Photoshop CS3 Tutorial: The Erase

Background Tool. Removing complex

backgrounds.
ivanna 20 Jan 08 photoshop, tutorials
The erase background tool is powerful, but good results are only possible if you understand
how it works. In this tute, we will look at all the options in the tool and use them to extract
backgrounds from our images.
The tool works best if the background is all a similar colour, for example, someone against a
solid colour or a bright sky.
1I have deliberately chosen a difficult image, as the girl has flyaway hair that i want to keep.

2From the toolbox, select the background eraser tool

3When the tool is selected, the

control palette will display the default settings. Select the 3rd button, Sampling:Foreground
Swatch This will only erase the foreground colour. Set the tolerance to 25%
Make sure Protect Foreground Colour is ticked.Selecting the option Sampling:Foreground
Swatch allows you to sample the background colour most prominent in your image, so the
eraser will ignore contrasting colour pixels.

Choosing to Protect Foreground Colour allows you to sample a foreground colour to protect

from the eraser.

4Now we need to sample the background colour to erase. Select the background swatch in
your toolbox, and double click to bring up the colour panel.

5Select the background colour with the eyedropper, right click to select a 51X51 average.
This will make sure that the area sampled will be larger than just one pixel, so many shades of
light blue will be included instead of just a singular blue pixel.
Next, select the foreground to protect (we will start with the girls hair) I will use a 11X11
average for this. Notice the colours on my background and foreground swatches.

6Choose a nice big size for the brush. Use CTRL (CMD) and the bracket keys({}) to change
the brush size.

7Think of the brush as a sort of magic wand tool, that erases selections based on the colour it
clicks on. The more a colour is prersent under the radius of the brush, the more photoshop
will think it is the background colour, and erase it.

8You can now get nearer the edge, just remember that you want more of the colour to be
erased, less of the protected colours, under the brush!

9Notice that to select the more fiddly edges, I am positioning the centre of the brush on top of
the light blue, not the hair.

10These settings will remain true for similar areas, as soon as we get to areas with different
colurs, for example the girls blouse, we need to select different colours to protect use the
eyedropper to select the new foreground colour, right click to select a 51X51 pixel average.

11 You will need to change foreground and background colours often as you work through the
image.

12Now open another image, perhaps an outdoor image like a beach or busy street.
Paste the selection of the girl above it, resize to fit and get rid of any stray white areas with a
soft brush eraser.

13To tidy up any stray white edges around the hair, we will darken some parts of the
imageSelect the Burn Tool

14From the Range dropdown options, select highlights and an exposure of 25% or
thereabouts.

15Now go over the edges of the hair to darken (burn) any stray highlights or white halos on
the edges.

16The finishing touches:

Image>adjustments>levels to increase tonal contrast on the background to match the girl
image. This is a quick and dirty fix, As this tute is about the background eraser tool, not levels

Position the girl so her eyes are aligned with the horizon, to make the perspective credible.
Youre done!

Blend an Image into a Background Color

This is one of the most useful tips in Photoshops as images need to blend in well to give that
professional look.
When one end of the image needs to be made transparent

Select the image

Click 'Add Vector Mask' icon in the layers panel. A new rectangle will appear in the
layer.

Click on this layer

Click the gradient tool

Click on the image at the part that you want to remain opaque and drag till the end of
the image that you want to make transparent.
The image will blend beautifully into the background

When the Image needs to be shaped differently

Select the image

Use the marquee tool to select the area you want to keep
Select > Modify > Feather
Specify a radius that you want to feather and click ok
Select > Inverse
Hit "Delete"
Your image will blend neatly into the background in the desired shape.

Insert Images and Text in Photoshop CS3

[This is Step 2 of the Photoshop CS3 Tutorial]

If you plan to use stock photos you should find the appropriate images and keep them ready.
You should also have logos, bylines and some sample text ready. If your home page has a
different layout from the rest your site you will have to create 2 different layouts. For the
home page design you should be clear about what you want to communicate, things that you
want to highlight and other usability principles. You should also be clear on your navigation
based on your site plan.

Insert Images
Insert any images that you plan to use [File > Place]

Browse for the image file

Select the file
Click the 'Place' button
The image will appear in a sort of grid (see picture below) and the cursor will change

Click on the image and drag it where you want to place it within the canvas
You can also resize and rotate the image by dragging the corner nodes or hovering
near the corner node till the rotate cirsor appear and then rotating.
Double click when you are happy with the placement, size and rotation of the image.
The image will be placed there.

You will see that a new layer appear in the 'Layers Palette' where the image is placed. If you
are unable to see the Layers Palette you can open it by via Windows > Layers.

Layers Palette
You have many tools to clean up and enhance the image within Photoshop .

You can use auto levels to bring out the best in photos [select photo > Image > Adjustments >
Auto Levels ]. If this option is grayed out - you might have to rasterize the layer first [In the
'Layers Palette', right click on the layer where the image has been placed > Rasterize layer]

You can also try out the other filters.

Photoshop Filters
You can undo if you're not happy with it. By default you can undo 1 action in Photoshop . Use
Edit > Step Backbard to revert to previous steps. You can also do this via the 'History Palette'
[Window > History]. THe History stores a default of 20 states but you can change this from
Edit> Preferences > Performance > History States.

History Palette
You can make changes to the images - remove backgrounds, resize etc. You can also create
shapes.
Take some time to explore the options provided in the 'Tools Palette' [Window > Tools].
Notice that the options in the 'Options Palette' [Windows > Options] changes for each tool
selected. Also click on the tiny triangle besides some of the tool icons for even more options.

Photoshop Tools Pallette

Insert Text
Use the text tool to insert text like a sample heading, sample textual content, menu items,
byline, sample links, footer - copyright info etc. Style the text by using the options in the
'Options Palette'.

You can specify the color, font, size etc. You can also add filters, alignments, spacing, leading
etc. Explore what you can do with text.

Slice and Save the Images in Photoshop CS3

[This is Step 4 of the Photoshop CS3 Tutorial]
Once you are satisfied with the layout, deside which parts can be recreated within HTML and
which parts will need to be exported as slices.

Text can usually be recreated in HTML except when it is using some special font that is not
commonly available on all computers.
Use the slice tool to draw out areas that will be exported as slices.

Sliced Object
Give each slice a name which will be the file name of the saved image. To do this:
1. Click on the 'Slice Select Tool'

2. Select the slice

3. Click on the 'Set options for current slice' icon in the 'Options Palette' [Window >
Options]

4. Enter the name for the slice in the 'Slice Options' window that opens e.g. logo

5.
Each slice needs to be optimized to look good and yet have a low file size so that it loads
quickly on the web page. This can be done from [File > Save for Web & Devices].

Save for Web & Devices

Select each slice and optimize it in the 'Save for Web & Devices' window. Images with flat
colors are usually better optimized as GIF files while images with many colors like photos are
usually better optimized as JPEG files.
You can compare the quality and file size of different options by clicking on the Optimized, 2Up or 4-Up options at the top.
Once you have optimized all the slices you will need to save them into a folder. To do this:
1. Select the slices (use the shift key to select multiple slices)
2. Click the 'Save' button
3. The 'Saved Optimized As' Window will open

4. Navigate to the folder where you would like to save these sliced and optimized images
e.g images
5. Select 'Images Only' from the 'Save as type' options
6. Select 'Selected Slices' from the 'Slices' options
7. Click the 'Save' button
8. The sliced images in the specified formats will be saved in the specified folder.

Project: Create a Layout in

Photoshop CS3
Before you start:

Preview

1. If you are a beginner make sure you go through steps 1- 4 of the Photoshop CS3
Tutorial before attempting this project.
2. Download Project Files (Photoshop.zip, 1 MB)
3. Use the images provided for the project. You can get free images like these from
Dreamstime (click on the "Free images" tab).

Begin Project:
Your canvas

1. Open a new document.

Place and edit the picture of the flowers
1. Place Image. File > Place > Browse and select image of the flower.
2. Resize Image - Select image. Drag the corner of the image to resize it.
3. Rotate Image - Select Image. Place cursor near the edge of the image > When the
rotate cursor shows > click and drag clockwise or anti clockwise.
4. Double click to place the image.
5. Rasterize Layer - Right click on the layer in which the image and click the option
'Rasterize layer'.
6. Remove Background - Use the 'Quick Slection Tool' and click on the background of
the image > it will get selected > press the delete key. Select and delete any leftover
background.
Menu Bar
1. Click the Rectangle Shape Tool > click and drag to create a rectangle where the menu
will be.
2. A new layer entitled 'shape 1' will apear in the layers panel.
3. Double click on the small box on the right, within the 'shape 1' layer.
4. The 'Pick a solid color' window will open.
5. Move the cursor and click somewhere on the flower to pick that particular color (the
cursor automatically turns into an eyedropper).
6. Notice that the color of the rectangle reflects the one you just picked. Click Ok.
7. Select the Text Tool > click somewhere on the screen > type the menu names
separated with | symbol (over enter key).
8. Select the font and size and color from the options panel.
9. Position the text where desired (over the yellow rectangle).
10. Select the Line Shape Tool > create a line below the menu rectangle.
11. Click on the small box in the line's layer and use the eyedropper to select a green from
the leaf in the image.
Logo
1. Use the text tool to create the logo name specify font, size and colors in the 'Options
Palette'.
Image #2
1. Insert the image of the mother and child > Resize (If too big zoom out so you can find
the corners of the image [Zoom tool > Alt > click on the screen to zoom out. Double
click the zoom tool to revert to actual size]).
2. Select line shape tool to create a rectangle around the image > change the color to
green by clicking the small box on the layer and using the eyedropper tool
Texual Content
1. Heading - Use the text tool to type the page heading (use a common font such as Arial
so that it can be replicated in html later.
2. Content - Click the text tool. Click the screen where the content text will begin and
drag to the bottom and right where it will end. In this text area begin to type some
sample text. Specify the size and font. Include the size, color and font of a sample link
as well.

Footer
1. Copy and paste the green line below to form a boundary before the footer information.
You can easily do this by dragging the line shape layer (shape 2) into the 'create new
layer' icon found right next to the trash icon in the layers palette. This will make a
copy of the layer. Then you can move it down.
2. Use the text tool to type the footer text.
Slice Images
1. Use the slice tool to create slices over the logo and the mother/ child picture.
2. Click the 'Slice Select Tool'. In the slice options specify the names for both the slices.
3. In the 'Save for Web & Devices' window, select the mother/ child picture and change
to JPEG format. Check to see which results in a smaller size - GIF or JPEG for the
logo as well.
4. Shift + select both the images and click "Save".
5. In the ' Save Optimized As' window, save the sliced and optimized images into your
project name folder. Photoshop will automatically create and 'images' folder and
save the files within it.
Your layout is ready, now you are ready to create your website. Recreate the layout in HTML
with this Dreamweaver CS3 Tutorial.
In order to make you website live you will need to sign up with a hosting server. I recommend
Hostgator which I use to host this site.

Using Light and Shade to Bring Text to Life

The best book I've ever read on drawing is one called Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain.
After reading it, I'm still pretty bad at drawing, but I did learn a lot about light and shade. In
this tutorial we are going to take some very basic principles of light and shade to make a
rather impressive-looking text effect.

Light Sources
So before we start the tutorial, here is a little diagram about how light might hit an object.
Here we have a square object in the middle with light coming from the top left. You can see
that where the light hits the object, a shadow is cast on the other side. Note that the shadow is
not a Photoshop drop shadow, which makes the object look like it's hovering above the
canvas. Here we want the object to look like it's a three dimensional thing stuck on the
canvas, extruding if you like. Now tell me what other Photoshop tutorial site gives you
diagrams? It's like being back in school!

Step 1
We begin the tutorial by drawing a subtle Linear Gradient from dark grey to darker grey. Note
that because we want our light to come from the top left, that's where the lighter part of the
document is.

Step 2
Now we place some text. I've used a very cool font called Agency FB, which has a condensed,
hard-edge feel to it. You should make the text a grey-ish blue color - #c2c8d4 to be precise.

Step 3
Next Ctrl-click the text layer and create a new layer above it. In the new layer, with that
selection still held, draw a linear gradient of #495a79 to transparent from bottom right to left.
So in other words you are darkening the bottom right as shown.

Step 4
Set your foreground color to Black (you can do this by pressing the letter 'D' on your
keyboard which restores the defaults).
Now Ctrl-click the text layer again and create a new layer beneath the text layer. Now press
the down arrow on your keyboard once and the right arrow on your keyboard once. Then
press Alt+Backspace to fill it with black. Then press down and right again one time and fill
with black. Each time you will be moving 1px right and 1px down. You should repeat this
process about 30 times (which is why it's important to use Alt+Backspace instead of the Fill
tool).
Note also that to move the selection but not the fills when you press your arrow keys, you
have to have one of the Marquee tools on. If you switch to the Move Tool (V) when you press
down and right you will actually move the black fill as well as the selection and will just be
filling the same pixels over and over.

Step 5
Here's what you should now have. Now deselect and make sure you are on the shadow layer,
then go to Filter > Blur > Motion Blur and use values of -45 degrees and a distance of 30px.

Step 6
Set your shadow layer to Multiply and about 40% Opacity and then hold down Shift and press
the down arrow and then the right arrow. This will move your object right and down 10px
each (Shift tells Photoshop to go 10px at a time instead of 1). Now you may have some of the
blurred parts of the shadow sticking out to the top and left of the object. If this is the case,

grab a small soft eraser and gently erase away anything which shouldn't be shaded (remember
the diagram at the beginning).

Step 7
Next duplicate the shadow layer, hold Shift and move it down and right again. Then run the
Motion Blur filter again with a distance of 50px this time and set this layer to Multiply and
20% Opacity. This is just to give our shadows more of a trail off.

Step 8
Now create a new layer above all the other layers, hold down Ctrl and click the main text
layer to select its pixels and back on your new layer fill the selection with White. Don't let go
of the selection just yet though. Instead press down and right one time to move 1px away and
then hit Delete.
Set this thin white line layer to about 80% Opacity.

Step 9
As you can see, the thin white line gives a sort of highlight effect where the light source is
hitting the text and gives the impression that the text is more three dimensional.

Step 10
Next we want to create some streams of natural light. Create a new layer above all the others
and draw four or five white rectangles approximately similar to those shown (i.e. getting fatter
as they go down).

Step 11
Now press Ctrl+T to transform and rotate and enlarge the rectangles as shown. Now normally
you'd press Enter when you're finished, but this time don't let go just yet. Instead, right-click
and you will get a pop up menu showing you other types of transforms you can do. Choose
Perspective. The reason it's important to do this in one step is so that you don't lose your
bounding box. So take the top left two points and bring them closer together so that the light
appears to be coming from one place and spreading out.

Step 12
Here we have our four strips of "light." Now set the layer to Overlay and 20% Opacity and
then go to Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur and give it a blur radius of 6px.

Step 13
You should now have something that looks like this.

Step 14
Now since those thin strips are meant to be light, it would make sense if our highlight layer
only showed up where the light was hitting right? So Ctrl-click the light layer and then click
on the highlight layer from earlier, then while the selection is still on, click on the Add Layer
Mask button (it's the one at the bottom of the layer palette to the right of the 'f' icon). This will
create a Mask that only shows the highlight layer where the light overlaps it.

Step 15
So you could stop here; it's already looking pretty good, but we'll finish this effect off by
adding some warm lighting.

Step 16
So first of all create a new layer just above the background and fill it with a pinkish color #9d506c.

Step 17
Now set the pink layer's blending mode to Colour and the opacity to 20%. This gives our
background a nice reddish-warmth. Over the top of this we can now mix in some yellows. If
we don't put in the reddish cast underneath, the result comes out looking overly yellow and
not particularly real.

Step 18
Next we create a layer just above the pink. Fill it completely with white and then go to Filter
> Render > Lighting Effects. I don't often use Lighting Effects, but it does have one very cool
preset called the Two O'clock Spotlight, which you can select by going to Style at the top and
looking through the options. You can pretty much use this as default, but for our purposes it
helps to extend the ellipse to make it a little longer (i.e. the spotlight is a little further off).

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Step 19
Now we set the lighting layer to Overlay and you have something like shown below. Now
duplicate that layer, move it above all the other and set it to 40% Opacity. This makes sure
that our warm lighting is also interacting with the text and not just the background.

http://psd.tutsplus.com/tutorials/text-effects-tutorials/using-light-and-shade-to-bring-text-tolife/

Conclusion
Finally, we duplicate the top lighting layer one more time and set it to 65% Opacity, then click
the Add Layer Mask button on the layers palette again and draw a linear white to black

gradient from top left to bottom right. This makes the extra lighting layer fade off as it goes
down right.