Sommaire pour No. 145 de Advanced Photoshop

BACKGROUNDS Add a complementary texture as a background for your heart-shaped collage. Choose one that fits the theme of your montage. It’s become so much easier to quickly capture special moments in our lives, or to have a wonderful account of our most important moments. But all too often we leave these treasured memories on an SD card hidden away in a drawer, or on a hard drive where we rarely get to appreciate them. Yet these photographs are often the perfect starting point for creating artwork, ideal for displaying in your home. In this tutorial, we’ll be creating a shaped photo montage. In this case we are using wedding photos and a heart shape, but you can follow along using photos of your own. If you would rather choose…

A 3D EFFECT The inner shadow creates a realistic layered effect, as though the shape has been cut out, revealing all of the photos beneath. We have arranged our photos into the shape, but to give the artwork an extra special personal touch, it’s time to apply some text. In this case, we have used the wedding date, but you can use any date or words that are appropriate for your image; for example, a name or date of birth. Then we will be applying some final effects and edits, and our artwork will be complete and ready to print and display. Shortcut Photo Bin shows all open files; click to move through them all 01 Add the text Select the Text Tool, choose the Charlemagne Std Bold font in…

SHAPES Use the various shape tools to populate your wallpaper with both basic and custom shapes. Each year we become more connected to our computers. Since we’re inexorably drawn to our machines again and again, why not add some flair to your desktop background? Sure, you can download the latest wallpapers showcasing your favourite pop band, sports team or comic-book heroine. But armed with Photoshop Elements, you can produce your own! Starting with a completely blank canvas can be intimidating even for the most seasoned designer or artist. We’ll ease your way into the creative process by beginning with a large blur. From here you’ll place and blend in some of the main elements, including wavy lines, a fractal image and a model’s face. Layer masks, blend modes and adjustment…

01 Aurora Based on the Aurora Borealis, the Aurora effect can apply bright colours to your shots using the Direction tool, colours and blend modes. This is great for mountainous or dark landscapes, and brightens up your photos. 02 Clouds An alternative to Photoshop’s Render Clouds features, the Clouds option within NatureArt can produce either thick or wispy clouds, as well as generic haze. You can use masking techniques to control the effect in your pictures. 03 Lightning The Lightning option is one of the most impressive in NatureArt, as it looks like importing a stock photo into your picture. Use the Direction tool to decide where in the picture it should be placed; you can even change its colour. 04 Rain The Rain effect can be applied either to…

Finding the background I looked for a stock photo of a horizon to build upon. When doing this, it doesn’t matter if it’s not strong in colour, as you can easily improve that later with layers. Building the backdrop I added the tree, sky and plants and changed the colour of the background with Color Balance and Levels. I added stock photos and masked them to create a new world. Placing the subject I added the subject and used the Dodge and Burn tools to bring the highlights and shadows out from the scene. Use more adjustments to get the most out of the colours. Adding the final touches I added butterflies and shadows, and worked on the hair and overall tone with more adjustments. Color Balance was used extensively…

Stephanie Stutz www.stephaniestutz.ch Post production was done completely in Photoshop; I intentionally restricted the colour palette to pastel tones because I wanted to see the effect it would give. I adjusted saturation and Curves, then added some coarse grain and finally chromatic aberration. Nicole Castanheira www.behance.net/Flamoo This is a combination of three images layered in Photoshop CS5. The idea was to portray nature – as represented by the elephant – reclaiming the land that humans have dominated. Adjustments were key for a unifying atmosphere. Alexis Marcou www.alexismarcou.com This was designed with pencil and paper, before being imported into Photoshop for embellishment. Acrylic paint and make-up pigment were used to create the splatters. Andrea Femerstrand www.behance.net/noukah This started out as a sketch of just a tiger in Photoshop CS5 with a…

A small but perfectly formed team of four make up Leeds design studio, Vapour. There’s creative director Jamie Bugler, who set up the company nine years ago, plus Dave Robbins and Anthony Thornton on the design side, and Matt Gane as their digital developer. They are a “fiercely creative, small agency that loves to push our own boundaries,” as Bugler puts it, and they also have an office dog to keep them company, a Weimaraner called Lola. The team works for clients as big as Google, BMW, DefJam and Adidas, as well as what Bugler calls “smart progressive startups” and smaller brands. He explains: “Our core output is highly creative design that spans print, campaign and digital platforms.” They design and build digitally in-house and that’s 50-60 per cent of…

MULTIPLE DEVICES Getting familiar with the Adobe mobile apps opens up endless possibilities. You can edit photos, sketch, draw, paint and more from your tablet and smartphone, and connect your assets across your desktop and mobile devices. The Adobe mobile apps are revolutionising modern workflows, where being away from your computer doesn’t mean a stall in the creative process, and you’re not relying on recreating something like a brush recipe, layer style, text styles or loading a brush file to work on your projects with your team members. Apps like Photoshop Sketch and Illustrator Draw enable you to plan out your project quickly just as you would in a sketchbook; with Photoshop Mix and Fix you can make edits and start composite projects; Lightroom mobile integrates seamlessly with your synced…

Essentials Works with Elements CS CC What you’ll learn Use masks, brushes and the Liquify filter for a dispersed-pixel effect Time taken 1 hour Expert Andre Villanueva “Layer masks are one Photoshop feature I simply can’t live without. They’re supremely useful in so many types of edits, including this dispersed-pixel effect. I discovered Photoshop when studying web design. I’m now art director for a tech company, soothing my inner instructor by sharing techniques with readers.” The dispersed-pixel effect has caused quite a stir in the Photoshop and design communities. Artists and designers are finding the effect perfect for injecting some edgy energy into their visuals. When viewing an image with pixel dispersion for the first time, you may think the creation process entails minute selections, copious duplications and transformations, and…

LIGHT SPOTS If you don’t diffuse the light, there will be spots of light reflecting in the glass. In Photoshop you can crop this or Clone it out. EDGE CRACK Sometimes it’s difficult to reassemble the glass. Don’t worry if the pieces won’t fit back again; breaks are not perfect. SIZE OF THE BREAK Depending on the size of the tool being used to break the glass, the break will have more or less big chunks of glass. For a nice centralised break, use a small tool. Few things in the man-made world are as beautiful and dangerous as broken glass. Glass as we know it was invented in 1500 BC and since then it has captivated artists and architects all over the world. However, glass has been around in…

What does every great artist have in common? The answer is simple: individuality. There are the imitators and then there are the trendsetters, and the latter will always stand out from everybody else. But it’s the getting there which is the toughest journey for many. Even the artists you’re about to get advice from here have worked tirelessly to get their individual style honed and locked in. So join us, as we talk to the best and most intriguing artists about their favourite pieces, and learn how they choose to work with Photoshop to make their composites a cut above the rest. Take tips from Edvin Puzinkevich (www.bowsforarrows.com), who describes how important experimentation is when finding the right balance when working with typographical art. Stopdown Studio’s co-founder, Samuel Giudice, details…

PERFECT POSITIONING Thanks to the 50% vertical guide, our heart is perfectly central on the canvas. The first task is to lay out our canvas and create a backdrop for the photos. Open up Photoshop Elements, click Photo Editor and choose to create a new file. Name it appropriately, and enter a Width of 240mm, Height 210mm and 300ppi resolution. Go to View> New Guide, tick Vertical, enter 50% then click OK. Now our canvas is set up, let’s start creating. Shortcut Quickly get to the Custom Shape tool by hitting the U key 01 Place the background Go to File>Place and choose ‘Background.jpg’. With Constrain Proportions unticked, drag the corners of the bounding box so it fits the canvas, then click the green tick to apply the changes. 02…

COLOURING The key to fixing overexposure is to bring colour into your picture as well as darkness; but don’t oversaturate your edit. Lighting is one of the hardest things to perfect in any photograph, especially when you are in changing conditions, or have snapped a shot off the cuff. Getting the perfect exposure across the entire scene you have captured can be incredibly difficult. Even on an Auto setting, you might find images from the same scene look very different. Most captures could therefore benefit from a little edit to either brighten everything up or darken the scene a little. Elements was made for that kind of edit. Over and underexposure fixes are simple to make with any photo, whether it’s a subtle toning that you’d like to add to…

Price £499.99 / $599.99 US Web www.panasonic.com MARVELLOUS MACRO You can capture fantastic detail by shooting just 1cm away from your subject, and the results appear clear and sharp. RUGGED DESIGN As well as being splashproof and dustproof, the camera feels solid and capable of withstanding a few knocks. COMFORTABLE HOLD The ergonomic shape of the protruding grip on the front and thumb rest on the back make it nice and easy to maintain a firm hold of the camera. BULKY YET LIGHTWEIGHT The FZ330 is as bulky as a DSLR so won’t fit in your pocket, but the plastic construction means it is still reasonably lightweight. Panasonic is known for versatile cameras, and its latest bridge model is no exception. The 24x optical zoom lens makes it possible to…

Essentials Works with Elements CS CC What you’ll learn Draw in Sketch then refine in Photoshop with brushes and layer effects Time taken 3 hours Expert Spencer Watson “I love the use of brushes in my artwork, and I found that adding blend modes were perfect to achieve this digital, illustrative style. I’m a graphic designer who has used Photoshop since I graduated from the Art Institute of Vancouver five years ago. I am currently working with an events company as its lead designer, and in my spare time I create digital illustrations.” Creative ideas can come to us at any given time, whether we’re in the office, on the train or walking in the countryside. And that’s one reason why mobile apps are so great. In this tutorial we…

Essentials Works with Elements CS CC What you’ll learn How to transform a city stock photo into an apocalyptic composite Time taken 12 hours Expert Mark White “In my opinion, the most striking Photoshop art takes different things and mixes them together. Seeing natural elements in a city certainly fits this description! “As senior staff writer on Photoshop Creative, I’ve learned all kinds of quick tips to help with even the most impressive-looking pictures.” There’s possibly nothing more important when it comes to photomanipulation than layers. They allow us to control our work, edit non-destructively, and when it comes to a project like this, they can be your best friend. Post-apocalyptic worlds are the stuff of Hollywood, but can be created in Photoshop. We’re going to start with a deserted…

Essentials Works with Elements CS CC What you’ll learn Composite, craft special effects with filters, and add dramatic lighting Time taken 3 hours Expert Kirk Nelson “Since I was a child, I’ve been a huge fan of comic books and superheroes. I used to doodle them in school. I’m a pro graphics artist with nearly 20 years of experience in photomanipulation and digital illustration. At the heart of it, though, I’m just your friendly neighbourhood graphics geek.” Superheroes are enjoying quite a surge in popularity right now. More people than ever are being entertained by stories of characters in bright outfits and fantastic, superhuman abilities. But why let Hollywood have all the fun? You can create your very own superhero in Photoshop! This tutorial will walk you through the entire…

COVER THE HEART The photos should extend over the edges of the heart shape, but try not to lose key elements. Now it’s time to add the photos to our heart-shaped montage. First we will be adding white and grey borders to each photo in turn, and then saving the bordered photos in their own folder. So before you begin this stage, create a new empty folder on your computer and name it something like ‘Bordered photos for montage’, so that you can find them easily later on by keeping your photos organised in one place. 01 Add a border Open the first photo to add to your heart montage. Go to Image>Resize> Canvas. Enter 20 pixels (you may need to use a different pixel size depending on the size…

SPECIAL EFFECTS Reshape an image with the Liquify filter and create amazing effects using custom brushes and blend modes. In this tutorial we’ll show you how to use some powerful features in Photoshop Elements to create an amazing melting effect. You’ll learn how to select an image, create masks, apply textures and much more. One of the major features we’ll cover in this project is the Liquify filter. This tool enables you to create artistic effects, retouch your photos and distort an image in different ways. When you select the Liquify filter a new window appears and you’ll find special tools to create a variety of effects. For example, use the Bloat tool to inflate or enlarge some areas. You can use the Pucker tool (P) to compress or the…

Price £50 / $72 US Web www.akvis.com RAINBOW A rainbow can brighten up any dull picture; just remember to keep the opacity nice and low so you don’t overpower your picture with bright colour. RAIN The Rain option is one of the most realistic options. Use the Selection Brush to select the whole canvas if you want to apply it to the whole photo. LIGHTNING The Lightning option comes in various different styles, and works best when placed against a dark or cloudy backdrop. There are tried and tested methods of creating various weather conditions in Photoshop. Most of them involve using filters in imaginative ways, but you might wish to add other stock images; unfortunately there isn’t a definitive technique that works 100 per cent of the time. AKVIS…

01 Select your mode Turn the mode dial to Aperture Priority mode (A) and use the scroll wheel to choose f2.8. This wide aperture will create a shallow depth of field to blur the background of your shot. 02 Choose manual focus Flick the focus switch on the back of the camera to Manual Focus (MF), then select the Menu button. Under the Custom tab, ensure the MF Guide and Peaking options are switched on to help you focus. 03 Take the shot Now frame your shot and use the dial on the side of the lens to focus. When the part of your shot you want in focus is highlighted in the enlarged area on screen, you can then press the shutter button. 04 Tweak the exposure Open your…