"MELTDOWN, A PHOTOSHOP TUTORIAL"

06 November, 2005

WESTERN ARTWORK By Denny Karchner
2,659 Views
16 Comments

"MELTDOWN, A PHOTOSHOP TUTORIAL"

A artist named Michael Schwartz posted a piece titled "Meltdown" on ArtSig.com which is a "critiquing" site. He explained the piece was created from a digital photograph and put through a program called "Ulead PhotoImpact" which I was not familiar with. The first critique registered by another artist who gave it a "one-thumbs down" (-1 point) which isn't good. She didn't like the composition. The rating system goes from "three-thumbs up" to "three-thumbs down." By the time I critiqued it, it had gotten another rating of a "One-thumbs up (1 point)." So this gave his piece a "0" for his rating. I gave him a "one-thumbs up" rating. This what I said in my critique:

Hi Michael. I am going to pull you out of the "0" rating that you have as I write. I can see by looking at the rest of your work, you are a "master" of the "Ulead PhotoImpact" program. As are your photos first rate. I really like the effect that you achieved in "Meltdown." I myself don't really care what you shot to get this effect. It's a great element. That is not the important issue here. What is, is the composition.

I, like Jean Ann below, agree that something else should be done here and not to have just centered the "meltdown." I would try some of the suggestions below. I myself, would like to suggest what I would have done. As a user of PhotoShop, I would select the element then go to "transform" and lay the "meltdown," move it into the upper left-hand corner and add some extreme perspective so it looks like it is trailing away. Large in the lower left-hand corner, smaller in the upper right. I would even have keep the black background.

I would even try to repost if possible. I promise you that you will definitely rate much higher. Sincerely, Denny Karchner

This is the piece as he had posted it. Here is the link to that posting on ArtSig if you are interested. Just copy it and paste into your browser.

http://www.artsig.com/go/works/view?id=25065

16 Comments

WESTERN ARTWORK By Denny Karchner 06 Nov 2005

That day Michael, who is from Switzerland emailed me and asked me to explain what I meant. I offered to change it and send it back to him, which he agreed to. I also volunteered to do a tutorial showing him how I did it.

The first thing I did was to draw a path around the shape. This allows me to select it, go to inverse and delete the black background. I then went in, made another layer and made that the black background so it was separate from the shape.

I then went back to the layer with the shape. I went to "transform," and started to move the corner points to "lay" the shape into what looks like it is trailing away to the upper left-hand corner. When I get it where I want it, I hit "enter." I save my layered PhotoShop file. I then go "file-save as" and re-name so I can "flatten" the layers so I can make a jpg to post. This will be "version 1," without no border.

I open the PhotoShop version back up. I go to "image," and "canvas size," and add a 1/2" all the way around the image. This is the area that I will add a "craved border" around the image to frame it in. I put a path around the image with the "rectangular marquee tool." I also make a path around the parameter or around the outside using the same tool. These two paths allow me to select that area where the border is going to be. I make another layer, I then go to "fill" and fill with 50% gray.

I have a filter plug-in that is called "Eye Candy/Alien Skin." This filter does some real cool effects. It does nice drop shadows, bevels, textures and so on. The filter effect that I used here is the "carve." It puts dimension to the 50% gray. It makes it look like it is raised up. You can control how high the carve goes, the light source and the direction, and the highlights and shadows. This what I used to the frame with. I also put a slight carve on the photograph also. One fantastic tool!

While I have the gray border selected, I go to Image, adjust, hue and saturation, colorize and I turn the border to a nice blue by sliding the two bars on the menu. I then go to "file, save-as" and re-name it. In this case "version 2." I flatten that file and change to a jpg. Done! Easy huh? This whole process took roughly 20 minutes to complete.

Just so you know, here is the original photo that Michael used to get the "Meltdown." His "Ulead PhotoImpact" program must have a slightly different filter than PhotoShop has. The closest thing that I saw in PS was in "Filters, distort, twirl." Try it.

Steph Salt 07 Nov 2005

That is just how I work Denni, and I love FlamingPearl, I often have a play with it, just pressing random effects for fun :D

His Meltdown image is wonderful and he deserves better marking than that. I think I will go along and give him another boost. :D Thanks for the link and info. :D

I didn't realise that you have to buy a membership to be able to make comments! Well I hope the members give him some better marks once he has followed your tutorial. I't's not worth me taking the trouble to become a member, it's not my kind of art except for a bit of fun now and then.

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06 November, 2005