Random thoughts on art, technology, stuff, and occasionally Real Estate: Photoshop Elements: On A Lovely Bed Of Peas

Have you noticed the icons and avatars with the Pea Theme?

Several AR members have written about the story behind the peas

http://activerain.com/blogsview/314707/What-s-Up-With

http://activerain.com/blogsview/313996/Peas-Twitter-Cancer

http://activerain.com/blogsview/315164/Let-There-Be-Peas

For anyone who wants to make a PeasAvatar, here's a quick tutorial on how to do the Pea Thing in Photoshop Elements:

First you need an image of yourself, and an image of peas.  You can search for some free pea artwork on the internet, or if all else fails, thaw out a bag of frozen peas, put them in a pan, and take a photo of them.

Open both images in Photoshop Elements.  As you open each image, click View -> Actual Pixels. 

You'll want to resize each image to work in your final composition.  In this case I'll want the head shot to be a bit smaller than the Pea background.  Click Image -> Resize -> Image Size.

I set the pixel dimensions for the Pea background at Width: 400

I set the pixel dimensions for the head shot at Width: 300

Since I checked Constrain Proportions, Photoshop automatically scaled the height.

Now you need to select your head so you can move it to the new background.  My favorite choices for selection tools are the Magnetic Lasso, the Magic Wand, and the Elliptical Marquee.  In this case, I used the Elliptical Marquee with the technique described here:  http://activerain.com/blogsview/283721/Photoshop-Elements-Selection-Tools  

In the Options menu, I set Feather to 10px

Once I had an approximate outline of my head, I clicked on the Selection Brush,

Then in the Options menu, look at Mode:, Click the drop down arrow, and switch to Mask Mode (see more here: http://activerain.com/blogsview/317155/Photoshop-Elements-Selection-Tools about half way down)  and fine-tuned the outline.

In the Options menu, switch  back to Mode: Selection.  Click the Move Tool.  Click on the head selection, and drag it into the Peas image.

Note:  Because Feather: 10px was marked in the Options menu, the edges of the head selection fade into transparency.  This is to help blend into the background.  You can experiment with higher or lower Feather settings to achieve different effects.

I think I'll ad the pink and blue ribbons, too.  Save basic technique.  Select and Move.

Once you have everything positioned where you want it, click Layer -> Flatten Image to merge all the layers. 

Crop to your taste, and resize as needed. 

Final step.  Click File -> Save for Web to convert to JPG format, and compress.

For the sharp-eyed.  Yes, I was playing around with two different Pea backgrounds.  I took some screen shots with one, and some with the other.  The final version now playing on Twitter is with the smaller peas.