Photoshop tutorial 8

Out of Bounds

STEP 1: Open and Duplicate your image

File -->Open (Ctrl-O) Open your image.

Duplicate your background by dragging the ‘Background’ layer (in the layers palette) to the ‘Create a new layer’ icon at the bottom of the ‘layers palette’. Toggle off the ‘Background’ layer (see step 4).

STEP 2: Create a Selection and add a Mask

*NOTE: Refer to one of my other tutorials to learn how to make ‘Selections’.

I used to the ‘Extract’ filter (Filter --> Extract) to make a selection. In this case to “extract” the main point of interest (the duck).

Now that we have something to work with, duplicate your ‘Background’ layer again.

Select the extraction layer (layer 0 copy 7 in the example above) in the ‘layers’ palette. Let’s make this into a selection by going to the ‘Select’ menu and choosing ‘Load Selection’. When the ‘Load Selection’ dialog box opens, hit OK. Now select the ‘Background copy’ layer and click on the ‘Add layer mask’ button at the bottom of the ‘layers’ palette. We now have a mask of our selection.

*We could just use the ‘extraction’, but using a ‘layer mask’ is a non-destructive approach.

This way we can ‘refine’ our mask later on.

STEP 3: Create a Frame

We need to start off with a fresh layer. So click the ‘Create new layer’ button at the bottom of the ‘layers’ palette. Now click and drag your new layer below the ‘Background copy’ layer.

Another way to do this is to select ‘Background’ layer and then the ‘Create new layer’ button.

With ‘Layer 1’ selected, grab your ‘Rectangular marquee tool’ (M) from the ‘tools’ palette. Click and drag on the image to create a framed (marching ant) outline. This doesn’t need to be right where you want it yet.

Let’s fill this layer. Click “D” to bring your foreground/background colors to there default setting. Then hit Shift-F5 (Edit --> Fill). This will bring up your ‘Fill’ dialog box. Under ‘contents’ “Use” ‘Foreground color’ (white). Hit OK. You can use any color you want I choose white.

*If you have all your layers turned on you should be able to see your selection now.

Let’s turn this ‘fill layer’ into a boarder. To do so go to the ’Select’ menu and choose Modify --> Contract. In the ‘Contract Selection’ dialog box choose ‘Contract By’ 20. Hit OK.

Then hit ‘Delete’ then Ctrl-D, to deselect. You should now have a 20 pixel frame.

We need to ‘Distort’ our frame to give it some perspective.

With ‘Layer 1’ active, go to Edit --> Transform à Distort. You can now click and drag each corner till you get the desired look. Then hit Enter.

I should point out that if you toggle on and off some of your layers (see below), you can see why we have stacked them in this order. Also, by creating a ‘selection’ up front we can not only see how it flows over our frame, but we don’t have to try and erase (or hide) our frame under the selection.

STEP 4: Remove the Background

Let’s make another Duplicate copy of our Background (see step 1). With the new ‘Background copy 2’ layer active, click on the ‘Add layer mask’ button. Toggle the ‘Background’ layer off (Click the ‘eye’ next to the thumbnail).

Hit “D” the “X” to make sure that Black is set as our foreground color. Select the ‘Brush tool’ (B) from the tools palette. With the ‘Hardness set to 100 and the ‘background copy 2 Mask’ selected, start to paint around on your image.

Paint everything outside the frame. Notice the ‘selection’ is not affected. Try not to paint inside the ‘Frame’ we made. If you do go inside the frame then set your foreground color to white (X) to paint it back.

STEP 5: Add a new Background

To add a new background, click the ‘Create new layer’ button at the bottom of the ‘layers’ palette. Click and drag the new ‘Layer 2’ below ‘Background copy 2’.

Now we need to fill it. So with ‘Layer 2’ active hit Shift-F5 to bring up the ‘Fill’ dialog box. Choose ‘Color’ from the “Use” drop down menu, and pick your color.

Another option at this point would be to fill our Background with a Gradient. With ‘Layer 2’ still active, choose the ‘Gradient Tool’ (G) from the tools palette. Gradients are an entire tutorial on their own. I choose a Gradient I made some time back and used the ‘Diamond Gradient’ option. You can play around and use anything you like. Duhh. :)

Let’s crop our image next. Select the Rectangular marquee tool’ (M) from the ‘tools’ palette. Click and drag to create an outline where you want to crop (you could just use the crop tool but this works better). From the ‘Image’ menu choose ‘Crop’.

STEP 6: Refine Mask

Before we start, make sure that the ‘Layer’ “layer 0 copy 7” is toggled off.

Now that we have a background you can see how poor our selection really is. Well at least how bad mine is.

I could spend days (and a book or two) discussing how to refine a mask. So we will just talk about the basics here.

I’m going to start with levels. With the ‘Background copy’ Mask selected (make sure the mask thumbnail is highlighted). Go to Image --> Adjustments --> Levels. With the ‘Levels’ dialog box open, drag the black slider (inside the ‘Input Levels’) to the right until the edges of your image start to look good. Hit OK.

Another thing you can do is to open up the Select menu and go to ‘Refine Edge’ (Ctrl-Alt-R).

A favorite of mine is to use the ‘Blur Tool’ (R) to soften the edges of my mask.

One more option is Filter --> Other --> Minimum set to 1-3. Followed by Filter --> Blur --> Gaussian Blur set to 0.5-1. This is a pretty Advanced technique and takes a lot of playing around to get right.

Don’t forget that you can paint in your mask too.

STEP 7: Drop Shadow

With ‘Layer 1’ selected (your frame layer), choose the ‘Magic Wand Tool’ (W) from the tools palette. Click somewhere on the background area. Inverse the selection. Select --> Inverse (Ctrl-Shift-I). Your frame should now be selected. We could have chosen ‘Save Selection’ (in the Select menu) when we first made our frame, but I wanted to show you this technique. Click on the ‘Create new layer’ button at the bottom of the ‘Layers’ palette. Click and drag your new ‘Layer 3’ below “Background copy 2’.

With black set as your Foreground color click Shift-F5 (Edit --> Fill) Pick ‘Foreground color’ in the dialog box and hit OK. Ctrl-D to de-select.

With the ‘Move Tool’ (V) active, click and drag your new black layer out. This will be our drop shadow.

Go to Filter --> Blur --> Gaussian Blur, and set your Radius around 4. Then turn down the ‘Opacity’ in the ‘Layer’ palette. I set it to 71%.