Final Project- Photoshop Tutorial-Extract Tool and Effects Tool

After completeting this tutorial the student will have been introduced to the Extract Tool as well as the Effects Tool.

1. The first step in creating the top image is to open the bear picture and the cactus picture in photoshop.
2. Next click on the bear picture to activate it. Go to the filter menu and select the extract option or press Alt+Ctrl+X to open the extract window.
3. Select the edge highlighter tool which is on the left hand side of the window at the top. You can set the highlighter diameter on the right side of the window where it is listed under tool options. For my purposes I left it at the default of 20 pixels. (If at any time you need to zoom in there is the zoom tool on the left hand side six down from the highlighter tool. To zoom, click the area you want to enlarge. To zoom out hold the alt key down and click the image.)
4. Trace the edges of the bear. If you are like me and have a hard time making nice, neat lines you can do a shift click to draw straight lines between each click. Press shift and then click, between each segment and a straight line will be drawn. If you make a mistake you can ctrl z to erase the last thing you did or there is the eraser tool located on the left hand side of the window.
5. Next, click the Smart Highlighting option on the right hand side of the window under the tool options. You will use this to extract the mouth area of the bear. Simply highlight the area between his teeth and the back of his mouth.
6. Next use the fill tool, which is located on the left hand side and looks like a paint bucket, to fill in your selected area, in this case the bear.
7. Now click the preview button on the right hand side to see what your extraction will look like. You can change what background it rests on if you go to the bottom of the right hand side and change your options under the preview section. You can have it be on a transparent background, a grey background or a background color of your choice.
8. Now select the edge touchup tool or the cleanup tool on the right hand side. They are the 4th and 5th option down from the highlighting tool. The edge touchup tool will adjust any pixels that fall within your highlighter. The cleanup tool will erase pixels.
9. Once you are happy with your selection click OK.
10. Now you can drag your bear selection and drop it into your cactus picture.
11. Once in your cactus picture you will want to change the way the light is hitting your bear so it looks like it matches the lighting of the picture. To do this select the fX option in the layers palette once you have the bear layer selected. Add a gradient overlay. Set the blend mode to multiply and change the opacity to 45%. Change the degrees to 176 and the scale to 10%. Make sure the reverse is unchecked. Drag your overlay within your picture until you are happy with the way the bear is highlighted. I chose to have the light hitting is rear area.
12. Now my bear is ready to be placed in the proper position but I decided that he needed a better place to stand then what was already provided. To solve this I used the clone tool to extend out the rock and make it into sort of a slope. To do this alt click an area of the large rock with the clone tool and copy it over to the left side of it until you have a nice little slope for your bear to walk up.
13. Next use the free transform tool to rotate your bear at an angle as if he was walking at a slight incline.
14. Next go to your custom shape tool which is found in the same submenu as the rectangle tool. Select the talking bubble. Draw the bubble while holding the shift button to maintain proportions and place over the bear's head. If you hold the space bar down while drawing it you will be able to move it as you draw.
15. Next use your text tool to write in the words"I don't see any salmon here!". Choose whichever font you see fit. Once you have done so you can apply a drop shadow effect to the text by selected the fX option in the layers menu. Set the blend mode to multiply, the opacity to 75%, the angle to 35 degrees and the noise to 54%.
16. And there you go! All done!

I have to note that for some reason my text bubble is not showing up in blogger but it was in my final picture in photoshop. I don't know why that happened.