How to make your photo "monitor -like"

(jeg tar denne på engelsk, siden kanskje fler kan ha interesse for det)

Ok, I thought I'd try to explain how easy it is to make your pictures seem to appear on a monitor/television.

First you need this pattern (click to open, right-click and Save As)

Then you'll need a picture to "monitorize". I'll use this one:

And of course you'll need a software to use. I use Photoshop CS5 (any photoshop will do).

Ok; Open photoshop. Then start with opening the pattern-pic. Once opened, go to "Edit ->Define Pattern".

 Name your pattern, and click ok.

Now you've told Photoshop how this pattern works. Now, let's apply it to the picture!

Open the picture. Make a new layer (button in layerwindow, or "Layer ->New ->Layer")
Select the new layer, and select the marquee tool (shortcut; M). Press Cmd+a to select all, and then
go to "Edit->Fill" Choose "pattern" and select the monitor-patten that vi made earlier.

Now you have applied the pattern on top of the picture (if the empty layer is the top one, as it should be). In the layer-window, choose "Multiply" (multiply tells photoshop that everything that close to white, is transparent. Blacks is not) in the layer styles (you may choose something else, but I prefer multiply on this one).

 Now it starts to look like something, but we're not quite there yet...

Go to "Layer ->New Adjustmentlayer ->Curves". Make this curve (or play around yourself), and click ok.

At this point, the curve-adjustment inflicts all the layers. We want it only to inflict the pattern-layer. So hold the alt-key and click (option-click on Mac) between the curves-layer and the pattern-layer, in the layer-window. This will make the curves only work on the pattern.

And thats it! Quite easy really. You just make a new layer with the pattern applied, and blend it with the picture. Now you've monitorized the picture. Hope you liked it!

If you want to put your photo inside a monitor, just apply the pattern on after you scale it down. If you scale down the finished monitorized photo, you won't see the "pixels". So just apply the pattern after the scaling and transforming is finished. You can also scale up the pattern if you want it bigger.