10. Painting and Drawing

A lifetime ago (in computer years, anyway) a little company just south of San Francisco introduced a small beige box with a tiny 9-inch keyhole of a monitor and a mouse resembling a bar of soap. It could display and print only in black and white, was incapable of reproducing even remotely convincing photographic images, and was strictly limited to a resolution of 72 pixels per inch. And yet, graphic artists smiled a collective smile, because bundled in its modest software suite, alongside its stunted little word processor, Apple’s Macintosh gave the world MacPaint.

Painting and drawing programs have jumped by leaps and bounds since taking those first, early baby steps, but one feature remains the same: they’re still so much fun to use!

In this chapter, you’ll learn how to use Photoshop Elements’ built-in drawing and painting tools to create original artwork or to enhance your digital photos—whether you’re filling parts of your image with color, creating a blended gradient, adding a decorative stroked border to a logo or design element, or “painting” a photo with Impressionist-style brushstrokes.

About Bitmap Images and Vector Graphics

Photoshop Elements’ painting and drawing tools render artwork in two fundamentally different ways.

The painting tools, including all the varied fills, gradients, brushes, and erasers, work by making changes to pixels—adding them, removing them, or changing their colors. A bitmap image is composed entirely of tiny pixels; and digital photos, the mainstay of Photoshop Elements, are bitmap images. Although you can apply paintbrushes, color fills, special effects, and filters to bitmaps, they simply don’t resize well. If you try to enlarge a digital photo, for example, you’ll see that its image quality suffers as the pixels get bigger, resulting in a blurry mess.

The drawing tools (shape creation tools, really) form images not by manipulating pixels but by constructing geometric paths based on precise mathematical coordinates, or vectors. Images created with these drawing tools, known as vector graphics, hold one decided advantage over their bitmap cousins: they can be scaled up or down, virtually infinitely, with no loss of detail or resolution (Figure 10.1). Elements’ scalable fonts, for example, are based on vector shapes, so they can be stretched, warped, and resized to your heart’s content. Vector graphics files also tend to be smaller than comparable bitmap image files, since a path shape requires less information for your computer to process and render than a similar shape constructed of pixels.

Figure 10.1. A photographic bitmap image (top) is constructed of pixels. Any attempt to zoom in on or enlarge a portion of the image can make the pixels more pronounced and the image more pixelated. A vector image (bottom) is drawn with a series of geometric paths rather than pixels. Vector graphics can be enlarged or reduced with no loss of detail or resolution.

Although they’re designed to work with different kinds of graphics, the painting and drawing tools are equally easy to use, and work well together if you want to combine vector and bitmap graphics—such as adding type or custom shapes to a favorite photo.

Filling Areas with Color

You have two primary ways of filling areas with a solid color. With the Fill dialog, you can quickly blanket an entire layer or a selected area of a layer with color. The Paint Bucket tool operates in a more controlled manner, filling only portions of areas based on properties that you set on the options bar. Either method works especially well for those times when you want to cover large, expansive areas with a single color.

To fill a selection or layer with color

1. Using any of the selection or marquee tools, select the area of your image you want to fill with color.

If you want to fill an entire layer, it’s not necessary to make a selection.

2. To select a fill color, do one of the following:

• Click either the current foreground or background color swatch at the bottom of the toolbox (Figure 10.2) to open the Color Picker; then select a color.

Figure 10.2. Clicking the foreground or background color swatch in the toolbox opens the Color Picker.

• From the Swatches palette, click any color to select it.

3. From the Edit menu, choose either Fill Selection or Fill Layer to open the Fill Layer dialog (Figure 10.3).

Figure 10.3. The Fill Layer dialog offers several options for filling a layer or selection with color.

4. From the Use drop-down menu, choose a source for your fill color (Figure 10.4).

Figure 10.4. The Use drop-down menu contains various sources from which to choose a fill color. Choose the Foreground Color option to apply a specific color chosen from the Color Picker or Swatches palette.

In addition to the foreground and background colors, you can use the Fill command to fill a selection or area with a pattern or with black, white, or 50 percent gray. Or you can choose Color to open the Color Picker and select a different color altogether.

5. From the Blending area of the dialog, select a blending mode and opacity for your fill. (For more information on blending modes, see “About Opacity and Blending Modes” in Chapter 8.)

6. Click the Preserve Transparency check box if you want to preserve a layer’s transparency when you apply the fill.

7. Click OK to close the dialog.

The selection or layer is filled with the color and properties you specified (Figure 10.5).

Figure 10.5. In this example, an area of the Background layer is selected (left), then filled with a color using the Fill dialog (right).

Tips

• To save time, use simple keyboard shortcuts to fill a selection or layer with either the current foreground or background color. Alt+Backspace will fill a selection or layer with the current foreground color, and Ctrl+Backspace applies the current background color.

• To swap the foreground and background color swatches in the toolbox, press X.

• To convert the foreground and background color to black and white (the defaults), press D.

To apply fill color with the Paint Bucket tool

1. Select the Paint Bucket tool from the toolbox (K) (Figure 10.7).

Figure 10.7. The Paint Bucket tool.

2. Select a foreground color from either the Color Picker or the Swatches palette.

3. On the options bar, check that Foreground is selected in the Fill drop-down menu (Figure 10.8).

Figure 10.8. To fill an area with a color, Foreground must be selected on the options bar’s Fill drop-down menu.

The Paint Bucket tool can also be used to fill an area with a pattern.

4. Again on the options bar, select a blending mode and opacity setting, if desired (Figure 10.9).

Figure 10.9. The Paint Bucket tool takes advantage of all of Photoshop Elements’ blending modes and opacity options.

5. Still on the options bar, set a Tolerance value; then specify whether you want the colored fill to be anti-aliased, to fill only contiguous pixels, or to affect all layers (Figure 10.10).

Figure 10.10. The options bar contains several settings that fine-tune the Paint Bucket’s fill properties.

For more information on these options, see the sidebar “How Does that Paint Bucket Tool Work, Anyway?”

6. Click the area of your image where you want to apply the colored fill.

The selected color is painted into your image (Figure 10.11).

Figure 10.11. The Paint Bucket tool fills areas based on their tonal values. Here it automatically selects and fills just the light-colored background area.

Filling Areas with a Gradient

The Gradient tool fills any selection or layer with smooth transitions of color, one blending gradually into the next. They can be rendered as opaque fills or seamlessly incorporated into a layered project using any of Elements’ blending modes and opacity settings. Use a gradient to create an effective background image for a photo; to screen back a portion of an image; to create an area on which to place type; or you can apply it to any shape or object to simulate the surface texture of metal or glass.

To apply a gradient fill

1. Using any of the selection or marquee tools, select the area of your image where you want to apply the gradient.

If you want to fill an entire layer, you don’t need to make a selection.

2. Select the Gradient tool from the toolbox (or press G) (Figure 10.13).

Figure 10.13. The Gradient tool.

3. On the options bar, click to open the gradient picker (Figure 10.14).

Figure 10.14. Open the gradient picker to select from sets of gradient thumbnails.

4. Click to choose from the list of default gradients, or if you want to view additional gradient sets, click the More button (the triangle to the right of the thumbnail images) to open the Gradient picker menu (Figure 10.15).

Figure 10.15. The gradient picker’s menu offers several picker display options plus access to a variety of gradient sets.

Gradient sets are located in the bottommost section of the menu. When you select a new gradient set, it replaces the set displayed in the gradient picker.

5. On the options bar, click to choose a gradient style (Figure 10.16).

Figure 10.16. Click a gradient type button on the options bar to draw one of five gradient styles.

Choose from five gradient types: Linear, Radial, Angle, Reflected, and Diamond.

6. In the image window, click and drag in the area where you want to apply the gradient (Figure 10.17).

Figure 10.17. Drag from the center to the edge to create a halo effect with the Radial gradient.

The selection or layer is filled with the gradient.

Tip

• Hold down the Shift key to constrain a gradient horizontally, vertically, or at a 45-degree angle.

Creating and Saving Custom Gradients

Although Photoshop Elements ships with a wide variety of gradients and gradient sets, at some point, you may want to create your own customized gradient effects. All the tools you need are provided in one powerful package. With the Gradient Editor, you can not only create new gradients, but you can also create and save new gradient sets, which you can then access and load from the gradient picker. In addition, you can use the Preset Manager to organize and edit your new gradient sets.

To create a new gradient

1. Select the Gradient tool from the toolbox.

2. On the options bar, click the Edit button to the right of the gradient picker (Figure 10.18).

Figure 10.18. The Edit button on the options bar opens the Gradient Editor.

The Gradient Editor dialog opens (Figure 10.19).

Figure 10.19. The Gradient Editor dialog.

3. From among the gradient thumbnails in the Presets area, click to select a gradient similar to the one you want to create.

Keep in mind that any new gradient you create is always based on an existing gradient, so you can save yourself a little time by starting with a gradient that has properties (numbers of bands of color, opacity settings, and so on) similar to the new gradient that you have in mind.

You create and modify gradients primarily by editing the gradient preview in the lower portion of the dialog. Color stops at the bottom of the gradient preview define which colors a gradient contains, whereas opacity stops along the top allow you to add levels of transparency to different sections of the gradient.

4. Click a color stop on the gradient preview to select it (Figure 10.20).

Figure 10.20. This color stop establishes the starting color of the gradient.

5. To assign a new color to the color stop, do one of the following:

• Click directly in the Color box to open the Color Picker, and select a new color from there.

• Click the arrow next to the Color box to open the Color drop-down menu. From the drop-down menu, choose either the current foreground or background color (Figure 10.21).

Figure 10.21. Assign a foreground or background color to a color stop from the Color drop-down menu.

Be aware that the latter option doesn’t assign a specific color to the color stop, but creates a kind of link to the foreground and background color swatches in the toolbox. This means that if you change the foreground or background color, the color stop (and the section of gradient it defines) will change color too.

If you want to permanently assign a current foreground or background color to a color stop, first select either option from the drop-down menu, then choose User Color from the same menu. Selecting User Color will break the link to the toolbox swatches and lock that color into the color stop (Figure 10.22). The gradient preview changes to reflect the color change.

Figure 10.22. Select User Color from the Color drop-down menu to change a linked foreground or background color stop (left) to an unlinked, self-contained color stop (right).

Assign colors to the remaining color stops in the same fashion.

6. To add a new color stop, move the pointer to any spot directly below the gradient preview; then click once (Figure 10.23).

Figure 10.23. You can add and modify any number of new color stops.

A new color stop appears, which in turn adds a new color to the gradient in the gradient preview. The color of the new color stop is determined by the current color displayed in the Color box. If the Color box is grayed out and inactive, the last color that appeared in the Color box is applied to the new color stop.

7. To move a color stop, do one of the following:

• Click and drag the stop to a new location below the gradient preview (Figure 10.24).

Figure 10.24. Move a color stop to change a color’s location in the gradient.

• Click to select a stop, then enter a percentage value in its Location text box below the gradient preview.

As the color stop moves, the color associated with it in the gradient preview will shift accordingly.

Between each set of color stops is a gradient midpoint—the point where two gradient colors meet and mix. The default midpoint location is 50 percent, or exactly halfway between color stops (Figure 10.25).

Figure 10.25. A gradient midpoint at its default location halfway between two color stops.

8. To move a gradient midpoint, do one of the following:

• Click and drag the midpoint to anywhere between its two color stops.

• Click to select a midpoint, then enter a percentage value in its Location text box below the gradient preview (Figure 10.26).

Figure 10.26. As you move a gradient midpoint, you change the position of the transition area where two colors in the gradient mix together.

As the midpoint moves, the area where the two colors mix in the gradient preview will shift accordingly.

9. Drag the Smoothness slider above the gradient preview to decrease or increase the smoothness of the transitions between the new gradient color and those surrounding it (Figure 10.27).

Figure 10.27. With the Smoothness slider set at 100 percent, the transitions between colors are subtle and gradual (top). As the slider moves closer to 0, the transitions become a bit more harsh (bottom).

10. To remove a color stop, drag the stop straight down, away from the gradient preview. The color stop disappears, as does its associated color in the gradient preview.

11. To change a gradient’s opacity, click to select an opacity stop, located above the gradient preview; then move the Opacity slider in the lower portion of the dialog (Figure 10.28).

Figure 10.28. Opacity stops, in tandem with the Opacity slider, allow you to change the opacity of areas within a gradient.

Additional opacity stops can be added just like color stops, by clicking directly above the gradient preview.

12. Name your gradient, if you like; then click the New button.

Your new gradient appears with the other thumbnail views in the Presets portion of the dialog (Figure 10.29).

Figure 10.29. When you create a new gradient, it’s automatically displayed with the other gradients in the Presets thumbnail window.

13. Click OK to close the dialog. Your new gradient is displayed in the gradient picker preview on the options bar.

When you create a new gradient, it’s saved (at least temporarily) in Photoshop Elements’ preset file. But once you reset the gradients in the gradient picker or select a different gradient set, any new gradients you’ve created will be lost. Fortunately, you can use the Gradient Editor and gradient picker to save your own gradient sets.

Tip

• If you open the Swatches palette prior to opening the Gradient Editor, you can assign colors to color stops by clicking on the swatches. Remember, you’ll need to have the palette open on your desktop, outside of the palette well, to access it once the Gradient Editor is open.

To create a new gradient set

1. Create as many new custom gradients as you like, as described in the previous procedure.

2. In the Gradient Editor dialog, click the Save button (Figure 10.30).

Figure 10.30. Click the Gradient Editor’s Save button to open the Save dialog.

The Save dialog opens with the Gradients presets folder automatically selected as the destination to which your new gradient set will be saved.

3. Enter a new name for your gradient set; then click Save (Figure 10.31).

Figure 10.31. Enter a name for your new gradient set in the File name text box.

Your new gradient set will be saved with the others (Figure 10.32), but it won’t appear on either the More menu in the Gradient Editor or the drop-down menu in the gradient picker until after you quit and then restart Photoshop Elements.

Figure 10.32. The next time you start Photoshop Elements, your new gradient set appears with the others on the gradient picker menu.

Once you’ve created a new gradient set, particularly if you’ve based it on an existing set, you may want to do a little housekeeping by saving some gradients and throwing others away. You can use the Photoshop Elements Preset Manager to clean up your new gradient sets.

To edit a gradient set

1. From the Edit menu, choose Preset Manager to open the Preset Manager dialog.

2. From the Preset Type drop-down menu, choose Gradients (Figure 10.33), or press Ctrl+3.

Figure 10.33. The Preset Manager is actually four different preset managers in one.

3. From the Preset Manager’s More menu, choose the gradient set that you want to edit.

Remember that if you’ve created a new gradient set, you’ll need to quit and then restart Photoshop Elements before your new set will appear in any of the drop-down menus.

4. In the thumbnail area, Ctrl+click to select only the gradients that you want to keep in your gradient set (Figure 10.34).

Figure 10.34. Every gradient thumbnail you select will be included in your new gradient set when you click Save Set.

If you select a gradient by mistake, deselect it by holding down Ctrl and clicking it a second time.

5. Click the Save Set button to open the Save dialog.

6. Check that the name in the File name text box is the same as the one that you’ve been editing; then click Save.

Your gradient set will be resaved, this time containing only those gradients that you selected in step 4.

Alternatively, you can enter a different name in the File name text box to create a brand-new gradient set.

Adding a Stroke to a Selection or Layer

Photoshop Elements’ Stroke command adds a colored rule or border around any selected object or layer. With the Stroke command, you can easily trace around almost anything, from simple rectangle or ellipse selections to complex typographic characters. Because you can control both the stroke’s thickness and where the stroke is drawn in relation to a selection (inside, outside, or centered), you can create everything from delicate, single-ruled outlines to decorative, multiple-stroked borders and frames.

To apply a stroke

1. Using any of the selection or marquee tools, select the area of your image to which you want to add a stroke.

If you’re adding a stroke to an object on its own transparent layer, there’s no need to make a selection. Instead, just check that the layer is active on the Layers palette.

2. From the Edit menu, choose Stroke (Outline) Selection to open the Stroke dialog (Figure 10.35).

Figure 10.35. Draw lines around selections using the Stroke dialog.

3. In the Width text box, enter the stroke width, in pixels.

There’s no need to enter the pixel abbreviation (px) following the number value.

4. Change the stroke color by clicking the Color box and opening the Color Picker.

5. Select the location of the stroke. The location determines where the stroke is drawn: inside, outside, or centered directly on the selection (Figure 10.36).

Figure 10.36. Once an object is selected (top row), you can stroke it either inside, centered on, or outside of the selection (bottom row).

6. Ignore the Blending portion of the dialog for now.

7. Click OK to apply the stroke to your selection or layer (Figure 10.37).

Figure 10.37. Select an object (left), then choose the Stroke command to apply a stroke (right).

Tip

• Photoshop Elements uses the foreground color for the stroke color unless you change it in the Stroke dialog. So if you want to pick a stroke color from the Swatches palette, click the Swatches palette to assign the foreground color before anything else; then choose Stroke from the Edit menu. The color you chose from the Swatches palette will appear as the stroke color in the dialog.

To create a decorative border

1. Make a selection, either by using one of the selection or marquee tools, or by selecting an object on a transparent layer as described in the “Creating a Stroke Layer” sidebar.

2. Create a new layer; then apply a wide stroke to the selection (Figure 10.39).

Figure 10.39. The first step in creating a multiruled border is to create a thick stroke. Here, we used a stroke of 60 pixels.

In this example, we used a stroke of 60 pixels.

3. With the selection still active, create a new layer above the first.

4. Apply a stroke narrower than the first and in a contrasting color or value (Figure 10.40).

Figure 10.40. Placing a narrow stroke of a different color over the broad first stroke creates an attractive three-ruled border.

5. Continue to add stroke layers until you achieve the desired result.

Tip

• You can create different effects by adding inside and outside strokes.

Using the Brush Tool

The Brush tool is a near limitless reservoir of hundreds of different and unique brushes. You can apply painted brushstrokes directly to the surface of any photograph, or open a new file to serve as a blank canvas upon which you can create an original work of fine art. The dozen preset brush libraries offer selections as varied as Calligraphic, Wet Media, and Special Effects, and any brush can be resized from 1 pixel to a staggering 2500 pixels in diameter. You can paint using any of Photoshop Elements’ blending modes and opacity settings, and you can turn any brush into an airbrush with a single click of a button. So whether you’re a budding Van Gogh, would like to add a color-tint effect to an antique black-and-white photograph, or just enjoy doodling while talking on the phone, Photoshop Elements’ brushes can help to bring out your inner artist.

To paint with the Brush tool

1. To select a paint color, do one of the following:

• Click the current foreground color swatch at the bottom of the toolbox to open the Color Picker.

• Choose a color from the Swatches palette.

2. Select the Brush tool in the toolbox (or press B) (Figure 10.41).

Figure 10.41. The Brush tool.

3. On the options bar, click to open the Brush Presets palette (Figure 10.42).

Figure 10.42. Open the Brush Presets palette to select from sets of different brushes.

4. Click to choose from the list of default brushes, or select a different brush set from the Brushes drop-down menu (Figure 10.43).

Figure 10.43. The Brushes drop-down menu gives you access to a variety of brush sets.

Once you’ve selected a brush, you can use it at its predefined size, or you can resize it using the brush Size slider on the options bar (Figure 10.44).

Figure 10.44. Use the brush Size slider to resize your brush.

5. Again on the options bar, select a blend mode and opacity setting.

6. In the image window, drag to paint a brushstroke (Figure 10.45).

Figure 10.45. Create realistic brush effects simply by dragging through the image window.

Tips

• You can easily resize brushes on the fly using simple keyboard shortcuts. Once a brush of any size is selected, press the ] or [ key to increase or decrease the current brush size to the nearest unit of 10 pixels. Thus, if you’re painting with a brush size of 23 pixels and press the ] key, the brush size increases to 30 pixels and then grows in increments of 10 each subsequent time you press ]. Conversely, a brush size of 56 pixels is reduced to 50 pixels when you press the [ key, and the brush continues to shrink by 10 pixels each time thereafter that you press [.

• When any tool that uses a brush-type pointer is selected (the Eraser, Blur, Sharpen, and Clone tools, for instance), the same keyboard shortcuts as described in the preceding tip apply.

• Almost any brush can be made to behave like an airbrush by clicking the Airbrush button on the options bar (Figure 10.46). With the Airbrush selection activated, paint flows more slowly from the brush and gradually builds denser tones of color. The Airbrush option is most effective when applied to soft, round brushes or to brushes with scatter and spacing properties. (For more information on scatter and spacing properties, see the sidebar “Understanding the Brush Dynamics Palette” later in this chapter.)

Figure 10.46. Click the Airbrush button on the options bar to give a brush the characteristics of an airbrush.

Creating and Saving Custom Brushes

With so many different brushes and brush sets at your disposal, you may be surprised to discover that you can change not only the size of brushes, but other characteristics such as flow, shape, and color. Photoshop Elements provides you with all the tools you need to modify existing brushes and create your own from photographs or scanned objects, such as leaves or flower petals. Once you’ve created a new brush, you can store it temporarily in an existing brush set or save and organize it into a new brush set of your own. Any new brush sets you create are then accessed and loaded from the Brushes drop-down menu on the Brush Presets palette.

To create a custom brush

1. Select the Brush tool from the toolbox (B).

2. From the list of preset brushes on the options bar, click to select a brush you want to customize (Figure 10.47).

Figure 10.47. To create a new brush, select an existing brush and customize its properties.

3. On the options bar, click the More Options button to open the Brush Dynamics palette (Figure 10.48).

Figure 10.48. The Brush Dynamics palette contains slider controls to modify a brush shape.

4. Use the sliders on the palette to modify the Fade, Hue Jitter, Scatter, Spacing and Hardness properties of the brush.

For more information on these slider controls, see the “Understanding the Brush Dynamics Palette” sidebar later in this chapter.

5. You can also adjust the angle and roundness of the brush (Figure 10.49).

Figure 10.49. The lower portion of the Brush Dynamics palette offers controls for angle and roundness.

As you move the sliders, or enter angle and roundness values, refer to the brush presets preview on the options bar to see the effects of your changes. All but the Hue Jitter property will be reflected in the preview on the options bar (Figure 10.50).

Figure 10.50. The Brush Presets preview area here shows an original brush (top) and the same brush customized on the Brush Dynamics palette (bottom).

6. If you have a pressure-sensitive digital tablet connected to your computer, you can control how the pen’s pressure will affect your brush settings.

On the options bar, click the Tablet Options button, then check the boxes for the brush settings that you want the pen pressure to control (Figure 10.51).

Figure 10.51. Tablet options give you control over how pen pressure affects certain brush settings.

7. When you’re satisfied with your changes, click anywhere on the options bar to close the palette.

8. On the options bar, use the brush Size slider to size your brush.

9. Still on the options bar, open the Brush Presets palette; then select Save Brush from the palette options menu (Figure 10.52).

Figure 10.52. Save your customized brushes on the Brush Presets palette menu.

The Brush Name dialog opens.

10. Type a name for your new brush and click OK.

Your new brush appears at the bottom of the current brush presets list on the Brush Presets palette (Figure 10.53).

Figure 10.53. A new brush is displayed at the bottom of the palette list.

To create a brush from a photographic object

1. Open an image that contains an object or area from which you want to create a new brush.

2. To select an object from the image, do one of the following:

• Using one of the selection tools, select the object or portion of a photograph you want to make into a brush. The Selection Brush and Magnetic Lasso tools both work well for this kind of selection (Figure 10.54).

Figure 10.54. A custom brush can be made out of virtually any selected object. In this example, we’ve selected a large daisy.

• If you already have an object on its own transparent layer, hold down Ctrl and click on the layer thumbnail in the Layers palette.

3. From the Edit menu, choose Define Brush from Selection. The Brush Name dialog opens with a representation of your new brush in its preview box (Figure 10.55).

Figure 10.55. The selection appears in the brush preview of the Brush Name dialog.

4. Enter a name for the brush and click OK to close the dialog.

5. Select the Brush tool from the toolbox; then from the options bar, open the Brush Presets palette. Your new brush appears at the bottom of the current brush presets list (Figure 10.56).

Figure 10.56. Once saved, your new brush appears in the brush presets list.

6. Click to select the new brush; then on the options bar, click the More Options button to open the Brush Dynamics palette.

7. Use the sliders on the palette to modify the brush attributes; then click anywhere on the options bar to close the palette.

Tips

• You can use these kinds of brushes to great effect as background textures, type borders, or homemade “rubber stamps” for greeting cards and invitations.

• Images with high contrast generally work best as brush shapes. Remember that you’re not saving any color information—just the object’s shape and its tonal values—so you’ll want to use shapes with as much defined detail as possible.

• Don’t be discouraged if you can’t seem to duplicate the color and scatter effects of preset brushes such as Maple Leaves. A good number of the built-in brushes weren’t created in Photoshop Elements at all, but in Adobe Photoshop. Photoshop offers a host of additional controls, including jitter properties for scatter, angle, hue, and size. For now, while you’re working in Photoshop Elements, any blowing leaves or dune grass you create will all have to face the same direction.

Managing brush sets

Managing brushes is no different than managing other presets (such as gradients and patterns). When you create a new brush, it’s saved in the presets file. But once you reset the brushes on the Brush Presets palette or select a different brush set, any new brushes you’ve created will be lost. Use the Preset Manager to create and save new brush sets.

To create a new brush set

1. Create as many new brushes as you like, as described in the previous procedures.

2. From the Brush Presets palette menu, choose Preset Manager.

The Preset Manager dialog opens to the current brush set displayed on the Brush Presets palette (Figure 10.61).

Figure 10.61. The Brushes Preset Manager.

3. Scroll through the thumbnail views until you find the brushes you want to include in your new set.

4. In the thumbnail area, Ctrl+click to select all of the brushes that you want to include (Figure 10.62).

Figure 10.62. Select brushes you want included in your new brush set.

If you select a brush by mistake, you can deselect it by holding down Ctrl and clicking the thumbnail a second time.

5. Click the Save Set button to open the Save dialog.

6. In the File name text box, enter a new name to describe your brush set and click Save (Figure 10.63).

Figure 10.63. Name your new brush set in the Save dialog.

Your brush set is saved with the brushes you selected in step 4.

Your new brush set is saved with the others, but it won’t appear on either the More menu in the Preset Manager or the Brushes drop-down menu on the Brush Presets palette until after you quit and then restart Photoshop Elements.

Creating Special Painting Effects

The Impressionist Brush tool adds a painterly look to any photographic image. Although similar in effect to some of the Artistic and Brush Stroke filters, the Impressionist Brush tool allows you to be much more selective about which areas of an image it’s applied to. That’s because it uses the same scaleable, editable brushes as the Brush tool. You can use the Impressionist Brush tool to create compelling works of art from even the most mundane of photographs.

To paint with the Impressionist Brush tool

1. Open the image to which you want to apply the Impressionist Brush effect.

2. Select the Impressionist Brush tool from beneath the Brush tool in the toolbox (Figure 10.64).

Figure 10.64. The Impressionist Brush tool.

Alternatively, you can press B to select the Brush tool and then press B again to toggle to the Impressionist Brush tool.

3. On the options bar, select a brush from the Brush Presets palette.

You can, of course, use any brush with the Impressionist Brush tool, but the round, soft-sided brush that Photoshop Elements picks as the default works especially well.

4. Again on the options bar, select a size with the brush Size slider (Figure 10.65).

Figure 10.65. The brush size can have quite an impact on the way the Impressionist Brush tool affects your photograph. In the photo on the left, we painted with a brushstroke of 10 pixels. In the photo on the right, we changed the brushstroke to 20 pixels.

You can also select a mode and an opacity option, although in most cases the defaults of Normal and 100 percent are fine.

5. Still on the options bar, click the More Options button to open the Impressionist Brush Options palette (Figure 10.66).

Figure 10.66. The Impressionist Brush Options palette has controls for different brush styles and the amount of image area they affect with each brushstroke.

6. From the Style drop-down menu, select a brush style (Figure 10.67).

Figure 10.67. Brush styles vary from subtle (Dab) to extravagant (Loose Curl Long).

We tend not to stray much beyond the top three Styles (Tight Short, Medium, and Long), although the Dab style also creates some pretty effects.

7. In the Area text box, enter a value, in pixels, for the amount of area you want to affect with each stroke of the brush.

For example, let’s say you start with a brush that makes a single brush mark 10 pixels wide, and then select an Area value of 80 pixels. As you move the brush through the image—and depending on the brush style you chose—it will swoosh around an area of 80 × 80 pixels, distributing the paint in 10-pixel dollops.

8. If desired, select a Tolerance setting to determine the range of pixels affected.

You may want to keep the Tolerance slider set at 0 percent and leave it alone. In use with the Impressionist brush, this setting seems wildly erratic and not worth the trouble.

9. In the image window, drag the brush through your image.

The image takes on a painterly look wherever the Impressionist Brush tool is drawn through it (Figure 10.68).

Figure 10.68. Simply drag the brush through your photo to create a work of art.

Tips

• Images with resolutions of 150 pixels per inch and higher make the best candidates for the Impressionist Brush tool, because the higher resolution helps to preserve detail when the effect is applied.

• Stick to using smaller brush sizes, particularly on low-resolution images. Although any rules of thumb vary from image to image, a good starting place is a brush size between 6 and 10 pixels and an Area setting of between 30 and 50.

Erasing with Customizable Brush Shapes

The images or brushstrokes you choose to remove from a photograph are often as important as those you decide to add or leave behind. The basic Eraser feature is a powerful tool for cleaning up and fine-tuning your images, taking full advantage of every brush style and size that Photoshop Elements has to offer. Not only can you perform routine erasing tasks such as rubbing away stray pixels, you can also customize an eraser’s brush and opacity settings to create unique texture, color, and pattern effects. Three modes allow you to customize your erasers even further, so that you can erase with soft-edged brush shapes, hard-edged pencil shapes, or a simple hard-edged square block.

To use the Eraser tool

1. Select the Eraser tool from the toolbox (E) (Figure 10.69).

Figure 10.69. The Eraser tool.

2. On the options bar, select a brush from the Brush Presets palette (Figure 10.70).

Figure 10.70. The same brush presets are available for the Eraser tool as for the Brush tool.

3. Again on the options bar, select a size using the brush Size slider.

4. From the Mode drop-down menu, select one of the three eraser modes.

If you select a soft, anti-aliased brush and then choose Pencil from the mode menu, the eraser will become coarse and aliased (Figure 10.71).

Figure 10.71. An eraser in Brush mode (left) and in Pencil mode (right).

5. Still on the options bar, select an opacity using the Opacity slider.

6. In the image window, drag the eraser through your image.

The image is erased according to the attributes you’ve applied to the eraser.

Erasing Backgrounds and Other Large Areas

The Background Eraser tool is an intelligent (and really quite amazing) little feature. Not only does it remove the background from around very complex shapes, but it does so in a way that leaves a natural, softened, anti-aliased edge around the foreground object left behind. This technique would be impossible to pull off with the regular Eraser tool, because it indiscriminately removes whatever pixels it touches. Because the Background Eraser tool erases pixels based on colors and tonal values that you control and modify, there is rarely much additional cleanup required once the background has been removed. Additionally, because the Background Eraser tool always erases to transparency, if you use it to remove the background from even a flattened layer, it automatically converts that layer to a floating, transparent one. This allows you to easily place a new background behind a foreground image, or to move it into a different photo composition altogether.

To use the Background Eraser tool

1. Select the Background Eraser tool from beneath the Eraser tool in the toolbox (Figure 10.74).

Figure 10.74. The Background Eraser tool.

Alternatively, you can press E to select the Eraser tool and then press E again to toggle to the Background Eraser tool.

2. On the options bar, select a size using the brush Size slider.

3. From the Limits drop-down menu, select one of the limit modes (Figure 10.75).

Figure 10.75. The Limits drop-down menu controls which pixels beneath the brush are sampled and erased.

Contiguous mode erases any pixels within the brush area that are the same as those currently beneath the crosshairs, as long as they’re touching one another.

Discontiguous mode erases all pixels within the brush area that are the same as those beneath the crosshairs, even if they’re not touching one another.

4. Select a Tolerance value, using the Tolerance slider (Figure 10.76). The value controls which pixels are erased according to how similar they are to the pixels beneath the eraser crosshairs. Higher Tolerance values increase the range of colors that are erased, and lower values limit the range of colors erased.

Figure 10.76. You use the Tolerance slider to increase or decrease the number of pixels sampled based on their similarity to one another.

5. In the image window, position the eraser pointer on the edge where the background and foreground images meet, and then drag along the edge.

The background portion of the image is erased, leaving behind the foreground image on a transparent background (Figure 10.77). The brush erases only pixels similar to the ones directly below the crosshairs, so the entire background can be completely erased while leaving the foreground image intact.

Figure 10.77. Begin by placing the crosshairs of the brush in the background portion of the image (left), then drag the brush along the outside edge of the foreground object to erase the background (right). Continue around the edge of the foreground object until it’s completely separated from the background.

Tips

• It’s okay if the circle (indicating the brush size) overlaps onto the foreground image, but be sure to keep the crosshairs over just the background area. The Background Eraser tool, of course, doesn’t really know the difference between background and foreground images, and is simply erasing based on the colors selected, or sampled, beneath the crosshairs. If the crosshairs stray into the foreground image, that part of the image will be erased, too.

• There’s a third eraser tool—the Magic Eraser tool—that we’ve chosen not to cover here because, frankly, it doesn’t work very well. It operates on the same principle as the Magic Wand tool (and, to some extent, the crosshairs on the Background Eraser tool) by deleting like pixels based on color or tonal value. That’s all well and good, but you’re not given any feedback or any opportunity at all to modify your selection. You just click, and poof—a large area of color is gone. Since the erasure typically is either not quite enough or a little too much, you undo, reset the tolerance, try again, undo—well, you get the idea. The other two erasers work fabulously well, so we suggest just keeping the Magic Eraser tool in the toolbox.

Removing a Foreground Image from Its Background

The Magic Extractor works much the same way as the Background Eraser tool: both provide a way to remove an unwanted background image while preserving a foreground image floating on a transparent layer. The Magic Extractor distinguishes itself with speed and added control. Rather than using the Background Eraser tool’s method, which requires you to painstakingly trace around a foreground image, the Magic Extractor works by using brushes to mark and identify first the foreground image that you want to save, and then the background image that you want to delete (Figure 10.78). A set of additional tools helps you to fine-tune your foreground and background selections, and a number of options are available for preview and for final touch-up.

Figure 10.78. Use the Magic Extractor dialog to identify the foreground and background areas of an image, and then delete an unwanted background.

To use the Magic Extractor tool

1. From the Image menu, choose Magic Extractor to open the Magic Extractor dialog (Figure 10.79).

Figure 10.79. Open the Magic Extractor dialog from the Image menu.

2. From the tool area on the left side of the dialog, select the Foreground Brush tool (Figure 10.80).

Figure 10.80. The Magic Extractor tool set.

3. Use the brush Size slider, if necessary, to adjust the size of your brush, and then use the brush to mark the foreground area of the image—the area of the image that you want to preserve.

You can mark the foreground with a series of either dots or scribbles, or a combination of the two. The idea is to use the brush to get a good cross sampling of all the different pixel colors and tones in the foreground (Figure 10.81).

Figure 10.81. Identify the foreground area with a series of dots and scribbles.

4. Select the Background Brush tool, and in the same manner, mark the background area of the image—the area of the image that you want to remove.

5. Click the Preview button to see the results of your work (Figure 10.82).

Figure 10.82. Click Preview to see the changes you’ve made to your image in the preview window.

Use the Zoom and Hand tools to move through the preview window and to get a closer look at the transitions between the foreground image and the transparent background.

6. If necessary, use one of the touch-up tools to modify or clean up the transitions between the foreground image and background:

• The Point Eraser tool removes portions of marks you’ve made with either the Foreground or Background Brush tools. When you remove a portion of a mark from the background area, for instance, you’re telling the Magic Extractor that you don’t want to erase pixels of a particular tonal or color range.

• The Add to Selection tool allows you to paint back in areas of the foreground image that may have been mistakenly removed along with the background.

• The Remove from Selection tool works like an eraser to remove areas of the foreground image.

• The Smoothing Brush softens the transition between the foreground image and transparent background by adding a halo of deleted background color to the edge of the foreground image.

7. If necessary, use the options in the Touch Up area of the dialog to further refine the foreground image (Figure 10.83).

Figure 10.83. Touch Up options give you the ability to soften the edge of your foreground image by feathering; fill in holes that may have been created when using the Foreground and Background brushes; and remove a halo of background color along the edge of a foreground image by applying Defringe.

8. Click OK to apply your changes and close the Magic Extractor dialog.

Tip

• Within the Magic Extractor dialog, you can only Undo (Ctrl+Z) the action of two tools: the Remove from Selection tool and the Smoothing Brush tool. But if you’re not happy with the results you’re getting, you can start over from scratch by either clicking the Reset or Cancel buttons. Clicking the Reset button will undo every action in the Preview window, but will leave the dialog open, whereas clicking Cancel will exit the dialog altogether without applying any changes to your image.

Understanding Shapes

In Photoshop Elements, you create shapes not by rendering them with pixels, but by constructing them from vector paths, which are actually vector masks. We’ll use some simple circle and square shapes to illustrate what that means.

Each time you draw a shape with one of the shape tools, Photoshop Elements is performing a little behind-the-scenes sleight of hand. Although it may appear that you’re drawing a solid, filled circle, for instance, what you’re really creating is a new layer containing both a colored fill and a mask with a circle-shaped cutout (Figure 10.84). When you move, reshape, or resize a shape, you’re actually just moving or reshaping the cutout and revealing a different area of the colored fill below it (Figure 10.85). When you add to or subtract from a shape by drawing additional shapes, you’re simply revealing or hiding more of the same colored layer (Figure 10.86).

Figure 10.84. When you draw a shape, you’re actually drawing a shape mask.

Figure 10.85. Moving a shape really means moving the cutout portion of the mask.

Figure 10.86. Adding a shape to a layer masks off another portion of the colored fill below it, in this case giving the illusion that the circle has a square hole in its center.

Every time you create a new shape, a new shape layer is added to the Layers palette. A shape layer is represented in the palette thumbnails by a gray background (the mask) and a white shape (the mask cutout, or path). Since a shape’s outline isn’t always visible in the image window—if you deselect it, for instance—the Layers palette provides a handy, visual reference for every shape in your project (Figure 10.87). And as with any other layered image, you can use the Layers palette to hide a shape’s visibility and even change its opacity and its blending mode.

Figure 10.87. Shapes appear on their own layers.

Drawing Basic Shapes

In Photoshop Elements, you can draw five basic geometric shapes (a shape selection tool and a tool for creating custom shapes are discussed in detail later in this chapter). Shapes can be drawn freely by clicking and dragging, or they can be constrained according to your specification of size, proportion, and special characteristics. You can use the shape tools to create logos or geometric designs, or, because a new layer is created with every shape you draw, you can draw shapes directly over any photograph or scanned image without fear of damaging the image.

To draw a shape

1. Select a shape tool from the toolbox (U) (Figure 10.88).

Figure 10.88. The Ellipse shape tool.

To cycle through the shape tools, press U again until you arrive at the shape you want.

Alternatively, once you’ve selected a shape tool in the toolbox, you can select a different shape from the options bar (Figure 10.89).

Figure 10.89. All of the shape tools are accessible from both the toolbox and the options bar.

2. To select a shape color, do one of the following:

• Click the current foreground color swatch at the bottom of the toolbox, or click the color box on the options bar to open the Color Picker.

• Choose a color from the Swatches palette.

3. If they’re available for the tool you’ve selected, you can set special properties for your shape before you draw. On the options bar, enter values specific to the shape you’ve chosen (Figure 10.90).

Figure 10.90. Some shape tools, such as the Polygon tool, have properties you can set on the options bar.

For the Rounded Rectangle tool, you can enter a corner radius. For the Polygon tool, you can enter the number of sides. For the Line tool, you can enter a pixel weight.

4. On the options bar, click the arrow next to the shape buttons to open the Geometry Options palette (Figure 10.91).

Figure 10.91. Every shape tool has its own particular set of geometry options.

In the Geometry Options palette, select from the available options for that particular shape or leave the options set to the default of Unconstrained.

5. In the image window click and drag to draw the shape (Figure 10.92).

Figure 10.92. Drawing a shape is as simple as clicking and dragging.

If you like, you can add a style to your shape from the Custom Shape tool’s built-in style picker.

6. On the options bar, click the icon or arrow to open the style picker (Figure 10.93).

Figure 10.93. Whenever any of the custom shape tools are selected, the shape tool style picker appears on the options bar.

7. Choose from the list of available styles or click the arrow button to the right of the thumbnail images to open the Style palette menu.

The style picker displays the new style set.

8. Click a style in the style picker to apply it to your shape (Figure 10.94).

Figure 10.94. A simple circle drawn with the ellipse shape tool (left) is transformed into a shiny, chrome button (right) using just one of the many styles from the style picker.

9. To deselect the shape and hide the path outline, press Enter.

Tip

• If you decide to remove a style from a shape, you have two options. With the shape layer selected in the Layers palette, either open the Style palette menu in the style picker and then choose Remove Style; or right-click the Layer Style icon on the desired layer in the Layers palette, and choose Clear Layer Style.

Transforming Shapes

You’re not limited to just creating shapes in Photoshop Elements. You can also scale (resize), rotate, and distort them to your liking. Shapes can be altered either numerically, by entering specific values on the options bar, or manually, by dragging their control handles in the image window. Constrain options, such as proportional scaling, are available for most transformations, and a set of keyboard shortcuts helps to simplify the process of adding distortion and perspective.

To scale a shape

1. Select the Shape Selection tool by doing any of the following:

• Choose the Shape Selection tool from beneath the current shape tool in the toolbox (Figure 10.97).

Figure 10.97. The Shape Selection tool.

• Press U to select any shape tool and then press U again until you toggle to the Shape Selection tool.

• Select any shape tool in the toolbox, then choose the Shape Selection tool from the options bar (it looks like an arrow).

2. In the image window, select the shape with the Shape Selection tool.

3. From the Image menu, choose Transform Shape > Free Transform Shape, or press Ctrl+T.

The options bar changes to show the scale and rotation text boxes, and the reference point locator (Figure 10.98).

Figure 10.98. Precise scale and rotation values can be entered for any shape.

4. On the options bar, click to set a reference point location.

The reference point determines what point your shape will be scaled to: toward the center, toward a corner, and so on (Figure 10.99).

Figure 10.99. These rectangles are both being reduced in size by about half. The one on the left is scaled toward its upper-left corner, and the one on the right is scaled toward its center.

5. If you want to scale your shape proportionately, click the Constrain Proportions check box.

6. Enter a value in either the height or width text box.

The shape is scaled accordingly.

7. Click the Commit Transform button (Figure 10.100), or press Enter.

Figure 10.100. The Commit Transform button scales the shape to the size you define.

Tips

• You can scale a shape manually by selecting it with the Shape Selection tool and then dragging any one of the eight handles on the selection border. Constrain the scaling by holding down the Shift key while dragging one of the four corner handles.

• If you want to simply reposition a shape in the image window, click anywhere inside the shape with the Shape Selection tool and then drag the shape to its new position.

To rotate a shape

1. Select the Shape Selection tool from the toolbox or options bar.

2. In the image window, select the shape with the Shape Selection tool.

3. From the Image menu, choose Rotate > Free Rotate Layer (Figure 10.101).

Figure 10.101. You can apply any of the layer rotation menu commands to your shapes.

The options bar changes to show the scale and rotation text boxes, and the reference point locator.

4. On the options bar, click to set a reference point location.

The reference point determines the point that your shape will be rotated around (Figure 10.102).

Figure 10.102. These rectangles are both being rotated about 20 degrees. The one on the left is rotated around its upper-left corner, and the one on the right is rotated around its center.

5. Enter a value in the rotate text box.

The shape will rotate accordingly.

6. Click the Commit Transform button, or press Enter/Return.

Tips

• To rotate your shape in 90- or 180-degree increments or to flip it horizontally or vertically, choose Image > Rotate; then choose from the list of five menu commands below the Free Rotate Layer command.

• You can rotate a shape manually by selecting it with the Shape Selection tool and then moving the pointer outside of the selection border until it becomes a rotation cursor (Figure 10.103). Drag around the outside of the selection border to rotate the shape. In addition, you can constrain the rotation to 15-degree increments by holding down the Shift key while dragging the rotation cursor.

Figure 10.103. Rotate any shape manually by dragging it around its reference point with the rotation pointer.

To distort a shape

1. Select the Shape Selection from the toolbox or options bar.

2. In the image window, select the shape with the Shape Selection tool.

3. From the Image menu, choose Transform Shape; then choose Skew, Distort, or Perspective (Figure 10.104).

Figure 10.104. Choose one of the three specific transformation commands.

4. On the options bar, check that the reference point location is set to the center.

The reference point can, of course, be set to any location, but the center seems to work best when applying any of the three distortions.

5. Drag any of the shape’s control handles to distort the shape.

Dragging the control handles will yield different results depending on the distort option you choose (Figure 10.105).

Figure 10.105. The same square shape transformed using Skew (left), Distort (center), and Perspective (right).

6. Click the Commit Transform button, or press Enter/Return.

Creating Custom Shapes

Once you’ve gained a basic understanding of working with Elements’ geometric shapes, you can begin adding those shapes together to create even more interesting and intricate shapes. Shape option buttons allow you to perform a little vector path magic by creating brand-new shapes out of the intersections and overlapping portions of the rectangle, ellipse, and polygon shapes.

The Custom Shape tool is in a world unto itself, working from a library of nearly 400 complex vector graphics grouped into categories as diverse as ornaments, music, fruit, symbols, and nature—far beyond the relatively simple icons and graphics you can build with the basic geometric shape tools.

To add a shape to an existing shape

1. Follow steps 1 through 5 in the task “To draw a shape” earlier in this chapter.

Make sure that this first shape’s path remains selected (Figure 10.106).

Figure 10.106. When a shape is selected, its path outline is visible (left). The path disappears when the shape is deselected (right).

2. From either the toolbox or the options bar, select the shape tool for the next shape you want to add.

You can use the same shape more than once, if you wish.

3. On the options bar, set color, value, and geometry options as desired.

4. Still on the options bar, click to select one of the shape area options (Figure 10.107).

Figure 10.107. The shape area options define how one shape reacts with another.

5. In the image window, click and drag to draw the new shape (Figure 10.108).

Figure 10.108. As the new shape is drawn, only its outline is visible (left). When the new shape is completed, it’s filled according to the preset shape area option (right). In this case, the option was set to Intersect Shape.

6. To deselect the shapes and hide their path outlines, press Enter/Return.

To combine multiple shapes

1. Select the Shape Selection tool from the toolbox or from the options bar.

2. In the image window, click to select the first shape; then Shift+click to select the additional shapes you want to group (Figure 10.109).

Figure 10.109. Shift+click to select the shapes you want to combine.

3. On the options bar, click the Combine button (Figure 10.110). The shapes are combined into one complex shape.

Figure 10.110. The Combine button groups multiple shapes together.

Tip

• The Layers palette can be a useful tool when working with the shape tools. Its layer thumbnails provide good visual feedback, particularly when you’re building complex shapes and want to verify that the new shapes you create are being placed on the correct layers.

Tips

• You can only combine shapes that appear on the same layer on the Layers palette; like the ones we created in the previous procedure. However, if you’ve created shapes on separate layers, and then decide that you want to combine them, all is not lost. With the shape selection tool, select one of the shapes. Then from the Edit menu, choose Cut (Ctrl+X). In the Layers palette, click to select the shape layer that you want to combine the “cut” shape with, and then from the Edit menu, choose Paste (Ctrl+V). The shape will be pasted into the selected layer along with the other shape. From there, just follow the steps to combine multiple shapes.

• When selecting multiple shapes, work from the inside out. In other words, if you have a large shape with a smaller cutout or intersecting shape inside of it, select the smaller, inside shape first. Photoshop Elements doesn’t assign any stacking order per se to multiple shapes on a layer, but if a larger, outside shape is selected first, the selection sort of covers up any smaller shapes inside, making them next to impossible to select.

• Up until the moment that multiple shapes are grouped together with the Combine button, they can be selected individually and then scaled, rotated, and distorted and even duplicated with the Copy and Paste commands.

To draw a custom shape

1. Select the Custom Shape tool by doing one of the following:

• Select the Custom Shape tool from beneath the current shape tool in the toolbox.

• Press U to select any shape tool; then press U again to toggle to the Custom Shape tool.

• Select any shape tool in the toolbox; then select the Custom Shape tool from the options bar.

2. To select a shape color, do one of the following:

• Click the current foreground color swatch at the bottom of the toolbox, or click the color box on the options bar to open the Color Picker.

• Choose a color from the Swatches palette.

3. On the options bar, click the arrow next to the Custom Shape button to open the Custom Shape Options palette (Figure 10.112). Select from the available options or leave the options set to Unconstrained.

Figure 10.112. The Custom Shape tool has geometry options similar to those for the Ellipse and Rectangle tools.

4. Still on the options bar, click to open the custom shape picker (Figure 10.113).

Figure 10.113. Open the custom shape picker to select from sets of complex shape thumbnails.

5. Click to choose from the list of default shapes, or select a different shape set from the Custom Shapes drop-down menu.

6. In the image window, click and drag to draw the selected shape (Figure 10.114).

Figure 10.114. You draw a custom shape just as you would any other shape: simply by clicking and dragging. Here, we clicked to apply the butterfly shape (left) and then dragged with the mouse to enlarge it (right).

7. Press Enter to deselect the shape.

Tip

• Custom shapes can be used in combination with other shapes and with the shape area options just like any of the basic geometric shapes.

If you ever want to paint on a shape or apply any filter effects to it, you’ll first need to convert the shape from a vector path to a bitmap.

To convert a vector shape to a bitmap

1. To open the Layers palette, do one of the following:

• From the Window menu, choose Layers.

• Click the arrow on the Layers palette tab in the palette well.

2. On the Layers palette, click to select the layer containing the shape (or shapes) you want to convert to bitmaps (Figure 10.115).

Figure 10.115. Use the Layers palette to select a custom shape’s layer.

3. From the More menu on the Layers palette, select Simplify Layer (Figure 10.116).

Figure 10.116. The Simplify Layer command converts a custom shape’s vector path to a bitmap graphic.

The vector shape is converted to a bitmap, and instead of showing the shape’s path, the layer thumbnail displays the shape’s image on a transparent background (Figure 10.117).

Figure 10.117. The vector path layer thumbnail (left) and the converted bitmap thumbnail (right).

Using the Cookie Cutter Tool

The Cookie Cutter tool isn’t exactly a painting or drawing tool, although right up to the moment that you press the Commit Transform button, it behaves in exactly the same way as the Custom Shape tool. The Cookie Cutter tool uses the Custom Shape tool’s libraries of shapes to create distinctive masked versions of image layers. The difference between the two (and it’s a biggie) is that whereas the Custom Shape tool creates vector shapes, the Cookie Cutter tool creates a raster image. So, although you can initially scale, rotate, and otherwise distort a Cookie Cutter shape just like a vector graphic, once you commit the shape to your image, the final result is still a raster (or bitmap) image layer. Once you understand the Cookie Cutter’s limitations, it can still be a fun and useful tool.

To mask an image with the Cookie Cutter tool

1. From the toolbox, click to select the Cookie Cutter tool, or press Q (Figure 10.118).

Figure 10.118. The Cookie Cutter tool.

2. On the options bar, click the Shape Options button to open the Cookie Cutter Options palette.

Select from the available options or leave the options set to Unconstrained.

3. Still on the options bar, click to open the Cookie Cutter shape picker (Figure 10.119).

Figure 10.119. The Cookie Cutter tool uses the same shape libraries as the Custom Shape tool.

4. Click to choose from the list of default shapes, or select a different shape set from the Custom Shapes drop-down menu.

5. In the image window, click and drag over an image layer to draw the selected shape.

The image now appears only within the Cookie Cutter shape, leaving the rest of the layer transparent (Figure 10.120).

Figure 10.120. When you draw a shape with the Cookie Cutter tool, any underlying images are visible only within the shape.

If you apply the Cookie Cutter tool to a flattened, background layer, it automatically converts the layer to a working layer with transparency.

6. To reposition the shape in the image window, place the cursor anywhere inside the shape bounding box, and then click and drag.

Notice that as you drag the shape, different areas of the original image are revealed, as if you were moving a window around on a solid wall (Figure 10.121).

Figure 10.121. You can position, scale, rotate, and otherwise transform a Cookie Cutter shape right up to the moment you commit the shape to the image layer.

7. To scale, rotate, or otherwise transform the shape, refer to the section “Transforming Shapes,” earlier in this chapter.

8. When you’re satisfied with the size and position of your masked shape, click the Commit Transform button, or press Enter (Figure 10.122).

Figure 10.122. Once you commit the shape, its bounding box disappears.

Once you commit the shape to the image layer, you can apply blending modes, opacity changes, and filters just as you would on any other raster image layer.

Tip

• For a similar effect that affords you more flexibility (namely, the ability to transform your layer mask indefinitely), create a shape with the Custom Shape tool, and then follow the steps in the section “Creating Masking Effects with Layer Groups,” in Chapter 8.