Practical Photoshop March 2021

“Welcome to issue 120 of Practical Photoshop! If you enjoy the issue, why not subscribe and get a whole year for just $19.99?” Creating digital images can be a great way to escape from the wider world into one of your own making. This issue we explore some of the ways in which Photoshop can offer a few hours of blissful escapism. Elsewhere, learn how to control Clarity, and create wonderful portraits with color shadows. james.paterson@futurenet.com www.digitalcameraworld.com HIGHLIGHTS: WHAT’S INSIDE… LOSE YOURSELF IN PHOTOSHOP Creative tips and tricks for amazing artwork CREATE NEW WORLDS Learn how to make a cinematic snowy montage CONTROL OVER CLARITY Use this raw tool to enhance details and make images pop COLOR-CAST SHADOWS Shoot and edit bold portraits with this neat trick LIGHTROOM SKILLS Control shadows and highlights with ease…

This painting may look complicated, but we knocked it out in about five minutes! The secret is Symmetry Painting. This wonderful feature of the Photoshop Brush Tool lets you paint in several places at once to create patterns and symmetrical shapes. Used alongside brush features like scattering effects and smoothing, it doesn’t take long to create art like this. It’s such a relaxing and mindful technique that you may lose track of time… 01 CREATE THE BASE Open a blank image or use a photo as a base for your painting. We flipped and blurred an image here to give us an interesting mix of colors and tones for our backdrop. Once done, grab the Brush Tool from the toolbar and choose a color in the Color Picker. Make a new empty…

If you go to File > New in Photoshop, you’ll find an array of fun downloadable templates to play with. There are workmanlike images of phone screens and laptops that you can drop images into, or more creative documents like the Interlocking Geometric Images template we’ve used here. With a template like this, you need to go to the Layers Panel and find the layer that says ‘your image here’ or something similar. This will usually be a Smart Object Layer – double click the layer image thumbnail to open the Smart Object in a new window, then copy and paste in your own image. Finally, save and close the Smart Object file to update the main image. You can replace it later if you like.…

With this technique, you can create flowing shapes and unexpected designs in seconds. To begin, make a new layer, then either add a simple shape, paint something or make a quick cutout, like we did with the feather here. Next, press Cmd/Ctrl+T to transform it. Now make a few tiny adjustments – rotate the layer very slightly, try resizing it a smidge, and nudge the position slightly. Press Return to apply, then press Cmd/Ctrl+Shift+Alt+T to ‘step and repeat’. This copies the layer and applies the same transformation again and again. Once you’re happy with your shape, group the layers and copy elsewhere like this to build up the effect.…

With many of us yearning for shared experiences at the moment, this could be a cathartic way to get with the crowd. It’s also a simple introduction to compositing, and it takes mere minutes… 01 REMOVE THE BACKGROUND Open the crowd image (we used a free image from pixabay.com- search for 2564431) and your portrait. Go to the Layers Panel and click the lock on the layer to unlock it, then go to the Properties Panel (Window > Properties) and click the Remove Background quick-action button. 02 BLEND AND BLUR Grab the Move Tool and drag the cut-out portrait into the crowd image. Press Cmd/Ctrl+T to transform and resize the layer to fit. We’ve blurred the crowd slightly to make our main subject stand out. Highlight the layer and go to Filter > Blur…

This fun feature lets you see a live preview of patterns as you create them. Simply go to View > Pattern Preview. You’ll see a blue box appear around your document - this is your pattern-making area (although you can work outside of it). Beyond the rectangle, anything you add to it will be repeated ad infinitum. Simply zoom out to see your pattern preview duplicated endlessly. Once you’re happy, go to Edit > Define Pattern to save the pattern for future use. WATCH THE VIDEO https://bit.ly/3boaHXZ…