Splitting a Photo

I will show you how i turned this photo

to this one....

1. Open the image with photoshop. Copy the background layer, pressing CTRL+J.

2. View the ruler. Go to View>Ruler or press CTRL+R.

3. Drag the ruler to location where you want the image to split. I decide to have three horizontal split.

4. Click Rectangular Marquee from the tool palette and select the first row. Press the CTRL+J in the keyboard to have a copy of the selection in its own layer. I named that layer as “first”.

5. Then going back to our Layer 1, with the marquee tool, select for the second row and press CTRL+J and named it as “second”.

6. Again, back to Layer 1, select the last split and press CTRL+J and named it “third”.

7. Now, the three splits have their own layer. I want to add a little bit increase with my canvas. So, select the Crop tool from the tool palette and drag it over the entire image. In the lowermost right corner, click hold and drag while pressing the ALT key to adjust to new canvas size and then click the image and select Crop. And make sure that it is in the default foreground-background color; otherwise press D in your keyboard. (black would be the foreground and white would be the background). The adjusted canvas would now be white in background.

8. Now, I am going to add some layer style. With the Layer “first” selected, click the Add Layer Style icon below the Layer palette and select stroke. I use the following settings:

Then click also the Drop Shadow and I make these adjustments. Then click OK.

9. With still the Layer “first selected, I will now copy the layer style to be applied for the rest two splits. Go to Layer>Layer Style>Copy Layer Style. Then select the Layer “second” and go to Layer>Layer Style>Paste Layer Style. The layer style now for the first is already applied for my second split. Repeat the same procedure with the Layer “third”.

10. I decided to get rid of the ruler. I will adjust now each split. But first I will hide the Layer 1 and the background layer, so the background now becomes transparent.

Select the Layer “first”, press CTRL+T and start rotating it. Then, select the Layer “second” and again press CTRL+T, I transform it opposite to the layer “first”. And lastly, the Layer “third”, CTRL+T, would be this way.

So there I have it. A single image turned into three splitting object.

I think this is simple and you can do this also. You can apply as many splits as you. It can be vertical or horizontal and even several boxes of splits. This is fun. So start splitting your photo now and enjoy it in your layout.

Hope you had learned and fun! Happy reading!

Stitch Your Name

This is fun. I am going to make a name with stitches around it. Just like the one in this layout.

I will show to you how I made this simple text effect and surely this will going to work with your layouts.

1. Open a blank document.
Go to FILE>New and make the following setting:
I use 800 x 300 pixels

2. Create a New Layer
Click the New Layer icon in the Layer palette or press CTRL+Shift+N in your keyboard. This layer is for a background to make your stitches visible if you want to your thread be white in color.
Click the foreground and I set it to #004a80. Then press ALT+Backspace to fill the layer.

I applied texture to the filled layer to appear it as a canvas. Go to FILTER>Texture>Texturizer. I use the following settings:

3. Make your text
Click the Type tool in the tool palette and I start typing a name.

4. Select the text
Select the text by pressing CTL click directly on the text layer and you will see the marching ants over the text indicating that it is being selected.

5. Create Work Path
While the text is selected, go to Path Palette and click the Make the Work Path from the Selection icon found below the Path Palette.

The text now will have a white line around the text, meaning it is now the work path I made out of the selection.
6. Add another layer
Create new layer and name it as “stitches”. This will be your stitches layer.

7. Set your brush
With the Stitches layer selected, set now your brush. Click your Brush tool in the palette or press B in your keyboard. . In your brush list, look for the V or X shape brush. But this time I will go for the V shape one. If you do not have this V shape brush, you can make your custom brush. Well I am lucky because I already have a downloaded freebie stitch brushes from http://www.aneesah.pixelled.com/.

To display the brush setting window, press F5 or go to WINDOW>Brushes

8. Create now your stitches
It is now time to create the stitches. After I have set the brush, click for the Pen tool or press P in the keyboard to switch to pen tool. Then go to the text in the working area and right click to anywhere in the white line around the text. This will display:

Click for the Stroke Path from this drop down menu.

Select the brush and uncheck the Simulate Pressure.

9. Delete the work path
I can now delete the work path. And there it is, my stitch name.

Practice now your name. Start stitching your name or any other text or even your image, you can stitch them around, too. Happy reading!

Making a Photo Puzzle

I will show to you in details how i created a photo puzzle from this picture....

To this amazing photo effect...

1. Open the Image
Open the image. I use the captured image of my two kids, Vince and Charles, using my 6- megapixel Canon Camera.

2. Apply some photo retouching if needed

Since I am not yet contented the way my image looks, so i applied some a little bit photo retouching like cropping, applying levels and curves, patching and cloning to some parts of the wall, slight noise reduction, sharpening and increasing color saturation. And I finally got this:

Can you see now the difference? Well, looks better now. I am much happier with this. And of course i never forget to save my work (File>Save or Ctrl+S).

3. Go to Filter>Texture>Texturizer

So, after I have satisfied with my photo and now I am ready to make it as a puzzle. Then I go to FILTER>Texture>Texturizer

4. Click for "Load Texture"

In the texture window, you can see the small arrow pointing to the right, as being encircled below. Click that small arrow and click the LOAD TEXTURE.

5. Browse for your Puzzle texture

Now for my next step, browse for my Photoshop Installation folder. It is saved in this folder: c:\\Pogram Files\Adobe\PhotoshopCS3\Presets\Texture.

Then I look for the Puzzle.psd. It is in a .psd file (..and as a matter of fact there are many textures in that folder!) Ok, select now that Puzzle.psd and click open.

6. Make adjustments

And I make the following adjustment settings:

You can adjust it by your own depending on the appearance you want for your photo puzzle. If you want to a have a small pieces of puzzle, lower the scaling slider and if you want a deeper appearance of the puzzle, you can increase the relief slider.

7. There it is!

Tada! My photo puzzle......

8. Add some design

And for my final, I placed it in a wooden frame which I downloaded from a corkboard freebie sometime four months ago but I deeply apologize because I forget the name of the designer. Whoever she is, I thank you very much for your generosity to share your work with others. And I added some shadow on the frame and create it's own layer so that i can transform (Ctrl+T) it in this way.

There it goes..I can now load it to my layout page in my dital scrapbooking. You can make your own, too.

Hopefully this tutorial could make a help for your layout. This could be simple for those who are already in hand of photoshop and other photo retouching techniques. Though it’s simple, I still very glad to share whatever simple idea I have. So, happy reading and keep practicing! Good day everybody!