Easy 

769 creative works found

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  Easy Rider
  by Claudia Reitmeier

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  Photoshop is EASY
  by Danny

  I thought I’d try my hand at Photoshop and do some classy retouching / . / LOOK NO FILTERS / . / Don’t know what all the fuss is about really? / . / NOW WITH ADDED SUNSET, BUNNY & BOOBS The original that was retouched by OSCAR

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  Easy Like Sunday Morning
  by LeCroix

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  Not Easy Being Green
  by Lance Leopold

  Taken at Adelaide Zoo, South Australia, through glass. This python looked like his eye was watching my every move. This image featured in Top Shelf Wildlife and Nature Art in September 2009. Many thanks! And featured again in Zoophoria in September 2009. Thank you! And yet another feature, this time in South Australian Artists in September 2009. Thanks again!

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  Easy Silence
  by jan lakey © Passionate Pixels

  the easy silence you make for me

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  Easy Money
  by Gorgalac

• 

  Its not easy being a violin player:)
  by Ellen

  We are working on it….....:)

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  Summertime and the "livin"is easy
  by Susan Grissom

  Summertime, / And the livin’ is easy / Fish are jumpin’ / And the cotton is high Your daddy’s rich / And your mamma’s good lookin’ / So hush little baby / Don’t you cry One of these mornings / You’re going to rise up singing / Then you’ll spread your wings / And you’ll take to the sky But till that morning / There’s a’nothing can harm you / With daddy and mamma standing by Summertime, / And the livin’ is easy / Fish are jumpin’ / And the cotton is high Your daddy’s rich / And your mamma’s good lookin’ / So hush little baby / Don’t you cry Click on the different links to hear the best versions of Summertime George Benson and Jill Scott version Janis Joplin version Miles Davis version Billie Holiday version

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  Kind words can be short and easy to speak but their echoes are truly endless
  by karenanderson

• The Easy Guide to Creating the Orton Effect using Photoshop - UPDATED
  by Peter Hill

  The aim of this Guide is to provide easy-to-follow step-by-step instructions to achieving the Orton Effect without the necessity of bei…

  The aim of this Guide is to provide easy-to-follow step-by-step instructions to achieving the Orton Effect without the necessity of being a Photoshop guru. I still call myself “new to Photoshop” and I have found a lot of tutorials on this topic assume a much higher level of knowledge than I have and are not very intuitive. I have revised the Tutorial to show a shortcut to the 2 Blending Option steps, which I only found myself after posting the original tutorial (doh), but I have left the long way as well, as you may wish to play around with the default settings applied by the short way. To achieve the Orton Effect you will be creating Layers, but don’t worry if you haven’t done this before. I hadn’t. The method I am about to describe is the simplest I have found. It’s not my method, but the description is all mine. When I have more time (yeh, right) I will revise this tutorial to include screenshots of the various steps. But for now, you might like to print this Guide and have it next to you while you create your first Orton Effect. I use Photoshop CS2 v9. The method described below originally came from someone using Photoshop Elements, so you can see this is not advanced stuff. The steps described below assume almost zero knowledge of Layering, and ignore other adjustments you might be making to the image, for example Sharpening the image before you start work on it (recommended). Step 1 Choose your image. Any image will do, you are just learning at this stage, but if you have that favourite flower shot or portrait – cool. Step 2 Open Photoshop. Open the image you have selected to be your first amazing Orton Effect image. Feel the excitement. This is your Background Layer. Step 3 Look for the Layer toolbox on the right hand side of the Photoshop work area. There should be a rectangular box with a small eye icon, a tiny thumbnail version of your image, and the word Background in italics. Right-click the word Background and select Duplicate Layer. A small box should immediately appear in the middle of your screen. It is asking you to Name the Duplicate Layer. Name this Layer Focus and click Enter. (Note: It doesn’t really matter what you name it, but Focus will do for our current purpose.) Step 4 There should now be a new rectangular box immediately above the original, and called Focus. (If there isn’t, stop, curse quietly, then try Step 3 again.) Pause now and look at the tiny eye icon. You will see that it is now the Focus layer on your screen, so this is the “copy” you are working on. OK, moving on ….. Right-click the Focus rectangular box and select Duplicate Layer again. This time when the naming box appears just click Enter because we will use the default name for this Layer, being Focus copy. Step 5 OK, now we are going to blend the Focus copy. There are 2 ways to do this – the long way and the short way. I will show you the long way first, just in case you want to go back and play with it after you get familiar with the process. Long way – Right-click the Focus copy rectangular box and select Blending Options. This will open a new box with lots of options. Ignore them for now. In the top part of this box you will find a window showing the Blending Mode and the default setting of Normal with a pull-down menu (A downwards arrow). Open the menu (left-click) and select Screen. Click Enter to close the box. OR Short way – look at the window which shows your layers. See the drop down menu at the top left, showing Normal as the default? Scroll down the menu and select Screen. The Focus copy layer should now have a bit of a washed-out look to it as a result of selecting Screen as the Blending Mode. (I have found that if the Screen effect still leaves a fairly good image, the Orton Effect will be enhanced. Too washed out and the Effect is diminished.) Step 6 Right-click the Focus copy rectangular box again, only this time select Merge Down (it’s near the bottom of the menu). This will collapse the Focus copy layer onto the Focus layer. Step 7 Right-click the Focus rectangular box again and select Duplicate Layer again. Name this copy Blur. Click Enter to close the box. Step 8 Now, find and open the Filter menu on the Tool bar running across the top of your screen. Select Blur. Another menu should open. Select Gaussian Blur (don’t ask). A new window should open. You will see a Preview of the image with a default blur Radius setting of 15.9. You can play around with the radius later. For now, just click OK to close the window as we will accept the 15.9 (I have found 15.9 to be right for most images anyway). The blur you are to achieve with this step should be enough to discern the shapes without the detail. Step 9 – The Magic Happens! This is the fun part. We now make one more blending option. Again, here’s the long way and the short way. Long way – Right-click the Blur rectangular box and select Blending Options. As described in Step 5, this will open a new box with lots of options. Again, ignore them for now. In the top part of this box you will find a window showing the Blending Mode and the default setting of Normal with a pull-down menu (A downwards arrow). Open the menu (left-click) again and this time select Multiply. Click Enter to close the box. OR Short way – Click on the same drop down menu you used to create the Screen effect, only this time select Multiply. You should now be able to see the Orton Effect! Step 10 If you want to accept the result, right-click the Blur rectangular box one more time and this time select Flatten Image (it’s the last option on the menu). This basically collapses all the layers into one final image and is the last thing you do in Layering. You can now save the image as normal. Does it look something like this? If it looks too dark though, you can adjust the Opacity level with the sliding bar before flattening the image. Look for the tiny Opacity tool in the top right of the Layering toolbox. But if you find you need to go below 90% the Effect is significantly lost and maybe it wasn’t the right image. Another option is to adjust the Fill and leave the Opacity at 100%. Have fun! I am. Peter

• 

  Its not easy being a good photographer!
  by Ellen

  This little camera does work :)

• The Easy Guide to Creating Samples of Artwork on Redbubble - UPDATED
  by Peter Hill

  Have you ever wondered how people add samples of stuff like this? !http://images-3.redbubble.net/img/art/border:blackwithdetail/produc…

  Have you ever wondered how people add samples of stuff like this? Want to do the same? Good! How well you present your work is a measure of the pride it holds for you and is a key driver of sales and the appreciation and interest of others. Due to popular demand, the aim of this Guide is to show how easy it is to insert artwork into a Comment, a Description, and even a Journal. Anywhere on RB you can write stuff, basically, you can include a pretty pitcha. I have written this guide in plain language, not IT guru nerds language. If you already know how to do this, please leave now. First, some key points: You can only show samples of artwork which have been already uploaded onto RB. You do not have to publicly show any artwork just to get a sample of it. You can remove an artwork from RB and this will not affect any sample of it you have already posted on RB elsewhere. When I say below do not leave a space between typed characters I really do mean do not leave a space. This is because you will be typing an instruction to the computer to go and grab the image and insert it in a specific spot and the computer can’t read spaces like we can. Ever noticed those Group Bubblemails with all that funny writing, like http: and .jpg! ? Those are examples of attempts to show samples done wrong. Usually it’s because they left a space! The point is: always check before you click Save or Reply and especially afterwards! (Memo to self: remember to check this posting!) Finally, this guide may seem long, but as Morgan Freeman said in Deep Impact, “It only seems that way.” Once you get the hang of it, creating samples will take mere seconds. Righto, here we go … mouses at the ready? Step One Upload the image you want to show a sample of, if you have not already done so. If the image you want to make a sample of is already on RB, go to Step Two but make sure the image is available for sale. If it isn’t, go into Edit and follow this step. When you upload the image (or Edit the upload), make sure you select Make this work available for purchase as a … and tick all the boxes. It doesn’t really matter if the image is too small for a poster. Just tick ‘em all and find out. As long as the image is at least big enough for a card, you can create a sample of the artwork in a card form. If the image is too small even for a card you cannot create a sample and you will have to go back and increase the size of the image and try again (hmmm, could be another tutorial there). Note: If you are uploading an image for the sole purpose of showing a sample of it, do not bother writing a Description or ticking any of the Group boxes, and make sure you tick Hide this work from others. Step Two Go to the Public view page for the artwork you wish to create a sample of. Pretend you are buying the artwork. Click the buy/preview icon to the right of the image because you will be creating your sample from one of the displayed examples of each purchase option. Step Three Decide which of the product options you want to use as a sample. Try a few different ones to see which is the one which really shows off the work. If the image size only allows for Small of anything, your best option usually is to choose a laminated print over a framed print because the actual visual size of the artwork in the framed print is generally too small. Step Four Once you’ve decided upon the type and specifications for the sample, Right Click once while holding the mouse over the image. A list of options should have appeared. At the very bottom of this list is the word Properties. Move the mouse over Properties and Left Click once. A new window should have opened. Halfway down the list of properties you will see Address: with the acronym URL immediately under it. This is the place on the RB big computer (server) where the pitcha of your sample product is stored – it’s address. (OK, all you tech heads are now cringing at my howler, but it’s ok, okaay :)) You need to copy the address and paste it (Step Five) in the exact place you want it to be shown. To copy the URL, hold the mouse over the start of the address, just to the left of the term http. When I say “just to the left” I mean right up against the “h” of http. The mouse needs to change from an arrow to a symbol which looks like a capital i in traditional font (Times New Roman). When that happens and with the mouse still right on that “h”, press and hold the Left mouse button and then, while still holding down the left mouse button, move the mouse straight down vertically. The address should now be highlighted. Keep moving down until the end of the address is within the highlighted area. The end of the address is always .jpg and you will always need to scroll down one line before you reach it. Now let go of the left mouse button, leaving the address highlighted. Keeping the mouse over the highlighted area, Right click once. Two options will appear. Select Copy (left mouse button). Now click on the Cancel icon at the bottom of the Properties window. This is just to close it. Step Five – Wallah! Now go back to where you want to show the sample. Let’s assume you are making a comment on a brilliant piece of artwork and you wanted to show a sample of it framed or laminated as part of your comment (the artist will love you for it!) All you need to do is Paste the address of the sample where in your comment you want the sample to appear, eg at the end. To do this, firstly Left click on that space so that the cursor is blinking. Now Right click once and select Paste. The address you copied in Step Four should now appear as part of your comment. (But it isn’t really). It must start with http and it must end with .jpg. If it doesn’t you need to delete what you just pasted and go back and re-copy the address and re-paste it. You are allowed to swear while doing so. Step Six – Really Important Before you hit the Reply button, you need to add the symbol that tells the computer to go get the pitcha. You must type this symbol once at the start of the address and once at the end of the address without leaving a space between the typed characters. The symbol is the exclamation mark. So, make sure the start of the address looks like this – !http – and the end of the address looks like this – .jpg! Now you can hit the Reply button. Step Seven – Really Really Important Check to make sure the linking worked. The address should have been replaced by the pitcha. But wait…there’s more You can create a sample of an image in its own Description in exactly the same way as I have described above. I normally do this by uploading the artwork, making it available to purchase as … whatever, but hiding it from public view. Then I simply go into the buy/preview page, grab the address of the sample, then paste it into the Description while still in Edit mode, then click on *Allow anyone to view this work before saving. Hope this guide answers a few questions for you! If so, you might like to also check out my guides to creating clickable images and creating links Any problems feel free to either bmail me or email me at peter_h111@msn.com. If you already know how to do all the above, please don’t feel the need to leave a comment, thanks. :)

• 

  Easy Sunday Morning
  by Lisa G. Putman

  Critically Endangered / Canon EOS 30D The Bengal tiger, or Royal Bengal tiger (Panthera tigris tigris or Panthera tigris bengalensis) is a subspecies of tiger primarily found in Bangladesh, India, and also Nepal, Bhutan, Myanmar and southern Tibet. The white bengel tiger is not an albino, it has blue eyes. The white coat and light features are caused by a recessive gene. Very few survive in the wild because they do not have the ability to camoflauge themselves in their suroundings. Sadly, there are those who breed them for their exotic looks all for money. Because they occur so rarely, many orange tigers die or are mistreated in the process. Tigers are solitary hunters. They love the water, and are not afraid to chase their prey down into the water. In fact, this is how tigers often get food. The wait for an animal to be drinking at a water hole, then scares the animal into the water, where the tiger will chase it farther into deeper waters, making it easier to catch. Tigers have retractable claws. This enables them to walk through rocky, grassy, muddy, or sandy areas without dulling their claws, which they need to hunt with. Tigers eat almost anything in their range that they can catch. Large and medium sized prey, ungulates, rabbits, wild boar, deer, buffalo, young elephants and rhinos, waterfowl, and elk, make up the majority of their diet. They stalk their prey, and pounce when they are about 30 feet from their quarry. They kill by a lethal bite to the back of the throat, which often dislocates the backbone and severs the spinal cord. Often, a lethal bite is applied to the throat, which cuts off air supply and asphyxiates (suffocates) the animal. Tigers can eat as much as 40 lb (18 kg) of meat in one sitting. Tigers, like other felines, need to eat some grass to provide nutrients and roughage. Tigers will usually avoid humans because they do not provide much meat, and they prefer the taste of wild game. However, if a tiger becomes a maneater, there is usually a reason for it. One reason is that the tiger is very old, to the point where his teeth are worn down, and cannot catch wild game anymore. Humans are much easier to catch and kill, so they prey on humans. Another, more common reason, is the tiger was injured or sick, and can no longer hunt for itself. However, many tigers, like those that live in the mangrove forests of the Sundarbans, seem to have a taste for humans. No one knows why they do this, as these tigers are young and healthy. Some speculate that they are guarding their territory, others think that the salty waters in the marsh they drink makes them irritable. These tigers, however, do not come into human settlements, they only kill humans that have wandered too far into the mangrove forests. People who venture into the forests to gather wood and food wear masks on the backs of their heads since tigers only attack them from behind. Since they started this, the numbers of tiger attacks have been greatly reduced. However, once a tiger becomes a man-eater, it will not cease, and has to be destroyed to protect people.

• 

  Easy To Be Hard (Windows)
  by Danilo Lejardi

  I´m in the process of creating a series of images entitled “Windows”; then this image came up, almost by itself. It reminded me of one of my all time favorite songs: Easy To Be Hard, from “Hair”, the 60s legendary rock musical. If you pay attention to the lyrics, you´ll realize that the world hasn´t changed too much since then. / Here´s the link to this song, performed by one of my favorite pop/rock groups: Three Dog Night. / Easy To Be Hard / There´s an outstanding version of this song by 3DogNight with the London Symphony Orchestra but I´ll keep this reference for another tribute to this Group. Cause, let me tell´ya Eli´s Coming… Easy To Be Hard ( lyrics) How can people be so heartless / How can people be so cruel / Easy to be hard / Easy to be cold How can people have no feelings / How can they ignore their friends / Easy to be proud / Easy to say no And especially people / Who care about strangers / Who care about evil / And social injustice / Do you only / Care about the bleeding crowd? / How about a needing friend? / I need a friend How can people be so heartless / You know I’m hung up on you / Easy to give in / Easy to help out And especially people / Who care about strangers / Who say they care about social injustice / Do you only / Care about the bleeding crowd / How about a needing friend? / I need a friend How can people have no feelings / How can they ignore their friends / Easy to be hard / Easy to be cold / Easy to be proud / Easy to say no

• (Host Tutorial) Featuring the easy way
  by D R Moore

  If you are tired of rummaging through countless pages trying to feature a group member or an image that won a challenge and have so many …

  If you are tired of rummaging through countless pages trying to feature a group member or an image that won a challenge and have so many more pages to go and your mouse hand is cramped. Try this method. NOTE: This only works for groups that you Host / Co-Host / Also be careful in doing this as it will have the reverse effect on a featured image. / It will remove it from the featured section if it is already featured. / Be sure to visit the groups “overview” page to make sure your handy work has included all the images you wanted to feature. To feature Challenge Images / 1.On your groups “overview” page there is a link to your “featured work” section right click the link and select (with Firefox)”copy link location” (with internet explorer “copy shortcut”) / Now you are ready to feature some images the easy way / 2.Go to the challenge page that shows the awesome challenge winners that are about to be featured and while holding the control (CTRL) key left click the lucky images doing this will open them in new tabs in your web browser / 3.Now the fun part Clicking one of the new tabs that were opened will take you to the image page drop a comment if you like while you are there. To feature it in the address bar highlight the web address all the way to the word “art” then press and hold the control (CTRL) key press “V” to paste the address you copied in step 1 / or you can right click the Highlighted text and select ‘paste’ from the pop up menu. / Here is an example / Original address (the part in bold will be replaced) / http://www.redbubble.com/people/envelope150/art/2934496-2-egret-dock / Now the new address to feature this image would be / http://www.redbubble.com/groups/groupnamehere/featured_works/2934496-2-egret-dock / 4. Now just press enter (or click GO). / 5. Click the “feature” button on the confirmation page and your done. / You can close the tab and move on to the next one. / This also works for T-shirts / Example address (the part in bold will be replaced) / http://www.redbubble.com/people/envelope150/t-shirts/2478267-4-original-mobil-phone Feature a Group Member / To feature a group member go to their public profile page and click the “send bubblemail” link and in the address bar there is a number that you will need to feature the group member. / Example: The number below in bold is my number / http://www.redbubble.com/mybubble/conversations/new?recipient_id=14964058&return_to=%2Fpeople%2FEnvelope150 / Highlight and copy the members number / Go to the featured members link on the groups page / EXAMPLE: http://www.redbubble.com/groups/groupname/featured_users / and add the copied number at the end of the address in the address bar / Like this / http://www.redbubble.com/groups/groupname/featured_users/14964058 / Press enter and presto a featured member. Featuring Writings and Journals / also works by going to the members writing or journal page and clicking the work to feature and pasting the address like we did above. / Examples:replace the part in bold / Writing / http://www.redbubble.com/people/envelope150/writing/3092254-feature-me / Journal / http://www.redbubble.com/people/envelope150/journal/3092254-feature-me Happy Bubbling (Happy Featuring) / Dan Need More Help? / Chat with me on Skype User Name / envelope150 Get the Firefox and Internet Explorer Tool bar for Redbubble Here / See more info See all my How-to’s Here Includes “Framed image on Bubblesite home page”, “Adding Calendars to your bubblesite”, “feedjit Live Traffic Feed”, “Using tags on Redbubble”, “Add a visitor counter to your bubblesite or profile page” and More Please don’t Copy and paste this written work as that would really hurt my feelings :) / you can copy the code below and paste it if you would like to share with others on Redbubble "Featuring the easy way(Host Tutorial)":http://www.redbubble.com/people/envelope150/journal/2948588-host-tutorial-featuring-the-easy-way / or to share on the web / <a href="http://www.redbubble.com/people/envelope150/journal/2948588-host-tutorial-featuring-the-easy-way" title="Host Tutorial">Featuring the easy way</a> / or / /

• 

  AM I THAT EASY TO FORGET?
  by Mugsy

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  Easy Rider 1969
  by Naf4d

  Easy Rider 1969

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  Peaceful Easy Feeling
  by Adam Gormley

  Noosa River, Noosaville, Queensland Australia. Quite liked the vapour trail from a airliner in this shot. Bird is a Little Pied Cormorant, flying just ablove the waterline. Canon 50D, 22mm. Available Large, and best viewed Large!

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  It is not always easy to look yourself in the eyes
  by Lenoirrr

  August 2009: Featured in Images & Ideas

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  Easy Silence
  by ~ Ademac

• I Told Everyone I Would Make it Easy to Sell On Redbubble...Here Goes
  by 3XEternity

  The Art/T-Shirt Club! Want your art sold? We all feel your pain but in these harder times w…

  The Art/T-Shirt Club! Want your art sold? We all feel your pain but in these harder times we have to come together! So this is the best way we can do just that… / To join us in getting your art sold … You simply need to make a purchase, whether it’s a Card, T-Shirt or Wall-Art from anyone on Redbubble but after the first artist makes a purchase then all the following artists need to buy something from one of the artists who have made a purchase below! / You can also join by listing what you’ve bought in the past but for those / who haven’t bought anything please consider when you have the money to buy something from someone who has posted or buy something that they post. This way everyone will / get something sold! This is how I see it… / We shop in stores like Wal-Mart and the mall which are all run by millionaires and raise prices while under paying most of their workers. / So why always give your money to them when you can spend with the truly / creative people like on RB? You can post a comment to this but to join post something that you purchased from anyone on Redbubble but if someone’s posted already shop in their gallery and join our movement! Thanks to everyone who makes RB a great website to display and sell / on! Currently there are no purchases of someone who posted here, why not be the first? When you leave this message without favoriting it….Let the force be with you…because you’re on your own baby! :)

• 

  Its not easy being a musician :)
  by Ellen

  He is still learning….I cant expect too much, he is only 3 months old!

• 

  Easy Listening - Radio Edit
  by kernelcopia

  A close up view of Buddy the music lovin’ budgie.

• The Easy Guide to Adding Clouds to an Image using Photoshop
  by Peter Hill

  The aim of this Guide is to provide easy-to-follow step-by-step instructions on how to add clouds to an image which has an otherwise blan…

  The aim of this Guide is to provide easy-to-follow step-by-step instructions on how to add clouds to an image which has an otherwise blank sky, without the necessity of being a Photoshop guru to achieve it. Many stunning images on RB are in fact composites, with clouds being brought in from another image to add impact. (Sometimes you can’t easily tell!) It works very well and can transform an image. I have only uploaded to RB one artwork which is a composite of two shots, one being clouds: The original image of the building was clear sky – not a cloud in sight – and was thus a bit bland and boring and a perfect candidate for some cosmetic surgery. This tutorial was prompted by a request to explain how I did it. I still call myself “new to Photoshop” and I have found a lot of on-line Photoshop tutorials, including some others on RB, assume a much higher level of knowledge than I have and are not very intuitive. So, I try to explain the steps in easy to understand terms (hopefully!) and, importantly, describe what each step should look like after it’s done. So if you are not seeing the result of each step replicated on your screen, you know you have to stop and try again. If this happens, go to the top toolbar, select Edit then Undo [whatever it is you’ve just done] from the drop-down menu and try again. (Many many tutorials lose me when they fail to include this vital “check back”.) This tutorial is my longest one yet, given the patience I apply, but once you get the hang of the actions, you will find the process rather quick to do. If you have already read and followed my Orton Effect tutorial, you’ll know what I mean, hopefully, so don’t be put off by this one. I explain the steps based on using Photoshop Elements 7, but users of more advanced Photoshop programs will be able to follow the same steps. I also have Photoshop CS2 (v9.0), for example, and there’s only one slight difference from the PE 7 interface from what I can tell, which I will point out where it’s relevant. If you want to refer back to this tutorial at leisure, feel free to favourite it as I never delete them. And for this tutorial I really am going to make the effort to update it to include screen shots of EACH step. In writing this tutorial I just want to point out I have not read a single tutorial by someone else on this particular process, and the words are all mine. I wish to also acknowledge that Tatiana originally showed me this process. She’s so patient dealing with my impatience! Step One Clouds. You need some cloud photos. Beg, borrow or steal some, or better still, shoot some. I have a folder of nothing but cloud photos. Any day the sky puts on a show I will try and shoot the clouds, just to save them for later use. If you shoot some clouds in JPEG, make sure you shoot them in colour – you can always desaturate to B&W if the image you want to use them in is also in B&W, but if you shoot them in B&W in JPEG you won’t be able to convert to colour to match a colour image. Just another reason to shoot in RAW, really. For this tutorial, however, I am going to use a colour image needing a sky and a B&W sky shot. In theory, this will look weird, and it does, but I will also show you how you can then gradually desaturate the colour image after inserting the B&W sky and achieve quite a startling effect when you leave just a touch of colour. For best results, try to have nothing else in the frame of your cloud shot but sky. No trees or power lines! (If that’s not possible then crop the crap out. But note that creates a potential problem because now your cloud shot will be a different size than the image you want to drop the sky into. That can be fixed, but let’s just worry about equally-sized images for now.) Another advantage of having a “clean” cloud shot is that you can rotate it to horizontal or vertical, depending on the aspect of the image you want to use the sky in. Here’s a little cloud photo I prepared earlier: Step Two Your main image. The one without any clouds. The one you want to insert some action into, some drama. Try to select an image with a completely blank sky. It makes it so much easier for the Magic Wand (I’ll explain later) to figure out the portion of the sky you want to replace, ie all of it. Try to also select an image with straight lines, like a building or, even better, a straight uninterrupted horizon of a landscape or seascape. If you’ve got stuff popping up into the sky, like trees, the method I describe is just made soooo much harder and you may as well stop reading now and go watch TV or a movie. (At this point, the Photoshop gurus are shaking their heads and groaning, because THEY know another method to get around this when doing composites, but we’ll leave THEM on their lofty perches, ok?) Here’s a little image I prepared earlier. You may recognise the building: Cool. Now, let’s get starting on cooking our composite. I will refer to my two images in this tutorial as Clouds and Building, just for ease of reference. Step Three You’ve got Photoshop Elements (“PE”) open. Now select File from the top toolbar and select Open from the drop-down menu. Choose your Building shot and open it. Ok, now look across to the right of the screen. See the Layers palette? It should be showing a thumbnail of the Building image, together with the label Background. Now, once again, select File from the top toolbar and select Open from the drop-down menu. Choose your Cloud shot and open it. Look across to the Layers palette. You should now see a thumbnail of the Cloud image, together with the label Background. Now, left click and hold down the mouse on the Cloud image, and drag it to the side, just enough to show some of the sky of your Building shot. Release the mouse button. Move the mouse over to the Layers palette. Left click and hold over the thumbnail of the Cloud, and drag it over to the sky – anywhere in the sky. Release the mouse button. A copy of the Cloud image should now be “superimposed” over the Building image. Don’t worry if it doesn’t fit. Look over to the Layers palette. You should be seeing now two thumbnails – the top one called Layer 1 which is the “front” image, and the bottom thumbnail called Background, which is your Building image. Now, ignoring the Layers palette, left click on the Cloud image sitting behind the “superimposed” image. Close it. Step Four Look over to the Layers palette again. See that group of little icons just above the top thumbnail? Hover your mouse slowly over them and their functions should come up, eg the 3rd icon from the left looks like a trash can and when you hover the mouse over it a little word bar comes up saying Delete layer. Well we don’t want to do that. Instead, hover the mouse over the icon on the far left. It should say Create new layer. Just remember where that icon is for now. (If you are using Photoshop CS2 or CS3 or CS4, the group of icons is at the bottom of the Layers palette. Hover the mouse over the icons until you find the one that says Create new layer. Remember it.) Now, left click and hold down the mouse over the bottom thumbnail in the Layers palette – it’s the thumbnail of the Building that’s labelled Background – and drag it over to the Create new layer icon. Release the mouse. You should now see three thumbnails in the Layers palette, labelled, from top to bottom: Layer 1, Background copy, and Background. Step Five This is a slightly tricky step. Another click and drag, but best done smoothly and slowly. Left click and hold down the mouse over the Background copy thumbnail in the Layers palette and drag it to just over the top of the Layer 1 thumbnail. Release the mouse. All we are doing here is reversing the order of the top and middle thumbnails, so now your Layers palette should still show three thumbnails, but now in order from top to bottom: Background copy, Layer 1, and Background. Step Six Ok, now the meaty stuff starts. Look over to the left toolbar now (or palette, whatever you want to call it). Hover your mouse until you find the icon labelled Magic Wand. It looks like, um, a magic wand, but don’t confuse it with the Quick selection tool immediately below it. Click on the Magic Wand icon. Your mouse pointer should now have the distinct look of a, um, magic wand. Look up at the little toolbar immediately above the image (which, incidentally, should be of the Building). Make sure the box marked Contiguous is ticked. Now left click once on the sky in the Building image. You should now see marching ants completely around the sky and along the exterior part of the building which protrudes into the sky. (Believe it or not, the technical term for marching ants is …. marching ants.) Step Seven Look closely at the marching ants where they meet the edge of the building. Are there any gaps where you can see the sky? This is important, because if you don’t shift the path of the ants so that they align to the edge of the building, your new sky won’t cover that gap. Enlarge the image if you are not sure. If you see a gap, it is easily fixed. First, press and hold Shift on your keyboard. Second, left click once on the mouse on a gap. Let go the Shift key. You should immediately see those obedient mice form up against the building across the image. Cool, eh? Now, go to the top horizontal toolbar and select Edit. From the drop-down menu select Delete. This will delete your bland boring sky and replace it with your new dramatic sky !!! How cool is that?! Epic. Step Eight Now we have to send the mice home. Go again to the top toolbar and select Select. From the drop-down menu now select Deselect (ha! ha! I love a good alliteration!). Your marching ants should be no more, gone in fact. Does your image look something like this? How cool is that? Step Nine Nearly done! At this juncture, you have two options. You can finish now with the image you’ve got or you can adjust the look of the Building alone and/or the Clouds alone and then finalise the image. To finish now, right click and hold the mouse over the top thumbnail in the Layers palette. Select Flatten image from the drop-down menu. The thumbnails should have collapsed into one thumbnail, called Background. You can now save your image, you’re all done! To work further on the Building alone and/or the Clouds alone, simply left click once on either the Background copy thumbnail and/or the Layer 1 thumbnail and make your adjustments as you would normally do with an image, and then flatten your image and save it. Which is what I did with this image. I simply increased the contrast on the building and desaturated it to the level where there is just a hint of colour. To alter contrast, select Enhance from the top horizontal toolbar, then select Adjust Lighting from the drop-down menu, then select Brightness/Contrast from the second drop-down menu. A separate window will open and there is your contrast slider. To desaturate, select Enhance again from the top horizontal toolbar, then select Adjust Colour from the drop-down menu, then select Adjust Hue/Saturation from the second drop-down menu. A separate window will open and there is your saturation slider. So, how does it look? Epic or what?! Cheers and happy clouding !!!