| Now that the word ‘Photoshop' has become | | | | your pic. |
| a verb (meaning: the process of lying through | | | | Backlit silhouettes |
| photograph) as well as a brand name, a lot of the | | | | |
| discussion has been diverted from what the | | | | The picture in the example is a little clichéd, I |
| program can actually legitimately and ethically do! | | | | realise – but if you can envision this effect |
| Today we check out some cool Photoshop | | | | with a silhouette of your kids walking against a |
| effects to add to your photos before sending | | | | sunset background, or yourself sitting under a |
| them for canvas printing, creating artistic, but | | | | tree, you have an awesome canvas art print idea |
| certainly not dishonest, art prints! | | | | in your mind! This is how you do it: |
| Halftone dots and linear light | | | | - Cut the image that you want to keep as a |
| | | | silhouette out from the background. If you're a |
| This is a gorgeous over-exposed, newspaper-ish | | | | Photoshop newbie, you may need a separate |
| look. It is also very simple to do! You just need | | | | tutorial for that part – there are a hundred |
| to: | | | | different methods. |
| - Duplicate the photo in another layer | | | | - Go to your Layers Palette and set blending |
| - Make your foreground colour white, and | | | | options to Colour Overlay, and the colour itself to |
| background black | | | | black. You now have a black silhouette on a white |
| - Select Filter > Sketch > Halftone | | | | background |
| Pattern. Play around to find settings you like | | | | - Go to Layer>New Fill Layer>Gradient. |
| - Press Ctrl+I to invert the image | | | | Choose the Radial option, and make sure the |
| - In the Layers Palette change the mode from | | | | lighter colours are set towards the centre. |
| Normal to Linear Light | | | | - Select your silhouette layer and got to |
| - All done! | | | | Layer> Add Layer Mask> Reveal All. Set |
| Retro comic book look | | | | the foreground colour to black and use a large, |
| This takes a little longer, but is an awesome | | | | soft brush over the sides of the silhouette to turn |
| effect for kid's photos. Here's how to create | | | | them transparent. |
| canvas prints that look like enlargements of comic | | | | - In the example you can see that a small piece |
| books: | | | | of the original guitar has been added for depth. |
| - Increase the overall contrast of the pic using | | | | You can do this with a face in your picture if you |
| your Levels toolbox | | | | like – cut your piece out, and go to |
| - Go to Filters>Artistic> Film Grain and play | | | | Image>Adjustments> Desaturate. Set the |
| around with the settings to suit your picture and | | | | blending mode to Multiply, and opacity to 60-70%. |
| yourself. | | | | Use a very soft eraser to soften the edges of |
| - Duplicate the layer and name it ‘halftone' or | | | | the new layer if you like |
| something you'll recognise and understand! | | | | - Copy your silhouette layer, and change the |
| - Go to Filter>Pixelate>Halftone. Set the | | | | overlay colour (in Bending Options_ to white. Go |
| max radius to 4, and leave the default values for | | | | to Filter> Blur> Gaussian Blur, and set 3-4 |
| the other options. | | | | pixels. |
| - Go to your Layers Pallette and choose Darken | | | | Photoshop has so much potential for creating |
| for the Blending Mode | | | | your own art, and it takes very little knowledge |
| This gives you a comic-book style picture, and | | | | … and just a tiny bit of imagination to create |
| you can use either Photoshop or another picture | | | | beautiful canvas art prints! |
| editor to add comic book style text boxes around | | | | |