A Template with a quick "Burn & Dodge" Tut!

Oh my dear dear blogging friends, you have been soooo incredibly faithful and patient with me these past weeks, and you SOOOO deserve more attention than I have been able to give you... my apologies!

Quickly, for an update on ScrapOrchard visit the Blog... Kami's post sums it up nicely. When there is more to report, I will do so immediately!!

So! Quite often I'm asked by you guys how to make things look more "real" in Photoshop, and honestly, there's not one simple answer - but I can tell you ONE quick and easy way that I use all the time.

The BURN and DODGE tool! Never heard of them? Well, silly you.. you've been missing out all this time! Just download the freebie template and follow along!

DOWNLOAD THE TEMPLATE HERE (password is scraporchard he he he!)

Ok, now use the template as you normally would, and if you need a template "clipping mask" tutorial review CLICK HERE to get you started. Keep in mind that for nice dramatic results for your paper curl you'll want to coordinate three colors or papers. The bottom paper (shown on the template in the darkest grey, (this will be the paper that is "revealed" by the top paper curling back. The top background paper which is the paper that will "curl" and the back of the top background paper, which is what you actually see as the curl itself.

Here is an example of the three papers (from my Butterfly Garden kit)



But do you see how they look "flat" and not actually curled? THIS is how your papers will look if you simply clip the papers to my elements in the template. Want it to look "more real? Then read on!!

First:
Go to your PS/PSE tool bar and look for these tools:


OR...you can simply press the letter O on your keyboard and it will pull up the last tool that you used from this flyout menu. (did pressing O not give you the tool you wanted? Just click on the little tiny arrow in the bottom right corner this causes the flyout menu to "fly out" LOL! and you can choose the tool you want.

Now select the DODGE TOOL (looks like a tiny push pin to me!) which "lightens" whatever it touches... and then you will choose a "brush" to apply the dodge tool with. Not sure how to do that? Well check this out!

First select your brush tool and once your have your brush tool active, you'll need to choose your brush by going to the top of your tool bar and clicking on the flyout menu that says BRUSH. Your brush menu will now appear and you want to choose a large SOFT brush. What is a soft brush you ask? A soft brush will give you a softer, more blended edge and looks that way in your menu (as opposed to the harder darker brushes that give a sharp crisp edge). I chose the 500 brush, you choose the largest, softest brush in your pallet) now bring your cursor over the top of your page and you'll see a large circle that is your brush (don't see it? Make sure that the layer that you want to work on is selected, and your Caps Lock is off!)

Now, make your brush even bigger! (easy way to do this is to simply press your right bracket key -two keys right of the letter P! - make it smaller? That's right, just press the left bracket key) For my paper curl, I used a 700 pixel brush so I pressed the right bracket key twice.

Now, with your Dodge Tool selected and using your large soft brush I want you to make sure that the PAPER CURL layer is active (if it's blue, then it's active... if it's not blue, just click on the layer!) on your layers pallet and click ONE TIME on the top center of your paper curl as shown here



then create a straight line by simply holding down the shift key and clicking where you want your effect to end (I showed the approximate spot in the picture above). You don't have to worry about being "perfect" that's the GREAT thing about photoshop! Any mistake is just a Ctrl+Z for pc's or Command+Z for mac's away! -( pssst...that's a shortcut for UNDO!) So click then shift+click to create your line, or simply click and drag your brush if you'd prefer! If you want your highlight line to be brighter, simply repeat the dodge tooled line!

Please note: Depending on the color of the paper that you're working on, you might need different strengths for your tool, if the white line is too bright, simply undo and change the strength of your tool in the tool bar up top!

Your curl should now look something like this (sorry, LOL I changed papers for the curl, it isn't as cute as the flower paper, but it shows the tutorial better! he he he):


Now, if you want to take it a step further, and if your paper needs it... (mine doesn't so much because it was a darker colored paper, but lighter papers will need this further touch) Go back to your dodge tool and choose the BURN tool. Just the opposite of the dodge tool, the burn tool is going to darken whatever it touches. Using the same brush, you want to add some depth to your curl but brushing a straight line at the very back of the curl (where it meets the paper) and at the very tip of the curl (the corner of the paper) now you'll have something like this:


Now add the final touch of a drop shadow and this is what you'll have!





Looks more "real" right? LOL Enjoy your template and your tut... now back to the grindstone for me... I'm working on a new collab with Kami of Ziggle Designs, (and that Kami is such a slave driver!! he he he!)

By the way... Do you LOVE my Word Art? Yea, well it's NOT MINE... ! All the credit goes to Bethany of Elegant WordArt! A blog reader and new scrapper like many of you, Bethany "RAK'd" me with this GREAT word art and told me to feel free to share with all of you, so head on over to her blog (she has a TON of great FREE WordArt!!) Thanks Bethany!!

Ok... so this little Tut has taken me a bit longer than I anticpated...it's 1:30 a.m. here in Hawaii, so no time to double check for spelling or typos! You'll just have to live with them all!

Hopefully we'll see you all at the Orchard soon...hey... use the template if you want and post your layouts in the GALLERY!! THAT would make my day!

Aloha!

Shauna