Add Special Effects to your Photos.

Photos go Sci-Fi.

 

It's easy and a lot of fun to make special effect photos of your friends and family disintegrating each other with phasers. You can create these eff ects in image editing software that you've probably already got on your computer, such as Photoshop or Paint Shop Pro. Follow along, and I'll show you how. DISINTEGRATE YOUR SUBJECT

 

You'll need to start with a photo on your computer that poses two people in a scene, like the 'Before' shot. Open the photo in your image editor (I'm using Corel's Paint Shop Pro 9 but the steps are similar in Photoshop). Make a copy of the photo by choosing Edit then Copy from the menu. Leave the copy there in the software's memory for now; we'll paste it in later. To keep the photo in memory, you must not copy anything else.

 

The next step is to make our unfortunate target glow with phaser energy. Start by clicking the Freehand Selection tool, which lives in the fi fth cubby from the top of the toolbar. If the Tool Options palette isn't visible at the top of the screen, choose View . Palettes . Tool Options. In the Tool Options palette, set the Selection type to Edge Seeker and set Feather to zero. In Photoshop, use the Lasso tool, which is in the second cubby from the top of the toolbar, and hold down when you click around the person. Now click your way closely around your subject in short sections to create an outline. When you work your way back to your starting point, doubleclick to close the selection.

 

Next, we need to make the selection bigger than the subject's body. Choose Selections . Modify . Expand and set it to about 8 pixels. Next, feather the selection - choose Selections . Modify . Feather and set the feathering to about 10 pixels.

 

Now for the moment you've been waiting for: it's time to add some glow. Choose Adjust . Brightness and Contrast . Brightness/ Contrast (under Image in Photoshop) and jack the brightness and contrast up to maximum. Click OK, and you should see a white region where the subject used to be.

 

Next, paste the copy we saved earlier as a new layer into your image. Choose Edit . Paste As New Layer (or Edit . Paste). The glow should disappear because the copy of the original, unretouched image is now on top. Double-click on the new layer in the Layers palette to open the Layers Properties dialog box; if you don't see the Layers palette on the right side of the screen, choose View . Palettes . Layers from the menu. Then reduce the layer's opacity until you get the eff ect you like - it'll probably be around 20 to 40%.

 

ADD A PHASER BLAST

 

We've now made a pretty convincing disintegration scene, but what about the phaser beam?

 

First remove the selection: choose Selections.Select None from the menu and click on the bottom or background layer in the Layers palette. Next, click on the Paint Brush icon in the tool palette. Check the brush size in the Tool Options palette; I used a size 20. Make sure you've got white selected under Swatches (in Layers . Materials in Paint Shop Pro, or under Window in Photoshop). Position the paint brush where you want the beam to start, then click and release. Hold down the key, and click on the end point. The program draws a perfectly straight line between the two points.

 

Hopefully your picture now looks like the 'After' shot.

 

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