Photos are often much more interesting when they are displayed like a Polaroid photo. Learn how you can turn your normal photo into something livelier, by adding a realistic Polaroid effect to it.
Creating the Base
- Create a new blank canvas, say about 800×600 resolution, filled it with white [#ffffff] background.
- Draw a rectangular in the middle, using Rounded Rectangular Tool with Radius: 2px. This will be the base for your Polaroid photo.
- Double click on layer name to launch Blending Options, and insert these following effects:
Drop Shadow
- Opacity: 38%
- Spread: 0%
- Size: 5px
Inner Shadow
- Opacity:25%
- Distance: 0px
- Choke: 0%
- Size: 57px
Color Overlay
- Color: White [#ffffff]
- Here’s how your output will look like.
Determining Image Size within Polaroid
Let’s determine how big our image will be within a Polaroid.
- Hold CTRL and left click on the Polaroid Base’s Layer Thumbnail to highlight the selection.
- With the selection highlighted, click Select -> Modify -> Contract.
- Insert 7px and click OK, you will noticed that the selection is shrink by 7px.
- Select Retangular Marquee Tool, Hold ALT and drag a smaller rectangular on the bottom to minus it off the selection.
- Create a new layer, call it " Photo Base" and fill the highlighted part with any color, say black, #000000 for instance. Hide the layer, we will use it as reference later.
Adding Image into Polaroid
- Just make sure you have the selection of layer Photo Base still highlighted, if not, hold CTRL and click on the layer to re-highlight it.
- Create a new layer on top of Photo Base, call it Photo.
- Look for your desired image, copy it and SHIFT + CTRL V to paste it. You will noticed the image will paste itself into the highlighted selection.
- Transform (CTRL T) or reposition until you are satisfied with the focus point.
Making Polaroid Image more Realistic
The photo looks a bit stiff to me at this stage. Lets tweak it so it looks that it looks more blending into the Polaroid.
- Double click on the "Golf" layer to call up the Blending Options and tweak the following styles:
Inner Shadow
- Opacity: 40%
- Distance: 0px
- Choke: 0%
- Size: 46px
- Hold CTRL, left click on Photo Base layer’s thumbnail to highlight the selection, create a new layer on most top, call it "Glossy"
- Select Polygonal Lasso Tool, Hold ALT and draw a rectangular like the image below to cut off half of the highlighted selection.
- Fill the left over selected area with white [#ffffff] and adjust its Opacity to 18% or any figures as long it looks comfortable on the photo. Your output will look something similar to the image below.
Adding Text to Polaroid
The photo is almost done, add some writings. Fonts close to handwriting will be nice. Here’s my final output.
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Posted by hongkiat in Photoshop Tutorial, at 05.04.07 |
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Comments
May 4th, 2007 at 12:22 pm
cool… will try this soon…
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May 8th, 2007 at 11:24 am
wow, dude! This is great. Thank.
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May 11th, 2007 at 3:27 am
hi yeah this is a really great tutorial the only thing is i get stuck at the step 1 of the determining the size of the polaroid i don’t know what the layer thumbnail? i hope you can help me thanks
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May 14th, 2007 at 1:37 am
this is a good tutorial.
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May 14th, 2007 at 8:41 am
Hi Dave, click here for a sample of layer thumbnail.
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May 27th, 2007 at 11:27 am
I agree with Dave, i got stuck at step 1 too. :( Help ME!
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May 27th, 2007 at 1:37 pm
Janna, this is the Layer Thumbnmail. Left click to get its size.
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May 28th, 2007 at 7:30 pm
just download the sample guys
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May 31st, 2007 at 2:32 pm
nice tutorial man…I’ll be visiting again for sure
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June 6th, 2007 at 1:34 am
i’m not good with photo shop. I keep getting stuck on this one part
“Look for your desired image, copy it and SHIFT + CTRL V to paste it. You will noticed the image will paste itself into the highligted selection.”
The thing is still highlighted and everything and i’m pasting my picture in but it doesn’t go in the highlighted selection…help me please =)
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June 27th, 2007 at 10:40 pm
“Look for your desired image, copy it and SHIFT + CTRL V to paste it. You will noticed the image will paste itself into the highligted selection.”
The thing is still highlighted and everything and i’m pasting my picture in but it doesn’t go in the highlighted selection…help me please =)
Mee too stuck at this very same point..The copied pic does not paste itself into the higlighted selection at all..
there is something missing in the tutorial i feel..as it does say hide the layer but we will use it as a reference later..where is that gone..where do we use it.i think it has something to do with the pic pasting inside the selection if im not wrong
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July 4th, 2007 at 9:11 pm
I stayed up all night making these. LOL.
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July 6th, 2007 at 6:23 am
Hi, I have done everything here. When it comes to pasting my image, Paste is not even an option. Also in the download, Photo in Polaroid is missnig from the tutorial ? Is this right ? There seems to be a few things missing…
Thanks.
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July 6th, 2007 at 10:56 am
Ahhh… when pasting your photo, select the photo layer and click on paste into… then click transform and then scale. Works a treat.
Thanks for this tut !
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July 22nd, 2007 at 11:53 am
i need help pls on the third step of ‘creating the base’.
when i try to double click on the layer name to launch blending options i get ‘new layer’ pop-up, then when trying to establish the drop/inner shadow it doesn’t edit the edges of the rectangle i drew but the entire perimeter of the canvas itself. help!
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July 24th, 2007 at 6:56 pm
Great TUT, thanks Hongkiat!
One thing to keep in mind: The polaroid image itself is a square. So you wanna keep the width and height equal (step 4). Look at W & H in the “Info” tab (FN + F8 for Mac).
As a gimmick you could add sticky tape or a drawing pin and maybe some dirt or something;)
@Lenny: You can also right-click the layer and go to Blending Options.
Cheers
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July 29th, 2007 at 10:11 am
i always get stuck in the highlight part.
whenever i left click it, the layer is highlighted and not the selection.
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July 30th, 2007 at 12:34 am
i cant paste my image…pls.help!im so interested in this polario effect its so challenging.;)
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July 30th, 2007 at 1:05 am
I noticed most of you are confused with the highlight part. Let me do this is a short video, hope this helps you understand things better.
What I did before hand is copy my image, then outline it with Photoshop, hit SHIFT + CTRL + V to paste it inside where I outlined it.
Check out the video.
http://www.screencast.com/t/zsKGundog
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August 24th, 2007 at 8:14 am
I’m very new to Photoshop, but have been able to successfully complete several of the free tutorials I get from Photoshop Roadmap News. This one, however, is way too difficult for a beginner. It was written for people who know photoshop. Create a new canvas? I tried hitting control new, but not sure if that’s correct. I have CS 2 and don’t have the rounded rectangle tool, just the regular. Can’t find help on the help screen. Don’t bother telling me, either. I’ll just get stuck on the next. It just would have helped if more direction could have been given. I was really looking forward to accomplishing this because it looks so different.
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August 24th, 2007 at 4:24 pm
i still dont get it even after watching ur video… o.O?
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August 25th, 2007 at 11:20 am
ok.. i feeel so stupid..ive been trying that image pasting,,, cant get it yet.. nd no offense but the video isnt really clear.. you can only see the blue layer and then turning into the golf pictyure,, i still cant see what you did sorry!!!
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efekt zdjęcia polaroid
August 27th, 2007 at 1:09 am
[...] efekt Polaroid i “zwykły” z [...]
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momworx » Photoshop: Rahmen mit Schatten.
September 20th, 2007 at 8:07 pm
[...] Und wer dann noch ein Polaroid machen will, der kann ebenfalls bei hongkiat nachschauen wie das geht. Bookmark [...]
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November 1st, 2007 at 2:34 am
i found an easier way to create polaroid effects, just upload and click
http://polaroid.cuteness.ws
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January 8th, 2008 at 10:12 am
stucked on #3. I mean do I create a new layer on #2? then go to #3? I don’t get it. Thank you.
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January 8th, 2008 at 10:38 am
Create a new layer, then go open up another image, copy it and Shift-paste into the selection.
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January 8th, 2008 at 3:29 pm
Thank you so much. I’ve create 2 very realistic Polaroid effect photos for my project. This is a very great tutorial, and very pro finished. Thank you again, Hongkiat.
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January 17th, 2008 at 1:03 pm
Hi, thanks for a really nice and detailed tutorial!
I’ve made an online converter to create a polaroid-style images - http://www.instantizer.com Simply upload your picture, add a description and specify rotation angle if needed.
Feel free to try it!
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Create Polaroid Online With Instantizer
January 18th, 2008 at 5:54 pm
[...] previously talked about creatng Polaroid effects with Photoshop, but if you are not too keen on that or wish creating Polaroid could be faster, try Instantizer. [...]
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February 2nd, 2008 at 5:27 pm
i wan to paid $50.00 someone help me to made some pictures
by photoshop!!
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March 6th, 2008 at 8:38 am
Amazing tutorial ! I’ll be back !
Thank you and greatjob !
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May 17th, 2008 at 6:49 am
Nice tutorial. But… Your left, right, and top borders are not wide enough. Need to be about 1/4″. I grew up in the 60’s, and had three polaroid cameras, and an SX-70, if you know what that is. So it’s currently not realistic with your borders. Just a suggestion…
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