Free Adobe Photoshop - Photoshop Tips
Saturday, July 19th, 2008
Do you feel like creating abstract art with photoshop? Well here are some simple steps to create an oreintal flower. Create a new file with dimensions 600×600 and 72 dpi and paint it with the color ffbe00.Using the drawing instrument, draw the pattern of white color it will look like a large apostraphe. Then choosing the function Free Transform turn around the pattern’s element horizontally. Turning on 90 degrees around the pattern’s axe, set it out. Using the same instrument, continue creating more patterns: Using the earlier method, copy the background with the new element and using the function Free Transform turn around the pattern on 180 degrees vertically, Turning a little around the pattern’s axe, set out everything. Using the same instrument, make easy pattern and set it out. Create one more element using the same instrument and also set it out. Then copy the background again with the new pattern and use the earlier method for displaying it correctly in the pattern’s composition: Using the same instrument and the same method, draw everything. Make the upper part of the pattern. Now copy and enlarge (Free Transform) the upper petals. Place them under the entire pattern. Set out the opacity of 10% in the backgrounds’ window. Now copy and transform on 180 degrees everything except the upper part of the figure and enlarge it a little. Set out the opacity on 33% like in the picture.
Creating a flame that moves is quite fun, in fact all animated gifs are fun to create and watch. To make a moving flame start by creating a new document. Load a candle or something with a flame into this document. ( I used this one )The candle should be in a single layer. To create the flame create a new layer.Draw with a brush a flame with a brown or black color.Duplicate the layer (Layer-> Duplicate Layer)Now use: Filter-> Blur-> Gaussian Blur and Filter->Blur-> Motion blur. Use this filters several times for your flame. Create a new layer, again. Filter-> Render-> Clouds. Change the ‘Blend mode’ from ‘normal’ to ‘Color Dodge’.
The basics of photoshop, well one major thing is learning how to save your picture history. Start by opening a file you’ve been working on or create a new file. Then go to Edit > Preferences > General. Check off “History Log”. You then have three options to choose from. I will describe what each of them do. To begin, let’s choose “Metadata”. You then have three options with the “Edit Log Items”. Start working on your file by creating layers, adding fills or gradients, using filters, etc. Then go to File > File Info > History. Notice how it keeps track of each step you take. Save this file and close it. Then open it back up again. Notice that the history is still there! Let’s look at the second option for the history log. Go to Edit > Preferences > General. Choose “Text File” this time and save the file to a folder of your choice. I chose to save mine to the desktop. Again, work on your file by creating layers, adding fills or gradients, using filters, etc. Now go to wherever you saved your text file and open it. Notice that it keeps track of each step you take! The final option for the history log is “Both”. This option saves your steps in both the History section as well as the text file. So there you have it. Three different ways to save every step you take during a design process without losing the information when closing the file. Enjoy!
When you are creating a brush you can save and delete it, heres how: To Save Modified Brush Preset: After you make a modification to you brush shape or brush dynamic, you can save brush by do one of following using Brush Palette. Using Brush Palette Menu and select New Brush Preset. Click New button at bottom Brush Palette. If you use Small Thumbnail or Large Thumbnail you can click at empty area (your cursor will turn to indicate you can click to save the brush). To Delete Brush Preset. You can delete unwant brush by do one of following option: Select brush you want to delete and select Brush Palette Menu and select Delete Brush. Select brush you want to delete and click Trash Button Select brush you want to delete Right Click or Control + Click (for MacOS) and select Delete Brush.
Have you ever tried to make an image black and white? Did you use the desaturate method. Now if i go to Image>adjustments>desaturate and take away the color from the photo… I will be left with a black and white picture. But it doesn’t look as good as it could. It seems dull and lacks depth. Heres a better way of making images black and white - Open up the picture you want to use. In the Layers palette go to the button circled in red in the picture below and then go to channel mixer in the drop down menu. Put in settings feel free to experiment. Now I am left with a much nicer black and white picture. You could even add a unsharpen mask (Filter>Sharpen>Unsharpen Mask). Much better that the desaturated image right?
Something fun to do is create a 3D comment.Let’s start by creating a new 300200 document in Photoshop.Take out your Paint Bucket Tool (G) and paint the background a dark deviant green color. I used #37433A for my background. Switch over to the Custom Shape Tool (U). Select this quote shape from the huge custom shape dropdown. Once you have it selected, plug in these custom shape settings into your document. Now change your foreground color to a gray, and click anywhere on your document to add the shape. Go to Edit -> Transform -> Perspective and give the shape an angle. This is achieved by clicking the top-left point and dragging it directly down a little bit. We don’t want to overdo the perspective, so drag it only a short distance. Duplicate the custom shape’s layer. Once you’ve duplicated it, we want to select the bottom shape layer. Hold down shift on your keyboard, and hit the right arrow once. Next we want to let go of shift, and just punch the up arrow 2-3 times. This will position the bottom shape to the right and above the top shape. Change the bottom layer’s blending mode from Normal to Hard Light. Right click on the top shape layer and select Blending Options. Now give the shape a gradient overlay to add depth to the shape and make it come out more. Now we need to add some text to the document. Take out the Horizontal Type Tool (T). With a round 36px font selected, type out comment in your document. Be sure to set anti-aliasing so the text doesn’t look all jaggy and ugly! Firstly, we need to rasterize the text layer. Once you’ve done that, you’ll need to repeat the Perspective transformation that we used on the shape itself. We’re aiming to match the angle the shape has already, so try to get it as close as possible! Duplicate the text layer. Select the bottom of the two text layers. Now hit right and down on your keyboard 2 times each. This will position them 2px down and to the right from the upper text layer. Change the font color of the bottom text layer from black to the background’s color. Again, I used #37433A in my example. There you have it, a sweet 3D Comment Icon.
Creating photo effects is just about as fun as creating the effects alone. A fun way to make a matrix like effect starts like this: Open the image you want to create the effect using Adobe Photoshop. Make the background image into black. You can do this bay create a selection on the image, and then fill (Edit > Fill) it with black color. Make a new layer. Fill this layer with white color. Select Filter > Texture > Grain. I use the seeting in this dialog box like this: Intensity=100, contrast=100, Grain type=Vertical. But you can try different setting also. Select Filter > Stylish > Glowing Edge. Select Filter > Artistic Neon Glow. In the color box in this dialog box, select green color. Apply the setting as you like until it show a green line like the effect in the matrix movie. Change the blending option into Screen. If you want the model picture also look green, try adjust it using Image > Adjustment > Hue/Saturation. Check the colorize option, and then adjust the Hue and Saturation slider until you get the image you like.
