Photoshop's Way!

We are back!

2009-08-16T17:01:00.000-07:00

Visitors, fans, friends, everyone. Photoshop's Way! is back from Vacations, that's the reason that no more tutorials were added since 16th June.

But since we are back we are about to make a new tutorial for all of you.

We feel great to be back to help you out with Photoshops, so a new tutorial is being made as I said above.

Wait and see!

A warm hug and a hello for everyone in the world. You are the best

Kal El

Diffusion Glow Effect

2009-06-16T15:01:00.000-07:00

INTRO: On this tutorial we are going to learn how to add diffusion glow effect to your images. Personally I really like the results of this effect, it gives a great touch to every picture. This effect makes light skin glow while keeping dark areas.

1-Open the picture you want to use.

2-Duplicate the "Background" Layer to get "Layer 1" and change the blending mode of the duplicated layer to SCREEN.

3-Now add a layer mask to the top layer so go to LAYER>LAYER MASK> REVEAL ALL.

4-Make sure the Layer Mask is selected (The white border will let you know if it's selected, if not just click on the thumbnail).

5-Go to IMAGE>APPLY IMAGE and use these settings:

6-At the moment my image is like this:

7-Now like we selected the layer mask on the step 4, let's select the "Layer 1" layer by clicking on the thumbnail. Remember this time don't select the layer mask but the image itself (white borders must be around the image).

8-Go to FILTER>BLUR>GAUSSIAN BLUR and with the Preview Box checked add some radius until you get the desired result.

9-It's time for us to add another Layer Mask. But we have a problem (Oh no!). Photoshop only allow us to add a Layer Mask per Layer, so what can we do? I have a solution mates! We will simply group the layer so go to LAYER>GROUP LAYERS or press CTRL+G.

10-Now we are free to go. With "Group 1" Layer selected go to LAYER>LAYER MASK>REVEAL ALL.

11- Select the Layer Mask of "Group 1" layer and go to IMAGE>APPLY IMAGE and use these settings:

12-And here are done here my friends, hope you liked it :)

Kal El

Photoshop's Way Toolbar

2009-06-01T11:49:00.000-07:00

Hey hey my friends, I have been kind of busy lately, so I wasn't able to post more tutorials. But today I want to add another tutorial for you all. So keep connected :)

But for now I have another add-on for every fan/visitor that is interested. It's a toolbar for Mozilla Firefox or Internet Explorer that has a lot of great features:

Search Form
RSS integrated
Message Box
Chat Room
Radio

and much more...

Here is the link for you to download the toolbar (CLICK HERE)

. It's FREE, easy and fast to install. Give it a try :)

I am using it already

All the best my friends

Kal El

Photoshop's Way Logo

2009-05-18T13:20:00.000-07:00

Heya, tonight I come here to bring you the official logo of Photoshop's Way. Hope you like it. You can use it anywhere to help promoting my blog, using the html code displayed below...

I based myself on the main logo of Adobe Photoshop and added some effects to it.

Hope you like it

With all the best wishes

Kal El

Vector Badge [REQUESTED]

2009-05-15T14:21:00.000-07:00

In the past week a friend of mine, Drey, showed interested to learn how to do vector badges like I did in this post. So here is the tutorial of Vector Badges. Hope you like it my friends :)

So let's us start.

1-Start a new document with the following settings:

2-Grab the Ellipse Tool, choose red as your foreground color, or any color you wish, it won't affect our results, and make sure it's option is set to Shape Layers.

3-Now hold SHIFT and draw a circle on our canvas, this will the base of our badge, but don’t worry about the size of the circle, since it’s vector based you will be able to scale it later on if you need to.

4-It's time to add the effect of the Layer Style. Go to LAYER>LAYER STYLE>BLENDING OPTIONS.

5-Now add the following effects:

6-You should end up with something like this:

7-Time for us to add two highlight, at the bottom and at the top. Duplicate the layer with the circle on it with CTRL+J or go to LAYER>DUPLICATE LAYER.

8-Resize the duplicated layer to 90% by going to EDIT>TRANSFORM>SCALE. Press Enter to apply the new transformation.

9-Now go to LAYER>LAYER STYLE>BLENDING OPTIONS once again and uncheck all the effects except for Gradient Overlay, which should get the following settings:

10-Now set the Fill of the layer to 0% and the Opacity to 30% or 35%.

11-Now we have something like this, beautiful but not done yet :)

12-Time to create our main highlight, select the Ellipse Tool like on the 2nd step but this time don't draw a circle, draw a black ellipse.

13-Let's position this black ellipse where we want the light to come from. Select the Move Tool and check the Show Transform Controls checkbox in the top bar menu.

14-While holding down SHIFT rotate the layer (place your pointer around the corners of the layer and start dragging). Rotate it to a 45-degree angle and place it where you want the highlight.

15-Select the point at the center on the top of the ellipse and drag is up like this. Press Enter to apply our transformation.

16-With the black ellipse layer selected we are going to change this to a true highlight, so let's visit our friend, c'mon you guessed it, Blending Options, by going to LAYER>LAYER STYLE>BLENDING OPTIONS. And add this values to Gradient Overlay:

17-Change the Fill of the layer to 0% and the Opacity to 60%, and if your highlight doesn't look like in a good place, move it with the move tool.

18-My badge has this look, how about yours?

19-Choose your first layer where you created your badge and change the Fill to 0% so the color goes away.

20-To show you what your badge should look like at this stage. I’ve changed my background to some kind of purple and grey, since the highlights won’t show on a white background.

21-We are almost there mateys! Now it's time for fun. Drag the picture you want to use on your badge to the canvas.And send the layer of the image below your badge base layer. I am going to use the logo of our favorite blog :). Line it up so it fills the badge.

22-Now CTRL+Click on your badge base layer to make a selection of it.

23-With the selection around your badge select your picture layer and click Add Layer Mask button to hide everything outside of the badge.

And we are done, look at this beauty! Try it with your favorites pictures.

Another Test

Note: Remember that the badge itself is vector based so you can resize it all you want, but the content you have inside the badge might not be vector so resize the badge before you add content.

You can download the tutorial and the file here (The new function of our blog)
Password to unzip: photoshopsway

Hugs my friends

Kal El

New Add-on for PSW

2009-05-06T21:48:00.001-07:00

Well, after sometime lost in my thoughts I have decided to apply something new for Photoshop's Way.

I'll add something new to our tutorials. In the end of each tutorial you'll be able to download the example .psd file made by myself in case you are having doubts, and you'll have in the same folder the written tutorial, like you have on our blog, so even if you don't have Internet connection you can practice and save it to your pen drive and carry the tutorial everywhere in case of needing.
That said, you can try it with our last tutorial (here), it's already available

I hope you like this idea, if you have any suggestions or doubts I would be more that grateful to read them.

Hugs for everyone.

Over and out.

Kal El

Post it!

2009-05-05T14:49:00.001-07:00

Today we are going to use an easy way to create our own POST-IT's on Photoshop. On we go mates :)

1-Create a new document with the following settings:

2-Create a new layer by pressing CTRL+SHIFT+N and name it "yellow".

3-Now, select the Rectangular Marquee Tool and draw, with the SHIFT key pressed draw a square shape.

4-Choose your foreground color to a yellow color. Here I used #fcf185, and then click ALT+BACKSPACE so the square shape will be filled with our selected color or you can use the Paint Bucket Tool to do the same effect.

5-Create another layer by pressing CTRL+SHIFT+N and name it "darker yellow".

6-Select once again the Rectangular Marquee Tool but this time with Subtract from Selection option.

7-Now create another square shape on the bottom of the our figure to deselect that part, because we only want the top of the selection that we created on 3rd step.

8-Choose a darker yellow as your foreground color (#ece179), select the Gradient tool, and choose the gradient that goes from dark yellow to transparent.

9-With the Gradient tool select drag from the top of the selection to the bottom. And click CTRL+D to deselect our small selection.

10-Change the opacity of the layer to 80%.

11-Click to select the layer named "yellow" and press CTRL+J to duplicate it. And on the duplicated layer click CTRL+U to open the Hue/Saturation settings, and you'll have to define the value of lightness to -100% to make the layer completely black. To finish this step, place the duplicated layer below the "yellow" layer and lower it's opacity to 35%.

12-Now, select the "yellow" layer and go to EDIT>TRANSFORM>WRAP. Drag the bottom right point to raise the Post-it edge. When you are happy with your effect click ENTER to leave the transformation mode.

13-You can do the same for the bottom left point or leave it as it is. Select the "yellow copy" layer that is our shadow and go to FILTER>BLUR>GAUSSIAN BLUR and set the value of the radius to 10.

14-At last, select the Horizontal Type Tool and write whatever you wish on the Post-it. Change the opacity of the text layer to 63%.

15- Here is my result. I decreased the size of the shadow to make it more realistic, lifted another point of the Post-it at left.

You can download the tutorial and the file here (The new function of our blog)
Password to unzip: photoshopsway

Hope you enjoyed.

All the best :)

Kal El

Credits for the owner of the idea of the Post-it Tutorial:

http://digitalretouching.synthasite.com/stickynote.php

Dark Planet Tutorial

2009-02-22T15:21:00.000-08:00

1- Start a new file with these settings.

2- Reset the colors with the D key.

3- Go to FILTER>RENDER>CLOUDS.

4- Now go to FILTER>SKETCH>BAS RELIEF.

5- With the Elliptical Marquee Tool, draw a circle on the center of the image.

6-Go to FILTER>DISORT>SPHERIZE, amount: 100% and mode: normal.
7-Click CTRL+F to reapply the same effect. (So the spherize effect will be applied twice).

8-Click CTRL+J to make a new layer with only the globe.

9-Select the "Background" layer, then go to EDIT>FILL> And choose black.

10-Here's our picture at the moment.

11-Select the "Layer 1" and go to IMAGE>ADJUSTMENT>HUE/SATURATION or simply click CTRL+U and add these settings.

12- And your planet turned to blue right?

13-Go to FILTER>RENDER>LIGHTING EFFECT and do exactly like the picture shows.

14-Click CTRL+F to reapply the same effect. (So the lighting effect will be applied twice).
15-And here is our planet a bit dark at the moment.

16-Click with your right mouse button on "Layer 1" and go to Blending Options and add this settings on Outer Glow and Inner Glow.

17-Move the "Layer 1" with the move tool (Pres V to activate it) and place the planet on the left at the bottom.

18-Select the "Background" layer and go to FILTER>NOISE>ADD NOISE (Amount: 9,51,Uniform and check the Monochromatic box.

19-Go to FILTER>RENDER>LENS FLARE and do exactly like this.

20- All done :)

PSW Gallery

2009-02-18T17:29:00.000-08:00

Photoshop's Way Gallery or simply PSW Gallery is a place where I keep the pictures I've changed with Photoshop and all the work I make with our software. It's some kind of a portfolio, my album or something like that, but I decided to call it gallery because you can have your picture there too.

In order to have your picture on our gallery you just need to send it to: kalelbusiness@gmail.com. And I'll make sure your art goes to the gallery as fast as possible. I guessed it was a good idea to create our closer community. Hope you like the idea.

Note: If you want to download any image for your computer do not copy and save them. Ask me and I'll send you with the best quality :)

..::PSW GALLERY::..

Logo for Photoshop's Way 1.
Click here to see

Logo for Photoshop's Way 2.
Click here to see

Pop Art using Michael Rosenbaum from Smallville TV show.
Click here to see

Sunflower Wallpaper
Click here to see

Max Payne effect
Click here to see

Yellow to White Teeth

2009-02-08T21:40:00.000-08:00

1- Firstly, open your picture.

2- Now select the Polygonal Lasso Tool with Feather 2px.

3- Zoom in if you need to look closer to avoid mistakes and select the teeth.

4- Go to IMAGE>ADJUSTMENT>HUE/SATURATION or simply click CTRL+U and add these values.

5- Press CTRL+D to deselect the selection and voilá, white teeth.

Here's the difference

Kal El

Are you interested?

2009-01-29T22:21:00.001-08:00

Hello my friends :D I have been trying something on our software ( Photoshop of course) this night because I wasn't sleepy at all and I managed to create this cool set of pin badges.

What do you think about them?

And I was wondering to make the tutorial for this, so you can make your own pins.
Then would you like me to do it?

Hugs :)

Photoshop Tool Chart

2009-01-29T20:23:00.001-08:00

Here I bring something that may be useful for you.

It's called Photoshop Tool Chart and it help you to locate some tools that may be hidden and when I speak about any tool it'll be easier for you to find it.

Half-Sketched effect

2009-01-23T12:52:00.001-08:00

1- Open up the picture you want to apply the half-sketched effect. I will use Uma Thurman from the movie "Kill Bill".

NOTE - I'll just open a picture without a background already to make things simplier. If you want download from the internet these kind of picture without background, they are called RENDER, and I recommend you this website to download renders. www.planetrenders.net

2- That said, click CTRL + J to duplicate the layer.

3- Go to FILTER>STYLIZE>FIND EDGES. Press CTRL + SHIFT + U to desaturate the layer. And here's how the picture looks.

4- Bring up the Levels dialog with CTRL+L and adjust the sliders until you get the detail you want.

5- Here's our picture.

6- Add a Layer Mask by going to LAYER>LAYER MASK>REVEAL ALL.

7- With the Layer Mask selected, choose the Gradient Tool

8- Make sure the settings of your gradient tool are like these.

9- Drag the gradient over your image to make some parts of the mask visible.

10- Great! Don't you think? I personally love this effect.

11- Repeat the gradient until you get the effect you want.

Hope you like it, that's all.

Kal El

Matrix Effect

2008-12-17T11:54:00.000-08:00

1-Open up a new document with a white background

2-Go to FILTER>TEXTURE>GRAIN and put the values like in this picture

3-Here is how your picture will look like

4-Go to FILTER>ARTISTIC>NEON GLOW and choose the same values as the picture below and a bright green color.

5-Go to FILTER>STYLIZE>GLOWING EDGES and choose these values

6-Your picture should look like this

7-Duplicate the layer by pressing Ctrl+J
8-On the duplicated layer go to FILTER>BLUR>MOTION BLUR and enter these values(-90,100)

9-Change the blending mode to Lighten

10-Done, nice Matrix Effect for wallpapers or whatever you need it :)

EXTRA-Here I have applied some text with matrix effect, if you wish me to tell you how to do it just leave a comment

Kal El

Censorship

2008-12-15T12:18:00.000-08:00

1-Open the picture you want to work on. On this tutorial we are going to use this one:

2-Select the eliptical marquee tool

3-And draw a shape around the area you want it to be censored. We are going to censore the chest.

4-Go to FILTER>PIXELATE>MOSAIC and choose something between 5 and 10.

5-And it's done, simple and easy but cool :)

Kal El

Create a Planet

2008-12-05T20:34:00.000-08:00

1-Start a new document 600x600

2-Paint the background with black using the Paint Bucket Tool .
3-Choose the Elliptical Marquee Tool , and while holding down SHIFT, draw to make a selection.

4-Create a new layer(Ctrl+Shift+N)

5-Press "D" to reset your colors to default.
6-Now go to FILTER>RENDER>CLOUDS

7-Here's the look of your selection

8-Go to IMAGE>ADJUSTMENTS>LEVELS or simply click Ctrl+L to open the levels window. Pull the middle slider right so your image gets more dark parts.

9-Now open IMAGE>ADJUSTMENTS>COLOR BALANCE or click Ctrl+B. For each Tone Balance (Shadows,Midtones and Highlights) set the color levels to:

10-Let's look at our planet, seems to need a little bit more adjustments. Let's move on fellas!

11-Go to FILTER>DISORT>SPHERIZE. Set the amount to 100%. Then do it again, but this time change the amount to 70%. Looks better! Yiya!

12-Now duplicate this layer by going to LAYER>DUPLICATE LAYER or simply Ctrl+J
13-Click Ctrl+D to deselect or go to SELECT>DESELECT
14-On the duplicated layer go to FILTER>ARTISTIC>PLASTIC WRAP and select these values:

15-Set the duplicated layer's blending mode to HARD LIGHT

We are done with the Planet, and it looks amazing don't you think?
BUT would you like to add stars?
Then keep reading the tutorial

16- To add stars double click on the layer named "BACKGROUND" by default (the first layer), and a window will pop up. Insert the name you wish for that layer. I'll call it "Universe"
17-Now with the "Universe" layer selected go to FILTER>NOISE>ADD NOISE. Make sure everything's like the picture below

18-You'll notice that are too much stars and it doesnt cool.So select the paint bucket tool with color black selected and hit the background. FOR EVERY CLICK ON THE BACKGROUND LOTS OF STARS WILL DISAPPEAR. So click until you see as many stars as you wish. Here my result:

Extra: Here I've added a glow effect around the planet. If you want me to tell you how to add this simply glow just leave a comment, here's my planet with the glow effect :)

Until the next tutorial friends.
Kal El

Parts of Images standing out

2008-12-02T17:32:00.000-08:00

1- Open the picture you want to wokr on, here we are going to use a highway sign.

2- Duplicate the layer by Ctrl+J and you'll have your layer palette like this on

3-Select Polygonal lasso tool and drawn around the highway sign to select ONLY the sign like this:

4- While with the highway sign selected like above click Ctrl+J to duplicate the layer again, and you'll notice only the sign was duplicated because it was selected

5-Erase the layer named background(by holding you left mouse button, dragging and droping it on the trash like the picture shows:

6-Hide your layer 2 by clicking on that eye symbol

7-Click Shift+Ctrl+U or go to Image>Adjustments>Desaturate to desaturate the image

8-Unhide the layer 2 by clicking on that blank square where you had that eye symbol before

9- And it's done, great effect :)

EXTRA:

7a-Instead of doing the STEP 7 to desaturate the picture let's do 7a, 7b and 7c and continue at the normal 8th step, just replace the 7th step for this one. Let's blur it by going to FILTER>BLUR>GAUSSIAN BLUR,

7b-Make sure radius is 2.2 or the best that fits your picture

7c- And Tadaa it's done, easy work mateys!

Aqua Sphere Effect

2008-11-30T11:47:00.000-08:00

Here is a simple tutorial showing you how to create a sphere with an aqua effect, its great for buttons or ads or anything you would to apply it.

How your sphere will look like!

See the movie below

Photoshop's Way Contests?

2008-11-26T18:20:00.000-08:00

Hello Photoshopers!

I come here tonight not with another tutorial (I'm sorry) but with something I've been thinking for a while now and I honestly would love to have your attention and your opinion.

When I started blogging Photoshop's Way I firstly asked to myself: "What are my objectives blogging tutorials? There are so many all over the Internet"
And the answers were clear enough to me like "I am doing what makes me happy, teaching and showing to the others my skills and what I've been learning until now." Suddenly another objective showed up and it was "Besides my wish to teach what I know and I want I manage, I WANT TO LEARN more and more from every single people that arrives this blog. Because there is so many things I don't know yet (I know about 1% in 100%) and I would love to learn it."

And that's it, I want to share what I already know and want you to share what you know with me, so we can build here a large and great community of editors and have fun all together.

Now, another reason that brought me here is that the last night I went to bed but I wasn't sleepy at all so I started to think about this journey and what would I do to make this blog different from the others (Yeah there are millions of websites with tutorials to Photoshop). After some minutes loose on my thoughts I got something. (Yeah, you are a genius!)

Contests? Let them decide...

I thought about some kind of a tournament or a contest between photoshopers where I would post a picture on the blog to everyone do their best with that picture using Photoshop and you all would have three days to work on it and then send the results to my email so me and my friend that is an artist could rate it with points. The winner would be the one whose picture earned more points.

And you ask: "I win, so what?"

Well, the winner will get money (not much since I'm not rich, about five dollar, I don't know yet), and maybe be called to make part of Photoshops' Way Team depending on his/her results, earn automaticly 2 points extra for the next contest, and more benefits that I'm still thinking about.
The second one with more points will receive money as well (about three dollars, not sure yet) and will earn 1 point extra for the next contest. The third person with more points will earn money too (about 1$, as I said I am not sure yet) but no extra points.

Well, all of this need to be thought and thought again because something would be missing but everything depends on visitors.

The first goal of this blog is to become and independent domain. So if everyone helps we can reach the top of the world :)

An honest huge and warm hug for everyone in the world.
Kal El

Menu Bar

2008-11-25T18:26:00.000-08:00

1- Start a new file and configure it like this:

2-Select the Paint Bucket Tool and left click on the background

3- Press Ctrl+Shift+N to create a new layer

4- And your layer palette will be shown like this

5- Select the Rounded Rectangle Tool with a different color of the background

6- Look up with the Rounded Rectangle Tool selected and make sure everything's configured like this:

7- Draw a rectangle on the background

8-Go to SELECT>LOAD SELECTION>OK

9- When you click OK your rectangle will be shown like

10- Click on ADJUSTMENT LAYER BUTTON and select GRADIENT
11- Now left click on the gradient box

12- Now a bigger box will appear, looks complicated huh? Don't worry ;)

13- Click on the first square, and you will notice that your rectangle changed his colour

14- But now it's time for to configure the rectangle with our wished colors

15- Click on that small box with a traingle on the top of it(1) and then on that bigger box(2) to choose your first color

16- Choose your color and click OK (Here I've chosen "ffba00")

17- Now do the same as step 15 for the right small box(1) and that bigger one(2), but for this choose a darker color (Here I've chosen "72490e") and press OK

18- Press OK again to close that window

19-And OK again (on the Gradient Fill Window)

20- Your layer palette should be like this:

21- And your rectangle like this;

22- Create another layer by pressing Ctrl+Shift+N

23- Select the Rounded Rectangle Tool again like on the 5th step

24- And draw something like this:

25- Go to SELECT>LOAD SELECTION>OK (see step 8)

26- Now do exactly the same as you did on step 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16 and 17 this time for the smaller rectangle and invert the colors, instead of: First the lighter color and then the darker one, choose the darker on first(left small box) and then the lighter color(right small box)

27- Here's your colors inverted from the first and bigger rectangle

28- And here's your rectangle with a great effect

29- Now, add some text using the Horizontal Type Tool

30- And that's it! :)

Gritty Effect

2008-11-25T06:59:00.000-08:00

1-Open the picture that wish to work on, we are going to use this car on the tutorial.

2- Your layer palette should look like the picture below

3- Click Ctrl+J to duplicate the layer

4- Now go to FILTER>OTHER>HIGH PASS

5- Place the value like below

6- Your picture should look like this

7- Change the blending mode to HARD LIGHT

8- Your picture will look like this

9- Once again duplicate the current layer by pressing Ctrl+J

10- Your picture look like this right? :)

11- Duplicate the layer once again by clicking Ctrl+J and your layer palette will look like this

12- Decrease the layer opacity to 50%

13- Your picture should be like this

14- Now press Alt and click on the ADD NEW LAYER button on layers palette

15- A new box will appear, place there the values like the picture shows and click OK

16- Your layer palette will be shown like this

17- Now go to FILTER>NOISE>ADD NOISE

18- Enter the value exactly as shown below

19- Your picture...

20- Now click on the NEW ADJUSTMENT LAYER button on the layers palette and choose Hue/Saturation

21- Place the values like the picture shows

22- And that's it, your picture will be shown like this

Photoshop Basic Vector

2008-11-23T21:26:00.000-08:00

Before After

1- Start the Photoshop and open the picture you want to work on (Ctrl-O to open your documents)

2- Let's duplicate the current layer so we can apply the effect without affecting the main layer.
(MENU>LAYER>DUPLICATE LAYER)

3- Let's start drawing the picture so go to IMAGE > ADJUSTMENTS > THRESHOLD and configure it the way you want it. Here on this tutorial I used 127.

4- If you look closely you can see that the lines are a bit ugly but we will fix that by going to FILTER > STYLIZE > DIFFUSE

5- Now to increase the quality of the lines go to FILTER > SHARPEN > UNSHARP MASK and configure it the best way that fits your picture, test lots of combinations until you find your favourite.

6- To finish let's color it, if you want the basic color way follow the step 7, but if you wish a greater way to color follow step 8.

7- Creat a new layer by clicking Ctrl+SHIFT+N and fill it with the color you wish.

7a- Change the Blending mode to Multiply and see the result:

8- To a greater color way you have to know a little bit about layers. So let us go.

8a- Erase the layer that was made on the 7th step and duplicate the original picture layer to apply new effects on it.

8b- Apply this filter by clicking on FILTER > ARTISTIC > SMUDGE STICK
and configure it like shown below

8c- Now apply this one by clicking FILTER > ARTISTIC > CUTOUT and configure it
like shown below

Obs: If you have CS or higher version your picture should look like this.

8d- Now you have the original picture, the one you applied
the effects and the vector (the darker one), so change
the blending mode of the vector to Multiply and see how the picture looks like

9- Now to finish apply a background color on a layer below the others.

10- And here's the version with some effects applied

Other results: