`

Toro

nto

Publ

ic L

ibra

ry

Digital Design Studio Basics: Photoshop II

Participant’s Package

January 2013

w w w . t o r o n t o p u b l i c l i b r a r y . c a

h t t p : / / v r l . t o r o n t o p u b l i c l i b r a r y . c a

Original work by Toronto Public Library. The support of the Government of Ontario through the Ministry of Citizenship, Culture

and Recreation and of the Government of Canada through Industry Canada is

Page 2

Digital Design Studio Basics: Photoshop II

Outline I Using the Marquee Tool

• Types • Use

II How to Straighten Crooked Photos in Photoshop

• Measure Tool • Image Rotation & Arbitrary • Cropping the Image

III Layers

• Introduction To Layers • How to Change the Layer Position • The Background Layer

IV Blending Layers

• Layer Masks • Gradient Tool

V Tilt-Shift-Photography Effect

• Quick Mask • Gradient Tool • Lens Blur Effect

VI Water Reflection Tool

• Duplicate Layer • Adding More Canvas • Applying the Effects

VII Creating Infrared Effect • Channel Mixer • Photo Filters

VIII Magic Wand

• How the tool works • How to adjust it

IX Content-Aware Patch Tool • What is it? • How does it work?

X Glossary and Links

• Glossary • Links and Resources

Note: We couldn’t put everything in the handout, so remember at the end of the class, the instructor will email you a copy of the presentation. Thanks

Page 3

I. Using the Marquee Tool

The Marquee Tool (M) in Photoshop is one of the simplest tools to use and yet has the potential to do so much. I don’t anticipate this one being too tough to follow.

The marquee tool is also known as the selection tool and other tutorials may refer to it as ‘marching ants.’ Marching ants comes from the fact that when making a selection, the marquee looks like ants marching around your selection.

Types

Rectangular – Just as the name indicates, this one selects areas in a rectangular pattern. To get a perfect square, just hold down the SHIFT key while selecting. Elliptical – Yet another tough one, this selects round areas or ellipses. To select a perfect circle, hold down the SHIFT key while selecting. Single Row Horizontal – Single row, selects a single row of pixels the whole width of the image. Just one click will make the selection. Single Column Vertical – Single Column Vertical will select a single column of pixels the height of the image. Just one click will make the selection. Use As mentioned, this tool is pretty straightforward. Just drag your mouse over the part of the image you want to select with the marquee tool selected, and that’s it. The complicated things happen after the selection. From here you can crop, apply color, apply patterns, apply filters, round corners, and so on.

To add a portion to an existing selection, hold down the SHIFT key. You will notice that the mouse cursor changes and a plus sign is now visible. With the plus sign visible, make another selection.

NOTE: Holding down SHIFT on the initial selection will make a perfect square or circle, but holding down SHIFT on the next selection will add to the selection.

Page 4

II. How to Straighten Crooked Photos in Photoshop

In this Photoshop tutorial, we’re going to learn a quick and easy way to straighten crooked photos. Let’s face it, unless you take all your photos with your camera mounted on a tripod, some of your photos are going to turn out a bit crooked. Fortunately, Photoshop makes it incredibly easy to straighten them in just a few simple steps and without any guess work!

Here’s a photo taken outside the New York, New York Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas:

The original image: Typical tourist-quality photo, as and we can see, it turned out a little crooked. The Statue of Liberty looks like she’s leaning a little to the right. No worries though. We’ll have her straightened out in no time. Let’s get started!

Step 1: Select the "Measure Tool"

To best way to straighten images in Photoshop is by using the Measure Tool, which takes all the guess work out of it. As we’ll see in a moment, as long as there’s something in the image that should be straight, Photoshop will do most of the work for us! The Measure Tool, by default, is hiding behind the Eyedropper Tool in the Tools palette, so to select it, you’ll need to click and hold your mouse button down on the Eyedropper Tool for a second or two. A fly-out menu will appear showing you the other tools hiding behind it. Click on the Measure Tool to select it:

Page 5

Step 2: Click and Drag Along Something That Should Be Straight

Look for something in your image that should be straight, either horizontally or vertically. We’re going to drag along its edge with the Measure Tool so Photoshop has something to work with when trying to figure out how crooked the photo actually is. This draws a thin line between where I first clicked on the left and where I finished dragging on the right, and Photoshop uses the angle of this line to determine how far the image will need to be rotated in order to straighten it:

Click and drag with the Measure Tool along the edge of something in the photo that should be straight horizontally or vertically.

If you look up in the Options Bar at the top of the screen, you can see the angle of the line you’ve just drawn (it’s the number listed to the right of the letter “A”). In my case, we can see that my line is on an angle of 1.9 degrees:

The Options Bar showing the angle of the line drawn with the Measure Tool.

Photoshop can now use this angle to determine how far to rotate the image in order to straighten it.

Step 3: Choose the "Rotate Canvas – Arbitrary" Command

Go up to the Image menu at the top of the screen, choose Rotate Canvas, and then choose Arbitrary:

Photoshop pops up the Rotate Canvas dialog box, and as we can see, all the work has already been done for us. In my case, Photoshop has already entered a value of 1.85° for the Angle option, and it even knew that the image will need to be rotated counter-clockwise, which is why the CCW option is also selected:

Page 6

The “Rotate Canvas” dialog box with the angle and direction already selected for us.

You may be wondering why Photoshop entered an angle of 1.85° when the Options Bar showed an angle of 1.9° a moment ago. The reason is because Photoshop rounds off the angles in the Options Bar to 1 decimal place, so it showed 1.9° even though the angle of the line we drew with the Measure Tool was actually 1.85°. The angle shown in the Rotate Canvas dialog box is the correct angle.

Step 4: Click OK to Rotate and Straighten the Image

At this point, all we need to do is click OK in the Rotate Canvas dialog box and the image has now been rotated and straightened.

Everything looks good, and the Statue of Liberty is no longer leaning to the right. We were able to straighten the image perfectly without any guess work thanks to the Measure Tool and the Rotate Canvas command.

Step 5: Crop the Image with the “Crop Tool”

Of course, there is a small problem. By rotating the image inside the document window, we’ve added some white canvas areas around the outside of the photo. We’ll need to finish things off by cropping away those areas using the Crop Tool.

With the Crop Tool selected, simply click near the top left corner of your image and drag down towards the bottom right to create a border around the area you want to keep.

The image is now straightened and cropped.

Page 7

III. Layers

Introduction to Photoshop Layers: Layers are, without a doubt, the single most important aspect of Photoshop. Nothing worth doing in Photoshop can or should be done without layers. They’re so important that they have their own Layers Panel as well as their own Layer category in the Menu Bar at the top of the screen. You can add layers, delete layers, name layers, rename layers, move layers, adjust layers, mask layers, show and hide layers, blend layers, lock and unlock layers, add effects to layers, group and ungroup layers, and even change the opacity of layers.

Take this simple design shown below, by creating it with layers and without we can clearly see the big difference between each other and the advantage of doing so.

The Layers panel showing everything on the Background layer, it is essentially stuck together. We can’t move anything without moving everything.

With all of our work on a single layer, we don’t have many options if we want to change something.

The layers panel Because of layers, it was easy to move one shape in front of the other.

Page 8

How to Change the Layer Position Keep your mouse button held down and drag Layer 1 straight up and above Layer 2 until you see a horizontal highlight bar appear directly above Layer 2:

Drag Layer 1 upward until a highlight bar appears above Layer 2.

When the highlight bar appears, release your mouse button. Photoshop moves Layer 1 above Layer 2:

Layer 1 now appears above Layer 2 in the Layers panel.

With the red shape now above the green shape in the Layers panel, the red one appears in front of the green one in the document.

Without layers, moving the red shape in front of the green one would not have been possible, at least not without a lot of extra work and frustration. But with everything on its own layer, it was quick and easy! Layers keep everything separate so we can work on one element of our image without affecting any others.

We can move one object in front of another as we did here. We could change an object’s color without changing any other colors in the image. We could brighten someone’s eyes, whiten their teeth, blur a background while leaving people or objects in front of it nice and sharp. Layers open the door to creativity in Photoshop and make everything possible.

Page 9

The Background Layer

Here’s an image of a photo frame that I’ve just opened in Photoshop

Here’s the photo I want to place inside my photo frame

The image is currently open inside its own document window, so I’ll quickly copy and paste it and merge the two together. By doing that, I now have got a two layer document in Photoshop.

The two layer document Background layer can`t be moved above the Layer 1 because the Background layer is locked.

The Easy Solution

We have two options and both are pretty quick. Option 1 is to go up to the Layer menu at the top of the screen, choose New, and then choose Layer from Background:

Page 10

But a faster way, though, is to simply double-click directly on the word Background in the Layers panel:

Double-click directly on the Background layer’s name.

Either way opens the New Layer dialog box where we can enter a new name for the layer. The default name of “Layer 0″ works fine. Any name other than Background will work, so unless you have something specific you want to name the layer, simply click OK to accept Layer 0 as the new name.

We can now see that the name of the Background layer has been changed to Layer 0:

The Background layer has been renamed Layer 0 and the lock symbol has disappeared and now were able to move the Layer 0 above Layer 1 easily.

Page 11

All that is left to do is to drag the layer with Picture into the frame the way we want and there we have it!

Page 12

IV. Blending Layers

Blending photos is easy to do in Photoshop thanks to layer masks, yet finding two photos with similar colors isn’t always so easy, and you end up with a photo effect that doesn’t really seem to look right because the colors don’t match.

The end result is something similar to a Movie Poster or a cover of a Romance Novel.

The 1st Photo The 2nd Photo

Step 1: Drag One Image into The Document Window Of The Other Image

The first thing we need in order to blend our two images together is for them to both be in the same document. To do that, with both of my images open on the screen in their own separate document windows, I’m going to grab my Move tool from the Tools palette, or I could press the letter V on my keyboard to quickly select it:

Select the Move tool from the Tools palette, or press “V” for the keyboard shortcut.

Then with my Move tool selected, I’m going to click anywhere inside the image of the couple walking on the beach to make that document window active, and I’m simply going to drag the image into the other document window.

Page 13

The two photos now appear in the same document.

I can also see both images now on their own separate layers in the Layers palette:

Photoshop’s Layers Palette showing each image on its own separate layer.

Step 2: Resize And/Or Reposition The Images As Needed

Now that I’ve dragged the beach photo into the other document, I need to resize it, and I can do that easily with Photoshop’s Free Transform command.

Step 3: Add a Layer Mask

Once you’ve resized and/or repositioned your photos in the document the way you like them, we can begin blending them together. The first thing we need is a layer mask, and we’re going to add it to the layer on top ("Layer 1"), which is my case is the layer containing the beach photo, so I’m going to click on that layer in the Layers palette to select it. Then, click on the Add a Layer Mask icon at the bottom of the Layers palette:

Click on the top layer to select it in the Layers palette, then click on the “Add A Layer Mask” icon.

Page 14

We can now see the layer mask thumbnail added to the top layer:

Step 4: Drag Out A Black to White Gradient On The Mask To Blend The Two Images

Select your Gradient tool from the Tools palette, or press G to quickly access it with the keyboard shortcut:

The layer mask thumbnail in the Layers palette.

Notice that the layer mask thumbnail has a white highlight border around it. That’s telling us that the layer mask, not the layer itself, is currently selected, which is what we want.

Select the black to white gradient, third from the left, top row.

Select your Gradient tool from the Tools palette, or press G to quickly access it with the keyboard shortcut:

Select the Gradient tool.

Then, up in the Options Bar at the top of the screen, click on the down-pointing arrow to the right of the gradient preview area, which will bring up the Gradient Picker. Click on the black to white gradient in the top row, third from the left to select it:

Dragging the gradient from just below the top of the beach photo to just above the top of the water line to set the transition area between the two photos.

Release your mouse button, and the two images blend together at the location where you dragged out the gradient:

Page 15

The two images now fade from one into the other thanks to the black to white gradient we added to the layer mask.

Step 5: Merge Both Layers Onto A New Layer

With “Layer 1″ still selected in the Layers palette, press Shift+Ctrl+Alt+E (Win) / Shift+Command+Option+E (Mac) to merge both layers onto a new layer above it, which Photoshop will name “Layer 2″:

Step 6: Desaturate The Layer To remove the colors, press Shift+Ctrl+U (Win) / Shift+Command+U (Mac) to desaturate the layer:

Step 7: Add Noise

Let’s add a little noise to the image to help the two photos blend more seamlessly together. Go up to the Filter menu at the top of the screen, choose Noise, and then choose Add Noise. This brings up the Add Noise dialog box. Set the Amount to somewhere between 2-6% depending on the pixel dimensions of your image. I’m working on a low resolution image for this tutorial, so I’m going to set mine to 2% just to add a hint of noise. Make sure Distribution is set to Gaussian, and also make sure the Monochromatic option at the very bottom is checked:

Add a bit of noise to the image to help blend the two photos together.

Step 8: Add A Solid Color Adjustment Layer

All that’s left to do is add our own color to the image. For that, we’re going to use a Solid Color fill layer. Click on the New Fill Or Adjustment Layer icon at the bottom of the Layers palette:

Page 16

Click the “New Fill Or Adjustment Layer” icon.

Then select Solid Color from the top of the list that appears:

Photoshop’s Color Picker will appear. Choose the color that you want to use for your image. I’m going to select a light orange for my color:

Choose a color to use for your image from the Color Picker.

Click OK once you’ve chosen a color to exit out of the Color Picker. Don’t worry about choosing the “right” color at the moment because you can always change it later.

Page 17

Step 9: Set the Layer Blend Mode to “Color”

After clicking out of the Color Picker, your image will now be filled completely with the color you chose, which isn’t exactly what we wanted. To fix that, with the new Solid Color fill layer selected in the Layers palette, go up to the Blend Mode option in the top left corner of the Layers palette, click on the down-pointing arrow to the right of the word “Normal”, and select Color from the list:

Change the blend mode of the Solid Color fill layer to “Color”.

Your image will now be colorized with your chosen color rather than being blocked from view by it.

If you need to change your colour, Double-click the color swatch icon in the Layers palette.

When you do that, the Color Picker will pop back up and you can choose a different color. Since the Solid Color fill layer is already set to the “Color” blend mode, you’ll be able to see a live preview of how your current color choice looks.

The final result.

Page 18

The Gradient Tool

Gradients are a great way to add that little something extra to a background or image. According to Adobe, “The Gradient tool creates a gradual blend between multiple colors.”

Like anything else in Photoshop, there are multiple ways to apply a gradient. This article simply covers the Gradient Tool (G). Gradients are applied by dragging the tool across the image. The starting point is defined by where the mouse is initially clicked and the ending point is where the mouse is released. Gradients can be applied to the whole active layer or just select portions of an active layer.

In the Option bar, there are multiple different types of gradients you can apply:

• Gradient presets give you the options to create a gradient from templates or customize your

own.

• Linear gradient – Shades from the start point to the end point in a straight line.

• Radial gradient – Shades from the start point to the end point in a circular pattern.

• Angle gradient – Shades in a counterclockwise sweep around the start point.

• Reflective gradient – Shades using symmetric linear gradients on either side of the start point.

• Diamond gradient – Shades from the start point outward in a diamond pattern. The end point defines one corner of the diamond.

• Specify a blending mode and opacity for the gradient.

• Reverse – swaps the selected colors of the gradient.

• Dither – creates a smoother gradient.

• Transparency creates a transparency mask for the gradient fill.

With all the options configured, we can now apply the gradient.

• Click to set the starting point of the gradient, drag and release to define the ending point. To constrain the line angle to a multiple of 45°, hold down SHIFT as you drag.

• To adjust the look of the Gradient, try adjusting your start point and endpoint and that is that.

Page 19

V. Tilt-Shift Photography Effect

Step 1: Photo Selection

When choosing a photograph for the tilt-shift effect, bear in mind that you want to give the impression of a miniature model. Miniature models are usually viewed from above so try and choose a photo with an elevated viewpoint. Buildings, roads, traffic and railways are excellent choices but make sure there is a reasonable wide angle of view.

Even before the tilt-shift effect has been applied, it’s not too hard to imagine the scene as if it were a model.

Step 2. Enter Quick Mask Mode

Open the image in Photoshop and enter Quick Mask Mode by pressing Q on the keyboard, or select the Quick Mask icon as shown in the Tool Palette below:

Step 3. Choose Gradient Tool

Choose the Gradient Tool by pressing G on the keyboard, or select the Gradient Tool icon. Be sure to choose the Reflected Gradient option (the fourth icon along before the Mode drop-down).

Step 4. Draw A Line

Draw a vertical line; the start point will be the centre of the in-focus area, and the end will be where the transition from in-focus to out-of-focus is completed. This step, and the subsequent two steps, will need a fair degree of trial and error. If you look closely at the image below, you will see the line has been drawn from the back door of the silver car up to just under the word Hollywood beneath the street lamp.

Page 20

Step 5. View Mask Area

Before progressing, review the position of the red mask. The middle of the mask is where the in-focus area will be, gradually losing focus towards the edges. Note the out-of-focus effect is yet to be applied.

Step 6. Return To Standard Mode

Press Q on the keyboard to exit Quick Mask Mode and return to Standard Mode, or press the icon on the Tool Palette as shown below. The area to apply the focus effect to will be surrounded by the “marching ants” selection lines:

Step 7. Open Lens Blur Interface

Choose Filter > Blur > Lens Blur:

Step 8. Review Effect And Tweak Settings

Hopefully, you will now see a pleasing focus effect. The Photoshop default settings for Lens Blur seem to work well, but experiment with them to improve the effect. If you are unhappy with the position of the focus area, go back to Step 4 and try drawing a line in a different place or with a different centre of focus.

Page 21

Step 9. Exit Lens Blur Interface

Assuming you were happy with the image preview in Step 8, click OK to accept the settings:

Step 10. Remove Selection Boundary

Press CTRL-D on the keyboard to remove the “marching ants” selection boundary:

Step 11. Open Hue/Saturation Adjustment Interface

You may want to boost the colour saturation, to improve the effect. Remember that model scenery is often brightly painted so enhancing the saturation helps trick the eye. Press CTRL-U on the keyboard or select Image > Adjustments > Hue/Saturation:

Step 12. Boost Saturation

At this point you can apply a few effects and adjustments using the Saturation and Curves tool.

Step 13. Finished Product

Here’s the finished image.

Page 22

VI. Water Reflection Effect

The original image.

Finished Product

Step 1: Duplicate the Background Layer

With our image newly opened inside Photoshop, we can see in the Layers palette that we currently have one layer, the Background layer, which contains our image:

We need to duplicate the Background layer, and we can do that using the keyboard shortcut Ctrl+J (Win) / Command+J (Mac). Now when I look in my Layers palette now, I can see that I now have two layers – my original Background layer on the bottom and a new layer, “Layer 1″.

Page 23

Step 2: Add More Canvas Space to The Bottom Of The Document

To do that, go up to the Image menu at the top of the screen and choose Canvas Size. This will bring up Photoshop’s “Canvas Size” dialog box.

First, enter 100 for the Height and set the measurement to percent, as circled in red below. Leave the Width option set to 0. Then make sure the Relative option is checked, which tells Photoshop to give us 100% more canvas space than what we already have. Below the "Relative" option is a 3×3 grid of squares. This is where we tell Photoshop where we want to place our additional canvas space. Click inside the square in the middle of the top row (again as circled below).

This tells Photoshop not to place any of the extra canvas space above the document and instead to place all of it at the bottom:

Step 3: Flip The Top Layer Vertically

In order to create our reflection, we need to flip our image upside down, so let’s do that. With the top layer selected in the Layers palette, go up to the Edit menu at the top of the screen, choose Transform, and then choose Flip Vertical. Photoshop will flip the image upside down in the document:

Go to Edit > Transform > Flip Vertical to flip the image on the top layer upside down.

Step 4: Drag The Flipped Image To The Bottom Of The Document

We need the flipped image to be at the bottom of the document, so grab your Move Tool from the Tools palette, or press V on your keyboard for the shortcut:

Then, with the Move Tool selected, click inside the document and drag the flipped image down to the bottom until the top of it is lined up with the bottom of the original image above it. Hold down Shift as you drag to make sure you drag down in a straight line:

Drag the flipped image down below the original.

Step 5: Add A New Blank Layer

Now that we have our flipped image in place, we can begin to create our water ripple effect. First, we need to add a new blank layer at the top of the Layers palette, so with “Layer 1″ still selected, click on the New Layer icon at the bottom of the Layers palette:

Step 6: Fill The New Layer With White

We’re going to fill our new blank layer with white. If white is not currently your Background color, press D on your keyboard, which will reset Photoshop’s Foreground and Background colors, making black your Foreground color and white your Background color. Then use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl+Backspace (Win) / Command+Delete (Mac) to fill the new layer with the Background color (white). Your document will be filled with solid white.

Page 24

Step 8: Apply The “Gaussian Blur” Filter To The Lines

Before we can use our black and white lines as water ripples , we need to smooth them out and create nice, smooth transitions between them. To do that, go up to the Filter menu once again, choose Blur, and then choose Gaussian Blur, which brings up the “Gaussian Blur” dialog box. Keep an eye on your image and drag the slider at the bottom of the dialog box to increase the Radius value until the lines have a very soft edge to them. I’m using a small image for this tutorial, so for me, a Radius value of about 4 pixels works well. If you’re using a larger, high resolution image, you’ll need to set yours to a higher value:

Step 9: Duplicate The Lines Layer As A New Document

We’re going to create a brand new document out of our lines layer, which we’ll then use as our displacement map for our water ripples . With the lines layer selected, go up to the Layer menu at the top of the screen and select Duplicate Layer, which brings up the “Duplicate Layer” dialog box. In the “Destination” options, click on the down-pointing arrow to the right of the Document option and set it to New, which will create a new Photoshop document out of our layer:

Set the “Document” option in the “Duplicate Layer” dialog box to “New”.

Step 10: Save The New Document And Close Out Of It

This new document that we’ve created is going to become our displacement map, but before we can use it, we need to save it. We’re also going to close out of it after we’ve saved it, since we won’t need it open anymore, and the easiest way to accomplish both of those tasks is to simply close out of the document. When you try to close out of it, Photoshop will as you if you want to save the document before closing it. Click Yes:

Choose “Yes” when Photoshop asks if you want to save the document before closing it.

Photoshop will bring up the Save As dialog box. You can name your new document anything you like. I’m going to name mine “water-ripples”. Make sure you save it as a Photoshop .PSD file, since those are the only files that Photoshop can use as a displacement map. You’ll probably want to save the document to your Desktop, since we’ll need to find it again in a moment.

Step 11: Delete The Lines Layer

Now that we’ve used our black and white lines to create the file we’ll be using as our displacement map, we can get rid of it. To do that, simply click on it and drag it down onto the Trash Bin icon at the bottom of the Layers palette:

Click and drag the lines layer (“Layer 2″) onto the Trash Bin at the bottom of the Layers palette to delete it.

Page 25

Step 12: Merge The Two Layers Onto A New Layer

Before we can add use our displacement map, we need to merge our two image layers onto a new layer above them. To do that, with “Layer 1″ selected, use the keyboard shortcut Shift+Ctrl+Alt+E (Win) / Shift+Command+Option+E (Mac). Nothing will appear to have happened in the document, but if we look in the Layers palette, we can see that both layers have been merged onto a new layer at the top:

Both layers are now merged onto a new layer, “Layer 2″. Click on the “Layer Mask” icon to add a layer mask to the merged layer at the top of the Layers palette.

Photoshop will add a layer mask to the merged layer, and because we had a selection around the bottom half of our document when we added the layer mask, only the bottom half of the merged layer remains visible. The top half becomes hidden from view, removing the unwanted water ripples from that part of the image:

Adobe Photoshop Tutorials: Click on the layer mask thumbnail in the Layers palette to select the layer mask.

You can tell that the layer mask is now selected by the white highlight box around its thumbnail. We’re going to apply the Gaussian Blur filter to the mask, so go back up to the Filter menu, select Blur once again, and then select Gaussian Blur. When the dialog box appears, simply click OK to apply the same Radius value we used previously.

Step 16: Colorize The Water With A Hue/Saturation Adjustment Layer

Let’s finish things off now by adding just a hint of blue to our water, and we’ll use a Hue/Saturation adjustment layer for that. We want the adjustment layer to only affect the bottom half of the image where the water ripples are, so hold down your Alt (Win) / Option (Mac) key, click on the New Adjustment Layer icon at the bottom of the Layers palette, then select Hue/Saturation from the list of adjustment layers:

Page 26

Use the Hue/Saturation dialog box to colorize the water .

Click OK to exit out of the dialog box , and you’ll see that your water on the bottom has now been colorized, but the color is much too strong at the moment.

Step 17: Lower The Opacity Of The Hue/Saturation Layer

To reduce the intensity of the color we just added to the water , all we need to do is go up to the Opacity option in the top right corner of the Layers palette

and lower the opacity value. I’m going to lower mine all the way down to about 25%, which adds a much more realistic amount of color to the water :

Lower the opacity of the adjustment layer until the water has only a hint of color to it.

Once you’ve lowered the opacity of the adjustment layer to reduce the color intensity of the water , you’re done!

And here is my final “water reflection” result:

The final effect.

Page 27

VII. Creating an Infrared Effect

Infrared photography is the technique of capturing light not visible to the naked eye. Infrared (IR) light lies between the visible spectrum and radio waves. The look of these IR photos is distinct and can be stunning. In this tutorial, we are going to create a fake an IR effect with Adobe Photoshop.

Before and after images

Step 1 – Open up your image

Open up your image inside of Adobe Photoshop. I am using CS5 but you should be able to use every version from CS2 up.

Duplicate the image layer. Either go Image > Duplicate layer or use the handy shortcut CMD/CTRL + J.

Then invert the colors of the image by hitting CMD/CTRL + I. You should see something similar to the image below.

Step 2 – Colour

Simply change the blending mode of this layer to colour. At this stage your image should have a nice orange and blue tone. If you’re image looks drastically different from this one, you may want to consider jumping to the end of the article to see some of the other effects that are possible with this technique.

Step 3 – Channel mixer

Page 28

Select Layer > New Adjustment Layer > Channel mixer, or select the tri-coloured icon in the adjustment layers panel.

In the channel mixer, firstly select the color red, and move the red slider to 0. Move the blue slider to +100.

Then select the blue channel. This time, do the opposite. Increase the red to +100 and move the blue to 0.

On the green channel, just double check that the green slider is on +100.

Step 4 – Hue and saturation

This step is going to vary with what photo you are using. We need to edit the pink/red color and convert it a white/yellow color. We can do this by changing the red channel in the hue and saturation panel.

Select Layer > New Adjustment Layer > Hue and Saturation. Select the red channel. Reduce the saturation down so the result is almost grey. Following this, adjust the hue slider until you get a hint of yellow. I also found that increasing the lightness up to around +50 helped as well. Feel free to play around with the other channels slightly to get the best results.

Step 5- Add a photo filter

Select Layer > New Adjustment Layer > Photo Filter to add a cool blue photo filter. I used one of the default cooling filters at the density of 23%.

Step 6 – You’re finished

Page 29

To finish, I simply created a new layer and then applied the image. (Image > Apply Image). I then blurred the water to make it look more silky and smooth to simulate a long exposure shot.

Other results:

Page 30

VIII. Magic Wand Tool

Magic Wand Tool

How it works The Magic Wand tool looks for pixels which are of the same colour and tone. This means it's great for selecting large, solid blocks of colour but when working on images where the difference between colours and tone isn't as obvious it can seem, to start with, that the Magic Wand tool isn't a great tool. However, by making a few minor adjustments, you'll see it can be a useful tool to know how to use.

How to use it The tool simply works by you clicking in the area you want selecting. For example, in the example with the selection around the black rectangle, we clicked in the middle of the black part of the shape.

How to adjust it To make the tool more useful, adjust the Tolerance which you can find in the option bar towards the top of the screen.

The tolerance tells Photoshop how many pixels it needs to select that are the same colour as what you have clicked on and the shades which are darker or lighter by whatever number you've typed in the Tolerance box.

Above: 'Broken' selection before any adjustments made.

Above: The same image with the selection complete. (Tolerance adjusted)

Page 31

Contiguous is automatically selected by Photoshop but this option stops any pixels that fall into the tolerance range you've chosen getting selected if they have a pixel in between them that doesn't fall in to the range. To explain this, take a look at our shape. There are two black sections separated by a white line. We want to select both black areas so we select the Magic Wand tool and click on the one on the left but as Contiguous is ticked, Photoshop only selects the shape on the left as the white pixels in the centre are stopping the right black shape becoming part of the selection. Untick Contiguous and both shapes now become part of the selection when we click on the left shape.

Anti-alias helps smooth out the selection and by ticking Sample All Layers you are telling Photoshop you want it to include all of the layers in your document within the selection. Leave it unticked and it will just make the selection on the layer you have selected. The four shapes found to the left of the same option bar allow you to adjust your selection but after you've used the first option (New Selection) Photoshop will automatically select the second (Add To Selection) as you'll want to keep adding parts of the image until all you want selected has running ants around it.

So, looking left to right at the shapes: the first option lets you create a New Selection and the second option, Add To Selection, lets you expand / add the selection you've just created. The third option, Subtract From Selection, lets you remove some of the selection and the final option, Intersect With Selection, will look at your original selection then at the new selection you've just made and only keep the selection where both adjustments overlap or intersect. Finally there's Refine Edge which will give you a menu of options that you can further adjust your selection's boundary with. It also allows you to view the selection against various masks and backgrounds.

Page 32

IX. Content Aware Patch There has always been an abundance of tools in Photoshop to fix and repair an image. If you need to get rid of dust, dirt, scratches, or the more complicated elements such as a person, bird, car and so on. In the past, you would use a couple of tools, mostly notably the Clone Stamp Tool or the Healing Brush Tool. Another tool that is overlooked has been re-tweaked in the new version of Photoshop CS6. The Patch Tool with Content Aware now makes all of this as simple as Click and Drag. This tool is easy to use and can help transform an image in mere seconds. What is Content-Aware Patch? Content-Aware Patch is designed for times when you want to remove unwanted content from a photo and then replace it with a precise and seamless patch. The tool automatically creates the patch for you, but only after you’ve shown it exactly which area of your image you’d like it to sample from.

The old Patch Tool on former versions of Photoshop was good, but not great. We can patch up big areas now and get rid of larger amount of content without anyone even knowing it was there. Content-Aware Patch is designed for times when you want to remove unwanted content from a photo and then replace it with a precise and seamless patch. And it uses Content-Aware technology to blend the patch into the surrounding area. To achieve that, select the Patch Tool and set its Patch to Content-Aware.

How does Content-Aware Patch solve the problem?

Content-Aware Patch gives you superior results by letting you determine the area it will sample from to create your patch. For example, if you want to remove an object from a tight row of similar objects, you can tell Content-Aware Patch to sample from a nearby background area to create a precise and natural-looking patch.

Retouch with greater precision

Content-Aware Patch gives you a fast and easy way to perfect your images. Simply delete the content you don’t want, direct the tool to the patch material you think will work best, and then watch as it uses Content-Aware technology to magically create a stunning result.

Page 33

Original Picture #1 Select around the object, try to include a bit of the background as well as shadows of the object.

Now just drag to any spot to find a perfect fill to replace the guy. The great thing is the replacement does not have to be exact because Photoshop will take care of that. Just be sure you move it far enough away.

Finished Picture #1: And voila! The duck has disappeared thanks to the brand new content-aware patch tool in Photoshop CS6.

Original Picture #2 Finished Picture #2

Here’s another example of a photo that’s been touched up. In this example we got rid of a group of kids sitting on the lawn behind this couple. No more excuse for a ruined photograph.

Page 34

IX. Glossary and Links

Glossary

Content Aware Patch The Patch tool is used to remove unwanted image elements. The Content-Aware option in the Patch tool synthesizes nearby content for seamless blending with the surrounding content. Layers Photoshop layers are like sheets of stacked acetate. You can see through transparent areas of a layer to the layers below. You move a layer to position the content on the layer, like sliding a sheet of acetate in a stack. You can also change the opacity of a layer to make content partially transparent. Gradient Tool The Gradient tool creates a gradual blend between multiple colors. You can choose from preset gradient fills or create your own. Tilt-Shift Photography Effect Tilt-Shift photography or miniature faking is a creative technique whereby a photograph of a life-size location or object is manipulated to give an optical illusion of a photograph of a miniature scale model. Channel Mixer The "Channel Mixer" command lets you adjust an image by re-mixing its color channels. To use it efficiently, bear in mind the three sets of complementary colors: "Cyan - Red", "Magenta - Green", and "Yellow - Blue".

Links and Resources

http://www.photoshopessentials.com/ http://www.photoshopforphotographers.com/ http://simplephotoshop.com/ http://psd.tutsplus.com/ http://blog.echoenduring.com/2010/01/20/10-photoshop-filters-you-should-definitely-know/ http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2009/08/03/a-z-of-free-photoshop-plugins-and-filters/ http://www.ononesoftware.com/products/perfect-effects-free/