Graphics Tutorials

[eboniorchid]

Various people who are interested in graphics or particularly like my graphics or happen to have Photo Pos Pro (the poorman's Adobe PhotoShop) have asked questions about how I do some of the things I do for my graphics. So, I've decided to start a graphics tutorial page. It might end up on my graphics site, but for now, it will be located here.

These tutorials are based on Photo Pos Pro v.1.12, but they are also generally applicable to PhotoShop and other related graphics software packages.

Layers

1. start with the original photo
   
2. go to the Layer Properties tool (view-->toolbars & dialogs-->layers) or the Layers menubar and click Merge Layers (the icon for this is a set of four purple boxes), this will create a new copy of the picture
   
   
   
3. close the original picture (it's good to keep them around in case you have to start over or want to do something else with that content)
   
4. to create a layer that is a duplicate/direct copy of the current layer ("background" is the original base layer, but it behaves just like any other layer):
   - select all of the new image and copy the selection (Ctrl+c on PCs, apple+c on macs)
   - go to the Edit menubar and choose "paste as new layer" (edit-->paste-->as new layer), everything will look the same, but you should now see a different layer name in the top part of the picture window (e.g. "background" becomes "layer 1")
   
5. to create any other layer:
   - go to the Layer Properties tool (view-->toolbars & dialogs-->layers) or the Layers menubar and click "create new layer" (the icon for this is a page with the upper-right corner turned down), this should bring up a new window with various options for the new layer (e.g. transparent, colored, a picture)
   

Gradients

If you don't know how to create or work with layers, then please scroll up to see the layer tutorial.

1. start with a copy of the original photo
   
2. duplicate the background layer (now you should be on "layer 1")
   
3. select all (which selects only all of the current layer)
   
4. if you are working with a dark picture:
   - minimize the color saturation and increase luminosity to your liking (colors-->HSL(hue/saturation/luminosity), then shift the saturation pointer all the way to the left and shift the luminosity pointer to the right until your preview is sufficiently bright without losing a great deal of detail)
   - DO NOT grayscale dark pictures (it may seem easier, but will produce bases that are really too dark to work with)
   = the difference between grayscaled
   and desaturated/brightened
   
   
5. if you are work with a light picture, you can just grayscale that top layer (colors-->grayscale) and it should automatically produce sufficiantly bright but detailed results
   = like this
   
   
6. if you are working with pictures that are already a combination of other pictures with varying light levels, just try both methods and choose whichever provides the best balance of detail and brightness
   
7. create a new layer with a white background
   
8. choose a gradient by:
   - going to the color palette bar to the right and clicking the rectangle under "gradient"
   - or by going to the "image" menu and selecting "gradients"
   
   
   
9. the basic gradients are only minimally useful for rainbow-colorbar-making, but you can use the gradient called "colors" and you can certainly make your own gradients - in order to save you some time you can download the "rainbow" gradients that I made here and here; just put these in the gradient folder in the photo pos pro program folder and open your gradient-selection window (comment if you can't find the gradient folder)
   
10. click the flood fill tool in the toolbar on the left (the icon is a tilting paint can)
    
11. go to your "flood fill properties window" (open it by going to view-->toolbars-->tools dialogue) and select the third square at the top (it should be blue transitioning to pink from left to right)
    
12. then click on the plain white layer (right-click will put the gradient in the same way you see it in the gradient part of the color palette on the right, left-click will put it in backwards, so whatever color was last will be first etc.)
    
13. at this point you can do a number of things to have the gradient integrate with the picture(s) on the layer just under the gradient layer, the following are a few examples of the ways that different integration methods look (each set had the same processes done):
    - the first picture is the original (Britney Spears is representing the lighter original pics, Smallville is representing the darker original pics, and Lois & Clark is representing a collection of varied pictures)
    - the second picture was created by going to the layers properties window and selecting "multiply" from the blend pull-down menu (see where it says "normal" in the "layer properties" window?) for the gradient layer (there may have been minor adjustments of opacity by sliding the pointer to the left)
    - the third picture was created by selecting "add" from the blend menu for the gradient layer, then the opacity was significantly reduced to lessen glare
    - the fourth picture was created by putting the gradient layer blend mode on "normal" but decreasing the opacity of the layer until details came into focus but were still softened by the layer of color
    - the fifth picture was created by making a flat copy of the fourth picture (through "merge layers") and then slightly decreasing the brightness and significantly increasing the contrast of the pic (colors-->brightness/contrast)
    = if you are not getting the results you want from using brightness/contrast - go to colors-->HSL and try increasing the saturation, which should also brighten the colors without losing most of the detail
    
    
    
    
    
    
    

Fuzzy Faded Edges

Example:

1. select the entire picture
   
2. choose your edge color by setting the background color on your color palette to the right
   
3. choose an effect called "bevel" (effects --> more --> bevel)
   
4. maximize the bevel slope
   
5. choose a bevel level to your liking
   - (i usually choose 4, 7, 13, or 16 depending on the size of the picture)
   
6. set the frame to smooth
   
7. set the quality to high
   
8. decrease the opacity of the effect to your liking
   - (i usually set the pointer at the 4th mark from the right, which is about 75% opacity)
   
9. click "preview" to see how it will look and adjust to your liking
   
10. click "okay"