Photoshop Fun:: Exploring Halftones

1. Halftone Intro: Hello. Welcome to fund with photo shop In this class, we're going to explore half tones and how they can be included within your work. Whether you be a fine artist, photographer or graphic designer, we're going to explore the dot style half tones, which is the more traditional the ones that you would see in print, like newspapers and magazines. We'll also have fun with the circular and the linear half tones as well. We'll incorporate these with layer styles to create a more complex, more depth oriented final piece. I hope you enjoy this class and have a lot of fun. 2. Halftone Supplies: All right. So the supplies for the class, the supplies for this class are pretty simple. You're going to need your computer. You're going to need a photo shop, and then you're going to need a photo to actually work from now. You could just take this with your cell phone, get it emailed or into your downloads that way, Or you can work with one of the two images that I've included in our course project description below. So the choice is going to be yours. Use your own. Is one provided after that? That's all you're going to need. A computer, photo shop and a photo. 3. Halftone File Opening: All right. First things first. We need to get your photo from your phone or your computer into photo shop. You have cup options. I was taking photos on my iPhone, so I just did an airdrop. If you don't have the option, you could email it yourself for upload it to your Dropbox. Whatever system you use. If you're on a Mac, you can just go into your downloads and click Hold, dump it onto your doc on the photo shop icon, and it will open it up or go to file open. And if you're quick key user, that's command Oh, for Mac or its control. Oh, for a PC and go ahead and double click on the photo that you want. You can see they've opened up in two different tabs. So we have two images that we're going to be working with for the sexier size that you can have a little bit of fun with them. I'm going to leave the color mode for these is R J B, and you're going to notice in the file. It has your file name, what percent it's viewing and what color voted ISS. We're going to be going into filter gallery and filter Gallery reads best with RGB, so we're going to leave it as RGB. All right, so now that you have your photo, it's time to have some fun and start experimenting. 4. Halftone Demo: all right now to get into the effects for the you haven't option in the beginning. If you want to make a couple stylistic tweaks with this. So the contrast, the lightness, the darkness, you want to boost the color with its vibrance of saturation. This is the time to go ahead and do that. I'm going to go in to image adjustments, and I am gonna go into brightness and contrast and just going to kick it up just a little bit on each so that we have, you know, a nice balance between foreground and background. Another option is to go into adjustments and curves. I love curves because it gives you a little bit more control when it comes to your photo. Edits. Uh, I'm just gonna show this, and it's not going to be right, but just that you can see you can sample it to the brightest points. If I wanted the background of the sky didn't be the brightest point. It would change that to be the brightest point I'm going to do on on Do That's control Z on . It also said it as the darkest point, so I like to show the extremes and just, you know, show you what that would look like. It has a more sort of polarized effect. But one nice thing with the curves you can click extra points, and I'm gonna put one in the mid. So if I take it down, you can see it's going dark in it. Take it up. It's just going to brighten it just a little bit also. So, uh, if you just want to work with the mid tones in this case, you would have that control. So just gonna boost it that little bit and hit OK and maybe go in and, you know, boost the vibrance just a little bit, just just a little bit. Just give it a little bit more colorful, because what we're going to be working for with this is multiple layers where you will have superimposed images of half tones over top your original. So we're going to consider this is our original tile that, you know, the background image, that everything's going to be sort of transparent laying on top of it so you can always go in and keep adjusting This, But for now, I'm happy with this, and we can keep going now for this process. You do not want to keep working on the background. We're going to right, click and duplicate it. You can see the background layer already comes with a lock, so you don't have to worry about that. I always like to. No matter what program I'm in, if I'm going to be doing some sort of effect with it, I want to be using the copy, not the original, just in case. All right, So for this next part, if you're going to be doing the half tones, what's going to happen is it's going to remember your foreground and your background colors . So if you wanted something a little bit more vibrant, let's toss it towards that magenta. You're gonna want to set your colors first. If you are defaulted to these two here, the black and the white, you're going to be working with black and white. So if you want something more colorful, you're going to want to go ahead and change your foreground color. All right, I said in the early stages to leave it as RG beast that we could go into the filter gallery , have to go through the filter gallery because it's going to give you a preview of what's happening. And as you can see, we have all sorts of options under here. So you could, in theory, just keep going till the cows come home. But for us, we're going to work with that half tone pattern and see why. So it was important to set the foreground in that background, our foreground color, that magenta. That's what's going to be on this part and half toning. Dark value is going to be your background. So I'm just gonna zoom in so you can start to see what's happening. And this is our default. So, you know, default tends to not be that exciting. Uh, this isn't bad, certainly. But what happens if we want to go a little bit more crazy with this? So in all my classes, I like to show the extreme. So this is one side. Here's all the way at the other. So I'm going to guess maybe not right off the bat. You're going to want something, you know, quite that large. Zoom back out so you can see what's happening. All right, let's keep it around 100% so you can see contrast is only set to five. The What happens if we start boosting that also? So you can see we have this myrie ad of effects from something like this. It has a little bit more, you know, realistic approach to it where something if we're just going to blow it out just that it's blown out. That's abstracted a little bit more so for our first layer. Let's just kind of stick close to that normal contrast just to see and we're going to For now, leave it at the dot Go ahead and hit OK? And you're like, all right, so now what? Builders tend to get a sort of bad rap when it comes to photo shop. And the problem is, is that people will typically just stop here. And that's not that terribly exciting. The magic of photo shop and with your filters is right here under layers instead of normal . What do all of these you can see when I pan over it? What do all of these Dio This is what our half toning class is going to be about? You guessed it. I'm going to duplicate this layer, just in case you hide the one we were working on. So if I want to go back, I'm going to be able to. All right, let's play with those layer styles. So something like dissolve nothing may happen, darkened. You're gonna get this effect multiple on it. What I tell my students in my classes just pop through each of them. Once you get used to layer styles, you are going to find our ones to prefer over the others. I tend to lean towards lighten screen and overlay in my work. Uh, so you will end up knowing those really? Well, uh, but just experience pop through each one. This isn't going to be, you know, we're just going to put one layer on, and that's it. We're going to do a couple of them and just see how are designs can evolve through using 1/2 tone and another half tone on top of it. So maybe for the first set, I'm sort of liking Hugh. But I also like my usual screen and lighten also. So let's use screen. And I'm saying for now, because we're going to go back in and add another half tone on top of this, Let's change our colors completely. Let's go with I don't know. Maybe that teal and a green maybe maybe a dark green Me, We're dealing with nature. So let's see what these two look like. And this is all experimentation. So if this doesn't look good, cause I'm just guessing on these colors just on do it and choose other colors. So if we were to go back in, you know, and just hit the filter gallery, it's gonna put this one back out, so we have to go back in. And this is what we have with the green. So far, I'm liking it. Uh, what happens if we take those dots? Don't just a little bit and boost that contrast that's giving a really interesting patterning. Teoh it. Let's go with that. All right, Now we're going to have two layers on top of this, and I'm just gonna Hi, that I'm gonna make sure it's one screen, because I did work on top of that one. All right, so this is the darkened multiply. You're going to do the exact same thing popped through each of these until you're going to get an effect that you like. And again, this is all personal preference. I wanna have a subtle patterning. Specifically, I'm just gonna pause here, so consuming. I like what's happening with all that effect. Eso I want to sort of keep that one, and we're going to duplicate again. Actually, let's go back to our original background. So we're working with that one. And I'm not changing these names because I know these, you know, I'm just working half tone upon half tone, this one. I'm going to go one step further and we're going Teoh half tone again. Let's change our colors, colors. Let's just go with classic black and white. Let's just see what happens with that. All right? We're on the correct layer. We're going to go into our fielder gallery. It's gonna default us to this one. Let's see, really, really big with really, really big. Let's just go all sorts of crazy. So this is going to give us our dark values. Let's just go through each of them and just see what they do. I have a feeling overlay might look the nicest. These air just sort of washed out, uh, lightning screen weren't too bad, but I sort of want to get that dark toning over it. So I am going to stick with overlay. So for this 1st 1 we're just dealing with the default dots and having some fun with the colors. So we had magenta and purple, the teal and green and then black and white for that strong value. So instead of just dumping when I'm just going to hide these two instead of just dumping, you know a traditional half tone over the photo and saying it's done by adding multiple layers, you're gonna get a little bit more complexity with it. It's going to make it Fillmore unique and individualized for you. So let's pop into this other one. Same thing If we wanted Teoh, you know, go in and boost that brightness contrast. You know, let's go ahead and do that, though I want a brighter or don't darker. Let's try a little darker this time, all right. You could do the curves if you want it. Edit. However you wish all right, and then go ahead and duplicate that layer. Now for this one. Let's have some experimentation and let's change our colors. Let's go with, Like that light blue again and a green I know the other one was more Teal, but we're just gonna freestyle All right, so kind of working backwards, but again, colors totally up to you Filter gallery. All right, so this time, with our half tone, let's just scooted around so we can see it a little bit better. Let's make it one more spot there. We can see more of it. Now, uh, let's take it back down to something a little bit more normal. That's kind of nice. So this is when you do something like that where you go, do you know that might be the pause point for best one? So what we're going to do is also experiment with these other ones. So what would the line half tone it looked like. That's kind of interesting, actually. And then what would the circle look like? Ooh, that's definitely interesting. So let's dio one of each. Let's do this circle, All right? You guessed it. Go back in, duplicate that layer, and I always put it on top, and I'm gonna fiddle with our layer styles in a second. Let's go with that weird magenta and purple, so we'll stick to relatively the same colors for this. So the 1st 1 Waas circle. All right, So for the 2nd 1 let's do the lions. Well, that's definitely strong. And you can see and I forgot to cover this with the last one. You have the same thing as before. You can up that size. You can make it really, really bold. You can make it really, really thin if you want it a little bit more detail. I mean, that's, you know, that looks more like a topographic map there. So I want somewhere sort of in the middle, doing a lot of contrast, doing not one a lot of contrast again. Play around. See what settings did you like? Did you guess we're gonna do one more? You guessed correctly. Let's get that black and white layer on top, so it will still have roughly the same styles. Actually, let's just put them in the same sort of layer order of colors. So for this one will just stick with the dots. All right? Fielder gallery. So we did our dot We did our circle. I'm sorry we did our line in our circles Let's go to our dots and do we want it old? Do we not want it? Bowl. It's going to be up to you. And then let's turn off those layers and with these just so you know, you can click and drag to turn everything off or on. So if we only want to, you can just click and drag. You don't have to click, cook, click. You got to slide it down, which makes life a little bit easier. And now layer styles. Do you want it darker? Do you want a color burnt? That's kind of interesting. Darker color. So on so forth. Uh, let's Dio sort of like how the limbs show with that one's Let's start with that go into our next one. Woo. I am sticking their something crazy just happened with our half toning. I love that effect. And then you guess that I'm going to be sort of boring and just put my overlay on it. Um, what would multiply would look like? I feel like that didn't is it just a little bit too much? I went a little bit of contrast, but not so much that covers it. So when you're in this stage, you can say unfinished. This is great, or you can go back in and say All right, so maybe I didn't like the color burn. What do the others look like? So that one that's sort of like a sort of floral feel to it Or the wavy feel. Um, is there one that you like better? This is where you can just sit and start, You know, going through each of these and seeing which one works best for your vision. I still feel like color burns making me the happiest for this. So I am gonna leave that one. Um What about live it light? The darker blue is kind of nice, but here's the time where you can just sit in play and say no. You know what? I want that pink to go through. Four. If you don't want the pink to come through, you know, you could just make it all dark and creepy, etcetera. So where does this come in handy? So you have to use all of this. You can make you know your own artistic Siris. Of course, out of this. But what if I don't know? You're working on a CD cover. Let's say 8.5 by 8/2 just cause they're square. All right, 8/2 by 8.5. Uh, what I'm really liking is what's happening here. So maybe for this I'm going to save this one. And I was put on my desktop, called us 312 so we can remember it. I'm going to flatten it, but they don't save it again with the word flat, because I'll know that's not edible. Knaus, if I change my mind, I can always go back to the original one. But for the flat one, I could just then copy it and paste it into this one, and it almost came into perfect layout. So for this, make sure you're holding down your shift key, so you keep it in proportion. All right, so doing a CD cover, maybe what I like is something magical that's happening right there on. Then I could have my, you know, band title title here, and that's obviously not the right type. Face that on. Then. Maybe I'm just gonna duplicated beholding my option Key down. Let's have some hierarchy on. Have it as the artist the performer on then using your own image and taking a sort of, you know, snapshot closed in cropped view of it, you could have something that's more unique. An individual to you instead of just using the photo or using all of its straight up, you can go in and keep manipulating this even further. So what if you inverse it or, you know what? If you don't hold down the shift key and you're like Harry, I'm not holding it down. But I want some of this crazy stuff that's happening here. So what would this look like? Um, get that moon on there. So you have a little bit more play room with it, and it's all yours. So but having fun with using your layer styles, you're not going to fall back on that d fell off. I just put half tone on top of this. You created something that has a little bit more visual appeal, a lot more layers and a great sense of death. So whether it just be using the dots, maybe this is going to become a poster for, you know, music in the park. July. What have you this time this date, you know, in the website on maybe this one. Like I said, it's going to be some sort of band merch or a snippet for a poster design or a publication design. You can use it as the fine arts, or you can use it as a more design element. It's going to depend on your work style azi ever. I always always express that it's so important to experiment. Just have fun with this. And I'm going to include thes photos with the class that you could have some fun with these if you didn't want to want to use one of your own. But just experiment and have fun and see what you can come up with, using our half tone patterns and our layer styles. 5. Halftone Class Project: all right. Time for our class project. Using either of the two photos or even both. Why not go crazy either using those or one of your own? Experiment with different styles of half toning. Be creative, be expressive and be experimental. You can leave them as a series, or you can take a snippet of it and turn it into a CD cover. If you're a designer, you might want to do the CD cover. If you are a fine artist looking to experiment with the digital world, you might want to work with the Siri's. So there's two options. A series of three. You can work. It's a CD cover. Uh, have fun with your colors. Have fun with your type. Have fun with the different things to conduce. Oh, with your half toning and layer styles and be sure to share them in our class projects below us so we can see what you've done 6. Halftone conclusion: I hope you had a great time learning about the different ways that you can work with half tone patterns within your art or design work. We've explored the traditional dot style of half toning and how you can work with its contrast in its size and as well had some fun with the circles and linear style half tones as well. I can't wait to see a class project. Remember, Don't forget to put it in the course project below so we can see what you've created. I hope you've had fun experimenting and I'll see you in my next class.