Arrange your workspace

Step 1: Pop open the photo and immediately duplicate the background layer by pressing Command + J (PC: Ctrl + J). You don't have to do this, but it's a good idea to protect thyself from, well, thyself and it'll also give you a way to back off of the effect in case you overdo it.

NOTE: You could also select just the iris area with the Lasso tool and jump that up onto its own layer. If you have other retouching to do, that might be the best choice.

Step 2: Choose Window > Arrange > New window for [document name]. Zoom into the new window so you can see what you're doing by pressing Command + (PC: Ctrl + ), and keep the original window at roughly the size the image will print at. This will allow you to see how much of an effect the enhancement is having. Anything you do in one window is automatically reflected in the other. It's a handy way to work when you're retouching.

This is what my workspace looks like now:

Enhance the iris

Step 3: Grab the Dodge tool (circled in red below), and immediately cast your eyes upon the options bar at the top of your screen. Lower the Exposure to about 30%. Mouse over to the photograph and size the brush cursor so that it fits only the iris area (be careful not to brush over the dark outer edge of the iris).

TIP: Press the left bracket key, [, to cycle up in brush size, and the right bracket key, ], to cycle down.

That's really all there is to it. Because we lowered the Exposure, we can "build" the effect to the intensity we like by continuing to dodge the iris. If we go a little too far, we can decrease the opacity of the duplicated layer to lessen the effect, like so:

Here's our before and after:

A simple, yet effective technique. That's the way I like 'em! Until next time, may the Photoshop force be with you all.

Hunting color pickers
If you're using a Mac, the end-all-be-all software resource has long been VersionTracker.com. Though now it sports a "platform" option at the top right where you can also choose Windows. Just type in a keyword or software name in the search box at the top left and you'll be presented with a neat list of options. Do a search for "color picker" and you'll find all kinds of stuff, including Painter's Picker. That's the one we're going to install today.

In the Windows world, you might also want to check shareware.com. Results are split into categories of sponsored links and download sites. Here you can also search for Mac software, though I'd be inclined to stick with VersionTracker for that. I'm old and set in my ways ;)

Why Painter's Picker rocks
I love this color picker because it uses a color wheel instead of swatches or a big, square blob of color. How hard is it to find colors that truly work together this way? For me, next to impossible. And apparently for lots of folks creating web sites, it's impossible for them too! Arg. I tend to grab my battered color wheel left over from art school when choosing color schemes, though with Painter's Picker, it's like having a virtual color theory teacher by my side to boot.

Painter's Picker allows you to quickly find and select any color's complementary color, and notes which colors you should stay away from, like those that clash. Choose from five kinds of analogous schemes, five kinds of tetradic schemes, two kinds of triads, four complex complementary schemes, schemes to show colors that are warmer, cooler, lighter, or darker than any given color. Wow. This may very well surpass your color theory teacher's skill level. You can also save color schemes for use later.

Making it work in Photoshop CS2
Since I'm a Mac chick, I'm going to show you how to install it into Photoshop CS2 under OS X Tiger.

Step 1: Download Painter's Picker.

Step 2: You should see a hard drive icon appear, and a window will pop open containing a Read Me file and the color picker itself, which I've highlighted below.

Step 3: Pop open a Finder window and navigate to your Home folder > Library > ColorPickers. Drag the paintersPicker.colorPicker file into this folder, as shown below. If you don't have a ColorPickers folder in your Home Library, never fear. Simply create one by pressing Command + Shift + N.

Step 4: Launch Photoshop, and choose Photoshop > Preferences > General. From the Color picker pop-up menu, choose Apple, and press OK.

Step 5: Open a document or create a new one (unless you already have something open), and click on a color chip in the Toolbox. When Apple's color picker opens, click on the Painter's Picker wheel at the top right, circled in red below.

That's all there is to it! From now on, or until you change it again, you'll have a really powerful color picking tool at your fingertips. Just grab the little handle circled below to spin the wheel and choose other colors. Click the scheme pop-up menu to choose complementary, split complementary, triadic, etc. Hover over any of those options for a quick explanation of what they mean. Play with the brightness and saturation sliders. Below I've chosen a blue tetradic scheme (four evenly spaced colors).

I hope this opens your eyes to some other color picker possibilities out there, and allows you to customize your Photoshop experience even more. Until next week, happy color picking!

The Graphic Reporter
http://www.graphicreporter.com

Set some type

Step 1: Create a new document in Photoshop by pressing Command + N (PC: Ctrl + N). Press T to select the Type tool.

Step 2: Choose a nice thick, big, and bold font from the options toolbar at the top of your screen, then type the word "weathered" in all caps. I chose Impact at 92 points, and picked a charcoal gray from the color well (circled in red below).

Create a mask
Instead of damaging the text itself, we'll create the weathered effect on a layer mask.

Step 3: With the type layer selected, create a layer mask by clicking the circle within a square icon at the bottom of the Layers Palette.

Step 4: Press B to select the Brush tool. Hop up to the options toolbar atop your screen and click the little menu to the right of the word Brush. Scroll down until you begin to see the oddly distorted, artistic brushes like Spatter and Chalk. Click on a brush to select it; I picked Chalk at 44 pt.

Paint on a weathered look
In the realm of layer masks, painting with black hides and painting with white reveals. To create our weathered look, we want to hide bits of the text with the odd-shaped brush we chose in Step 4.

Step 5: With black as the topmost (foreground) color chip in the Toolbar, begin to click around on the word "weathered", using a combination of dragging or just clicking to get a worn look. I've circled my brush in red below.

If you accidentally hide too much of an area, just press X to swap color chips (so that white is on top) and paint that area back in. Press X again to switch to black, and continue clicking to weather the type. If you totally blow it and want to start over, just Control click (PC: Right click) on the layer mask thumbnail and select Delete Layer Mask.

The key to making this effect look good is to swap between using large and small brushes in order to get the edges of the letters themselves so they aren't perfectly straight. TIP: Press the left bracket, [, to cycle down in brush size, and the right bracket, ], to cycle up.

Here's what I ended up with (the layer mask is circled in red):

Using a variety of brushes, you can get really creative with this effect. And by using a layer mask, we've harmed nary a pixel of the type.

Until next time, remember to experiment with different brushes and be sure to visit the Adobe Studio Exchange to download more artistic brushes... for free!
The graphic reporter - http://www.graphicreporter.com

Fast Frame #1

Step 1: Pop open a photo in Photoshop and double-click the background layer to make it editable.

Step 2: Press C to select the Crop tool. We're going to give ourselves a little wiggle room by drawing a crop box around the image, then pulling out the handles on all four sides to increase Canvas size. Press Return to accept the crop and enjoy your newfound space

Step 3: Click the tiny cursive "f" at the bottom of the Layers Palette and choose Stroke..

For the resolution of this particular photo, a stroke size of 13 pixels worked out well. For sharp corners, choose Inside from the Position pop-up menu (for round corners choose Outside). Pick a color from the color well (circled in red below).

Step 5: Before closing the Layer Style dialog box, select Drop Shadow from the left-hand menu. Mouse over to the photo and move the drop shadow around, then use the Size slider to soften it a bit. Click OK when finished.

Step 6: Summon Free Transform by pressing Command + T (PC: Ctrl +T). Rotate your creation counter-clockwise by positioning the cursor just below the bottom right-hand handle, then dragging upward slightly. Press return to accept the rotation.

Step 7: Command click (PC: Right click) the new layer icon at the bottom of the Layers Palette to add a layer beneath the one you're working on.

Step 8: Click the foreground color chip in the main Toolbox and pick a color. With the new layer selected, press Option + Delete (PC: Alt + Delete) to fill the new layer with color.

Tada! Here's the finished product:

Fast Frame #2

A variation on the first frame, we'll start with giving ourselves more canvas space.

Step 1: Press C to select the Crop tool, and draw a crop box around the image. Pull the handles as shown below: about 1/4 inch on the left, top, and right, then about 1/2 inch on the bottom. Press Return to take receipt of your new space.

Step 2: Command click (PC: Right click) the new layer icon at the bottom of the Layers Palette to add a new layer beneath the one you're on, like we did above in Step 7.

Step 3: Press D to set your color chips to the default of black and white, and press X until white is on top. Press Option + Delete (PC: Alt + Delete) to fill the new layer with white. Here's where we are so far:

Step 4: Press C to select the Crop tool again, and draw a box around the image. This time add space on all four sizes equally. Press Return to accept the crop.

Step 5: Press T to select the Type tool and add a caption at the bottom of the polaroid-ish border.

Step 6: When you have everything *just* right, choose Merge Visible from the Layers Palette pop-up menu.

Step 7: Now you're free to rotate and add a drop shadow like we did above in Fast Frame #1. This time, I increased the size of the drop shadow quite a bit so it would show up on the right side of the photo to define the edge. I also lowered the opacity of the shadow just a bit.

Here's what we end up with:

That's all for this week! Until next week, happy fast framing ;)

by Lesa Snider
The Graphic Reporter
http://www.graphicreporter.com
Chief Evangelist, iStockphoto.com

Admittedly, the process of colorizing a grayscale photo certainly seems straight forward enough, in that it probably involves grabbing a paint brush and painting color onto the image itself. The problem, though, is that while you would succeed in adding color to the photo, you would systematically destroy any detail it once contained.

Using the cutest photo *ever* (snatched from iStockphoto.com), I'm going to show you the trick to adding color while retaining all the glorious detail of the photo. As a bonus, I'll show you how to change your mind and recolorize the color you just added.

Check the color mode

The very first thing we want to do is make sure the document is in color mode, and not grayscale. Else, we won't get very far and your frustration level with all things digital could reach an all time high :)

Step 1: Choose Image > Mode and make sure the document is set to either RGB or CMYK. If the document mode is Grayscale, you won't be allowed you to paint in color, which can be quite maddening. NOTE: If this image will be printed professionally, then you want to choose CMYK. If you're going to print the image on your home color inkjet or if the image is destined to live out its life only on screen, then go with RGB.

Create a space for the new paint

Step 2: Create a new layer by clicking the New Layer button at the bottom of the Layers Palette. This is where the new paint will live, so that we don't screw up the original photo.

Step 3: Change the blending mode of the new layer to either Color or Overlay, as shown below. This will allow the detail of the image to show through the paint, instead of the paint being a solid coat.

Step 4: Press B to select the Brush tool, and click on the foreground color chip at the bottom of the main Toolbar. Pick a nice pastel color from the resulting color picker and press OK.

Step 5: Since we're about to embark upon a bit of detail work, I'm going to share a workspace trick with you before we start painting. Choose Window > New Window for [insert image name]. This is going to allow us to be zoomed in really far on the image in one window, and still see what the image looks like at its normal size in another.

The neat bit is what you do in one window happens simultaneously in the other. So as I being to paint the little girls dress, this is what I see:

TIP: Press Command + (PC: Ctrl + ) to zoom in, and Command - (PC: Ctrl -) to zoom back out of your document. Another handy tip to remember while doing detail work is that while zoomed in on your document, pressing the spacebar turns the cursor into a little hand which you can then use to mouse over to a different area of the image, like so:

Step 6: As I move around in the image, I come upon places where my brush is too large, such as the little strap around her neck. Here I can press the left bracket key, [, to cycle down in brush size, and later cycle back up by pressing the right bracket key, ].

If you mess up during the painting process, just press E to select the Eraser tool and fix your mistake. Press B to pick the brush back up and soldier on. After painting her dress, gloves, purse and hat, here's the little cutie all clad in purple:

Changing the paint color

Okay, so, the purple dress is super cute but what if your client/mom/friend/sibling wants to see what it looks like in yellow? Instead of leaping off the nearest balcony, simply take a deep breath, grin smugly and do this:

Step 7: Create an adjustment layer by pressing the half black/half white circle at the bottom of the Layers Palette, and choose Hue/Saturation.

Step 8: In the resulting dialog box, grab the Hue slider and move it rightward. See how the dress color changes as you go? Isn't that COOL?! YEAH baby!

Step 9: In our case, I decided on a peachy color (it matches my web site) and to make the effect a bit more subtle, I decreased the Saturation just a tad, as shown below.

Tada! Think of how much fun you could have with this technique using a graphics tablet. And though we painted the color on with a brush, you could just as easily create a selection in myriad other ways. For example, if you're colorizing line art, you might use the Magic Wand to select areas of white between the black outlines which you'd then fill with color in one fell swoop. Myself, I'm not a fan of selection tools at all and prefer to use a brush whenever I have the chance.

And of course, the neatest thing of all with adding color in this manner is that you can change your mind a dozen times. Just double click the adjustment layer and the Hue/Saturation dialog box dutifully flings itself open, ready for the latest round of tweaking.

The Graphic Reporter
http://www.graphicreporter.com

Until next time, happy colorizing!

Today I will show you how to create a reflection of your very own in Photoshop, and we'll do it in a manner that retains maximum flexibility within our document so you can plop your photo onto any color background you want.

Those of you who've been listening to my graphics tip on Your Mac Life show know that I'm slightly enamored with dragons at the moment (I'm halfway through Eldest by Christopher Paolini). With that in mind, I took a journey to iStockphoto.com and searched on the keyword combination: dragon fantasy. And just to prove that iStockphoto really does have the perfect image for any project, (beams with pride) look what I found:

Preparing the photo

Step 1: Pop open a Soon To Be Beautifully Reflected Photo, and immediately duplicate the Background layer by pressing Command + J (PC: Ctrl + J).

TIP: If you have nothing selected (no marching ants) Command + J duplicates the entire layer. If you do have a selection, Command + J pops just that portion up onto its own layer. This is a handy keyboard shortcut to have in one's bag-o-tricks.

Step 2: Double click the Background layer so that it becomes editable, and name it "reflection". This is what my Layers Palette looks like now:

Step 3: We need some room for our reflection so let's increase the canvas size. Press C to select the Crop tool, draw a box around the image, and drag the bottom handle out a ways as shown below. Press Return to accept the Crop.

Step 4: While the reflection layer is still selected (it'll appear light blue in the Layers Palette), press Command + T (PC: Ctrl + T) to invoke Free Transform. Control click (PC: Right click) within the transform box and a contextual menu will appear. Choose Flip Vertical and press Return to accept the transform. This flips the reflection layer upside down.

Step 5: Press V to select the move tool. Press and hold the Shift key while dragging the reflection layer to the bottom of your document, so that the ends of the two photo layers *almost* meet. For the iWeb reflection effect, you want to leave a 1-2 pixel gap between the photos, like so:

TIP: Holding the Shift key while moving a layer locks it into place horizontally (or vertically), depending upon the direction you're dragging. Just another example of how Photoshop helps to protect us against ourselves.

Fade it out

Step 6: Add a layer mask to the reflection layer by clicking the circle within a square icon at the bottom of the layers palette.

Step 7: While the mask is still selected (note the tiny hairline border around it above), press G to select the Gradient tool. From the options toolbar at the top of your screen, choose Foreground to Transparent from the pop-up menu, then click the Reflected button, as shown below.

Step 8: Back on the document, click towards the bottom of the image and then drag upward to roughly the height you'd like the reflection to be. I held the Shift key down to lock the gradient into being perfectly straight.

TIP: If you're nonplussed by your first Professional Gradient Dragging Attempt, just give it another go.

Add a background

Step 9: Command click (PC: Ctrl click) the New Layer icon at the bottom of the Layers Palette. TIP: Holding the Command (or Ctrl) key makes the new layer appear below the current layer. Very handy indeed.

Step 10: Take a peek at the color chips at the bottom of the main Toolbox. If necessary, press D to set them to the default of black and white, then press X until black hops on top. Fill the new layer with black by pressing Option + Delete (PC: Alt + Delete).

Step 11: To complete the effect, select the reflection layer and lower the opacity to about 50%.

Here's the final result:

See how easy that was? And flexible too: By choosing a foreground to transparent gradient and by putting the black background on its own layer, you can experiment with your background color, and make it match whatever you want to place the photo on. Here's the final result on white:

Until next week, may the Photoshop force be with you all ;)

The Graphic Reporter
http://www.graphicreporter.com

It's a really interesting photo effect, and you'll be amazed at how quick and easy it is.

Crop it!
Step 1: Pop open a photo and press C to select the Crop tool. Draw a box around the subject matter of the image and press Return.

TIP: If you want to crop to a certain size and resolution, you can dial those numbers into the Options toolbar at the very top of your screen. Remember to include the unit of measurement on width and height, such as "5 in", else Photoshop thinks you mean pixels.

Zap the color...
Step 2: immediately trot down to the bottom of the Layers Palette and click the half black/half white circle to create an Adjustment Layer. Choose Hue/Saturation.

Step 3: In the resulting dialog box, drag the Saturation slider all the way to the left. This causes all color to drain from the photo. Click OK.

...then add a little back
Lucky for us, all adjustment layers come with their very own layer mask. This will allow us to hide the effect of the adjustment layer in certain areas.

Step 4: With the layer mask still selected in the Layers Palette (you'll see a tiny hairline rule around it), press B to select the Brush tool.

Step 5: In the realm of layer masks, painting with black hides and white reveals. Since we want to hide a bit of the adjustment layer, let us paint with black. Take a peek at the color chips in the main Toolbar and press X until black sits happily on top.

Step 6: Back on the photo itself, begin to paint the butterfly's wings. Notice how the color starts to show back through.

Step 7: Press the left bracket key, [, to cycle down in brush size to get its head and tail. Likewise, press the right bracket key, ], to cycle back up in brush size to fine tune the wing area.

TIP: Press Command plus (PC: Ctrl plus) to zoom in so you can see what you're doing. Press Command _minus (PC: Ctrl minus) to zoom back out.

Step 8: If you bring too much of the color back, just press X to swap color chips so that white is on top, and paint that area back out like I'm doing here:

Chances are, you'll do quite a bit of color swapping while tweaking the layer mask.

Here's the finished photo, with the layer mask circled in red:

Notice how the mask matches the butterfly. The beauty of zapping the color and then bringing it back with this technique is that we've not harmed a single pixel. To start completely over, we could just trash the adjustment layer.

Join me week as I show you how to take this photo one step further, and make the colors of the butterfly really pop using blending modes. See you next week!

The Graphic Reporter
http://www.graphicreporter.com

What is a layer mask?
A layer mask is a method of hiding pixels. In my humble opinion, you rarely want to affect or (gasp) delete actual pixels. Instead, what you want to do is to mask them off. As an analogy, think of a layer mask as if it were the masking tape you'd place atop the window trim before painting your walls.

Why should I use one?
Using the analogy of painting your home above, rather than remove the window trim completely (yikes), wouldn't you rather protect it with masking tape so you can do whatever you want with the walls? Of course you would. The same logic applies to your images. When you want to alter certain portions of the image, rather than delete or affect the other bits, consider masking them off instead. This way you don't destroy your original image and your artwork remains flexible, enabling you to experiment to your hearts content.

Creating a layer mask in Photoshop
Let's create a fake holiday card by using this "happy family at Christmas" picture I nabbed from iStockphoto.com.

Step 1: Pop open the aforementioned happy family photo and press T to select the Type tool. Type Happy Holidays, or something similar, in a nice big font in a festive color.

Step 2: Select the type layer in the layers palette (so that it turns blue as shown below), and add a layer mask by clicking the circle within a square button at the very bottom.

Step 3: In the realm of layers masks, painting with black hides and painting with white reveals. Since hiding is what we want, take a peek in your Toolbox and make sure black is the topmost color chip. If white is on top, just press X to swap them out.

Step 4: Press B to select the Brush tool, and pick a fairly small, soft brush from the options toolbar at the top of your screen. Begin painting over the area of text you want to hide, such as the "y" in "Happy".

NOTE: The reason for choosing a soft brush (one with a feathered edge) as opposed to a hard brush (one with, well, a hard edge) is so the area between the letter and Mrs. Smith's hair will be softened slightly, enabling it to blend and look more realistic.

Step 5: If you hide too much of the letters, press X to swap color chips so that white is on top, and paint the area back in. For example, my brush was a little too big so I hid too much of the letters behind Mrs. Smith's head. I zoomed in by pressing Command + (PC: Ctrl + ) to better see what I was doing, pressed the left bracket, [, to go down in brush size, and I painted those bits of the letters back in, like so:

NOTE: When creating a layer mask, you'll probably do a lot of swapping color chips, thus alternating between hiding (with black) and revealing (with white) pixels. The beauty is that you're not deleting any bits of the letters, you're merely hiding them. This enables you to tweak the layer mask until you get it just right.

Step 6: Now that the area around Mrs. Smitih's head is fixed, I'm going to press X to swap color chips so that black is on top, so I can hide a small portion of the exclamation point where it touches the Christmas tree on the far right.

Zooming back out by pressing Command - (PC: Ctrl - ), here's what the image looks like now. I also added another layer of cursive type to personalize the image:

And here's what our layers palette looks like, with the layer mask circled in red. Anytime you wish to edit the mask, just select it in the layers palette (notice the hairline rule around it below?):

I hope this quick tutorial on using a layer mask to place type behind an object illuminates all kinds of gloriously creative possibilities for your images. Something as simple as what we did today can add that extra bit of spice to an otherwise ordinary photo.

Until next week, have fun playing with layer masks!

The Graphic Reporter
http://www.graphicreporter.com

Let's take this image of a frizzy-haired hippy I snatched from iStockphoto.com. To change the background, it would mean creating a selection around the hippy dude and his frighteningly frizzy hair. Yes, there are third-party plug-ins who'd make haste of this task for a price, but what if I don't want to spend the extra money? I can turn to the Extract filter for help instead.

Highlight the edges

Because the Extract filter is "destructive" (it deletes pixels), we'll start off by immediately duplicating the background layer. We'll use this layer copy later on to create a non-destructive layer mask, so that we're *hiding* pixels rather than deleting them. This will build in flexibility for editing the selection. Read on.

Step 1: Open the photo and immediately press Command + J (PC: Ctrl + J) to duplicate the background layer. Turn the visibility off on the original layer for now, as we'll be working only with the copy. I named the new layer "frizzy hippy" as shown below:

Step 2: Choose Filter > Extract.

Step 3: In the resulting dialog box, select the Highlight tool and draw a selection around the hippy dude. TIP: If you mess up, just select the Eraser tool in the Extract filter's toolbar, fix the mistake, and switch back to the Highlight tool to continue outlining the area to be knocked out.

Step 4: Select the Paint Bucket tool and click inside the area you want to keep, and press OK. The Extract filter will dutifully delete the background and create a new layer containing only the hippy dude.

NOTE: In the screen shot above, notice how I did not highlight all the way around the photo. Because certain areas bleed off the page, they do not need selecting.

Here's what we have now:

TIP: If you're not satisfied with the results of the Extract, just press Command + Z (PC: Ctrl + Z) to undo it and try again. Experiment with different brush sizes to get a better selection. There are also several options living inside the Extract filter dialog box, though for this example I didn't use them. To see what they do, use your mouse to hover over any of the text labels and a brief explanation will appear at the top of the dialog box.

Create a layer mask

To clean up the selection, you could select the History Brush and paint back in areas that the Extract filter erroneously zapped. Though, a better option is to create a layer mask on the original background layer instead.

Step 5: Command click (PC: Ctrl click) the newly knocked out layer (the one created by the Extract filter). You should now see marching ants around the frizzy hippy dude.

Step 6: In the layers palette, turn off the visibility of the newly knocked-out layer created by the Extract filter, and turn on the visibility of the original Background layer. Double-click the Background layer to make it editable.

Step 7: Create a layer mask by pressing the circle within a square button at the bottom of the layers palette (circled below in red). This is what my layers palette looks like now:

Edit the mask

Step 8: Select the Brush tool by pressing B, and paint with white those areas the Extract filter should not have zapped. This will allow them to become visible again. When dealing with layer masks, painting with black hides and white reveals. In the screen shot below, I'm painting with white to reveal bits of Hippy Dude's shirt the Extract filter discarded.

Step 9: As you can see, a little of the background around the shirt collar has come back to haunt me. To fix it, press X to swap color chips so that black is on top (because black hides) and paint the background back out. Keep painting with either white (to reveal) or black (to hide) until you're satisfied with the mask.

TIP: Press the left bracket, [, to cycle down in brush size and press the right bracket, ], to cycle up.

Create a funky background

Step 10: Create a new layer by pressing Command + Shift + N (PC: Ctrl + Shift + N) and drag it to the bottom of your layers stack. You can also create a new layer by pressing the New Layer icon at the bottom of the layers palette (circled below in red).

Step 11: Select the Gradient tool by pressing G. Up in the options toolbar, pick a nice rainbow gradient and choose Radial (both options circled in red below).

Step 12: Back in the document, drag upwards from the bottom center of the image to the top. This creates a nice psychedelic rainbow background for our hippy.

Here's the finished photo:

Feel like your back in the 60s yet?!

As you can see, the Extract filter did an amazingly respectable job of selecting the frizzy hair. And by creating a copy of the original Background layer at the very beginning, we were able to use the selection we obtained from the Extract filter to create a non-destructive layer mask. This way we achieved maximum flexibility and were able to fine tune the mask as we wish.

Until next week, happy extracting!

The Graphic Reporter
http://www.graphicreporter.com

Type something

Step 1: Pop open a new document. In the Toolbox, set the top color chip to orange.

Step 2: Press T to select the Type tool and set some type in a large, thick font (try a nice slab, sans-serif like Impact). For reasons which will become clear to you in a moment, I typed "FEAR and LOATHING in EAST TEXAS."

Create a grungy texture

Step 3: Open the Soon To Be A Grungy Texture photo. I took this shot of logs at an East Texas sawmill recently. (Spending a week in the slightly backwards, rather isolated piney woods of East Texas provided inspiration for the title above.)

Step 4: Choose Image > Adjustments > Threshold. Drag the slider almost all the way to the left and click OK. The black bits remaining onscreen will become the grungy texture. NOTE: Experiment with the Threshold slider, though bear in mind that creating too much grunge will render text unreadable.

Step 5: To create a selection around the new black texture bits, we'll use the Magic Wand tool (it's made for selecting color). Press W to select the Magic Wand and click inside one of the black areas of the photo. You should now see tiny marching ants around that area of black. To select the rest of the black texture bits, control-click (PC: right-click) inside the selection area and choose Similar from the contextual menu.

Bring the texture and type together

Step 6: Use the Move tool (press V) and drag the texture selection into the type document, as shown below. Photoshop will dutifully create a new layer upon which the texture shall live. TIP: Press Command + D (PC: Ctrl + D) to deselect the texture and banish the marching ants.

While the Move tool is still selected, use it to position the texture wherever you'd like. This is how my document looks:

At this point you can:

$#x2022; Resize the texture by pressing Command + T (PC: Ctrl + T) to bring up the Free Transform tool.

$#x2022; Fill the texture with another color to match the desired background color of your document. Just Command-click (PC: Ctrl-click) the texture layer to select it, then choose Edit > Fill and choose a color from the Use pop-up menu.

For dramatic effect, I created a new layer and filled it with black. This is what my layers palette looks like:

And here's the final image:

That's all there is to it! I hope this tutorial provides inspiration for creating some grungy type of your own. See you next week!

The Graphic Reporter
http://www.graphicreporter.com