Creative History Effects

Half the point of the History palette is to ensure that you can edit an image without the worry of making irreparable mistakes. The other half is to allow you to experiment with alternative futures and blend these futures with the present, which is what we want to show you in the following example.

I'm starting with a photograph of big old soaring bat, shown in Figure 3-12. Although the bat in itself is a beautiful creature to behold, the image of it is rather static. So, to liven it up (and fulfill my promise of demonstrating creative history effects) I thought I'd intensify the feeling of motion within the image, and throw in some gushing flames for a little added kick. You know ” nothing too over-the-top.

image from book
Figure 3-12: While we love the bat as is, it needs a little push. Hence, a "Bat out O Hell, the new file name .

To create the raw materials for my motion trails, I applied a series of filters:

  1. Add Noise (Filter Noise Add Noise) : First apply the Add Noise filter with an Amount value of 50 percent, which gives the image some grit.

  2. Motion Blur (Filter Blur Motion Blur): Next, apply two passes of the Motion Blur filter, each set to a Distance value of 250 pixels and Angle of -5 degrees, to approximate the angle of the bat.

  3. Unsharp Mask (Filter Sharpen Unsharp Mask): To accentuate the stripes of color just created, chose the Unsharp Mask filter and enter an Amount value of 300 percent and a Radius of 12.0 pixels.

  4. Ripple (Filter Distort Ripple): Finally, use the Ripple filter and set the Size option to Large to give the stripes a bit of wave. The result appears in Figure 3-13.

    image from book
    Figure 3-13: Here the Add Noise, Motion Blur, Unsharp Mask, and Ripple filters were combined to dissolve the bat into a series of wavy motion trails.

Although the effects in themselves grab your attention, they completely obliterate the focus of the image ” the bat. Fortunately, the History palette holds onto the original state of my image so I can return to it at my leisure. Before doing so, however, I chose the History Options command from the History palette menu and selected the Allow Non-Linear History check box. This told Photoshop to save the filtered states even if you decide to undo them.

Confident I wouldn't lose my effects, I reverted the image to its original state by clicking the Open item at the top of the History palette. Then I took up the History brush, resolved to paint the filtered effects into the bat image on my own terms. I first selected the second Motion Blur state and painted to the right of the bat to create a unidirectional motion trail, as in Figure 3-14.

image from book
Figure 3-14: With the Allow Non-Linear History check box on, I restored the Open state, set the second Motion Blur state as the source, and brushed in a unidirectional motion blur.

I can't emphasize enough how handy it is that the History brush permits you to apply one state to another using different brush modes. I selected the Ripple state as the source for the History brush and painted it in using the Overlay mode. Then I set the source state to the original Open state and brushed it in using Multiply. The net result is a rushing effect that enhances the bat without annihilating it, as pictured in Figure 3-15.

image from book
Figure 3-15: To introduce the Ripple state as motion trails, set it as the source and paint it in with the History brush set to the Overlay mode. To burn in the original edges, brush in the Open state using the Multiply mode.

But for my purposes, a speeding bat wasn't enough. To give it a slightly inflamed quality, it had to be emitting ” well, "fire." To make that fire, I set the foreground and background colors to red and yellow, and applied Filter Render Clouds. To make those flames more billowy, I followed that up with four rounds of Filter Render Difference Clouds, the effects of which appear in Figure 3-16.

image from book
Figure 3-16: To create fire, set the foreground and background colors to red and yellow, respectively, applying the Clouds filter, and then the Difference Clouds.

Of course, running the Clouds and Difference Clouds completely obliterated my bat. So I clicked the History Brush state immediately preceding Clouds to revert to that point. Then I selected the final Difference Clouds state as the source for the History brush and painted in the fire using a combination of Opacity settings and brush modes. Figure 3-17 shows the final version of my little flame-spouting friend.

image from book
Figure 3-17: After reverting to the state prior to Clouds, I tagged the final Difference Clouds state as the source and brushed in the raging fire.

The timeline of the History palette lets you plan a network of possible futures. It's like standing at a fork in the road with the option of going all directions at once. In my case, the road forked in two directions: the Motion Blur experiment in one direction and the Clouds effects in the other. In my experience, no other program lets you paint with time in such a dynamic and satisfying manner.



Photoshop CS2 Bible
Photoshop CS2 Bible
ISBN: 0764589725
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2003
Pages: 95

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