Hi. This is Marty from Blue Lightning TV. I'm going to show you how to create the look
of a Polaroid photo montage. This is an update of a tutorial I did on an earlier version of Photoshop.
Open a photo you'd like to use for this project. I downloaded this one from
Shutterstock.com. We'll convert it into a Smart Object, so we can modify it non-destructively.
To do this, click the icon at the upper, right corner of the Layers panel and click "Convert to Smart Object".
Make a copy of it by pressing Ctrl or Cmd + J. Name the copy: "Blur".
Go to Filter, Blur and Gaussian Blur. I'll make the Radius: 8 pixels, however, depending on
the size and resolution of your document, you may want to use a different radius amount.
Blur it, so your image looks similar to this. Click the New Layer icon to make a new layer.
In this layer, we'll place the inside shape of the Polaroid. Open your Rectangular Marquee
Tool and press and hold Shift as you drag out a square selection. Holding Shift kept
it square. We'll fill the selection with white. But first, if your foreground and background
colors aren't black and white respectively, press "D" on your keyboard. Since white is
the background color, press Ctrl or Cmd + Delete to fill your selection with white.
Let’s name the layer, “Inside”. Click the New Layer icon to make a new layer. Name
it: "Frame". Go to Select and "Transform Selection". Go to a corner and when you see a diagonal,
double-arrow, press and hold Alt or Option + Shift as you drag it out approximately this
much. Go to the bottom, middle anchor point and when you see a vertical, double-arrow,
drag it down approximately this much. To accept it, press Enter or Return. Fill this selection
with white, as well. Then, deselect it by pressing Ctrl or Cmd + D.
Press Ctrl or Cmd +J to make a copy of the layer
and name it, "Drop Shadow". Double-click the thumbnail to open its Layer Style window.
Click "Drop Shadow". The Blend Mode is Multiply and the Color is black. Make the Opacity: 25%.
Uncheck "Global Light" and make the Angle: 125 degrees. I'll make the Distance: 8 pixels
and the Size: 7 pixels, however, you may want to type in different amounts for the distance
and size, depending on the size and resolution of your document. Then, click OK.
Reduce the Fill to Zero. This makes the white Fill completely transparent, while retaining the full visibility
of the Drop shadow. Hide the "Inside" layer and Ctrl-click or Cmd-click on its thumbnail
to make a selection of the "inside" shape. Make the "Frame" layer active and click the
Layer Mask icon to make a layer mask of the selection next to the Frame. We need to invert
the layer mask, so the frame is white and the inside of the frame is transparent. To
do this, press Ctrl or Cmd + I.
To save space in the Layers panel, let's group the layers that comprise the Polaroid into a folder.
To do this, make the Inside layer active
and Shift-click on the Drop Shadow layer to make all the Polaroid layers active. Then, press
Ctrl or Cmd + G. To angle it, click your Move Tool and open your Transform Tool by pressing
Ctrl or Cmd + T. Go to a corner and when you see a curved, double-arrow, rotate the Transform
to an angle you like. To reposition it, go inside the Transform and drag it. Then, press
Enter or Return. To make another Polaroid, make a copy of the folder and use your Transform
Tool again. Feel free to overlap it with the other Polaroid. When you're happy with its
angle and position, press Enter or Return. We'll hide the other image inside the overlap later.
Let's make one more Polaroid.
Drag it over your subject and open your Transform Tool to angle it.
Next, we'll make the inside of the Polaroids focused. Open the top folder
and Ctrl-click or Cmd -click on the thumbnail of the Inside layer to make a selection of
its shape. Close the folder and open the folder under it. Press Ctrl + Shift as you click
on this Inside layer to add its selection to the other one. Close the folder and open
the folder below it. Repeat the same steps by pressing Ctrl or Cmd + Shift as you click
on this Inside layer to add its selection to the other two. You should now see the selections
of all 3 inside shapes of the Polaroids. Let's review what we have at this point. The bottom
layer is our original, focused photo, the layer above it is the blurred photo and the
top, 3 folders contain the 3 Polaroids. Click the Layer Mask to make it active and press
Alt or Option + Delete. This fills the selections with the foreground color which is black.
Then, deselect it. Lastly, decide which Polaroid you want to appear on top of the others. For
this example, I'll make this Polaroid on top. I know the middle folder is the bottom Polaroid
because if I hide the folder, the bottom Polaroid disappears. I'll make the folder visible again
and hide the other 2 folders. Make a composite snapshot of your image by pressing Ctrl +
Shift + Alt + E on Windows or Cmd + Shift + Option + E on a Mac. Drag the composite
snapshot to the top of the Layer panel and open the folder that's visible.
Ctrl-click or Cmd-click on its top layer to make a selection of its shape. Then, click the Layer Mask icon
to make a layer mask of the selection next to the composite snapshot. Make the top folder
visible again, close the folder under it and make the bottom folder visible.
This is Marty from Blue Lightning TV. Thanks for watching!