In this tutorial we will learn how to load brushes into Photoshop as well as some of the basics in regards to using them and making them work for your layouts. This tutorial is suitable for Photoshop CS+.
First we need to load our set of brushes. Photoshop comes with several sets or you may have purchased a set. For the purpose of this tutorial I will be using grungy Photoshop brushes.
First copy your .abr file into your C:/Program Files/Adobe/Adobe Photoshop CS/Presets/Brushes folder before loading your brushes. Brushes saved to this folder will load each time you start Photoshop. (If you do not wish to have them load every time you start Photoshop, you can save them to a different folder and load them as you need them.) Please note that your drive letter may vary from this and your Photoshop folder may have a slightly different name depending on the version of Photoshop you use.
We now need to ensure our brushes tool is selected by clicking on the brush/pencil tool and holding your mouse button down to get the pop out menu. Click on the first item, Brush tool to select brushes.
Now click on the brushes tab at the top right of your screen.
If you are unable to view this tab, you can show it by going to the Windows menu and clicking on brushes. You should then be able to drag it to the box containing the other tabs so that it appears each time you open Photoshop.
We then need to load your brushes. To do so click on the small arrow next to the word brushes on the brushes tab and a menu will appear.
Select Load Brushes from the list of options.
Brushes for Photoshop come in .abr files. So in your download, look for the .abr file you copied to your presets folder.
Browse for your brushes file in your Adobe/Photoshop CS/Presets/Brushes folder. Once you have found the file click on it to select it and click on the Load button. This will load your brushes into the Photoshop brushes collection.
You should now be able to view your loaded brushes in the brush selection menu.
Tip:- In the above preview I have my brushes set to show as large thumbnails. There are several viewing options. To choose your favourite, click on the arrow on your brushes tab again and select your viewing option from the menu that appears. You may prefer small thumbnails or one of the other options, try them and see!
The next step is to choose a brush to use. For the purposes of this tutorial I am going to put white inked edges around the edges of a photo. Brushes are very versatile and have a HUGE number of uses, from painting, grunging or decorating papers, to inking edges on photos and papers or even editing photos. You can use brushes with your eraser tool and dodging and burning tools to name a few. Then you have the option of experimenting with blend modes to enhance the effect of your brushwork. Once you start to experiment with brushes, they become very addictive!
I have several inked edge brushes to choose from, and in the sample below I have used a few of them, but you can just use one and change the rotation of the brush to suit each side of the image. I have also used some other grung brushes to achieve the effect I am after.
Now to choose the brush!
To choose a brush, find the brush you wish to use and click on it. This selects your brush choice. You can then change the size of the brush to suit your purpose using the Master Diameter. Alternatively you may wish to use the menu that appears when you click on the dropdown arrow next to your chosen brush at the top left of your options toolbar.
Tip:- Create a new layer before beginning your brushwork so that it can be easily erased if need be by deleting everything on the layer or the layer itself.
I am editing a 400x575 pixel photo in this tutorial, and will need to adjust my brush sizes accordingly. You can reduce or increase the size of your brushes to suit your needs using the Master Diameter setting.
As you can see below, I have selected white from my colour palette and have begun my brushwork on a new layer by clicking on the areas of my canvas that I wish the brushwork to appear, much like ‘stamping’ the image on the screen. In the sample below you can see the outline of the brush as an indicator of how it will appear on the canvas.
Your brush will not always be angled in the position you wish to use it, to rotate your brush to suit the angle you require, click on the Brush Tip Shape option to the left of the Brushes palette. Here you will find further options for editing your brush. To change the rotation of the brush, you can click on and drag the arrow to an angle that suits, or enter the angle into the Angle box. You can also edit the diameter of your box in this area.
You may notice the other options down the left side of your palette. There is great scope for experimentation here, however these will not be covered in this basic tutorial.
Below is the finished product, with several different brushes applied. (some inked edges & a crayon line brush).
If you want to take it one step further, you can experiment with blend modes and additional brush work to create different effects. Below are the blend modes I have used for my Ink Edges layer and also a second layer of grunge brushwork I have done on the image following.
Below is the end result of the above blend modes (Exclusion – Layer 1 & Soft Light – Layer 2) and an extra layer of additional brushwork.
Or for a more defined border, I have changed the blend mode on the inked edges layer to Difference.
The techniques you have learned in this tutorial can be applied to your favourite background papers or photos and even when designing blinkies. The possibilities are endless! You can add layer layer styles, vary the opacity and apply further effects as well to add further enhancements to your work.
Posted by clikchic on Jul 19, 2009 in New Releases
Check out my latest lot of photoshop actions to make your photos look great!
Color Pop – Give your photos a color boost with the click of a button. A fast and easy boost to your photo to really make it zing.
Color Soft – A lovely slightly colored effect, not quite monocrome, but not quite color. Perfect for softening distracting colors while maintaining some color in your photo. Great for heritage style layouts.
Color Not – Quick and easy monochrome images, no more fiddling to get the contrast right, with this action it happens in one easy step. Need more contrast? Run the action a second time for extra punch.
I have two new products now available in store at DSP! These should be lots of fun to play with!
Check out my Doodle Me Crazy Frame Stamps, which also include photoshop brushes.
And now you can get ARTY with these fabulous brushes/stamps. Use them to artify your layout, do some fancy smancy brush work, or use them on masks.. the possibilities are endless!
A lot of scrappers seem hesitant to buy effect overlays because they can’t see themselves using them or are unsure of what to do with them. In this tutorial I thought I would give some quick and simple sample ideas of just how much you can do with overlays. For the purpose of this tutorial I am going to be using my Water Color Arsenal Overlays available in the DSP store.
Firstly the important thing to remember with overlays is that in order to get maximum use out of them you need to be experimenting with blend modes.
In Photoshop, you will find the various blend modes available to you in the Layers Palette.
For our first example I am going to use a photo. I know I often forget the interesting effects you can produce by using overlays on photos.
Here is the original photo of tulips and the second version, with Water Color Arsenal Overlay number 1 from the set, laid over the top and using the Linear Light Blend Mode.
As you can see, using the Linear Light blend mode, lightens the colours of the photo underneath in conjunction with the lighter colours in the overlays, and darkens the darker colours in the overlay and colours underneath giving an interesting water colour wash effect.
In the following sample, I have laid two different water colour overlays on a paper from my Sea Biscuit Page Kit available in the DSP store.
On this sample I used the Colour Burn blend mode on both Overlay layers. Colour burn tends to give a wet saturated look on lighter colours making the paper in this case almost look like wet fabric.
Overlay Blend Mode will produce a softer effect to Linear Light. On the Paper below from my P365 Essentials Vol 2 Page Kit I have used the water colour overlay over the top of the paper using an Overlay Blend Mode. The effect can be adjusted by reducing the opacity of the layer.
You can also experiment with blend modes to age your photos. The photo below is a monochrome image of my daughter taken a few years ago. Adding a water colour overlay with a Hard Light Blend Mode and 61% Opacity gives the photo an aged look. This effect works best on dark monochrome photos. You could get similar effects with different blend modes on lighter photos.
Here is the original photo and the photo with the Hard Light Blend Mode
You can enhance your special effects even further buy recolouring the overlays. There are so many possibilities available to you.
I am back at my day job today after having a wonderful time at the Gold Coast for 4 days!
On Thursday I drove to Brisbane to pick up Margie, Allen, Lauren and Erica from the airport and take them to the Gold Coast.
Lauren very kindly uploaded this photo without photoshopping me first! I can’t believe how much weight I have gained on the cortisone! Scary!
Erica, Lauren, Allen, Margie and Me
It was absolutely wonderful to be able to meet my online work mates in person and get to know them in real life rather than just online.
Once we finally got to the Gold Coast we checked in and went in search of some lunch. We went to Billy Baxters on Caville Ave. We headed back to the hotel afterwards to settle into our rooms and then afterwards enjoyed a wonderful Buffett meal in the Hotel Restaurant.
On Thursday afternoon we had a wonderful time on the pre-crop Photo Walk. It was soo much fun getting to meet so many DSP members in the flesh all at once.
I took a few pics on the photo walk, I think I took more pics of the DSP’ers than I did of the scenery!
Here are a few of the photos I took on the walk.
Here are some picks from the Laptop Crop itself.
We had lots of fun scrapping and getting to know each other a little better and helping each other learn more about our craft! There was even a bit of line dancing involved, or should we say digidancing?? There were lots of prizes to be had with one lucky winner winning the Wacom Bamboo Fun Graphics Tablet!
I think the Wacom rep did quite well selling lots of tablets! I was a little naughty and couldn’t resist the wonderful deal he was offering and bought an Intuos 4! I can’t wait till it arrives!
I will have some more exciting news to share, but for now my lips are sealed.. stay posted and you will find out in good time.
The March Graphically Challenged at DSP is to ‘cross process’ a photo and create a layout with that photo. Cross processing is a traditional still film photography technique that can produce some really striking results, however you can achieve similar effects in photoshop without messing with those stinky chemicals!
I have done a tutorial to demonstrate how to achieve the effect in photoshop. The challenge is to create a layout using the cross processed photo and have it take up the entire page.
I decided to scraplift a layout done by Klamb1111 because I loved the affect she created on her layout with the tutorial and had the perfect photo to use after Jasmine learnt how to ride her bike without training wheels over the weekend!
Anyway, here is my layout using the technique, using the cross processed photo, blend modes and a background paper from my Altered Heart Page Kit.
I am a member of NAPP (National Association of Photoshop Professionals) and there are some great benefits to being a member, support, online classes, tutorials and training, member discounts and a great community. It is worth checking out if you use Photoshop and want to learn more. Click on the graphic below to find out more.
Posted by clikchic on Aug 23, 2008 in new releases
I have been busily creating a new collection of (.abr & .png) brushes and overlays perfect for distressing layouts, adding paint marks, and creating water colour works of art. They are available in both personal use and professional use versions, so digiscrap designers can use them to create their papers and kits. These brushes and overlays are guaranteed to be sharp at 100%.
Check them out now in the DigiScrapArt store. (images clickable)
Posted by clikchic on Jul 14, 2008 in new releases
Have you always wanted to give your photos that dreamy look, a soft dewy glow, blemishes all but non-existant. Check out this new action now available in the shoppe.
Dreamy Photo Photoshop Action – This action is one of the most versatile effects you can have for your photos. It gives a niceethereal glow to your photos, as well as softens blemishes, warms the tone and brightens harsh shadows. It is perfect for dreamy fairy photos, or jazzing up flash photo snaps. Use it in conjunction with the Faux Lomo action for a stunning vintage ethereal feel.
For those of you new to digital scrapbooking communities and galleries, you may never have had the need to save images for viewing on the web before. Read on to find out how to save your images for web use to enable fast viewing and to be able to upload to online galleries.
mages viewed via the web do not need to be the same resolution as images saved for printing, as the maximum viewing resolution on a monitor is 72dpi. Images should also be compressed to allow for quick displaying of images when viewed via the internet. The image should also be smaller in size than that to be printed out, as viewing size on a monitor is much smaller than that being printed out.
This tutorial explains how to save images for sharing on the web or in online galleries.
When you layout is complete, the first step is to flatten your layers. Doing this prevents your layer styles from needing to be rescaled when your image sizes is reduced, which can happen on occasion, particularly in Photoshop Elements.
To flatten your layers, go to the layers palette and click on the more button in PSE or in Photoshop, the small button with a triangle pointing to the right of your screen.
From the menu which appears select flatten image.
This will flatten all the layers in your layout to a single layer.
After you have done this it is time to resize your image. In the digiscrapart.com gallery, the maximum size you can upload to our gallery is 600x600pixels, and 125kb. In your image menu, select Resize> Image Size. (or in Photoshop just select Image Size)
In the window that appears, you can select the size you wish to make your image.
Firstly ensure that Resample Image is checked so that you are able to access the pixel dimensions portion of the window. (constrain proportions should also be checked) In the Width and height the maximum amount of pixels should be 600. You may make it smaller if you wish however 500-600pixels is a good viewing size for the web. For a square image, you can resize it too 600×600 pixels, and for rectangular images, the maximum Width or Height is 600pixels. Just change the largest Dimension to 600 and providing Constrain Proportions is checked, the other dimension will change automatically. Once you have changed the amount of pixels to 600 or less, click on ok. This reduces the viewing size to a suitable size for viewing on the web.
Next we need to save our image for the web. This allows us to reduce file size as much as possible without reducing viewing quality. (do not use this method for layouts you wish to print)
Go to your file menu and choose Save for Web.
A new window will appear with two versions of your image. (in Photoshop you may need to click on the 2 Up tab) On the left is your original image and on the right is the sample of the image as you adjust its compression settings.
In the Preset box, ensure that you have JPEG selected in the box for file types. To the right of this box is a Quality box. This is where you adjust your compression level. Adjusting the level in the Quality box directly effects the file size shown under your sample image. The aim is to get the maximum viewing quality possible, with minimum file size. Play with the levels in the Quality box and see how it affects your sample image in comparison to your original image. Brightly coloured or high contrast images tend to be large file sizes than lower contrast images.
To be able to upload your image to the digiscrapart.com gallery, your image file size must be less than 125k. Check the file size under JPEG shown as above below the sample image. Generally speaking you should be able to keep your images under 100k for most layouts. If you need to zoom in to get a better view of the effect of the compression, you can click on the magnifying glass at the top left and click on your image to zoom in. (hold down the alt key and click to zoom back out)
Once you are happy with your adjustments, click on the Ok button.
Be sure not to overwrite your high resolution images by saving as the same name. You might like to put -lowres or -forweb at the end of your file name to indicate that the image is a low resolution image for web/email viewing.
Once you have named your file and chosen an easy to remember place on your hard drive to save it, click on Save, to save your new, low resolution version of your image.
Tip: When going back to your image in PS or PSE, remember not to resave your original as your full printing size will be lost. You may wish to undo your sizing and layer changes before saving again, or in Photoshop you can click on Revert in the File menu to revert to the last saved version.
