How to Create Kaleidoscope Patterns from Your Photos
If you are like me you had a kaleidoscope as a kid. You would look through one end and turn a dial and the world would be displayed as a mirrored fractured shape. Thanks to Photoshop you can create kaleidoscopes from your photos. Any image with interesting color and shapes will work just fine.
Step 1
Convert the background layer to a regular layer by double clicking it and click Ok.
Step 2
Select the layer and use the Move tool to rotate to 60 degrees and position it over one corner of the image canvas making sure one side of the image sides crosses two sides of the canvas.
Step 3
Use the Magic Wand tool to select the empty background, choose Select > Inverse to select the shape and choose Select > Modify > Contract and contract the shape by one pixel. Now choose
Image > Crop to crop the image to the shape itself. It is important to do this to remove the anti-aliasing that Photoshop applies to the image edge as it rotates it.
Step 4
Duplicate the image layer.
Choose Image > Canvas size, click Relative and set the width to around 3 times the current image height (NOT its width), and the height to 2 times the current height. Select the middle top of the nine positioning boxes and click Ok.
Step 5
Choose View > Snap to > All and make sure View > Snap is selected. Click the Move tool and the top layer of the image and drag the left edge over the right until the W: value is -100%. Ensure the piece is lined up against the edge of the piece on the layer below.
Step 6
Merge these two layers by selecting the top one and press Control + E (Command + E on the Mac).
Duplicate this merged layer, select the top layer and choose Edit > Free Transform and, in the tool options area, select the middle bottom of the 9 point grid to fix the point around which the shape rotates. Set the Rotation to 30 degrees.
Step 7
Press Control + J (Command + J on the Mac) and then Control + Shift + T (Command + Shift + T on the Mac). This duplicates the current layer and repeats the transformation on it.
Repeat this until the kaleidoscope is complete – four times in all.
Step 8
Merge all the layers. Use the crop tool to select around the canvas. You can drag outwards if necessary to add back in any of the image that extends beyond the outside of the image canvas.
Step 9a
Now you can get creative with the shape. For example, you can make a duplicate of the shape and place it in the middle of the original shape sizing this second version down to a small size and then cropping the final image to a square shape. Use the Alt and Shift keys (Option and Shift on the Mac) to size the shape down leaving the middle in the same place and in proportion.
Step 9b
You can fill the middle with another kaleidoscope if desired. Here I used a Hue/Saturation adjustment layer to match the colors of the two kaleidoscopes better.
Step 9c
You can select the shape and choose Edit > Define Pattern to make it a pattern. You can then fill a larger image with it so it displays as a repeating shape.
There are lots of creative ways you can use your Kaleidoscope.
16 Responses to “How to Create Kaleidoscope Patterns from Your Photos” - Add Yours
October 31st, 2009 at 9:18 am
Wow nice photos bookmarked the tutorial to refer back to when I am not so tired!
October 31st, 2009 at 8:38 pm
Wow nice photos bookmarked the tutorial to refer back to when I am not so tired!
P.S. – Sorry, forgot to tell you great post!
October 31st, 2009 at 10:23 pm
Nice tutorial for a beginner like me, a chance to familiarize with basic setting in Photoshop.
October 31st, 2009 at 11:48 pm
If using a Mac, I can recommend Pixelmator – it comes with a built-in kaleidoscope filter and does a great job achieving the above.
November 2nd, 2009 at 4:49 am
I have created kaleidoscopes before but had not thought to create a pattern with them. I would like to know, however, how you were able to fill the layer with the pattern with no transparent spaces as these would have been a part of the pattern since it was odd-shaped. Could you please explain your process for this?
November 5th, 2009 at 2:45 am
Here’s a kaleidoscope sample I created a couple of years ago for my parent’s 50th anniversary. The orignial photo was taken of them in the bow of a boat cruising on Lake Atland, Guatemala.
November 6th, 2009 at 10:55 am
thank so much for sharing really help me in my work john
November 6th, 2009 at 3:19 pm
Kaleidoscope Photography is the name of my business – just didn’t use it as my website name, because most people balk at trying to spell it! I’m surprised I didn’t think of this myself, so…from your inspiration I will definitely put it to use:) Thank you!
November 7th, 2009 at 8:44 am
Can’t wait to try this, very cool!
November 7th, 2009 at 1:16 pm
you really inspired me with different style again.. thank you sir…. john
November 12th, 2009 at 5:08 pm
Hi,
I noticed in the step 7 image the hairline spaces between each duplicated and then rotated shape were apparent, then in 8 they are not. I have these spaces even after merging and getting my final shape and don’t know how to get rid of them or to avoid that in the previous steps. I contracted 1 pixel and everything. Can anyone help? I have done this technique about 8 times now, same results despite some tweaks.
thanks
November 13th, 2009 at 2:54 am
@stewar tward – If you are seeing hair lines in the pattern and you might, depending on the image you’re using, add a new layer below the offset layer and fill it with a color sampled from the image that will color the pixels that Photoshop has aliased (it seems to insist on aliasing the edge pixels even when they were solid in the original image). Merge the two layers and the problem will disappear. Because you are making a design to be used as a pattern by the time you use it as a pattern fill you won’t see any evidence of the lines.
November 13th, 2009 at 7:03 am
Great tutorial! Thank you.
November 13th, 2009 at 10:57 am
What an exciting thing to learn. I love kaleidoscopes and I have long wanted to do them to some of my photos.
Thank you very much for this wonderful tutorial!
December 31st, 2009 at 9:01 pm
I just tried it. In step 6, the rotation is 60 degrees and not 30 degrees as you wrote. Sure is a typo-error. Nice one. Happy New Year.
January 21st, 2010 at 9:18 am
Just tried it–I use Photoshop Elements, and some of the tools are slightly different, but everything can be managed. It turned out great.
Worth mentioning–for six-sided patterns the necessary angles of rotation will be 30, 60, or 120 degrees (depending on what step and what part of the image you’ve chosen, etc.) but you can also make a nice eight-point design with angles of 22.5, 45, 90, and 180 degrees. Even for the math-challenged (that’s me) the numbers are fairly simple; take 360 and divide by the number of points in the “star” you want, then divide by two, and by two again, etc. until you find the number you need for what you’re doing.
For the hairline fractures, after a bit of colorful language, I just finished it all up and then went back over it with the healing brush to fix the cracks. And there was an unplanned center hole that I filled by cloning a spot of appropriate color. Paint bucket fill worked well there, too, and also around the outside.
Thanks for a well-presented tutorial on a fun project. I’ll be using this one again.
Leave a Reply