Let's play around with Adobe Photoshop 4.0

By Zatni Arbi

JAKARTA (JP): One thing about graphics designers is that they are about as fanatic with Photoshop as Surabaya, East Java fans are with their soccer team. No matter how good other programs may be, a graphics designer will have no reason to consider himself or herself a pro unless he or she knows how to use Photoshop

Photoshop was responsible for bringing graphic image editing to the Macintosh. All other image manipulation programs that are easier to use in creating equally eye-popping effects tend to be viewed merely as toys by hardcore Photoshoppers.

The latest version of Adobe Photoshop is more than just a large collection of extra features. It runs much faster than Version 3.x. It runs even much, much faster if your PC happens to be powered by a Pentium with MMX Technology or Pentium II and you've also downloaded the patch necessary to enable the program to take advantage of MMX.

But even on my 133 MHz Pentium, which is already considered a clunker by today's standards, Photoshop 4.0 is still an enjoyable program to explore. It has a lot of clever features, and in some respects it can create effects more efficiently than CorelPHOTO- PAINT.

Now let's see how we can create a simple embossed logo of the newspaper in your hands in just a few steps using Photoshop 4.0.

Masking

Take a look at the accompanying picture. The masthead of this newspaper is embossed in three different ways, and you can see the results in the picture.

Here's what I did to create these effects. First I scanned the masthead from the actual The Jakarta Post copy. In my HP DeskScan scanning software, I chose Color Photo as the image type in order to get smooth edges and flexibility for manipulation. I set the contrast as high as possible so I almost got a black and white image. Then I saved it in the TIFF file format. I ran Photoshop 4.0 and opened this file.

Now it was time for the mask. The mask covers the area you do not want to modify and exposes only the area you want to change. It works exactly like the masking tape you use when painting your car.

Using the mask in Photoshop is also very easy if you know the command to use. In my project I clicked on the Select menu item, and then Color Range. The dialog box is what you see in the middle of the screen in the picture. This tool allowed me to pick a specific area of the image, whether the light one or the dark one. I started by choosing the black text first by selecting Shadows in the Select box.

When the OK button was pressed, a marquee appeared along the edges of the black text. That meant that all the black text was selected but the white space was left out. Then I copied the selected area of the image onto the Clipboard. The copying and pasting commands can be found, as usual, under the Edit menu item.

The next step was to create a new file. Usually the new file has the same dimensions as the image that is on the Clipboard. Of course we can specify a larger image file. I pasted the image from the Clipboard onto a new file, and I got something like the second window from the top.

Layering

In Photoshop, you also have to know about layers. A composite image consists of more than one layer, each of which contains an image. When I pasted the image of the text, I created a new layer. How we treat these layers determines what the end result of the embossing will look like.

In the third window from the top I merged the new layer completely with the background. To do this, I clicked on the Layer menu item, then Merge Down. I could have just pressed Ctrl- E, the shortcut for the same command. The next step was very easy. I just clicked on Filter, then Stylize and Emboss. I just have to adjust the angle of the light, the height of the emboss, and the amount of the emboss, and Photoshop dynamically changes the image on the screen based on my settings. When I was happy with what I saw, I clicked on the OK button.

For the other two images of the embossed The Jakarta Post masthead, I went back to the scanned image and selected the lighter area. I called up the Color Range box again, then I chose Highlights from the list in the Select box. Now all the white space was selected, but the black text became void. Again I copied this mask onto the Clipboard, and I proceeded to create a new file.

But this time I had to first give a different color to the background. We cannot emboss an object that has exactly the same color as its background. I picked up the Paint Bucket tool (or I could have pressed the K key). When the cursor was on the color swatch box, it became a color-picking tool. Using this tool I picked one of the gray shades and poured paint all over the new image. When the new image was already gray, I pasted the mask from the Clipboard on it.

This time I chose to merge the layers by letting the background remain visible. I clicked on Layer, then Merge Visible. I could have pressed Shift-Ctrl-E to activate the same command.

Black or white

By choosing the black or white area of the scanned image we can achieve different emboss effects. In the bottom window, the emboss effect was created by selecting the black text again instead of the white area. The rest of the procedure was just like the previous one.

Using the mask tool is one way we can create extraordinary effects in image-editing programs such as Photoshop and CorelPHOTO-PAINT. This masthead project is just a very simple example, but you can unleash your creativity after mastering the basics. It takes a while to really create a masterpiece with Photoshop 4.0, but it is worth all the learning efforts.