one C h a p t e r 97015c01.
Tools for Building Your Masterpiece Right-brainers are typically artistic in some fashion, and this book is for people who, like me, enjoy the journey. Although right-brainers are constantly chiding left-brained people to think outside the proverbial box, a right-brainer who works with a piece of software such as Adobe Photoshop CS4 needs to spend some time in the box, getting to know the tools and techniques that will lead to masterpieces at some future date.
2 chapter 1 ■ Tools for Building Your Masterpiece Using Blending Modes For right-brainers, blending modes open entirely new doors that perhaps you haven’t considered. For example, you can quickly collage two images by placing them in layers and experimenting with the blending modes for just the right mix. Blending modes for layers simply tell Photoshop how the pixels in one layer will interact with the pixels in the layers beneath.
■ Using Blending Modes 3 Figure 1.4 Sunset layer blending mode set to Overlay Experimenting with Blending Modes Try another test, this time selecting Darken for the blending mode of the sunset layer (see Figure 1.5). This results in a very deep melding of the two images. The outline of the mesa is clearly defined still, but we see more characteristics and features of the sunset layer. The primary thing that strikes me as being wrong with this version is it is simply too dark.
4 chapter 1 ■ Tools for Building Your Masterpiece Figure 1.6 Another version using Soft Light blending mode The Soft Light blending mode takes a look at the blend color and either lightens or darkens that portion of the image, depending on whether the color is lighter or darker, respectively, than 50% gray. If the light source, or blend color, is lighter than 50% gray, the effect is as though that portion of the image were dodged—darker makes it look as though it were burned.
■ Extracting an Image from a Background 5 Figure 1.8 Final blended image As you work through the book, blending modes will become second nature. What I want you to take away from these brief examples, in particular for merging layers, is that your choice of blending mode will dictate whether a piece fails or succeeds. You have many to choose from, but usually one or two come close.
6 chapter 1 ■ Tools for Building Your Masterpiece Removing Objects from Their Background Let’s get started and remove an object from its background. Open the image apple.jpg from this book’s CD (see Figure 1.9). Let’s pull the apple off the background and give it a new home. Duplicate the Background layer. Create a new layer between the two apple layers and fill it with white. Rename the Background Copy Extract (see Figure 1.10). Figure 1.9 The apple will serve as our extraction model. Figure 1.
■ Extracting an Image from a Background 7 Work your way around the entire apple, including the stem. You may have to exercise a little guesswork in the areas of extreme highlight or shadow, so work the path to make the shape appear natural. When you have reached the starting point, click on the first point to close the path (see Figure 1.12). After you have outlined the entire apple, open the Paths panel. You will see a new Work Path resident in the shape of your apple (see Figure 1.13).
8 chapter 1 ■ Tools for Building Your Masterpiece Paste the apple into the new document (F/Ctrl+V; see Figure 1.16). If you would like to save this image for later use, I recommend saving it as a PNG file. This format will retain the transparent background so you can easily drag and drop the object into any photo environment you choose as well as resize it to fit your needs. Figure 1.
■ Extracting an Image from a Background 9 Figure 1.17 Eight ball, corner pocket Figure 1.18 The apple in a new environment Choose Edit → Transform → Scale and resize the apple to better conform to the size of the eight ball without leaving any of the ball showing (see Figure 1.19). Once it's in place, accept the transformation. You may want to use the Burn tool to darken the lower edge of the apple as well as the ground beneath it to better conform it to the image.
10 chapter 1 ■ Tools for Building Your Masterpiece Figure 1.19 Resize as needed. Figure 1.21 Create a feathered selection. Figure 1.22 The mask helps isolate a region to be corrected or edited. 97015c01.indd 10 Figure 1.20 Shadowing with the Burn tool Let’s do one more little trick before we move on. As the apple leaves a shadow on the grass, the grass in turn should leave a reflection on the apple.
■ Working with Layer Masks 11 Figure 1.24 The apple in its new home Granted, the final image is a bit “far out,” but the extraction itself worked like a charm. The Path tool does take a bit of practice, but there is nothing like it for giving you crisp, clear edges for your extracted objects. Working with Layer Masks As you delve into all the nifty things Photoshop allows you to do to your images, you may have already played a bit with layer masks.
12 chapter 1 ■ Tools for Building Your Masterpiece Dynamic Masking I’ll begin with a practical example. If you have perused any medium to large electronics store online, in particular those that sell mid- to high-end televisions or computers, you may have noted that many display their products with an image on the screen. It is difficult to take a photograph of a television with the screen active and have it turn out with ad-quality resolution on the display.
■ Figure 1.27 Transform the top layer to match the monitor screen size. Working with Layer Masks 13 Figure 1.28 Renaming layers can help organize your edits. As a demonstration of how masks help in this instance, you can quickly place the techno-collage on the monitor without overlapping beyond the screen’s border. This is a piece of cake because the monitor face is roughly the same color across the object. There are a few tools you can use to generate a selection of the screen.
14 chapter 1 ■ Tools for Building Your Masterpiece Figure 1.30 The only area in the mask that should be filled with white is the monitor screen. If you have performed the masking technique properly, you will have a final product image with the Tech image resident only on the monitor. Any additional corrections to the mask that may be required can be performed by using the paint tools with either white or black to correct and clean up areas of the masked layer (see Figure 1.31). Figure 1.
■ Working with Layer Masks 15 Absurd Symmetry For the digital artist, masks are frequently used to generate symmetry in a photo or working piece of art. Photographers may use masks for fine-tuning the appearance of a model; a wacky right-brainer may take things to the extreme and use one photo to create a perfect, albeit improbable, vision of beauty. Figure 1.32 (ModelShot.jpg on the CD) shows a young lady who has absolutely nothing wrong with her. Well, in the real world maybe.
16 chapter 1 ■ Tools for Building Your Masterpiece Figure 1.34 A standard Black to White gradient in the mask gives the model a surreal appearance. Figure 1.35 The Layers panel should look like this in this step. The result is interesting but we can make it more so by shortening the length of the gradient to a very small area in the center of the photo rather than across the entire image. For instance, redraw the same gradient in the same mask, but this time span the width of the mouth (Figure 1.
■ Working with Layer Masks 17 Reversing the colors in the mask creates an entirely different rendition of the model, though in this case it tends to make her look a bit masculine (see Figure 1.38). This can be altered by moving the top layer toward the right to “pinch” her face and neck back to a more feminine appearance.
18 chapter 1 ■ Tools for Building Your Masterpiece Shades of Gray One final example demonstrates how shades of gray can be used in a mask to create character in your collages or backgrounds (see Figure 1.40). In this instance, I’ve taken tech-02.jpg and tech-03.jpg, and placed them in new layers in the file circuit.jpg. Grayed masks (or layer masks filled with gray) have been applied to the top two layers.
■ Including Adjustment Layers 19 Including Adjustment Layers Something I have found to be incredibly useful for the past few versions of Photoshop was the inclusion of adjustment layers. Because of my interest in adding a personal touch to perfectly good photos, the final image often doesn’t resemble the original except in passing. A long, long time ago, say three or four versions of Photoshop in the past, altering layer information was almost always “destructive.
20 chapter 1 ■ Tools for Building Your Masterpiece With the image open, click the Create New Fill Or Adjustment Layer icon at the bottom of the Layers panel. A menu will appear with a series of selections representing the types of adjustments you can make. Choose Levels from the menu. A Levels adjustment layer will appear in the Layers panel (see Figure 1.43).
■ Including Adjustment Layers 21 Figure 1.48 Break out the model paint! We need to give this gray matter an overhaul. Quick Cartoons You can also add a couple of cartoonish, or “drawn” characteristics to the image. Selecting Posterize at the bottom of the Adjustments menu lets you establish the number of levels that appear in the image (see Figure 1.49). This basically separates the image into four levels of color, giving it a drawn or painted quality (see Figure 1.50). Figure 1.
22 chapter 1 ■ Tools for Building Your Masterpiece Keep in mind that all of these adjustments have in no way altered the original photo layer. Simply by adding three adjustment layers, you have been able to enhance the color, repaint an area of the image, and convert it to an artist’s rendering. Figure 1.51 shows the Layers panel with all four layers in place.
■ Displacement Mapping 23 Figure 1.52 The two images as seen in Bridge You can duplicate the blue channel by clicking and dragging it to the Create New Channel icon at the bottom of the Channels panel (second from the right, next to the Trash). A quick Contrast adjustment will help separate the whites and blacks further. I’ve chosen +25.
24 chapter 1 ■ Tools for Building Your Masterpiece A Peek into a Later Chapter I’m going to take this opportunity to discuss Apply Image, something I’ll cover in depth in Chapter 4, “Texture, Color, and Layer Effects.” Apply Image has to be one of my all-time favorite adjustments in Photoshop. I’ll reserve most of my praise until later, but because it works for this effect I’ll dip into it just a bit here. Apply Image allows you to blend two images together.
■ Displacement Mapping 25 But wait; there’s more! Now Photoshop will ask you what .psd image it should use as a map. By default it will take you to the location on your hard disk where you saved the displacement map: simply select it and click OK. The Map.jpg image will warp to conform to the contours of the Back.jpg photo. Now on to Apply Image. After you choose Image → Apply Image, you use the Source dropdown list at the top of the dialog box to select the image you would like to apply to your photo.
26 chapter 1 ■ Tools for Building Your Masterpiece Discovering the Power of Blend If My good friend Richard Lynch, whom you may know from his Hidden Power books, also published by Sybex, started talking to me about Blend If a few years ago. A typical conversation may have sounded like a Laurel and Hardy routine: RL: Al, you’ve got to try Blend If. AW: Blend what? RL: Blend If.
■ Discovering the Power of Blend If 27 To follow along, create a displacement map as we did in the previous tutorial. Generate a text layer, rasterize it, and displace it with the map. Now you are at the point I am with this project. With the text layer selected, click the FX icon at the bottom of the Layers panel. When the styles menu expands, select Blending Options from the top of the menu. The dialog box in Figure 1.61 appears. Figure 1.
28 chapter 1 ■ Tools for Building Your Masterpiece Figure 1.63 The text takes on the aged characteristics of the wall beneath. You can also manipulate the color channels with Blend If. For instance, there is a hint of red in the bricks. You can further age the text by selecting Blend If: Red and adjusting the Underlying Layer sliders as seen in Figure 1.64. Figure 1.65 shows a close-up of the text after this adjustment.
■ Summary 29 Summary I’ve in no way covered every cool tool you will explore in this book on your way to the perfect masterpiece, but I’ve covered a few of the most important ones, or at least those that will show up frequently. Again, please don’t be content to simply use the images supplied with the book. I encourage you to try these techniques on your own photos, stimulating those rightbrain cells and creating your own art.
