Photoshop TUTORIAL by Phil Coggan

Phil Coggan

~ Elite 1000 Member ~
Joined
Apr 2, 2008
Messages
1,147
Location
South Wales
ANOTHER PHOTOSHOP STEP by STEP.
This step by step is aimed at those not familier with PS. There are various ways of doing this, i’ve chosen a way that will be relatively easy.

Presentation can be very important when showing photo’s of your work to potential customers.
Whatever your work, this is a step by step on how to make an ordinary photo look professional.
I’m using a picture of a knife I made in 1983 when I was just starting learning to engrave. As a matter of interest the blade is made from a leaf spring off a Ford Escort.

Import a picture into PS. Drag the right hand corner to enlarge the box the hold Ctrl + to enlarge the picture. Make sure the Layers and Paths are visible, if not, Window > Layer/Path.
In Layers drag the Background Layer to the icon next to the bin this will create a Background copy. Click the’Eye’ off the Locked Background layer.
Click the same icon again to make a New layer. Drag it so it is under the Background copy.

The next part CAN be done with the ‘Lasso’ tool, I only use it on small area’s because you have to put lots of nodes down to create a convincing curve which takes longer and sometimes when your near the end the nodes connect to somewhere you don’t want them to and you have to start from the beginning again.

In Paths click the icon next to the bin to create a new path.
Enlarge the image. Select the ‘Pen’ tool. If Pen + etc. is showing, right click and select Pen.
Put a Node down either side of a radius and work your way around, when you get back to the first node a little circle will appear, this shows that you have completed the circumference.

Select the ‘Add Anchor Point ‘ tool, the pen +
Add an anchor point between each of the nodes that you have previously done, either side of a curve.
 

Phil Coggan

~ Elite 1000 Member ~
Joined
Apr 2, 2008
Messages
1,147
Location
South Wales
ANOTHER PS TUTORIAL Part 1 by Phil Coggan

If you now click on this and move it you will see that it is possible to get a perfect curve.
If the curve does’nt quite fit, grab the ‘antenna’ arms and pull/move them until the line fits. It might seem difficult at first but after some practice it becomes quite easy.
My next pictures are exaggerated to show what happens.


Once you’ve got the line to fit snugly to the contour, ( you might have to re-adjust a few )
Click the ‘Load Path as a Selection’ icon (third from the left) in Paths. This will cause the marching ants effect.
Click ‘Select’ (top tool bar) and ‘Inverse’.

Zoom out so that you can see the whole picture. Ctrl –
In Layers select the top Background layer (make it blue)
Edit > Cut. This will cut out the knife from the background.
 

Phil Coggan

~ Elite 1000 Member ~
Joined
Apr 2, 2008
Messages
1,147
Location
South Wales
ANOTHER PS TUTORIAL Part 1 by Phil Coggan

Now we’re going to colour the background. It can be one colour, or graded colours, paterns, or you could import another picture there.
I’m going to use a dark and a light purple gradient.
Click the big ‘Foreground colour’ square. Select your colour in the chart and Ok it.
Click the big ‘Background colour’ square. Select your colour in the chart an Ok it.

I going to create a diagonal gradient but you can create horizontal, vertical, any combination.
Select ‘Layer 1’ (make it blue)
If you want just the one colour, click the ‘Paint Bucket’ tool (sixth down on right hand side) if it’s not showing, right click it, and double click the picture background or Edit > Fill.
The background will be cloured by whatever colour is in the Foreground Colour square.

Select the ‘Gradient tool’ (sixth down) Draw a line vertical across the picture with the cursor.

The next step is to blend in the knife with the background.
Enlarge the picture. Select the’Blur’ tool, (sixth down on the left)
You’ll need the bluring circle to be about as big as mine in the next picture.
If it’s not, click on ‘Brush’ (top tool bar) and adjust the slider.
The top tool bar should read 'Normal' and '100%.'
Select Background copy in Layers.
Run the circle along the edge of the knife, try and get half the circle on the knife and half on the background.
To get a realistic look, only blur the parts of the knife farthest away from you.
In the picture only a part of the handle has been blured.


Have fun.
Phil
 

Latest posts

Sponsors

Top