Welcome to another week of Tutorial Tuesday. As I said when I closed out last week's tutorial, I will be showing you in more detail this week how to add textures and watermarks to your photos. I have just recently learned how to do this myself but I broke it down for you step by step with screen shots so you can see exactly how to do it. If you are anything like me, the more detailed tutorial someone can give you the better.
Since not everyone likes to watermark their photos, I will start with textures so you can skip the last part if you want. I currently don't use any fancy logo on my photos. I have a friend who is a graphic designer who is currently working on that for me so in the mean time I do it manually in Photoshop Elements, which by the way is the program I will be using for this tutorial. I will also be showing you how you can watermark you photos in Picnik too.
CHOOSING YOUR TEXTURE
There are tons of free textures out on the web for you to take advantage of. If you subscribe to Kim Klassen's Texture Lovin' List, she will send you a free brand new texture every week straight to your inbox! The texture I will use to today is a free one from her site called "barn wall".
APPLYING YOUR TEXTURE
1. In Photoshop Elements open both your photo and the texture you would like to use.
2. Be sure that the photo you are adding the texture to is what you see on your screen. Next click on the texture box down the bottom and drag it up on to your photo.
Click Ctrl+T to be able to select your texture and adjust its size. Drag the texture to cover your entire photo.
On the right side of the page where it lists all your layers you will see a button that says 'Opacity' on it. Click on the opacity and drag it down till the percentage matches whatever strength of the texture you would like to keep on your photo.
Now as nice as the texture looks, I wanted the main subject of my photo, the leaf, to stand out from the texture, so I selected the erase tool 
(check that the opacity at the top of the screen is set to 100%) and then erase over the subject you would like to remove the texture from. After you select the eraser tool and click on your photo, this message will pop up. Hit ok and continue with the erasing process.
(check that the opacity at the top of the screen is set to 100%) and then erase over the subject you would like to remove the texture from. After you select the eraser tool and click on your photo, this message will pop up. Hit ok and continue with the erasing process.
Your picture is now complete! Jump down to the bottom of the watermark tutorial to see how to properly save it.
ADDING A WATERMARK
To add a watermark you can either just use the text tool as you will see in a couple of steps and type whatever you want on your photos using whatever color and font you want. I like the faint line stretching across my photos. I don't know why. It just looks cool to me. You can do whatever you want. To add that line simply select the Rectangular Marquee Tool 
and drag it across whatever part of your photo you want to put it.
and drag it across whatever part of your photo you want to put it. 
Then select the brush tool 
, change the color to white and adjust the opacity to about 35% and color in the area you just selected to put your watermark.
, change the color to white and adjust the opacity to about 35% and color in the area you just selected to put your watermark.
Next choose the Horizontal Type Tool 
and click on the shaded area and type your text. You can choose whatever font or color your heart desires.
and click on the shaded area and type your text. You can choose whatever font or color your heart desires.
Now your photo is complete!
SAVING YOUR PHOTO
When saving your photo be sure to select SAVE AS so as not to save over your original photo. From the dropdown menu, choose JPEG and then save with whatever filename you choose.
WATERMARKING IN PICNIK.COM
One other way I used to watermark my photos before I got PE was in Picnik.com Simply upload your photo, choose the Edit tab, select the Text section and type in your text, choose whatever font and color you want and add it to your photo. Very simple easy process.
There you have it! A textured/watermarked photo!
If you have any questions, I am always happy to help.
Next week...
I was asked how I edited this photo, so I will be sharing my steps in next week's tutorial. If there are any topics you would like to see covered (and I know how or can find out how) let me know and I will do my best to get a tutorial written up for you.
6 comments:
Textures are just so addictive, I'm having a great time using them. Thank you for the tutorial on Watermark.
I have tried several "Mouse over code" with no luck. Do you have your own way of doing it?
Another great tutorial - beautiful job!
Wonderful tutorial. Looks great.
Great Tutorial!!!
Great tutorial! :)
Thank you for sharing this Tut!
Post a Comment