TV Lines

Start by opening the image you wish to alter. I chose to use the
background image from one of Adobe's tutorial images.

Create a new image with the same width as your image and a height of one pixel.
Fill this image with black

Now change the canvas size by clicking IMAGE>>CANVAS SIZE. Change
the height to 2 pixels while keeping the width the same size. Be sure to force the anchor upward.

You will now have an image with one pixel black and one pixel white. Create
a new selection by pressing Ctrl+A. Now you need to make this selection the active pattern by clicking EDIT>>DEFINE PATTERN.

Return to your backgound image and create a new layer. Fill this layer with your
new pattern by clicking EDIT>>FILL and choosing Pattern for the contents and the blending Mode as Overlay

There you have it. Now play around with the Mode settings and have fun.

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Wrapping Text

More people have asked me to create a tip for wrapping text around an object
than any other trick. Normally I would just send them an email detailing how it could be done with nothing more than one of the supplied filters. Well, I broke down and decided to create a tip and post it for everyone to use. So here it is in all its glory...
Starting with a new image, place your text making sure it just touches the
left edge of the image as shown

Now go to the Layers pallete and un check "Preserve Transparency"

With "Preserve Transparency" unchecked you can now wrap the text.
But first we must re-scale the text so that when it is wrapped it does not look squashed. GotoLayer>>Transform>>Scale and increase the height of the text by about one half.

Now we need to make a square selection around the text. Use the
Marquee tool and press the shift key while drawing a perfect square around the type. If the selection is no centered on the text just right use the arrow keys to adjust it.

All that is left is toapplyFilter>>Distort>>Polar Coordinates and selecting
Rectangle to Polar.

That's all there is to it... I will be adding variations of the same tip to
create different effects so be sure to check back

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Plastic Type (Uses Eyecandy Filters)

Create a new image at 72dpi and RGB color. Place your text using a light grey
for your color. (Lighter colors work best for this effect.)

Now load the Layer 1 Transparency by clicking on Select >> Load Selection
Using the glass filter from Eyecandy, select the "Transparent Button"
preset and apply the filter

Create a new layer then use the Cutout filter from Eyecandy with the
settings: DIRECTION: 135, DISTANCE: 5, BLUR: 8, OPACITY:80 and black as the shadow color

Create a new layer then use the Cutout filter with the
settings: DIRECTION: 315, DISTANCE: 5, BLUR: 8, OPACITY:80 and white as the shadow color

Now return to Layer 1 and go to Image >> Adjust >> Hue/Saturation
to change the color. You can also use Color Balance to fine tune the color to your liking

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Textured Background

Start out by creating a new image "200x200 @ 72dpi"

Switch to the channels palette and create a new channel

With the new channel active, apply the Noise filter and
adjust the levels till you get the effect you desire.

Return to the RGB channel and apply the Lighting effects filter

Lighting Source: Directional
Intensity: 20
Focus: 50
Gloss: 100 (shiny)
Material: 75 (plastic)
Exposure: 45
Ambience: 13
Texture Channel: #4
White is high

Now that you have your texture apply offset 100 to
the left and 100 down making sure wraparound is checked.

Once you have applied the Lighting filter you need to color your new
background. To do so, create a new layer and fill with the color you want your background to be

Go to the layer palette and change the Layer Mode to Color Dodge.

All that's left is to add the background tag to your HTML file and enjoy
your new background.

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Polka Dots

This might seem obvious to some experienced users of Photoshop, but to
all of you who don't know - here's the trick.

I am not sure polka dots is the common name for this, but well - this is how
I call it (you can call it whatever you want).

After creating a new image, bring up Channel Palette
(Window>Show Channels) and create a new channel by clicking a New Channel icon. Now draw a rectangular selection and fill it with white. That will be a base for our polka dots.

Now, deselect and gaussian blur it all. Notice that as bigger value of blur
you use as deeper your polka dots will be. Our techniques uses levels of gray to render the dots. I used value of 20 here.

Very good, now - remember polka dots are very customizable depending
on the shape of your channel. Here I used rectangle just because it was quite easy to create. Let's add some drama by twirling it a little bit (Filter>Distort>Twirl). Hey, it's quite a nice thingie by itself, right? Something very spacy. Ok let's continue.

Some people offer to use mode conversion to create dots, but that's
inconvenient, right. Let's use Color Halftone filter. (Filter>Pixelate>Color Halftone). I used default settings in this example, but of course you can try to play with settings (Max. Radius). Using it you can increase/decrease size of the biggest dot and of course all other.

Woohoo! We've got it. It also might produce small unneeded pixels around
the image. Just delete those.

Ok, now we have a channel of our polka dots. Switch to RGB channel, I'll
show you how to use that in designs.

Fill your image with nice blue color. It can contain anything actually, even a
texture. Just make sure you don't get messed with layers.

Select>Load Selection>#4

Pick up a lighter color and fill the selection (Edit>Fill..). Quite stylish, huh?

Finish your artwork by putting some stylish type there, stroking it (Edit>Stroke)
and drop a shadow (you know how to do that, don't you).

Don't forget about the style!

Depending on the shape of your channel, you can achieve different effects
(you can even use type here!). Check out. these samples

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Cropping an image

Get your favorite picture in soft light, get that feathery effect...all with Photoshop's built-in features...Thanks Lisa!

Open up any image.
Select the Paths Palette.
Select the pen tool from the tools palette
Click on the outline of the picture so that you get something like this

That may take some practice!
From the paths palette, select MAKE SELECTION
Use a feather of about 4 pixels
Now from the paths palette, select TURN OFF PATH
Copy the selected image by using CTRL-C
You can then paste it on a new blank image using CTRL-V
This will give you an effect like what you see on top.
Did you get it right?

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Dotted lines

Here's a simple way to create dotted lines. The best part of this technique
is that it takes advantage of some simple, built-in settings for the brushes, unleashing a ton of possibilities. No other programs needed and no fancy channels handiwork, er, mouse-work that is.

Here's the final product, in simple form. Let's get started. Open a new
document, any size with a little width, say 200 wide and any height.

First, choose the pencil tool to make sure the settings apply to this set of
brushes. Before doing anything else, be sure to save your brushes if you have a fancy set of already tampered with brushes. You will be playing with the settings and it is always nice to be able to load your previous set.

Double-click on the second smallest brush in the pallette window. Your
pallette should look rough as we are working with the pencil tool. The smoother brush version will come later...

You are now viewing the brush options. The important change to make
for the dotted line effect is the spacing. For the simple dotted line I created above, simply change the Spacing option to 250%. You can change this to any setting up to 999, but for now just try out what I used.

Now, simply draw with your pencil and you have your dotted line! To make
sure your line is straight, hold down the shift key while you draw the line. Another technique is to single-click your starting point and then while holding the shift key, single-click your ending point; PS draws the dotted line between the two points!

For a few variations try differing the size of the brush and increasing the
spacing. Also, you can load a square set of brushes from the Adobe Photoshop>Goodies>Brushes & Patterns>Square Brushes which gives you square dots using the same options. Switch over to the Paintbrush and see that the same effect is created, only with smoother anti-aliased dots. All of the same options also apply to the Airbrush tool as well.

Along with the size and spacing of the dots, if you need to do dotted
lines with an oblong shape that are on an angled line (whew!), simply change the angle of the brush. Just like a caligraphy pen, you can change the angle of the stroke of your brush; but, in this case it changes the direction of the dot in your line. Now you are an expert at PhotoShop dotted lines!

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Yet another bevel tip

Open a new RGB image. Type your text in black on a new layer.

In the channels palette, drag one of the channels to the "new channel" icon.
This will create channel 4. Duplicate channel four to make channel 5. Invert channel 5 (ctrl/cmd+i) so it appears as white text on a black background.

Make channel 5 active. Now load channel 5 as a new selection. To do this,
you can either hit select/new selection and choose channel 5 from the pull down menu or you can save some hassle and hold the ctrl/cmd key and click on channel 5.

Now you have something that looks like the above image with a selection border
(marching ants) around your text. Invert the selection (ctrl/cmd+shift+i) so that it borders the whole image as well as your selection. I can't get the selection border with my screen capture, so you'll have to use your imagination.  

Tip for new users:

Now you need to get a nice fade on your text that starts with white
on the inside and fades to a dark gray. There's several ways to do this with photoshops native tools as well as third party plugin filters (KPT gradient designer set to circular shapeburst). To keep things simple, first make sure your background color is black (keystroke d, then x). Feather the selection (select/feather) by five pixels and hit delete.

(Still a little too light around the edges...hit delete once more.)

(Perfect!)

We're done playing with the channels. Go back to the layers palette and
select a new layer. Hit ctrl/cmd+d to make sure nothing is selected. Fill it with something...anything! You can use a pattern, solid fill, gradient, image or whatever you want.

You'll be using the "lighting effects" filter to create the beveled look. If you
haven't worked much with lighting effects, don't get frustrated and give up. Once you learn how to use it, you'll find it is one of the most useful filters for all kinds of text effects.

Tip for new users:.

After filling a new layer, open the "lighting effects" menu
(filter/render/lighting effects). If I remember correctly, "lighting effects" is the only thing in Photoshop that uses floating point math to create true 3D effects. It uses a grayscale texture channel to determine what is "high" or "low" depending on the brightness of each pixel.

We'll use a single white light coming from the upper left side. For the light
type and properties, I used the following settings:

Light type: Omni
Intensity: 20
Gloss: 0
Material: 0
Exposure: 0
Ambience: 0
Texture Channel: #5
White is high

You'll probably have some horrible banding. I got rid of it (much to my surprize)
by converting the image to a 64 color indexed mode with difusion dithering.

Remember channel 4? You can load that as a new selection, feather it by
one pixel, and hit delete to remove the background.

Good luck!

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Prodigy

here's a tip from Sid 6.7 This is a cool effect that was inspired by the
"Prodigy: Fat of the land" CD cover... Basically it makes the image look like its moving towards you...
Pic out your favorite picture, (i.e. a car, an animal...) Make sure the image is
in RGB mode. You can check by clicking on Image and then Mode.
Make a quick mask.
Select the area of the image you want to look clear... (i.e. the front of the
car, Quick Mask channel in the Channels palette. head of the animal.) using the laso or marquee tool.
Select>Inverse
Edit>Fill fill with black 100%, then do Select>None
Apply a gaussian blur arounr 13 or 14, 9 or 10 for small images.
Now use the Brush Strokes>Sprayed Strokes filter. Stroke length 12,
Rad. 7, right diagnol.
Now go back to Standard edit mode.
Inverse your selection.
Apply a radial blur zoom. Amount 40 And there you go!

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Stamp

Open a new RGB image. Type your text in black on a new layer. In the
channels palette, drag one of the channels to the "new channel" icon. This will create channel 4, which looks identical to the other channels. That's okay.

Duplicate channel 4. Now you have channel 5. Run a gaussian blur over it.
The amount of blur is dependant on the size of your image. For this 200x200 image, I used a blur of 2 pixels

Use the stylize/glowing edges filter on the channel. Make it look similar to the
edges in the image below

Create a new layer and fill it with 50% gray (edit/fill). You'll be using the
"lighting effects" filter to create the stamped look. If you haven't worked much with lighting effects, don't get frustrated and give up. Once you learn how to use it, you'll find it is one of the most useful filters for all kinds of text effects.

For this effect, I used two spotlights, yellow and a blue. Create a blue
spotlight shining down from the upper left. When you get it looking about right, hold the alt/opt key and click on the blue dot in the middle of the light. This will duplicate the light. Make your new light yellow and move it a few pixels away from the blue one. Slightly change the angle of the yellow light until the image is bathed in a medium white light with blue and yellow around the edges. For the light type and properties, I used the following settings

Intensity: 100
Focus: 50
Gloss: 100 (shiny)
Material: -100 (plastic)
Exposure: 0
Ambience: -50
Texture Channel: #5
White is high

The next step is to tweak the background. Pay close attention here. To more or
less isolate the text from the background, go back to the channels palette and select # 5. Use select/new selection/channel 4 and invert the selection (ctrl/cmd+shift+i). Fill the selection with white then deselect (ctrl/cmd+d), and invert the channel (ctrl/cmd+i).

Now, go back to the layer you were working on (should be layer 3) and
load channel 5 as a new selection. You'll probably have to contract it by a few pixels to get it just right (select/modify/contract). The sky is the limit for the background texture. I used filter/texture/grain with an intensity of 20, a contrast of 10, and a horizontal grain type to get the finished product below.

Good luck!

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Glowing Type

I should have named this tip Eclipse instead of glow. I tried making an effect similer to that of the Eyecandy filter. Although I believe this creates a cleaner effect.

Start with a new image and fill with your background color
Create a new layer and use the Type Mask toolto enter your text.

Use Select>>Modify>>Expand to expand the Type Mask

Now feather the selection Select>>Feather, I used 4 for the example.
Fill the sellection with whatever color you want to be the glow.

Now that you have your glow use the Type tool in Layers mode and
enter your text again using any color.

And there you have it. Now you can understand why I wanted to rename the effect. Play with the Expand, and Feather settings to create the effect your looking for. But above all, have fun...

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Tiled backgrounds

This Tip comes from the twisted mind of Jonathan Thompson
Creator of CerealKillers Help Desk

The image we're starting with here (and, feel free to snag that image and
do this example along with me) is 100pixels by 100pixels. For this technique, we create a new image that is twice the size of the original (200pixels by 200pixels), with the same resolution (150), same color mode (RGB), and a transparent background. If you're starting with a gif, it might be wise to change it's mode from Indexed to RGB to help stop color shifts and *blocky* pixels.
Start by dropping your tile in the bottom right corner. It doesn't always have
to be this corner, but you'll have to change the steps and placements of the next layers to make it work. For now, just use the bottom right corner. To *drop* the tile, click on the move tool, then click on the image itself... drag that image over to your new project until you see the edges of the new project light up. You could also copy and paste it there, but this is easier

Make 3 copies of this layer, so that now you have 4 layers with the same thing.

Move the first copy up to the top right corner.
Go to Layer>>Transform>>Flip Vertical. This will set the whole right side.
If it isn't completely in place, don't worry about that now. We can fix it later =]
Now go to the second copy, and move it to the top left side.
Go to Layer>Transform>Rotate 180°.
Go to the last copy (3rd), and move it over to the bottom left corner.
Layer>Transform>Flip Horizontal. This will finish up the seamless tile, but
if your blocks aren't quite touching each other, the easiest way to fix this is to click the move tool (you should already have that one selected), then use the little arrow keys on your keyboard to nudge it into place. Here's what I made out of the first image:

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Creating borders

Open up the photo or image you want to create a border around

Click on the Quick Mask mode button in the Photoshop toolbox. This will
create a Quick Mask channel in the Channels palette.

Choose the Rectangular Marquee tool in the Photoshop toolbox.
Select an area in the center of the image.

Choose Fill... from the Edit menu. Fill the selection area with black
at 100% opacity.

Choose None from the Select menu to deselect the area. Then choose
Gaussian Blur... from the Blur submenu in the Filter menu. Use a Radius setting of between 10 and 20 pixels. You have now applied the Gaussian Blur to the Quick Mask channel.

Select a special effects filter from the Filter menu. In this example, I used
the Sprayed Strokes. Since you are still in Quick Mask mode and there is nothing selected, only the Quick Mask channel will be effected by the filter.

Click on the Standard selection mode button in the Photoshop toolbox.
This will select the area of the image that is not masked by the Quick Mask channel. Fill the area with your background color, and your done.

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Textured buttons

Create a new file, resolution=150ppi, Mode=RGB
With the Selection tool, make a new selection.

Click SELECT>>MODIFY>>SMOOTH and enter a number to round the
corners of your selection

Save the selection as channel #4,
If you plan on adding a drop shadow to your button, copy channel
#4 to create channel #5 then make channel #4 active.
Click FILTER>>BLUR>>GUASSIAN BLUR and blur the selection in
steps ie: 6, 4, 2.

Return to the composite channel, then open the texture you want to use.

working with the texture use SELECT>>ALL then go to
EDIT>>DEFINE PATTERN
return to your new image and load Channel #4.
Fill the selection using Pattern, Opacity 100%, Mode normal. Do
not deselect the selection.

Select FILTER>>RENDER>>LIGHTING EFFECTS and play with the
settings until you get what you want.
I have found that unchecking 'White is high' creates a cleaner effect.
I used Spotlight, 17, 75, -25, 63, 0, 32,Texture Channel #4, uncheck 'white is high', and 89.

Now you can enter your text or dingbat to finish

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Cutouts without Alienskin filter.

Open image you want to create effect on.

Click SELECT>ALL, and press ctrl+j to Create a new Layer
Now create another layer 'layer 2' and place between the 'background layer'
and 'Layer 1'
With the type tool, enter the type you want to use.

Now click SELECT>>INVERSE or (Shft+Ctrl+I) to inverse the selection.

Fill the selection with Black, Opacity = 100%, Mode = Normal.

Inverse the selection again. you should now have a selection of the type only.
Save the selection as channel 4.

return to the the Layers pallet and make the 'Layer 1' active.
Load the selection Channel #4 then press delete.
Keeping channel #4 active, make the 'Background Layer' active.
Lighten the Background Layer by selecting
IMAGE>>ADJUST>>BRIGHTNESS/CONTRAST, set the values to your liking.
Return to 'Layer 2' and deselect the type.
Select FILTER>>BLUR>>GUASSIAN BLUR. For the example,
I used a value of 2.5.

Using the move tool, nudge the Layer up, or down. left, or right.
Play with the different settings to get the best effect for your application.

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Cool 3d button Tips Tricks

Make a new file 100x100.
Using the selection tool on radial, make a circle.
Now use the gradient tool and set the type to radial.
Select a foreground and background color.
Click on the top-left of the button and drag to the bottom-right.

Now click on SELECT>MODIFY>CONTRACT, and contract
selection by 8.

Select LAYER>TRANSFORM>ROTATE 180

Now click on SELECT>MODIFY>CONTRACT, contract by 4 this time.
Click on SELECT>FEATHER, and feather the selection by 2.

Select LAYER>TRANSFORM>ROTATE 180

That's it! Use the text tool to enter text or dingbats to finish.

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Create a beveled button

Create a new file, 100x100 pixels.
Use the selection tool, make a square.
Choose a dark foreground color and a light background color.
With the gradient tool set on Linear.
Click on the top-left corner and drag to bottom-right.

Click SELECT>MODIFY>CONTRACT, and enter "6".

Reselect the gradient tool.
Click bottom-right to top-left to draw gradient.

Once again click SELECT>MODIFY>CONTRACT, and enter "3".
Click on SELECT>FEATHER and enter "2".

With the gradient tool click top-left and drag to bottom-right.

There you have it. an easy to create button.

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Creating simple drop shadows

Create a new file.
Create a new Layer.

On the new layer, create the type font you want to use.
Duplicate the layer with the type
You should now have 'Layer 1 copy' over 'Layer 1'.
Select 'Layer 1' the bottom layer
Press Shift+F5 to fill in the type, use black and preserve transparency.

Offset the layer a bit using the move tool

Select FILTER>>BLUR>>GAUSSION BLUR for this example I used 2.5
For a softer shadow select a higher number.

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Another emboss tip

Start with a new texture or start with a plain color.

Create a new channel and type your text (don't deselect).

Press CTRL+J to defloat your selection and then
FILTER>BLUR>GAUSSION BLUR with a setting of 2-4. Your image should look like this.

Go back to the layer with your texture and use the
FILTER>>RENDER>>LIGHTING EFFECTS filter. Use the following settings (from top to bottom): Omni, Check, 13, 25, 0, 14, 20, #4 Channel, Check, 20. Now hit ok and it should look like this.

To add more contrast, hit SELECT...INVERSE and fill with a solid color

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Embossing type

Start by creating a new file. Fill it with a light color

Change the foreground color to a darker version of the background color
Use the type tool to enter the same type.
Select FILTER>>BLUR>>GAUSSION BLUR. For this example I used a
value of 1.

Now change the foreground color to white.
Use the type tool to enter the type again. This will be the highlight.
Select the move tool and possition the white type up and to the left of the
darker type.

Select the eye dropper tool and click on the background of the image.
use the type tool to once again enter your type.
Select the move toll and move the type between the fore and background type.

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Superimposing layers

This tip comes to us from ?. Check out this tip on using layers to create the "e;reminiscing" effect. Open up any image to be used as a background Open up another image which you want to superimpose (My dream women) Select the paths pallete. Select the pen tool from the tools pallete. Click on the image so you get something like this. Take your time as this may take some practice to get it right. From the paths pallete, LOAD PATH AS A SELLECTION. Click SELECT>>FEATHER, and choose a # (for this example I used 20). From the paths pallete, select TURN OFF PATH. Copy the selected image by pressing CTRL+C. Now paste the image into the background image pressing CTRL+V. Under the layers pallete, Drag the opacity bar to make the image blend into the background.

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Place a picture into text

Place a picture into text

Daryl asked:
      > please help how can i turn a picture into text
      > i.e if i got a picture of a dog how can i
      > spell the word dog using the picture as
      > letters if that makes sense thanks

Daryle did not specify which version of Photoshop or the computer system, (which should always be done) so here, we demonstrate putting an image into type -- for all versions of Photoshop and Photoshop Elements

FIRST: select the image you plan to use. Here, we've moved it to a new layer with white as our background in order to demonstrate the effect later. You do not necessarily need to do this.

Set the Type: Now, set the word using the type input method of your current version of Photoshop or Elements. Here we used a heavy, condensed type style to provide as much area for the image as possible. In earlier versions, this type will be rastarized as a picture object. In later versions it will be live type, and you can leave it like that if you wish.

Select the type to make a "cookie cutter": In later versions, you can Command / Click (Ctrl/Click) the layer to SELECT the type. This displays the "racing ants" around each letter indicating that it is selected.

Float the Image into the Selection:
a. Click the Photo layer to select it - while the selection is active
b. Float or "pick up" the image by using the Float command/J (Ctrl/J)
c. The selection will fill with a COPY of the art within the selection and generate a new layer (below)
(Note: older versions will need to use Edit > Copy, then create a new layer, and Edit > Paste)

Done: Turn OFF the original photo layer, and you'll see your type is filled with the image.

In this example below, I've also generated a layer with the type set to a Gaussian Blur so the edges of the letters which would be white will show. This is not an essential step, but placed here merely to show off the type. Note, this could have been done with the original type layer, Rastarized, but we left it in place for this demonstration.

There are lots of other ways to do this technique. In Photoshop CS, CS2 and CS3, using the Type Mask tool would do the same in a single step. There are also other ways to generate layer masks which accomplish the same effect, but this method works in virtually ALL image editing programs on ALL platforms which support layered art.

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1 - Photoshop Mirror Reflections

Photoshop Mirror Reflections...

Many people these days are enamoured with the latest craze of photographing products on a glass surface with the product reflecting a very smooth, liquid reflection. Apple made it popular with their iPhone imagery.

In the old days, we had to go to some fairly lengthy set building in order to accomplish the look, but today you can do it in mere moments.

The object itself has a lot to do with the relative success of this technique. Best case scenario is a good, straight-on product shot. This eliminates the need for oblique reversals which take a lot of time, and need to have a perspective slant in order to look convincing. (See

Creating the reflections

Let's use this shot of a Pentax camera.
Note I've carefully cut it out of the background so no slivers of white are showing. Mistakes in removing the background will be glaring once we build the illusion.

To make the illusion, we need a much larger expanse of background.
Here, using the Crop tool, we can drag the handles beyond the image area and visually estimate the size we'll be needing. Once you commit the crop, the canvas will be expanded to fit the size indicated.

Since any reflection into glass or a liquid is a 'mirror' image of the original, we have to create that copy.
The easiest way is to merely float a copy (Cntrl/J or Cmd/J) and with the Move Tool (Tap V) drag the top, center handle down below the bottom. I'm going to leave the dragged image just a bit compressed. This lends a bit more realism to the scene.

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2 - Photoshop Mirror Reflections

Photoshop Mirror Reflections...

Creating the mirror background

At this point we'll need a background to reflect the image off of. Some people like smooth, level graduated backgrounds, and others like spotlighted. Apple uses sort of a spotlighted background, note where the 'hot spot' is in their images. (Note, if you're using a white-out background, then no graduations are necessary.)

We'll use a Black to White graduation first, just for the sake of this demonstration.

I'm holding the crossover point of the gradation to just below the horizontal center of the scene, and the lighter part never achieves white. I accomplish this by starting the gradient about 20% down the scene, and dragging about 20% beyond the bottom edge of the window. This brings a 20 to 30% gray to the edge.

Now we can begin working with the reflected image.

First set the transparency. I used about 40%, but that will change as we move along.

To make the reflection realistic, as it moves away from the object across the glass surface, it gets more faint. So we'll need to simulate that "fall-off" by using a layer mask.

Select the reflection layer, and then click on the Layer Mask button. You'll see the white mask appear next to the layer thumbnail. Click in the Layer Mask thumbnail, and its borders will become doubled to indicate it's selected.

Now, using the gradient tool drag a tight, quick gradient from black to white. You'll notice how the black masks image and the white allows it to show. The reason I'll use a mask here is to adjust the amount of transparance by moving the actual mask up and down.

Turn off the lock links between the thumbnails, make sure the mask is selected, and with the move tool, you can drag in your image window to adjust where the gradient falls on the image. Very handy.

At this point we're done.

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4 - Fine-tuning Mirror Reflections

Fine-tuning Mirror Reflections

... some options and alternate scenarios

I think the black and white is very elegant, but a little too stuffy and formal. Let's add a bit of color to offset the steely grays of the camera. Create a new layer and simply fill it with the color you like.

The last (and optional) step is to add a Gaussian Blur to the reflected image. In realism, the reflection will never be perfectly clear. While you may like it, and keep it, I like to throw it off just a bit -- so I'll ad the most slight blur.

The amount of Blurring depends on resolution. More blur for higher resolution. But for the sake of loading times for my captures, I've kept this a low resolution image, so .5 or so blure does the trick.

You're done. Here's the finished blue version, the finished black version, and I even eliminated the background all together in this finished solid white version!

Take a different approach

Now, lets try an alternative, borrowing from Apple. Notice how their gradation is actually radial, and is offset to the lower left corner. Well simulate that by switching our gradient to radial.

Notice in the diagram above, I've placed a solid black layer behind that gradient. You can lighten or darken your gradient by simply changing the transparency of the gradient layer with a solid black layer behind it. Make the highlight hot spot as intense or subtle as you wish.

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4 - Fine-tuning Mirror Reflections

Fine-tuning Mirror Reflections

... working with oblique reflections

Okay, one last scenario. What if the image you wish to show is not perfectly parallel to the camera, and presents a perspective view? All the other steps are exactly the same, except when you mirror your floated copy, you'll need to use the Shear Transform tool to pull it into a true mirror.

I followed the same steps as before:
* Duplicate the cut-out object using the float command (Ctrl/J or Cmd/J)
* Move Tool, drag the top, center handle down below to reflect the object

However, that leaves me with opposing angles.

So, with the reflected object active, use the Move tool (Tap V) and then
Choose Edit > Transform > Skew

Hover the tool to the side of the object to be moved, and the double arrows tell you it's ready to move. Grab the edge, Click and drag (usually using the shift key to constrain the movement) until it comforms to it's real edge.

These are the steps the reader in the Photoshop 911 Forums will have to use in order to make his photo look realistic. Each of the two sides will have to be skewed independently to comply with the bottom edges of the object. They'll each need to be skewed slightly more on their back edges to simulate perspective, and they'll each need their own gradient mask to provide the fall-off.

Now the image is a true reflection and you can finish everything as before
You're done.

There are lots of other variations, and some shortcuts we didn't mention, but this is the non-complicated series of steps that will work in all versions of Photoshop since version 5.5, and in all versions of Photoshop Elements. We like to keep it simple for'ya!

Thanks for reading

Editor / Publisher: Photoshop Tips & Tricks, DTG Magazine.

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Creating a Woodcut from a Photo

Creating a Woodcut from a Photo

... Cher Threinen-Pendarvis

Open a photo and clean up the background; copy the Canvas to make a new layer; create a color woodcut plate on the Canvas; create a black woodcut plate on the new layer; retouch the black plate; add clouds and texture.

At right you see John Derry's original digital photo of the pagoda, contrasted with the woodcut we'll be creating in this tutorial. (expand)

With Painter's Woodcut filter you can start with a photo and achieve a look similar to a conventional wood block print. You can simply use the color arrived at by the Woodcut filter defaults, or you can enjoy complete control over choosing the colors.

The traditional wood block printing process involves simplification of detail in the lines and color areas. Inspired by Japanese wood block prints from the 1800s, John Derry created Pagoda, which is based on one of his own digital photos. Painter's Woodcut filter helped him to reduce the number of colors in the image and to fine-tune the colors for the final artwork.

1 Choosing a photo.
Open a photo with good contrast and color. A bold image with a strong focal point will work best for this effect.

2 Cleaning up the sky.
To focus more attention on the pagoda, Derry simplified the sky by selecting it and applying a blue fill. Choose the Magic Wand in the Toolbox and click in the sky. Adjust the Tolerance in the Property Bar until most of the sky is selected; at this point, edges are most important, since you can clean up any small internal "debris" by painting on the mask later.

Save the selection as a mask in the Channels palette by choosing Select, Save Selection.
In the Channels palette, open the eye icon to the left of the mask's name.
Choose black in the Colors palette and paint on the mask where you need to add more mask; use white to remove areas of the mask (for instance, to remove debris). To use the mask to isolate the sky, choose Select, Load Selection. (See Chapter 5 to read more about working with masks and selections.) Next, fill the selection with blue by choosing Select, Fill with Current Color.

Above, left: The Image viewed with the mask eye icon open, and (center) the active selection with the blue fill applied

3 Setting up layers.

The Woodcut process is easier to control when the color elements are on a separate layer from the black elements. Derry started his layering by making a duplicate of the original image. To put a duplicate of the image canvas onto a layer, choose Select, All (Ctrl/1-A), press the Alt/Option key and choose Select, Float. In the Layers palette, turn the new layer's visibility off by toggling shut the eye icon to the left of its name.
(Above right: The visibility of Layer 1 is turned off and the Canvas is selected.)

4 Cutting the color "wood block."

In the Layers palette, click the canvas name to activate it for the colors. To access the Woodcut dialog box, choose Effects, Surface Control, Woodcut. When the dialog box appears, disable the Output Black check box. The options for Black Output will now be grayed out. In the lower portion of the window, accept the default number of colors (16), and smooth out the edges of the color blocks by adjusting the Color Edge slider to the right. (Derry set it at approximately 11.46.)

Increasing the Color Edge to make simpler, smoother shapes (left) and brightening the gold color (right)

When the edges were as he liked them, Derry fine-tuned a few of the colors. For instance, he chose a tan color swatch (at the bottom of the dialog box) and made the color brighter. Click on a color square to select it; a red outline will appear around it. Now that it's selected, you can choose a new color in the Colors palette and the swatch will change to the new color. To sample a color directly from the image Preview window, press the Ctrl/1 key and click on the Preview. To change the color, choose a new color in the Colors palette.

To see other areas of your image in the Preview window, drag with the grabber hand cursor to move around the image preview. When you're satisfied with the colors, click OK to accept.

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Using Photoshop or Illustrator to make Separations

Using Photoshop or Illustrator to make Separations

You now know how screen printing works, and you've learned that it takes a film positive to expose the photo-stencil for the screen.

At right you see the film scenario -- in order to produce two screens, one for each color.

While there are many, many various opinions on how to produce color separations for "flat-color" printing, this is the most basic and foolproof. It works in any software program that will produce a good black print -- and has layers for creating the art. Many authors and authorities will lead you through some highly complicated processes -- those work too -- but this method is most like the original method and really is the easiest.

What is the best film to use? Let me say first that your very best and most detailed reproduction will be Orthographic film processed by a printing firm or service bureau. This will give you superb results from even the most detailed images, including photographs, art, halftones and screen tints. The next best material is laser compatible film such as that used for making overhead projection cells. The LEAST desirable material is "vellum" which is translucent printing paper similar to tracing paper. This is used by amateurs, schools and some hobbyists who aren't too concerned about the fidelity or accuracy of their prints.

Art must be 100% opaque on the film! If you laser print has spots or translucent areas, these will allow light to leak through and spoil the print. Holes or "thin" areas in the laser toner should be touched up with an Opaque touch-up. (You can purchase "opaquing pens" at various art supply stores.)
Ink Jet printers are NOT recommended due to the translucency of the inks. You must have 100% blockage of the exposure light for the duration of the exposure.

Create the art -- each color on a layer

Set up Illustrator or Photoshop to the size of the final print. This print fits nicely on an 8.5 x 11 sheet, at 300 ppi.

Produce the art as you normally would. Use as many layers as you wish. Colorize the art as you wish. Make sure everything fits, and where colors meet (butt) allow the darkest colors to overlap the lighter colors a pixel or two. (This is called "trapping")

Registration: In this example, you see I've even included my own "registration" marks. These will actually be "burned" to the stencil, to align the art properly so the colors "register" or match perfectly. I cover them with some tape just before putting ink on the screen. NONE of the software produces an acceptable registration mark for screen printing.

This is a simple grid. The grid is on the black printer, and the blocks that fill the holes in the grid are on the red printer. I've pulled thousands of prints with these and they've never let me down -- even printing up to seven colors!

Finish your art, print and proof as you wish and get everything perfect. Now you're ready to create separations.

This is so obvious and simple, I'm a bit embarrassed to even be writing a tutorial about it.
Ready to Print: Before printing, you should change the color of each "color" layer to black. Many black-only laser printers will screen colors when printed. You don't want that. The image to print from each film must be 100% BLACK and OPAQUE.

Now, simply turn OFF all layers except the one you wish to print. Issue the PRINT command and print. Photoshop or Illustrator will print the film of that layer only.

Now, turn that layer off and turn on the next layer for printing. In this fashion, you're producing your own separations -- and you KNOW they'll work, beautifully. Once they're all printed, tape them to a window (or your light table) one by one, in registration, to proof the film. Now, you're ready to make screens.

Use Print with "Preview": The Print with Preview function in Photoshop is well worth the trouble. Illustrator's print command defaults to a Print with Preview mode anyway. Using these, you will see a thumbnail of how the actual print will look. You can check and make sure everything is okay before you initiate printing.

Ready to Burn some Screens: With all the films in hand, fully proofed on the light table, you're ready to burn your screens and get some printing done. I recommend you burn ALL screens for a job at the same session. If you wait until later to burn and develop the next color screen, atmospheric conditions such as humidity may cause the finished screen to go "out of registration" -- if you do them all at the same time, they'll all be uniform.

I could have led you down the path to automated separations, spot colors, channels, duotones -- all of which work -- but why go the extra work and agrivation when you don't have to? Here's one I just finished. Notice it's on a black shirt, so WHITE was my second color instead of black.

These steps work for ANY project where you are separating FLAT colors, not process colors. You can also produce separations for decals, signs, and even litho printing projects like newspaper ads, business cards, etc. It's simple, direct, and takes the LEAST amount of time.

I guarantee it!

Editor / Publisher: Photoshop Tips & Tricks, DTG Magazine.

P.S. : If you've got great designs and you want to get articles printed -- but don't want the mess and fuss of screen printing, get yourself a CafePress account and let THEM do the work!

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