Your Photoshop Tricks

guissmo

The best discovery I learned in Photoshop is the BLENDING OPTIONS technique. A lot of people know how to use this but few know how to twist it around and maximize its capabilites. I was lucky I was able to explore it. I was able to maximize it, unlike some people.

A few months ago, someone used the Magnetic Tool while I was watching. Of course, at first sight, it was amazing. But then, I learned how to use it too.

Now, just recently, while we were screwing around school, we saw a bunch of Photoshopped images. It was those images wherein the original faces were distorted and all. I wondered how it was done. Then, my classmate taught me the Liquify command.

Any other Photoshop options I'm missing? I might learn a thing or two on FriHost. Smile

dzign

Photoshop gives us a lot of flexibility in editing and manipulating images, even by using the combination of basic tool such as marque tool until very complex and advanced tool. At the current state, the tool that I'm using a lot are Layer Styles ( Drop Shadow, inner glow, outer glow, etc ) as it gives me flexibility to readjust the change if I don't feel like it. Layer adjustment is another mostly used tool along with layer mask to make adjustment such as level, curve and hue saturation. The last favorite tools of mine probably vector / shape tool as vector tool can maintain the crisp of the object created.

mcrfreek89

This tutorial is one that I got from various sources and sites, but this is my own version! I hope you enjoy it, and I'll try my best to make it VERY easy for you!

**NOTE: This tutorial was created while using Photoshop CS 2.

In this tutorial, we will learn how to make an awesome-looking background for your desktop or other places you want! This is foolproof, so everything should work! If not, you may message me!

1. First, open up a new project, preferably 1024x768. MAKE SURE THE MODE IS IN RGB MODE!

2. Now, press CTRL+I.....you notice something different? Well, we just made the background black, that's all.... Very Happy

3. Ok, now press CTRL+J and this will be the background layer. Rename this layer "stars".

4. Making sure you've selected the "stars" layer, go to "Filter" and then " Pixelate". You'll see "Mezzotint" and then when picking the type of dots, go with "Coarse Dots". Press ok and let it do the work.

5. Now go back onto "Filter" and now to "Blur". You'll see "Radical Blur", so click on that. On "Blur Method", select "Zoom", and in "Quality", pick "Best". The amount you want is 30. Then press OK.

6. Now go back to the original "background" layer. Click on the "Custom Shape" tool. It is right underneath the text icon, and it should be a big splat or blob. If it's something else, then right click on the little tiny arrow on the bottom right hand corner of the icon. Then you'll see the blob, which is what we want. Smile

7. Now, on the top you'll see the same icon with an arrow next to it, pointing down. Click on the splat and you'll see a box appear to the right of it with the word "Shape" next to it. Click the arrow next to the new box and find the shape "10 Point Star" (if you hover over the shapes, it tells you the name, so that should be easier!). Now once you have that shape, place it in the middle of the picture.

8. Now, since the top layer is the one with the 'stars', we will only see the outline of the shape we are putting on the layer. This is a good thing, because the stars all lead toward the middle, which should be easier in placing the shape exactly in the middle of the picture. Once we do that, go to the place where you see the layers. This is on the bottom right hand corner of the screen, and you should see a small eye on the edge of each layer. Click on the eye next to the "stars" layer, and POOF! It's gone! Surprised

But don't worry! This only means we just pushed it out of the way so we can see something else. Now that we did that, we see the shape as it was meant to be seen!

9. Now, this part is just for convenience. Click on the 'blur' tool (the water drop) and click anywhere on the picture. It'll ask to rasterize the shape, and we want this, so click OK. Now we can alter the shape! WOO!

10. (still on the layer with the shape) Go to "Filter" then "Blur" and then "Radical Blur". Use the same settings as before, but instead this time change the amount from 30 to 100. Now press OK.

11. Ok, in the box with the layers on the bottom right hand corner of the screen, there is a scroll box that should say "normal". KEEP IT THAT WAY! Now remember the eye we clicked on and got rid of? Well, click that same spot, and it reappears! Now the 'stars' layer is back, which is a good thing. Now do the same thing with this layer with the scroll box. But this time, go to "screen", and you should see the star appearing through the layer! WEE! Ok, now we need to make those stars more noticable!

12. On the 'stars' layer, go to Image>Adjustments>Brightness/Contrast. The settings are: Brightness= -15 Contrast= 50. Click OK and the stars should look noticably different!

13. OK, all we need to do is color this baby and then we're DONE! YAY! Wink

Ok, on the "shape 1" layer, press CTRL+U, and a Hue/Saturation box should come up. Select the "Colorize" box on the bottom right hand corner of the box and use these settings: HUE: 230 SATURATION: 100 LIGHTNESS: -60 and click OK

14. Now, you can do the same with the 'stars' layer, but I personally think using a different color is cooler. You can experiment and create different variations if you want. If you want the same color as the shape, then a shortcut for it is CTRL+ALT+U. This saves the typing and all, so it's the same settings. You might need to set the LIGHTNESS for that layer to 0, because otherwise it'd be too dark. Now, if you are sure you're done, press CTRL+SHIFT+E to merge all the layers together into one layer. Save it and you are done! I hope you enjoyed this tutorial, and I also hope it was easy enough for you to understand! See ya laterz!

**mcrfreek89** \m/

_Jak_

THE PEN TOOL, the pen tool is one of the best tools in photoshop, if you can learn how to use it your designs instantly step up, not only that but you can cut or vector anything.

marrs

Filter>Liquify>Bloat tool (B)

You can have some really good fun with this plugin I am using it with my adobe photoshop CS and suppose it works in older versions also check it out.

Tip: you could make a new transparent page import a face cut the eyes out leaving the transparent background and Liquify it.insert different eyes,whatever just have fun with it!!

DeFlanko

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