Pop Up Photo Project
Use one of your own photos (not one from the internet). It does not have to be a person, it could be a building, tree, animal, etc. The more the subject is in the center of the frame, the easier it will be. 
Make an object pop out of the photo by giving it a 3D effect:
- Open your file in Photoshop
- Go to Image—>Image size
- Change the largest size (in my case, it would be the height) to 10 inches and the resolution to 200
- Make two copies of the background (press COMMAND J) twice
- Rename Layer 1 to ‘Flat’ and Layer 1 copy to ‘Pop up’
- Make the Flat and Pop up layers invisible and select the Background layer
- Select ‘New Fill or Adjustment Layer’ on the bottom of the Layers Panel to add a gradient to the background (select ‘gradient’)
- Select the ‘Black White’ gradient (NOT the foreground to the background gradient)
- Edit the gradient from a black starting point to a mid gray. This is done by double clicking the ‘black color stop’ (the one on the bottom of the scale) and selecting a gray replacement. Press OK when finished.
- Your Layers Panel should look like this:
- Turn on the ‘Flat’ layer and select it (make sure it’s highlighted)
- Select the Rectangular Marque Tool (M) and make a selection around the part of the image that will be flattened
- Go to Select—>Transform Selection
- Press ‘Control’ while clicking inside the rectangle and then select ‘Perspective’
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- Select one of the top corners and move it inward towards the center (do not drag it up or down). The other handle should automatically start moving as well.
- Select one of the bottom corners and move it outward towards the edges (do not drag it up or down)
- Press ‘Control’ while clicking inside the rectangle and then select ‘Scale’
- Select the top middle square and draw down towards the center
- Select the bottom middle square and draw upwards towards the center
- Repeat the Scale and Perspective steps until the selection looks as if it’s fading back
- When you are finished with your selection, release it by pressing enter/return
- Add a layer mask
- Your project should look like this
- We need to add a border by clicking of ‘fx’ on the bottom of the Layers Panel
- Choose ‘Stroke’ from the list
- Change the color to white and press OK
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- Change the position to ‘inside’
- Change the Size of the border anywhere between 14-20 and press OK to close the box
- Select the ‘Pop up’ layer and make it visible
- On the ‘Pop up’ layer, make a selection around the portion of the image that is going to have the 3-D effect. Use any of the selection tools.
- Add a Layer Mask to the ‘Pop up’ layer
- On the ‘Flat’ layer, press COMMAND and click on the mask thumbnail (make sure your selection reappears)
- Add a new layer and place it under the ‘Flat’ layer and rename it ‘Shadow’
- Make sure the ‘Shadow’ Layer is selected and go to Edit—>Fill
- Change the ‘Use’ to ‘Black’ and the ‘Mode’ to ‘Normal’ and press OK
- On the ‘Flat’ layer, select the link icon to remove it (it’s located between the thumbnail of the large image and the thumbnail of the mask). This unlinks the mask from the layer and allows us to edit it.
- Go to Select—>Deselect (or COMMAND D)
- Make sure the layer mask thumbnail is selected from the ‘Flat’ layer and go to Edit—>Transform—>Warp
- Drag the corners upward to curve the corners. This will create a shadow. Release the selection by pressing ‘Enter’ or ‘Return’
- The shadow will appear sharp and look unrealistic. To fix that, select the ‘Shadow’ layer and go to Filter—>Blur—>Gaussian Blur.
- Change the Radius between 8-11
- To make the shadow blend even more, adjust the opacity in the ‘Shadow’ layer in the Layers Panel between 50-80
- Go to Edit—>Free Transform to resize the shadow so it lines up better with the edges of the photo
- On the ‘Gradient Fill 1’ layer, double click on the thumbnail to change the color of the gradient. Click on the gradient and then the gray square to change the color. Use the Color Picker to select the color that the gradient should be. You will do this by moving the Color Picker over the photo and click on the color you want. Press OK to close the box.
- Go to File—>Save
- Go to Layer—>Flatten Image
- Go to File—>Save As—>Check the ‘As a Copy’ box—>Format—>JPEG
- Post to your blog and write a description of your process. If it is having the ‘404’ error, post it ‘large’ or take a screen shot and post it (COMMAND SHIFT 4)
