because of that right click on the adjustment layer and choose Create clipping mask.
Now we will change the colors of the footprints. Add adjustment layer Color Balance and set it as I did:

The last think we will change on footprints is saturation. Add adjustment layer Hue and Saturation and set it like on the picture bellow.

Step 3 - Adding a man

In this step we will add the silhouette of the man.
Open the photo with man. Zoom on 200% press L (= Lasso Tool) and very carefully select the man. Do it as well as possible. If you crop the image bad the whole manipulation will never look realistic. Now press V (= Move Tool) and drag the selected man into the manipulation.
Now we will do the silhouette. It is very simple step. We only change the curves. Add adjustment layer Curves and set them similar to the picture bellow:

After this step the manipulation should look like this:

Step 4 - Adding a cross

Cross is the last element we have to add. Open the photo, press L (= Lasso Tool) and select the cross. Be very careful again. we want our manipulation to look realistic. When you´re done drag the cross into the photo manipulation.
Because we want the tutorial to look realistic we will add some sand around the cross. Select some parts of the footprints, copy them and past above the layer with cross. Choose something like these parts:

Now add layer mask and blend them together in the same way how we blended the background. After that you have something like this:

Now we will change colors and brightness of the cross.
Add Adjustment Layer Color Balance and set it on these values:
Midtones: 0, 0, -47
Shadows: 0, 0, +26
Don´t forget to create a Clipping mask. If you do forget it will change the whole manipulation.
Add Adjustment Layer Curves and set it like on the picture bellow:

Create Clipping mask too!

TIP: If you don´t know how to create clipping mask read this small tip. Clipping mask is a very useful thing if you want to effect only a certain layer and not the whole manipulation.
Right click on the layer which you want to have like clipping mask. Now select the option Create Clipping Mask.
Be sure that the layer from which you want to do clipping mask is above the layer which you want to affect.

Great! We are almost done. One last and probably the best step left.

Step 5 - Final Touch

In this step we will set the final mood of the manipulation.
At first add Adjustment Layer Levels on the top of your layers and set it like this:

Add adjustment layer Photo Filter

Now add some grunge texture and set the blending option on Hue and opacity on 45%.
Add the texture once again and set the blending option on Overlay and opacity on 35%.

Very well. Now we change two last things.
Add adjustment layer Brightness and Contrast and increase contrast on the value +10. Press OK. And now add adjustment layer Hue/Saturation and lower the saturation on -30.
That’s all. Now you can add some small details if you wish. I added some flying bird on the background and also some grass on the cross.
Final Preview

Photoshop Ghosting Tips, Tricks and Techniques for Technical Illustrations

2009-12-15T06:22:00.000-08:00

Photoshop Ghosting Tips, Tricks and Techniques for Technical Illustrations

Subject: Acura NSX / 350 dpi @ 20 inches

Software: Adobe Photoshop CS CS2

Drawing Tablet: Wacom

A "Ghosted", "Phantom View", "Transparent", or "See Through" technical illustration is one that renders the exterior skin of an object transparent in order to see the interior workings. This Photoshop tutorial will cover the basic techniques used to render a ghosted technical illustration using the airbrush technique.

A Ghosted illustration will be slightly more time consuming and expensive to create than a Cutaway Illustration. Ghosting an object requires completion of the entire outside AND inside of the subject before the fading or "ghosting" process takes place. The decision to ghost or cutaway a subject is a stylistic one. Although more internal information may be visible in a cutaway version, a ghosted illustration will favor the exterior of the subject which may contain important components, body features, logos, etc.

For the purposes of this Photoshop tutorial, we are going to use the "ghosting", "see through" or "phantom view" technique to create this illustration of an Acura NSX. All of the painted areas must be completely finished in individual layers before the ghosting takes place.

Ghosted Car Illustration

In this Photoshop tutorial we are approaching the entire illustration process in much the same way as was done in creating a traditional airbrush vehicle cutaway. In the non-digital world, you would start with an inked line drawing on illustration board. Using a transparent masking material such as Frisket Film, you would paint or airbrush one section at a time. "Frisket" is a term for a transparent self-adhesive plastic film used to mask areas in airbrush illustrations. The film was put on top of a line drawing and an X-Acto knife was used to cut a windowed area to airbrush through.

The first step in the Photoshop illustration process is to create the line art in Adobe Illustrator (below). This line art phase is done before any painting and color work takes place. Once you have completed the entire image in vector line art, you will export the layered file from Adobe Illustrator into Adobe Photoshop. You will now start the painting process. Make sure you retain the layers when exporting by choosing the .psd export format.

Note: For more information on line art and perspective drawing techniques, go to the: Lessons and Tutorials section of our "Technical Illustration Students" page.

Photoshop Layers Pallet

This is the final Photoshop and Illustrator layer pallet for each file format. The Illustrator layers pallet is on the left, and the converted Photoshop layers pallet is on the right. The Photoshop version has been simplified for this tutorial. There would normally be a separate line and tone layer for each element. You would always retain a line art layer for each and every element in order to make any necessary changes to their tonal values (see paragraph on "friskets" and "masks" above).

It order to use the following painting and erasing techniques successfully, you will need to use a good quality drawing tablet (Wacom Drawing Tablet or similar). Before we start the painting and ghosting process, it will help if the "Painting Cursor" is set to "Brush Size" in the "Display & Cursors" window of "Photoshop Preferences". This will give you a round cursor that is roughly the diameter of the pixel dimensions for the selected brush size. Having this visual aid will help you to imagine how large of an area you will be affecting with each stroke.

The next step will be to paint each individual layer. You will use the line art layers as a type of "frisket" to mask the areas to be painted. For some basic painting techniques, refer to the "Basic Photoshop Painting Techniques" tutorial in the Lessons and Tutorials section of our "Technical Illustration Students" page.

The samples below are the main individual paint layers prior to any ghosting and blending work. The Photoshop layer order is very important. Notice that the "Chassis" and "Car Background Tone" layers are underneath the "Yellow Body" layer in the layer pallet above. You will also notice that we are duplicating the sheet metal body color on the "Yellow Body" layer and the "Car Background" layer.

Once all of the individual layers are painted, you will begin the ghosting process. Although this phase of the illustration is reserved for the last 10 percent of the project, it is the most important aspect of the overall impression that the image will give to the viewer.

Select the "Body Frisket" line art layer in the Photoshop layers pallet. You will use this line art layer, in conjunction with the "Magic Wand" tool, to select an area to paint or erase. In the layers pallet you will change the opacity of this layer to 1%. This accomplishes two functions. 1. You will always know if you are working on the wrong layer because nothing will happen if you paint or erase on the 1% layer. 2. You will not be distracted by the dominance of the line art. Subtlety is the key to a quality ghosted illustration and you must be aware of the relationship between "exterior" and "interior" detail.

While still on the "Body Frisket" layer, you will use the Photoshop "Magic Wand" tool to select the areas to be worked on. At this stage, you will be selecting areas with large open fields such as the hood and body panels. This will leave small details and highlights intact.

Once you have selected all of the desired areas, it is a good idea to "Feather" the selection by at least 1 pixel. This will soften the edge of the selection. You can then turn off the "Marching Ants" by typing "Command H".

To create the ghosting effect, you will use the Photoshop "Eraser" tool exclusively. Click on the "Eraser" tool and set the "Mode" to "Brush" in the Photoshop Options tool bar. While still in the options toolbar, set the "Opacity" to a low percentage (25% or less). This will make any alterations very subtle. If you go too far, you can always undo your strokes or revert to a previously saved version.

In the "brushes" pallet select a brush size that covers a large area and use a brush with a soft edge. The soft edged brushes will give your stroke an "airbrushed" effect.

While leaving the selection areas active, you will click on the "yellow Body" layer (see "Layers" pallet below) to make it active. This is the only layer that will be altered during this phase of the ghosting process. It is a good practice to duplicate this layer before proceeding. You can turn it off and hide it below a solid white background layer.

Slowly erase away the exterior surface layer in the selected area while working in a back and forth sweeping motion. Try not to start your stroke in the middle of a selected area because the starting point will be apparent. Attempt to work from the outer edge of the selected area towards the interior of that area and try to use the outer edge of the brush. This will avoid "hot spots" and/or a blotchy look.

De-select the selected sections by typing "Command - D". Now you will " airbrush erase" the highlights that were left intact by the first selection. Set the opacity of the eraser to an even lower percentage and set the brush diameter to a more manageable size.

One of the last steps will be to go to the remaining upper layers (Upholstery, Seats, Defroster Lines, etc.) and erase the appropriate amount of detail from each. Additionally, you will need to fine tune smaller areas such as the door "b" pillar sample below.

You may want to go back in and add windows glass highlights on a separate "Screen" layer, or window glass tint on a "Magnify" layer. You can adjust the intensity of these tint layers by making subtle changes to their opacity in the "layers" pallet..

By using these Photoshop techniques to create a ghosted car illustration, you will be leaving the fine body line work, door and window seams, and other exterior detail intact. this will give the illusion that the exterior body is floting over the interior detail.

Fantastic Disintegration Effect inspired by Watchmen in Photoshop

2009-12-02T07:23:00.000-08:00

Step 1

Create a new document in Photoshop. For the size I used 1920x1200 pixels. Then fill the background layer with a gradient, you can do that via Layer>Layer Style>Gradient Overlay. Use #5ba1c6 and #4a565b for the colors, 90º for the angle and Linear for the style.

Step 2

Add a new layer and make sure you have black and white for the background and foreground colors. Then go to Filter>Render>Clouds. Change the Blend Mode to Screen and with the Eraser Tool (E) use a very soft brush to delete some areas of the clouds layer.

Step 3

I showed you this technique in the Flying Girl in Photoshop tutorial, it's really simple. Add a new layer and select the Gradient Tool (G). Click on the color settings and select the Black and White Preset. For the Gradient Type use Noise, 100% Roughness and select both Options: Restricted Colors and Add Transparency. Then fill the layer with the gradient and go to Filter>Blur>Gaussian Blur. Use 30 pixels for the Radius. After that change the Blend Mode to Color Dodge and the Opacity to 50%, then with the Eraser Tool (E) delete some areas of the layer like you did in the last step.

Step 4

Place the photo that you want to disintegrate. I used one from sxc.hu, you can download it at http://www.sxc.hu/photo/924206. You will have to extrat the guy from the background. You can do that with the Pen Tool (P) or the Lasso Tool (L). Tip: There are lots of ways to cut objects from the background you can check this article out for some examples: http://abduzeedo.com/cutting-images-pictures-video-tutorials

Step 5

Let's use the Adjustments to make the guy's image match the background and the rest of the image. First go to Image>Adjustments>Brightness and Contrast, change the Contrast to 100. After that go to Image>Adjustments>Hue and Saturation and reduce the Saturation to -55. Then go to Image>Adjustments>Photo Filter. Use a very light blue and change the intensity to 70%. That will give a nice bluish style to the image.

Step 6

Duplicate the guy's layer and go to Filter>Blur>Radial Blur. Change the Amount to 10, Blur Method to Zoom and Quality to Best. After that move this layer so that it will be behind the guy without blur layer.

Step 7

In order to create the disintegration effect we will use a custom Brush. Go to Window>Brush or press F5 and use the brush settings below.

Step 8

Add a new layer and with the Brush Tool (B) select the brush you have just created and start painging the disintegragion. Use the skin color of the guy for the brush color but also change to some dark colors to add some depth. After that go to Filter>Blur>Motion Blur. Use 0º for the Angle and 20 pixels for the Distance. The angle will vary depending on the direction the particles will be going to.

Step 9

Keed painting more particles. Change the size of the brush using the keyboard shortcuts [ and ]. Remember to change the angle of the motion blur (red arrows) but also the angle of the brush tip in the Brush Settings.

Step 10

Select the 2 guy layers and go to Layer>Merge Layers. Then go to Layer>Layer Mask>Reveal All. Then select the Brush Tool(B) and black for the color. With the Brush you have created for the particles start painting over the mask to delete the areas of the guy that are disintegrating (1-4). After that go to Filter>Blur>Radial Blur. Use 10 for the Amount, Zoom for the Blur Method and Best for the Quality.

Step 11

Create a layer beneath the guys layer and paint more particles repeating the same technique we did in the Step 8.

Step 12

Let's add some ligthing bolts to our design. I used an image that you can find it at http://www.sxc.hu/photo/1097676 . Basically the first thing to do is place the lightning bolt photo in the photoshop document, the go to Image >adjustments>desaturate. You will have a black and white photo now. Change the Blend Mode to Color Dodge. Tip: If the lightnings are too light go to Image>Adjustments>Levels and increase the black input. Also you can add a Gaussian Blur.

Step 13

Select all layers and duplicate them. After that go to Layer>Merge Layers. You will have one layer with the whole image, then go to Filter>Blur>Gaussian Blur. Use 30 pixels for the Radius and press OK. Change the Blend Mode to Screen and the Opacity to 70%.

Another nice effect to add in this step is: Create a layer on top of the others and fill it with black. Change the layer's Blend Mode to Color Dodge and select the Brush Tool (B). With a very soft brush and white for the color paint some light effects in the disintegration areas of the image, betwen the particles and the guy's body (1-4).

Conclusion

You can add another layer on top of everything and use a blue gradient to make the whole image with a blueish style. Also you can add some noise and your logo to make it with that movie style. The idea of this tutorial was to show you how to create the disintegration using brushes and blur. There are other ways to do that as well, you can use the Displace filter for example, as I did in the first experiment for this effect. It's all about playing with the tool and getting inspiration from movies, tv shows, magazines, internet and many other places.

Water effect photo montage

2009-12-02T07:16:00.001-08:00

Final Image Preview

Step 1

First of all you need your image. I found my image on sxc.hu. There a ton of free images there so keep on searching. Here are a few: http://www.sxc.hu/photo/956170, http://www.sxc.hu/photo/829826, http://www.sxc.hu/photo/604619 and I also bought this one from istock: http://www.istockphoto.com/file_closeup/object/3907033_water_splash.php?id=3907033.

Step 2

Next you need to take the man out of that background. Use the Pen Tool for this and draw a path around the guy. Don’t worry about the hair because we don’t need it and the same for the hands and shows.

Step 3

Now that we have the path around him press Ctrl + Enter (Command + Return on a Mac) and that will select the man.

Now open up a new document. This will be the final file. Fill it with black. After you open up the new document move the selected man on that new document by dragging it on the workspace. It should look like this.

Step 4

Next I want to bring a nice background for this because I want to finish with the easy stuff before we start. I have used a texture and applied a gradient over it. Also textures can be used for free from the same site I mentioned before.

Step 5

It is time to make the water effect. First you need to find your images of water splashes. There are a ton of them. I reccomend you look for those images that are very clear and have a nice water splash. Also you need to find lots of them. I found the ones I used on free stock images like sxc.hu or fotolia.com.

Step 6

Next cut the part of the image you don’t want.

Step 7

Go to the channels of the image and select the channel you consider that has the best contrast between the splash and the background.

Next duplicate this channel, make it visible and make the Blue channel (in my condition) invisible by pressing the eye icon.

Step 8

Now go to Image – Adjustments – Curves. In this case we have nothing to change for the image but there are a lot of images where the contrast between the water and background is not that visible.

Step 9

Now Ctrl + Click on the channel you just duplicated. This will make a selection around the water splash.

Step 10

Now select the RGB channel by clicking on it’s thumbnail and go to the layers palette. And click Ctrl + J to copy the selection to a new layer. After you do this drag the copy of the splash to your workplace.

Step 11

As you can see the water is transparent. I will use this on the right hand. What you need to do now is to resize it so that will look good over the right hand.

Step 12

As you can see it does not look that good and it needs some retouching. First move the layer in the back of the boy and activate the layer mask for this splash and brush away the parts of the splash we don’t need.

Step 13

This looks real great… I know. But I would like to make it little bigger. Or long. To do this just duplicate the splash 2 time, and mask away the part that splits. Here is what I mean:

Step 14

Next you can merge the layers together and try to get away that blue look of the water. To do this play with the settings of the Color Balance till you get it to look white and something like this:

Step 15

Now make the other hand. Same technique and same steps I used. You can use the same image but I thought I would use a different one and the lower part of the first one. Here is how I did this hand:

Step 16

It is time to make the bottom of the boy next. This time use a splashier water image. Also don’t use just one image. Use more. And again same technique.

You will also need to move these splashy images that you will create on top of the guy layer. They will not be over the shirt because you will carefully mask them till you get something like this:

Step 17

Next are the legs. Again use the same technique. I will show you images after each change. First is the left leg.

Step 18

Now the right leg. Use the same images as we used for the left leg.

Step 19

Next is the head. Remember that I only used water images. No effects or 3D stuff. Also the head is a simple image of a balloon getting blown with a dart.

Step 20

Congratulations. You managed to make this effect. Here is a bonus that will make this work look better. Just a few retouches