Hello All,
I was asked by BlackCloud about some of the steps used in creating the Keyhole - Eye Image I posted. So I have made a little guide on the steps I made.
You can get the images required for following the guide here:
http://www.cameraangle.co.uk/keyhole/keyhole.jpg
http://www.cameraangle.co.uk/keyhole/greeneye.jpg
Download the two images before you start. You don't need the eye image particularly, you can use an image of your own, just start with the eye to get the idea and reaplace it with an image of your choice later
Post your completed images so we can see them
Guide
Open the Keyhole in Photoshop. You will need the Layers tool visible (F7)
In the layers area (on the right of the screen in the above example) you can see that the layer is marked as ‘Background’ The padlock show the layer is locked, we need to change this.
Double click the layer called background
A window will pop up, just click OK.
Look at the Layer tool again.
Now the layer has changed to ‘Layer 0’ and the padlock has gone.
As this is a ‘through the keyhole’ shot, we need to select the keyhole, so we can cut it out.
To do this, start with the Magic Wand tool . In the tolerance box at the top of the page enter the value 50. Click on the black area in the keyhole.
This will select most of the area within the keyhole. You can see the selected area is marked by a dotted line (known as marching ants)
There will be areas of the keyhole that are not selected, to include these in our selection, first pick the lasso tool from the tool palette. Important – Press and hold the shift key on your keyboard, or you will lose the current selection.
We are using the lasso tool to ‘add’ to our selection. If you are holding shift down, you will see the lasso has a ‘Plus’ sign to show that what you select will be added to any current selection. If you hold down the ‘Alt’ key you can remove areas from the selection.
You should have now selected the entire keyhole as shown in the image above.
We need to cut out the key hole, but before we do, we want to ensure we have a nice smooth cut, we do not want a harsh jagged edge.
Right Click the mouse ‘inside’ your selected area (use the right mouse button) and a menu (called a context, or popup menu) will appear. From this menu select ‘Feather’
The Feather Selection page will open.
This page allows us to select the amount of feather, from 1 to 250 pixels. By using a feather we get a smoother edge, use a pixel value of 10. If you like, play with the value to see the effect, try 1, 50, 200 etc. Each time you use the feather, just press CTRL-Z or use ‘Edit’ ‘Undo’ to cancel the changes.
Now press the ‘Delete’ key on your keyboard to remove the selection.
You should have something that looks like the image above. The Checker pattern denotes that nothing exists, this area is transparent, like a real key hole, if this were a real picture then figuratively speaking there would be a hole in it.
Next we need to create the dark effects around the image. Ensure you have the whole image selected, and not just the key hole (CTRL-A)
From the menu, select ‘Filter’ -> ‘Distort’ -> ‘Lens Correction’
This will bring up the Lens correction window.
Slide the ‘Vignette’ ‘Amount’ Slider all the way to the left. You will see the corners of the image get darker. Click ‘OK’ – Do this three times.
Once you have done this three times you should end up with an image similar to this:
As you can see, the corners are nice and dark. However, the metal work is still a bit bland.
To add some initial contrast, we are going to use the Unsharp Mask, but not for sharpening.
Click ‘Filter’ -> ‘Sharpen’ -> ‘Unsharp Mask’
You will see the following settings page:
Set as follows:
Amount to 25
Radius to 150
Threshold to 0
Click ‘OK’
The image contrast will now change, but the overall luminance of the image (brightness) will be relatively unchanged.
This is called ‘Local Contrast Adjustment’
Now, I still want to bring in the metal on the keep. So more adjustment of brightness and contrast is what I will use (you could use levels here, or dodge and burn tools, this is just one way of many)
Click ‘Image’ -> ‘Adjustments’ -> ‘Brightness/Contrast’
The Brightness/Contrast window will open.
Set the Brightness to -30 and the Contrast to +30 and click OK. This looks good on my monitor, but due to differing levels on LCDs you might find it is too dark or still too bright, so use some artistic license on how much brightness/contrast you use.
I want to bring out the rust on the metal a little, so I need to up the colours slightly, more to the point, I need to increase the amount of red. In this picture that will give me two things, brighter rust and deeper wood tones.
Click ‘Image’ -> ‘Adjustments’ -> ‘Hue/Saturation’
The ‘Hue/Saturation’ window will open.
Under the ‘Edit:’ menu select ‘Reds’
Increase the saturation by +40 and click ‘OK’
The reds should now be more prominent in your image.
With a bit of luck, you should have an image similar to the one above.
Don’t forget to save it J
As a comparison, here is what you started with (on the left) and what you should have finished with on the right.
Having gone to a lot of trouble to make our key hole, we now need to make some use of it. You will need an image to slide behind the key hole, so go and find something you think might look good. I’ll wait here J
You need to have both your key hole image and your other image open in Photoshop. I am using my green eye.
Notice I have darkened the image using the burn tool. This is because I want to create the illusion that the ‘thing’ on the other side of the door is in the dark. If you are doing a landscape image or something bright then you don’t need to do any darkening.
Select the ‘Move’ tool from the tools palette. Click once on the picture you want to have behind the key hole.
With the left mouse button, click and hold the mouse button on your image you are using, now drag this image on to the key hole image.
You will now have your image on top of the key hole image. Each image is on what is called a layer. Layers are a bit like a cake, each layer is an image in its own right, but forms part of an overall image.
The best part is we can move any layer up and down (unlike the cake).
In Photoshop, find the layers control (on one of your tool palettes)
You will see the two layers of your image, the first item in the list is the photo you dragged in, and the bottom item in the list is the key hole image.
Using the Move tool, click on the top layer, while holding the mouse button, drag it to the bottom layer.
So now your image is behind the key hole.
Still using the Move tool, click on your image and drag it in to place.
You can resize the image using the usual controls if required. Remember, you can only edit the image on the layer you have selected.
So if you are on the layer containing the key hole, you cannot do anything to the other layer, you have to select it in the layers palette first.
Well I hope you have fun with this little guide. I look forward to seeing your images.
Tools:
Wand Tool:
Lasso Tool:
Move Tool:
Guide is also on my website here:
http://www.cameraangle.co.uk/keyhole/index.htm
All the best,
Alan.