Photoshop Education

Beginning Of A Border

2010-06-01T18:49:00.001-04:00

Summary:

In this tutorial, we will show you not only how to create a blurred border very easily, but we will show you how you can create a customizable border for any photo. Along the way, we will give you tips and tricks such as keyboard shortcuts to speed up the process of creating a border in Photoshop. We will also give you examples of different types of customizable borders. Included is a 10 question quiz to make sure you fully understand this process of creating a border in Adobe Photoshop.

Currently we are using Windows Vista Home Premium 64 Bit and the Photoshop CS4 Extended 64 Bit version.

Knowledge You Need to Know:

If you are unfamiliar with certain areas that are not covered in this tutorial, feel free check out the other tutorials on our website. We have many different types of tutorials that can be downloaded (Video, PDF) or viewed online that will train you for free! Once you have the knowledge, feel free to come back and go through this tutorial again.

Preparing For This Tutorial:

You will be using a picture of a duck in the water. If you do not have this image, please scroll down to the image of “Click Picture To Download Supporting Files” and download the image. Please open the image PE-DUCKB in the Photoshop Program.

Reason For Tutorial:

We recently received an email asking if there were tutorials on creating frames or borders in Photoshop. The user did not want a standard black border, but did not want anything too advanced. We responded to the user with basic instructions, but felt other users could benefit from this tutorial.

Blurred Border:

The first border we will show you is very basic, but looks good. It is a blurred border! Once you have the image open, duplicate the background layer (CTRL-“J”) and hide the background layer. Left click the top layer (Layer 1) in the layers palette. The layer palette should look like this now.

Now use the Rectangular Marquee selection tool and make a selection around the whole picture, except the area that you want to blur. You will than see the marching ants will be displayed.

Now it is time to Feather and curve the selection. When you Feather it extends beyond the selection and gradually blurs the edge.

Left click the “Select” menu and move the mouse pointer to “Modify”. Move the mouse pointer to the “Feather…” command and Left click.

A dialog box will be displayed. The Feather Radius is how far beyond the selection you want it to blur. For this tutorial, please enter 25 for the amount of pixels and Left click the “OK” button. Usually, a Feather Radius of 15-30 looks good.

Currently you are telling Photoshop to blur everything inside the selection. We need to change that so it blurs outside the selection. Left click the “Select” menu and Left click the “Inverse” command. Photoshop Tip – You could also use the keyboard shortcut by holding down the “Shift” key on the keyboard and the “CTRL” key and pressing the “I” key. Release the “Shift” and “CTRL” key on the keyboard.

You will see 2 sets of marching ants. Anything in between the 2 sets of marching ants will now be affected.

Press the “Delete” or “Del” key on the keyboard to blur the border. Use CTRL-“D” to deselect the selection. Here is our end result for the basic blurred border.

You are not limited to only the Rectangular Marquee Selection Tool to create your blurred border. This time, follow the tutorial, but instead of the Marquee Selection Tool, use the Elliptical Selection tool.

Customizable Border:

Let’s show you how you can create customizable borders. Use the Rectangular Marquee Selection tool and make a selection around the area of the image that you want to keep as the picture.

Inverse your selection by holding down the “Shift” and “CTRL” key on the keyboard and now use the “I” key. Release the “Shift” and “CTRL” key.

Now that you have the correct selection, Left click the “Filter” menu and move the mouse pointer to the “Distort” menu. From the sub-menu Left click on the “Glass” filter.

Here are the first few options of the Glass Filter. On the top right hand corner of the window, you will see the options for the Glass Filter. On the left hand side you will see your image. As you change the settings, the border of the image will change.

	A). After changing the settings, Left click the “OK” button to apply the changes or if you want to disregard the changes, Left click the “Cancel” button.
	B). For this tutorial, we will be using the Glass Filter, but by Left clicking the drop down menu, you will find many different possibilities for borders.

Here is the next set of options of the Glass Filter. For any slider bars, move the mouse pointer to the up arrow and HOLD down the Left mouse button and move the mouse left or right. When you are satisfied with the setting, release the Left mouse button.

	A). The Distortion option will shift the actual image to make it appear distorted.
	B). The Smoothness option will smooth out the glass texture.
	C). You can also enter a numeric value for each setting. For this tutorial, change the Distortion value to 5 and set the Smoothness value to 1.

Here is the last settings for the Glass Filter.

	A). Left click the Texture drop down box and Left click the “Tiny Lens” option.
	B). To change the size of the Glass, you can change the Scaling option. For this tutorial, make sure the scaling is set to 100%.

Left click the “OK” button and use CTRL-“D” to deselect the marching ants.

Here is our end result. As you can see we could have taken our time to make a more even selection around the image, but the frame looks good.

Remember you are not limited to using only the Glass Filter. Here are a few quick other examples.

Sumi-e:

Chalk & Charcoal:

Stained Glass:

Conclusion:

You have now learned how to do a basic blurred border and we showed you how to create a customizable border. The Feather option was explained and you should now begin to use that feature within your own projects. We went through all the settings for the Glass Filter and showed you that the border is not limited to only to Glass Filter and gave you a few different examples.

For any customizable border, play with all the settings and try different filters. Some filters will not work well with certain images. Example, if you used the Ocean Ripple filter for this image, it would not look great because there is already water in the image and it would be tough to determine the image versus the border.

1). What is the keyboard shortcut to Inverse a selection?

	A). CTRL-“I”.
	B). ALT-“I”.
	C). “Shift”-“I”.
	D). “Shift”+”CTRL”+”I”.

2). What menu is Inverse command in?

	A). Select.
	B). Edit.
	C). Filter.
	D). Selection.

3). What sub-menu is the Feather command located in?

	A). Select.
	B). Modify.
	C). Feather.
	D). Filter.

4). The Glass Filter is located in what sub-menu?

	A). Blur.
	B). Other.
	C). Modify.
	D). Distort.

5). What keyboard shortcut would you use to deselect the marching ants?

	A). CTRL-“E”.
	B). ALT-“E”.
	C). CTRL-“D”.
	D). ALT-“E”.

6). What does the Distortion option do in the Glass Filter?

	A). It changes only the light values of the pixels to distort the image.
	B). It curves each pixel.
	C). It shifts each pixels away from the original pixel.
	D). It creates a mask effect.

7). What is the best customizable border to use?

	A). You will need to play with the filters and settings and there is no “best border”.
	B). Sumi-e is the best for all photos.
	C). Chalk is the best for all images.
	D). Ocean Ripple is the best for all photos.

8). After you Inverse the selection, what do you do next to create a blurred border?

	A). Pick your filter and apply your filter.
	B). Inverse the selection.
	C). Make a selection around the area that you do not want to blur.
	D). Press the “Delete” or “Del” key on the keyboard.

9). How do you adjust the slider bars in the Glass Filter?

	A). Hold down the Left mouse button over the up arrow and drag the mouse left or right.
	B). Right click the line of the slider bar and select “Expand” or “Contract”.
	C). Hold down the Spacebar over the up arrow and move the mouse left or right.
	D). First unlock the slider bar by Right clicking the line and then hold down the Left mouse button and drag the up arrow either left or right.

10). What is the measurement type of the Feather Radius?

	A). Percentage.
	B). Centimeters.
	C). Inches.
	D). Pixels.

Answers: 1). D, 2). A, 3). B, 4). D, 5). C, 6). C, 7). A, 8). D, 9). A, 10). D

Scoring:

0 - 5 = Please review the video tutorial and re-read this document either offline (PDF) or online.

6 – 8 = We would recommend that you print this document off and read it at a later time.

9 – 10 = Congratulations you have passed the quiz. Go ahead and view another tutorial on our site.

We hope you enjoyed this detailed tutorial. Please visit us at: http://www.Photoshopeducation.blogspot.com to expand your knowledge within Adobe Photoshop.

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Miniature Models

2010-05-16T10:17:00.001-04:00

Summary:

In this tutorial, we will show you how you can take a normal picture and make it look like the objects are from a miniature model. This also called a tilt shift effect. In this course we will be using tools that we have learned from previous tutorials, such as layer masking or the gradient tool. Even if you make an error with the layer mask, you can easily manually fix the image by fixing the layer mask. As an added bonus, we will show you how you can make the objects look more unrealistic (miniature models usually look fake) by adding more saturation to the image.

Currently we are using Windows Vista Home Premium 64 Bit and the Photoshop CS4 Extended 64 Bit version.

Knowledge You Need to Know:

Preparing For This Tutorial:

You will be using a picture of this town. If you do not have this image, please scroll down to the image of “Click Picture To Download Supporting Files” and download the image. Please open the image PE-MIN in the Photoshop Program.

Finding The Right Picture:

Have you ever looked at a miniature model? If so, you will find that most of the time you are viewing the model by looking down at it. You will also see that the light source is coming from above. With that said, some photos are easier to fool the eyes into thinking that it is a miniature model. Usually a picture that was taken above the objects and the light source is also coming from above will easily fool the person into thinking that it is a miniature model.

The technical term for fooling the eyes is tilt shift. You can buy tilt shift lens for your camera or you can do post processing in Photoshop.

Photoshop Education Steps:

The way we tilt shift is not new and if you search for tutorials you will find many different ways to blur everything, except a small portion of the image. This tutorial is considered for beginners and you will find that there are more advanced tutorials on the Internet that expands on your knowledge, but the basic tilt shifting is done the same way.

Tilt Shift:

Once you have the image opened in Photoshop, duplicate the background layer (CTRL-“J”). For this document, we renamed the top layer “Tilt Shift”.

Left click the layer mask button in the layers palette.

The layers palette should now look like this.

Reset your foreground/background colors with the keyboard shortcut “D”. Now let’s flip the black to the foreground with the “X” key on the keyboard.

Left click the Gradient tool in a 2 column toolbox. Feel free to read the Gradient And Paint Bucket Tools or More Gradients Please tutorials, which explains how to use the Gradient tool.

In the Gradient options bar, please set the following settings.

	A). Make sure the preset is set to foreground to transparency.
	B). Left click the “Reflected Gradient” option.

This next step is trial and error. It is extremely important to get this step right. Don’t worry if it is not exactly perfect, because we will show you a way to correct any blurring issues.

Start by moving the mouse pointer a little below the peak of the house. HOLD down the “Shift” key on the keyboard to draw a straight line. Hold down the Left mouse button and drag the pointer to the roof line (see red arrow below). Release the Left mouse button and the “Shift” key on the keyboard.

You may be thinking, “But it did not do anything”. Don’t worry, the next step will show you that you actually created a nice layer mask. Notice the darker area of the layer mask in the layers palette.

Now Left click on the image of the “Tilt Shift” layer. When selected, you will see a square box will be around the thumbnail in the layers palette.

It’s time to blur the image. Left click the “Filter” menu and move the mouse pointer to the “Blur” menu. From the sub-menu Left click the “Lens Blur…” command.

Photoshop Tip – If you do not see the “Lens Blur…” command, than that means you are using an older version of Photoshop. Try “Gaussian Blur..” if you are using an older version.

Here are the basic settings for the Lens Blur filter.

	A). Left click the down arrow and Left click the “Layer Mask” source.
	B). Play with the Radius setting to get the correct Lens Blur amount. 14 for this one.
	C). Make sure the Preview option is checked.
	D). Left click the “OK” button to apply the changes or Left click “Cancel”.

This image is tougher to blur, because usually you do not want certain objects to be partially blurred. Here is our current picture.

It is time to correct the blurred areas of the image. Determine which objects should be completely focused and hide the blur with the layer mask. In the layers palette, Left click the layer mask.

Change the tool to the paint brush and make sure your foreground color is black. Back in the Masking And Transform Information or More Masks Please tutorials, we explained to you about the difference between a black and white color. You can change the brush size by using the “[“ (to decrease) and “]” to increase. Begin to paint over the buildings and areas that you want to no longer be blurred. You should not have objects that are partially blurred.

If you need to blur an area, use the “X” key on the keyboard to flip the foreground and background colors around. Here is our current image.

Left click on the thumbnail of the layer image for the background layer in the layers palette. Most miniature models look plastic. An easy way to make the object look more plastic is by increasing the saturation. Use CTRL-“U” to be taken to the Hue/Saturation screen. For more information about this adjustment, please read the Hue And Saturation Adjustment tutorial.

For the “Master” setting, change the “Saturation” value to +19. DO NOT Left click “OK” yet.

Change the selection to “Reds” and change the Saturation value to +19. Left click the “OK” button to apply the changes.

Here is our final image for this specific tutorial. There are a few more techniques beyond this tutorial that could make your miniature model look even better, but for now you have the basic understanding of how to create a tilt shift effect in Photoshop.

Conclusion:

You have just learned a basic technique to fool the eyes into thinking that the picture was taken of a miniature model. We explained that images that are taken from above are easier to fool a person with because usually when you are viewing a real miniature model, you are viewing it from above. By using the tools that you already know (layer mask, gradient, paint brush, and hue/saturation, this tutorial should have been very easy to follow.

The beauty of this technique is until you apply the layer mask you can tweak your results to get a perfect looking tilt shift effect.

1). What is another common term used for a miniature model effect?

	A). Smaller Objects.
	B). Tilting.
	C). Tilting Objects.
	D). Tilt Shift.

2). If you have an older version of Photoshop, what other blur could you use to create this effect?

	A). Blur More.
	B). Gaussian Blur.
	C). Motion Blur.
	D). Edge Blur.

3). What types of photos are easier to create a miniature model with?

	A). Photos that are taken above the object and with the light source coming also from above.
	B). Photos that are taken above the object, but with a light source coming from the ground level.
	C). Photos that are taken from the ground level.
	D). Photos that are taken from the ground level, but have a light source coming from above.

4). Name one adjustment that you could use to make the objects look more plastic?

	A). Brightness/Contrast.
	B). Perspective.
	C). Hue/Saturation.
	D). Polar.

5). To create a layer mask that fades up to down or down to up, what Gradient option would you select?

	A). Linear Gradient.
	B). Diamond Gradient.
	C). Angle Gradient.
	D). Reflected Gradient.

6). To fix the blur, switch to the layer mask in the layers palette and use what colors to hide and unhide the blur?

	A). Black and White.
	B). Black and Blue.
	C). Red and Blue.
	D). Red and White.

7). To create a straight line using the Gradient tool, what keyboard shortcut would you hold down while drawing the line?

	A). Tab.
	B). Alt.
	C). Shift.
	D). “]”.

8). In the Lens Blur filter, what should you set the source to, to make sure that it does not blur the masked areas?

	A). Layer Blur.
	B). Layer Mask.
	C). Transparency.
	D). None.

9). A specific object in a miniature model in Photoshop is usually?

	A). All objects and the whole image is blurred.
	B). 30% of the object is blurred.
	C). 75% of the object is blurred.
	D). Either it is all blurred or it is all in focus.

10). The Lens Blur command is located in what sub-menu of the filter menu?

	A). Artistic Blur.
	B). Blurs.
	C). Blur.
	D). Other.

Answers: 1). D, 2). B, 3). A, 4). C. 5). D, 6). A, 7). C, 8). B, 9). D, 10). C

Scoring:

0 - 5 = Please review the video tutorial and re-read this document either offline (PDF) or online.

6 – 8 = We would recommend that you print this document off and read it at a later time.

9 – 10 = Congratulations you have passed the quiz. Go ahead and view another tutorial on our site.

We hope you enjoyed this detailed tutorial. Please visit us at: http://www.Photoshopeducation.blogspot.com to expand your knowledge within Adobe Photoshop.

Click Picture To Download Video File To View Offline
Download Total Video Player, iTinySoft

Click Picture To Download PDF Tutorial
Download Adobe Reader, Adobe Corporation

Click Picture To Download Supporting Files

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Photoshop Education Milestone

2010-04-25T08:23:00.001-04:00

We just finished our latest tutorial (Vanishing Your Perspective) and we realized that we have written for tutorials only (not challenges, pop quizzes or post on the forums) over 1,000 pages of documentation. That should show you how dedicated we are on giving you free tutorials for Photoshop.

We are meeting our internal goals on new/returning Photoshop users everyday and with very little promotion that we do, we know that it is users like yourself that are telling your friends and posting our site on other websites/forums.

We have recorded over 10 hours (almost 11 hours) of free tutorial videos that can be viewed online or offline. It is exciting to see from our logs that user are not only watching the videos online, but also downloading the videos to review offline. When we posted the last tutorial, we decided to split off the “All Tutorials” page into 2 pages, because we have now 51 detailed beginner Photoshop courses.

With the recent launch of the forums, we will be adding even more content to that site shortly. Feel free to take a minute and signup for the forums and check out the different posts, such as the detailed listing of the top 100 totally free image sites. Do you have a great 100% free image site that we missed? If so, feel free to post and we will add it to the list. The forums site allows us to have the users get more involved with questions and answers. This will indirectly help us, because some questions that we get via email could be already answered on the forum site.

With an average of 10 quiz questions per course (not all courses have questions, but most of them do), we have created over 500 Photoshop questions to allow you to test your knowledge. We have published 51 detailed tutorials.

Over the last few weeks, our creation of tutorials has slowed down. This is due to the fact that we are working in our day jobs 70-80 hours a week and have been traveling 70% of each Month. When we are on the road, we work 12-14 hour days, plus we do not have Photoshop installed on our work computers. The only areas we can update on the road for the site is planning what tutorials we want to create in the future and updates to the forums site. Don’t worry, we will keep plugging away at new tutorials and new challenges, etc. Watch for new quizzes and challenges being posted on the forums site very soon.

Thank you for supporting us in creating a totally free website/forums to allow us to teach or help you with this complex graphics program.

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Steps For Beginners 2

2010-04-25T07:39:00.001-04:00

		Page:	1,	2

Course 51:

Tutorial Name: Vanishing Your Perspective

Summary: Whenever you want to add an object to an image, you usually run into perspective problems. With the Vanishing Point filter, you can tell Photoshop what a correct perspective is for that specific photograph. Once defined, you can than add images, text, etc. to the image and it will automatically give you the correct perspective. In this course, we will show you how to use the Vanishing Point filter. We will take an apartment building and expand onto the building and we will add a sign to the side of the building. Finally, we will add text to the pavement.

Course 52:

Tutorial Name: Miniature Models

Summary: In this tutorial, we will show you how you can take a normal picture and make it look like the objects are from a miniature model. This also called a tilt shift effect. In this course we will be using tools that we have learned from previous tutorials, such as layer masking or the gradient tool. Even if you make an error with the layer mask, you can easily manually fix the image by fixing the layer mask. As an added bonus, we will show you how you can make the objects look more unrealistic (miniature models usually look fake) by adding more saturation to the image.

Course 53:

Tutorial Name: Beginning Of A Border

Summary: In this tutorial, we will show you not only how to create a blurred border very easily, but we will show you how you can create a customizable border for any photo. Along the way, we will give you tips and tricks such as keyboard shortcuts to speed up the process of creating a border in Photoshop. We will also give you examples of different types of customizable borders. Included is a 10 question quiz to make sure you fully understand this process of creating a border in Adobe Photoshop.

		Page:	1,	2

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Vanishing Your Perspective

2010-04-25T07:28:00.001-04:00

Summary:

Whenever you want to add an object to an image, you usually run into perspective problems. With the Vanishing Point filter, you can tell Photoshop what a correct perspective is for that specific photograph. Once defined, you can than add images, text, etc. to the image and it will automatically give you the correct perspective. In this course, we will show you how to use the Vanishing Point filter. We will take an apartment building and expand onto the building and we will add a sign to the side of the building. Finally, we will add text to the pavement.

Currently we are using Windows Vista Home Premium 64 Bit and the Photoshop CS4 Extended 64 Bit version.

Knowledge You Need to Know:

Preparing For This Tutorial:

You will be using a picture of this apartment building. If you do not have this image, please scroll down to the image of “Click Picture To Download Supporting Files” and download the image. Please open the image PE-APARTMENTS in the Photoshop Program.

You will notice this Photoshop file has a few layers: “Sign”, “Apartment”, and “Background”. We did modify this image before we saved it as an example file. To see what the original looked like, turn off in the Layers palette the “Apartment” layer and turn on the “Background”. We edited (very quickly and not perfect) the left hand side of the apartment wall.

Vanishing Background:

The first time we saw the Vanishing Point filter (Photoshop CS2), we went WOW, what a powerful tool, but it really only can be used for limited projects. We were right about the WOW factor, but we were wrong about the limited uses. Picture a group of people standing on a sidewalk. The people standing closer to the camera will appear larger and the people farther away will appear smaller. See example below.

If you wanted to copy a new person standing in this picture, you would normally have to guess the correct size the person would be based on how far away from the camera you placed them. As long as you have some sort of perspective reference (the building in this case), you can use the Vanishing Point filter to take the guess work out of the equation.

Basics Of The Vanishing Point Filter:

**Make sure the Apartment layer is selected. Left click the “Filter” menu and move the mouse down to the “Vanishing Point…” and Left click this command.

Let’s go over the first 4 tools on the left hand side.

	A). We will be using this tool to create a new plane to tell Photoshop the perspective. *Photoshop Tip –* Use the “C” key on the keyboard to automatically to select the “Create Plane Tool”.
	B). Eyedropper to select a specific color.
	C). The Move tool will allow you to move the plane.
	D). Magnifying Glass to zoom in and zoom out. *Photoshop Tip –* You can always use the keyboard shortcut of CTRL-“+” (Zoom in) or CTRL-“-“ (Zoom out).

Zoom in until you see most of the main building. Make sure your “Create Plane Tool” is selected. Left click on the corner on the left hand side and Left click the second point (top right hand side of building).

Now Left click the bottom right hand side and finally the bottom left hand side of the building. If you did it correctly, you should see a blue grid.

What if you see a yellow grid, like the one below? That tells you that it is mathematically impossible for that perspective, but you are very close to a perspective that will work. You can technically use a Yellow grid, but trust us, stick with the only blue planes, to make it look perfect.

Oh the deadly red plane. This means it is mathematically impossible for that perspective, and it will NOT allow you to use it. You will need to adjust the points to fix the perspective.

If you want to adjust the point, Left click and HOLD down the mouse button and drag the point. Release the Left mouse button when you are happy with the changes.

One of the nice features of the Vanishing Point Tool is that it remembers your planes. For this example, Left click on the “OK” button, which is located on the top right hand side of the window.

	A). Left click to apply the changes or the planes.
	B). If you want to disregard your changes, Left click the “Cancel” button.

Now get back into the Vanishing Point filter and you will notice that it saved your 1 plane.

Our goal is to extend onto the building to the right hand side. Left click the center right point and HOLD down the Left mouse button and drag it to the other building. Release the Left mouse button when you are right next to the other building.

You will notice a new option will be displayed. This option allows you to change the size of the boxes. Either Left click the text box and change the value or Left click the down arrow. Move the mouse pointer to the up carrot and HOLD down the Left mouse button and drag it left or right (decrease or increase). Release the Left mouse button when you are happy with the grid size. Photoshop Tip – You can also change the grid size by moving your mouse pointer to the word “Grid Size” and holding down the Left mouse button and dragging the mouse left or right. When you are happy with the grid size, release the Left mouse button.

For our example, we changed the grid size to 50.95.

Now that you have created a plane, a few more tools are available.

	A). Use this tool to edit a plane (edit points). For this tutorial, use this tool to move the top center point up to the top of the ledge of the building
	B). The Marquee Selection tool allows you to make a selection.
	C). The Stamp tool will allow you to duplicate portions of the image.

Now you will see we moved the top middle point up to the top of the ledge.

You will notice the Marquee Selection tool and the Stamp tool will resize based on the perspective. This means, that if the object is farther away, the Stamp tool will actually become smaller in size.

Use the Magnifying Glass tool, zoom into the right side of the building. Now using the Marquee tool, begin the selection to the right of the brick at the top of the apartment and HOLD down the Left mouse button and move the mouse pointer to the bottom right of the plane. Release the Left mouse button.

When you are using the selection tool, there are 3 important options in the menu.

	A). Left click the drop down box or Left click the numeric box and enter a Feather value. A Feather value is how far beyond the selection you want to blur and select.
	B). Want to bleed through to the layer below? Reduce the Opacity to less than 100 to begin to see the layer below. Left click either the drop down box to change the value or Left click the text box and enter a value.
	C). The Heal option is either Off or On. When turned on, it will try blend the pixels together. The last value is the Luminance value, which will blend the light of the color together. Left click the drop down box to select a specific heal type.

**For this tutorial, leave the Feather at 1 and Opacity as 100 and the Heal should be Off.

Onto the magic! If you wanted this image to look perfect, you would clone closer to the edge of the building to sample (start with the 2^nd cement column from the right side). If you want to do this quick, sample to the right of the center balcony cement column. For this tutorial, we will be doing the quick version.

Left click the Stamp tool within the Vanishing Point filter.

	A). This changes the size of the brush. Left click the text box and enter a numeric value or Left click the drop down box to select the Diameter size.
	B). The Hardness is how blurred (soft) the edges of the Cloning Stamp tool will be. 100 will be the hardest edge. Left click the drop down box and select the Hardness level or Left click the text box and enter a value for the Hardness.
	C). The Opacity will allow you to bleed through to the layer below. Left click the text box to enter a value or Left click the drop down arrow and select the Opacity level.
	D). The Heal option when turned on will blend the source and target area together. If a Luminance option is selected, it will blend the light between the source and the target. If you leave the option off, than it will not Heal anything. Left click the drop down box and select the Heal type.

For this tutorial, change the Diameter to 81, Hardness to 100, Opacity to 100 and Heal to Off.

Now you need to select the source area. We are doing the quick version, so we will be hold down the ALT key and Left click to the right of the cement column of the center balcony at the top of the ledge. Now release the ALT key on the keyboard.

Photoshop will not allow you to select the source outside a plane. Once selected you will see a green + sign on the sample source location.

As we said before, we wanted to do this quick, which means it cloned the line in and duplicated the light pole. If you wanted to make this perfect, clone right up to that line or manually clone out the wire after you apply the changes. Either way, we have added to the building and it kept the perspective perfect. Notice how the cement columns look smaller towards the new edge of the building (farther away from the camera).

Pasting Images Onto A Plane:

Our goal is to add a plane to the left side of the apartment building. Because we already have one plane, let’s use that perspective and add a new plane to the left hand side of the building. HOLD down the CTRL key and HOLD down the Left mouse button on the center left point of the first plane and drag it to the left hand side of the building. Release the CTRL key and Left mouse button to add the new plane.

Use the Edit Plane tool to change the perspective so it matches the left hand side of the building better. Here is our plane. As you can see it stops on the corner of the building.

The next few steps can get a little confusing. With the “Apartment” layer selected, Left click the new layer button.

Feel free to rename the layer if you would like. Left click the “Sign” layer and make sure the layer is selected. Left click the Eye image to unhide that layer. HOLD down the CTRL key and Left click on the image to the left of the word “Sign”. Release the CTRL key and you will notice that the sign will be selected.

Use CTRL-“C” to copy the sign. **Now hide the layer, using the eye image. Left click the “Sign Building” layer to make that active again.

Use CTRL-“D” to Deselect.

Get back into the Vanishing Point filter and use CTRL-“V” to paste the image. Move the mouse pointer to inside the image and HOLD down the Left mouse button and drag it so it fits on the corner of the building.

Yes, the sign is rather large (we will be fixing that shortly), but notice what it did to the sign. It bent it around the corner to keep the correct perspective.

Let’s resize that sign. Left click the Transform tool or use the “T” key as a keyboard shortcut.

You will notice points around the object. Move the mouse pointer to one of the corner points. HOLD down the Left mouse button on a point and HOLD down the Shift key and begin to resize the image by moving the mouse pointer. Release the Left mouse button and the Shift key.

If you move the mouse pointer outside the pasted object, you can get the double curved arrow. If you HOLD down the mouse button and drag, it will begin to rotate. Release the Left mouse button when you are happy with the rotation.

If you move the mouse pointer inside the pasted image and you HOLD down the Left mouse button and drag, it will move the image. Release the Left mouse button when you are happy with the changes.

To make it look better, change the opacity of the “Sign Building” layer to 50%. Here is how ours look.

Text:

To allow text to follow along a perspective, use the same steps on how to add an image.

Create the text (make sure you select your color and we used color a39763 and we used Arial font). On the text layer, CTRL Left click the “T” and use CTRL-“C” to copy. Now hide the text layer and use CTRL-“D” to deselect. Now create a new layer (we called ours Road Text). Make sure that new layer is selected and get into the Vanishing Point filter.

Here is how our Layer palette looks now.

Use the Create Plane tool and create a new plane on the road. Use the curb as your perspective guide.

Use CTRL-“V” to paste and resize and move the text to the plane on the road. We changed the “Road Text” layer in the Layers palette to 60% opacity.

One of the tools we did not cover is the Ruler tool in the Vanishing Point filter. We rarely use this tool, but if you want to use it, Left click the tool and move the ruler to your starting point and HOLD down the mouse button and drag it in a direction. Release the Left mouse button and it will display the measurement.

The other tool, is the Brush tool. You can use this tool to brush on a specific color.

Before And After:

Here are the before and after images.

Additional Tips And Tricks:

Want to delete the plane. Use the Backspace key! Want to create impossible buildings? For this example, take the center point in the front of the building and HOLD down the Left mouse button and drag it up. It will create a perspective that makes it appear if cloned that the building is coming forward in that section.

Conclusion:

By now you should know the basics of the Vanishing Point Filter. You have learned how to clone objects, make selections, and even use the magnifying glass. Remember, if you have a plane that is red color, that means it is mathematically impossible. Stick with a blue plane and it will usually look perfect. Remember, you do not need to work strictly on buildings. Anything that has an existing perspective such as a room, semi-truck, desk, road, etc. will work.

1). What is the keyboard shortcut to use the Create Plane tool in the Vanishing Point filter?

	A). CTRL-“C”.
	B). “P”.
	C). “T”.
	D). “C”.

2). What sub-menu of the Filter menu is the Vanishing Point filter in?

	A). It is located in the Other sub-menu.
	B). It is located in the Perspective sub-menu.
	C). It is not in any sub-menu and is located inside the filter menu.
	D). It is located in the Warp sub-menu.

3). What does a blue colored grid in the Vanishing Point filter do?

	A). It means that it is mathematically impossible for that perspective, but that you are very close to a good perspective.
	B). It means that it is mathematically impossible for that perspective and will not allow you to use that plane.
	C). It means that the perspective is perfect.
	D). It means that the length of the perspective is correct, but the height is wrong.

4). Name the 3 options located in the Heal options bar in the Vanishing Point filter?

	A). On, Off, Luminance.
	B). On, Off, Light.
	C). On, Off, Dark.
	D). On, Luminance, Light.

5). What is the keyboard shortcut to the Transform tool in the Vanishing Point filter?

	A). “R”.
	B). “T”.
	C). “C”.
	D). “D”.

6). What happens to the Stamp tool when you move it up and down the perspective plane in the Vanishing Point filter?

	A).You will notice that it the size of the brush will always stay the same.
	B). The color of the brush will change to red if it can’t clone a specific area because the perspective is wrong.
	C). You will notice that the farther away from the source that it will not clone any longer.
	D). You will notice that the farther away from the source the brush size will resize.

7). To expand onto an existing plane and change the perspective angle, what key on the keyboard do you hold down when using the Vanishing Point filter?

	A). “Shift”.
	B). CTRL.
	C). ALT.
	D). Fn.

8). When using the Transform tool in the Vanishing Point filter, how do you resize the object?

	A). Find any of the points and HOLD down the Left mouse button and drag.
	B). Right click the image and Left click “Image Size” to set the size.
	C). Drag the image to the “Resizing” button in the Vanishing Point filter.
	D). Move the mouse pointer to the center point and drag it to the right to reduce the size of the object.

9). How do you extend onto a plane in the Vanishing Point filter?

	A). Move to the point and HOLD down the Left mouse button and drag the mouse outside the exiting plane.
	B). Right click the plane and Left click the “Resize” command.
	C). Delete the plane and draw a new plane and that is the only way to resize.
	D). Apply the plane by Left clicking the “OK” button and then use the Transform tool to adjust the plane size.

10). What is one way to change the Grid Size in the Vanishing Point filter?

	A). Move the mouse pointer to the text box and then HOLD down the Left mouse button and drag it left or right.
	B).Right click the “Grid” field and Left click the “Resize” command from the menu.
	C). Inside the plane HOLD down the Left mouse button and drag the mouse up or down.
	D). Move the mouse pointer over the Grid Size label (text) and HOLD down the Left mouse button and drag it left or right.

Answers: 1). D, 2). C, 3). C, 4). A, 5). B, 6). D, 7). B, 8). A, 9). A, 10). D

Scoring:

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