|
Textures and the Lighting Effects filter can
make an image jump right off the page or screen. Using a texture
to create 3D, however, is a scary thing for most Photoshop
users. We'll take some of the mystery out of the process.
In the previous column we explored how the
Lighting Effects filter works with textures to create a 3D look.
This time, we'll look at a couple of ways to apply the filter to
photographs.
The easiest way to add texture with the Lighting
Effects filter is to use one of the image's existing channels to
create a surface texture. This results in an image that appears
to have been painted onto a surface. Figure 1 shows our test
image, which can be found in the Samples folder installed with
Photoshop 6.
To create a channel to use as a texture, simply
drag one of the existing color channels to the New Channel
button at the bottom of the Channels palette. (Remember that the
composite channel called RGB is not actually a channel, and so
cannot be duplicated.)
Using the menu command Filter> Render> Lighting
Effects opens the dialog box shown in Figure 2. Note that, at
the bottom, Red Copy has been chosen as the texture channel.
The Result is shown in Figure 3.
Since photographs already have shadows and
highlights naturally, adding them with the Lighting Effects
filter is generally unnecessary. The filter can, however, be
used to emphasize them.
Duplicate a channel to use as the texture, then
roughly paint the highlights and shadows you desire, as shown in
Figure 4. Using the principles explained in the previous column,
white a will create highlights and neutral gray represents no
change.
This creates a mask that can be viewed as an
overlay by restoring the visibility of the RGB composite
channel. It will appear as a normal Alpha channel (Figure 5).
To prevent the filter from being applied too
harshly, blur the rough mask. In this case, I used the Magic
Wand to select the background, used the command Select> Inverse,
and then applied a Gaussian Blur of 5 pixels. The result is seen
in Figure 6.
The selection was maintained, applying the
Lighting Effect to only the foreground subject. Figure 7 shows
the effect.
SIX SHOOTERS
• When installing Photoshop 6, you may need to swap CDs and
insert the disk from your previous version. Make sure to use the
Eject button in the Installer window. If it is grayed out, click
once on the Photoshop 6 CD to select it. This has generated a
very large column of requests for assistance. The vote here is
for Adobe to, in the future, go back to simply typing in the old
serial number.
• Make sure that no other programs are running during
installation, especially your Web browser. Installers should
always run alone, whether on Mac or Windows, for best results.
In this case, it's very important that the Web browser be shut
down to allow for proper installation of the SVG Viewer plug-in.
Additionally, this seems to cause some problems with the
installation of Adobe OnLine. |