Photoshop_User_-_February_2016

HOW TO ››

› ›

photoshop user

› february 2016

042

LESA SNIDER

Begin ners' Work sho p

mapping one image onto another

Step One: Open the image you want to map another image

onto and then choose Window>Channels. To make the best

displacement map, use the channel with the highest contrast.

Click each channel to view it or, if you’re in RGB mode (and

you probably are), you can cycle through different channels by

pressing Command-3, -4, and -5 (PC: Ctrl-3, -4, and -5); stop

when you land on the one you want to use. With the highest

contrast channel active (Blue here), choose Duplicate Channel

from the Channels flyout menu (circled).

[KelbyOne members may download the files used in this

tutorial at http://kelbyone.com/magazine. All files are for per-

sonal use only.]

Step Two: In the dialog that opens, choose New from the

Document drop-down menu (circled). In the Name field, enter

“Map” and click OK. When you do, Photoshop opens a new

document containing the channel you picked in Step One.

Step Three: In the Map document, choose Filter>Blur>Gaussian

Blur. In the resulting dialog, enter a value of 1–4 pixels (try

1 for low-resolution images and 4 for high-resolution images)

and click OK. The goal is to blur the image so the map is

slightly smooth.

Step Four: Choose File>Save As and, at the bottom of the

dialog, make sure the Format drop-down menu (PC: Type) is

set to Photoshop and that the Alpha Channels checkbox is

turned on. Click Save. Close the Map document by choosing

File>Close. Step Four

Step Two

Step One

One of the slickest Photoshop tricks ever is to wrap one image around the contours of another. It’s great for

creating conceptual imagery for ads or artistic purposes. To perform this feat, we’ll create a displacement

map—a grayscale image that Photoshop uses to warp and bend one image to the curvature of another.

Read on!

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