Conference Buddies

1. Creating polar worlds using the Polar Coordinates filter

• Filter > Distort menu
• This filter can create a panorama landscape into a planet.

2. Adjusting brightness of individual colors within an image

• Option + choose Black & White Adjustment Layer > Change the mode to Luminosity
• Move your mouse over your image, click, and drag horizontally to change the brightness of whatever color your mouse is currently over.

3. Quick composites using blending sliders

• Use the Blending Options within the Layer Style popup menu
• Move upper left blending slider towards the middle = hide the dark sections
• Move the upper right blendling slider towards the middle = hide the bright sections
• Option + drag either side of the slider to split the slider into two pieces for a more gradual transition
• If the subject is different than the background color, consider clicking through the different color channels to find the most dramatic difference between the subject and background.
• Then choose that color channel from the popup menu that appears above the sliders.
• The Underlying Layer slider will cause the underlying layer to break through the active layer based on brightness.

4. Removing the Background on Fire

• Filter > Extract
• Check the Force Foreground box
• The Extract command is only capable of searching for a single color within an image
• If there is more than one color, such as a fire, choose the most prominent or a blend of both
• Use the Eye Dropper tool to choose that color

5. Removing the Background on Glass Objects

• Filter > Extract
• Use the command twice to extract the highlights and shadows on separate layers and you’re done.

6. Selecting a Complex Tree

• Background Eraser tool
• Tolerance at 50% and choose Discontiguous
• Choose a large soft brush
• Click on a color within the background and paint over the entire area to remove that color
• Repeat the process until all the background is removed