Photoshop - Tut : Daily Photoshop Tutorial

Beijing Logo Light Painting

2008-08-14T17:16:00.000-07:00

In this tutorial I will show you how to create a nice light painiting effect for texts and logos. You will be able to design nice wallpapers and images using this technique and even different light effects. Also, celebrating the Olympic Games we will use its logo for the example.

Step 1

Open a new document and Photoshop, unlock the background layer and apply a Layer Style to it. Use Gradient Overlay, for the colors use Black and a dark red (#1d0c0c). Use Radial for the style and Normal for the Blend Mode.

Step 2

Create a new layer and go to Filter>Render>Clouds. Make sure you have black and white for the background and foreground colors. Change the Blend Mode to Color Dodge.

The Gradient Overlay and this cloud layer is necessary to increase the light effect. As we will use color dodge to create the effect, it's necessary to have some areas lighter than the others. Otherwise the color dodge wouldn't work.

Step 3

With the Rectangular Marquee Tool (M), create a rectangluar selection at the bottom, there will be the floor of the image. The copy and paste that. Change again the Blend mode to Color Dodge and go to Edit>Transform>Distort. You can apply a perspective or scale just the height of the image.

Step 4

Here I used a photo from iStockphoto, you can buy it here. Select the Pen Tool(P) or the Magnetic Lasso Tool (L) and extract the guy from the photo.

Step 5

With the "dude" layer select go to Image>Ajustments>Brightness/Contrast and change a bit of the values. Use the image below for the exactly values for Brightness and Contrast.

Step 6

Let's change the Hue and Saturation, go to Image>Adjustments>Hue/Saturation. Again use the image below for the correct values.

Step 7

Create a new layer on top of the "dude" layer. Go to Layer>Create Clipping Mask, after that, select the Brush Tool (B), for the color use a red (#f22625) and paint over the guy. Change the blend mode to Multiply.

Step 8

Select the Eraser Tool (E) and delete some parts of the red layer. The idea is just make the highlights more red.

Step 9

Let's create the dude's shadow. To do that is really easy. Create a markee selection from the "dude" layer, create a new layer and fill it with black. Then just go to Edit>Transform>Distort. Following the illumination of the photo you can have an idea of where to distort the shadow.

Step 10

Go to Filter>Blur>Gaussian Blur and add a little of blur to the shadow, 1.5 pixels for the Radius will be enough. Then just change the Blend Mode to Multiply.

Step 11 (Light Painting)

The light effect is the easiest part I think. I've shown you this effect quite a few times so I think it won't be a problem.

Create a new folder and rename it to "Lights". Inside this folder Paste the Beijing 2008 logo. You can get it from Google Images. Probably the text will be black, but that won't be a problem, just go to Image>Adjustments>Invert. We will need all the text and all symbols in white.

Step 12

With the Beijing 2008 layer select just go to Filter>Blur>Gaussian Blur. Use 3.5 pixels for the Radius.

Step 13

For the emblem, the 5 rings. Repeat the same thing as the previous step. However if you want to make it even better, and that can apply to the others too, duplicate the layer so you will have 2 layers of the same symbol. In one apply the gaussian blur with a big radius and the other, the one on top apply the gaussian blur with a very small value like 1-1.5 pixels.

Step 14

Repeat the same thing for the other symbol. The tip here is change different Gaussian Blur values.

Step 15

Create a marquee selection from de "dude" layer again, exactly as we did in the step 9. The go to Select>Modify>Expand. Expand 3 pixels and create a new layer, inside the Lights folder. Fill the layer with white and go to Filter>Blur>Gaussian Blur. Use 3 pixels for the Radius. After that select the Eraser Tool (E) and start deleting the glow (1-4). Use a big brush very soft, 0% hardness. Just leave the top left part of the layer, exactly the parts closer to the light effect.

Conclusion

You can add more details like the sparks or different gradient colors. Just keep in mind that the color dodge will work with darker colors but now with black, and if the colors are too light the effect won't work either. Try different colors to see how they behave with the lights I'm sure you will understand.

I hope you liked the effect and enjoy the Olympic Games.

Click on the image to see a full preview

Another Example

Design Cam Logo Photoshop

2008-08-14T17:15:00.000-07:00

Today I am telling you about How to Photoshop design website cam logo in Photoshop.

[1] First of all Open New Document of Custom Size, Height & Width 400 x 300 pixels,Resolution 72 & Mode RGB Color.

[2] Using the pen tool draw a shape as shown below.

[3] Right click select make selection, make a new layer fill with Black.

[4] Add the following layer styles.

[5] Create another shape with the help of Pen Tool fill that layer with Black.

[6] Add the following layer styles.

[7] Create a shape with the help of Ellipse Tool, drag the layer above the Background layer.

[8] Add the following layer styles.

[9] Create a shape with the help of Rectangular Marquee Tool, fill that layer with Black.

[10] Create a new shape with the help of Elliptical Marquee Tool, fill that layer with Black.

[11] Create a shape with Elliptical Marquee Tool, after that hit the delete key.

[12] Now add the following layer styles.

[13] Create a new shape with Ellipse Tool color is grey.

[14] Create another Ellipse add the following layer styles.

[15] Create a new shape with Ellipse Tool.

[16] Create a new shape with Ellipse Tool, color is White.

[17] Add the following layer styles.

[18] Create one more ellipse the color is #373737.

[19] Add the following layer styles.

[20] Take the Brush Tool use these settings.

[21] Play with your brush Tool.

[22] This is my final result.

creating logos with photoshop

creating water in photoshop

creating watermarks in photoshop

Dating Agency Layout

2008-08-11T17:26:00.000-07:00

Hi.
Today i will show you a how to create a Dating layout , or a dating portal layout. But you can use this layout also for another websites.

This is Tutorial number 154
This is my final result:

Please make a new document. size 760 x 770 pixels. Background : white
Select Rectangle Tool, and add the following shape

Then for this layer add the following layer styles

After that you need to download the following set of Cloud Brushes
Create a new layer ( press CTRL+SHIFT+ALT+N ) and after you load the set of brushes, add some clouds over the blue shape

I will provide you some design elements. You can find attached at the bottom of this tutorial. Open the PSD file in photoshop, then place the files i have provided you on your layout

Now it is time to add a Logo. I will not explain how to do it, because i din several time. The easy way is to use 3D Logo Creator
Here you can see a VIDEO TUTORIAL on how to create logos like this one from the following image

Now add some text on the header, and also a image

We have to add text also for the body of our layout

Select Line Tool , Set the weight to 2 or 3 pixels and create 2 or 3 lines
Use a color you like more. i will use a light grey

At the bottom of the layout i will create another line

For this thin line i will use the following layer styles

This is my result

If you have Talk-Mania Big Pack you will find a very nice set of pixel icons brushes
On a new layer ( press CTRL+SHIFT+ALT+N ) add some small details

Then you can load also the following set of Photoshop brushes
and once again on a new layer add some details

This is my final result

Easy Depth Of Field Effect

2008-08-11T17:24:00.000-07:00

Written By Steve Patterson

In this Adobe Photoshop tutorial, we're going to look at an easy way to adjust the depth of field in a photo, keeping only a small portion of the image in focus while taking the rest of it out of focus. This is a great way to bring attention to a specific part of an image (someone's face, for example), and the effect is similar to how things would look if we had shot the photo with a wide aperture.

For best results, we'll be using Photoshop's Lens Blur filter to create this effect, which is available in Photoshop CS and later, which means you'll need at least Photoshop CS to follow along with this tutorial. If you're using Photoshop 7 or earlier, you can still achieve good results with Photoshop's classic Gaussian Blur filter, but the Lens Blur filter is the filter of choice for this effect because it tries to mimic how an actual camera lens works, whereas the Gaussian Blur filter simply blurs everything out.

Here's the photo I'll be working with:

Let's say we wanted to bring attention to the woman's face. There's lots of creative ways we could do that, but since her face is closer to the camera than anything else in the photo, the easiest way would be to limit the photo's depth of field so her face becomes the only part of the image that's in focus. Here's how it will look when we're done:

Let's get started!

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Step 1: Duplicate The Background Layer

Let's begin by duplicating our Background layer so that we're not harming our original image information. To duplicate the Background layer, go up to the Layer menu at the top of the screen, choose New, and then choose Layer via Copy:

Photoshop Tutorials: Go to Layer > New > Layer via Copy.

For a faster way, use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl+J (Win) / Command+J (Mac). Either way tells Photoshop to create a copy of the Background layer for us, and if we look in the Layers palette, we can see our copy, which Photoshop has named "Layer 1", above the original Background layer:

Photoshop Tutorials: The Layers palette showing the copy of the Background layer above the original.

Step 2: Select The Area That Will Remain In Focus

Using the selection tool of your choice (Lasso Tool, Polygonal Lasso Tool, Pen Tool, etc.), draw a rough selection around the area that will remain in focus. In my case, I want the woman's face to be in focus, so I'm going to use the Polygonal Lasso Tool, which you can find hiding behind the Lasso Tool in Photoshop's Tools palette, to select her face. Your selection doesn't need to be surgically precise, so don't spent too much time on it. In fact, we'll be softening the edges of the selection (commonly known as feathering the selection) in a moment, and we'll see how to fine-tune things if you need to a bit later:

Photoshop Tutorials: The area around the woman's face is now selected.

Step 3: Enter Quick Mask Mode

Once you've made your selection, press the letter Q on your keyboard to enter Photoshop's Quick Mask mode. You can also click on the Quick Mask icon near the bottom of the Tools palette:

Photoshop Tutorials: Clicking on the "Quick Mask" icon below the Foreground and Background color swatches in the Tools palette.

If you look at your image, you'll see that your selection outline has disappeared temporarily and that the area outside of the selection is now overlaid in red:

Photoshop Tutorials: In "Quick Mask" mode, the area outside of the selection appears overlaid in red while the selection outlines disappear.

Notice how my selection looks pretty bad, but that's okay because we'll be softening it next.

Step 4: Apply The Gaussian Blur Filter

We need to soften the edges of our selection to create a smooth transition between the selected and unselected portions of the photo, and the Quick Mask mode is going to make it very easy for us to see what we're doing. We'll use Photoshop's Gaussian Blur filter to soften the edges. Go up to the Filter menu at the top of the screen, choose Blur, and then choose Gaussian Blur:

Photoshop Tutorials: Go to Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur.

This brings up the Gaussian Blur dialog box. Keep an eye on the selection edges in the document window as you adjust the Radius slider at the bottom of the dialog box. Dragging the slider to the right will increase the amount of blurring along the edges, increasing the edge softness, while dragging it to the left will decrease the amount of blurring. Adjust the Radius value until you see a nice, smooth transition along the edges. Here, I'm increasing my Radius value to somewhere around 16-17 pixels. The value you end up using may be different depending on the size of your image:

Photoshop Tutorials: Increase the "Radius" value in the Gaussian Blur dialog box to create a smooth transition along the selection edges in Quick Mask mode.

Click OK when you're done to exit out of the dialog box. Here we can see the smooth transition area around my selection edges:

Photoshop Tutorials: The selection edges have now been softened.

Step 5: Exit Out Of Quick Mask Mode

Now that we've softened our selection edges, we can exit out of Quick Mask mode and go back to Standard mode. To do that, either press the letter Q on your keyboard once again or click on the Standard Mode icon in the Tools palette:

Photoshop Tutorials: Clicking on the "Standard Mode" icon in the Tools palette to exit out of Quick Mask mode.

You'll see the red overlay disappear in the document window and your selection outline returns:

Photoshop Tutorials: The standard selection outline is now visible once again while the red overlay disappears.

Step 6: Save The Selection

We've done everything we need to do with our selection. Now we need to save it. To do that, go up to the Select menu at the top of the screen and choose Save Selection:

Photoshop Tutorials: Go to Select > Save Selection.

When the Save Selection dialog box appears, just click OK in the top right corner to exit out of it. There's no need to name the selection:

Photoshop Tutorials: Click OK to exit out of the Save Selection dialog box.

Press Ctrl+D (Win) / Command+D (Mac) to deselect your selection in the document window. If you switch over to your Channels palette, which you'll find grouped in beside the Layers palette, you'll see that your selection has been saved as a new alpha channel named Alpha 1 at the bottom of the palette. We can see by looking at the channel's preview thumbnail on the left that the area that was inside the selection appears white, while everything that was outside the selection appears black. It's tough to make out in the small thumbnail, but the smooth transition area we created around the selection edges appears as a narrow white-to-black gradient:

Photoshop Tutorials: The saved selection becomes a new "Alpha channel" in Photoshop's Channels palette.

This is important because in a moment, we're going to be using this black and white alpha channel we've created as a depth map for the Lens Blur filter. A depth map is simply a grayscale (black and white) image that Photoshop uses with the Lens Blur filter to decide which parts of the image to blur out and by how much. Any areas in the depth map that are pure black remain 100% in focus while areas that are pure white are completely blurred out. Areas that fall between pure black and pure white, such as the transition area around the selection edges, will be blurred to a lesser degree depending on how light or dark they are.

If you were paying attention there, you may be thinking "Wait a minute, isn't that exactly the opposite of what we want? You said black areas remain in focus while white areas are blurred out, but in the alpha channel we just created, it's the white area that we want to keep in focus, not the black area. The black area is where we want to apply the blurring!" You're absolutely correct. We'll need to tell Photoshop to invert our depth map in the Lens Blur filter's dialog box, and we'll see how to do that in a moment.

Switch back over to your Layers palette to continue.

Step 7: Apply The "Lens Blur" Filter

Now that we're back in the Layers palette, make sure you have "Layer 1" selected (the currently selected layer is highlighted in blue). We're going to create our depth of field effect at this point, and we're going to do it using Photoshop's Lens Blur filter. Go up to the Filter menu at the top of the screen, choose Blur, and then choose Lens Blur:

Photoshop Tutorials: Go to Filter > Blur > Lens Blur.

This brings up the Lens Blur dialog box, which consists of a large preview area on the left and a bunch of potentially confusing options along the right. You can safely ignore every option except for two of them - the Depth Map option that we just talked about a moment ago and the Radius option. For the Depth Map, make sure that Alpha 1 is selected so Photoshop uses the selection we made to determine how to blur the image. Of course, as we just pointed out, we need to tell Photoshop to invert our depth map so that the area we selected is the area that remains in focus. In my case, this means the woman's face will remain in focus while everything else becomes blurred. To do that, simply click inside the checkbox to the left of the word Invert.

The Radius option works exactly the same here as it does in the Gaussian Blur filter. Simply drag the Radius slider to the right to increase the amount of blurring that's applied to the image. Keep an eye on the preview area on the left as you drag the slider so you can see what's happening. Adjust the Radius slider until you achieve the amount of blur you're looking for. Here, I've set my Radius value to 20. Again, the value you choose for your image may be different:

Photoshop Tutorials: In the Lens Blur dialog box, make sure that "Alpha 1" is selected for the Depth Map and the "Invert" option is checked, then adjust the "Radius" slider until you reach the desired amount of blurring.

Click OK in the top right corner of the dialog box when you're done to exit out of it. Here's my image now with the blurring applied. Only the woman's face remains in focus:

Photoshop Tutorials: After applying the Lens Blur filter, only the woman's face remains in focus.

If, after applying the blur effect, you feel it's a bit too strong, you can fine-tune it simply by lowering the opacity of "Layer 1". You'll find the Opacity option in the top right corner of the Layers palette. I'm going to lower mine to around 85%:

Photoshop Tutorials: Fine-tune the amount of blurring by adjusting the opacity of "Layer 1".

Here's my image after lowering the opacity. The change is subtle, but you can make out the man's facial features a little better now:

Photoshop Tutorials: The image after fine-tuning the Lens Blur effect.

At this point, the only thing I don't like is that there's some blur being applied to the left side of the woman's face (her right, our left) and it's causing her face to blend in with the man's face behind her. I'd like to touch that up so that her face appears nice and sharp along the edge. I can do that easily using a layer mask, and I'll do that next!

Step 8: Add A Layer Mask

This part is optional. You may not need to touch up your blur effect, but if you do, make sure you still have "Layer 1" selected, then click on the Layer Mask icon at the bottom of the Layers palette:

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

Nothing appears to have changed in the document window, but if we look at "Layer 1" in the Layers palette, we can see that we now have a layer mask thumbnail to the right of the layer's preview thumbnail:

Photoshop Tutorials: A layer mask thumbnail now appears on "Layer 1".

Step 9: Select The Brush Tool

I'm going to paint away the blur effect from the side of the woman's face. For that, I'll need Photoshop's Brush Tool so I'll select it from the Tools palette. You can also access the Brush Tool simply by pressing the letter B on your keyboard:

Photoshop Tutorials: Selecting the Brush Tool from the Tools palette.

Step 10: Set Your Foreground Color To Black

By default, whenever we have a layer mask selected, Photoshop sets our Foreground color to white and our Background color to black. To paint away the blur effect on "Layer 1", we need to paint with black, which means we need black as our Foreground color. Press the letter X on your keyboard to swap your Foreground and Background colors, making black the Foreground color and white the Background color. We can see what the colors are currently set to by looking at the two color swatches near the bottom of the Tools palette. The top left swatch is the current Foreground color and the bottom right swatch is the current Background color:

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

Step 11: Paint Away Any Unwanted Areas Of Blurring

With the Brush Tool selected and black as your Foreground color, simply paint over the areas where you want to remove the blur effect. In my case, I'm going to paint along the edge of the woman's face. You can adjust the size of the brush using the left and right bracket keys on your keyboard. The left bracket key makes the brush smaller while the right bracket key makes it larger. You can also adjust the edge hardness of the brush by holding down the Shift key and pressing the left and right bracket keys. Holding Shift while pressing the left bracket key makes the brush edges softer, and holding Shift while pressing the right bracket key makes the edges harder. I'm going to use a small brush with fairly hard edges and paint along the left side of the woman's face to remove the blurring:

Photoshop Tutorials: Painting along the edge of the woman's face to remove any unwanted blurring.

If you make a mistake and accidentally paint over the wrong area, simply press X on your keyboard to switch your Foreground color to white and paint over the mistake, then press X again to switch back to black and continue painting away the blur effect.

I'll continue painting along the edge of her face to remove the last bit of blurring. If I look at the layer mask thumbnail in the Layers palette, I can see all the areas where I've painted with black to remove the blurring from the photo:

Photoshop Tutorials: The layer mask thumbnail showing the areas that have been painted with black.

And here, after removing the blur effect from along the side of the woman's face so it contrasts nicely with the out-of-focus man's face behind her, is my final "depth of field" result:

Photoshop Tutorials: The final result.

And there we have it!

3D Pixel Stretch Effects

2008-08-11T17:22:00.000-07:00

What We’re Making

In this tutorial, we’re going to stretch a single line of pixels to create beautiful 3D designs. You can get a glimpse of the design we’re going to make in the preview below:

Step 1 - Getting Started

Go ahead and create a new document (you may want to aim for something above 500×500px just so you have some breathing room for your work). Fill your background layer with a nice blue (#152935), or another color of your choice.

Now, go grab 3 photos that are filled with vibrant colors. I’ve included some pictures you’re welcome to use from here. The actual contents in the picture do not matter, we’re just interested in the color!

You can go ahead and open the photos in Photoshop, we’ll be using them soon.

Step 2 - Fade to Black

Create a new layer.

Using a large (500px), soft (0%), black brush with the Brush Tool, create a large black circle towards the center of your canvas. This will be used to help add depth to our design later on.

Step 3 - Selecting the Pixels

We need to copy a single row of pixels from one of our images. To do this, we’ll use the Single Row Marquee Tool (located underneath the Rectangular Marquee Tool).

In one of your photos, use this tool to select a row of pixels, and then copy (Edit > Copy or Ctrl + C) that row. Paste the copied row into your design in a new layer.

Step 4 - Transform a Row into a Rectangle

Using Transform, vertically stretch this row of pixels into a rectangle that is a bit more manageable in the canvas area. You should also horizontally shrink your pixels so that you have a rectangle of stretched pixels.

Stretching your row of pixels horizontally may be difficult without zooming in since you’ll only have a 1px bounding box to work with. An easier way to adjust this is to simply type in the values (something like 75%) for the transform in the options bar.

Step 5 - Duplicate, then Stretch Again

Duplicate this layer of stretched pixels. and then transform your new layer so that it’s quite longer than the original. It should remain the same width.

Step 6 - Creating the 3D Effect

We’re going to apply another transformation to our new layer. This time, it’s a bit more complicated, but I’ll try to make it very simple to follow.

First, align the bottom pixels of your new layer with the top pixels of your first pixel stretch layer.

Go into Free Transform Mode (Ctrl + T).

Grab the top middle handle, and drag it downwards to shrink the layer vertically. The two layers should still meet one another.

Hold Ctrl and click and drag the top middle handle again so that the top of the layer being transformed is offset from the bottom of said layer. The bottom of the layer should still touch the top of the first pixel stretch layer.

Finally, Hold CTRL + Alt + Shift and click and drag one of the top outer handles inwards so they meet in the center. This will give the illusion of a 3D box moving back into space.

Step 7 - Shading

We need to add shading to our new subject. I’d like to have it appear as if it is coming forth out of the dark center of our design. To accomplish this, we’ll be using Photoshop’s Brush Tool some more.

First, we’ll shade the front of our box using a soft, medium size (100-200) brush. Create a selection around the layer contents of your first pixel stretch layer (Ctrl + Click Layer Thumbnail).

Using a Black brush, paint around the edges of the box to give the illusion of lighting in your design.I especially focused my lighting towards the bottom edges of my box to make the light appear as if it came from slightly above.

Try to paint using just the edges of your soft brush so that the shading lightly darkens the box rather painting it completely black.

Now move this layer ABOVE your diagonal pixel stretch layer.

Select the layer contents of your diagonally stretched layer (which is now below your rectangle layer). Expand this selection by one pixel (Select > Modify > Expand).

Using a large, white brush, paint along the bottom of this layer to differentiate between the rectangle layer. Then, using a large, black brush, fade out the back of this layer so it blends into the background.

Step 8 - Repeat

Using different images (or at different parts of the same image even), create several more 3D blocks to create more interesting designs. Here is a combination I put together with the images provided at the beginning of this tutorial:

Vary the angles at which things extrude to give your design greater 3D perspective. You could also try making your blocks extrude from the bottom rather than the top!

Step 9 - Making Colors more Vibrant

After finishing the design shown above, I was not satisfied with the vibrance in the color. To make things brighter, I merged all of my block layers (Select them all in the Layers Pallete, then Layer > Merge Layers), applied a light Gaussian Blur (Filter > Gaussian Blur), and set the layers blending mode to Color Dodge.

Step 10 - Adding Texture

With texture, this design may look much nicer. Check out our Tutorial for adding Texture in Photoshop in just 3 simple steps. After finding a suitable paper texture, I achieved the following results:

Grab the PSD

Crystal Ladybug Webbie

2008-08-10T18:07:00.000-07:00

Webbies are, simply, any of the little graphics we use in web design. They might be a button, an icon, or a logo-type graphic.

This tutorial is a new version of our crystal ladybug webbie. It is just as sleek, but rounder and cuter.

1	New Canvas Open a new canvas in Photoshop (File, New) that is sized about 400x400 pixels with a white background in RGB mode.

2	Set Colors Set your foreground color to #fd403a and your background color to #6d0200.

3	Draw a Circle Select your ellipse (circle) SHAPE tool and draw it out on your canvas. DO NOT use the marquee tool. The shape tool will create a new layer for you. Hold the shift key down on your keyboard while you draw to make a perfect circle. After you draw the circle, right-click its layer and choose "Rasterize Layer". This is how you get those super-smooth, crisp lines.

4	Gradient Overlay Go to your layer styles (Layer - Layer Styles OR the small "f" icon in the lower left-hand corner of your layers palette). Choose "Gradient Overlay and apply the bright-to-dark red gradient. Leave all other settings at their default. Click OK.

5	The Head Change your foreground color to black. Then, use your rectangle SHAPE tool to draw across the top third of your red circle. Right-click and rasterize this shape. After you've rasterized, click once on the red circle layer to select it. Then, use your magic wand tool to select the area around the circle. Click back on your black square layer and hit the backspace key on your keyboard. This will delete everything outside the circle shape.

6	Black Dots Using black, grab your elliptical (circle) shape tool and draw 4-5 ovals on the back of your ladybug. Make sure you rasterize each circle after you draw it.

7	Merge & Shadow Make sure that you like the basic elements so far, because we're about to set them in stone. First, make your background layer invisible by clicking the "eye" icon beside it. Then, right-click your red circle layer and choose "Merge Visible". This places all your layers - except your background - on one single layer. Make the background visible again by clicking the eye beside it once more. Now, go to your layer styles (Layer, Layer Styles OR the little "f" icon in the lower left-hand corner of your layers palette) and choose "Inner Shadow". Apply the following settings but DO NOT click OK yet.

8	Inner Glow While you're in the layer styles dialogue, go to "Inner Glow" and apply the settings below. Click OK when you're done.

9	Shine Part One We're ready to start our shine. Set your foreground color to white, and grab your ellipse tool again. Holding the shift key down, go ahead and draw a perfect circle on the upper two-thirds of the circle. Right-click and rasterize the layer.

10	Shine Part Two This is cool, but it doesn't really "shine". To make it do that, we're going to add a layer mask. Click "Layer", choose "Layer Mask", and click "Reveal All". This will change your foreground and background colors to black & white. The trick here is that black will "hide" parts of your white circle, and white will keep it visible. Use your gradient tool to make the white circle fade smoothly away.

11	Two Lines Now, we want to make the look of "wings". This is totally easy. First, draw a black line up the center of the red in your circle - behind the shine layer - and rasterize it. Second, draw a white line across the ladybug, just under the head. Rasterize this.

12	Antennae Our last step - antennae. Basically, the antennae consist of 3 circles. First, draw a long oval that will be both antennae, so size it accordingly. Rasterize the oval, then click "Select" and choose "Load Selection". Go back to "Select" and choose "Modify", then click "Contract". Enter 6. Click the backspace key on your keyboard to remove the center. Then, use your eraser tool to remove excess. Finally, make two circles on the tip of each antennae. Beautiful! To make other colors of ladybugs, just change the colors of your gradient overlay.

Creating Business Style Template Design

2008-08-10T18:06:00.001-07:00

There’re a lot of resources that provide free website templates in Internet. One of them - FreeTemplatesOnline.com Here you can download plenty of free and premium templates. However, if this is a free (or premium) template, somebody else can also download it, and use it for his website. That’s why I’ve made up my mind to make a tutorial with the detailed description of creating a template from the very beginning. I hope it allows you to create your own templates in future, or to make some changes in the existing ones.

You can see the result of my work - this template. It took me 8 hours to draw this template. You wiil be able to recreate this template in 2 up to 4 hours using my instructions and possessing the basic experience of work in Photoshop.

So, there’s an idea to create a template in dark shades with vector motifs. It should be of ‘Clean Style‘, consists of the header and the main part in the middle of the the page, navigation menus in the right and left bars. And these navigation menus will be the main adornment for the website. The footer will go down also in the middle of the page.

Let’s start with the background. Let it be gray and with grain a little. Create a new document of 3×3px size, and paint some sectors with the help of Pencil tool as it is shown in the picture. Save it as Pattern (Edit>Define Pattern) and give it “Temp” name.

Create a new document of 766×770px size. Set Foreground color #1e1e1e and fill the background with it. Duplicate the layer and apply Noise filter (Filter>Noise>Add Noise).

Create a new layer, and fill it (Shift+F5) with the created Pattern “Temp”.

Pick up the layer where Noise was applied and reduce the opacity to 20%. You can also correct Curves (Ctrl+M) to get rid of white spots.

The background is finished.

Now it’s time to mark the place for the content part. It’s supposed to consist a section with the services list and their description (the top side), the section with the partners list, their description and the title of the subsection (the bottom side). Generally the content part will be in the middle of the canvas, and the background will have another color.

Create a new set (Layer>New>Group). Select an area (M) of 420-439px size in the middle of the canvas, and fill it with #101010 color.

Click Subtract from Selection and deselect the upper half of the content part. Fill it with #151515 color. Deselect (Ctrl+D).

Type (T) "Multilevel Business Solutions" in the top with the following settings: Use #5e5e5e color for "Multilevel” and #b8b8b8 color for "business solutions".

A little bit lower place a text with the company’s description. Meanwhile it can be “Lorem Ipsum” text.

Tip: You may visit Lipsum.com to know more about "Lorem Ipsum" text and to copy it from there.

Place the partners’ banners below the text. I’ve used the following three gray banners (free download baners). Just open them in Photoshop and drag do your working PSD file.

Apply Stroke Blending option (Layer>Layer Style>Stroke…) to layers with banners.

And at last, the descriptions for banners. Place the description text to the right. As the background is lighter in the lower part than in the upper part, so the text should be lighter also.

Now it’s time for logo and slogan. They will be placed above the content side.

Create the new set. Download Custom shape, and draw a white shape with 75×75px size in the upper part of the template, closer to the left edge of the content side.

Use the following Blending Options (Layer> Layer Style>Blending Options…) for the layer with shape.

Now add text “Prime Time” to the right of the logo with the following settings:

Add the following Blending Options for it (Drop Shadow as for the logo):

Under “Prime Time” text type the slogan for the company "take the best corporate deal" with the following settings:

Also add Drop Shadow in Blending Options with the same parameters as for the text layer and the layer with the logo.

Now footer. It’s very simple and placed under the content side. The footer consists of short service information with the sound management.

Create a new set. Type the text under the content side “Your Company.com C 2008 | Privacy Policy | Terms Of Use". Use #4c4c4c color for "YourCompany.Com C 2008" and #6a6a6a color for the rest text.

And place “Sound Control” below.

The main part is ready. Now the navigation menu. It will be in the form of six large color buttons, that are placed in threes on each side of the content side. Each of the squares will contain the menu title, the description, and the logo.

So let’s start. Create the new set. Create the new layer in it. Select the area of 150×150px size (M) in the left upper side of the page. Fill it with #58a013 color.

Now choose the gradient (G), and draw a line from the top left to the right bottom part. Set Opacity 60% and deselect.

Set Foreground color white. Draw shape in the middle upper side of it using the custom shape that was created before with the 75×77px size. Set opacity 10%.

Add the text “ABOUT US” for the first link under it.

And also add Drop Shadow in Blending Options with the same settings that were applied before for the other layers.

And at last one more text layer for the short description of the link. This case it will be the text “short about us”. Also add Drop Shadow for it with the same settings as in the previous step.

The first navigation menu is ready. To create another one it’s enough to duplicate the set, move it for 155px below. Then Ctrl+Click on the layer with the background and fill it with #88b804 color. Next change the text in the layer with the menu title and description for "SERVICES" and "services overview" appropriately.

Duplicate the layer once more, move for 155px below, change the background color for #a9b803, change text layers for "PRODUCTS", "quality standards".

The left menu is ready. Make the right menu the same way. Use the following colors and texts:

The top right: #c6a700, "SOLUTIONS", "business solutions".

The middle right: #c77200, "PARTNERS", "partners planing".

The bottom right: #ca4400, "CONTACTS", "contact information".

The template is ready. All you need to do is to add the banners in the bottom. The banners show how they will look like on the site.

Create the new set. Choose any shapes you like, and draw four items using #3d3d3d color. To make things more simple you can just download those banners for free here.

You can see my final result here.

Free download sources: .psd design with slicing, .html code with style.css, images, baners, shape.

Tidying up Your Photoshop Brush Set in Menus Customization

2008-08-10T17:57:00.000-07:00

I got a very interesting question on my previous tutorial (How to create vector photoshop brushes). A blogger mate was having a problem to organize long collection lists of brush set. I will never been dealing with such problem if I haven’t got this comment posted. So, I would say thank you anonymous mate! Below there is a screen shot showing how these lists get you dizzy because they are all appear together and arranged in alphabetical order, but sometimes you don’t have to use the major numbers of them.

click to enlarge!

If you are a graphic designer and using photoshop brush set a lot, being practical in everyway to finish your job is foremost. I would have to say that you need to be tidying up your photoshop brushes set list, since on the internet most of them are categorized and designed in different style or theme. For example, there are thousand kinds brushes set, such as Foliage, Grunge, Architectural and many more. Should this tutorial, will help you more?…. Just try it ;) and gimme comment if I may get missed out something ok.

Okay…. Let’s see, how this thing works.

Step 1 – Installing new photoshop brush set

Actually there is an easy way to install photoshop brush set in your workspace as you can read it in my previous tutorial. Well that kind of way would rather have limited options if your main concern is to tidy up your long list of brush set.

See how you can save your time by installing all your brush set to your system operation folders (I’m a Windows user), then creating different kinds of Menu Customization Set to group your photoshop brushes set based on their style and theme.

Firstly, all you have to do is to move your photoshop brushes set collection to this system root folder, as you seen below. I don’t know how it looks in Mac, but I am sure it would works pretty similar.

click to enlarge!

Step 2 – Menus Customization

Go to the menu Edit > Keyboard Shortcuts and Menus (Alt + Shift+ Ctrl +K) and click the Menus tab, then on the Pallete Menus Option Box, Find Brushes option.

Set the Menu For: Pallete Menus then you will see another sub option box like this:

All of your photoshop brush that you have moved into the system folder is now appeared in this customization box. Each of them is now signed as Palette Menu Command.

From this stage, you can start to group your photoshop brush set based on their design style or theme. Turn off the visibility of other type of brushes set that you think would not related to the group of style that you are about to create.

You can also add up highlight to your photoshop brush just like what is shown above with a color.

Step 3 – Keyboard Shortcut Customization

Go back again to the menu Edit > Keyboard Shortcuts and Menus (Alt + Shift+ Ctrl +K) and click the Keyboard Shortcuts tab, then on the Pallete Menus Option Box, Find Brushes option.

Set the Shortcuts For: Pallete Menus then you will see another sub option box like this:

click to enlarge!

To assign a shortcut for a brush set, click the right side of the row lists, and then fill the blank box with available shortcut as you wish. Click the Accept button if you already sure with the choice of shortcut available. You can assign more than one shortcut by clicking the Add Shortcut button, and fill in with alternatives of available shortcut. Removing the shortcut would be simply done by clicking the Delete Shortcut.

Summarize button will allow you to save all the lists of this set in a web page format for further use.

Step 4 – Saving the Shortcut and Menus Customization settings

If you think that you already have the group list complete, save this Menus Customization set, and name it with according to the group design style or theme.

The settings will be saved in .MNU file format, and you can re-customize it whenever you want by repeating what has been explained in the initial steps. Creating new Menu Customization to group some photoshop brushes in one file is a great idea because whenever you need certain design style of brush set, you just need to activate one of the Menus Customization set in the list.

NOTE:
Before the new Menu Customization set is made, you will always working this customization on Photoshop Default Menus. Make sure that you start it back all over again from Photoshop Default Menus on the “Set” drop down menus if you want to create another group of Menu Customization

Check the list on your Brush window by entering menu Window > Brushes (F5).

Click the tiny arrow on the right top to show the tray menu commands, and you will find your brush set menus customization listed.

click to enlarge!

Red Flag Over Reich - Photo Effects

2008-08-10T17:53:00.000-07:00

Hallo. 9th of May. This is a great day for our country and not only ours. This is a great victory day over the fascism. This is why I've decided to make this tutorial. This is going to be a color fill tutorial, specking in other words we will take a black and white picture and add color to it.

So let's go.

Here is our picture. This is a well known shot that is called red flag over the Reichstag and it was made by a Russian photographer.

Click image to expand.

Create a new layer to begin to paint on.

But firs change the image mode from grayscale to RGB or CMYK.

Click image to expand.

Before begin to color my image I've decided to apply a gradient map (adjustments layer).

Set this very gradient map layer to linear burn blending mode.

We got this sepia look to our picture. Now another goal here is to show that our picture is Old with all the scratches and so on.

Now let's work over some tones and value.

Grab an eraser and erase a little bit of our gradient map layer. I've chosen this brush with torn edges, you could use and ripped edges brush to do this.

Click image to expand.

Note to switch directly on the mask and not on the map itself.

Here you can see how I've done my erasing. I've erased the part near the top right corner that means that the light will come from over there. This will be our lightest point, somewhere over there.

Click image to expand.

The details should be painted in the last part of the work, but I've decided to set a little bit of lighting on my character.

I also like to create another adjustment color balance layer.

I will let's say erase the part of my adjustment by using black to white gradient. Note to stay on the mask.

Click image to expand.

I also want to get rid of my adjustment a little bit more, go to the Channels box, choose COLOR BALLNCE (mask) and work a little bit with brushes.

Click image to expand.

Now I don't now why but I like to pant some fog spreading through the city.

Choose COLOR as the mode to your brush. Create a new layer (FOGY).

And begin to paint the fog. I'm also using a ripped edged one.

And some color to the fog and for and the image corner area. Use soft low flow brush.

Now I will ad some color to the uniforms of the soldiers. I don't really sure that they were green. But I want them to be green.
brush here, setting the flow to about 30 – 50 % (depending on the tablet you use), setting the color mode to COLOR and toggling it to normal some times.

Enjoy.

Abstract Lines Background.

2008-08-10T17:51:00.000-07:00

Abstract Lines Background.

Step 1:

Let's start out by creating a new file. I used a 550x900 pixels canvas set at 72dpi, and I filled my background with a black color. Now grab the background below and insert into your canvas in its own layer.

Step 2:

Create a new layer set and name it 'Abstract Lines'. Now select the brush tool and set the size to 45 px soft brush. In a new layer paint a medium sized line with # 006C6A color shade as shown below.

Step 3:

Go to Filter > Blur > Motion Blur, apply the settings below to the paint line layer. If your results are thin in color just duplicate the layer and merge them both.

Step 4:

Under Layer Style(Layer > Layer Style) add an Inner Shadow and Gradient Overlay blending options to your motioned paint layer.

Step 5:

Duplicate the motioned paint layer without any layer styles attached. Position it on the right side and set the layer's blending mode to Color Dodge. Duplicate this layer so the dodge effect is thicker on the design.

Step 6:

Once again duplicate the motioned paint layer without any layer styles. Position it as shown below, finish it off by duplicating the layer so its thicker on the design.

Step 7:

Duplicate the 'Abstract Line' layer set and merge it by going to Layer > Merge Layer Set. Make sure you have the layer set highlighted on the layers window or the merge option won't be active. position the layer design next to the original abstract line. Then set the layer's blending mode to Lighten at 46%opacity level.

Step 8:

Now duplicate the lightened layer from the last step by 3 to 4 times and position this designs all over the canvas. Make each copy unique with a different opacity levels.

Step 9:

Add a marquee selection around your canvas and go to Edit > Copy Merged. Then go back to Edit > Paste, this should add a new layer with a copy of your current design. Set the layer's blending mode to Hard Light at 49% opacity level.

Step 10:

Copy your current design as shown on step nine then use rotate option on Edit > Transform.

Results:

Abstract Lines Background.

Using Blending Mode

2008-08-10T17:50:00.000-07:00

This is a fairly simple tutorial, though its uses for creative image editing in Photoshop are anything but. Even this tutorial does not begin to scratch the surface of what can be done when you use Blending Mode in Photoshop. This tutorial is instead designed to simply make people aware of it and to give them a glimpse into what it can do for your work.

Let's begin. For this tutorial I will be using an image of the lovely Karima Adebibe who is currently acting as the new model to fill Lara Crofts boots.

* For more information on how to remove an image from its background for other use, consult my Image Cutting here.

< Blending Mode has a myriad of other uses for compositional work in Photoshop aside from simply giving your image a different look. Try playing around with different uses of Blending Mode in your works in Photoshop, especially in terms of achieving different looks in images that use multiple layers. The above tutorial only hints at the possibilites. Enjoy.
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2008-08-10T17:49:00.001-07:00

In this tutorial we are going to learn how to create a clean web layout.

1)Open a new document with the sizes 1300 x 1500 pixels and draw a linear gradient #e2e4e4 to #d7d9d9.

2)Create a new layer and make a rectangular selection with fixed size 1300 by 10 pixels. Fill the selection with the color #3e4141. Place this layer inside a folder, and change the name of the folder into Header. Here we are going to put all the header elements.

3)Create a new layer inside the Header folder and make a selection with the fixed size 250 x 50 pixels. Go to Select > Modify > Smooth and add a value of 3 pixels. Select Type Tool and write the name of the site (the font which I used is called Futura). Open Layer Style window and use the settings from the next images.

4)Create a new layer inside the Header folder, make a selection with the fixed size 645 x 35 pixels and fill it with a gradient #b8b2b2 to #d0cbcb. Select Type Tool and write the names of the pages, then copy the layer style from the text you have written on the step three. Now we are done with the header.

5)Go to View > Rulers and draw some guides like those from the next image.

6)Create a new folder, name it Featured post and create a new layer inside this folder. Draw a rectangle like the one from the next image fill it with any color, then open the Layer Style window and use the settings from the image.

7)Place an image inside the ‘featured post’ folder. I used a vector from vecteezy.com Write the title of a post using the font Verdana, the size 25 pixels and the color #373633. Write the content of the post with the same font, the size 16 pixels and the color #787876.

8)Now we are going to create a ‘Continue reading’ button. Make a rectangular selection, fill it with any color, open the Layer Style Window and use the settings from the next image. Write Continue reading above the button.

9)Create a new layer, make a rectangle selection and fill it with any color. Copy the layer style from the big rectangle layer and paste it on the small rectangle layer. Move the rectangle in the right corner of the big rectangle and set the opacity to 50%. Write the text Featured Post above the small rectangle.

10)Create a new folder, name it Content, then create a new layer inside this folder. Make a rectangular selection and fill it with white. Open the Layer Style window and put the next settings.

11)Create a new layer, make a rectangle selection like the one from the next image and add a linear gradient #ececec to white. Write the title of a post with the font Verdana, the color #191917 and the size 30 pixels. Write the content of a post with the same font, the color #7d7d7b and the size 15 pixels. Copy and paste the continue reading button and place it at the end of the post. Create a new layer and, make a selection with the fixed size 570 x 1 pixel and fill it with the color #afaeac.

12)Create a new folder and name it Sidebar. Create a new layer, make a selection for the sidebar, fill it with the color #e5e5e5 and add the same layer styles you added at the step 10.

13)Create a small rectangle and fill it with the color #cfcdcb, then write the content of the sidebar.

14)Create a new group and name it Footer. Create a new layer and place it inside the footer group. Create a rectangular selection and fill it with the color #171613. Create a smaller rectangle, fill it with the color #2f2e29 and duplicate it two times. You can use this three columns to add the Recent Posts, Recent Comments, Archives, or anything else.

Final Result

Pop Up Login Box Design

2008-08-10T17:42:00.000-07:00

As the web has progressed, we're seeing more and more webmasters utilize javascript in order to display different pieces of content and functionality. A login box is one of those things that just makes sense to include as a javascript popup instead of directing visitors to an entirely new page sometimes.

In this tutorial I will detail how to design an attractive popup login box.

Click here to view the full version of the login box you will learn to design.

1. Select the website design you want to use. Generally it's just best to select the home page design. You can either just screenshot the design in your browser and bring it into photoshop, or if you have the original PSD you can use that. (Though, you will have a ton of layers to deal with in that case.)

2. Generally to create the overlay, it's best to use the eye dropper tool and pick a color. I used the darkest shade of blue found in the top and bottom of the design.

3. Create a new layer and make sure it's situated at the top of all the other layers.

4. Select the paint bucket tool and fill in the color.

5. With the layer still selected, change the opacity to around 66%. You can use your own judgement on what looks best.

6. Change the foreground color to white.

7. Choose the rounded rectangle tool by left clicking and dragging out the regular rectangle tool.

8. Change the "Radius:" at the top to 16 px.

9. Draw out a rectangle approximately the same size as seen on the reference image to the left. (Make sure you have the top layer selected before drawing the rectangle.)

10. Right click the layer we just created and duplicate layer.

11. Use the direct selection tool and drag out on the very bottom portion of the loginbox to select the very bottom 2 points. (See here). Hit your delete key to delete them.

12. Select the bottom 2 again in the same manner as the previous step. Left click on one of the points and while holding shift, drag them up to where they're half an inch away from the other nearest points. (See here).

13. On the duplicated layer, double click the white box to change the color. Choose a light blue color as shown to the left.

14. Choose a dark blue (like the one we used to blanket the design initially), then with the type tool type "Member Login" with a similar font as shown to the left.

15. Then beneath it, type in "Username:" - Then with that layer selected, change the font to arial, "Aa" (anti-aliasing) to none, and the font size to 14pt.

16. Right click the username text layer and duplicate it. With the move tool, move it a bit beneath the original "Username:" position. Then with the type tool, change it to "Password:".

17. Use the eye dropper to choose the light blue color that we selected in step 13.

18. Drag out the rounded rectangle tool and change it to the regular rectangle tool.

19. Drag out the username textfield box underneath the "Username:" caption. Change the color of the box we just created (in the layers window) and change it to a near-white shade of blue.

20. Double click the right side of the layer and select Stroke at the bottom. Change size to 1, Position to Inside, and the Color to the same color we chose in step 13.

21. Select "Gradient Overlay". Double click on the actual black/white gradient preview. At the top in "Presets" select the 2nd from the left (solid to gradient). Then double click the very left bottom color picker and change it to white. Hit Ok / Ok to get back.

22. Right click the layer we just worked on, duplicate it. Use the move tool to drag it beneath the password caption.

23. With the type tool and a medium blue foreground color, in the right blank area, type "* Not a member? Register here", then a couple lines beneath it, type "* Forgot Info". Change the font size to 12px.

24. Make sure the "Character" window is visible by going to the Window menu and making sure the "Character" is checked. Change the leading to 14 pt. Highlight "Register here" and choose the underline "T" in the character window. Highlight "Not a member?" and choose the bold "T" in the character window.

25. Choose the direct selection tool, left click on the white panel background to select the layer, drag down the bottom 4 points to extend the height and give us more room to place the login button.

26. With a dark blue foreground color selected, choose the rounded rectangle tool and draw out a login button beneath the password textbox.

27. With the type tool selected, click over the "Member Login" text. Right click the layer,
duplicate it, drag the layer to the very top, change the color to white, and with the move tool move it down over top of the login button we created. Change the text to "Login Now" and CTRL-T to change the size to fit within the button.

28. Select the bottom white background panel layer, double click the right side of the layer to bring up layer styles, and select gradient overlay. Double click the gradient preview and change it to the one we chose before (foreground to transparent). Change the first color picker to a light blue. Hit Ok / Ok. This gives the bottom of the panel a nice blue to white gradient.

29. Choose the initial blanket layer we used to cover the design. With the eye dropper, choose the blue color we used that sits beneath the "Member Login" text. With the type tool, type a "*" outside of the panel. CTRL-T and with shift held, enlarge it. Position it as shown to the left, with the type tool you can choose different fonts to get the best looking asterick.

And that's it! With HTML, CSS and some javascript you can make this function exactly as shown.

Text three-dimensional

2008-08-10T17:39:00.000-07:00

Here's another way to make a 3D text with Photoshop. This method is simple and yet it can have different results by changing a few things in its execution.

STEP 1

I create a new document, and I place my text at the centre of my image (I choose a color black).

STEP 2

I pixellise the layer of my text and I called Text1, then I change with the prospect Publishing> transformation> perspective.

STEP 3

I use the filter Esthétiques> stamping with the following adjustments:

STEP 4

I will now create my volume, for that I place on my Text1 layer, and then I take the tool displacement (V) and I press Alt while pressing the arrow at the top (about 30 times).

STEP 5

I merges all my layers and add a shadow: distance 50 and size 50.

my text is now in three dimensions and must is that it flies: p I think it is me!

Here is a small variant:

Quick Clean Composite Images

2008-08-10T17:36:00.000-07:00

One of the biggest challenges facing News Graphic Drones is cranking out an impossible number of stills for a particular newscast. This can be a daunting task, especially when you only have a few minutes per graphic and with The Director In Charge of Still-Stores breathing down your neck. Isolating an image or person to place over your news background can be the most time consuming task, particularly when you’re trying to maintain a realistic look. Nothing looks worse than seeing an obvious cut-job over one of your anchors shoulders.

If you still haven’t purchased a Wacom or other digitizing tablet, do it now (we’ll wait). The Wacom tablet is not a luxury afforded only by the truly nerdy; it’s a must have for anyone who spends a large portion of their day shuffling pixels around in Photoshop. It offers the absolute fastest way to isolate an image. It takes a little getting used to, but in no time becomes second nature... you’ll thank me later.

In this lesson we’ll quickly isolate the two boys (fig. 1) and place them over a new background.

Figure 1

The pen tool is ideal for smooth curves such as automobiles and human shapes, but given the slightly rough line of the clothing I decided not to use it in this case. I chose instead to just erase the unwanted areas with the Wacom pen. I set the Erase tool to either the Paintbrush (at 100%) or the Airbrush (at 50%), both seem work well (I have yet to find a use for the Block eraser).

Before I begin erasing, I duplicate the background layer and then turn it off (poke the eye) leaving the new layer on (fig. 2).

Figure 2

The reason for this is twofold: Now I can erase to the transparent background (checkerboard), and the original file still exists in case I make a mistake (fat chance). Before I start to erase (or draw, or anything for that matter) I make sure that the document is enlarged to a number divisible by 100. Due to the way that the pixels are interpolated, the image is more accurate at 200% than say, 216% (simply press the command - or + one time to get to the nearest hundred). I usually erase at a minimum of a 200% zoom.

I select a hard-edged pen for erasing the background around the clothes, and begin erasing. This task is easily completed by zooming further into the document and using a smaller brush to erase all the tiny nooks and crannies (fig. 3).

Figure 3

I never click on the magnifying glass from the Toolbox (and frankly don’t think it’s worth the pixels that it’s illuminated on). Instead it’s much quicker using the Command + (plus) and - (minus) keys or pressing the Command-Spacebar to access the Zoom Tool (which works no matter which tool you’re using at the time), and marquee the area that you wish to work with. While the document is enlarged, the easiest way to move about image is to press the Spacebar (still with any tool selected) which accesses the Hand Tool. With Hand Tool you can quickly move around the enlarged image.

I erase most of this image in this manner until I get to the hair. Hair is usually the most challenging portion of an image to isolate due to its wispy flowing nature. Many times the easiest way to isolate a desired area is hidden right inside the document itself. With an RGB document, Photoshop gives you 3 shots at isolating a decent, contrasting selection (the red, green or blue channel) in which to use as an alpha channel. A quick check of each channel (Command-1, 2 and 3) reveals that there’s a pretty good candidate for just this case nestled within the green channel (fig. 4).

Figure 4

I drag this channel to the new channel icon to create an alpha channel. Make sure that you do copy the channel to a new channel; by accidentally working directly on an actual red, green or blue channel, you’ll alter the RGB forever and worlds may collide.

Depending upon the contrast of the channel, you’ll probably have to adjust the Levels slightly as was the case here (fig. 5).

Figure 5

Be careful not to adjust them too much, obliterating needed information. Also, depending upon how wispy you wish to keep the hair, you may want to keep the edges a light gray, making them slightly transparent when you place it into a new document.

I invert the image (Command-I) and adjust Levels a little further. Light grays over white are much easier to detect than dark grays over black; in many instances a dark gray simply looks black. My goal is to try to get a pure white area outside the selected area in which to use as my selection (fig. 6).

Figure 6

I sometimes carefully paint or airbrush around the area to achieve this goal. Now the alpha channel is ready to be used to isolate the hair. I load the alpha into my RGB channel and turn off the “marching ants” (Command-H) so that I can see the area better. Using the Erase tool set to a soft-brush Airbrush, I softly “paint” away the background. If the outside area wasn’t pure white, some of the background would still show through.

After the selected image has been erased from the unwanted background area, I use the Lasso tool to circle the selection; Inverse the selection (Command-Shift-I), and then Delete (fig. 7). This is faster and more complete than trying to erase the rest of the document by hand.

Figure 7

Now I have an isolated image of the two boys; I just need to fine-tune it. To do this I make a new Layer underneath the current layer and fill it with white (Option-Delete with white as the main color). This helps reveal any edges that need a little work or any additional spots that need to be erased (fig. 8). Also, by Inverting the image entirely (Command-I) you can see some additional areas that were missed.

Figure 8

The edges around the hair picked up some of the background color and must be fixed. To do this I click the “Preserve transparency” checkbox in the Layers palette and grab the Airbrush again. I press the Option key (to select the Eyedropper), and sample the hair color, then with a pressure of about 7%, I lightly airbrush the unwanted color away (fig. 9). Sometimes you can airbrush at 100% in the Color mode to accomplish this. Occasionally a slight blurring on the edges is needed to soften the area. This can be done with the Blur tool on the alpha channel itself or on the RGB channel after the selection has been cut out.

Figure 9

When I’m finished I toss the alpha channel, the white layer and the original background, keeping only the cut-out layer. Believe it or not, after doing this a few times, this whole process only takes a couple of minutes to accomplish; and your anchors will be very proud to have it resting above their shoulder (fig.10).

Make your own pop art

2008-08-09T21:53:00.000-07:00

The pop art movement of the 1950s celebrated the birth of consumer culture, taking mundane things like the humble soup can out of the supermarket and into art galleries – often for the very first time.

It’s a distinctive, tongue-in-cheek style that’s still relevant today – after all, our society hasn’t got any less consumer-oriented. This means that pop art is a useful, versatile visual shorthand for 21st-Century designers, instantly evoking kitsch, with a sharp note of satire. In this masterclass,

Mark Mayers shows you how to get that pop art look using layering, the Live Trace tool, filters and some cleverly chosen images.

01. In Photoshop, open Bubble_car.tif from this month’s CD and clean up any stray pixels with the Brush and Eraser tools. Draw a closed path around the people, make a path-based selection and then hit Delete. Next, erase the number plate and bonnet logo and save the image to a convenient location

02. Open Colour_distress.jpg from the cover CD, convert it to CMYK, then save as a TIFF with no compression (see tip box, right). In Illustrator, create a new CMYK document 430-x-307mm. Make a rectangle 420-x-297mm, position it centrally and select View > Guides > Make Guides. Next, go File > Place, select the saved Colour_distress.tif and align to the guides. Label the layer ‘Placed distress’ and lock it.

03. Place the bubble car image on a new layer labelled ‘Car’. Select Object > Live Trace > Tracing Options and use the default black-and-white settings. Hit the Expand button to convert the image to vector paths and use the Direct Selection tool to select a white area. Go Select > Same > Fill Colour and hit Delete. Select the remaining black areas and fill with a deep turquoise, then enlarge and hit Cmd/Ctrl + 2 to lock the selection.

04. Create a closed path just inside the car and fill with a lime colour. Hit Shift + Cmd/Ctrl + [ to send the selection to the back. Now, draw closed paths around the outer window areas and send them to the back too. Ensure they’re still selected and Shift + Click the lime fill to add to the selection. Next click the Minus Back button in the Pathfinder palette.

05. Add further white fills for the interior, number plate, hubcap and headlights. Hit Cmd/Ctrl + [ to send these behind the turquoise artwork but in front of the lime fill. Now add some cyan fills behind the wheel and bumpers and send these backward as well. Once you’re happy, hit Alt + Cmd/Ctrl + 2 to unlock the turquoise artwork and then group the whole car.

06. Open Woman.tif from the cover CD in Photoshop and clean it up as you did in step 01. Place the saved image in Illustrator on a new layer labelled ‘Woman’ and perform the Live Trace techniques used in Steps 03 and 04. Fill the black areas with turquoise, create a white fill and send it backwards. Group it, re-size, reflect it horizontally and position as shown.

07. Now to add some modern elements: open Graphics.ai from the CD and copy the blue heart, pasting it onto a new layer beneath the car. Re-size and position it, and label the layer ‘Big heart’. Next, open Instructions.tif in Photoshop – this scan is a greatly enlarged section from a model kit. Clean up any stray pixels and save. Back in Illustrator, place it on a new layer beneath the heart.

08. Perform the same Live Trace techniques as you did on the car and woman images, and fill the remaining black with the same blue used on the heart. Set the objects’ blending mode to Multiply and adjust the opacity to around 65%. Label the layer ‘Instructions’.

09. Target your car layer and duplicate the group by Alt-dragging. In the Pathfinder palette go Make Compound Shape from the flyout menu, then hit the Expand button. This results in a single compound path with the uppermost fill dictating the appearance of the shape. Now fill with black and copy to the clipboard.

10. Create a new Photoshop document using the Clipboard as the preset. Ensure the colour mode is Grayscale, the resolution is 300dpi and the background content is white. Paste your selection using the As Pixels option and flatten. You’ll be blurring the shape in the next step – so extend the canvas by hitting Alt + Cmd/Ctrl + C, anchor the image placement to the centre and add an extra 10cm to the width and height.

11. Add a Gaussian blur of around 45 pixels, change the image mode to Bitmap, leave the output at 300dpi and under Method, select Halftone Screen. In the next dialog box, enter a frequency of 7 and an angle of 45°, and set the shape to Round. It’s worth experimenting here with alternative settings to see what you come up with – you can also save presets for future use.

12. Switch to Illustrator and delete the compound path. Place the halftone image on your car layer and repeat the same Live Trace/Expand operations, fill it with turquoise and send to the back. The file Halftone_circle.tif on the CD, was made using the same technique. Place this on a new layer labelled ‘Halftone circles’ beneath the heart, Live Trace and Expand it, and fill with blue. Experiment with opacity and blending mode I used Hard Light at 55%.

13. Create a new layer above the car and label it ‘Splots/Scribbles’. Open Splots.tif and Scribbles.tif from the cover CD, place, Live Trace and Expand them both. Ungroup and regroup elements, re-size, colour and position as desired. Making your own ink spots and scribbles will add a personal touch to your illustrations – remember to scan them as 1,200dpi bitmaps.

14. On a new layer above ‘Splots’, draw some simple graphic elements. Keep them in tune with the colour scheme and duplicate, re-size and position as required. Alternatively use Graphics.ai from the CD. Combining hand-made elements with crisp vector graphics will give your illustrations an edgy feel. When you’re done, label the layer ‘Graphics’.

15. Create a new layer at the top and place Mono_distress_1.tif, and perform the Live Trace/Expand process. This time, delete all the black areas, leaving white. Re-size, position and ungroup. Now use the Direct Selection tool to either delete areas or regroup areas and move them around until you’re happy. Label the layer ‘Distress 1’. Do the same for Mono_distress_2.tif. Continue to add/duplicate elements. I also coloured the woman’s skin, eyes and hair using the same techniques as the car.

16. To tidy things up, create a new top layer labelled ‘Clipping mask’. Create a rectangle 420-x-297mm and position using your guides from Step 02. Next, highlight the layer icon and click the Make Clipping Mask icon at the foot of the layers palette. Expand the new layer using the small arrow by the layer icon and drag all your underlying layers beneath the new clipping mask layer. This is a neat trick to preserve all your original layers using a single clipping mask.

Presidential Pattern in Photoshop - McCain vs Obama

2008-08-09T21:51:00.000-07:00

In this Photoshop tutorial, we’ll dive into a pattern inspired by the artwork in the Stephen Colbert book “I Am America (And So Can You)” (the book has some very good illustrations). The tutorial will cover creating vector artwork from a photograph, taking the vector artwork and making a repeatable pattern and then creating a groovy wallpaper that utilizes the pattern. For the pattern, we’ll pit Barack Obama versus John McCain. As one reader pointed out in the last tutorial which featured only Barack Obama, we’ll feature both canidates in the upcoming Presidential election.
Download PSD Files

Step 1: Gather resources

First we need to acquire two profile photos of Barack Obama and

John McCain. These two photos will help create vector illustrations of the candidates. For creating a wallpaper texture, we need a good paper texture.

Step 2: Setting up the photos to vectorize

We need to create simple two tone vectors for Obama and McCain and to help us in creating the vector we’ll use the Stamp filter (Filters >> Sketch >> Stamp). I removed the background quickly using the magic wand tool, and then applied the stamp filter. The purpose of using the stamp tool is to provide a rough estimate of where the paths need to follow along.

Step 3: Create vector paths

To actually create the paths, I used Adobe Illustrator instead of Photoshop. (I find Illustrator better for hardcore use of the pen tool, but if you are more comfortable with Photoshop, it’ll do the job too.) I took both photos as well as both photos with the stamp filter applied, brought it over to Illustrator, and created pen paths using the photos as a guide. I provided some detail for the jacket and tie, but for the most part, you want make the area below the neck a long rectangle. Since the Obama’s photo had him wearing a suit and tie and I want some conformity, I copied the vector and added McCain’s head to the suit and tie. I used the dark colors from the palette below I found on Colour Lovers and made the Obama vectore blue: #2140A2 & McCain red: #BB1A1A.

Using Illustrator: If you are going to use Illustrator for creating the vectors, copy and paste the four images (photos and stamped photos) from Photoshop into an Illustrator document. I made sure that each photo was on it’s own layer, and locked each of these layers. I created the Obama and McCain vector paths on their own separate layers as well. It’s a good idea to place the photos on their own locked layers because you won’t be able to edit the images in Illustrator, and you will be able to quickly turn off a photo layer at will. I created the silhouettes of the characters using a 2 pt stroke path, then create shapes filled with the correct color to show details for the candidates hair, eyes, mouth and chin.

Step 4: Creating the Pattern

Now we want to bring the vector paths back into Photoshop to create the pattern. I created a large document (3500 square pixel to be exact) so that there was space to create the pattern and also have high resolution vectors. Copy and paste Obama and McCain to their own separate layers as “pixels” (making sure they were of equal size proportions). I applied an outside stroke using Layer Styles to each candidate so that the pattern could smoothly transition from one vector to the other. Started to create the pattern by duplicating the layers and placing each vector layer above the next. Once you have a few repeats in the column pattern, duplicate the column, and make another row so that they are next to each other, but offset the pattern so that Obama and McCain are directly looking at each other.

If you’ve ever made a complicated and precise pattern, you’ll know that to make the pattern repeat correctly, you’ll need to pick a spot in the pattern, and then find that exact same spot in the pattern again. What helped me was to use the guides to dissect Obama & McCain at their noses. (To make a guide by clicking on the document ruler and drag out onto the document) To start the pattern on the left, I aligned a guide snug against the beginning of McCain’s nose. I could easily place the right end guide by finding the beginning of McCain’s nose horizontally to where it touched the other guide. For the top and bottom guides, I again used their noses to find the area of repeat.

Using the guides helped properly align the pattern as well. When I created the pattern initially, some of the face offs (when the two where looking directly at each other) where slightly off because I began manually repeating the pattern. Using the guides help reveal and solve the problem. Once you properly align the pattern and created guides, take the rectangular marquee selection tool, and create a selection along the guides. To make the pattern, go to Edit >> Define Pattern…

To apply the pattern to a layer, take the paint bucket tool, and set the fill to ‘Pattern’ and pick the pattern just made.

Step Five: Creating the Wallpaper

I created a new document at 2560 px by 1600 px dimensions. Since I wanted to tilt and reduce the pattern size, I created another 12000 x 12000 px document (yes those dimensions are correct) and filled the document with the pattern. Once Photoshop filled the document with the pattern (it took a while on my machine) I brought the layer over to the wallpaper sized document and rotated and reduce the layer.

I took a photo of aged paper and put it on top of the pattern layer. I duplicated the paper layer and set one layer to Blending mode Lighten at 9% opacity and Multiply at 46% opacity.

I then created a white layer above the pattern set to Soft Light blending mode at 28% opacity. What this does is make the colors in the pattern look more faded and worn. Then I created a new layer to darken the outer edges of the wallpaper. To give the effect of light shining in the middle, I added a radial gradient set to Overlay at 10%.

Final Result

Trendy Geometric Lines Design

2008-08-09T21:50:00.000-07:00

Starting with the design application of Adobe Illustrator create a group of vector based geometric lines at dynamic 45 degree angles, then follow the walkthrough to rough them up with brush textures in Adobe Photoshop resulting in a cool and trendy design style.

The use of angled lines adds a dynamic flair to the composition of a design allowing the viewers eye to follow them across the page. Combining this layout with colour, texture and typography can result in a cool, modern poster design.

Start the design in Adobe Illustrator, draw out a number of blocks faced up to each other filled with the colour scheme of your choice.

Select all the blocks and click the New Icon in the Brushes Palette, in the option box select New Art Brush.

Check the direction of the brush is flowing in the correct direction using the arrow buttons.

Now the brush is saved in the Brushes Palette begin drawing the geometric lines. Use the Pen Tool to draw a 45 degree line across the page, hold Shift to constrain the angle.
Click the custom brush from the Brushes Palette to apply to the striped effect.

Repeat the process with multiple lines, scaling them slightly to give varied sizes and widths.

Produce another line with the Pen Tool, but this time alter the direction of the line back on itself, remember to hold Shift to constrain those angles to 45 degrees.

Give the line rounded corners by heading to Effect > Stylize > Round Corners.

Enter a desirable radius for the corners, for my document at A4 I used 30mm to give nice flowing edges.

Position the curved line over the large straight line, matching up the colours exactly.

Use the same process to create a longer curved line, this time flowing across the document crossing the other lines, maintaining those angles.

Select the group of lines and Copy, switch over to Adobe Photoshop and setup a new document. Paste in the lines and scale appropriately to crop off the extras beyond the edges of the page.

On the background layer fill the page with an accompanying colour, I use a 20% Yellow to give a pale tint.

Sample a dark colour from the geometric lines and use a large spraypaint Photoshop Brush from my previous Photoshop Brush giveaways to place a couple of textured areas on a new layer.

Change the layer style to Multiply and drop the opacity to around 40% to tone down the texture.

Select a couple of accompanying colours from the colour selector and draw a dark to light gradient across the page, set this layer to Color Burn to bring out the colours from the layers underneath.

CTRL/CMD + Click on the geometric lines layer to make a selection, then create a layer mask on the spraypaint texture layer. Fill the selection with a 50% black to tone down the spraypaint texture beyond the edges of the main lines.

Use the spraypaint brushes to bring back a little texture to the same layer, painting in areas of white on the layer mask to bring back their visibility. This helps add a little tonal variety rather than an area of flat colour.

Duplicate the geometric lines layer and use the Polygonal Lasso Tool to select an overlapping area, remember that Shift key to get that exact 45 degree angle.
Inverse the selection and paint in a shadow with a large soft black brush.

Create a new selection around the unwanted extra from beyond the lines, add a Layer Mask and fill these with black to render them invisible.

To repeat the process on a curved line use the Pen Tool instead of the Polygonal Lasso to create a flowing curve.

Right click and Make Selection from the path, do not add any feathering to ensure a crisp edge.

Add as many shadows as you see fit to add depth to the lines, feel free to download my version as a desktop wallpaper.

1680×1050 Widescreen Wallpaper

1280×1042 4:3 Wallpaper

320×480 iPhone Wallpaper

This design style works perfectly when accompanied with typography, add textual elements following the same angles and composition to create a trendy and modern poster:

Drop Shadows

2008-08-09T21:49:00.002-07:00

Dropshadows add contrast to objects, and add depth to an image. They can increase visibility, and improve readablility. However, if used inappropriately drop shadows will look cheesy.

This text has no dropshadow. It has little contrast from the background, and appears flat.

1 Creating Dropshadows using Layers

This shadow is soft, yet it ads a lot of contrast to the text, due to it's large surface area. This shadow can be created in any version of Adobe Photoshop.

To create this drop shadow:

A) In the Layers window, hold down Ctrl, and click on the layer you want the shadow applied to. In this case, it's the text object phong. This will load the layer transparency.

B) Create a new layer , and drag it under the layer you want the dropshadow on. Double click on the new layer, and name it Small Shadow.

Press D on the keyboard, to ensure the selected foreground color is black. Fill the selection Alt+Backspace, and then deselect Ctrl+D.

C) Now, Gaussian Blur the Small Shadow layer 3-6 pixels, to create a nice ambient shadow around the edges.

Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur...
3-6 pixels

D) Drag the Small Shadow layer onto the new layer icon , to create a duplicate of it. Double click on the new layer (Small Shadow copy) and rename it Large Shadow.

Gaussian Blur the Large Shadow layer by about 20 pixels.

Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur... 20 pixels

E) Next, select the Move Tool (V), and drag or nudge the shadow down and to the right.

Finally, change the opacity of the Large Shadow layer to 80%.

Once you have the desired effect, feel free to merge the two shadow layers (Ctrl+E).

Tips: The sharpness of the shadow affects the illusion of how far away the light source is. By bluring the shadow more, you can create the illusion of a light which is farther away. A crisp shadow would indicate that the light source is near by.

Also, by moving the shadow farther away from the object which is casting it, the angle at which the light source is located can be altered.

2 Creating Dropshadows using Layer Effects

The following drop shadow only works in Photoshop 5.

In the Layers window, right click on the layer you want dropshadowed, and select Effects...

Mode: Normal
Opacity: 75%
Angle: 120
Distance: 12
Blur: 8
Intensity: 0

Mode determines the blending method that the drop shadow will be applied with. By clicking on the black box beside the Mode dropdown, you can change the color of the dropshadow.

Opacity changes how opaque the shadow will be.

Angle points to the origin of the light, which is opposite of the way the shadow will be cast. By selecting Global Angle, it will use the universal angle for all dropshadows in the image.

Distance affects the number of pixels the dropshadow will be offset from the original position of the layer.

Blur determines the number of pixels over which the shadow will be diffused.

Intensity changes the contrast threshold of the shadow. Play around with the numbers too observe it's effect.

Rounding Shapes

2008-08-09T21:49:00.001-07:00

These steps can be used for rounding shapes or anti-aliasing a jagged layer.

1
Create a new image, and on a new layer, fill in the shapes you want rounded, or use the Type tool to draw a letter.

Select the layer transparency of the layer you want rounded, by holding down Ctrl and clicking on the layer.

2
On the Keyboard, press Q to enter Quick Mask Mode.

Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur... 6 pixels

The number of pixels you blur it by determines the radius of your rounded corners.

3
Image > Adjust > Brightness/Contrast

Set the Contrast to about 94%, and then change the Brightness to whatever looks good.

Raising the Brightness will make the objects thicker, and lowering will make them thinner.

4
Now, press Q again to exit Quick Mask Mode, and create a new layer.

Press Alt+Backspace to fill the new layer with the foreground, and then delete the original layer.

Outline

2008-08-09T21:48:00.000-07:00

A tutorial for new users of Photoshop 4/5, on how to create outlines around text and shapes.

STEP 1

Create your text using the Type Tool.

STEP 2

Go Select > Load Selection...
Just hit OK, and it will select the outline of the text.

STEP 3

Then Select > Modify > Expand...
Change this to the value you want the outline to go outside of the text.

STEP 4

Create a new Layer under the text layer.

STEP 5

Fill the selection on the new layer with the foreground color. (ALT-Backspace)

STEP 6 (optional)

Select > Modify > Contract... the selection about 1/2 of what you expanded it, and delete that part of the layer. (DEL) Check on 'Preserve Transparency' on the layers window, and give it a nice gradient.

Chipped Font

2008-08-09T21:47:00.002-07:00

1
Create a new image, and use the Type Tool to create some text. If you are using Photoshop 5.0 or later, right click on the T icon on the text layer, and select Render Layer.

Next, holding down Ctrl, click on the text layer to select it's transparency.

Press Q on the keyboard to enter Quick Mask Mode.

2
Press Ctrl+I to invert the mask.

Now, in the menu go:

Filter > Pixelate > Crystallize...

Crystallize by 10 pixels, and hit OK.

3
In the menu, select:
Image > Adjust > Brightness/Contrast...

Drag the Contrast slider to 96, and Brightness to -75 and hit OK.

Press Q, on the keyboard, to exit Quick Mask Mode.

In the menu, go: Edit > Clear
Deselect Ctrl+D.

Creating Grid Lines

2008-08-09T21:47:00.001-07:00

Creating grid lines with photoshop is easy, and can be used to make your imagery look tight and froody.

STEP 1

Go into the channels window and create a new channel. Make a square selection about 20 pixels wide with the marquee tool. Fill it with white.

quick

TIP

Pressing the Alt and Backspace keys at the same time will automaticly fill the current selection with the foreground color.

STEP 2

In the menu, go:
SELECT > MODIFY > CONTRACT > Contract by: 1 pixel

Then, fill the selection with black. It will now look like a small white outlined box.

STEP 3

With the Marquee tool still selected, nudge the selection up and to the left, 1 pixel.

In the menu, go:
EDIT > Define Pattern

STEP 4

Clear the selection (Ctrl-D) and create a new channel.

Open the Paint Bucket options window and set the contents to PATTERN

Fill the new channel by clicking with the paint bucket tool, and a grid texture will magically appear.

STEP 5

Drag the grid channel onto the "Load channel as selection" button. []

Go to the layer window. Create a new layer and fill the selection. (Alt-Backspace)

STEP 6

Enjoy the attractive imagery you and your new-found skills have just created and celebrate over a steaming bowl of re-digested monkey-brains.

Wireframe Sphere

2008-08-09T21:46:00.002-07:00

This tutorial illustrates how to create a wireframe sphere, by creating a grid texture, and then using the Sphereize filter.

1
Create a new image, 800x800 pixels.

Go to the Channels window, create a new channel , and select the Rectangular Marquee Tool.

Holding down Shift, draw a selection about 25x25 pixels.

To see how big your selection is, open the Info Palette, by going Window > Show Info.

Press D to select White as the foreground color, and then fill the selection by pressing Alt+Backspace.

2
In the menu, go:
Select > Modify > Contract... 2 pixels

Press Delete to clear the selection, and then use the arrow keys on your keyboard to nudge the selection up and to the left by 2 pixels.

Edit > Define Pattern

Create a new channel , select the Paint Bucket Tool .

Then, go to the Options palette.
Window > Show Options

Change the Contents dropdown to Pattern, and then click inside the new channel to fill it with the grid pattern.

3
In the Channels window, click on the Load Channel as Selection button.

Go back to the Layers window, and create a new layer.

Press D on the keyboard to select Black as the foreground color, and then press Alt+Backspace to fill the selection.

Ctrl+D to deselect.

4
Click and hold down the Rectangular Marquee Tool button, and select the Elliptical Marquee Tool

Holding down Shift, make a circular selection filling up most of the image.

Filter > Distort > Sphereize... Amount 100

Select > Inverse

Edit > Clear

Ctrl+D to deselect.

To get rid of the jagged edges, resize the image to 400x400 pixels,
Image > Image Size...

Anti-Aliasing

2008-08-09T21:46:00.001-07:00

Use these techniques when you've drawn an un-antialiased mask and you want it to be smooth.

Here is an example of what this tutorial can do for you:

Notice the jagged edge around the "Normal Burger". Using this photoshop tutorial I created a tasty burger in seconds.

You may ask yourself, "Why is phong doing this? My photoshop burgers are already tasty!" Well, you never know when this technique will come in handy, so continue.

Step 1

Draw the normal burger

Create a new image 500x500 pixels with a white background.

Grab the Marquee Circle Selection tool, and in the options window de-select anti-aliasing.

On a new layer, fill the selection with the forground color. (Alt+Backspace) Deselect (Ctrl+D)

TimeOut
Observe the jagged ugly edges of the circle. Pretend the fact that it is jagged is something you had no control over. That is when you would ACTUALLY use this tutorial.

In the Channels window, create a new channel. Fill the selection with white. Deselect (Ctrl+D).

Step 2

Blur it

In the menu go: Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur > 3.5 pixels

Step 3

Tweak the edges

In the menu go: Image > Ajust > Levels

Grab those sliders at the far ends and bring them close together, until you have a nice smooth edge on the circle.

Step 4

Creating the layer

On the channels window, click the "Load Channel as Selection" button.

Now, in the layers window create a new LAYER. Fill the selection (Alt+Backspace) with the color you want your tasty burger, delete the normal burger layer and you're done.

Use these new found skills to create a tasty milk-shake.