Lesson 3 ( for February 22)

 

Working with selections and Layer Adjustments

1. Open Photoshop (From your Start Menu > Programs > Adobe CS5)

2. Open your image by going to the File menu and selecting Open.

3. Choose the file “Elephants.psd” and click Open

4. Make sure the Layers Palette is visible, if not go to Window > Layers

5. Copy your background using the keyboard shortcut CNTRL + J (Command J)

Magic Wand

6. Click on the Background Copy and then choose the Magic Wand from the toolbar (keyboard shortcut is W).  (You can use Quick Selection Tool if you prefer)

7. Set the Magic Wand Tolerance to 30. Select the biggest elephant in the photo by clicking with the Wand. Add additional areas with Shift+click. Subtract areas with Alt+click. Adjust the tolerance of the Wand for fine areas.

Save Selection

8. To save the selection go to Select > Save Selection.

The window should look like this:

Document: elephants.psd

Channel: New

Name: (give the selection a name) “big elephant”

Click OK

Refine Edge

9. Refine the edge of the selection by clicking the Refine Edge button while the selection you just made is visible. Set the following:

Radius 1.0px.

Contrast 10%

Smooth 30

Feather the selection by 1px

Contract 0%

Levels

10. Click on the Cookie and select Levels. Drag the White slider to the bottom right edge of the histogram. Adjust the Gray slider to about .80. Click OK.

Load Selection

11. Click on the Background Copy and load the selection of the big elephant.

To Load Selection click: Select > Load Selection > Channel > “big elephant”

Hue / Saturation

12. Click on the Cookie and select Hue/Saturation. Drag the Saturation slider to +100.  Drag the Hue slider to  -83. Click OK.

Poke the eye in the layers palette to see the before and after preview. Leave the preview off for now.

Load Selection

13. Click on the Background Copy and load the selection of the big elephant again.

To Load Selection click: Select > Load Selection > Channel > “big elephant”

Refine Edge

14. Refine the edge of the selection by clicking the Refine Edge button while the selection you just made is visible. Set the following:

Radius 1.0px.

Contrast 10%

Smooth 0

Feather the selection by 30px

Expand +15%

Hue / Saturation

15. Click on the Cookie and select Hue/Saturation. Drag the Saturation slider to +60.  Drag the Hue slider to  +180. Click OK.

Poke the eye in the layers palette to see the before and after preview.

Try combining hue and saturation layers by previewing two Hue and Saturation layers at the same time. Now turn off both of the previews.

Repeat steps 13 and 14 to make your own original hue/saturation adjustment.

Invert

16. Click on the Background Copy and load the selection of the big elephant again.  To Load Selection click: Select > Load Selection > Channel > “big elephant”

 Click on the Cookie and select Invert.

Select & Save Selection

17. Use the Quick Selection Tool to select the small elephant in the front of the photo.

18. To save the selection go to Select > Save Selection.

The window should look like this:

Document: elephants.psd

Channel: New

Name: (give the selection a name) “small elephant”

Click OK

Curves

18. Click on the Cookie and select Curves. Choose one of the preset curves adjustments such as Darker or Increase Contrast. Click OK.

19. With the Curves Adjustment Layer Highlighted, Click CNTRL + E (Command + E) to Merge Down (Or choose Merge down from the Layers Palette Menu).

Copy and Paste Selection

20. With the Background Copy Highlighted, Load the selection of the small elephant.

21. Copy (CNTRL + C or Command + C) and then Paste the selection (CNTRL + V or Command + V).

22. Use the Move Tool (V) to move the small elephant.

23.  Use Free Transform (Control + T or Command + T) to flip and resize the elephant. Place the elephant somewhere in the background.

Advanced Students: Use the warp mode to adjust the elephant. You should also be able to make specific selections of the elephant’s ears and trunk, and using free transform or warp, make him look like a new elephant. 

24. Use Smudge and Blur to make the elephant look far away and blurry.

25. With the small elephant layer selected Click CNTRL + E (Command + E) to Merge Down (Or choose Merge down from the Layers Palette Menu).

26.  Use the Clone Stamp tool to cover any part of the elephant that should be hiding behind the bush. Clone Stamp (S), hold down the Alt Key and Click to target the area you want. Let go of all keys, then click with the mouse to cover up unwanted areas.

27. Choose a combination of Adjustment layer you like.  Drag unwanted layers to the trash. Choose Flatten Image in the Layers Palette menu.

SAVE

File > Save As > Finished Elephants

Choose:

JPEG for Finished Images

PSD for Unfinished images.

The End.