Photoshop Software...Learn More About Photoshop | Computers

By DavidPeters
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A fun idea to do is create an abstract picture, you can do anything you want to it. One fun idea is the add a fire look to a picture, here is a step by step way to do it: First thing's first, get a nice stock photo. I used a stock photo of an eye from deviant ART.First of all I opened the photo and resized it to 75% of it's original size. 1. After you've opened your photo up, duplicate the background layer then apply Filter > Distort > Twirl and use the default setting. That should have just distorted it slightly. Now change the layer mode for your duplicated layer to Lighten. That will have made the eye look a little bit alien-like. 2. Now brighten up the picture a little bit by adding in a Brightness/Contrast adjustment layer (Layer > New Adjustment Layer > Brightness/Contrast...) Now this is the part where you choose the fiery color for your photo. Go to Layer > New Adjustment Layer > Gradient Map. I changed the layer mode for this layer to Linear Light and lowered the opacity to 85%. 3.Ok, here are some nice optional effects.Before adding effects like these, you'll probably need to flatten your image (Layer > Flatten Image) then duplicate the one remaining layer. First, I applied Filter > Artistic > Rough Pastels with the default settings. Now change the layer mode for this layer to Lighten and maybe lower the opacity if you see it need sit. I lowered the opacity to 70%. 4. To finish this tutorial off, I flattened all the layers, applied Filter > Sharpen > Sharpen, faded the sharpen to about 40% (Edit > Fade) then I added in a little bit of tech and grunge.

Photoshop CS2 is able to create an Automated Task. When you have a whole bunch of repeated tedious task to do on a whole sets of photos. Eg: resize a whole stack of photos to a specific resolution. It is easy enough to do: First, open up the desired photos with Photoshop or simply just drag and drop the photos onto the Photoshop main stage. This is the photo which I will be using. It is actually a 20001333 resolution photo and now the view is actually 25% of the actual size. Now is to open up the Action Window. Go to Window > Action or simply press the shortcut key Alt + F9. The Action window will looks like what it is in the above image. We have everything ready and now is to do the trick. Click on the "Create New Action" button as where is shown on the above image A New Action window will come out, the Name of course is the name of your this Automated Task, here as I am doing photo resizing so I will give it the name "Resize". Everything just remain as it is and click on Record Just for your information, the Function Key is actually for you to set the shortcut key to this Automated Task. Anyway, I will not set anything here. Now the Record button has turned active (red color), and from now on whatever action you do will be recorded. I will start doing the resizing now. Go to the Image > Image Size or with the shortcut key Ctrl+Atl+I. Here I will resize to the above figures. Click Ok. The image has now been resized. What I need to do has actually finish. In actual tedious task of course it won't be that short but here it will be enough as an example. Click on the Stop Recording button as where is shown on the image. Now you have your Automated Task set! .To show on how it works. Simply open another photo or drag other photo onto the Photoshop main stage. In the above image I am now using another image. Now on the Action window, select on the "Resize"(or the name you gave for this Automated Task), then click on the "Play Selection" button as where is shown on the image.

What we want to do is create a fractal. I use Apophysis but you can use any fractal program. Once you have a fractal you like open it up in Photoshop. To start off what we want to do is duplicate our fractal layer. So take your fractal layer and drag onto the new layer button. Then go to Filter> Blur> Gaussian Blur and insert any settings between 4 - 9. Each fractal is different so it will take some experimentation find the right one for your fractal. Then set your blurred layer on Linear Light. This will make the colors more vibrant and will make it brighter and seem to glow. Your fractal should look something like this now. Now duplicate your blurred layer. And take the layer settings and put it on Soft Light. This should add to more of the glow feeling. Yours should look something like this: Now I wanted to make my fractal look even brighter because its an angel and angels are known to be very bright. So make a new layer. Fill it black. Now go to Filter> Render> Lens flare. Then blur your Lens Flare. Finally set your Lens Flare layer on Color Dodge and move it so the Lens Flare is in the middle of your fractal. Your fractal should look something like this: If you have ugly green heads take a white soft brush and brush over it. And you are done!

While you are running though photos you may find one that you absolutely hate because of the acne, well there is a way to cure that by touching up your photo. First open your photo which you want to cure the acne on. Next, click on your "Healing Brush Tool" and set your brush to the size of 5px for this tutorial. When selecting your brush size, set your "Hardness" to 100% and your "Spacing" to 25%. Now press Alt+Click The Mouse over a non-blemished area and then clicked over the blemished area to replace it. To clear up areas where two distinct colors of acne are near, set your "Hardness" to 66% so you can blend the areas more naturally. Next, click on Layer > New Adjustment Layer > Hue/Saturation to balance the colors. I increased the Hue slider by 12 points to even out the reddish blemishes.

when you are creating photo effects you can change the color of a photo without actually selecting the color. At the bottom of the layer palette click at the icon - create a new fill or adjustment layer(a ball half white/half black) and choose Hue/Saturation. At the Hue/Saturation window, choose any color at the edit, as an example yellow; Point at the image, with the eyedropper, the color that do you want to change. Move the Hue slider and choose a color. Now , with the shift key, fix the color(eyerdropper +) where the changed was not good .......... click OK. With the mask active, paint with the brush(with the set foreground black) where is no good(at that example the face and arms).

While texturing you can add cool looking scan lines to your picture. This is easy enough: Open Photoshop and click on File > New and set the width to 1 pixel, the height to 3 pixels and set the "Contents" section to "Transparent" for this tutorial. You will have to click on View > Zoom In a few times so you can see the palette.Now, right click on the "Brush Tool" and select the "Pencil Tool" and at the top of the screen set your "Brush " to 1px, your "Mode" to normal and your "Opacity" to 100 percent. Take your "Pencil Tool" and click in the center of your new palette so the top and bottom third are still transparent. Go to Edit > Define Pattern and save your new image as a scan line pattern like the example below. Next, open any photo you want to add scan lines to. Click on the "Rectangular Marquee Tool" and drag it over the photo. Now right click on the photo and click on "Fill" and set your properties to the image below. The "Custom Pattern" will be the one you just created. You can set your "Blending" options to what appears best for your photo.

Learn how to create a mac clock. Now we will have to create the shiny look. Please add noise both to your glare and your base as it will look more official compared to the Dashboard Clock. Now we have to create the clock it self so take out your Eliptical Tool and draw in a circle on top of your glare layer and fill it in with black. Now add the border around the black circle with the hex indicated below. Now we have to create the glare so if you want to get more detailed view, you can just follow my way. Place the original clock design near yours and draw a white circle inside the black circle about 1 or 2 pixels apart. After that grab your eraser tool and set the opacity to 75% and slowlu brush from the top until you get something like mine. I also added a small tiny border around the glare just to make it look a little nicer. Now we have to add all the digits inside. I personally liked how Arial Narrow looked on it so i added that font although i think Mac's designer used some other font that i am not familiar with or maybe just missed. Create a white circle in the center of the digits. Following that draw another red circle inside the white's circle center. Now by the alignment of the arrows on the clock, use your white circle as the base and grab your pen tool to draw out one of the arrows. Just by connecting to one side of the base of the circle and extending towards the numbered digit and then following back to the opposite base of the circle, you can easily acheive those fancy arrows. Repeat the steps again to create the short arrow as well. Now place the long arrow layer underneath the white and red circle layer. Following by going to the Settings of the circle and adding a drapshadow of about 75% opacity with the color filling of black. After you have done that, grab your line tool and set th weight to 2px and draw a line from the red circle to the selected digit on the seconds. Now your basically done, just grab your text tool and add the State and the AM/PM indicator on top. If your curious about the colors, you can just take the hex of the original design. Your final result should look like this:

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