"Out of Bounds" Tutorial


Notes to Shelly on Design

Bella Swinging

The above is not properly sized for effect (click on photo for final result or out of bounds |check out original

The tutorial on the right is completely copied from another site to be used only be me. It is my intention to modify this to my own technique as there are many ways to do the same thing. At that time I will post my own tutorial.

 

Choosing Your Starter Image

PenguinStarter image choice for this effect (like my last tutorial "Miniature Photos From Full Sized Ones") is important - so choose a scene with one object (be it a person, an animal or just an inanimate object) that will lend itself well to this perspective - side shots with a slanted perspective probably work best. (additional sample photos will be provided in next assignment)

 

Set Up Image

This little penguin guy is so full of energy and enthusiasm in this photo that I couldn't help but choose it. That, and he's stepping forward and has a wing out - two things that will work remarkably well with this effect. We're going to try to make him step off the page. Lets get started and bust you out of there!

Step 1

The first thing we're going to need to do is setup some layers. With your layer window open and ready - create four separate layers.

Second Image

Step 2

Alright, now that our layers are all setup and ready we're actually going to create one more additional layer.

Step Three

Step 3

Step Four

Step 4

Step Five

Step 5

Step Six

Photo Seven

Image Eight

Image 9

Step 7

Distort Image

Looking at this

Step 8

Drawing Out

Step 9

Clean Up Penguin

Now we're going to need to clean this photo up. Choose your eraser tool (set on "brush as shown in the photo below) and clean up the outsides of the photo by erasing the "Original" layer near and underneath the photo frame (your frame layer will stay in tact) and around the exterior parts of our penguin. This is where the steady hand and patience comes on.

Step 10

Now we're going to get his body parts outside the photo. With the "Frame" layer slected - set the opacity so that you can see the penguin underneath (as shown in the photo below).

erasing frame step

All the areas marked in red are areas we're going to want to use the eraser tool to erase where his body parts are. Be sure you use a steady hand here too, and only erase enough to let his body prts from the lower layer shine through, but still keeping the frame edged right up against his body.

Step 11

Almost done! Now that w'eve got him ouside the photo we just need to put some finishing touches on him.

merging

By this point we should only have three layers, "Frame", "Orignal" and one transparent Mask layer. Delete any extras we may have had before this step. Now, with the two layers "Frame" and "original" slected as visible (cvlicing the boxes where highlighted in the photo above to make sure only those two have the "eye" symbol) we're going to choose "Layers" and then "merge visible" to merge the two together while keeping our transparent layer separated.

Step 12

The final step! Now all we ned to do is select our layer with the framed penguin and add some drop shadow. Go to "Layers", then "Layer Style" then "Drop Shadow". Adjust the direction of the shadow (I use top right) and levels (I usually use 1 distance and 2 spread) to give us the somewhat 3D look for our photo against the transparent background.

final tutorial

Save him as a .png and enjoy! You've just released something from its photo into the wild. I hope this tutorial was easy to follow and enhoyable.

completed photo


Second Version of same Tutorial

  1. Choose a picture.
  2. Isolate the target. You may use the lasso tool, or the extraction filter.
  3. Put the target in its own layer. Right click in the middle and choose layer via copy. You can use layer via cut, but it will leave a hole in the background and could be troublesome later during during touchup work.
  4. Add a layer at the bottom and fill it with color. Gray is a good choice, but so is black or white or any other color you like. When you are done you should have a layer menu box that looks like the one below (add photo). The bottom layer is your solid color; the next layer is your original image, and the top most layer is the target.
  5. Now distort the original image. Highlight that layer in the layer menu bax. Then go to the Edit menu, select Transform, and choose Distort. Perspective works too, but Distort gives more options. This will put small boxes around your photo. Grab those boxes on one side and pull them in to shrink that side of theimage and grap the opposing boxes and pull them in or out until you get a good result that your are happy with.
  6. It should end up looking something like this:
  7. photo here
  8. Now for the touch up. If you created a layer via cut, you will see a hold in the slanted original photo that needs to be fixed. i fyou used layer via copy you will see part of the target that needs to be covered up or erased. so with the clone tool, healing brush, eraser, tec., fix tht part of the original image to make it look as natural as plossible. You could always use an entirely different background image than the one the garget came from. It will take practice before you achieve a good result so just keep at it. You can add a frame now if you wanted or add the frame right prior to distroting the background image.