- Sketch Fade Effect
- Stylized Light Effects
- Quick and Easy Double Exposure Effect
- Using Patterns to Blend Photos
This chapter is from the book
This chapter is from the book
This chapter is from the book
Using Patterns to Blend Photos
This is an effect I saw over on Pinterest (lots of cool ideas floating around there). I loved the result and the elegance of the technique—so simple, yet so effective.
STEP ONE: Start by pressing Command-N (PC: Ctrl-N) and creating a new document that’s 500 pixels by 500 pixels at 100 ppi, with the Background Contents set to White.
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STEP TWO: Choose the Ellipse shape tool (press Shift-U until you have it) from the Toolbox and then, up in the Options Bar, set the Tool Mode to Shape, the Fill to black, and the Stroke to none. Press-and-hold the Shift key, click on the upper-left corner, and drag to the lower-right corner to create a circle in the square (press-and-hold the Spacebar as you drag to reposition the circle). You will want the edges of the circle to touch the edges of the canvas, if not extend beyond just a tiny bit. Once you have the shape drawn, click on the Eye icon to the left of the Background layer to turn it off, so you can see transparency.
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STEP THREE: Go under the Edit menu and choose Define Pattern. Give the pattern a name and click OK.
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STEP FOUR: Create another new document that’s 1500 pixels wide by 2000 pixels tall, with a white background. Click on the Create a New Layer icon at the bottom of the Layers panel, and then press Shift-Delete (PC: Shift-Backspace) to open the Fill dialog. Choose 50% Gray from the Contents popup menu and click OK.
STEP FIVE: Now, click on the Add a Layer Style icon at the bottom of the Layers panel and choose Pattern Overlay. Click on the Pattern thumbnail and locate the circle pattern we just created (it should be the last one), then use the Scale setting to change the size of the pattern. Here, I set it to 35%. You can also move the pattern around manually by clicking directly on it in the image window and dragging it around to change its position. Click OK when done.
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STEP SIX: We now need to clip an image layer with the circle layer, but it won’t work right now because it would clip based on the gray fill and not the circles. So, first we need to get rid of the gray by simply dropping the layer Fill setting to 0%, near the top right of the Layers panel. Then, Right-click on the circle layer and choose Convert to Smart Object. This will maintain the transparency without having to rasterize the layer. (Note: The Fill setting will go back to 100% after you choose this.)
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STEP SEVEN: Next, press Command-O (PC: Ctrl-O) and open the subject image you want to use. Here, we have a dancer on a white background (you can download this from the book’s companion webpage, mentioned in the book’s introduction). Drag-and-drop the image into the working layout, and then press Command-T (PC: Ctrl-T) to activate Free Transform and position it in the composition. Press Return (PC: Enter) once it’s positioned, then press Command-J (Ctrl-J) to make a duplicate of this layer, and place one layer above and one below the pattern layer (as shown here).
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STEP EIGHT: Select the subject layer at the top of the layer stack, and then press Command-Option-G (PC: Ctrl-Option-G) to clip it to the pattern layer below.
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STEP NINE: Now, select the other subject layer below the pattern layer and activate Free Transform, again. Move this layer to the left a little bit and then scale it up (press-and-hold the Shift key to keep it proportional), and you will see the effect take shape. Notice how I positioned this subject layer in relation to the one above the pattern layer. If using other images, the arrangement may take some trial and error. Press Return (PC: Enter), and then drop the layer’s Opacity to 75%.
STEP 10: Select the subject layer at the top of the layer stack again, and then click on the Create New Adjustment Layer icon at the bottom of the Layers panel and choose Gradient Map. Click on the gradient in the Properties panel to open the Gradient Editor. Then, click on the gear icon to the right of Presets and choose Photographic Toning (the same presets we used in the last technique) from the flyout menu. Click OK in the dialog that appears, then choose the Sepia-Cyan preset and click OK.
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Finally, I added some text using the Eurostile ExtendedTwo font that I filled with white and blended by choosing the Difference layer blend mode, which makes the text dark on light backgrounds and light on dark backgrounds.
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