Photoshop Tutorial

PHOTOSHOP
FROM IDEA TO PROJECT

By
T OMASZ G ĄDEK

Copyright © 2016 by Tomasz Gądek

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Photo processing and creating visual effect is my passion and Photoshop enables me to
develop that passion. However, before I reached the level of the works included in this
book, I had to learn how to operate the program. I chose the most appealing and gratifying
study method, which is also the fastest path. I came across a book I had been seeking for
years, a book that presents its contents in the best possible way. It is a book by Photoshop
guru, Scott Kelby. Later, boundless amount of information on the Internet, in magazines
and similar sources gave me the opportunity to gain more knowledge about this new
game. I came all the way from Lego bricks to jigsaw puzzles to discover this amazing
game, which develops your creativity and helps you visualise your dreams. Why do I call
it a game? Maybe because working with Photoshop is a source of great joy to me, and
maybe because it takes me back to my childhood days, being carefree, out of touch with
reality, enjoying the moment the way that only children can. I guess all of these things
play their part, and there is also immense satisfaction from completing a successful
project. I believe that Photoshop allows you to create anything your imagination dictates;
however, there are two major limitations that can hold you back. The first one is your
(in)ability to operate the program, the second one is our imagination. If you overcome the
first one, you will be able to produce incredible effects: colorful and fascinating not only
to you but also to your family and friends and ultimately to everyone who sees them.
When I started writing this book, it was my aim to encourage its reader to work with the
program and show that it is not necessary to know Photoshop inside and out to create
attractive effects. Rome was not built in a day, and with Photoshop one can create
interesting things almost from day one! Leave building an entire city for later.
I aimed at providing the most practical examples with a view not only to teaching how to
operate the program but getting most practical with it. A calendar, a certificate or complex
graphics to be used in advertising are among the most practical uses.
Hopefully, you will develop a new interest thanks to this book, maybe a few of you find a
hobby as I did. If you enjoy such a way of learning about the program, I will count it as
my great success. Obviously, you have to be patient but your patience will definitely be
rewarded.
There is hopefully a little something for everyone here, something of interest and
inspiring. You should look for inspirations everywhere, especially in the life around you
because it is your driving force and it generates energy that you should commit to a
computer screen. So have fun with Photoshop. I wish you many successful projects and
endless inspirations.
THANKS

I would especially like to thank my wife, Justyna. This book would not exist
without you. Thank you for all the support, motivation and positive energy you fill me
with. Also, thank you for all the ideas and all your help in writing this book.

I would also like to thank Tomasz Superczyński, first and foremost for the
translation, but also for proofreading and all the comments.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

About the author
Thanks
Legal Notes
I Calendar
II Watch Advertisement
III Stamp
IV Diploma
V Fiery Caption
VI Treasure Map
VII Baner
VIII Gold
IX Holiday in Greece
X Santorini
XI Ghost
XII Fight For Freedom
Other Books By Tomasz Gądek

LEGAL NOTES

Copyright © 2016, Tomasz Gądek. All right reserved.

No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilized in any form or by any
electronic, mechanical, or other means, known now or hereafter invented, including
photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without a
permission in writing from the Author.

Photos cover comes from www.1001FreeDownloads.com

In order to learn Photoshop, all the images used in the book you can downloaded from
https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B3V5KFz1W9KqdjFlcVNyOUJtT1E
I CALENDAR

What can you do with holiday pictures or the photographs you are especially fond of? We
usually store such pictures on our computer and flip through them every now and again, or
we develop and put them in a photo album. In any case, we browse through the photos
once in a blue moon. I have got an interesting and practical idea, which can serve as an
original gift idea for your loved ones: a calendar. Below you will find two step by step
instructions on how to create such a calendar in Photoshop. They are not too complicated
and the ideas are nothing fancy, nevertheless the end result is very interesting. Once you
have designed your calendar, you can direct your steps to a printing office to print it out.
Or, if you really value your time, I recommend you send it through the Internet and wait
for a courier to bring you the present. I know from experience that such projects are more
impressing when you are holding a hard copy than when you look at it on the computer
screen. In addition, such a calendar is an element of the decor of your flat and a handmade
gift is more valuable than one bought in a store.

1 FIRST STEPS
Open the Castle photo. Duplicate it, Layer>Duplicate Layer, and select
Filter>Blur>Gaussian Blur from the menu. In the dialogue box Radius, type 7 pixels and
confirm by clicking OK. Finally, go to Blending Mode and change it to Lighten, also
change Opacity to 90%.

2 GLOW EFECT
Connect layers by selecting Layers>Marge Layers. Duplicate the layer again:
Layer>Duplicate Layers. Select Filter>Blur>Gaussian Blur from the main menu. Type 8
pixels in the Radius dialogue box. Open the Curves Image>Adjustments>Curves window
as shown in the picture. Change Blending Mode to Luminosity and Opacity to 45%. You
can merge layers at the end.

3 CREATING ADDITIONAL BACKGROUND
Create a new layer by clicking Create Layer in the Layers palette. Then select the Lasso
Tool and draw a sharp-edged rectangle as in the picture, and fill it with Paint Bucket Tool
with the colour #226666. Reduce Opacity to 66%. Create a new layer again and draw a
rectangle with Lasso Tool as shown in the picture. Fill it in with Paint Bucket Tool with the
colour #ff6600 and reduce Opacity to 54%.

4 BULGE EFFECT
Choose Add a layer style from the Layers palette and set the Colour to black (#000000) in
the Drop Shadow panel. Set the Distance, Spread and Size sliders to 14 px, 11% and 10
px, respectively. Set Angle to 1430 and confirm all settings by clicking OK. Apply the
same setting in the layer with the colour #226666. It is time to add days of the week.
Select the Text. In the Character palette, choose the Perpetua Italic font, Size 39 pt and the
Color #000000. Set Vertically scale 120% and Horizontally scale should be set to 100%.
The Set the tracking for the selected characters option should read 160 and check the
Faux Bold icon. You can type in days of the week.

5 CALENDAR DESCRIPTION
Select the Text tool again. In the Character window only change Font Size to 54 pt. Type
every number line on a new layer, it will be easier to adjust the content to the background
this way. If need be, decrease spacing between the numbers. I marked Sundays with the
colour #cc0000. After having entered days of the week, type month names. It is advisable
to do it earlier but if you are careful enough with the dates, the order in which you do it
does not matter. Select the Text tool again and in the Character window select Vivaldi
Italic, size 160 pt. Change the Colour to #666666 and the only icon to be checked is Faux
Italic, then type “July”.

6 ENHANCING CAPTION
From the Layers palette, select Add a layer style. In the Drop Shadow panel, set the colour
to #999999. Change Blend Mode to Normal, and Opacity to 44%. Set the Distance, Spread
and Size sliders to 31 px, 6% and 6 px. Confirm all settings by clicking OK. Enter the year,
leaving the settings in the Character palette as before, but remember to check Faux Bold.

7 ENHANCING CAPTION - CONT.
Select Add a layer style from the Layers palette and select the Colour #cccccc in the Drop
Shadow panel. Change Blend Mode to Multiply and Opacity to 100%. Confirm the settings
by pressing OK. Add a description of the image in the background, in this case the castle
is located in the town of Kurnik, Poland. Select the Horizontal Type Tool, in the Character
palette change the Colour to #ffffff and type „Kurnik”. From the Layers palette, select Add
a layer style, and in the Outer Glow panel, set the Colour to #ffffbf, move sliders Spread to
1% and Size to 43 pixels. Confirm by clicking OK.
II WATCH ADVERTISEMENT

In this exercise, I present how to create an interesting watch advertisement and add the
glowing edges effect. The tutorial may be used to create an advert of your own product.
Sometimes, you can transform a plain thing into something distinctive if you present it
right. Playing with Photoshop gives you a chance to exercise your creativity.

1 INITIAL PREPARATIONS
Open the photo named Watch and double-click the layer with the clock, and when the New
Layer dialogue window appears, confirm by clicking OK. Select Magic Wand Tool from
the tool pallet, then activate the white background and click Delete. To deselect, click
Select>Reselect. As a next step, convert the image to black and white by clicking
Image>Adjustments>Desaturate. Duplicate the layer, Layer>Duplicate Layer, and
convert the image to a negative: Image>Adjustments>Invert. Then select
Filter>Stylize>Find Edges.

2 SHARPENING EDGES
Duplicate the layer, Layer>Duplicate Layer, then from the menu Filter>Blur>Gaussian
Blur, open a window where you should set the Radius slider to 5.5 pixels. After
confirming with OK, change Blending Mode to Color Dodge.

3 SHARPENING EDGES – CONT.
Still in the upper layer, open the Curves, Image>Adjustments>Curves window. In the
dialogue window, set the curve chart as shown in the picture, and confirm with OK. As a
next step, merge all the layers by selecting Layer>Marge Visible. Now, zoom in the watch
and, from the tool pallet, select Magic Wand Tool. Having magnified the image, click any
black area on the watch. Because selecting all edges you want to edit would be time
consuming, select the Select>Similar option from the menu.
4 DELETING UNNECESSARY EDGES

In order to delete white background from the image, which is of no use to you, select
Select>Invert from the menu and click Delete. If there are any white streaks left, you can
remove them with the Eraser tool. It is essential to clean the image off any white
background outside of the watch edges. Otherwise, you will not achieve the desired effect.

5 SETTING WATCH ON FIRE - STEP 1
Before you add any layer style, it is vital to create black a background. Otherwise, you
will not see the effect. Therefore, you need to create a new layer, Layer>New>Layer,
which should be moved to the very bottom. Select black as the tool color and color the
layer black with Paint Bucket Tool. Go back to the watch layer and, from the Add a layer
style menu, select the Outer Glow panel, where you select the Color #f70300. Then, set
Spread to 0% and Size to 79 px.

6 SETTING WATCH ON FIRE - STEP 2
Go to the Inner Glow panel, where Blend Mode should be set to Color Dodge, set the
Color to #e5c23d and move the Choke slider to 0% and Size to 117 px.

7 ENHANCING CAPTION - CONT.
Go to the Color Overlay panel and set the Color to #cd7e2e. Finally, go to the Satin panel
and set the Color to #872d0f. Set Opacity to 100%, Angle to 190, and the sliders Distance
and Size to 56 and 72 pixels, respectively. Confirm with OK to finish.

8 SLIGHT ENHANCEMENT
The watch edges are now glowing beautifully but, when you zoom in, you can still see
some fragments that are superfluous and do not look aesthetically pleasing. The fastest
way to get rid of them is to use the Eraser Tool. It is necessary to use the hard paintbrush
in this case. Using various eraser sizes, zoom in the watch image and erase the
unnecessary fragments. Save the image as Watch.psd.

9 POSTER PREPARATION
Open a new file, File>New, size 21x33 cm and Resolution 300 px/in. Color the
background black with Paint Bucket Tool. Reopen Watch and, using the Move tool, move
the photo to the project. As a next step, select Magic Wand Tool from the tool palette,
mark the white background and delete it by clicking Delete. Next, zoom in the watch a bit
and rotate it by using the Free Transform option, which is located in the Edit menu.
Because the watch is a bit too dark, you need to brighten it up a little. Open the Curves -
Image>Adjustments>Curves window and adjust the settings as shown in the picture.

10 POSTER PREPARATION – CONT.
From the Layers palette select Add layer mask while holding Alt on your keyboard.
Choose Eraser Tool and, after changing the brush tip to soft, expose the watch a bit but
leave the watch strap slightly uncovered. Open Watch.psd and move the photo to the
project with the Move Tool. Next, enlarge and rotate the watch by clicking Edit>Free
Transform. It is important that the edges of both watches overlap. Same as before, Add
layer mask, but this time expose everything apart from the watch face.

11 POSTER PREPARATION – CONT.
Add the burning watch to the poster once again. Move the picture to the project again and
rotate it by clicking Edit>Free Transform. Add another Layer mask and uncover the
watch, leaving the strap edges slightly covered at the same time.

12 PREPARATION OF FLAMES
Open the photo named Fire, then go to the Channels palette and click the Red channel
while holding Ctrl on your keyboard to get a selection. Then select Layer>New>Layer Via
Copy. Thus, you have a selection in the new layer. Do the same thing with Flame photo
(you can download photo from www.freeimages.com.).

13 ADDING FIRE TO PROJECT
Using the Move tool from the tool palette, move the generated fire layers bit by bit to the
project and place them as shown in the picture. You can, of course, adjust the fire layers to
your needs with the Edit>Free Transform menu. Delete the flames you do not need with
Eraser. Because the flame from the “Flame” picture has too much prominence, it is a good
idea to tone it down. In order to do this, open the Picture>Adjustments>Hue/Saturation
window and select Yellow from the Edit drop-down menu. Move the Hue slider to -25,
Saturation to +100, and Brightness to +41 and confirm with OK.

14 ADDING BACKGROUND TO PROJECT
Open the photo named Clouds and move it to the project with the Move Tool. Set the cloud
layer on the very bottom. Enlarge the photo with the Edit>Free Transform menu, and
make it darker. Open the Image>Adjustments>Curves window and set it as shown in the
picture, making the background darker. From the Layers palette, click the Add layer mask
icon, while holding Alt on your keyboard. Select the Gradient Tool, and mark Linear
Gradient from the upper menu, and expose the clouds so that both watches are located
against the black background.

15 ADDING CAPTION
Add a caption with the Horizontal Type Tool. Open the Character palette and set the font
to Felix Titling 83 points large. Select #ffffff in Color and check the Faux Bold and All
Caps icons. Make the caption bold. From the Layers palette in the Stroke panel, set Size to
2 pixels and Color to #ffffff.

16 CAPTION ENHANCEMENT
Go to Outer Glow panel and select Color #0099ff. Next, set Choke to 10%, and Size to 84
px.

17 CAPTION ENHANCEMENT – CONT.
Go to the Drop Shadow panel and change Blend Mode to Normal. As a next step, select
black and set Opacity to 100% and Space to 4 pix. Spread to 34% and Size to 152 pixels
and confirm with OK. To give the project a special touch, create a new layer,
Layer>New>Layer, and place it directly above the caption layer. Paint it black and change
Blending Mode to Color. Now, both the caption and the background remain black and the
poster gains a mystical look.

18 ADDING REMAINING CAPTIONS
Add the remaining captions with the Horizontal Type Tool. Open the Character palette
and set the font to Monotype Corsiva 40 pt. Select #CCCCCC as Color and check the
Faux Italic icon. Type the caption „Your Watch Your Adventure” inside the project, and
mark its first letter and change its size 86 pt. Finally, uncheck the Faux Italic icon and
confirm with OK. For the next caption, use the Vladimir Script font, Size 32 pt. I entered
“Recommended by Tomasz Gądek” but you can type there anything you want.
III STAMP

When I was a child, I used to collect postage stamps. I valued the most those that were
original and rarest. Now, I create stamps on my own so I can be sure that they are the only
copies in the world. In this tutorial, I will present an effect that will help you to create a
postage stamp. To remove any doubt that it is a stamp, I added two marks, but remember -
it will not be accepted at the post office. I hope you have a great time gaining new
experience. Let the Photoshop philately flourish!
1 PHOTO CORRECTION
Open the photograph called My stamp. At the base of one of the matches, one can see a
small plate that will spoil the effect. Get rid of it, using the Stamp tool. Set the soft
paintbrush tip and decrease Opacity to around 35%. Having prepared the tool this way,
cover the plate by dipping source points in various spots in the photo near the plate. If you
use the 100% cover, the photo will have an unnatural look because the duplicated
fragments of the photo will be visible - that is something you want to avoid.

2 SHARPENING PHOTO
The photo that will be used to create a stamp, apart from the correction from the first step,
should undergo sharpening and be made brighter. To this end, use go to
Layer>Adjustments>Levels. In the upper part of the window there is a pull-down menu
Channels, where you have to select each Channels and adjust it accordingly. Select
Channels>Red and, while holding Alt on your keyboard, slowly move the extreme
Outputs Level sliders inwards. When you touch the slider on the left, the photo layer will
turn red and, as you move the slider, black elements on the photo will begin to appear.
Place the slider indicator at the point where first black pixels can be noticed. The same
goes for the slider on the right. You need to go though the same procedure for each
Channels.

3 PLAYING WITH FILTERS – PHASE 1
Having prepared the photo in the right way, make three copies of it by right-clicking the
mouse and selecting the Copy Layer option. On layer 1 copy 2 apply the first filter, Filter
Gallery>Artistic>Cutout with the following parameters: Number of Levels: 7, Edge
Simplicity: 1, and Edge Fidelity: 2, confirm with OK. Change Blending Mode to Screen
and set Opacity to 70%. The second filter is to be used on Layer 1 copy, Filter
Gallery>Artistic>Dry Brush, with the following parameters: Brush Size: 3, Brush Detail:
7, Texture: 1, confirm with OK. Change Blending Mode to Overlay and set Opacity to
65%.

4 PLAYING WITH FILTERS – PHASE 2
The third and last filter is to be applied on Layer 1. Select Filter Gallery>Brush
Strokes>Angled Strokes from the main menu and set the following parameters: Direction
Balans: 12, Stroke Lenght: 7, Sharpness: 3, confirm with OK. Now, all the three layers that
the filters were applied to can be merged by selecting Layers>Merge Visible from the
upper menu.

5 FINAL TOUCHES
Duplicate the layer again but this time blur it a bit. To do this, select Filter>Blur Gaussian
Blur. In the dialogue menu that appears set Radius to 4 pixels and confirm with OK. As a
next step, change Blending Mode to Overlay and reduce Opacity to around 30%. To finish,
merge the layers. Thanks to this operation, you have a more contrasting photo, which will
look better in the stamp.

6 PREPARATION OF BACKGROUND
Open a new document, where you are going to create the stamp. Document size should be
18x15 cm, Resolution 300 px/in. Move the photo of matches to the project with the Move
tool and magnify it with Edit>Free Transform. In the Set horizontal scale (W) and Set
vertical scale (H) fields in the upper menu, enter 150% and confirm by pressing Enter.
Arrange the photo so that the matches are in the center of the project.

7 PREPARATION OF BACKGROUND - CONT.
From the tool palette, select Rectangular Marquee Tool, and from the upper menu Style,
select the Fixed Size option. Enter 162 mm in Width and 127 mm in Height. Having drawn
a rectangle, change the selection, Select>Inverse and click Delete. You have just adjusted
the size of the stamp.

8 PREPARATION OF BACKGROUND – CONT.
From the menu palette, select Rectangular Marquee Tool again. In the Feather field in the
upper menu, enter 10 pixels, and select Fixed Size in the Style field. Enter 138 mm in
Width and 103 in Height. After having drawn a rectangle, change the selection by
choosing Select>Inverse. Next, from the tool palette, select Paint Bucket Tool and cover
the selected area. The result is a smooth transition, thanks to which the photo blended
nicely with the stamp background.

9 PREPARATION OF PAINTBRUSH
Select the Eraser Tool and click the Brushes palette, which is located on the right side of
the Photoshop window. Select the Brush Tip Shape panel and enter the following
parameters: Size: 90 pix Spacing: 210 %. While holding Ctrl on your keyboard, click on
the white layer. The layer should be marked now.

10 STAMP EDGES
Go to the Paths palette and select Make work path from selection from the lower menu.
Select Pen Tool and right click anywhere in the project. In the window that appears, select
Stroke Path and then select Eraser and confirm with OK. Wavy lines appeared around the
stamp, a selection is also still active. To get rid of it, just click the Paths palette below the
work path.

11 STAMP SHADOW
Go to the layer containing the wavy stamp frame and, from the Layers palette, select Add
a layer style and in the Drop Shadow panel, set Distance to 0 px, Spread to 14% and Size
to 46 px. Additionally, adjust the location of the photo relative to the stamp with Move
Tool. After reaching the desired effect, merge the photo with the edges by clicking the
photo layer and selecting Layer>Marge Layers.

12 ADDING STAMP MARK 1 – PHASE 1
You will now create a stamp mark. Open the file with Coin and make it black and white,
Image>Adjustment>Desaturate. Next, select Image>Adjustment>Levels and, in the Input
Levels, enter 75 | 0.45 | 198, respectively, and in the Output Levels field: 255 and 0.

13 ADDING STAMP MARK 1 – PHASE 2
Using the Move Tool, hold the coin photo with your left mouse button and move it to the
main project. From the main menu, select Edit>Transform>Scale and, in the upper menu,
enter Set Vertical skew (V): 47%, Set horizontal skew (H): 47% and -17% in Angle. Now
change Blending Mode to Multiply and reduce Opacity to 70%. Delete any unnecessary
stamp mark fragments which protrude from the stamp with Eraser.

14 CREATING STAMP MARK 2 – PHASE 1
Having finished the first mark with the eagle, you can go on to add a wavy mark. Create a
new layer, Layer>New>Layer, select Brush Tool and select Size 8 px and Hardness 100
%. Draw a wave with Pen Tool as shown in the picture. Confirm by right clicking Stroke
Path, then Brush in the window that pops up, and OK. In order to get rid the path, click the
Paths palette below the work path.

15 CREATING STAMP MARK 2 – PHASE 2
Create four copies of the layer containing the wave and move each of the layers down
with Move Tool while holding Shift on your keyboard, which enables to arrange the waves
in parallel to one another. Arrange the waves at equal distances from one another. Now
you are only left with joining the waves. Starting from the highest layer, select
Layer>Marge Layers four times or use the shortcut. Move the mark to the upper right
corner and reduce Opacity to around 80%. Erase protruding elements. You can see the
final effect in the picture.

16 ADDING CAPTION
Now you will add a caption “Poland 2016” on the stamp. From the tool box, select
Horizontal Type Tool, and from the upper menu activate the Character palette and enter
the following parameters: Color #000000, Font Arial Narrow, Size 34 pt, check the Faux
Bold and Faux Italic icons, select Vertically scale 110%, and set Horizontally scale to
120%. You can now enter the caption Poland 2016.

17 ADDING PRICE – PHASE 1
Now you can add the stamp price. You should create each element described in point 18
below on a separate layer to be able to move it freely in the project. From the tool box,
select Horizontal Type Tool, and activate the Character palette from the upper menu and
enter the following parameters: Color #483a2a, Font Eras Bold ITC, Font Size 48 pt,
check the Faux Bold icon, set Vertically scale to 160%, and Horizontally scale to 100%
and enter 1.

18 ADDING PRICE – PHASE 2
To create another layer for the remainder of the price 50, in the Character palette change
Font Size to 41 pt, check the Underline icon, change Vertically scale to 75% and
Horizontally scale to 90%. Add the currency symbol the same way as the layer with 50,
changing only Horizontally scale to 120%. and checking the Underline icon. After
creating all the elements of the caption, use the Move Tool to arrange them to create one
string of signs - 150 PLN.

19 STAMP ROLL - PHASE 1
To add the roll effect to the stamp, go to the stamp layer and from the main menu select
Edit>Transform>Warp. A grid will appear on the photo. Grab its bottom left corner with
the mouse cursor and drag it slightly towards the center of the photo. While you will be
doing this the stamp edges will also roll so you need to flatten the same background by
grabbing the fragments of the edge that are bent the most and moving them back to the
window frame to make them as straight as possible. Because this procedure is not the
easiest, repeat it until you reach the desired effect.
20 STAMP ROLL - PHASE 2

The roll will not look natural unless you add shadow beneath it. Select Polygonal Lasso
Tool and mark the stamp bit you have just rolled as shown in the picture. Now copy the
marking to a new layer, Layer>New>Layer Via Copy. Because a shadow appeared around
the incision, right click on the layer containing the incision and select Clear Layer Style.
On a new layer, paint a black shadow and move it under the cut fragment of the stamp.
21 SHADOW UNDER ROLL
From the main menu, select Filter>Blur>Gaussian Blur and set the slider at 27%. On the
Layers palette, reduce Opacity to 80% so that the shadow looks natural. What is left is to
go to the layer with the stamp cut and reduce its Opacity to around 70% to darken the
other side of the stamp. Remove unwanted fragments with Eraser Tool.
IV DIPLOMA

Now, I am going to explain how to create a certificate. It is quite a difficult and time-
consuming tutorial but the final effect will make it up to you. It is a great idea for a present
or to make your special one feel special. The main tool to be used here is Custom Shape. If
you can use it well, you will be able to create your own complicated shapes. You could
create a similar certificate for yourself for harnessing Photoshop skills. Let it be an
incentive and encouragement to learn the ins and outs of the program.

1 INITIAL PREPARATION OF CERTIFICATE
The certificate you will create should measure 210x297 mm, so A4 size, Resolution 300
dpi. As a first step, create the shapes that will constitute the frames of the certificate. In
order to do this, create a new layer and draw an ellipse with the Elliptical Marquee Tool.
Next, select Stroke from the mouse pop-up menu, and enter Width at 3 pixels and change
Color to #996600 in the dialogue window. Confirm by clicking OK.

2 CREATING DECORATIVE SHAPE
Duplicate the layer with a selection, Layer>Duplicate Layer. Next, select Edit>Free
Transform. In the upper tool menu corner, in the Angle field, enter 150. Merge the layers,
Layer>Merge Layers, then duplicate the merged layer again and select Edit>Free
Transform from the menu. Now, enter Angle 300 and merge again. Repeat the procedure
until reaching full frame, rotating the selection every 150.

3 ADDING SHAPE
Select the Custom Shape Tool from the tool palette. From the upper menu of the Shape
field, select Flower 1 Frame, and in the options Set shape width and Set shape height, (W)
and (H) enter 3 cm and click in the document to enter the selected shape into the project. If
the shape has not been painted, move to the Paths palette and there Load path like a
selection, and fill the selection with the Color #663300.

4 SHAPE EDITING - PHASE 1
If the layer has a mask after inserting the shape, remove the mask by selecting Rasterize
Layer from the mouse pop-up menu (click on Layers palette). There are two layers now.
The first one, which contains the shape you created, and another one with the inserted
ready shape. Duplicate the layer you created and switch off visibility on the duplicated
layer. Next, load the layer selection with the shape and click Delete to get the effect as
shown in the picture.

5 ADDING ANOTHER SHAPE
Insert another shaped called Flower, going through the same procedure as before. Paint it
with the Color #333333 and duplicate, switch off is visibility in the duplicated layer and
move it to the bottom. Because the Colors of the previous shapes do not go well with the
original idea, change them to #999999 and #ffffff. Switch off the visibility of the layer
containing the shape you created and load selection, and go to the layer with the smaller
flower you inserted and click Delete.

6 SHAPE EDITING – PHASE 2
Enter 5 pixels in the Elliptical Marquee Tool in the Feather field. As a next step, draw a
circle which is more or less the size of the smaller flower, while holding the Shift button
on your keyboard. Go the layer containing the larger flower and click Delete, and then
uncheck Select>Deselect. Now, create another layer and draw a circle which is larger that
the one you have just deleted. This time, set Feather to 0 pixels. Paint the selection with
Color #666666 and move the layer down so that this layer is second from the bottom,
excluding the background layer.

7 SHAPE ENHANCEMENT
Switch on the visibility of the layer you drew on in point 5 and add Layer Style to it. Go to
the Outer Glow panel. Set Blend Mode to Normal, change Color to #000000, and move
the slider Spread to 14% and Size to 32 pixels. Confirm by clicking OK. Next, go to the
second layer containing a flower and add Layer Style. Go to the Stroke panel and change
Color to #ffff33, Position to Outside and set Size to 3 pixels.

8 ARRANGING SHAPES IN PROJECT
Select all shape layer and merge them, Layer>Merge Layer. Next, select Edit>Free
Transform, in both fields W and H, enter 140% and confirm by pressing Enter. Duplicate
the layer, Layer>Duplicate Layer, and arrange it as in the picture. Then, select
View>Rulers from the menu.

9 CENTRE OF CERTIFICATE
Having switched on Ruler, place lines hold the ruler with the left mouse button and move
the cursor in the project direction. Arrange the auxiliary lines as in the picture and correct
the arrangement of the shapes if necessary. The area created by the lines is where the
certificate content will be. Select the Rectangular Marquee Tool and, on a new layer, mark
the rectangle that the auxiliary lines form. Fill in the marked area with the Color #ffffcc.

10 CREATING FRAME
Duplicate the layer with the yellow rectangle twice and fill it in with the Color #333333.
Next, put the yellow layer between the layers Colored in #ffffcc. Transform the lower
layer by selecting Edit>Free Transform. Enter 102% in the W field and 101% in the H
field. Confirm by clicking Enter. Do the same thing with upper gray layer, the only
difference being that in the W and H fields you should enter 98% and 99%, respectively.
Select Layer Style from the Layers palette. In the Stroke panel increase Size to 7 pixels,
change Position to Inside, and set Color to #000000. Confirm the changes by clicking OK
and decrease Fill to 0%, thanks to which you will only see the layer style, not the layer
itself.

11 EDITING CATHEDRAL - PHASE 1
Open the photo named Cathedral and change the display mode, Image>Mode>Lab Color.
Go to the Channels palette and select the Brightness Channels, and then open the
Image>Adjustments>Curves window. Set the chart as shown in the picture and confirm
with OK. As a next step, change the display mode again by selecting
Image>Mode>Grayscale.

Duplicate the layer, Layer>Duplicate Layer and select Filter>Stylize>Find Edges from
the menu. Change Blending Mode to Hard Light. Duplicate the layer again but this time
select Filter>Blur>Gaussian Blur from the menu and set Radius to 15 pixels. Change
Blending Mode to Linear Light.

Flatten all the layers by selecting Layer>Flatten Image. Next, select the Eraser Tool and
set the pointer Size to 110 pixels and, balancing Opacity between 50 and 100%, paint over
the unnecessary fragments to reach the effect shown in the picture.

14 ADDING CATHEDRAL TO CERTIFICATE
Move the photo of the cathedral to the project with the Move Tool and place it in at the
lower part of the project. If necessary, decrease it in size according to you needs. Finally,
change Blending Mode to Linear Dodge. By changing opacity, you do not have to get rid
of the white background, which saves you a lot of time.

15 CREATING NEW PATTERN
Before adding the diagonal lines in the certificate background, first you have to create a
pattern to fill the area. Open a new 20x20-pixel document, File>New, Resolution at 300
px/in. Set Background Contents to Transparent. Zoom in the document to around 235%
and select the square tip Pencil, size 4 pixels, and use it as shown in the picture. Finally,
save the pattern by selecting Edit>Define Pattern. You can use any name, for instance
‘skewed lines’.

16 ADDING LINES AND NEW SHAPE
Go back to the project, to the layer with the yellow rectangle and select the Pattern
Overlay panel from Layer Style. In the Pattern field, select the pattern you have just
created. Move the Scale slider to about 97% and Opacity to 42%. Next, create a new layer
and select the Custom Shape Tool. From the upper Shape field, select Sun 1, and in the
Custom Shape menu check the Fixed Size options. Enter 4 cm in the W and H fields and
click on the document to enter the selected shape into the project.

17 EDITING SUN SHAPE 1 - PHASE 1
Go to the Paths palette and there Load path like a selection, and select Edit>Stroke from
the menu. In the dialogue window, in the Width field, enter 3 pixels and select Color
#666666. Finally, check the Center option and confirm with OK. Duplicate the layer and,
on the lower layer, mark sunrays. Having loaded the marking, select Foreground Color
#ffffff and Background #999999. As a next step, select Gradient Tool and change the tool
to Radial Gradient. Paint over the selection as in the picture. Switch off the visibility of
this layer and go the layer with the sun which has not been painted over.

18 EDITING SUN SHAPE 1 - PHASE 2
Duplicate the layer and rotate it by selecting Edit>Free Transform and then writing 100 in
the Angle field. Duplicate the layer again, Layer>Duplicate Layer. Rotate this layer by 100
as well. Select the three sun layers and merge them: Layer>Merge Layers. Switch on the
visibility of the layer with the sun that has been painted over. Perform the same procedure
as with the sun that has not been painted over and merge all the three layers together.
Switch off the visibility of the sun that has been painted over.

19 PAINTING SUN - PHASE 1
Select Magic Wand Tool and mark a saw-toothed area inside the sun. Select the Radial
Gradient Tool and go to Gradient Editor, where you should set the color slider as in the
picture. The Color on the left is #333333, the Color on the right is #ffff33. Color over the
marked area. Be careful about it, try to maintain the same color tone.

20 PAINTING SUN - PHASE 2
Switch on the visibility of the layer with the sun that has been painted over, mark the saw-
toothed area and remove it from the gray sun layer. As a next step, change the order of
layers. The effect should be the same as the one shown in the picture. Finally, color over
the remaining empty areas with the Colors #333333 and #666666. If need be, eliminate
shortcomings with the Brush Tool. Merge both layers to get one layer containing the sun.

21 ENHANCEMENT AND ARRANGEMENT
Go to the Drop Shadow panel, which is to be found in Layer style. Change Blend Mode to
Multiply. Select the Color #000000, set Angle to 1200, and Distance, Spread and Size, set
to 0 px, 24% i 46 px, respectively. As a next step, go to the Inner Shadow panel, where
you should set Distance to 0 pixels, Choke to 15% and Size to 27 pixels. Confirm by
clicking OK.

22 ADDING BANNER
Create a new layer and insert a new shape called Baner 2 into it. Next, fill it in with the
Reflected Gradient Tool. The colors used are #993400 and #ffffff. Go to the Drop Shadow
panel, which is to be found in Layer style. Change Blend Mode to Multiply. Select Color
#000000, set Angle to 1200, and Distance, Spread and Size to 24 px, 8% and 36 px,
respectively.

23 EDITING BANNER
Go to the Pattern Overlay panel. In the Pattern field, select the pattern called Fibers 2.
Move the Scale slider to about 100% and Opacity to 100%. In the Stroke panel, set Size to
3 pixels, Position - Outside and Opacity to 100%. Finally, select Color #333333 and
confirm with OK.

24 ADDING CAPTION - PHASE 1
Select the Horizontal Type Tool Tool and, in the Character window, set the font to
Edwardian Script ITC, Size 33 pt. In addition to this, check the Faux Bold and Faux Italic
options and enter your caption.

25 ADDING CAPTION - PHASE 2
Next, change the font to Embossed Black Wide, Size 67 pt for the letter ‘C‘ and 54 pt for
the remainder of the caption. Set Vertically scale to 110%, Horizontally scale to 106%.
Also, check the Faux Italic and All Caps options. Having prepared the tool this way, enter
the caption “Certificate“.

26 ENHANCEMENT AND ARRANGEMENT
Right click the layer with the “Certificate” caption and select the Rasterize Type option
from the popup menu. Duplicate the caption layer and load its selection. Paint over the
upper layer with the Color #333333 and the lower layer with the Color #999999. Go back
to the upper layer and remove some parts of the caption with Eraser Tool. The aim is to
change the color of the font decorations so that the caption gains a very interesting look.

27 ENTERING TEXT
Select the Horizontal Type Tool and, in the Character palette set the font to Aquiline Two
Regular, Size 35 points and the Color #000000. The Set the tracking for the selected
characters option set to 100, and select Faux Italix. Enter the name “John Smith”.
Change the font to Monotype Corsiva and set size from 12 to 18 points and the Color to
#333333. Enter the rest of the text (reason for giving the certificate).

V FIERY CAPTION

We all know how playing with matches can end… but we can do as we please. So let’s
light our screens. Take the matches and… shall we play a virtual Prometheus? Do not rub
the mouse against your keyboard. There is another way. In this tutorial, I intend to show
how to create a natural-looking burning caption effect. All you need to create it are layer
styles, some flames and a bit of imagination. This is just one of the practical uses of this
effect but you could set a car on fire and start a fire on a motorway, or set a person running
out of a building on fire… Have fun… Warm regards.

Open a new document, File>New, size 30x20 cm and Resolution 72 px/in. Having created
the document, paint it black by pressing the “D” key on your keyboard, and then
Alt+Backspace. Select the Horizontal Type Tool Tool from the Tool palette. Next, select
the 193 px Trajan Pro font from the Character palette. Check the All Caps oraz Faux
Bold icons. Having prepared the Tool like this, enter the word Ogień.

From the Layers palette, select Add a layer style. Go to the Outer Glow panel and select
the Color #ff0000. Set Spread to 0%, Size to 9 px, and reduce Range to 50%. Next, go to
the Inner Glow panel and select the Color #cccc33. Move the Choke slider to 0% and Size
to 9 px. Also, reduce Range to 50%.

3 CAPTION ENHANCEMENT – CONT.
In the Satin panel, select the Color #993300 and increase Opacity to 100% and set Angle
to 200. Move the Distance slider to 10 px, and Size to 13 px. Set Contour to Gaussian and
check Inverse. As a final step, go to the Color Overlay panel, select Color #cc6633 and
increase Opacity to 100%. Confirm with OK.

4 WOOD EFFECT
Open a new document, size 26x8 cm. Select the Rectangular Marquee Tool and draw a
rectangle as in the picture. Next, paint over it with #bd8b58, duplicate the layer, Ctrl+J
and move it to the right with the Move Tool so that both rectangles are contiguous to each
other. Change Foreground Color to #a86e36 and mark the layer by clicking it while
holding Ctrl on your keyboard. Next, paint over the rectangle by pressing Alt+Backsapce.
Duplicate the layers to reach the effect shown in the picture.

5 WOOD EFFECT – CONT.
Merge all the layers, Layer>Marge Visible. Then select Filter>Distort>Shear and set it as
in the picture. Next, select Filter>Noise>Add Noise and, in the dialogue window, set
Contents to 30%. Check Uniform and Monochromatic, click OK to confirm.

6 PREPARING CAPTION
Filter>Blur>Motion Blur, set Angle to 00 and Distance to 38 px in the dialogue window.
Use the Move Tool to move the file to the main project. Right click on the layer containing
the caption and select Rasterize Type from the pop-up menu. Move the last letter of the
caption to a new layer by marking it with Rectangular Marquee Tool and pressing Ctrl+J
on the keyboard; next, switch on its effects and visibility.

7 CAPTION GLOW
Go back to the caption layer and load its selection. Select>Load Selection and then go to
the wood layer. There, select Select>Inverse, press Delete and Ctrl+D to deselect the
Horizontal Type Tool. Change Blending Mode to Linear Burn. Press D, and then Add layer
mask while holding Ctrl on your keyboard. Next, select the soft tip and white Color Brush
Tool and set Opacity to 50% too uncover the layer slightly as in the picture.

8 BURNED LETTER
Now, deal with the last letter of the caption. Switch on the visibility of the letter layer,
open the photo Burnt wood with sand (free download from http://www.mayang.com) and
move it to the project with the Move Tool. Decrease the size of the picture by pressing
Ctrl+T to adjust it to the size of the letter. Next, go to the letter layer and load its selection,
Select>Load Selection. Reverse the selection by pressing Shift+Ctrl+I. Go back to the
burned wood layer and press Delete and Ctrl+D. Merge the layers: Ctrl+E.

9 SLIGHT ENHANCEMENT
Brighten up the picture a bit by pressing Ctrl+M and adjusting the chart as shown in
picture. As a next step, color the new layer with soft, 100 px Brush, Color #663300,
Opacity 40% as in the picture. Going through the same procedure as above, remove the
fragments outside of the letter area. Change Opacity slightly to around 65%.

10 BURNING OUT LETTER
Now, add the Bevel and Emboss effect. Move the Size slider to 5 px and Soften to 0 px. In
the Contour panel, move the Range slider to 67%. Using Lasso Tool, draw small irregular
areas to give the letter a ragged and burned appearance. Draw each fragment while
pressing Shift, which will highlight all the selections at once and place them on one layer.

11 FINAL TOUCHES
Switch off the visibility of the layer with the highlighted fragments. On a new layer, paint
a few white patches and use the Smudge Tool to add depth. Finally, remove unnecessary
fragments as in point 8. The final effect can be viewed in the picture. The next step is to
add the burning caption effect.

12 PREPARING FLAMES
Open the photo named Fire, which was taken by Radosław Marciniak. Go to the Channels
palette and click the Red Channels while holding Ctrl. Go back to the Layers palette and
copy the selection by pressing Ctrl+J. Do the same for the Green Channels. Having
prepared the layers this way, first move Layer 1 to the project, where you can adjust its
size and rotate it a bit by pressing Ctrl+T.

13 SETTING CAPTION ON FIRE
Select Eraser Tool from the Tool palette, set the size to 100 px and decrease Opacity to
40%. Move over the whole flame with the eraser once. Next, decrease the Tool size and
remove some fragments from the lower part of the flame to reach the effect visible in the
picture. Move the fire photo to the Layer 2 project. Decrease its size again and arrange it
as shown in the picture.

14 MORE FIRE
Open the photo Flame1, go to the Channels palette, press Ctrl and click the Red Channels.
Go back to the Layers palette and copy the selection by pressing Ctrl+J. Move the layer to
the project, decrease its size and select Edit>Transform>Horizontal. Remove unnecessary
fragments with Eraser. Next, duplicate the layer Ctrl+J and reflect it vertically, as before.
Press Ctrl+T and expand the flame as in the picture.

15 MAKING IT RED-HOT
Open another photo of fire. Go through the same procedure as before to separate Channels
Red and Green. After moving both layers to the project, adjust their size with the
Transform Warp and Distortion options. Do not forget about using Eraser Tool. Spend
some more time on this part because it defines the final look of the project.

16 SMOKE AND FINAL TOUCHES
Smoke is created by removing Color from the flames. In order to create some smoke, go
to the appropriate layer and remove Color from it with Shift+Ctrl+U. Add more smoke
where the last letter used to be.

17 SMOKE AND FINAL TOUCHES – CONT.
Merge all the layers apart from the background, and draw ragged areas as in point 10 with
the Lasso Tool. Copy them with Ctrl+J and flatten them with Ctrl+T. Duplicate the layer
and move it slightly sideways. Remove unnecessary fragments with Eraser. Paint the
afterglow with a soft Brush, the Color #663300 and 20% Opacity.

VI TREASURE MAP

Did you dream about finding a treasure marked on a mysterious map when you were a
child? If you did but you never had a chance of doing it, I will give you one. Put on your
trekking shoes, don your backpack and off you go into the unknown! For those who are
busy, I have prepared a virtual trip. In this tutorial, I am going to show you how to join
cliparts with Photoshop. This tutorial is not difficult but it requires a lot of work and
patience. So take the mouse in your hand and on with the show!

Create a new document, File>New, in the dialogue window enter the following
parameters: Width 297 mm, Height 210 mm, and set Resolution to 72 px. Select #009999
as Foreground Color and paint the layer with the Paint Bucket Tool with the color you
chose to represent water. Creating waves will be the next step. First, however, you need to
create a suitable paintbrush. In order to do this, create a new document, File>New, size
20x20 px and Resolution at 72 px. In the background content field, select Transparent.

2 WAVES PREPARATIONS
First, set Foreground Color>White, and then select the Pencil tool with 3 px Diameter and
100% Hardness. Having prepared the tool like this, draw a white horizontal line while
holding Shift on your keyboard. Save the document as a pattern, Edit>Define Pattern, as
White Line. With such a pattern, you will be able to shape the waves the way you like.
Save this line also as a brush, Edit>Define Brush Preset. You will need the brush later on.

3 CREATING WAVES
Adding some noise to the project will be the next step. Select Filter>Noise>Add Noise. In
the dialogue box, check the Gaussian and Monochromatic options and set the Amount
slider to 3% and confirm with OK. Duplicate the layer, Layer>Duplicate Layer. Stay in
the upper layer and, from the Add A Layer Stylew in the Layers palette, select the Pattern
Overlay panel. Select the White Line you created and move the Opacity slider to 100 and
Scale to 55.

4 CREATING WAVES – CONT.
Before you move on to creating waves, you have to turn the layer to an intelligent object.
To do this, hover over the line layer with your mouse in the Layers palette and select
Convert To Smart Object. From now on, you will be able to get back to changing the
shape of our waves. This option may come in handy at any point and only an intelligent
filter makes it available. You are now only left with creating a wavy line. Use the Wave
filter to that end. Open the Filter>Distort>Wave dialogue window. Set parameters:
Number of Generators: 2; Wavelanght: Min: 75; Max: 76; Amplitude: Min i Max equal to
10, Scale Horizontal: 100%, and Vertical: 84%. As a final step check: Type: Sinusoid, and
Undefined Area as Wrap Around. Confirm with OK. Change Opacity to 25%.

5 SHORE LINE
Draw a shore line with the Pen tool, as in the picture. Draw it in such as way so as to close
the path which means outlining the upper part of the project. After having closed the path,
right click the upper left corner of the path and select Fill Path. In the dialogue window, in
the Contents, set the Color Tool to #ffcc00. Confirm with OK. Create an island the same
way.

6 ENHANCING SHORE – PART 1
At the beginning, duplicate the land layer: Layer>Duplicate Layer. Next, select the Burn
Tool, where you should set Exposure to 50%, Range to Midtones, and Diameter to around
80 px. Darken the land edges as in the picture. Do the same with the island edges after
selecting a smaller tool tip. From the Add a layer style menu, select Stroke. In the Color
window, select #003333, set Size to 2 px, and Position to Outside. Set Opacity to 85% and
confirm with OK. In the next steps, you will add the bulge effect to the shore, and the
shallow waters effect near the land.

Go to the Drop Shadow panel, and set Blend Mode to Normal. Increase Opacity to 100%.
Set the Distance, Spread and Size sliders to 0, 448 and 16, respectively. Go to the Bevel
And Emboss panel and set Styles to Inner Bevel; Depth to 21 %; Size to 16 px, and Soften
to 2 px. Set the same parameters in the island panel. Right click on the layer where you
have just added styles and, from the mouse pop-up window, select Copy Layer Style, and
in the island layer, select Cut Layer Style.

Duplicate both land layers, Layer>Duplicate Layer. Go to the layers you have duplicated
and turn off the visibility of layer styles: Stroke and Bevel And Emboss. Go to the Drop
Shadow panel and change Spread to 67 and Size to 27 in the island layer. In the land layer,
set Spread to 79, and Size to 29. Select the Color #66ffff for both.

9 DRAWING RIVER AND LAKE
On a new layer, draw a river with the Brush Tool, changing the brush size between 1 and 7
px. Select the Foreground Color #030265. Because the river width is usually uneven, you
have to make it wider in some sections by using a wider brush ending. I decided to split
the river at one point and turn this part to a lake. To do this, you have to click on empty
space where you want the lake with the Magic Wand Tool, which will create a selection.
Create a new layer and paint the selection with Paint Bucket Tool, the Foreground Color
#006599. The final effect should resemble the picture.

10 CREATING ROAD
Create a new layer to draw a road. Change Foreground Color to #ffffff and select hard
brush tip, size 10 px. Mark the shape and location of the road on the map with Pen. After
having drawn the road shape, right click on empty space and select Stroke path. In the
dialogue window, select the Brush. If the Simulate Pressure is checked, you have to
uncheck it and confirm with OK. Now, draw side roads which connect with the main road.
Create a new layer and change the Brush size to 4 px. Outline the roads with the Color
#ff0000 in the Stroke panel and set Size to 2 and 1 pixels.

11 ADDING MOUNTAINS
All the cliparts can be downloaded free of charge from www.1001freedownloads.com, or
https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B3V5KFz1W9KqdjFlcVNyOUJtT1E. Open
Mountains1.png. Change the size with Free Transform from the Edit menu. Duplicate the
mountain layer many times and place the resulting layers on the map. Apply mirror image
on some of the layers, Edit>Transform>Flip Horizontal. Reduce the size of some of the
layers at random. This will help to avoid the negative visual effect many duplicated layers
would create. It is necessary to remove those mountain parts that overlap with each other
with Eraser. In the meantime, add the Mountains2.png file and apply the same procedure.

12 MARKING COUNTRY BOUNDARIES
Mark the mountainous region to separate it as another country on the map. Create a new
layer and, with the Lasso Tool, mark the area alongside the river, as in the picture. Change
Foreground Color to #663300 and paint the selection with Paint Basket Tool. Change
Opacity to 54% and move the layer below the mountain layer.

13 ADDING TREES
Open the Tree.png file and move it to the project. Reduce the size of the tree by going
Edit>Free Transform. Because the photo is too bright, make it darker with
Picture>Adjustments>Curves. Duplicate the tree layer a couple of times and arrange the
layers in a suitable way on the map. To achieve a better result, resize a few trees and place
them in the project.

14 INSERTING TREES – CONT.
Using Eraser Tool, remove one of the tree trunks so that only its top is left. Duplicate the
layer a few times and arrange the layers around the lake. Now, add tree shadows. Copy the
tree layer and move it lower. Then, mark it by clicking the layer while holding the Ctrl
button and paint it black. Tilt the tree with the Edit>Transform>Perspective option so that
it casts shadow and reduce Opacity to around 60%. Repeat the procedure for each tree.

15 ADDING PALM TREES AND THEIR SHADOWS
Open the file Palm-trees.png and remove the background as point 13, and move to
project. Darken the tree with Curves. Duplicate the layer, calibrate its size, and place it on
the map. Do the same for palm trees. Create shadows the same way as in point 14.

16 SHADOW - ANOTHER WAY
Now, you are going to create a shadow, but this time in a slightly different way. Select the
soft Brush tip and change its color to #003300, then create a painting as in the picture on a
New Layer. Place the shadow layer under the forest layer. Change Opacity to 30%. This
shadow is not as sharp looking as before but the project does not call for it. After all, what
you have already got is a wooded area, which matches the rest.

17 ADDING LIGHTHOUSE
Open the file with the name Lighthouse.png and move it to the project with the Move
Tool. Using the Magic Wand Tool, select the background area which you want to delete.
Press Delete to get rid of it. Decrease the size of the lighthouse by selecting Edit>Free
Transform and place it in the desired location.

18 ADDING SHADOW AND LIGHT TO LIGHTHOUSE
Adding the lighthouse shadow is easy. Duplicate the lighthouse layer and go back to the
layer at the bottom. Select Edit>Transform>Distort and change the lighthouse shape, as in
the picture. Next, go Select>Load Selection and, after having picked the color black, select
Paint Bucket Tool. To deselect the selected area, go Select>Reselect. At the end, decrease
Opacity to around 70%. Now, you can light up the lighthouse. To do this, create a new
layer and with the use of the Polygonal Lasso Tool, draw a triangle as in the picture. Use a
5-pixel Feather. As a next step, change the Tool color to #f8e40a and paint over the
selection. Duplicate the ray of light and move it to the other side of the lighthouse.
Decrease Opacity of both layers to 80%.

19 RAILWAYS - NEW PAINTBRUSH
You can mark the railways on the map with x’s. Create a new document, New>File, size
20x20 px and Transparent, Background Contents. Zoom in the document by around 450%
and draw a rectangle in the middle of it with the Rectangular Marquee Tool and fill it
black. Duplicate the layer, Layer>Duplicate Layer, rotate it by 90% and merge them:
Layer>Merge. Save the resulting “x” sign as a paintbrush tip, Edit>Define Brush Preset.

20 RAILWAYS - SETTING UP BRUSH
Go back to the map project and select the Brush Tool. Next, go to the Brushes panel and,
in the Brush Tip Shape panel, you should set the brush tip to 4 px and Spacing to 85%.
The picture next to this description shows the end effect for a 20-pixel paintbrush because
a 4-pixel one did not show in the photo. Next, in the Shape Dynamics panel, set all the
sliders to 0%. Also, set Direction instead of Control in Angle Jitter. It is important because
otherwise the x’s will not be parallel to one another, which will look bad on the map.

21 DRAWING RAILWAYS ON THE MAP
Once you have a well-prepared brush, you can start drawing railways on the map. First,
draw the course of the railways on the map with the Pen Tool. Next, from then pop-up
menu, select Stroke Path. From the dialogue window, select Brush and confirm with OK.
Repeat it until you get yourself a sufficiently long and branchy railway network. As a final
step, reduce Opacity to around 75%.

22 CLIPART ARRANGEMENT
You have come to the most interesting part of the project. This step will give our graphic
its special character. You now have to insert cliparts you chose beforehand into the project.
Open each of them and drag them with the Move Tool. Of course, it might be necessary to
enhance the clipart a bit at times. By this, I mean deleting its background or changing its
color scheme. As you can see in the picture, there are two ships which differ in color. I got
this effect by selecting Image>Adjustments>Hue/Saturation. You only need to check the
Colorize option and set the sliders in the appropriate way.

23 ADDING BANNERS
To add descriptions of the objects you can find on the map, use the Custom Shape Tool.
From the upper menu, load the shape called Banner 1, and draw a banner on the map and
rotate it, Edit>Transform>Flip Vertical. Next go to the Path palette > Load path as a
selection. Select the Gradient Tool. Having white Foreground Color and black
Background Color, select Reflected Gradient from the upper menu and fill in the banner
as in the picture.

24 BANNER ENHANCEMENT
Now, you will add a few effects so that the banner looks better. From the Add a layer style
menu, the Layers palette, select the Stroke panel and set Color to #666666 and Size to 1
px. In the Drop Shadow panel, select black and set the sliders: Spread to 8 px, Spread to
0% and Size to 5 px. As a final step, confirm all the settings by clicking OK.

25 ADDING CAPTION IN BANNERS
Add a caption with the Horizontal Type Tool from the Tool palette and setting the font to
Christopherhand, size 14 pts. Open the Character palette and set Horizontally scale to
156% and Vertically scale to 106%. Copy the ready banners and place them under every
object. Prepare other captions in the same way.

26 DRAWING ROUTE FOR SHIPS
To draw a route for ships, I used a square brush. So to start with, choose the brush and set
Foreground Color to #cce41a. In the Brushes panel, set the tip to 9 px, change Roundness
to 32% and Sparing to 300%.

27 DRAWING ROUTE FOR SHIPS – CONT.
As a next step, in the Shape Dynamics, set all the sliders to 0%. In Angle Jitter, which can
be found in Control, set Direction. Select Pen from the Tool palette and draw the ship
route. Next, select Stroke Path from the mouse pop-up menu and select the Brushes Tool
and confirm with OK. Draw the “X” sign at the end of the route with a thin brush tip.

28 WIND ROSE
Open New File, 400x400 pixels, set Background Contents as Transparent. Select Pen Tool
and draw a triangle as in the picture. Right-click on an empty space and select Fill Path. In
the dialogue window, select the Color #ffffff and confirm with OK. Next, duplicate the
layer, Layer>Duplicate Layer, and select Edit>Transform>Flip Horizontal. Move the
layer to the right and merge them, Layers>Merge Visible.

29 WIND ROSE – CONT.
Duplicate the layer three times, Layer>Duplicate Layer, and rotate each one so that they
form a shape as you can see in the picture. Next, draw the shape with the Pen Tool, and
then select Make Selection with Feather Radius 0 px from the mouse pop-up menu. Next,
remove unwanted fragments with Delete. You of course have to be on the appropriate
layer. Merge all the layers, Layer>Merge Visible, and duplicate them again,
Layer>Duplicate Layer. From the main menu, select Edit>Free Transform and rotate the
source layers by 450, and reduce their size a little. As a final step, merge the layers,
Layer>Merge Visible. Save the image as Wind rose.jpg.

30 ADDING WIND ROSE TO MAP AND ENHANCEMENT
Move the Wind rose.jpg image to the project with the Move Tool. From the Layers palette
in the Stroke panel, set Size to 1 pixel and the Color to #666666. Next, go to the Bevel And
Emboss panel, where you should set Depth to 755%, Size to 2 px and Soften 2 px.

31 WIND ROSE ENHANCEMENT
Now, go to the Outer Glow panel, where you should select the Color #cccc00. Next, set
Spread to 10% and Size to 16 px. Leave the parameters Opacity and Noise unchanged, so
at 75% and 0%, respectively. You can confirm the changes with OK.

32 ADDING CAPTION
You are ready to add the cardinal point names. In order to do this, you have to select the
Horizontal Type Tool and Chancery Cursive font, size 21 pt. Set Horizontally scale to
139% and Vertically scale to 134%. As a final step, select the Color #000000 and mark
Faux Bold. Now, type a capital letter “N” above the wind rose.

From the Layers palette in the Bevel And Emboss panel, set Depth to 100%, Size to 5 px
and Soften to 0 px. Go to Outer Glow panel and select the Color #ffffbe. Set the Spread
slider to 0% and Size to 5 px. Do not change Opacity and Noise. Now, both the rose and
the letter look similar and they fit the map.

34 COUNTRY DESCRIPTIONS
Select the Horizontal Type Tool. Set the font to Monotype Corsiva, size 20 pts. Set
Horizontally scale to 143% and Vertically scale to 127%. Select the font Color #000000
and mark the Faux Italic and All Caps icons. Having prepared the Tool like this, type Wild
Island. Open the Warp Text window and select Style Flag. Set the Bend parameter to +59
and the rest to 0%.

You have to highlight the “Wild Island” caption to make it more visible. From the Layers
palette in the Stroke panel, set Size to 1 pixel and the Color to #000000. Go to the Drop
Shadow panel and select the Color #ffffff. Next, change Blend Mode to Normal, set
Distance to 0 px, Spread to 36% and Size to 10 pixels. Confirm with OK.

36 RIVER AND ROAD DESCRIPTIONS
Because river and road descriptions cannot be done in a straight line, you have to use the
pen. Select the Pen Tool and create a path that is parallel to the object you are about to
describe. I am using a description of the river as an example. After you have drawn the
path, simply select the Horizontal Type Tool and place the mouse cursor on the path.
Select the Christopherhand font and set Horizontally scale to 156% and Vertically scale to
106%. Also, set the font size to 11 pt. Type Stone River.

37 FIRST CAPTION ON WATER
Use the Monotype Corsiva font to create the caption The Northern Sea. Select the
Horizontal Type Tool and the same font and set the parameters: Font Size at 29 pt, distance
between letters at 200, Horizontally scale to 143% and Vertically scale to 127%; mark the
Faux Italic icon. As a next step, open the Warp Text dialogue window and select the Wave
style. Set Bend to +56%. In order to highlight the caption, select the Drop Shadow panel
from the Layers>Add a layer style palette. Set Color to #ffffff, Blend Mode to Multiply.
Next, set Distance to 6 px, Spread to 27% and Size to 10 px.

38 CAPTIONS ON WATER – CONT.
Create a caption, “THE DEEP SEA“, with the same font: Monotype Corsiva. Open the
Character palette and change Font Size to 45 pt. Enter the caption while holding Shift on
your keyboard or mark the All Caps icon. Going through the same procedure as in the
previous point, open the Drop Shadow panel and change Distance to 4 px, Spread to 46%
and Size to 13 pixels.

39 MAKING MAP LOOK OLD
Select Layer>Flatten Image and then, by double-clicking the only layer which is left,
open the New Layer window and confirm with OK. This will allow you to add transparent
background in the next step. Select the Lasso Tool and outline the image. Next, select
Select>Inverse and press Delete and Select>Deselect. Now, select the Burn Tool and a soft
tip brush with the size of around 70 px and Exposure at around 50%. You can now start
making the map edges darker to arrive at the effect visible in the picture.

40 MAKING MAP LOOK OLD – CONT.
Add a new layer, Layer>New>Layer, and paint it white with Paint Bucket Tool. Move the
layer to the very bottom and go back to the map layer. From the Layers palette in the
Stroke panel, set Size to 1 pixel and the Color to #000000. Go to the Outer Glow panel and
select the Color #413f3f. Next, change Blend Mode to Normal, set Spread to 11% and Size
to 12 px, and confirm with OK.

41 AGE ENHANCEMENT
As a final step, open Create new fill layer or adjustment layer from the Layers palette and
select Photo Filter. In the dialogue window, select the Color #ff6600 and set Density to
35% and mark the Preserve Luminosity option. I have shown another way to create the
final looks of the map but I will not explain how I did it to encourage you to experiment
with filters. Have fun!
VII BANER

In this tutorial, I would like to show you a quick and easy way to create an advertising
banner which may be used as a promotional tool in a magazine or on a website.

Create a new document, File> New. In the dialog window, enter Width 15.5 cm, and
Height 4.5 cm. In the Resolution field, type 300 dpi. Select View> Rulers from the menu
and arrange the lines there as shown in the first picture, thus creating the first project draft.
Then select the Pen tool and draw a shape as shown in the second picture.

2 INITIAL PREPARATIONS – CONT.
Go to the Paths palette and Load Path As A Selection from the bottom menu. Then set the
Foreground Color to #8e151a and the Background Color to #dd091c. Next, select the
Gradient Tool> Mirror and paint the marked space on a new layer (Create> Layer) called
Red Shape. The last step is to draw lines at an angle on the new layer. The lines will
determine the places for inserting pictures. The lines should be white, I colored them red
only to make them more visible.

3 IMAGES LOCATIONS
Create a new layer and use the Lasso Tool or Pen Tool to outline the shape visible in the
top left corner of the project. Then, select the Add A Layer Style> Gradient Overlay option
from the Layers palette. In the dialog window, set the Blend Mode to Normal and select
the Black, White Gradient. Set the Angle to 0 and paint the marked area as shown in the
example above. Having done this, you can insert pictures. Open the Garden.jpg photo
and move it to the project with the Move Tool. Trace the contour of the unnecessary parts
of the picture with the Polygonal Lasso Tool and press Delete to get rid of them.

4 CHANGING COLOR
Insert more photos by placing them under the Red Shape layer as explained before.
Create a new layer called Color. Then move it to the top and paint it with the color
#d87f0d. Change Blending Mode to Multiply. Split the layer called Color into 4 separate
layers, which will have different Opacity. Mark parts of the banner with Pen Tool and cut
out the marking with the mouse pop-up menu. Place the markings on a new layer. Split the
layer the way it is shown in the picture. Having prepared the project this way, change the
Opacity of each layer.

5 INSERTING TEXT
Next, select the Horizontal Type Tool. In the Typography window set Font to Adorable,
Size to 36 pt, Horizontally scale to 110%, and Color Font to #fff4a9. In addition, select
Artificial Italics and Small Caps. Now, you can type in Bali Hotel. Select the Horizontal
Type Tool once again. In the Typography window, select Arabic Typesetting Font, Size 18
pt, Horizontal Scale 110%. Additionally, deselect Small Caps and enter Suites,
Restaurant, Swimming Pool.

6 EDITING CAPTION
From the Layer palette, select the Add a Layer Style> Gradient Overlay option. In the
dialog box, set the Initial color gradient to #fff4a9 and the final one to #fff55b. Change
Layer Styles to Mirror, and set Angle to 42. As a final step, set Scale to 89% and click OK.

7 ADDING LOGO
Now, you will create the hotel logo. In the Typography window select the Font Adorable,
Size 30 pt, Color #d77e0a and mark Small Caps again. Type B and go to Add A Layer
Style>Drop Shadow. Set Blend Mode to Normal, Color to #f4f979, Opacity to 44%. Set
the Distance, Spread and Size parameters to 13, 10 and 4, respectively.

8 EDITING LOGO
Go to the Outer Glow panel, select the Color #fcf7c4 and change Size to 8 px. In the Inner
Glow panel, select the Color #fcf7c4 and set Size to 3 px. Finally, confirm the changes by
clicking OK. Do the same with the letter “H”, changing only the shadow angle slightly.

9 INSERTING WEBSITE ADDRESS
You are left with adding the hotel website address. To do it, select Adorable Font, Size 15
pts, the Color #000000, and Artificial Italics. Enter www.BH.hotel.com. Now go to Add A
Layer Style> Drop Shadow. Set Blend Mode to Multiply, Color to #000000, Opacity to
75%. Set the Distance, Spread and Size parameters to 8, 0 and 8, respectively.

10 INSERTING STARS
Now go to the Custom Shape Tool and, from the upper menu, select the five-pointed star
shape and add it onto a new layer. To add a color to the new shape, go to the Paths palette
and click Load Path As A Selection from the bottom menu. Next, select #fffd18 as
Foreground Color and paint the stars. Create each star on a separate layer. Use the color
#e5c119 for smaller stars. It is important to keep all the stars under a layer called Color.

11 DARKENING FRAME
As a final step, you will create a black frame around the banner. Create a New Layer and
place it at the top. Then mark the whole banner area with the Rectangle Selection Tool.
Select Edit> Stroke from the menu, select the Color Black, set Weight to 3 px and
Position> Internal. Confirm with OK.

12 FINALLY EFFECT
Merge the entire document by selecting Layer> Flatten Image. To finish up, duplicate the
document by pressing Ctrl + J and changing the Blending Mode to Soft Light. Click the
Add layer mask from the Layers palette while holding Alt on your keyboard. The effect is
gone. You should now uncover those part of the projects you need. Select Brush Tool and
paint the colorful photographs with a white tip brush to uncover the effect added by
changing the blending mode.
VIII GOLD

Many of you have been gripped by fever: high temperature, muscle pains and fatigue. And
have you ever experienced gold fever, excitement, positive thinking and pure energy?
Doesn’t it sound alluring? You will learn how to obtain the gold effect by using Layer
Styles. I will try to help you find not only a gold nugget but also a passion for graphic
design.

1 ADDING A NEW PATTERN
Open a new document: File/New. In the dialogue window, open a file with the size of
250x250 pixels, select 72 dpi as Resolution. Set Background Contents to Transparency.
Next, select Custom Shape from the Tool stripe. A menu linked to the Tool you selected
should appear in the upper part of the interface. Click the Fill option, and open the Color
Picker window by checking the colorful icon in the upper right corner. Select the color
#663300 and confirm with OK. As a next step, close the window located under the Shape
option and select the picture with the name Fleur-De-Lis. While holding the Shift button,
draw a shape as in the picture. As a last step, save the pattern, Edit/Define Pattern. Save it
as Background.

2 CREATING BACKGROUND
Open a new document, File/New, in the dialogue window open a file with the size
1748x1240 px, set Resolution to 300 dpi. Set White in Background Contents. Create a new
layer: Layer/New/Layer. Set Foreground Color to #996600, and Background Color to
#663300. Next, select the Gradient Tool and apply the gradient in the colors you selected.
Mark Radial Gradient and paint the layer as in the picture.

3 ADDING PATTERN
From the Layers panel, select the Add a layer style icon. Go to the Pattern Overlay panel
and select Pattern named Background. Change Scale to 70%, and Blending Mode to
Normal and click OK.

4 EDITING BACKGROUND
Create a new layer: Layer/New/Layer. Select the Gradient Tool and, from the menu, select
the gradient in the colors you selected. Set Radial Gradient and paint the layer as in the
picture. As a final step, change Blending Mode to Hard Light.

5 INSERTING TEXT
From the Tool panel, select the Horizontal Type Tool, and from the upper menu select
Window/Character. Next, select the Times New Roman font, change the font size to 77 pt.
and change Set the tracking for the selected characters to -20. Change Vertically scale to
143%, and Horizontally scale to 140%. Select Color #996600. As a final step, mark the
Faux Bold, Faux Italic and All Caps icons.

6 EDITING CAPTION
From the Layers panel, select the Add a layer style icon, and then the Stroke panel. In the
dialogue window, set Size to 3 px, Position Outside and Opacity to 100%. Select Color
#ffff00 and go to the Inner Glow panel to set Opacity to 75%, Noise to 0% and mark the
color #ffffbe. In the Technique field, select the Softer option, set the Choke parameter to
5%, and Size to 9 px.

7 EDITING CAPTION - CONTINUED
In the Satin panel, set Blend Mode to Multiply, Opacity to 41%, and Angle to 19°. Set the
Distance and Size sliders to 19 and 65 px, respectively. Change Contour to Gaussian.
In the Outer Glow panel, set Opacity to 75%, Noise to 0%, and select #ffcc66 as the color.
In the Technique field, select the Precise option. Make Spread 32% and Size 16 px.

8 EDITING CAPTION - FINAL EFFECT
Go to the Drop Shadow panel to set Blending Mode to Multiply, Opacity to 75%, Angle to
124°, and unmark Use Global Light. Set the Distance, Spread and Size sliders to 75 px,
20% and 35 px, respectively.
Go to the last panel, Corol Overlay. In the dialogue window, select Blend Mode Color and
Opacity 100%. Use #cc9900 as a masking color. After you confirm all the changes, the
effect should look like in the photograph.

9 CHANGING TEXT TEXTURE
Open any photo showing a rusty metal plate and insert it into the project. It is important
that the photo covers the whole caption. Next, select Layer/Create Clipping Mask from the
menu. Now, you can move the photo at will because its area is restricted by the text shape.

10 CHANGING TEXT TEXTURE - CONTINUED
Although the caption looks fabulous, you can enhance it a bit. Insert the same photo but
arrange it differently this time. Using the Eraser with a hard ending, remove the fragment
of the plate as shown in the photo. Select Layer/Create Clipping Mask again. Removing
the bit of the plate with a hard eraser ending added some polish to the letter “O”. A little
trick added a beautiful golden glitter to the whole caption.

11 DARKENING FRAME
Paint a new layer black, place it at the top of the project with the Elliptical Marquee, and
draw an ellipse as shown in the photo. Before this, set Feather to 220 px. After drawing
the ellipse, press Delete and remove the marking by pressing Ctrl+D. Change Blending
Mode to Overlay abd Opacity to 80%

12 ADDING TEXT
From the Tool panel, select the Horizontal Type Tool, and from the upper menu select
Window/Character. Next, select the font, Edwardian Script, and set its size to 53 pts. Set
the tracking for the selected characters should read 0. Vertically scale and Horizontally
scale should both read 100%. Select Color #996600 and, as a final step, mark Faux Italic.
After having entered the text select the Add a layer style icon from the Layers palette.
Next, set Blend Mode to Hue, Opacity to 100%, Gradient to Black, White in the Gradient
Overlay panel. Also, set Style Linear, and Angle to 86°. Set Scale to 142% and, as a final
step, mark Align with Layer.

13 TEXT EDITING
Duplicate the text layer and switch off the visibility of the gradient layer. Add another
panel named Stroke, and set Size to 5 px, Position Outside and Opacity to 100% there.
Select Fill Type as Gradient and set the gradient to Black, White. Select Linear as Style
and mark the Reverse and Align with Layer options. Set the Angle parameter to 93°, and
Scale to 26%. Confirm by clicking OK.

14 TEXT EDITING - CONTINUED
Next, select Layer/Smart Objectes/Convert to Smart Object from the menu. Only now can
you change Blending Mode to Overlay and Opacity to 70%.
The first photo shows the effect before changing the blending mode. In addition to this, I
switched off the visibility of the text layer below for a moment.

15 ADDING FOLD
Mark all the layers which form the background apart from the white background layer,
and merge them: Layer/Merge Down. Next, outline the project corner with Polygonal
Lasso. Draw a triangle and move it to a new layer by going Layer/New/Layer Via Cut.
Arrange it so that it creates a fold as shown in the photo. To make the fold more visible,
create a new layer, Layer/New/Layer, and move it below the triangle layer. Select the
Brush Tool, set the tip to soft, and paint the fold edges black, but only the inner side.

16 ADDING FOLD - CONTINUED
Select/Load Selection from the menu and paint the selection on a new layer with Reflected
Gradient. I used Black, White as the gradient. After you have finished painting, change
Blending Mode to Overlay, and reduce Opacity to 65%.

17 TURNING STONES INTO GOLD
Open a photograph showing stones scattered on the ground or a photograph of ashes, for
example barbecue ashes. Create a new layer, Layer/New/Layer, and paint it with the color
#ffcc00. After changing Blending Mode to Color, you will get a photograph resembling a
photograph of gold. Merge the layers with the Ctrl+E shortcut.

18 EDITING GOLD
Now, you are only left with adding the glossy effect to create gold. Duplicate the layer by
pressing Ctrl+J. Select Filter/Filter Gallery from the menu. In the dialogue window,
select Distort/Diffuse Glow and set the sliders Graininess, Glow Amount and Clear
Amount to 2, 9 and 16, respectively.

19 EDITING GOLD - CONTINUED
After confirming the changes in the previous step, you are only left with changing
Blending Mode to Luminosity. As a final step, merge the layers: Layer/Merge Visible.

20 INSERTING GOLD INTO PROJECT
Move the photograph of gold to the project and move it to the very bottom in the layers
palette. You need to darken the photograph of gold for the project to look natural. Select
the Burn Tool and the 65 px tip, set Range to Shadows, and reduce Exposure Tool to 50%.
With the Tool prepared this way, darken the photograph, obtaining the effect of increased
contrast. As you have not added a shadow under the fold, you should do it now. On a new
layer, which should be placed above the gold layer, draw a shadow, as in step 15. You can
apply a filter to blur the brush strokes. Select Filter/Blur/Gaussian Blur, set the slider to
26 px and confirm with OK.

21 PROJECT ENHANCEMENT
You are only left with slight corrections. You can brighten the project a bit. Create a new
layer and fill it with the color white. Next, change its Blending Mode to Overlay and
Opacity to 20%. Additionally, as a final touch, you can change the light angle so that the
project looks more natural. Create a new layer and fill it with a gradient exactly as in step
16. Change Blending Mode to Overlay and Opacity to 55%.

IX HOLIDAY IN GREECE

What can you do with holiday photos, how to use them and how to do it in an interesting
way? I will try to help you with this dilemma with the project below. We will try to create
a photo album cover or a photo folder title page together. I will demonstrate how to
combine a few photos into one picture in an unconventional way so that it shows the full
range of holiday memories. Instead of deleting or going through hundreds of monotonous
holiday photos, you can combine them so that they speak for themselves, reviving fond
memories.

Create a new A4-size document, File>New. Enter 72 dpi in the Resolution window and, in
the Custom Background field, select White. Draw a rectangle on a new layer,
Layer>New>Layer, with the Rectangular Marquee Tool, and fill it in with any color you
like.

2 TEMPLATE PREPARATION
As a next step, rotate the rectangle, Edit>Transform>Distort, and drag its opposite corner
so that they do not form a 90-degree angle. Duplicate the shape, Layer>New>Layer Via
Copy, and arrange it as in the picture.

3 INSERTING PHOTOGRAPHS
Open a new photo and insert it into the project with the Move Tool. Place it directly above
the layer containing the shape, in which you want to place the photo and select
Layer>Create Clipping Mask from the menu. Now, you can move the photo the way you
want because its area is restricted by the rectangle size.

4 INSERTING RECTANGLE
Follow the procedure from the previous step with the rest of the photos. The shapes
created before will be a kind of a template. You can place any photo inside them without
the fear of losing the basic project character. Select Horizontal Type Tool from the Tool
Palette and open Window>Character from the upper menu. In the window that appears,
set the font to Trajan Pro Regular and the font size to 33 pts. Change Set the tracking for
the selected characters to 60. Set Color to #354f6e. Mark the Faux Bold icon and insert a
caption into the project.

5 SHAPE EDITING
Merge all the layers containing photos and rectangles. Draw a rectangle with the
Rectangular Marquee Tool, as in the picture, and remove unwanted fragments by pressing
Delete. This slight change made the project look light and distinctive. The photos inserted
resemble sails and sails bring back memories of holidays, so this effect is ideal for this
project.
6 ADDING SHADOW
Duplicate the photo layer, Layer>New>Layer Via Copy. Select Edit>Transform>Flip
Vertical from the menu and move the photo to the bottom. Next, select Layer>Layer
Mask>Reveal All. Select the Gradient Tool and mark Linear Gradient. When you have a
white foreground and a black background, paint the mask by dragging the cursor from top
to bottom. Now, paint a black horizontal line with the Brush Tool.

7 SHADOW EDITING
Select Layer>Layer Mask>Reveal All and, as in the previous step, cover a fragment of the
black line with the Linear Gradient Tool. The aim is to soften the colors. As a final step,
reduce Opacity to 62%. Move the layer with the bottom reflection to the very top. Next,
select Layer>New>Layer and draw a black vertical strip with the Brush Tool. Go to the
photo layer and click Select>Load Selection. Go to the layer containing the black line and
press Delete. Now, the line does not cover the upper photo layer. Reduce Opacity a bit
until you get a slight shadow effect.

8 EDITING SAIL SHAPE
Go to the photo layer and, from the Layers panel, select Add a Layer Style. Next, in the
Outer Glow panel, set Bland Mode to Normal, Opacity to 70%, Noise to 0%, and color to
#0d77c1. In the Technique field, select Softer. Set Spread to 21% and Size to 7 px.

Open a photo of clouds and insert it into the project. Place it at the very bottom and
change Blending Mode to Luminosity. The whole thing looks very good now. Sometimes,
you do not need to be fully trained to get a good background. Often, what it boils down to
is to find a photo that just fits a given project.

10 EDITING CAPTION
Duplicate the caption layer: Layer>New>Layer Via Copy. Select Edit>Transform>Flip
Vertical from the menu and move the caption down so that both meet in one line. Next,
select Layer>Layer Mask>Reveal All. Select the Gradient Tool and mark Linear
Gradient. Cover part of the caption the way you did in step 6.

X SANTORINI

And here is yet another example of how you can use your holiday photos, but in a slightly
different way this time. Sometimes less means better but you cannot always tell where the
line is. I decided to use one of my photos to create a photo album cover. This is only one
of examples but is it not the effects like this one that we are after? The strength of
minimalism and the sense of aesthetics combine to produce a beautiful effect, but what
about graphic design skills? Well, they do not have to reach expert levels.
1 PREPARING PHOTOGRAPH
In the case of this project, it is of paramount importance to find the right photo because all
attention will be focussed on it. Once you find it, Crop Tool it. I went for the most
classical cropping technique where the most prominent object is placed in the center of the
photo but you can experiment and arrive at equally good results.

2 PREPARING PROJECT
Create a new document, File>New, size 21x21 cm. In Resolution enter 72 dpi, and in
Custom Background select White. Next, insert the cropped photo into the project and
place in its center with the Move Tool. From the Layers panel, select Add a layer style and
then Stroke. In the dialogue window, set Size to 1 px, Position Outside and Opacity to
70%. Select Color #3f5972 and confirm with OK.

3 ADDING FRAME
Add a new layer: Layer>New>Layer. Select the Rectangular Marquee Tool, set Feather
to 0 px and draw a rectangle which is slightly larger than the photo. Next, select
Edit>Stroke and, in the dialogue window, select the Color #354f6e. Mark Position Center
in Width and enter 2 px. Confirm with OK..
4 INSERTING CAPTION
Select Horizontal Type Tool from the Tool Palette and Window>Character from the upper
menu. In the dialogue window, select Trajan Pro Regular as the font, set the font size to
37 pt, change Set the tracking for the selected characters to -20. Set #1a2f4c in Color.
Mark the Faux Bold icon and enter the caption “Santorini“. To enter another caption,
“2014“, use a smaller font (21 pt).
Later, go back to the frame layer and reduce its Opacity to 50%.
5 EDITING CAPTION
captions less readable. The best you can do is to remove parts of the lines. Select the
Eraser Tool, set a hard tip and carefully remove the parts of the line directly underneath
the text. Next, select the Horizontal Type Tool and, in the Character dialogue window,
select Trajan Pro Regular as the font. You only have to change its size to 54 pt. and you
are ready to type “Santorini“..

6 ADDING SHADOW
Move the new caption layer below the “Santorini“ layer. As a final step, reduce its
Opacity to 8%. The project is finished in almost no time and it looks as good as many
more time-consuming ones. Sometimes, less is better.

XI GHOST

Now, something spooky. Something that is associated with fear and horror. Something that
gives you goose bumps. Fret not, however, these are only the author’s dark visions. I
would like to present how to go from a pencil drawing to a Photoshop project of a gloomy
caption. I wanted to show that you do not need a tablet to draw complicated shapes in
Photoshop. If you thought so, it means you are a bit of a lazybones.
Create a sketch of the caption on a piece of paper or directly in Photoshop using a tablet. I
scanned the sketch from a piece of paper. The file I modified has the size of 33x22 cm and
72 dpi. In the Layers panel, select Create a new layer. Next, select the Pen Tool from the
Tool strip and outline the letter “s”. The more care has been put into drawing the sketch,
the more careful you need to be when outlining it. If the drawing is not meticulous, you do
not have to be either. When you finish, select Fill Path from the mouse drop-down menu.
In the Contents field, select the color Black and confirm with OK.
2 EDITING CAPTION
Next, create a new layer, Layer/New/Layer, and outline another letter. Repeat the
procedure until you outline each letter on a separate layer. Next, open the file named Stone
and use the Move Tool to insert it into the project. If need be, reduce its size to fit the
project: Edit/Free Transform.

Because the project is supposed to be spooky, you need to modify the background a little.
To do this, create a new layer, Layer/New/Layer , and fill it with the color #443221,
change Blending Mode to Soft Light. Next, create a new layer, which should be put at the
very top, and fill it with the color #0033cc. Change its Blending Mode to Bright Light.

Go back to the letter “G” layer and, from the Layers panel, select the Add a layer style
icon. Next, go to the Bevel & Emboss panel and set Style to Inner Bevel. In the Technique
field, select Chisel Hard, Direction – Down. The Depth slider should be set to 100%, Size
to 10 px, and Soften to 2 px. As a last step, set Angle to 126° and Altitude to 21°. Also,
mark Use Global Light. Change Gloss Contour to Cove – Deep and go to the Outer Glow
panel to set Opacity to 37%, Noise to 0%, and color to #333333. In the Technique field,
select the option Softer, set the Spread parameter to 17% and Size to 10 px. Select
Layer/Layer Style/Copy Layer Style from the menu. Go to the letter “h” layer and select
Layer/Layer Style/Paste Layer Style.

Go to the letter “o” layer and from the Layers panel, select the Add a layer style icon and
then the Bevel & Emboss panel. In Technique, select Chisel Hard, Direction – Up, the
Depth slider should be set to 52%, Size to 73 px, Soften to 1 px. Set Angle to –135°, and
Altitude to 32°. Unmark Use Global Light. In Highlight Mode, set color to #cccccc. Go to
the Drop Shadow panel to set Blend Mode to Multiply, Opacity to 75%, Angle to126°.
Mark Use Global Light. Set the Distance, Spread and Size sliders to 4 px, 10% and 7 px.
Confirm with OK.

Go to the letter “s” layer and, in the Bevel & Emboss panel, set Size to 4 px, and Soften to
0 px. Change Gloss Contour to Cove – Deep. Do not change any settings in Outer Glow.

Paste the layer styles on the letter “T”. In the Bevel & Emboss panel, change Direction –
Up. The Depth slider should be set to 62%. Set Angle to 52°, and Altitude to 32°. Unmark
Use Global Light. Set Opacity to 86% in Highlight Mode. In the Outer Glow panel,
change Spread to 13% and Size to 9 px. In the Drop Shadow panel, set Blend Mode to
Multiply, Opacity to 75%, Angle to 126°. Mark Use Global Light. Set the Distance,
Spread and Size sliders to 13 px, 12% and 32 px, respectively. Confirm with OK.

Select all the letter layers and duplicate them and then merge them into one layer with the
Alt+Ctrl+E shortcut. Select the Smudge Tool, set Strength to 91% and smudge the caption
in all directions. It is important to create something similar to what you can see in the
picture.

9 SPOOKY ELEMENT
Reduce the size of the smudged layer, Edit/Free Transform, grab the upper top square with
the mouse cursor and drag it down. As a final step, move the smudged layer below the
letter layers. Open the skull photo and insert it into the project, duplicate it with the Ctrl+J
shortcut and arrange it as in the picture. On a new layer that you should place under the
skull layer, create some shadow under the skulls with a soft top brush.

10 CAPTION FRAME
Select the Elliptical Marquee Tool, change Feather to 0 px and draw and ellipse as show
in the picture. Next, click Select/Inverse and, having set the foreground color to black,
paint the selection with the Alt+Backspace shortcut. Click Select/Inverse again and create
a new layer, Layer/New/Layer. Now, select Edit/Stroke from the menu. In Width enter 15
px, select Color #0000ff and mark Inside.

11 EDITING FRAME
From the Layers panel, select the Add a layer style icon, and then the Stroke panel. In the
dialogue window, set Size to 4 px, Position Outside and Opacity to 34%. Select Color
black and confirm with OK. On a new layer, Layer/New/Layer, draw another ellipse. It
should be slightly smaller than the previous one. Select Edit/Stroke from the menu. In
Width enter 3 px, select Color #000000, mark Center.

12 EDITING FRAME - CONTINUED
Now, select Filter/Blur/Radial Blur from the menu. In Amount enter 9 and select the Zoom
and Best options. Next, select all the ellipse layers and enlarge them as in the picture:
Edit/Transform/Scale.

13 LIGHT DIMMING
The effect so far is satisfactory, you can add final touches. Create a new layer and paint an
outline of the ellipse with a black brush. Next, select Filter/Blur/Gaussian Blur, set Radius
to 37 px in the dialogue window. As a final step, change Opacity to around 67%. You have
to erase the bits of black that overlap with the blue ellipse.
Create another layer and place it under the skull layer. Paint it as in the picture with a
black brush.

14 ADDING RAVEN
Change Blending Mode to Soft Light and Opacity to 50%. The black area fits perfectly
with the project background.
Draw a raven on a new layer with the Pen Tool and paint it black. Of course, you can use a
photo of a raven if you have one.

15 FINAL EFFECT
You can add a style to the raven with Bevel & Emboss. The project is finished. Apart from
an original caption, what stands out is quite an unusual and complex frame, which adds a
lot of value. Additionally, the frame is cropped in such a way it does not fit in the project,
I mean its upper and lower parts.

XII FIGHT FOR FREEDOM

To crown it all, something more laborious than the other projects. Something resembling
computer games. It is my favorite project, just after the other 11… But seriously, put your
shoulder to the wheel, there is a lot to do but the satisfaction you will get at the end will be
priceless. I am going to present to you the force that filters have and, once again, the force
of the layer styles. You will see how to create inimitable effects. Also, have a go at
experimenting with filters and styles.
1 DRAWING LETTERS
Create a new document, File/New , size 21x26 cm. Enter 300 dpi in Resolution, set
Background Contents: White. In the Layers panel, select Create a new layer. Next, select
Pen from the Tool strip and draw the letter “F”. You have to be very careful and focused to
draw the letter well. Select Fill Path from the mouse pop-up menu, select the color black
and confirm with OK.
2 EDITING LETTERS
C From the Layers panel Add a layer style, and then Bevel & Emboss to set Style to
Emboss. In Technique select Chisel Hard, Direction – Down. Set the Depth to 235%, Size
to 32 px, Soften to 8 px. Set Angle to 120°, Altitude to 30° and mark Use Global Light. In
the Contour subpanel, set Contour to Cone, and set Range to 50%.

3 EDITING LETTERS - CONTINUED
In the Stroke panel, set Size 32 px, Position Center and Opacity to 100%. Select Color
#e0a609. Next, in the Satin panel, set Blend Mode to Multiply, Opacity to 50%, and Angle
to 19°. Set Distance to 54 px and Distance to 100 px. As a final step, select Contour Cone
and mark the Invert and Anti-aliased options.

4 EDITING LETTER - CONTINUED.
Go to the Gradient Overlay panel to set Blend Mode to Color, Opacity to 100%, and
Gradient from #a7894d to #ffffff. Set Style to Linear and Angle to 90°. Set Scale to 150%.
Mark Align with Layer.
Go to the Pattern Overlay panel and select Pattern called Textured Tile, which you can
find in the library called Rock Patterns. Change Scale to 417%, and Opacity to 100% and
confirm with OK.

5 LAYER STYLE EFFECTS
The picture on the right shows the final effect. The zoom shows its natural size. If you
create a project with a different resolution, e.g. 72 dpi, you will get a completely different
effect, using the same parameters. It may be similar to this one but in next steps you will
not be able to create the same letter fill texture.
To get the right effect in the next step, you need to select Layer/Rasterize/Layer Style from
the menu.

6 APPLYING FILTERS
Select Filter/Filtr Gallery/Brush Strokes/Ink Outlines from the menu. Set Stroke Lenght to
43 in the window, Dark Intensity to 5 and Light Intensity to 37. You got a beautiful texture
this way. All the previous layer style settings led to getting this particular effect.

7 CHANGING BACKGROUND
Add a new layer, Layer/New/Layer, and place it under the letter layer. Paint it white. Next,
select Filter/Noise/Add Noise from the menu. In Amount, enter 216%, mark Gaussian and
Monochromatic in Distribution. Select another filter, Filter/Blur/Motion Blur, and set
Angle to 90°, Distance to 104 px and confirm with OK.

8 ADDING LAYER STYLES
Go back to the letter layer and select Image/Adjustments/Hue/Saturation from the menu.
Select Yellows to modify colors. Press Alt+4 and set Saturation to +38 and confirm with
OK. From the Layers panel, select Add a layer style, and then go to the Bevel & Emboss
panel to set Style to Outer Bevel. In Technique select Smooth, Direction – Up, set the
Depth slider to 100%, Size to 40 px, Soften to 2 px, Angle to 120°, and Altitude to 30°.
Mark Use Global Light.

9 ADDING LAYER STYLES - CONTINUED
Next, select the Drop Shadow panel and set Blend Mode to Multiply. Select the color
black. Set Opacity to 75%, Angle to 102°, and unmark Use Global Light. Set the Distance,
Spread and Size sliders to 56 px, 0% and 49 px, respectively. Confirm with OK. You can
see the final effect in the picture. You have finished enhancing the letter “F”, there is one
more procedure to perform.

10 CHANGING LETTER BRIGHTNESS
Open a photo of a sunrise and insert it into the project. Next, place it above the letter layer.
You can create the sunrise effect on your own by using a special gradient. I have shown in
the picture how to arrange the photo in relation to the letter to get the desired effect. Select
Layer/Create Clipping Mask from the menu. Change Blending Mode to Overlay and
Opacity to 56%.

11 DRAWING SWORD
Duplicate the letter layer by pressing Ctrl+J, then select Edit/Transform/Flip Horizontal.
Move the letter to the left, as shown in the picture. Create a new layer, Layer/New/Layer,
and draw a part of the sword with Pen. Now, select Make Selection from the mouse pop-
up menu and the only thing you need to do next is to click OK. Select the Gradient and
mark Linear Gradient. To paint over the selection use the colors #646464 and #ffffff.
Next, fill the selection as shown in the picture.

12 SWORD EDITING
From the Layers panel, select Add a layer style, and then the Bevel & Emboss panel to set
Style to Inner Bevel. In the Technique field, select Smooth, Direction – Up. Set Depth to
100%, Size to 32 px, Soften to 0 px. Set Angle to 98° and Altitude to 53°. Unmark Use
Global Light. In the Contour subpanel, set Contour to Rounded Steps and Range to 50%.
As a next step, set Opacity to 17%, Noise to 0%, and select the color #ffffbe in the Inner
Glow panel. In the Technique field, select Softer, set Choke to 52%, and Size to 62 px.

13 EDITING SWORD - CONTINUED
Next, select the Drop Shadow panel and set Blend Mode to Multiply, and select the color
black. Next, set Opacity to 75%, Angle to 120°. Mark Use Global Light. Set Distance,
Spread and Size to 0 px, 19% and 79 px, respectively and confirm all changes with OK.

14 CHANGING SWORD AFTERGLOW
On a new layer that you should place under the sword layer, paint a vertical white line
with the Brush Tool with a soft tip. Next, change the Tool color to #8a9df0 and paint
another vertical line. The blue line partially covers the white one. Once you finish, change
Blending Mode to Divide and Opacity to 42%.

15 DRAWING SWORD - CONTINUED
Create a new layer, Layer/New/Layer, and draw another sword element with the Pen Tool.
Next, select Fill Path from the mouse pop-up menu, and set the color to #413f3c in the
Contents field.
Go to the sword layer from the previous step and select Layer/Layer Style/Copy Layer
Style. Go back to the layer you were modifying and select Layer/Layer Style/Paste Layer
Style. In the Bevel & Emboss panel, change Size to 8 px, and set Style to Inner Bevel.
Change Size to 15 px in the Inner Glow panel. Change Size to 19 px in the Drop Shadow
panel. Do not change any other settings.

16 DRAWING SWORD - CONTINUED
Create a new layer, Layer/New/Layer, draw another part of the sword with Pen. Select Fill
Path from the mouse pop-up menu, set the color to black in the dialogue window. In the
Layers panel, select Add a layer style, and then Bevel & Emboss, where you should set
Style to Inner Bevel, in Technique select Smooth, Direction – Up. Set Depth to 100%, Size
to 32 px, Soften to 0 px. Set Angle to 98° and Altitude to 53° and unmark Use Global
Light. In the Contour subpanel, set Contour to Rounded Steps and Range to 50%.

17 EDITING SWORD WITH LAYER STYLES
In the Color Overlay panel, set Blend Mode to Hard Light and mark Opacity at 35%. Use
#d9bd02 as the covering color. Go to Pattern Overlay and, from the Erodible Textures
library, select Pattern named Laid-horizontal. Change Scale to 165%, and Opacity to
100%. Confirm with OK.

18 EDITING SWORD WITH LAYER STYLES - CONTINUED
In the Drop Shadow panel, set Blend Mode to Multiply and select the color black. Next, set
Opacity to 75%, Angle to 120°, and mark Use Global Light. Move the Distance, Spread
and Size sliders to: 0 px, 19% and 79 px, respectively. Confirm all the changes by clicking
OK.

19 DRAWING HILT
The same way as before, draw the last sword element and fill it with the color #413f3c.
From the Layers panel, select Add a layer style, and then Bevel & Emboss where you
should set Layer Style to Inner Bevel. In Technique select Smooth, Direction – Up, set the
Depth slider to 100%, Size to 81 px, Soften to 4 px. Set Angle to 98°, Altitude to 53° and
unmark Use Global Light. In the Contour subpanel, set Contour to Cone Inverted, and
Range to 50%.

20 EDITING HILT
In the Drop Shadow panel, set Blend Mode to Multiply and select the color black. Then set
Opacity to 42%, Angle to 120°, mark Use Global Light. Set Distance, Spread and Size to 0
px, 19% and 131 px. Confirm all the changes by clicking OK.

21 DECORATING SWORD
From the Tool palette, select Horizontal Type. From the upper menu, select
Window/Character. Select the Parchment Regular font, set the font size to 50 pts. Set
Vertically scale to 152%, and Horizontally scaleto 127%. Change Color to #8a8887 and
mark All Caps. I used the color you can see in the picture so that the caption is clearly
visible.

22 DECORATING SWORD - CONTINUED
Select Layer/Rasterize/Type. Set Blending Mode to Difference and Opacity to 63%. Next,
use Eraser to eradicate all the font serifs that stand out from the sword. Mark only the
letter “F” with Magic Wand and copy it to a separate layer with Ctrl+J. Set Blending
Mode to Normal.

23 INSERTING CAPTION
Select Horizontal Type from the Tool palette and Window/Character from the upper menu.
Next, select Vivaldi Faux Italic as your font, set the font size to 70 pts, Vertically scale to
98%, and Horizontally scale to 101%. Change Color to #524537. After having inserted
the caption into the project, select Add a layer style from the Layers panel. In the Inner
Glow panel, set Opacity to 75%, Noise to 0%, and select #ffffbe as the color. In Technique,
select Softer. Set Choke to 2%, and Size to 9 px. Set Contour to Cone Inverted.

24 EDITING CAPTION
Go to the Gradient Overlay panel and set Blend Mode to Normal, Opacity to 50%,
Gradient to Black, White. Set Style to Reflected, and Angle to 84°. Set Scale to 64% and,
as a final step, mark Align with Layer and Reverse. In the Outer Glow panel, set Opacity
to 5%, Noise to 0%, select #ffffbe as the color. In Technique select Softer. Set Spread to
21%, and Size to 51 px.

Select the Drop Shadow panel and set Blend Mode na Normal there. Select the color
black. Next, set Opacity to 84%, Angle to 144°, and unmark Use Global Light. Set
Distance, Spread and Size to 55 px, 16% and 32 px, and confirm with OK.

On a new layer, which you should place under the sword layer, paint a small spot with
Brush with a soft tip. As a next step, select Filter/Blur/Gaussian Blur and set Radius to 20
px in the dialogue window. Add a new layer and place it under the sword layer. Select
Rectangular Marquee and fill it with black, change Feather to 70 px and draw a rectangle
that is slightly smaller than the project.

27 EDITING BACKGROUND - CONTINUED
Press Delete and change Blending Mode to Overlay and Opacity to 83%. Because the
project is not entirely satisfactory, you need to go through almost the same procedure but
to a better effect. Add another layer, fill it with the color black and draw an ellipse with
Elliptical Marquee as shown in the picture. Before that, however, set Feather to 200 px in
the Tool menu.

28 CAPTION FINAL EFFECT
Having drawn the ellipse, press Delete and change Opacity to 73%.
You got a similar effect as before but the final result is much better. You have to remember
that not everything that seems a good decision will bring the desired effect.
OTHER BOOKS BY TOMASZ GĄDEK
List your other kindle books with a link to the page

1. http://helion.pl/ksiazki/photoshop-od-pomyslu-do-projektu-tomasz-
gadek,phoefp.htm#format/e

2. http://helion.pl/ksiazki/photoshop-twoje-projekty-krok-po-kroku-tomasz-
gadek,photpk.htm#opis
CAN I ASK A FAVOUR?
If you enjoyed this book, found it useful or otherwise then I’d really appreciate it if you
would post a short review on Amazon. I do read all the reviews personally so that I can
continually write what people are wanting.
Thanks for your support!

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PHOTOSHOP

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