> PHOTOSHOP USER>^ OCTOBER 2020[ 40 ]
› › HOW TOStep Four: Now we’re going to open the
hot air balloon image from Adobe Stock.
You can c lick here to download the low-
res preview version of the image to your
Libraries panel. Double-c lick the image in
the panel to open it in Photoshop.
Use the Rectangular Marquee tool
to select the middle balloon. Then go to
Select>Color Range. Use the eyedropper
to sample the white area around the
balloons, and set the Fuzziness to 30 (try
35 for the low-res Adobe Stock image).
Click the Invert option and then OK to
create the selection of the balloon with-
out the white background.Step Five: Press Command-C (PC: Ctrl-C),
and return to the Ribbon Road project.
Press Command-V (PC: Ctrl-V) to paste
the copied pixels in as a new layer.
Name this layer “Balloon” and then
go to Layer>Smart Objects>Convert to
Smart Object. Press Command-T (PC:
Ctrl-T) for Free Transform, and scale the
balloon down and position it so the bas-
ket is at the top-right intersection of the
guidelines. Press Enter to commit the
transformation. Then go to Filter>Blur
Gaussian Blur, and use a Radius setting
of 0.5 pixels. Click OK.Step Six: Double-c lick the original sun-
set landscape Adobe Stock image in the
Libraries panel to open it as a separate
document. Grab the Pen tool (P), and
set the Mode to Path in the Options
Bar. Then c lick to add points to create
a path along the road, starting from the
point where it dips behind a hill to just
along the first major curve. Be sure the
shape tapers down near the top to be
quite narrow. Click on the starting point
to close the path. (For more on using the
Pen tool c lick here.)
Right-c lick on the path and choose
Make Selection from the contextual
menu. Use the settings shown here, and
c lick OK. Then press Command-J (PC:
Ctrl-J) to copy the selection to a new layer
and name it “Ribbon.”©Adobe Stock/Blue Planet Studio