A guide to the liquify tool in Photoshop and a glimpse of its potential.By Will SmithBoth Adobe Photoshop Elements and the latest version, Photoshop 7 offer the liquify tool, which many people manage to overlook. Although its features are not something you'll want to apply to many of your photographs there are occasions where it can add that final touch that makes an image stand out. Or, if you just want to play a joke on a friend, you can distort their face till they look like something out of a horror film.How to use the liquify toolThe windows shortcut for the liquify tool in Elements and Photoshop 7 is ctrl+shift+x. Or it can be selected through the Filter menu. The Photoshop 7 liquify tool has several more functions than the Elements one and as beginners are more likely to be using Elements, we're concentrating on that here.When you've open up the Liquify tool, you'll be presented with the following layout, minus the squirrel of course!The tools displayed along the top left can be a little confusing at first, so here's an explanation of each of them.That should have given you a basic understanding of what each tool is capable of, but the best way to really learn is to try them for yourself.
So providing you have a suitable image, try each of the tools out and see what they are capable of.Here's a quick modification I've made to this charming little squirrel.Because the shallow depth of field in the above image has helped blur the grass, the liquifying effect has helped hide the changes made. Such dramatic effects work well on people shots, perhaps for a birthday card.ProblemsThe tools provided by liquify allow plenty of potential to make a photo look tacky, or ruin it completely. Consider the photo below, notice the horizontal lines by the gentleman's head, any attempts to liquify him would distort these lines and it would be obvious digital hocus pocus had been applied.But, with the power of Elements, there is quite an easy way around this.By selecting the magnetic lasso tool, shown selected to the right, create a selection around the head and upper half of the gentleman.Now, copy the selection (ctrl+c) and create a new layer (shift+ctrl+n).
AnyMaking Liquify Photo Maker is a dedicated online liquify tool.Here, you can upload your photo and begin editing it using the liquify options. Here again, you will find wrap, bulge, and pinch tools, named as move pixel, magnification, and minimization tools respectively. Face-Aware Liquify. Another feature that describes itself quite well, Face-Aware Liquify brings facial recognition to the Liquify tool. When you’re using the Liquify tool, Photoshop will now.
Then paste the copied selection into the new layer (ctrl+v). This should leave your layers window looking like the one shown below.Now we can use the liquify tool without any fear of disturbing the background of the photo.Being quite a fan of science-fiction I decided to give this shot a little bit of an Alien twist.I used the warp tool to stretch the top of the head, and expanded the body with the bloat tool.To give the image that extra bit of X-Files atmosphere, I copied the legs a few seats down.
![Online Online](http://cdn.ilovefreesoftware.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/liquify_photo_online_fotoflexer.jpg)
Then covered up the place they were with some copying and pasting, applying feathering to the selection so as not to create obvious horizontal and vertical lines of contrast. Anyone using Photoshop 7 could just use the patch tool here!After all this, the finished result isn't going to win any awards, but was good fun:Now go have some fun experimenting with your own photos!
.Choose your distortion weapon of choice.You also have a number of tools to help zoom and navigate around your image window.Here’s a description of each tool to help you decide which to use. (The letter in parentheses is the keyboard shortcut.).Warp (W): This tool pushes pixels forward while you drag, creating a stretched effect. Use short strokes or long pushes.Turbulence (T): Drag to randomly jumble your pixels. Use this tool to re-create maelstroms of air, fire, and water with clouds, flames, and waves.
Adjust how smooth the effect is by dragging the Turbulent Jitter slider in the Tool Options area. The higher the value, the smoother the effect.Twirl Clockwise (R) and Twirl Counterclockwise (L): These options rotate pixels either clockwise or counterclockwise. Place the cursor in one spot, hold down the mouse button, and watch the pixels under your brush rotate; or drag the cursor to create a moving twirl effect.Pucker (P): Click and hold or drag to pinch your pixels toward the center of the area covered by the brush.
To reverse the pucker direction (bloat), press the Alt (Option on the Macintosh) key while you hold or drag.Bloat (B): Click and hold or drag to push pixels toward the edge of the brush area. To reverse the bloat direction (pucker), press the Alt (Option on the Macintosh) key while you hold or drag.Shift Pixels (S): This tool moves pixels to the left when you drag the tool straight up. Drag down to move pixels to the right. Drag clockwise to increase the size of the object being distorted. Drag counterclockwise to decrease the size. To reverse any direction, press the Alt (Option on the Macintosh) key while you hold or drag.Reflection (M): This tool drags a reversed image of your pixels at a 90-degree angle to the motion of the brush.
Hold down the Alt (Option on the Macintosh) key to force the reflection in the direction opposite the motion of the brush. This tool works well for making reflections on water.Reconstruct (E): See Step 4 for an explanation of this tool’s function.Zoom (Z): This tool, which works like the Zoom tool on the Elements Tools panel, zooms you in and out so that you can better see your distortions.You can zoom out by holding down the Alt (Option on the Macintosh) key when you press Z. You can also zoom by selecting a magnification percentage from the pop-up list in the lower-left corner of the dialog box.Hand (H): This tool works like the Hand tool on the Elements Tools panel.
Drag with the Hand tool to move the image around the preview window.Specify your options in the Tool Options area. Drag the pop-up slider or enter a value from 1 to 600 pixels to specify the width of your brush.Brush Pressure. Drag the pop-up slider or enter a value from 1 to 100 to change the pressure. The higher the pressure, the faster the distortion effect is applied.Turbulent Jitter. Drag the pop-up slider or enter a value from 1 to 100 to adjust the smoothness when you’re using the Turbulence tool.Stylus Pressure. If you’re lucky enough to have a graphics tablet and stylus, click this option to select the pressure of your stylus.(Optional) If you get a little carried away, select the Reconstruct tool, and then hold down or drag the mouse on the distorted portion of the image that you want to reverse or reconstruct.Note that the reconstruction occurs faster at the center of the brush’s diameter. To partially reconstruct your image, set a low brush pressure and watch closely while your mouse drags across the distorted areas.Click OK to apply the distortions and close the dialog box.However, if you mucked up things and want to start again, click the Revert button to get your original, unaltered image back.
This action also resets the tools to their previous settings.