Fake Wood Grain With Photoshop Fibers Filter - New or Improved Skill Day 31

Sometimes you need a wood background, this one is very simple to make.

Go to the Foreground swatch in the Tools Palette. Choose a dark brown. Mine is #703605
Go to the Background swatch in the Tools Palette. Choose a lighter brown. Mine is #905d05.

Open a new file.
Filter > Render > Fibers. Variance 4 and a Strength 3. Randomize.

Duplicate the layer. Command j.
Filter > Render > Fibers. Variance 23 and a Strength 22. Randomize.
Blending Mode Soft Light.

To make a more realistic grain Merge the two layers.
Filter > Liquify. Brush size 60, brush density 50, brush pressure 100, brush rate 80.
Use the Twirl (looks like a hurricane weather map image) and Turbulence (looks like wavy lines) tools to further simulate grain. Change the brush size for variation.

Vintage Linen Postcard Style Image in Photoshop - New or Improved Skill Day 30

I was playing with filters and discovered this really cool way to make an image look like an old postcard. It would look good with appropriate text and grunge on the surface.

Place an image in Photoshop.
Change the color to Lab mode. Image > Mode > Lab Color.
Click the Lightness Channel in the Channels Palette.
Filter > Sharpen > Unsharp Mask. Amount 500,  Radius 100 pixels, Threshold 0. OK
Look at the image with all the Channels visible.

It reminded me of old linen postcards so I added a canvas texture.
Filter > Texture > Texturizer. Texture canvas, Scaling 200%, Relief 15.

How To Make A Vintage Style Double Image in Photoshop - New or Improved Skill Day 29

I wanted to make a soft, vintage style double image.

I placed my photo of some palm tree fronds in Photoshop
Command j to duplicate the layer
Image > Adjustments > Channel Mixer > Monochrome

Image > Adjustments > Variations
    Choose Midtones > More Yellow. OK. Save the image

I dragged my photo of a young man climbing a palm tree into Photoshop.
It was quite dark since his back was to the sun so I made a duplicate layer. Command j.
The Blend Mode for the new layer is Screen at 100% opacity. This lightens the image.

I cropped the image to be square.

New layer.
Place the palm tree photo and when happy with the placement click the check mark.
Blend Mode Multiply. 28% Opacity

New layer.
Choose a gold tone that will be used to fill the square. Edit  > Fill.
Blend Mode Multiply. Opacity 13%

Vignette
New layer.
Make sure the color selector for foreground /background colors is set for black and white.
If black is on top press Option Delete to fill the layer with black. If it's behind, press Command Delete to fill the space with black.
Make a circle with the Elliptical Marquee tool.  Feather set for 70 pixels.
Select > Inverse to choose the outer circle.
Click the Add a Layer Mask icon.
Blend Mode Soft Light. Opacity 75%.

I placed my photo of some palm tree fronds in Photoshop
Command j to duplicate the layer
Image > Adjustments > Channel Mixer > Monochrome
Image > Adjustments > Variations
    Chose Midtones > More Yellow. OK. Save the image
I dragged my photo of a young man climbing a palm tree into Photoshop.
I cropped the image to be square.
It was quite dark since his back was to the sun so I made a duplicate layer. Command j.
The Blend Mode for the new layer is Screen at 100% opacity. This lightens the image.

New layer.
Place the palm tree photo and when happy with the placement click the check mark.
Blend Mode Multiply. 28% Opacity

New layer.
Choose a gold tone that will be used to fill the square. Edit  > Fill.
Blend Mode Multiply. Opacity 13%

Vignette
New layer.
Make sure the color selector for foreground /background colors is set for black and white.
If black is on top press Option Delete to fill the layer with black. If it's behind, press Command Delete to fill the space with black.
Make a circle with the Elliptical Marquee tool.  Feather set for 70 pixels.
Select > Inverse to choose the outer circle.
Click the Add a Layer Mask icon.
Blend Mode Soft Light. Opacity 75%.

Traffic Camera Closed Circuit Television Effect in Photoshop - New or Improved Skill Day 28

Design Nocturne has a great tutorial for making a CCTV Effect.

The completed image and original photo.

My notes so I can remember what I did:
Place the Image in Photoshop. Command j to duplicate the layer.

Filter > Blur > Lens Blur. Source none. Hexagon 6. Radius 15. Blade Curvature 100. Rotation 0. Specular Highlights Brightness 10. Threshold 200. Noise 0. Distribution uniform. OK

Adjustment Layer - Brightness/Contrast. Brightness 0. Contrast 20. Use Legacy is checked.

Adjustment Layer - Hue/Saturation. Saturation -75.

Make sure foreground is set to black, background set to white.
Adjustment Layer - Gradient. Black to Transparent. Radial. Angle 90. Scale 125. Check Reverse. Check align with layer.
Blend mode Soft Light.

New document. 1 pixel wide. 5 pixels high. Transparent. OK
Fill with Black. Increase canvas size to 15 pixels, keeping the black on top. The bottom is transparent.
Edit > Define Pattern. Name it. OK

Go back to the main document. Add a new layer.
Edit > Fill. Choose the pattern from the list. OK.
Filter > Blur > Gaussian. Radius 4. Opacity 50% or 75%.

Adjustment Layer - Solid Color. 00eaff. Soft Light. Opacity 25%

Layered Objects Using the Blend Tool in Illustrator - New or Improved Skill Day 27

I don't know why but I almost never use the blending mode, it can be a handy little tool.

You can make a shape and place another shape over the top. Select both.
Go to Object > Blend Options > Make Choices. OK. You won't see any changes until the next step.
Go to Object > Blend > Make

Now you have a nested shape with graduated colors.

Follow the same steps but choose smooth color to get a button type effect.

The color can also change. I had a red star and a yellow star: Illustrator mixed the colors.

It's a little odd looking but you can change shapes, this is a star to a triangle.

A blue square to a circle with defined distances.

Spirograph type lines. The object does not have to be solid.

Rounded Rectangle Swatch in Illustrator - New or Improved Skill Day 26

I guess I'm not done playing with swatches.

Place a photo in Illustrator.

Make a new layer. Off to the side on the art board, make a square and then a rounded rectangle. Place one over the other. Go to Window > Pathfinder > Minus Front. Recolor the remaining edges white. Drag the image into the Swatches panel.

Make a rectangle on the new layer over the photo. Fill it with the new swatch.

To make the image a bit more interesting, make some of the squares pure white.

Stained Glass Sheets in Photoshop - New or Improved Skill Day 25

I needed several different pieces of illuminated glass to make a stained glass image in illustrator. I could go to a glass shop and take photos, look on the internet, or fake it.

The cray fish are from a special event at Ikea.

You go to Filter > Blur > Motion Blur. Choose the angle and distance. OK.

Now for texture. Go to Filter > Distort > Glass.

A close up view; now I have to do is go through my photo library to get the other necessary colors. I feel freaking brilliant.

The Magic Wand in Photoshop - New or Improved Skill Day 24

I'm a big fan of the pen tool and sometimes I forget there are easier ways to make a mask. I dislike the remnants that you can have on the edge but sometimes things are fine being good enough.

This pretty feather is from the Graphics Fairy. White backgrounds are easy to select and there's so much contrast the Magic Wand is an almost perfect choice. You click on the tool, set your tolerance, make sure anti-alias and contiguous are checked. To capture the image you press command c on the keyboard and command v to paste it on a new layer.

There's one slight catch, if you don't do an additional step you capture the outside of the feather. Click Select > Inverse, the command c.

I have the feather pasted to a transparent layer; to preserve the transparency you want to save the image as a png.

I pasted the feather on a background that was chosen with the color picker using the colors found in the feather.

Channel Mixer in Photoshop For Black and White Photographs - New or Improved Skill Day 23

When I need a black and white image I go to Image > Adjust > Desaturate. It's gets the job done but I've been shortchanging my image.

Look how much nicer the image is when it's processed in the Channel Mixer. It's just as easy; all I have to do is make sure Monochrome is checked and click OK. You can really see the difference in her skin tones and bra.

Infrared Type Photo Effect in Photoshop - New or Improved Skill Day 22

I found a fun tutorial for faking infrared photography in Photoshop at PhotoshopEssentials.

This cow was so funny. Whenever any other cows came close it would run away or head butt them to encourage the others to leave. I liked the creepy way she stared at you.

My notes so I don't forget what the heck I did.

Place image. Command j to duplicate it. Name new layer "infrared".

Channels palette. Select the green channel. Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur 13 pixels. The tutorial called for less but my photo file is huge and it took more to make it sufficiently blurry. OK.

Infrared layer - change Blend Mode to Screen.

Adjustment Layer choose Channel Mixer. Output channel grey. Source channels -50 for red, +200 for green, -50 for blue. Monochrome should be checked. OK. The image should look pretty washed out and ghostly.

Infrared layer, change opacity to 35%.

New Layer, name it "grain". Press D to reset foreground/background colors. Command + Delete to fill the layer with white. Filter > Noise > Add Noise. Amount 20%. Uniform. Monochromatic.
Change the Blend Mode to Multiply. You might need to lower the opacity if the grain is too prominent.

Duplicate the original background layer. Command j. Name it "colorize".

Drag the layer up between the Channel Mixer and the "grain" layer. The layers should be in the following order - grain, colorize, channel mixer, infrared, background.
Change the blend mode of the "colorize" layer to Overlay and the Opacity to 50%.