Stringing the Lights Tutorial

Athyrius · Forum lord Joined: Jul 12, 2003 Posts: 239

A Christmas Tree Tutorial

Ever want to virtually string lights on a tree, fence, house or even an old barn?
Ugh, sure, get out the paintbrush and dab dab dab... Well, not if you know a few nifty tricks using Paths.

In this Tutorial we will use Paths to string lights, sparkles and ribbon, and I will show you the trick to give realistic 'under and over' depth just as real tree decorations have.

I will also show you how to make a 'daytime' scene into a moonlit winter night.

I am writing this for the person who has very little experience with Photoshop- so if I cover areas you know, just adapt your own techniques. The point here is not to duplicate my image, but to learn handy techniques that can be used in many, many ways.
This Tute will take at least an hour, so don't rush and have a good time! If I have missed any areas, or you need more details, just let me know.

To ease following this tute, you may want to save the text to wordpad and save the pictures to a folder and open them in Photoshop while working on your image.

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Here we go!

First of all, grab your favorite snowy scene picture. For this I found a nice pine tree, not the greatest resolution, but by the time we are finished you will see it does not matter much. This is the tree I started with.

Open it in your photoshop and duplicate it by dragging it down to your little file icon beside the trashcan -as shown.

Ok now delete the original background image by dragging it to the trashcan.
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Now we will cut out the tree- this is the only 'labor intensive' aspect.
Take your lasso tool - feather it by 3-4 pixels and cut around the tree- going just outside the outermost branches by a couple of pixels.
When you have finished, right click on the tree and 'Layer via Copy'.

So now on your layers box you will have something that looks like this.

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Now click on the 'eye' beside the tree layer you just made to hide it and select the full scene layer. We are going to make it dark outside.
Go to:
'IMAGE'
'Brightness/Contrast'
and adjust according to the image shown. I am not going to give you a bunch of numbers and percentages in this tute. Just dim it down to where you can barely see the outlines of items in your image.

Now I want a slight blue cast to my picture. You may like the color exactly as it is, if so, skip this step.
Go to:
'IMAGE'
'Adjustments'
'Variations'
and play with the settings till I get a nice blueish cast, very soft and dark.
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Now for the moonlight. This is cool.
Click on your Dodge tool on the toolbar.
Set the Range to Highlights and Exposure to 10% on the top toolbar- as shown.
Click open your brushes, grab a standard round brush, make it a tad oblong-with hardness '0' as in the picture so that it has soft edges. Make it pretty big, around a third the width of the image itself.

Now this takes the lightest touch. Stroke areas you would want to see lit by the moon. This is very subtle so don't overdo it. Stroke the snow on the ground.
When I am done 'lighting' the snow around the tree, I then make the brush very large to where it overlaps the canvas and just hit it one time in the middle of the image to brighten the center and sky.
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Alrighty, it's magic time.
Duplicate your tree layer- the one you cut out and until now has been hidden.
Insert a Blank Layer between your trees by clicking on the little 'file' icon at the bottom of your layer box. Click the eye icon on the top tree layer again to hide it. We won't need it till later on.
This is what you should have:

Now with the Blank Layer selected, grab your freeform pen tool and swoop figure 8's back and forth across the tree area.
Here is the image of tree and settings.

Ok now here is the realy fun part.

Grab your brush tool and make sure your 'Assorted Brushes' are selected.
Grab a round brush and use the settings in the images below:

I selected bright purple and bright turquoise for my foreground and background colors. I set the "Hue Jitter" all the way up to get rainbow colors. If you turn off Hue Jitter, you will just get the range of colors between your foreground and background colors. Play with these settings a bit - it is fun to experiment with them. Turn the color range settings off if you want your lights all one hue.

Now make sure your blank layer is still selected and click open your paths box:
Click the Path Stroke button:

Yay! You have strings of lights.

Now duplicate this layer and merge- to intensify them. You also may want to hit the brightness/contrast and brighten them up a bit. Name this layer Lights.

Now Duplicate this layer. Select the bottom Lights layer and name it Lightglow.
Go to:
'Filter'
'Blur'
'Gausian Blur'
Blur the 'Light Glow' layer to make a bright haze around your lights.
If it doesn't seem bright enough- duplicate the layer once or twice (or more) and Gaussian Blur it a bit again. You may want to tweak the brightness up. If you do this, merge the LightGlow layers again.
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Ok now let's tweak the lights a bit.
With Lights Layer selected, click your Effects button (far right, tiny button, at the bottom of your Layers box) and set the following:

Inner Glow -select the 'Center' button rather than the 'Edge' to 'light up' the centers of your lights. Tweak this till you get it the way it looks most natural.

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Now if you want, select some other brushes such as the star, or starburst brush, or round brush from the brush palette and stroke your path again. You are decorating your tree, so have fun and use your imagination! I stroked with rainbow colored starbursts and white snowflakes in this image.

Make sure to remember to make a new, blank layer for each different element you stroke on the path. Use the 'Scattering' settings on your Brush Palette if you don't want to follow the path exactly. This is also the time to stroke a one or two pixel 'electrical cord' along the path if you want one. I did not in this image.
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Ok we can't have lights without light reflections. This is easy to achieve and cool as well.

Open the Paths tab again and delete the 'Work Path' layer. We are finished with it.
Then open up Layers and select the LightGlow layer.
Duplicate it.
Then go to:
'Edit'
'Free Transform'
And squish the LightGlow layer down and spread it out. Hit 'Enter' to set the transform.

Don't hesitate to Duplicate and Merge this layer once or twice and Gaussian Blur it more to make the effect more realistic.
Now go back to Edit- Transform and Flip the LightGlow once Vertically.
Re-name this layer 'Reflections'.
You should have effects like this and these layers now in your Layer Palette.

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Now to make the Lights look as if they are IN and ON the tree instead of just laying on top.

Select the top Tree Layer- the one we have had hiding, alone and ignored all this time.
Drop the opacity down to where the lights and other decorations are just showing through this layer.
Keep the layer selected and grab the Eraser- select a round brush about the same size as your lights and glows- set the hardness to 0 so you have a soft edge.
Now you can do a bit of Dabbing. I never said Dabbing was not a part of this. Just that there would be Less of it.

Now erase parts of your top tree layer to expose parts of your lights and decorations. Vary the opacity of the Eraser in areas to just allow just the glow or bits of ornaments to show through.
You may have to take the tree opacity back to 100% and then back down while you are working so you can see the finished effect. When you are finished, the top tree layer opacity should be at 100%
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Ok thats about it. I think you can take it from there. The tree needs a glowing star or an angel of course, and maybe a bit of ribbon or tinsel. You can re-stroke new paths for ribbons and tinsel and play with filters and Effects to see what you come up with. The ribbons on my finished image are a stroked path with Effects applied. Drop a little snow in the sky if you wish.
Just remember, the most important part is to PLAY and have fun!

All done? Ok now kick back with a hot toddy and toast the Holidays.

HAPPY HOLIDAYS FROM ATHYRIUS AND HER FAMILY

MadMutant · Posted: Fri Dec 17, 2004 7:06 pm Post subject:

Very nice and timely tutorial, thanks!
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1olddawg · Posted: Fri Dec 17, 2004 10:05 pm Post subject:

Very nice tutorial...now if you could just help me with the real one in the family room..
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Athyrius · Forum lord Joined: Jul 12, 2003 Posts: 239

Oldawg... you mean you don't have a freeform pen tool laying around there somewhere? Closet maybe?

1olddawg · Posted: Sat Dec 18, 2004 11:56 am Post subject:

Athyrius - I have the freeform pen, just not a big enough piece of cardboard to use it on.

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vootie · Senior Site Admin Joined: Nov 12, 2001 Posts: 2252

Thanks for this one, Athyrius, much appreciated.
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Athyrius · Forum lord Joined: Jul 12, 2003 Posts: 239

You are very welcome vootie. I hope the techniques are helpful to someone as yet unfamiliar with paths.
And do you remember having to make all of our drop shadows using that reflection technique? ack! LOL

TeCetera · Posted: Sat Dec 25, 2004 10:17 am Post subject:

Nifty tut. My image isn't quite up to spec but it was a good learning experience. And the "stroke on a path" stuff was new and very cool. Paths are a complete mystery to me so it was very useful.

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MavMarsha · Posted: Sat Dec 25, 2004 7:04 pm Post subject:

This was a great tutorial! I haven't ever done anything quite like this. Very good tool. Thanks so much for doing this one.

Athyrius · Forum lord Joined: Jul 12, 2003 Posts: 239

You are very welcome Tetcetera and Marsha. I was hoping it would come in handy.

I remember paths being a mystery to me as well at one time and I could not find a good, simple explanation.
So that is realy what this is about - path manipulation, brush manipulation and using layers.

This technique is also great if you want to make a good, random 'grungy' background by using big 'grunge' brushes and semi opaque layers.
Now. I would realy like to see the results

TeCetera · Posted: Sun Dec 26, 2004 4:20 pm Post subject:

ROFL. I picked the wrong size for my lights and well...lol..its not right. LOL

I'll try again later this week when I have some time. I'm coming down with a cold I think.

Athyrius check your pm's.

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Eftelibra · Posted: Mon Dec 27, 2004 3:47 am Post subject:

LOL - I'll have to try to make a New Year Tree, its too late for Christmas.

I discovered the stroke on a path thing a few days ago in another tutorial, only I haven't followed the whole thing, just tried the stroke on a path, and I haven't quite worked out what to do because sometimes the 'stroke' command is greyed out, sometimes the path fills in and makes odd shapes, and sometimes IT WORKS

I don't really mind when it goes wrong though - its all so much fun, it doesn't matter.

Happy New Year to all.

Athyrius · Forum lord Joined: Jul 12, 2003 Posts: 239

Eftelibra- look at the pen settings on the 6th image down from the top of my tutorial. See on the top, horizontal toolbar that the small 'middle' pen needs to be clicked down. If you have the right side button clicked down you are making a vector path- and it will say 'vector path' on the path layers.
You want a 'work' path that is made by the freeform pen tool.
Also..its best to make a blank layer to stroke the path on.

Eftelibra · Posted: Mon Dec 27, 2004 10:22 am Post subject:

AHA - thank you Athyrius.

That works a treat, and I have a page full of grey snakes, all on separate layers.

Athyrius · Forum lord Joined: Jul 12, 2003 Posts: 239

New Years trees need bottles and toots all over them by the way

I am glad that helped Eftelibra. Now.. another little secret is that you can stroke a path like that on text

Let me know if you want to know how. Talk about quick neon signs