lori92760 Posted March 10, 2019 Share Posted March 10, 2019 Several years ago I created my own brush from a photo of a flower in my yard. So it had background to be rid of etc. I cannot find out how I did it. I am certain it was here, because this was where it all started for me. Do we have a tutorial like that? Could someone point me in the direction of one? Thank you so much. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MariJ Posted March 10, 2019 Share Posted March 10, 2019 I have been searching for a tutorial but haven’t been able to find one. Do you have any idea at all how to do it? I remember that once you have your jpeg or png, the size can’t be too large (possibly no more than 2500 pixels on any side?) so you might have to resize it; and you have to click on the brush icon, choose where you want to store the brush and go to Edit>Define brush and it should be there. But, I haven’t done that in so long I’m not sure that’s all of it, sorry! I’m still looking for a tutorial but so far, no luck. I learned this in a SG Brush class long ago and there used to be a manual in the Boutique, but it’s been retired. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mikelle Posted March 10, 2019 Share Posted March 10, 2019 I think Veronica has a similar tutorial on her You Tube channel... I’ll try to find it when I’m on my computer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lori92760 Posted March 11, 2019 Author Share Posted March 11, 2019 I know you adjusted contrast. I want to delete all unnessary "stuff" from the photo and have this nice leafy branch. Of which, I am sure there are already a million brushes. But I there is something about my leaf, my picture, etc. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MariJ Posted March 11, 2019 Share Posted March 11, 2019 I get it about your photo, it means something to you! So, I’m thinking that the issue right now is not how to actually make the brush, but first how to extract the leafy branch from your photo? Here’s what I’d do - turn your photo to black and white and then bump up the contrast very high. Next, I’d try the “Find Edges” filter: Filter>Stylize>Find Edges I played around and tried this with a flower photo I had. After running “Find Edges” I duplicated the photo, then changed the blend mode to “Multiply”, then duplicated it again. Is this the type of look you are looking for in your brush? If it is, you could merge all layers, place it on a new document and erase the parts of the background you don't want to show. Let us know if this doesn’t make sense or is what you are picturing. You can play around with filters to see if anything else works better. Here’s the before and after of how mine looks. It’s not the best photo and a first try, but is this sorta what you mean? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lori92760 Posted March 11, 2019 Author Share Posted March 11, 2019 So I used this flower or one like it and make this stamp. Any clue how I did that? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MariJ Posted March 11, 2019 Share Posted March 11, 2019 Oh wow, it’s gorgeous! I really have no clue, but I’m hoping someone else will. I just tried bumping the contrast up and using “invert” - that didn’t work either. I see what you mean about the background, I just don’t know how to do it. I’ll keep playing around and hopefully someone else will come along. Linda is usually good at things! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MariJ Posted March 11, 2019 Share Posted March 11, 2019 Well, I tried turning your photo to BW choosing the “Infrared” effect and bumping the contrast up. It has the look of yours, but I don’t know how to so cleanly remove the background as you did. I’m off to bed, maybe I can think better tomorrow. Hopefully someone else will be able to add on! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MariJ Posted March 11, 2019 Share Posted March 11, 2019 Running the “”Equalize” filter on the above try turned it blacker, but still... I’d better stop for now or I’ll just keep trying. And the “removing-the-background” issue still remains! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ladyscrapalot Posted March 11, 2019 Share Posted March 11, 2019 Try making the photo grey scale then had a level adjustment layer to bump up the dark areas. The black areas will be the brush part and the white will be the empty space. The darker (or black)areas means the brush is more defined. If there are grey areas they will be more translucent. To extract the leaf make a selection of the leaf. Quick selection works great for this if you have this option. After you make your selection invert and use a layer mask and brush out the part you don't want. Using a layer mask will help if you miss a part you can go back and fix it. Hope this helps a little; I'm not good at explain things. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MariJ Posted March 11, 2019 Share Posted March 11, 2019 8 hours ago, ladyscrapalot said: Try making the photo grey scale then had a level adjustment layer to bump up the dark areas. The black areas will be the brush part and the white will be the empty space. The darker (or black)areas means the brush is more defined. If there are grey areas they will be more translucent. To extract the leaf make a selection of the leaf. Quick selection works great for this if you have this option. After you make your selection invert and use a layer mask and brush out the part you don't want. Using a layer mask will help if you miss a part you can go back and fix it. Hope this helps a little; I'm not good at explain things. Kelly this is awesome, it was bugging me how to do this and I thought of you later because of the watercolor tutorials and how you know a lot! I am so intrigued, now I am going to try this! One question? How do you make the photo grayscale as opposed to BW? PS you explained this so well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ladyscrapalot Posted March 11, 2019 Share Posted March 11, 2019 I wrote grey scale because I was just going by the my photoshop lesson instructor. I believe black and white would work the same. The main thing you want the area that you want as a brush to be black so your brush will be more defined, unless you want a more translucent brush. Also I'm not sure about photoshop elements but if you have the option to use adjustment layers (B&W in this case) with masks you can work more non destructively. In PS these are located at the bottom of the layers panel as oppose to under the layer menu at the top. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MariJ Posted March 11, 2019 Share Posted March 11, 2019 9 minutes ago, ladyscrapalot said: I wrote grey scale because I was just going by the my photoshop lesson instructor. I believe black and white would work the same. The main thing you want the area that you want as a brush to be black so your brush will be more defined, unless you want a more translucent brush. Also I'm not sure about photoshop elements but if you have the option to use adjustment layers (B&W in this case) with masks you can work more non destructively. In PS these are located at the bottom of the layers panel as oppose to under the layer menu at the top. Thanks! Kelly. I just looked at PSE and while I have adjustment layers (which I am awful at using since I don’t really get them!) I don’t see anything about BW. I’m also wondering now how I’d get the white out of the center of a brush so it would be blank space/show through? Maybe just keep doing the same process you said here? I appreciate all your answers. Maybe I should ask what your PhotoShop lessons you are working on and I should look into that for PSE! Here’s what I got at my first try using your instructions; obviously I wasn’t very careful with the outer selection, I was just trying to see if I could do it. I’d never used the quick selection tool - only the Magic Wand. The more I learn the more I realize how much I don’t know! But, how to get all the center out! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ladyscrapalot Posted March 11, 2019 Share Posted March 11, 2019 If you want the center see through you’d have to use a section and clear it out. I would use a quick mask in case I took out more than I wanted. I’ll send you a pm about the lessons because i’m not sure if I’m allowed to talk about them here. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lori92760 Posted March 12, 2019 Author Share Posted March 12, 2019 I am at working but I started working on a flower this morning. Got rid of the background. Made it black and white, inversed it and exaggerated the contract and brightness. I will mess around more when I get home and share. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lori92760 Posted March 13, 2019 Author Share Posted March 13, 2019 Ok, well I fussed and inverted and messed with the contrast and brightness and shadows and highlights and I am sure there is an easier way.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MariJ Posted March 13, 2019 Share Posted March 13, 2019 9 hours ago, lori92760 said: Ok, well I fussed and inverted and messed with the contrast and brightness and shadows and highlights and I am sure there is an easier way.... Wow! Your brushes turned out well and I like how they look in use! You did a wonderful job on this and I can see the flower and leaf is so pretty. Thanks for sharing and for your question - I learned a lot during your process reading the thread. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ladyscrapalot Posted March 13, 2019 Share Posted March 13, 2019 So I had time to play around with making a brush from a photo. First I desaturated my photo then I did an invert layer adjustment. Next I did a levels adjustment to try to make the black areas darker. (I forgot to save a picture of the levels adjustment before the selection) Lastly I made a selection using the quick selection tool and a layer mask. After defining my brush, it was ready to use. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MariJ Posted March 14, 2019 Share Posted March 14, 2019 1 hour ago, ladyscrapalot said: So I had time to play around with making a brush from a photo. First I desaturated my photo then I did an invert layer adjustment. Next I did a levels adjustment to try to make the black areas darker. (I forgot to save a picture of the levels adjustment before the selection) Lastly I made a selection using the quick selection tool and a layer mask. After defining my brush, it was ready to use. Kelly your brush/stamp looks great! And, thanks for showing and telling us how you did it all. Awesome! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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