Blending

Well, I am basically going to give you some small tips and ideas on blending... First, we are going to start with this image

and we will blend that monkey into this iamge

Now, the first thing you want to do is get the monkey onto your image...try and place it in the relative area that you want it to be at when you are done blending and making it look good :P

the next thing we are going to want to do is recolor the image so that it matched the background a bit. My suggestion is to use the eye dropper and get the foreground color to the most prominent color in your banner, for me it is 1F225A...now press CTRL+U and hit the tick box for colorize and then mess with it until it has the same bg and looks the same colors

Starting to look \"blended\" eh? Anyways, now the next step....there are many different ways you could go about this, I choose vector masks...click the add layer vector mask tool on the layer pallette

Now rpess G (gradient tool) and set the mode to foreground to transparent and the type to linear...

Okay, now you are going to gradually want to cut away at the monkey using gradients....just figure out which way you have to drag to start cutting away...dont worry if you mess up...go to the history pallette and erase that step :P....but anyways...this is what I have thus far

See how it kind of fades into the background now? No need to cut it out :P...there is a lazy way around everything.. But we still have to add some finishing touches....you are going to want to go around all the outlines of the monkey with the smudge tool...the easiest way to find the outlines is disable the layer mask for now and then go to the straight, outer edges... to disable the layer mask, right click it and then go to the bottom most opption on the menu....Disable Layer Mask After smudging it, Enable the Layer Mask by doing the above again....and now click the main layer on the layer pallete and send the opacity to...65% You should have something like this now

Quite a change from the first image, right?

Keep in mind there are many more options in blending and it all comes down to what kind of effect you want the outcome to look like ;)

Colour Balance Effect

This is what I use for some of my sigs. :P First Get out the bg you're gonna use.

2) Go to your layers panel and click on the

and then go to Color Balance.

3) Enter any these:
Shadows: 50/0/0
Midtones: 50/0/0
Highlights: -8/28/-5

Then you should get something like this...

After that, put your text under that so that it matches the bg color. (make sure it's a light grey.) You should get something like this:

Layers like this:

Enjoy. =D

Detailed Cutting

Cutting from a busy background

1. Open up your image and take out the Polygonal lasso tool or Pen Tool (I prefer the pen tool). You must change pen tool mode from Shape Layers to Paths. Do this by clicking this box at the top left. Go > Image > Image Size > double the size of your image. This will allow you to add a feather without the opacity around the edges. It will also provide us with a nice and smooth cut. Should do this:

2. Zoom in to the size you feel most comfortable with. Duplicate your image layer and delete the original.

3a. Now with the polly tool or pen tool slowly and care fully go around your cut (Pen tool is easy to handle. Simply click somewhere along the edge of the image you want to cut and keep doing so untill you get all the way around or do it in portions.

3b. To make a selection with the pen tool simply conect the end to the begining and RIGHT CLICK > Make selection). Leave feather on 0

If you are using Marquee Tool

3c. If you are using marquee do this in portions because some times if you click the same place twice the end of the line and beginning will automatically connect which means you must start all over.

3d. Once you are done cutting your image out hold CTRL and click the image layer. You will now see the image selected (if you cut it).

4. Right click inside the image and SELECT INVERSE (only if you went all around. If you did it in parts then you do not need to do this). You can also do Select (top menu) > Inverse.

5. Right click outside the image and select FEATHER (I myself use 1 Pixel Feather).

6. Doing too much feather will still leave an opacity even though we doubled the size.I myself when I cut this way used .5 or 1. Click ok and press delete (do it a few times. I myself go crazy with it. The more you click the more opacity you will loose in a range of 1-3 pixels). But since the image is doubled you will not notice it at all once you resize it.

7. Now resize your image to the original size. Create a new layer and set it under your cut. We will use this layer to test your cut. Test it on FFFFFF, 000000, and the GR backround color 27323B. If everything looks good then delete the backround layer and save your image as a PNG.

8. If there is something you missed double the size again and fix it. Finished Product [link]

Alternatives to Feather

1. Layer > Matting > Defringe Choose 1 pixel and it will erase the bg that was left over. Some times the result is good and some times it doesn\'t come out as planed.

Cutting Fire/Gun Fire

1. Cut around the edge of the fire or gun fire.

2. Now select the Smudge tool. (size depends on how big the fire is) Now slowly go around the edges untill you perfect it to what you want. It should only be used around the edges and as little as possible.

Cutting Hair

1. Cut around the edge of the hair. Do a .5 - 1 pixel feather on it.

2. Some times simply going around doesn’t cut it and you must improvise and make your own hair. This is where the clone tool comes in. Grab it then set the opacity to about 50 percent (all depends on the color of the hair). (Brush size: 2 - 5) Now slowly and carefully begin creating your own strands. Here is my result after about 3 minutes. I basically Just touched it up and got rid of the opacity and made it look darker around the edges to add a more realistic feel and get rid of fading effect that the feather gave it. The more time you spend on it the better your result will be.

Introduction to Layers

The basics of layers.

Layers are possibly one of the most important parts of a graphics program. This tutorial intends to teach you the basics of using layers. A layer is simply putting something on top of something else, as the name might suggest. Your layer Palette will look something like this: Screenshot 1 If you can't find it press F7 (this hides/unhides the layer palette)

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Ok now its time to start working with layers.

1. Make a new image (File>>New) or ctrl+N Set your own size requirements, I am going to make my image 400x100 pixels I am also going to use a transparent background to start with. You can choose this from the Contents part in the dialogue box.

2. Fill your image with a colour or gradient, this will provide the background for your image.

3. Make a new layer. Look at area H on the screenshot, press that icon to make a new layer. OR press ctrl+shift+n Hit enter

4. I am now going to add a few lines or shapes to my image, using the marquee tools. You can now fade this shape or line into the background. Click on the arrow next to area B, you can now reduce the opacity and the lower it goes, the less of the shape you will see. Try making it 50% Screenshot 1

5. Now if we wanted more of what we had previously created, Right click area F and go to "duplicate layer" Press enter. This will now copy what was on the previous layer and onto a new one. You can move it by using the mover tool.

6. You can also change how the layer blends into the previous by experimenting with the layer modes. Look at area A You will see this is set to normal. Try clicking the arrow and setting it to Overlay or Difference, to see the effects you can achieve. This can work well when working with photos.

7. Now make another new layer. Refer to step 3

8. Here you should now create some kind of other effect, maybe another shape? But lets see how it looks without the previous layer behind it. Look at area E and click the eye, and that layer will dissapear, you can bring it back by clicking on it again.

9. You can prevent a layer being edited anymore by pressing the lock icon which is area D

10. Now add some text, this adds it's own kind of layer known as a text layer. Type your text. Look at area C, this is similar to the opacity feature, where you can reduce the fill colour of your text e.g If my text was all red, the fill colour is red. Try reducing this.

11. Now click on the icon near area G, and go to Blending options, here there is a whole host of options, not all explained in this tutorial. Click on the stroke part. My advice would be to experiment here. Notice familar things such as opacity and a blending mode. Screenshot 2

12. If we wanted to delete a layer, click on the icon next to area I

13. Layers can be moved up and down by simply dragging them on top of each other. Thats about it for the basics, there are other things you may of seen that you could try out too :cool:

Multicolouring

Beginning image:

1) layer--->new adjustment layer-->color balance and pick any colour you want

2) Now go to filter--->render--->clouds and press control and f until you see somthing you like

3) Layer--->new adjustment layer--->color balance and again pick a colour but make sure it is different to your first

4) Repeat steps 2 and 3 as many times as you want

5) If you want you can continue this but the maximum I go to is three times

Tips and Tricks for Abstract Pieces

This tutorial will help you in all fields from learning basic things in Photoshop, and how to use these things to make your images look better.