Sean Johnson - I create things

Create a realistic photo in Fireworks

Mar 8, 2008 | Category: Tutorials
Tags: fireworks

The first in a series of tutorials for Macromedia / Adobe Fireworks. I’m still using Fireworks 8 but these examples can be followed in any version up to and including CS3. The basic principals can be applied to pretty much any graphics package.

It is expected that you have some basic skills with the pen tool and gradient fills.

1. Open your photo and resize it to a workable size.

2. Draw a white rectangle slightly larger than your photo and send to back…

3. then select both items and centre align them (both vertical and horizontal).

4. Copy and paste the white rectangle and bring to front. With only the copied rectangle selected, ungroup it and fill it with black. Use the pen tool to add some extra nodes to the edges. Click and drag to create Bezier handles.

5. Adjust the shape so that the corners just peek past the corners of the photo. Set the edge to feather with a setting of 10, and change the layer opacity to 50%. Send this ‘shadow’ shape to the back.

6. Use the sub-selection tool to adjust the shape of the ‘shadow’ shape to create realistic shadows.

7. Duplicate the white rectangle and bring to front. Change the fill to Gradient > Linear, then shorten and move the gradient fill handle over the top left corner. Change both colours of the gradient to #000000 (black) and set the top corner on the gradient to an opacity of around 10% and the other selector to 0% opacity - this creates a subtle page curl shadow effect.

8. Select all layers, group them and then rotate the selection slightly.

9. Repeat the process for any other photos.

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