Backgrounds: Monochrome, Patterned

Fill layer background A reader in the Photoshop 911 Forums posted the image above asking how the effect was accomplished. It's a hockey scene with a player lifted from the background, highlighted with a white feathered rim-lighting effect. The background itself was covered with a blue and black pattern giving it a sort of vague looking venetian blinds sort of effect. This is fairly easy to do in all versions of Photoshop and Photoshop Elements. I'll show you the extended layers version, not using anything fancy so that it goes way back to version 4.

Isolating the subject

I don't have a hocky picture, but since the holidays are just around the corner, I'll use this nativity scene for my subject. First you'll want to isolate your subject. It doesn't matter if it's from the same image, or a different image, the steps are the same, you'll have to cut it out. Using the Lasso tool or the Pen tool, which ever your program has, get started.

 

Generate a Patterned Layer

In the interest of time, without a lot of precision measurements, I'm going to 'emulate' the pattern in the sample, rather than trying to duplicat it. So, we'll need a nice, uniform pattern for the "lines" in the background. Sizing the pattern will be seat-of-the-pants -- looks about like 12 pixels off and 12 pixels on. So I'll generate a pattern and fill a layer with it before blurring.

 

Isolate the subject, create a glow

Now we've finished work on the background, and it's time to highlight our subject, and create her glow. Fitting, don't you think?

Now activate the view of your outlined subject. (Turn the layer on.) Cmd/click or ctrl/click the layer icon for her to generate a selection based on her outline. You should see racing ants appear. Now, choose Select > Modify > Expand and add enough pixels to cover at least part of the "glow" we'll be making. (There are other ways of doing this "glow" but this is the most straight forward and mechanical -- for a teachable moment.)

Creating a Custom Drop Shadow

THIS IS A SIMPLE WALK-THROUGH for producing drop shadows by hand. In some cases you'll want to know and understand this process because you'll need a shadow that does not "drop" from the entire object, or one that you can manipulate as a separate object rather than part of the layer as in the Drop-Shadow layer effect.

This is an object, rastered on its own layer.

simple object

The first thing we'll do is duplicate that object to another new layer. 

* Drag the layer to the "New Layer" icon at the bottom of the layers palette, or, 

* Use the "Float" command: Command/J, or Control/J for Windows.

Photo tricks: Depth of Field

Add Depth of Field to Perk up Dull Photos... 

Perk up Dull Photos...

The life of a designer is often complicated by customer supplied photos. Many times there's little you can do to save them. One rule you can always count on is. . .

Isolation

One of the tricks I've always depended on is isolation. You can almost always add drama or focus the readers' attention by isolating the subject of an image. While there are many ways to do this, in some cases the best way is through depth of field.