Echinacea 2 on chipboard.-.WORKFLOW

[Clicker]

This is the original image  out of the camera.:-

 

Screen prints  need to be seen in Large format so click on  each one .to find the option to enlarge it .

 

I am using Photoshop cc2015 . The  texture that I used  was downloaded for free from the site listed below into a file on my hard drive:-

http://texturez.com/

 Once I have edited  the pic in RAW to   pull back any highlights or lift unwanted shadows etc  I  opened the image in Photoshop and  created a duplicate layer.

Go to  >. Layers >duplicate Layer

 

I named the layer Background copy for playing with  so that i can change some  aspects  of the photo on this layer later. 

 

Next I  opened a texture file (WOOD BROWN ) that  I had downloaded from the site  I mentioned  earlier.   You can edit the Texture  file  to suit  just as you might change any other image  so you can change the colour,  use filters etc.

I altered the contrast shadows, highlights etc until had a colour that I thought would be suitable to go with the flowers and then > open image  in PS.

In order to see both  the image of the flowers and the texture we need to split the work area screen as I want to drag the  texture image  over on to  the flower image . So go to Windows > arrange > two up horizontal .This will give you a view of both images in your workspace.

.

Click Ctrl- (MINUS ) in each SCREEN  till you get both images the same size ...

 

Working on the lower SCREENl relating to the texture image, go to Select >all  to select the image, then  use the move tool ( top left on the tool bar ) in order click on and drag the texture up into the  top panel,  covering the flower image. 

Once you have the texture image  on top of the flower image you can  delete the lower screen showing the  texture image, without saving it unless you wish to keep that version of the texture file for the future .

Now in order to get the texture panel to cover the  flower image, Go to  edit > transform .> scale and then click and hold on the corners of the  selection to drag  the texture image  over the flower image to cover it ... then hit enter ..or ( in some cases eg CC 2015 ) click on the tick in the  top bar to commit the action.

 

.

 

In order to see some of the  flower image showing through, .go to the layers panel on the right, select the  layer with the texture  and reduce the opacity to 50% 

 

 

CONTINUED IN NEXT POST .....

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Clicker]

Echinacea on chipboard 2   WORKFLOW   continued ...

Now I need  to use a layer Mask to enable to erase some or all  the  texture that is covering the  flowers .I have moved the layer palette to the left  for better view in this screen shot . You add a layer mask by clicking on the icon circled in red at the base of the layers palette.  You wil see it added as a white panel ( see the red  arrow) in the layers palette.

 

Make sure  the foreground and background colours are the default black and white ( bottom of the tool bar on the left  )

Using a soft paintbrush and adjusting the opacity  you can remove the texture in varying degrees or completely by painting over the flowers  with the while brush  and paint the texture back in by swapping the foreground box to Black and painting in with the black brush .JUST MAKE SURE THE PANEL WITH THE WHITE MASK IN THE LAYERS  PALETTE  IS SELECTED

 

 

Once I had erased as much  texture as I wanted from the flowers, I then went to the Background copy for playing with on the Layers palette and  used the text  tool to write in  the name of the plant in a reduced opacity colour to add more interest.. If  anyone does not know how to add text to an image  just yell and I can add it to this  tutorial later.

I saved the whole  pic plus all   layers in SAVE AS, as a large photoshop file ...in case I want to go back and change anything  I still can because i have all the layers there still .

Then I flattened the image and saved as a jpeg

 

I then went to the Nik effex filters  that i had downloaded as a free plugin  to   use a couple of colour effex filters  to  lighten the  image and play with some of the other effects  to get a look I wanted . If you zoom in you can see which ones I used.

 

 

 

Then I flattened the image again......

and Voila.. the After image .

 

 

[Craftysnapper]

Nicely done Polly clear and precise.

[Rogerw]

Thanks for that Polly .  I will have a go once I have mastered one subject IE Macro

Edited September 10, 2016 by Rogerw

[Brian]

Very nice, Polly. Thanks for doing that for us. It must have taken ages to do and looks fairly detailed, so maybe easily followed. Even for someone as slow witted as me!

[Clicker]

 

 

On 10/09/2016 at 11:15, Brian said:

Very nice, Polly. Thanks for doing that for us. It must have taken ages to do and looks fairly detailed, so maybe easily followed. Even for someone as slow witted as me!

Only about a week all told!!  I did lots and lots of screen shots as I wasn't sure which ones were pertinent ./ essential so I at least had the option when getting the tutorial together  then I had to resize them all to make sure I didn't run out of "space" to use them in a post .Then...  in the middle of it all I saw the thumbnails had been reduced by Phil and I was worried that the screen shots were not going to be legible  but it's no hardship to click a couple of times to  enlarge them .    I was concerned then, that I had been too detailed with my tutorial and people would think a lot of it was unnecessary explaining certain things ... Phew . But I don't know the extent of people's  skills in Photoshop  

I know from teaching experience that  one should never presume the student knows anything so forgive me all you photoshoppers out there  who didn't need all that  detailed information... I am just slightly relieved that a  few people at least have looked at it and found it may be helpful . So thanks for that feedback Tipfers