Whether the business you lead is at the forefront of new technology or you’re looking to harness the power of tech to reach more customers, updating your images doesn’t require a huge amount of electronics or multiple software packages. Take a standard, flat picture and turn up the tech with a technological-look makeover in Adobe Photoshop. The options for tech tweaking in Photoshop are endless. You’ll find several ways to go from low profile to high tech through Photoshop’s colors, filters and merging ability.
Click the Photoshop “File” menu and select “Open.” Browse to the image you want to look technological as well as a tech-type picture, such as a keyboard or cell phone. Press and hold down the “Ctrl” key and click both images to highlight them. Click the “Open” button. If the pictures aren’t in the same location, browse to each individually and double-click them to open them.
Designate one image as the main picture to which you'll add a technological look. Click the other picture to bring it to the forefront of the Photoshop workspace. Click the “Select” menu and click “All.” Press “Ctrl-C” to copy the image.
Click back to the main picture. Press “Ctrl-V” to paste in the copied tech picture. Depending on the image’s dimensions, it may now completely obscure your main picture, but this is part of the process.
Check the “Layers” tab. Note a new Layer 1 above the main image. Click on it to select it.
Click the “Opacity” slider bar, which is set at 100 percent by default. Slide the bar to approximately 70 percent. Notice how the main image now has the tech image on top of it as a type of gauzy, half-visible overlay. Experiment with the “Opacity” slider until the image has your preferred look, such as an executive’s face with just the slightest hint of keyboard keys overlaying his features.
Right-click "Layer 1" and select “Merge Down.” The two images now become one so that you can work with them together.
Click the “Filter” menu. Click “Stylize.” Choose “Glowing Edges” from the fly-out menu.
Review Photoshop’s quick conversion of the image to a fiber-optic neon look. If you like this view, click the “OK” button. Otherwise, experiment with the “Edge Width,” “Edge Brightness” and “Smoothness” slider bars to customize the technological look. Click “OK” when satisfied to return to the transformed image.
Select the “Magnetic Lasso Tool” on the tool collection. If you don’t see this tool, right-click a small icon of a lasso near the top of the tool collection and choose “Magnetic Lasso Tool” from the fly-out menu.
Press and hold down the left mouse button, dragging around an object such as a computer screen or a person until it is selected. Note that the tool will “stick” to the borders or edges of the object to give you a clearer, crisper selection.
Click the “Image” menu. Click “Adjustments” and choose “Vibrance” from the fly-out menu.
Move the “Vibrance” and “Saturation” sliders all the way to the right. Note how the selected area takes on a neon glow. Experiment with the sliders until you are satisfied and then click the “OK” button to close the “Vibrance” window.
Click the “File” menu. Click “Save As.” Give the altered photo a new name so as not to overwrite the original picture. Click the “Save” button.
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