Depth of Field Effect

This tutorial shows you how to make a "Depth of Field Effect" in Photoshop this is where you pick something in an image that you want to "Stand Out" and then blur the background so the focal point of the image changes, really cool effect and can be used on any image.

Step 1: First of all get the picture that you want to edit and find the thing on the image that you want to make “Stand Out” when you have done this choose the Pen Tool and draw around the outline of the chosen object that you want to stand out as shown below:





Step 2: When this is done make sure the two ends of the path are connected and you should have the line of “crawling ants” around the selection, if like me there is something in front of your selection that you do not want to include in it then simply hold ALT and draw around the outline of that to subtract it from the selection as below:



Step 3: When this is done you have your selection ready, now press CTRL + Shift + I which inverts the selection to select everything outside of the original selection, now go to Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur and set the blur to around 3 pixels (depends on image so adjust it so that it looks ok with your image) and press ok.



Step 4: Now we are nearly done, to finish simply choose the blur tool (raindrop shaped) and pick a decent brush size and go around the very edge of your selection so that the edges don’t seem to sharp or pointy



And there you go the simple way to make something stand out more from their background below is the comparison from the original image to the finished image:

Finished Image:



Original:

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How To Use The Extract Filter

This Tutorial explains how to properly use the "Extract Filter" in Photoshop

Step 1: First of all get the image that you want to extract loaded up onto Photoshop, for this tutorials I am going to extract this Coca Cola Can from it's background and place it on a black background.



Step 2: Next go to Filter > Extract and wait for the filter to load.



Step 3: This is where we start to extract the image first of all zoom into the image so you can clearly see the outline and set the brush size to a suitable size and then simply draw around the outline of the coke can so that there are no gaps.



Step 4: Now we can fill in the area which we want extracting to do this select the bucket/fill tool on the left hand toolbar and simply click inside of the drawn outline.



Step 5: Now press "OK" in the top right of the window and you should go back to the normal photoshop window, and if you did the last steps correctly you will have an image of a coke can without a background, if all done correct the edges will look fine, if not then you may find some discrepancies which can simply be erased.

Step 6: Finally fill in the background with a black colour and add some text to give you the final image.



Final Image:



Hope this has helped, if you have any problems with this tutorial then feel free to e-mail me or leave me a comment and I will respond ASAP

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Creating "Firey" Text In Photoshop

This tutorial will show you how to create a firey text style using very simple techniques took me around 10 minutes to complete.

Step 1: First of all open up a new Photoshop document with the sizes: 600 width and 600 height as shown below:



Step 2: Next fill the background Black using the fill tool (Paint bucket)



Step 3: Now we need to add the text I am going to use the text “Photoshop” but you can use whatever text you want to.



Step 4: Now you need to duplicate the layer with the text on it (Ctrl + J) when this is done we need to hide the copied layer as we do not need it at the minute to do this click the "eye" next to the layer which will hide it for now.



Step 5: Now rasterize the original text layer to do this right click the layer and click on "rasterize type" this will change it to pixels instead of text.

Step 6: Next select both the background layer and the original text layer and right click and press "Merge visible" as shown below:



Step 7: Now we need to rotate the canvas in order to successfully the next filter, to do this click, Image > Rotate Canvas > 90 CW and this should rotate the canvas to the right.

Step 8: Now we need to add the wind effect to do this click Filter > Stylize > Wind when the menu pops up choose from the left and press ok, when it applies it press Ctrl + F twice this will repeat the process twice and give you bigger flames:



Step 8: When the wind has been applied then rotate the canvas back to normal to do this simply go to Image > Rotate Canvas > 90 CWW which should rotate it back to the original way:

Step 9: Next we need to add a gaussian blur to do this go to Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur and set it to blur 2 pixels which should be ideal for the amount we need:



Step 10: Now go to Image > Adjustments > Hue/Saturation this will change the colour of the flames so they look firey, set it to the settings as shown below (make sure colorize is ticked) and then press ok:



Step 11: Now duplicate this layer again by pressing Ctrl + J and then set it to Color Dodge as shown below and then right click on the new layer and click "merge down":



Step 12: Now with the original layer still chosen go Filter > Liquify here is where we make the flames of the fire, simply set the brush size to whatever you want and make the flames by clicking and dragging slightly left to right all the way up on each flame so that you get the result you want, this is where you can customize the size of the flames you want, as mine is shown below:



Step 13: Now unhide the copied text layer from earlier and right click and choose "blending options" this will open up a box and when this opens use the settings as shown below, when done click ok:





Step 14: And there you go a completed firey text effect:



If you had any problems with this tutorial then please dont hesitate to contact me by either leaving me a comment or send me an email to stevie489@googlemail.com

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Creating A Smoke Effect Using Smudge Tool

This tutorial is about how to make a smoke effect in Photoshop using a simple black line and the easy to use smudge tool, very easy to follow and understand.


Smoke Effect:

Step 1:
Using the "Brush" tool simply draw a straight black line down the centre of the page.



Step 2:
Now using the smudge tool, click and drag from side to side whilst moving downwards aswell this therefore creating a zig zag movement with the mouse.



Step 3:
After doing this simply amend any parts which you think could do with improving by just simply dragging the smudge tool over the parts you want re-doing.



Step 4:
Use this effect in any way you want, for instance I have attached a picture of a cigarette to it, making it look like the cigarette is lit.



Thanks For Reading, Hope This Has Helped

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