Phtotoshop Elements SIG, September 17, 2008

Create a Triptych

1. Turn on Rulers and Grids
2. I had in Edit > Preferences > GridGrid line every 2 inches and subdivisions 4
3. Duplicate background to a new layer using Ctrl+J and name “image name”
4. Set Background and Foreground to default
5. Choose the Rectangle Shape Tool (U) and Draw a rectangle – mine was 2” by 7”
6. With tool still active Ctrl+Alt+Shift click on rectangle and drag to the right about a block away to create a copy
7. Rt+Click on Shape tool and choose from bottom of list the Shape Selection Tool
8. Ggo to first rectangle and Transform > Shape > Perspective and drag down top right corner a block or division
9. The bottom moves up as well
10. Choose Enter or click the check mark
11. With Shape selection tool active duplicate (ctrl+Alt+Shift) the first rectangle and drag to the far right.
12. With far right shape still selected go to Image > Rotate > Flip Layer Horizontal
13. With the Shape Selection tool click on middle rectangle and drag the top and bottom to match the outside shapes
14. Choose Enter or click the check mark
15. Use the Move tool to position the 3 shapes
16. In the Layers palette drag the Shape layer below the duplicated background
17. Create a new blank layer below the Shape layer using the New Layer icon
18. Click on the Foreground color icon and choose a background color for the final, I choose Gray.
19. Fill new layer with this color
20. On the layers palette hold the Alt key and position mouse between the top image layer and the shape layer. Click when you see overlapping circles.
21. This creates a clipping group and groups the image into the shapes.
22. With the Shape Selection Tool move the two outside shapes closer to the middle one. Ctrl+shift while dragging to drag in a straight line.
23. With shape layer active go to the Effects palette and click the Layer Style button and choose Drop Shadows and double click to apply a style.
24. Double click the style icon on the layer and check Stroke and place a 4 pixel stroke in black. Change color from Red by clicking in the red box.
25. Add new layer under the shape layer
26. Edit > Fill Layer Choose 50% Gray
27. Change blend mode to Overlay
28. Move layer on to the top of image layer
    
29. Paint with black and a 30% opacity to darken edges of all shapes. You can hold the shift key to paint in a straight line.
30. Turn off Grid view
31. Save as PSD to maintain Layers.

Photoshop SIG 8-8-08

Click for a short video on using the Graduated Filter and Adjustment brush in Lightroom 2.
This is a new way I'm showing videos so it is a little choppy right now but I hope this will be better. Click on http://screencast.com/t/maiIlVpkKfW.

There are many good resources for learning Lightroom 2. Julieanne Kost of Adobe has some good free tutorials on her web site, http://www.jkost.com/lightroom.html.

A good introduction to Lightroom 2 is on the Photoshop User website,
http://www.photoshopuser.com/lightroom2/ where NAPP has some excellent videos on Lightroom 2. Non NAPP members can access this site.

Another good resource for learning Lightroom 2 is found on the Luminous Landscape site,
http://www.luminous-landscape.com/videos/download-videos.shtml. They have a downloadable 7.5 hours of video tutorials. The cost is only $39.95 and worth it.

A good book on Lightroom 2 is The Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 2 Book by Martin Evening. I use this as a resource to look up questions I have when using Lightroom 2.

In the SIG I also discussed plugins for Photoshop from Kodak and Alien Skin Software. They are:

Alien Skin makes 4 of the filters, Exposure, Blowup, Image Doctor 2 and Snap Art. They can be found on the Alien Skin web site, http://www.alienskin.com/.

Restore Original Color is found on the Kodak, Austin Texas site, http://asf.com/products/plugins/rocpro/pluginROCPRO/. I showed an older version that is no longer available. The Pro version is the only one that is available but if you want to do photo restoration on photos that have lost their color, this filter is well worth the investment. There is no comparable way to match it's effect.