F15's Tutorials

[F15pilotX]

Well, the title (and description) are pretty self-explanatory, so yea..hope you enjoy the tutorials I'll post in random spurts :P Of course, I'd love for anyone else good or somewhat accomplished at Photoshop to post something not there, so feel free to

If you have questions on a tutorial, PM me or post a topic in the help sections, but please don't put it in here....the topic'll be much easier to read that way


List of Tutorials

• How to Cut a Shape Out of a Picture
• How to Fade Images Into Each Other

[F15pilotX]

How to Cut a Shape Out of a Picture
(i.e. high-tech cookie cutting )

First off, I did this in Photoshop CS3, but if you have Photoshop Elements, you can just use the Cookie Cutter tool

• Start up Photoshop, and open the picture you want to take from (Click here for the image I use in this tutorial)
• Convert the image to a layer (if it already isn't) by double-clicking it in the Layers palette and pressing ok in the box that pops up
• Create a new layer by press the button in the layers palette
• Click the Shape icon (on the Tools bar that's usually on the right....if not, click Window >> Tools to make it appear) and draw the shape you want cut out of the image
  With shape on it:
  • I'm going to use a rounded rectangle in my example
  • It doesn't matter what color its fill is right now, don't worry about it
• Right click on the shape layer in the layers palette (Window >> Paths if it's not there already), and click Blending Options
• Drag the Fill Opacity (diferent from Opacity) down to 0% and press Ok
  
• Go back to the Layers palette, except this time you'll click on the Paths tab, then right click on Shape 1 Vector Mask, press Make Selection... , and for settings use the following:
  • Feather: 0
  • Check Anti-Aliasing
  • Under Operations, check New Selection
  
• Select the layer for the image you originally opened, then click on Edit >> Copy (Ctrl + C)
• Open a new image with a transparent background, and click Edit >> Paste (Ctrl + V)

>> Click Here for the Final Product <<
The End!

[F15pilotX]

How to Fade One Image Into Another
*in progress*

Again, done in Photoshop CS3....I don't know about 5, but I know Elements 4.0 can't do this the way I'm explaining it.
Follow this link to the images I used for this tutorial

• Open two images, preferably the same height
• Press Ctrl + A to select all of one image (in this case, the bridge image), press Ctrl + C to copy it, and paste it onto the other image (in this case the blue zone) by pressing Ctrl + V
• Position the top image so that it’s left side is at about 25% on the other image (0% being left, 100% being right)
  
• Now, make sure the bridge image is the layer selected, and click Layer >> Layer Mask >> Reveal All
  The image won't look any different; however, the Layers palette should look like this:
  
• Now, click on the Gradient button, and make sure it is set to horizontal gradient with white on the left and black on the right
  
• Making sure the bridge layer is still selected, place the cursor at 50% horizontally, and drag the gradient to about 25% horizontally (0% being left, and 100% being the right side of the image)

Your image should look somewhat like this:



And here's an example of how to put this process into use in a signature:



The End!