Since the past few days I am uploading basic tutorials to my website. So I decided to break the sequence and upload a slightly advance tutorial.
Last time I talked about Elliptical Marquee Tool in Photoshop, and you should check that out if you want to learn some cool Elliptical Marquee Tool tricks.
Today you’ll learn how to create car headlights in Photoshop. We’re going to use one filter and few adjustment layers. Although I said in the beginning that this tutorial is lightly advance but the difficulty of this tutorial is between easy to moderate.
AFTER
BEFORE
STEP 1
The first thing that we need do to is to create a new layer. Press Ctrl+Shift+N/Cmd+Shift+N to create a new layer.
STEP 2
Now search out an image that has good lens flare. Download it.
Now open that image on Photoshop. Select the whole image by pressing Ctrl+A, and then copy the image by pressing Ctrl+C.
STEP 3
Go back to the original image, and paste the image by pressing Ctrl+V/Cmd+V.
Change the blend mode to Screen to remove the black. If you want to know what actually happened when I changed the blend mode to Screen, check out the tutorial on Blend Modes in Photoshop.
STEP 4
Activate the Free Transform Tool by pressing Ctrl+T/Cmd+T. Enlarge the image and place the flare on the headlight. Press Enter/Return when done.
STEP 5
Go to Layer>New Adjustment Layer>Level. The first thing that you need to do is to click on the area that is encircled in the below screenshot.
Now increase the blacks and whites according to your requirement.
STEP 6
Go to Layer>New Adjustment Layer>Brightness/Contrast. Increase the brightness as well as contrast.
And we’re done now. Here’s the final image for you.
FINAL
I hope that you like the tutorial.
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Last time we learnt a new tool, Rectangular Marquee Tool, which is pretty much a basic tool. Today we’re going to learn a sister of that tool that performs very much similarly i.e. Elliptical Marquee Tool in Photoshop.
Today we’re going to learn the tool that is present at the top-left corner in Photoshop i.e. Elliptical Marquee Tool.
Fig 1
The main function of Marquee tool is selection. This is the most basic tool present in Photoshop for selection. It is divided into four parts i.e. Rectangular Marquee, Elliptical Marquee, Single Row Marquee, and Single Column Marquee. So let’s start with Elliptical Marquee Tool.
Rectangular Marquee Tool
This tool creates rectangular, and square also as square is a part of rectangle, selection.
To see it in action, grab it from the tool panel as shown in Fig. 2. You can also press Shift+M again and again until it comes.
Fig. 2
Now all you need to do is to drag and drop your mouse to draw a selection. I am going to select the whole moon.
There are two important notes that I want you to remember:
If you want to draw a selection that’s circle using Elliptical Marquee Tool, you need to hold sown Shift, and then drag and drop your selection.
If you want to move your selection or place your selection in a different part of the image, you need to hold down Spacebar and then move your selection.
Option Panel of Marquee Tool
Fig. 4
You might be wondering of those panels that are present at the top all of the time. Let me explain each of them one by one.
New Selection: This function provide you a new selection. Let’s assume that you have selected a custom area in your image and then you don’t like the selection and want to select a new selection that is going to override the existing selection. This mode is best to do these kinds of things. In short you if you deselect a selection by pressing Ctrl+D/Cmd+D and then select a new area, the result would be same.
Add to Selection: I bet 99% of users use this mode. Let’s say you have selected an area and you also want to select another area but don’t want to deselect the existing area. Then, my friends, this selection is perfect for you. A lot of tricky selections can easily be done by this selection. When this mode is on, you’ll see a + sign near your mouse cursor.
Subtract from the Selection: As name says it subtracts the selection. Basically it is just opposite of “add to selection”. You’ll see a – sign just below the cursor.
Intersect with Selection: Suppose you have selected an area A and also selected an area B. A small part of area B lies inside the area A. Then only that small part will be selected. Basically the overlapped are will be selected in this mode. By pressing this you can see a small multiplication(x) bar at the bottom of your cursor.
Feather: It softens the edge of the selection. It is a part of the refine edge tool. We’re going to discuss it in a new chapter.
Anti-alias: By turning on anti-alias your selections softens a little bit. But you cannot control the amount of softens like “feather”. The softening will be done in such a way that Photoshop provides a better selection for different color tones. Until and unless you want extremely sharp selection, keep this feature turned on for better result.
Style: In this drop-down menu you can see 3 sub menu. First is “normal” which is nothing but a default mode. Second is “fixed ratio”. By selecting a fixed ratio you might have realized that the width and the height panel adjacent to it has activated. Now just enter the width vs. height ratio and here you go. The third submenu is “fixed size”. After entering the width and height, no matter how long you drag your image it will select only select the area with the entered dimensions.
Refine Edge: One of the most versatile tool that makes Photoshop different from all the other software’s. Feather that we discussed in fifth point is a part of this tool.
And we’re done here.
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When it comes to layer panel, one of the most important things is the blend mode. With the mighty power of it, you can totally change the scenario of an image. Be it the color, style, luminosity, or dimness, you can alter it with just one click.
This tutorial, What are Blend Modes in Photoshop, is dedicated to showing you the power of blend modes in Photoshop.
The good part of blend mode is its vastness, and the sadly the bad part of it is also its vastness. With its vastness, you need a good amount of time to master it. In our busy world, it’s difficult for every one of us to dedicate a good amount of time to learn something, but time invested in something good will always get you a nice result. The same goes here. Blend modes are like leg-fingers of Photoshop; not so useful because we can live without that, but extremely important as they provide balance to our body.
So what is Blend Mode?
Blend mode is basically the behavior of pixels that is based on the behavior of the pixels presents in the below layer. Too much technical? You’ll understand it when I start to explain in blend mode one by one. Till then, ignore the above definition. But make sure you read it again as soon as you’re done with this chapter.
You must be wondering now “where the hell blend mode is located in layer panel?”, “I don’t see anything as blend mode”, the thing is that it’s kind of hidden, and it’s kind of not. For a first time user, it will be a little difficult to find the blend mode as Adobe did not give any title like Blend Mode. In fig. 6.1, you can see the location of Blend Mode. In that drop-down list, you’ll find all 26 blend modes listed there.
Fig. 6.1
1: Normal
This is the most basic blend mode. In this mode, anything drawn on the current layer does not give any effect to the below layer. It basically edits or paints each pixel to make it the resulting color. This is the default mode.
In Fig. 6.2, I painted the baby’s cloth with white color. The result is white color, and there’s nothing special. There’s no special effect, no additional activity, nothing at all. That’s why it is called as the default mode.
Fig. 6.2
2: Dissolve
This mode only works when there’s transparency in pixels. To show it, let’s use Brush Tool and reduce its hardness to 0%. Now the edges of the brush will not be razor sharp, rather it’ll be soft. In Fig. 6.3, I have painted the cloth with the brush with its hardness 0%. Right now the blend mode is Normal.
Fig. 6.3
Now if I change the blend mode to Dissolve, just see the change. Now the edges are a random distribution of dots of the same color. To sum up, Dissolve blend mode edits each pixel to make the resulting color. However, the resultant color is a random replacement of the pixels that depends on the opacity at any pixel location.
Fig. 6.4
3: Darken
Now the fun begins. Above two modes were boring, and you probably will never use Dissolve.
Darken blend mode compares each pixel of the current layer and the layer below it, and shows the pixels that are darker. Just refer to Fig. 6.5. In that image, I have painted the sheet with a dark orange color. Areas where the orange color is darker than the sheet’s white color will display orange color. And the area where the sheet’s dark gray color is darker than the orange color will show the dark gray color.
In Adobe’s language on adobe.com: Looks at the color information in each channel and selects the base or blend color—whichever is darker—as the resulting color.
Fig. 6.5
4: Multiply
This blend mode does a comparatively more complex task. If you paint an area with a color that is darker than neutral gray, the resultant area will be darker. But if you paint an area that is lighter than neutral gray, the resultant area will not show any effect. In short, it only darkens the image.
Refer to Fig. 6.6 for more clarification. I have painted the baby’s cloth with a color that is darker than neutral gray color. So the resultant color is a darker shade of gray. In Adobe’s words: Looks at the color information in each channel and multiplies the base color by the blend color. The resulting color is always a darker color. Multiplying any color with black produces black. Multiplying any color with white leaves the color unchanged. When you’re painting with a color other than black or white, successive strokes with a painting tool produce progressively darker colors. The effect is similar to drawing on the image with multiple marking pens.
Fig. 6.6
5: Color Burn
Works same as Multiply blend mode, the only thing different here is that it results in greater contrast.
In Adobe’s words: Looks at the color information in each channel and darkens the base color to reflect the blend color by increasing the contrast between the two. Blending with white produces no change.
Fig. 6.7
6: Linear Burn
Works same as Multiply blend mode, the only difference here is that it dims the brightness.
Fig. 6.8
7: Lighten
Now that you have understood from Darken to Linear Burn, the thing to cheer up now is that you don’t have to remember anything from Lighten to Linear Dodge. This is because it works exactly opposite to how the above blend modes work. For example, Lighten works exactly opposite of how Darken works.
As you might have guessed its working, unlike Darken, it lightens the image.
Fig. 6.9
8: Screen
Works exactly opposite of how Multiply works. In Adobe’s words: Looks at each channel’s color information and multiplies the inverse of the blend and base colors. The resulting color is always a lighter color. Screening with black leaves the color unchanged. Screening with white produces white. The effect is similar to projecting multiple photographic slides on top of each other.
Fig. 6.10
9: Color Dodge
Works exactly as the screen, but it decreases the contrast also.
Fig. 6.11
10: Linear Dodge
Works same as Screen but in increases brightness additionally.
Fig. 6.12
11: Overlay
The basic function of the mode is to increase the contrast drastically. Whenever I see pretty much dull image, I use this blend mode to make it more drastic. The best way is to duplicate the background layer and change the mode of the duplicate layer to overlay. You can use Cmd+J/Ctrl+J as your keyboard shortcut for this.
This mode lightens the pixels that are lighter than neutral gray color and darkens the pixels that are darker than neutral gray. The result is pretty much high contrast image that sometimes looks like a wedding filter as shown in Fig. 6.13.
Fig. 6.13
12: Soft Light
This mode works same as Overlay but the only difference is that it’s a little bit subtle. Here you won’t see that the colors are washed out like the overlay. Fig. 6.14 is a nice demonstration of that. In that image, Soft Light has increased the contrast of the image by making light color pixels lighter and dark color pixels darker, but the result doesn’t contain any washed out image like Fig. 6.13. The effect is somewhat similar to shining a diffused spotlight on the image.
Fig. 6.14
13: Hard Light
Like the above two modes, this mode also multiplies the colors. The effect is somewhat similar to shining a hard spotlight on the image.
Fig. 6.15
14: Vivid Light
It dodges and burns the colors by increasing or decreasing its contrast. So basically it increases or decreases contrast by two folds. The rest of work is same as overlay blend mode.
Fig. 6.16
15: Linear Light
It works same as Vivid Light but rather than increasing or decreasing contrast additionally, it brightens or darkens the image.
Fig. 6.17
16: Pin Light
This mode is usually used to decrease the contrast. According to the Adobe “Pin Lightreplaces the colors, depending on the blend color. If the blend color (light source) is lighter than 50% gray, pixels darker than the blend color are replaced, and pixels lighter than the blend color do not change. If the blend color is darker than 50% gray, pixels lighter than the blend color are replaced, and pixels darker than the blend color do not change. This is useful for adding special effects to an image.”
17: Hard Mix
As the name is suggesting, this mode gives the hardest contrast than any other mode can provide. Fig. 7.7 is an example of that. According to Adobe “Adds the red, green and blue channel values of the blend color to the RGB values of the base color. If the resulting sum for a channel is 255 or greater, it receives a value of 255; if less than 255, a value of 0. Therefore, all blended pixels have red, green, and blue channel values of either 0 or 255. This changes all pixels to primary additive colors (red, green, or blue), white, or black.”
Fig. 6.18
18: Difference
With this, a new category of blend modes starts. This blend mode subtracts the color of the source from the target layer (or target from source whichever is brighter.
This mode inverts the color if the source image has white color and keeps the color if the source layer has black color. In Fig. 7.8, you can notice that the area where the layer has white color (encircled part), the color inverts in that part in the main image. And the area where it’s black, the color remains the same.
Fig. 6.19
19: Exclusion
This mode works same as Difference, but it results in lighter contrast.
Blending with white inverts the base color values. Blending with black produces no change.
20: Subtract
It subtracts the blend color from the base color. Any pixels that are giving negative value will be clipped down to zero, and hence gives black color as output. This is why the lower half of the image is black in color.
Fig. 6.20
21: Divide
This works exactly opposite of what Subtract does, and hence the result will be opposite of what you get in Subtract.
Fig. 6.20
22: Hue
And here starts a new category.
With the help of Hue blend mode, it creates a result color with the brightness and saturation of the base color and the hue of the blend color. Fig. 7.11 is a perfect example of that. It took the hue of blend color i.e. red, and brightness and saturation of the base color.
Fig. 6.21
23: Saturation
Same as Hue but the difference is that it takes saturation of the blend color rather than hue.
Fig. 6.22
24: Color
It takes hue and saturation of the blend color and brightness of the base color.
Fig. 6.23
25: Luminosity
Creates color with the luminosity of the blend color but hue and saturation of the base color.
Fig. 6.24
With this, we’re done with blend modes. With this done, there is two good news.
The first is the blend mode is one of the most confusing things in Photoshop. With this done, you’re done with one of the most confusing things in Photoshop.
The second is that you don’t need to remember all these 25 blend modes. The blend modes that you’re going to use frequently are Normal, Multiply, Screen, Overlay, Soft Light, and Color. Rest of the blend modes and used rarely.
I hope that you like this tutorial. Please support TrickyPhotoshop by sharing this article with your friends and family on Facebook, Twitter, or Google+.
Believe me, one of the most asked questions on Photoshop is that how do I select complex hair in Photoshop. You might have heard that the refine edge tool helps you with that. You heard it right, but you need more. You might have also heard that the use of Channels also pays off. But do you have enough time to analyze every channel? The third method that you are going to learn is probably the easiest and most efficient way to select complex hair in Photoshop.
If you are presuming that I am not going to use refine edge tool then that’s bad. Definitely, I am going to use Refine Edge tool but not in a traditional way. With the help of layer mask, the performance and output of the refine edge tool improves drastically, and that’s what I am going to show you.
Final
Step 1
The first thing needs to be done is to open that image with messy hair. I am going to select the whole image by pressing Ctrl+A/Cmd+A. As soon as it is pressed, you’ll see marching ants around the edges of the photo. Press Ctrl+C/Cmd+C to copy the area that is inside the marching ants i.e. the whole image.
Open the another photo where you want the face and hair to be placed.
Press Ctrl+V/Cmd+V to paste the selected image. Don’t worry about the unwanted grey background that hid the nice looking wooden background. We’ll fix it soon.
Step 2
The next that needs to be done is to create a highly rough selection around the face, body, and hair.
I am going to use Quick Selection Tool for that. In case you are not aware of this tool, probably the article that I wrote over a year ago may help you. Here it is: How to Use Quick Selection Tool in Photoshop.
Go to Layer>Layer Mask>Reveal Selection, and you’ll see the unattractive selection comes into the picture.
Step 3
Go to Window>Properties.
Now the trick is here. Instead of using Refine Edge Tool after Quick Selection Tool, we’re going to use it now.
In the Properties tab, click on Mask Edge.
The fact that I am using a picture that is huge in size, I am choosing 250 pixels as my radius. For small images, I choose lower values of radius.
The other bars also help a lot. I have explained all those bars in my tutorial on Refine Edge.
Step 4
Our work is not over here. There are some traces of gray color still presents. It can be fixed with the help of Refine Radius Tool Brush. Press E to activate (make sure that Refine Edge Tool is up and running). Now brush on the areas where there are some traces of background. You can use [ and ] to decrease or increase the size of the brush.
Today is such a remarkable day. Finally we’re heading towards the equality. Facebook is flooding with Celebrate Pride Effect. Why now you make yours and upload it on Facebook.
Feeling a bit ashamed on your wedding photos because of those tattoo on your skin. Read this tutorial on How to Remove Tattoo in Photoshop, and get to know how to do it.
