Subtitles of the Movie

Welcome to this lesson on combining our layers and finishing up the OOB Photo Project. I have my working file open and you can see the layers in the Layers Palette. I've got the OOB Layer which is the part of the lion that sticks up out of the frame. I have the frame on a separate layer which we inserted from Image, Picture Frame. I have the part of the photo that is in the frame and then hidden I have my Background Layer which is the entire photo. I always keep that in the file even if it's hidden so that I can go back and have the original Photo to look at or to duplicate this layer and if I change my mind about the frame or about what I want sticking out of the frame. So when I turn that back off this is obviously not finished. So what I like to do is create a New Raster Layer in between my ultimate background there but below everything else and I'll choose a complimentary color that works with the subject. In this case a nice shade of green fits with the grass, the trees and it doesn't contrast or conflict with the lion. Now, I'll also like putting shadows on the frame, it gives it a three dimensional effect so that it looks like its an actual frame on a piece of a paper with the photo. So choose the Frame, go up to Effects, 3D effects, Drop Shadow. This brings up the Drop Shadow Dialog Box where we change different parameters to produce a Drop Shadow. You've got vertical, horizontal offsets, the opacity or how dark or clear or transparent the shadow is, how much it is blurred and then its color. The last option is to produce the shadow on a new layer which I like to keep check, that's because you can delete that layer at a later date if you don't like it or if you want to change the Drop Shadow I can delete that layer and come back and reaccomplish it. If I don't I'll uncheck that and select OK. If I don't do that then my Drop Shadow is integrated as a part of this layer and I cannot change it easily again. Undo to remove that, go back into 3D Effects, Drop Shadow. Now the horizontal and vertical offsets are from the center point and you can also drag this symbol around to manipulate those graphically if you like choosing a different angle that the light might strike it results in the shadow being on different side of the photo. When you find something you like you can play with all the settings here, completely opaque Drop Shadow produces a much more distinct shadow. Blur gives you either a hard edge to the shadow or a soft edge and you can play with the distances there depending on how much space you've got and what kind of effect you want to achieve. So going to select OK. You can see I put it on the same layer again, I'm just going to undo that really quick, go back to my 3D effects, Drop Shadow, re-select that, select OK and now its on a separate layer, Frame Shadow 1. This is cool because you can turn that layer on and off if you change mind you don't have to delete it you can just hide you could also delete the layer and then go back, select the frame again and create another Drop Shadow, just sky's the limit there. I find this really enhances the options I can choose later. Alright, we're close to wrapping up here, the final steps I would take in this photo is cropping it, select the Crop Tool, you can see that fit perfectly, if it doesn't just select the Crop Tool, drag it around so that you've got a nice even border around your photo and the frame and don't forget you're not just cropping to the frame you're cropping everything including the OOB part. When you're done double click that, that crops it down. This file I would save as a JPG or I would export as a JPG to put on the web. I'm going to keep this working file saved as a Paint Shop Pro Image to preserve all the hard work I put into my layers. That way I can come back and re-edit it and change things if I want to at a later time. Alright I think we can wrap this lesson up, that is how to put the finishing touches on your OOB Photo Projects.