Windows Help & Advice - USA (2019-08)

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Break up

an image

“Distortinganddistressingan

image made easy, even if it is a

littleearlyforHalloween”

utting images up and

rearranging the parts is a

major part of Photoshop

Elements’ appeal – there are myriad

waysyou can manipulate an image if

youcanchop it up, including pasting

thebitsback over one another,

changing the colours of some bits,

and applying filters to them.

Once you’ve separated the parts of

an image onto Photoshop’s layers, it

becomes even easier to change the

image – as layers can blend into one

another in many different ways.

We’re using Photoshop Elements

2019 for this (find a free trial at

http://bit.ly/PSE19trial) but it’s equally

applicable to applications such as

Affinity Photo or The GIMP – the core

functionality remains the same.

This can be quite a sinister effect,

and we find it works well on images

that contain a face, and have a dark

background, so have fun taking a

photoandeditingit.

1 Duplicate layer

When your image is open, duplicate the Background layer

by right-clicking on it and choosing Duplicate Layer. Hide the

original Background layer using the eye icon to its right in the

Layers palette, and work on the new copy. Using the Rectangular

Marquee tool, draw a rectangle the full height of the image and

use Layer > New > Layer Via Cut to move it to a new layer.

2 Keep going

Hide your new layer so you can see where you’ve been, then

reselect the Background copy layer and repeat the previous step

until you have cut up the entire image, or at least the part with a

face in it. When you’re left with nothing, create a Solid Color Fill

Layer from the dropdown at the top of the Layers palette, make it

black, and position it between Background and Background copy.

Step-by-step Distort for a creepy result

<ʝʦɠʔʦLȫɏ,ʋɚ(ɃʑQȫʑɚVʋ\ɡ

MOVE TOOL

Use this to drag

layers around

GRADIENT TOOL

Use this to spread

a gradient across

the image

LAYER MENU

Create new layers

easily from here

FILTER MENU

All you need to

really mess up

your image

TOOL OPTIONS

Fine-tune your

tools here

C

Anyonecandoit

Straightforward

Trickyin parts

Windows 10

Windows8.1

Windows^7

At a glance

Skill level...

Suitable for...

24 |^ |^ August 2019