Cynthia Beth Rubin

Repeating Patterns and Backgrounds in Photoshop

1. Open an Image in Adobe Photoshop

• Immediately Give it a New Name
  without fancy symbols and NO slashes (/)
  
• Go to FILE, down to SAVE AS
  
• Save it as a .psd (leave the suffix in the title: bark.psd)
  
  

2. Select part of the image to be the Repeating Texture or Pattern

• Use the Cropping Tool
• This is in the upper right of the Tool Box, hidden under the Selection Tool
  
• In Photoshop 6.0 and above, you have the option of choosing a transparent color to show you what you are cropping out. You also must check off the box in the upper left when you are done selecting the cropped area.

• SAVE any time!

  
  

3. Resize the Selection to about 150 pixels square, or 100 by 200 pixels.

Under IMAGE go down to IMAGE SIZE.

• Change the Size by either PIXEL or PERCENT.
  
• IGNORE THE INCHES dimension. We are thinking in PIXELS now.
  
• Set the Resolution (DPI) to 72 if you are working for the web.
  
• Leave on Constrain Proportions (unless you want to distort the image) and Resample Image (Bicubic)

SAVE

• Under FILE, go Down to SAVE.
  
• Get in the Habit of SAVING as you go along
  

4. Under FILTER go to OTHER and down to OFFSET

• Choose Horizontal and Vertical Dimensions which are about 50% of your image size
  
• Check Wrap Around
  
• You will see your image repeated with lines where the top and bottom were

SAVE

5. Create a Seamless Repeating Image

• Although the center of your image is now a mismatch, you know that the edges repeat perfectly.
• Using the Cloning Tool, Paint out the Overlapping area
  
  • Hover over the area that you want to take FROM
    
  • Hold down the option key and click the mouse
    
  • Release the mouse and the keys
    
  • Go to the area where you want to paint.
• Your background will be more effective if you allow for repetitions within the new image that you are creating.
  
• The pressure sensitive pen works with the clone tool.
  
• You can clone from another image, or from parts of the same image.

6. REPEAT the above steps Several Times to be sure that the Repetition is Working

• An interesting trick is to duplicate the entire image to another file, and then change the scale of the image.
  
• Use this changed image as the cloning source. It will help to hide the repeat effect

7. To Create a Texture that can be Loaded in the "Texturizer"

• The Texturizer Filter (Under Texture) puts the texture of one image onto any other image in a repeating pattern.
  
• Desaturate the Image (under IMAGE, go to ADJUST, then Desaturate). This will give you a grayed image.
  
• Adjust the contrast of the grayed image using Levels, Curves, or Brightness-Contrast. (Under Image, Adjust)
  SAVE the Gray Texture with a New Name.