Compositing Images in Photoshop FYS100 Creative Discovery in Digital Art Forms Spring 2007 Burg

Getting started on your project Don’t forget to take notes on your work process so that you can use this information for your writeup. Open your background image, image 1 It doesn’t matter which camera you use for which image –e.g., Ollie or beveled glass for background Crop it to the desired aspect ratio (10 x 8) at the highest resolution possible. Save as a PSD file. Adjust color and contrast if desired Open image 2 Select an object or area from image 2 and insert into image 1

File types Keep a copy of the original images as taken from the camera. Keep the file as a PSD file as you work. Save multiple versions, incrementally, if you like. When you’ve finished editing, flatten the image. (Layer\Flatten image). For printable version, save as an uncompressed TIFF file, at least 150 ppi. For web-based version, save as a JPEG file at your chosen resolution and compression quality. Just the number of pixels matters, not the pixels per inch.

About selections, layers, masks, and channels See Chapter 4 of Adobe Photoshop Classroom in a Book for “Selections” See Chapter 5 of Adobe Photoshop Classroom in a Book for “Layers” See Chapter 6 of Adobe Photoshop Classroom in a Book for “Masks and Channels”

Selection tools Marquees –Rectangular (hold Shift for square) –Elliptical (hold Shift for round) e.g., children on sled, clown Magic wand –Shift to add to selection Lassos –Freehand –Polygonal –Magnetic e.g., lady bug Deselecting Selecting inverse

Cutting out an Object and Pasting it Elsewhere After you’ve selected something and it’s outlined, you can drag it to another position in the same image –Dragging with selection tool chosen cuts it out of the original position (leaving a hole) –Dragging it with Alt held down makes a duplicate copy –With “copy” and “paste” you can put the selection into another image.

Undoing Ctrl-Z undoes one step The History panel allows you to undo and redo multiple steps

Layers, Channels, and Masks Layers are like pieces of acetate layed one over the other, with lower layers showing through. Channels represent the red, green, and blue components of color. Alpha channels indicate what pixels are transparent in the image. Masks are like cut-out templates indicating what parts of an image show through.

Masks Quick mask mode helps you to make more detailed selections The Extract tool also helps you with detailed extractions. (See Chapter 7 of Classroom in a Book.)

Other things you can do Adjust color, contrast, brightness Filters –Sharpness –Artistic filters Gradients Text Note that you can apply effects to a whole image or to just a selection of an image

Other things you can do You can use more than two images if you want to, as long as all are original (or created in class by other students) You can scan in artwork. Let me know if you want to use my scanner.

Finishing When you’ve finished editing, flatten the image. (Layer\Flatten image). For printable version, save as an uncompressed TIFF file, at least 150 ppi. For web-based version, save as a JPEG file at your chosen resolution and compression quality. Just the number of pixels matters, not the pixels per inch. Burn files on a CD –Original images –Printable version –Web-based version Print out your writeup