Achromatic colors

By Dirk Metzmacher

Black & white images have their own special appeal that manifests itself in seriousness and objectivity. These are reasons which make the achromatic variant often preferred in nude photography. Photoshop offers numerous ways to achieve the same goal, but the results differ greatly in terms of quality. Read more »

No Comments / Published on April 9, 2010

Tutorial: Merging

By Dirk Metzmacher

The combination or fusion of words makes for interesting type creations that are quickly created and have multiple uses. You can also create bonds between single letters with this method.

Middle part

1. Basis

First off, use white color to write these two big words. The middle is meant to hold a smaller word, which is why you should leave enough space. The S of Speed lends itself to being elongated, so on the one hand you’ll get a basis for the short word and on the other hand a link is created between the two big words.

Rasterize the text with Layer > Rasterize > Type and select a part of the S, then duplicate it with Layer > New > Layer via Copy, and elongate it with Layer > Transform > Scale.

2. Stroke

Write the small word in the middle and reduce all text layers to a collective layer. To do that, hold the Ctrl key and click the layers in the layer palette, but not the thumbnail icons, because that would load a selection. Use Layer > Merge Layers to reduce them to a single text layer, then give it the Layer Style > Stroke with the options Size 4 pixels and color Black. Read more »

No Comments / Published on April 5, 2010

Tutorial: Gloss & Glow

By Dirk Metzmacher

Very smooth surfaces reflect their surroundings slightly, very hot elements glow or even emit light. With the layer style Outer Glow and the blending mode Overlay, text effects like this become a walk in the park.

28 Hours

1. Custom Font

You could just as well use a fitting font in this case, but it’s relatively simple to create the bar for the digital display on a layer of its own in order to assemble the digits by hand. To do that, click on Layer > New > Layer and select the shape with the polygon lasso, then fill it with #dd6611 (RGB 221, 102, 17).

Make some copies of the shape, then position them appropriately and rotate them via Edit > Transform. Read more »

2 Comments / Published on April 1, 2010

Tutorial: Planet System

By Dirk Metzmacher

Creating a huge celestial body seems like a daunting task, but it’s actually very easy if you use the right texture. A few layer styles and the Spherize distortion filter are the main ingredients which make for a realistic planet.

Surface

1. Stone texture

Open up a stone texture that’s at least 1500 x 1500 pixels large, and it should have a rough structure that vaguely resembles continents, clouds and oceans. Create a new layer via Layer > New > Layer, then set the blending mode to Overlay. Use the brush tool, White and a soft preset to spray over dark shadows. Control the intensity with the layer opacity.

2. Neutral texture

Our goal is to create a neutral texture that has neither too bright nor too dark areas. Reduce all layers to the background layer, then click on Layer > New > Layer via Copy in the menu, and finally select Edit > Transform > Rotate 180°. Reduce the layer opacity to 50%. Read more »

No Comments / Published on März 31, 2010

Erasing backgrounds in no time – Extraction plugins for Photoshop

By Dirk Metzmacher

Photoshop offers you a number of techniques for extracting elements from an image, but they all have one thing in common: They take a lot of time. Especially when it’s about hair or half-transparent objects like smoke or glass, plugins can be a valuable help and noticeably reduce work time. Read more »

No Comments / Published on März 30, 2010

Photoshop-Week III (March)

By Dirk Metzmacher

In this series I have a look at the most current Photoshop tutorials. Sometimes there could also be classics among them. I’m sure you’ll always find great techniques and inspiration.

Little possum

Possums are small and pretty cute marsupials. The tutorial Creating a Furry Possum at designreviver.com describes how to design such a cute little animal in Photoshop. Noise and the Smudge tool are the main ingredients here. This way even laymen succeed in generating thousands of hairs.

Creating a mixed creature

A chimera is a mixed creature. This combination of beings is also possible with Photoshop, of course. The Making of Chimera describes just that: A way to create your own mixed creature. A whopping five animals are melted into a new life-form here. Read more »

No Comments / Published on März 26, 2010