Diana
September 4th, 2006, 01:59 AM
Ashley, my "little sister," has been spending the past couple weeks with me and I've taken quite a few photos of her. We decided to try to make some brushes from some of the photos so she can use them for stationery or whatever. We read a couple tutorials we found online and here's what we came up with:
http://www.pixentral.com/hosted/1PBNKKcrx9G7r3BQzTx2lBLzaoGUT0_thumb.jpg (http://www.pixentral.com/show.php?picture=1PBNKKcrx9G7r3BQzTx2lBLzaoGUT0)
Below are the steps we used to create the brushes, in case anyone else would like to try them. Something like this could be used to create your own "strange angel" type brushes like Kimi referred us to:
http://www.photoshopelementsuser.com/forum/showpost.php?p=115059&postcount=13
Diana
Prepare Image
Open a high resolution photo that has a prominent face you want to make into a brush and save it as a .PSD file by a different name, so the original photo is safe.
Make the resolution 300 ppi
Crop the area of the image you wish to be included in the brush
If the image is very large, resize it to a manageable size, say 6” on the longest side
In the layer palette, make a copy of the background image, hide the background image, and work on the copy
Select and delete (or erase) everything except the main object
From the menu, Enhance > Adjust Lighting > Brightness/Contrast
Use the sliders to lower brightness and increase contrast, adjusting so most midtones disappear
Create a Threshold Adjustment Layer: Layer > New Adjustment Layer > Threshold > OK
This will make it into a black and white image. Move the slider until only the features you want to keep remain
When it looks good, merge the adjustment layer with the layer below it
Use the Magic Wand Tool to select all the white areas, using a tolerance level of 30-40
Zoom in and, holding the Shift Key, click to select all white areas, then delete them, so the background is transparent. This can be very tedious. To make it easier to see all the white spots, create a temporary bright pink layer directly under the work layer in the layer palette. Then delete this pink layer when finished.
You can also add text or other decorative flourishes to your image before turning it into a brush.
Define Brush from Image
Ctrl-A to select all
From the Menu, Edit > Define Brush from Selection
Name the brush
Choose the Paintbrush Tool and scroll to the end of the brushes palette where you will find your new brush. This brush is just temporary and will disappear when you exit Elements unless you save it.
Save Brush to a Set
Open the Preset Manager from the brush palette by clicking the small right-pointing arrow at the top right. Scroll to the end of the active brush set and select the brush you just defined. Then click Save Set and give your brush set a name
You’ll need to restart Elements for your new brush set to show up in the brushes palette.
Caution: If you should define more custom brushes and add them to this same brush set, when saving the set with the new brush, make sure to select all brushes (Ctrl-click each one) that you want to remain in the set before saving. Otherwise, you'll lose the ones you haven't selected when you save.
http://www.pixentral.com/hosted/1PBNKKcrx9G7r3BQzTx2lBLzaoGUT0_thumb.jpg (http://www.pixentral.com/show.php?picture=1PBNKKcrx9G7r3BQzTx2lBLzaoGUT0)
Below are the steps we used to create the brushes, in case anyone else would like to try them. Something like this could be used to create your own "strange angel" type brushes like Kimi referred us to:
http://www.photoshopelementsuser.com/forum/showpost.php?p=115059&postcount=13
Diana
Prepare Image
Open a high resolution photo that has a prominent face you want to make into a brush and save it as a .PSD file by a different name, so the original photo is safe.
Make the resolution 300 ppi
Crop the area of the image you wish to be included in the brush
If the image is very large, resize it to a manageable size, say 6” on the longest side
In the layer palette, make a copy of the background image, hide the background image, and work on the copy
Select and delete (or erase) everything except the main object
From the menu, Enhance > Adjust Lighting > Brightness/Contrast
Use the sliders to lower brightness and increase contrast, adjusting so most midtones disappear
Create a Threshold Adjustment Layer: Layer > New Adjustment Layer > Threshold > OK
This will make it into a black and white image. Move the slider until only the features you want to keep remain
When it looks good, merge the adjustment layer with the layer below it
Use the Magic Wand Tool to select all the white areas, using a tolerance level of 30-40
Zoom in and, holding the Shift Key, click to select all white areas, then delete them, so the background is transparent. This can be very tedious. To make it easier to see all the white spots, create a temporary bright pink layer directly under the work layer in the layer palette. Then delete this pink layer when finished.
You can also add text or other decorative flourishes to your image before turning it into a brush.
Define Brush from Image
Ctrl-A to select all
From the Menu, Edit > Define Brush from Selection
Name the brush
Choose the Paintbrush Tool and scroll to the end of the brushes palette where you will find your new brush. This brush is just temporary and will disappear when you exit Elements unless you save it.
Save Brush to a Set
Open the Preset Manager from the brush palette by clicking the small right-pointing arrow at the top right. Scroll to the end of the active brush set and select the brush you just defined. Then click Save Set and give your brush set a name
You’ll need to restart Elements for your new brush set to show up in the brushes palette.
Caution: If you should define more custom brushes and add them to this same brush set, when saving the set with the new brush, make sure to select all brushes (Ctrl-click each one) that you want to remain in the set before saving. Otherwise, you'll lose the ones you haven't selected when you save.