Craig Cooper Photography

Vignettes are easy to create in Photoshop. You can try one out on the image below if you like. Make a selection with the rectangular marquee tool inside of the image, go to Select>Modify>Feather and choose about 75 pixels on a low res image – go to Select>Inverse – then use the keyboard shortcut of Ctrl + J and it will paste the selection into a new layer for you, and then you can change the blend mode to something you like and perhaps lower the opacity.

If you would like to have an Action for the vignette it won’t really work using the rectangular marquee. Because of the different resolution (and size) of your images you need something that is going to work on all of the images. Matt Kloskowski over at NAPP came up with a way to create an action for a vignette ….. so, Lights, Camera, Action

You can click through on the image above to practise on if you like (remember that it is a low res image). 800 X 600 image at 72 dpi

Open the image (start recording the action after you have the image open, and before you start the next step) and then create a new blank layer above it, fill the layer with any colour. Bring up the Transform Tool by going to Edit>Transform or clicking Ctrl + t on the keyboard and in the top toolbar lock the small chain icon (maintain aspect ratio) and then type 80 into the width and hit enter to accept it. See image.

Now hold down the Ctrl key and click on the layer image that you just did the transform on and you should get the marching ants. You can go ahead and throw that layer in the bin now.

You should have the original layer with the marching ants on it. Go to Select>Modify>Feather and for this image I chose 75 pixels – depending on the effect you want and the size of the images you are going to be working on, it will vary to this. Click OK to accept it then go to Select>Inverse … now press Ctrl + j on the keyboard and it should put the selection on a new layer for you. This is the point that you would probably stop recording the action so that the blend mode and opacity can be manually adjusted. The final image is below.

I can’t remember where I first saw this done, but it’s another effect that you can use on type. You can use this on images as well, and perhaps you could do the Grunge Type and use this effect as well.

I’ve started with a 800px X 400px image @ 72 dpi and filled it with a blue colour. Grab your type tool and add some text – I’ve used redbubble. I’ve adjusted the tracking on my text (highlighted in red on the image below)

You can go ahead now and add some effects to your text if you want. Once you have done that, turn off the visiblity of the b/ground layer and click on the text layer to make it active. Go to Select>Select All or use the keyboard shortcut of Ctrl + A then go to Edit>Copy Merged then create a new blank layer above your text layer by clicking on the new layer icon at the bottom of the layers palette – make sure that the layer is active, then go to Edit>Paste. Turn off the visibility of your original text layer – and should have something similar to the image below.

We’re going to use the Pen Tool now to make some selections with the text. It is painless (for those who dislike the pen tool). Make sure that once you have selected the Pen Tool that in the top toolbar it is set to Paths Go ahead and make a selection similar to the one below – or however you want – I’m showing you how to create the effect it doesn’t mean that it is the only way that it has to done. Once you have closed off the path, right click inside the path and click on Make Selection, accept the default of 0 feather, anti alias checked and new selection.

Once you get the marching ants go to Edit>Cut create a new layer above the merged layer by clicking on the new icon layer at the bottom of the layers palette, then go to Edit>Paste. Grab your move tool and position the text similar to the image below. It would also be worthwhile naming the new layer ‘Top’ and the copy merged layer ‘Middle” – or something that makes sense to you. Click back on the copy merged layer and do the same thing to the bottom half of the text – create path>make selection>Cut>new layer>Paste>move into position with the move tool – and perhaps name the layer bottom.

Now you are going to move some of the pieces of the letters around to displace them a little. Grab your lasso tool and select which layer you are going to work on i.e. top, middle, bottom and lasso around part of the letter like in the image below – then grab your move tool and move it slightly, either to the right or left, up or down.

Go ahead and continue moving the pieces of text that you want to move. I have over done the effect in the image below so you can see what is going on. I also used the transform tool on a couple of the pieces.

Now you need to load the transparency of the layers you just worked on. If you have 3 like I do, and named them the same, you will be using Middle, Top and Bottom. Hold done your Ctrl key and click on the ‘Middle’ layer, then hold down the shift as well and click on the ‘Top’ and Bottom’ layers – you will see the marching ants appear. Click on the new layer icon at the bottom of the layers palette and then fill the transparency with a colour – any colour will do for now. Then drag the layer below the layers you were working on, and above the original text layer – you can now deselect and then duplicate the layer. Name one of the new layers Stroke and make sure that is the layer that is active. Then go to Edit>Stroke in the top menu bar and select width 2px, colour black, center, mode normal, opacity 100% – click OK. You will now have something similar to this image.

You can carry on now and do some effects to the b/ground if you like – this is what I did to get the final image below.

Working on the other layer that is filled with a colour … in my case layer 1…. I went to Filter>Sharpen>Unsharp Mask and really bumped up the sharpening Amount 500%, Radius 7.9 and Threshold 0. I then used Filter>Blur>Radial Blur … 100%, Zoom and Good. I then used the eraser to soften the effect near the outside edges. I turned the opacity down to 80%. I also named this Text Blur.

I then created a new layer above the original text layer and drew a rough circle with the lasso tool, then I picked some colours and did a Filter>Render>Clouds. I then did the same as in the above paragraph. I changed the blend mode to soft light and took the opacity down to 80%. You can probably come up with a thousand better finishes than this ……. so go play!

I’m pretty sure that Corey Barker over at Layers Magazine is the person who originally did this effect.

So, what you are going to be doing, is using some type and the pattern maker inside of Photoshop to make a background. It’s a really cool effect, and remember that this isn’t necessarily limited to type – you could also use an image for another cool effect.

To practise on, create a new file 800px X 600px @ 72 dpi and fill it with a colour. You can see in the image below that I used blue. Grab your type tool and type something, I also did a drop shadow and stroke on the text. Go ahead now and duplicate the text layer and turn off the original text layer. You should now have something similar to the image below.

When you go into the Pattern Maker it is going to ask you to rasterize the type click OK, also, the text will be white and won’t stand out very well against the transparent b/ground. If you haven’t got white text, that is OK. If you have and you want to change it (you can change it back later) go ahead now and fill the text with another colour – I used the same blue as my b/ground.

Once you’ve changed the colour of the text, click on Filter>Pattern Maker>Click OK when the small dialogue box appears – then you will be inside the pattern maker filter. Something to make sure you have correct before you proceed – on the upper right hand side of the …. very … large pattern maker dialogue box is a small button with Use Image Size on it – make sure that you click on that. It should be the same as your original image size – mine is 800 X 600, yours will be whatever you made it.

You can see in the above image that I have made a selection around the text using the marquee tool, which is the first of the tools located at the top left hand side of the dialogue box. You’ll notice that the selection is just a little off centre – there is more free space to the top and left of the text – you can do this to the bottom and left etc., – but try not to select the text square on. Then you can go ahead and press Generate and you can keep pressing Generate Again until you come up with something you like. At the bottom right hand side of the dialogue you will notice that you can also scroll back and forward through the patterns you have generated and even save them as a preset pattern if you like. Once you find something that you like – click OK and see what happens

If you want to change the text back to white on the pattern you just generated – lock the transparency of the layer and fill it with white. Drag the layer that you generated the pattern on below the original text layer. I went ahead and changed the blend mode of the pattern layer to soft light and reduced the opacity to 20%, I also enlarged the original text a little bit.

You can go ahead and mask out some of the new pattern by adding a layer mask and using the gradient tool – change blend modes to see what you come up with – only use the pattern on part of another image etc., Below is my finished image, but you can carry on trying out different filters on this to your hearts content Also, using a single word might give a better effect.