- Stretched-pixel Backgrounds
- Electric Type
- Ripped Edge Technique
- Multicolor Glow
- Metallic Glass Effect
- Credit Card from a Photo
- Colorizing Line Art
- Painting Using a Photo as Your Guide
- Giant Plasma Screen
- Photo to Line Art Morph
- Wire Frame Effect
- 3D Cubes
- Blending a Logo into a Photo
- Instant Star Field
- Water Drops
This chapter is from the book
This chapter is from the book
This chapter is from the book
Credit Card from a Photo
In the old days, unless you worked for Visa, MasterCard, or American Express, your chance of designing a credit card was fairly slim, but now there are phone cards, frequent flyer cards, frequent shopper cards, slot club cards, convention badges, and about a hundred other reasons why you may need this effect, primarily as a mockup to show clients.
Quick Tip: Photoshop's "Client Presentation Mode"
When it's time for me to show a client the final image (or an onscreen proof along the way), I don't like them to see the application running, just the image.
One reason is that I've had clients say, "Hey, is that Photoshop? My next-door neighbor Earl has Photoshop on his home computer and he does some really neat stuff." At this point I start to cringe because you can tell he's thinking "Hey, my neighbor could do this for me, and I'd save a bundle."
Secondly, it puts the client's focus on the image, and not the software surrounding it (which can be distracting), and third, it just looks more professional.
To get into what I call "Presentation mode" press f-f-Tab (press the letter "f" twice, then the Tab key once). This centers your image on screen, puts a black background behind your image, and hides Photoshop's menus and palettes. It looks great.
When you're done and your client steps away, just press f-Tab to get all your goodies back.
-
Open a new document in RGB mode at 72 dpi. Press "d" to set your Foreground color to black, then create a new layer by clicking on the New Layer icon at the bottom of the Layers palette. Press Shift-U until the Rounded Rectangle tool appears in the Toolbox. In the Options Bar, set the Radius to 10, then draw your rounded corner box at the size of a credit card (approximately 31 D2" by 21 D4").
-
Open the image you want to use in your credit card. Press "v" to get the Move tool and drag it into your credit card document. In the Layers palette, lower its Opacity to 50% to help you see when resizing the image. Press Command-T (PC: Control-T) to bring up Free Transform. Hold the Shift key, grab a corner point, and drag inward to size down your image (as shown).
-
Press Return (PC: Enter) to lock in your changes and in the Layers palette, raise the Opacity of this layer back up to 100%. Now press Command-G (PC: Control-G) to place your photo inside the black credit card shape on the layer below it.
-
The grouping you just did is temporary, so press Command-E (PC: Control-E) to permanently merge your photo layer with the credit card shape layer, leaving you with just a Background layer and your rounded corner photo layer. Choose Drop Shadow from the Layer Style pop-up menu at the bottom of the Layers palette. When the dialog appears, just click OK.
-
Create a new layer by clicking on the New Layer icon at the bottom of the Layers palette. Press "m" to get the Rectangular Marquee tool, and draw a rectangle at the bottom of your credit card that's just a bit wider and covers about one-sixth of your image (as shown). Press "x" to set your Foreground color to white, then press Option-Delete (PC: Alt-Backspace) to fill your selection with white.
-
Press Command-D (PC: Control-D) to Deselect. Then press Command-G (PC: Control-G) to Group the two images (put the white into the credit-card shape), and then press Command-E (PC: Control-E) to merge the two layers together once again (as shown).
-
Press "t" to get the Type tool and enter the type that will appear at the bottom of the card (I used the Trajan font, with the Anti-aliasing set to Sharp in the Options Bar).
-
Create a new layer by clicking once on the New Layer icon at the bottom of the Layers palette. Press "m" to get the Rectangular Marquee tool and draw a rectangle in the upper left-hand side of the card, starting at the top edge (as shown). Press "d" to set your Foreground color to black, and then press Option-Delete (PC: Alt-Backspace) to fill with black. Again, press "t" to get the Type tool and enter the appropriate type.
-
Next, while we have the Type tool, we'll add some "credit card type" to our image. Press the letter "x" to change your Foreground color to white and then add your text. I used the OCRA font from Adobe—but just adding the font isn't enough. Choose Bevel and Emboss from the Layer Style pop-up menu at the bottom of the Layers palette.
-
When the dialog appears, for Style choose Emboss. Increase the Depth to 200%, decrease the Size to 4, and click OK to give your type the stamped on look (as shown). In the Layers palette, hide the Background layer by clicking on the Eye icon in the first column to the left of the layer. Choose Merge Visible from the palette's drop-down menu.
-
Press Command-T (PC: Control-T) to bring up Free Transform. Move your pointer outside the bounding box and click-and-drag up to your left to rotate the card counterclockwise a little. Then, hold Shift-Option-Delete (PC: Shift-Alt-Backspace), grab one of the top corner points, and drag inward to create a bit of a perspective effect.
-
Press Return (PC: Enter) to lock in your rotation and perspective, which completes the effect.
){kind=link}
){kind=link}
){kind=link}
){kind=link}
){kind=link}
){kind=link}
Quick Tip: How to navigate your image when you're zoomed in close
When you've zoomed in on an image, trying to navigate using the scroll bars is frustrating at best, because when you're zoomed in really close, even a small move with the scroll bar can move the area you're working on totally out of the image window. Instead, when you've zoomed in, hold the Spacebar and your pointer will temporarily change to the Hand tool, and you can click-and-drag around your image. This is an ideal way to move quickly around your zoomed image, without the frustration of the scroll bars. When you release the Spacebar, you immediately switch back to the tool you were using.
Quick Tip: Which font is which?
This isn't really a Photoshop tip as much as it's a tip about this book. If you see a project in the book that uses type, you can find out which typeface (font) we used by checking the Font Listing at the back of this book. Thanks go out to readers of the previous book who came up with the great idea to include this list.
){kind=link}
){kind=link}
){kind=link}
){kind=link}
){kind=link}
){kind=link}
Quick Tip: File Browser tips
When you're working in Photoshop 7.0's File Browser you can use the Arrow keys to move from image to image in the preview window. But if you hold the Shift key while you use the Arrow keys, it will keep your original image selected, then select the image in the direction you moved with the Arrow key. For example, if you click an image, hold the Shift key, and click the Right Arrow, it adds the image to the right of your current image to your selection of images. Every time you Shift-Right Arrow over, it adds another image. If you then Shift-Up Arrow, that image is added, and so on.