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Hayes Island Cafe
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| Wouldn't it be great
to transform an ordinary snapshot into something you could
hang on your wall!! |
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| After making any adjustments such as
Levels the first task is to see if you can improve the composition
of the image. There are several unwanted areas in this image
and the composition could also be improved by simply using
the Crop tool (shortcut C). Use the grab handles to make any
small adjustments as shown above. |
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| In the Layers palette you'll need to
copy the Background 3 times by dragging it over the 'Create
A New Layer' icon, shown above. |
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| Turn off the top two layers by clicking
on the eye icon, now start working on the first new layer
- shown above. From the Filter > Artistic menu
select Palette Knife and set the Stroke Size
to around 6 and Stroke Detail at 3 and
click OK. It's always worth experimenting with these settings. |
| Tip.... When working in Layers it's always
a good idea to rename them. Right mouse click on the layer
and this will open the 'Layers Properties' box where you can
enter a name of your choice. |
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| Still working on the first layer renamed
'Palette Knife', from the Image > Adjust menu select
the Hue/Saturation palette. Increase the Saturation
to around +70 and increase the Lightness slightly
as well, shown above. To allow the colours to blend a little
easier with the effect try using the Gaussian Blur
with a Radius of 4.0, shown below - Filter >
Blur >Gaussian Blur. |
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| On to the second new layer renamed 'Dry
Brush' because that's what you'll need to apply. Filter
> Artistic > Dry Brush and adjust the setting by
moving the slider. Clicking inside the preview window will
allow you to see the effect being applied. See above |
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| Now to the third layer, from the Filter
menu select Blur > Smart Blur and from the dropdown
menu under Mode select Edge Only. You can also
adjust the Quality but for this image it was left at low.
Try experimenting with both the Radius and Threshold
setting but values around 15 for the Radius and a Threshold
of 52 were selected. |
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| When the Smart Blur is applied
it appears with white lines on a black background, but here's
a neat trick to inverse this. Press Ctrl Alt I and
you'll now have black lines on a white background(shown above).
You can also use Image > Adjustments > Invert
but try using the shortcut. If you feel the drawing effect
needs to be a little bit stronger try adding Poster Edges
Filter > Artistic >Poster Edges and don't
forget you Fade the filter using Edit > Fade
or Filter > Fade in Photoshop 5 |
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| This is where the fun starts, you'll now
need to Blend all the Layer together. Using the Layers palette
under the Blend Mode select Soft Light and apply
it to all three layers (see above). As if by magic all three
layers have now blended into one....well almost! |
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| To combine all the
layers into one new layer but to keep working in layers
try this great trick.
 Click
on the create a new layer icon to create a new empty layer.
Hold down the Alt key and click on the arrow in the top
right hand corner of the layers palette. Select Merge Visible
and all the visible layers (eye icon showing) will be combined
into one new layer where the empty layer was.
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| Adding texture to your image is a great
way to enhance the effects. Select Filter > Textuizer
and from the dropdown menu choose a texture of your choice.
You can also load some new textures, Load Texture >C
> Programme Files >Abode> Photoshop> Plug-ins
> Textures. Bumpy Leather was selected for this image. |
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| Further adjustments to Levels and
Hue/Saturation etc can also be applied at this stage
but try using Layer Adjustments as shown above. Using
Adjustment Layer allows you to apply the adjustment and even
save them as a PSD file. Later you can alter the settings
by clicking on it or even deleting them altogether. |
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| Just to finish the image a
Vignette can be applied. First create a new empty layer as
before. From the tool box select the Rectangular Marquee
Tool, short cut M. Drag it over the image just
inside the border; now Inverse the selection, Select >
Inverse or short cut Shft Ctrl I and from the menu
bar choose Select > Feather, setting the radius to
around 15. You'll now have two lines of marching ants around
our image. Set our foreground colour to White in the Tool
box and call up the Paint Bucket. Click inside the line of
marching ants with the Paint Bucket and this will fill
the area with white. Press Ctrl D to remove the marching
ants and our vignette and image is complete. |
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