:: Dithering ::
This tutorial is to show you how to use the dither effect.. I use Paint Shop Pro 8 but I'm sure the jest of it is the same for Photoshop. You need to know a little bit about psp to do this tutorial.
You can get PSP at Jasc.com. There is a trial version you can use for a while.
You will need to have a few pictures. You can find some at Gettyimages.
The pictures on this tutorial are big in pixel size. The dithering didn't like being resized and seeing that it's really late, I decided to just show you the original size on some of these. I didn't have a trouble loading and I hope you won't either.
I used the picture of a lady praying. I am not allowed to redistribute the pictures from gettyimages but I will show you a thumbnail of it so you see what it looks like before we get started.
This is what it's going to look like when we are done:
1. The first thing I did was use the selection tool with a feather of 30% and select some of the image.
You want to select a smaller area that you really want because it will feather the selection. Here is an example of how much you want to select:
And it would look like this:
Usually you don't want it to touch the border because it could look funny once you paste it on another picture. You can also select areas with the freehand selection. It's up to you to decide which tool would work best.
2. Hit Control + C to copy the selection.
3. Open a new image 780 in width and 500 in height. With your own of course you can choose a different size.
4. Hit Control + L to make a new layer out of your copied selection.
5. Now you need a background color that will match the blend. What I do is try to look for either a solid color that will match or a pattern. I made a pattern for this one and it looks like this:
6. Go to Layers > New Raster Layer and click on Ok.
7. Make sure that the new layer you just created is selected and then flood fill with your color or pattern.
8. So now, mine looks like this:
9. Go back to your original image and go to Image > Decrease Color Depth > 2 Colors.
You will get a popup box and you can play around with the settings and choose the one you like best.
This is what I chose:
Your image will look something like this:
10. Use the same method as in step 1. to select part of the black and white image. Don't worry about making it the exact size as the one in the step 1.
11. Control + C to copy your selection and Control + L to paste it on your image you are working on.
12. Now move the black and white selection as close to the color layer as you can.
Mine looks like this. This is the actual size:
13. Next, make sure that your dither layer is underneath your color layer. You can check this by looking at the layer palette. If you hover your mouse over the layer name, you will see a little window popup and you can see what it is.
14. Set the transparency for the color layer to 84%.
This is what it looks like now:
15. Add text and there you have it.
You can do a few things to make it look different. You can play with the transparency of the layers and you can also actually another layer of the color picture and play around and you can get something that looks a little different like this:
or
I hope you enjoyed this tutorial and that it was easy to follow. Comments and suggestions are welcome
Back to the list of tutorials
© 2004-2005 Marie Gookin. None of this tutorial may be reproduced in any way.