Photography: Editing Badges

[Kanazuchi]

A couple people (with incredibly keen eyes I might add) have noticed that in my current sig:

I added the Alpha Legion badge to the Marine's left shoulder pad. They have asked me how I did it, and it is a wee bit hard to explain (but actually a simple procedure), so I'm just going to write this tutorial instead. Enjoy!

First, cut out your preferred symbol with whichever method you like to use. And open up the image of the marine you'll be applying it to.

Next, position your symbol so that some of it is off the shoulder pad. You may do this using the Edit > Transform or Ctrl+T functions.

Add a layer mask to your symbol layer:

Now, using a Soft Brush reset your color palette to default colors by hitting D then hit X to make Black your foreground color and White your background color in your palette. With short strokes, remove any part of the badge that sticks out past the shoulder pad. If you take off too much, hit X to switch to White and just go over where you cut off too much. Aren't Layer Masks wonderful??

In your layer palette, adjust the overall Opacity to 52% (you may have to play with this depending on your image and/or badge).

And that is it! I told you it would be simple. If you want it to look more realistic, you can use your Burn and Dodge tools to give it some highlights, but we'll cover that another day:

Thanks! C/C Welcome!

Edited July 13, 2009 by The Angelus Sanctus

[Marovingean]

So nice! but I need the software first... anything free that I could get?

 

M

[Kanazuchi]

Yup, GIMP is identical to Photoshop...more or less. There are also...less legitimate...ways to get Photoshop, but I won't be illuminating anyone on those. Just search for GIMP in google.

[Tyrannicide]

Love the tutorial Kanazuchi! It is very helpful in so many ways. Now I just got to get the software... :tu: . But when I do, first thing is trying some new sigs.

[chromedog]

GIMP uses many of the same tools (and GIMPshop even looks closer to Photoshop in style) and is just as complex. There are oodles of manuals for PS and a lot of the techniques work just like them in GIMP (and one GIMP manual I have seen published).

 

It is a suitable replacement to PS (and free) and capable of almost as much. The downside is that the instructional side may be lacking.

 

Good pointers, though.

[Sigismund Himself]

Can you use this technique on Space Marine Painter image to add chapter symbols as well?

 

Another great tut, we could probably Librarium-ise and put it in. :D

[Hellknight]

Nice tutorial, very helpful!

 

Sigismund: Yeah, it works on the SMP images, I just tried it.

[Colrouphobic]

Can you use this technique on Space Marine Painter image to add chapter symbols as well?

 

Another great tut, we could probably Librarium-ise and put it in. :rolleyes:

Yes you can. Just keep an eye out for colours that are in the light spectra (closer to whites) for when you want to alter the Opacity. A Darker colour underneath the badge will make the badge blend into the underlying piece in a nice way, but if the underlying image is brighter, then it might pick up imperfections ad also may remove detail. If so, play around with the layer properties (default is "Normal", if you click on that you get a list with multitude different properties such as "multiply" and "Lighten" and so on) and you might get a better resault.

[khalaek]

YAY PHOTOSHOP!!!

 

Seriously, though, nice tutorial Kanazuchi! I've been wondering how people were doing that.

[Ironfoe]

So nice! but I need the software first... anything free that I could get?

 

M

 

GIMP is alright.

 

Photoshop elements can do everything in this tutorial and it is a lot lot cheaper.