Photoshop Creative

LEARN TO PAINT PET PORTRAITS

CONQUER BRUSHES TODAYLearn new skills with the best guide to the Brush tool

How to turn landscape, portrait or pet pictures into works of digital art

TUTORIALS FEATURES TIPS & TRICKS

TURN PICTURES INTO PAINTINGSLearn how to create amazing art eff ects

Pencil sketch Oil painting Watercolour

PRACTICALPHOTOSHOP TIPS & SKILLS

Layer essentials Expert secrets

Tool workshops Photo-fix guides

MAKE VECTORS FROM SKETCHESDiscover how to turn any sketches into editable Photoshop shapes

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STEP-BY-STEPS14 ESSENTIAL TUTORIALS

Design creative postersUse adjustment layersMake digital sketches

Master the Pen tool

CREATIVE PROJECTS

10-PAGE SPECIAL

NEW!

ELEMENTS

12

ISSUE 106

ALL THE TUTORIAL FILES YOU NEEDAvailable to download from blog.photoshopcreative.co.uk/tutorial-files

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Welcome

Charis Webster [email protected]

You can make this amazing composition now! Head over to page 24 for the step-by-step guide…

Become part of our Facebook crewsearch for photoshopcreativeA little birdy said you shouldfollow us @pshopcreative

Upload your images to our website www.photoshopcreative.co.uk

5 things you will learn this issue

01 Make an amazing montageLearn the tricks and skills you need to turn any portrait into a beautiful vintage composition

02 Vibrant edits with Elements 12A stunning photographic eff ect made simple

03 An interview with a proA Q&A with a Photoshop pro uncovers how and why his work’s appeared on the global stage

04 Turn your sketches to vectors Doodle anything you want and make it editable

05 Master real-media effects10 pages of turning pictures into paintings

ISSUE 107 ON SALE 14 NOVEMBER!

Here it is, the ultimate tips and tricks guide! This issue you’ll find essential editing tool guides and step-by-step tutorials galore to get your Photoshop skills up to scratch. Kick off with a 10-page special (p12) showing you how

to give your photos a painterly makeover. Turn your snaps into watercolours, sketches, oil paintings and more! Head over to page 30 to create a beautiful vintage collage inspired by yesteryear. With the recent launch of Photoshop Elements 12, we’re excited to get stuck into some of the latest additions (p48), and for a chance to win a copy yourself, trot to page 87 now! I’m always on the lookout for work to appear in the next issue, so drop me a line at [email protected] and your work might just make it!

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Q&A: Your Photoshop questions answered P90

Readers’ gallery

www.photoshopcreative.co.ukContents

98 Expert interviewHow one digital artist got his work on the global stage

On the discYour jam-packed disc with incredible freebies

96

82 Review special6 pages on the latest Elements 12 and the chance to win a copy!

06 Readers’ galleryOur talented readers show us what they’ve got

10 Readers’ challengeSome fantastic entries and a fantastic prize to be won

24 TutorialsYour practical, step-by-step tutorials kick off here

12 Feature: Turn photos into paintings Don’t miss this ultimate guide to real-media effects

90 Q&A essentialsYour Photoshop and Elements questions put to our experts

06

Subscribe Save money when you subscribe (US readers p88)

68

Top tips22 Top ten

Check out our top ten tips for digital painting

Essentials

TURN PICTURES INTO PAINTINGS10 pages of stunning real-media effects from watercolour to pencil sketch

12

Visit the Photoshop Creative online shop at

for back issues, books and merchandise

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30%SAVE TutorialsSubscribe now

Turn to page 88 to get this amazing deal! US page 68

Replace coloursChange colour in an instant with this unmissable trick

70

Stylised landscapesMerge two photos for a vivid, creative scene

78

Remove objectsFix compositions for the perfect photograph

76New to Photoshop? Check out our introductory guide

54 Turn sketches to vectorsDoodle anything and turn it into an editable vector

52 Re-create traditional fi lm effectsA guide to FilmPack4 and a special discount code

36 Re-create HDRUse perfect photos for perfect Photoshop edits

48 Zoom burst in Elements 12Learn new techniques and create this stunning effect

24 Use brushes for surreal compositesMaster incredible scenes in this easy-to-follow guide

60 Make a stunning panoramaSeamlessly stitch together photos for a perfect panorama

Tilt-Shift effectGive your photos a toy-town effect

72

7242

Vintage collage

A step-by-step guide to retro fantastic

30

Surreal compositions

Create this vivid masterpiece now!

24

30 Create a vintage montageMake this vivid composition using supplied resources

38 Paint with brushes and fi ltersMake a beautiful scene by layering and painting

42 Design your own posterBe creative with great editing techniques from an expert

WIN!A COPY OFELEMENTS 12 page 87

64 3864 Illustrate with

the Pen toolMaster the Pen tool in this incredible step-by-step guide


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Welcome to an inspirational round-up of great Photoshop artwork created by none other than your fellow readers

READERS’ IMAGESJL Meanawww.photoshop creative.co.uk/user/JLMeana

“I fi lled each layer with colour all with an Opacity setting of around 15%. The Smudge tool at 3px Size and 85% Opacity was applied across the surface of the image, varying the Hardness of the tool to outline the details.”

IMAGEOF THEMONTH

Horace Camilleriwww.photoshop creative.co.uk/user/horcam

“In this photo I wanted to dramatise the scene. To bring out the effect I used a combination of Gradient Fills and adjustment layers including Brightness/Contrast and Levels. A grunge texture was added to fi nish off the photo.”

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Alternatively, you can email:[email protected]

Create your own gallery online PhotoshopCreative.co.uk

Upload your images to Facebook Search PhotoshopCreative

Tweet us your creative artwork @PshopCreative

Get in touch Send us your images now for the chance to appear in futures galleries

Jenny Laatschwww.photoshop creative.co.uk/user/Jennlaa“I painted ‘Dragonfl y’ just for fun when I downloaded a free

trial of Camtasia 2 for a speed painting video. I’ve always been a huge fan of drawing these beautiful little creatures and it seemed like the perfect subject for my fi rst attempt at a speed painting video. I created it using Photoshop CS4 and my Wacom Intuos4, and worked on it for four to fi ve hours.”

Bandula Samarasekerawww.photoshop creative.co.uk/user/bandulabcomarts“I used basic painting and colour

corrections in this photomanipulation. I added shimmers, glows and light effects including gold highlights. A number of Photoshop tools were used to create the image, such as masking, Color Balance, clipping masks and the Smudge tool. The Warp Transform helped to bend the fi sh, while loads of retouching and editing went into the scales. ”

Marcos Ramellowww.photoshop creative.co.uk/user/marcosramello

“I used Photoshop CC’s Oil Paint fi lter and Gaussian Blur to create this effect. I also found the Hue/Saturation adjustment to come in handy for adapting colour.”

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Start image

Matteo Franchettowww.photoshop creative.co.uk/user/Matteo_Franchetto“I used more than 20 images as sources. To model the armour

around the body of the penguin, I selected the parts needed using the Pen tool for more precision. Every part of armour is placed in its own layer. Some parts and smaller details were created by brushwork, or using texture. The background is done in the same way; using various sources and adapting these to the lighting of the scene.”

Bill Bonaroswww.photoshop creative.co.uk/user/Billybon“I started by cutting the beach from the stock photo using the

Pen tool. I went on to cut out parts of the mountains from the same photo and put them under the beach. The balloons are in reality three copies. However, their hue is totally different. I also used brushes for the clouds and then I drew the waterfall.”

Brian Ibinsonwww.photoshop creative.co.uk/user/brian.ibinson“I photographed

‘Warm Summer Breeze’ in my local park and wanted to give it the feeling of a relaxing summer’s day. I chose to use a watercolour effect to give it softness. Using a drawing fi rst, and then the Smudge tool, I took the photograph and put this on top. For the photograph I used blurring, Curves adjustment, fi lters and then blending. ”


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Create your own gallery online PhotoshopCreative.co.uk

Upload your images to Facebook Search PhotoshopCreative

Tweet us your creative artwork @PshopCreative

Get in touch Send us your images now for the chance to appear in futures galleries

Kevin Rowleywww.photoshop creative.co.uk/user/the-golden-fool“The majority of this image is made up of stock photos pieced

together in such a way as to capture a snapshot of a fantasy realm. The fl ower stem, glass ball and everything in the glass ball were hand drawn. Nature can be a great inspiration to artists, regardless of media, style and genre.”

Thomas Lennonwww.photoshop creative.co.uk/user/LittleTimmy“My main objective with this was to create something a bit surreal

and eye-catching. Focusing on the strength of the colours really made this image stand out. ”

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READERS’ CHALLENGE

2 Kev RowleyThe Travel Agent“This is a blend of three images from the challenge. After selecting and arranging them into a composition, trying to make it look realistic, I found myself staring at The Travel Agent.”

1 Adrian SchmitSmiling Cyborg“This is based on the portrait from issue 104, enhanced with other images, brushwork and several filters. It’s between a painting and photomontage.”

3 Kellie BaveTracking a Thief“I used all of the images to create a futuristic touch screen computer.”

4 Andre Van Graan Desert Beauty“I did a lot of adjustments on different layers and then used filters to blur and sharpen the image.”

Challenge entriesThe best entries and overall challenge winner

Readers’ ChallengeWINNER

Simon’s choice“Adrian’s image has an incredible amount of detail, making it really stand out from the crowd.”

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3

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Download our imagesThink you can do better? Prove it!Get creative with the images on your disc and you could win a fantastic prize! You can use as many of the images as you like (from previous issues too!) and include your own photos if you wish. Just head over to www.photoshopcreative.co.uk and hit the Challenge link. Good luck!

THE PRIZECosmic Pack 3 plus add-onsEnter and you could win a great set of actions from www.digitalheavens.co.uk. Cosmic Pack 3 will help you make planets to add to your projects. On top of this, an array of add-ons guide you through the process of making space art. Upload your images now for your chance to win!

WORTH £79.70!

Photoshop Creative10

Upload your images to photoshopcreative.co.uk


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Transform Photoshop into a digital canvas using these fail-safe techniques for realistic media effects

Digital art is a fantastic avenue for creatives to explore, with a host of techniques and tools to help you

make something to be proud of. But there can be an issue with digital artwork. Unless a concerted effort is made, the results can lack the texture and tactile nature of real media. Now we said that an effort needs to be made. The good news is that even a small amount of effort can give a fantastic result. By getting clever with a combination of techniques, you can make amazing art.

Over the following pages you will discover the all tricks needed for emulating traditional art media. In researching these, we deliberately limited the equipment and

tools used. This means that whatever version of Photoshop you have, you will be able to follow along. Yes, CS5 and above has a bunch of shiny real media brushes all ready and raring to go, but if you have a different version, you won’t be left behind. Everything is created with a mouse and photos are used as the basis, so you don’t even have to be able to draw.

In addition to a general look at the best painting tools, we have four projects that create digital versions of popular mediums; namely oil, charcoal, watercolour and pencil sketch. We will share our tricks for re-creating them in Photoshop, helping ensure you get the best results every time.

SKETCH IT OUTUse a small hard brush, or pick the Pencil tool to create a rough sketch. Don’t worry about being too precise; a few rough lines will help your image look all the more realistic.

TURN PICTURES INTO

Jo ColeBeing an extremely frustrated artist, with an inability to draw, Photoshop is a saviour

Simon SkellonThere’s something very satisfying about turning your family photos into paintings

Charis Webster I love to draw and paint, so achieving cool effects digitally is a really great challenge

The experts…


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13

You will learn all these skillsPREPPING IMAGESHow to edit photos for painting and scanning tips

BRUSHES AND LAYERSGuides for controlling how a brush looks and using effects

PROJECT 1PAINT AN OIL LANDSCAPECombine brush control with filters for oil paintings

PROJECT 3WATERCOLOUR EFFECTSIncorporate real brush marks for the ultimate real media image

PROJECT 2CHARCOAL PORTRAITSEssential image edits to guarantee realistic charcoal effects

PROJECT 4SKETCH STUDIESHow filters can turn any image into a good-looking sketch

SCATTER THE BRUSHIf you increase the Scattering value from the Brush palette, you can rough up the edges of your brush and make it look more realistic. Uniform strokes are the hallmark of digital – real media is more random.

INTRODUCE TEXTUREOnce you have sorted the main image, be bold with large, sweeping textured strokes. Use the Texture setting from the Brush palette to make a defi ned pattern and ensure the Opacity slider in Transfer is low for maximum effect.

KNOW YOUR TOOLSYou have different ways of applying paint in Photoshop, but all will use brush tips to give the fi nal effect. Here the Smudge tool was used to smear and blend splots of colour, with an oil brush tip for the buttery, smooth fi nish.

MIXED MEDIA WITH BLEND MODESTo add the fi nal fl ourish to your painting, scan in some real brush marks and use the blend modes to make them merge with your image. Adjust the colour with Hue/Saturation to make things just so.

On the discBUMPER BRUSH PACK AND MORE ON YOUR RESOURCE DISC!


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TURN PICTURES INTO

PAINTINGS

A few preparation tricks to get your artwork underwayJust as a traditional artist might make some preliminary sketches or colour studies before creating a main image, there are a few tasks the digital artist can do to set themselves up for a more successful result. All of these can be followed whatever style you are working in, and will help ensure that you give your work the best start possible.

Expert tip

If you have scanned in a sketch and fi nd that the Levels command is picking up unwanted detail, use the Black and White command instead. Sometimes your scanner will pick up texture in the background, which the Levels adjustment accentuates. A quick whack of Black and White, however, and you can proceed with the Levels as normal.

Fix messy scans

Transport sketches or marks from the real world into your digital worldStep by step Scan in elements

Create your elements

01 We are going to scan in some charcoal marks to turn into brushes.

The first task is obviously to make the marks, in this case charcoal on white paper. Use a pale background if possible. You can also use this technique to scan your sketches.

To the scanner!

02 Although scanning software differs, there is one thing you absolutely

have to do. Look for the setting to dictate the resolution of the object you are scanning – put this to 600. That way you have a bit more flexibility in terms of editing and use.

Edit for use

03 Open your scan and use Image>Adjustments>Levels in Photoshop

or Enhance>Adjust Lighting>Levels in Elements to whiten the background and darken the sketch. Drag the white slider to the left, and the black slider to the right.

CONSTRUCT SCENESEven if you are solely relying on a photo for reference, you don’t have to put up with what reality serves. Use the selection tools, copy and paste, plus some transform magic to construct the precise scene you want. In our example, the starting photo was okay but it lacked foreground interest. This was fi xed by selecting trees and fl owers from another image, and copying and pasting them. The Free Transform tool was used to get these pasted objects to the right size. Another sky was also added.

It doesn’t matter if the selections aren’t perfect or the objects a bit pixellated, as this will all be hidden with a layer of digital paint!

Part of the joy of painting with Photoshop is that you can play with colour in a way that is out of reach to traditional artists. Let’s say you have a daytime shot but you want to paint a sunset scene. Open up the Photo Filter command and apply a deep yellow or red fi lter. Job done! Maybe you are going to paint a portrait, but aren’t keen on the colour clothes the subject is wearing. Make a selection of the area and use Hue/Saturation to alter the colour. Once you have fi nished the painting, you might fi nd that it looks a little drab. Use the Vibrance command to inject some zing, or use Brightness/Contrast to strengthen the highlights or shadows.

CORRECT COLOUR


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15

Become accustomed to the best toolsObviously there is a high amount of creative freedom when it comes to you actually making your painting, but there are also a few set skills and elements that you will call upon whatever type of image you are dabbling with. All of these will make an appearance in your work. You may only use one or two at a time, but keep them in mind and you can rest assured your work will shine.

BRUSHESThe key to a realistic effect is picking the correct brush. Photoshop and Elements ship with a raft of brush tips’ some tailored to media effects such as oil, watercolour and pastel. These, coupled with the tweaks that can be made should be all you need. If not, you can pick up free brushes online, or if you have a specifi c need, make your own.

LAYERSAn artist has to wait for paint to dry if they want to add paint on top of paint, but we get to do it instantly thanks to the Layers palette. In addition to isolating different areas on layers so they can be edited without affecting the rest of the image, layers also offer blend modes to incorporate texture and layer styles for special effects.

SET UP THE CANVASA lot of artists will roughly block in a canvas with colour to avoid staring at a blank space, and you can do the same when setting up your document. Pick a colour that complements the overall tone of your image (red for warm scenes, blue for cool) and brush over at low opacity. Also use the Texturizer fi lter or Texture layer style to add a texture.

FRAMESCreate a mount by cutting out an area on a document and applying a small bevel. For a simple frame, use a big brush on a new layer over the painting, click on one corner, hold Shift and click in the opposite corner. Repeat for all edges.

FILTERSAlthough Photoshop hasn’t got a fi lter that will instantly create a great work of art (and we have looked!), they work well for prepping a photo. The Artistic fi lters are a treasure trove for this, with Cutout and Palette Knife being the best.

SPECIAL TOOLSThe Smudge tool and the Art History tool (the Impressionist brush in Elements) can take colour and shape information from a photo and then translate the information into the effect of whatever brush is chosen.

MAKING SELECTIONSSelections are great for building a start photo, or isolating areas for specifi c brushwork, colour tweaks or deletion (things don’t always go right!). And you don’t have to be too precise, because you can paint over any stray pixels.

“Try using brushes as stamps. Instead of

sweeping them over the canvas, click once to dab.

This is particularly effective for giving the impression

of paint splats.

JO’S EXPERT ADVICE


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The brushes are essential tools in your digital painting quest, so learn how to blend them to your willThe brushes in Photoshop would be pretty smart on their own, but combined with the customisation options in the Brush palette, you have all you need to get the precise look you want. In addition to the obvious size and opacity options, you can play with texture, wetness, angles and more. If you have a graphics tablet, ensure you enable pressure sensitivity so you can adapt settings by pushing harder or lighter. For everyone else, get used to using the [ and ] keys to change brush size and keep the Brush palette open to make changes on the fl y.

Without texture

With texture

Without Scattering

With Scattering

Normal

Size Jitter

Angle Jitter

Without spacing

With spacing

CONTROL BRUSHES IN ELEMENTSSelect the Brush tool in Elements and hit the Brush Settings button. Here you have sliders to control Fade, Hue Jitter, Scattering, Hardness and Roundness. You also have an Angle setting for adjusting the angle of a brush and enabling you to squish it. If you have a tablet, use the Tablet Settings area to decide how it is controlled. In addition to these, you can also adjust size, opacity and blend mode from Brush Tool Options.

“If you always use the same brushes, create your

own brush set. Open the Preset Manager and pick

Brushes. Find the ones you use, select them and then

pick Save Set.

SIMON’S EXPERT ADVICE

TEXTURE AND TRANSFERUse the Texture option to add texture to brushstrokes. You can pick the type of texture used as well as how visible it is. This is controlled with the Opacity Jitter slider in Transfer.

SCATTERINGThis option is very important if you are emulating a charcoal, chalk or pastel effect, as by whacking the Scatter slider up, you can give the effect of using the charcoal or pastel on its side. Artists do this to quickly block in large areas.

SHAPE DYNAMICSTwo sliders really stand out in this set – Size Jitter and Angle Jitter. The fi rst alters the size of the brush as you use it. Angle Jitter alters the direction of the brush at the edges and is great for mimicking a splayed brush.

SPACINGThe Brush Tip Shape option holds the Spacing slider. This compresses or separates the elements that make up a brush. If you want a light, random dab of a brush, whack this slider up. For a more intense brush stroke, bring it down.

TEXTURE AND TRANSFER

SPACINGSCATTERING

SHAPE DYNAMICS


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17

Expert tip

In addition to applying blend modes to an entire layer in one swathe, you can use them for every brush stroke. In this image, we used the Smudge tool on a layer set to Linear Burn. The colour is intense and vibrant compared with the Normal mode.

Brush with blend modes

Use layers for the ultimate real media effectsAlthough the vast majority of your time will revolve around the brushes you pick and how you use them, layers and layer styles will help take your work over the fi nishing line. Adding the look of texture and depth is the easiest way to trick the eye into thinking it is seeing a real, physical painting.

MAKE DETAIL STAND OUTTo make fi ne lines stand out, a traditional artist would use a thin brush and emphasise with a highlight or shadow. Do this quickly by putting detail on a separate layer and then use the Bevel and Emboss layer style set to Inner Bevel.

THICK MARKSThe Bevel and Emboss layer style is also a darling for oil or acrylic effects. Create a new layer above your image and add a Bevel and Emboss layer style, set to Pillow Emboss. Choose your brush and pick a colour that blends with an area of your image. Make a few brush marks and it will look as though it is raised.

BLANKET TEXTUREThe Filter>Texture> Texturizer command is always good for quickly adding texture over a whole layer or a selection. You can pick the type of texture to add and also control how obvious it is.

BLEND MODESLayer blend modes are invaluable for building up a background texture (or any areas of texture, come to that). Get your texture in place and then work through them to see which one suits your image. How they work will depend on the colours in your image, but Multiply, Overlay and Soft Light are good ones to start with.

KEEP ELEMENTS SAFEIsolate areas on layers so they can be edited later. You might like to separate areas out into layers, or have a fi nal one for freehand or detail work.

TIDY WITH GROUPSIf you have a long list of layers that relate to the same thing, select them by Shift-clicking and go to Layer>Make Group.

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Create juicy, opaque, textured works of wonderOIL LANDSCAPETraditional oil painting is a lot of fun that offers artists a range of possibilities. Oil paints can be diluted with turps to give a washy feel, but they are generally used opaquely. Oil paintings tend to be bumpy terrains, with layers of paint forming to give a crusty feel. You can mimic this look in Photoshop, but for a great project, print your digital oil onto inkjet canvas and embellish with real paint.

Sticking digitally, though, the Wet Media Brushes set houses good oil options. Angle Jitter in Shape Dynamics will emulate the choppy brush movement artists favour. Use the Brush Tip Shape for the oval shape of a fi lbert brush. Texture-wise, oils are known for being on canvas. Make sure you have bits of canvas showing, but only in some areas. Oddly, the less texture, the more realistic it is.

ALL HAIL CUTOUTThe Cutout fi lter is perfect for simplifying photos to get them ready for over-painting with oil effects. Because oils are so wet, an artist has to wait for them to dry slightly before progressing. A usual workfl ow is a roughing in stage with very weak oil to block in tonal values, and then overlaying this with a thicker layer for more detail. The fi nal touch is to bring in the detail.

The Cutout fi lter is a good way to replicate this process, as you can set up your photo for each stage. Then, by forcing yourself to paint in separate layers in your document, you will fi nd that detail from lower layers show through where you have missed parts on the layer you are currently working on (and you will miss bits!). This helps give a feeling of depth.

FAKE REAL BRUSHESAmazingly, the brushes used by oil artists can all be faked in Photoshop. The Filbert brush (sometimes called a Cat’s Tongue brush) is great for building up texture with dabs and can also be used on its side for a thick and thin effect. Use the Light Oil Flat Tip brush from Wet Media, and select the Brush Tip Shape Angle device to squeeze into an oval.

An artist’s fl at brush is used for blocking in large areas and can be replicated in Photoshop with the Square Brush set. Pick any of them, increase the Scatter slider from Scattering slightly, add Texture and turn Wet Edges on.

Round brushes are good for detailed areas and fi ne lines. Go for the Basic Brushes set

for this and pick a hard round brush. In Shape Dynamics increase Size, Angle and Roundness Jitter.

After

TURN PICTURES INTO

PAINTINGS

Before

VISIBLE TEXTURECreate a new layer and add texture with the Texturizer fi lter. Use blend modes to sink it into the image.

DABBED APPLICATIONOil painters tend to dab at the canvas. You can mimic this by making an oval brush and keeping your strokes short and ‘stubby’.

BUTTERY EFFECTIt’s tricky to get the precise look of really thick oil paint, but one way is to make a new layer, add a Pillow emboss layer style and then using a suitable colour, brush over small areas of the image. Keep this small as it can quickly look fake.


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19

Get the dark and dramatic effect of charcoal without the mucky hands

How to simplify a photo for charcoal portraitsStep by step Prep a photo

CHARCOAL PORTRAIT

Charcoal is a lovely medium but man-o-man is it messy! It is therefore good to know that a very realistic charcoal effect can be achieved in Photoshop.

Because charcoal is so soft, any photo you are working from needs to be heavily simplifi ed. Then it is a case of setting up a strong texture for the canvas and getting the brushes ready. The Natural Brush set offers a good range of tips; drop Spacing, increase Scattering for blocking in areas, set

Texture and play with Transfer for how light or dark you want the effect to be. Artists hold charcoal on it side for big blocks of colour, which can be handled by the Scatter option.

Charcoal images usually have areas of smudging, either deliberately or because a hand has inadvertently smudged something. Simply scan in real charcoal marks and incorporate using blend modes for the ultimate realistic touch.

Isolate your subject

01 Charcoal portraits are usually on a plain background, so make a rough selection of the

subject. A simple Lasso will suffice. Copy and paste onto a new layer and turn off the Background layer.

Quick tidy

02 If any areas were missed, pick the Eraser tool to get rid of them. This can be quite

rudimentary because any mistakes can be sorted. Convert the image to black and white.

Bump up the contrast

03 Most filters work best with a decent amount of contrast. Either use the Brightness/

Contrast command or pick Vibrance. Keep tones, but aim for deep shadows and bright highlights.

The filter

04 Duplicate and go to Filter>Artistic>Palette Knife. This softens the edges. As

a general rule, go for a Stroke Size: 45%, Stroke Detail: 3 and Softness: 8. Transfer to the canvas.

Make brushes1 Turn hand-drawn

scribbles into digital, usable brushes

Build your scenes2 Build the perfect

start scene to create a painterly picture

Brush presets3 Discover the real

power of the Brush tool and its variables

Prepping a photo4 Why prepping your

start photo can make for easy painting

Paint texture5 Add texture to brush

strokes for realistic oil-painted effects

PRACTICAL SKILLS YOU WILL LEARN5

After

Before

CHARCOAL SIDEThe hair was created with a large Scatter setting, to give the impression that the area had been blocked in by a piece of charcoal on its side.

DETAIL MARKSReduce Scatter to bring in the suggestion of detail. A crosshatch effect is nice to have in areas.

SOFTNESSTo emulate how an artist smudges charcoal, either with their fi nger or a smudge stick, select an area with a high Feather and apply Gaussian Blur.


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Combine real brush marks with digital for a watercolour marriage made in heaven

WATERCOLOUR EFFECTS

Achieving a realistic watercolour effect in Photoshop is like chasing the Holy Grail, and while we would love to say we cracked the code, it didn’t happen. To achieve the whole gamut of watercolour effects, you have to use brushes created with a real brush and real watercolours.

Most watercolour paintings start with water being brushed over the paper and then colour

being added. This results in softer colours, with more intense colour in some places where the paint has pooled. Watercolour can also be used with a drier brush, and because the paper is usually rough, the paint skims the top, giving wonderful texture. Most watercolours are simple in their shapes, so don’t get caught up with trying to capture minute detail.

Pick your brush

01 A good hive of watercolour brushes is the Natural Brush 2 set. Pick a

watercolour one, open the Brush palette.

Spread out

03 Watercolour paint spreads, so go to Shape Dynamics and increase Size

Jitter. Go to Scattering and increase Scatter.

Brush shape

02 Click on Brush Tip Shape. Drag the Spacing slider to 0, to avoid drag in

the brush strokes.

Lovely texture

04 Pick a texture in Texture, go to Transfer and increase Opacity.

Finally turn Wet Edges on.

Step-by-step Create brushes for watercolour

Expert tip

Don’t be tempted by the Watercolor fi lter. Your best bet is the Sumi-e fi lter from Artistic. This softens a photo and adds subtle bleed. Now couple with some enhanced Watercolor brushes for a killer real media combination.

Start with fi lters

After

SOFT COLOURSWatercolour paints dry pale. Achieve the same by using a brush with low opacity.

“Use brushes at the largest size you can,

always with a low opacity. Overlap in places to give the impression of watercolour paint that has blended and

dried darker.”

CHARIS’ EXPERT ADVICE

Before

NO HARD BLACKYou rarely see deep, dark black in watercolour paintings. Instead artists mix blue, red and brown to get a dark colour. You can just pick a dark blue or red.

REAL AND DIGITALMost of the colours here were added with a digital brush, but we also used scanned in elements from real watercolour.

ERASE FOR WHITEFor highlights, artists will either use acrylic or more often, leave parts of the paper unpainted. Use the Eraser with one of your brushes to erase back to the canvas.


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21

Oil painting1 Make an impressive oil

painting with colour, texture and fi lters

Charcoal2 Make a beautiful

charcoal portrait of a loved one with key skills

Watercolour3 Simulate the subtlety

of watercolour from an originally busy photo

Sketch effects4 Master digital

sketching for realistic graphite artwork

Blend modes5 Discover how blend

modes play an important role

PRACTICAL SKILLS YOU WILL LEARN5USE MASKS

FOR COLOURIt’s nice to include colour in sketches, and it’s easy with a photo. Have your photo layer on the bottom, your sketch in the middle and then a duplicate of the sketch on top. Turn off the original sketch, click the top one and click the Add Layer Mask icon. Pick a small Hard Mechanical brush from the Basic Brushes set. Click on the layer mask and using the movements you’d make with a pencil, scribble over areas to reveal colour.

GO BLACK AND WHITEMost sketches are in monochrome, so convert your photo to black and white initially. Choose a setting that offers a lot of contrast.

GOOD BRUSHESBrush selection is simple for a sketch effect. Either use the Pencil tool (it sits with the Brush tool) or open the Basic Brush set and pick a small Hard Mechanical brush.

MAKE THEM MARKSIncorporate traditional marks in your image. Crosshatch is a classic mark made with the pencil.ERASE AND REPLACE

Instead of having lines go all the way to the edge, use the Eraser to cut into the image and then on a blank layer, draw some lines back in. Don’t be too accurate – just give the impression of a work in progress.

Before

After

Combine auto commands and filters for graphite art

SKETCH STUDIES

We’ve all created a pencil sketch of some sorts at one stage in our lives, so this is an easy one to get to grips with. You don’t have to worry about texture, and a lot of the effect can be handled by Photoshop; you just have to control sliders. But for the best results, you need to roll up your sleeves and go freestyle. A pencil sketch has clear characteristics. If a large area is to be covered, you need to mimic a pencil being used on its side, or get that darker colour caused by marks overlapping. Move your mouse or stylus in the same way as you’d use a pencil and you won’t go far wrong.

TWO TOOLS IS ALL YOU NEEDFor a really quick sketch effect, go to Filter> Other and select High Pass and then Image> Adjustments>Threshold. Move the slider to see the detail.


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START FROM SCRATCH

01 Starting a new painting is easiest with a solid plan and a sketch to work from. Before

beginning, take some time to think about the composition and overall direction. Sketching a series of quick thumbnails could be helpful in generating ideas. Then, work out the kinks in a sketch to give you a clear starting point.

SLY SELECTIONS

05 Selections can be made in a number of ways, such as with the Marquee, Lasso, Magic Wand and Quick Selection tools. For

creating smooth lines in a painting use the Pen tool to draw and apply strokes to its path (Photoshop CS and CC versions only).

EXPRESS WITH COLOUR

02 Colour is a fundamental part of painting, and is especially important in conveying mood

and creating a sense of balance. Focus can also be drawn to desired areas using colours that are vivid, or in contrast to the surrounding colour. For example, warm colours on a cool background stand out because of contrast.

SMUDGING GENIUS!

04 The Smudge tool works in a similar way to the Brush, however instead of adding colour, the Smudge tool has the ability to push

or pull existing colours around. Custom brush tips can also be used in conjunction with the Smudge tool to create a magnificent method for blending colours together.

BLEND YOUR BRUSHWORK

03 Blend modes such as Overlay and Vivid Light are effective in producing rich colour and lighting. Multiply and Color Burn are

great for darker areas such as shadows. Soft Light is great for adding subtle colour tinting.

Get started as a painter with these quick and easy tips

Whether you’re just getting started or are already familiar with Photoshop, these

helpful tips will guide you through some of

the trickiest situations that we could encounter. We’ll go

over the fundamentals of painting from scratch, starting

from the beginning all the way to the finished piece.

Understand digital painting

Need-to-know advice for creating amazing artwork with Sara Biddle

09

POLYGONAL LASSOMake straight and curved selections using the Polygonal Lasso tool. Straight segments are made by default, but you can transfer to freehand just by holding Opt/Alt.


TOP 10


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CLIP THAT LAYER!

07 Clipping masks are wonderful. On a new layer, fill the element shape with colour. Make a new layer, then Opt/

Alt-click on the line between these two layers to create a clipping mask. Anything on the topmost layer will remain confined to the boundaries of the base.

THE POWER OF LIGHT

08 Interesting lighting can make all the difference regarding impression and mood. For instance, lighting

from below often indicates mystery. Colour light sources can brighten things up and all can be tested on new layers.

ADAPT PHOTOS

06 To incorporate a photograph into a painting, it’s important that the photo and painting are similar in

value, colour and lighting. The sliders in Levels (Cmd/Ctrl+L) are very helpful in controlling values, and the Hue/Saturation (Cmd/Ctrl+U) works wonders with colour. For the light source, a little over-painting on a new Normal layer can fix lighting quickly.

TEXTURE AND MATERIALS

09 Realistic texture can be easily created with patterns or custom brushes. Shiny elements such as metal or

moisture will reflect surrounding colour the most, so use the Eyedropper tool to gather colours from the object’s environment. The more reflective the surface, the more environmental colour will impact it.

CUSTOMISE A BRUSH

10 Settings can be altered for how a brush tip behaves, or you can create your own custom brushes from scratch.

Use the Lasso tool to select the area of an image to be turned into a brush tip. Go to Edit>Define Brush From Selection and name your new brush. Find it in the Brush Preset palette, then adjust the settings as you desire.

07

10

CLIPPING MASK BASICSTo create a clipping mask from a layer, use a shortcut Opt/Alt+Cmd/Ctrl+G for Photoshop, or Cmd/Ctrl+G for Photoshop Elements. You can also use Layer>Create Clipping Mask.

BRUSH OPTIONSBrushes can be adjusted to your needs with Brush Presets (Brush Settings in Elements). For instance, Spacing controls the space between the brush marks, while Scattering controls the distribution.


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EssentialsWorks with

What you’ll learnCreate a surreal image

using custom brushes and the Dodge and Burn tools

Time taken2 hours

Photoshop CS and above, CC & Photoshop Elements

Use brushes for surreal composites

Learn how to use simple techniques to create a complex composition, combining images and brushes

Tutorial Use brushes for surreal composites

Expert Daniel Sinoca“Creating an eye-catching composition is sometimes easier than you think. You can accomplish complex tasks just using simple tools. I started to get involved in the digital world more than ten years ago and I’ve been working as a freelance artist ever since, creating all kinds of multimedia projects and writing tutorial guides.”

In this tutorial we’ll demonstrate how to use a variety of images and brushes to create a stunning composition. We’ll start with the

basics, creating a gradient background and then

we’ll enhance the images using the lighting and

colour adjustments. Another great technique used

in this tutorial is adding shadows and highlights

with the Dodge and Burn tools. We’ll also be calling

upon custom brushes to apply over the image to

add a dramatic effect. To supply the final flourish,

we will pay a visit to the layer styles. We created

this in Photoshop Elements, but if you happen to

be using Photoshop CS you have more professional

features to go even further. When creating the

water drops, for example, add an Inner Shadow

and also modify the contours, trying different

settings to create a more realistic effect. One of

the secrets of a great composition is to use good

quality images. You will find all the images and

brushes to work with in the supplied files.

Set up the file

01 Go to File>New>Blank File or hit Cmd/Ctrll+N. Name it Storm in a Tea Cup,

setting the Width to 230mm and Height to 300mm. Set the Resolution to 300 then click OK.

Make a gradient background

02 Grab the Gradient tool (G) and click Edit to open the Gradient Editor.

Create a new gradient using the colours #000000 and #5a5a5a, set it to Linear and then click OK.

Place the image

03 Go to File>Place, find the ‘Teacup.jpeg’ file and hit Place. Grab the

Quick Selection tool (A) and, using a hard brush, select the background. Right-click on the Smart Object thumbnail and choose Simplify Layer (CS users choose Rasterize Layer), and then press backspace.


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Are you a fan of the surreal?Tweet us @pshopcreative

On the discGreat brushes and start photos!

Start image

Custom brushes1 When lightning strikes,

the best way to create it is with lightning brushes

Dodge and Burn2 Boost highlights and

strengthen shadows with a great tool pairing

Saving selections3 Don’t loose your

selection and have to start all over again

Modify Brush tool4 Why settings like

Jitter and Fade are essential variations

Free Transform5 The perfect

technique for quick scaling and rotation



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Save the selection

06 Grab the Elliptical Marque tool (M), set Feather to 0 pixels, and select

the top part of the cup. Go to Select>Transform Selection and use the handles to adjust. Go to Select>Save Selection, name it Ocean, choose New Selection, and click OK.

Create the waves

09 Right-click on the Waves layer and choose Duplicate Layer. Grab the

Smudge tool (R) set the Size to 125 pixels and Strength to 50%. Drag the Smudge tool around the edges to create some waves.

Refine your selection

04 Go to Select>Refine Edge, check Smart Radius, change Radius to 0.2px, Smooth to

35, Feather to 1px, Contrast to 0%, Shift Edge to -25%, and Decontaminate Colors to 50%. Click OK.

Insert image

07 Head to File>Place and select ‘Waves.jpeg’. Right-click the Smart

Object thumbnail and choose Simplify Layer (CS users choose Rasterize). Go to Select>Load Selection, on Source dropdown menu choose Ocean, check the Invert box and click OK. Hit backspace on your keyboard.

Add brushes

10 Let’s load some brushes. Go to Edit>Preset Manager (CS users go to

Edit>Preset>Preset Manager), click Append, and locate ‘Teacup storm.abr’ from the supplied files. Click Load and then Done.

Relocate the image

05 Hit Cmd/Ctrll+T to open the Free Transform tool. Drag the image

down to the bottom of the canvas, and check the Constrain Proportions box, set the Width to 150% and rotate the image around 2 degrees.

Cut to fit

08 Press Cmd/Ctrll+D to deselect the image. Grab the Move tool (V) and

drag the waves image down to create the idea of depth. Go to Select>Load Selection and choose the Ocean selection again, check the Invert box, click OK and press the backspace key on your keyboard.

Enhance the waves

11 Create a new layer. Grab the Brush tool (B) and open the Brush Preset Picker.

Choose the Splash brushes, resize and paint some splashes over the image. Use the Brush Settings to change the angle and the Eraser tool (E) to rub out the image.


Expert tip

The best way to work with Dodge and Burn is creating a new layer over the original image. Hold down the Alt/Opt key and click on the Create a New Layer icon in the Layers palette. Enter a name, set the mode to Overlay, select the option Fill with Overlay-Neutral Color (50% gray), and then click OK. Select the Burn or Dodge tool (O), set Exposure to 10% and repeat sweeping movements over the areas you want to affect. This way you keep the pixels on the original image intact.

Using Dodge and Burn


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Dodge and Burn

17 Change the blending mode of the Clouds layer to Lighten. Grab the Burn

tool (O), set the Range to Highlights, Size: 500, Exposure: 40%, and paint over to underexpose around the cloud. Select the Dodge tool and, using a smaller brush, paint to overexpose some areas.

Bring the storm

18 Create a new layer name and name it Lightning. Now select the Brush tool (B) and open the

Brush Preset Picker. Choose any of the Lightning brushes, resize and paint over the cloud image.

Add clouds

15 Go to File>Place and pick ‘Clouds.jpeg’. Right-click on the Smart Object

thumbnail and choose Simplify Layer (CS users choose Rasterize). Grab the Polygonal Lasso tool (L), set the Feather to 10px, and select around the cloud. Go to Select>Inverse and press backspace.

Adjust Lighting

16 Click Cmd/Ctrll+T to open the Free Transform tool. Rotate the image to

-10 Degrees. Now click Cmd/Ctrll+U to open Hue/Saturation, set the Saturation to -100. Hit Cmd/Ctrll+L to open the Levels, and set the Input Levels to 78, 1.00, and 255, click OK.

Place the boat

12 Head to File>Place and add ‘boat.jpeg’. Right-click on the Smart Object thumbnail and choose Simplify (CS users choose

Rasterize). Check the Constrain Proportions box and resize the image around 25%. Grab the Quick Selection tool (A), select and delete the sky.

Eraser tool

13 Grab the Move tool (V) and drag the boat to the centre. Now grab the Eraser tool (E), choose a soft brush and a

small size, and rub out the ocean part of the image.

Dodge tool

14 Now grab the Dodge tool (O), set the Range to Highlights, the size to 200

pixels and Exposure to 20%. Paint over the boat image, overexposing a little at the top of the main mast.

Are you a fan of the surreal?Tweet us @pshopcreative

Expert tip

Click on Brush Settings to control your brush. The Fade option gradually reduces the brush strokes as you paint. Adjusting Hue Jitter makes the brush switch between Foreground and Background colours. Increasing the Scatter setting separates the brush marks in different directions. Spacing controls the distance between the brush strokes. Reducing the Hardness creates a stroke with soft edges. Angle and Roundness alters the direction and shape.

Modify your Brush tool


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Layer style

19 Let’s add a glow effect on the lightning layer. Go to Layer>Layer

Style>Style Settings. Click on Glow and check the Outer box, set the Size to 24px, click on the Color box, pick a light blue colour, set the Opacity to 75%, and click OK.

Rainstorm

20 Create a new layer, name it Rain. Grab the Brush tool (B), open the Brush

Preset Picker and choose the rain brush to paint over the image. Press Cmd/Ctrll+T to rotate and resize the image and use the Eraser tool (E) to rub out the borders.

Add shadows

21 Create a new layer, name it Shadow and place over the Background layer.

Grab the Elliptical Marquee tool (M), set Feather to 25px and create a selection almost the same size as the teacup plate. Fill with black colour, and change the layer opacity to 60%.


Apply the layer styles to create realistic water drops on the imageFurther treatment Realistic water dropsYou can use the Layer Styles window to create a variety of effects in Photoshop. Create a new layer and name it Water Drops. Go to Layer>Layer Style>Style Settings. Set the Lighting Angle to 45º Check Drop Shadow, set the Size: 3px, Distance: 1px and Opacity: 60%. Now check the Bevel, set the Size: 15px, Direction: Up, and then click OK. Change the blend mode to Multiply and the Opacity to 60%. Grab the Brush tool, pick a bush with a hardness of around 50% and start painting the water drops around the border and over the teacup plate.

BRUSH IN THE WATER Once the right settings are added water droplets are simply painted on with the Brush tool.

LAYER STYLE SETTINGS Within Layer>Layer Style>Style Settings you can edit specifi cs for effects like droplets.

LAYER STRUCTUREAs always, the order in which your layers are stacked is of the upmost importance!


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Tutorial Create a vintage collage


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5

Share your collage tipsTweet us @pshopcreative

Create a vintage collageLearn the techniques behind creating your own vintage design, taking you back in time on a nostalgic journey

On the discAll collage images and ready-to-use brushes!

There is a lot of enjoyment in creating a mash-up collage. If you want to provide a flashback to another era while

exercising creativity, a collage made up of vintage elements

is a versatile way to do just that.

A good collage should have a well thought-out composition

with a sense of experimentation. It is a trendy way to construct

whimsical and quirky juxtapositions of objects such as posters,

album covers, stamps and portraits. Unlike photographic

compositions, the variety and contrast of imagery in a vintage

collage gives a unique, cutout look – the aim is to be abstract and

creative. This tutorial will show you how to adjust your images for

a collage, with some handy filters to give your image a vintage

appeal using handwritten texts, illustrations, textures, patterns

and more. You will learn how to adjust colour and contrast as well

as working with blend modes for best results.

As a finishing touch we will call upon filters to mimic old-

fashioned film grain. These techniques can be

applied to images that you can easily source

yourself, such as old postcards, making this

look as though it’s from of the 1950s.


Making patterns1 With the Pattern

Overlay Layer Style, creating impressive patterned effects is easy

Realistic shadows2 Create perfect

shadows with some Brush tool trickery and essential Photoshop edits

Film grain3 Vary the grain size and

intensity for cool

Collage borders4 Layer texture for

interesting borders

Halftone effects5 A classic retro effect

to add vintage charm

Start images


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Pattern making

01 Open ‘background.jpg’. Create a new layer and draw a rectangle with the Rectangular Marquee

tool. Hit Opt/Alt+Backspace to fill with a colour of your choice. Double-click on the layer to open Layer Styles and select Pattern Overlay. Load the pattern file

‘stripe pattern’.

Blend your images

03 Add a layer mask to the Grass layer. With a soft black brush, cover the

edges to make it spotty and soft. Repeat this process for the girl in the foreground to hide the edges of her hair.

Organise

05 Select the Halftone layer. Hit Cmd/Ctrl+U and move Lightness to 100. To stay organised, put the letter, palms, halftone, and

striped bar in a group. Name the group Background Elements. Put the Grass layer, Car, Pin-up girl, and their shadow layers in a group named Car.

Compile the composite

02 Open up the model, car, stamps, hibiscus, palms, flowers, bird, letter,

halftone, and pin-up girl images. Paste them into the file on separate layers. To keep things organised, be sure to name the layers as you go.

Add subtle shadows

04 Create a layer above the Grass layer. With a black soft round brush, paint a shadow under

the car. Reduce the opacity of the shadow to 55% and pin it to the Grass layer. Repeat to create shadows for the pin-up girl, hibiscus flower, letter, and stamps.

Grouping

06 Repeat step five to make a group using stamps, the model and the hibiscus. Call this group Foreground.

Take a moment to rearrange the layers as shown for better organisation. Change the name of layers or groups by right-clicking in the Layers palette and selecting Layer Properties.



What you’ll learnUse adjustments,

masks, and brushes to blend a composite

Time taken1 hour

Photoshop CS2 and above, CC and Photoshop Elements

Expert Kate Rose“I am a freelance illustrator and designer in Honolulu, Hawaii. As a photomanipulator, my favourite aspect of Photoshop is the ability to transform photographs into magical images, merging the real with the surreal. It enables the artist to take pieces of reality and use them to create fantasy. The possibilities are truly limited only by the boundaries of a person’s imagination!”


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Colour variation

10 Create a new layer on top of the stack. With a large soft brush, cover

the layer with red, orange, yellow, and a little blue and green. Turn the blend mode to Color and reduce Opacity to 50%.

Add adjustment layers

11 Go to Layer>New Adjustment Layer>Hue/Saturation. Do not clip it to

the layer below. Move the Hue slider to -10, and the Saturation slider to -40.

Sharpen

12 Make a merged copy by hitting Cmd/Ctrl+A, go to Edit>Copy Merged, and

then Cmd/Ctrl+V to paste. Go to Filter>Sharpen>Unsharp Mask. For Amount, enter 130% and enter 8px for Radius and for Threshold enter 20.

Pin-up adjustments

09 Repeat step eight for the

pin-up girl. Drag the black slider to 48, and the white slider to 227. Essentially, this brightens the lighter tones and darkens the darker tones, increasing the overall contrast of the image.

Letter adjustments

08 The letter in the background looks too washed-out and faded. Select

the Letter layer and go to Layer>New Adjustment Layer>Levels, and clip it to the Letter layer. Move the black slider to 90 to deepen the darker colors and make the image more noticeable.

Add more elements

07 Open the pattern palm images, and paste as shown. Repeat for ‘line art

flower.jpg’. Turn the blend mode of each line art flower to Multiply, so the texture of the background shows through.

Share your collage tipsTweet us @pshopcreative

Expert tip

There are several ways to achieve a grain effect. An alternative to the Noise fi lter is to add the fi lm grain texture. Go to Filter>Artistic>Film Grain. Here you can choose grain size, sensitivity and intensity. Size ranges from 0-20, but anything over 5 tends to become too pixelated. This fi lter works best with Intensity kept at a low value, and the highlight value can vary depending on the tonal range of the image.

Alternative grain effect


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Apply image

13 With the merged layer still selected go to Image>Apply Image. Set the blend

mode to Multiply and check the Mask option box. Set Opacity to 60%. You can check and uncheck the Preview box to see the effect this will have on your image.

Create vintage-style grain

14 Create a new layer. Go to Filter>Render>Clouds. Then go to

Filter>Noise>Add Noise. Leave the settings at default, but check the Monochromatic option box and hit OK. Turn the Noise layer blend mode to Soft Light and reduce the Opacity to 50%.

Add a grunge border

15 Make a new layer. Select white as your Foreground colour. Select the Brush

tool and from the Options bar at the top of the screen load the ‘Torn_Paper_Edges’ brushes. At 100% Opacity, create a border. Stretch and resize the brush strokes to fit the length and width of the image.


Small alterations resulting in big changesCloser look Zooming in on the final effect

ADJUSTMENT LEVELS Adding Levels adjustments, in addition to other adjustment layers, brings the images on layers below it together, resulting in a cohesive composition.

SHARPENING Sharpening increases the contrast between neighbouring pixels, giving the effect of a more detailed and crisp image.

DESATURATE Adjustment layers sometimes produce an overly saturated image. Combat this with a Hue/Saturation adjustment level.

APPLY IMAGE Apply Image (Image>Apply Image) is typically used to blend images, but can also be used to highlight and deepen shadows without adding saturation.

VINTAGE FILM GRAIN One of the most beautiful aspects of vintage photography is the grain, giving the image a dark, gritty, highly texturised effect.


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RETOUCHING DIGITAL PAINTING EXPERT TRICKS GRAPHICAL ART

IMAGE IS EVERYTHINGwww.advancedphotoshop.co.uk

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Re-create HDR effectsPhoto-based art can be anything from basic

but captivating edits, like this vivid HDR treatment, to more complex compositions.

The essential bit is getting the start photo(s) right!

Firstly, not everyone has the opportunity to get up

close and personal with a crocodile! But what

happens when you want a great photo like that but

don’t have one? Well, we’ve secured 100 royalty-

free, high-quality photos from leading image,

illustration and vector supplier Fotolia (www.fotolia.

co.uk). Download them from your disc and use

them to test out your editing skills, or let them

become the base of a magical montage. Get your

imagination going.

To give you an idea as to how stock images can

be used. Try out this HDR effect using the HDR

Toning adjustment (available in Photoshop CS5

and above), follow along!

There’s nothing better than free images! Here’s how to transform a stock photo into a high-def, captivating scene


What you’ll learnHDR toning and layer

blending using free stock photos as the foundation

Time taken30 mins

Photoshop CS5 and above and Creative Cloud

Before

After

Tutorial Re-create HDR effects

On the disc SPECIAL!100 free, high-quality photos from Fotolia!


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Free stock photos!

01 Head to http://en.fotolia.com/id/16136533 to download the image

used here (www.fotolia.co.uk provide a selection of free images daily). Alternatively, load up one of the free images on your supplied resource disc.

Load up adjustment

03 To create an HDR effect, locate the HDR Toning adjustment found

under the Image>Adjustments menu. The adjustment will apply a basic effect to start with. Set the Radius slider to 10 to help improve clarity.

Better lighting

05 Control lighting by reducing Shadow down to -69%, Highlight to -26%, but

increase Vibrance to +5% and Saturation to +50%. The tones and lighting will now look more even throughout the image.

Better safe than sorry

02 For re-creating this HDR effect, open up your chosen image into

Photoshop and duplicate it by going to Layer>Duplicate Layer. Assign a name and hit OK. Work on the top layer (the duplicate) to keep the original file safe.

Improve impact

04 To control the overall impact of the effect, set the Strength slider to

0.80. Tick the Smooth Edges option just underneath Strength, and then set Exposure to +0.23 and Detail to +84%. This image may look quite bright at this stage, but with lots of detail.

Play with Curves

06 Adjust the lighting further using the Toning Curve and Histogram option.

Darken the shadows by dropping the lower half slightly and the middle region of the curve. Hit OK and duplicate the image by pressing Cmd/Ctrl+J. Change its blend mode to Soft Light for a finishing touch.

More free resources from our site www.photoshopcreative.co.uk

Interview

A Q&A with Fotolia’s front-woman

Savvy business-mind and Fotolia front-woman, Daniela Reissmann, has dedicated the last five years

overseeing Fotolia’s UK and EU markets. Also in charge of overseeing the innovative Ten collection scheme, Daniela’s passion for the project is evident through the quality of artwork she gets to work with. Here she discusses the project, the artists and what she thinks you need to be a successful digital artist.

What exactly is the TEN Collection project?It’s an initiative enabling artists to showcase their work and themselves. It also enables the viewer to break down an artist’s work and gain detailed insight to how the PSD fi les were created.

What do artists need to become successful?Creative talent, a high level of competence with digital arts software, innovation, originality, good business sense and attention to detail.

Have any artworks particularly stood out?We’ve had some of the world’s best digital artists, so it’d be unfair to say any were better than others. And there are many more to come. Here’s an example of a couple of them.

Gustavo Brigante, Argentina

Mike Harrison, UK


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What you’ll learnUse fi lters, brushes,

and masks to transform your photos into a painterly creation

Time taken2 hours

Photoshop C6, CC, and Photoshop Elements

Paint with brushes and filters

Tutorial Paint with brushes and filters

Photoshop is a very accessible digital painting engine, allowing users to create beautiful artwork with tools and features

commensurate with their respective skill levels. In

this tutorial, we will combine filters and painting

techniques to create a hybrid work that anyone can

pull off. Let’s start with a geisha (courtesy of

Morten Skogly – http://pappmaskin.no) and some

nature photos. Using filters, masks, and blend

modes, we’ll unite them into a pleasing

arrangement. Once the photos are blended, we’ll

call upon the Oil Paint filter. For users without

CS6+, Paint Daubs is a good alternative. After

applying the effect, we’ll then really make the piece

our own; painting, smudging and blurring.

Additionally, we’ll explore sketch effects using

another geisha photo courtesy of Nikita (http://

www.flickr.com/photos/malfet).

Make use of Photoshop’s filters and brushes to turn a Japanese-themed photo arrangement into a digital treat!

Expert Andre Villanueva“I love playing with fi lters and seeing what combinations I can come up with. I discovered Photoshop in the early 2000s while in school. I’m now Art Director for a large technology company in the Southeast US, soothing my inner instructor by sharing techniques with readers.”

On the discThe start fi les to re-create this image

Start image

Feathered edges1 How to make perfectly

smooth selections

Layering fi lters2 Get the effect using

several stacked fi lters

Blend mode magic3 Discover the power

of blend modes

Work with texture4 Give art interest with

effective texture use

Paint Daubs fi lter5 One fi lter can bring

everything together



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Show us your filter creationssearch for photoshopcreative

Select the geisha

01 Open ‘Geisha.jpg’ and use the Quick Selection tool to select the figure. To remove unwanted

areas, hold Option/Alt. To manually add to or subtract from the selection, use the Lasso tool and hold Shift to add or Option/Alt to subtract.

Feather

02 When finished with the selection, go to Select>Modify>Feather (in

Elements, Select>Feather) and add a 1-2 pixel Feather Radius. This softens the edges a bit. Press Cmd/Ctrl+C to copy.

Beautiful backdrop

03 Open ‘Start.psd’ and press Cmd/Ctrl+V to paste in the geisha. Use the

Move tool to situate. To scale up, press Cmd/Ctrl+T for Free Transform, hold Shift, then drag a corner handle outward. Press Return and set the Foreground colour to black.

Black & White

06 Click the New Fill or Adjustment Layer icon in the Layers palette, and

choose Black & White. Paint in the mask in areas to remove the effect, restoring some colour in the geisha and backdrop.

Find Edges

04 Merge layers with Cmd/Ctrl+Option/Alt+Shift+E. Go to Filter>

Stylize>Find Edges. Set the blend mode to Overlay. Apply a layer mask and use a soft, round brush at 80% Opacity to remove some of the effect on the geisha.

Streaky texture

07 Go to File>Place and add ‘Texture.jpg’ from the supplied files. Set the

blend mode to Overlay. Apply a layer mask, and paint out areas such as the overly dark tree portion and the obscured lotus.

Finding more edges

05 Press Cmd/Ctrl+J to duplicate. Set the blend mode to Soft Light and

paint out a little more of the top mask area. Press Cmd/Ctrl+J to duplicate again. Set the blend mode to Hard Light. Paint out most of the mask except the bottom area.

Color Fill

08 Click the New Fill or Adjustment Layer icon in the Layers palette, and

choose Solid Color. Pick #d25ac5. Set the blend mode to Hue to get a nice base colour which we will build upon in the next steps.

Expert tip

When involved in intricate work that requires a lot of zooming, consider having two windows open. Go to Window>Arrange>New Window (in Elements, go to View>New Window, then go to Windows>Images>Tile). You can keep one as a high level overview, devoting the other for detailing. As you work in one window, the other will be constantly updated. Users with two monitors can keep a window open in each. Simply close the extra window when done.

Seeing double


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Tutorial Paint with brushes and filters

Trace the edges

14 Merge layers again. Go to Filter>Stylize>Trace Contour. Use Level: 217 and Edge: Upper. Click

OK. Set the blend mode to Soft Light. Apply a layer mask and paint out the geisha areas.

More glow

15 Merge layers once again. Go to Filter>Stylize>Glowing Edges. Use

Edge Width: 9, Edge Brightness: 20, Smoothness: 9. Click OK. Set the blend mode to Screen. Apply a layer mask. Paint out the geisha and fan areas, along with some of the tree.

Glowing Edges

12 Merge layers with Cmd/Ctrl+Option/Alt+Shift+E. Go to Filter>Stylize>Glowing Edges. Use Edge Width: 3, Edge

Brightness: 7, Smoothness; 11. Click OK. Set the blend mode to Screen. Apply a layer mask. Paint out overly light areas.

Borrow the sky

09 Go to File>Place and add ‘Sky1.jpg’ from the supplied files. Set the

blend mode to Pin Light. Apply a layer mask, and paint out the fan and face areas.

Another sky

10 Go to File>Place and add ‘Sky2.jpg’ from the supplied files. Set the blend

mode to Hard Light. Apply a layer mask, and paint out the central and lower right background, and the fan and face areas.

Still finding edges

13 Option/Alt+Click and drag the first Find Edges layer to the top of the stack. Change the blend mode to Soft Light and drop the

Opacity to 60%. Paint out more of the central area.

Reinforce the geisha

11 Option/Alt+click and drag the Geisha layer to the top of the stack. Set the

blend mode to Soft Light. Apply a layer mask and paint out areas for better blending.

Expert tip

The Mixer Brush (CS5+) was a fabulous addition to Photoshop’s already formidable painting toolset. It allows for more realistic brushwork than the standard Brush tool because it mixes colours and varying paint wetness across strokes. This makes it produce very realistic strokes. To load paint, Option/Alt+click on the canvas or choose a Foreground colour. Pick one of the bristle brush presets to get the ultimate in real brush replication.

Mixer Brush


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Looking sharp

16 Time to merge the layers another time. Go to Filter>Sharpen>Unsharp

Mask. Use Amount: 141 and Radius: 4.8. Click OK. Apply a layer mask and paint out most of the mask, leaving only the areas you want to stay sharpened.

Make your mark

18 To keep the image from looking too

filterized, we’ll now add some manual brushwork. On new layers at the top of the stack, use the Brush tool at varying opacities to paint over the key sections. To sample appropriate colours, hold Option/Alt and click an area.

Soft glow

20 Merge layers, then go to Filter>Blur>Gaussian Blur. Set Radius to 16 and

the blend mode to Lighten. Add a layer mask, then paint out any areas where the glow is too much.

A painterly base

17 Merge layers and go to Filter>Oil Paint (if you don’t have CS6+, go to Filter>

Artistic>Paint Daubs). Play with the settings until you get a good painterly base. Here we’ve maxed out all settings except Shine, which we kept at 0.

Blend it

19 Now that you’ve made your mark, merge layers. Use various tools like

the Blur tool and Smudge tool to blend everything together. If you’re using CS5+, definitely employ the Mixer Brush tool, which allows synchronised blending and brushing.

Show us your filter creationssearch for photoshopcreative

Alternate effect

Make it sketchy

01 Open ‘Geisha2.jpg’. Duplicate and go to Filter>Stylize>Find Edges.

Desaturate, apply Levels and move the sliders until sketchy. Add a layer mask and paint black into the focal point.

Colored Pencil

02 Select the Background, press Cmd/Ctrl+J. Move to top. Set

blend mode to Hard Light. Go to Colored Pencil filter. Use a mask to paint out face.

Texture

03 Go to File>Place and add ‘Texture2.jpg’. Set the blend

mode to Hard Light. Add a layer mask and paint out the face and upper body.

Additional adjustments

04 Add a Vibrance adjustment layer, set Saturation to -100.

Paint out the mask around the focal point. Add a Levels adjustment layer to improve contrast.

Combine filters and make a sketch come to life


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What you’ll learnCreate and compose

ornate 2D elements and use layers like a pro

Time taken2 hours


Design your own posters

Download all the files needed online and discover how to combine, create and blend 2D elements

Tutorial Design your own posters

Expert Henry Rivers“Poster design is a handy skill for when you’re cornered by a mate and asked to “knock up a quick design” (for no pay, of course!). I trained as an architect but was soon sidetracked by a love affair with Photoshop. A few years down the line I’ve left buildings behind me; I’m now a freelance book cover designer and illustrator.”

You’ve seen it everywhere; this ornate craftsy style is red hot. We’re going to pull

back the curtain on this design trend and

show you how to achieve your very own illustrated

poster in just a couple of hours.

With ornate posters there are three big things to

keep in mind: colour scheme, styling and

composition. By all means let your imagination run

wild but remember, if you want the end result to

pack a punch you’ll need a consistent approach to

these three areas. Here we’ll be working with a

classic ‘thirds’ composition and using brightly

coloured vector elements to make the design pop.

If you’re a ‘one software only’ kind of person and

the mention of vectors is setting off alarm bells, do

not fret. In this tutorial we’ll show you how to

harness the power of the mysterious EPS file from

within the comforts of Photoshop. Now put the

kettle on and grab yourself a comfy chair because

we’re going to make an awesome poster.

The setup

01 Open ‘Poster.psd’ from the supplied files and press Cmd/Ctrl+; to switch on guides. Set the

Foreground colour to #ffffff and the Background colour to #83d0e0. Press G (Gradient tool), select Foreground>Background from the drop-down menu at the top and tick reverse.

Retro sky

02 Select the Background layer and holding Shift, drag your mouse

down from just above the highest horizontal guide to the middle of the bottom third. Zoom out fully and go to File>Place, select ‘Words.png’ from the supplied files. Hit enter to fix the position.

Start images

On the siteGrab all the free goods for this tutorial from: www.blog.

photoshopcreative.co.uk/tutorial-fi les


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Created a brilliant poster?Tweet us @pshopcreative

Make funky text1 Once text has been

rasterized it can be applied with layer styles

Shards of light2 Make a stylistic

sunset with the Gradient tool

Make it warp3 Shape banners in

place with effective use of the Warp tool

Fold effects4 Make fold effects

with clever layering and a lasso trick or two

Remember depth5 Learn why layering

is so important to achieve a sense of depth



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Make a concentric design

07 Duplicate a circle (Layer>Duplicate), hit Cmd/Ctrl+T and change the

width and height to 90% in the top menu. Go to Layer>Layer Style>Gradient Overlay. (For Elements: Layer>Simplify, Lock Transparent Pixels and the Gradient tool.)

Funky zebra text

03 Go to File>Place and choose ‘Stripes.eps’ from the supplied files. Make a textbox

underneath the word Design and write ‘Create’. Select the font Pacifico, set to 62pt. Right-click the text layer and select Rasterize Type (Simplify’ in Elements).

Using the Layers palette

05 Select the Stripes layer and click Add Layer Mask. Delete the text layer above. Go to Layer>Layer Style>Color Overlay. Change the

colour to #ef4354. (For Elements: Layer>Simplify, Lock Transparent Pixels and paint over the stripes with a brush of the same colour).

Layer styles

08 Select Foreground>Background, Opacity 30%, Angle -135 and click

OK. Repeat on another circle, but after duplicating and transforming, use Layer Style>Inner Shadow with Angle 135 degrees, Opacity 15%, Distance 8 and Size 8.

Making the selection

04 Press V (Move tool) and grab the text to fine-tune the position. Using

the Magic Wand tool with Anti-alias and Contiguous turned on, click on the word (you can use the Refine Edge tool to check smoothness) to select it.

Circular decoration

06 Add the Stripes and Words layers to a new group above the Background. Name the group Text. Create

another group below this called Shapes. Using the Shape tool, draw three white circles and arrange roughly behind the text.

More circles

09 Balance the design by adding a few more circles, varying the size and

opacity of each one. Try creating a striped circle by placing the Stripes.eps again, this time using the Elliptical Marquee tool when adding the layer mask.


Expert tip

When working on an illustrative project you need a different set of key tools. Make your Layers palette nice and big so you can see everything. The History window is also essential; it can save a lot of hassle if you need to go back in time (for example to before a certain vector was rasterized). You might also fi nd it useful to turn on Window>Navigator. Take time to make a little collection of saved workspaces for different projects; this will make you more effi cient.

Set up your workspace


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Creating folds

16 In the Layers palette, place the smaller shape underneath the first.

Repeat the process again for a final fold, this time before warping go to Layer>Rasterize, make a triangular selection into the left edge with the Polygonal Lasso Tool and hit Delete.

Burning shadows

17 Use the Burn tool to add shadows to the overlaps on the lower shapes. Select all three

shapes from the Layers palette and hit Cmd/Ctrl+E. Mirror the banner following the technique in step 10

Begin the banner

14 Create a group called Banner and select the Rectangle tool. Set the

colour as #f55484. Draw a low rectangle starting from the central vertical guide and extending halfway into the top left area. Go to Edit>Transform Path>Warp. (For Elements use Liquify.)

Hue variation

11 Rasterize both layers and select the Magic Wand with Tolerance set to 25.

Select a mountain and press Cmd/Ctrl+U, change the Hue to +8 and Brightness to +15. Repeat for all the mountains (varying the input numbers slightly each time).

Warping

15 Hold Shift and drag the left corners upwards, adjust the lines in the grid to

create a natural curve, then Rasterize. Repeat the process with a narrower rectangle, this time warping downwards. Use Cmd/Ctrl+T to align the two shapes.

Custom shapes

12 Hit U (Custom Shape tool) and select Target 2 (from Symbols). Holding

down Shift, drag the mouse diagonally across the page. Move the shape into a central position and rasterize it. In the Layers palette move it directly underneath the Mountains layers.

Let there be light

13 Add a layer mask and select the Gradient tool. Select Black>White,

Radial and tick Reverse. Drag the mouse from the middle of the target to a fraction before where the solid border starts.

Paper mountains

10 Create a group called Landscape above Border, then File>Place

Mountains.eps. Drag to the bottom left. Duplicate the layer and select Edit>Transform>Flip Horizontal. Hold down Shift and drag the mirrored version to the opposite side.

Created a brilliant poster?Tweet us @pshopcreative

Expert tip

Borders are an easy way to make a design look instantly more like a poster. In this tutorial we have provided a simple border made using large white squares (with the blend mode set to Multiply) with chunky inside strokes. A nice trick for adding depth is to place a couple of elements on top of the border; in this design the raised mountains add to the collage aesthetic. You can go further; why not try a totally different approach such as superimposing a stock image of a gold picture frame?

Borders


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Add a cheesy slogan

18 Drag a textbox to match the banner width. Choose Pacifico, Size approx.

20, Color #ffffff and Centre text, type a slogan. Go to Layer>Type>Warp Text and select Style: Arc. Edit the Bend % to fit the banner shape.

Place hot air balloons

19 In a new group place the ‘balloon.eps’ file and position it to the left of the

banner. Duplicate and holding Shift, move it to the opposite side. Use Free Transform to give them a slightly jaunty angle.

Channel mixing

22 Adjust the following slider values. Red Channel: Green +11%, Blue -9%. Green

Channel: Red -3%, Blue +1%. Blue Channel: Red -4%, Green -1%. This finishing touch adds a subtle retro look to the colours.

Get the papery look

21 Place the ‘paper.jpg’ file

and drag so it fills the document; hit Enter. Move it to the top of the Layers palette and set the blend mode to Multiply. Create a new adjustment layer and select Channel Mixer (for Elements, pick Hue/Saturation for a similar result).

Add depth

20 Go to Layer>Layer Style>Drop Shadow and use these settings:

Multiply: Global Light, Angle: 135 degrees, Size: 0, Distance: 18, Opacity: 20%. Repeat on the other hot air balloon layer.

Get playful

23 Time to add a few extra details, try including the ‘vectors plane.eps’ and

‘clouds.eps’ files. Have some fun, but remember to keep the style consistent, and not draw too much attention away from the central text.


Expert tip

Dashed lines are a standard tool in vector-editing software, but they are something of an Achilles’ heel for Photoshop. Don’t worry though, we have a neat solution. To create the extra stitching detail on the banner all we’ve done is used the Type on Path tool and typed - - - - - etc. This method creates a fully editable path. Use Window>Character to fi ne-tune the size and the Direct Selection tool to edit the route (Elements users need to pick Refi ne Path from the tool options). We used the same technique for the plane trail but with full stops instead.

Creative typing


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Not just fordummies

A clear, comprehensive series for people who want to start learningabout iPhone, iPad, Mac, Photoshop, photography and more

TM

BUY YOUR COPY TODAYPrint edition available at www.imagineshop.co.uk


facebook.com/ImagineBookazines twitter.com/Books_Imagine



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What you’ll learnUse new tools like

Content-Aware Move and Straighten, apply texture and special effects

Time taken30 mins

Photoshop Elements 12Create a zoom burst in Elements 12

Tutorial Create a zoom burst in Elements 12

Photoshop Elements 12 is the latest entry-level software from Adobe, and it includes some exciting new features. With Photoshop

Elements 12, we have even more ways to improve

everyday shots, or even create a dramatic effect.

In the following steps we’ll take you through the

process of straightening an image and moving a

subject to a new position without leaving any

giveaway signs. We then take a look at one of the

new Guided edits; the Zoom Burst Effect.

Combining this with the Vignette effect can create

an action-packed composition.

Editing photos and staying organised is what

Elements does best and with the tools available in

version 12, we can edit and create effects quicker

than ever. If you currently own an earlier version

then you can upgrade to version 12 for just £63.49

($79.99US). Head to page 82 to read a full review.

Combine some of Elements 12’s new features to create this expressive photo effect in minutes

Expert Simon Skellon“This effect is just right for improving your action shots and can be applied in a matter of minutes. As Photoshop Creative’s features editor, I have been using Photoshop ever since version 7 and enjoy nothing more than composing photomanipulations.”

Start image

On the siteUse the image on the site to re-create this! Head to: www.

blog.photoshopcreative.co.uk/tutorial-fi les

WIN!A COPY OFELEMENTS 12 page 87


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Share your opinions of Elements 12search for photoshopcreative

Enter Expert mode

01 Open up ‘Surfer.jpg’ inside Photoshop Elements 12. Click on the Expert button at the top of Elements to access all

tools. At the bottom of the Toolbar (down the left side), select the Straighten tool (P) under the Modify group.

Move it!

05 Drag the surfer to a more central position in the image. Elements will automatically patch over the empty pixels left behind using

the surrounding details. The surfer will blend neatly into his new position. Press Cmd/Ctrl+D to deselect active pixels.

Prepare to Move

03 Click on the new Content-Aware Move tool (Q). For this tool, in the Tool Options panel, set Mode to Move and

keep the Healing slider in the middle. If this tool is set to Extend, whatever is moved is duplicated.

Level out

02 Tick the new Autofill Edges box in the Tool Options panel and keep the Straighten tool set to Grow or Shrink. Draw a straight line

across the horizon to level it out. Elements fills in the blank spaces.

Quick interface

06 Enter the Quick interface by using the buttons along the top. All edits are kept when you switch interfaces.

Click the Textures button at the bottom-right of the screen.

Select the subject

04 Use the tool to draw a new selection around the surfer. Try not to go too close; leave just enough space between the selection

and person for Elements to blend pixels after moving.


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Tutorial Create a zoom burst in Elements 12

Take control

10 The entire image is covered with the blurring effect. Click the Add Focus Area option, click on the subject’s face

and drag outwards a bit. Repeat for the rest of the main subject to bring him into focus, leaving the blurring around the edges.

Grunge texture

07 There are 10 presets in the Textures panel in the Quick interface. For this

photo effect, apply the Blue Wash texture preset (bottom left).

Guided effects

08 Head to the Guided interface to view all the available Guided effects

Elements 12 has. Click on the new Zoom Burst Effect under the Photo Effects category to load a panel of bespoke options.

Moving on…

11 Skip the Apply Vignette option and head straight for Done at the

bottom of the panel. Back inside the Guided interface, click on the Vignette Effect just above the Zoom Burst Effect.

Bursting with life

09 As we’ve already cropped using the Straighten tool, skip the Crop Tool

part and click the Add Zoom Burst button. Photoshop Elements will take a few seconds to render the filter effect over the image.

Get creative with vignette options

Alternative vignette effect

Before exiting the Zoom Burst Effect in the Guided interface, try out the vignette adjustment to apply a black vignette around the image instead of the white one we used. Click on the Apply Vignette button multiple times to create a darker, more intense vignette effect and see which one you prefer. If at any stage things start getting out of hand, hit Cmd/Ctrl+Z to step back in stages.

Content-Aware1 Make edits easy with

this extremely clever pixel-replacing tool

Zoom Burst2 An exciting new

addition to Elements replicates great action photography effects

Autofi ll edges3 Essential to fi ll in the

edges after you’ve straightened images

New textures4 Choose from 10

brand new textures to add interest to your art

Vignette5 How a dark vignette

improves an image



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White vignette

12 Inside the Vignette Effect panel, click on the option to apply a white

vignette. Elements will automatically apply a white vignette to the image with its default settings. Boost the Intensity slider to its maximum amount.

Refine the vignette

13 Click the Refine Shape button to access options for adapting the

vignette. Slide the Feather adjustment up to 250px for maximum softness and set Roundness to -30 to close in the vignette around the surfer. Hit OK to confirm.

Save with layers

14 Hit Done at the base of the Vignette Effect panel then head to File>Save

As and set Format to Photoshop to save a layered version of the image to your computer. Use File>Save For Web for uploading online, setting its size to 800px.

Share your opinions of Elements 12search for photoshopcreative

This is where our layers are shown in fullCloser look Elements 12’s Expert interface

LAYERSAfter applying the Guided effect, the Layers panel consists of seven extra layers applied by automatic commands only.

OPACITIESWe can play around with these layers and their opacity settings at any stage simply by moving activities into the Expert interface.

HIDE THE TOOL OPTIONSWhenever a tool is selected, the Tool Options panel pops up. By clicking on its associated button at the base of Elements, this can be hidden to reveal a larger editing area.

NEW TOOLSThe two new tools inside Elements 12 – Content-Aware Move and Straighten – are both featured at the base of the Toolbar inside the Modify section.

ZOOM BURSTThe Zoom Burst Effect creates a heavy amount of blurring around a central subject. The effect imitates the movement of a lens while the image is being taken.


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Re-createtraditional film effects

Plug-in special Re-create traditional film effects

FilmPack 4 is the latest version of the photo effects plug-in by DxO Labs. It’s been

designed to make creating traditional film

effects easier than having to do them from scratch

in Photoshop. As a plug-in, its focus is on a niche,

which means we can achieve traditional film

effects with little effort.

FilmPack 4 is available in two versions; Essential

and Expert. With the latter you get a wider range

of film types and presets, in addition to extra

options for tweaking colour and lighting in the

image. For a complete comparison of both

versions, head to www.dxo.com.

Over this tutorial we will show you how to start

off your own film effect using the presets inside the

plug-in. We then look into adapting them further

using the sliders and adjustments featured in the

Expert version.

Use this powerful plug-in to create your own customised cross-processed effects


What you’ll learnUse a plug-in, Smart

Object layers and edits to re-create fi lm styles

Time taken30 mins

Photoshop CS3 and above, CC, Elements 9 and above

Expert Simon Skellon“Plug-ins offer key alternatives to complex effects and make for the perfect complement to Photoshop and your workfl ow. As Photoshop Creative’s features editor, I have been using Photoshop ever since version 7. I’ve combined my passion for photography with Photoshop, and enjoy nothing more than composing photomanipulations. With years of editing experience, I have built up a large catalogue of top techniques.”


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For the latest plug-in advicesearch for photoshopcreative

Smart conversion

01 Open ‘Portrait.jpg’ from the supplied files. So that we can control the effect

after it’s been applied, duplicate the Background layer by pressing Cmd/Ctrl+J, and then go to Filter>Convert for Smart Filters. If you use Elements, there are no Smart Filters so just duplicate the image.

Creative vignettes

04 Working down the adjustments, set Film Grain: Intensity to 166. This increases the graininess of the effect. Change Creative

Vignetting: Intensity to 91, Midpoint and Transition to 50, and Roundness to 34. Creative Blur Vignetting can be added, using an Intensity of 30.

Light leak

05 Add the Color Leak 8 option from the Light Leak panel, with an Intensity of 100. Under

Frame, choose Film. This gives this image an artistic film edge.

Adjust settings

06 Go into the Settings tab and adjust the following: Contrast -59, Saturation -8 and

Exposure 0.5. Boost Vibrancy and Micro-contrast to 15. Set Hue to 15 and Saturation to -24. Click on the plus symbol at the top of Settings to save your effect as a Custom Preset. Hit OK to return to Photoshop.

Choose a preset

02 With your layers ready, go to Filter>DxO Labs>FilmPack 4 to load

the plug-in. All presets are placed at the base of the interface, categorised under their film types. For a cross-processed effect, select Cross Processed – Kodak Elite 100 from the Color Negative Film group.

A quick comparison

03 Click on the preview options at the top of the interface to compare how the preset has affected the colour

and light in the image. Under Film Rendering, set Intensity to 112 and Color Protection to 30 to start customising the effect.

Quickly apply stunning effects with the power of plug-insStep by step How to use FilmPack4

Expert tip

By double-clicking on the Smart Object layer you can re-edit the plug-in’s settings. This allows you to tweak anything that’s not quite right or how you wanted it. Which can be very handy! Or, as this is on a layer, you can lower the Opacity and experiment with different Photoshop blend modes to make this image even more unique.

Smart layer editing

Get £20 off the latest version of DxO FilmPack 4. Grab the Essential Edition for £39 instead of £59 or the Expert Edition for £79 instead of £99! Enter the following code into the Discount Coupon box at the checkout: PHOTOSHOPCREATIVE2013. Head to www.dxo.com and look for the online shop to take advantage of this offer. Expires 30 November 2013.

DISCOUNT £20 off code for DxO FilmPack 4!


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What you’ll learnUse the Pen tool and

shape layers to create vibrant illustrations

Time taken2-3 hours

Photoshop CS4 and above and Creative Cloud

Illustrate with shape layers

Discover how to create a vector illustration using Photoshop’s shape layers and enjoy unparalleled control over your work

Tutorial Illustrate with shape layers

Expert Moe Hezwani“When I found the Pen tool in Photoshop I discovered another form of illustration. It enabled me to bring my hand drawn illustrations into Photoshop and give them a digital feel. Creativity has always been second nature to me, so when I discovered Photoshop about eight years ago I was amazed at how far I could take my creativeness. I enjoy playing around with Photoshop to mix the composition between photo and illustration to build up a new image.”

On the discThe start fi les to get you illustrating

The Pen tool is typically used to create paths for accurate selections. But the next time

you use the tool, have a look in the top

Options bar; there are actually three icons. Each

icon stipulates what the Pen tool will create and

when it comes to illustrations, the Shape Layer icon

should be your number one choice.

Shape layers differ from usual layers because

they are vector-based. A vector is made up of

mathematical points, connecting to each other by

either a straight line or a curve. The main

advantage of working with vectors is that each

time you make a change – either resizing or

reshaping – you don’t lose any image quality.

This tutorial will teach you how to use the Pen

tool to trace over a sketch and create shape layers.

We will also pay a visit to the Custom Shape tool

and incorporate some of Photoshop’s default

shapes to save time. And if you have Elements or

just don’t fancy grappling with the Pen tool, we

finish with an alternative method for getting the

vector look without going near a shape layer.

Start sketchesPen tool anchors1 A deconstruction of

the Pen tool will show every step in detail

Creating curves2 Discover how to

make the Pen tool create curved lines too

Make it glow3 Work with Layer

Styles to make your vectors stand out

Quick selection 4 A work-around for

Elements users without the Pen tool

Work with strokes5 Learn to create

an editable digital outline for your doodles



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Created an illustration?Tweet us @pshopcreative

Get started

01 Create a new document (File>New) and make it 330x300mm, with

Background Content as White. Hit OK. Next, change the Foreground colour to #b6e0d8 and the Background colour to #93c9c6.

Create a gradient

02 Duplicate the Background layer by going to Layer>Duplicate Layer or hit

Cmd/Ctrl+J. Next go to Layer>Layer Styles>Gradient Overlay. Make the Blend Mode: Normal, Opacity: 100%, Gradient: Foreground to Background, Style: Reflected, Angle 90.

Group layers

03 Open up ‘Original.jpg’ from the supplied files, hit Cmd/Ctrl+A to

select the whole canvas, then hit Cmd/Ctrl+C to copy. Go back to the document with the gradient background and hit Cmd/Ctrl+V to paste the artwork. From the Layer palette’s drop-down menu, pick New Group.

Shape layers

04 Creating a Group folder for illustrations is useful, because the Layers palette quickly fills up with shape layers. Therefore having

each illustration organised will be important. Now grab the Pen tool, making sure it is set to Shape Layers in the top bar.

Create a curve

06 Make another anchor point close to the first. Click (and hold) then drag

the mouse down. The line will bend. Now drag and release the mouse button when the line curves. Repeat this process to make another curve.

First anchor point

05 Make the Foreground colour #eea7c7. Zoom into the icing on the cupcake sketch and click. A small box

appears – this is an anchor point. As soon as an anchor point is made, a shape layer appears in the Layers palette.

Better vision

07 When drawing a vector shape, anything below it is obscured; in this

case the artwork. To get round this, lower the Opacity of the shape layer to 10%.

Close a path

08 After tracing round the first part of the icing, it’s time to close the path.

This is achieved by clicking on the first anchor point. Once the cursor hovers over the start point, a little circle will appear. Just click to close the path.


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Add a stroke

11 To add an outline, select a shape layer and go to Layer>Layer Style>Stroke.

Change the Size to 4px and Position to Outside and hit OK. Do this on all of the cupcake shape layers, except for the sprinkles, highlights and shadows.

Add Anchor Point tool

14 Sometimes it’s only after closing a path that a mistake is noticed. Instead of going back and redoing the shape again, use the Add

Anchor Point tool to fix. Simply click at the point where a new anchor needs to be placed.

Create detail

09 Trace the rest of the shapes for the icing, using the same methods as in steps 5 to 8.

Create another group; call it Shadows. Make sure this is above the icing shape layers. Set the Foreground colour to #fc87bc and trace the shadow details.

Illustrate the rainbow

12 Create a layer group called Rainbow. Make an anchor point on the cloud,

then a second to create a curve. To change the direction of the curve press Alt and click on the second anchor. Create a third anchor and curve it; carry on to complete.

Convert Point tool

15 Once a new anchor point has been added using the Add Anchor Point tool, it might be necessary to curve that

point, for example to fit the rainbow. Switch to the Convert Point tool and use the levers to curve the new anchor point.

Finish drawing the cupcake

10 Draw the rest of the cupcake, the highlights of the icing (with a white),

plus the cherry and the base. Trace the artwork using the same method; making new anchor points and closing the paths. This is good practice for using the Pen tool.

Delete Anchor Point tool

13 A handy tool is the Delete Anchor Point tool; its function is within its

name. If you accidentally create an unwanted anchor point, use this tool to eliminate it. To do this, select the tool and simply click on the anchor point to delete it.

Tutorial Illustrate with shape layers

Expert tip

The ideal situation when starting out in digital illustration is to scan in sketches. That way you don’t have to worry about drawing in Photoshop. But all is not lost if you don’t have a scanner. Use a camera or mobile phone to take a photo of your sketches. Lay the sketches out in a well-lit room (natural light is best). Set the camera to the highest resolution and check the fl ash is turned off to reduce glare. Upload to Photoshop and let the editing begin!

No scanner?


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Created an illustration?Tweet us @pshopcreative

Custom Shape tool

16 Photoshop includes a collection of shapes that can save some time. Pick

the Custom Shape tool from the toolbar and have an explore. We are going to use the stars; create a new group (call it Stars), select the 5 Point Star and draw one star.

Add a glow

17 Select the Stars shape layer and head over to Layer>Layer Style>Outer Glow.

Enter the following – Opacity: 100%, Colour: #ffff3a, Spread:14%, Size: 5px, Contour: Cover-Deep, Range: 50%. Hit OK and press Cmd/Ctrl+J to duplicate. Repeat this to make more stars for the rainbow.

Finish off

18 Using the techniques covered in this tutorial, trace the other items to

perfect your skills. To duplicate a layer group, go to the drop-down menu in the Layers palette and select Duplicate Group. Do this to the entire illustration. Hit V to move the groups into a pleasing composition.

Some tricks for getting the best resultsHelpful tips Improve your vectors LAYER STYLES

Shading was added using a Stroke layer style on the ice cream cone, setting Size to 6px and Color to a darker shade than the cone.

DETAIL INDICATORS Keeping detail simple is key. Just by adding a set of hashed lines, the cone’s textured surface is implied by this clear detail.

SHADING To make sure the colour of the shaded area is consistent with the lighter areas, open the Color palette and change the sliders to HSB. Now gradually increase the ‘S’ slider.

CREATE LIGHT To help show how the lighting falls onto the illustrations, add shape to the line between shadows and highlights. This will add depth and impact to the simplistic outlines.


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Photoshop Elements users without the Pen tool can try this method

Scan and select

01 The first task is to get sketches into Elements; the easiest way being with a scanner. Make sure the quality setting is set

to a high resolution. Once open in Elements, use the Quick Selection tool to select the white areas around the outside of the sketch. Add a layer mask and press Cmd/Ctrl+I.

Apply a stroke

03 Click back on the sketch layer and go to Layer>Layer Style>Style Settings. Click the Stroke option and set Size to

3 and Opacity to 100%. Hit OK to confirm. This will create a solid outline around the sketch.

Gradient Map adjustment

02 Go to Layer>New Adjustment Layer>Gradient Map and hit OK. Click on the colour swatches inside the Gradient

Editor window and set the colours of the gradient to match the subject. Try out the various presets or pick your own.

Smooth outline

04 Click on the Gradient Map layer and press Cmd/Ctrl+Opt/Alt+Shift+E. Then Cmd/Ctrl-click on the thumbnail of the

new merged layer and go to Select>Refine Edge. Set Smooth and Contrast to 30 and hit OK. This will tidy the outline of the sketch and make it look nice and smooth.

Now do it in Elements…


What you’ll learnA work-around for

Photoshop Elements users

Photoshop Elements


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What you’ll learnCreating panoramas,

removing unwanted objects, adding a new sky and dramatic effects

Time taken3 hours


Make stunning panoramas

Tutorial Make stunning panoramas

Panoramic images are dramatic in their own right. However, sometimes they are crying out for a bit more atmosphere. Here we will

show how you can get creative with panoramas.

First, we will look at creating a panoramic using

Photomerge. We have provided you with the start

images, but you can skip this step as we have also

supplied the ready-made panorama. Once the

image is stitched together, we neaten it up by filling

in any holes left by the Photomerge process.

With the groundwork is done, effects can be

added. We are going to replace the sky using layer

masks. We are then going to darken the rest of the

image so it all fits in. From here, we can paint in a

little light to shine through the dark. We finish with

a little weather – some mist and rain to set it all off.

Turn so-so city scenes into atmospheric environments using filters, adjustment layers and some nifty tricks

Expert Julie Bassett“Turning photos from ordinary into dramatic is a passion of mine, which is something that I have done in this panoramic image, taken in a normal, daytime city centre. I am the former editor of Advanced Photoshop magazine, and now currently a freelance writer and sub editor with a very keen interest in photography and photo editing.”

CREATE A PANORAMAOur fi rst steps are to use Photomerge to seamlessly stitch images into a panorama. The result is then cropped and tidied up before any visual effects are added.

NEW SKYLINEThe original sky isn’t dramatic enough, so we bring in a new one and blend it into the scene using layer masks.


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Reveal your panoramas to ussearch for photoshopcreative

On the discAll the start images for this perfect panorama

Create the panoramic

01 Collect the images for the panoramic. Go to File>Automate>Photomerge

(in Elements it’s Enhance>Photomerge>Photomerge Panorama). Hit Browse under Source Files, choose the panoramic images, select Auto and then OK.

Tidy the panoramic

02 Photoshop will create a panorama. Grab the Crop tool to remove the

blank areas at the edges. For the remaining blank areas, select with the Magic Wand tool, then use Edit>Fill>Content Aware.

The Elements method

03 In Elements, once Photomerge has finished, you will be asked if you

want to automatically fill in the blank areas. This does the same job as Content Aware in Photoshop. Select Yes and then crop out the required composition.

Start imagesREMOVE UNWANTED

OBJECTSOur original image has a lamppost running right down the middle, so we use the Content Aware Fill and Clone Stamp options to remove it.

MOODY EFFECTS AND TONINGWe darken the image before adding a blue tint to go from day to night, before bringing some light back into the streetlamps.

RAIN AND MISTAs a fi nal step we add some rain using fi lters and mist using a soft brush to help bring the image together.


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Tutorial Make stunning panoramas

Tidy up the image

04 To remove unwanted objects, duplicate the Background layer. Select the whole of the

lamppost using your favourite selection tool. We used the Pen tool, but you can get pretty good results with the Magic Wand. Next go to Edit>Fill>Content Aware.

Refine the removal

05 Content Aware Fill does a decent job (also see the Remove Objects in

Elements boxout). Select the Clone Stamp and zoom in. Use Opt/Alt-click to select a source area and clone away imperfections.

And repeat...

06 It takes some time to get a good result. Once the lamppost is

removed, do the same on any other unwanted object. We’re getting rid of the A-board in the bottom left and one of the uglier buildings.

Blend the sky

09 Add a layer mask to the top sky layer, then select a 50% Opacity brush

with black paint. Carefully paint over the join of the two sky layers to blend them together. Now, go back to the top Background layer and select the layer mask there.

Select the sky

07 Duplicate the Background copy layer and use the Magic Wand tool

to select as much of the sky as possible. Adapt the Tolerance value to suit. Go to Select>Inverse and hit the Add Layer Mask button at the bottom of the Layers palette.

More sky work

10 Set the black brush back to 100% Opacity. Zoom right into the sky line,

and then paint on the mask where the original sky shows through to help blend in the new sky perfectly. This will take a bit of time to get right.

Bring in a new sky

08 Open the sky image. Copy and paste it into the panorama and

place it underneath the layer with the mask. Align to the right. Paste the sky in a second time, but rotate it 180 degrees and place it on the left-hand side to fill the whole sky.

Add some atmosphere

11 The rest of the image is too bright now. Hold down Cmd/Ctrl and then click on

the layer mask on the top Background layer to create a selection of everything bar the sky. Add a Levels adjustment layer.

Expert tip

If you want to try this on your own photos, you will need a tripod or level surface. Set your camera up at one edge of your scene and take the fi rst photo. Move it along a bit, overlapping with the fi rst photo’s edge, and take the next. Continue until you have a minimum of three images (but more is better) taking in the whole of the scene that you want to capture. The overlap is very important, as this will help Photoshop fi gure out how the images should be stitched together.

Take your own images


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Control the Levels

12 Take the left-hand Levels control and pull it to the right to darken the

shadows in the image. Do the same with the middle control to darken the midtones. You can go for any value you like; ours is 74, 0.76, 255 for the values from left to right.

Turn on the lights

14 Add a new blank layer, setting its blending mode to Screen and Opacity to 80%. Select a

small, soft-edged brush and choose an orange/yellow shade. Zoom in on the lamppost to the right of the church, and carefully paint into the glass.

Tone the image

13 Give the image a slight blue tone to make it more dramatic. Add a Hue/Saturation

adjustment layer at the top of the layers. Tick Colorize and make Hue: 201 and Saturation: 37. Change the Opacity of the layer to 55%.

Dodge the light

15 Create a merged layer at the top of the stack (Cmd/Ctrl+Opt/Alt+Shift+E).

Select the Dodge tool, set to Highlights and 50% Exposure. Paint over your streetlights and areas that would be hit by the light.

Let it rain

16 Add a new layer and fill with black. Go to Filter>Noise>Add Noise, tick

Monochromatic and add a lot of noise (250). Use Levels to emphasise tone, then apply Filter>Blur>Motion Blur to get the rain effect, changing the Angle to around -50%.

Final mist

17 Set the Rain layer to Screen and lower the opacity. Create one last blank layer and select a

large soft brush filled with white set to 20% Opacity. Paint in some mist along the bottom of the image and change the layer blending mode to Overlay.

Reveal your panoramas to ussearch for photoshopcreative

Expert tip

Photoshop Elements does have some Content Aware features, but it doesn’t yet have the option to fi ll an area with the technology at your request. Therefore, when it comes to removing objects from the panoramic, you will need to try other methods. The most accurate is to simply use the Clone Stamp tool very methodically. However, you can get a good start with the Healing Brush tool which fi lls the area using information from a source point. It’s not perfect, especially on bigger objects, but used in conjunction with the Clone Stamp tool, you can get decent results.

Remove objects in Elements

Photomerge1 Learn Photoshop’s

fantastic Photomerge feature for instant panoramic edits

Content Aware2 An essential editing

technique to remove objects with precision

Clone Stamp3 Remove

imperfections with a fi rm Photoshop favourite

Replacing skies4 A common

Photoshop edit, discover how layer masks can help blend a new sky

Making rain5 Add rain to a

landscape to give an instant shot of drama



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What you’ll learnDiscover how to draw

shapes to create exciting visuals with the Pen tool

Time taken2 hours

Photoshop CS2 and above and Creative Cloud Illustrate with

the Pen tool

Tutorial Illustrate with the Pen tool

The Pen tool is one of the more advanced tools, and can be daunting if you’re just starting out. But have no fear; mastering this

vector-based tool isn’t as hard as it seems. Based

on Bézier curves, the Pen is actually very

predictable and easy. And thanks to some handy

keyboard shortcuts, it’s very efficient, too.

When using the Brush tool, drawing is rigid,

relying on the Eraser to correct mistakes. The Pen

tool enables shapes to be fully drawn and then

revisited to edit size, shape, angles and curves.

With this tutorial we’ll go through the basic Pen

tool controls, and guide you through the many

useful features of using paths, such as stroking

lines and filling shape. Brush Dynamics will also

come into play as you learn to utilise a range of

different tools to quickly create a professional-

looking masterpiece.

Learn how to use the Pen tool to transform a blank canvas into a vector masterpiece

Expert Jenni Sanders“No matter what I’m doing in Photoshop, I’ll always use the Pen tool for something. My fi rst experience with photomanipulation was watching wide-eyed as my dad cloned out holidaymakers from our family beach photos. From that moment I was hooked.

On the discDownload the textures and brush start fi le!

Start images


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Share your Pen tool prowesssearch for photoshopcreative

Cutting out

04 If you put a point in the wrong place, simply hold Cmd/Ctrl and drag it

back where you want. When the entire hand is outlined and with the Pen tool selected, right-click and click Make Selection. Set the Feather to 0px and hit OK.

Open the image

01 Let’s get acquainted straight away with the Pen tool. Open the image

‘Paint brush.jpg’ and select the Pen tool (P). We’re going to use it to cut out the hand from the white background to allow for interaction with the shapes we draw.

Begin to draw

07 Open the Paths palette via Window>Paths and with the Pen tool selected, click the New Path icon at the bottom of the palette.

Draw the first curve emanating from the centre using Cmd/Ctrl and Opt/Alt to adjust like before. The less points you use, the smoother the curve.

Create your background

05 Double-click the Background layer, then go to Layer>Layer Mask>Reveal

Selection. Press Cmd/Ctrl+Shift+N to add a new layer underneath. Use the Pen to draw a shape for a two-toned background. Ctrl/right-click and select Fill Path.

Cutting out

02 Click at the base of the wrist to make the first anchor point, put a second

at the first curve, a third at the next curve etc. The lines are currently straight, so go back to your second point, holding Opt/Alt, drag from the centre of the point out left.

Colour it in

08 Go back to the Layers palette and create a new layer (Cmd/Ctrl+Shift+N) below the Brush layer. Choose a

Foreground colour and set your Brush (B) to 100% Hardness and 30px. Select the Pen tool and Ctrl/right-click to pick Stroke Path. Select Brush and un-tick Stimulate Pressure.

Add a centre point

06 Select the Ellipse tool (U) and draw a circle at the tip of the brush, put

this layer under the Brush layer. Turn off the Stroke and Fill the shape with a block colour. Repeat with other custom shapes for extra detail. Find these in the top banner.

Make adjustments

03 Two adjustment points will appear. Keep dragging left until the left side

matches the wrist. Release, then press Alt and drag the right hand point in so the bottom of the curve matches the wrist. Adjust the other points, and then continue to draw around the hand.


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Tutorial Illustrate with the Pen tool

Add more curves

09 Go back to the Paths palette. On the same path layer, draw a subpath of another curve,

keeping the colour and brush size the same. This time, Ctrl/right-click and click Stroke Subpath and tick Simulate Pressure. This will add a nice tapered point.

Complete your shape

10 Continue to add to this path layer, varying the brush size and switching

between Stimulated Pressure and not. Now also use the Pen tool to draw additional shapes such as leaves by joining up the path points. Then instead of adding a stroke, Ctrl/right-click>Fill Path in the same colour.

Add more curves

14 Repeat these steps with a few more curves to add more interest. But

don’t forget about the Brush tip. Create a new layer with Cmd/Ctrl+Shift+N and with a black paint brush (B) at 5% Opacity, paint in a subtle shadow at the tip of the brush for even more realism.

Add more shapes

11 Create a new layer and paths layer and select a different colour. Repeat

previous steps to draw in more curves, shapes and details, adjusting the brush size, toggle stimulate pressure and create a new layer for each colour – have fun with it!

Textured background

15 Open the three supplied texture files and add them into the background above the

Background layer. Use similar colours and varying opacities to give the image a textured grungy look.

Wrap it round

12 To add more depth, create a new layer underneath the Brush layer and

draw a wavy line leading from the centre up the brush and hand. Ctrl/right-click>Stroke Path. Add a layer mask and paint in black alternating waves to make it appear as though the line is wrapping round the photo.

Add a shadow

13 Duplicate the wavy line, double-click the thumbnail of the layer copy and

add a pale Drop Shadow, hit OK. Ctrl/right-click>Rasterize Layer Style. Fill the layer mask in black, and paint in white where the line crosses the brush or hand.

Expert tip

When drawing curves with the Pen tool it is easy to make jagged and uneven edges instead of smooth fl owing lines. There are some tricks for avoiding this, though. Try and keep your adjustments to no more than 30-40˚ away from the line. But most importantly, make sure that you place your anchor point where you want the line to change direction – not where you want the middle or the dip of the curve! This will ensure a smooth transition between angles.

Smooth curves

Expert tip

Drag out the Pen tool icon to reveal the Freehand Pen tool. This allows you to draw freely without having to place anchor points and Photoshop will convert it to a path when you release the mouse. This allows much more creativity and freedom to make new shapes. You can adjust how sensitive the Pen is using Curve Fit – the higher the number, the smoother the curves.

Freehand Pen tool


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Vibrant colours

16 To really make it shine, add a Gradient Fill adjustment layer, choosing strong, warm

colours. Set the blend mode to Lighten to get the colours to interact with just the darker shades. To get back the lost detail from the paintbrush, add a bright levels layer with a layer mask.

Final tweaks

17 If the gradient layer has washed the image out, add another Levels

adjustment. Drag the black slider down until the contrast has returned. As you’ve saved your paths, if you want to adjust any of your past curves just go back and tweak away!

Share your Pen tool prowesssearch for photoshopcreative

Useful tips when working in vectorCloser look Pen tool art SWATCHES

Create your own colour palette! Either use the Eyedropper (I) to copy a colour or select via Set Foreground colour, then on the Swatches window click the New Swatch icon.

SAVED PATHS With each colour path created separately, it makes it easy to adjust each shape individually. Simply click a path to select it and begin adjusting with Cmd/Ctrl and Opt/Alt.

SEPARATE LAYERS By drawing the shapes on separate layers it makes it possible to change the order of the shapes quickly to alter the dynamic of the image.

EMBRACE THE CURVE Flow through your design by working with the natural curves of the Pen – the less points the better in order to avoid jutting points or edges where you don’t want them.

STEP BACK Make sure to keep zooming out to get a feel for the image as a whole. As important as the details are, you don’t want it to get too unbalanced.

Drawing paths1 Discover how to make

perfect paths with Photoshop’s Pen tool

Custom shapes2 Add and edit ready-

made shapes

Fill path3 Give your pen-drawn

creations colour

Levels adjustment4 Boost level and tone

the safe way

Gradient fi ll5 Add an interesting

colour wash that can be edited later



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The easy way to learn Adobe Photoshop

Simple guides For Photoshop & Photoshop Elements

Replace Color ...............................................70Tilt-shift toy town ......................................72Remove unwanted objects ..........76Stylised landscapes .............................78

Essential editing guides

Step-by-steps… Remove objects

Ever taken a photo and wished something wasn’t in it?! (p76)

Top techniques…

12-pagebeginners’

section startshereCreate a

tilt-shift effectGive your images a classic photographic (page 70)

Classic edits made easy…


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Photoshop for Beginners


Learn to edit with Replace ColorWe reveal a quick and easy way to swap colours in your imagesHave you ever looked at an image and

wished that you could tweak a colour, or

better yet, take it out altogether and swap it

for a new one? Happily, with the magic of

Photoshop Elements at your fingertips, this

type of edit is a real doddle.

There are a few methods to try when it

comes to colour swapping, but one of the

easiest to master is the Replace Color

function. If you have a relatively defined

block of colour, this simple adjustment lets

you select the colour you want to replace,

and what colour you want to replace it with.

Then after just a few clicks it’s hey presto!

New life and new colour has been added to

juice up your image.

Quick Edit…

Start image

Colour magicTransform red into green in just a few clicks using the Replace Color adjustment


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Photoshop Creative 71

Change it up Inject new colour into a shot

Select the parameters

02 With the duplicated layer selected,

navigate to the top toolbar. Click

Enhance>Adjust Color>Replace Color. The

Replace Color panel will appear. Use the

eyedropper tools at the top to select, add to

or take away areas of colour to replace.

Add new colour

03 Once you have your area selected,

take a peek at the Replacement area.

Here you can tweak the individual Hue,

Saturation and Lightness sliders to select the

replacement colour. Tick the Preview

checkbox to instantly see the effect.

Open up and double up

01 Open your image in Elements. Ensure

that Expert mode is selected. You can

also use Quick mode, but we are going to be

using layers. Ctrl/right-click the Background

layer and select Duplicate Layer.

Tidy it up

04 Smaller areas of a similar hue to the

one being replaced may come along

for the ride. This is easy to fi x. Working on the

duplicated layer, pick the Background Eraser

tool, select a suitable brush size and then

carefully paint out any miscoloured areas.

What does it mean?

LOCALIZED COLOR CLUSTERS This Replace Color option tells Elements to focus on the colour in the area where you clicked, and not select

areas of that same colour throughout the image. Very useful

if you have two red objects and you only want to change

one of them, for example.

Replace Color panel Get to know each of these buttons and sliders and use them together for colour wizardry

EyedroppersUse these tools to select, add (Shift-click) and remove (Opt/Alt-click) areas of colour to replace on the image or the preview box.

Fuzziness sliderThis lets you control if related colours are included in the edit. Drag to the right to include more or to the left to include less.

Selection or ImageThese are preview options. Selection highlights where colour will be replaced. Image shows a preview of the whole shot – handy if you’re zoomed in.

Preview checkbox

Tick this box to see the full effect of

your colour replacement. You’ll

see your image change as you

tweak the settings to make sure you get the right look.

Sample colour box

This box shows you the colour that

you’re replacing. All of the areas

featuring this hue will be swapped out

for your chosen replacement colour.

Replacement sliders

Tweak and adjust these sliders to select the Hue, Saturation and

Lightness of your replacement colour,

which will be displayed in the box.


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Master the tilt-shift effectLearn how to shoot and edit your

images to look like a toy townThe tilt-shift effect, which is particularly

popular with cityscapes and street

photography, can easily be imitated using

Photoshop Elements. In fact, if you own a

version of Photoshop Elements 12 or later,

there’s a Guided edit called Tilt-Shift that will

do all the work for you. But it’s still worth

trying out this effect manually using your

own mix of adjustments and learning how to

manipulate layers and masks to achieve the

results you had in mind.

We take you through the various ways to

make your own tilt-shift effect here, as well

what to think about when taking your own

photos to use. Locating the ideal position

can be tricky, but it can also be fun to hunt

down the perfect shot and make this effect

your own memorable adventure!

Classic techniquesStart image


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Nice and highThis is a perfect subject for the tilt-shift effect, as it’s high up and looking down on the city at an angle

Too lowThe angle looking down onto the scene is too low for the tilt-shift effect to work

How to shoot for tilt-shift What to think about when sizing up a good photo for the effect

Tips for that perfect tilt-shift shot Valuable pointers to ensure success every time

When the opportunity presents itself we

want to make sure we capture the image in

just the right way. This will make editing in

Photoshop Elements much easier. Here are

some important points to consider when out

and about with your camera searching for

that perfect tilt-shift image.

Using a zoom lens with your

camera is useful because you

can crop the image while you

shoot. When it comes to

location, busier is better. Look

for a scene that has plenty of

people or vehicles because

these will give more impact.

Stick your camera in Tv mode (shutter priority) and

choose a fast shutter speed of 1/125s or above. This will

make sure any moving subjects appear in focus, which is

what we need for the tilt-shift effect.

Be sure to take your tripod out for a test run,

as it will help you to compose the scene and

capture the action. Some tripods can even

wrap themselves around objects, such as a

rail or post, which helps to get between bars

and fencing that could ruin a photo.

Right

Wrong

Busy is good Think fastThe best kind of support


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Work smart

01 Open ‘Tilt-shift.jpg’ from the supplied resources. We need to

make a duplicate of the original layer (called Background inside

the Layers panel down the right side). To do this, go to Layer>Duplicate

Layer. Name this new layer Blur and hit OK. A new layer will appear

above the Background.

Gradual focus

05 Draw a line out from the centre of the area of the image where

you want the effect to be placed. The Gradient tool should

create a soft line of focus. If this initial line of focus is too narrow, draw

a longer line with the Gradient tool to enlarge this area.

Masked pixels

03 Add a new layer mask to the top image in the layer order (should

be the blurry one) by clicking on the Add Layer Mask button in

the Layers panel. This makes it possible to edit the layer without

actually damaging the pixels of the image.

Create depth

02 To create the heavy blurring that this effect is known for, go to

Filter>Blur>Gaussian Blur. Inside the fi lter, set Radius to 20. This

gives a good dose of blurriness, and can always be increased later on.

Hit OK to go back to the image.

Boost colour

06 Now that the basic effect is in place, tweak colour and contrast

to make the image really stand out. Add the Hue/Saturation

adjustment by going to Layer>New Adjustment Layer>Hue/Saturation

and hitting OK in the pop-up menu. Increase Saturation to +30 to see a

big improvement to colour.

Set up tool

04 Press G for the Gradient tool. This is used to create the line of

focus running through the image. Set the Gradient tool to

Refl ected from the Option panel, with 100% Opacity and tick

Transparency. Be sure that the Foreground colour is black and the

Background colour is white.

Create your own effect Make the image come to life using layers and adjustments


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Better lighting

07 Add the Brightness/Contrast adjustment from the New

Adjustment Layer menu. Increase Contrast to around +50 for

stronger lighting. Jump back to any adjustment layer by double-clicking

on its layer’s thumbnail.

Reapply fi lter

09 To strengthen the effect, create a duplicate of the blurry one by

pressing Cmd/Ctrl+J. This layer will double-up the effect and

increase the amount of blurring. Another possibility is to go back into

the Gaussian Blur fi lter and increase the Radius setting.

Control blurriness

08 To lower the strength of the blurring effect, click on the layer

that was blurred earlier and lower its opacity. Reducing this

down to 50% will fade the effect, and dropping to 0% will completely

hide the effect.

Follow the Guides

01 In Elements 11 and

12, the Tilt-Shift

effect comes under the

Guided mode. This takes

you through the steps for

making the effect and does

all the hard work for you. To

get started, click on the

Guided tab at the top.

Not bad!

03 Clicking on Modify

Focus Area enables

the position of the focused

part of the effect to be

altered by drawing a new

line over the image. But, as

it stands, the Guided effect

does a good job by default.

Auto tilt-shift

02 Locate Tilt-Shift from

under the Photo

Effects section down the

right side of the interface.

The fi rst move is to click on

the Add Tilt-Shift button.

Doing so gives a pretty good

effect to start off with.

Carefully does it…

04 Click on the Refi ne

Effect tab to alter

the colour and contrast of

the effect, and strength of

blurring as well. These

sliders give the control

needed to create the

perfect tilt-shift effect.

What does it mean?SATURATION describes the

strength of colour in an image. It’s the difference between the amount of colour in the pixels,

and the more saturation there is the stronger the

colour will appear.

Guided edits in

Photoshop Elements 12 Here’s how Elements 12 can create the effect for you


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Remove objectsDon’t let stray lampposts or street signs ruin your shot!It’s all too easy to miss a distracting object

like a street sign or lamppost while you’re

busy snapping away, only spotting them

afterwards when you look back through the

photos that you’ve captured.

More often than not, reshooting images

with distracting objects looming behind the

subject, perhaps even appearing to grow

from out of their head or shoulder, is simply

not an option. Fortunately though,

Photoshop Elements 12 has the tools you

need to remove these blemishes.

How long it takes to carry out adjustments

like this naturally depends on the severity of

the problem but you will soon find that, with

practice, you get quicker and more adept at

dealing with distractions. Of course, the big

secret lies in ensuring that the editing you

do is as seamless as possible, so that

anyone viewing the photo can’t spot that

something has been removed at all.

Tool Focus…

Start image

What does it mean?

CLONE OVERLAY and SAMPLE ALL LAYERS can seem confusing, but

each offers a simple choice. Clone Overlay allows you to choose whether

the sampled pixels ‘hover’ over areas you’re working on. Sample All Layers tells Elements to take

samples from all the layers. Generally, you can leave

it unchecked.

Hair lineAlways pay close attention to areas of irregular detail,

such as around the hairline, as this can be a giveaway if

not blended carefully.

Zooming inRemember to zoom in as you work, but if an area of the image is giving you particular issues, zoom out again to see how noticeable it will actually be.

Blue skiesContrary to what you might expect, areas of uninterrupted colour, such as a cloudless blue sky, can be tricky to work with. Thankfully the Healing Brush copes well.


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Master the Healing Brush It only takes a few steps in Elements to remove annoying distractions

Closer look at the Healing Brush tool The Healing Brush can be customised to perform as you want it to

Use the Marquee tool

05 Sometimes it is easier to remove a

distraction by putting something on

top. The windows in the building are a good

example. Use the Marquee tool to select a

neighbouring window, right-click and choose

Layer via Copy. Move the duplicated window.

Healing Brush options

02 Choose the normal Healing Brush.

Change the Mode to Replace and

uncheck Aligned. Use the Brush Settings

button to reduce Hardness to 0%. Also ensure

that Size reads as Off.

Begin retouching

03 Hold down Alt and click once to select

a source point. This is what will be

referenced as you click on the object(s) to

remove. Reselect source points often to

ensure that it’s appropriate for the area that is

being removed.

Get set up

01 Open ‘Lamp post portrait.jpg’ and

activate the Expert mode in Elements.

Before you begin, it’s an idea to duplicate the

Background layer – the main image layer. Then

head to the Toolbar and select the Spot

Healing Brush tool or press J on the keyboard.

Normal mode

04 Elements 11 can intelligently blend the

pixels from the sampled source area

and the part of the image being removed. Be

cautious with this, though, and always ensure

that the blend is accurate, particularly when

working close to points of transition.

Healing Brush typeYou can choose either a Spot Healing Brush, which works well for pimples or sensor dust, or the regular Healing Brush.

AlignedWhen checked, the source point you selected changes as you carry out your retouching work. This can cause problems so is often best left unchecked.

SourceChoose between Sampled and Pattern. There are relatively few common situations in which the latter will be of much use, so stick to Sampled.

ModeThe two options at the top, Normal and Replace, are the most useful. The former creates a blend while the latter places sampled pixels on top.


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Stylised landscapesTransform a standard landscape into a picture with punch by adding a new skyLandscapes are a very popular photographic subject and it is easy to get a great image of a vista. The problem is that all landscapes from one

location look much the same. Luckily, Elements can help you turn a

perfectly nice scene into something with a lot more impact.

We’re going to take our mountain view and replace the bland sky with a

vivid orange sunset. The orange sky and the blue landscape don’t look like

they belong in the same photo, however, so we’re going to also colourise

our mountains to take on a bright orange tone to match the sky and blend

the two images together.

We’re going to do all this with just the basic tools available in Elements

(and Photoshop too) along with a few essential tricks.

Merge photos…

Start imagesOn the siteDownload the two start photos to make this!


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Refine Edge Hue/Saturation

Give landscapes a vivid wash of colour for instant improvement Add an extreme colour boost to a lame landscape

Refine Edge is a great feature in both

Photoshop and Elements that helps you

to make tricky selections without

complex tools. You can make a selection

as best you can of any subject and then

use Refine Edge to perfect it. The Smart

Radius analyses the edge of your

selection and looks for where

background might be creeping in based

on colours, adjusting the radius of the

selection to suit. Decontaminate Colors

looks for patches of colour within the

selection that belong to the background

and eliminates them.

Use Hue/Saturation on any image to selectively adjust

the Hue, Saturation or Lightness of the tones. If you tick

the Colorize box, as we have done here, it applies a

block colour over the whole image, keeping the original

tones. Combine with blend modes for striking effects.

Select the sky

04 Pick the Magic Wand tool and click on an area of blue for part of

the sky to be selected. Hold down Shift and then click on other

areas of the sky until every bit of it is selected.

The start images

01 These are the two images that we are

going to use. They are very different,

but the point of this tutorial is to show you

how we can blend them together into one

image regardless.

Set up the canvas

02 The fi nal image is going to be portrait

orientation. Create a blank canvas. Go

to File>New>Blank File. Name the fi le, set

Width to 23cm, Height to 30cm, Resolution to

300ppi with a transparent background.

First landscape

03 Go to File>Open and browse to fi nd

the landscape to use for the scene,

clicking Open to open it in a new tab in

Elements. Zoom in a bit (Cmd/Ctrl+’+’) so you

can see where the sky meets the mountains.

Inverse the selection and refi ne

05 When all of the sky is selected, go to Select>Inverse, so that

the mountains are selected instead. We want to make sure that

the selection is perfect, so go to Select>Refi ne Edge to bring up a new

dialog box.


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Set up Refi ne Edge

06 Change the View Mode to On Black so you can see where the

sky is still visible in the selection. Tick the Smart Radius box

and you should see some of that sky disappear. Adjust the Radius to

1px for the best results.

Finalise the selection

07 Click Decontaminate Colors to help get rid of the bits of blue sky

poking through the plants. Hit OK and the selection will be

applied as a mask. Ctrl/right-click on the mask thumbnail and from the

menu that pops up, choose Apply Layer Mask.

Copy the selection

08 Hold down Cmd/Ctrl and click on the

layer with the sky cut out (the one

with the mask). This will select the whole of

the landscape, minus the sky. Go to

Edit>Copy.

Bring in the sky

11 Go to Edit>Copy, go back to the new

canvas and Edit>Paste. Move the sky

so it fi ts in with the landscape. We had to

resize our sky, by holding down Shift and

dragging the bottom corner handles.

Back to the canvas

09 Go back to the new blank canvas and

Edit>Paste to paste in the landscape

that was just cut out. Move the landscape

around until happy with the composition.

Sort the layers

12 In the Layers palette, move the sky

layer below the landscape layer so that

it sits behind the mountains. Now to start

adding the colour effects. Make a duplicate of

the landscape layer (Layer>Duplicate Layer).

Select the sky

10 Go to File>Open and select the

replacement sky image. Pick the Lasso

tool from the toolbar and draw around the sky

– it can be rough as the bottom will be hidden

behind the mountains.

Adjust the colour

13 Select the new landscape copy layer.

Go to Enhance>Adjust Color>Hue/

Saturation (or Image>Adjustments>Hue/

Saturation in Photoshop) to bring up the Hue/

Saturation dialog box.


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Set the colours

14 Click the Colorize box and adjust the

Saturation to 70. Now slide the Hue

slider until it creates an orange tone that

matches the sky. The orange colours are to

the left of the slider.

Blending the effect

15 Hit OK to apply the colour. The effect is

a little harsh, so change the blending

mode of this layer to Linear Light then adjust

the Opacity until happy with the effect – we

went for 70%.

Final touch

16 Merge layers with this fi nger-twisting

shortcut: Cmd/Ctrl+Shift+Opt/Alt+E.

On that new merged layer go to Enhance>

Adjust Lighting>Levels. Drag the right-hand

and middle sliders to the left to lighten.

A sneak peak at the main tools needed for this simple effectCloser look Main techniques BUILD UP LAYERS

We are going to create a composite made up of one layer with a sky selection and one with a landscape, blended together with colour effects on further layers.

SELECTION TOOLS We’re only going to use the most basic selection tools in this tutorial to cut out the landscape and sky: the Magic Wand tool and the Lasso tool.

ENHANCE The Enhance menu (or Adjustments menu in Photoshop) is where our colour effects will come from. We’ll be using both Hue/Saturation and Levels to add colour and lighten the mood.

REFINE EDGE This handy tool is going to turn our basic landscape selection into perfection – we need the edges to be precise so that it blends properly into the new sky.


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82

SOFTWAREWeb www.adobe.comPrice £78.15/$99.99US

REVIEWS PHOTOSHOP ELEMENTS 12 The specsCompany Adobe

Additional Specs Windows XP or later Mac OS 10.7 (minimum)2GB RAM recommended1024x768 minimum display resolutionDownload only

Photoshop Creative

Discover the best bits of Photoshop Elements 12 The choice picks to whet your editing whistle

Pet Eye toolThe Red Eye Removal tool inside the Quick

interface now has the addition of Pet Eye.

Select the Red Eye Removal tool and tick Pet

Eye in the Options bar. This works by darkening

the bright glare that sometimes occurs.

Content-Aware MoveThe Content-Aware Move tool replaces pixels

that are left behind from moving a subject with

similar surrounding pixels. This enables you to

move one subject to another part of your

image with minimal signs of editing.

Straighten toolCrop and straightening images is something

we do regularly, so it was great to see the new

Content Edge fi lling option with the Straighten

tool. This reconstructs empty areas caused by

images rotating when being straightened.

Photoshop Elements 12Adobe’s latest Photoshop Elements 12 is the next generation of entry-level photo editors

Adobe’s Photoshop Elements has always been about providing the essential photo edits with minimal

fuss. It has also excelled at making special

effects easy to apply, and that’s why each new

version is highly anticipated by those who are

upgrading, as well as newcomers.

Photoshop Elements 12 has seen a number

of important changes, some pivotal to the way

we edit and some not so. New tools including

Content-Aware Move, and edge detection

technology to complement the Straighten tool,

go some way to making basic edits quicker

and simpler. From a visual standpoint,

however, Elements 12 has remained the same,

so we have to dig under the surface to find

those crucial differences.

Let’s start by looking at Elements 12 as a

whole. The Organizer and Editor form the two

halves of the program, something we’ve come

to know with each Elements version. Adobe

has taken the idea of mobile integration one

step further with the addition of Mobile

Albums featured inside the new Organizer.

This will sync your libraries to your mobile

devices anywhere with an Internet connection.

The Editor is where the creation process

begins. There are three interfaces inside the

Editor: Quick, Guided and Expert. Ever since

these were introduced as prominent features

in Elements 11, the program has become more

user-friendly. Each of these interfaces has

seen a number of upgrades and new additions

that have been a combination of Adobe

listening to its fan base, as well as keeping up

with the features given to its bigger brother,

Photoshop CC.

We were relieved to find Camera Raw

software is now a bigger part of Elements,

opened directly from the File menu. This will

go some way in satisfying the needs of

photographers looking for dedicated Raw file

processing. Adobe hasn’t just focused on the

more serious upgrades, though. Looking over

to the Guided interface and there have been a

handful of creative additions, including Puzzle

Effect and Restore Old Photo. These, along

with the other Guided effects, are where the

program shines. They have grown with each

new release and after following their steps we

are impressed with the range of effects.


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83Photoshop Creative

The new Quick interface Elements 12 introduces some new features for applying instant effects

Camera Raw softwareIn Elements 12 you can open up an image into

the powerful Camera Raw software. Although

not as in-depth as Photoshop CC,

photographers can adapt the lighting using the

convenience and accuracy of Raw editing.

Auto Smart ToneThe new Auto Smart Tone offers control over

the tones in your image. The adjustment is set

by dragging an arrow over the image. It also

remembers the changes to one image across

multiple images the more times it’s used.

“ We were relieved to find that Camera Raw software is now a bigger part of Elements, opened directly from the File menu”

SPOT HEALING BRUSHThe Quick interface contains simple tools for cleaning up any dust spots or marks on images. There are no layers in this interface, so these tools are applied destructively.

PRESET EFFECTSThe new Effects panel in the Quick interface contains 10 instant photo effects for transforming images. These include Cross Process, Scary Movie, Summer Day and Vintage.

PRESET TEXTURESNew to Elements 12 is a Textures panel. There are ten in all, and range from fl aky paint to metal surfaces. Click on one and Elements will adjust blending.

INTERFACEBespoke to each tool is the Tool Options bar. They could benefi t more from being spread out across the base, which would then increase the space for the image while still being able to tweak tool settings.

WIN!A COPY OFELEMENTS 12


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84

REVIEWS PHOTOSHOP ELEMENTS 12

HOW TO SHARE AND CONNECT IMAGES TO THE PHOTOSHOP ELEMENTS ORGANIZERThe new Organizer is now smartphone-connected, with Mobile Albums helping us to stay linked up on the go. Mobile Albums is designed for those of us who spend a lot of the time away from Elements but need a way to stay connected to image libraries. Images synced to a Mobile Album will appear in Elements 12, negating the need for cables and untidy USB connections.

The Mobile Albums feature requires Adobe’s Revel app to work and make a connection to your image libraries. Revel is currently available for iOS and Windows devices, though if you’re an Android user then Adobe’s Revel Importer (which is free) will provide similar functionality. The Revel app allows unlimited imports for the fi rst 30 days of use, and caps at 50 photos or videos each month after that. There is the option to upgrade to a Revel Premium account for just $5.99 per month, which allows you to take advantage of unlimited imports every month. Adobe’s Revel app will also help you back up images and let you share them across social streams. But this is mainly about syncing with mobile devices and can benefi t those active photographers and those who want a little bit more between computer and camera.

Mobile Albums

Photoshop Creative

The Quick interface is where we take a step

away from layers and the menus found inside

the Expert interface. Here we can take

advantage of the new preset textures, frames

and effects that have been introduced in

version 12. With a total of 30 presets in the

Quick interface, along with the existing

adjustments and Smart Fix options, it is

impressive how straightforward these

otherwise complex effects are to make.

The other side to Photoshop Elements 12 is

its Organizer, a program dedicated to collating

photos and videos for easier access. The new

version brings photographers closer to mobile

devices. The new Mobile Albums feature is

something that we found beneficial, so long as

we were connected to the Revel app.

The Organizer is split into different

interfaces, just like the Editor in Elements 12,

and includes Media, People, Places and

Events. Photos can be managed depending on

where they were taken, the people in them, or

what the occasion was at the time. There’s

also an Instant Fix editing panel to allow for a

couple of important adjustments to be made

before heading over to the Editor. With these

we were able to crop for better composition,

adjust the lighting with Levels or Contrast, and

improve colour and detail thanks to the

sharpness adjustments.

The People option works to collect groups

and portrait images according to face tagging

and makes it easier to go back to a certain

shoot or time, to edit certain images. Another

side to the Organizer is its ability to share and

create projects from photos. These range

from photobooks, calendars and other gifts, as

well as links to social networks for staying

connected with friends and family. All in all,

Organizer’s Mobile Albums will benefit those

who shoot with their smartphones or tablets

and need links to Elements on the go. We like

the clean interface, which places a strong

focus on the way we sort images according to

content. The Tagging and Catalog features will

benefit those of us who spend most of our

free time behind the camera, and a lot of time

searching through folders upon folders to

locate specific images.

Using the Organizer becomes a matter of

habit and good practice, before considering

which images are worthy of taking into the

Editor. Having all our files there in front of us

in an large interface allows for a more efficient

workflow and selection process, and has

quickly become our first port of call before

moving into making some of the more serious

edits in the Editor. The Organizer doesn’t just

handle photos though, as it can also manage

and collect video files that have been

imported from external devices, such as a

compact camera. But if it’s video editing that

you’re after on top of your photos, then Adobe

has jointly released its Premiere Elements 12

software. This can be bought together with

Photoshop Elements 12 and will set you back a

sum of £117.22 ($149.99US).

“ With a total of 30 presets… it is impressive how straightforward these effects are to make”

QUICK PHOTO ENHANCEMENTSThe Guided edits in Elements 12 are a joy to use, making it incredibly easy to add striking effects, such as Depth of Field, to images.


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MOBILE ALBUMSUpload to your Revel account and you can access your most recent photos inside Photoshop Elements when you return back to your computer.

INTERFACE SECTIONSThe Organizer interface is split into four different parts: Media, People, Place and Events. The last three are there to help you keep your images organised into various categories according to a subject.

EVENTS AND TAGGINGWe can add events and tag people using the options at the base of the Organizer interface.

FIX PHOTOSMuch like the Quick interface in the Editor, there are a number of Photo Fix Options in the Organizer. These help to get the results needed before jumping straight into the Photoshop Elements Editor.


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86

REVIEWS PHOTOSHOP ELEMENTS 12

Photoshop Creative

The latest Guided effects in Elements 12 Let Elements do the hard work and learn new techniques along the way

Puzzle EffectNew Guided options include the Puzzle Effect,

whereby an image can instantly be made to

look like a puzzle. There are three sizes

available for the puzzle pieces, and pieces can

be moved for a realistic digital puzzle.

Zoom BurstThe Zoom Burst Effect re-creates a lens

moving in and out as the image is shot. It’s

possible to control exactly where the effect is

placed with control over a vignette and

cropping using the easy steps.

Restore Old PhotoThis Guided edit does a good job at restoring

weathered old scans. It rounds up all the

retouching tools and fi lters in Elements, and

makes it straightforward to remove blemishes

and scratches, bad lighting and low contrast.

The best one-click effects in Elements 12 Instantly improve your image with these options

Tint Purple

Picture Stack

Sepia

Lomo Camera Effect

Vintage Photo

Frame and Texture Presets


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One-click effects make Elements 12 so unique. This is heightened with the new Guided edits and additions to the Quick interface. A very worthwhile upgrade.9

The verdict

It’s the idea of having our photos available

with us wherever we travel that really appeals,

and Elements 12 seems to do that well.

What’s more, if you’ve been searching for a

piece of software that presents image

adjustments clearly, Elements won’t fail you

on that. The new features in the Quick

interface have more creative potential and will

help you edit if time is of the essence. Of

course its greatest criticism is that Elements is

viewed as a ‘watered down’ Photoshop CC,

but then in retrospect this could actually be its

strongest attribute. Simple adjustments save

the user a lot of time and the clear interface is

very easy to follow.

In direct comparison to Creative Cloud,

there’s always going to be a clear dividing line.

The exclusion of the Pen tool for creating

vector-based art is just one tool that has never

made it across into the Elements feature set.

Photoshop CC’s Mixer Brush tool is another

example of commands that remain firmly

away from the Elements toolkit, and not

having the option to edit in CMYK colour

mode is also on the list of differences. But

then why should we worry about these when

Elements 12 has so much else to offer us?

Upgrading from an earlier version of Elements

has its advantages in terms of a lower pricing,

reducing the costs to £63.49 ($79.99US), and

when you consider what you get for your

money, the bonuses start adding up.

Overall, we found Elements 12 to have

some useful features for integrating with

smartphones using the Mobile Albums

featured in Organizer. Technology like Content

Aware and the edge filling capability of the

Straighten tool may sway those considering a

potential upgrade. But it’s the Editor that

stands tall, with access to more tools to help

photographers edit images, such as Camera

Raw. Elements is whole lot smarter and more

considerate of the common techniques

photographers require on a day-to-day basis.

CREATING GIFTS AND STAYING SOCIALLY CONNECTED IS ALL A PART OF ELEMENTS 12The Create and Share features within the Editor offer up ways to get our images out there into the world. With Mobile Albums and Revel connectivity now part of the Organizer, your Revel library can also be accessed directly from inside the Editor under the Share options. It is also possible to upload creations to Facebook, Flickr and Twitter streams. There are options to print directly from a connected printer as a single printout, Picture Package (a choice of layouts) or via an online print shop for those larger print runs. Elements also lets you design and print photo collages, greetings cards and calendars using your edited images directly from the Expert interface.

Share and share alike

“ Simple adjustments save the user a lot of time and the clear interface is very easy to follow”

PICTURE STACK EFFECTSThe Picture Stack Guided edit offers an interesting way to transform a plain image.

WIN! A copy of the new Elements 12

We’ve got three copies of the all-new Photoshop Elements 12 up for grabs! To be in with a chance of winning one of them, send us an email with your answer to the question below. It really is that simple. Send your entries to this address: [email protected] by 20 October 2013.

TERMS AND CONDITIONS:Email addresses will be used for Photoshop Creative purposes and won’t be given to outside clients. One entry per person. No employees, freelancers or close associates of Imagine Publishing or Adobe, may enter. Editor’s decision is fi nal and no cash alternative will be offered.

Q: Which Guided edit is new to Elements 12?A: Puzzle Effect B: Riddle Effect C: Joker Effect 3 UP FOR GRABS!


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Meet your experts…

Sara Biddle“I really love experimenting with brushes and blend modes – the

freedom to add lovely effects with very little effort at all!”

Daniel Sinoca“I can achieve really interesting effects using Photoshop Elements. Creating

a helmet was a really fun challenge for me.”

Joseph Ahmad“Photoshop is an incredible digital darkroom that provides artists with

an endless medium for creation and exploration.”

Peter Smolens“Photoshop doesn’t have to be about complex images. With just a

few mouse clicks you can create a dramatic comic style artwork.”

Andre Villanueva“Despite all the fancy selection features now

available, I still heavily rely on the trusty ol’ Pen tool.”

Post queries on our Facebook page

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Get in touch

PHOTOSHOP & ELEMENTS

We put your niggling questions to our panel of editing experts!

HOW CAN I ADD LIGHT EFFECTS TO MY PORTRAITS USING BRUSHES AND LAYERS?Maria Kebby, via Twitter

After

Elements

Expert tip

The Layers panel houses all layers, layer groups, and layer effects. The menu can be accessed at the top right corner, which includes the Panel Options. The panel icons control new layers, effects, masks, lock layers and transparency. Clipping masks can be made by Opt/Alt-clicking on the line between two layers. Layer blend modes and Opacity can be changed to alter the image.

Layers in Photoshop Elements

Before

MATERIAL REFLECTIONSCertain materials are highly refl ective, such as polished jewellery and metals. Use a light colour on a Vivid Light layer to up the refl ectivity of the material with highlights.

EYE GLOSSWithout refl ection, the eyes tend to look dull and dry. Use a brush in a very light colour on a Normal layer to add gloss to the eyes.

SKIN REFLECTIVITYSkin is refl ective, especially where the skin is moist. Use a light colour on a Vivid Light layer to add highlights, especially around the eyes, nose, and lips.

CONSIDER ENVIRONMENTSurrounding light can be used to make the fi gure stand out. Try the Dodge tool on the background.

ADDITIONAL LIGHT SOURCESEyedropper the lightest colour from the background and brush around the fi gure edges to create bounce from the environment or another light source, adding drama and blending into the surroundings.


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HOW CAN I MAKE A DISTRESSED TYPE EFFECT USING TEXTURE?

HOW CAN I MAKE A CREATIVE MONOCHROME EFFECT IN PHOTOSHOP?

Tina Blake, email

Damon Rolfe, via Facebook

As with any task in Photoshop, there are a number of ways to create distressed type. Here we’ll use the often overlooked blending sliders to easily bring texture from a backdrop into type. First, fi nd a suitable grungy backdrop, or create your own from a blend of photos as we’ve done here.

Use the Type tool to create some text. A big, blocky font works best so there’s more surface area on which to show the effect. Next, click the fx button in the Layers palette and choose Blending Options. There are two Underlying Layer sliders at the bottom of the dialog. Slide the dark slider inward to progressively expose the darkest parts of the underlying image, and slide the light slider inward to show the lightest parts. Opt/Alt-click and drag the sliders apart for smoother transitions. Keep adjusting the sliders until you have the desired amount of distress.

To begin with, open any image and select Image>Mode>Grayscale. Next, select the Duotone option from the same menu, and set Type to Duotone. Choose a grayish colour for Ink 2 from the Color palette, and label it as ‘custom’. For Ink 1 try using the colour ‘cabfbf’ (enter this into the # fi eld). Experiment with different colours for the two Inks. When done, convert the image back to RGB Mode and apply the Levels adjustment (Cmd/Ctrl+L) to tweak blacks and whites to get the desired effect. Then save the image as a PSD fi le separate to the original image.

Andrey’s expert edit Add colour back into old photos

03 Once all the elements have been painted, tweak colours

in some areas using the Sponge tool at 15-40% set to Desaturate or Saturate.

01 Open ‘Old photo.jpg’ and separate the image out into

layers (for head, clothes, etc). Tools like Quick Mask, Brush and Eraser can be used to blur edges.

04 Use the Color Balance command, switching

between Shadows, Midtones and Highlights, to tweak each layer.

Photoshop CS

After

Photoshop CS

Photoshop CS

Before

Before

02 Add colour with the Brush tool to the separate layers.

Add a new layer above each of the layers for the colour and set the blend mode to Overlay.


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Common problems solved PHOTOSHOP & ELEMENTS


The Pen tool is one of the most effective selection methods Photoshop has to offer, and can essentially be used to select absolutely anything you throw at it! Select the Pen tool and choose Paths in the Options bar. Click to set the origin point. Click again to set a corner point, creating a straight path segment, or click and drag to set a smooth point for a curved path segment (hold

Opt/Alt for a directional change). Continue around the object to the origin point. Use the Direct Selection tool to refi ne. Name the path in the Paths palette to save it. Press Cmd/Ctrl+Enter to convert it into a selection.

HOW EFFECTIVE IS THE PEN TOOL AT CUTTING OUT OBJECTS?Alan Larkin, via Twitter

To make this image of the Lincoln Memorial different from others, we have to reach into the bag of editing tricks and use Photoshop’s tools to put a different twist on a standard stock image. This process works better on images that don’t have much in the way of contrast. With your image open, make a duplicate of the base layer. Apply the Poster Edges fi lter from within Filter>Artistic. Although you can experiment with these settings, the default settings work well. Go to Layer>Adjustment Layer>Threshold. Set Threshold Level to 165. The settings you use will obviously depend on the original version of the image. Make a duplication of the Poster Edge layer. Move the layer to the top and change the blend mode to Multiply. To refi ne colour in the image, go to Layer>Adjustment Layer>Hue/Saturation and set Hue +12 Saturation +79 and Lightness +8.

Duplicate the Background layer and call it Color. Enhance edge defi nition by adding a Hue/Saturation adjustment layer. How much is applied depends on how defi ned the edges are. Click Filter>Blur>Smart Blur. Adjust the Radius and Threshold sliders to smooth out the inside areas while retaining the sharp edge. Duplicate the Color layer and name it Outline. Click Image>Adjustments>Channel Mixer. Click on the Monochrome checkbox. Adjust the sliders to have a stark black and white image with easy separations. Click Filter>Stylize>Find Edges. Use the Edge Thickness slider to help defi ne the thickness of the black edge. Use Multiply, Darken Color, Hard and Soft Light blend modes. If the outline edges are weak or too thick, use the Brightness/Contrast adjustment layer.

After

Photoshop CS

Before

After

HOW CAN I EMULATE AN OLD PHOTOGRAPHIC PROCESS USING AN ORDINARY IMAGE?

HOW CAN I QUICKLY TRANSFORM MY PHOTOS INTO COMIC ARTWORK?

Samantha Roads, via Facebook

John Gerry, via email

Photoshop CS

Photoshop CS

Before

After

Before


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PHOTOSHOP & ELEMENTS Common problems solved


Daniel’s expert edit How can I make a realistic helmet?

04 Apply the Bevel layer style. Grab the Burn tool (O), and

create extra shadows. Duplicate the helmet and use the Eraser to rub out the extra piece.

01 Open the helmet image. Create a new layer and use

the Magnetic Lasso tool (L) to select the helmet. Grab the Paint Bucket tool (K) and fi ll with red.

02 Select the Gradient tool (G), select Radial, open the

Editor, create a three-stop gradient set to dark red, red and white. Go to Layer>Layer Style>Style Settings and set Bevel to 56px.

03 Create a new layer. Grab the Magnetic Lasso tool (L) and

select the face guard. Grab the Paint Bucket tool and fill with a light grey.

Before

SELECTION TOOLSGrab the Magnetic Lasso tool (L) to make a selection by tracing an image. You can add, subtract from, or intersect with an existing selection, just click the corresponding button.

LAYER STYLESUse the layer styles to change the appearance of a layer’s content. Apply the Bevel style to add a combination of highlights and shadows to create a 3D effect.

DODGE AND BURNThe Dodge and Burn tool (O) lightens or darkens parts of the image. Add shadows or highlights by setting to a low Exposure and drag over the image.

BLENDING MODESCreate a realistic effect by setting the Overlay blending mode for the Text layer to refl ect the lightness and darkness of the original helmet colour.

After

TYPE TOOLGrab the Type tool (T), write text, and apply the Stroke effect. Right-click on the text layer and choose Warp Text, pick a shape and then apply.

Elements


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Photoshop Creative



To start with, open up ‘Outdoor portrait.jpg’ and create a new layer. Use the Polygonal Lasso tool to create sunbeams. Use a white fi ll, a Motion Blur fi lter at 800px and layer Opacity 80%. Duplicate the Background layer, and use the Gaussian Blur fi lter. Use the Eraser tool on the eyes, with the Opacity and Flow set to 100% for maximum impact. Duplicate and reduce Opacity to 4% and create a new layer and fi ll with colour ‘e39a78’ and change blend mode to Soft Light. To apply a light leak overlay, set a new layer to Screen blend mode, 100% Opacity, and use a white brush to paint over the bright highlights. Finally remove stray hairs using the Healing Brush tool and File>Save as a PSD.

HOW CAN I MAKE A WARM EVENING GLOW EFFECT IN MY OUTDOOR PORTRAITS?Chris McMillan, via email

Photoshop CS

AfterBefore

Practise this effect on ‘Studio portrait.jpg’ found in the supplied fi les. Slightly destatuate the image using the Hue/Saturation adjustment, shifting Saturation to -46 so that the colour gradient applies evenly. Apply a colour gradient using a pink tone for the darker colours and light fl eshy tone for the lighter colours. Apply the gradient diagonally over the image on a new layer and duplicate it once by pressing Cmd/Ctrl+J. Set one of these layers to the Vivid Light blend mode and the other to Normal. Next, apply a texture layer in Color Dodge blend mode, and use the Eraser tool to remove texture from around the face, leaving it only in the negative spaces of the composition. Reduce the overall opacity to 50%. Use the Curves adjustment (Cmd/Ctrl+M) to boost contrast and make highlights more exciting. A white vignette (by going to Filter>Lens Correction) will help achieve a fantasy-style effect, with white edges surrounding the model.

HOW CAN I APPLY THE GRADIENT TOOL TO MY PORTRAIT IMAGES?Rebecca Looms, via Twitter

Photoshop CS

After

Before


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ContributorsAmro Ashry, Matt Bennett, Sam Brewster, Jo Cole, David &

Sarah Cousens, Cybele Eloy, Marcus Faint, Matt Henry, Steven

Lake, Luisa Nastasa, Daniel Sinoca, Adam Smith and

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Alberto SevesoC

hosen to represent Italy in Fotolia’s Ten Collection Season 2, Alberto Seveso

created a portrait image that would do his

country proud.

The Ten Collection reveals a new PSD to

download free every month for ten months. This

global art project displays the techniques and

processes of some of the most talented

Photoshop artists. Head to www.tenbyfotolia.com to download Alberto’s PSD.

What’s it like as a Ten Collection artist?I feel honoured to be involved in Ten Collection Season 2, because I believe it is a great idea that opens a window into the world of each artist. It can be a good starting point for young artists of the future to see what we do, where we live, how we work and how different our lives are.

How did it all begin?I was contacted last year and asked if I was interested in representing my country in this project. My answer was yes, because I was really excited to take part.

What has been your greatest artistic achievement?My greatest achievement is producing the

offi cial box artwork for Photoshop CS6 Extended. It’s my favourite work because I’m a big fan of Photoshop and this gave me the chance to express my creativity.

When did you actually start using Photoshop?I started using Photoshop around the late Nineties with version 4. At the beginning I was just playing with the software. I had a lot of fun using the tools and trying to understand them all. I learned almost everything I know about Photoshop from playing with the tools and fi lters. I think it was the best approach and I love learning in this way.

How do you approach working on a new design?When I’m working on an image my method is to focus on three stages. The fi rst is to choose a good image. Then comes pure creativity with no rules – you can see the end but you don’t know the direction. The fi nal part is when you know you have to say ‘stop, it’s fi nished, no more changes’.

For more work by artist Alberto Seveso, you can head over to his website now: http://burdu976.com

The Making Of

The right imageI have to feel inspired by the photo. The choice of the image takes a lot of time; that’s because I have to be sure that I really like it before editing in Photoshop.

How Alberto created his image for the Ten Collection

“I learned almost everything I know about Photoshop from

playing with the tools and filters”

Interview

Eric Hosmer

We find out what it’s like being a part of the global art project that is Fotolia’s Ten Collection

Visualise the effect Consider the composition and visualise how the final effect will look. I work with the darker Photoshop interface to keep my eyes focussed on the artwork.

Working with layers Layers are essential in my work. I used a lot of layers in this image in a very complex way; masking and transforming them together to create this abstract effect.

Blend colour Layers of colours were built up using masks and brushwork. The final Layers palette consisted of colour-coded groups so I could stay organised.

Poster

Artwork for Fotolia Ten Collection Season 2


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