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Written by Steve Patterson. In this Photoshop tutorial, well learn how to create a fun 3D
pop-up effect, similar a childrens pop-up book, where the main subject of your photo appears to
be standing up and popping right out of an otherwise flat image.
To add even more of a 3D look to it, well be curling the edges of the photo using Photoshops Warp
command and adding a custom shadow underneath. Theres quite a few steps involved in creating
the effect but theyre all very simple and easy. Ill be using Photoshop CS6 here but any recent
version of Photoshop will work.
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Heres the photo Ill be starting with:
Lets start by making a couple of copies of the layer. Press Ctrl+J (Win) / Command+J (Mac) on
your keyboard to quickly make the first copy. Youll see the copy, which Photoshop automatically
names Layer 1, appear above the Background layer in the Layers panel. These default names that
Photoshop gives new layers are not very useful, so since this first copy will be used as the flat
version of our image, double-click directly on the layers name and rename it flat.
Press Enter (Win) / Return (Mac) on your keyboard when youre done to accept the name
change:
Now well make a second copy of the layer. Press Ctrl+J (Win) / Command+J (Mac) again on
your keyboard. Another new layer, this time named flat copy, will appear above the other two layers
in the Layers panel. Well be using this layer to create our pop-up effect, so double-click on the
layers name and rename it pop up. PressEnter (Win) / Return (Mac) when youre done to
accept the name change. You should now have three layers in total:
Change the name of the second copy from flat copy to pop up.
hide them from view (even though nothing will seem to have happened in the document window
since all three of our layers contain the same image):
When the eyeball disappears, it means the layers are turned off.
This opens the larger Gradient Editor dialog box, with a selection of preset gradients we can
choose from at the top. Select the Black, White gradient by clicking on its thumbnail (third from
the left, top row):
With the Black, White gradient selected, lets edit it and make a slight change. We can edit gradients
in the bottom half of the Gradient Editor. Double-click on the black color stop below and to
the far left of the gradient preview bar:
This opens Photoshops Color Picker, allowing us to change the black in the gradient to some
other color. Black is a bit too dark for our background, so choose a lighter gray to replace it with, at
least for now. Well learn how to go back and change the gradient colors if needed at the end of the
tutorial:
Click OK to close out of the Color Picker, then click OK to close out of the Gradient Editor. Finally,
click OK to close out of the Gradient Fill dialog box. If we look in the Layers panel, we can see our
new Gradient Fill layer sitting directly above the Background layer (but below the other two layers):
The Layers panel showing the Gradient Fill layer above the Background layer.
And if we look in our document window, we see the gradient background we just added:
Next, well create the flat version of our photo. Click on the flat layer in the Layers panel to select
it (so its highlighted in blue), then click on the layers visibility icon to turn the layer back on in
the document window:
Your photo will reappear in the document window since the flat layer is sitting above the Gradient
Fill layer and is now blocking the Gradient Fill layer from view:
Drag the top left handle towards the right. The top right handle will move towards the left.
Then click on the handle in the bottom left corner of the selection outline and, again with your
mouse button still held down, drag this handle outward towards the left. Since were still in
Perspective mode, the opposite handle in the bottom right corner will move outward along with it:
Drag the bottom left handle towards the left. The bottom right handle will move towards the right.
Now that were in Scale mode, click on the handle at the top of the selection outline and, with your
mouse button still held down, drag the handle downward:
Drag the top of the selection outline down towards the center.
Finally, click on the handle at the bottom of the selection outline, keep your mouse held down, and
drag this handle upward:
Continue dragging the handles to reshape the selection outline, switching between Perspective and
Scale modes as needed, until your selection outline looks more like its fading off into the distance.
When youre done, pressEnter (Win) / Return (Mac) to accept it and exit out of the Transform
Selection command:
This converts our selection into a layer mask. We can see the new layer mask thumbnail thats
been added to the flat layer in the Layers panel. The black area in the thumbnail represents the
part of the layer thats being hidden from view in the document, while the white area represents the
part that remains visible in the document:
And if we look in our actual document window, we see that everything on the layer that fell outside of
our selection has disappeared, leaving only the area that was inside the selection:
Then choose Stroke from the list of layer styles that appears:
This opens Photoshops Layer Style dialog box. First, we need to change the color of our stroke, so
click on thecolor swatch:
Choose white in the Color Picker when it appears, then click OK to close out of the Color Picker:
Back in the Layer Style dialog box, change the Position of the stroke from Outside to Inside:
Finally, click on the Size slider and begin dragging it towards the right to increase the size of the
border around the photo (keep an eye on the document window as you drag the slider). Im going to
set my stroke size to 16px, but depending on the resolution of your image, you may need to set your
size even higher to get a similar result:
When youre done, click OK to close out of the Layer Style dialog box. We now have our photo
border:
The image after adding the white stroke around the photo.
Selecting the main subject(s) that will pop out of the image.
Just as we saw earlier, Photoshop converts our selection into a layer mask, displaying a mask
thumbnail on the "pop up" layer:
The Layers panel showing the new layer mask thumbnail for the pop up layer.
And with the layer mask added, the area we selected now pops up out of the image:
This reloads the layer mask as a selection in the document window. Youll see the selection outline
re-appear around the flat version of the photo:
Hold down your Ctrl (Win) / Command (Mac) key and click on the New Layer icon.
Normally, Photoshop adds new layers directly above the currently selected layer, but by adding in
the Ctrl (Win) / Command (Mac) key, Photoshop places the new layer below the selected layer. In
our case here, it places it below the flat layer. Double-click on the new layers name and
rename it shadow, then press Enter (Win) / Return(Mac) to accept the name change:
Photoshop adds the new layer below the flat layer. Rename the new layer shadow.
Step 22: Fill The Selection on The New Layer With Black
Lets fill our selection on the shadow layer with black. Go up to the Edit menu at the top of the
screen and choose the Fill command:
This opens Photoshops Fill dialog box. Change the Use option at the top to Black, then make sure
the Modeoption in the bottom half of the dialog box is set to Normal and the Opacity option is
set to 100%:
Click OK when youre done to close out of the dialog box. Photoshop fills the selection on the
shadow layer with black. We cant actually see it at the moment in the document window because
the photo on the flat layer above it is blocking it from view, but we can see our black-filled area if
we look at the shadow layers preview thumbnailin the Layers panel:
Each layers preview thumbnail shows us whats on the layer, even when we cant see it in the document window.
Clicking the link icon to unlink the mask from the layer contents (the photo).
Step 26: Drag The Four Corner Points Upward To Curl The Corners
Youll see a warp grid appear around the photo. Click on each of the four corner handles on
the grid and drag them upward. As you drag each handle, youll see that corner of the photo curl
upward, and youll reveal some of the black shadow layer below the photo.
Press Enter (Win) / Return (Mac) when youre done to accept the effect and exit out of the Warp
command:
Drag each corner of the grid upward to warp the photo and curl the corners.
This opens Photoshops Gaussian Blur dialog box. Drag the Radius slider at the bottom of the
dialog box towards the right to increase the amount of blurring thats applied to the shadow. The
more blur we apply, the softer the shadow edges will appear. Im going to increase my Radius value
to around 10px, but depending on the resolution of your image, you may want to set your Radius
value higher, so be sure to keep an eye on the image in the document window as you drag the
slider:
Increase the Radius amount to blur and soften the shadow edges.
Click OK when youre done to close out of the dialog box. Heres what my shadow now looks like
after applying the blur filter:
The shadow edges are now softer thanks to the Gaussian Blur filter.
With the opacity lowered, the shadow now fades more into the background:
Step 30: Reshape The Shadow With The Free Transform Command
One last thing. Lets tidy up the shadow a bit so it looks more like its actually under the photo. Go up
to the Editmenu and choose Free Transform:
This places the Free Transform box and handles around the shadow. Im just going to click and drag
the left, rightand bottom handles inward a bit so the edges of the shadow line up better with
the edges of the photo:
Moving the left, right and bottom edges of the shadow inward.
When youre done, press Enter (Win) / Return (Mac) on your keyboard to accept the
transformation and exit out of the Free Transform command. Heres my effect after reshaping the
shadow a bit with Free Transform:
The shadow edges now line up better with the photo edges.
If you decide you dont like the color of the background gradient, one thing you might want to try is
sampling a color directly from the image to use for the background. Lets quickly see how to do that.
First, double-click on the Gradient Fill layers thumbnail in the Layers panel:
This re-opens the Gradient Fill dialog box just as we saw at the beginning of the tutorial. Click on
the gradientpreview bar to re-edit the gradient:
This will re-open the Gradient Editor. I want to change the gray color in the gradient to
something else, so Illdouble-click on the gray color stop below and to the far left of the
gradient preview bar:
Photoshop will re-open the Color Picker, but instead of choosing a color from the Color Picker, Im
going to move my mouse cursor directly over the image itself, which will temporarily turn my mouse
cursor into an eyedroppericon. To sample a color, simply click on the color you want in the image.
Ill click on an area of light blue in the snow. Photoshop gives me an instant live preview of what the
new color looks like in the gradient:
Once youve chosen a color you like, click OK to close out of the Color Picker, then click OK to close
out of the Gradient Editor and then the Gradient Fill dialog box. And with that, were done! Here, for
comparison, is my original photo once again:
And heres my final result after replacing the gray in the background gradient with a color sampled
directly from the image:
And there we have it! That's how to create a 3D pop-up effect with Photoshop!