How To Create Computer Graphics Using Adobe Photoshop - Part 1

By David Peters

Want to incorporate effects to your photos? This special article is going to help you through step-by-step with the help of a few How to Photoshop ideas, to help you then add great looking special effects to your digital images.

So, you could find it beneficial to utilize a masking on your image to choose which areas you wish to modify by leaving unchanged before you use any of these computer graphics. You could make a soft fade in between the parts having computer graphics put in and others with out. This is known as masking and can be done in various techniques. One way is called the "quick mask mode", as described beneath;-

Find the button named "edit in fast mask mode" inside your Photoshop software. It looks like a circle within a rectangle situated near the bottom of the primary tool bar. Additionally there is a short-cut key: Q. Once in quick mask setting, you are able to choose and also deselect parts through painting them with white and black correspondingly, while using regular brush tool. For optimum exactness, zoom to 100 or Two hundred percent. You can use a soft-edged brush in order to avoid rough perimeters. Once you are done, exit the actual masking mode and head to "Select - Feather" and set the feather radius to approximately 5-10 pixels. It is possible to establish your opacity at anywhere between 0 and 100%, allowing you to add the effect greater or even weaker in one section of the image compared to another.

Anyway moving forward, and more challenging will be incorporating a layer mask. This enables you to implement any effect progressively from every spot in your picture. Follow these How To steps in Photoshop:

1) Pick "Windows - Layers".

2) Right click on your layer and select "Duplicate layer".

3) Click the small symbol towards the end in the layer box known as "Add layer mask".

4) Select the "Gradient tool" in the principal tool box.

5) Decide on a gradient type from the top level "Options" bar.

6) Just click your image around the position you don't want to tweak, and drag the button off to the actual position where you wish the total effect to take place. The result will be carried out gradually increasingly more along this line you have now designed.

7) Very last, return to the primary background layer and add any sort of effect you would like. It will apply the effect in a gentle, gradual way. Make use of opacity to convert the results down to under full strength if you'd prefer.

You can apply "Gaussian blur" making use of the layer masking defined above which can make the selected areas appear soft-focused, just like you had utilized a large-aperture lens. With "Curves" you can create your edges darker than the center, copying the lens effects called vignetting. Technically, vignetting is known as a lens malfunction, yet subjectively it could bring another feeling in your picture, developing a sort of frame that will take a "sucking" impact, drawing a lot more interest to the center of your photograph. You can even merely lower your contrast and color-saturation about your primary topic, serving to separate it out of the background jumble. Be creative using the many solutions available!

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