Creating Selections from Image Masks

Creating a "cut-out" or "floating image" of any of the image objects supplied in the CADTutor Image Bank is a simple 7 step process. The image below gives an overview of the process. The screen shots shown here were taken using Photoshop 6 but you can do the same thing in Photoshop 5 and 5.5.

Step 1

Download a pair of images from one of the CADTutor Image Bank pages. Right-click one image at a time, and choose "Save Target As…" from the context menu. See the Download Main Page for more details. Save the two images to a convenient folder on your computer.

Step 2

Open both images in Photoshop and make the mask image (the black and white one) the current image.

Step 3

In the Layers palette, shift-click and drag the mask "Background" layer and drop it onto the colour image window. Holding the Shift key down ensures that the layers are perfectly aligned, one on top of the other. Your Layers palette should now look something like the one illustrated on the right. You should have two layers, "Layer 1", the mask and "Background", the colour image.

Step 4

Click on the Channels tab to display the channels palette. Right-click the Blue channel and select "Duplicate Channel…" from the context menu. Now, using the Duplicate Channel dialogue box, give the new channel a name by typing in the "As" edit box. Now click the OK button.
In fact you could duplicate either the Red, Green or Blue channels and get the same effect. Since the mask image is black-and-white, the three colour channels are identical. Your Channels palette should now look something like the one shown on the right.
The channel you have just created contains the selection information for this particular image. This type channel is often known as an "Alpha Channel".

Step 5

Click the "Load channel as selection" button at the bottom left of the Channels palette. You have now used your new channel to create a selection and you should see it displayed in the main image window.

Step 6

Click the Layers tab to display the Layers palette. Click "Layer 1", the mask layer, to make it the current layer. Delete this layer by clicking the "Delete layer" button at the bottom right of the Layers palette. Since you now have a selection saved as a channel, you no longer need the mask layer.

Step 7

You now have a couple of options. If you would like to save this image with a selection (alpha channel) for future use, you should use the "Save As" option from the File pull-down and save the image as either a TIFF or a PSD file. These are the only two file formats that can save channel information. Saving alpha channel information as an integral part of a file is very useful because it means you never have to bother making that selection again. It also means that you can use these files when creating Bryce image objects to load both colour and alpha channel information simultaneously. See the Bryce Image Objects tutorial for details.
Alternatively, if you have no future use for the selection, you can simply copy and paste the selection into another image so that the selected object forms a separate layer. The original image file can then be closed without saving.

Source : http://www.cadtutor.net/tutorials/photoshop/selections-from-image-masks.php Read More..

How to make a sunburst effect with Adobe Photoshop CS3

If you have always wondered how to make that Sunburst Effect, or the retro looking sun graphic read on, and I will guide you through a set up of how to make the simple traditional Sunburst Effect as well as some cool variations.
How to make the traditional effect:
- Open up Photoshop (I am using Photoshop CS4, however previous versions of it will do fine as well).
- Create a new document by going to File and clicking "New". A window will come up prompting you to enter some details such as the name and size, enter "Sunburst" in the name field and from the drop down "Preset" menu choose Web.
- Now that you have an open document, you need to choose colors you wish to use. Do it on the lower left hand side and pick contrasting colors.
- After setting the colors on the left hand side choose the "Gradient Tool" (it is located right under the Eraser and might be hidden behind the "Bucket Tool", if so just right click and hold the mouse over the "Bucket Tool" icon until a small menu pops up.
- Right click at the bottom of your file and drag the mouse up while holding the mouse button down, let go. Nifty eh? You can start at top and drag to the bottom as well.
- Now go to Filter> Distort> Wave, a window will pop up asking you for a whole bunch of measurements. You can thinker with these and experiment later on, but for now enter something close to these specifications:
Number of Generators: 43.
Wavelength: Min= 50, Max= 50.
Amplitude: Min= 450, Max= 700.
Scale: Horizontal= 100%, Vertical= 100%.
Type: Sine.
Undefined Areas: Check "repeat edge pixels"
- When you click OK you will get solid vertical stripes. You are halfway there, hardly broke a sweat so far, right?
- Alright, now to put a finish onto it and make it into a sun looking shape go to Filter> Distort> Polar Coordinates. Have following selected:
Rectangular to Polar. Now click OK and your Sunburst Effect is all done!
You might want it looking like this or you might want to put an extra touch onto it, its up to you really.
Tips:
- To make the "rays" different sizes try changing the "Number of Generators" to maybe 327 or so and you will get an unconventional but very cool looking effect if you do this.
- Another thing to try is, after you make your sunburst, either the traditional or the above suggested one, add on some other effects through Filter> Distort. The "Ripple" is a great one.
- Your sunburst doesn't need to stay solid, you can always add textures and shades to it, sharpen or blur it up.


Source : http://www.helium.com/items/1519106-how-to-make-the-sunburst-effect-in-photoshop Read More..

How to make a photo look old in Photoshop

Imagine you have a full-color picture of the space shuttle.
NOW imagine taking that ultra-modern looking space shuttle - but re-making the picture so it looks as though it was taken with a camera around the turn of the century. Gone is the color. It's a little blurry and there's that delicious sepia tone.
Taking a picture and turning it into an imaginative older-looking graphic is life's second best sensation. Here's one of many methods for getting it done.

Start FIRST by deciding where you are going to display your final picture. Is this a graphic going to be used primarily on-line and in PowerPoint presentations or do you intend to print that it? If you're planning to print just proceed to Step Two below.
If you're planning to display your work on-line, in email or on a PowerPoint, do yourself a HUGE favor and go to Image> Image Size and reduce the Resolution to 72. Why? This will allow you to work much more quickly inside Photoshop since the file size is significantly smaller. It will also take up much less room on your drive.
Step Two: Copy your picture to a new Layer. (Layer> Duplicate Layer) You do this so that if you make a mess you haven't destroyed your original. (As we all know, if you wreck your original picture, the entire North American continent will slide into the sea and life as we know it will cease.)
Step Three is called "Deciding How Old You Want The Picture To Be" (DHOYWTPTB for short). Are we creating a simple black and white? If you're one of the lucky eight million or so who are using Photoshop CS3, it's very simple: Image> Adjustments> Black and White. This brings up a wonderful Black and White option set where you can make very fine adjustments to the picture. Push the sliders around. You'll see.
If you're NOT working with Photoshop CS3 - which boasts the very best B&W conversion ever - you will want to work with the Desaturation setting. A great rule of thumb is to use the Desaturation in concert with punchier Contrast.
If you want the picture to be even older looking maybe with an antique sepia tone, try Image> Adjustments> Photo Filter. Here's an excellent set of options for all sorts of different effects. Sepia works but so do many of the other photo filters in this menu.
It's useful to remember that with Photoshop you can SELECT PORTIONS of your photograph to work with and modify using any of the Selection Tools. This is useful if you want to age or blur various parts of the photo without making changes to the rest of the image.
Always do your Weird Experimental Stuff on a new layer and remember that the UNDO command rivals sliced bread and the wheel as the most useful invention of all time.
Old pictures are blurred. In very old pictures, the outer portions of the graphic are blurred, but the center of the photo is sharper. Use your Elliptical Marquee Tool (found in the selection portion of your toolbox) to define a large portion in the center of your graphic.


When you activate the Elliptical Marquee Tool you'll see a box on the upper toolbar marked "FEATHER." This allows you to decide how gradually the filter, which you are going to use next, is applied. I suggest that you set the FEATHER value to about 75 so that the effect of the blur below will be more gradual.
Go to Select> Inverse so that the blur you are about to apply will be applied on the fringe of the photo and not your subject. ("Inverse" is Adobe's way of saying "Everything Else That I Have Not Selected.")
Now have some fun: go to Filter> Blur> Gaussian Blur. You'll see a slider control appear. As you move the slider, you'll see the blur increase. Remember that what you are trying to do is create the effect of an old camera. Keep your hand on the slider very gentle. The idea here isn't to show off. The idea is to create an illusion of an old photograph. Gentle, gentle now...
Create another new layer (Layer> Duplicate Layer for those who weren't paying attention before) and DESELECT (Select> Deselect).
Now go back and apply a VERY LIGHT Gaussian Blur to the whole picture.
You may want to work some more of the Photo Filters to get that beautifully aged look you're after.
By now, depending on how experimentally minded you are, you should have a number of layers. Remember that you can do two very cool things with these layers before you FLATTEN the image. You can change their order around by clicking and dragging them up and down. (The top layer will always be the first layer of the graphic.)
The other great tool at your disposal the Opacity box which has been saddled with a typically silly Adobe name but does some very cool stuff. You'll find this box at the top of your Layers menu. Use this to change the TRANSPARENCY of each individual layer. Think of this in terms of laying one photograph on top of another but deciding in advance how transparent you want each one to be.
Opacity makes it possible for you to "bleed" the effects you've applied on each layer through the whole picture.
When you're done Flatten the image (Layer> Flatten Image) and "Save As" JPEG.
Try to resist the urge to let fly with a resounding "Tuh DUM!" when you see the final picture. Especially if you're not alone. Many people fail to understand the joy you can get from some of that graphic voodoo stuff you do.

Source : http://www.helium.com/items/904501-how-to-make-a-photo-look-old-in-photoshop?page=2 Read More..

Red Eye Removal

Red Eye Removal with Photoshop

Even with today's smart digital cameras, using an on-camera flash can result in the dreaded "Red Eye" syndrome. We've all seen the photographs... with the people looking like weird alien creatures (usually smiling and holding liquid refreshments of some nature) their eyes shining bright red... pretty spooky stuff. Well it's time to dust off that shoe box of old photos, get them into the computer, fire up Adobe Photoshop and fix the problem once and for all.

The photograph in the figure below shows a similar problem, but instead of red the pup's eyes are showing a bright blue color. I've seen this a lot in photos of dogs, cats and (rarely) with photos of people.

Red Eye (or in this case, blue eye) Correction

Red eye is such a common problem that many software packages, including Photoshop CS2, have a "Red Eye removal" tool. I like to have a little more control over the problem and the solution, though. There are a number of reasons why I prefer the following method over using the Red Eye Removal tool... For one, the Red Eye Removal tool won't fix the blue eye problem with the pup's photo, and for another the Red Eye tool is destructive in nature in that you cannot go back and re-edit the changes it makes. At least not past using Undo... The following method, on the other hand, will work for all colors and the results will remain editable.

As an added benefit of correcting the problem in the following manner you will get to learn about Photoshop's Rulers, Guides, Elliptical Marquee tool, and a cool selection technique. With that said, let's get started.

NOTE: This Photoshop lesson was created using Adobe Photoshop CS2, but the same results can be achieved in just about any version of Adobe Photoshop.

Rulers and Guides:

The first thing that needs to be done, as with many of the other Adobe Photoshop techniques I write about here at GrafX-Design.com is to isolate the area that needs to be fixed so that the correction can be done without affecting the rest of the photograph. With this particular problem the areas that need to be selected and corrected are generally round, or elliptical in nature. Knowing that is a clue as to which tool needs to be called upon... i.e. this is a job for the Elliptical Marquee tool. Before we get to that, though, I'm going to demonstrate one of my favorite Photoshop techniques... I'm going to show you how to create the perfect elliptical (or round) selection.

To make the perfect elliptical selection requires using Photoshop's guides to help properly position the Elliptical Marquee tool. To see, and create the guides, the rulers need to be on, or visible. You can activate the rulers by choosing View, Rulers. Doing so will turn on the rulers for the currently active image. You can see in figure 23.1 that the rulers are on. The rulers run across the top and down the left side of the image. Note that I have my rulers set to measure in pixels. You can set the measurement value by choosing Edit, Preferences, Units and Rulers... There is a fairly large number of choices available.

figure 23.1

TIP: For all you keyboard shortcut fans out there, you can toggle the rulers on and off by pressing CTRL+R

With the rulers activated it's time to set up some guides to help with the selections. To set a guide, simply click-and-drag from within one of the rulers. For example, click-and-drag from the ruler on the left towards the middle of your image... as you drag, you'll note a line being dragged along by the mouse. This is a vertical guide. You can also click-and-drag down from the top ruler to set horizontal guides. Pretty cool stuff, eh?

What you want to do is drag a vertical guide to one side of the pupil, and drag a horizontal guide to the top or bottom of the pupil. You can see, in figure 23.2, that I've dragged guides to the left and bottom of one of the pupils.

figure 23.2

NOTE: When you "drop" a guide it will stay put. If you need to re-position it, though, grab the Move tool from the Toolbar and simply click-and-drag the guide to reposition it. To remove a guide simply drag it off the image. To turn of the guides, choose View, Show, Guides... do the same to toggle the guides back on.

TIP: For all you keyboard shortcut fans out there, you can toggle the guides on and off by pressing CTRL+;

Now that you've got a set of guides positioned around one of the red-eyed pupils, continue on for all the red eyes in your particular image. While you do so, I'll add a couple more guides to the pup's other eye on the image I'm working with so we can continue.

The Selection:

With the guides in place, it's time to make the selections. Again, because of the nature of the areas that need to be selected, the Elliptical Marquee tool is the most logical choice. And now that the guides have been positioned, it will be a snap to select the red areas, or in the case of the puppie's photo, the blue areas.

The Elliptical Marquee tool may be hidden under one of the other Marquee tools. You can access it by clicking-and-holding the mouse over the Marquee tool in the upper left of the Toolbar (see figure 23.3).

figure 23.3

With the Elliptical Marquee tool selected, move the tool over the guides where they criss-cross for any given red-eyed pupil. With the tool positioned over the criss-cross, click-and-drag to make an elliptical selection (see figure 23.4).

figure 23.4

In figure 23.4 you can see the mouse just above and to the right of the blue-eyed pupil. That's the ending point of my click-and-drag... So, by starting where the guides cross it's possible to line up the selection correctly. If you find that you aren't happy with the way things lined up, cancel the selection (choose Select, Deselect), move the guides and try again.

When you've got one of the pupils properly selected, activate the Add to Selection option for the Elliptical Marquee tool by clicking the icon in the Options bar (see figure 23.5).

figure 23.5

Doing so will mean that any other pupil you select will be added to any already selected areas. For the image I'm working on I'll select the other pupil. You can see in figure 23.6 that I've got both pupils selected and that I've turned off the guides and the rulers as they will no longer be needed...

figure 23.6

One last thing needs to be done before the red eye problem can be corrected... The selections should be feathered (the edges of the selections need to be softened) just a little to help conceal the correction that's about to be made. Feathering the selections will make the transition between the corrected areas and the rest of the photo nearly invisible. To feather the selections choose Select, Feather... In the Feather Selection dialog box, enter a value from about 1 to about 5. If the selected areas are small use 1-2 pixels and if the selected areas are relatively large use 3-5 pixels. I used a value of 2 for the image that I'm working on. Click OK to exit the dialog box and feather the selections.

The Correction:

With the pupils selected and the selections feathered it's time to make the correction. That is, it's time to stamp out the dreaded red (or blue) eyed areas in the photograph. To make sure that only the selected ares will be affected, and to insure that the changes will be totally undoable/re-editable even through saving the image, a mask and an adjustment layer will be used.

To create the mask and the adjustment layer at the same time, simply click the "Create New Fill or Adjustment Layer" icon at the bottom of the Layers palette (see figure 23.7).

figure 23.7

Doing so will bring up a menu. Choose Channel Mixer from that menu.

In the Channel Mixer dialog box click the Monochrome option. That's it! The dreaded glowing pupils should now be tamed... see figure 23.8.

figure 23.8

TIP: If you find that the pupils are a little too light, or too dark you now can change that by playing with the "Constant" slider in the Channel Mixer dialog box. Be careful to make small subtle changes, though.

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





That's it for now... Be sure to check out some of our other Photoshop tutorials including the next one that demonstrates how to brighten and whiten smiles.

Source : http://www.grafx-design.com/23photo.php Read More..

How to Create a Halftone Effect in Adobe Photoshop 7

Have you every wondered how to make an image have classic comic book flair? If you follow these easy steps you'll be a pro in minutes!

Central Asia Photos View our Central Asia Photo Gallery Images from the Central Asia CentralAsiaOnline.com/en/multimedia

5 Tips for a Flat Belly: Ab exercises don't burn body fat, but this unique method does. TruthAboutAbs.com

Fotolia® Stock Images Buy high-quality RF photos! Choose from 7 mil images w/ more each day Fotolia.com

Free Picture Software Create Free Slideshows with Your Photos, Videos & More. It's Easy! www.Smilebox.com

Hide these ads

Steps

1. Open the image in Photoshop.
2. 

   
   Right-click the image's menu-bar and select "Duplicate...". Click OK when prompted. This will create a second copy of the image.
3. In the new image, go to Image -> Mode and select Grayscale. Click OK when prompted.
4. Go to Image -> Mode again and select Bitmap.
5. 

   
   When prompted, make sure that you have "Halftone Screen..." selected in the Method field . Click OK.
6. 

   
   Adjust the field labeled Frequency. Choose any number between 1 and 999 and click OK. Keep doing this until the halftone pattern is the size you want it to be.
   
   Optional: There is a drop-down list at the bottom of the window labeled Shape. You can experiment with these to find the style that suits your picture!
7. Go to Image -> Mode and select Grayscale. When prompted, input 1 and click OK.
8. 

   
   In the Layers window, double-click the "Background" layer and select OK. It should now read Layer 0.
9. Using the Move Tool, drag the halftone image into the original window. You can now close the duplicate window.
10. 

    
    In the Layers window, open the first drop-down menu and select Overlay.
    

Source : http://www.wikihow.com/Create-a-Halftone-Effect-in-Adobe-Photoshop-7

Read More..

How to Create a Magazine Cover in Photoshop

It only takes a few steps to create your own magazine image in Adobe Photoshop.

Success Magazine Features Former Congressman (twice) and Speaking Legend: Ed Foreman www.edforeman.com

Free Photo Software Create Free Slideshows with Your Photos, Videos & More. It's Easy! www.Smilebox.com

Get Sexy Black Hair Style Ancient Secret Hair Oil Grows More black hair Fast & Easy grow-long-hair-fast.com

Young Writers Society Chat, Blog, Create, Write! Ages 13 to 25 www.YoungWritersSociety.com

Hide these ads

Steps

1. This is very simple to do, but this article assumes you already have a fair amount of knowledge using Photoshop.
2. Create a new document that is twice the width and about 50% higher than your cover image. Give the new image a gradient for the background. Any colors will do for now.
3. Paste in your cover image, name the layer "Cover". Click on Edit>>Transform>>Perspective. Drag the top left handle down just a bit to add the correct perspective to the cover image. It should look something like this:
   
4. Copy the cover layer by dragging the layer down to the new layer button in the layers palette. Now move this layer behind the cover layer and name it "Back".
5. Double click the back layer so that the layers style window comes up. Apply a color overlay, using a color that is similar to the cover, but darker.
6. Now again click on Edit>>Transform>>Perspective. This time drag down the upper right handle. Just a little bit. Your image should now look something like this:
   
7. Duplicate the back layer by dragging the layer to the new layer button at the bottom of the layers palette. Name this layer "Pages". This layer should be between the cover layer and the back layer.
8. Now double click the pages layer and apply a white color overlay. Also apply a stroke style. Use black for the color, and 1px for the size. Take the opacity down to about 70%. Click OK.
9. Now move this layer down just a bit using the move tool (V). Your image should look something like this:
   
10. We want our magazine to have more than one page, so duplicate the page layer, and move this layer back just a little bit. Duplicate the layer again, and again move it back just a little.
11. The page layers might be poking out the bottom left side of the magazine cover. Just draw a marquee around the corners that are poking out, using the lasso tool, and delete the extra bits. Your image should look something like this:
    
12. At this point you're pretty much done. Change the background to something you like better, like pure white. You can also add a drop shadow or similar effect. You can crop the image to a more tight size. Use light and dark gradients to add light reflections.
13. 

Source : http://www.wikihow.com/Create-a-Magazine-Cover-in-Photoshop

Read More..

Face Mask

Page 1 Start by opening an image of a face. It would be easier to pick a photo where the face looking straight ahead so then it won't be so hard to put a mask on it.



Create a selection of the lower half of image using the lasso tool. Press Shift+Ctrl+D to feather the selection.



Press Ctrl+J to copy and paste the selection in a new layer. From the "Filter" menu select "Artistic>>Plastic Wrap". Apply settings as shown.



Change the layer mode to "Linear Light".



Similarly create a selection of the upper half of the image and use the same steps.



Create a mask using the pen tool.



Page 2 Double click the layer to open the layer style window. Apply settings as shown.





This should be generally what the effects should look like. Yours will vary as well.



Press Ctrl+Click the layer thumbnail to highlight the selection. From select menu select modify>>contract. Contract the selection by 2 pixel. Select the image layer. Press Ctrl+J to copy and paste the selection in a new layer.



Move this layer above all the layers in the layer palette. Change the layer mode to "Pin Light".



The end result should be something similar to this.




Source : http://www.photoshop101.com/articles/74/2/Face-Mask/Page2.html Read More..

Torn Paper Style

Start by typing your text using a bold font.



Ctrl+Click the layer thumbnail to get the selection. Press Q to enable quick mask. From "Filter" menu select "Distort>>Ocean Ripple". Apply settings as shown.



Press Q again to disable quick mask.



Create a new layer and fill with any color. Double click the layer to open layer style window. Apply settings as shown.







Using polygon lasso tool create an irregular selection as shown below.



Press Ctrl+Shift+J to cut paste the selection in a new layer. Similarly create more irregular selection and split them into separate layers.



You can move the parts of text a few pixels here and there to enhance the effect.



Select each part and apply layer style as shown.





Repeat the above steps for the other alphabet parts.



Select and merge all the layers. Double click the layer to open layer style window. Apply settings as shown.





Duplicate the layer. Remove the layer style. Change the layer mode to "Linear Burn".






Source : http://www.photoshop101.com/articles/33/2/Torn-Paper-Style/Page2.html Read More..