Creating a Custom Paintbrush in Photoshop
As photographers, we often share photographs on the internet either as digital proofs to a client, in an online portfolio, or maybe in a forum for feedback from others.
To safe guard against unauthorized reproduction of these images, many photographers choose to stamp the image with their signature or copyright information.
I know that anyone can open their image in any image editor and get their copyright info on the image. This tutorial is for those of you that are like me; unorganized.
I never remember what font I used the last time I stamped an image. I thought maybe I should make myself a brush that I can use on every image. That way I can at least look a bit more organized than I really am.
Lets get started!
Create a new document with the width and height around 600 pixels.
Make sure the background is set to white.
Select the 'Horizontal Type Tool' (T).
Going off topic for just a minute. Windows includes a nice utility called Character Map. This is a nice way to find all those special characters that we don't have keys for on our keyboards. To open Character Map Click Start ->Run ->Type 'charmap' without the quotes and hit the Enter key. This will open the Character Map application. We can now click the letters and symbols we want and copy them to our clipboard. This allows us to paste the copyright symbol right into our Photoshop document. I should also point out one more thing. When you select a character in the Character Map, it gives us a keystroke or shortcut to use for that character. This is located under the copy button. So if you can remember the keystroke, you can type ALT+0169 to display the © symbol.
Back to our Photoshop document. With the 'Horizontal Type Tool' (T) selected, click in the center of your images and either type what you want your copyright stamp to say, or hit CTRL+V to paste in what you copied from Character Map. With all your text selected, you can now test out other fonts from the font menu.
Once you have your text how you like it, click on the 'Select' menu and the click 'Load Selection...'
A window will open with some default settings set. I just click OK here.
You will now see that our text is an active selection.
With the text still selected, go to the 'Edit' menu and click on the 'Define Brush Preset...' option.
We now get a distorted view of our brush and the option to give it a unique name. I just name it what it says. © 2007 Jesse Ascher, which is ALT+0169 for the copyright symbol. Once you named your brush click OK.
Well guess what. We just made your custom brush!
Lets open an image we want to tag with our new brush.
With the photo you want to tag open, select the Brush Tool(B).
Under the menu bar in Photoshop you should see some options for the Brush Tool.
Click on the little downward pointing triangle next to the brush diameter setting.
You should now see a list brushes. Scroll down until you see the brush you just made and select it.
Set the brush opacity to 100% and the master diameter to whatever size works for you.
NOTE: There are different views for the brush palette. I am assuming you know how to change the view. If you do not, try clicking the little triangle that is pointing to the right. There will be some options you can play with in there.
This is an optional step, but one I recommend. Back to your image... Create a new layer. (Shift + Control + N)
On your new layer give your brush a try. You can size it, adjust the opacity, and strength of your custom brush the same way as you can with any other.
If your stamp is boring or dull looking try using some layer styles to spice it up. The layers effect can be found under the Layers menu.
Another thing to try is different layer blending modes to give it a unique look.
If you like the look of your brush, try creating an action applying the settings you selected. This will speed up the stamping process in the future.