Photo Contest Pic - A Foray Into Photoshop

There seemed to be a little interest in how I constructed my entry into this year's Birthday Bash Photo Contest:



Therefore, I decided to start this thread which will describe how I put the different picture elements together to create the image. I hope it will prove interesting and instructive. I'm not by any means a Photoshop expert, so it's likely that someone else will have better ways of doing things. I welcome alternative suggestions.

The entire procedure is way too long to describe in a single post, so I'm going to do it "blog-style". That is, in multiple posts (with some digression along the way). If anybody has questions or comments, please don't hesitate to post. Dialogue is more fun than monologue.

Regards,
Eric

I'm going to start right off with a digression, and show some other images that I didn't enter. Here they are:

First of all, this is the original 7th Anniversary Logo. I didn't create the logo, but am showing it for the sake of comparison:


Next up, is a modification of that image:

This is quite simple to do in Photoshop. It's just a conversion from rectangular to polar coordinates. Click "Filter->Distort->Polar Coordinates", and select "Rectangular to Polar".

Here is an inside-out version:

It's kind of difficult to see the original logo in it, but you can read "IAP" at the bottom if you try, and barely make out "7th Anniversary" in the middle. This is a fun distortion to do with photographs. It can be challenging to predict what the picture will look like - sometimes the result is quite surprising. From the initial image:

1. Do a polar to rectangular conversion "Filter->Distort->Polar Coordinates, Polar to Rectangular".
2. Rotate the image 180 degrees "Image->Rotate->180".
3. Do a rectangular to polar conversion "Filter->Distort->Polar Coordinates, Rectangular to Polar".
4. Rotate the image 180 degrees again so the text is right side up "Image->Rotate->180".

Although the above images were cute, I didn't really feel they were particularly creative, nor do they really catch the eye, so I made the picture below.

This one is the original image that I was going to enter:

I liked this picture because I thought the pen was unique, and the red in it made an interesting contrast with the blue in the logo. I also felt that the chart in the background turned the light blue in the logo into a suggestion of water, giving the whole thing a nautical feel.

Then I reread the contest rules. They said that the photo couldn't have been shown previously on the IAP "in any form". I had previously shown this pen pic. Unfortunately, I no longer have this pen, so I couldn't photograph it again. I decided that I'd have to use a different one.

Looking through my stock, I couldn't find any other pens that looked good with a chart background, so I scrapped that too. I tried images with a plain background but they looked, well, plain. Then it occured to me that the IAP was "international", and that a globe would make a nice background. My attempts to photograph a globe proved unsatisfactory, so that idea changed into a world map. I found the antique world map in a compilation of public domain map images, and used it instead. Checking my collection again, I picked the "Triple Helix" pen as one that was visually striking and a good color match for the map, with nice contrast to the logo. I had shown this pen before as well, so I rephotographed it for the conest. Since this photo had not been shown before, it should fall within the rules. That was the basis for my entry.

Regards,
Eric

Which photo editor?

I did most of the work in Adobe Photoshop Elements 8.0. Elements 9 and Photoshop CS5 (the full professional version) have a feature called "layer mask", which might have made things a little easier, but not much. I think all the functions I used are present in older versions of Photoshop Elements, as well as in the Gimp.

Before buying Elements, I used to use the Gimp, which is available at no charge. It is a great image editing program but works a little differently than Photoshop. I've grown accustomed to Photoshop, however, and don't use the Gimp anymore.

For one step, I also used Corel Draw X3 (which I bought to run my laser engraver). It wasn't absolutely necessary, but I found it easier to remove the background from a pen photo by outlining it in Corel Draw than by using the Photoshop selection tools.

I'm going to describe all the editing actions in Photoshop Elements 8 terms. If you use a different image editor, you can probably do the same things, just in a different way.

Regards,
Eric

And now, back to our original program.

The key to constructing a composite picture from multiple image elements, is to use a feature called "layers". Put each different element (or part of one) on its own layer, and stack them up to form the complete image. By controlling what portions of the lower layers show up through the upper layers, you determine the final outcome.

My photo entry consists of 11 layers, 9 of which are visible in the final image. The other 2 were used as starting points, or to form selection masks.

The starting point was the official IAP logo. It can be found at http://www.penturners.org/logos/. I used the 917x613 pixel jpg version. This was bigger than the allowed image for the contest, which had a 800px maximum. Therefore, I first had to resize the logo. This was done as follows:

1. Select "Image->Resize->Image Size".
2. Make sure the "Contstrain Proportions" and "Resample Image" checkboxes are checked.
3. Change the width to 800 pixels. Note that the Height changes to 535 automatically to maintain the image proportions.
4. In the drop-down box at the bottom of the dialog, choose "Bicubic sharper". Shrinking a photo tends to make it softer looking. This sampling method will tend to preserve sharpness.
5. Click "Ok".

Now the logo is the right size. Unfortunately, it's still just a single image, and it's locked so you can't do any layer operations on it. You have to convert it to a layer first:

1. Click "Layer->New->Layer from background".

In the Photoshop Layers Dialog, you'll see the layer name change from "Background" to "Layer 0", and the padlock icon will disappear. Now you can add layers, make portions transparent, and change layer order.

This layer doesn't show up in the final image, but it is the basis for all the other logo elements.


So far, so good,
Eric

Adding the background layer

I wanted a map for the image background. I created it by opening that image separately in Photoshop, and cropping it to the desired proportions

1. Click on on the "crop" tool.
2. Choose aspect ration "Custom", and enter 800 and 535 into the width and height boxes. This will make sure the cropped image has the desired proportions.
3. Now drag from corner to corner of the desired area. Fiddle with the crop until it covers the desired part of the map.
4. Click the green check mark to perform the crop

Then resize the image to 800x535 the same way that I resized the IAP logo.


That created the desired background. Now it needs to go into its own layer in the composite image.

• Copy the map image to the clipboard. Click "Select->All" and then "Edit->Copy"]
• In the composite image, create a new layer. Click "Layer->New->Layer".
• Make sure the new layer is the active one by clicking on it in the layers window. It should be highlighted.
• Paste the map into the layer. Click "Edit->Paste".

Now there are two layers, but the top one is not transparent, so only it appears. You can see that both are present by temporarily making the top one invisible. Click on the eyeball icon next to the layer name. That will toggle the layer visibility.

Now we just need to add more layers to build up the image.

Some intermediate layers

I needed to create some intermediate images, from which other layers are constructed. These layers don't show up in the final picture, but are necessary steps along the way. I can't show transparency in a jpg image (the format doesn't support it), so I'm representing "transparent" with orange. Just pretend that wherever you see orange, the lower layer(s) will show through.

The first intermediate image is the IAP logo with the white background removed.

1. Make a copy of the logo layer. Make the logo layer the active layer by clicking on it in the layers box. Select "Layer->Duplicate Layer". Drag the new layer to the top.
2. Select the "magic wand" tool and click on the white border area. This will select the outer white area.
3. Delete the selected area either by clicking "Edit->Cut", or pressing <ctrl><c>. You'll see the selection go transparent and the lower layer will show through.
4. Repeat the selection and deletion for the white portions that are inside the letters "e", "a", "o", and "p".

The layer now looks like this (except that orange is transparent)


I made another intermdiate image with just the center part of the logo.

1. Duplicate the previous layer as above.
2. Using the eraser tool, delete the "Internation Association of Penturners" text.

I'll explain how these images are used in subsequent posts.

I hope this is entertaining so far,
Eric

Some visible layers

Now, the intermediate layers don't show up in the final image, so I made them invisible (by clicking on the eyball icon as mentioned previously) and put them at the bottom of the layer order by dragging their layers below the background layer.

I made a visible text layer from the first intermediate layer by duplicating it and erasing the middle portion


I made another layer and selectively copied bits of the first intermediate layer into it.

1. Using the magic wand tool, select the "I" in the "IAP" portion of the logo. Unfortuntely, that doesn't quite select the entire letter in one click.
2. To grow the selection, click "Select->Refine Edge" and move the "contract/expand" slider until the entire letter is selected.
3. Copy the selection to the clipboard (<ctrl><c>), and paste it into the new layer (<ctrl><v>).
4. Do the same for the "A", and "P".
5. Do it for the blue oval as well. As I recall, it was necessary to erase a few pixels from the longitude lines using the eraser tool.

When these two layers are viewed on top of the background layer, the result looks like this.


I hope you can see the the pieces starting to come together.

Eric

Semi-transparent layers

The blue text is hard to read against the brown background at this point, so I had to do something to bring back the feel of the white border in the original logo. I created a semi-transparent white border.

1. Create a new layer. Position it above the background layer but below the logo layers.
2. Fill the layer with white. Make white the foreground color and fill the layer using the paint bucket tool.
3. Make the layer semi-transparent. In the Layers box, there is an "Opacity" control. Change it from 100% to 75%. This lets the map show through just a little and makes the text easy to read. I want the map to show through in the center, though, so I have to remove that portion of this layer.
4. Activate the second intermediate image (the one with just the center part of the logo).
5. Using the magic wand tool, click on a corner of the image (where that layer is transparent). That selects the outside of the logo.
6. Now invert the selection by clicking "Select->Inverse".
7. Make the semi-transparent white layer the active layer, and cut out the selection (<ctrl><x>).

Now the image looks like this.


The original IAP logo has a light blue to white gradient portion in the center that I wanted to keep so I added another layer for that.

1. Create another layer just above the background layer.
2. Make light blue the foreground color. Activate the original logo layer. Click on the forground color box in the toolbar. Now click on the light blue portion of the logo. This picks that color for the foreground.
3. Make the new layer active.
4. Create a gradient fill. Select the "Gradient tool". The gradient fill options now appear at the top.
5. Change gradient type. The default gradient is "foreground to background" which isn't what I want. Either choose a different gradient from the drop-down list or by clicking the "edit" button. The gradient I want is the second one "foreground to transparent".
6. Create the gradient by clicking at the bottom of the center oval and dragging up to the midpoint. The gradient fills the image, so I need to remove the unwanted portion.
7. Restore the last selection. Click "Select->Reselect".
8. Invert it by clicking "Select->Inverse".
9. Cut the unwanted portion (<ctrl><x>).
10. The map doesn't show through enough, so I made this layer 75% opaque as well.

Now the image looks like this.


In my first version (see my second post), I left in the longitude lines present in the original logo (somewhat lightened). In this version, the map already has longitude and latitude lines, so I left them out. They would just make the picture too busy.

Now we're ready to add the pen.

Regards,
Eric

Adding the pen

I thought it would be neat to add a pen to the IAP logo, and here is the pen I chose.


As I mentioned previously, I picked this pen (Triple Helix) because I thought it was attractive and the colors complimented the logo. This was my first attempt at laser-cutting a pen blank, and to the best of my knowledge, the first spiral-segmented pen shown on the IAP.

The photograph, however, is new. I could have cut the background out with Photoshop, but I found it easier to use CorelDraw instead. Photoshop selection tools kept including portions of the background, or excluding parts of the pen, and yielded ragged edges. Using CorelDraw, I drew a closed polyline (a polyline is a series of connected straight lines) around the pen with nodes at each change of curvature. Then I converted each straight line into a curve, and adjusted each curve to match the edge of the pen. That gave me a nice, clean edge all the way around. CorelDraw can't export in Photoshop format, so I gave the pic a contrasting solid-color background and saved it as a jpg. I then opened it in Photoshop, deleted the background color, edited, and resized the pen.

I won't go into all the details of editing the pen photo - that would be a whole topic all by itself. Some of the adjustments I did make were Levels, Shadows/Highlights, Rotate, Crop, Clone, Color Cast, Resize, and Unsharp Mask. I generally prefer "unsharp mask" to regular sharpness adjustment for photographs.

Here is what the image looks like with the pen under the logo (just above the map).


Next up - bling!

Regards,
Eric

Eric

This is cool that you are doing this. Learning photoshop is a whole large learning experience. I have tried many times to grasp things but I just am one of these need to see things done type person so reading is just too hard for me to comprehend. I will say this if you can master the photoshop program there is soooo many things you can do. One of these days I am going to find some serious time to do this.

You obviously have a great big grasp on the program and your work is first rate. I loved this design from the first time I saw it and still think it should become the sites logo for good. Thanks again for the tutorial also. I am sure the rest of the lessons will be as complete as this. Great job.

3-D Bling

I wanted the pen to have more of a 3-dimensional look, as if it were sticking up out of the logo, so I added a couple more layers. First off, I duplicated the pen layer and erased the bottom half of the pen.


This is what it looks like with this layer on top of the logo.


As you can plainly see, however, the pen image doesn't intersect the "A" cleanly. Rather than trying to erase to that edge, I just duplicated the IAP layer, and erased everything except the A.


I then put that layer on top.


To give a more 3-d look, I added drop shadows to the pen.

1. Make the pen layer active.
2. Click "Window->Effects" to display the effects window.
3. Select "Drop Shadows" from the Effects drop-down list.
4. Select the "Soft Shadow" effect icon, and click "Apply".
5. Repeat for the pen upper half.

Now it looks like this.


I thought the map was still a little too prominent, distracting from the pen and from the "IAP' text, so I added one more layer, right above the background. I filled it with white and made it 10% opaque.

That makes 3 invisible layers (Original logo, logo with transparent background, and logo center), and 9 visible layers. From top to bottom, they are:

• Layer 1 - "A".
• Layer 2 - Pen upper half with drop shadow.
• Layer 3 - "IAP" with blue oval.
• Layer 4 - "International Association of Penturners" text.
• Layer 5 - 75% opaque white border.
• Layer 6 - 75% opaque light blue to transparent gradient.
• Layer 7 - Pen with drop shadow.
• Layer 8 - 10% opaque white.
• Layer 9 - Map.

The photo contest required that the image file size be less than 150kb, so I had to save a compressed jpg. My preference for doing that under Photoshop is:

1. Select "File->Save for Web".
2. Choose JPEG.
3. Select the desired image quality. In this case, it was the highest quality I could get under 150kb - about 50%.
4. Click Ok, and save to the desired filename/location.

Here is the final result.


I hope that was interesting. Feel free to chime in with any questions, comments, or suggestions.

Regards,
Eric

Great job on the photo and great job and the tutorial!

AK

Eric, your generosity in taking the time to share your talent by producing this tutorial is outstanding. Tom W should be contacted about turning this into a pdf for the library. Most of the work has already been done and it would be a great addition. Why not drop Tom a pm?
Charles

Two observations:

First, I noticed a typo in post #6 "Some intermediate layers".

Sylvanite said:

3. Delete the selected area either by clicking "Edit->Cut", or pressing <ctrl><c>. You'll see the selection go transparent and the lower layer will show through.

Click to expand...

This should say <ctrl><x> for cut, not <ctrl><c>, which is copy.

Second, I am a creature of ego, so the more responses I get, the more likely I will be to do this sort of thing again. :biggrin: Seriously though, constructive criticism, alternate suggestions, and additional tips are welcome in addition to compliments. I know there are some quicker ways to do some of the things I described (such as filling a selection rather than filling the layer and then deleting the inverse selection), but I tried to keep each individual operation as simple as possible.

Regards,
Eric

Thaks Eric. This was great. I dont have photoshop, but the process is very well layed out, and I DO hace the GIMP, which I dont know how to use well. I can see I'm going to need to play with the software when I get time.

Thanks for sharing this info with us Eric. Very good stuff.

Dave