tutorial: easy outline effect
devilwrites asked me how I achieved the outline effect on my Heather Graham set, so here's a short tutorial. :)
I'm using Photoshop CS2, but seeing how it's very basic stuff, I'm sure it can easily be translated to other image editing programs like Ulead PhotoImpact.
Crop & resize the pic to your liking. Sharpen it a bit, so the edges will later be easier for you to follow. I also desaturated, because I wanted my subject to stand out from a colorful background.
Paste the result as a new layer onto your background texture. With the lasso tool, select unwanted areas & delete them. I've played with the brightness & contrast, because I thought it was much too greyish.
Now select the background layer, & pick a small hard round brush from Photoshop's defaults. I chose 3 pixels. Draw the outlines. You can mess up a bit behind your subject as it's your background layer... no one will know!
Use the magnified view to follow the outlines as close as possible, & often check with the normal view to see how it goes. You have to exaggerate some curves a bit if you want the effect to be smooth.
Add some text, & you're done! ...Easy, right? :)
Credits: cap from heather-graham.org, texture can be found here.
I'm using Photoshop CS2, but seeing how it's very basic stuff, I'm sure it can easily be translated to other image editing programs like Ulead PhotoImpact.
Crop & resize the pic to your liking. Sharpen it a bit, so the edges will later be easier for you to follow. I also desaturated, because I wanted my subject to stand out from a colorful background.
Paste the result as a new layer onto your background texture. With the lasso tool, select unwanted areas & delete them. I've played with the brightness & contrast, because I thought it was much too greyish.
Now select the background layer, & pick a small hard round brush from Photoshop's defaults. I chose 3 pixels. Draw the outlines. You can mess up a bit behind your subject as it's your background layer... no one will know!
Use the magnified view to follow the outlines as close as possible, & often check with the normal view to see how it goes. You have to exaggerate some curves a bit if you want the effect to be smooth.
Add some text, & you're done! ...Easy, right? :)
Credits: cap from heather-graham.org, texture can be found here.