Layers in pattern making by John S.

[Jediscroller]

Thanks to John S. for sharing this tutorial.

Using Layers in Pattern Making

By John S.

Here is a quick job aid I made up on using Layers. Please bear in mind that I am not an expert on using layers, but this has worked for me more than once.

Pattern making tutorial using Layers.

This can be used with most photo editing programs such as Corel Paintshop Pro or Adobe Photoshop Elements. Steps given here will be using Adobe Photoshop Elements. One of the benefits of using layer is to provide more detail on certain parts of the picture without adversely affect other parts. These steps may not be necessary at all times, but are especially helpful when there are more than one person in the photo.

1. Open your picture in your editing program and convert it to “grayscale”
a. Image/Mode/Grayscale
2. Save this copy as your pattern (such as johnpicpattern)
a. File/SaveAs/”name of the pattern
3. Now open your original picture to have it for comparison purposes only
4. You should now have your renamed pattern and the original on the screen
5. All manipulation of the pattern will be on your saved pattern copy
6. Find your “laso tool” and select it (this should be on the left side toolbar)
7. Using your mouse or graphic pad pen to trace around the hair using your “lasso tool”
8. Now go to Layer/Adjustment Layer/Threshold
9. Name that layer so you can relate to what you just traced. For example, “hair”, and select OK. Leave the Opacity at 100% and Mode “normal”
10. Adjust the slider for the threshold to get the detail of the “hair” exactly the way you want it. Select OK.
11. Continue to do this for each item you “lasso” until you have created layers for all items. Please note that when you do each individual item be sure you have selected the “background” layer in the “layer pallet located on the right side of your screen. YOU MUST DO THE “lasso” on the main background or this will not work properly!
12. Once you have “layers” for all portions of you picture, click on Layer/Flatten Image, some programs will use the word combine.
13. You now have an image that is one pattern to continue your touchup process that you would normally do.
14. I prefer to save the image at this point so I have a reference point to go back to in case something happens and I need to start over.

Good Luck,
John S.