Advanced' Photo Effects Tutorials

I had some free time and energy to burn, so I figured I would take what I know about displacement maps and the use of displacement maps to apply texture to an object, put them in to this tut and teach you, the general worth1000 viewing public, about displacement maps through general information and practical application

The displacement map filter in photoshop warps and distorts images by moving pixels according to the guidelines set out by a predefined "map." You can find the displacement map filter under filter>distort>displace

If you've never used them before, displacement maps probably seem like a complicated and foreign concept. However, they're actually very simple if you think about them in terms of black and white. Like masking, black and white are the basis of a proper displacement map. Black moves pixels to the right and/or down. White moved pixels left and/or up.

Once you understand how black and white effect displaced images, then you can start thinking about them in terms of being shades of grey. The shades of grey, depending on what end of the value scale they're on, will mimic that of black and white in a displacement map, only to a lesser degree. Fifty percent (mid grey) makes absolutely no difference on the distortion of the image.

Below is an example of how the different values effect a displaced image with a simple value map over a candid photo:

Now for an example of how to apply a texture to an object with the displace filter. This is the kind of thing you would use most often for you general photoshopping needs here at worth1000.

I am going to use the filter to help me put a wood texture on on a banana peel.

Basically turning this:

into this:

Now on to the really good stuff.

First, we make the map. Start by desaturating your main source image. In this case, the banana. This gives use the shades of grey we were talking about earlier. However, if you remember, shades of grey don't have as big of an impact on an image as blacks and whites do. So, in order to get those blacks and whites we're going to adjust the brightness/contrast on this image to add contrast to what we have.

Now you probably notice that the different values are defined a bit too harsly where they meet. This will make our texture look choppier than it should (kind of like how the candid example looked above). Therefore we want to add a bit of blur to smooth this out. Typically one or two pixels of blur will get the job done.

What we have now is essentially our displacement map. Save the image you have now as a .PSD and remember where you put it. We will need it later.

Now you can revert your image back to its original state so we can go back to apply the texture.

Now, open your texture. In this case, I chose a fun wood bark with lots of ripples great texturing. Don't mask your texture just yet, we need to displace it first.

Navigate to the displace filter and once you select it, this window will pop up. The percentages in this little dialogue box defines how much the blacks and whites will affect the pixels of your texture. Typically, the default settings will work fine, but if you want a more drastic or subtle displacement, you can adjust the percentages to your need. For the purpose of general image editing, like we do here at worth1000.com, keeping the stretch to fit and repeat edge pixels radio buttons selected will work for you.

Now, once you press ok, another box will pop up for you to select the .psd you made earlier, select that and watch your texture distort. After this, go ahead and mask out the texture to the image. You'll end up with something like this:

Now we can go ahead a move on to something that is a different tutorial altogether. Making the banana actually like the wood texture is a part of it. I'm not really going to go in depth into this part. I suggest looking at some of the fine statue making tutorials on the site for more information on this. Once you start playing with this, however, you'll notice how the map really made the texture fit, and made it look very natural.

There you have it. Now, you all have the essence of what displacement maps are and how they work. Remember that this tutorial is just a guideline, and applying it to some images may require a slight alteration of what has been presented.

If you have any questions about the things I've talked about here, you can reach me through a site message on worth1000.com. Now, go ye thereforth, and texture stuff.