Easy Folded Banner Vector Shape in Photoshop

First published at TipSquirrel.com by Eric Renno

The folded banner is a popular feature at the moment so it was no surprise that I was asked if I could come up with an easy way to create one. The result is not only easy but is created entirely with vectors which means its scalable while remaining  completely editable. Don't panic if you're not used to using vectors, there's nothing that a beginner won't be able to handle here, yes I use the Pen tool but to make just a single click. The circular 'Coffee' logo here is the result of another tutorial, Text on a Circular Path which you can find here. This tutorial was produced in response to a reader question. If you have a question you can email, comment or use the contact page to drop us a note.

Pen Tool in Photoshop - Path Fundamentals

Originally posted at TipSquirrel.com 

Photoshop Nut : Michael Hoffman 

The pen tool is one of the most powerful means of creating precise selections. In this series of videos, we are going to work our way from the basics to pen tool mastery, but we need to start with the fundamentals. In fact, in this video, I’m not even going to use the pen tool. Instead, we’ll spend our time understanding how paths work in Photoshop, so that when we do start using the pen tool, we’ll be on familiar ground.

 

See more from this series at TipSquirrel.com

3D in Photoshop CS6 - Materials Properties

Originally posted at TipSquirrel.com
Photoshop Nut : Michael Hoffman

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In the conclusion of this segment, we will look at assigning and modifying properties of 3D objects to define transparency and reflections. We'll create a reflection on the ground plan, and make some basic adjustments to the light in the image to soften the shadows. If you missed the first part, you can find it in my post on 3D in Photoshop – Combining Objects.

Click here to see the other videos in this series

Conditional Actions in Photoshop

Originally posted at TipSquirrel.com
Photoshop Nut : Richard Hales

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The latest update to Photoshop (only available to Creative Cloud users, don’t blame me talk to Adobe, but I probably agree with you) included something called Conditional Actions.  Conditional Actions are a way of adding a clause to an action that will cause another action to run if the clause is applicable or another to run if it isn’t.  Clear?  No, probably not, so I’ll create a real world example to explain more clearly (hopefully).   One thing I end up doing a lot is preparing images for tutorials, this involves using the Save For Web function in Photoshop, in-putting size and quality settings, selecting a place to save the image and then close without saving.  I have two actions to do this for me, one for landscape and square images (the square action works with portrait images too), which means running a Batch command for several images would have been a fiddle and a faff. What Conditional Actions allow me to do is to create a new action that selects which of my two existing actions to run depending on whether the image is landscape or square/portrait.   To do this, open the Actions palette and create a new action (press the new icon at the bottom of the palette or use the palette's pop out menu)

    

Name it as you wish but make sure that you save the action the set where the actions you are going to use are located.  Don’t worry about pressing record as you do not need to be recording to create a Conditional.   Go back to the pop out menu and click on “Insert Conditional…”   opens the Conditional Action dialogue box

 

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Image Variations with Photoshop Gradient Maps

Originally posted at TipSquirrel.com
Photoshop Nut : Michael Hoffman

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If you look in Photoshop’s Adjustments Panel, right at the very bottom, in the last position, there is the really technical sounding “Gradient Map.” If you haven’t seen this adjustment in action, or known what it can do, you’d be entirely likely to pass right over it – it sounds complicated. But, it isn't  Gradient Maps are one of the simplest ways of toning or tinting an image. In fact, if you like to tinker with your image, searching for a certain “look,” the Gradient Map can provide a seemingly endless train of color variations, all with a few clicks. Let’s see how it works.

 We’ll start with the image above, and very quickly, we can open the Adjustments Panel and click Gradient Map (Or, if you prefer menus, Image > Adjustments > Gradient Map… will get you there). The adjustment layer is added, and the Property Panel opens, showing the gradient picker and controls:

 

At this point, the default gradient is applied to your image, in a very predictable way. Looking at the gradient from left to right, the colors on the left are applied to the darkest tones in your image, and the colors on the right are applied to the lightest tones – with the tones in the gradient “mapped” to the highlights and shadows of the image. With the default black and white gradient, this gives us a black and white image, like so:

 

 Now, this in itself isn’t really amazing or surprising – after all, there are dozens of ways to get a grayscale image within Photoshop. No, the variations come as we change the gradient, which is mapped to the image tones. We can click the drop down arrow next to the gradient and pick a different gradient (such as Copper), which is mapped onto the image tones the same way:

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From The TipSquirrel.com Archive : The Photoshop CS6 Oil Paint Filter

Originally posted at TipSquirrel.com
Photoshop Nut : Dan Moughamian

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Sometimes it's good to take a step back and have a little fun with Photoshop. Try new filters, new blend modes... experiment a bit! Photoshop CS6 offers plenty of opportunity for this with new features like Blur Gallery, greatly improved Lighting Effects, and the new Oil Paint filter, which we'll talk about here. Traditionally most creative or painterly filters end up in the Filter Gallery, but the Oil Paint filter is a new breed. It has been accelerated to take advantage of fast GPUs (or graphics cards) and provides instantaneous feedback as you adjust the settings, and you can find it right at the top of the menu!

Smart Oil Paint Filter

As a starting point, it's usually a good idea to convert the layer you're going to work on into a Smart Object (or Smart Filter) layer. In this case, I've given myself a head-start by opening the raw image as a Smart Object. Once you've done that, chose Filter > Oil Paint. Next you'll want to zoom in to at least 33 or 50% on most photos, more so if they're very large. The idea is that you want to see the contrast edges as well as some of the grain and detail in the shot. To test things out, move the Stylization control from side to side and watch the preview as you do so; can you see any obvious changes? If not, you need to zoom in at least one more level. The Stylization control has an interesting effect. The best analogy I can make is that the lower values give the simulated oil paint a more random and almost clumpy appearance, almost like it was painted onto a rougher canvas or with an older brush that had lots of dried paint on it. Personally I like oil paintings to have a smoother look so I set this example to a value just over 7 (the max is 10).

Brush Controls

The Cleanliness slider has a similar effect to Stylization except that it tends to break up the contrast lines (i.e. simulated paint streaks). The lower the value, the more broken the paint lines appear to be. You might think of boosting this setting  as well however I think it adds an element of realism to keep the value under 5. After all if we're painting with human hands and not robot hands, we're probably going to have an element of waviness to the contrasts we create with a real paint brush, so it should be the same with digital. The Scale control is pretty important and it's one you'll want to zoom out to evaluate as you make the setting. Think about the relative size the image will be viewed at and try to mimic that level of magnification if you can. The larger the scale, the more obvious the paint patterns will be. Move the slider back and forth a couple times to get a sense for what the effect does. I usually settle on a value between 3 and 7. As with the prior two settings, the max is 10 and decimals are used so the options are fairly precise. The last brush control is Bristle Detail and you can think of this as mimicking the look of a brush that shows individual bristle lines vs very smooth paint strokes. I usually leave this value quite high depending on the first couple settings. If you make it too low I think it loses the character of oil paint a bit. This is one you'll want to be zoomed in with to see clearly. Even then it can be a little tough.

Lighting

The Angular Direction control will "rotate" the effect (e.g. moving from 180 to 360 is basically inverting the contrast lines to create the sense that light is shining on the canvas from the opposite direction), while the Shine control will change the oil paint from looking flat to looking wet (i.e. more reflective in the bright areas). Try to rotate the effect so that it runs parallel to the most important visual lines in your image (or specific textures you want to highlight). The Shine can put the finishing touch on the shot and make the difference between something that looks like paint or not. With these two controls it's generally best to zoom out a bit to normal viewing magnifications. The final result is shown below. When you're done, click OK to apply the filter to your new Smart Object layer, then double click the filter name (below the layer) any time you want to revise your settings. Tip: Don't forget to rasterize your smart filter layer before scaling your oil painting! [caption id="attachment_14612" align="aligncenter" width="550"] Snow Statue © Dan Moughamian[/caption]

From The TipSquirrel.com Archive : Stripy Text with Photoshop Layer Styles

Originally posted at TipSquirrel.com
Photoshop Nut : Simon Rudd

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More text antics with Photoshop. We shall try and create this...

 

Step 1.

Start by creating a new Photoshop Document, I used 1024x768 at 72 ppi, but as always its really up to you. I then set my background Colour to Red #c0292f, you can either just fill the Background Layer with red or create a new Layer and colour that red.

Step 2.

Next reset the Swatches to default by pressing D on your keyboard, follow this by pressing X to swap the foreground and background and make White the foreground colour. Choose the Text Tool and select the font Impact (or anything else big and bold), set the size to 150. Type something on on your screen.

Step 3.

We are now going to add some Layer Styles to our text, you can do this by going to Layer > Layer Style > or by pressing the fx button on the bottom of the Layer Palette. First Choose the Bevel and Emboss style and perform the following actions (most of them are the default styles) Set the Gloss Contour to the preset Ring(bottom row, 2^nd in) Next add a Inner Glow, Stroke Finally add a Gradient Overlay as in the picture finally reduce the Fill Opacity of the Layer to 24%

Step 4.

Next we are going to add a new Layer above the Text Layer and fill it with clouds by going to Filter > Render > Clouds. This will generate a random selection of cloud like texture over the picture. Next we want to put a selection around the Text, you can easily do this by holding the Control Key on your Keyboard and clicking the Text Layer. Now making sure you are on your clouds Layer create a new Layer Mask. Layer > Layer Mask > Reveal Selection. Finally reduce the Fill opacity to 30%.

Step 5.

We want to now use the Line tool, set the size to 50 pixels and draw a series of lines across the text as in the picture below...

Step 6

Select all of your stripes layers in the Layer Palette (hold control and click once on each one) and the clip them to the Clouds Layer, Layer > Create Clipping Layer. You can now put things under the text and they will show through... Hope you enjoyed this tutorial :) Please look out for me on Twitter and say hello, also have a look at my website http://www.simonrudd.info

From The TipSquirrel.com Archive : Holiday Photo Photoshop Clinic

Originally posted at TipSquirrel.com
Photoshop Nut : Richard Harrington

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Join Rich as he tackles 12 holiday images. This in-depth class will show you how to fix both standard and advanced problems that often plague holiday photos. With almost an hour of tuition Rich shares some great techniques that will be handy all year!    

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Hard Restoration, Easy Fix in Photoshop

Originally posted at TipSquirrel.com
Photoshop Nut : Janine Smith

The first thing you may think as you look at today’s before image is “How in the world am I going to get all of that red-colored mess off?” Or it may not be, but for the sake of argument, we’ll just say it is. Here’s what you need to do to fix this. Pay attention to all the steps, here… Go to your Adjustments panel and choose the Black and White adjustment. Since this is a red-colored mess we’re dealing with, go to the High Contrast Red preset. Now select OK. Did you get all that?

Obviously from looking at the image you can see I’m not funning you! Sometimes it really is just that easy, especially when the problem area is distinctly a red, blue, yellow or green tone. If nothing else, this article should serve to show that it’s an area that should be checked, especially in a photo that was originally black and white or one that you’d be ok with being converted to B&W. Since this article is so short it barely warrants the description “article” (“check out my paragraphs on tipsquirrel.com!”), I’ll go ahead and go over the very few other steps I took to finish the image. I don’t care for straight-up black and white or greyscale. I think all images look better with at least a little color tone to them and the person to whom this image belongs wanted the finished image to have something like the original color, so I sampled a portion of the frame that had a color I thought might look good. I then made a new, blank layer and filled it with the color. Since the color you just sampled should be the foreground color, use keyboard shortcut Alt or Opt + Backspace to fill.

Now go through the layer blend modes to see how each one affects the fill layer. I liked how the Vivid Light mode looked both in terms of what I’m going to do later and the brightness and clarity of the image itself with it applied.

Next it was just some simple clean-up of the cracks using, mostly, the patch tool with some healing brush. I worked in the 200% - 300% zoom range to make sure I was getting everything and not leaving any smudges or artifact behind.

You may notice the insignia on the hat is a little clearer in the last version. The client requested this if I could arrange it. He told me specifically what it was, so I went online and found an image of the insignia which I then separated from the background, re-sized to fit the area, used a Soft Light Blend Mode to help integrate it with the original, and brought the Opacity down to around 17%. Now all that’s left are a few details like replacing the frame and taking down the color just a tad. To do this I simply made another Black and White Adjustment Layer, kept it on the default preset and brought down the Opacity to 25%.

Kind of amazing how an image that looks so bad at first can be improved so quickly and easily, isn’t it? I do wish they were all this easy!

Photoshop A Coffee Foam Design

Originally posted at TipSquirrel.com
Photoshop Nut : Eric Renno

In this Photoshop tutorial I’ll be using an image from the Fotolia stock image site but there are alternatives. Of course you can take your own or try out images on free stock site for a bit of practice. I found Cup Coffee with crema 1 and coffee beans on Stock Exchange, The image I’m using isn’t free but is available from Fotolia, called coffee cup by caffina. Besides the coffee cup you’ll need a copy of what you want to appear in the foam. I’ve got a very simple black and white version of the TipSquirrel logo but you could just as easily use a custom shape from the custom shape tool menu.