Text in Perspective
Text in Perspective
In this lesson, we’re going to look at a text effect that can be used in your pho- tographs. With this technique, we’re going to take text and make it match the perspective of an image. Therefore, it will get smaller as it gets farther away from the camera and appear as if it’s built into the photograph. I, personally, like to apply this technique to the first image in a slideshow that presents images from a particular location. I will use the location name in the photograph as a way of introducing the series of images.
Create Text Layer (Timestamp 1:20)
With the image open in Photoshop, we’ll use the text tool to type in the text we want to apply. In the video example, we’re working with an image that was shot in Lisbon, so we typed in the word Lisbon. This text will be applied on a new layer above the image layer.
This is an example of the perspective text effect that we’ll be creating in this lesson.
While this text layer is still active, we’ll select all of the text (Command+A on Mac, Ctrl+A on Win) and then specify the text color by clicking on the color swatch that appears in the Options Bar above the image window. The Color Picker will appear and we’ll use the Eyedropper to click on a color from within the scene. In our example, we sampled a bright red color from the iconic cable car.
At this point, you could also use the font setting in the Options Bar to specify which font you’d like to use. I find that a dense, heavy font works well for this technique. In the lesson video, I am using Myriad Pro Black Condensed.
We’ll exit the Text Tool simply by activating the Move Tool.
While the text is selected, we clicked on the color swatch in the Options Bar (circled) to access the Color Picker and we’re using the eyedropper to sample a color from within the image.
Set Initial Text Placement (2:22)
Next, we’ll use the Move Tool to position the text in the general area where it should appear. In the video exam- ple, we will use the cable car tracks as a reference for where the base of the text should reside and we’ll make the text the same height as the street car. It will ultimate- ly look as if it becomes an ex- tension of the car. We’ll posi- tion the bottom left corner of the text so that it aligns with the rail, just behind the street car.
Distort the Text (3:00)
We’re going to use the Distort command to trans- form the text, but the problem is that this command is generally not available when the layer is a text lay- er. In order to make the Distort command available, we need to fool Photoshop into thinking that it’s not a text layer, and we can do that by converting the layer into a smart object. We’ll click on the Filter menu and choose Convert for Smart Filters. Alterna- tively, we could click on the Layer menu and choose Smart Objects > Convert to Smart Object. Both of these commands do the same thing.
The Move Tool is being used to position the text layer so that the bottom left corner aligns with the tracks on the street.
The text layer was converted into a smart object.
In the Layers Panel, you can see that the smart object icon appears in the bot- tom corner of the layer thumbnail and the layer no longer appears to be a text layer.
Now, we can click on the Edit menu and choose Transform > Distort. Transform handles will appear around the four cor- ners of the layer and we can click and drag on these corner points in order to move each corner independently of the others. We’ll click on the top left corner and drag it straight up, so that it aligns with the top back corner of the cable car. Note that you can hold down the Shift key if you would like to drag the point perfectly vertically or perfectly horizontally.
The Distort transformation can be found under the Edit menu.
The top left corner of the text layer is being positioned so that it aligns with the top of the cable car.
Then, we’ll click and drag on the bottom right corner of text, positioning it so that it aligns with the tracks in the street. We’ll click and drag on the top right corner of the layer and position it directly above the bottom right point, matching the perspective of the building lines.
Note: Sometimes, Photoshop tries to help you position objects by snapping them into alignment with other layers/objects in the image. This, however, is not always helpful. If you find that the corner point is snapping to objects as you try to posi- tion it, you can hold down the Control key to prevent this snapping.
After we’ve distorted the word layer to match the perspective, we’ll tap the Re- turn/Enter key to lock in the transformation.
Create Separation Between Text and Background (6:04)
We’ll now create more separation between the text and what’s behind it. To do this, we’ll start by duplicating the layer using the keyboard shortcut Command+J (Ctrl+J on Win). Then, we’ll click back on the bottom of the two text layers in or- der to make it active. We’ll click on the FX icon at the bottom of the Layers Panel and we’ll choose Color Overlay from the pop-up menu. The Layer Style dialog will appear and the Color Overlay settings will be at the forefront.
The Distort
command is being used to position all four corners of the text layer so that it matches the perspective of the image.
The Color Overlay effect will cover up the contents of the active layer with a solid color. We’ll click on the color swatch in the Layer Style dialog so that the Color Picker appears. We’ll choose a solid black color and then click OK to close the Color Picker. Back in the Layer Style dialog, we’ll set the Opacity slider to 100%
and then click OK.
Now, if we were to turn off the visibility for the top layer, we’ll find that the under- lying text layer is now solid black.
A Color Overlay layer style was applied to the duplicate text layer, covering the layer in black.
We want to blur this shadow layer, so we’ll make sure that bottom text layer is active, we’ll click on the Filter menu and choose Blur > Motion Blur. The Motion Blur dialog will appear and we’ll set the Angle setting to 0 (zero) so that the blur is perfectly horizontal. We’ll experiment with the Distance slider until we like the effect. I like a lot of distance in the blur, so I set the slider to 165 in the video ex- ample. We’ll click OK to close the Motion Blur dialog.
TIP: If you create this effect with more than one text layer in the document, know that there is a trick for copying layer styles and filters from one layer to another.
This will make it so you don’t need to work with the Color Overlay and Blur set- tings more than once. To copy a style from one layer to another, hold down the Option key (Alt on Win) and then drag the layer style name from one layer to the other in the Layers Panel. Make sure that key is held down. If you simply dragged a style from one layer to another, it would remove the style from the first layer to place it on the second. You want both layers to keep the layer style.
The Gaussian Blur filter is being applied to the duplicate text layer that is serving as a drop shadow.
Create a Grid Guide using Vanishing Point (15:53)
When creating this text effect, there may be times where you don’t have a good reference line in the image. If that’s the case, there is a technique that uses some grid guide lines that will help you out.
Create a new, empty layer at the top of the layer stack. With this new lay- er active, click on the Filter menu and chose Vanishing Point. The Vanishing Point window will appear and the Cre- ate Plane Tool will be active by default.
Its icon looks like an angled grid on the left side of the interface.
Use the Create Plane Tool to click on the four corners of something that should be a rectangle in the image. In the vid- eo example, we clicked on the four cor- ners of a service station window.
After defining this rectangular plane, a grid will appear over the area. You can click and drag on the edges of the grid in order to extend the plane while main- taining the perspective in the image. We extended the grid so that it aligned with the bottom of the building and extended off to the right of the building.
The Create Plane Tool (left) is being used to click on the four corners of the window.
The grid is being extended beyond the building and the perspective is being maintained.
We want to be able to use this grid as a guide for placing the text back in the main Photo- shop interface. To achieve this, we’ll click on the little menu icon near the top left corner of the Vanishing Point window. A drop-down menu will appear and we’ll choose to Render Grids to Photoshop.
TIP: You can use the Grid Size setting in the upper left part of the Vanishing Point window to control how dense or expanded the grid lines should be.
We’ll click OK to exit the Vanishing Point window. Back in Photoshop’s main inter- face, the grid will now be placed on that empty layer we created at the top of the layer stack. We can use this layer as a guide when transforming our text.
The Render Grids to Photoshop option will place the grid on the active layer.
We’re using the Grid Size setting to control how dense or expanded the grid lines should be.
If the grid lines appear too light and are difficult to see, you can always duplicate the grid layer to make them denser and therefore show up better. In the video example, we duplicated the grid layer several times and then placed all of those grid layers into a layer group/folder.
Use Warp Command to add Curvature (21:03)
With this text effect, we’re not limited to using normal perspectives. We can also incorporate some curvature into the text. To do this, we’ll start by creating the perspective effect as was described earlier. Then we’ll use the Warp command to add the curvature. We’ll click on the Edit menu and choose Transform > Warp.
Points will appear in each of the four corners of the layer and these points will have handles extending from them. You can click and drag on the handles in or- der to warp the layer.
We will click and drag on the handles so that the han- dle line (see screen shot) matches the angle of the object we’re trying to align with. In the video exam- ple, we aligned the angle of the handle to match the curve in the subway build- ing. After working with the handles, you can fine tune the position of the layer by clicking and dragging on the edge lines as well. When you do this, it is essentially moving the handles for you.
With the Warp command active, we’re dragging the upper left handle so that it matches the angle of the building.
Make the Text Cast a Shadow (24:45)
We can also make it look as if the text layer is casting a shadow in the image. To do this, we’ll start by creating the initial text layer and applying the perspective dis- tortion. Then, we’ll duplicate that layer by using the shortcut Command+J (Ctrl+J on Win). With the duplicate active, we’ll click on the Edit menu and choose Trans- form > Distort. The transform handles will appear around the layer. We’ll click and drag down on the top two corners handles so that the duplicate text layer inverts below the original text layer. We’ll have to play around with those handles a bit as we attempt to keep the bottoms of the letters aligned while creating the shadow effect. (See screen shot) Once satisfied, we’ll tap the Return/Enter key to lock in the transformation.
The Warp handles were used to curve the text to match the building.
The Distort command is being used to flip a duplicate of the text layer so that it looks
Next, we’ll fill this layer with black by clicking on the FX icon at the bottom of the Layers Panel and choosing Color Overlay. The Layer Style dialog will appear and the Color Overlay settings will be at the forefront. We’ll click on the color swatch in order to access the Color Picker. We’ll use the Color Picker to choose a solid black color and click OK. We’ll make sure that the Opacity slider is set to 100%
and we’ll click OK to exit the Layer Style dialog.
Now we need to soften the shadow. We’ll click on the Filter menu and choose Blur > Gaussian Blur. In the dialog that appears, we’ll drag the Radius slider up until we achieve the softness that we want near the base of the letters. We’ll click OK to close the dialog.
The Gaussian Blur filter is being used to soften the duplicate text that is serving as the shadow.
In order to look natural, the darkness of the shadow should not be the same from the base of the letters all the way to the top edge. We’ll use a layer mask to limit where the shadow is visible. We’ll click on the Layer Mask icon at the bottom of the Layers Panel. Working on the mask, we’ll activate the Brush Tool and use a very large, soft-edged brush and then paint with black over the part of the shad- ow that is farthest from the original letters. Finally, we’ll lower the opacity of the layer until the shadow effect looks natural.
We could also move the shadow layer just below the original text layer in the Lay- ers Panel. This would prevent the darkening effect of the shadow from showing up over that original text layer.
A mask was added to the shadow layer and we’re painting with black on the mask, using a huge, soft-edged brush. This is lessening the shadow as it extends farther from the text.
Selectively Mask Text Layer (29:04)
Another thing we could do with this text effect is make it look as if the text ap- pears behind certain elements in the photograph. A layer mask can be used to achieve this.
Add a layer mask to the layer containing the text. To make it easier to see what’s behind the text, you can temporarily lower the opacity of the lay- er. This will make it easier to see where you should paint.
Activate the Brush Tool and paint with black over the parts of the image that should ap- pear in front of the text. This will hide the text layer, making it look like it’s behind the ele- ments of the image.
The opacity of the layer was lowered slightly so that we could see what’s behind the text.
We painted with black on the layer mask to hide the text layer in the areas where the X-shaped braces appeared. This makes it look as if the text is behind those braces.
