Open whatever image you want to use. I just want a closer squared image so I am going to crop mine some.

Duplicate your background layer two times. You will want to name your new layers so you know which is which. I did one layer horizontal and one vertical.

Make sure you have photoshops foreground and background colors their default by simply pressing D. Hit alt+backspace to fill your background layer with black.

Turn off one of your layers by hitting the eyeball in the layers palette. This is just so it is easier to see the difference between the two layers when you are working.

Now go to View > Show > Grids.

Bring up your Grid preferences by going to Edit > Preferences > Guides, Grids, and Slices. Or just Control K.

Now pick how big you want your pieces to be and pick a color that you will be able to see pretty easily. Here is mine:

Now, take your marquee tool, and start selecting your rectangles. I did my vertical ones first. Hold the shift key to select more than one. The trick to making this look weaved is you want to select more rectangles than blank spaces. So, I selected 2 squares and leave one. Once you have done that, click the Layer Mask icon at the bottom of your layers palette. You can see in the picture below that the squares I didn’t select are now black.

Do the same to the horizontal stripes.

Turn off the grid.

Hit Control and click the thumbnail of vertical layer.

Now press Shift, Control, Alt and hit the horizontal layer.

Save your selection by going to select, save selection and hit ok. We will need this in a few minutes.

Your layers palette should look like this:

Now click on your layer you just made and go to blending options. These are the settings:

Right click your outer glow and go to copy layer style. Then right click on your second layer and just paste your layer style so you don’t have to do that part again.

And that’s it!

Original image:

Open your image. Duplicate the layer and change the mode of the duplicate layer to Color Dodge.

Press Ctrl + I to invert the duplicate image. You will see a mainly white image now.

Go to Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur. Now you will start to see come color come back. Although the image isnt complete, I think just this step makes the picture look pretty cool.

Now you want to remove the colors. To do this, go to Image > Adjustments > Threshold. Adjust the image until you see the parts of the image that you want showing.

Create a new layer and change the blending mode to multiply. Start painting your image. Of course, you can use whatever colors you wish. Again, this could be your complete image, but we aren’t done yet!

To make a layer into the halftone comic book looking pattern, choose Image > Adjustments > Threshold and drag the slider to the left until the color disappears.

Select Filter > Sketch > Halftone Pattern and move the contrast slider to the right and adjust the size of the checks and click Ok.

I added a bright yellow background to mine, just to make sure the main image stands out more.

All of them put together:

First open the image you want to use.

Duplicate this layer. This new layer will be where we had the effects. So, I named it the effects layer.

Now add a layer mask. You can do this simply by clicking the “Add Layer Mask”

button on the bottom of the layers palette.

Next, click on your newly added layer mask, on the white box, and go to Image

> Apply Image, and just leave the default settings.

Now go up to your blending options and change this layer to Screen.

Duplicate this layer. Now you want to click on one of your new layers and go

to Filter > Blur > Motion Blur. You can use whatever settings you wish. I had

to change the distance on mine to as far as it would go to get it to really

show up. I put my angle at 45 degrees.

Once you do this, do the exact same to your other layer you created. Only this

time, you want to use the exact opposite angle, so mine was -45 degrees.

Ok, next, merge these two layers that we added the effects to. Once you do

that, take your eraser, and get rid of the effects that are covering up the

main part of your picture. In mine, I erased the effects that were covering up

the bride and groom.

Once you do that, you are done!

Open a new file.

Type out whatever you want to write. I did the name “Madelyn”

Here are the font settings I used:

And this is what it looks like:

Ok, Next, Go to Layer > Type > Convert to shape.

After that, click your arrow, the one right above the pen tool:

Hold Shift and click each of your letters.

Now, go to your arrow options, and hit the far right one, to create your holes.

Now you can place your letters how you want, close together and up and down, put them angled if you like. Here is mine:

Now I added these effects:

Gradient Overlay:

Satin:

Bevel and Emboss:

Drop Shadow:

And Stroke:

You should have:

Thats pretty much it! You can add a background color, or even more images too!

To create flower petals I just used the pen tool:

The of course added a color, and drop shadow, along with bevel, and outer glow.

First you need to find a vector image of a flag like this one.

Also find an image of some silk or other fabric with lots of folds and bends in it.

Now take the image of the fabric and go to Image > Adjustments > Desaturate.

Next Go to Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur. This will get rid of any sharp edges or lines in the image.

Save that as a .PSD file.

Now open up the image of the flag. Make sure you make it the same dimensions as the fabric for a perfect fit.

Go to Filter > Distort > Displace.

You will want to set the Horizontal and Vertical Scale to 10%. And set the Displacement Map to Stretch to Fit. Then hit OK.

Now you flag should look all wavy like this. It has taken the curves of the fabric and distorted the flag.

One last step, take the image of the fabric from before and place it on top of the flag. Now set the Blending Mode to Hard Light.

That is now you can show off your country with pride.

First lets pick some cityscapes and of course our favorite hero. Here are my images.

Next we are going to blend the two background images to create a bright fast moving city. Lay the blurred moving road on top of the blank city. Then change your blending mode to Hard Light. Also turn the opacity down to let it shine though more.

Now go to Filter > Liquify, on your empty city layer. Select the Bloat tool and set the brush size to about 500 and the pressure to 50. Click a few times in the center to warp the picture.

Select Peter out of the picture using the Polygon Lasso tool. And place him in the center of your warped city.

Now duplicate the Peter layer and go to Image > Adjustments > Hue/Saturation, and turn the lightness to 0. Go to Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur at 4px.

Turn the blending mode to Soft Light. And rearrange the shadow by using the Free Transform tool (Ctrl+T) to make it look like its laying on the ground. Make sure you put this layer under the Peter layer.

Next create a new layer between the city layer and Peter. Draw a circular path using the Ellipse tool. Next use the Transform tool and rotate the path at 45 degrees. Adjust the path with the Direct Selection tool like I did in the picture.

Select the new layer we just made and go to Filter > Render > Clouds. Use the Liquify filter like we use before but this time use the twirl tool and change the pressure to 100 percent.

Find the Path tab in your Layers window and select the selection we made earlier. Hold Ctrl+Left click to make the path a selection. Now go back to the Layers tab and select your swirled clouds and set the selection with a Layer Mask. Next use a large soft brush and paint the bottom of the circle in the layer mask. This will blend the cloud circle with the picture.

Now change the blending mode to Soft Light. Repeat the last two steps on a new layer to give it a brighter effect. Now change this Blending mode to Color Dodge and turn down the opacity so its not too bright.

Create a new layer and select the path from the Path tab again. Fill in the selection with a light blue. Create a layer mask on this layer and use the same soft brush but paint the inside to leave a crisp edge on the bubble. Also set your blending mode to Color Dodge.

To make Peter glow, Duplicate his layer and got to Filter > Blur > Radial Blur. Set the amount to 100 and the method to Zoom. Change the Blending mode to Color Dodge.

Now duplicate that layer and put in underneath the main Peter image. Use the transform tool to stretch it out. Also go to the Blending options and add a yellow Outer Glow.

Lets add some burst of light by making a new layer and using the pen tool to draw multiple rays coming from the center. Mostly draw them coming from the neck and the hands to make it look like it’s coming from within. Fill the selection with white.

Now go to Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur set at 4px. Now use the Eraser tool with a soft brush to fade the tips of the rays.

I added some more burst to the background and put a strong radial blur. I also change the Blending mode to Overlay.

Lets finish this up by recreating the Heroes logo. First start out with all caps 72pt font.

Duplicate the text layer and put it behind the original text, then rasterize it. Go to Filter > Blur > Motion Blur and set the angle to 90 degrees and the distance to 80px.

Use the soft Eraser tool to delete some off the top and bottom. Next go to Image > Adjustments > Hue/Saturation and give it a nice orange red tint. Make sure you select the Colorize box.

Now just cut out the picture of the eclipse and place it over the “O”. And now your picture is complete! Click on the image below to view the Full size image.

Check out more Tutorials at ComeandPhotoshop.com.

Stock Images used for this collage:

We begin our collage with a beautiful sunset landscape for the background. We can get rid of the unnecessary bottom of the picture, by using the Crop tool.

We are going to create the effect of a reflection, so we need to make the image height taller. Open the Image menu in the Taskbar then select Canvas Size. Once we double the size we will move the Image up to fit in the reflection.

Now Select the background layer and duplicate it. Go to Edit > Transform > Flip Vertical. Slide the reflection down to match up the images.

On your new Reflection layer we need to adjust the color to make it look like water. Go to Image > Adjustments > Hue/Saturation. Make sure to select the Colorize Check Box.

Now we are going to add a little more depth and color to the picture. Grab your image of the African Sunset and lay it on top of you Yellow background image.

To blend the two images we will use the eraser tool set at a low opacity and using a feathered round brush. Its ok if you can see the tree poking through we will be adding that back in later.

Next you select the bottom ground section of the background and duplicate it on top. Now remove some of that to reveal the horizon line and the silhouette of the animals.

Now we can add the tree back by carefully selecting around the tree branches and copying it to the top.

Lets blend the top half with the bottom, by creating a new layer and using a feathered brush with black paint. Merge the two layers until you cant notice the line. Or you can use the Burn tool to get the same effect.

Next Adjust the Contrast to get those colors to pop and to get rid of any pixilation. Image > Adjustments > Brightness/Contrast.

Now we need to improve he look of the sky, it is now a little distorted after all the changes we made. Flatten the image and Duplicate the Layer. Then in the menu bar select: Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur.

Lower the Opacity down to about 40%.

To sharpen up the tree line, use the Eraser Tool to slowly clear up the picture. Now your sky should look amazing.

Now to add a little more drama to the sky we are going to use some cloud pictures to really make the picture pop. Make sure the picture covers the whole sky.

Change the blending option to Overlay.

Lower the Opacity to 40% and the fill also to 40%. This will really make it blend and look more natural.

Now do the same for the other skyline, but with a different cloud picture so it look like it reflecting underneath the clouds. So now you have a gorgeous sky with dramatic clouds.

Next I am going to add a soaring eagle to the picture. To match the picture better turn the contrast all the way down so it looks like a silhouette.

We are now done with the top for now. Lets get started on the fun part the space fantasy dimension.

First lets add some nice stars. Select white paint and a small 1 pt brush. Randomly draw dots but try not to go over board or it will look cluttered. On one or two of the dots, draw a few on top of each other to make a big bright North Star.

Select a new brush shaped like a star and highlight those bigger stars to give it that “twinkle, twinkle little star” look.

In the alternate world that eagle is actually a dove. So place a dove picture in and flip it vertically. Position it in the same spot as the eagle but at the bottom. Turn the opacity down to fade the image to make it not so strong, around 70%.

Next we will reflect the sun with a picture of a moon. Position it close to the same spot in the center of the picture. Now we delete the overlap by selecting the black in the background then going to the moon layer and delete the selection. Move the blending option to screen and turn down the opacity.

Lets add some more outer space items. Put in a planet and place it wherever you feel it looks the best. Put that screen blending option and turn down the opacity too.

On the smaller planet I tried to make it look like it was behind that cloud by feathering off the half that the cloud touches.

And for fun I threw in a picture of a shooting star. You can create one your self. Also do the same as with the other planets but lets use the Dodge Tool to brighten up the highlights on the stars and the moon.

Next step lets add some ripples to the water. This is achieved by drawing horizontal lines across the picture. They don’t have to be perfectly straight.

Now go to Filter > Blur > Motion Blur.

Now we are going to flatten the whole image and add some more effects. Duplicate the layer so we can dull whatever we do with out affecting the picture. Use the burn tool to add some richer color to the picture and make the corners darker.

We can now add the halo effect to the objects in space. You can do this by using the dodge tool to brighten the highlights. Turn the exposure down and use a large feathered brush.

I think that’s it. I hope yours turned out great! Come and check out more Tutorials at ComeandPhotoshop.com.

You want to find an image that something in it that would certainly pop out if it was in colour and the rest black and white. I decided with this pic. I’m mainly going to focus on the strawberry because of it’s vivid red colour. If you don’t have a photo, click on mine and use it for this tutorial.

Step 1

As always when you are working with a photo, you never want to make any kind of changes to the original, so before we do anything else, we need to "Duplicate" the image. Use the shortcut, CTRL+J (win) / COMMAND+J (mac) to duplicate the image and place it on it’s very own layer.

Now that we have our "Duplicate" image, we can get to work making it look good. Select the strong>"Layer 1 Copy", which it is our "Duplicate".

Image > Adjustments > Desaturate

When you "Desaturate" an image, you aren’t changing it to black and white, but just taking all of the colour out of it, still leaving it RGB.

I want to add a bit of contrast to the photo. To do this, I’m going to use the "Levels" adjustment. Use the shortcut CTRL+L (win) / COMMAND+L (mac) to bring up the dialog box. Here are the settings
that I used but feel free to adjust the sliders as you please.

Step 2 Now we are going to take the strawberry and make it colour. We need to make the strawberry a selection. I’m going to use a "Quick Mask" to make my selection. If you don’t know how to create a "Quick Mask", check out this tutorial to help you along your way. A quick note here, when you are painting your mask on, it will be much easier to do it on the "Desaturated" layer if you are using the same photo as I am. The "Quick Mask" paints red and a strawberry is red. You do the math.

Once you have the strawberry selected, hit the "Q" button to exit the "Quick Mask". You will notice that the selection area is around the strawberry as well as the image itself.	All we need is the strawberry, not the rest of the image. What we need to do is select the "Inverse". CTRL+SHIFT+I (win) / COMMAND+SHIFT+I (mac)

Now we have the selection that we need. Now click the "Eye" to turn off the "Desaturated" layer and click on the layer containing the colour photo. That is where we need to pull the selected area from.

Once you have the colour layer selected, use the shortcut CTRL+J (win) / COMMAND+J (mac) to once again "Duplicate" your selection. A new layer containing the selected strawberry is created above layer 1. In the layers palette, just drag layer 2 above layer 1 copy and turn the "Desaturated" layer back on and Viola, colour and black & white.

Step 3

Now we could just stop there but there is another little trick that I want to show you. Go back to the original colour layer and get back into "Quick Mask". Zoom in on the eyes and make a selection out of them. Follow
the same steps as earlier to make the mask.

As we did previously, select the "Inverse" of the mask selection. Then use CTRL+J (win) / COMMAND+J (mac) to duplicate the selection to it’s own layer. Drag that layer above the desaturated layer. Now, her eyes look kinda scary, don’t you think. I actually want to change the colour of them. Make sure that you have the layer with the eyes selected and go to…

Image > Adjustments > Hue/Saturation

This is a great trick to know. With the "Hue/Saturation" you can basically change the colour of anything. Once the dialog box is up, make sure that you check the "Colorize" box on the bottom right hand side. As soon as you check it, you will notice that the eyes change colour. Adjust the sliders as you see fit. I like green eyes, so here are the settings that I used.

I think that photos with this dynamic are amazing. They certainly stand apart from anything else. Use this knowledge on any kind of photo, it doesn’t have to be a person. Choose different elements to make your images pop more and people will think that you are a genius. -daniel

So for this tutorial, I’m going to refer to our flying squirrel as Earl. Earl the Flying Squirrel.

In this tutorial, I’m going to teach you how to take this photo of Earl the Flying Squirrel and turn it into Earl the Flying Squirrel paint brush.

Step 1 - Get That Squirrel Out!!

First thing you need to do is extract the background so that all that you have is Earl all alone. To do this, I’m going to be using a "Quick Mask". To enter the "Quick Mask" simply hit the letter "Q". Using brushes, paint just Earl red. You’ll want to zoom in close and use varying brush sizes.

After you complete the "Quick Mask", Earl the Squirrel should be looking like this	To exit the "Quick Mask" simply hit "Q" on your keyboard, making Earl a selection now.

Then a swift strike of the "Delete" key Use CTRL+D (win) / COMMAND+D (mac) to deselect it all.

Step 2 - Brush the Squirrel
So now you have yourself a squirrel all alone on a transparent background. It’s now time to turn Earl into a brush. Hold the CTRL / COMMAND key and click on the layer containing Earl. Your cursor should turn into a hand with a square beside it. When you see this, click on the layer. This will load only Earl as the selection.

Now the area that is currently selected will be the area that becomes the brush. So make sure that your selection doesn’t have any of the background around the edges. If it does just deselect, clean up and reselect like you just did. Now that you have Earl ready to be a brush, lets turn him into one. Edit > Define Brush

Once you "Define the Brush" a dialog box will pop up where you can name your brush. You will also notice the number underneath the thumbnail of the brush. This is the default size of the brush. As you can tell, it is certainly a large brush, but this is a good thing. This gives the brush lots more detail. It also helps if you are going to make it much larger than it is now, helping preserve that detail. Earl also has been turned "Grayscale". Photoshop automatically does this for you. The reason that Earl is turned gray is so he can be any colour that you want him to be when you use him as a brush.

Now you’ve just made your very own Earl the Flying Squirrel brush. Open up a new document and play around. Hit "B" to select the brush tool and then right click on your new document. This your brushes palette & Earl will be all the way to the bottom.

Just use him as a regular brush now. You’ll see that whatever colour you have selected as your "Foreground" that is the colour the brush is. Also experiment with all the different brush settings. Depending on your verison of Photoshop, there will be an option for "Brush Settings". You can set fades, textures, different pressures, the options are limitless. Brushes just don’t have to be pics. They can anything you want them to be. Try using your pen tool to create custom shapes and use the same process to turn those shapes to brushes. Or maybe you created some awesome looking special effect, select it, turn it into a brush. Scan your signature and make it into a brush. Whatever you want to do, you can. Happy Photoshopping.   -daniel