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Graphic & Photo Design Tips, Tutorials & Techniques

The design section includes posts and articles that cover tips, tutorials and best practices for various areas of web design on the internet today. Also discussed is print design for offline media. Discussion includes fundamental and moderately advanced topics in the worlds of brand identity, graphic design, photo manipulation, typography and more. Additional topics include how to effectively manage website layout, e.g. mobile and tablet interface, responsive website design as well as coverage of online communities that assist with the design profession.

Using the Dust & Scratches Filter to Clean Up a Photograph

February 15, 2019

If you’re old enough to remember back, you’ll recall that there was once a time when people used cameras that contained film as opposed to using digital cameras. I had one (or many) of those film cameras and I can tell you that while I took hundreds and hundreds of photos, I like digital a lot more. This is because of a few reasons. First, I don’t need to pay for film or processing anymore and second, I can actually see how the various camera settings will affect a photo before I capture it. Looking back, I have no idea how I ever took film photos. It’s beyond me how I ever got a decent shot either. Let’s just say that I’m glad digital rolled around because if it didn’t, I wouldn’t be involved with photography at all today.

The thing is, there are many people out there who have lifetimes worth of photographs and these people want to preserve them for as long as possible. One of the best ways to do this is to scan the image into a digital format and then store it on a hard drive. This way, the photos will take up less room than before, won’t degrade over time and can be easily accessed for online purposes. The only problem is that sometimes these scanned images aren’t in the best shape. Oftentimes, they’ve got dust and scratches all over them. If there were only a way to clean these scanned images up a bit.

Here, take a look at this photograph I’ll be working with today. If you look closely, you’ll see some scratches in the lower left and right corners.

In today’s post, I’d like to walk you through the process of removing some of the scratches in this image. While I won’t restore the photo completely, I will lead you down the path of doing so. I’ll be using the Dust & Scratches filter inside of Adobe Photoshop to do most of the heavy lifting and then I’ll take advantage of the mask that’s created by the Smart Filter to remove some of the filter affect from areas I don’t want to see it. This is a relatively simple process, so this shouldn’t take too long.

Converting to a Smart Object & Accessing the Filter

I have the photo opened up in adobe Photoshop already, so the first step I’ll take from here is to right-click on the image layer and then click on the Convert to Smart Object option from the menu that appears. After that, I’ll head up to the Filter > Noise > Dust & Scratches menu item and click.

When I do this, the Dust & Scratches dialog box will appear.

Adjusting the Dust & Scratches Filter Settings

Okay, this is where you’ll need to experiment with your own images, but I can give you some guidance as to how to best go about doing that. There are two settings in this dialog box. They are Radius and Threshold. Both of these settings are rather sensitive and you can go too far by clicking on the sliders with your mouse and pushing them around. I suggest you go about it like this:

For the Radius setting, instead of clicking and dragging the slider to the right to reduce the appearance of scratches or dust, click once on it to make it active and then use the up arrow on your keyboard to increase the value incrementally. When you begin to see the scratches disappear, stop pressing the up arrow. Again, this is a very sensitive setting and you can easily make the entire image look blurry. You only want to go as far as you have to. For the image I’m working on, I stopped at a Radius value of 5.

For the Threshold setting, follow the same steps as the Radius setting. This time though, use the up arrow until you see the image begin to become sharper again and the scratches or dust reveal themselves. Then, when that happens, go down by one click. For the photo I’m working on, I chose a Threshold value of 10.

So basically, you want to use this tool just until the dust and scratches begin to disappear. Again, if you go too far, the image will become blurry and unusable. This tool is perfect for images that have lots of dust and minor scratches though, so it should be taken advantage of.

When finished with the sliders, click the OK button to accept your changes.

Here are some before and after shots of the lower left corner. Mind you, there were some fairly serious scratches on this photo. The process I followed removed many of them. Any that are left I can easily remove with the Spot Healing Brush Tool.

Masking Away the Filter Effects

The image that I’m working with doesn’t have much dust on it and only has a few scratches in the area of the lower corners. So really, I don’t want to have this filter applied across the entire thing. What I’ll do to remove the filter from any areas I don’t want it is to use the Brush Tool and paint the mask black over those areas. First though, I’ll click on the mask thumbnail in the Layers panel.

Then, I’ll access the Brush Tool and make sure the color that’s set is black. And finally, I’ll paint over any area I don’t want this filter to affect. In this particular image, that will be most areas except for the lower corners and any area that doesn’t have scratches or dust.

After painting for a bit, I have the final mask. Take a look at it in the Layers panel.

Using this filter is sort of like using the Spot Healing Brush Tool, except it’s much more efficient when attempting to cover larger areas with lots of specks from dust and scratches. Also, it’s got some fine tuning controls to it as well, so that’s a definite plus.

I hope I clearly explained how to use the Dust & Scratches filter in Adobe Photoshop. Give it a try on your own images and if you experiment for a while, you’ll quickly learn that your mileage will vary, depending on the severity of the issues you’re facing. If you have any questions regarding this post, please ask in the comment section below or in the Photoshop forum. Thanks for reading!

Using the Camera Raw Smart Filter & Masks in Adobe Photoshop

January 31, 2019

There are many methods for adjusting the color and tone of images inside of Adobe Photoshop, but I have to be honest here when I say that I much prefer using Camera Raw for my editing. While Photoshop does a good job of fixing up images and making them look much better than they did straight out of the camera, it has felt sort of clunky ever since I began using Camera Raw. Camera Raw has got it going on. There are tons of sliders and I do almost everything I need to, color and tone correcting-wise, inside of it. Of course, I use Photoshop when I need to go beyond simple corrections, but generally, simple corrections are all I need 99% of the time.

In today’s post, I’d like to work through a quick project using both Adobe Photoshop and Camera Raw. Sometimes I find myself working on a photo inside of Photoshop when I really need to edit part of that photo in Camera Raw. To help out in situations like this, I take advantage of the Camera Raw Filter to move the photo over to that application and then, when I return to Photoshop after making my edits, I take advantage of masks to limit those edits to specific areas of the image. This is an extremely handy workflow because of its versatility. When used, the editor (you and me) is able to jump back and forth between Photoshop and Camera Raw in a seamless manner. Having masks available to carve out specific areas of an edit is super handy as well.

Today’s Demo Image

Here’s a nice photo of a woman holding a magazine in front of her face. The reason I chose this particular photo was two-fold. First, I like it and second, there’s a distinction between the woman and the wall behind her. I’ll be able to select either her and her magazine or just the wall when the time is right. So that’s why I chose this photo.

What’s My Goal?

My goal with this photo, or project rather, is to pretend that I’ve been working on it in Photoshop for some time, but just realized that it’s sort of dull looking. I’d like to enhance the colors of the woman and her magazine, but not of the wall behind her. I’d like to leave that as is.

Using the Camera Raw Filter

The first step I’ll take is to right-click on the image layer in the Layers panel. When the menu appears, I’ll select Convert to Smart Object. After I do that, I’ll head up to the Filter > Camera Raw Filter menu item and click.

When I click that menu item, I’ll immediately jump to Camera Raw, where I can make my edits to the entire image. You should really read my previous post on how to make photos look fabulous in Camera Raw if you’re interested in that. When I’m finished in Camera Raw, I’ll click the OK button, which will bring me back to Photoshop.

If you aren’t aware, Camera Raw is actually a Photoshop plugin. I like to call it Adobe Camera Raw and refer to it as its own application, but that’s just because it acts like one. I’m not really being very accurate when I do that.

Let’s take a look at the image now that I color and tone corrected it in Camera Raw.

If you look closely at the image, you can see that I not only edited the woman and her magazine, I also inadvertently edited the wall behind her as well. Since I added some sharpening and brightness to the woman, I added the same thing to the wall as well, as is evidenced by the grain on the wall. I didn’t want that, so I’d like to revert the wall back to its original state. I’ll work on that next.

Inverting the Mask & Making a Selection

Before I go any further, let’s take a look at the Layers panel.

As you can see, I’ve got the top image layer that’s now a Smart Object. Below that, I’ve got the Smart Filter that is currently a Camera Raw Filter. The important thing here is the mask. Its thumbnail is white, which means that any and all of the edits I made in Camera Raw are showing. What I want to do is actually hide all of the changes and then reveal just what I want to show.

So, I’ll first need to invert the mask. I’ll click on the mask thumbnail to activate it and then I’ll use the keyboard shortcut of Ctrl+I (Command on Mac) to invert. After using the shortcut, the mask thumbnail should turn black and any changes I made in Camera Raw should be hidden. The changes are still there, but they’re just masked out at the moment.

At this point, I’d like to select the woman and her magazine. To do this, I’ll click on the image thumbnail in the Layers panel and then I’ll use the Quick Selection Tool to make the selection. If you’re interested in learning about how to make great selections in Photoshop, I encourage you to read my previous post on the topic.

Let’s see what the selection looks like. Mind you, this is very fast and rough, so don’t make fun.

Can you see the marching ants? They are surrounding the woman and the magazine.

The reason I had to click the image thumbnail in the Layers panel was to make the selection. Now, I’ll click on the black mask thumbnail in the Layers panel because I’d like to fill part of it with white. The selected area, to be exact.

I’ll click the mask thumbnail and then I’ll right-click inside of the selection while the Quick Selection Tool is still active. When the menu appears, I’ll select the Fill option.

When the Fill dialog box appears, I’ll choose the White option from the Contents drop-down.

Finally, I’ll click the OK button and watch as the wall stays in its original state while the woman and her magazine revert to the edited version. Let’s take a look.

I’ll use the Select > Deselect menu item to deselect the active part of the image and take a look at the final result. It’s exactly as I wanted it to be. This is the final result. While the entire image was modified in Adobe Camera Raw, only part of that modification is showing because of a mask in Photoshop. I’m hoping this has inspired you to apply the same principles I used in this post for projects of your own. This technique is great for landscapes, portraits and all types of photography.

And just in case you’re interested, this is the active mask that’s revealing the woman and magazine while concealing the wall in back of her.

To superimpose the mask over the image in the workspace, I simply held down the Alt key on my keyboard and then clicked once on the mask thumbnail in the Layers panel.

I hope I clearly explained how to use the Camera Raw Filter inside of Adobe Photoshop and then how to use a selection to mask out part of the previous edit. If you have any questions regarding this technique or post, please let me know in the comment section below. You can also ask or add anything in the Photoshop forum as well. Thanks for reading!

How to Focus Stack Your Images For Better Photography

January 26, 2019

This is a very exciting post to share with you. Believe it or not, I’ve actually been having multiple conversations with various people lately on the topic of depth of field as it pertains to photography. Basically, the conversations go something like this:

THEM: I would love to solve the issue of not being able to take sharp photographs, from front to back.

ME: What do you mean? Can’t you just reduce your aperture size so your depth of field is very deep?

THEM: Well, that would work in theory, but sometimes I’m too close to something and the depth of field becomes shallow because of that. Also, I like large apertures because of all the light and clarity I’m able to capture. I feel like I’m being hamstrung because of some sort of limitation.

ME: You are. There’s only so much you can accomplish with your camera. There’s always going to be a trade-off. That’s what post-processing it for. Don’t worry, I’ll soon write a post that will solve all your problems.

You see? It’s that easy. Basically, because of the limitations of how cameras and lenses work, it’s not always possible to take crisp, clear photos that are sharp from front to back. Actually, it’s nearly impossible, unless you’re a decent distance away and are focusing on infinity. But really, a lot of the time, people want to take photos of things that are up-close and would like the entire image to be sharp. Unfortunately, that’s just not possible, even if you set your aperture to a very small size, such as f/18 or even smaller. So what to do?

In today’s post, I’m going to share a technique that top photographers use when they’re in situations like the one I described above. Since these photographers understand the capabilities of their cameras as well as how their cameras actually work, they prepare ahead of time. They bring the necessary gear to the location of their shoot and they capture photographs that they’ll use later on to create the perfect image. The best part is, the technique I’ll show you today is so easy, pretty much anyone can do it, granted they have the necessary software. You’re going to love it.

Down below, I’ll talk about taking multiple photos of the same scene while focusing on different planes of the scene, so you capture each plane in focus. After that, I’ll explain how to modify those images in Adobe Camera Raw and then how to import them into Photoshop as layers. Finally, I’ll show you how to use the Auto-Blend Layers command in Photoshop to “stack” the photos so only the sharp sections of each shows in the final image. Again, you’re going to love this technique because it’ll allow you much more flexibility in your photography. Imagine not having to worry so much about the exact perfect shot every single time you press your shutter button because you know you’ll be able to merge a few different ones later on. It’s liberating, to say the least.

Capturing The Images

Okay, what I’m going to discuss today will be about taking photographs of objects that aren’t moving. Think flower photos or macro photography. A shoot you’ll need a tripod for because trust me, you aren’t going to be able to pull this technique off holding the camera in your hands. You need your camera to be absolutely still and if you have a remote shutter, you might want to use it. Your subject needs to be stationary as well. For my example, I took some pictures of a few bottles of hard cider I recently purchased for a recipe I was preparing. I had to think of something I could scatter on a table and these bottles came to mind. They worked out well enough.

To take the photos, I set my camera to Aperture Priority mode. Then, I set the aperture to f/4.5 because that’s as wide as my lens allows. I set the camera on a tripod and then made a few adjustments so the scene looked good. Overall, I took five photos. I began by focusing on the front bottle and then for every one after that, I focused on the second bottle back, the third bottle back and so on. Here are the five images. Please note the focal points of each.

To alter the focus, I used the magnify feature on my camera and then focused that way. I also use back button auto focus, so that was helpful as well. My goal was to capture multiple images that were taken with different focal distances that will ultimately give me a resulting image that displays a far greater depth of field than any one image in particular.

Enhancing the Images in Adobe Camera Raw

This is just a bonus section, as it has nothing to do with the process of focus stacking. But, since we all want our photos to look as good as possible, I figured I’d add it in. Basically, I selected all five photos inside of Adobe Bridge and then opened them up in Camera Raw. Once there, I edited the first one and then copied those edits to the others. When I was finished and when I thought the photos looked appealing, I pressed the Done button in Camera Raw to return to Bridge. I’ll leave links below for each of these steps.

How Can I Open Multiple Photos From Adobe Bridge Into Camera Raw?

How To Edit More Than One Photo at a Time in Adobe Camera Raw

How To Make A Photo “Pop” With Adobe Camera Raw

Loading the Photos as Layers into Photoshop

So far, I’ve taken the photos with different focal distances and I’ve cleaned them up in Camera Raw. The next step is to move them into Photoshop. The thing is, I would like each of the five files I’ve got to load into the same file in Photoshop as individual layers. There are multiple methods for accomplishing something like this, but I’ll show you the easiest. To move these photos from Adobe Bridge into Photoshop as layers, I’ll select all five image thumbnails in Bridge. Then, I’ll head up to the Tools > Photoshop > Load Files into Photoshop Layers and click. After a bit of working, Photoshop will open up and each of the photographs will be in their own layer. For a more thorough description of the process I just described, please take a look at the first part of this post.

Here’s a screenshot of the Layers panel in Photoshop with the images as layers.

Auto-Blending the Layers

The next step is to blend the photos together, so a spectacular overall image is formed. I’ll go ahead and select all five layers in the Layers panel and then head over to the Edit > Auto-Blend Layers menu item and click.

When I do that, the Auto-Blend Layers dialog box will appear. In that dialog, I’ll choose the Stack Images option as well as the Seamless Tones and Colors and Content Aware Fill Transparent Areas options.

Stacking the images is the primary operation I’ll be performing. I’ll choose the seamless tones and colors option because I used Aperture Priority mode when shooting, and due to that, my camera changed some of the other settings as I focused differently on the various areas of the scene. They’re slightly varied in their brightness levels. Also, Photoshop will auto-align the images during this process because, again, I wasn’t in full Manual mode when I shot the scene. And finally, because there may be some shifting of the layers due to the alignments that may be necessary, Photoshop will fill any gaps with content.

When I’m ready to go, I’ll click on the OK button.

The Final Result

After pressing the button, a few seconds will pass and then the process will be complete. Let’s take a look at the Layers panel now.

Do you see what I see? Masks. Essentially, Photoshop has analyzed each layer and masked out any areas that aren’t sharp. It kept the areas that are sharp and combined them to form one complete image. Let’s take a look at each individual layer to see what went on. I’ll start with the bottom layer (the one where I focused on the bottle all the way in the back) and then I’ll work my way forward.

And here’s the final image composite.

Pretty crazy, right? Do you see how the bottles are sharp from front to back now? And the best part is, the process is very simple. All you need to do is take the photos with varied focal points and then merge them together in Photoshop. Photoshop does all the work, so it’s rather painless.

I hope I clearly explained how to capture multiple photographs with different focus points and then how to blend the images together in Photoshop for a sharp image overall. If you have any questions regarding this post or topic, please ask down below in the comment section or in the Photoshop discussion forum. Thanks for reading!

Colorizing Objects with the Hue Blending Mode in Adobe Photoshop

January 23, 2019

Have you ever wondered how websites that sell clothing and others that sell cars change the colors of whatever it is they’re selling? You know what I’m referring to here. Pretend you’re looking at a Honda Civic on the Honda website and the default color is gray. Below the photo of the car are alternative colors. Click the small square and the same exact car changes color. Neat, huh?

Years ago, before I got into all this design and photography stuff, I wondered how the vehicle manufacturers pulled this little trick off. I thought, “Well, they must roll a differently colored car into the studio and take new photos of it.” That idea never squared with me because, I’m telling you, it was the same exact car – just in different colors. I was dumbfounded.

Now that I’m much more immersed in design and Photoshop and all that goes along with that, I know that, yes, it was the same car or the same sweater or the same pair of pants every time. The company that was selling them used some fancy software to change the colors. I’m sure they have their methods that I’ll never truly know, but I can tell you that we can do something very similar in Adobe Photoshop.

In today’s post, I’d like to introduce you to a blending mode that hardly anyone ever uses. It’s the Hue blending mode and when it comes to changing the color of an object, it comes in extremely handy. In the post below, I’ll select one of the colored pencils in the demo image and then I’ll apply an entirely different color to it. I think you’ll be impressed with the results. You’ll never even know that the original color was, well, the original color.

What Does the Hue Blending Mode Do?

I’ve talked a lot about blending modes on this website, so I can say that I’m rather comfortable with them. This one though, as I admitted above, hardly gets any use. Whether that’s because I don’t change colors of objects very much or it’s because I forget about it, I’m not sure. Perhaps after today’s post, I’ll give it some more love.

So, what exactly does the Hue blending mode do? Well, it allows a color to overlay an object, while maintaining the luminance and saturation of the object’s base color. Instead of simply “colorizing” the base color in a blunt and primitive way, it sort of allows the new color to “absorb” into the underlying one in a much more natural way.

Making a Selection

To start things off, I’ll use the Quick Selection Tool from the left toolbar to select the yellow pencil.

Now, just to let you know, I’m making this rough selection because it’s the easiest way to do this. I could just as easily paint over the yellow pencil with a color using the Brush Tool and maybe I’ll even clean things up later on using this method. But for right now, to give you the general idea of how to do things, I’ll make a selection.

After I make the selection, I’ll head down to the bottom of the Layers panel and click the Create a New Layer button. This will create a new layer while keeping the selection live. With the new layer active in the Layers panel and the Quick Selection Tool still active as well, I’ll right-click inside of the selection. This will open a menu. I’ll choose the Fill option.

Filling the Selection with Color

When the Fill dialog box appears, I’ll choose the Color option from the drop-down. This will make the Color Picker appear, where I’ll choose my new color.

When I’m finished, I’ll click the OK button for both the Color Picker as well as the Fill dialog. Let’s see what things look like now.

Ah, now we have a beautiful solid purple color. Just as I wanted.

Applying the Hue Blending Mode

At this point, since I have a solid color that’s shaped like a pencil in its own layer in the Layers panel, all I need to do is change the blending mode for that layer. I’ll head to the blending mode drop-down in the Layers panel and I’ll choose the Hue option.

Let’s see what that accomplished.

As you can see, the new color has changed the pencil from yellow to purple. As a reminder, the luminance and saturation are maintained from the original color, so that’s why this purple is so light. To give you a better idea of how this works, I’ll recolor a few more pencils quickly by following the same exact steps as I laid out above.

As you can see, we went from green, yellow, orange to blue, purple, green. That’s pretty cool and that’s all there is to it. Again, to clean the edges up, you can easily do that with the Brush Tool set to the original color. Simply paint the edges until they blend in with their surroundings well.

I hope I clearly explained how to colorize objects using Adobe Photoshop and the Hue blending mode. If you have any questions regarding this post, please ask in the comment section down below or in the Adobe Photoshop user’s forum. Thanks for reading!

A Creative Text Effect Using Blending Modes in Adobe Photoshop

January 17, 2019

The thing I love most about this text effect is that it’s so easy to pull off. There’s no special knowledge you need to accomplish what I’ll show you below, so if you can type out a few words and change a blending mode or two, you’re all set. I can see this type of effect being used all over the place. It’s sort of artistic, so you’ll need to choose where you’ll like to utilize it, but I think it looks good. Also, while this effect is simple to create, it’s not something that someone would just come up with, so this is more of a “Hey, that’s a really cool idea!” post than anything else.

In today’s post, I’m going to type out a few words inside of Adobe Photoshop. Then, I’ll color the words with something appealing so the base color matches what I have going on in my mind. After that, I’ll duplicate the text layer and flip it around so the text is backwards. I’ll color that duplicated layer with something complementary and finally, I’ll apply a blending mode to that new layer to see if I can get an effect out of it. I’ll show you a few samples of different blending modes down at the bottom of this post.

My Random Words

Okay, I already created a new file in Adobe Photoshop and now I’m ready to type out some random words. Since I have to type something, I’ll use the Horizontal Type Tool to write out FORWARD & BACKWARD. Here, have a look.

There, that should do it. As you can see, I also colored the text with a nice blue. More specifically, the color is #0099ff. Also, the font I chose is Impact at 129pt.

Duplicating the Layer

Next up, I’m going to duplicate this layer. To do so, I’ll click on the layer in the Layers panel and then use the keyboard shortcut of Ctrl+J. Then, I’ll color the text with a nice orange (#ff9900). Once that’s done, I’ll head up to the Edit > Transform > Flip Horizontal menu item and click. That will flip the text so it reads backwards.

Finally, I’ll align the text to the right as opposed to the left in the Paragraph panel. I’ll make sure I move the text so the left edges match up as well.

Here’s the result of all this.

Applying Some Blending Modes

Really, all I have left to do is choose which blending mode I’d like to use. So, with this in mind, I’ll visit the top of the Layers panel, and with the orange text layer selected, I’ll run through some of the different options. By the way, it’s important that the orange layer be on top of the blue one in the Layers panel.

Let’s start off with Darken.

Now let’s try Darker Color.

How about Color Dodge?

I think I’ll settle on Overlay. It’s the most muted.

Since the overlay layer is so muted, I think I’ll change the color of that layer to white and then reduce the opacity of it to 30%. Here’s what I end up with as my final product.

I think that’s pretty good. As you can imagine, you can run the gamut with all the available options. You can change colors, opacities and blend modes to get the look you’re after. Experiment, have fun and create something wonderful.

I hope I clearly explained how you can create a neat text effect with duplicate layers, colors and blend modes in Adobe Photoshop. If you have any ideas for effects like this, please share them in the comment section down below or in the Photoshop discussion forum. Thanks for reading!

How to Separate a Drop Shadow From a Layer in Adobe Photoshop

January 14, 2019

Did you know that you can separate certain layer effects from the layers you applied them to in Adobe Photoshop? No? Well, don’t worry about it. Not many people do, but the good news is that you can, in fact, separate these two things and what you can do with them after that is so cool. Layer effects take a lot of time to mimic with traditional layers so the fact that we can create them and then pull the away from their original source is extremely helpful. It saves a lot of time.

In today’s post, I’d like to work through a quick project. I’m sure you’ve seen what I’d like to do below before. It’s a shadow effect below a word, as if there’s a light behind the word, casting the shadow in a certain direction. I’ll use Photoshop for this project and the way I’ll go about things is like this: first, I’ll type out the text, then I’ll duplicate that layer, flip it upside down, reshape it and then apply a drop shadow to it. Then, I’ll separate the drop shadow from the original text and I’ll be left with what I’m after. I think you’re going to like this post, so read on below!

Writing Out the Text & Duplicating the Layer

Okay, to kick things off, I created a new file. Then, I used the Horizontal Type Tool to write out the word, “SHADOW.” I thought that was appropriate, plus, I’m not the most creative person out there. After I wrote out the word, I selected that layer in the Layers panel and used the keyboard shortcut of Ctrl+J to duplicate it. Once duplicated, I used the Edit > Transform > Flip Vertical menu item to flip the word over, so it’s the opposite of the word I copied it from.

After that, I nudged the copied and flipped text downward so it sits directly below the original word. Take a look.

Converting to a Smart Object

The next thing I’d like to do is to alter the perspective of the upside down text. I want it to ultimately be a long and somewhat wide shadow. The thing is, in order for me to stretch the text out the way I want, I need to use one of the Transform functions that’s not available unless the text is converted to a Smart Object first. So, to convert the upside down text layer to a Smart Object, I’ll right click on that layer in the Layers panel and choose the Convert to Smart Object option.

After doing this, the layer has been converted, so I’ll be able to reshape it.

Changing Perspective

Now that I’m free to do what I wish with the text, I think I’ll stretch it out some. I’ll head up to the Edit > Transform > Perspective menu item and click. Then, I’ll grab a corner of the bounding box around the text and pull outward. I’ll press the Enter key on my keyboard to accept the changes when I’m finished with them. After that, I’ll use the keyboard shortcut of Ctrl+T for a regular transform and I’ll pull the bottom handle of the bounding box downward slightly to elongate the text somewhat. This is what I’ll end up with.

When I’m done with that, I’ll press Enter again.

Applying a Drop Shadow

Okay, now that all the text is set up, I can create the drop shadow. I’ll double-click on the reshaped text layer in the Layers panel and then when the Layer Style palette opens up, I’ll navigate into the Drop Shadow area.

Inside of this area, I’ll change a few settings. I’ll set the Angle to 145 degrees, the Distance to 0px, the Spread to 10% and the Size to 10px. I’ll also set the Opacity to 50% and keep the Blend Mode set to Multiply. When I’m finished with that, I’ll press the OK button to close the palette out.

Separating the Layer Style From the Layer

As it stands, I can tell that I’ve got a shadow underneath the reshaped text. I can’t see it tremendously because the shadow is pretty tight, but I know it’s there. The only thing I have left to do is to separate the shadow from the text. And then, of course, make the text disappear so all that’s left is the shadow. Also, by this point, I think you can tell what I’m trying to accomplish.

To separate the shadow from the text, I’ll right-click on the Drop Shadow effect in the Layers panel and when the menu appears, I’ll select the Create Layer option.

Once that’s done, a new “layer” will be created in the Layers panel. That’s just the shadow. And since I don’t want to see the layer the shadow was derived from anymore, I’ll hide that one. Here’s what the Layers panel will look like.

The Final Product

Okay, I’m all finished. The shadow has been separated from the text layer and that layer has been hidden to reveal only the shadow. Let’s take a look at what things look like.

Pretty cool, right? Remember, you can separate many layer styles from their originating layers, so don’t stop with just drop shadows. Experiment and come up with something fantastic.

I hope I clearly explained how to separate a drop shadow from it’s original layer in Adobe Photoshop. If you have any questions regarding this technique, please be sure to ask in the comment section below or in the forum. Thanks for reading!

How to Add Multiple Shapes to the Same Layer in Adobe Photoshop

January 11, 2019

I work with shapes in Adobe Photoshop nearly every day of my life. Even in the posts that I write for this blog, I oftentimes include shapes. You can see them as circles, squares and ovals around things I like to highlight in the many screenshots I share. Shapes are easy to use and are very versatile, yet they can be somewhat confusing when you start out with them. Much of the confusion stems from how they’re situated in layers, either with each other or alone. So while shapes can quickly become one of your best friends in Photoshop, they can also start out as a pain in the behind.

In today’s post, I’m going to take some of the mystery out of working with shapes in Adobe Photoshop. There are only a few rules you need to know, so this shouldn’t take long. By the end of this post, a lot of what’s necessary to work with shapes should be learned and you’ll be able to rock and roll.

The Mighty Snowflake

Since it’s been snowing quite a bit up here in Maine, snow is on my mind. Because of that, I think we’ll start with a very basic snowflake. To kick things off, I’ll head over to the Custom Shape Tool in the left toolbar and then head up to the Shape drop-down box in the options bar up top.

Here’s the Custom Shape Tool.

And here I am selecting the Snowflake option from the Shape drop-down box in the options bar.

From here, I’ll hold down the Shift key on my keyboard to constrain the proportions of the shape and I’ll click and drag my mouse on an angle in my work area. This will give me my shape.

To add a fill color and either add or remove a stroke and to adjust the color of that, I’ll use the options in the options bar that are labeled Fill and Stroke. In this case, I didn’t use a stroke and I turned the snowflake gray so it’s visible.

Adding Multiple Shapes to the Same Layer

If you’ve ever dabbled with shapes before, you probably know that when you draw one shape and then draw another one, Photoshop puts the second shape on its own layer by default. If you’d like to add the second (and third and so on) shape to the same layer as the first, you’ll need to change one small setting. To change the setting, I’ll return to the options bar and click on the Path Operations button. Then, once the menu opens, I’ll click on Combine Shapes as opposed to New Layer.

Then, I’ll draw my new snowflake.

If I look at the layer in the Layers panel, I’ll see that both shapes are, in fact, contained on the same layer.

Merging Strokes

Since these two shapes are now contained on the same layer, there’s some fun stuff we can do with them. I’ll start off with adding a stroke and watching as it’s applied to both shapes simultaneously. To do this, I’ll head up to the options bar and I’ll click on the stroke options. I’ll choose dark gray as the stroke color and then I’ll set the width to 5px.

Now lets’ take a look at the snowflakes.

Both shapes now have strokes. Pretty basic, right?

Check this out. If I use the Path Selection Tool to click and drag the smaller snowflake into the larger one, look what happens. Instead of the strokes overlapping, wherever the shapes are touching, that part of the stroke disappears to it’s continuous around the now connected shapes.

Subtracting Front Shape

Let’s keep going. Again, since both of these shapes are on the same layer, I can do even more with them. Because these shapes are currently overlapping, I can return to the Path Operations option and choose Subtract Front Shape from what’s available. Let’s see what that looks like.

It looks like the smaller snowflake took a bite out of the larger one. To make this more clear, I’ll draw out a circle and follow the same steps as I just did to achieve what I just did. By the way, to move the individual shapes around when on the same layer, you need to use the Path Selection Tool. Just click once on the shape you’d like to move and then click again and drag to do the actual moving.

Here’s the circle with the chunk taken out of it.

And if I click and drag that snowflake to the center of the circle, I’ll get a neat effect.

Are you starting to see how custom shapes are made?

Intersecting Shapes

What’s more is that I can intersect two of more shapes by clicking on the Intersect Shape Areas option from the Path Operations menu. . “Intersecting” means that if two shapes are overlapping, only the overlapping portion of the top shape will show. Take a look. The smaller snowflake is overlapping the circle. I have it so the blue outlines are still showing.

Now if I click off to hide the outlines, this is what I’m left with.

Notice how the stroke surrounds the intersection as well.

Excluding Overlapping Shapes

If I return to the Path Operation menu one more time and choose Exclude Overlapping Shapes, I can remove everything that’s overlapping from both shapes that are touching. Check this out.

Changing Shape Stacking Order

As I alluded to above, in order for some of these affects to be visible, a certain stacking order needs to be present. If you click on any one or more shapes with the Path Selection Tool and then go to the options bar and click on the Path Arrangement menu, you’ll see a few different options.

You can lift a shape or shapes up so they’re on top of the stack and move them down to the bottom. Each arrangement alters the outcome of what I went over above, so some experimentation will be needed. As far as what I did, the smaller snowflake was on top of the stack and the circle was on the bottom.

Saving as a Custom Shape

In this final section, I’ll show you how to save a combination of shapes as a custom shape that you can use over and over again.

After positioning both the snowflake and circle where I want them to stay, I’ll return to the Path Operations menu and select the Merge Shape Components option. That will combine the shape as one.

Then, I’ll head over to the Edit > Define Custom Shape menu option and click and then name the shape when the Shape Name dialog appears.

Finally, I’ll click the OK button and to check out my new shape, I can visit the Shape drop-down where my new custom shape will be sitting there waiting for me.

And that’s it!

I hope I helped demystify some of the finer points of the shape tools in Adobe Photoshop. This area is very easy to work with once you get the hang of things, so it’s important to experiment as much as possible. If you have any questions regarding this post, please ask me down in the comment section below or on the Photoshop discussion forum. Thanks for reading!

Adding Advertising Impact to a Photograph with Adobe Photoshop

January 8, 2019

I’m sure you’ve seen all types of ads in magazines and the internet where photographs have been manipulated in many different ways. As a matter of fact, no “original” photo has probably ever been used in an ad. Something has always been done to each and every one. Whether it be simple color correction to more involved color alterations, something has been done. I’m referring to professional ads here, not simpler graphics that are created by those who aren’t in the industry.

In today’s post, I’d like to cover some easy things you can do to add some emphasis to objects in an image using Adobe Photoshop. With my demo photo, I’ll first select the primary object and then I’ll alter its color. Then, I’ll desaturate the remainder of the image to make the object stand out more than it originally had and then finally, I’ll reduce the visibility of the desaturated area of the photo so the object really stands out. You’ll see this type of technique used in magazines and print publications where something very specific is for sale or where a particular message is being conveyed. The purpose behind this is to get the reader to see, but mostly ignore most of the image and to focus their eyes on the actual product. This is about reducing noise in an photograph.

The Demo Photo

I chose this photograph because it’s obvious what the product is. It may be the apple, but it also might be a message the apple is trying to convey. Something like, “This is the epitome of health,” or “Take care of what you treasure.” It could be anything, but the apple is definitely the focus of the image.

Selecting the Apple

First things first. To start off with, I’ll go ahead and select the apple using the Quick Selection Tool.

I’ll size the tool and then configure it properly for my use. Then, I’ll trace the inside of the apple until I see everything I want selected. If there’s something I don’t want selected, I’ll hold down the Alt key on my keyboard to deselect that area.

Here’s the selection.

Changing the Color of the Apple

Now that I’ve got the apple selected, I’d like to make it a bit more green than it currently is. I want it to stand out more. To accomplish this, I’ll go into the Adjustments panel and click on the Hue/Saturation icon.

Once the associated Properties panel is opened up, I’ll push the Hue slider until I find a color for the apple I like.

There, that should do it. I could even make the apple red if I wanted to, but I decided to stick with the green.

Duplicating the Mask

Since I already have the selection made, most of the work for this project is completed. Selections are usually the most complicated challenges of a project. My next goal is to remove the saturation from the remainder of the photograph. To do this, I’ll click on the adjustment layer that I already created and then I’ll use the keyboard shortcut of Ctrl+J to duplicate it. Once that’s done, I’ll click on the new mask and I’ll use the keyboard shortcut of Ctrl+I to invert it. So now, instead of any changes being applied to the apple, they’ll be applied to everything except the apple. I’ll also notice my previous edits being applied to this area, so I’ll reposition the Hue slider so it’s back at the center. Then, I’ll push the Saturation slider all the way to the left, so there’s no color remaining in this part of the image.

This is what the photo looks like now. See how much the apple stands out?

Reducing the Visibility Even More

With this step, I’d like to reduce the visibility of the girl in the photo even more than I have. I’d like to place somewhat of a semi-transparent overlay on top of her. To accomplish this, I’ll press the Ctrl key on my keyboard and then click on the inverted mask in the Layers panel. That will activate the selection once more. The selection of everything but the apple, that is.

Then, I’ll head down to the bottom of the Layers panel and I’ll click on the Create New Fill or Adjustment Layer button. When the menu pops up, I’ll select Solid Color from the available options.

When the color picker appears, I’ll choose white and then I’ll close that out. Finally, I’ll head over to the Opacity slider in the Layers panel and I’ll reduce the opacity to 25%. This is what I’ll end up with.

Now, like I said, I could have gone with a red apple…

Or maybe even blue.

I actually kind of like that blue apple. You get the idea.

And that is how to make an object in an image stand out. I hope I explained everything clearly and remember, this is just the beginning. Graphics like this will usually have text accompany them so they make sense.

If you have any questions regarding this post, please let me know in the comment section below. You can also ask any question you’d like in the discussion forum as well. Thanks for reading!

Softening Skin with Filters & Masking in Adobe Photoshop

January 6, 2019

By now, you probably know that there are many methods for softening skin in Adobe Photoshop. I’ve actually covered quite a few of these methods on this website. The thing is, it’s important to learn as many skin softening techniques as possible because you never know when bits and pieces of each technique may come in handy for other types of projects. Also, it’s nice to have a variety of options to choose from when it comes to modifying the appearance of someone.

In today’s post, I’d like to walk through a project where I’ll soften some of the “hardenss” of someone’s face. In the photo I chose for this project, the model had the full sun striking his side and it made for a harsh look. It’s difficult to hide in this type of environment, so it’s sometimes necessary to work on a photo like this in post-processing. I’d merely like to soften it some. For this project, I’ll be taking advantage of Smart Objects, two different filters as well as a mask. It’s going to be great. I promise. And just so you know, the technique I’ll be using below is appropriate for so many types of skin. It’s a basic softening technique.

The Demo Photo

Here’s the image I was referring to. Do you see how the sun is striking the model’s skin, head on? If that’s the look we were going for, it’d be fine, but again, I think it would be helpful to tone things down some.

Applying the Gaussian Blur Filter

The very first thing I’m going to do is convert this image layer to a Smart Object. To do this, I’m going to try a different approach than I normally do. While working with many tools in Photoshop, it’s possible to right-click directly on the image itself and choose Convert to Smart Object from the menu that appears. In my case, I was using one of the selection tools when I right-clicked.

No matter if you use this method or one of the many others I’ve shown on this site, the layer will become a Smart Object.

After that, I’ll head up to the Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur menu item and click.

When the Gaussian Blur dialog box appears, I’ll adjust the Radius slider so it has a value of 30 Pixels.

I’ll click the OK button, which in doing so, will bring me back to the normal workspace. Next, I’ll click on the Blending Options button in the Layers panel and when the Blending Options dialog box appears, I’ll reduce the Opacity to 50%. Finally, I’ll click the OK button to accept that change as well.

Adjusting Shadows/Highlights

Okay, the theory behind this softening technique is that the Gaussian Blur does the actual softening and then the adjustment of shadows, highlights, brightness and contrast will bring back some of the tone and definition. So in this step, I’ll adjust some of the shadows and highlights.

To do this, I’ll go to the Image > Adjustments > Shadows/Highlights menu item and click.

This will open up the Shadows/Highlights dialog where I’ll change a few settings. to make things easier, I’ll list all the relevant settings below.

Shadows

Amount: 20%
Tone: 50%
Radius: 200px

Highlights

Amount: 30%
Tone: 50%
Radius: 200px

Adjustments

Color: +20
Midtone: +50

To apply these changes, I’ll click the OK button and the dialog will close out.

Since this change affected the shadows and highlights, but also added some unnecessary color to the image, I’ll use the Luminosity blending mode to remove that color. So, again, I’ll double-click on the blending mode icon for this filter in the Layers panel and when the Blending Mode (Shadows/Highlights) dialog box opens up, I’ll select the Luminosity option from the Mode drop-down.

Adjusting Brightness/Contrast

This step is much like the previous one. I’d like to adjust the brightness and the contrast in the image a bit, so I’ll again head up to the Image > Adjustments menu, but this time, I’ll choose the Brightness/Contrast option.

When the Brightness/Contrast dialog box appears, I’ll set the Brightness value to 20 and the Contrast value to 40 and then press the OK button to apply the changes.

This adjustment adds some definition back to the image, while keeping any previous softness intact. But, like the previous adjustment, the additional saturation that was added by this one needs to be removed. To accomplish this, I’ll again set the blending mode to Luminosity, but for this adjustment. That’s easy enough. I’ll just follow the steps I previously gave for this.

Masking Away the Softness

Let’s take a look at the picture of the gentleman now. Take a look at the changes.

I think we can all agree that the man’s skin has been softened, but honestly, I don’t think the changes look very appealing. What needs to be done now is to remove any softening that’s not on the skin. Basically, I’d like to add some sharpness back in again to areas such as the man’s eyes, lips, hair and the background of the image. To do this, I’ll click on the mask thumbnail in the Layers panel, use the Brush Tool (sized and softened appropriately) and the color black and then paint away any softness I don’t want anymore. Let’s take a look at the image after I’m finished with that.

Okay, that’s looking good. The nice thing about using Smart Objects and by definition, Smart Filters, is that I can go back in at any time now and edit those filters. If I think something doesn’t look just right, I can quickly and easily edit that aspect of the image. With this image, I’d probably tweak a few things, but keep the edit the way it is.

Before I finish this post up, I’d like to show you the mask thumbnail in the Layers panel. As you can see, most of it is black and what’s white somewhat looks like a face. The white is what’s been edited and the black has been left alone.

I hope I clearly explained how to soften someone’s skin in Adobe Photoshop using a variety of filters and a mask. If you have any questions regarding this post, please leave them in the comment section down below. Or, you can ask anything you wish in the Photoshop discussion forum. Thanks for reading!

How to Align Similar Photographs in Adobe Photoshop

January 4, 2019

There’s an old trick that works very well when trying to remove people from public places in your photography. Let’s say you have your tripod set up and you’re facing your camera at the Eiffel Tower in Paris. Or even the Colosseum in Rome. It could be anywhere that’s popular and that people often congregate. And your camera doesn’t even need to be attached to a tripod. It can be hand-held. The point is, it’s very difficult, if not impossible, to capture a photograph of an empty venue that’s always got the public milling about. So what can you do? Well, the old trick I’m referring to is to take multiple photos of the same area while the people are walking around. Then, bring those photos back home and open them up in Adobe Photoshop. There’s a way to align the images in Photoshop so they’re virtually indistinguishable from one another in all areas, except for the people in the photos. Then, you can use masks to mask out each and every body. When I first discovered this trick on Youtube some years ago, I put my palm to my forehead and wondered why I hadn’t thought of something like that.

In today’s post, I’d like to walk through a very simplified version of the example I just discussed above. In my example though, I’m going to use two photos of a red squirrel that were kindly offered to me by Glaszart.com. My task is to align these two images in Adobe Photoshop. That’s as far as I’ll go. If this were a real project, I’d most likely be aligning two photos that had the squirrel doing two different things, such as looking in distinct directions. If I liked the body in one photo and the head in the other, I could easily align both photos and then mask out either the body or head in one or the other. That’s primarily what this workflow is all about.

The Working Photo

This is one of the squirrel images. The other is pretty much identical to this one, so I’ll just post one.

It’s a very nice photo, isn’t it? If you want to check out more great photography, I highly suggest you take a look at Glaszart.

Opening the Photos as Layers in Photoshop

The first thing I’ve got to do is move the images into Photoshop as separate layers, in the same file. The easiest way to do this is to access the images in Adobe Bridge and then follow a command that will make that happen.

First, I’ll select both images in Bridge.

Then, I’ll head up to the Tools > Photoshop > Load Files into Photoshop Layers menu item in Bridge and click.

Doing this will result in both photos being opened in Photoshop in the same file as different layers, just as I wanted.

Aligning the Layers

Layer alignment is a simple process. Before I go through it though, I’d like to show you how the current layers aren’t aligned. To do this, I’ll reduce the opacity of the top layer to 50% and then I’ll take a screenshot to show you just how misaligned they are. Take a look.

Man, that image makes me dizzy.

Anyway, to align the layers (or most everything in the layers), I’ll first make sure both layers are selected in the Layers panel and then I’ll head up to the Edit > Auto-Align Layers menu item and click.

When I do that, the Auto-Align Layers dialog box will appear. I’ll keep everything set to their default settings and click OK. From experience, the Auto option does a perfect job 99.9% of the time, so that’s what I recommend keeping things set to.

And that should do it. It’s that easy. If I look at the edges of each layer, I can tell that they were somewhat shifted. Photoshop bends, twists and warps images so they’re aligned with one another. This is a very powerful command. You don’t even need to have the same zoom values in your photos for them to be aligned. Check out the edges in this next screenshot.

Masking Part of a Layer

Okay, fine. You twisted my arm. I’ll go ahead and quickly mask part of the top layer, just to show you why this process is so handy to know.

Let’s say that the top layer’s squirrel face had a blemish on it, but the bottom layer’s face was perfect. The reason I aligned the layers was to keep most of the top layer’s image, but to remove the face and use the bottom layer’s face. To deal with this, I’ll select the top layer in the Layers panel and then I’ll go down to the bottom of the panel and click the Add Layer Mask button. This will add a mask to the right of the top layer thumbnail.

Once that’s done, I’ll head over to the Brush Tool, select it, size it and change the color to black. Finally, making sure the layer mask thumbnail is selected in the Layers panel, I’ll paint away the squirrel’s head. The bottom one will show through and my project will be complete.

I hope I clearly explained how to use Adobe Bridge to load files as layers in Photoshop and then how to align similar images in Photoshop for multiple uses. If you have any questions, please let me know in the comment section below or ask away on the Photoshop discussion board. Thanks for reading!

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