Photoshop Tutorial #2: Polaroid Photography

Want to turn any of your digital images into a Polaroid picture with that unmistakable look from days-gone-by?

Well, here we go...

From this...                                                                                ...to this!

• Create a new Photoshop document sized to a standard Polaroid picture (including frame)
   – standard ratio of a series 600 is 3½ x 4¼ inch.
• Create a new layer and draw a perfect square
   – make sure to leave an equal gap around the top, left and right.
• Rasterize the square.
• Open a JPG version of the image from Photoshop Tutorial #1: Vintage Photography
  – import the image into a new layer.
• Right click the image layer and select “Create Clipping Mask” – clipping it with the layer below.
• Create a new layer above the image and fill it with RGB: 50/50/50
  – right click the layer and select “Create Clipping Mask”.
• Create a vignette – make a selection area about the size of the clipping mask square – in the top menu choose “Select>Modify>Feather…” enter a value for some nicely rounded corners (if the image size is 3½ by 4¼ inch @ 150dpi, enter a value of 25 – use this as a base and ratio up according to the image size)
  – set to “Multiply” at about 80% opacity.
• Download a nice high resolution old paper texture (something with some scarring and staining).

TIP: It is good practice to begin your own texture library with textures from stock or ones you created using your own photography – to recall as needed for future Photoshop work.

•  Import the texture into a new layer above the vignette
  – right click the layer and select “Create Clipping Mask”, set to “Multiply” at about 70% opacity.
• Create a new layer and fill it with RGB: 210/210/210.
• To build the Polaroid frame
  – make a selection area the size of the image square and click the “Add Vector Mask” button in the layers window to create a layer mask to reveal the photograph under it.
• Add a “Bevel and Emboss” effect to give the frame some depth
  – Upward Inner Bevel, Smooth with a global light source @ 120° and 30°.
• Create a new layer and fill it with RGB: 210/210/210.
• Add a noise filter: “Filter>Noise>Add Noise…” – Gaussian blur 3% NOT monochromatic.
  – right click the layer and select “Create Clipping Mask”.
• Create an new layer for the Polaroid type – Dot Matrix Regular is a good match
  – type out the 15 number code (left) and “Polaroid” (right) at the bottom of the image.
  – right click the layer and “Rasterize Type” and select “Create Clipping Mask”.
• Import an old paper texture into a new layer above the text layer
  – right click the layer and select “Create Clipping Mask”, set to “Multiply” at about 70% opacity.

Hand-made Sea Glass Chandelier (as a room theme)

From the moment i set foot into our all-satin eggshell, inside-of-a-shoebox design inspired diningroom it was a no-brainer to expand the color theme of the northwestern tones from the beach glass chandelier...

i decided to flip its colors when applying them to the room:

ivory
green
ivory
light blue
dark brown

The ivory chair rail and powder-blue wainscoating is difficult to see in the image above...though the image to the left alludes to its weathered finish (used natural flower for that - got the idea of "antiquing" from MTV's Jackass).
To finish the composition, I tiled some of the left-over sea glass into the window sils...discrete, but it worked.

Salvaged Wood Slab and Copper Coffee Table

I’ve owned my share of coffee tables over the years – metal, glass, plywood, etc. – the usual temporary furniture catalog fodder…it was about time for something a bit more personal.  For almost a year, my daily commute to work would take me past a small urban tree recycle operation in the empty lot behind a self-storage complex, where amidst the mountains of bark dust and ready-to-use fire wood, propped up against a shipping container, towered a couple of ponderosa pine slabs the size of pick-up trucks.  After finally mustering up the nerve to ask, I was finally able to negotiate a single 500 pound, 9 by 3½ foot, 3 inch thick slab into my garage – where it laid, dormant, drying over the next half year.

Insert about a month of sawing, planning, sanding, gilding, sheathing, hammering and finishing here…

Salvaged elements of rustic beauty and heavy industry fuse to create this commanding coffee table.  Living in a port city, I intentionally drew inspiration from an era of majestic ocean-liners from centuries gone by; with highly polished wooden decks and hand-hammered copper boiler plates.  This contrast in materials led to a uniquely distinctive centerpiece; especially as the late afternoon sun strikes the table’s copper-clad underbelly bathing the living room floor in a warm glow of red and orange hues.

A single 6 by 3½ to 4 foot 3 inch thick ponderosa pine slab forms the rustic table top – its 2 cut sides are sanded smooth to counter the tree’s 2 live edges; an almost 1½ inch thick bark.  During the drying period, the slab sustained a dozen lateral cracks, which I filled and gilded with copper leaf prior to finishing its surface. 

Complete with the illusion of concealing a copper vein beneath its skin, the entire slab was coated (unstained) with 7 layers of polyurethane, not only to protect, but to extenuate the wood’s natural knots and burly grain.  At 16 inches tall, the four legged base boasts over 32 square feet of salvaged copper plating, 16 feet of 1 inch copper piping and a half pound of attaching copper  hardware – amassing, with the top, a staggering 400 pounds.

Photoshop Tutorial #1: Vintage Photography

Did you ever what to know how to turn an everyday photograph into one of those cool technicolor images from the 1960s - without using that super retro app from the iphone store? Read on...

 From this...                                                           ...to this!

• Select a regular digitized photograph. 
• Duplicate the layer (Ctrl J).
  Layers: Background: original image | Background copy
• Select the Background copy layer and change its blend mode to soft light.
  
• Select the Background copy layer and apply a noise filter (Filter>Noise>Add Noise…). 
• In the Filter pop-up window, set the slider around 3 to 9% for desired graininess, select uniform distribution - OK. 
• Create a solid color layer (click the icon - black & white circle - at the bottom of the layers window - choose solid color, or select: Layer>New Fill Layer>Solid Color - OK). 
• A new color picker window appears -create a dark blue color (i.e. hex# 070035).
  
  Layers: Background: original image | Background copy | Color Fill1
• Select the color fill 1 layer and change its blend mode to exclusion. 
• Create a levels layer (click the icon - black & white circle -at the bottom of the layers window -choose levels…, or select: Layer>New Adjustment Layer>Levels… - OK). 
• On the black graph in the adjustments window, move the black and white pointers slightly inwards by about 20 to 30 points.
  Layers: Background: original image | Background copy | Color Fill1 | Levels1
• Create a solid color layer (click the icon -black & white circle -at the bottom of the layers window -choose solid color, or select: Layer>New Fill Layer>Solid Color - OK).
• A new color picker window appears -create a mauve color (i.e. hex# DE9B90).
  Layers: Background: original image | Background copy | Color Fill1 | Levels1 |Color Fill2
• Select the color fill 2 layer and change its blend mode to soft light, opacity 80%.
• Create a solid color layer (click the icon -black & white circle - at the bottom of the layers window - choose solid color, or select: Layer>New Fill Layer>Solid Color - OK).
• A new color picker window appears - create a rose color (i.e. hex# FEDFEB).
  Layers: Background: original image | Background copy | Color Fill1 | Levels1 |Color Fill2 | Color Fill3
• Select the color fill 3 layer and change its blend mode to soft light, opacity 50%.
• Create a solid color layer (click the icon - black & white circle - at the bottom of the layers window - choose solid color, or select: Layer>New Fill Layer>Solid Color - OK).
• A new color picker window appears - create a dark blue color (i.e. hex# 070035).
  Layers: Background: original image | Background copy | Color Fill1 | Levels1 |Color Fill2 | Color Fill3 | Color Fill4
• Select the color fill 4 layer and change its blend mode to exclusion.
• Select the Background layer and duplicate it (Ctrl J) Background copy 2 layer.
• Move the Background copy 2 layer to the top of the layer stack.
  Layers: Background: original image | Background copy | Color Fill1 | Levels1 |
  Color Fill2 | Color Fill3 | Color Fill4 | Background copy2
• Select the Background copy 2 layer and change its blend mode to soft light.
• Select the Background layer and duplicate it (Ctrl J) Background copy 3 layer and hide the original.
  Layers: Background: original image (hidden) | Background copy3 | Background copy | Color Fill1 | Levels1 | Color Fill2 | Color Fill3 | Color Fill4 | Background copy2
• Now to add a vignette (darkened edges around the photo)
• Select the Background copy 3 layer and apply a lens correction filter (Filter>Lens Correction …).
• In the Filter pop-up window, select custom tab.
• In the vignette section, move the amount slider into the darken side and the midpoint slider into the lighten side for the desired effect - OK.