Webbies are, simply, any of the little graphics we use in web design. They might be a button, an icon, or a logo-type graphic.

This tutorial is a new version of our crystal ladybug webbie. It is just as sleek, but rounder and cuter.

1	New Canvas Open a new canvas in Photoshop (File, New) that is sized about 400x400 pixels with a white background in RGB mode.
2	Set Colors Set your foreground color to #fd403a and your background color to #6d0200.
3	Draw a Circle Select your ellipse (circle) SHAPE tool and draw it out on your canvas. DO NOT use the marquee tool. The shape tool will create a new layer for you. Hold the shift key down on your keyboard while you draw to make a perfect circle. After you draw the circle, right-click its layer and choose "Rasterize Layer". This is how you get those super-smooth, crisp lines.
4	Gradient Overlay Go to your layer styles (Layer - Layer Styles OR the small "f" icon in the lower left-hand corner of your layers palette). Choose "Gradient Overlay and apply the bright-to-dark red gradient. Leave all other settings at their default. Click OK.
5	The Head Change your foreground color to black. Then, use your rectangle SHAPE tool to draw across the top third of your red circle. Right-click and rasterize this shape. After you've rasterized, click once on the red circle layer to select it. Then, use your magic wand tool to select the area around the circle. Click back on your black square layer and hit the backspace key on your keyboard. This will delete everything outside the circle shape.
6	Black Dots Using black, grab your elliptical (circle) shape tool and draw 4-5 ovals on the back of your ladybug. Make sure you rasterize each circle after you draw it.
7	Merge & Shadow Make sure that you like the basic elements so far, because we're about to set them in stone. First, make your background layer invisible by clicking the "eye" icon beside it. Then, right-click your red circle layer and choose "Merge Visible". This places all your layers - except your background - on one single layer. Make the background visible again by clicking the eye beside it once more. Now, go to your layer styles (Layer, Layer Styles OR the little "f" icon in the lower left-hand corner of your layers palette) and choose "Inner Shadow". Apply the following settings but DO NOT click OK yet.
8	Inner Glow While you're in the layer styles dialogue, go to "Inner Glow" and apply the settings below. Click OK when you're done.
9	Shine Part One We're ready to start our shine. Set your foreground color to white, and grab your ellipse tool again. Holding the shift key down, go ahead and draw a perfect circle on the upper two-thirds of the circle. Right-click and rasterize the layer.
10	Shine Part Two This is cool, but it doesn't really "shine". To make it do that, we're going to add a layer mask. Click "Layer", choose "Layer Mask", and click "Reveal All". This will change your foreground and background colors to black & white. The trick here is that black will "hide" parts of your white circle, and white will keep it visible. Use your gradient tool to make the white circle fade smoothly away.
11	Two Lines Now, we want to make the look of "wings". This is totally easy. First, draw a black line up the center of the red in your circle - behind the shine layer - and rasterize it. Second, draw a white line across the ladybug, just under the head. Rasterize this.
12	Antennae Our last step - antennae. Basically, the antennae consist of 3 circles. First, draw a long oval that will be both antennae, so size it accordingly. Rasterize the oval, then click "Select" and choose "Load Selection". Go back to "Select" and choose "Modify", then click "Contract". Enter 6. Click the backspace key on your keyboard to remove the center. Then, use your eraser tool to remove excess. Finally, make two circles on the tip of each antennae. Beautiful! To make other colors of ladybugs, just change the colors of your gradient overlay.

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There’re a lot of resources that provide free website templates in Internet. One of them - FreeTemplatesOnline.com Here you can download plenty of free and premium templates. However, if this is a free (or premium) template, somebody else can also download it, and use it for his website. That’s why I’ve made up my mind to make a tutorial with the detailed description of creating a template from the very beginning. I hope it allows you to create your own templates in future, or to make some changes in the existing ones.

You can see the result of my work - this template. It took me 8 hours to draw this template. You wiil be able to recreate this template in 2 up to 4 hours using my instructions and possessing the basic experience of work in Photoshop.

So, there’s an idea to create a template in dark shades with vector motifs. It should be of ‘Clean Style‘, consists of the header and the main part in the middle of the the page, navigation menus in the right and left bars. And these navigation menus will be the main adornment for the website. The footer will go down also in the middle of the page.

Let’s start with the background. Let it be gray and with grain a little. Create a new document of 3×3px size, and paint some sectors with the help of Pencil tool as it is shown in the picture. Save it as Pattern (Edit>Define Pattern) and give it “Temp” name.

Create a new document of 766×770px size. Set Foreground color #1e1e1e and fill the background with it. Duplicate the layer and apply Noise filter (Filter>Noise>Add Noise).

Create a new layer, and fill it (Shift+F5) with the created Pattern “Temp”.

Pick up the layer where Noise was applied and reduce the opacity to 20%. You can also correct Curves (Ctrl+M) to get rid of white spots.

The background is finished.

Now it’s time to mark the place for the content part. It’s supposed to consist a section with the services list and their description (the top side), the section with the partners list, their description and the title of the subsection (the bottom side). Generally the content part will be in the middle of the canvas, and the background will have another color.

Create a new set (Layer>New>Group). Select an area (M) of 420-439px size in the middle of the canvas, and fill it with #101010 color.

Click Subtract from Selection and deselect the upper half of the content part. Fill it with #151515 color. Deselect (Ctrl+D).

Type (T) "Multilevel Business Solutions" in the top with the following settings: Use #5e5e5e color for "Multilevel” and #b8b8b8 color for "business solutions".

A little bit lower place a text with the company’s description. Meanwhile it can be “Lorem Ipsum” text.

Tip: You may visit Lipsum.com to know more about "Lorem Ipsum" text and to copy it from there.

Place the partners’ banners below the text. I’ve used the following three gray banners (free download baners). Just open them in Photoshop and drag do your working PSD file.

Apply Stroke Blending option (Layer>Layer Style>Stroke…) to layers with banners.

And at last, the descriptions for banners. Place the description text to the right. As the background is lighter in the lower part than in the upper part, so the text should be lighter also.

Now it’s time for logo and slogan. They will be placed above the content side.

Create the new set. Download Custom shape, and draw a white shape with 75×75px size in the upper part of the template, closer to the left edge of the content side.

Use the following Blending Options (Layer> Layer Style>Blending Options…) for the layer with shape.

Now add text “Prime Time” to the right of the logo with the following settings:

Add the following Blending Options for it (Drop Shadow as for the logo):

Under “Prime Time” text type the slogan for the company "take the best corporate deal" with the following settings:

Also add Drop Shadow in Blending Options with the same parameters as for the text layer and the layer with the logo.

Now footer. It’s very simple and placed under the content side. The footer consists of short service information with the sound management.

Create a new set. Type the text under the content side “Your Company.com C 2008 | Privacy Policy | Terms Of Use". Use #4c4c4c color for "YourCompany.Com C 2008" and #6a6a6a color for the rest text.

And place “Sound Control” below.

The main part is ready. Now the navigation menu. It will be in the form of six large color buttons, that are placed in threes on each side of the content side. Each of the squares will contain the menu title, the description, and the logo.

So let’s start. Create the new set. Create the new layer in it. Select the area of 150×150px size (M) in the left upper side of the page. Fill it with #58a013 color.

Now choose the gradient (G), and draw a line from the top left to the right bottom part. Set Opacity 60% and deselect.

Set Foreground color white. Draw shape in the middle upper side of it using the custom shape that was created before with the 75×77px size. Set opacity 10%.

Add the text “ABOUT US” for the first link under it.

And also add Drop Shadow in Blending Options with the same settings that were applied before for the other layers.

And at last one more text layer for the short description of the link. This case it will be the text “short about us”. Also add Drop Shadow for it with the same settings as in the previous step.

The first navigation menu is ready. To create another one it’s enough to duplicate the set, move it for 155px below. Then Ctrl+Click on the layer with the background and fill it with #88b804 color. Next change the text in the layer with the menu title and description for "SERVICES" and "services overview" appropriately.

Duplicate the layer once more, move for 155px below, change the background color for #a9b803, change text layers for "PRODUCTS", "quality standards".

The left menu is ready. Make the right menu the same way. Use the following colors and texts:

The top right: #c6a700, "SOLUTIONS", "business solutions".

The middle right: #c77200, "PARTNERS", "partners planing".

The bottom right: #ca4400, "CONTACTS", "contact information".

The template is ready. All you need to do is to add the banners in the bottom. The banners show how they will look like on the site.

Create the new set. Choose any shapes you like, and draw four items using #3d3d3d color. To make things more simple you can just download those banners for free here.

You can see my final result here.

Free download sources: .psd design with slicing, .html code with style.css, images, baners, shape.

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I got a very interesting question on my previous tutorial (How to create vector photoshop brushes). A blogger mate was having a problem to organize long collection lists of brush set. I will never been dealing with such problem if I haven’t got this comment posted. So, I would say thank you anonymous mate! Below there is a screen shot showing how these lists get you dizzy because they are all appear together and arranged in alphabetical order, but sometimes you don’t have to use the major numbers of them.


click to enlarge!

If you are a graphic designer and using photoshop brush set a lot, being practical in everyway to finish your job is foremost. I would have to say that you need to be tidying up your photoshop brushes set list, since on the internet most of them are categorized and designed in different style or theme. For example, there are thousand kinds brushes set, such as Foliage, Grunge, Architectural and many more. Should this tutorial, will help you more?…. Just try it ;) and gimme comment if I may get missed out something ok.

Okay…. Let’s see, how this thing works.


Step 1 – Installing new photoshop brush set

Actually there is an easy way to install photoshop brush set in your workspace as you can read it in my previous tutorial. Well that kind of way would rather have limited options if your main concern is to tidy up your long list of brush set.

See how you can save your time by installing all your brush set to your system operation folders (I’m a Windows user), then creating different kinds of Menu Customization Set to group your photoshop brushes set based on their style and theme.

Firstly, all you have to do is to move your photoshop brushes set collection to this system root folder, as you seen below. I don’t know how it looks in Mac, but I am sure it would works pretty similar.


click to enlarge!


Step 2 – Menus Customization

Go to the menu Edit > Keyboard Shortcuts and Menus (Alt + Shift+ Ctrl +K) and click the Menus tab, then on the Pallete Menus Option Box, Find Brushes option.



Set the Menu For: Pallete Menus then you will see another sub option box like this:



All of your photoshop brush that you have moved into the system folder is now appeared in this customization box. Each of them is now signed as Palette Menu Command.

From this stage, you can start to group your photoshop brush set based on their design style or theme. Turn off the visibility of other type of brushes set that you think would not related to the group of style that you are about to create.



You can also add up highlight to your photoshop brush just like what is shown above with a color.


Step 3 – Keyboard Shortcut Customization

Go back again to the menu Edit > Keyboard Shortcuts and Menus (Alt + Shift+ Ctrl +K) and click the Keyboard Shortcuts tab, then on the Pallete Menus Option Box, Find Brushes option.

Set the Shortcuts For: Pallete Menus then you will see another sub option box like this:


click to enlarge!

To assign a shortcut for a brush set, click the right side of the row lists, and then fill the blank box with available shortcut as you wish. Click the Accept button if you already sure with the choice of shortcut available. You can assign more than one shortcut by clicking the Add Shortcut button, and fill in with alternatives of available shortcut. Removing the shortcut would be simply done by clicking the Delete Shortcut.

Summarize button will allow you to save all the lists of this set in a web page format for further use.


Step 4 – Saving the Shortcut and Menus Customization settings



If you think that you already have the group list complete, save this Menus Customization set, and name it with according to the group design style or theme.



The settings will be saved in .MNU file format, and you can re-customize it whenever you want by repeating what has been explained in the initial steps. Creating new Menu Customization to group some photoshop brushes in one file is a great idea because whenever you need certain design style of brush set, you just need to activate one of the Menus Customization set in the list.

NOTE:
Before the new Menu Customization set is made, you will always working this customization on Photoshop Default Menus. Make sure that you start it back all over again from Photoshop Default Menus on the “Set” drop down menus if you want to create another group of Menu Customization


Check the list on your Brush window by entering menu Window > Brushes (F5).



Click the tiny arrow on the right top to show the tray menu commands, and you will find your brush set menus customization listed.


click to enlarge!

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Hallo. 9th of May. This is a great day for our country and not only ours. This is a great victory day over the fascism. This is why I've decided to make this tutorial. This is going to be a color fill tutorial, specking in other words we will take a black and white picture and add color to it.

So let's go.

Here is our picture. This is a well known shot that is called red flag over the Reichstag and it was made by a Russian photographer.

Create a new layer to begin to paint on.



But firs change the image mode from grayscale to RGB or CMYK.

Click image to expand.

Before begin to color my image I've decided to apply a gradient map (adjustments layer).







Set this very gradient map layer to linear burn blending mode.



We got this sepia look to our picture. Now another goal here is to show that our picture is Old with all the scratches and so on.

Now let's work over some tones and value.

Grab an eraser and erase a little bit of our gradient map layer. I've chosen this brush with torn edges, you could use and ripped edges brush to do this.

Click image to expand.

Click image to expand.

Note to switch directly on the mask and not on the map itself.


Here you can see how I've done my erasing. I've erased the part near the top right corner that means that the light will come from over there. This will be our lightest point, somewhere over there.

Click image to expand.

The details should be painted in the last part of the work, but I've decided to set a little bit of lighting on my character.



I also like to create another adjustment color balance layer.



I will let's say erase the part of my adjustment by using black to white gradient. Note to stay on the mask.

Click image to expand.

I also want to get rid of my adjustment a little bit more, go to the Channels box, choose COLOR BALLNCE (mask) and work a little bit with brushes.

Click image to expand.

Click image to expand.

Now I don't now why but I like to pant some fog spreading through the city.



Choose COLOR as the mode to your brush. Create a new layer (FOGY).

And begin to paint the fog. I'm also using a ripped edged one.











And some color to the fog and for and the image corner area. Use soft low flow brush.





Now I will ad some color to the uniforms of the soldiers. I don't really sure that they were green. But I want them to be green.
brush here, setting the flow to about 30 – 50 % (depending on the tablet you use), setting the color mode to COLOR and toggling it to normal some times.



Enjoy.

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Abstract Lines Background.

Step 1:

Let's start out by creating a new file. I used a 550x900 pixels canvas set at 72dpi, and I filled my background with a black color. Now grab the background below and insert into your canvas in its own layer.

Step 2:

Create a new layer set and name it 'Abstract Lines'. Now select the brush tool and set the size to 45 px soft brush. In a new layer paint a medium sized line with # 006C6A color shade as shown below.

Step 3:

Go to Filter > Blur > Motion Blur, apply the settings below to the paint line layer. If your results are thin in color just duplicate the layer and merge them both.

Step 4:

Under Layer Style(Layer > Layer Style) add an Inner Shadow and Gradient Overlay blending options to your motioned paint layer.

Step 5:

Duplicate the motioned paint layer without any layer styles attached. Position it on the right side and set the layer's blending mode to Color Dodge. Duplicate this layer so the dodge effect is thicker on the design.

Step 6:

Once again duplicate the motioned paint layer without any layer styles. Position it as shown below, finish it off by duplicating the layer so its thicker on the design.

Step 7:

Duplicate the 'Abstract Line' layer set and merge it by going to Layer > Merge Layer Set. Make sure you have the layer set highlighted on the layers window or the merge option won't be active. position the layer design next to the original abstract line. Then set the layer's blending mode to Lighten at 46%opacity level.

Step 8:

Now duplicate the lightened layer from the last step by 3 to 4 times and position this designs all over the canvas. Make each copy unique with a different opacity levels.

Step 9:

Add a marquee selection around your canvas and go to Edit > Copy Merged. Then go back to Edit > Paste, this should add a new layer with a copy of your current design. Set the layer's blending mode to Hard Light at 49% opacity level.

Step 10:

Copy your current design as shown on step nine then use rotate option on Edit > Transform.

Results:

Abstract Lines Background.

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This is a fairly simple tutorial, though its uses for creative image editing in Photoshop are anything but. Even this tutorial does not begin to scratch the surface of what can be done when you use Blending Mode in Photoshop. This tutorial is instead designed to simply make people aware of it and to give them a glimpse into what it can do for your work.

Let's begin. For this tutorial I will be using an image of the lovely Karima Adebibe who is currently acting as the new model to fill Lara Crofts boots.

* For more information on how to remove an image from its background for other use, consult my Image Cutting here.

< Blending Mode has a myriad of other uses for compositional work in Photoshop aside from simply giving your image a different look. Try playing around with different uses of Blending Mode in your works in Photoshop, especially in terms of achieving different looks in images that use multiple layers. The above tutorial only hints at the possibilites. Enjoy.
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In this tutorial we are going to learn how to create a clean web layout.



1)Open a new document with the sizes 1300 x 1500 pixels and draw a linear gradient #e2e4e4 to #d7d9d9.



2)Create a new layer and make a rectangular selection with fixed size 1300 by 10 pixels. Fill the selection with the color #3e4141. Place this layer inside a folder, and change the name of the folder into Header. Here we are going to put all the header elements.



3)Create a new layer inside the Header folder and make a selection with the fixed size 250 x 50 pixels. Go to Select > Modify > Smooth and add a value of 3 pixels. Select Type Tool and write the name of the site (the font which I used is called Futura). Open Layer Style window and use the settings from the next images.



4)Create a new layer inside the Header folder, make a selection with the fixed size 645 x 35 pixels and fill it with a gradient #b8b2b2 to #d0cbcb. Select Type Tool and write the names of the pages, then copy the layer style from the text you have written on the step three. Now we are done with the header.



5)Go to View > Rulers and draw some guides like those from the next image.



6)Create a new folder, name it Featured post and create a new layer inside this folder. Draw a rectangle like the one from the next image fill it with any color, then open the Layer Style window and use the settings from the image.



7)Place an image inside the ‘featured post’ folder. I used a vector from vecteezy.com Write the title of a post using the font Verdana, the size 25 pixels and the color #373633. Write the content of the post with the same font, the size 16 pixels and the color #787876.



8)Now we are going to create a ‘Continue reading’ button. Make a rectangular selection, fill it with any color, open the Layer Style Window and use the settings from the next image. Write Continue reading above the button.



9)Create a new layer, make a rectangle selection and fill it with any color. Copy the layer style from the big rectangle layer and paste it on the small rectangle layer. Move the rectangle in the right corner of the big rectangle and set the opacity to 50%. Write the text Featured Post above the small rectangle.



10)Create a new folder, name it Content, then create a new layer inside this folder. Make a rectangular selection and fill it with white. Open the Layer Style window and put the next settings.



11)Create a new layer, make a rectangle selection like the one from the next image and add a linear gradient #ececec to white. Write the title of a post with the font Verdana, the color #191917 and the size 30 pixels. Write the content of a post with the same font, the color #7d7d7b and the size 15 pixels. Copy and paste the continue reading button and place it at the end of the post. Create a new layer and, make a selection with the fixed size 570 x 1 pixel and fill it with the color #afaeac.





12)Create a new folder and name it Sidebar. Create a new layer, make a selection for the sidebar, fill it with the color #e5e5e5 and add the same layer styles you added at the step 10.



13)Create a small rectangle and fill it with the color #cfcdcb, then write the content of the sidebar.



14)Create a new group and name it Footer. Create a new layer and place it inside the footer group. Create a rectangular selection and fill it with the color #171613. Create a smaller rectangle, fill it with the color #2f2e29 and duplicate it two times. You can use this three columns to add the Recent Posts, Recent Comments, Archives, or anything else.



Final Result

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As the web has progressed, we're seeing more and more webmasters utilize javascript in order to display different pieces of content and functionality. A login box is one of those things that just makes sense to include as a javascript popup instead of directing visitors to an entirely new page sometimes.

In this tutorial I will detail how to design an attractive popup login box.



Click here to view the full version of the login box you will learn to design.

1. Select the website design you want to use. Generally it's just best to select the home page design. You can either just screenshot the design in your browser and bring it into photoshop, or if you have the original PSD you can use that. (Though, you will have a ton of layers to deal with in that case.)

2. Generally to create the overlay, it's best to use the eye dropper tool and pick a color. I used the darkest shade of blue found in the top and bottom of the design. 3. Create a new layer and make sure it's situated at the top of all the other layers. 4. Select the paint bucket tool and fill in the color. 5. With the layer still selected, change the opacity to around 66%. You can use your own judgement on what looks best.

6. Change the foreground color to white. 7. Choose the rounded rectangle tool by left clicking and dragging out the regular rectangle tool. 8. Change the "Radius:" at the top to 16 px. 9. Draw out a rectangle approximately the same size as seen on the reference image to the left. (Make sure you have the top layer selected before drawing the rectangle.)

10. Right click the layer we just created and duplicate layer. 11. Use the direct selection tool and drag out on the very bottom portion of the loginbox to select the very bottom 2 points. (See here). Hit your delete key to delete them. 12. Select the bottom 2 again in the same manner as the previous step. Left click on one of the points and while holding shift, drag them up to where they're half an inch away from the other nearest points. (See here). 13. On the duplicated layer, double click the white box to change the color. Choose a light blue color as shown to the left.

14. Choose a dark blue (like the one we used to blanket the design initially), then with the type tool type "Member Login" with a similar font as shown to the left. 15. Then beneath it, type in "Username:" - Then with that layer selected, change the font to arial, "Aa" (anti-aliasing) to none, and the font size to 14pt. 16. Right click the username text layer and duplicate it. With the move tool, move it a bit beneath the original "Username:" position. Then with the type tool, change it to "Password:".

17. Use the eye dropper to choose the light blue color that we selected in step 13. 18. Drag out the rounded rectangle tool and change it to the regular rectangle tool. 19. Drag out the username textfield box underneath the "Username:" caption. Change the color of the box we just created (in the layers window) and change it to a near-white shade of blue. 20. Double click the right side of the layer and select Stroke at the bottom. Change size to 1, Position to Inside, and the Color to the same color we chose in step 13. 21. Select "Gradient Overlay". Double click on the actual black/white gradient preview. At the top in "Presets" select the 2nd from the left (solid to gradient). Then double click the very left bottom color picker and change it to white. Hit Ok / Ok to get back. 22. Right click the layer we just worked on, duplicate it. Use the move tool to drag it beneath the password caption.

23. With the type tool and a medium blue foreground color, in the right blank area, type "* Not a member? Register here", then a couple lines beneath it, type "* Forgot Info". Change the font size to 12px. 24. Make sure the "Character" window is visible by going to the Window menu and making sure the "Character" is checked. Change the leading to 14 pt. Highlight "Register here" and choose the underline "T" in the character window. Highlight "Not a member?" and choose the bold "T" in the character window.

25. Choose the direct selection tool, left click on the white panel background to select the layer, drag down the bottom 4 points to extend the height and give us more room to place the login button. 26. With a dark blue foreground color selected, choose the rounded rectangle tool and draw out a login button beneath the password textbox. 27. With the type tool selected, click over the "Member Login" text. Right click the layer, duplicate it, drag the layer to the very top, change the color to white, and with the move tool move it down over top of the login button we created. Change the text to "Login Now" and CTRL-T to change the size to fit within the button.

28. Select the bottom white background panel layer, double click the right side of the layer to bring up layer styles, and select gradient overlay. Double click the gradient preview and change it to the one we chose before (foreground to transparent). Change the first color picker to a light blue. Hit Ok / Ok. This gives the bottom of the panel a nice blue to white gradient. 29. Choose the initial blanket layer we used to cover the design. With the eye dropper, choose the blue color we used that sits beneath the "Member Login" text. With the type tool, type a "*" outside of the panel. CTRL-T and with shift held, enlarge it. Position it as shown to the left, with the type tool you can choose different fonts to get the best looking asterick.

And that's it! With HTML, CSS and some javascript you can make this function exactly as shown.

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One of the biggest challenges facing News Graphic Drones is cranking out an impossible number of stills for a particular newscast. This can be a daunting task, especially when you only have a few minutes per graphic and with The Director In Charge of Still-Stores breathing down your neck. Isolating an image or person to place over your news background can be the most time consuming task, particularly when you’re trying to maintain a realistic look. Nothing looks worse than seeing an obvious cut-job over one of your anchors shoulders.

If you still haven’t purchased a Wacom or other digitizing tablet, do it now (we’ll wait). The Wacom tablet is not a luxury afforded only by the truly nerdy; it’s a must have for anyone who spends a large portion of their day shuffling pixels around in Photoshop. It offers the absolute fastest way to isolate an image. It takes a little getting used to, but in no time becomes second nature... you’ll thank me later.

In this lesson we’ll quickly isolate the two boys (fig. 1) and place them over a new background.

Figure 1

The pen tool is ideal for smooth curves such as automobiles and human shapes, but given the slightly rough line of the clothing I decided not to use it in this case. I chose instead to just erase the unwanted areas with the Wacom pen. I set the Erase tool to either the Paintbrush (at 100%) or the Airbrush (at 50%), both seem work well (I have yet to find a use for the Block eraser).

Before I begin erasing, I duplicate the background layer and then turn it off (poke the eye) leaving the new layer on (fig. 2).

Figure 2

The reason for this is twofold: Now I can erase to the transparent background (checkerboard), and the original file still exists in case I make a mistake (fat chance). Before I start to erase (or draw, or anything for that matter) I make sure that the document is enlarged to a number divisible by 100. Due to the way that the pixels are interpolated, the image is more accurate at 200% than say, 216% (simply press the command - or + one time to get to the nearest hundred). I usually erase at a minimum of a 200% zoom.

I select a hard-edged pen for erasing the background around the clothes, and begin erasing. This task is easily completed by zooming further into the document and using a smaller brush to erase all the tiny nooks and crannies (fig. 3).


Figure 3

I never click on the magnifying glass from the Toolbox (and frankly don’t think it’s worth the pixels that it’s illuminated on). Instead it’s much quicker using the Command + (plus) and - (minus) keys or pressing the Command-Spacebar to access the Zoom Tool (which works no matter which tool you’re using at the time), and marquee the area that you wish to work with. While the document is enlarged, the easiest way to move about image is to press the Spacebar (still with any tool selected) which accesses the Hand Tool. With Hand Tool you can quickly move around the enlarged image.

I erase most of this image in this manner until I get to the hair. Hair is usually the most challenging portion of an image to isolate due to its wispy flowing nature. Many times the easiest way to isolate a desired area is hidden right inside the document itself. With an RGB document, Photoshop gives you 3 shots at isolating a decent, contrasting selection (the red, green or blue channel) in which to use as an alpha channel. A quick check of each channel (Command-1, 2 and 3) reveals that there’s a pretty good candidate for just this case nestled within the green channel (fig. 4).

Figure 4

I drag this channel to the new channel icon to create an alpha channel. Make sure that you do copy the channel to a new channel; by accidentally working directly on an actual red, green or blue channel, you’ll alter the RGB forever and worlds may collide.

Depending upon the contrast of the channel, you’ll probably have to adjust the Levels slightly as was the case here (fig. 5).

Figure 5

Be careful not to adjust them too much, obliterating needed information. Also, depending upon how wispy you wish to keep the hair, you may want to keep the edges a light gray, making them slightly transparent when you place it into a new document.

I invert the image (Command-I) and adjust Levels a little further. Light grays over white are much easier to detect than dark grays over black; in many instances a dark gray simply looks black. My goal is to try to get a pure white area outside the selected area in which to use as my selection (fig. 6).

Figure 6

I sometimes carefully paint or airbrush around the area to achieve this goal. Now the alpha channel is ready to be used to isolate the hair. I load the alpha into my RGB channel and turn off the “marching ants” (Command-H) so that I can see the area better. Using the Erase tool set to a soft-brush Airbrush, I softly “paint” away the background. If the outside area wasn’t pure white, some of the background would still show through.

After the selected image has been erased from the unwanted background area, I use the Lasso tool to circle the selection; Inverse the selection (Command-Shift-I), and then Delete (fig. 7). This is faster and more complete than trying to erase the rest of the document by hand.

Figure 7

Now I have an isolated image of the two boys; I just need to fine-tune it. To do this I make a new Layer underneath the current layer and fill it with white (Option-Delete with white as the main color). This helps reveal any edges that need a little work or any additional spots that need to be erased (fig. 8). Also, by Inverting the image entirely (Command-I) you can see some additional areas that were missed.


Figure 8

The edges around the hair picked up some of the background color and must be fixed. To do this I click the “Preserve transparency” checkbox in the Layers palette and grab the Airbrush again. I press the Option key (to select the Eyedropper), and sample the hair color, then with a pressure of about 7%, I lightly airbrush the unwanted color away (fig. 9). Sometimes you can airbrush at 100% in the Color mode to accomplish this. Occasionally a slight blurring on the edges is needed to soften the area. This can be done with the Blur tool on the alpha channel itself or on the RGB channel after the selection has been cut out.

Figure 9

When I’m finished I toss the alpha channel, the white layer and the original background, keeping only the cut-out layer. Believe it or not, after doing this a few times, this whole process only takes a couple of minutes to accomplish; and your anchors will be very proud to have it resting above their shoulder (fig.10).

© Kurt Murphy • Image courtesy of Photodisc, Inc.

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