Table Of Content$10 US | $13.75 CDN FEBRUARY 2005
F E A T U R E D A R T I S T
AGE WITH STYLE
Normally, you’d want to repair damaged photos, but sometimes the
wear and tear of an old picture can set a unique tone. Photographer
Tom Collicott (Seattle) enhanced the reflective, brooding mood of a
photo in a poster for the Seattle Children’s Theater.
(cid:1) To create a poster that symbolizes the moved the curve down to darken tones
dark and moody atmosphere of the play, between the upper midtones and the
“The Wrestling Season,” Collicott drew blacks. He scanned a black-and-white
inspiration from aged photos. “I wanted Polaroid negative, placed it in the lower
my wrestler photo to look like a collage right corner, added a mask, and painted
of old film elements—to simulate pieces black on the mask to hide most of the
of roughly handled film that had been negative, but not the edges. He set the
pieced together and laid on a light box,” layer blending mode to Multiply at 20%
he says. Opacity to accentuate the tape.
(cid:2) Collicott placed a scan of crossed (cid:5) Collicott scanned in a weathered,
pieces of scotch tape on a layer, set the stained piece of paper and set its layer
blending mode to Multiply at 50% Opac- mode to Multiply. Then he scanned
ity, and positioned the layer above the another Polaroid negative he had ripped
wrestler. This, however, made the tape apart and let the chemicals dry to a
appear to be affixed to a transparent im- “gunk” texture. He added a mask and
age, which he didn’t want. He duplicated painted with a soft, black brush at a low
the tape layer, pressed Command/Ctrl-I Opacity to hide areas in the middle. He
to Invert it, and set the layer to Screen at then grouped a Levels adjustment layer
50% Opacity so it would seem like the with the layer and enhanced the remain-
tape was on top of an opaque image. ing visible areas. To create a border, he
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P scanned a normal Polaroid negative, set
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SH (cid:3) Paying attention to the quadrants the blendingmode to Multiply, made a
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P rectangular marquee tool to select the the rectangular marquee, and pressed
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N I lower right corner of the main image Delete/Backspace.
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O and copied it to a new layer. He applied a
SH slight Gaussian Blur and scaled with Free (cid:6)To finalize the mood, Collicott added
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GE Transform (Command/Ctrl-T) to make a Color Balance adjustment layer to the
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M the wrestler’s leg larger. He did the same Polaroid, paper, and border layers, and
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N with a selection of the upper left corner increased the Red and Yellow for a sepia
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S that included the top of the head. This cast. He then added a Levels adjustment
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A made the image look like it was taped layer at the top of the layer stack. “When
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M together unevenly. For both duplicate you have multiple layers, partial opacities,
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E layer and moved the white slider inward up without many true blacks or whites,”
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L to gray out the whites. He Option/Alt- he says. By pulling in the black and white
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TO (cid:4) “The wrestler photo is very clean, so
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O rants and add levels of distress,” Collicott Tom Collicott
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U added a Curves adjustment layer and www.tomcollicott.com
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PHOTOSHOP FIX 2
3 FEBRUARY 2005
F E A T U R E D A R T I S T
STEP INTO ANOTHER WORLD
Marina Caruso (London) developed a screen-print effect for an editorial illustration exploring how a
new disability act would affect commercial design. She created a surreal yet soothing environment by
altering image colors and incorporating Sketch filters.
(cid:1) After making a new RGB file, Caruso areas of the image in the same way as the (cid:5) Caruso composited an elevator scene
clicked the Foreground Color swatch in Photocopy filter, but without the outlin- on the right side of the image with solid
the toolbox and chose an orange-red ing effect. She set a high Smoothness so color shapes and a garden photo. Using
from the Color Picker. She selected the the edges would not appear too ragged the magic wand without Contiguous
Background layer and pressed Option- and increased Image Balance slightly to checked in the Options bar, she selected
Delete (Alt-Backspace) to fill the layer show more of the areas filled with the areas of the garden image and pressed
with the color. Then she clicked the Foreground Color. She used the same Delete/Backspace so only someof the
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P Background Color swatch and chose method to affect photos of buildings greenery and shadows were visible.
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S a light brown. She placed a selection in the center and on the right. Caruso felt certain greens in the image
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PH the Background layer and chose Filter > (cid:3) For color depth, Caruso added a new from the Adjustments menu. She clicked
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N I Sketch > Photocopy. The filter used the layer above the Background layer, set the Selection below the preview, clicked on
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O Foreground Color to outline dark areas Foreground and Background Colors to a green area of the image, and adjusted
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S of the photo and used the Background yellow-green hues, and used the gradi- the Fuzziness slider to determine the
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GE Color to fill them. To make the outlines ent tool to apply a Foreground to Back- best selection of greens. Caruso altered
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M thinner, she lowered the Detail slider, ground gradient. She set the Opacity to the selection by changing the Hue and
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N then increased the Darkness slider to 87%, which blended with the orange- increasing Saturation. After adding sev-
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S amplify the color. “I like the Photocopy red below it for an otherworldly color. eral layers of flower images, she selected
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A filter because it produces a kind of gritty each layer and increased Contrast to
MM reality,” she says. She lowered the layer (cid:4) Placing an image of a tree on a layer, the maximum with Brightness/Contrast.
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C Opacity to 88% and chose Image > Ad- Caruso used the magic wand to select To give the garden a peculiar glow, she
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E justments > Hue/Saturation to increase the background and some branches and added more Magenta to the flowers us-
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L the Saturation of the Reds in the outlines. leaves, then deleted them. To create a sil- ing Color Balance.
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P 5 (cid:2) Caruso placed a selection of a win- and lowered Contrast to –100. Then she
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H dow on a layer and positioned it on the chose Hue/Saturation, checked Colorize,
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H Color and a yellow Background Color, the color to bright magenta. Choosing a
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O she selected the window layer, and complementary color to go against the Marina Caruso
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U Sketch menu. It filled the dark and light the tree’s luminescence. www.marinacaruso.com
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PHOTOSHOP FIX 4
5 FEBRUARY 2005
E S S E N T I A L S
BY SIMON TUCKETT
GET IN THE SCHEME OF THINGS
Grayscale images, desaturated process color images, over-saturated RGB images…they never seem
to mix well in a project. One way to tie a group of disparate images together is to create an overall color
scheme by applying specific colors to different points on a Grayscale tonal range. It sounds complicated,
but it’s easier than you think!
DOWNLOAD “FISHING.JPG” AND “COLORSCHEME.PSD” FROM WWW.PHOTOSHOPFIX.COM, FEBRUARY 2005 ISSUE.
(cid:1) First, set the colors for the 100%, 75%, (cid:3) Open the Grayscale “FISHING.JPG” COLOR REPLACEMENT EXTRAS
50%, 25%, and 0% values of a Grayscale image, and choose Image > Mode > In- »Once you have completed a color
tonal range. To do this, create an RGB dexed Color to tie image values to those table and approve of your image’s
document at 300 x 600 pixels, and fill the in a color lookup table. Position the color appearance, click the Save button
Background layer with 50% Gray (Edit > chip file you created and the fishing im- in the Color Table dialog box. Then
Fill > Contents). Add a new layer, create age side by side. With the fishing image you will be able to apply your table
a box at the top with the rectangular selected, choose Image > Mode > Color to multiple images.
marquee tool, and click the Foreground Table—this is where the magic happens.
Color swatch in the toolbox. In the result- Click and drag your cursor through the »Download “COLORSCHEME.PSD”
ing Color Picker dialog box, enter the first four rows of the Color Table. When for a sample file of color chips. If
black RGB values from the Step 1 image, you release the cursor, the Color Picker the colors are too extreme for your
and press Option-Delete (Alt-Backspace) appears asking you to select the first taste, choose Hue/Saturation, and
to fill the selection. Create another box color. Click on the black (100%) chip in lower Saturation. Be sure to use the
below the black one, and repeat the the other file and Click OK in the Color Info palette to properly set their
process to fill it with the dark green RGB Picker. The Picker returns asking you to Grayscale percentages.
values from the Step 1 image. Continue select the last color. Click on the dark
this method until you have five boxes green (75%) chip, and click OK again. The » Keep in mind Indexed Color mode
filled with black, dark green, blue, light Color Picker disappears, and you’ve rede- restricts images to 256 colors. That’s
cyan, and white respectively. fined the first quarter of the Color Table. not a problem for this fishing image,
but it can cause banding in images
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P (cid:2) Make sure everything is deselected (cid:4) Drag your cursor through the next with regions of graduated shades.
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S (Command/Ctrl-D), open the Info palette four rows in the Color Table. Click on the Extreme color shifts can create
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OT (F8), and choose Palette Options from dark green (75%) chip to select the first banding in large, flat areas such as
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P the palette menu. Set First Color Readout color, then the blue (50%) chip to select a sky. If you get banding, apply the
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N I to Grayscale so the palette’s first display the last color. After selecting the next Add Noise filter after converting
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O will be the Grayscale value of the pixels four rows, choose blue as the first color back to RGB or CMYK.
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S under your cursor. In your file, make a and light cyan (25%) as the last color. For
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GE rectangular selection of the dark green the bottom four rows, select light cyan » By making the first and last colors
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M chip, and press Command/Ctrl-U to as the first color, and white (0%) as the the same in each quarter range of
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N access Hue/Saturation. Place your cur- last color. Notice during this process, the selected rows in the Color Table,
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S sor over the dark green chip, and you’ll fishing image updates, and while it may you can posterize an image with
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A notice the Grayscale value (K) in the Info look strange at first, it looks fantastic after a high level of control. Not only
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M palette is not quite at the 75% three- you set the last quarter of the Color Table. does it define exactly what colors
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C quarter tone. Drag the Lightness slider Choose Image > Mode > RGB Color, and are used, but it also defines which
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E until the second number of the Grayscale convert the image back to RGB. intermediate shades those colors
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L value reads 75% when your cursor is are employed through.
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AN over the color chip. Click OK to apply it,
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P deselect, and do the same for the blue
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H (50%) and light cyan (25%) chips until Simon Tuckett is an illustrator and
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T you’ve adjusted them to their designated retoucher in Toronto. For more infor-
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PHOTOSHOP FIX 6
(R0, G0, B0) BLACK
(R36, G84, B59) DARK GREEN
(R68, G145, B216) BLUE
(R116, G201, B225) LIGHT CYAN
(R255, G255, B255) WHITE
7 FEBRUARY 2005
T O O L S
BY ROGER HUNSICKER
WHIP A LOGO INTO SHAPE
You don’t have to be a beziér pen expert to create custom shapes if you start with text or preset
shapes. Using the custom shape tool, photographers and artists can brand their work with a
crisp markindependent of image resolution.
(cid:1) Create a new 900 x 600-pixel CMYK
file at 300 ppi. Choose a Foreground
Color, select the type tool (T), and click
in the document. Set the font to New
York Regular at 12 points, and type
“PERSPECTIVE DESIGN CO.” While the
layer is active, choose Layer > Type >
Convert to Shape, and you’ll see the
type layer convert to a shape layer.
(cid:2) Select the custom shape tool from the
toolbox by pressing Shift-U until its icon
appears. In the top Options bar, click the
Shape layers icon on the left. To the right
are a row of shape icons. Click the arrow
next to the custom shape icon, and you’ll
see the Custom Shape Options for such
things as defining proportions, setting (cid:5) With the custom shape tool set to too.) Now click the New Style button
a fixed size, or drawing from the center. a circle, draw over the O and period in under the Cancel button, and name your
In this case, choosing Unconstrained will “CO.” (see Tip), but do not press Return/ style “WATERMARK” in the resulting dia-
do. Take a look at the other shape tools’ Enter yet. Extrude allows the circle to log box. (Make sure Include Layer Effects
options later, and you’ll notice they are punch out the area you dragged over. and Include Layer Blending Options are
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P customized to suit each tool. Now choose Edit > Define CustomShape, checked.) This adds a new style to your
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S and name it “LOGO.” Styles palette, so after drawing a custom
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OT (cid:3) Move your focus down the Options shape like your logo, you can click Style
PH bar and click the icon to the right of the (cid:6) Put your logo to use! Open an image in the custom shape tool Options bar and
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N I word “Shape” to access a list of preset file, select the custom shape tool, and choose your watermark style.
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O custom shapes. Click the submenu arrow, select LOGO from the preset custom
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S choose All (OK to replace current shapes), shapes list. After drawing the shape, In Step 5, press Space while creat-
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GE choose Small List from the submenu, and use Free Transform (Command/Ctrl-T) ing the circle custom shape so you
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M select Circle from the list. to stretch or rotate it. Select the path or can move it to the correct position
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N selection tools (Shift-A) tomanipulate over the text. Release Space (but not
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S (cid:4) Now look at the icons in the Options the logo if you like. the mouse click) when you’ve set the
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A bar to the right of the Shape section. The position, then continue creating your
MM first icon is the default that creates a new (cid:7) If you want to make a custom shape circle. This works with the vector tools
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C shape layer every time you draw a shape. appear as a watermark, draw it on an and most of the selection tools as well.
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E The rest of the icons in that section only image, and set Fill to 0% in the Layers pal-
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L become available after you make a shape ette. Click the Add a layer style icon at the
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AN layer, and will add forthcoming shapes bottom of the Layers palette, and choose
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P onto a selected layer instead. The last Drop Shadow. In the resulting dialog box,
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H three icons—Subtract, Intersect, and enter the settings from the first Step 7
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T Exclude—allow you to combine shapes image. Click Bevel and Emboss, and enter Roger Hunsicker is advertising coor-
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H similar to the Pathfinder options in Illus- the settings from the second Step 7 im- dinator for Caterpillar, Inc., in Peoria,
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O trator. Here, click the Exclude icon at the age. (By the way, you can add layer styles Ill., and president of Proof Positive
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R end of the row. during the creation of a custom shape, Design Group, a web design firm.
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PHOTOSHOP FIX 8
