MAKING A TRIPTYCH IN PHOTOSHOP CC

MAKING A TRIPTYCH IN PHOTOSHOP CC Open Photoshop CC and create a New Document Remember, the images shown here are 'screen grabs from my computer. I am using Photoshop CC. Therefore your screen may look a little different to this. Whatever version of Photoshop you have go to File> New and follow the instructions from there to make a new document. Fig 1. Paul Byrne Tauranga Photographic Society 1 of 19

1. In Photoshop CC you will see that there are a number of different file sizes to choose from. [See Fig 1.] If one of those suits your requirements click on it and a fresh document will open. If you wish to open a complete new document go to the panel on the righthand side of the pop-up dialog box. This box is reproduced in Fig.2 2. In this dialog box, start by giving the new file a name. Click on the words Untitled-1 and call it A4 Print - Triptych. 3. Now enter the remaining details which you want the document to posses; (a) Unit of Measurement - I chose millimetres (b) Width & Height measurements - In this case 260 x 175 [w x h] (c) Resolution - I choose 300 dpi (d) Colour Space = RGB (e) And lastly I selected a White Background Fig 2. 4. After making your choices hit the create Key. 5. Your Photoshop screen should now look similar to Fig 3 below. Fig 3. Paul Byrne Tauranga Photographic Society 2 of 19

6. Because I made my document in millimetres, you will notice that the rulers which appear along the top and lefthand side are also marked in millimetres. 7. By making a few calculations we could make three panels for our triptych images as shown in Fig 4 below. However, I want to show you another way which will also be a little more creative. Fig 4. Paul Byrne Tauranga Photographic Society 3 of 19

8. Remember, your screen in Photoshop should now look similar to the screen grab in Fig 3. on page 2. [ignore the layers panel shown] 9. Now add a couple of to Guides to help create the triptych. Go to View>New Guide as shown in Fig 5. A new dialog box will open as shown in Fig 6. You will see in this example, Position is highlighted. You will need to enter 15mm into this box and click okay. You will then see a new blue guideline appear on your screen. It will be located exactly 15mm in from the left hand edge. See Fig 6. Now repeat as above but this time enter a measurement of 245mm into the position box. Click OK. You will now have two guidelines positioned on the document. The first as shown in Fig. 6, and the second will be located exactly 245mm from the LEFTHAND edge. This means that each guideline is 15 mm from it s nearest edge. Take a moment to assimilate this information and refer to Fig 7. to ensure that your screen now resembles this. Fig 6. Fig 7. Fig 5. Paul Byrne Tauranga Photographic Society 4 of 19

Creating the Panels 10. Click on the Marquee Tool [Short cut = tap the M key]. On my screen the Marquee tool is the second down from the top in the lefthand tool bar, See Fig 8. Notice also that in the tool bar running along the top you will now see the word Normal is visible in the Style box. Click on the down arrow and select Fixed size from the dropdown menu. Your screen will then change as shown in Fig 9. Fig 8. Fig 9. 11. As you can see, you now have the opportunity to define the size of the panel that you want your images to be dropped into. Type 70mm into the Width Box and 110mm into the Height Box as shown in Fig 9. Paul Byrne Tauranga Photographic Society 5 of 19

12. Now make a New Layer. Place your cursor anywhere on the new layer and click. Immediately a rectangular box will open. [Notice that the box is delineated by broken dotted lines.] See Fig 10. Fig 10. 13. Now click and hold within the rectangle and begin to drag it towards the lefthand guide line. As you near the guideline the rectangle will snap onto the guideline which is exactly where you want it to be. See Fig 11. on page 7. Paul Byrne Tauranga Photographic Society 6 of 19

Fig 11. 14. Take a moment to examine your screen. Notice that the rectangle is not centred but slightly lower than the midway point of the image. Ignore this for now, I will come back to that presently. Notice also that in the Layers panel on the far righthand side you can now see the Background image and the first layer which is called Layer 1. 15. You need to fill this rectangle with the foreground colour shown in the lefthand tool box panel. To do this you can either use the short cut - Alt+Backspace or select the paint bucket tool, place it over the rectangle and click OK. When you have done that, your screen will appear similar to Fig 12. on page 8. Deselect the rectangle using Control+D or Command+D. [Note; in the example shown the colour is black. You could choose any colour you want; all you need to do is change the foreground colour BEFORE following the instructions in this paragraph]. Paul Byrne Tauranga Photographic Society 7 of 19

Fig 12. 16. We now need to duplicate layer 1. To do that hit Control+J. Now look to the Layers panel and you will see that a second layer has been created for you. It s identical to Layer 1 but Photoshop has called it Layer 1 Copy. See Fig 13. Fig 13. 17. Notice that Layer 1 copy is also highlighted in a lighter shade of grey. This indicates that it is the active layer. 18. In the main screen, select the Move tool from the top of the Toolbox panel on the lefthand side. Click it anywhere within the rectangle on Layer 1 copy drag the rectangle towards the righthand guideline. As you near the line, the rectangle will snap to the guideline as before. Again, ignore the level/height for the moment. This will be corrected later. Your screen should now look similar to Fig 14. below. Fig 14. Foreground colour box Paul Byrne Tauranga Photographic Society 8 of 19

19. Add a new layer into the Layer Panel. Do this by clicking on the icon at the bottom of that panel. See Fig 15. When you click on that icon, a new layer will appear at the top of the Layer stack. Photoshop will name it automatically for you. In this case it will name it Layer 2. Again that layer will now be highlighted to indicate that it is the active layer. 20. We will make our third panel a different shape. To accomplish this, refer to Fig 9. on page 5 of this document. In paragraph 11 [also on page 5] change the measurements from 70 to 75mm and from 110mm to 135mm for Width and Height respectively. Then, with the Marquee tool selected, click anywhere within layer 2. Immediately you do so a new rectangular box will open. It is delineated by dotted lines. Now fill this rectangle with the foreground colour as described on page 7, paragraph 10. Your page should look similar to Fig 16. below. Note: Do not worry if the third panel is not central or if it overlaps another panel as shown in Fig 16. We will correct this in the next step. Fig 16. Fig 15. Paul Byrne Tauranga Photographic Society 9 of 19

21. Now that we have our three panels, each on a separate layer, we need to select them all so that all three layers are active. To do this click on the currently active layer [which is Layer 2 in Fig 15. Then hold down the Shift Key on the keyboard and simultaneously click on the Layer 1 icon. You will see that all three images have become active. The background colour of each of them has also become highlighted. See Fig 17. 22. Now go to the Move tool at the top of the panel on the lefthand side and select it. When selected, the Move tool-bar will open at the top of the main screen as shown in Fig 18 below. Fig 18. 23. We are going to use two functions from the keys available in Fig 18. Click on the icon which is circled in blue in Fig 18. This button will automatically align the horizontal centres of all three panels so that they are centred within the image space. Watch the main screen when you click on this button and you will see the panels move instantly to new positions.go to the icon which is circled in orange in Fig 18. This button will automatically distribute the horizontal centres so that the three panels become separated evenly across the image space. Again, watch the main screen as you hit this button as the movements take place instantly. Your main screen should now resemble Fig 19. on page 11. Fig 17. Paul Byrne Tauranga Photographic Society 10 of 19

Fig 19. Figure 19 shows the final position of the three panels which will be used to accomodate our triptych image. Paul Byrne Tauranga Photographic Society 11 of 19

24. While you still have all three layers selected we are going to make them into a Group. To do this hit Ctrl+G [PC] or Command+G [Mac]. Instantaneously, the three layers will be consolidated into one new group. See Fig 20. Notice that there is an arrow at the beginning of this Group. If you click on that arrow, a dropdown box opens and you will be able to see the three original layers. For now, leave the Group closed as shown in Fig 20. 25. and now for the fun part! - Open the image called Couple on the Beach which was emailed to all TPS C Graders and is also available for download from the TPS website. 26. Once the image is open in Photoshop use the Marquee tool to draw a box around the entire image. Then go to Edit >Copy as shown in Fig 21. 27. Reopen the Triptych idocument [Which in my examples is called A4 Print - Triptych ] Go to Edit > Paste and the image of the Couple on the Beach will now appear as a layer within the Triptych image. As this is the top layer, you may find that it will fill your workspace entirely. Do not be concerned by this. Fig 20. NOTE: Paragraphs 28-31 contain supportive information. You can read them now or later. To continue with the exercise go to paragraph 32 28. Notice that in the Layers Panel there is now a new layer called Layer 3. It clearly shows this layer to contain the image of the Couple on the Beach. Refer to Fig 22. on page 13. Fig 21. 29. Grab the Move tool [previously described at paragraph 22, [Fig 18 on page 10] and click within the image of the Couple on the Beach. [Fig 22 on page 13] If you click and drag, you will notice that you can move the image to reposition it. What we need to do now is to make the image smaller so that it will fit within the framework already created within the triptych document. To do this hit Command+T [mac] or Ctrl+T [PC]. A white boarder will appear around the extremities of the layer. You will also notice handles which Paul Byrne Tauranga Photographic Society 12 of 19

are in the shape of small squares. These are positioned at the corners of the layer and in the centre of each side of the frame. See Fig 23. A further explanation is contained in paragraph 30 which follows. Fig 23. Fig 22. Command or Control + T 30. In case you re wondering, the T stands for Transform meaning that you can change the size of the object within the bounding box. You may make the rectangle smaller or larger. You can make it longer/shorter/thiner/thicker and you can even rotate the angle. Referring to Figure 23 above, notice the the square boxes previously mentioned in paragraph 29. If you place your cursor over one of these boxes the cursor will change from a single arrow to a double arrow with a line connecting the two. Click down and drag in any direction. The rectangle will change shape depending on how and in which direction you drag the square. The same can be done if you click on either of the straight line edges of the bounding box. But in this instance only that boundary is moved. i.e, upward or downward, inwards or outwards - depending on which edge you work with. 31. You may have noticed when you made the random movements described above, some distortion of the image has occurred. To avoid this, and to ensure the image retains it s correct proportions do the following. Click on one of the corner boxes and simultaneously hold down the shift key. When you now move the cursor, the proportions of the image will remain identical. They may become bigger or smaller but they will not distort the image. Paul Byrne Tauranga Photographic Society 13 of 19

Continuing from paragraph 27-32. When the layer is in the required position, double click on it and it will lock itself into that position. At this point the bounding box and squares will be removed from sight. 33. The next step is to make a Clipping Mask. This mask will clip the image of the Couple on the Beach into the three rectangles we have already created in Group 1. 34. To make the mask, simply move your cursor to a point along the bottom edge of Layer 3 in the layers Panel - See Fig 24. 35. Now that the cursor is positioned click Alt [PC] or Option [Mac]. The cursor icon will change to reveal a down arrow and a square box. When you see the new icon click on the cursor and watch the magic happen. Immediately you complete the foregoing, the image of the Couple on the Beach, will be clipped into the three frames you created within the layers of Group 1. See Fig 25 below. Fig 24. Fig 25. Paul Byrne Tauranga Photographic Society 14 of 19

36. You re just about finished. Before you save the file please note that you can still move the image of the Couple on the Beach. Thus if you want to reposition the image within the triptych boxes you can still do so. 37. Looking at Fig 25. on page 15, you will see that there is a small shed placed tightly up against the right hand edge of the centre panel. This is a little distracting and the shed does not really add anything to this particular story. We can reposition the image in such a way as to hide the shed behind the white space between the centre and right hand panels. 38. To do this, select the Move tool. Take your cursor to the centre panel and then Click and Drag the image to your right. As you do so, the shed will move behind the white space between the centre and right hand panels. 39. Before you settle on this position, you might like to experiment by dragging the image to other positions. As you do so you will note that if you have dragged the image too far in any particular direction, the black background of the original panels may be revealed. If this happens, just reposition the image to conceal the black areas. 40. Remember, you can still change the size of the image in layer 3. All you need to do is to ensure that Layer three is the active layer. Then click Command or Control+T. The bounding box shown in Fig 23 will reappear. Now follow the instruction contained in paragraph 29 on page 12. When you are happy with the resizing and positioning of your image, simply double click within the image. The bounding box will disappear and the image will be set in your chosen location. 41. Your image is now complete. You can flatten the image ready for printing. To do this take your cursor to the Background layer in the layers panel and right click on it. A dropdown dialog box will appear as shown in Fig 26. Select Flatten Image. This will condense all the layers into one. You can now save and/or print the image. 42. Congratulations! You have completed a triptych. BUT - what if we want to make it look even more artistic? - See the addendum on page 17 Fig 26. Paul Byrne Tauranga Photographic Society 15 of 19

Addendum: For a more Artistic Look, you can add a coloured background as illustrated below. Paul Byrne Tauranga Photographic Society 16 of 19

43. To create the effect shown on page 16 just follow these additional instructions. 44. Make your screen resemble the image shown in Fig 25 on page 14. This will be the starting point for the next step in the process. 45. Go to the colour picker in the lefthand toolbar on the main screen. Click on the black coloured box which will open a Colour Picker dialog box as shown in Fig 26 below. 46. Your cursor icon will change to resemble an eyedropper tool. Move the eyedropper onto the main image and locate an area in the sky which has warm tones. Click in that area. As soon as you do this, the black box in the main tool bar will change to the same colour that you have chosen from the image. Click OK in the colour picker dialog box which will then close. 47. Go to the layers panel and click on the Background Layer to make it active. When that layer is active go to the Adjustment Layer icon circled in red at the bottom of the layers panel and click on. Fig 27. Fig 26. 48. A new dialog box as shown in Fig 28. on page 18 will then open. Go the the box marked Gradient as indicated in blue, in Fig 28 and click on that. A new Adjustment Layer will open immediately above the background layer as shown in Fig 27 on this page. Fig 27. Paul Byrne Tauranga Photographic Society 17 of 19

Fig 28. Fig 29. 49. You will also notice that a separate dialog box has also opened as shown in Fig 29. Click on the down arrow next to the word Linear in the Style box as arrowed in Fig 29. A dropdown box will open. Click on the Radial option and make the changes listed in the paragraph 51 on page 19. Paul Byrne Tauranga Photographic Society 18 of 19

50. Your screen should resemble the below image before you make the final changes. Note that the content of the dialog box shown in Fig 30. Follow the instruction is Para 51 and when completed your screen should then resemble the final image at the bottom of this page. 51. Having changed the Style from Linear to Radial, go to the Angle box and type in -177. Go to the Scan box and enter the percentage at 140%. Click OK 52. Congratulations you have completed your mission. I hope you found this tutorial to be beneficial. If you have any comments about the it please contact the author or leave a message on the TPS Facebook page, or speak to a committee member. All observations welcomed. FPSNZ, ARPS, AFIAP President TPS 2018 Paul Byrne Tauranga Photographic Society 19 of 19