Dave Cross
Photoshop Creativity
For 25 years, Dave Cross has been helping photographers
and creative professionals get the most out of their Adobe
software. Since1987, Dave has taught Photoshop, Illustra-
tor and InDesign to thousands of users around the world.
He has a Bachelor of Education, is an Adobe Certified
Instructor in Photoshop CS6 and is a Certified Technical
Trainer. Dave has taught for Adobe, at Photoshop World,
the Texas School of Photography, the Santa Fe Workshops,
Imaging USA and at numerous corporate locations. Dave
has written many articles and several books, co-hosted
Photoshop User TV and has appeared in many DVDs and
online courses for Kelby Training, creativeLIVE and udemy.
com. He runs Dave Cross Workshops in his own studio/
workshop space in Tampa, FL.
Over the last 13 years, Dave has taught Photoshop in
every state in the United States, throughout Canada and in
Europe, consistently earning rave reviews. Dave is well-
known for his engaging style, his humor and his ability to
make complex topics easy to understand. In 2009 Dave
was inducted into the Photoshop Hall of Fame.
disclaimer: all errors are mine but in reality should be blamed
on the inability of Spell Check to catch errors in grammar,
consistency and even keyboard shortcuts
Yes, as photographers one of our aims should
be to “get it right in the camera”. But on the
other hands, you could be leaving on the table
a lot of creative opportunities. This class is all
about the creative side of Photoshop: how to
take your images from ordinary to extraordi-
nary. How to create artwork with your photos
that “average craigslist photographer” could
never do.
We’ll look at:
1. How working non-destructively can help
you to be more creative,
2. How to create and use Brushes
3. All kinds of finishing touches you can add
to your photos
4. Compositing, quickly and easily
5. Shooting with Photoshop in mind to
create unusual portraits
6. How to Create and Edit video in
Photoshop
The goal of all of these techniques is to help
give your creative juices a boost and to help
you differentiate yourself from photographers
that “only” get it right in the camera.
Photoshop Creativity
– notes –

Working Non-Destructively

One of the main reasons people tend to work non-destructively is

so they can change there mind. I suggest that the main reason that
changing your is so valuable is that it lets you experiment and try
things to see what you can come up with creatively. First let’s talk
about the key aspects of working non-destructively.

Layers
If you looked up non-destructive in the Photoshop dictionary (if such
a thing existed), you’d probably find an image of the Layers pan-
el. Working with layers was the “original” non-destructive method,
introduced way back in Photoshop 3. (Old timers will remember the
“fun” of building artwork in the first versions of
Photoshop, working only on the background
canvas).

For those brand new users unfamiliar with

layers, imagine putting a sheet of clear acetate
over a photo to “protect” it. You can write on
the plastic sheet with a Sharpie, knowing that
your photo is not being touched. In contrast, if
you wrote directly on the photo, that would be
destructive.

In today’s Photoshop, very few operations are done directly to the

Background layer. Instead, users typically duplicate the Background
layer or add a blank layer to protect the original pixel information
on the Background. (There are other options we’ll talk about that in
some ways are even better).

In order the preserve the editablity of layers, save your document in

PSD format – that’s Photoshop’s native format and will preserve the
layers, along with other functions such as Paths, Alpha Channels and
Layer Comps. Then if you need to create a “flattened” version of your
document in a format such as jpeg, use the Save As command to
make a second copy without layers. That way you have your “master
copy” with all the layers, and a flattened version.

Layers and their friends (Layer Masks, Adjustment Layers, and Smart
Filters) are the building blocks of the non-destructive workflow.

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Layer Masks – notes –
Although it’s initially a somewhat challenging concept to grasp, for
many people using Layer Masks is their first step into the world of
working non-destructively. A Layer Mask allows you to hide a portion
of a layer – and the key here is hiding rather than deleting. If you use
the Eraser tool on a layer, the pixels that you erase are deleted. Gone.
Once you’ve saved and closed the document, there is no way to get
the pixels back if you change your mind.

Instead, a Layer Mask temporarily hides the pixels in a

way that means you can show them again show you
need to – even the next time you open the document.
A Mask works using shades of gray to determine which
areas to hide and which to show. Black hides pixels com-
pletely, white shows pixels completely, and shades of
gray will be somewhere in the middle. In this example
I painted on the Layer Mask with black, white and 50%
gray.

You can add paint to a mask in various ways such as painting with a
brush or making a selection and filling it with the appropriate shade
of gray. It’s also possible to start with a selection and then add a
mask: the mask will be automatically created from the selection.
In this example I made an oval selection with the Marquee tool and
then click on the Add a mask button at the bottom of the Layer pan-
el. This was the result.

The same masking concept applies to Smart Filters: you can hide the
effects of a filter by painting on a mask. (More on that later)

Adjustment Layers
If you apply a command such as Levels or Curves – or anything found
under Image>Adjustments – directly to a layer, the results are per-
manent. Even if you duplicate the Background layer and work on the
copy, the Image>Adjustments commands cannot be edited later. “There’s no OK button in an
Instead, use Adjustment layers since they are by nature completely Adjustment Layer dialog – you
editable. just leave the setting the way you
want...for now”
You can access the Adjustment layers from the bottom of the Layers
panel or from the Adjustments panel. (Note: In CS6 the Adjustments
is just a “picker” where you choose the type of adjustment: you edit
the setting in the Properties panel).

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By default an Adjustment Layer affects all layers below, but you can – notes –
change that behavior by clipping the Adjustment to the layer imme-
diately below. This can be done either by clicking on the first button
at the bottom of the Properties panel (after choosing
the Adjustment Layer), or by holding down Option (PC:
Alt) and clicking on the line between the Adjustment
layer and the layer below. This way the Adjustment will
affect only the layer immediately below.

The biggest reason to use Adjustment layers is that even

after closing a document you can open that psd file
later and continue to edit the adjustment – no settings
are ever permanent.

One of the other advantages of Adjustment layers is they auto-

matically have a Layer Mask attached, so you can easy make the
adjustment affect only certain areas. Here’s an example of how to
take advantage of the flexible nature of Adjustment layers to add an
editable – and reusable – vignette.

STEP ONE: Open a document and add a Curves Adjust-

ment layer. Drag down the top right point of the curve
to darken the photo.

STEP TWO: With the Marquee

tool make a selection of the
area that you do not what to
darken (you can change the
size later if necessary), and fill
it with black.

STEP THREE: Go to the Properties panel (Masks panel

before CS6) and use the Feather slider to blur the edges
of the mask, creating a vignette effect.

If necessary, use Free Transform to change the size of the

black shape on the mask.

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Photoshop Creativity
Needless to say, there are other ways to create a vignette, but I use – notes –
this method because I can:
1. Change the darkness amount by returning to the
Curves and dragging the point
2. Use Free Transform and the Move tool to change
the size and position of the shape on the mask
3. Use the Feather slider in Properties to alter the
softness of the edge
4. Drag the Adjustment layer onto another document
and quickly and easily tweak the settings

In this example I want to make a subtle change to the color of one

portion of a photo.

STEP ONE: Start by adding a Hue/Saturation Adjustment

layer and in the Properties panel (the Adjustments panel
before CS6) make a dramatic adjustment. In this exam-
ple I drastically changed the Hue, and increased the
Saturation – temporarily.

STEP TWO: With the mask

active, press Command-I (PC:
Cntl-I) to Invert the mask and
fill it with black, This will hide
the affects of the adjustment.

STEP THREE: Now add white paint in the areas

where you want to have the adjustment take
affect. You could make a selection and fill with
white an/or paint with white. It’s going to look a
little overdone but that’s deliberate, so it’s easier
to see what you’re doing.

STEP FOUR: Once you’ve finished painting on the

mask, return to the Properties panel to adjust the
Hue/Saturation settings so it’s not so dramatic.

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– notes –
This is (or should be) a very common way to take ad-
vantage of Adjustment layers: make an over-adjust-
ment so it’s easier to see what you’re doing as you paint
on the mas, and then lower the settings back down.

Here’s the first instance of one of the rea-

son for using non-destructive methods:
re-using the same settings. In other words,
if we had another photo with the same
issue, we could simply drag over this Ad-
justment Layer, fill the mask with black and
paint in a different area. Reuse and Recycle
your Adjustment Layers!

Here’s an example of using Smart Objects and Smart Filters that

proved invaluable at last years’ Help Portrait event, where I had to
touch up and print lots of photos very quickly. I realized that every
print would be an 8 x 10, printed at 240 ppi and that I would apply
the same sharpening to each one. So here’s how I made my life easi-
er:

STEP ONE: Create a new document that’s 8 x 10 at 240 ppi (or what-
ever size and resolution you need).

STEP TWO: Right-click on the Background layer and

Convert to Smart Object. Apply whatever sharpening
filter you want to use (you have to know the setting
since right now you’re “sharpening” a blank document).
Save the file as your “master”.

STEP THREE:
To put in a photo for print-
ing, double-click on the
Smart Object to open a
document with the con-
tents of the Smart Object.
Drag in the photo you want
to use and scale it to fit.

STEP FOUR: Add a layer and do any retouching with the Spot Healing
tool, Clone Stamp etc.

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– notes –
STEP FIVE: Save the document and return to your master document.
The photo will appear, with the filter applied, ready to print.

STEP SIX: After printing, return to the contents, delete the photo and
bring in the next one.

Permission to Experiment
First we need to make sure that we’re giving ourselves the opportu-
nity to be creative by allowing ourselves to experiment. Watching
many Photoshop users over the years it seems that many people are
reluctant to try new features or experiment with settings because…
well I don’t actually know why.

Here’s a very intimidating-looking dialog:

Calculations. Some people shy away from this
command because it “looks complicated” or
they “don’t know what it does”.

As long as you see a Preview check box and a

Cancel button, consider that your permission
to experiment.

Try different settings and see what happens. Turn the Preview off and
on to compare the results.

Remember, you can always click Cancel if things start getting out of
hand. And, you can reset everything back to the default setting by
holding down Option (PC: Alt) to turn the Cancel button into the Re-
set (to default settings) button. (Even if you click OK, you can always
undo)

Combine these things together (Cancel, Preview, Reset and Undo)

and you should not have any misgivings about trying something
new or different. For many people it really is just a matter of “allowing
themselves” to experiment.

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Photoshop Creativity
Here’s an example of experimenting with the Apply Image com- – notes –
mand:

Open two images that are the same size and

mode. Choose one as your “main” image and
then choose Image>Apply Image.

For the Source, choose the other document

(although you could apply the image to itself )

Try different combinations of Channels and

Blend modes –remember, we’re in Preview
mode so nothing is final until you decide it is.

On the surface, Apply Image

seems the same as using
layers. However in Apply
Image we can choose to use
only certain Channels when
blending images together.

Smart Filters
Before Smart Filters we would often duplicate a layer
before applying a filter, so that we had a backup plan.

Now before applying a filter we either choose Fil-

ter>Convert for Smart Filters or Control-click (PC:
Right-click) on the layer and choose Convert to Smart
Object.

Apply one or more filters and they appear in the

Layers panel and can easily be edited, changed or
removed completely.

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Photoshop Creativity
You can: – notes –
1. Double-click to edit the filter settings

2. Hide the effects of the filter by clicking off the

eye icon

3. Drag to change the order of multiple filters

4. Double-click on the Blending Options icon (cir-

cled) to change the blend mode and opacity of
the filter

5. Delete a filter by Control-clicking (PC: Right-click-

ing) on the filter and choosing Delete Smart Filter

6. Paint on the Smart Filter mask to

hide the effects of the filter in specif-
ic areas.

Here’s a way we can take advantage of smart filters to try create

something unusual.

step one: create a square document, make a new layer

and select and fill half of the document.

step two: go to Edit>Define Pattern

step three: in a new document, unlock the Hint: Try to make an even
Background layer and add a Pattern Over- number of “stripes”
lay layer style. Use the Scale slider to make
the pattern as small as you want.

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Photoshop Creativity
– notes –

step four: convert the layer to a Smart Object

step five: apply the Filter>Polar Coordinates:

Rectangular to Polar

step six: to edit the number of stripes, double-click on the Smart

Object. In the psb file, double-click on the Pattern Overlay to edit the
setting. Save the psb file to see the results update in the final docu-
ment.

step seven: experiment! What if you added

a layer mask to the psb file and hide part of
the pattern? Try it, save the psb and see what
happens to the “final” image.

Chances are, you will never have to create this exact shape… but if
you do, you’re welcome :) The point of this exercise is to look at ways
that allow you to explore lots of different options.

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Photoshop Creativity
Break the Rules – notes –
For as long as I can remember, there’s been a “rule” about using
Channel Mixer: make sure all three channels add up to 100%. A few
versions of Photoshop ago they even added a Total to help us “do the
math” and end up at 100%.

The way we should probably think of that rule is “if you want a good
starting point to convert to a Black and White, start with the three
channels adding up to 100%”

We are often given rules and guidelines to help us out but unfor-
tunately, many people seem to see these as unbreakable rules. My
philosophy has always been to ask questions such as “but what hap-
pens if I break this rule”, “what does this do?” and “I wonder what will
happen if I try the opposite of the recommended values?”

Here’s an example of a “happy accident” that I discovered

when I started pushing numbers in Channel Mixer in ways
that broke the “standard”. I was trying to see how I could
change a dress from black to white. After making a selec-
tion I added a Channel Mixer adjustment layer.

After clicking on the Monochrome box,

the dress did not look white. So I started
pushing sliders including one I had never
tried: Constant.

As I moved the Constant slider I found

that I got exactly the result I wanted.

I would never have discovered that if I hadn’t been willing

to experiment

Later on we’ll look at another example of “breaking the

rules”: using Refine Edge to make color borders and edges.
It’s not was it was designed for, but looking at the tool a
little differently opens up some great possibilities.

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– notes –
The Creativity Unleashers
Here’s my list of techniques and Photoshop functions that I use in
an effort to give me the most flexibility and therefore the ability to
experiment and be creative:

Layer Masks
Adjustment Layers
Bend Modes
Blend If Sliders
Smart Objects
Camera Raw Smart Objects
Smart Filters
Layer Styles
Define your own Brushes
Apply Image
Calculations
Opacity
Fill Opacity
Knockout

and above all experimenting with sliders and settings

Creating and Using Brushes

There are a number of Photoshop tools that use brushes including
the Clone Stamp, Healing Brush, Blur, Sharpen and Smudge tools.
With these tools you choose the size of the brush and whether you
want a soft or hard edge and that’s about it. But when you create
your own brushes and use them in interesting ways with the Brush
and Mixer Brush tools, the creative possibilities are endless.

Photoshop can create a brush out of anything you can select, but the
first thing that’s important to know is that the brush can only be one
color. In other words, you could create a brush from a photograph,
but when you use the brush it’s a grayscale brush that uses the cur-
rent foreground color.

When defining a brush, the shade of gray is equivalent to opacity, i.e.

Black will be 100% opaque, white will be 0% and shades of gray will
be somewhat see-through.

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Photoshop Creativity
Here’s a simple example of making your own brush, to create a signa- – notes –
ture you can easily add to your photos.

STEP ONE: Sign a piece of white paper and take a photo of it.

STEP TWO: Open the photo and make sure that the background is
white and your signature is black. A simple way to do this is to use
the Levels command: use the white eyedropper to click on the back-
ground and the black eyedropper to click on your signature.

STEP THREE: From the Edit menu choose Define Brush Preset. Name
the brush (if you wish) and click OK.

NOTE: Don’t be thrown off by the “pre-

view” in this dialog box: it’s always a
square, been when your brush is very
wide such as in this case.

Now to use your signature brush, add a new layer, choose your
Foreground color and click once. (If the brush is too large, use the left
bracket key to decrease the size).

Remember, the brush will be created as a grayscale brush that will

use your foreground color, so when you look at images to see if
they’d make a good brush, imagine them as a grayscale.

Where this starts to get really interesting is when you realize that you
can create brushes from just about anything. For example, I have cre-
ated brushes from photos of writing on an old map, feathers, stone
and smoke (among other things). I also had interesting results when
I hand-printed on paper some very small words and photographed
them. When I enlarged the photo it created a very interesting grungy,
worn text effect that I could apply as a brush.

For the most part you’ll want to aim for “pure” white background and
black artwork to define a brush that has a fully transparent back-
ground.

In this next example I took a photo of a portion of an old map, and

after I applied Levels I still felt that the background wasn’t pure white
due to the texture in the paper. In order to help see the problem I
used the Invert command to temporarily view the image with a black
background and sure enough there was a little more texture then I

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wanted. Using a black brush in Overlay mode I was able to remove – notes –
most of the gray, after which I inverted the image again and defined
a brush.

Here are the steps I took to get from the original

map to a brush:
Photographed a portion of the original map

Then applied Levels

Cropped tighter to the text and painted out unwanted lines

Inverted and painted in Overlay mode (as described above)
The final text ready to be defined as a brush

An example using our new map

brush

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Photoshop Creativity
Smoke Brushes – notes –
Here’s a summary of the photo shoot I did in class to create our
smoke brushes:
A black background, a couple of lights (I found that constant lighting
worked well for this) and a simple smoke machine.

Position the lights so the smoke will be mostly backlit and shoot
away! I used the Interval Timer Shooting option to take a photo every
5 seconds. That way I could step away from my camera and “play
with” the smoke in an effort to create interesting patterns.

Turning Smoke into Brushes

Open one of the captures in Camera Raw and make the background
as black as possible and adjust the smoke so there is a mixture of
white and gray areas. Even though we’re looking at white smoke
on a black background, ultimately we will be using it the other way
around (black on white).

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Photoshop Creativity
After opening the image in Photoshop I used the Invert – notes –
command since we need black for our brush and white
and the background.

And as always, Edit>Define Brush Preset.

Hint: When you are creating brushes it can sometimes be

hard to tell how well it’s gong to work, so don’t be afraid to
define a brush, try it out and then delete it if you don’t like
it. If you open the photo as a Camera Raw Smart Object
you can continue to tweak the settings in an effort to get
a better brush. To create a brush with a Camera Raw Smart
Object you’ll need to add an Invert Adjustment Layer since
you can’t directly invert the Camera Raw Smart Object.
However, as long as the Camera Raw Smart Object is ac-
tive you can define a brush.

It’s also important to note that there’s a whole community of people

who create a share Photoshop brushes – just search for “free Photo-
shop brushes” and I guarantee you that you can spend a few hours
browsing through all the collections. (If you do download any brush
sets, you can double-click on the .abr file to load the brushes into
Photoshop).

So once we have these brushes, how do we use them? The sky really
is the limit here, but here’s a few ideas…

Create a background: On a layer below

an extracted/masked subject, use smoke
brushes to create an unusual back-
ground. Try using more than one layer
with Blend Modes like Multiply to have
various smoke layers in different colors
interact with each other.

Paint on the mask edge: Use a smoke

brush on the edge of a Layer Mask to
make the edges of your subject blend
into the background.
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Photoshop Creativity
– notes –
Add a design element: On a separate layer paint using an unusual
brush to add an embellishment or design effect.

Working with Brushes

When you’re experimenting with brush settings, make
sure that your preference for cursor is set to Normal
Brush Tip: that way you’ll see a preview of the shape of
your brush.

If you want to quickly change the size of your brush, you

have a couple of options:
1. Use the bracket keys: ] =bigger brush, [ = smaller brush
2. Use the on-screen resizing shortcut:
Mac: Hold down Control+Option and drag to right or left
PC: Hold down Control+Alt+Right Mouse and drag

You can also change either the hardness of the brush edge or its
opacity using a similar shortcut:
Mac: Hold down Control+Option and drag up or down
Hold down Control+Alt+Right Mouse and drag up or down

By default this affects the Hardness of the brush edge. If you want
this mouse movement to vary the Opacity, go to the General Pref-
erences and uncheck “Vary Round Brush Hardness based on HUD
vertical movement”. (Note: with brushes you have defined, you can
only affect the opacity of the brush with this mouse shortcut).

To quickly change the opacity of your brush, tap the first number of
the opacity you want: e.g. 2 for 20%, 6 for 60% etc.
Tap 0 to put the brush opacity back to 100%.

There’s really no end to the many different possibil-

ities you can achieve with brushes – thanks in large
part to the Brushes panel. (Not the Brushes Presets
panel but the Brushes panel).

In this one panel you can change a ton of options

that will change the performance of a brush, from
simple rotation, to spacing, scattering, texture and a
whole lot more. One of the best ways to experiment
with various settings is to work on a blank layer and
press Select All. Then you can paint a brush stroke to
see what it looks like and then press delete.

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Photoshop Creativity
– notes –
Here’s another example that takes a slightly different approach –
while still using brushes I created earlier. It appears to have a lot of
steps, but once you’ve done this a couple of times you can achieve
this look quite quickly.

STEP ONE: Unlock the background layer so you can add

a new layer below. To do this quickly, hold down Option
(PC: Alt) and double-click on the background layer.

STEP TWO: Add a new layer below and fill it with a color

STEP THREE: Click on the main image layer (the former

background) and add a Layer Mask filled with black. To
do this, hold down Option (PC: Alt) and click on the Add
a Mask button. Your image will be completely hidden.

STEP FOUR: Pick a brush with a little bit

of texture to it (for example the chalk and
charcoal brushes that come in Photo-
shop). With white as the Foreground
color, paint a few brush strokes to start to
reveal the image.

STEP FIVE: Now switch to the Mixer Brush tool. This

tool lets you “push around” paint as if it’s wet, and
we can use this to our advantage by painting on the
Layer Mask. Choose one of your unusual brushes (I
used a smoke brush) and paint on the mask. As you
push the paint from the white areas onto the black
areas you start to reveal more of your image in very
interesting ways.

STEP SIX: If you want, use your brush creations to

paint on the layer below the image to add an additional affect to
your image.

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There are a number of interesting benefits to using this method: – notes –
1. Painting on a Layer Mask means you can always change your
mind if you don’t like the results
2. You could apply this affect to a Camera Raw Smart Object so you
could continue to tweak the image
3. You can copy the Layer Mask to another image and build on the
effect (instead of starting from scratch each time)

Once I started realizing the possibilities of creating my own brushes,

I look at everything as a possible brush: stone, wood grain, crack in
cement – everything can be a brush

Finishing Touches
Photo Texture
It can be very effective to use a photo as an overlaid texture. Many
different types of photos will work to as an overlay and you can add
to the texture using the Clone Stamp tool. Instead of simply cloning
parts of the photo, use the Clone Source panel to change
the way the Clone tool works; use the Rotation field to flip
or angle the area you’re cloning so you create some varia-
tions to the patterns.

To give yourself more options, add a new layer and use the
Use All Layers option to put the results of the cloning on
this layer.

If your textured photo is a different size, size it to fit— even

if you have to scale it up — and then use Layer Blend modes. With
most of the Blend modes, the colors in the texture will affect the
photo below. If you want to only apply the texture and not change
the colors of the original photo, use Desaturate to remove the color
from the texture (or use a photo of a texture such as a gray sidewalk
with cracks in it).

Hint: to experiment with Blend modes, use the keyboard: with

the Move tool selected, press Shift + (Mac and PC) to scroll down
through the Bend modes; use Shift - to scroll back up through the
Blend modes.

Hint: for even more flexibility, keep the extra cloning layer(s) and
create a Smart Object. Place the SO into the photo and change the
blend mode. Now if you want to change the position of a crack,
double-click to edit the SO, move the cloned layer and save to have
the texture update.

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Photoshop Creativity
Edge Effect – notes –
Here we’ll use a Smart Object to add an effect to the edge of a photo.
As with all of our effects, there are many options based on the filters
you use.
.
step one: First we need to unlock the Background layer. Hold down
Option (PC: Alt) and double-click on the Background layer (this will
automatically name it Layer 0). (You can skip this step if you start
with a Camera Raw Smart Object).

step two: Hold down Command (PC: Ctrl) and click on the new layer
button to add a layer below your photo.

step three: Using the Marquee tool, make a selection that leaves a
slight border. With the bottom layer active, fill the selection with any
color.

step four: Click on Layer 0 and press Command- Op-

tion-G (PC: Ctrl-Alt-G) to create a clipping mask

The photo layer will be “clipped” by the rectangle below,

causing the outer edges of the photo layer to be trans-
parent.

step five: Click on the bottom layer to activate that layer

and then Control-click (PC: Right click) and choose Con-
vert to Smart Object.

step six: From the Filter menu choose Distort>Displace.

Enter a value for both the Horizontal and Vertical scale.
This is where the experimentation comes in, but don’t
worry; since this is a Smart Object it will be easy to edit
and try different settings. When you click OK you must

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Photoshop Creativity
– notes –
choose a displacement map. Choose just about any file you want: in
this example I used a Camera Raw Smart Object that was saved as a
PSD file. When you click Open, the filter will be applied to the bottom
layer which in turn will create an edge effect on the photo.

To get a better idea of how the finished effect will look, you can add a
new layer at the very bottom of the stack and fill it with white.
NOTE: Since the layer that’s clipping the photo is a Smart Object
you can double-click on the Smart Filter to edit the settings and/or
choose a different texture. If it’s not already a Camera Raw Smart Ob-
ject, you can also turn the top photo layer into a Smart Object. This
way you can easily apply the edge effect to another photo by Con-
trol-clicking (PC: Right clicking) on the layer and choosing Replace
Contents.

Refine Edge Edge

No, it’s not a typo: we’re going to use Refine Edge in a way for which
it was probably not intended.

step one: Unlock the Background layer by holding down

Option (PC: Alt) and double-clicking on the Background.

step two: Add a new layer below the photo.

step three: Click on the photo layer and make a Mar-

quee Selection.

step four: In the Options Bar click on Refine Edge.

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Photoshop Creativity
step five: First try clicking on Smart Radius and mov- – notes –
ing the Radius slider way over to the right.

step six: Or try turning off Smart Ra-

dius and use the Refine Radius tool to
paint around the edges of the selec-
tion, then play with setting such as
Contrast.

HDR Toning
Photoshop CS5 introduced a new adjustment that can be used to
create some interesting –and wild – effects: HDR Toning. The only
challenge is that it only works on a flattened document, but thanks
to Actions (and an idea from Matt Kloskowski) we can at least be able
to apply the results somewhat selectively.

step one: before recording the Action, you must have a document
open (you don’t want to record “open the document”)

step two: Create a new Action and start recording

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Photoshop Creativity
– notes –
step three: from the Image menu choose Adjustment>HDR Toning.
Pick a setting from the preset menu (in the Action we’ll make this an
interactive step, so the setting is not that important right now). Click
OK.

step four: Select All (Command-C (PC: Ctrl-A)) and Copy (Command-C
(PC: Ctrl-C)).

step five: from the Edit menu, choose Step Backwards twice, until
your image looks the way it originally did.

step six: Paste to create a new layer.

step seven: stop recording the Action

step eight: in the Actions panel, click on

the box beside the first step in your Actions
(called Scripts). This will make the Action
stop at that step to let you interact (and
experiment) with the HDR Toning settings.
Once you’ve run the Action you can exper-
iment with different Blend modes, or add a Layer Mask to hide or
lessen the effects of the HDR layer.

Compositing
Before Photoshop CS5, compositing was a potentially time-consum-
ing proposition, but now you can create a composite quickly and
easily…if you give yourself every opportunity to make it easier.

The Shoot
Start with a plan: if you already have a good idea of the background
photo you’re going to use, you can shoot the portrait with that in
mind. Pick an angle and set up your lights to it will better match the
background. Shoot your subject on a white or gray background, and
it doesn’t matter if you can see softboxes and light stands.

When I’m shooting for a composite, I’ll alter my shooting angle

slightly between shots so I have a few variations. Some photos will be
straight on and some will be shot from slight lower or higher angles.

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Photoshop Creativity
– notes –
Backgrounds
You can find all kinds of backgrounds, from ones specifically de-
signed for compositing to stock photos that will also work. Of course
you can (and should) capture cool backgrounds for future use, any
time you see them. I have an ever-growing collection of backgrounds
from alleyways to old buildings to sports fields that I’ve captured
whenever I have my camera in hand.

The Process
I’m going to recommend using Raw format for both the background
and the subject, for one main reason: it’ll give us the chance to take
advantage of Camera Raw Smart Objects to help make a better selec-
tion and mask.

If there was a way to make this next statement bold, underlining and
flashing in red, I would. That’s how important a step this is.

STEP ONE: Use File>Place to import the subject onto the background
– do this first.

Many people start selecting and masking their subject without

dragging them onto the new background. The potential problem of
doing this is there is no context: you might obsess over getting every
little hair only to find that when you put the subject onto the new
background, you can’t even see the difference. So let’s start again:

STEP ONE: Use File>Place to import the subject onto the

background.

STEP TWO: Resize the subject to fit and press Enter. This
will create a Camera Raw Smart Object.

STEP THREE: Duplicate the subject. You’ll now have 2

copies of the Camera Raw Smart Object. Hide one layer
and start working on the second.

STEP FOUR: With the Quick Selection tool, make a first

attempt at selecting the subject, starting with “hard” edges such as
arms, body and legs – ignore the hair for now. If you find that there’s
not enough contrast between you subject and the background for
the Quick Selection tool to work, double-click on the layer thumbnail
to return to Camera Raw. Temporarily adjust the settings with the
sole purpose of getting a better edge. You will change everything
back once the mask is made.

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Photoshop Creativity
– notes –
STEP FIVE: Once you have a selection of the body, arms
and legs, go to the Options Bar and click Refine Edge.
In the fine Edge dialog change the view to On Layers.
Now you’ll be able to see your selection in the context
of the background.

STEP SIX: In general you won’t have to do too much

else in Refine Edge, since we’re only worrying about
selected the “easy” part, the hard edges.

The “mistake” many people make is they expect/hope

that Refine Edge will do an amazing job of selecting
both hard and soft edges. Unfortunately, (no matter
what Adobe says), that is not often the case – that’s
why I recommend selecting in two pieces: hard edges
and hair.

Choose Output to Layer Mask and click OK.

STEP SEVEN: Now show and click on the second sub-

ject Camera Raw Smart Object. Use the Quick Selec-
tion tool but this time make a selection of her hair.
Use Refine Edge and this time we’ll try Smart Radius in
Edge Detection and move the slider to the right. Re-
member, the only goal here is to get her hair. You may
need to use the Refine Radius tool to paint over some
areas where you are missing some hair.

At any time you can change the view in Refine Edge

to Black and White to get a preview of what the Layer
Mask will look like. Don’t worry about the edges other
than the hair.

Choose Output to Layer Mask and click OK.

Since our two layers are copies of the same Camera Raw
Smart Object, you can double-click on either one to re-
turn to Camera Raw. If previously changed the settings
to help make the selection, you can now change the
settings back and when you click OK, both copies will
update. And remember, our background layer is also a
Camera Raw Smart Object, so you can always change its
settings too.

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Photoshop Creativity
– notes –
There’s another reason I suggest (insist?) that you import the subject
before starting to make you selection and mask. If you looked at just
the mask of her hair, without the context of the background, you
might be tempted to paint on the mask to “improve it”. Now, it’s quite Hint: Give yourself another run at
possible that you might need to – but it’s important to look at the getting a better edge – after you
result on the new background before making that decision. have a Layer Mask – by using Mask
Edge. It’s found in the Properties
If you do need to reveal some more hair (e.g. the mask is light gray panel and has the same controls
and you want it to be white), use your Brush tool with an important as Refine Edge, but is applied to a
setting: change the Blend mode of the Brush to Overlay and lower mask rather than a selection.
the opacity. Now you can paint over light gray areas and make them
whiter, without affect the backed (masked areas). Even then, I would
do this by painting on the mask while viewing the subject (not the
mask).

Believability
Unless you’re going for a fantasy, it-doesn’t-have-to-look-believable
image, one of the things that helps to sell the effect is making sure
that lighting, coloring and shadows match. Here’s a simple method
for changing the lighting on the subject to better match the environ-
ment.

STEP ONE: Select the 2 subject layers, Right-click and

choose Convert to Smart Object. This will allow us to
work with the two layers as if they were one, but also
still have access to both layers and masks.

STEP TWO: Add a Curves adjustment layer above the

Smart Object and drag the top right corner of the curve
down to darken the image. It’s not a bad idea to initially
make it darker than you’ll eventually need.

STEP THREE: Press the clipping button so that the adjustment layer
only affects the subject, not the background layer.

STEP FOUR: With the Curves adjustment layer mask

active, press Command-I (PC: Cntl-I) to invert the mask
and fill it with black. Then use the Brush tool with a
soft-edged brush and white as your foreground color
to paint on the mask in the areas where you want your
subject to be darker (remembering it’s deliberately
darker than you really want).

STEP FIVE: When you’re finished, use the Properties panel to adjust
the curves so it’s not quite so dark.
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Photoshop Creativity
– notes –
(Of course you could use the same concept to add a brightening
adjustment layer or apply a Photo Filter/coloring layer to portions of
an image.)

Shadows
One of the more challenging aspects of compositing is adding
realistic shadows – if the image calls for a shadow. That’s one reason
why many composites are done from the waist up, so shadows are a
non-issue. If you do need to add a shadow then I suggest you look at
the original studio shot to see if there are any shadows you can use
as a reference. If so, temporarily hide the layer mask, add a layer and
paint an approximation of the shadow.

Some propel duplicate the entire subject and transform it to make

a shadow. In some situations that works, but more often than not, if
you look at photos with shadows, many times the shadow is not that
pronounced.

Dealing with Colored Fringes

Here’s a method to deal with any fringe of color that might remain.

STEP ONE: Add a new layer above your extracted (masked) layer.

STEP TWO: Use the Eyedropper to sample the color that the fringe
should be (beside the fringe).

STEP THREE: Paint on the new layer over the edge

of the extracted layer. Don’t worry if you go over
the edges as we’ll fix that next. As you move around
the edges, press and hold Option (PC: Alt) to sam-
ple the color from that area.

STEP FOUR: Use a Clipping Mask so the

painted layer only shows within the edges
of the masked layer,

STEP FIVE: Change the layer blend mode to

Color.

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Photoshop Creativity
The Trick to Realistic Hair – notes –
No matter how good a job you do with Refine Edge and Mask Edge,
you may find that the edges around hair still don’t look quite as good
as you’d like. Here’s a really simple trick to finish things off.

First add a new layer on top.

Then with the Brush tool pick a very small (2 - 4 pixel)
hard-edged brush.
In the Brush panel set the Size Jitter to Fade and enter
a value of 25 - 100).
Try painting a brush stroke (in any color for now) to
test the fade amount and then undo.
Once you have the right amount of fade, hold down
Option (PC: Alt) to sample the existing hair and then
paint in a few hairs. Continue moving around the
edge, constantly sampling hair color and painting in
some small hairs. You can also vary the fade amount
if that helps. It’s a simple idea but can make a huge
difference.

Creating & Editing Video

The beauty of working with video in Photoshop CS6 is that it builds
on things you already know how to do:

If you want to change the color tone of a photo you’d add a Photo
Filter Adjustment Layer. Same thing with video.

To put one photo above another you’d change the order of the layers
Same thing with video clips. And so on.

You don;t even have to have video footage to create some video –
here are two examples.

Timelape Video
Take a series of single images, one every few seconds. You can use a
tripod or not, and use the interval timer option to automatically take
a series of photos.

In Photoshop, make a new document and show the Timeline pan-

el (Window>Timeline). Click the Create Video Timeline
button.

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Photoshop Creativity
– notes –
Use the popup menu (the small filmstrip) to Add Media.

Navigate to your folder of images and select them all. All the images
will be imported and will appear side-by-side in the Timelime.

Use the popup menu in the Timeline panel and choose Convert
Frames>Convert to Frame Animation. Click on the first frame, hold
down the Shift key and click on the last frame. With all the frames
selected, click on any of the timings under a frame to popup a menu
and change the delay to .1 seconds.

Press the play button to see a preview of the video – it may look a lit-
tle choppy at first, but when you export it the video will be smoother.
To export the video, go to File>Export>Render Video.

Slide Show
To create a video slide show made up of
single images we’ll import them into a
document and apply settings such as tran-
sitions and movement.

You can make your life a lot easier if you

first rename the files in Bridge to indicate
which ones are tall and which ones are
wide.

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Photoshop Creativity
Create a new document and use the Import media – notes –
command to load in all your photos. Depending on
their size you may need to scale down your photos –on
the other hand you may want to keep them large so
you can scale them in the slide show.

All the images will appear in the Layers panel within a

folder called Video Group 1, and on the Timeline side-
by-side as we saw previously.

To add audio to your slide show, use the popup menu

beside the Audio Track to add some music.

Add transitions between photos using the transition

popup menu, then drag the transition you want either
onto the end of one photo, or to the space between two
photos.

Here I dragged a Cross Fade between 2 photos – as you

drag through the Timeline you can see the effect.

You can change the position and size (Transform),

Opacity and Style over time using keyframes (and stan-
dard Photoshop operations).

Twirl down the triangle on a “clip” to see the controls. It

will make life easier if you convert a layer to a Smart Object.
Position the controller where you want the transformation to
start and click on the stopwatch beside Transform. Move to
where you want the transition to end, scale the photo up or
down and/or move it, then press Enter.
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Photoshop Creativity
Another use of this option is to create rolling credits. – notes –
Add a text block and make it taller than your docu-
ment. Make the duration of the text as long as you
want.

In the Timeline, twirl down the triangle so you can see

the control for Transform.

At the beginning of the clip, zoom out and position

the text book so it’s off the bottom of the document
(assuming you want the text to scroll up).

Click on the stopwatch to add a keyframe.

Using Free Transform, move to the end of the text clip and move the
text block so it’s off the top of the document. Press Enter and a sec-
ond keyframe will appear –and the text will scroll.

If you want a simple pan or zoom, you can also pop up

a motion menu and choose from built-in options: Pan &
Zoom, Pan, Zoom, Rotate, Rotate & Zoom.

Editing Video
Basic video editing is done by importing clips, positioning them on
the Timeline, changing the length of the clips and adding transitions.
Use the Import Media command to add more clips to the Timeline.

To edit individual clips so they start and stop

where you want, click on the edge of the clip and
drag in. As you do, a preview will popup to help
with the timing of where you want to start. Do
the same to the end of the clip to change the “out
point”. If you have clips positioned against each
other, every clip will shift when you edit one clip.

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Photoshop Creativity
Sometimes it’s easier to create the effect you want by – notes –
putting clips on separate tracks, so you can overlap
their in and out points. To do this, click and drag the
clip in the Layers panel so it is out of the Video Group.

Then in the Timeline you’ll be able to reposition the

clip so the tracks overlap.

You can do some interesting things when you add a Layer

Mask into the mix, because you now have two more fac-
tors you can change over time: Layer Mask Position and
Layer Mask Enable.

Here I add a text layer above the Video Group and positioned it
above a photo in the Timeline. Then I made a selection and added a
Layer Mask. It is very important to unlink the mask from
the layer.

After positioning the text “behind” the mask, on the Timeline I used
the Transform option to add a keyframe. Then I moved to later in the
same text clip and (as before) used Free Transform to reposition the
text.

When the video plays, the text “appears” from behind the person.

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Photoshop Creativity
– notes –
Remember, you can do many typical Photoshop operations to video,
including adding Adjustment Layers, Transforming, adding Smart
Filters and more.

Once you’re finished editing your video you need to Render it. Go to
File>Export>Render Video.

It’s beyond the scope of this session

to go into all the options for exporting
video…but the good news is, once you
research and find the best settings for
your use, they’re all in the dialog :)

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