Photoshop tutorial: Tricolor images

1. Pick an image you’d like to use. This cute little car is taken fromsxc.hustock.

2. Using pen tool create a path around your object. Create as detailed path as possible. It looks better.

3. Now make a selection from your path. Set thefeather radiusto “0″. Checkanti-aliased

4. Copy your object inside the selection (ctrl+C) and paste it to another layer (ctrl+V). Turn off the original layer.

Now you can concentrate only on your object

5. UsingWand Toolselect transparent area around your object and invert selection usingSelect>Invert Selection. Now your whole object should be selected. Create new layer and fill the selection with grey colour usingPaint Bucket Tool

6. Turn off the gray layer. Create a new layer. ChooseSelect>Color Rangeand selectShadows

7. Fill the selection with black usingPaint Bucket Tool

8. When you turn on the grey layer you should have something like this:

We’re almost there

9. Turn off the black and the grey layer. Create a new layer. ChooseSelect>Color Rangebut this time selectLights

10. Fill the selection with white usingPaint Bucket Tool

Now we can say you’re done! You’ve got transparent background so you can do what you want with your object

If you want to, you can simply just use thePhotoshop actionwhich I’ve created. I use the tricolor effect very often so that action isextremely usefulfor me.The action covers thesteps from 5 to11!You candownload the Tricolor Photoshop Actionand run it when you have the transparent background around your object

12. You can play with your object by changing colours. Black white and grey are just optional. I usedHue/Saturation adjustment layerwithColorizeoption checked and the black background.

Now that I’ve got my little blue car done I can design something like that:

…just by adding a little bit of mess.Brushes used here:Floral Brushes II,SplattersandGrunge Brushes. You can download them for free!

Have a nice design!

1 - Adhemas Batista (Brazil)

Adhemas Batista，巴西人，居住在圣保罗,25岁，美术指导，平面与插画设计师。自由职业者。1996至1998年，经人介绍进入互联网行业，当时在一家小工作室工作。1998至1999年，致力于 Tesla Tecnologia 研究。1999至2000年，从事艺术主管，为巴西和TVA的GM做方案。在巴西做的第一个项目是网上销售汽车，从事于 AgenciaClick。2000至2002年，创作了自己的网上工作室，与巴西的私营银行和其它小客户合作。2002至2003年，回到 MSN 做 AgenciaClick，当然还有其它一些客户，如 Coca-cola， Fiat 和 TAM。2003年至今，在 AlmapBBDO 工作。

http://www.adhemas.com/

2 - Bert Monroy (USA)

Bert Monroy在纽约市出生和长大，并在当地多家代理机构及其自己的公司中从事广告艺术总监和执行总监工作20余年。 当1984年Macintosh 128汁算机出现时，Bert开始了其自己新的数码职业生涯。他把计算机作为新的艺术媒体，他是大家公认的数码艺术先锋人物之一。Bert的作品出现在各种主要杂志上，也被大量的图书昕采用，其中包括Making Art on a Macintosh、ThePhotoshop WOW Book(所有版本)、The IllustratorWOW Book(所有版本)、The Art of Digital Painting以及在日本出版的Photoshop A to Z。

http://www.bertmonroy.com/

3 - Derel Lea (Canada)

1996年，在作了多年艺术指导、平面设计师和职业修图编辑之后，Derel Lea开始把精力放到了插画上。从开始创作第一幅插画时就知道这正是他想要的感觉，创作并且沉迷其中，时间仿佛终止，世界仿佛消失。最初的插画作品是摄影、传统插画和数码艺术的一种结合。它们产生的原因完全是因为Derel Lea对之前所接触的所有艺术感到厌倦和受挫。传统插画家大都总是创作同一种风格的作品，然而Derel Lea 不喜欢总是简单重复做同样的事情。虽然可能所有的作品从根本上还是潜藏着同一种风格，但至少是在不停的尝试新事物并且让它看起来更有趣。

http://www.dereklea.com/

4 - Eduardo Recife (Brazil)

Eduardo Recife,是一位来自巴西的设计师,他的作品呈现出一种怀旧的后现代美，散发着浓郁的南美本土气息,同时他创作的一些字体也有很不错的视觉效果.我从很小的时候就开始画画。在学校的时候我有一个记事本，里面都是我的画而没有一页笔记。我以前经常用一只黑色的钢笔给朋友刺青，还经常在无聊的时候在各种东西的表面上画画。我相信这是我能做到的最棒的事情。对我而言，这也是当找不到合适的文字表达时最好的交流方式。绘画是一种疗法、一种爱好、一份工作，它使我快乐。

http://www.eduardorecife.com/

5 - Ian Keltie (U.K)

Ian Keltie是英国的商业艺术家。Ians的数码风格吸收了多种元素的影响，包括位于泰恩河上游的家乡纽卡斯尔镇的风土建筑、所有他认为酷的东西：杂志、磨损的牛仔裤、老鞋子，70年代的摄影以及澳大利亚画家Egon Schiele的作品。Ians总是对新的项目充满兴趣，对不断增加的世界各地客户的名单也是非常高兴。

http://www.iankeltie.com/

6 - Joan Charmant －http://www.joancharmant.com/

7 - Joshua M. Smith -http://www.hydro74.com/

8 - Justin M. Maller (Australia)

来自澳大利亚墨尔本的平面艺术家，毕业于奥尔本大学，创意艺术学士。depthcore创意指导。

http://www.superlover.com.au/

9 - Nik Ainley (U.K)

Nik Ainley是来自英国的一名视觉设计师，主要工作为个人和企业提供新锐的视觉设计和插画。作品曾多次被Computer Arts杂志登载，并获得Computer Arts 杂志的“2006十佳创意设计师”荣誉。他的作品风格多变，但是都极具视觉冲击力。

http://www.shinybinary.com/

10 - Scott Hansen (USA)

ISO50工作室负责人，来自加利福尼亚。为多个行业的设计过各种项目，从唱片封面、海报、杂志封面到滑雪板。你可以在世界各地的产品及出版物上看到他的作品。

http://www.iso50.com/

Improve your photography with classical art.

Adjusting your photographs to get the color 'just right' can be a chore. Think about this: The Old Masters of painting spent years of their lives learning about color. Why let all their effort go to waste on the walls of some museum when it could be used to give you a hand with color correction?

When Photoshop entered the CS series it included a new tool called 'Match Color.' This tools was made so that you could match a series of photos to one another.

Here is how to do it:

Load the painting you would like to match to. Here I usedWilliam Blake's"The Ancient of Days".

Load your photo.

Make sure your photo is the active one. If you are not sure do Window -> Your Photo
Image -> Adjustments -> Match Color

Select the other photo in the 'Source' dropdown.

Play with 'Luminance' and 'Color Intensity' if you want.
Hit 'OK'

Japanese Foliage™

I created these designs after being inspired by Japanese-style prints. Here’s a few examples from the Japanese Foliage™ Set. You will find download instructions for the Brushes, Illustrator Vector Art, and PNGs below the images.

I decided it was time to create some more brushes. Hopefully these will warm you from the inside during these cold winter months (its cold where I am).

These brushes are big, and meant for print. You can use them for Web stuff as well, but you might need to size them down. Most of them are around 1800 pixels wide. Here’s a few examples from the Fresh Foliage [Part I] Set:

01

02

03

My Brushes Work with many versions of Photoshop
Anything before CS will require downloading the layers file. Keep reading.

Download Instructions
1.Download the brushes here(13.5 MB)
2. Select the paint brush in the Photoshop tools.
3. From the brushes palette choose “Load brushes…”
4. Navigate to your brand new brushes and happy times begin.

Layers For Photoshop 7
If you’re using version 7, you won’t be able to use these brushes. However, you candownload the layers file here [Part I]Each brush has been stamped on a seperate layer.

Defining Your Own Brushes
If you’d like to convert these into brushes, it’s easy. Simply turn on one of the layers and go to edit>define brushes. After this, your brush will appear in the brushes pallete. If you need more information on making your own there are plenty of resources out there. Try a quick search on google, or look in the photoshop help for “defining a brush.”

Graphics Tips:Adobe Photoshop Tip: Comic Art Effect -- Photoshop Action

If you enjoyed ourComic Art Effect tutorial, you'll loveThe MacMerc.com Comic Art Effect Photoshop Action-- all the fun of the original, with much less work for you.

The effect is slightly different than the one detailed in the written tutorial and had to be dumbed down for automation's sake. But, I think you will agree, it still looks pretty slick. Download it and give it a shot. It should work with Adobe Photoshop 7 and above for Mac (or even PC). If you have any trouble drop me a line after readingthe FAQsand the caveats of the original effect.

Download it here!
  

Artistic & Productive Photoshop Actions by (A2D)

Lomo

1 Photoshop Action is included in this setLomo camera effect with vibrant colors and visible edge vignettingWorks especially well on urban landscapes and close-up portraitsCompatible with Adobe Photoshop 7, CS and CS2 (PC/Mac)

  Infrared (IR)

1 Photoshop Action is included in this setInfrared (IR) Film effect with grain and glow around the edgesWorks best with nature and landscape photography but can be used for other applicationsCompatible with Adobe Photoshop 7, CS and CS2 (PC/Mac)

600 Instant Film

1 Photoshop Action is included in this setCreates Polaroid 600 Instant Film (3.5x4.2") from any photo. User selects cropping area manuallyHigh quality 300dpi output. You can downsize photos for web and other media using our "Resizer" actionExcellent tool for Graphic/Web Designers and Digital Scrapbooking enthusiasts.Compatible with Adobe Photoshop 7, CS and CS2 (PC/Mac)

Download whole procedure as Photoshop action

Maybe you love photos which looks like painting, maybe you hate it. Anyway it can be useful to know, how to do it. This tutorial shows quite easy way to fake HDR photos in Photoshop. You don't need to shot into RAW or take photos with different exposure - one JPEG is enough. If you can work with masks in Photoshop, you have an advantage.

The most important is first step, it is base of HDR look made in Photoshop. Use command image > adjustment > shadow/highlight and set up values: shadows amount:50%, tonal width 45%, radius 44px; High-light amount 67%, tonal width 65%, radius 46px;

Duplicate layer "base" and set up its layer interaction to Color Dodge. This interaction gives picture strong colors and cause that light areas turn into pure white. In next step it will be repaired by another layer interaction.

Do the same thing as in the second step, but layer interaction is set up to Linear Burn now. You can see big black area in picture, it has to be elimated. Set up foreground color to black and use command select > color range, fuziness should be set to around 100. Now click on red marked icon, new layer mask will be added and black will disapear. There are some ugly artefacts in the picture, to remove them, click on layer mask and use gausian blur filter.

 
Fourth step is easy, it profits from third step. Just duplicate layer "linear Burn", set its interaction to Overlay, select layer mask and pres ctrl+i (invert). This interaction darken too much light shadows and raise contrast. Layers and its interactions are very powerfull tool in Photoshop.

Now it's time to adjust picture look, try to experiment with layer opacity. Optimal values are about 40% for layer "Overlay" and 55% for layer "Linear Burn".

Set up foreground color to white and use command select > color range with fuziness set up around 100. "Crawling ants" will appear around light areas. Duplicate "base" layer and move it up, then click on icon add layer mask. Select layer mask and soften it by gausian blur filter.

The last step colorize picture into red tones. Click on red marked icon and select from menu gradient map. This layer adjustment tools modify image colors according to defined gradient. There is a model gradient at the right border of picture. Load selection from layer mask of layer "light", invert it (select > invert) and click on add layer mask icon. Set up interaction of layer "colorize" to Hard light and finaly set opacity to 72%.

I use some other adjustmenst to achieve this look. For example I fill white areas by photoshop generated clouds - filter > render clouds.