Make Your Photos Pop Right Out of Their Frames
Are you ready to create dramatic photos? With this tutorial, we're going to show how to make your photos look like they're popping right out of their frames.
What you'll need
- Corel® Paint Shop Pro® Photo XI
- Sample image PSPXI_11.jpg (download)
When you complete this tutorial, you'll be able to
- Open a photo using the Organizer
- Crop photos
- Apply a frame
- Work with layers & layer opacity
- Use the Eraser & the Background Eraser
- Apply a drop shadow
Open the Photo
- Download the PSPXI_11.jpg and save it in your My Pictures folder.
- Once you have the image saved, type PSPXI in the search box at the top of the Organizer. Your collection of image files is automatically filtered, so that only the images that start with PSPXI appear.
- Double-click the sample image to open it in the workspace. Using this photo we're going to 'pop' the flowers out of the picture.
Crop the Photo
- To get the best effect, we're going to crop the photo as close to the flowers as possible. On the Tools Toolbar, click the Crop Tool. Then drag the edges of the crop box around until the crop area encompasses the flower, when the flower is surround double-click inside the crop area to apply the crop.
Create a New Image
- From the menu at the top of the screen choose File > New. On the New Image dialog box, create a new 8x8-inch image with a transparent background. You can see the settings we used in the screen shot.
Add the Photo to New Image
- Now you'll have two images in your Paint Shop Pro Photo workspace. Click the flower photo to make it the active image. Now on the Layer palette (if you can't see the Layer palette, just press the F8 key), click the layer called Background and drag it onto the new image you just created. When you see your cursor change (it should have that little white box with the plus sign under it), you can let go. The flower image should appear on your new image.
Add a Frame
- Now we're going to add a frame to our image. From the menu at the top of your screen choose Image > Picture Frame.
- You can choose any frame you'd like. For this example selected Time Machine from the Categories drop-down and then selected the Albumen Frame.
- In the Orientation area of the Picture Frame dialog box, choose:
- Frame current layer
- Frame outside of image
Once you've made these selections, click OK.
Change the Perspective of the Frame
- Before we change the perspective of the frame, we need to shrink it a little. On the Layer palette click the Raster 2 Picture Frame layer, to make sure it's the active layer. Now select the Pick tool from the Tools toolbar. Click one of the corners of the box and drag in to shrink the frame. This isn't an exact science, so you can just kind of guess at what size looks the best.
- Now we need to get the frame into position. Click the circle in the center of your box and drag the frame where you'd like it. You can see in the screen shot where we placed our frame. Wherever you decide to put your frame, make sure the bottom of the frame lines up with the bottom of the photo.
- On the Layer palette, lower the opacity of your frame layer so you can see the details of the flower through the frame. We lowered to it about 71.
- The Pick tool should still be active. If it's not select it from the Tools toolbar. In the Tool Options palette at the top, change the mode to Perspective. Now grab one of the corners and drag it in a bit.
- Your image should look a little something like this:
Selectively Erase Portions of the Frame
- Select the Eraser from the Tools toolbar, and in the Tool Options palette use the settings shown in the screen shot.
- Now use the Eraser to erase the areas of the frame that are on top of the flowers. It's helpful to zoom in real close when erasing the edges of the frame, so you can make sure you're getting it all. Also, you might have to change the Size of your eraser to make sure you can get into all those small nooks. Once you're done, you can set the frame's layer back to 100% opacity.
Erase the Background
- On the Layer palette, click the Raster 2 layer to select it. Now select the Background Eraser from the Tools toolbar. On the Tool Options palette you can use the default settings, but change the Size to about 140.
- Now, erase around the flower. If you erase too much, just paint over that area while holding down the right mouse button. You can also undo by pressing Ctrl + Z. Remember, you don't have to erase the parts of the flower that are inside the frame. Just erase around the parts that stick out of our frame.
- Once you're happy with the way the edges of your flower look, you can change back to the Eraser tool and clean up everything else that remains of the background outside of the frame.
Add a Drop Shadow
- Now before we finish, we're going to add a drop shadow to really make our photo pop! Make sure that the flower layer is selected and then choose Effects > 3D Effects > Drop Shadow.
- On the Drop Shadow dialog, play with the settings that you like best. We set our Blur to 100% and the Opacity to 75 to really make the flowers pop off the page. When you get the look you're after click OK. When you're done your image should look a little like this:
- Now you're done! It's a bit of work, but the effect is stunning. You can use your creation on greeting cards, scrapbook pages, or any of your other projects.
