Graphics Tips
Adobe Photoshop Tip: Torn Photo a la 'Amelie'
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The character Nino in Jean Pierre Jeunet's film Le Fabuleux destin d'Amélie Poulain collects torn and discarded pictures from the photo booths at Paris train stations. He carefully pieces these pictures together in a bizarre "family album." It is this style of fragmented imagery that will be the inspiration for this week's graphics tip. To get ready, scan in a portrait shot and fire up Photoshop. Here we go, but be warned — this is going to be a long process.
Step 1: Prep the portrait
Start with a scanned portrait with the traditional white frame around the outside on one layer. Make sure your scan is an actual floating layer named "Photo" and not a flattened file. If it isn't, just double click the Background layer in the layers palette and name the layer "Photo" when prompted.
Next we're going to need a little ripping room. Adjust the Canvas Size (under the Image menu) by adding an inch or so to the width and height. There should now be a half an inch or more of checkered etherial nothingness surrounding your snapshot.
Now we need to give the photo a bit of dimension. Not much. It is, afterall, supposed to be a thin piece of photographic paper. Go to Layer>Layer Style>Bevel and Emboss... and enter these values:
We will also need another layer named "Paper" to act the same way as the paper that real photographs are laminated on. Easy enough. Create a new layer under the snapshot, make a selection the exact size and shape of your snapshot by Command-Clicking the Photo layer thumbnail in the Layers palette. Now fill the selection with white in the Paper layer and apply a Drop Shadow layer style with the following values to it:
Step 2: Get ready to rip
Create a new Channel and, with the default white foreground color and black background color set, apply Filter>Render>Clouds.
Next comes a rather confusing part. We're going to try to apply the Crystalize filter (Filter>Pixelate>Crystalize) to the cloud channel but this filter can be a bit of a pain. So rather than give you some values to try that won't work I'm going to give you a "goal." Try to get a result that has a lot of big chunky crystals like this one.
The problem with this filter is that the preview often lies. We'd almost be better off if there was no preview at all, but don't get me started... lets just get on with the tutorial.
Choose the marquee tool and select an area of the crystal channel that is not too small, is a similar proportion to your snapshot and contains about 5 to 7 crystals or portions of crystals. (See the selection in the image above) Copy it. This is going to be the map by which your snapshot will be ripped.
Hold down the Command key and click the Photo layer's thumbnail in the Layers pallette. This will make a selection the exact shape of your snapshot. Click the "Save Selection as Channel" button in the Channels palette and then click on your newly created channel.
Paste the section of crystals you copied earlier onto this channel. Hit Command-T and stretch that section so that it not only covers but overlaps (see picture above) the silouette of your snapshot and hit Enter. It is now safe to deselect. (Command-D)
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