Out of Bounds and Outside of the Box

Release those images from the restraints of a 4 sided box. With some simple masking tools and making your own frame, turn  a 2 dimensional image confined by 4 sides into one that appears more 3D and defies the limitation of normal photography. This effect which is often refered to as “Out-of-Bounds”, is easy to achieve. All that you need is a couple of layers in Photoshop, a little creativity and somewhat of an idea about perspective.

I first came across this style of art about 10 years ago from a site which held weekly photo shopping contests. It looked so complicated at the time, I had to know how it was done. Luckily, on the same site, someone was gracious enough to share their techniques. Turns out, that it really isn’t a time-consuming task at all. I have finished several images over the years with this effect and have always received positive feedback and inquiries on how it’s done.

After receiving many requests on “how it’s done”, I put together the following video demonstrating the basic techniques that I use.

The key is to begin with an image that portrays a strong element of perspective. Then analyze the portion of the photo that you would like to have extend beyond the new bounding box or area that you will be applying. Careful placement of exactly where the new border, or frame will go can mean the difference between a lot or a short amount of time spent masking and making shadow layers.

The same technique can be applied to and image where your new ‘bounding box’ is text or shapes. The concepts are the same.

Good Luck and Happy “Shopping”. Remember: Think “Outside the Box”.

A look back 15 years into my early Photoshop days

Photoshop turned 20 years old back in Feb of 2010. I remember back to the mid 1990’s, when I was introduced to Photoshop  either thru software that came with a scanner that I bought or maybe it came bundled with a computer that I bought back then. I remember doodling around with some painting and drawing on some solid color backgrounds and thinking, “this is cool”! Then I evolved to manipulating images and the floodgates opened up. I bought a book on how to  use the tools and read and reread it for the next 2 weeks. Shortly after that, I put the book down and began to improve, and develop my own usage of the tools. The concepts were presented to me, but my artistic side and my programming background and understanding of how computers work allowed my creative side to “run with it”.

My introduction to computers began in 1978, when as a high school freshman at a trade school, I was placed into the computer programming shop and graduated in 1982 with a certificate of proficiency in data processing. Everything came so  easy to me, I understood the intricacies of how pixels came to be on the screen. My true passion was in the graphic arts, but due to pressure from family to pursue a lucrative career, they persuaded me to jump on the computer path rather than the art path. Years later, the 2 paths connected and brought me to where I am today.

I had to Search back into my files to find some of my early work, Since I was mostly hobbying back then, most of the older images are lost. Here’s some from the early part of the 2000’s that I have always liked and wanted to share with the group.

This Mosquito was on my arm, I thought it would look cool on my eye. So I took a photo of my eye and after making an extraction from the arm shot, positioned it in the eye shot, I added a drop shadow and came up with this result.

I was really impressed by effect in the Gatorade commercials at the time. I know it’s been done, but I wanted to do it any way. I remember spending quite a bit of time (or back then I thought was quite a bit of time), painting each bead of sweat blue. My goal was to keep it as realistic as possible.

I thought they looked better without their heads. The content aware tool was not available back then, so all of the replacement work had to be done manually. Using the clone tools opened up some whole new avenues.

This was my first attempt at making an “Out-of-Bounds” style manipulation. Check through my tutorial Videos section in this blog, I will be posting a “How to” video of how to apply this technique to your own images.

The cloning tool was the main tool used in this transition from bullfrog to Mutant Frog. Combined with some dodge and burn techniques, the “Mutant Frog” came to be.

“The Fairy” was another evolutionary step for me, as I began to incorporate compositing different elements .

I loved using Layers and masks. To this day, I use layers and masks on pretty much every image that I work on.

So you can see, I was off and running. So much to learn, So much to create.