Lesson 3

Holyrood Bengals

Aim: To revise previous work and to learn about the other lasso tools, layer opacity, lighting effects and colour balance.

Fig1

Save the images holyroodbackground , bengal1 and bengal2 to your folder (remember to right click on link and choose Save Link).

Open bengal1 and use the magnetic lasso tool to draw around it. This tool is below the lasso tool so click on the small arrow in the corner of the lasso tool icon to get to it. You click once then drag to use this tool. When you come to join up the selection , double click and now you should have the cat selected.

fig2
I have prepared bengal2 so that you can select it with the magic wand tool. You could go and get any image you want off the internet, or from your own photos instead.

Fig3

Wahtever image that you have selected go to Copy. Now open up the holyroodbackground image and paste your image into it. Do the same for any other images you want to use. Remember that it's a good idea to give your layers names, eg right click on the layer that appears when you paste the cat and go to Layer properties and give the layerr a name. Save your Photoshop file as holyroodbengalghost ( or what you want to call it).

Fig 4

To make your cat look like a ghost, click on the layer your cat is on and then click on the Opacity arrow . You can drag the slider to change the Layer opacity.

Fig5

You might want to make the background darker or have more contrast. To do this make sure that you are on the layer with the background on it. Go to Image, then Adjust, then Brightness and Contrast. Play around with the sliders until you are happy with it.

Fig6

Move the cats around until you are happy with your composition.

Fig7
You could make the picture more atmospheric but adding a moon. Create a new layer by clicking on the layer icon (next to the bin icon at the botton of the layers box). Select the eliptical tool (from under the Rectanguler Marque tool ). To make a circle rather than an elipse hold the shift button down as you drag . You can then click on the bucket tool and fill the circle with white (or whatever colour you want).

Fig 8

Select the Polygonal Lasso tool (under lasso tool) and cut away the section of the moon that would have been hidden by the wall.

Fig 9

To give the moon a bit of shadow you could use a variety of methods. One way would be to use a filter. Make sure that you are on the moon layer. Go to Filter (on top Menu bar), go to Render, then go to Lighting effects. You can position you lighting source interactively or use the sliders. Click OK.

Fig 10

You could experiment with the image colours. You could do this to each layer separately or you could merge all the layers together. I went to Image, then Adjust, then Colour Balance and experimented with the sliders.

This lesson can be downloaded in word format.

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