Rangefinder Magazine
May 2005

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Advanced Tricks for Photoshop Freaks by Rich Nortnik Jr.

Step 1

To School and Back. STEP ONE: I copied this image from a royalty-free web site. I thought the image was stunning because of its use of light, and it made a good picture for a before and after. From the web site I right-clicked and copied the image. Then I made a new Photoshop file (Cmd /Ctrl-N) and pasted the picture (Cmd/Ctrl-V) into the new file. When I zoomed in on this picture, I realized something interesting: An artist had already placed this girl over the picture behind it. The image probably caught my eye because she was not in total perspective! Well, now with Photoshop CS2, there is a new tool called Vanishing Point! Are you ready?

	Step 2

Let’s Take the Background Out. STEP TWO: I used the good ol’ Filter/Extract tool. Before that, however, I made a mask of her for later. In the Extract tool I used a setting of 20 for the brush size and 100 for the smooth setting. With this tool, that combination tends to work well for me.

Little Fix-up Touches Here and There. STEP THREE: After the girl was cut out using the Extract tool, there were still some little jaggies around her that needed to be touched up. Although you can fix this while in Extract mode, I’m still an old school guy sometimes and love masks. I made that mask of her earlier so I could go back and touch up any little infractions on the cut-out. Make sure you have your mask turned to black, your eraser brush small, and a flow of five percent or less.

Using the New Exposure Tool. STEP FOUR: Another awesome tool that Adobe has added is the Exposure tool (Menu > Image > Adjust > Exposure). It’s like having a built-in camera for your images. It’s very powerful and really helps your images. I used this tool to brighten up my image and give it more quality contrast.

Step 3	Step 4	Step 5

Copying Your Texture and Using Vanishing Point. STEP FIVE: I copied a chunk of the sidewalk to clipboard. I then made a selection where I wanted the sidewalk to go and went into the new tool (Menu > Filter > Vanishing Point). This tool brings up a whole new box, and you are in a new application! In Vanishing Point, I pasted the chunk into the selection, holding down Shift-Ctrl-Alt to constrain the piece. Now get this: Vanishing Point automatically re-proportions the concrete across the image to match a new perspective. Is that amazing or what?!

Step 6

Using the New Warp Tool. STEP SIX: I found another great image of a wall filled with graffiti. I thought this would be an excellent backdrop for an urban scene. I took the image and dropped it behind the side layer. Then I used another new tool (Menu > Edit > Transform > Warp) to move the wall into place.

Warp is an addition to the new Photoshop as well. I would say it’s like the Skew tool on steroids. It has tons of flexibility and now gives the user more control of manipulation over an image.

Adding Elements. STEP SEVEN: I decided my final “after” image would need more detail. I added a few more items in the same way I added the girl: by using the Extract tool and saving an image underneath with a layer mask on it.

Step 7

With the bike I really needed the layer mask. There was a lot of detail to remove and then replace. When the bike was good enough to be put in the image, I used Menu > Image > Adjustments > Match to get the colors I wanted for the bike. I set the source menu to the PSD I was working on and layers menu to “merged.” Setting the source to “merged” gets all the surrounding colors in the image. I use this tool all the time. Experiment with it, and become good at it.I then did the same to bring the pole and elderly woman into the image.

Step 8

Adding Reality/Shadows. STEP EIGHT: After adding the detail elements, the one thing missing was the shadows. I studied where they should be and added them to the image. This was done by duplicating the images, hitting the “no transparency box” at the top of the layers window, and filling them with black. It is also a good idea to change your color mode to “multiply.” To each of the shadow layers, I added a mask.

Then I did a Menu > Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur to each until I thought the image looked just right. I then brought the opacity down on each to give the image the right touch.

Step 9

Adding Reality/Lens Flare Trick. STEP NINE: You may already know this trick, but it’s still a cool one. Above the final layer add a black box over a place you want a flare to show. Go to Menu > Filter > Render > Lens Flare and pick a flare that fits into the box area. Turn the layer mode to lighten. The black goes away, and you have lens flare! Easy as pie, and it makes a nice effect for the end. You may need to lightly erase around the edges if they are visible.

Designer/Illustrator Rich Nortnik Jr., from Denver, CO, has been featured on Adobe’s Photoshop 10th Anniversary DVD and is winner of six Guru Awards from the National Association of Photoshop Professionals. Rich has a background in traditional fine art and graphic design, and experience in illustration, CD-ROM interface design, logo development, video graphics and web design.