Working on Workspaces

In this tutorial, I learned how to neatly arrange a workspace and setting up and saving my very own.

5:00 Minute Mark Post

A Different Perspective

What I did here was I first converted the picture for smart filters, then went to Filter<Blur<Iris Blur. After that, a pin was added in the middle of the photo with a white ring surrounding the pin. The white ring is a tool that allows for the the rest of the photo outside of the border to be blurred, which i did blur at an amount of 13. The border around the center pin has 4 dots on its line, which allows a user rotate and size up the area inside of it. I sized the border down to the end of the road in the picture and used four larger dots closer to the center pin to control how much of the blur is allowed inside the border. All this was done in order to produce the blurred vignette effect seen here in this picture.

Bridal Mosaic

For this picture, what I did here was I made a new document that 9" x 12" at 100 ppi with the backgrounds set to white. I then went to Photoshop<Preferences<Guides, Grid & Slices to make a grid on the page, with a gridline every 2.25 inches and the Subdivisions set to 1. After using View<Show<Grid to show the grid, I selected the single row marquee tool to select the first horizontal grid line at the top. I then kept selecting all the horizontal grid lines after. I then selected the single column marquee tool to select all the vertical grid lines then created a new layer, filled them with white, then deselected. After opening the bride's photo in Photoshop, I added a layer mask to the picture, chose the foreground to transparent gradient, and dragged up from the last line on the bottom to the next one. I then hid the grid lines and added a stroke layer style to the layer with the size at 3 pixels. After duplicating the original model layer and removing the color to the image, I added a Diffuse Glow filter to the image with the Graininess at 3, Glow Amount at 5, and the Clear at 16 in order to blow out the highlights and give a stylish grain to the whole image. The blending mode for the layer was changed to Soft Light with the Opacity at 75%. Next a subtle color effect was added using a Gold-Selenium 2 gradient adjustment layer. This adjustment layer's blending mode was also changed to Soft Light and the Opacity to 25%. Then, I first made the grid lines layer active and used the magic wand tool to select three boxes on the grid. With those boxes selected, I made a new layer for them and filled them with white.  After doing so, I repeated those same steps again for another three boxes but this time, after creating a new layer for those ones, I added in a Black & White adjustment layer. Finally, I put in some text while using the white squares as frames.

Dotted Dandelion Field

What I did here first was probably the hardest part, which was finding an image big enough to fit many pixelized dots inside. Then, after opening the image, I had to convert it into a smart object to allow for the re-editing of whatever adjustments I made to the picture. Anyways, I added a color fill of black and moved that adjustment layer from the top to the bottom. I then applied a mosaic filter, with the tiles at a size of 56 pixels large. After doing so, I made a new document in the same size as the mosaic pixels and drew a circle smack dab in the middle of the document using the elliptical marquee tool. After deselecting the circle, I filled it with black and then inverted the inside of the circle back to a white color with the outside of it black. Then, I defined the circle as a pattern to be used in the original picture's document. Before doing so, though, I gave the pixelated photo a layer mask, selected the layer mask, and then added the circle pattern to the picture. Unfortunately, the dots looked to bland so in order for the dots to stand out more, I gave the picture layer a stroke style of 1 pixel just to be subtle, a hue/saturation adjustment layer, then finally a levels adjustment layer but I lowered that adjustment layer's opacity to 25% and set the blending mode to screen and I was finally done!

Press Play To Start

What I did here I created a new document and used the brush tool to paint a big soft blue part in the middle. I then used the elliptical marquee tool to make a perfect yellow circle right int the center also. After doing so, I painted inside the yellow circle while it was still selected with a soft white brush on top for light and a soft black brush on the bottom for shadow. Then I made a layer under the orb layer and painted a soft black color. Using the free transform tool, I compressed the black into a shadow for the orb, added the brown triangle in the center with the polygon tool, and gave it the following blending options: Inner Shadow and Gradient Overlay. After adding a new layer under the triangle, I used a soft white brush to paint behind the triangle and compressed it down and to one side of the triangle to give the triangle a kind of glowing effect. All I had to do to complete the glowing effect was duplicate the first glowing light layer and rotate it to fit the other sides of the triangle. As an optional step, and rather arduous task that I did anyways, I used the pen tool to draw a string like pattern from the orb into the darkness in the background. After many attempts to draw one thin enough, I finally succeeded in drawing one out that satisfied me enough. I drew a rectangle out and perspective-shaped it a bit to make it a knot, giving it the following layer adjustments: inner glow, bevel and emboss, gradient overlay, and a pattern overlay. I then loaded a selection of the original orb layer and painted inside a soft white color. After deselecting the layer, I used free transform to move it to the right a bit and duplicated that same layer for the other side of the orb. I then changed the brush settings to give off a soft effect by painting in some little glowing lights that surrounded the orb in the background. Finally, I added one last adjustment layer (Color Balance) in order to give it a red color lighting effect, and then I was complete.




(Side Note: I know I did something wrong but I posted anyways because I haven't in a while.)

Blending Photo

What I did here was I opened the picture of the girl blowing on the dandelion into its own page and then loaded the rest of the pictures onto that one. After resizing them to the appropriate size, I turned off the layer holding the grass picture. I then added a layer mask to the dandelions picture, selected the gradient tool, and chose a linear, foreground-into-background style of gradient fade. Using the gradient tool, I clicked and dragged a short distance from the dandelion on the left to a space near it, all while holding shift, in order to bring about the gradient effect into the girl picture and the dandelion picture. After doing so, I turned on the spring background picture layer and did the same thing I did with the other two pictures, except I clicked and dragged my cursor vertically instead of horizontally two fade it into the other two pictures. In the process of all this, I learned something really useful, being that if you want to add another gradient fade somewhere else on the picture without getting rid of an existing one, you have to change the gradient style from foreground-to-background to a foreground-to-transparent kind of style. Doing so allows one two put in as many other gradient fades as they wish because instead of the layer mask going from white to black, black being the part that's already shaded, the fade will go from a white color to no color at all, allowing whatever we don't want covered  to not be at all.