polaroid tutorial
description:
this tutorial explains step-by-step how to make a polaroid created entirely in photoshop. this is a simple, fun and effective way to add some nice graphical elements to your website or photo. the possibilities are really endless.
this tutorial is rated as beginner skill level. if you want to see the final image, click here.
- open up a new document, any size will do but for this example i am using 500 x 400px.
- create a new layer in the layers palette and name this new layer “polaroid”.
- select the rectangular marquee tool
in your tools palette or by pressing “M” on your keyboard. - now its time to make the shape of the polaroid - with your rectangular marquee tool make a shape like that of a polaroid, for this example i am using a size of 287 x 289.
- now we want to add color to the polaroid - so bring up your color picker by double clicking on the foreground color in the tools palette.
- the color i am using is #F6F6F4. Fill the box by pressing “alt delete” on your keyboard.
- your image should now look like this:
- simple, right? ok so lets move on and make another layer, call this layer “box”. with your rectangular marquee tool , draw another shape inside the polaroid where you want your image to go, like this one and fill it with black color #000000 by pressing “alt delete” on your keyboard.:
- now what you have is a polaroid - so we just have to give it a little detail like a drop shadow, before we move on to placing an image.
- to create the drop shadow, make sure your “box” layer is selected in your layers palette and press the layer style icon located on the bottom of your layers palette:
- once you have done that, click the drop shadow box and apply these settings:
opacity: 40%
angle: 90
distance: 3
spread: 6
you can view the full image settings here. click ok and you should now have something like this:
- ok we are almost done here - now for the fun part. lets make the polaroid a polaroid by putting an image inside of it. find any image you like and bring it into your photoshop document. it is important to know that the image can be of any size larger than the polaroid because we are going to create a clipping mask with the black box that will hide away the parts of the image you dont want displayed. just dont have an image smaller than the area of the black box.
- once you have found a suitable image your layers palette should now look like this, and if it doesnt, just make sure the image you want placed is on top of the box layer:
- once your layers are situated point your mouse in between the “image layer” & the “box layer” while holding down the “alt” key on your keyboard. doing this should produce a tea kettle like shape. click once with your mouse and then let go. your image should now be placed inside the black box.
- by doing this, you can now move your image anywhere inside the black box if you want to produce a close up or just a particular piece of an image. you have now completed your polaroid. you can play around and get different effects, or copy the polaroid and get a whole bunch on a page like so:
- or you can put other photoshop effects on it like a piece of tape & some text to achieve these results:
questions or comments? please e-mail me. if you would like to view how to make the tape, please go to the tape tutorial.