Creating a Multiple Self Portrait using Adobe Photoshop CS

In this tutorial, you will be using most direct way to create an image multiple times and then applying a variety of filters to those four images. You may wish to add text to your image, too.

Okay, let's get started!

FIRST THINGS FIRST! KNOW YOUR COMMANDS & TOOLBAR IN PHOTOSHOP:

Before we begin make sure you understand a little about the basic tools that you have to work with. At the top of the screen is the COMMAND MENU BAR and on the left of your screen is the TOOLBAR. (See the image?)

The toolbar is located at the left of your screen. In the image below, make sure you pay attention to the location of the Move tool. You will use this one the most frequently.

Step 1- Get Your Photo & save it to your user folder

For the example, I have used this picture of a flower for this tutorial, you, however, will use the photograph of yourself we took in class. Go to the public folder marked “Ejohnson” and find the folder within that is marked “7^th grade ART photos”. Inside of that folder will have your class photographs- go to the folder marked “Original Class Photos”. Once you locate the photo of you, open it and save it to your user folder.

Step 2 - Open your photograph in Adobe Photoshop CS

The Adobe Photoshop software program is located on the bottom toolbar of your screen. It is the icon that is the blue feather on a white rectangle. Click on the icon and wait for it to load. Go to the command bar at the top and select FILE, then OPEN and select your image from your user folder. Here is a screen shot of what it should look like. Once you have done that minimize the image, until you are ready to use it later.

Step 3- MAKING A NEW FILE
Now you are ready to make a new file and begin the process of duplicating your image so that you will have four pictures. What we'll do is create a new blank file and fill it with the photograph of your four times.

Create a new blank Photoshop document by selecting, FILE, then NEW and change the width to 8.5 inches and height to 11 inches. Color Mode should be RGB Color and the Resolution should be set at 72. Once you have done that then select the “OK” button. See screen shot below. You should have a white background that now measures 8 ½ by 11 inches to work with.

Here is what the new file should look like. This is what you will be working on to create your image. This new document is now called “Untitled -1”. This will be the background that you will put your original photo on.

Step 4 - UNLOCKING THE BACKGROUND LAYER

Unlock the background layer by left clicking twice in the blue area of the box that is located on the right of the screen.

Step 5 – TURNING ON THE GRID FUNCTION

You will use the grid function to help you line up all of your duplicated images of yourself. Now that you have unlocked the background you now can turn the grid on the image so you can use this as a means for aligning all of your tiles exactly with each other. To do this you will need to select at the top of the command bar, VIEW, then SHOW, then GRID.

Once you have selected the GRID as being on this is what your surface should look like. See image below. Don’t worry, the grid marks can be turned off or on as you need, but for now, leave it turned on. It will help you in making the four images line up perfectly.

Step 6- ADDING THE ORIGINAL PHOTOGRAPH AS A NEW LAYER

Next you will reopen the image of your original photograph and simply drag that layer into the NEW background image you just made.

Here is what your new added image should look like.

Notice how you now have an additional layer, now called Layer 1 on top of the original Layer 0. Keep track of your layers because it will be important later!

Step 7 – RESIZING or TRANSFORMING YOUR PHOTO
Chances are good that your original photo may be too large for the 8.5 x 11” background. If you need to resize the image in Layer 1, you will need to make sure that Layer 1 is active (should be blue colored) and then go to the command bar and select EDIT, then TRANSFORM, and next SCALE.

In doing so you can now use the mouse to grab the edges of the image to expand or contract it to a more managable size.

You will need to use the MOVE tool to apply the new transformation . The MOVE tool is the second tool with the directional arrows and it is located beside the rectangular marquee tool at the left. Photoshop will prompt you to “Apply the Transformation?”, select, APPLY.

Step 8 – DUPLICATING THE ORIGINAL LAYER

Next you will copy or duplicate Layer 1. This is easy! You can right click with the mouse in the blue area again where it says Layer 1 and then select DUPLICATE LAYER. Select the move tool again to slide the new layer over and place it next to Layer 1.

It should look like this now. Notice that in the image below you now have a new layer called “Layer 1 copy” located on top of the the previous layers. Cool, huh? You can rename any of the layers just by clicking on the blue box and changing it to whatever you want to call that layer.

You can continue the steps that repeat duplicating the layer and it as many times as you need until you fill the space on the page.

See the below image. There are now four identical layers!

When you finish be sure to SAVE YOUR WORK TO YOUR USER FOLDER. In saving your work for the first time, make sure that you choose, FILE, then SAVE AS, and give this file a new name. MAKE SURE TO PLACE THE EXTENSION (.PSD) at the end of your file name so you will be able to open it again. Without .psd on the end of the file name, it will be unreadable.

See below image.

Step 9. APPLYING FILTERS TO EACH LAYER.

Now that you have four or more diferent layers, select layer 1 and go up to the menu bar and select, “FILTERS”. There are several different kinds of artistic, textural, and lighting filters to play with on your picture for this layer. If you don’t like a particular filter, you can undo the step by going to the EDIT menu and choosing “UNDO”. There is also a keyboard shortcut to undo a step (crtl + Z).

For each photo layer, try out different effects and filters. Each filter has several ways to adjust it to your liking. You can also use the TEXT TOOL on the tool bar to add words on top of your layers.

Once you are completely finished, your portrait will look something like this.