Mirror Image Effect by Neil Gray

PCC PHOTOSHOP© TUTORIAL

TWIN WATERFALLS – MIRROR IMAGE EFFECT

NEIL GRAY - PHOTOSHOP - CS3

Firstly it is best to take your original photograph in camera with this effect in mind. Compose your image so that one edge of the main subject of the photograph is as close to the middle of the frame as possible. This enables you to “flip” the file easier in the editing process.

Editing Workflow:

• Open image file
• Copy layer (optional – re-name layer – “right side”)
• Select rectangular marquee tool
• Select left side of image
• Edit – cut – switch off “eye” icon of the background layer
• Turn “eye” icon off (background layer)
• Copy your “right side” layer (re-name “left side”)
• Edit – transform – flip horizontal
• Select move tool – position this layer over the left blank area – use arrow key to butt precisely the two halves. In this case I want to overlap slightly – use arrow key & adjust to your liking
• Select zoom tool – zoom in to fix overlying hard edge
• Select layer mask icon in the layers pallete
• Select brush tool – set colour swatch black foreground, white background
• Remove distractions – copy top layer – re-name “heal clone”
• Select healing tool – paint out distractions
• Select clone tool – clone to fine tune
• Select crop tool to re-size & fix any selection problems
• Job done

The following is my own workflow I use on all my images:

• To add a vignette – copy “heal clone” layer
• Edit – fill – white – normal – 100% - OK
• Select – all
• Edit – stroke – 25px – colour – black – inside - OK
• Filter – blur – gausian blur – radius 60px – OK
• In layers palette change blend mode to multiply (turn off/on eye icon to see change)
• When happy flatten image
• To sharpen – copy layer – change blend mode to overlay – filter – other high pass – use 1, 2 or 3px
• Flatten again & save image in your usual manner.

You could go even further with this effect if you feel creative, how about flipping the image again but this time vertically. This will make the “twin falls” into “quad falls”. Also, currently, I’m converting all my colour photos to mono, then duotone. This gives me three options from the one idea, but that is for another tutorial.

Cheers for now

Neil