Cybia - The Works - AlphaWorks

This plugin is free and can be found at: http://www.cybia.co.uk/alphaworks.htm

From the webpage description:

AlphaWorks
Transparency Effects

A single Photoshop-compatible plug-in filter for quickly removing black or white values and making the region transparent. There are 6 different options for you to choose from, depending on the type of image you are working on (colour photo, mono photo, lineart).

It requires the use of "layers" so remember the effect must be applied to an image that is on a layer above the background in order for it to work.

Other materials:
PSP - I used PSP9, but most any version that supports plugins should work just fine.
Photo
Gold pattern fill.

I never used Alphaworks before I tried this technique, so my steps may seem disjointed to you. Bear with me, read how I did it and then do it YOUR WAY. This tut and the others I write are to give you an idea how the plugin works. The ultimate compliment a tut writer can receive is when someone takes what they want from the tut and uses it to expand on their own work.


Open a photo in PSP. I chose one at random, no particular reason other than I liked the photo I found on Morguefile.com.

http://www.morguefile.com/archive/?display=139392&

According to the instructions on Alphaworks page, I duplicated the layer before I applied the filter.

I applied these settings to the top layer - playing with the slider until I found something I liked.

Of course when you click OK, what you will see is a redder image of the original...not very impressive, is it? You can get the effect many other ways with PSP.

Let's dress this up abit.

Use the gold pattern - Angle 0, Scale 100 to floodfill the bottom - background layer. (I added a new layer between the two before I got comfortable with the technique.)

Hmmm... there's something artistic in this after all. I like the light filter look... adds the feel of reflection from the water or something, doesn't it?

Top layer -
Use the Ellipse Selection tool - set the feather to 26. Draw an ellipse around the subject so that most of it is surrounded.

Selections > Invert

Tap the Delete Key once.
Use the mover tool to move your image to where you want it. In this pic, I moved the little girl to the center of the image.

Select the gold foil layer.
Adjust > Blur > Gaussian Blur - 16

Add an innerbevel to the gold foil layer...

Add a one pixel border - black.

Add whatever text you want.

Voila! Resize your image and export as a jpg.

vetch