376 Chapter 10 Collage Eff ects Camera Raw You can blend two different interpretations of the same raw format image by using Smart Objects. Embed a Camera Raw fi le into an existing document by choosing File > Place. In the Camera Raw dialog, you can control the tonality and color of the image—but what if you can’t fi nd a single interpretation that does justice to the entire image (Figure 10.33)? Choose Layer > Smart Objects > New Smart Object via Copy to create a second Smart Object that’s independent of the fi rst. Double-click the thumbnail image for the new Smart Object, causing the Camera Raw dialog to appear, and choose different settings that you want to apply to the second Smart Object. Once you have the two different interpretations of the raw fi le (Figures 10.34 and 10.35), you can add a layer mask to the top Smart Object and use it to control where each version of the raw fi le contributes to the fi nal image (Figure 10.36). Figure 10.34 The sky was ignored and the bottom was optimized in this Camera Raw interpretation. Figure 10.35 The bottom was ignored and the sky was optimized in this Camera Raw interpretation. Figure 10.36 The two interpretations of the same raw file were combined by using a layer mask. Figure 10.33 Using a single set of Camera Raw settings produced this less-than-desirable result. (©2007 Ben Willmore.) 377 IV: Creative Techniques Painting and Adjustments Many of Photoshop’s tools are disabled when a Smart Object is active in the Layers panel. Here are a few tricks you can use to get around that limitation: . To apply paint to a Smart Object, create a new layer directly above the Smart Object and choose Layer > Create Clipping Mask so that any paint applied to the layer will show up only where the Smart Object appears. . To adjust a Smart Object without affecting the rest of the image, select the Smart Object layer, hold down Option/Alt, click the Adjustment Layer pop-up menu at the bottom of the Layers panel, and choose the adjustment you want to apply. When the New Layer dia- log appears, turn on the Use Previous Layer to Create Clipping Mask check box to limit the adjustment to the Smart Object layer. . If you want to apply a fi lter that’s not available as a Smart Filter, fi rst duplicate the Smart Object layer by pressing Command/Ctrl-J, and then hide the original by clicking its eyeball icon. Now apply the fi lter to the duplicate. Photoshop merges the layers that make up the Smart Object (also known as rasterizing), which turns it into a normal layer. But since you hid the original Smart Object, you still have a copy that you can later edit and then re-fi lter. . Be careful when adding layers to a Smart Object. If the original Smart Object was created after opening a fl at JPG fi le that contained no layers, adding lay- ers will cause problems. Photoshop will act as if the Smart Object is actually a JPG fi le. Since JPG fi les can’t contain layers, Photoshop will present a Save As dialog, forcing you to save the document in a fi le format that supports layers. That means that adding a layer will cause your edited Smart Object to be saved on your hard drive instead of being embedded in the parent document in which you used the Smart Object. To update the parent document, choose Layer > Smart Object > Replace Contents and point Photoshop to the newly saved layered fi le. 378 Chapter 10 Collage Eff ects Warping Images Photoshop’s warping features allow you to bend and distort images in interesting ways. Choosing Edit > Transform > Warp causes various warp settings to appear in the options bar (Figure 10.37) and places a grid over the active layer (Figure 10.38). There are 15 preset warp shapes available (Figure 10.39). After choosing a preset from the Warp pop-up menu in the options bar, you can adjust the Bend, H (Horizontal), and V (Vertical) fi elds in the options bar to control the extent of the warp that’s applied to the active layer. If you need to warp an image to match an element in a photograph, set the Warp pop-up menu to Custom. Figure 10.37 The options available when warping a layer. Figure 10.38 Choosing Edit > Transform > Warp causes a warp grid to appear over the image. (©2008 Dan Ablan.) Figure 10.39 The default warp presets. 379 IV: Creative Techniques When applying a Custom warp, you can drag the corner points, handles, or grid lines to distort the image. To match the contours of an object, start by positioning the corner handles to meet the underlying image (Figure 10.40). Adjust the corner handles to specify the angle at which the edge of the image should match the underly- ing image (Figures 10.41 and 10.42). To fi ne-tune the results, drag the grid lines until the image is distorted to match the underlying object (Figure 10.43). If you warp a Smart Object layer, you can choose Layer > Smart Object > Replace Contents to swap out a different image while retaining the warping last applied to the layer (Figures 10.44 and 10.45). Figure 10.40 Choosing Custom from the Warp pop-up menu presents a grid. Figure 10.41 Drag the four corners of the grid so they line up with the object you’re trying to match. Figure 10.42 Adjust the corner handles. Figure 10.43 Fine-tune the results by dragging the grid lines. Figure 10.44 End result of warping the image to match the page. (©2007 iStockphoto.com and Ben Willmore.) Figure 10.45 Using a Smart Object, you can swap the image while retain- ing the warping. 380 Chapter 10 Collage Eff ects Creating Complex Collages Now we’re ready to put all these features together, com- bine them with the blending modes we explored in Chapter 9, and throw in a few other techniques to create a complex collage. If you haven’t read through all of this chapter and Chapter 9, it might be diffi cult to follow along with this project, so make sure that you’ve covered that material before you dive in. The collage in Figure 10.46 was originally created by Regina Cleveland for the CS2 edition of this book. She challenged Ben Willmore to re-create it in Photoshop and gave him a total of four photos, which she snagged from www.istockphoto.com (Figures 10.47 to 10.50), along with a shot of Ben taken by his friend Andy Katz (Figure 10.51). Figure 10.47 This leaf image started out as a black-and-white shot. (©2007 iStockphoto.com/BritishBeefUK.) Figure 10.48 This pattern was used on both the head and background. (©2007 iStockphoto.com/LindaMarieB.) Figure 10.50 The lens from this camera was used in the center of the image. (©2007 iStockphoto.com/ avarkisp.) Figure 10.49 The head was isolated from its background. (©2007 iStockphoto.com/puentes.) Figure 10.51 This shot of Ben Willmore goofing off was used as a reflection in the lens. (©2007 Andy Katz.) Figure 10.46 A collage on the cover of a previous edition of this book. 381 IV: Creative Techniques We’re going to fl y through this procedure, so pay close attention! Creating the Fan of Leaves The fi rst element is the single leaf image, which, when later multiplied, will provide a headdress for the face. We double-click the Background image to turn it into a normal layer, and then use a vector mask to isolate the leaf from its background (Figures 10.52 and 10.53). Because this element is going to be scaled and rotated many times, and needs to retain as much of the original detail as pos- sible, we convert the layer into a Smart Object. The original leaf document doesn’t have enough space to create the fan of leaves, so we create a new document the exact size of the book cover plus nine points (just over 1/8 of an inch) of extra space on three sides to allow for bleed (the fourth side will merge with the spine of the book and therefore doesn’t need any bleed). Once the document is open, we position three guides (using the View > New Guide command) to indicate the trimmed page size. Then, before doing any more work, we drag the leaf Smart Object to the newly created document (using the Move tool) and scale it to an appropriate size (using the Edit > Free Trans- form command). The fan needs a total of ten leaves spanning a 180-degree arc. To space the leaves evenly, we divide the total degrees of rotation (180) by the number of leaves that will be used (9, since two of the leaves will end up at the same angle—straight up and down—and therefore shouldn’t be counted twice). Since dividing 180 by 9 produces 20, that means that each leaf needs to be rotated by 20 degrees from the one adjacent to it. With those calculations in hand, we duplicate the original Smart Object layer by pressing Command/Ctrl-J to create a second instance of the Smart Object. We rotate the dupli- cate by pressing Command/Ctrl-T to access the Free Trans- form command; then the pivot point (which looks like a crosshair and appears in the center of the layer that’s being transformed) is dragged straight down and positioned on Figure 10.52 Isolate the leaf from its background by using a vector mask. Figure 10.53 Layers panel view of the isolated leaf. 382 Chapter 10 Collage Eff ects the bottom center transformation point (Figure 10.54). To get the proper amount of rotation, we enter a value of 20 in the Angle fi eld in the options bar, which ends up rotat- ing the image to the right—the wrong direction. Oops! Add a minus sign before the percentage to rotate it in the opposite direction. After pressing Return/Enter twice (the fi rst time to have Photoshop accept the number and the second time to complete the rotation), we repeat the process (duplicate, move pivot point, rotate) until a total of ten leaves are in place (Figure 10.55). Next, the leaves needed to interact with each other instead of obscuring each other. For each layer, the blending mode is set to Multiply, causing the layer to act as if it were being printed on top of the underlying layers using ink (Figure 10.56). At this point, the fan of leaves starts to look inter- esting, but lacks any hint of color. Figure 10.54 The pivot point is dragged to the tip of the leaf. Figure 10.55 Result of duplicating and rotating the leaf Smart Object nine times. Figure 10.56 The leaves look more integrated after setting each Smart Object layer to Multiply mode. Color is added by applying a Gradient Overlay layer style to each layer, using the Color blending mode to apply the color of the active layer to the brightness information from 383 IV: Creative Techniques the underlying image. In this case, Color mode causes the Gradient Overlay to apply color to the brightness values in the leaf. We click the Gradient Overlay Preview and change the color used on one end of the gradient, and then adjust the Opacity and Angle settings until the color is affecting the leaf in just the right way (Figure 10.57). To apply similar settings to the other leaf Smart Objects, we Control/right-click the style-laden layer in the Layers panel, choose Copy Layer Style, select all the other Smart Object layers, Control/right-click one of the layers, and choose Paste Layer Style, which makes all the leaves take on the same color (Figures 10.58 and 10.59). To make each leaf a different color, double-click the Layer Style icon on each layer, change the color used in each gradient, and adjust the Angle setting to cause the color to be concen- trated near the outer tip of each leaf (Figure 10.60). Figure 10.59 The leaves appear as a single color because we applied the same layer style to each leaf. Figure 10.58 Copying and pasting the layer style applies it to each of the selected layers. Figure 10.60 The leaves take on dif- ferent colors after we modify the layer style applied to each layer. Adding the Head At this stage, the fan of leaves is about done, but it lacks a background. A stylistic head is the next element to tackle. Figure 10.57 One of the Gradient Overlays that we applied to the leaves. 384 Chapter 10 Collage Eff ects We open the head image in Photoshop and drag it into the book cover document, using the Move tool. A problem develops after scaling the head layer to an appropriate size and moving it to the bottom of the Layers stack: All the leaf Smart Object layers look like they’re printed on top of the head, because we set them all to use the Multiply blending mode (Figure 10.61). Since we needed the Multiply mode to cause the leaves to print on top of each other instead of obscuring each other, we select all the leaf Smart Object layers and choose Layer > Smart Objects > Group into New Smart Object to nest them into a new Smart Object. This solves the prob- lem, because the individual layers that make up a Smart Object cannot interact with layers that are outside the Smart Object. A Smart Object can only interact with the underlying image as a whole, and the blending mode for the newly created Smart Object is set to Normal, which prevents it from interacting with the rest of the image (Figure 10.62). Grouping the leaf layers into a Smart Object also has the added benefi t of greatly simplifying the Layers panel. The cover of this book traditionally features a white back- ground, which means that the background of the head image needs to be removed. We start by hiding the fan of leaves Smart Object so it doesn’t obstruct the view of the head layer. Removing the background on the head layer is an easy process because the background is quite different from the subject in both color and brightness. The Magic Wand tool is perfect for this job. Clicking the background probably isn’t enough to select the whole area, though, so we hold down the Shift key and click unselected por- tions of the background. It takes less than a dozen clicks with the Magic Wand tool to get a decent selection of the background. Then, to hide the background on the head, hold down Option/Alt and click the Layer Mask icon at the bottom of the Layers panel. Holding down Option/Alt causes the selected areas to become hidden when the mask is created (Figure 10.63). We might have to touch up a few spots near the mouth and nose, since the original selection isn’t perfect. Figure 10.61 Set to Multiply mode, the leaves look like they were printed on top of the head. Figure 10.62 The leaf layers are grouped into a Smart Object, with blending mode set to Normal. Figure 10.63 The background is removed from the head with the Magic Wand tool and a layer mask. 385 IV: Creative Techniques The head is now ready for her beauty treatment. The paisley/fractal pattern image is placed on the layer directly above the head. Then we choose Layer > Create Clipping Mask to make the pattern show up only where the head is (Figure 10.64). To make the pattern interact with the head, we switch to the Move tool, hold down Shift, and press the plus (+) key on the keyboard a few times to cycle through all the blending modes in the pop-up menu at the top of the Layers panel (Shift and the minus key cycles back). After going through the whole list a few times, we settle on the Overlay blending mode (Figure 10.65). The improved look of the head is good, but the colors aren’t popping the way they did in Regina’s original collage. With the pattern layer still active, we choose Gradient Overlay from the Layer Style pop-up menu at the bottom of the Layers panel, created a colorful gradient, and then experi- ment with the Blending Mode pop-up menu until we like the results (Figures 10.66 and 10.67). Figure 10.65 The Overlay blending mode causes the pattern to overlay onto the head. Figure 10.66 Additional color comes with a Gradient Overlay layer style on the pattern layer. Figure 10.64 A clipping mask is used to make the pattern show up only where the head is. Figure 10.67 This Gradient Overlay is applied to the pattern layer. [...]... with graphic images And when it comes to retouching, hands down, nothing does it better than Photoshop While we’ll concentrate on touching up faces, don’t forget that these tools can be used on any type of image A stray light switch on a wall detracting from the shot? No problem—just use the Patch tool! Photoshop CS4 packs an awesome arsenal of retouching tools In this chapter, you’ll learn how to do all... Type layers (For more about working with text, check out the bonus video “Type and Background Effects” at www.danablan.com/ photoshop. ) The logo that appears at lower right on the cover was supplied by the publisher as an EPS file To add that element, we choose File > Place and point Photoshop to the logo file That embeds the EPS file into the collage as a Smart Object layer, which allows it to be scaled... area of the image that has similar texture but without whatever you’re trying to remove As you move the mouse, Photoshop previews the source area (from which you’re copying) in the destination area you initially selected 392 IV: Creative Techniques (Figure 11.2) When you release the mouse button, Photoshop “patches” the destination area with the source area (Figure 11.3), making sure that the brightness... that needs to be removed; Photoshop analyzes the surrounding area and attempts to find appropriate texture to borrow When you click and drag, the area that will be retouched is covered in black When you release the mouse button, you’ll see the results of the retouching (Figures 11.31 and 11.32) If the results don’t look good, try dragging over the defect a second time, and Photoshop will pull from a... want to clone (©iStockphoto.com/laartist.) The crosshair cursor shows the source of Photoshop s cloning (Figure 11.35) When you apply the Clone Stamp, a circle cursor shows exactly where it’s being applied (Figure 11.36) When you move the mouse around, both of the cursors move in the same direction As you drag, Photoshop is constantly copying from the crosshair and pasting into the circle Figure... of blemishes, and then click and drag it onto the area that needs fixing (Figure 11.21) Be sure to cover the entire destination area without releasing the mouse button Once you release the mouse button, Photoshop checks the edges of the destination area you covered to make sure that the “patch” blends with the color and brightness of the surrounding area (Figure 11.22) 397 Chapter 11 Retouching Techniques... 11.21 Paint across the destination area that needs to be retouched Here we’re covering some tiny dimpled areas on the model’s skin to the right of her nose Figure 11.22 When you release the mouse button, Photoshop blends the retouched area into the surrounding image You might need to use a soft-edged brush to get a good blend (Figures 11.23 and 11.24) A good starting point is to use a brush with a Hardness... choose to sample other layers In the options bar for the Healing Brush, open the Sample drop-down menu and choose Current Layer, Current & Below, or All Layers (Figure 11.25) If you choose All Layers, Photoshop acts as if the document has no layers at all In other words, it will be able to take from any layer below the cursor, as if all the layers were combined However, it will apply the healing information... work a little differently than usual Most tools apply their general effect, and then, once everything is done, they apply the blending mode But with the Healing Brush, the blending mode is applied before Photoshop does the work needed to blend the patched area with the surrounding image (Figures 11.29 and 11.30) Figure 11.29 This is how Multiply mode would usually look for decreasing the hotspot on the... blend This tool doesn’t have many options (Figure 11.8) The main choice is whether to patch the source or the destination With the Patch option set to Source (which you’ll probably use 95% of the time), Photoshop replaces the area that was originally selected with a combination of the brightness and color values from its edge, along with the texture from the source area to which you drag the selection . graphic images. And when it comes to retouching, hands down, nothing does it better than Photoshop. Photoshop CS4 packs an awesome arsenal of retouching tools. In this chapter, you’ll learn how. > Smart Object > Replace Contents and point Photoshop to the newly saved layered fi le. 378 Chapter 10 Collage Eff ects Warping Images Photoshop s warping features allow you to bend and. www.danablan.com/ photoshop. ) The logo that appears at lower right on the cover was supplied by the publisher as an EPS fi le. To add that element, we choose File > Place and point Photoshop to