The Open Window Tutorial

Aisha asked how I did the open window for my Assignment so I thought I would post a short tutorial on it here. I decided to put this on a page on my own website so it wouldn’t bog down the school server.

From your original create two copies of your background layer, doesn’t matter how they’re stacked as long as you have three of them. Turn off the bottom two layers and select the very top one, then begin creating a selection around the hanging papers and the window frame.

Now invert the selection (Select > Inverse) and create a mask. Your layer should now resemble the one below.

Turn on the layer directly below this one and move the window up.

Create a mask on this layer, then create a rectangular selection just below the window frame.

Fill the selection with black to “knock out” the bottom part of the window (see image below).

Turn on your very bottom layer (the third one), create a mask on it and paint out just the bottom part of the open window. Then select the layer directly above it and begin painting out the top part of the window behind the papers.

Now if you’ll notice the middle cross frame on our “open” window appears shorter than the one on the other window on the left. To remedy this we need to move that portion of the frame up. Create a layer just above the very top background layer. Select the layer directly below it and grab the Clone Stamp tool. Use the tool to select the frame between the papers (see image below), then select the blank layer above it and paint the frame a little farther up.

Do this with the frame on both sides of the paper, then use the same procedure with the Clone Stamp tool to select a white portion of the window and paint out the bottom two pieces of frame. When you are done it should look something similar to the image below. Now the middle frame is in the proper proportion to match the one on the left.

Next I dropped in the image of the kids playing and put it at the very bottom, behind all the background layers.

I took a sampling of the string color with the Eyedropper tool then used a brush about the same size as the string to paint in the missing piece. I also had to drop in the brick wall just outside the window and adjust the brightness on the kid layer to match the overall lighting of the piece.

That’s it! If you have any questions you can either post them here (in the comments section below) or send me an email (use the Contact link above).