How to Create a Decrepit Scene in Photoshop

Sometimes the best way to communicate a concept is by communicating the concept's opposite or antithesis. For example, creating a decrepit scene of a house in Photoshop can call to mind the newness or wholeness of the actual house. One way of creating a natural-looking decrepit scene in Photoshop is by using its filters like "Liquefy." Filters are algorithms that transform picture data in ways that usually require extensive artistic training to produce by hand.

Instructions

1. Click the "File" menu's "Open" command then navigate to a picture of a scene with new or robust-looking elements you'd like to use as the basis of a decrepit scene. For example, if you want to create a scene with a broken-down house and surrounding environment, load a scene with a new house.

2. Click the "Window" menu's "Layers" command to display the "Layers" window, then right-click the item in that window. Click "Duplicate" to make a copy of the picture you loaded. This action safeguards your original image.

3. Click the eye icon of the bottommost layer in the "Layers" window to make the original picture invisible, then click the "Filter" menu.

4. Click the "Liquefy" command to make Photoshop display a window with tools for distorting the image on the currently selected layer.

5. Click the topmost icon in the left side of the "Liquefy" window to run the "Forward warp" tool, which pushes pixels ahead of your mouse cursor. Photoshop will change the mouse cursor to a circle.

6. Drag the circle to warp the image. Notice that the pixels surrounding those you drag over become distorted along with the dragged pixels. This makes the edges of the effect blend naturally with the surrounding picture. The result is that your picture's objects appear naturally decrepit, rather than becoming that way through overt manipulation.

7. Click the third icon down in the left pane of the "Liquefy" window to run the "Twirl" tool, which rotates the pixels under the mouse cursor. Use the previous step's instructions to distort the picture.

8. Use the instructions from the previous two steps to try out the other distortion tools on the left side of the "Liquefy" window, then click "OK" to finalize your decrepit scene.

References

• "Photoshop CS5 All-in-One For Dummies"; Barbara Obermeier; 2010