How to use Photo Filters/Gradient Maps

[Raven]

This tutorial was created by .Merios. We hope that this will help you greatly!

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Unfortunately, I don't have any time to make a picture tutorial (which i'll probably make later) but this is a tutorial that *anyone* can redistribute, as long as it has .Merios somewhere, I don't care if they post it somewhere, just get my name out there as the first one to make this certain type of tutorial.

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Description:

Photo Filter: It may sound like this is like making the signature or graphic look like 'paper' or 'grainy' but it's not. It's a variety of different color overlays and certain lighting effects which, set to the right layer types, can make or break your sig.

Gradient Maps: Usually, you use these to make a semi-grayscale sig. Usually, you take two colors from your render or stock and use a gradient map with those colors. I'll teach you how to use these in the upcoming paragraphs. Set with the right opacity, these can be really helpful to get a really mysterious look to the sigs or graphics.

How to use Photo Filters Successfully:

Open up your signature or graphic.
Go go layer-new adjustment layer-photo filter.
Now, there are alot of choices, i'll explain each one in-depth.


Filter
There are a variety of choices of colors. Some colors are not as obvious as others, seeing as they have certain names (such as Underwater, or Warming) that just means that the underwater has a water-like blue color and the warming is like lightening up the sig with a reddish color.
Color
If you don't wish to use one of the pre-determined presets, you can always choose a custom color to have as a photo filter. Though, they won't be exactly as precise as the presets, they still are effective if you want a certain glowy color.
Density
This is how much of the color or style is put into your sig. If you want alot, obviously raise the density amount.. Want less, lower it. It can either get brighter, or get darker, either one.

How to use Gradient Maps successfully:

Open up your signature or graphic.
Go to layer-new adjustment layer-Gradient map.
There are yet more choices, all of which I will explain to my best efforts.

Dither
This isn't very important to any graphic for using gradient maps. Usually for over contrasted sigs, to dither the amount of gradient added.

Reverse
This is to invert the gradient colors that you selected. To maybe loose depth in a graphic you would do this. Some colors work inverted, some don't.

Gradients
If you click the small right-pointed arrow at the side of the gradients, a menu will pop up, showing a wide variety of different gradient possibilities. You can choose any of these, or you can manually click one of the gradients within that menu to bring up another window, which allows you to manually select the gradient colors you want for the Map.
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Hopefully this helped you understand Gradient Maps and Photo Filters a little bit better. If I didn't explain something, please notify me via a reply to this thread. Or if you don't understand something, i'll be glad to point you in the right direction, answer your question, or edit this tutorial with the new information gathered. Thank you.

[Lone Hunter]

wow it would've been a lot more helpful if i could afford photoshop instead of gimp. i have none of these options!!!lol
GO GIMP

[KrYpToNiTe Xx]

well TBH this didn't teach me anything i didn't already know. but this will be helpful to beginners. so thanks for posting.

REALLY HELPFUL TIP!!!! if you guys want a colorful tag all you gotta do is make a BLACK to strong BLUE gradient set to saturation and just lower the opacity to what works.

[hybrid]

Was meant for the beginners Krypo

[exile]

Originally Posted by Lone Hunter

wow it would've been a lot more helpful if i could afford photoshop instead of gimp. i have none of these options!!!lol
GO GIMP

Torrents ?

[Xx6xX]

Thanks for the advice.

[Sypherism]

thanks for the share

[cheesymeow]

lol get the trial thing. pick a month to work and see if you can make something impressive enough to get someone to help you buy it. also don't be a cheap-o. if u want it, save up for it. make the effort to make some money.

[wordspiderman]

grt clue but bro.. i didnt find photofilter in my photoshop -7
according to
layer->new adjustment layer-> photo filter
but
i cant find that,there r others except photo filter
could u help me plz

[.lg.Kwik Shot]

because this tutorial is for Adobe Photoshop CS2, not 7.

so a lot of stuff is different.