Preview of Final Results

3D Textured Text Photoshop Tutorial

Step 1

Open up Illustrator, and with the Type Tool type a letter or text, I typed the letter “C” I used the font Adobe Caslon Pro, you can use any font that you like, just make sure that it is a bit thick font to yield better results. I set the font size to 400 pt & scaled it horizontally & vertically to 150% through the Character Palette, though don’t worry about the font size too much because we’ll be pasting it as Smart Objects in Photoshop so we can adjust the size at any given time. The color I used for the letter is #8CC63F.

Step 2

Now go to Effect>3D>Extrude & Bevel, make sure that Preview is on. Use the settings shown below, apart from specifying rotations for x, y & z axis, I chose Tall-Round from the Bevel drop down list. The settings will more or less depend on the font, so if you have used a different font play a bit, though I will advise to stay away from the fancier Bevel settings, mostly None setting works best. You can also make it more thick by increasing the Extrude Depth.

Step 3

After you’re happy with your 3D effect, it will be time to move on over to Photoshop. Open a new document in Photoshop. Now, copy your 3D text/letter from Illustrator & paste it as Smart Object in Photoshop, press Enter key or checkmark to commit. You can now resize your text to whatever size you want, in fact, bigger the better, but for the purposes of this tutorial, I will stick to a small canvas.

Power Tip: If for any reason, you want to edit the pasted 3D Smart Object, just double click on the Vector Smart Object thumbnail in the Layer Palette, press OK on the resulting window, the Smart Object will automatically open up in Illustrator, do the changes or editing you want, then go to File>Save & close the file & tadaa the changes will reflect in your Photoshop file.

Step 4

Now, lets begin with the Photoshop magic, we will be adding various texture on the different layers & will spice them up with the variety of blending modes, the key is to experiment & choose the settings that will best suit your purpose.

Open the texture image that you would like to use, for the first layer I used a texture, lets call it Texture 1 from a texture pack on deviantArt. Go to Select>All & then Edit>Copy to copy the entire texture image, Now we are going to paste this image into our letter, but you have to tell Photoshop where to paste it. So return to your 3D text document & pressing down Ctrl/Cmd Click on Vector Smart Object thumbnail, this will select the entire text/letter, in our case, the letter “C”, now go to Edit>Paste Into (Shift+Ctrl/Cmd+V) to paste the texture image on “C”. Change the blending mode of the texture layer to Overlay.

Now, your image & layer palette should look like so:

Look at your layers palette now. You see your texture image there and a mask has been made that allows only the letter part of the image to show.

If you’re using different images, play around a bit with blending modes, mostly Overlay, Soft Light, Hard light, Multiply will give the desired results.

Step 5

Repeat the procedure prescribed in Step 4, but with a different texture. I used one of the texture from this pack.

In brief, open the texture image, Select All (Ctrl/Cmd+A), Copy it (Ctrl/Cmd+C) & return to your original document, pressing down Ctrl/Cmd Click on Vector Smart Object thumbnail to select the letter/text & go to Edit>Paste Into (Shift+Ctrl/Cmd+V) to paste the texture in the letter “C”. And, change the blending mode to Multiply.

Step 6

Now, its again time to do the same thing as mentioned in Step 4 & 5, but with the different texture image. This time I used a more colorful texture from a another texture pack over at deviantArt. And, this time I choose the blending mode to Soft Light.

This is how my image & Layer Palette looks like after step 6.

Power Tip: If you need to edit the filler texture image or if you don’t like how it looks within the letter, you can still change it! Just choose the Move Tool (V) & drag over with your texture layer selected. Also, if you need to resize the texture image select Edit>Transform to resize it.

Step 7

Now, select the Background layer & fill with a Gradient Tool (G). I used Linear Gradient & the colors for the two stops are as prescribed in the screenshot. Drag the gradient tool diagonally from bottom to top.

Step 8

Pressing down Shift key select all the layers in the Layer Palette except the background layer & Link all of them. Also make sure to link the Layer Mask thumbnails with their corresponding layer thumbnails by clicking once between them.

Step 9

Now, we will do the reflection of our letter “C”. For that, select all the linked layers & duplicate them.

Step10

Merge all the duplicated layers & name it Reflection.

Step 11

On the Reflection layer, go to Edit>Transform>Flip Vertical & place it beneath the letter “C”. Adjust its perspective if the need be.

Step 12

The next step is to add a layer mask to the duplicate layer. To do this simply click on the add layer mask button in the layers palette.

Now pick the Gradient Tool (G) and draw a gradient (black to white) in the direction from bottom to mid top.

Finally just reduce the opacity of the duplicate layer and you are all done. I reduced the opacity to 20% , there is no golden rule about the opacity % , just play with the opacity setting & choose the one that suits your image.

Step 13

Finally, with the Type Tool, I wrote the words “for creativity” with the settings as shown in the Character Palette.

The font used is Larissa & can be downloaded from here. I also rotated the words a bit via Edit>Transform.

Then I applied the layer style, as shown in the screenshots below.

Step 14

To add a bit of finishing touch, I added Outer Glow to the Vector Smart Object layer, as shown.

And, that’s how my Layers palette in end & final image looks like.

Here, is a another example of image, I made with the same technique.

To take it further, play & experiment with various textures, the blending modes, also changing the various Adjustments options like Invert, Posterize, Hue/Saturations settings etc. gives the different results. You can also make the text look grungy or rusty using grunge textures, its just the matter of exploring the powers of Photoshop & tapping your creativity!

::GFXZoOM::source:photoshoptutorials.ws::

::GFXZoOM::source:transfuchsian.blogspot.com::

Final image:

Here’s how you do it:

1. First we will create a border for the image that will keep everything we draw within a nice clean shape. Start by drawing two rectangles with the Rounded Rectangle Tool. You can use the Pathfinder Palette like in step 2 to make a traditional matte or the more simple technique is to make just one rectangle with a really thick stroke.

2. Select both rectangles and then in the Pathfinder Palette click on “Substract from Shape area” and then click on expand. Now make the new shape white and place it on it’s own layer and keep all other layers below it. As we continue throughout the tutorial you can make new layers as you see fit to place your different objects on. I will leave that up to your discretion; as such, I won’t be pointing out when we make new layers.

3. Draw a new rectangle and apply to it a blue gradient. This is the basis of what will become the sky. Note that this looks like a rounded corner rectangle because it is behind the matte layer.

4.Using the Pen Tool (P) draw some wavy shapes on the scene that will become the grass.

5. Now to make the bushes. Using the Pen Tool draw an abstract shape like below.

6. Select the new shape and go to Effects -> Distort & Transform -> Zig Zag and put in the settings below or you can experiment to get something different.

7. Next we will make a few variations of the bush shape. First copy it two times and then fill the copies with slightly different gradients. Finally double-click on Zig Zag in the Appearance palette and play with the settings a bit to vary each shape.

8. Select the 3 shapes and go to Object -> Expand Appearance. This will lock the Zig Zag effect we applied.

9. Now place the 3 shapes on a new layer behind the grass field and scatter them arround however you would like them to look. A simple way to copy them arround is to hold down the Alt key while dragging the shape. This will make a copy of it in the release spot.

10. Next we will create the sun rays. Start by drawing a hourglass shape like below.

11. Press Ctrl+Shift+Alt+D to open the Transform window, put in the settings as below and press Copy.

12. Repeat the previous step until you get a full circle.

13. Go to Object -> Envelope Distort -> Make with Warp (Ctrl+Shift+Alt+W), select Twist and set Bend to 100%.

14. Move this shape over the scene, go to Object -> Expand Appearance and click OK.

15. Set the fill color to white and Opacity to 10%.

16. Now to make the Sun: draw a circle and apply a Radial gradient to it.

17. Duplicate the Sun (press Ctrl+C to copy and Ctrl+F to paste in front)

18. Set the fill color to yellow and then go to Effect – > Blur -> Gaussian Blur.

Conclusion

You should now have a better insight into what it takes to use simple shapes, color, and gradients to create a summer landscape environment. A pleasing illustration is not always about intricacy, one of the most rudimentary factors is composition. Keep practicing, learning, and continue to have fun.

::GFXZoOM::source:talextech.net::

This is a preview of the final effect..

Step 1

Create a new document 1440×900 px and fill the background with a radial gradient white pink (#FFFFFF- #FFE0FC).

Step 2

Paste this picture of a flying crane into a new layer named “Crane”, resize it and extract it from its background.

Step 3

Download macbadshoes’ watercolor brushes. Select one of the brushes of the set and paint a pink or violet shape (#D1A7CD) into a new layer named “Watercolor 1″, then put “Watercolor1″ layer above all the others and change its Blend Mode to Color Burn.

Step 4

Use an “S” shaped brush to paint a large watercolor pink (#EFB9EB) background. Paint this into a new layer named “Watercolor 2″ this time and change its Blend Mode to Multiply.

Step 5

Next, on Brushes palette, select the Dry brushes set, and select any of them. Over Brush options, change the size to 79px, Blend mode to Overlay, and both Opacity and Flow to 30%. Then just paint over “Crane” layer here and there using several colors. Paint the shapes randomly.

Step 6

Select “Crane” layer, then go to Filters > Filter Gallery > Artistic > Dry Brush, set the values shown below and see how it looks.

Step 7

As a final watercolor detail, by using another “S” shaped watercolor brush, draw some soft pink shapes on the background.

Step 8

Add your desired text, I’m using Scriptina and Eras Light ITC.

Step 9

Finally add a texture. I’m using this paper texture form stockxchng. Paste it into a new layer above all the other and change its Blending Mode to Multiply and its Opacity to 75%.

Conclusion

And that’s it, a simple and fun way to turn any picture into watercolor, try your own!.

Author:Alvaro Guzman

::GFXZoOM::source:designreviver.com::

Step 1.
Create a new 450X350 pixels document. Set a black color for a foreground and white color for a background. Apply Filter > Render > Clouds. Apply Filter > Artistic > Poster Edges with the following settings: Edge Thickness -> 10, Edge Intensity -> 10, Posterization -> 6.

Step 2.
Apply Filter > Blur > Radial Blur with the following settings: Amount -> 10, Blur Method -> Zoom, Quality -> Best. Then apply Image > Adjustments > Hue/Saturation with the following settings: Hue -> 36, Saturation -> 47, Lightness -> +7.

Step 3.
Aplly Filter > Blur > Radial Blur with the same settings. Apply Image > Adjustments > Brightness/Contrast with the following settings: Brightness -> -25, Contrast -> +13. Duplicate this layer and set the Blending Mode as ‘Soft Light‘. Then Merge down all layers.

Step 4.
Apply Filter > Artistic > Rough Pastels with the following settings: Stroke Length -> 1, Stroke Detail -> 2, Texture -> Canvas, Scaling -> 55%, Relief -> 4, Light -> Bottom. Then apply Filter > Blur > Radial Blur with the following settings: Amount -> 8, Blur Method -> Zoom, Quality -> Best. And that’s it.

::GFXZoOM::source:pstutes.com::

• Napoleon on his Throne – Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres
• Male Lion – Trisha Shears
• Potted Plant – G& A Scholiers
• Potted Flower – G& A Scholiers
• Palm – Milenable
• Crown – Ikiwaner
• Cow Skull – Petr Kovar
• Human Skull – Alicia Solario
• Snake – Trine de Folie

Step 1: Open the Napoleon image & Crop it

First of all open the painting of Napoleon. It is a famous painting done in 1806 and it can be used as it’s copyright has expired and it is now in the public domain. It was found it on Wikimedia Commons which is a good site for such images.

Use the Crop Tool (C) to crop the steps off the bottom of the image to improve the compostion and bring more attention to the head.

Step 2: Add Lions Head

Import the image “Male Lion”. Using Free Transform (Ctrl +T) resize the image and rotate it slighty so that it fits well on the body

Step 3: Blend lion head into body

Add a layermask to the layer with the lion’s head either by Layer > Layer Mask > Reval All or by clicking on the Add layer mask icon on the Layers window. You can paint in greyscale in the layer mask. Using a black brush hides the image at the corresponding position on the layer while a white brush will reveal it. Different shades of grey can be used for different opacities. Use a Soft Black Brush around the lions head on the layer mask to hide the surrounding scenery. You can use the ] to increase brush size and [ to decrease brush size.

Use the Dodge & Burn tools to adjust the lighting of the lion head.

Then sharpen the image by using Filter >Sharpen > Sharpen to get the lions head the same sharpness as the background

A lions head is bigger than a human head so it will cause more of shadow on the body. The lion stock already has a prominent shadow with a clear path on it to follow. Use the Polygonal Lasso to select an area below the head where the shadow is likely to fall. Use a soft brush in the Eraser tool to erase parts of the shadow to make it more realistic. Set the layer to Soft Light and turn down the Opacity to 50%

Step 4: Making the throne more jungle

Create a new layer (Ctrl + Shift + N). Outline the edge of the throne using the Pen Tool (P) ( make sure the pen tool is in path mode). Right click on path and select make selection…and fill selection with a green colour. Use the eraser to get rid of areas of green which are blocking objects which would be infront of the throne. Set layer to Color mode.

Right click the above layer and select blending options. The settings used are in the image below. The patterns used are photoshop defaults under the texture fill category.

Step 5: Add vegetation on the throne

We are going to add more vegetation around the throne to make it look more jungle. Firstly add some flowers to the greenery on the throne to make it look more regal. To do this select select the greenry by Ctrl + left click on the layer containing it. On a new layer brush on some flowers using a 3px round brush on 30% opacity to brush in the flowers, the brush settings are shown below. Play around with the colour and opacity of the brush to get different shades of flowers.

Step 6: Add vegetation around the the throne

Open the image “Potted Plant”in a new document. Use select > colour range to select the white in the image. Adjust the fuzziness so that as much white is selected without much of the plant being selected. Ctrl + Shift + I to selected inverse. Add a layer mask, this will mask out the white part of the image. The pot part of the image is not needed so using a black brush on the layer mask hide the pot and the shadow of the plant. Then drag the layer into the main document and resize it using Free Transform (Ctrl +T),

If there is a white line around the leaves select the layer mask (Ctrl + left click ), select inverse (Ctrl + Shift + I) and feather (Ctrl + Alt + D) by 2 pixels. Delete this selection to get rid of any excess white lines around the leaves.

Repeat the above steps with the “Potted Flower” and the “Palm” stock.

Step 7: Arranging and blending the vegetation

The palm leaves are going to be above the throne while flowers are going to rest at the feet of the throne with the leafy plant standing behind the flowers. Arrange the plants into their respective positions making sure the flower layer is above the plant layer.

Duplicate the layers with the vegetation to build up the thickness of the vegetation. Use the black brush on the layer mask as needed to make sure the duplicates blend well with the originals.

After achieving the right thickness and distribution of the different vegetation merge all layers of the same type of vegetation for ease of use. This can be done by selecting all the layers using Ctrl + Left Click and right clicking on the layer and selecting Merge layers.

Play around with Image > Adjustments > Hue/Saturation to make the colours of the vegetation blend a bit more. The leafy plant and the palm leaves will need to be desaturated slighty as well as made a little darker as they are more in the background of the image.

Erase parts of the vegetation that are blocking objects that would be infront of them in the image.

Use the Dodge & Burn tools to adjust the lighting of the vegetation.

Step 8: Add a Crown

Theres no king without a crown. Import the “Crown” image to a layer above the lions head and using the Pen Tool (P) select the black area and get rid of it. Using the Free Transform (Ctrl +T) resize the crown to an appropriate size.

Make the crown fit the lions head using the Perspective (Edit > Transform > Perspective) and Warp (Edit > Transform > Warp) Tools

Use the Dodge & Burn tools to adjust the lighting of the crown.

Step 9: Add some skulls

As the King the lion is dominant over man and beast and to symbolise this we are going to add the skull of a man and the skull of an animal either side of the throne. A cow’s skull will be placed on the golden pedestal on the lions left. Cover the globe that is there with the surrounding red cloth using the Clone Stamp Tool.

Import the “Cow Skull.” Remove the white background of the skull using the Pen Tool (P) and use the Free Transform (Ctrl +T) to resize the skull to an appropriate size.

Make the skull fit on the pedestal using the Perspective (Edit > Transform > Perspective) & Warp (Edit > Transform > Warp)Tools

Using Image>Adjustments >Brightness/Contrast… reduce the brightness and the contrast of the skull.

Use the Dodge & Burn tools to adjust the lighting of the skull

Step 10: Add the human skull.

A human skull will be placed on the golden pedestal on the lions right. The globe only needs to be partially covered as globe can be used as reference for the lighting on the skull. Cover the edge of the globe surrounding red cloak using the Clone Stamp Tool. Cover only part of globe that the skull wouldn’t be infront of.

Import the “Human Skull” image. Remove the white background of the skull using the Pen Tool (P). Use the Free Transform (Ctrl +T) to resize the skull to an appropriate size .

Make the skull fit the pedestal using the Perspective (Edit > Transform > Perspective) & Warp (Edit > Transform > Warp)Tools just like in the previous step

Using Image>Adjustments >Brightness/Contrast… reduce the brightness and but increase contrast of the skull. And using Image>Adjustments >Hue/Saturation reduce some saturation of the skull.

Use the Dodge & Burn tools to adjust the lighting of the skull

Use a soft black brush of low opacity to shade the edge of the cloak and to make the skulls shadow.

Step 11: Add an advisor for the king.

Import the “Snake” image.

Remove the white background of the snake using the Pen Tool (P). Use the Free Transform (Ctrl +T) to resize the skull to an appropriate size . The intention is to make the snake twirl around the lions cane.

Copy and paste the straight part of the snake on to a new layer. Arrange it using the Free Transform (Ctrl +T) to move it and rotate it so that the snake starts to look as if it is wrapped around the cane. Duplicate the straight part of the snake till the snake starts to look as if it is wrapped around the length of the cane and is dissapearing into the kings cloak.

Use a soft round eraser to smooth the harsh edges of the duplicate so that the parts of the snake starts blending into each other.

Once all the different duplicates are blended together merge them into a single layer.

Using the eraser remove parts of the snake which would be behind the cane.

Use the Dodge & Burn tools to adjust the lighting of the snake.

Step 12: Adjusting the base image

Lions are thought of as being very strong animals so we are going to make the body parts of the king larger. For this we will be editing the intial layer (make sure to duplicate the first layer as an insurance). Use the Bloat Tool (B) in the Liquidify Filter (Shift + Ctrl + X) on the intial layer to make the large muscle areas of the body even larger.

Use Dodge & Burn to even out the lighting on the base layer.

Step 13: Overall adjustments

Select the uppermost layer and then create a new Adjustment Layer by Layer >New Adjustment Layer > Black & White. Play around with the dials for the different colours until the black and white preview is balanced brightness wise. then set the adjustment layer to Luminosity and the Opacity to 50%

Create a new layer above the adjustment layer (Shift + Ctrl + N). Do Ctrl + A to select all the canvas and (Shift + Ctrl + C) to copy merged. Paste this into the new layer you have created using Ctrl + V.

As the final step use the Reduce Noise Filter (Filter > Noise > Reduce Noise) on the copy merged layer to make the image smoother and more like a painting. Play around with the settings to get the feeling that you desire but make sure the Strength is very high (7-9) and the Preserve Details very low (1-10%)

Final Result

Download the PSD

::GFXZoOM::source:tutorial9.net::

1.Change photos’ color:

Open your photo you want to make it impressive.

Anh choose this photoshop here:

There’re so many methods to change your photo’s color, but I will show you some best ways to do that, easy to edit.

First method:

Go to menu Layer ~> New Adjustment Layer ~> Color Balance.

With this Adjustment layer, you can change your color variety. OK, let’s pick some nice color :

::Warm Color :

Result :

::Cool Color :

result:

::Emerald Color :

result :

::Special Effect :

Open your photo, go to menu Layer ~> New Adjustment Layer ~> Gradient Map…

Choose this Gradient :

Result :

Zoom out your model :

Pick Eraser Tool , set foreground color to White and start erasing on your model :

Tip : set foreground to White = you have color areas

set foreground to Black = you have black and white color

Press X when brushing to switch between black and white.

Keep brushing on your models and you will have something like this :

::GFXZoOM::source:tu-torials.com::

[If you’d like to download the image used in this tutorial to practice these techniques, click here. We’ve also included a before and after for you to compare the results. All files are for practice purposes only.]

1 OPEN THE IMAGE TO BE SHARPENED
Let’s start things off with a photograph that requires sharpening. I captured this image with a Leica D-Lux 3 out the window of my car. In the course of touring the back roads of South Dakota’s Black Forest, we were suddenly surrounded by a few hundred mostly peaceful bison, and this guy in particular was close enough to touch (were I endowed with really stretchy Mr. Fantastic arms). The resulting image is soft with striated noise patterns and wandering colors. If I just set about sharpening him, I’d bring out the bad detail along with the good. Fortunately, smart objects provide a more selective if somewhat laborious approach.

Photo Credit: ©DEKE MCCLELLAND

2 CONVERT LAYER TO A SMART OBJECT
Photoshop provides a handful of commands that convert an image to a smart object. But for my money, the most convenient method is to click the little doodad in the top-right corner of the Layers panel and choose Convert to Smart Object. (It works for multilayer images, too.) Go ahead and rename the new layer something meaningful like “Bison.” Now your converted and named image is ready to receive nondestructive smart filters.

3 APPLY SMART SHARPEN
To sharpen the creature, choose Filter>Sharpen>Smart Sharpen. Then set the Amount to 350%, Radius to 4.0 pixels, and Remove to Lens Blur. After clicking OK, double-click the tiny slider icon to the right of the words “Smart Sharpen” in the Layers panel and change the Mode setting to Luminosity. This focuses the attention on the detail in the image rather than exaggerating the discrepancies between color channels—always a good idea when sharpening. Leave the Opacity set to 100% and click OK. Tip: Delete the empty filter mask because it just takes up room. When you do need a mask, it’s easier to create it on the fly, as you’ll soon see.

4 SMOOTH COLOR WITH MEDIAN
Sharpening did my bison some good, but it also brought out anomalous color patches in the fur. What’s needed is a generous pass of the Median filter. Choose Filter>Noise>Median, raise the Radius to a hefty 50 pixels, and click OK. As a rule, smoothing should be applied before sharpening so drag the Median filter below Smart Sharpen in the Layers panel. Double-click the slider icon to the right of “Median” in the Layers panel. (Photoshop warns you that you won’t be able to preview the effects.) Change the Mode to Color to smooth over the considerable coloring problems, and click OK to render the smoothing and sharpening effects together.

5 FIND BEST CHANNEL TO USE FOR MASK
Smoothing out the color works nicely inside the bizarrely (and inaccurately) multicolored bison, but it eliminates all hint of color in the background. What’s needed is a filter mask that exposes the bison and protects the grass. Turn off the Eye icon in front of the words “Smart Filters” in the Layers panel to restore the original image, which we’ll need to build a mask. Click the Channels tab and click the various channels to find the one with the highest degree of contrast between foreground and background. For most people and mammal shots, this is going to be Red.

6 EXAGGERATE CONTRAST IN CHANNEL
Duplicate the Red channel by dragging it onto the Create New Channel icon at the bottom of the panel. Double-click the name (in our case, Red copy) and call it “Mask.” When the mask is complete, the bison should be white and the background black. So press Command-I (PC: Ctrl-I) to invert the colors. Next we need to exaggerate the contrast. Choose Image>Adjustments>Levels. Raise the black point value to 70 and lower the white point value to 190 to draw out the bison from its background. Click OK to complete the effect.

7 LOAD THE MASK AS A SELECTION
Your mask isn’t going to win any awards for accuracy. And if you have some extra time on your hands, you could finesse it using the Dodge and Burn tools or the like. But this quick-and-dirty mask nicely highlights the areas of major color drift and fur detail, making it good enough for our purposes. To load the mask, press the Command key (PC: Ctrl) and click the Mask thumbnail in the Channels panel. Now you’re ready to apply the mask to the filters.

8 OPEN THE IMAGE TO BE SHARPENED
Click the RGB thumbnail in the Channels panel to return to the color composite image. Then click the Layers tab to return to the Layers panel. Turn on the Eye icon in front of the words “Smart Filters.” Then Control-click (PC: Right-click) “Smart Filters” and choose Add Filter Mask. Photoshop limits the Median and Smart Sharpen effects to the interior of the bison and protects the prairie grass in the background.

9 DELETE UNUSED CHANNEL
One of the great things about smart objects is that they make efficient use of file size. This particular image was 15.4 MB flat and 15.4 MB after the addition of the two nondestructive smart filters. It’s only when you start adding masks that the file size balloons. We have two masks, one alpha channel and the other a filter mask, so the file size has grown to 25.7 MB. The two masks are identical, so there’s no reason to keep them both. Go to the Channels panel and drag the Mask channel (not the italicized Filter Mask item) to the Trash. The file size drops to 20.5 MB.

10 OPEN SMART OBJECT IN NEW WINDOW
I’m glad to have brought back the colors in the grass. But I’m not so keen on limiting the sharpening effect to the animal. Plus we need to address the horizontal noise patterns at work in the shadow detail. This means applying a couple more filters, neither of which benefit from the existing filter mask. The solution is to create a nested smart object—a smart object inside a smart object—to accommodate the unmasked filters. Back inside the Layers panel, double-click on the Bison smart object thumbnail to open it in a new window (presumably called Layer 01.psb after the temporary file Photoshop creates to accommodate the smart object).

11 CONVERT SMART OBJECT TO SMART OBJECT
You’ll see the original, unedited version of the photograph on a standard Background layer, with all pixels available for editing. Bring up the Layers panel menu and once again choose Convert to Smart Object. Then rename the layer “You’re in the SO!” This way you’ll know where you are if you accidentally enter the smart object. While this adds to the complexity of the file, quite amazingly, it adds nothing to the file size. In fact, the Adobe engineers I talked to endorse this technique and told me there is currently no limit to how deeply you can nest smart objects.

12 APPLY REDUCE NOISE
To downplay the striated noise pattern, choose Filter>Noise>Reduce Noise. Then change the Strength value to 8, Preserve Details to 20%, Reduce Color Noise to 15%, and Sharpen Details to 0%, all of which conspire to smooth away most of the noise without altogether ruining the good detail. Make sure the Remove JPEG Artifact checkbox is turned off and then click OK to apply the filter.

13 APPLY HIGH PASS FOR EDGE CONTRAST
You don’t need the filter mask so drag it to the Trash in the Layers panel. Next we want to add a little bit of edge contrast, in part to sharpen the prairie grass but also to generally enhance the image detail. Choose Filter>Other>High Pass, set the Radius value to 20 pixels, and click OK. Double-click the tiny slider icon to the right of the words High Pass in the Layers panel. Drop out the grays by changing the Mode setting to Soft Light. Then reduce the Opacity value to 50% and click OK. The result is just enough sharpness to offset the effects of the Reduce Noise filter.

14 ENJOY THE RESULTS AND FLEXIBILITY
Close and save the nested smart object. Moments later, you’ll see the meticulously sharpened result thanks to a combination of four filters working nondestructively aided by two smart objects, one nested inside the other. It takes some effort to sharpen an image with this degree of control and accuracy, but the results are worth the effort. And you can modify the filter settings without fear of harming the quality of the image. Smart objects aren’t perfect, but with some planning and slightly more patience, you can establish flexible compositions that permit you to apply filters and adjust their order and settings in any way you see fit.

::GFXZoOM::source:layersmagazine.com::

::GFXZoOM::source:photochopz.com::

1 PREPARE THE PHOTOGRAPH
First we need to choose and prepare the photograph onto which we’ll add our logo. We chose an image of a blank T-shirt from iStockphoto.com, deliberately picking one that contained noticeable folds. If the folds are a little too subtle, use the Burn tool to darken the shadows a little and the Dodge tool to slightly lighten the highlights.

2 PREPARE THE DISPLACEMENT MAP
The Displace filter uses a grayscale map to distort the imported object, so we need to create a map for our project. First duplicate (Image>Duplicate) the T-shirt photo and then convert it to grayscale. Although it’s not an ideal day-to-day way to make a beautiful grayscale photo, we’ll use Image>Mode>Grayscale to convert the photo (which works just fine for a displacement map). We don’t want too much texture detail in the map, so use Filter>Noise>Despeckle to soften the texture without losing too much overall detail. Save the map as a PSD file.

3 BRING IN THE ILLUSTRATOR LOGO
In Illustrator, keep the logo as editable and possible, then go to Select>All and Edit>Copy. Switch to the original color document in Photoshop and select Edit>Paste. From the four Paste As choices in the Paste dialog, choose Smart Object, and click OK.

4 POSITION AND SCALE THE LOGO
When the smart object appears, use the handles to scale and rotate the graphic. You can also click-and-drag to position it. Once you’re happy, press Return (PC: Enter). (Note: Since the resulting layer is a vector smart object, that means you can always make further adjustments to the size and position of the logo without losing any quality.)

5 CHANGE THE BLEND MODE OF THE LOGO LAYER
To help make the logo look more printed on the shirt, change the blend mode of the logo layer from Normal to Multiply in the Layers panel. Depending on the colors in your design, you may also want to slightly lower the Opacity.

6 RUN THE DISPLACE FILTER
With the logo layer (Vector Smart Object) active in the Layers panel, use Filter>Distort>Displace. In the Displace dialog, enter a value between 5 and 10 as a starting point for both Horizontal Scale and Vertical Scale. Since this layer is a vector smart object, the filter will appear in the Layers panel as a smart filter, which means you can always edit the filter settings (see next step). After clicking OK, you’ll be asked to choose the displacement map, so navigate to the location of the PSD file you saved in Step 2. The logo will be distorted to follow the folds of the shirt.

7 EDIT THE SETTINGS OF THE SMART FILTER
If the logo looks too distorted (or not distorted enough), double-click on the word “Displace” under Smart Filters in the Layers panel. The Displace dialog will appear, allowing you to enter different settings. Once again, after you click OK, you’ll be asked to choose the displacement map.

8 EDIT THE ORIGINAL GRAPHIC
One of the benefits of bringing in Illustrator graphics as a smart object is the option to edit the contents, even after the Displace filter has been applied. Double-click on the Vector Smart Object thumbnail in the Layers panel to jump back to Illustrator. A copy of your logo will open in Illustrator, where you can make changes to the design. Here we changed the color of the background shape and added a second yellow background shape. After saving the Illustrator file, the logo automatically updates in Photoshop, reflecting whatever changes we made in Illustrator.

9 CONTINUE TO EXPERIMENT
Thanks to the vector smart object and smart filter combination, you can continue to experiment with the size, position, and content of the logo. If you reposition or scale the graphic, double-click on the Displace smart filter to reapply it. To change the contents of the logo, double-click on the Vector Smart Object thumbnail to return to Illustrator to edit the file. Or, start all over again with a completely different photographic object….

::GFXZoOM::source:layersmagazine.com::