Search This Blog

Monday, August 8, 2016

By Ann Collins


The world seems to have a natural kaleidoscope feel especially when you gaze into the horizon. This effect is fascinating and when applied gives your images an improved feel. The kaleidoscope effect allows you to form repetitive patterns that are dazzling to the eyes. It is a way of producing a naturally appearing and seamless collage. Here is an easy way of doing it on Photoshop and achieving excellent results.

There is a natural hexagonal feel in nature. It is therefore used in creating the patterns. Open a blank A4 page on Photoshop and select a hexagonal shape. It acts as the basic template though you can use images with more sides. You need to find the center of your hexagon. The center helps you to develop proportionate patterns.

Use lines to derive a triangle originating from the center of your hexagon to one corner. The original vertical and horizontal lines used to mark the center will provide one boundary for your triangle. The size of your triangle is used to project the final size of image under production. It is obvious that the two triangles will be of different sizes.

Import your image to Photoshop. Ensure that the photo used is of the highest quality. It should have been cropped to size and any undesirable marks or areas removed. The best, convenient and most common photo formats to use is JPG. Some adjustments that would give you better results include increasing black while reducing white. Make the image as clear as possible before commencing on collage.

Extract the triangle from the hexagon and place it over your image. This act helps to develop a motif that will be duplicated. Adjust the size of triangle to capture all the areas you wish to feature on this image. The size should be easier to work with. The boundaries will guide you when placing graphics or patterns over your image.

On a new page or platform, develop your pattern or patterns for use in making the collage. There are excellent paint brushes, sprays, ink and other tools for creating graphics. This is where you exercise creativity. On a different layer, apply the patterns on your image. To make the patterns more pronounced, increase black and decrease white. This action makes the images clearer.

The patterns created are pasted on the corners of triangular segment. Ensure that all patterns pasted are identical in order to achieve a uniform feel. The background of the patterns should be deleted or clear. Different patterns may be used on the same image. After placing the patterns on your image, the opacity is then boosted to 100 percent to increase clarity.

Making sure that the triangular guide is at the top, trace your triangle and pick it out. Duplicate the triangles by slotting them back to the hexagon. One edge of each triangle or pattern should appear as though it is reflecting the other. Once this has been achieved, duplicate the hexagon in a similar manner ensuring that adjacent ends appear as reflections. Crop the final image to size and desired shape.




About the Author:



0 comments :

Post a Comment