Tuesday, January 29, 2008

Use of the Gradient Tool in Adobe Photoshop CS3

This tutorial will go over the use of the Gradient Tool in Adobe Photoshop CS3. This is a short and focused tutorial on the capabilities of the gradient tool. Many different things can be constructed from such simple features. Many new web 2.0 buttons, headers and images are using finely tuned gradients to give off a smooth effect.

I personally like this look and feel, and will be developing it into some of my new tutorials. If you are looking for a more defined tutorial on how to use this feature, you can check out of the links to the side or a webpage from the resource site link. Also there is the full package of teaching tutorials that you will find summarized at the end of this tutorial. Enough of the idle talk lets continue with the tutorial.

Let's start by opening up Adobe Photoshop CS Extended and making a document of a large square shape (500 pixels x 500 pixels). Then you can select the Gradient Tool.

Now drag a line from the top left portion to the bottom right portion like shown in the image below.

Now you will see what happens with the color patterns from blue to brown. You can see the color pattern at the top left of the program. That is the way it is shown for a gradient.

Now select that gradient box and you will see the default option within it. There are a variety of pre-made color patterns.

Let's take a look at one in use. Pick the transparent rainbow.

Now drag a line from the top right to the bottom left.

Now you will get an opposing gradient image from another corner of the document. You could do with different layers and make all kinds of cool contrasting stuff.

Now lets get a fresh document and select the Linear Gradient located at the top of the screen as shown in the image below.

Now drag a line from the left to the right.

Now you will get a linear gradient with the transparent rainbow. The transparent rainbow is nothing more than a few blending changes. You blur the rain colors and then you set the opacity to about 50% and there you go.

Let's make another clean document and select the Angle Gradient.

Select the option Foreground to Background, which will take your personally made background and foreground colors and make an angled gradient with them. You can do this with any of the gradients.

Now drag a line from left to right.

Now you will have an angled gradient. My gradient is from blue to white so it looks like it takes up only half the screen. You can make yours look like whatever you want.

Now make a new document and select the Reflected Gradient.

Drag a line from the bottom left to the top right.

Now you will see the image below.

Now select the Diamond Gradient from the top. I am sorry for not having the proper caption for this. Now select the black and white color option.

Now drag a line from the top left to the bottom right.

Now you will have an odd looking diamond speared gradient object. I probably should have demonstrated this in another color pattern.

The rest of the options are pretty self-explanatory. Next to the gradient types are the modes you can run them in. I kept it on normal for simplicity sake. They are shown below.

The gradient is a great tool that has many useful possibilities. It has been used since digital graphic editing started and it will continue on with these brilliant programs. Nothing catches the eye more than a well used gradient in an image. It mimics the changing faces of the sky that we see everyday. Some people would state that they have never seen anything more beautiful than a colorful sky. I believe they may be on to something. I hope this tutorial has taught you a few features that Adobe Photoshop CS3 has to offer with gradients.

Monday, January 28, 2008

How to Restore old photograps to their former glory?

Back in the day, when you took a photo you were pretty much stuck with it. Altering the image after the fact was a black art known to few, and available to less than that. This is no longer the case. With the advent of digital imaging and more specifically, Adobe Photoshop, image editing has reached new heights of manipulative wizardry, allowing a competent user to not only touch up a photo, but to practically reinvent the image. Let's look at a few of the more basic things that Photoshop can do in the hands of even the most novice of users.

Got an awful blemish on that photo you want to post on Facebook? Not a problem with Photoshop's retouching tools, which can render even the most hideous acne invisible with the stroke of a few keys.

Torn or worn photos? Family heirlooms that cannot be replaced? Photoshop can take a scanned photo and retouch tears and scars, water damage and more to make the photograph like new again, even to the point of reinvigorating colors that may have faded over time. This ability is worth the price of Photoshop alone.

Closed eyes in that latest glamour shot? Yes, you were the only one other than Grandma who may have been half looped to begin with, and now what do you do? Use Photoshop to open the eyes, that's what!

Let's say you best picture of yourself just happens to include a former flame that's no longer so hot. Great news! You can edit out former boyfriends more quickly and easily than it was to get rid of them in the first place! You can take almost any unwanted object from a digital image forever, and it's not a difficult thing to do!

Photoshop has a great many more features that can help transform your photos from a contribution to the circular file to an image you'll want to treasure and share for years to come.

Restoring old photos to former glory and retouching other photos is one of the great advances in modern photography, due in large part to Photoshop. Start learning how Adobe Photoshop can make your photos sparkle!

Friday, January 25, 2008

How to Create Silhouettes Using Adobe Photoshop?

Do you want your image to have that commercial look? If you want to learn how to make a stunning background like what you always see on posters, follow these simple steps.

When you read a magazine, try to focus on the ad pages. Can you see cigarette ad with valleys and lakes for a background? Or a waterfall that was set behind a bar of soap? These images are called silhouetted images. When you say silhouette, it means that an image does not have a background of its own. It uses either text or other images as its environment. But before you can make this kind of image in Photoshop, you will have to create a Clipping Path first.

The first step is to put your image before a white background. You can do this by cutting an image from one document and pasting it to another document with a white background and make the necessary modifications. But, it is much better if you photograph your desired image and put a plain white paper or something for a background. Then, you can add text to serve as its background.

That was easy. But what if you are required to use another image as a background? This can be solved by the Clipping Path. How do we use this?

From the Selection icon located at the bottom of the Path palette, click the Make Work Path. This converts any selected area in the image into a path. You can use the other selection tools to select an image. To select the white areas of the background, use the Magic Wand Tool.

From the Select menu, choose Inverse to select the opposite areas. When you click on the Selection icon at the bottom of the Path palette, the selected image will be made into a path. Use the Pen tool to adjust your image.

Now, you will have to set your path to Clipping Path. To do so, from the path palette submenu, choose the Clipping Path. A dialog box will open. This allows you to choose which path to use as a Clipping Path. Now you can save the file in EPS or TIFF file format. This will mask your bitmap image when placed into page layout drawing programs or drawing software. Through this, any bitmap image will have high quality and will be resolution-independent.

How to choose the perfect selection tool for you?

Scenario: Using Adobe Photoshop, you wish to select and copy Aunty Edith from one photograph and paste her into another. Which selection tool do you use?

I have been asked this question so many times. My suggestions are usually rejected followed by 'Well, I prefer to use the Magnetic Lasso and that's that! Look, it works by pure magnetic magic!' - Mmmm.

Preferences toward any given selection method may vary, but I can only draw from my own experience as an Adobe Photoshop specialist and University lecturer in its uses.

If I were to sum up with one word why Adobe Photoshop is the best of the best, I'd put it all down to 'Control'. You must be in control of your selection, not your selection in control of you.

Who's in control then?
If your preferred selection method delivers the highest levels of control to you (the digital De Vinci), continue to use it. However, if you absolutely depend on 'one-click-wonder' solutions, you will fall short of becoming a pro.

Sure, taking the odd shortcut here and there doesn't harm anyone, but having as much control over Adobe Photoshop as you can manage will pay off.

The narrow path
Out of all of the selection tools currently available within Adobe Photoshop, the most useful for general and precise selecting has to be the Polygonal Lasso. It will not fill an area with a selection, nor will it trace the outlines of a shape. What it will do is deliver perfect control.

Cracking the whip over the Polygonal Lasso
In the past, some of my students have expressed some apprehension over using this tool due to the 'sticky-dart-around-the-screen' habit it seems to display. Let me make one thing clear - there really is nothing to be afraid of with this tool. If used correctly, the Polygonal Lasso will behave itself and, in the long run, save you masses of time and yield perfect selections.

Guide Points

Just follow these guide points and you will be creating perfect selections in no-time.

  • Get comfortable (by this I don't mean fluff up the cushions) - ensure that there are no palettes obscuring your image. Move them aside, minimise them or hit the Tab key (toggle) to hide them.
  • Zoom in - I tend to go in at a factor of between 100-200%. Use CTRL+ and CTRL -. Do this before you start your selection.
  • Take you time - Don't rush, speed will come with practice. Develop a confident rhythm of clicks first before galloping away with yourself.
  • Don't become too click-happy - If you click too quickly (constituting a double-click), you'll will close your selection before time.
  • Use the Backspace button - to undo (or unpick) any erroneous stitches. What was I telling you about the control!
  • Use the Spacebar (and left-click and drag) - to navigate. Don't use your mouse to control your movements around a canvas.
  • If all goes pear-shaped - hit the Esc key to cancel your selection.
  • To close your selection - either take your mouse pointer to the very start of the selection (a small circle should appear, signifying a close circuit), or hit the Return/Enter key to close the selection from the position of the mouse pointer to the start of the selection. Give it a go!

If it all goes wrong, you may be able to salvage you selection using the 'Add to selection' or 'Subtract from selection' button on the contextual bar.

Which Photo Imaging software is perfect for you?

Photo imaging software is a type of application that is becoming more and more popular throughout the world today. Almost everyone is capable of editing a photo in some way or another due to the different levels of programs available. Today you can search through beginners' software, professional software, web designer software and hundreds of the top selling digital imaging publications in retailers and online today. No matter what area of digital imaging you are interested in getting involved in or making a career out of, there is software out there perfect for you if you know where to find it.

There are hundreds of different types of software on the market today created for beginners in the world of digital editing. This does not mean that their software is basic and common, many of them do contain features and tools that intermediate level editors can utilize as well. When a software application says it is meant for entry level users, this means only that the software does not contain the same features and tools as the professional software. It also contains a wizard or on screen guide to assist you through each step of the editing process. This is something they need to advertise so you can be comfortable learning from a professional program for your learning level. Some of the best beginner's programs include, Apple Aperture 1.5, Corel Paint Shop Pro XI and HP Photosmart Essential. These are just a few of the top programs you can look for, if you are looking for professional programs these are more expensive and far more in depth.

The professional programs on the market today contain some of the newest and highest digital editing technology which exists today. Of course Adobe Photoshop CS3 is the newest and latest in the world of the professional photo editing applications. As Adobe has always been the leader for professional editors, they are constantly on top of the latest features and always trying to enhance their latest software. Although you can find thousands of different plug ins to make Adobe Photoshop applications easier for less experienced editors, using Adobe to its full potential on your own is an accomplishment not many digital editors can admit to. These professional programs do require quite a large investment, but to those who are serious about this career field, it is an investment that is more than worth it. For web designers, they have their own special Adobe programs to utilize.

As a web designer, whether you are in school now or you are already out on your own, the Adobe Fireworks was surely one of the programs you trained on. This web designer application is one of the best and most relied on in the industry of website programmer's applications. MGI Photosuite is another reliable application for programmers today. It helps them combine the designs and enhancements of digital editing with the layouts and creation of successful websites. No matter what area of photo editing and design you are interested in, you can be sure that there is a top of the line program out there perfect for your preferences.

The most successful and popular applications are created by Adobe, but there are many other top of the line manufacturers out there as well. The list includes HP, Corel, Extensis, MGI and many more. By searching online you can find the many consumer reviews to second your opinions of each company so you are 100% certain before you make a large investment on any application.

Photo imaging software can be quite a large investment depending on the level and preferences you choose for your application. Many users find once they have tried editing and enhancing, they cannot go back. It is something many people get the hang of instantly and only increase in skill and creativity. No matter which program you choose to either begin your career or advance it, you can be sure that these top of the line manufacturers listed above have the track record of reliability behind them to earn your trust.

How to smooth edges in adobe photoshop CS3?

To start the tutorial please open Adobe Photoshop CS3 and click (File, New...) like the illustration shows.

Now you should name the project we are working on and set the width and height to something at or above 550x450. Please use a resolution over 90% otherwise the output will not look as smooth as it possibly could. Keep the background as white.

Now you can see our background layer and what we are going to work with. However, we will not be working on the background layer itself. We are going to create a new layer by selecting the icon on the bottom right corner of the screen that creates new layers.

Now you can see the new layer that we have created.

Now we are going to make the background not viewable so we can focus on Layer 1.

Now you can selected the Custom Shape Tool from the selection toolbar on the left side of the screen.

I have constructed an arrow with a black base so that it is easy to see the difference when you change the smoothness.

Now we are going to select the Vector Mask Thumbnail. You can do that by Control-Left Clicking on the thumbnail.

After you have selected the Vector Mask Thumbnail, we can go to the bottom of the right toolbar and select the Add Layer Mask button. This will add a layer mask to the object we have created.

Now we can select the Layer Mask Thumbnail so that we may single it out for changes. You then can select Control-D, to deselect the layer.

Now we can go to the top toolbar and select (Filter, Blur, and Gaussian Blur...). Select a ration of 4.0 pixels to make it an even blur.

Now you will see that the Layer Mask is blurred by the filter we have just implemented.

Now you can select the Layer Mask Thumbnail. You can do this by pressing Alt-Left Click to the layer mask available.

After selecting the thumbnail, select (Image, Adjustments, Levels...).

You will now see a graph with three pyramids on the edges from 0-255. The closer you bring the three triangles to the middle the smoother your object is going to look. This is where you are able to play around with how your object will look with the variances of the degrees. If you have something special in mind you can adjust this how you please. I brought my pyramids rather close to the middle. It seemed if I brought them too close the smoothness almost became too smooth to use for a picture.

Here you can see the selection I made and what it looks like on the screen.

Press "OK" and you will end up at this screen.

Now you should select the Layer Mask Thumbnail. Use a right-click to bring up a menu

The menu that you see when you right-click the Layer Mask Thumbnail will look like the illustration below. Please select the Add Layer Mask to Selection option.

You will see now that a dotted line is now around the object of the layer mask.

Now you will press Alt-Left Click on the Layer Mask Thumbnail to complete the implementation of the layer mask to the object.

Now you select Control-D to get rid of the dotted lines and deselect the Layer Mask Thumbnail.

Now you can make the background visible again and look how smoother it is on a white background after it has been smoothed.

This process to smooth the edges of objects is a great tool that anyone with a little patience can use to improve the look of their objects. It does not matter whether you are using it for pictures or for web content. I hope that this tutorial has taught you a few features that the Adobe Photoshop CS3 is capable of.

Wednesday, January 23, 2008

Dark and Light Edges in Adobe Photoshop

Want your images to have effects that’ll make it stand out more and show up well on every background tones? With Photoshop, you could achieve these effects for your images by its features that work on light and dark edges. These allow you to work on bringing out the best edges of your image – lighten or darken it, anyway you please to match on background tones and make it stand out more.

Through highlighting edges of your photo, you also highlight its details. The method of unsharp mask and others like the difference of Gaussians increase the change in brightness close to each step. This technique’s standard version adds a bright halo along the bright edge of the step and a dark halo along the dark edge. Depending on what effect you’d like for your image, there are advantages in just using one or the other. Using both may not do very much to improve your image, though.

There are several advantages of using any of the effects for the edges on real images. One is that it reduces interference between steps or detail and the haloes from other, nearby steps. Another thing, the light or dark haloes make other features of the image stand out better from the background.

Start doing this effect on your images using Photoshop by following several procedures:

1st step is duplicate the layer holding the image

2nd step - apply the conventional unsharp mask

3rd step - set the layer blending mode to “Darken” or “Lighten”.

However, you must understand that this only works for 8 bit per channel images – those that can be put into layers but it could function also on 16 bit per channel pictures with Optipix plug-in that allows direct selection of dark or light edges.

If you are not sure about which edge halo to use, there are general rules regarding such:

1. On light background tones, light edges don’t show up well and vice versa on dark ones.

2. The halo should lie on the background, not on the foreground. This technique helps the feature stand out without having to change its brightness values.

Sometimes the following rules are in conflict. It is necessary, then, to try several combinations to decide which is best. You can try both edges, light edges only, dark edges only. You can experiment since different regions of your image may call for different answers.

As you experiment for the best results, you’ll come to know that using unsharp mask filter may drive you to add too much additional local contrast. Understand that though adding some local contrast can make a bland image turn into a good one, adding too much creates a disaster. Take care not to add too much and make the image appear more like caricatures than photos. Remember that what looks best on the computer screen may not be the same in print since the process somewhat compresses contrast and blurs detail.

What is the use of selection tool in Photoshop?

There is no photo editing or graphic design project that you cannot accomplish using Adobe Photoshop if you are thoroughly familiar with the tools available. The tool that seems to be necessary for nearly every application in Photoshop is the selection tool. The selection tool isolates objects for the purpose of editing specific areas of your image without effecting the entire image.

The selection tool in Photoshop is actually four tools depending on your particular task. The selection tool includes the Rectangular Marquee Tool, the Elliptical Marquee Tool, the Single Row Marquee Tool and the Single Column Marquee Tool.

What can you do with the selection tool in Photoshop? The following are just a few examples of projects or applications you might being doing in Photoshop and how the selection tool can make your life easier.

Cropping

Cropping images requires that you use the selection tool to designate the section of the image to be removed or cropped.

Adding Text to Images

If you plan to add text to an image or graphic design you can also designate the area to add the text using the selection tool.

Isolated Color Work

Let’s say you want to adjust the saturation or hue of a particular object in a photography. The selection tool will allow you to isolate the object and then adjust the color as needed. You can adjust the entire selected area or isolated color channels.

These examples are obviously a very small sample of the ways you might use the selection tool in Photoshop. In fact, the selection tool is used for hundreds of different photo editing projects or more.

The selection tool in Adobe Photoshop is probably one of the most important tools that you will use in your photo editing and graphic logo design work. As you learn Photoshop be sure to develop a solid grounding in the use of the selection tool.

Beginners guide for adobe photoshop

1. Follow quality tutorials

Rather than focusing on cool effects, find tutorials that describe how to do things in detail. At first, it is probably best to follow tutorials step by step exactly how they were written. Once you are comfortable with the basics, then try to use tutorials as a guideline only. Use them as inspiration to come up with your own creations.

2. Learn some shortcuts

There are tons of keyboard shortcuts in Photoshop. When you are switching tools constantly (and you pretty much always will be) it is much faster to press a key than to move your mouse over to the tool palette, find your tool, then move the mouse back to your image. It does not take long to memorize the commonly used shortcuts (for example, press the 'v' key to use the move tool).

3. Start out by learning basic tasks

Use fewer colors and less complicated forms in your designs until you get a feel for what works well together and what does not. Don't set out to create a city skyline, rather, just create a building. Get your building making skills perfected, then go for the skyline.

4. Try to break up large graphics

Let's say you create a website design in Photoshop. Do not save the whole thing as one image - it will take forever to load in a browser. Learn how to use slices - this will aid you in creating a fast-loading, well coordinated site.

5. Hang in there

It's easy to look at other people's designs, compare them to your own, and get discouraged. There are many talented designers out there, but only you have your unique ideas. Over time, you will develop the skills needed to translate your ideas into masterpieces.

Tuesday, January 22, 2008

What are the Tips for photoshop to make you feel like a pro

Do you feel intimidated when you are trying to learn Photoshop? Are you getting frustrated every time you open Photoshop and try to do something?

Here are the top ten tips to help you feel like a pro, Fast.

  1. Double-click to open documents: To open a document in Photoshop, just double-click on the grey Photoshop window background and hey presto.
  2. Hiding the Palettes with the Tab key: Need more room on the screen? Hide the palettes by pressing the Tab key. Get them back by pressing Tab again.
  3. Full screen mode: Need even more space? You can toggle between a full screen mode with and without menu bar, and normal editing mode just by clicking the F key.
  4. Nudging: Want more precision on your moves?. Hold down the Control key and use the up, down, left and right arrows to move the layer 1 pixel at a time. To move the layer by 10 pixels at a time, hold down the Shift key as well.
  5. Moving whole layers: An easy way to move a whole layer is to simply hold down the Control key and click and drag on your layer with the mouse
  6. Copy layers between documents: You can copy a layer from one document to another simply by clicking on it in the Layers palette and dragging it across to the second document window
  7. Use Layer Sets: Layer sets let you organize your layers into folders - very useful if you have lots of layers in a document! An example of this may be a vector background with a complex foreground mosaic. You could make a folder for each the background and the foreground. To create a new Layer Set, click on the folder icon at the bottom of the Layers palette, then drag layers on top of a layer set to add them to the set
  8. Choosing colors quickly: Press I to bring up the Eyedropper tool, then click on a colour in your image to make that colour the foreground colour. Press the ALT key and click to make the color the background color instead.You can also press the D key to reset the foreground and background colours to the default (black and white), and the X key to swap the foreground and background colours.
  9. How to get straight lines: Constrain movement of the mouse to the nearest 45-degree or 90-degree angle just by holding down the Shift key while you click and drag with the mouse.
  10. I Made a Mistake, What do I do: Try pressing CTRL, Z to undo the last command. If its older than the last then open the History Window from the Windows menu. From here you can see all the changes you have made. Highlight the change you want to undo and then click on the rubbish bin.

OK so now you should be a little bit more comfortable with using Photoshop. So get going and create.

Monday, January 21, 2008

How to emboss an image in Adobe photoshop?

If you create graphics for the Web or print and would like to use an embossed image on a background, Photoshop enables you to do just that. In fact, Photoshop provides more than one method for embossing. Embossing an image is not difficult, but its success relies on careful image selection. A good candidate image will have some texture, but not too much. Images with a large amount of detail may require too much "clean up" to be useful.

If you're trying to emboss the subject of your image, you'll want to remove or at least minimise the background before you do anything else. You can use the Magic Wand tool to select the elements of the photograph you want to remove. Once you've identified all of the areas to be removed, press the delete key. Everything that was selected with the Magic Wand tool will be replaced with your default background colour. You may have to repeat this step several times to remove all of the unneeded material from your image. You may also need to use the Eraser tool to get rid of the little bits you don't want.

Once your image is clean, save it as a GIF file and place it on a transparent background. Open your image in RGB mode and choose Stylise/Emboss from the Filter menu.

This will transform your image from its coloured state to a grayish image. Using the sliders, adjust the depth of the embossing and the angle. You can preserve detail by increasing the opacity of the image. If you plan to use your embossed image as a background, don't preserve too much detail - lest it command too much attention. Save your image. Gray is not always the nicest colour in the world, so once your embossed image is saved, you can adjust the colour to one that complements your design. To do this, you'll want to select the Enhance/Adjust Colour option. Select Colourise and adjust the Hue, Saturation and Lightness sliders to narrow in on the colour you want. A background image shouldn't stand out too much, so aim for light colours.

Sunday, January 20, 2008

What are the most common myths of Adobe photoshop?

Adobe Photoshop, the top choice for digital darkroom use, can be a complicated program to use. Many options and possibilities, some of them completely unexplained, make Photoshop as once mysterious, intriguing, and downright difficult to use. Photoshop enjoys a lot of buzz on the Internet, and there are plenty of myths associated with the program. Get to the bottom of these Photoshop Myths.

Photoshop tips, photoshop tutorials, and photoshops myths abound on the Internet, many of them not at all helpful. Some photoshop tutorials only make using Adobe photoshop more impossible. How do you separate the photoshop myths, tips, and tutorials to come up with a great picture of what photoshop really is? First, you have to start debunking the most common and popular photoshop myths.

One popular photoshop myth is that you cannot get a quality print from a jpeg image unless the final output image resolution is a multiple of printer resolution. This is untrue. Another popular and oft-touted myth is that a printer resolution of 300 ppi is superior to resolution of 240 ppi. While this myth is true, it’s really a nonissue that photoshop tutorials throw in to confuse users. Some tutorials even claim that every image should receive 16-bit treatment – which is an unnecessary waste of time.

Of all the photoshop tips available on these tutorials, one holds more importance than others. When working with Adobe photoshop, it is essential to use layers and masks. You cannot use photoshop to its fullest without taking advantage of adjustment layers and masks that will give your photos that perfect, polished look. Not mentioned often in photoshop tutorials or in photoshop tips list is that you should only fix one problem at a time instead of trying to take care of several at once. By working on each problem in a step-by-step basis, you will get much better results from photoshop – and your pictures will be the proof of your effort.

While there are some photoshop tutorials that will only confuse you and make using photoshop seem like an impossible goal, there are many helpful tutorials and photoshop tips available online for those who want to learn more. Several books have been written that discuss the uses of photoshop much more in-depth for those that need longer explanation and more photoshop tips than the average digital photographer.

Adobe photoshop is actually a program that can be used by anyone who wants to make downloaded images or digital photos look more professional, or add borders and stylistic changes to their photos – not just those who understand complicated computer jargon and know how to wade through the mess of available photoshop tips and tutorials. Start out slow and do some experimenting and playing around with your images. The more you use Adobe photoshop, the more comfortable with photoshop you’ll be. Soon, you’ll be able to do anything to your photos – you might even write your own photoshop tutorial for the web. Playing around and experimenting with photoshop may go against the photoshop myths that say you should study first and take a photoshop tutorial before you begin using the program, but it’s much more fun to learn on your own and usually more beneficial in the end. The more you learn on your own, the more information about photoshop you will retain. Going through a tutorial isn’t the same photoshop you will retain. Going through a tutorial isn’t the same as learning on your own, so it’s always best to experiment with photoshop on your own no matter how many photoshop tutorials you read. In spite of the photoshop myths, you really will learn much better on your own what techniques and tricks to use when working with Adobe photoshop.

Whether you’re working in color or black and white, don’t be afraid to use different layers, tools, and masks to fix one problem or make one embellishment at a time. The good thing about photoshop is that your picture possibilities are almost endless, and there is almost no limit to what you can do. Whether you’re an amateur or professional digital photographer, or just want to make some images look better for your web site, there is one photoshop myth that is true: anyone can benefit from using Adobe photoshop, and every picture could always stand a little improvement.

Saturday, January 19, 2008

What is the use of dodge and burn tool?

This tutorial will go over too underused programs by Adobe Photoshop CS3. These two tools are the Dodge tool and Burn tool. These tools have the unique characteristic of lightening or darkening an area in an image. This comes into handy when you have pictures that may be too dark in some areas to see what is going on or to bright to see things. I have used a picture with a mixture of dark and light areas that could use some fabrication. This tool has been around for quite some time, but is very useful none the less. Let's continue with the tutorial so we can see just how this affects the image.

First open up Adobe Photoshop CS3 and select an image that you want to lighten or darken. now select the Dodge tool as shown in the diagram below.

Image #1

Now select an area that you want to lighten.

Image #2

Now click once or twice and check the changes this makes to an area on image. You can change the amount it changes per click by going to the top and changing the Exposure percentage. You can also change the brush size up there if you want to do a bigger or smaller area at a time.

Image #3

Now select the Burn tool from the menu on the left.

Image #4

Now you can see the tool image on the left.

Image #5

Now select the lightened area that we just changed.

Image #6

Now click a couple times and look at the output. It looks almost like it did when we started. It will probably never go back to the same way it was though. We can always try to get close though.

Image #7

Now if you click a few more times you make that little house in the background behind the photographer almost disappear. I can see this being used when something revealing is showing in a reflection in a picture. This is how they would try to make it unviewable.

Image #8

I hope that this tutorial has taught you how to effectively use the Dodge tool and the Burn tool. I am sure that you will find more useful things to do with it, but this is a nice example of it being used on an image in real life. Whatever image you choose to change make sure you take your time and display some effort in your work. It will go a long way in creating your masterpiece.


Tuesday, January 15, 2008

How to add text to images in adobe photoshop?

The possibilities for creating images with text in Photoshop are exciting. By adding text to your photo projects you will be able to make your own postcards, add slogans to photo collages, create advertisements, web site graphics, logos, signs, color photo brochures, flyers, and much more.

The following are a few of the things you can do with text in Photoshop.

Moving Text

One of the benefits of Photoshop’s system of layers is that you can move text around. In fact, you can move each letter of a word independently of each other. This allows the user to perfectly position text for the best composition.

3D Text Effects

You can create shadows behind text, give it texture or make it glow.

Put Photos inside Text

With Photoshop it is easy to create text with photo image inside. In other words instead of creating a solid color or texture you can fill the text with a photographic image. This is only useful when you are working with very large fonts.

Curved Text

You can even create text that is curved or is in different shapes.

You can see that the possibilities for incorporating text into your images are limitless. The most important thing to consider when working with text in Photoshop is to choose the right font for the job. Some fancy fonts may not be strong enough to show up or print well over a busy image. Experiment with different fonts and font sizes for the best result. Also, if you plan on printing your project don’t assume that because it looks good on your monitor that it will print well. Print your image to see how the text looks on paper. One way to make your text stand out is to use blending options including shadows and various filters.

Removing Background from an Image in Photoshop

If you have ever done any image editing in Photoshop, you know that one of the hardest things to do is to take an image out of its current background. I have a very easy way to do this, which is also very accurate in getting just the image that you would like to use. Here are the steps to use to remove the background from an image in Photoshop.

The first thing that you need to do is to open the image whose background you would like to remove. Then select the Magic Wand Tool from the Tools box. The Magic Wand Tool is a great tool to get the image you are trying to select roughed out. This tool will select a section of an image based on the color of the image. Do not worry about getting everything exactly right using this tool, but you want get a rough selection of the image you are trying to extract from the background. You want to click on the image to make the first selection, and then hold down the shift key while clicking to continue adding selections, until you have the entire image that you would like to remove selected. Right now you will probably notice that not the entire image has been selected, or that the selection is not very clean looking. To fix this, Photoshop has a very handy built-in tool to help clean up your selection.

Right below the color selection area in the Tools box is two small icons that look like cameras. The one on the right is Edit in Quick Mask Mode, click on this one and everything you have not selected will turn red. Then you can use the eraser tool to add to your selection, and the paint brush tool to remove from your selection. After using these tools to clean up your selection, click on the Edit in Standard Mode button to see your finished selection. Then you can click on Edit, Copy and then click on File, New to open a new image. Photoshop will look at the image that you have copied on the clipboard, and size the new image to the same size as the image copied. Then paste your copied image to the new image, and you will have your extracted image with a transparent background.

Monday, January 14, 2008

Learning to use the Photoshop toolbox

Learning to use Photoshop does not have to be difficult. In fact, the more you learn about Photoshop and the wide range of applications available the more excited you will be able the possibilities for creating professional quality images and graphics for web sites, marketing materials and more.

The Photoshop toolbox is where it all happens. Almost every single thing you do in Photoshop will involve using tools from the toolbox. Learning to use the Photoshop toolbox will require a good Photoshop tutorial but the following should give you an idea of the functions available.

The following are a list of the tools included in the Photoshop toolbox and their applications. This is not a comprehensive list but includes the most commonly used tools.

Marquee tool

This tool is part of the selection tool and allows the user to selections.

Move tool

The move tool is used to move layers and selected objects within the canvas.

Brush tool

The brush tool paints brush strokes.

History brush

You will want to learn to use the history brush tool as it can take you back to the original state of the selection. You have a lot off fun with this tool. Once you learn to use it properly you will be amazed by the professional photo effects you can produce.

Eraser tool

This tool erases solid colored areas.

Dodge tool

This tool lightens areas of your picture selectively.

Burn tool

This took make areas on your image darker. Burning and dodging are techniques that were original practiced by photographers in traditional darkrooms for the purpose of lightening or darkening images.

Type tool

The type tool is used to put text on your image.

Type Mask tool

The type mask tool is a tool located on the toolbar that allows you to create a selection in the form of text or type.

The real benefit of Photoshop over some of the lesser photo editing software applications is the toolbox. Many of the cheaper photo editing programs do not provide such a wide selection of tools allowing the user to have total control over the creative process. Photoshop puts total control over your final image in your hands. That is why so many professions use Photoshop.

Why is training necessary to become proficient in Adobe Photoshop?

Novices often balk at the complexity of Adobe Photoshop. To the inexperienced user its greatest advantage – the mindboggling range of options – becomes its biggest drawback. However, for those who are willing to persevere through the Photoshop training necessary to become proficient in the basics – and a little training is required, believe me – the benefits of this vast array of options will soon become apparent.

You see, that’s the thing about Photoshop (and most image editing software, generally). What seems maddeningly complex from the outside becomes much simpler, almost intuitive, once the user has invested a little time and effort in training – the tutorials, tips and tricks and good old trial and error.

So, here is your situation: you’ve spent a little time getting a good hold on the basics of Photoshop. You can comfortably manipulate an image and produce a fairly good result. Not fantastic, but acceptable. The choice you now face is this: either sit back and rely on your current skill level - continuing to produce ‘acceptable’ results - or forge ahead with your training, mastering the finer points and advanced options of the software until you are capable of producing excellent work. Not just acceptable, but exceptional.

Whether you’re working in the creative industries or just editing images for your own enjoyment, if a job’s worth doing it’s worth doing right. The skills you’ll learn through advanced training in Photoshop will pay dividends far into the future, and right now you’re standing in the doorway to creative freedom.

Sunday, January 13, 2008

How to create your own brushes in adobe photoshop?

Making custom brushes is one of the easiest things in the world. Seriously! I don't know why I've read some tutorials that make it out to be this multi-step, intimidating process. Creating your own brushes helps to customize both your artwork and the Photoshop work environment.

The Hard Part

"But ... you said this would be easy!!" Technically, yes, but I've found that some people actually reach a little stumbling block when trying to think of what would make a good brush. Well, the short answer is ANYTHING! I've made brushes out of fuzzy leopard slippers, bananas, old trash cans, fabric swatches, dirt ... hundreds of things. It helps to have a scanner and/or a digital camera ... that really opens up your possibilities. Just a quick walk around your house might yield dozens of fun textures you can make brushes out of. But, even if you don't have either of those, you can often snurch some good textures off the internet. Try a google search for marble tile and see what comes up. Sometimes you'll get a nice big image to work with. I'm not condoning stealing someone's art photos to rip a brush off with, but if it's just a sample photo of tile, or fabric, or screen, or whatever, I think it's perfectly fine ... you'll be drastically changing the image in the next steps anyway.

The Next Steps

Okay, so you've got some good textures then? Right, let's make a custom brush out of 'em! Open up your image in Photoshop. The first thing you'll want to do is desaturate the image (Shift+Ctrl+U in PS7). Then cut and paste what you've got into a new layer. Now delete the background layer. Once you're down to just the single layer, mess with the brightness/contrast until you get the desired effect (this will require you to think a little bit about how you might use the brush in the future - will you be wanting to use it as a 'grunge' effect ... something more technical ... etc. etc.)

The Super Easy Part

Now that you've got the image looking like you want, you'll need to create it as a Photoshop brush. Go to 'Edit' then choose 'Define Brush'. Give your new brush a name and that's it!! Easy, huh?

Saving All Your Hard Work

There are few things worse than having hundreds of cool brushes gone in an instant. It's happened to me on one occasion where my hard drive fried out and I didn't save all my customized Photoshop stuff. So I'm going to help you avoid any tragedies and tell you how to save your brushes.

Once you've got an amount of brushes made (I personally like to create 'sets' of brushes that all kind of work together, or just happened to fit my mood that day!), go to 'Edit' then choose 'Preset Manager'. A window with all your current brushes will pop up. You can click on each little square individually. What you're going to want to do is shift+right click on the series of brushes you want to save. Once you've done that, click on 'Save Set', give the set a name and save it to your computer (of course these brush files are what you're going to want to back up!). There, you're done!

How To Get Other Custom Brushes Into Your Pallet

If you've found a cool brush set on the web and you'd like to use them, after you download the file (usually a zip file), you'll want to extract them to your Photoshop/Brushes directory. To load a brush set in Photoshop, open the Brushes Palette ('Windows', 'Palettes', 'Show Brushes'). Select Load Brushes from the menu on the Brush Palette and choose your file. That's it!

Saturday, January 12, 2008

How to Create ghosting effects with photoshop

In this Adobe Photoshop tutorial, we're going to look at a way to give a photo a more "ghostly" appearance.

I'm a fan of horror films, but I admit I'm a bit shallow in that I usually just watch them for the special effects. I'm usually sitting there thinking to myself, "I wonder how they did that". So while playing around in Photoshop one night, I came up with this little technique for taking a living, breathing person and making them appear more like a ghost, which is why I called it"ghosting an image". It's a simple effect with only a few steps involved and they're easy to do.

Of course, as with most photo effects, it helps if you start with the right type of image. A photo of your kids playing at the beach on a summer afternoon may not be the best choice. Then again, you never know till you try it.


Step 1: Copy The Background Layer

As always, we never want to work directly on our Background layer, since it contains our original pixel information, so the first thing I'm going to do is copy it. I'm a big fan of naming layers and you should be too, so I'm going to use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl+Alt+J (Win) / Command+Option+J (Mac) to bring up the New Layer dialog box. I'm going to name my Background copy layer desaturated, and we'll see why in a moment:

This gives me a copy of my Background layer in the Layers palette, which Photoshop has named "desaturated":

Step 2: Desaturate The Background Copy Layer

With my "desaturated" layer selected in the Layers palette, I'm going to, you guessed it, desaturate it to remove all the colors. To do that, I'll use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl+Shift+U (Win) / Command+Shift+U (Mac). The image now appears black and white:


Step 3: Copy The "Desaturated" Layer

I need to make a copy of my "desaturated" layer at this point, so with it selected in the Layers palette, I'll use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl+Alt+J (Win) / Command+Option+J (Mac) once again to bring up the New Layer dialog box. This time, I'll name the layer "motion blur":

I now have three layers in my Layers palette, including my new "motion blur" layer at the top:

Step 4: Apply The Motion Blur Filter

I feel like I'm giving away the endings with my layer names, but oh well. With the "motion blur" layer selected, go up to the Filter menu at the top of the screen, select Blur, and then select Motion Blur. This brings up the "Motion Blur" dialog box. Normally you'd apply a motion blur to an object that's, you know, in motion, but applying it to a stationary object tends to give it a ghost-like effect, which is what we're after. When the dialog box appears, set the Angle to zero degrees, and then drag the slider bar at the bottom to the right to increase the Distance value until your image is blurred out quite a bit. Here I've set mine to 95 pixels:

Step 5: Add A Layer Mask To The "Motion Blur" Layer

Our image already looks a little spooky with the motion blur applied, but now we're going to bring back some of her face, and we're going to do that using a layer mask. With the "motion blur" layer selected, click on the "Add Layer Mask" icon at the bottom of the Layers palette:

This adds a layer mask to the "motion blur" layer:

Step 6: Paint With Black On The Layer Mask To Reveal Some Of The Face

Grab your Brush tool from the Tools palette, or press B on your keyboard to quickly select it. Then press D on your keyboard to make sure black is selected as your foreground color (Note: If your layer mask was already selected when you pressed "D", your foreground color will actually become white, since white is the default foreground color for a layer mask. If that's the case, simply press X to swap the foreground and background colors, which will set your foreground color to black). Go up to the Options Bar at the top of the screen and lower the opacity of your brush to around 10%:

This will allow you to paint the face back in gradually. Click on the layer mask thumbnail in the Layers palette to select it if it's not already selected (it will have a highlight border around it if it's selected), and then with a large, soft-edged brush and black as your foreground color, paint over the middle area of the face in short, gradual strokes to bring back some of the eyes, nose and mouth, leaving the rest blurred out. Be sure to stay well within the boundaries of the face so everything blurs out nicely from the center:

Step 7: Merge All Of The Layers Onto A New Layer

We're going to merge all three layers onto a new layer at this point, and we can do that with the keyboard shortcut Shift+Ctrl+Alt+E (Win) / Shift+Command+Option+E (Mac), which takes all three layers and merges them onto a brand new layer at the top of the Layers palette. Double-click on the name of the layer and rename it to merged:


Step 8: Apply The "Diffuse Glow" Filter To The Merged Layer

With the new "merged" layer selected, go up to the Filter menu at the top of the screen, select Distort, and then select Diffuse Glow. This brings up Photoshop's Filter Gallery (it doesn't actually say Filter Gallery anywhere at the moment but it's the Filter Gallery) set to the Diffuse Glow filter options. You may have to play around with the three options a little depending on the image you're using, but for my image, I've set Graininess to 3, Glow Amount to 10, and Clear Amount also to 10 as circled below:

All that's left to do now is add a little color, so with the "merged" layer still selected, click on the New Fill Or Adjustment Layer icon at the bottom of the Layers palette:

Select Solid Color from the top of the list:

This will bring up Photoshop's Color Picker. I'm going to choose a green color:

Click OK once you've chosen a color to exit out of the Color Picker. You're image will now be filled entirely with the solid color, so we'll fix that next.


Step 10: Change The Blend Mode Of The Fill Layer To "Color" And Lower The Opacity

With the Solid Color fill layer selected, go up to the layer blend mode options in the top left of the Layers palette, click on the down-pointing arrow beside the word "Normal" and change the blend mode to Color. This will colorize the image with the color you've chosen (green in my case). The color will most likely be too intense though, so move over to the right to the Opacity option at the top of the Layers palette and lower the opacity to reduce the intensity. I've lowered mine considerably, all the way down to 11% for just a hint of color:

And we're done!









Friday, January 11, 2008

How to fix red eye in your picture using photoshop?

You've maybe had this nightmare scenario happen to you: you capture that precious moment with your 5 year old and can't wait to show off the darling one latest adorable expression, only to find that the child peering back at you from the photo appears to be demon possessed, sporting red eyes that dominate the picture. You're just sure he's actually okay, I mean you go to church and all. This unsettling malady, known in photo circles as red eye, (a technical term!) is caused by the light from your camera's flash bouncing off the retina in the back of the eye, usually caused in low light conditions, just when you needed that flash to illuminate things.

Ironically, red eye is getting more prevalent as digital cameras have surged into mainstream popularity. Since these gizmos are growing ever smaller, the Flash on a digital camera is located very near the lens, and the flash shoots directly into the iris and reflects back into the camera, causing that terrible red eye we're always so upset to see. Even the red eye reduction features that most digital cameras come standard with, which produces a pre-flash just before the picture is exposed, (always wondered why that was, didn't you!) offers little help in reducing this problem. This very seldom actually works, and you're still left with that awful red eye, staring back at you!

Since most digital cameras don't offer or accommodate any other lighting sources other than the flash, the only solution left for most of us is to fix it after the fact, and the best tool to do that by a long shot is Adobe Photoshop. Photoshop makes quick work of red eye, and if you've heard that learning Photoshop is a bear, I'm here to tell you that with a little targeted instruction, you can be using Photoshop to not only eliminate those evil eyes from your family photos, but also to benefit from all the other amazing benefits this incredible software has to offer.

Don't let those photos sit there when you can fix them fast with Adobe Photoshop!

Sunday, January 6, 2008

How to merge two or more images in Adobe photoshop?

If you're anything like I used to be, you've probably marveled at the way in which magazine print ads, newspapers and some web designers manage to create stunning collages of merged photos to make a collective statement. This is rapidly becoming the norm, as artists relish the opportunity to use this canvas to convey more than a simple thought, thus making their ads and montages more complex and meaningful.

If you're a web designer or graphic artist, this technique offers you a huge opportunity to create truly original work that combines many aspects into one, from logos to adverts and website backgrounds, and if you are fortunate enough to own Adobe Photoshop, then you already possess all the tools you need to create amazing digital collages from any number of photos. Adobe Photoshop is the number one tool available for handling digital editing and manipulation.

One thing you will want to make sure of before you start the fun creative work, however, is to be sure and take some time in planning your project well. If you have some idea what your end product should look like you'll save yourself oodles of time and effort. One of the best aspects of Photoshop is the ability to work in layers, and to undo said layers if they prove unworthy. There are two things I'd stress that you give some thought before you get into that, however.

One is to take some care in choosing your photographs. This may see obvious, but by taking time to choose complimentary color schemes and size differentials with respect to detail, you will narrow the field considerably.

Secondly, when composing this collage, make sure to choose photos that are particularly effective at conveying exactly what it is you want to say. Do they blend well together, do they complement or follow one another, among other concerns. This will require some thought and tme, but is well worth it.

Merging photographs using Adobe Photoshop is a snap using Photoshop's ability to layer and other features. Just make sure to lay your groundwork before you start to merge everything you can get your hands on!

Saturday, January 5, 2008

How to whiten eyes and teeth using adobe photoshop?

Photoshop is the dream machine for all photo enhancers and designers. Not only can you make any portrait look perfect, you can do it easily and convincingly… once you know how.

This article will show you, for example, how to whiten teeth and eyes using Photoshop. Some of the more complicated techniques will be over the head for the novice, but you’ll be able to follow most of it. So drag a portrait into whatever Photoshop program you have, and let’s get started:

It’s always a good idea to make a new layer, an exact duplicate, of your photo before you ever start the enhancement process. That way, if you decide you need to undo several steps, you’ll always be able to quickly undo.

Click “Layer” in the horizontal menu bar, click “Duplicate Layer,” then click “Ok.” Onward to the teeth-whitening.

The easiest way to make teeth whiter in a photo is with your Dodge Tool. (Among your tool icons, it’s the 7th down on the right hand column. If you don’t see it there, right click on the icon and you’ll find two hidden choices; one will be your Dodge Tool.)

On the horizontal Tool Options Bar under the Menu, choose “Midtones” for Range, and 40% for Exposure. Also on the Tool Options Bar, choose the appropriate brush for this particular retouching job.

Use your Magnifying Glass Icon in Tools to zoom in to the area you want to affect. Then run your brush over the teeth you want to whiten several times, slowly, without releasing your mouse.

If you find that the Dodge tool whitened too much, you can either click “Edit,” then “Step Backward,” (to start over), or “Edit”, then “Fade Dodge Tool,” which will allow you to fade the whitening enhancement to your exact preference.

The Dodge tool can also be used to whiten the whites of the eyes, and, in general for anything you want to lighten. Used with discretion, it’s quite a handy tool.

In Photoshop, there are always a number of methods to accomplish the same thing. Another way to whiten teeth would be the following:

Select the teet with your Lasso tool icon, (second down on the left in your Tools). Then click on Image in your Menu, Adjustments, and Curves. Make sure the Channel box says RGB. Then, with your mouse, pick up the top right-hand corner of the box and drag the line over to the left. You will be able to watch the whitening process as you go.

You can use the Curves tool to change color on any given selection, too.

Photoshop is such a powerful program that it behooves any serious photographer to get familiar with at least the basics.

Happy enhancing!

Friday, January 4, 2008

What are the New features in Adobe CS3 (Creative Suite 3)

Adobe CS3 (Creative Suite 3) is a suite of products that combines traditional Adobe programs with programs that Adobe acquired and has since rebranded from Macromedia. The suite includes Dreamweaver, Flash, and Fireworks, as well as Illustrator and Photoshop. All of the programs in Adobe CS3 that were formerly Macromedia have been streamlined and given Adobe-like functionality. The entire suite now works seamlessly as a complete family of programs for designers and developers.

Dreamweaver

Adobe CS3 includes an upgraded version of Dreamweaver, formerly a Macromedia program. Not only is Dreamweaver now more readily compatible with other Adobe programs, but it also has the addition of the Spry framework providing Ajax capability. This enables designers to incorporate sophisticated functionality without the need for complicated programming skills by simply taking advantage of the built-in features of Dreamweaver CS3. Dreamweaver CS3 also has new standards capability with cascading style sheets.

In addition, Dreamweaver CS3 now has Adobe Device Central incorporated within the program. This allows users to preview and test Web pages on multiple devices with ease. The program also has advanced integration with Photoshop CS3 and can support multiple layers. Finally, designers and developers using Dreamweaver CS3 can perform easy browser compatibility checks and can check for cross-browser cascading style sheet rendering issues.

Flash

Another one of the new programs acquired from Macromedia is Flash. Flash CS3 is now using Action Script 3.0, an update and modification of Action Script 2.0. While 3.0 is backwards compatible, this portion of the program is also 30 times faster and has more object-oriented capabilities than 2.0, which is of great benefit for developers.

For designers, Flash is now easier to work with and has more streamlined panels. The program incorporates new drawing tools, including a new and enhanced pen tool that is more like that used in Illustrator. Flash CS3 also allows more control with corners when creating rectangular objects and easier creation of pie and donut shapes. The program as a whole is more intuitive and is easier to control with new object primitives. Additionally, Flash CS3 works with other Adobe programs and allows designers to copy and paste filters and motion tweens from one object to another without the need to reapply them. Flash CS3 also offers nine-slice scaling, offering users the ability to scale objects more intuitively and without distortion.

Finally, Flash CS3 incorporates Adobe Device Central and allows users to check applications on different devices. And Flash now has import support for Adobe programs such as Photoshop and Illustrator, which can lead to enhanced image fidelity and editability that designers may have wished for in the past.

Fireworks

Fireworks has also been given a makeover as one of the new Adobe programs. The new version makes it easier to control and share symbols, to give them more robust attributes with Javascript, and to swap them. Plus, scaling has been enhanced in Fireworks CS3 so that you can now intelligently scale symbols with a nine-point system.

Additionally, in Fireworks CS3, you can add multiple pages to a single document for ease in mocking up Web sites. You can also have hierarchical layers in much the same way as is allowed in Adobe programs such as Photoshop. And it is much easier to bring files between Fireworks and Flash or Illustrator and Fireworks than ever before.

Photoshop

Photoshop CS3 has also been given a makeover and upgrade. The new version of one of the best-known software programs now offers the ability to export an HTML file that the user can zoom in and out of (the "zoomify" feature). It also has new smart filters that can preserve data integrity and allow for nondestructive flexible modification of the images. Designers can also convert images to monochrome with more control than before.

Plus, Photoshop can now analyze images and make recommendations for settings. It also offers an enhanced version of cloning and healing and also has updated color correction options. And there are many new tools in the program that designers can use to more finely tune images, from photo merge with advanced alignment bleeding to a refined edge feature. Photoshop also now has DICOM support and allows users to open, edit, and annotate single frames of radiological images. Finally, as with other Adobe programs, Photoshop also incorporates Adobe Device Central for easy previewing and testing of images on other devices.

Illustrator

Last but not least, Adobe CS3 includes an upgrade of Illustrator that offers important new features for designers and developers as well. As previously mentioned, Illustrator CS3 now has seamless integration with Adobe programs such as Flash CS3 and includes Symbols for easy animation. The program also offers new, upgraded drawing tools and a new vector tool. Illustrator CS3 also features "Live Color," which allows the designer or developer to edit colors directly within the image.

Conclusion

Adobe CS3 is an important upgrade for designers and developers who were users of previous versions of Macromedia and Adobe programs. It brings all of these well-known programs together in a single package under a single brand. Users are likely to see immediate benefits, and the new features of the individual programs add even more functionality than existed in previous editions.

How to improve quality of picture by using adobe photoshop?

Adobe Photoshop is the leading photo editing software program. It is used throughout the world by the most elite professional photographers to make their pictures look immaculate. It is also used by entertainment industry photographers, as well as "airbrush experts" at top magazines, tabloids, etc., to make famous people look skinnier, healthier and younger. These people have been using Photoshop for years and have become experts in their respective crafts. With a little training and practice, you can accomplish the same results, and transform your photos from "good to great."

Adobe Photoshop can be used for many types of photo adjustments and enhancements. Without getting into the technical specifications of each, the list below displays just some of the many ideas and ways in which Photoshop may be used to improve the look and feel of an image. Think about these when you take your first look at your digital photo and assess which of them you might put to use to bump up the pizzazz level of your shot.

  • Adjust eyes (open closed eyes, remove red eye and/or adjust color)
  • Remove areas of fat (such as a double chin)
  • Make teeth whiter
  • Smoothen skin
  • Disguise blemishes
  • Hide scarring
  • Add hair to bald spots
  • Hide body piercings
  • Delete tattoos
  • Hide acne

Clever use of Adobe Photoshop can truly make anyone, in any picture, look several degrees better (the trick is to not overdo it so as to make the subject look fake; professional experts have developed a sense of what's "just right" - with practice, you will, too). In addition to the above, you can make alterations to other aspects of the picture. For example, you can change the colors of clothing on people. You can even change the background setting or remove entire people from a photograph! This comes in handy when a background object is drawing attention away from the object of the photo - with a few snips in Photoshop, you can restore the intention of the photo back to what you wanted originally.

To give a photo extra dimension or visual allure, you can also apply one or more of Photoshop's amazing filters to your image. Apply a Gaussian blur to make certain sections softer or fuzzier, cast a drop shadow behind an object, use the bevel and emboss tool, apply different hues or coloring features, cast the photo in a sepia tone to give it an old-fashioned appeal, or even add a texture like craquelure to create the effect of worn, run-down brick - the possibilities just go on and on. You can even do special lighting effects to throw a spotlight, or multiple ones, on an object.

The creative potential of Photoshop is amazing. If you take the time to learn all the features of Photoshop, you might also find yourself in high demand for freelance projects or full-time jobs involving photo retouching, logo design, advertising, and much more. People with Photoshop skills are needed for all sorts of graphic design and photo editing projects. So, you will be able to not only clean up your own pictures, but perhaps make some money on the side doing photo adjustments for other people or businesses.

Thursday, January 3, 2008

How to Create Weathered Designs For Website Using Photoshop?

his article is designed to help you create old-looking textile or paper buttons, backgrounds, or blog spaces for your website. You will need a copy of Adobe Photoshop (the newer the version, the better, I will be using Photoshop CS2), some downloadable grunge brushes, and a good idea of how you want your buttons/etc. to look.

For the brushes, you will need to download some grunge-style brushes, as the standard brushes included with Photoshop just won't cut it (or, you could make your own grunge brushes, but that's another article). These brushes are available freely on the internet, but since I do not have permission to link to any of them, you will have to be a bit resourceful and find them on your own. I like to use the "recifedirty" brush packs, numbers 1-3.

First, you will need to create a new image, about 400x400pxs. Fill this in with a dark, gloomy color, like a dark grey or very drab green. Create a new layer, and use the rectangular marquee tool to create a rectangle the size of your desired object. Fill this rectangle with a dark parchment color, such as #e3e3d7.

Now, we need to age this "paper" a bit. First, apply a noise filter by going to Filter>Noise>Add Noise, and add about 1% Gaussian, monochromatic noise. Then, using a soft round 85 pt. burn tool set at 30% exposure and highlight range, we will burn the corners and edges of the paper, making it look worn and handled. Run the tool lightly (one pass) over all four edges of the paper, and then go back to the corners and burn these a bit more (three or four clicks each). Don't go too heavy, we just want a subtle darkening of the edges and corners.

Next, double click on the top layer in the layers box, and add some "Outer Glow" from the outer glow style menu. Add a normal blend mode, 75% opacity solid black glow. Then, we will wear down the sheet of paper by using our new grunge brushes with the eraser tool. Click on the eraser tool, and from the brush menu, choose your desired brush. I chose an assortment form the "recifedirty3" brush pack. Now, using these brushes sparingly, click on the edges of your paper, once or twice at the most, going around the edges making wear spots on your paper. Don't overdo this either, and put some extra emphasis on the wear at the corners of your paper. This will lend a touch of realism. Change the brushes up, don't use one brush too many times, or it won't look natural.

Now, using our burn tool again (with the same settings), choose another brush. We will use this tool to "stain" the paper, giving it a final, used appearance. The larger the brush, the better for this application. Now, find a good area for the brush, and click once or twice. Don't burn too much, or the subtlety will be lost. Again, experiment with different brushes, until you are satisfied with the look.

Now, stand back and take a look at your finished project. This can be scaled up for backgrounds, down for buttons, or left alone for photo matte applications. This is an easy introduction to Photoshop art, so fun with it, and feel free to play around!

Wednesday, January 2, 2008

Easy way to organize and manage your digital image files in adobe photoshop

Do you waste too much time trying to locate the image you want for use in a Photoshop project? Do you find yourself sorting through folder after folder only to open the image and find that it is not what you were looking for? Did you know that Adobe’s Photoshop has all the tools you need to organize and manager your digital image files.

It is amazing how much time people can waste trying to find images because they are not familiar with the tools provided within Photoshop for organizing, managing and navigating images. Photoshop makes it possible to not only view and sort your image files but also perform tasks such as creating new image folders, moving and deleting images, and renaming and rotating image files. If you are still doing your digital image file management outside of Photoshop then you will be amazed at how easy these tasks can be in Photoshop without closing the application.

Photoshop also provides a snapshot of the specifications of each image including: the filename, date created, date modified, image format, height and width in pixels, as well as color mode and resolution information.

Another feature lets you see detailed data about an image file which is imported from your digital camera. This information will include ISO information, shooting mode, shutter speed and aperture as well as white balance data. This data can be beneficial for documentation purposes or to help you in your study of exposure if you are an aspiring photographer.

Adobe Photoshop has it all covered even down to the management of your digital images. Because you can see thumbnail pictures of the images you are looking for you don’t have to guess as to whether you are opening the right picture. Stop wasting time looking for images and start spending more time creating stunning images and graphic designs.

Best adobe photoshop tips

Can't get rid of that nasty shine that you get taking pictures? Well now you can, follow these easy steps: Let's start with a great, overlooked trick. After opening the image, open the same image again in a new window. In Photoshop, choose Window ->Arrange -> New Window. In Elements choose View->New Window. This allows you to view one window zoomed in for detail work and the other window at 100% so you can judge the effects.

Using the magnifying glass tool draw a box around the area of shine. Make the box big enough to also show a fair amount of un-shiny skin. Select the Clone tool. At the top of the page select Mode: Darken and use the slider to set Opacity at 50%.Using the Clone Tool, select an area of un-shiny skin by putting the circle over the area and holding down the Alt button while left-clicking the mouse. To best match skin tone try to select the area of skin closest to the shine. Quick tip, to easily resize the Clone Tool circle simply use the bracket keys, [and] - much easier than moving your cursor back and forth between the photo and the Size slider. Now simply click on the shiny area and watch the magic happen. You'll have to experiment a little for best effect, and for larger areas be sure to resample the un-shiny skin frequently. In the zoomed-in image the effect might look too obvious, so you'll need to keep an eye on the 100% image to track your progress. Notice the difference on the tip of the nose, the cheek, and above his eye.

Photo retouching is sometimes quite important to your photo. You can change your photo to black and white, take out some unwanted acne, fix a blurry line. Well, here are some instructions on how to sharpen your image. Start by opening your image Duplicate the background layer by pressing control+j. Press shift+control+u to desaturate the layer. Go to filter> others> high pass and give these values, Radius of 0.4 pixels. Press control+l to open levels. Finally, change this layer's mode from normal to overlay. If you find excessive sharpening then reduce the opacity of this layer. You now have more sharp image and it works on almost any image.

Gradient maps can help your coloring on Photo manipulations a lot. They can be used to help blend things in and to make the colors in things the same. So you should have the same picture from the section Textures open. Okay now looking at you textures picture. You might think. My textures don't really blend in well with my face. So I am going to show you how to blend those in better using gradient maps. So I want you to decide what you want your face to look like (mainly color wise). So to make my textures blend in more I start off by going to Image> Adjustments> Gradient Map. Since I want a green picture I am going to pick a green/yellow gradient map. Then I am going to set it on soft light. After I put the opacity down a bit. Then I added a black and white gradient map. I did this because I wanted to make the picture a bit darker. I left the black and white gradient map on normal and set it on around 50% opacity. It will get rid of a bit of the color but thats what the green and yellow gradient maps were for (they were to add color so it didnt look really bland when we added the black and white one). Here is my picture after adding gradient maps.

Open the JavaScript Reference Guide and click the ArtLayer bookmark to the left in Adobe Reader, now you can first se all properties available for ordinary layers and after that is all the methods available for it. Hello world, Now it's time to try your wings by creating and running your first script for Photoshop. As always the first program you create in a new programming language should always output the Hello world sentence. To install a script you simply copy it to Photoshop's scripts folder which in windows is located in: c:Program FilesAdobePhotoshop CS2PresetsScripts Before you can use it from Photoshop you have to quit Photoshop and restart it. Once you have done this the script is available under File > Scripts

From the murky depths of the deepest forests to the frosty desolation of the Siberian wilderness, camouflage is invaluable for breaking up the human silhouette, allowing stealthy approaches towards your prey. It is, however, also deceptively simple to make in Photoshop using only a couple of filters and a basic sense of style. Create a blank document of any size with a single active layer (this can be filled with anything you desire). Using the colour swatches, select #D0C577 as the foreground colour, and #BAAD4A as the background colour. Then choose Edit > Fill from the main menu and fill the background layer with the new BG colour. Now create that camouflage by selecting Filter > Artistic > Sponge, and running it with the following settings: Brush Size - 8; Definition - 25; Smoothness - 15; Repeat the filter a second time with exactly the same settings to bring out highlights. To smooth out the result, go to Filter > Noise > Median and enter a value of 3. And that's it! See, I said it was easy! Of course, at this point you can brighten things up a little with the Image > Adjust > Brightness / Contrast tools, and/or add a little cloth texture with Filter > Texture > Texturizer, but I'll leave that up to you... Of course, these colours wont work for every environment, so feel free to play around a little. Take a look below to see a few quick colour variations. Have fun experimenting.

As with many applications, working in Photoshop can be made far easier and more efficient by using keyboard shortcuts.Ctrl/Cmd + Shift + N New layer Ctrl/Cmd + J Duplicate current layer. Here are a few useful shortcuts: Ctrl/Cmd + [ Move layer downwards Ctrl/Cmd + ] Move layer upwards Ctrl/Cmd + E Merge linked layers Ctrl/Cmd + Shift + E Merge visible layers Ctrl/Cmd + A Select all Ctrl/Cmd + D Deselect Ctrl/Cmd + L Levels Ctrl/Cmd + Shift + L Auto levels Ctrl/Cmd + Shift + Alt + L Auto contrast Ctrl/Cmd + M Curves Ctrl/Cmd + I Invert colours Ctrl/Cmd + Z Undo Ctrl/Cmd + Alt + Z Step back in history Ctrl/Cmd + F Apply last used filter Ctrl/Cmd + Shift + X Liquify tool Ctrl/Cmd + Alt + Shift + X Pattern tool

A way to make a whole pallette from the three colors is not extremely difficult. Open a new canvas, does not really matter the size, but keep it no smaller than 468x60. Click on the gradiant tool on the left tool bar. Go into the Gradient Editor, by clicking on the colored gradient on the top toolbar. Place the darkest of the three colors on one side, the lightest on the other, and the midtone in the middle. Keep the opacity at 100%. Press Ok, then click-drag a horizontal line across the canvas. You can use the eyedrop tool to take the color from this canvas and color the skin of your project. Now that we have a pallete of color, we have to understand the effects of lighting on skin. It's a very simple concept, but understanding it is necessart to shading skin. As any matter, the brighter the light, the lighter the highlight and the darker the shadow. The dimmer the light, the difference between the light and the shadow decreases. The shadow cast by it is also affected by the light and darkness. The color of light affects it in the same way. If the light is green, it will have a green tint to the skin. If it is a small light, such as a lamp, a smaller portion of the skin will be that color, instead of affecting the whole skin. As stated before, most matter is affected the same way as this.