For this effect, I decided to carve some soap.  Here is the original image:

I pulled this off of Google images.  I decided to envision what would happen if I started making soap for a living (click on the image for full size):

The soap was etched by adding a inner shadow to the text, and stroking a white outline to the text layer.  This gives the illusion of it being inset.  I then removed the “fill” of the text, leaving only the background color.

Anybody want to buy some soap?

This is part thirteen of a series that chronicles my journey through Scott Kelby’s book, Classic Photoshop Effects.

In this project, I took a photograph of a wind generator, and turned it into a sepia toned image that eventually became the album cover to Norah Jones’ new album, “In Search of Alternative Power.” Here is the initial image (click on the image to go to source):

I followed the steps necessary to create a sepia-tone photograph (which basically involve desaturating it and overlaying an orange color), then cropped it to a square. After adding the text, I felt like I had what would make a decent album cover. To make things more convincing, I wanted to insert the art into a jewel case, so I went online and found this:

After inserting the cover art, I added a gloss over the whole group, to give a unified look. Here is my final result:

This is part twelve of a series that chronicles my journey through Scott Kelby’s book, Classic Photoshop Effects.

For this effect, I created a gift card with rounded corners using a clipping mask.  A clipping mask essentially limits the borders of your collage to the bounds of your clipping mask.  A clipping mask can be created using layer that you create.

I have always thought that it would be funny to get a gift card to the dollar store.  For this project, I started by gathering two images of dollars off of Google images:

I then cropped them and gave them a home in my new gift card:

The clipping mask that I used in this collage was a rounded rectangle.  I simply cut and pasted the images and text that I wanted in the gift card, and changed the perspective a little by shearing the image.  I created a drop shadow by duplicating the card layer, filling it with black, and then changing the distortion on it so that it fell behind like a shadow would.  I blurred it and lowered the opacity, giving it a more convincing look.  The final touch was to give the card a 3D look by using the bevel effect.

This is part eleven of a series that chronicles my journey through Scott Kelby’s book, Classic Photoshop Effects.

For this project, I had to take a photograph and turn it into something that looked “high tech”.  Here is the original photo that I used from Wikimedia Commons (click on photo to go to source):

After a few modifications, here is my result (click image to see full size):

I began by creating a pattern for the grid, filled a new layer with it, and faded it out towards the bottom of the image.  I added text to the sides of the image, but at 3 point font, you have no idea what it says (it’s the lyrics to “Please Don’t Stop the Music”).   I added a plus sign, not so much a nod to HP, but because the tutorial said to.

For the Marines text, I Googled the Marines logo to find the typeface typically used.  It looked a little dull on its own, so I added a metallic border by selecting the text, expanding it by one pixel, and filling it with a metallic gradient.  I then lowered that layer so the black text was on top of it.

I changed the picture to a green colorized tint, and added a slight dark vignette around the whole image.