A Real Fairy Photo Effects

Learn in this tutorial how to make a special gift to a special person.

1. To start create a new file in Photoshop File > New with 1280х1024px and 300dpi. Save it with the name A Real Fairy.psd in File > Save as�

2. So, in this lesson you will learn how to make your girlfriend/boyfriend a personal wallpaper. Now you must find a picture of your beloved one witch you like the best, or think it's proper for this. It better be in high resolution.



Open it in Photoshop. Save it right away with the name Main elemet.psd. Chose the Polygonal Lasso tool from the tools menu (or just press L key). Zoom in good (hold down ALT key and scroll up the mouse wheel) and start tracing the figure. The more zooming you will do the fewer corners you will have in the end.



3. If you're not satisfied with the resulting selection you can always go to Select > Modify > Smooth and round up some unwanted corners.

4. When you're done with the selection, you have to get rid of the background. To do that just double click the Background layer to transform it into a simple layer. New layer dialog box will appear were you can even name your new layer, name it Main element and click OK.

To delete all besides your selection just inverse it Select > Inverse or press Ctrl + Shift + I to do the same thing on the fly. Now just press Delete key and voila� To deselect go Select > Deselect or press Ctrl + D.



Now to get the main element ready for the trace you have to make it monochrome. Go Image > Adjustments
> Channel Mixer don't touch any settings just check the Monochrome box in the lower left corner of the dialog box and click OK



To get rid of all this halftones a to make a nice a nice picture which will trace nice and easy in Illustrator go Image > Adjustments > Levels and drag the right and left handlers towards each other till you're satisfied. The result must be a nice clean Black and White picture with no minor elements.



5. Now just to be sure that the trace will go even better go Layer > New > Layer or just click on the New Layer button in the Layer Palette to create a new layer. Select the new layer you created and Ctrl + click the Main element layers thumbnail to select it's borders. Now go Select > Modify > Expand enter the value of 1 (or higher if your picture has a very high resolution) and click OK. Now press D key to select Black as the foreground color, and press Alt + Del to fill the selection with it. Press Ctrl +D to deselect.



6. Now drag the filled with black layer under the Main Element layer in Layer's Palette. Select both layers right - click on one of them and select Merge Layers in the appearing dialog box.

Choose Magic Wand tool in the tools menu or press W key. In Tool Option bar rise the Tollerance to 80% and make sure that Anti-alias and Contiguous checking boxes are unchecked. Now press in any white area to select all whites in the image and press Del key to delete it. Press Ctrl +D to deselect.



7. Now save Main Element file into a PNG format to keep the transparent parts. File > Save as� or press Ctrl + Shift + S.

SOURCE