Continued from the previous page
Once the layout is ready, I'll start floating image parts into their respective frames. This is a cycle, and cannot easily be automated -- by the time I would set up an action, I'd be done and wouldn't need the action.
Each pick-up cycle goes like this:
1) Select the frame to fill (click its layer)
2) Use the Wand tool to select the hole (Tap "W")
3) Click the original photo layer (while the selection is active)
4) Use the "float" - Command/J for Mac, or Control/J for Windows
5) The floated picture arrives on its own layer.
6) make sure that layer is the one just below the frame it belongs to
7) Command E (Control E) to "merge down" ... joining the frame to the image.
In this sequence, visit each frame layer and float in each corresponding image. Once all the frames are filled with an image, turn off the original so you see ONLY the frames with their chunks of the image.
Now I'll set in a new background of a cool blue to help make my photo pieces advance or "pop out" on the reader.
Notice how you really don't need all of the image to start getting the message. The contrast of warm against cool -- and the obvious absence of parts of the photo helps make the lady look that much more stressed! But do we even need that many tiles? Let's get our shadows in there before deciding...
Add and style your drop shadow, and then drag that style to the other layers. Each layer, in turn, will take on the drop shadow. Now we've added some depth to the image.
To get a little tactile feeling, we'll add a subtle texture to our background. This also helps make the shadows work better.
Ask yourself, "Did we need all the tiles?"
We sure didn't. Buy removing the bottom tile, and the top-left, we've made the image much more dynamic. Keeping the hand on the hip was essential to show stress and anger. She's now ready for text.
Now there's room for type, and the overall piece is cropped for a brochure on stress. This technique works well to reinforce any concept where the subject is dealing with conflicting issues, or should "feel" as if being pulled apart.
Introducing the extra steps, and NOT using the Slice technique allows much more flexibility even though it does take longer. This finished image took about an hour and a helf. Still not too bad.
Once complete, just save the file. (SAVE it with all layers!)
Then flatten, crop, and size to the finished print size. Once done, uuse the menu
File > Save As...
To save it under a different name. Now your work file is safe, and this flattened version is ready to print.
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from the Editor:
I was delighted that day back in 1989 when Peggy Killburn called to ask if I could handle one more speaker in my "Great Graphics Tips & Tricks" session scheduled for the 1990 Macworld Expo. "Yes" was my response to her request to add Russell Brown to my panel. After all, we loved Adobe's young "Illustrator" program, and were quite anxious to try out their upcoming new product called "Photoshop." After seeing his demo, I was convinced Photoshop would be big. So the next month we added "Photoshop Tips & Tricks" to our regular DTG Magazine uploads to Compuserve, GEnie and AOL. The rest is history.
I only regret that I didn't trademark the name.
