How Do You Make Text-Selectable PDF files From Photoshop?

How Do You Make Text-Selectable PDF files From Photoshop?

Do not flatten layers or merge visible layers (keep the layers separate), then you can get a text-selectable PDF file from Photoshop.

How do you change white sky into blue in Photoshop (Method 2)?

Method 2 - How To Replace The Sky In A Photo With Photoshop?

http://www.photoshopessentials.com/photo-editing/replace-sky/

Written by Steve Patterson.
In this Photoshop tutorial, we'll learn how to easily replace the sky in a photo! We'll use a basic selection tool and a layer mask to separate the sky from the area below it, then we'll learn how Photoshop's Advanced Blending sliders make it easy to hide the original sky so the new sky can takes its place!

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Here's the photo I'll be starting with. I purposely chose this photo because of all the trees, with the sky poking through the leaves and branches. You may be thinking that the Magic Wand or the Color Range Command would be good choices for selecting the sky, but in this tutorial, we're going to learn how to use the Advanced Blending sliders, found in the Layer Style dialog box, to both select the original sky and hide it from view at the same time:

The original photo.

Here's the image of the sky I'll be using the replace the original sky in the above photo. One thing I should point out before we continue is that both of these photos have the exact same pixel dimensions (width and height). To keep things simple, you'll want to make sure that both of your photos are the same size as well, which may mean you'll need to resize one of them before moving on:

The sky photo.

Here's what the final result will look like with the new sky added in:

The final result.

I'll be using Photoshop CS5 for this tutorial but any recent version of Photoshop will work. Let's get started!

Step 1: Select And Copy The Original Photo

The first thing we need to do is move both of our photos into the same document so we can blend them together. With both your original photo and your replacement sky photo open in Photoshop, make sure the original photo's document is active, then press Ctrl+A (Win) / Command+A (Mac) on your keyboard to select the image. You'll see a selection outline appear around its edges. Once the photo is selected, press Ctrl+C (Win) / Command+C (Mac) on your keyboard to copy the image to the clipboard:

Press Ctrl+A (Win) / Command+A (Mac), then Ctrl+C (Win) / Command+C (Mac) to select and copy the image.

Step 2: Paste The Original Photo Into The Sky Photo's Document

Switch over to the replacement sky photo's document, then press Ctrl+V (Win) / Command+V (Mac) on your keyboard to paste the original photo into the document. If we look in the Layers panel, we see that Photoshop placed the original photo on its own layer (Layer 1) directly above the sky photo on the Background layer, which is why the original photo is now blocking the sky photo from view in the document window:

The original image is placed on a new layer above the sky image.

Step 3: Duplicate Layer 1

Photoshop's Advanced Blending sliders, which we'll be using shortly, can select and hide areas of an image based on their color, which means they should have no problem selecting and hiding the blue sky without affecting the green trees. But when we tell the blending sliders to hide areas of blue, they won't simply look at the sky. They'll look across the entire photo and hide all areas that contain blue. Remember that other colors may also contain blue, especially gray or white which contain every color, which means there's a good chance other areas of the photo will be affected by the sliders unless we first take steps to prevent that from happening, which is what we're about to do.
The first thing we'll do is make a copy of our main photo. Make sure Layer 1 is active in the Layers panel (it should be highlighted in blue), then press Ctrl+J (Win) / Command+J (Mac) on your keyboard to quickly duplicate the layer. Nothing will seem to have happened in the document window, but we can see in the Layers panel that we have now a copy of Layer 1 above the original:

The Layers panel showing a copy of the main photo above the original.

Step 4: Turn The Top Layer Off

We don't need the top layer (Layer 1 copy) for now, so click on its visibility icon (the eyeball) on the far left of the layer to temporarily turn it off and hide it from view in the document:

Clicking the layer visibility icon to turn the top layer off.

Step 5: Select Layer 1

Click on Layer 1 in the Layers panel to once again make it the active layer:

Clicking on Layer 1 to select it.

Step 6: Select The Area Below The Sky

Next, we'll draw a selection outline around the area of the photo below the sky. In other words, the area we want to protect from the Advanced Blending sliders. You can use Photoshop's standard Lasso Tool for this if you like. I prefer using the Polygonal Lasso Tool which I'll select by clicking on the Lasso Tool icon in the Tools panel and holding my mouse button down until the fly-out menu appears. Then I'll choose the Polygonal Lasso Tool from the menu:

Selecting the Polygonal Lasso Tool.

With the Polygonal Lasso Tool in hand, I'll click around the area I want to protect to select it. For the most part, I can be fairly loose with my selection through the trees as long as I stay below any areas where the blue sky is showing through. The only part where I need to be more precise with my selection is along the top of the house, especially the area around the top of the chimney where it's completely exposed to the sky above it. The chimney and sky are very similar in tone and color which will cause problems with the Advanced Blending sliders, so I'll need to be careful and keep my selection tight around the top of the chimney:

Making sure to select only the chimney, not the sky above it.

Other than that, the selection is pretty simple. Everything I want to protect from the Advanced Blending sliders is now selected:

The lower part of the image below the sky is selected.

Step 7: Add A Layer Mask

Now that we've selected the area we're protecting, let's convert the selection into a layer mask. Click on the Layer Mask icon at the bottom of the Layers panel:

Clicking on the Layer Mask icon.

Photoshop adds a new layer mask to Layer 1, and if we look at the mask's preview thumbnail in the Layers panel, we see that the area we selected is filled with white, which means it should still be visible in the document, while the area that was not selected is filled with black and should now be hidden from view:

The selection has been turned into a layer mask.

And if we look at the image in the document window, sure enough, that's exactly what we see. The area I selected is still visible, while the area above it is now hidden, revealing the sky photo on the Background layer below it. We've replaced the sky in the original photo, but it's not looking terribly professional just yet:

The image after adding the layer mask.

Step 8: Select And Turn On The Top Layer

Click on the top layer (Layer 1 copy) to make it the active layer, then click on its visibility icon to turn the layer back on in the document:

Clicking on the top layer's visibility icon after re-selecting the layer.

The entire original photo will re-appear in the document window:

The original photo is back, for now.

Step 9: Open The Blending Options And Change The "Blend If" Option To Blue

Double-click directly on the top layer's preview thumbnail in the Layers panel:

Double-clicking on the layer's thumbnail.

This opens Photoshop's Layer Style dialog box set to the Blending Options in the middle column. What we're looking for are the two slider bars at the bottom of the dialog box, in the Advanced Blending section. Directly above the slider bars is the Blend If option which, by default, is set to Gray. Click on the word Gray and choose Blue from the list that appears:

Change the Blend If option from Gray to Blue.

Step 10: Drag The Top Right Slider Towards The Left

As soon as you change the option to Blue, the two slider bars will change from black-to-white gradients to black-to-blue gradients. You can ignore the slider bar at the bottom. The one we want is the top one (the one that says This Layer above it). Click on the small slider below the far right of the top bar and begin dragging it towards the left:

Dragging the right slider towards the left.

As you drag the slider, you'll begin to see the original sky in the photo disappearing, revealing the replacement sky underneath. Notice that the area we selected back in Step 6 is not being affected by the slider. Only the sky itself is disappearing. Continue dragging the slider towards the left until most of the original sky is gone:

Dragging the slider causes the original sky to disappear.

Step 11: Adjust The Transition Between The Photos To Remove Fringing

The only problem now is that we're seeing a lot of harsh edges and fringing around the trees and leaves, which is color that's left over from the original sky. To fix that, we need to soften the transition between the two photos, and to do that, we need to split the slider in half.
Release the slider for a moment, then press and hold your Alt (Win) / Option (Mac) key on your keyboard. With the key held down, click back on the slider and continue dragging it towards the left. This will split the slider into two halves that we can now drag independently of each other (you can release your Alt / Option key at this point). We can adjust the softness of the transition between the original photo and the replacement sky photo by increasing or decreasing the distance between the two halves of the slider.
Keep an eye on your image in the document window as you drag each half of the slider left or right until all of the fringing around the trees and leaves (and anywhere else you happen to notice fringing) disappears:

Adjust the space between each half of the slider until the fringing around the trees is gone.

When you're done, click OK in the top right corner of the Layer Style dialog box to close out of it. Here's my final result after removing the fringing:

The final result.

How do you change white sky into blue in Photoshop (Method 1)?

Method 1 - Adding a little bit of colour to a white sky

http://www.damiensymonds.com.au/tut_sky.html

A blown-out sky is annoying, but sometimes unavoidable. Here's a way to take the edge off it, without going to too much trouble.

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Notes:

• This is only for Photoshop - it won't work in Elements, sorry. If you have Elements, use this method instead.
• If you wish to fix a white sky by putting a different sky photo into it, go here.

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1. Add some subtle colour

This beautiful photo is exposed well for the subjects, but the sky has gone.

Thanks to Michelle Moser for permission to use this image. See Michelle's lovely photos at www.michellemoserphotography.shutterfly.com

Make a new Selective Color adjustment layer.

Make sure the adjustment method is set to "Absolute" ...

... then choose "Whites" from the drop-down menu.

Add 10% cyan and 4% magenta to the whites (you can change these settings later, of course).

Now you've added a small amount of colour to the sky. Trouble is, you've added it to other whites in the photo as well! Time for masking.

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2. Masking

Make sure the layer mask of your Selective Color layer is selected. Presently, the mask is all white, meaning that the adjustment is affecting the entire image.

Choose the Gradient Tool, and make sure your foreground colour is black.

Draw a gradient from just below the horizon, to near the top of the image. Hold down the Shift key to constrain the gradient to vertical.

This masks out the foreground, as well as lightening the sky near the horizon, which is quite natural.
If there are any other whites in the photo (eg a white hat on your subject) which remain affected by the adjustment, simply use your Brush Tool to mask out those items.
Finally, evaluate the strength of your sky. If you'd like it stronger, simply re-open the Selective Color layer and add more cyan and magenta to whites.

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3. Add noise

There's a small problem with this method - fake sky colour tends to get banding in it. To prevent this, add a noise layer.
This is very important. Please don't skip this step.

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The finished product:

Roll mouse over to compare original to adjusted:

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Conclusion:

This method works best when used subtly. Don't overdo it!

How to round corners of a photo?

Giving A Photo Rounded Corners In Photoshop

http://www.photoshopessentials.com/photo-effects/rounded-corners/

Giving A Photo Rounded Corners In Photoshop

Written by Steve Patterson. In this Photoshop tutorial, we're going to look at how easy it is to create rounded photo corners. As with most things in Photoshop, there's about 17 different ways to create rounded corners, but we're going to make things interesting by looking at a way to do it using something in Photoshop that many people don't even know about - vector masks! What's a vector mask? Well, if you think layer masks are fun (you do think layer masks are fun, right?), you're going to love vector masks!

Download our tutorials as print-ready PDFs! Learning Photoshop has never been easier!

Any graphic designer knows that one of the ways to get people feeling a certain way when they look at a design is through the use of shapes. Different shapes have different effects on us. Some shapes appear warm, friendly and fun, while others seem cold, rigid, more serious. You don't need to be a design expert though to experience this for yourself. Just grab a pencil and a piece of paper, draw yourself a square, then a circle, and ask yourself which one seems more appealing to you. Chances are, unless you're the type of person who enjoys spending Saturday nights reorganizing your filing cabinet (not that there's anything wrong with that), you'll pick the circle. People love circles. They're the "warm, friendly and fun" shapes. In fact, it doesn't even have to be a complete circle. You can take a square or a rectangle with its harsh, right-angled corners, which normally doesn't seem very fun to us at all, give it rounded corners instead, and suddenly it will seem like the life of the party!
Okay, so that may be exaggerating things a bit, but rounded corners definitely look more appealing to us than sharp right angles. It's a bit unfortunate then that every time we take a photo, even if it's a photo of a kid's birthday party with balloons and party hats, the photo still ends up with sharp corners. That may be fine if we're simply getting the photos printed, but what if we want to use the photo in a design or a collage? How do we convert those sharp corners into round ones?
The answer? Very easily, especially when we use a vector mask! In fact, not only can we give the photo rounded corners, we have complete control over just how rounded they are!

Here's the image I'll be using for this Photoshop tutorial:

The original image.

Let's see how easy it is to round off those corners!

Step 1: Add A Layer Mask

I've opened a new blank Photoshop document, filled the Background layer with black to help make it easier for us to see what's happening, and then dragged my photo into the new document. We can see the document here, showing the photo in front of the black background:

The photo in front of a black background.

And if we look in the Layers palette, we can see the photo sitting on its own layer, "Layer 1", above the Background layer:

The Layers palette in Photoshop showing the photo on "Layer 1" above the Background layer, which is filled with black.

With "Layer 1", or whichever layer your photo happens to be on, selected, click on the Layer Mask icon at the bottom of the Layers palette:

Add a layer mask to "Layer 1" by clicking on the "Layer Mask" icon.

Nothing will appear to have happened in your document, but if we look at the layer in the Layers palette, we can see that we now have a layer mask thumbnail to the right of the layer's preview thumbnail:

After clicking on the "Layer Mask" icon, a layer mask thumbnail appears on "Layer 1".

We won't be covering layer masks in this tutorial since we won't be using them, but if you want to learn more about layer masks, be sure to check out our full Understanding Layer Masks tutorial in our Photoshop Basics section.

Step 2: Add A Vector Mask

Okay, so if we're not going to be using the layer mask, why did we just add it? Well, we're about to do something that many people never do. We're going to see something that many people never see. Why? Because we're not "many people". We're different from them. Those people click on an icon once, see what it does, and then take a nap. It never occurs to them that maybe, just maybe, if they were to click on that exact same icon a second time, well, there's at least a slim chance that something else might happen! And it's too bad for them because in this case, something else will happen!

I know it sounds crazy, but now that we've added our layer mask, click once again on that exact same Layer Mask icon:

Click a second time on the "Layer Mask" icon at the bottom of the Layers palette.

If you have "Show Tool Tips" enabled in your Photoshop Preferences, you may already have noticed something a little different when you hovered your mouse over the icon. No longer does the tool tip say "Add layer mask" like it normally does. Instead, it now says "Add vector mask", and as soon as we click on the icon, if we look at the layer in the Layers palette, we get what appears to be a second layer mask thumbnail to the right of the first one. The difference is, it's not a second layer mask thumbnail. It's a vector mask thumbnail:

A "vector mask" thumbnail appears to the right of the layer mask thumbnail.

Both the layer mask thumbnail on the left and the vector mask thumbnail on the right look exactly the same, but there's a big difference between a layer mask and a vector mask. Both are used to show and hide different parts of the layer, but the way they go about it is completely different. With a layer mask, we paint on it, usually with the Brush Tool, to make different parts of the mask either white, black, or some shade of gray in between. White makes that part of the layer visible, black hides it, and gray makes that area partially visible depending on how light or dark the shade of gray is.
Vector masks, on the other hand, don't require any painting at all. In fact, you can't paint on them because Photoshop won't let you. Instead, we use shapes to control which parts of the layer are visible or hidden. In fact, we're going to use a shape right now to create our rounded corners!

Step 3: Select The Rounded Rectangle Tool

With our vector mask now added, go over to the Tools palette and select the Rounded Rectangle Tool. By default, it's nested in with the normal Rectangle Tool, so click on the Rectangle Tool and hold your mouse down for a second or two. You'll see a fly-out menu appear. Select the Rounded Rectangle Tool from the list:

Click and hold your mouse button down on the "Rectangle Tool" in the Tools palette, then select the "Rounded Rectangle Tool" from the fly-out menu that appears.

Don't confuse these tools with the Marquee Tools at the top of the Tools palette, like the Rectangular Marquee or the Elliptical Marquee Tool. Those are selection tools and they're used to drag out selections. The tools we're selecting here are Shape tools and they're used to draw shapes.

With the Rounded Rectangle Tool selected, go up to the Options Bar at the top of the screen. You'll see a group of three icons over on the left. These three icons determine how our Shape tool will work. We want to draw shapes with our Shape tool (sounds fairly obvious, doesn't it?), so click on the icon on the left, which is the Shape layers icon:

Click on the "Shape layers" icon in the Options Bar.

Then, if you move further towards the right, you'll come to the Radius option. This option determines how rounded our corners will be. The higher the number, the more rounded they'll be. Lower number, less rounded. Simple stuff. The problem is, you'll never really know for sure what number to enter in for the Radius value until you try one, start drawing the shape, look at how rounded the corners are, and then decide whether you're happy with the result or whether the corner needs to be more or less rounded. I usually start with a value of somewhere between 10-20 pixels, then drag out my shape and decide if I like the corners. Usually I won't, and you probably won't either on your first try, so just enter in a value to start with, drag out the shape, and if you're not happy with the roundness of the corners, simply press Ctrl+Z (Win) / Command+Z (Mac) to undo the shape, then enter a different value into the Radius option and try again.
I've already experimented with this a few times, and I know that a Radius value of about 30 pixels is going to give me the corners I want, so I'm going to enter "30 px" (the "px" stands for "pixels") into the Radius option:

Enter a value in the "Radius" option to determine how rounded the corners will be.

Step 4: Select The Vector Mask Thumbnail In The Layers Palette

We have our Rounded Rectangle Tool selected, we've selected the "Shape layers" option in the Layers palette, and we've entered in a "Radius" value that will determine how rounded our corners will be. We're ready to drag out our shape. First though, we need to make sure the vector mask is selected, so back in the Layers palette, click on the vector mask thumbnail to select it. You'll see a white highlight box appear around the thumbnail, which let's us know that the vector mask is selected:

Click on the vector mask thumbnail in the Layers palette to select it. A white highlight border will appear around the thumbnail.

Step 5: Drag Out The Shape

All we have to do now is drag out our shape. Even though it's going to look to us like we're drawing the shape on the image itself, what we're really doing is drawing it on the vector mask, and when we're done, the only part of our photo that will remain visible is the area inside the shape. Everything outside of the shape will be hidden. Go ahead and drag out your rounded rectangle shape. If you want to keep everything in the photo and simply round off the corners, start in the top left corner of the photo and drag your mouse down to the bottom right. If you'd rather use the shape to crop away part of the photo as well as give it rounded corners, simply drag your shape around the area you want to keep.
If you need to reposition your shape as you're dragging, hold down your spacebar, then drag the shape into its new location. Release the spacebar when you're done and continue dragging out the shape.
Here, I've dragged out my rounded rectangle just inside the edges of the photo. You can see the rounded corners of the shape, which will become the rounded corners of the photo itself in a moment:

Click and drag out the Rounded Rectangle shape inside the document. Any areas of the photo that fall outside of the shape will be hidden from view by the vector mask.

Release your mouse button when you're happy with your shape, and instantly, your photo is "masked" to the shape thanks to the vector mask, and the corners of the photo are now rounded:

The photo is now being masked by the Rounded Rectangle shape thanks to the vector mask, and the corners of the photo now appear rounded.

Let's finish things off by adding a border to our shape.

Step 6: Add A White Stroke To Create A Photo Border

Just because the corners of our photo are now rounded doesn't mean we can't still add a photo border to it. It just means the corners of the border will be rounded as well! To add a border, click on the Layer Styles icon at the bottom of the Layers palette:

Click on the "Layer Styles" icon at the bottom of the Layers palette.

Then select Stroke from the bottom of the list of layer styles that appears:

Select "Stroke" from the list of layer styles.

This will bring up Photoshop's Layer Style dialog box set to the "Stroke" options in the middle column. I'm going to increase my stroke Size to about 16 pixels. You may want to set yours to a different value depending on the size and resolution of your image. I'm going to leave the Position option set to Outside, which is going to place the stroke entirely on the outside of the shape edges. Finally, I'm going to click on the color swatch for the Color option at the bottom, which by default is set to red (because Adobe thinks everyone will naturally want red as their stroke color), and from the Color Picker that appears, I'm going to select white as my stroke color. Click OK to exit out of the Color Picker once you've chosen white:

Change the options circled in red above for the stroke.

When you're done, click OK to exit out of the Layer Style dialog box and apply the stroke!
Here' after applying my stroke to create my photo border, is my final result:

The final "rounded corners" result.

And there we have it! That's how incredibly easy it is to give a photo rounded corners in Photoshop using a vector mask and the Rounded Rectangle Tool!