Final Tutorial

Creating Pop Art Using Threshold and Filters
By Nate Vander Martin

This tutorial will show you how to make an image look like pop art by applying threshold and filters.


Original Image

1. Start off by selecting the image that you want to make into pop art.

2. You will the duplicate the layer two times by clicking ctr + J (command + j, if you are using a mac) twice.

3. Once you have your two duplicated layers start off by selecting the top layer.

4. Next we will apply the threshold to the top layer. To do this click Image --> Adjustments --> Threshold…

5. In the threshold screen you will need to move the slider until you get the foreground image mostly outlined. Once it is click OK to get out of the threshold screen.



6. Now we will add a threshold to the middle layer. First click the eye on the top layer to hide it. Then make sure that the middle layer is selected and then open the threshold screen by following step 4.

7. In this threshold screen you will need to move the slider until the background is mostly outlined. Once it is click OK to get out of the screen.


8. Now we need to change to opacity of both the middle and top layers. First we need to click on the eye of the top layer to make it visible again. Click on the layer that you want to change and then click on the opacity slider and change the opacity to about 35% on both the middle and top layer. This will make the two layers a little see though so that the background image shows through a little.




9. Next we will add a filter. First we need to make another duplicate of the bottom or background layer. Then make sure that the new duplicated layer is just above the background layer.

10. Now click Filter --> Textures --> Stained Glass. A pop up window will show. You can then change the settings of the stained glass filter to what ever you would like. I chose to make all three to the least amount as possible. This will make the layer appear like it is stained glass.


11. Now you have a pop art looking image.

Mask

For this image the first thing I did was to use color range from the select drop down and chose shadows. I then made a new layer with the selection and made the fill color black. I then used color range and selected mid tone and made that selection into a new layer and made the fill color 50% gray. I then merged the two created layers. I then made a new white layer that was under the merged layer. I then painted the colors onto the blank white layer and came up with the image below.



For this image I first used the color range from the select drop down and chose shadows. I then made the selection a new layer and made the entire selection black using the fill section and kept preserve transparency on. I then used the color range on the original image and chose mid tones. I then made that seleciton into a new layer and made the fill color 50% gray. Turning on all of the layers then gives you the final image below.

This was a fun project to do. I have always loved panoramas and have always wanted to make one, and now I have. Here you can see my three original images, however there were five photos and you can see that final image at the end of this post. The first thing that I did was to expand the canvas of the right image to the left, enough to add two more images. Then I copied and pasted the middle image onto the expanded canvas of the right image. I then mad the opacity of the middle image about 60%, this made the image a little see though. Then I move the middle image to about where it should be when I lined it up with the right image and then used the arrow keys to nudge the image into place. Once in place I put the opacity back to 100% and then changed the levels of the image until it was about the same as the right image. I then used the eraser tool to take out the line that showed up as a result of the middle image on top of the right image. Once this was done I repeated the steps for the left image and the flattened them all together and added vibrance to the image. And the end result is shown as final panorama and final panorama with text.

Final Panorama



Final Panorama with Text



This image below uses all of the five images as mentioned before. This image was used using the Adobe Bridge CS4 and using the photomerge.

Project 5: Focus and Filters

Plastic Awe – This image was fun to do. The first thing I did was adding a lens flare with the movie prime filter. I then added the plastic wrap to the image. This gave the tree a shiny plastic look. Then I used the cutout filter for an added effect.














Moonlight Drawing – for this image I wanted the look of moonlight. I used two filters for this. The first is the lighting effects filter. With this filter I made an omni light and placed it at the top and behind the tree. I then made it the brightness of the omni light glow so that is was just bright enough to show the details of the tree. The next filter that I used was the watercolor filter. With this filter I made the made the shadow intensity a little high to make I look like the moon was out and that the tree was blocking the moons light at its base. I used the watercolor filter to give it more of an artistic look because just the lighting effects filter by itself made the image look fake.

Looking Through Glass – This image is supposed to represent someone looking through frosted glass. For this image I only used the glass filter, I used the frosted option and made the texture of the glass big enough to see the detail of the glass but not to big as to distort the image completely.

Project 4

This project was fun to do and I learned a lot from it.

I followed the steps in the book for the most part. I made the line drawing into a transparent drawing first to that all I had was the lines. I then used a paint brush to paint the lines only using the scatter and color dynamics features. The pattern used for the inside of the lines is the bubble texture that is with photoshop. To make the lines look like they have depth, I used the bevel and drop shadows fx.

Project 3

Selection Outline



For this image I started with a box and the worked on section at a time. For the four small boxes I just made one and then duplicated them and used the grid snap to get them in somewhat the same location. I did the same thing with the triangles as I did with the boxes. For the Circle I just centered it and made it white to begin with.


Dancers

Original Dancers


Original Head Shot


Composite


This one was fun to do. For this the first thing that I did was select only the head in the original head photo and added it to the original dancers image. then I rotated and resized the head until it matched that of the original. Then I made the opacity of the head lower so that I could see through it to erase the unwanted area around the collar of the neck and then put the opacity back to normal. I then adjusted the lighting and made the image black and white until it matched and then I came up with the complete composite image.

Adjustments

Original:


Sample:


Made:



This is the best that I can do for this picture. One of the first things that I did was to change the picture to black and white. I then played around with the color balance and the hue and saturation.


Color

Original:


Sample:


Made:


This is the closest I could get to the target picture. For this image I used a few things. I changed the color balance and the hue and saturation. This one took a while to do. I also changed to levels for each red blue and green.