Making a Paperclip look realistic in ACDSee Photo Editor

Today I had a request for a tutorial. Please ask when you’re wondering how to do something in either ACDSee Photo Manager & Photo Editor. With Live Writer I can create these quickly! When I started digiscrapping, I would see techniques & then try to figure out how to do them.

I must give total credit to Hummie & her awesome tutorials! Have you seen them? ACDSee has the same tools as Photoshop Elements & I can convert them. But I do need to give Hummie the credit as being the expert. I like scrapping with ACDSee Photo Editor because it’s so user friendly. And ACDSee Photo Manager is a great organizer. So, when you become familiar with the tools in ACDSee Photo Editor, there are many PSE tutorials that you can adapt.

To make a paperclip look realistic, layer your items & put the paperclip on the top.

1. Make a group of the paper & photo if you wish

• select both in the object palette by holding the shift key
• right click & choose Group
• items can be individually adjusted even when grouped!

2. Select the paper clip & rotate it a bit to make it look more realistic.

3. Add a drop shadow to the paperclip

• Select paperclip
• Under Object | Drop Shadow

4. Select the paper clip. Under Create | Eraser Tool

4. Under Navigate, move slider to right to zoom in on paperclip.

5. Use the pull down menu, move slider to right to make brush harder.

6. Carefully erase the inner or outer part of the paperclip - your choice.

Tip: Do little separate motions, so that you can use undo if needed.

7. For this part we’re going to add the realistic aspect of the paper being crumpled by the metal under the paperclip

• Using the Dodge tool - lighten the areas raised by the paperclip
• Under Fix, Select the Dodge Tool
• Select the photo layer, Click in the top left corner near the handle (it took me awhile to figure this out.  Clicking on the paperclip selects that.)
• Brush over where the metal would be underneath - this will lighten the area & it will seem as if the photo is lifted up there.  Mine is more pronounced.  To adjust the color, adjust the Exposure (higher # for more color).
• Select the matte.  Click in the top left corner near the handle to select it
• Brush over the matte on top of where the paperclip is underneath
• Using the Burn tool - darken the areas around the raised areas - the crumpled part
• Under Fix, select the Burn Tool
• Follow the instructions for the Dodge Tool
• Adjust the Exposure to adjust the color (lower # for less color)
• Keep using the two options until you get a realistic effect.  I found that making the brush size larger for the burn tool helps blend the effects.  It takes some practice. I’m sure that you can do better than my example!

8. Click on Fit to Screen - just to left of % box in Navigate

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