|
From YourSITE.com *Technique Step One  Make your original photo invisible by clicking the Eye icon next to its layer in the Layers palette.  Erase around your selection by selecting the Erase tool (E), and adjusting the brush size by using the Left and Right bracket keys [ (for smaller)and ] (for larger). Continue all around your selection  Tip: to check for stray pixels, choose— PSE: Edit >Stroke (outline) and leave the default settings. Photoshop: Layer >Layer Style > stroke Clean up these strays using the Erase tool as before. When finished, go back and deselect the stroke selection.  Step Two Make the background layer visible again by clicking the Eye icon. Select the Background layer, then create a new layer by clicking Create a New Layer icon in the layers palette. Press D to set the foreground/background colors to the default colors: Black & White. With the rectangular Marquee tool (M) selected, set the feather to 0px in the Options bar and drag a selection around the part of the foreground you wish to keep. Fill the selection with black, the foreground color. (PSE Alt-Backspace)  Step Three Reduce this black layer’s Opacity to 50% in the Layers Palette so you can better see the background layer, then press Crtl-T to summon the Free Transform. Right click on the shape and choose Skew from the menu. Drag the anchors to skew the selection to the shape you want, then press Enter to commit. With the selection still active, click the Background Layer and copy the selection to a new layer as in Step One. Then drag this layer above the black trapezoid layer.  Note: In my example, I decided to completely change my background to another scene altogether, so I just slipped another photo under the black trapezoid, and repeated step three.  Make the two background layers invisible now.  Step Four Create a new Layer above the background trapezoid layer. With this new layer active, Cntl-Click on the thumbnail of the background trapezoid layer. This will duplicate this layer. Expand the selection by 3 px (Select >Modify >Expand) then click OK. For PSE: Next, Choose Edit >Stroke (Outline). For Photoshop: Layer > Layer Style > stroke Set Width to 20 px and Color to your Preference. Everything else stay at default settings.   Step Five To create a shadow under the Background trapezoid, highlight the black trapezoid layer and soften it by adding a blur to the shadow: Filter > Blur > Gaussian blur   Summon Free Transform (ctrl-T) as you did in step three. Click and drag the shadow to the desired location, then commit your changes (Enter).  Merge the visible layers. (Ctrl-E) and delete the original photo. Don’t forget to save, either as a transparent .png file or .jpg file, which will have a white background.  © Copyright by YourSITE.com |