Tuesday, April 2, 2013

Fake a water reflection

Adding a fake water reflection to an image is a neat technique to try that will help you get to know more about photo-editing apps. Fake water refelctions can add a nice touch to your photos and make a dreary image stand out from the crowd. Whether you’re using Mac OS, Windows, or an iPad, there are plenty of programs for all of these options that can help you achieve creative reflections. Here, we’ll show you some easy step-by-steps for each program, so you can add some amazing effects to your images of waterside locations.

Three programs, three techniques and one creative effect for your cityscapes

What you'll need...
O' Photo-editing software   O' Starting image containing water

What is used...
O' Photoshop Elements 10   O' Corel PaintShop Pro X4   O' Photo Reflection

You could also try...
O' Photoshop CS6   O' Ulead Photo impact   O' Xara Photo & Graphic Designer
What you'll learn...
O' Layers   O' Masking techniques   O' Blend modes

The steps are actually quite straightforward, but will obviously vary from software to software. The three programs we’ve chosen for this tutorial are Photoshop Elements 10, Corel Paint Shop Pro X4 and Photo Reflection for the iPad, showing you just how easy this effect is to create on various types of software and devices. The main things we will teach you are how to use Layer Masks and Blend modes, and once you’ve mastered these key techniques you can use them for many other of your creative projects. So, choose your software and get started!

Photoshop Elements 10


Go to Layer>Duplicate Layer and hit OK. Pick out the Quick Selection tool and drag a new selection over the water in your photograph. Hold down the Opt/Alt key and click to remove any areas overflowing into the background.

Add a layer mask to your image by using the button found at the base of the Layers palette. Then unlink the mask from the contents of the layer-you can do this by clicking on the small link symbol that appears between the two thumbnails.

Next, make sure the contents of the layer is selected and not the mask. Press Cmd/Ctrl+T and then go to lmage> Rotate>Flip Layer Vertical. Move and tweak the layer slightly so that the buildings show over the water for the reflection.

Reduce this layer’s Opacity to 50%. If there are any parts of the reflection over the buildings, use the Brush tool (set to black in the toolbar) to remove those parts be sure to make these edits on the layer mask, though. 

Corel PaintShop Pro X4

Ctrl/right-click over the Background layer and click Duplicate to make a copy of it. Then, go to lmage>Flip Vertical. Lower the opacity down to 50 per cent using the small box that is found above the layers.
 
Next, select the Move tool, hold Shift and use the arrow keys to nudge the layer down the canvas and into position so there’s symmetry for the reflection. Click on the mask symbol in the Layers palette and select Show All.

Select the Paint Brush tool, with Size U 3 500, Hardness 0, Opacity 100 and set to black. Paint over areas above the reflection to remove excess parts of the duplicate layer. Make sure you’re editing the mask on this layer so that changes aren’t permanent.

Zoom in up close and select the Eraser tool. Increase the Hardness of the tool to 50 per cent and set Size to 40. Brush over the transition where the reflection meets the original image to reveal the bottom of the buildings and trees to tidy up the effect. 

Photo Reflection

Open up the app on your iPhone or iPad and load your starting image using the first icon. You’ll see that the entire image is flipped straightaway. Tap on your image once to open up the Image Editor section of the app. 

In the Image Editing section, select the Crop option. Carefully drag the bottom of the cropping boundary up until it reaches the line where the reflection will lead down from. Once perfectly positioned, hit Apply in the top right-hand corner and then tap Done.

Tap the second icon in the app and then move the slider to alter the reflected area’s opacity. Reducing this slider will make the reflection more see-through, which is recommended so that your reflection looks much more realistic.

The app’s middle icon can be used to remove any unwanted areas of your composition. Slide the adjustment down to bring the middle of the image closer. You can then save or share the image using the final icon on the right.

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******Usman ahmed owner of this blog created this post with his knowledge.All content provided on this blog is not copied from any other blog and site and is for informational purposes only and  The owner of this blog makes no representations as to the accuracy or completeness of any information on this site or found by following any link on this site.The owner will not be liable for any errors or omissions in this information nor for the availability of this information. The owner will not be liable for any losses, injuries, or damages from the display or use of this information.

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