APE Helpers- Keeping You From Going Bannanas From Photoshop Elements

Manipulating an Image
Overview: It's time to put Dorro in his place. Using some new tools, let's trim our image up, and then apply a filter to give it a grainy black and white effect, like an old photograph. We can even spice up our image with some text.
1. Open the file you saved at the end of the last tutorial. If you did not save the file, click here and save the file as dorro_2.psd to your "My Documents" folder. Now, open dorro_2.psd in A.P.E.
2. For the final few steps of this project we are going to want to apply effects to all layers of the image. To do this best we will need to merge all of the layers into one layer. In the Layer box, choose the Background layer, then click on the small arrow on the top right next to the word MORE. This will drop down a dropdown menu. Near the bottom of the drop-down menu choose Flatten Image. Now our layers are flattened into one layer named Background. Note: When you flatten layers, A.P.E. automatically uses the name of the layer you had selected before you flattened. In this situation, our flattened layer is now called Background.
3. Let's trim a little of the excess siding off of this image. From the toolbar on the left choose the Crop Tool. The crop tool is a powerful tool that cuts down the canvas size of the image. The Crop Tool is much like a Select Tool so we will use it to select a smaller area than the image we have so far. Start by clicking and dragging from the upper left of our criminal's head at the edge of the photo and drag over to the other side of the photo. Without releasing the mouse, drag down toward the bottom right. Once we have selected the area, release the mouse button; notice that a box has appeared around the face of our image. The area that we selected has stayed light while the area outside the selection has darkened. The dark area is the area that will be cut away when the cropping process is complete. Notice how the cropping box has anchor points around it; these are here if we want to adjust the area that we are cropping. To finish cropping, right click anywhere on the image and a small dropdown menu will appear with two options, Crop or Cancel. Choose Crop. This will instantly cut the image down to the area we wanted to crop.

4. We want to make this image look older so let's start by changing it into black and white. From the top menu bar choose Image -> Mode -> Grayscale. A warning will pop up asking to Discard Color Information? Click OK. The image should now be black and white. Note: It is important to turn Grayscale off when you are done; it will remain on in whatever work you do after this tutorial. Leaving Grayscale on will affect the colors in your future work.

5. Let's also make our poster grainy, like an old photograph. From the menu bar, choose Filter -> Noise -> Add Noise. A dialog box will appear with a slider bar and an area above that slider bar where we can type in a percentage amount. Type in 10 in the percentage box and then click OK. The image is now grainy like an old photo.

6. Finally, let's give our criminal a name so that this looks like a real "Wanted" poster. Choose the Rectangular Marquee Tool from the left toolbar. Remember, we changed this to the Elliptical Marquee Tool in the last tutorial. Choose the Rectangular Marquee Tool from the toolbar at the top of your workspace. Start by clicking and dragging create a rectangle that spans the width of the image starting at about chest height and going down to the bottom of the image. One this area is selected click Backspace on the keyboard to delete this area of the image. We will write in the white space left behind.
7. To add text, choose the Horizontal Type Tool from the toolbar on the left. From the toolbar on the top of your workspace, click on the font dropdown menu and choose the font named Imprint MT Shadow. A few spaces over on is a space to choose font size. Click the dropdown arrow and select 14 pt, then press enter. We now have chosen the font and size we want to write our "Wanted" sign in. Click close to the left side of the white space we created and type, “Wanted: Dorro.” We have now given our criminal a name.

8. Creating text has created a new layer so we will need to flatten the image again. Repeat the process from we used to flatten the image previously to flatten our whole "Wanted" poster.
9. Our "Wanted" poster is finished! Let's save this image so that it can be uploaded to the Internet. To do this, go to File -> Save As. This will open the Save As dialog box. Give your image a name, but before clicking OK, click the dropdown menu next to “Format.” This allows you to specify the file type that you want to save this image as. JPEG, GIF, and PNG are all web-readable image types so save as one of these. Note:PNG is the most recommended file type to use for web images because it has the best quality.
Congratulations! Learning how to manipulate and change the properties of an image is like the fundamentals of learning how to ride a bike; you can't get anywhere if you don't first learn them! We covered a lot of ground in this tutorial suite, now go out and put those skills to use! Try making a Wanted poster of a loved one, or maybe an unwanted one of your annoying little brother or sister. Return Home...

Manipulating an Image