Photos and Mats - Intermediate Level

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Please do not make copies (electronic or paper/hard) of this tutorial or use it without permission. You may print one hard copy for the use of you and your immediate family. Your finished product is your own to do with as you please.

This tutorial focuses in on adding photos to your projects and putting realistic-looking mats below them. You should already know how to open a new image, save the image, add a new raster layer, and rename a layer. If you do not know how to do this, refer to the tutorial, Introduction to Layers and Opacity. You should also know how to select a color, gradient, or pattern. If you do not, please refer to the tutorial, Colors, Gradients, Patterns and Textures. With the skills in the two tutorials mentioned above, you should be able to create at least a simple background on which to place your photos.

We will be using the selection tool and will modify the selection for creating your mats. We will also be using the drop shadow tool for making your mats look like separate items from your photo. We will also go over some resizing and use of the deform tool. Don't panic, the way we will use the deform tool will not deform your photos. You'll see. Also, we will use the move tool and discuss the layer link toggle on the Layer Palette. This tutorial is not really difficult, but some of the knowledge you need to this point makes it more than a beginner lesson.

I used Paint Shop Pro 9 for this tutorial, however, you should be able to use other versions as well.

For a free trial or to purchase Paint Shop Pro, click on the above link.

Step 1

Open a new transparent image. If you are just going through this tutorial and won't be using this project for anything, just use what I use. However, if you plan to use it, take the comments into consideration:

• Width and Height 5 inches (make sure inches is selected) - use whatever size you wish if you plan to use it
• Resolution 72 pixels per inch - if you plan to print, use at least 180-300 for your resolution
• Raster background
• Color resolution 16 million colors (24 bit)
• Transparent checked

Remember, those gray and white checks show transparency. You should see them clearly, because there is nothing else to see, it's totally transparent.

Step 2

Now you need to create your background. You can make any background you wish - using the skills you have learned so far. If you are just doing this project and don't plan to use it, do something very simple, even if it is just a single color, gradient, or pattern. You can always add your photos and create you background later if you like, however, my preference is to create the background first, so I can see what it looks like. You may keep all the layers as you create them. Don't forget, naming your layers helps you keep organized.

Name and save your file.

Step 3

Now open a digital photo you have, either scanned or from a digital camera. So you don't accidentally overwrite your image, make a duplicate of it. To do this, while your image is active, use Shift-D, or menu command Window, Duplicate. A copy of the image will come up. You may close the original.

We are going to just add the photo to our background for right now, just so you can see how it works. We'll get a bit fancy later.

While your photo is active, copy it to memory. You can do this by either choosing Ctrl-C or using the file commands, Edit, Copy. Your picture is now on the Windows clipboard.

Now go to the background image you created. We want to paste the photo to this image, but we want it on a separate layer so we can do other things to it. To paste it on a new layer, use either Ctrl-L or the file commands, Edit, Paste, Paste as New Layer. You'll notice that you now have a new layer on your layer palette which contains the photo you just added. You may want to rename the layer so you know it is your photograph. If you have a lot of photos in your image, naming them by a key characteristic is a good idea.

Step 4

If you find your photo is larger than you want, you'll need to resize. There are several ways to do this. You can resize your photo before you place it in your background image, you can resize just the photo's layer in your background image after it is placed there, or you can use the deform tool. The first two are shown in the Resizing and Sharpening Images tutorial. We will focus in on the deform tool in this lesson.

Using the deform tool may scare you, because it sounds like you'll make your image look goofy. Yes, it can, but if you follow the directions for keeping the proportions correct, it's quite easy, and even preferred by many. To use the deform tool, you can click on the deform tool icon in the toolbar on the left:

If you don't see that icon, look for one shown in the menu below. Click on the little triangle next to it and a side menu will come up. You will want to select the one listed on the top, Deform, see the red arrow:

Once the tool is selected, you'll notice the image on your current layer will be surrounded by a "box" (see red arrow.)

You'll also notice a circle in the center and to the right a "lever." Putting your cursor in the circle you can drag the image to move it anywhere. The "lever" to the right will allow you to rotate the image. Right now we want to resize. You can do this by dragging any of the nodes (there's one in each corner and one in the middle of each side.) But to resize keeping the same proportions, you'll need to drag one of the corner nodes while holding the right mouse button down.

Here I've resized, moved, rotated, and then sharpened (see tutorial on Resizing and Sharpening Images). Even if you don't resize, if you rotate, you may have to sharpen a bit.

That's all there is to adding a photo. But I know you want something a bit more fancy, and you want to get rid of some of the stuff in the photo you don't need. We'll get to that next.

Save your file.

Step 5

I'm just going to use the same photo I did above, but a little differently. Go back to your photo image (open it again if you need to.) We are now going to select just a portion of the image. To do this, we will use the Selection Tool. You'll find the icon in the left toolbar. If you don't see the icon shown below, look at the menu beneath it to see if you see one of those icons. They are different types of selection tools.

If you need to change the selection tool, just click on the little triangle next to it to get the following menu. Then click on the top item, Selection.

If you now look at your toolbars above, you'll see one that looks like this:

Under Selection Type will be a shape. Select a shape you would like to use. For example, if you want your photo to be "cropped" in the shape of a circle, choose the circle. If you want a rounded rectangle (looks like the corners are rounded) choose that. Whichever shape you think would look good for your photo or graphic. I'm choosing the octagon this time.

For now, make the other settings as shown above. Discussions on those will be in other tutorials.

Once you choose your shape, you will need to make your selection. The rectangle shapes are easiest to use, because it is easiest to see where it will end up. For all shapes, except circle and ellipse, you start in one corner, click and drag to the diagonally opposite corner. Shapes that aren't rectangular will take a bit getting used to how they look. For the circle and ellipse, you need to start in the center of where the circle/ellipse and pull out.

As you are "drawing" your selection, you'll see a "guide" that show you where the selection will be made. Once you like what you see, release. If you don't like the selection you've made, just right click and start over again. Here's my octagon:

Now we are going to copy this selection. All you need to do is Ctrl-C or menu command, Edit, Copy.

Step 6

Now go to your image with the background. We are going to paste your selection onto a new layer. Just Ctrl-L or use menu command, Edit, Paste, Paste As New Layer. Go ahead and use the deform tool to resize and move it to where you want. Here's mine so far:

Save your image.

Step 7

Now's the time to add a mat. We are again going to use the selection tool. So go ahead and select it, but choose the rectangle to make our selection easier this time. With your "shaped" photo layer active, select around the photo. Don't worry if it isn't exact, all you have to do is get all the way around. It doesn't matter how much space you leave around the outside. Once it is surrounded, click on the photo. It will now remove all the extra space from your selection and only your photo is selected. This works because there is nothing else on that layer. All else is transparent, and that's why you can see your background below.

To get the perfect mat all the way around, we are going to modify the selection. To do this, use menu command, Selections, Modify, Expand. You may get a message stating the selection must be defloated first, just click OK if you do.

A window will pop up. When it does, enter "10" (or if you want a larger mat, enter a larger number, a smaller mat, a smaller number - you can always preview it by clicking on the "eye") in the number of pixels box. When I create an image that is 300 pixels per inch, I'll use anywhere from 30-50 pixels. Click OK when ready.

Your image will now show the selection wider than your photo by 10 (or the number you chose) pixels all the way around. Now activate the layer below your photo and add a Raster Layer. Make sure this new raster layer is active. Select a color, gradient, or pattern for your mat and then flood fill inside the selection. Here's mine so far:

Want to make it a double mat? No problem. Expand your selection again by the same number of pixels (Selections, Modify, Expand) and add a new layer below your first mat. Activate that layer and flood fill with another color, gradient or pattern.

Save your image.

Step 8

Well that looks great, but it doesn't look very realistic. It doesn't look like separate pieces, but all one. So now we are going to add a drop shadow to each layer. First "deselect" (select none) by choosing Ctrl-D, or use the command menu, Selections, Select None. Click on the layer with your "shaped" photo (mine is the octagon one) to make it active (hope you've been naming your layers.) From the command menu choose, Effects, 3D Effects, Drop Shadow. A window will pop up. Below are the settings I used on mine. You may have to play around with yours a bit depending on your resolution, photo size, etc.

The offsets are great for making it look like there is light coming from a certain direction. For a mat, I prefer to leave them set at 0. Opacity has to do with transparency, and you may prefer a lower setting. Blur has to do with the "pushing out" from the edges. You don't have to check the "Shadow on new layer box" if you don't want. I like to in case I want to remove the shadow, or change it later. This just places the shadow on its own layer. Everyone has their own ideas as to what looks good.

Once you add a drop shadow for your photo, move to the layer for your inside mat and add the same drop shadow. Then move to your outside mat and add another drop shadow with the same settings. Here's mine:

Go ahead and add mats to the first picture you have on your image. When I did mine, they overlapped.

I'll show you how to take care of this in the next step.

Save your file.

Step 9

So you need to move your picture, but your mats are on different layers. If you move one, the others don't move. How do you get them to all move? Well, take a look at your Layer Palette.

Notice the column marked by the red arrow. See those numbers (some may say "None") listed? That is how you link layers. Choose one of your photos and for all the items that go with it (the photo, mats, and the shadow layers) change the numbers to match. Choose the top layer of the group. If it is "1" like mine, then change them all to "1." To do that, click on the link icon to the left of the number until it gets to the right number. Left click will make the number go higher, right click will make it go lower. Just remember, only change the layers that go with that photo. Here's what mine looks like now:

Now all we have to do is move it. Select the move icon from the toolbar on the left:

Now move to the photo you want to move and all the layers will move with it. Do the same for the other photo if you want to move it.

Here's my finished product:

Don't forget to save your file.

Assignment: Play around with the selections, placing them into another image on a separate layer, use the deform tool, then adding mats, drop shadows, and move them around to where you want them on the image. Have fun! Now that you can place pictures and add mats, you're well on your way to creating digital scrapbook pages!

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