Basics of adobe photshop: Unlock the photoshop guru in you

In the following tutorial you will learn about the overall scope of Adobe Photoshop CS3. This program is used mostly to manipulate images. People that do web development, graphic design, and photography will probably prefer the use of this program to edit their images. Once you have grasped this basic knowledge of the software, you will be able to dive into Adobe Photoshop and quite possibly Adobe Fireworks, which works in a similar way. Adobe Fireworks is just a little simpler and has less features. Adobe Fireworks was originated as Macromedia Fireworks. Enough of the chit-chat, lets get down to business!

When you first enter the Adobe Photoshop environment you will see a plethora of features and plug-ins to mess with. Fortunately, with a little training from me you won't have to be confused by these things. Go to the top left of the screen and select file/new.

Now you should see the picture above. This is the basic variables that you are able to change when you start a new file. You can change the name of Photoshop document to whatever you please. This is best suited when you are trying to organize stuff during your Adobe Photoshop training sessions on the web. The preset window lets you select what type of paper size, resolution, and color mode that you would like to have to start out with. Of course most will just go with custom so that they can personalize their specific project. Most of the time, the project you are working on won't fit into a category. Adobe has specifically put custom as the first on the list because of this fact. For today session, let's change the preset to Web.

Following these steps will present you with a black window with the name of the file, percent of the resolution it is viewing at, and the color mode you have chosen at the top of the window.

From here we can learn about what some of the things you see on the left and right of the screen are. We will start on the left side of the screen because this is the first thing you should learn when you starting to make and edit images in Adobe Photoshop. I am using Adobe Photoshop CS3 Extended, which has some extra features. I will go over these briefly to educate you. The first on the top left is the "move tool" It is an icon that has a cursor and crosshair on it. You can use this tool to move objects on the screen around to your liking.

The next tool is the rectangular Marquee tool. You can also just use this tool to make squares around areas in an image to cut them out easily. You can use that feature to cut out a piece of a picture and paste it somewhere else. I personally use this image a lot when I am working on images for my website or editing my digital photos.

This tool has four variations to it. Two of them are relatively new and you may know them or not. The second variation is the Elliptical Marquee tool that allows you to trace circles. The third is the Single Row Marquee tool. The fourth is the Single Column Marquee tool. These are great when you want to slice out the image of an excel spreadsheet and only post that specific data too an audience. It is most likely it will end up looking like an "L" shape and you will be able to write information around the image within a website. This is very useful for website designers with the proper knowledge of Adobe software products.

Next up is the Lasso tool. This tool allows you to highlight an image that you have made in an image or an image you have opened in Adobe Photoshop. This marquee tool likes to have smooth hard edges to follow. If you a photograph that doesn't have a easy to follow edge around objects you will find it hard to use this tool. You have probably seen this when people cut their heads out of a picture and paste it onto somebody else's body. It is a very funny feature and this is the tool that does it!

The lasso tool has three different variations. The second version is the Polygonal Lasso tool. This tool can make different shapes and curves when tracing around or cutting out a piece of an image. The third variation is the Magnetic Lasso tool that only works on images that have defined edges. The tool will clamp onto an edge and give it anchor points to shape the corners. This is good when you don't have that steady hand you used to have back in high school. I use this myself because I am not the man I used to be!

The next up is the crop tool. This feature does exactly what is says. It is like a marquee tool except it is made specifically for cutting square pieces out of images. That is pretty much all it does. However, this simple feature is used quite often to developed website images.

The next up is the Slice tool. This tool allows you to slice an image into smaller pieces. This is usually used in web design with the use of tables to display formatting on a webpage.

The next in line is a list of four tools that provide ways for the user to fix problems in images. The Spot Healing Brush tool first appeared in Adobe Elements 3. It was implemented into Adobe Photoshop CS2 after that. This tool allows you to fix areas of an image by replacing or blending the colors in an area so that it is like growing a new piece of skin over a bad rash. The Healing Brush tool allows you to fix problems in the image by sampling the surrounding area around the problem and trying to replicate the pattern in the area that is problematic. The patch tool is pretty much a mix of the Healing Brush and the Lasso tool. It is allows you to highlight the area that is scratched or empty and sample the surrounding area to fix the problem. Lastly, the Redeye tool allows you to select the common problem of red eyes and correct them with sampling a piece of the black pupil area and replacing the red eye with the natural pupil color. This is a widely used tool by many consumers.

The next tools are made for painting on the canvas freestyle. The first one of them is the Brush tool. The Brush tool is an old favorite for people that want to free hand draw things like they had a brush which they can decrease and increase the size of the contact point. You can also change the hardness of the stroke as well. This will show differences in contrast. The Pencil tool is just like a real pencil with some added tricks. The modes can give you complete freedom or help you make straight lines when you are trying to make objects. The last one is the Color Replacement tool. This handy tool allows you to select a color scheme on an image and replace it with something else. Unlike the bucket tool that will cover the complete area, this tool will allow you to draw in the replacement by hand as if you had a brush. Let's say if you had a blue cup in a picture. You can sample the blue color and decide to make it green. Then you just draw over the area of the cup and anything that is of the sampled color will turn green!

The stamp tools are a very nice addition to the Adobe Photoshop regime for photographers. Specifically it is great for editors that write tabloids and want to doctor the pictures. With the Clone Stamp tool they will be able to edit out an area of a picture and make it look like it was never there. They can do this by sampling the area around the object they want to not be there and adding it into the portion of the picture they want it too be in. The Pattern Stamp tool allows you to stamp a specific pattern at your desired brush hardness onto an image to make something unique. Like you can take a brick wall patter and make a complete building.

The History brush tool and the Art History brush tool are unique and sometimes overlooked. You can use the History Brush tool to restore the original image in only just section or part of an image. It is usually used when you take a color picture to black and white and then convert a part of it back to color. It's kind of like finding a dusty painting and then wiping it off to see the beauty that it holds underneath. It is a true treasure for the graphic designer or photographer that uses Adobe software product regularly. The Art History Brush tool allows you to copy the texture of an image through the use of art specific styles. Unlike the History Brush tool the Art History Brush tool takes the data from the image and creates something new out of it. It allows you to put a different style of art to an image without it losing its originality.

The next feature is the three types of Eraser tools. The most basic is the Eraser tool itself. You can change the size of the area that the eraser returns to the original background. The Background Eraser Tool does exactly what it states. It is able to erase the background without any use of changing layers. Once you have done this you can add in colors to make a new background at will. The Magic Eraser tool acts like the Magic Wand tool. It will erase an area based how it is clicked and verified.

The next up on the list is the Gradient tool and the Paint Bucket tool. These are old favorites from the long line of Adobe Photoshop releases. However, for all the new Adobe Photoshop CS users out there these items are something that may not be so familiar after searching through the web for image editing software. The Gradient tool provides the user the ability to make colors stretch in all directions from high to low in intensity. It is similar to the way you would view the sunset as the colors transition from light to dark. You can also use this feature to apply to certain types of patterns and textures. These features are also available Macromedia and Adobe Fireworks. The Paint Bucket tool is capable of filling in a space or a space inside of the Magic Wand tool to a certain color, patter, texture, or stamp. This is used as a quick way to change colors in a predefined area.

The following set of tools previously were found in another section of Adobe Photoshop, but are now offered conveniently on the left side of the menu. All three of these do pretty much what they say they do. I will still give you a brief explanation of their capabilities though. The first of them is the Blur tool. The Blur tool blurs the area where you paint. The Sharpen tool increases the contrast in the areas you paint. The Smudge tool blends the pixels where you paint. This is similar to when you drag something through wet paint that has various colors.

Oddly enough, three more features that were previously hidden to the human eye are now available for you to view on the left menu. This time though the names have almost nothing to do with what they do. First up is the Dodge tool. This tool lightens an area on the image. The Burn tool darkens an area on the image and the Sponge tool changes the level of saturation on an area in the image. These all have their special purposes that you will come to find out about. Burn and Dodge are usually used for making shadows or erasing shadows.

The next feature has a wide array of variations to it. This feature is the Pen tool. The pen tool allows users to create paths, curves, and anchor points to move lines around in weird shapes without the use of freehand drawing. Ironically enough, this leads to the rest of the tools. The next is the Freeform Pen tool. Unlike the pen tool that automatically makes anchor points where you draw, the Freeform Pen tool lets you draw as if you really had a pen. After you have used either of the tools you can use the next feature, which is the Add Anchor Point tool to create anchor points for new lines or freeform drawing. This helps when you want to attach a line to another line that has already been drawing without overlapping incorrectly. The Delete Anchor Point tool gives you the ability to delete an anchor point that you are not satisfied with. The Convert Point tool changes vector shape masks and paths. This allows different types of anchor points to connect to each other even if they are composed of different types of corners.

The next tools are the Type tools. They specifically describe the Horizontal Type tool and the Vertical Type tool. These pertain to the angle that you are able to write in (Horizontal or Vertical). Unfortunately, when you use this you must turn it into a bitmap and that makes it non-editable after you are finished. The Horizontal and Vertical Type Mask tool allows you to write with text that is filled with a patter or an image as the font color. It can be a nice addition if you are writing against an odd background.

The Path Selection tool and the Direct Selection tool are both used for paths. The Path Selection tool will allow you to select a path component even if it is surrounded by many different paths. The Direct Selection tool will only select a segment of a path. This is a way to reshape a segment to a different path after it has been created and saved.

The following tools are some of my personal favorites. I have started one too many images with these objects. If you look at my website you can see almost exactly where I started when I created it. The first of these is the Rectangle tool that makes a rectangle of various sizes. The Rounded Rectangle tool makes rectangles that are rounded. I used to use this exclusively in Macromedia Fireworks before I purchased the Adobe CS series. The Ellipse tool allows you to make seemingly perfect circles. The Polygon tool allows you to make polygons. The Line tool makes lines with anchor points at the end so that they can be managed by the Pen tool if you want to get fancy.

Below these more popular features are some cool features that you may or may not find interesting. I believe these have been in all the Adobe CS releases, but I am not sure about the Macromedia MX series. The first up is the Notes tool that allows you to add small notes to your images in the background. Also there is an Audio Annotation tool that allows you to add verbal notes to an image.

The tools described below are a set of useful features that you may find useful in addition to some of the other options. I believe some of these tools are used in conjunction with the other tools. However, this makes it a little simpler if you want to do it the old fashioned way. First is the Eyedropper tool that helps sample color from an area. The is pretty basic though. The Color Sampler tool has a few more features that allow you to gather the color data from any layer without calling that layer. You can see levels of gradient or replace colors and shapes back to an image. The Ruler tool helps you measure things inside of an image if you are trying to be precise about how you do things. This helps if you are a web developer and you are trying to make every symmetrical and in order. I personally try to do this sometimes and have to slap myself. I like to be organized myself, but I don't want my websites to look so fine tuned that they would be passed up as not being original. The Count tool helps you count.

The Hand tool is used to move objects that are in a layer in anyway that you would like that is 2d in fashion.

The Zoom tool helps you zoom in on a picture or object so you can do fine tuning.

The Default Foreground and Background Colors tool lets you return back to black and white when you have gone totally out of whack with you colors you are thinking you are in the 1960s!

The Switch Foreground and Background Color tool lets you switch the colors you using at will. It is almost like have a painters tablet to hold your saved colors on.

How to create a 3D pop out image in adobe photoshop?

This Adobe Photoshop CS3 tutorial will demonstrate how you can make a figure in an image pop-up from the background and the image border itself. It is a very cool effect if you do it correctly. It also works better if you have a better image to work with than the one you see below. However, this should be good enough to demonstrate what is possible. I hope that you find a better use for it than I have. I have found this useful to use in newsletters when you send out pictures of people and it makes the scene come to life and everybody feels really good about themselves. Enough of the chit-chat though. Let's continue with the tutorial.

First, let's open up the picture we want an object to jump out of!

Image #1

Now we must change the name of the picture layer from background to something else and then copy it. You must also create a new layer and drag it to the bottom of the layer list.

Image #2

Now we will change the background color of the image to white.

Image #3

Now you can see the new white background layer.

Image #4

The next thing you want to do is select the layer that is on top of the list.

Image #5

Then select the Quick Selection Tool.

Image #6

Use the Quick Selection tool to trace the object that you want to pop-out of the image.

Image #7

Now you want to right-click on that area and select (inverse). This will select the outside area of what you have selected. Then you can press the delete button or right-click and delete and that area will be erased. That is when you will see the white background from the bottom most level.

Image #8

Now select the layer that is in the second position.

Image #9

Now we will take a section of the picture that we want to retain inside of the picture frame. Anything outside of this region will either disappear or become part of the pop-out effect.

Image #10

Now will select the "Mask Button" that is below the layers. You can see my cursor pointing to it.

Image #11

Now you have a finished project. A little weak in its effect and maybe not appealing, but it works none the less.

Image #12

I am sure you will have much better ideas of what to do with this knowledge and how to use it. Now that I think about it I think that I could use it in some places right now that would help me out a little. I think I will get to work on that. The 3d pop-up effect will be great for making pictures of your family and friends come alive right before your eyes. If a picture is worth a 1000 words then a pop-out picture is worth 5,000! Have fun exploring Adobe CS3 and always strive to learn more!

Another simple way to create ghosting effects in adobe photoshop

Although I have already posted a tutorial on how to create ghosting effects in photoshop, I feel like adding one more easy way to do that.

As you guys are already aware that photoshop is the graphic designer’s dream come true. Difficult images that used to take special training and hours to complete are suddenly a just a few keystrokes away. One of the many effects you can create in Adobe Photoshop software is a “ghosting” effect - a transparent, seemingly glowing effect you can use on objects to either make them look like real ghosts, or simple make them stand out. It is not difficult to get this effect - you simply need to create a ghosting shader.

To create this ghosting shader, you will need to use two things - the Sampler Info Utility mode and a Ramp texture - so first; you will need to create these tools. Get started by going into your Hypershade mode and follow the software prompts to create three tools - the Sampler Info Utility mode, the Ramp texture, and Lambert Surface Material. Make sure the shading group is turned on in the Lambert Surface Material.

Once you have these tools ready, you will need to connect the V chord of the Ramp texture to the facing ratio function of the Sampler Info Utility. Familiarize yourself with the parameters of the facing ratio so you are sure to get the effect you want. The value it produces ranges between 0 and 1 and depends on where the surface is in relation to the camera eye. Now, connect the Sampler Info Utility and the Ramp texture by opening the Hypershade function and dragging the Sampler Info Utility on top of the Ramp texture. A dialogue box should open to guide you through the connection, and the Connections Editor will open. Make sure Sampler Info Utility is in the output box and Ramp texture in the input box. Look for UV chord under Ramp texture, and expand it. Now choose the Facing Ratio from the output column and expand it, then click V chord. The Sampler Info Utility and the Ramp texture V chord should now be connected.

Now, it’s time to go back to the Lambert Surface Material. Double click on that, and your Attribute Editor box should open. Here, you can pick your ghost’s color. Light greens, blues, or grays work well. You also need to hook up your Ramp texture with the transparency tool in the Attribute Editor. To do this, use your MMB to drag the Ramp texture on top of the transparency slider (in the Lambert Shading Group).

Once the Ramp texture and transparency tool are joined, double click the Ramp texture to re-open the Attribute Editor. This time set the colors to white and dark gray and set the Interpolation tool to “smooth.” Now open the material mode Incandescence tool and set it to dark blue. Go to the Special Effects menu, select “glow” and set the glow to at least .6. You may want to play around with the glow tool to get the exact effect you had in mind.

After completing these steps, you will have created a shading tool you can use to create a “ghosting” effect for a number of applications. Of course, you can use this effect to “draw” a ghost, or you can simply apply to images to make them eye catching. Playing around with this tool will allow you to find its most useful applications for you. Many people use this tool to create the effect of looking through glass or coloring in glass jars. Adding more diffusion will let you use this tool to create a cloudy effect. With a little trial and error, you’ll soon be using your ghosting effect in a wide variety of ways!

how to change skin color in a picture?

A lot of common issues that I see with photos are that the skin color always seems to be off a little. In the photos that I see, the reds seem to take over the skin color areas of the person that is being photographed. In this tutorial you are going to learn how to get the skin color back to normal without affecting the entire image.

To begin with, you are going to need some basic Photoshop knowledge to accomplish this fix. The only things that we are going to be dealing with to fix the skin color in a picture are the new adjustment layers and layer masks. That is all that is needed to do this simple, yet effective fix.

The first thing that you need to do is to choose a picture that you want to fix the skin color on and open in Photoshop. I do want to warn you that this will not totally fix photos that the skin color is off really bad. You only want to use the fix for photos that have a slight to moderate problem.

The next step is to make a new Hue/Saturation adjustment layer on top of your original picture. You can do this by clicking on the icon below the layers that looks like a half colored in circle, and clicking on Hue/Saturation. This will bring up the Hue/Saturation window and make it on its own new layer.

Next, with the Hue/Saturation window still open, you want to determine which color is overriding your skin color. Like I said previously, I seem to have the problem with the reds, so I am going to choose the reds for my picture. You can choose the color that you need to in order to fix the skin color in your picture. You can choose the color using the drop down menu in the Hue/Saturation window.

Next, take the Saturation slider and slide it to the left until the skin color looks pretty good, or the best that you can get it without looking fake. Don’t worry about the other parts of the picture right now. Just concentrate on the skin color. We will fix the background colors next.

Once you are satisfied with your skin color, click OK to close out of the Hue/Saturation window, and you will see your new layer above your original picture. If you notice though, the adjustment that you made affected the entire image. To get that back restored to normal, click on the layer mask part of the new layer, and grab your brush tool. Make sure that your foreground color is set to black, and you have a large enough brush so that you are not brushing the background back a long time.

Now, using black, brush in the parts of the photo that you want to restore back to normal. I usually brush in the whole picture except the skin areas that I wanted to fix. This gives me the most realistic look. You are now done with the Photoshop tutorial on how to fix skin color in a picture.

Adobe Photoshop: Color Management and the Digital Darkroom

Preface

In order to understand color management, it is important to get your hands around some of the workflow. It is also important to understand a little bit about the ICC itself. The ICC or "International Color Consortium" was created in 1993 by a number major corporations with the goal of assisting end users in creating consistent color throughout the entire reproduction process. ICC profiles are a means by which one device can translate the same color information to another. This process is applied in graphics programs like Adobe Photoshop, and created in color management systems like X-rite’s Pulse or ColorVision’s Spyder software.

How is a profile created?

In order to have a fully color controlled environment you must have all devices displaying or printing color, profiled. How is this accomplished? Color management software (CMS) takes readings from your specific devices and compares their color with reference files of what color “should be” as defined by the ICC. For example, to profile a scanner you would scan in what is called an IT8 target. This scan is then compared with a reference file by the CMS. The differences between what the reference file says the color should be, and what the color your device actually output is meat of the profile. Basically, a profile says what’s not perfect about your particular device. If your scanner always seems to scan things in a little green, or your printer always seems to print things with a magenta cast-these are the things that are taken into account when color profiling your devices. To complicate matters a little further, this process also takes into account the differences in color between various paper and ink combinations.

Understanding Your Environment.

Color Model: When you hear the term color model we are referring to the method from which we define or classify the color we are to work with. Examples of such are RGB, LAB, CMYK, etc. Color Space: A color space is simply a variation of your color model. For instance, within your RGB framework some common variations are, sRGB, Adobe RGB, and so on. Some of these spaces are better for display e.g. sRGB and Wide Gamut RGB while other color spaces are more suited to printing e.g. ColorMatch RGB and Adobe RGB.

Now, it is important to note that every device in our workflow utilizes it's own unique color space. Meaning, while your monitor, scanner, and printer will base their color spaces basically on what we can see their actual gamut (range of colors) will differ. This is where we lose our consistency across devices. This is the problem we must attend to.

Color Management Using Adobe Photoshop: Step-by-Step

Okay, so now we’re ready for the whole process-it’s a big one, so keep with me. In this section I will describe how color management works with entry-level CMS’s like Monaco EZ Color or ColorVision’s Spyder2-programs like these >b>utilize actual hardware colorimeters for monitor calibration and a reflective target for scanner calibration. Scanning the printed target with your home scanner creates the printer profile. Entry-level programs like these generally retail between $150 and $500.

Step One: The Monitor

This step is quite easy and is generally conducted entirely in the CMS program of your choice. The CMS will guide you through the process of adjusting you monitor brightness and contrast to its proper settings and then, with the hardware colorimeter, take readings of the colors your monitor can produce. Your CMS should also set this profile as your default profile for your operating system. Take note if your CMS doesn’t already explain it, you should remove Adobe Gamma Loader.exe from your Startup folder after creating a new monitor profile. AGL is a very minimal monitor correction tool and will conflict with your newly created profile.

Step Two: The Scanner

For the scanner profile you will be using an IT8 target. This is a printed color reference of approx. 250 color patches. These targets are manufactured under strict controls and are measured by ICC approved methods to produce accurate reference files. Kodak, Coloraid, and Fuji are the major manufacturers of IT8 targets and should be included with your CMS package but may be a required separate purchase. There are two forms of IT8 targets: reflective and transparent. Reflective targets create a generally consistent profile for scanning reflective images. Transparent IT8 targets are printed on to the specific film to be profiled and therefore cannot be used as globally as reflective targets.

Profiling of the scanner involves scanning the IT8 target under the same conditions that will be used to scan originals. This has to be taken to the nth degree, as every setting in your scanner software needs to be exactly the same for scanning the target as it is for every other original that you will scan. Turning all hue/saturation/brightness/contrast controls off in your scanner software generates the most effective profile. Any auto correction adjustments need to be turned off so the same conditions the profile gets generated under will apply to each consecutive scan.

At this point you will scan in the IT8 target, most likely at 200 dpi, and save the file. Some CMS’s will have you scan the IT8 target out of their own interface, but I would recommend scanning the target with the same application that you will be using in the future-if possible. When scanning into an application like Photoshop, remember to save the image without any profile attached (in Photoshop when saving you will see a checkbox under Save Options>Color that is labeled ICC Profile-make sure this is not checked). Now load this image into your CMS, it will take this image and calculate the differences between what your scanner sees compared to what the colors of the IT8 “really” are.

Step Three: The Printer

Now, the last piece to the puzzle, printer targets. Like transparent IT8 targets, printer targets are more complex. Similar to film, different papers or media can produce incredibly different color results. This has to be taken into account in the profiling stage. When creating a printer profile, you are essentially creating a description of the differences between what is ideal color and what is the result of the specific paper/ink/quality setting you choose. A profile created for a professional glossy photo paper will generally not produce good results if used to print on a matte heavy weight paper. The same holds true for differences in ink or quality/speed settings.

In your CMS you should be given the option to save your printer target for printing within your chosen graphic app. If asked choose not to apply a profile when opening. In Photoshop choose File>Print with Preview. Change the Output dropdown to Color Management. Under Source Space choose Document. Under Print Space choose Profile: Same as Source. You are now set up in Photoshop to print your profile target. You aren’t done yet! Now go into your printer driver software and set any color options to none, or zero, or whatever shuts off any color changes by the driver. Now print your target.

This is where professional level CMS’s and entry level ones differ. At this point with the entry level you will scan in the printed target and the CMS will actually use the before generated scanner profile to correct the scan, so it can the correct your printed target. A professional level CMS will have a separate hardware device designed specifically for reading printed media targets.

Step Four: Utilizing the Profiles

Okay, now that we’ve created all of the profiles, time to implement them. You monitor profile should be getting applied upon startup by your operating system, so let’s move on to your scanner. Scan in an image-once again using the exact same settings that were used to create the profile (other than resolution). In Photoshop choose Image Menu>Assign Profile. Then choose Profile: Your Scanner Profile. Having done all of the previous steps in Photoshop correctly, you should now be amazed at how your image colors changes to appear incredibly like the original that you’ve just scanned in.

From here go to Image Menu>Convert to Profile and choose working RGB from the profile selections. This will convert your document to the native RGB working space of Photoshop. When printing you will apply the printer profile by once again choosing File>Print with Preview, select Document as your Source Space (which this time should be your Working RGB space) and in your Print Space choose Profile: Your Printer Profile. Remember once again to disable any color options in your printer driver. Finally, Print!

Other Notes on Profiling

I would recommend using Relative Colorimetric as your Rendering Intent when doing the Convert to Profile step and when printing with Print with Preview out of Photoshop. Rendering intents control how the profile is applied to either the scanner or printed image. Relative Colorimetric has proven to be the best in my testing. Read the documentation that came with your CMS in order to learn more about the other available rendering intents.

Profiles are only as accurate as the CMS that generates them and the size of the targets that are used to generate them. Packages in the $150-$500 price range generally have around 75-250 patches, while $2000 and up gets you 729 patches or more. Also, the more expensive packages rely on physical hardware devices to generate printer profiles, while the less expensive packages use your scanner as the print colorimeter. In addition, the more expensive packages have numerous options for the edition of the profiles you create.

How to add text on a textured surface?

With this tutorial I am going to show you a technique which is when anyone wants to add text on a textured surface.

First of all open the photo with the textured surface that you want to place your text on. For this tutorial I am going to use a stock photo of a wall.

We are going to duplicate our photo. Go to Image -> Duplicate

A new window will come up asking you to give the duplicate image a name, choose a name that you will remember (I named it wall copy)

Now save the duplicate image as the-name-you-gave-it.psd. Make sure that you don't save it in .jpg or any other format, it needs to be saved as a .psd. (File -> Save as) You can now close the duplicate image. Back at our original Image. Select the text tool and type your text.

The next step is to rasterize the text layer. Right click on the text layer at the layers palette and choose "Rasterize Layer".

This is the basic step of this technique. Go to Filter->Distort->Displace You can experiment with the settings to find the ones that better suit you needs.

A window will come up asking you to select a displacement map. Find and select the duplicate image that you created at the start of the tutorial (Mine was "wall copy.psd") and press open.

We are almost done, we just need to do one more thing, change the text's layer blending mode. For this tutorial I used "Linear Burn". However, when using different colors for the text or the color of the background layer is different than the one I used for this tutorial, other blending modes may work as well. For example, "Overlay" works well for black text on light color surfaces.

You can see that the text now blends nicely with the textured background.

How to create E-Book Cover in adobe photoshop?

E-Book covers are images containing a perspective-based (i.e. looks as if 3D) representation of a book, folder, binder, report or other document. They are very popular with authors, publishers and marketers of E-Books and you will often seem used on web sites, in advertising materials, and in some cases even in the product itself (for example, many E-Book authors like to put a copy of their E-Book cover on the introductory page of their E-Book).

E-Book cover graphics are most frequently prepared as PNG or JPEG files, as this generally allows the highest quality images to be displayed - as both formats allow 24 bit color (allowing over 16 million shades of colorto appear in a single image). A really good E-Book cover design can look truly beautiful, and the best ones could almost (but not quite)be mistaken for a photograph.

There are at least four different ways that these graphics can be prepared. These are:

1. You can try and draw the image by hand in an ordinary painting or graphics program (e.g. the Paint accessory that comes with Windows, Corel Paint Shop Pro, Adobe Photoshop, etc. However, unless you are incredibly skilled, producing good quality covers this way may prove difficult if not impossible. Additionally, even if you are a wonderful artist, this approach can be incredibly time consuming.

2. There are web sites offering backgrounds or templates of E-Book covers. These are generally images of blank covers to which you are expected to add your own text or graphics using a painting or graphics program. The trouble with this approach, is that it can be very difficult to add text or graphics in a way that matches the perspective of the background (the same skew, the same orientation and the same shrinking with distance) - and if you don't match the perspective of the background it will completely ruin the effect. To avoid this problem, some backgrounds/templates have the covers in a "flat" orientation so you can just add your own text on horizontally - unfortunately these kind of backgrounds/templates often don't really 3D at all.

3. You can get scripts to use with Adobe Photoshop. Basically you design a flat 2D front cover, and then use these scripts. The scripts transform your front cover image and place it as part of a 3D design. These scripts can work very well, but the biggest downside is that you do need a copy of Adobe Photoshop - which at the time of writing costs several hundred dollars. The other issue with these scripts, is that some of them can be quite inflexible - they will only produce E-Book covers in specific preset orientations and sizes.

4. E-Book cover software is standalone software for creating these types of images - you don't need Photoshop or other graphics packages. A good quality package is massively cheaper than Adobe Photoshop (even before you add the cost of cover scripts), and many people also find this type of software easier and quicker to use than the other alternatives. The best E-Book cover software will offer you great flexibility in the types of covers that you create, their orientations and sizes, and will even allow you to import existing graphics or clip art as part of your design.

Erase backgraound of your picture easily with adobe photoshop CS3

This tutorial will go over a simple tool that is capable of erasing backgrounds. It is not the most complete tool, but it is very smart if you do it correctly. My tutorial will show you how it can be correctly used to make areas of your photos disappear. From there you will be able to do whatever you want with the space! As you know I am doing this in Adobe Photoshop CS3 if you see any difference in your version of Adobe Photoshop. Let's begin the tutorial.

You will want to start by opening up the image you want to work with. The one below is my truck and boat just after a fishing trip. It sure was fun!

Image #1

Now you will select the Quick Selection Tool. This tool is like the magic wand but not as automatic. It lets you take sections at a time by dragging. It basically works on a color redundancy equation to guess what an object is.

Image #2

As you can see that I have selected the area that I want to erase the background in. Now you can do the same with your image.

Image #3

Now you can select the Background Eraser Tool to begin the process of erasing the background.

Image #4

From the picture below you can see that I drag the icon around in the area that that I marked off. What you don't know is that I pulled the cursor over the area that wasn't marked off as well. The background eraser tool only works within the confined areas that you give it. If you select an area inside an image, it will only be able to erase the background in that area. That is why it is such a cool feature.

Image #5

Now you can see that I have pretty much completely erased the whole area. It would have been a lot easier if I had increased the cursor size though. You can do this by going to the top of the program when the Background Eraser Tool is selected and changing the brush size from the default 13 to something higher.

Image #6

Now we can go about filling in the area with something else. The area will still be outlined during this process. I am going to just fill in the background with a color just to show you it is possible. You can add any kind of image in that section of you please. To fill in the area just navigate to Edit/Fill.

Image #7

Now you will select a color for the background.

Image #8

Now you will change the blending mode if you desire or the opacity of the color you are filling the area with.

Image #9

Now you have the finished project.

Image #10

This tutorial is fairly easy, but many people are not aware of this great tool. So took a little time to make a demonstration and post it as a tutorial for your enjoyment. Hopefully, it will be easier to find than it is right now. Of course this tool is great for other things as well. I will let your imagination run wild with those thoughts though.

What are alternatives to adobe photoshop?

While Photoshop is far and away the industry standard, it is also very expensive. Adobe has introduced the cheaper Photoshop Elements for people who don’t want to shell out for the full package, but its functionality is limited. While they’re not generally suitable for very high-end work, there are a few Photoshop alternatives that you might be interested in.

The most popular free (open source) program for replacing Photoshop is known as the GIMP – not the most politically-correct of names, but then it was never really intended for the mass market. Originally a Linux application, it has been ported to Windows. While it performs most of Photoshop’s functions effectively, the interface is awkward at best.

To solve this problem, some people set about taking the GIMP and adjusting its interface to make it into a virtual Photoshop clone. The result is called Gimpshop, and works quite well – if you’re looking for a free Photoshop, this is pretty much your best option.

Apart from that, you could try Paint.net. Originally intended as a replacement for Paint, the simple drawing program that comes with Windows, Paint.net has quite quickly turned into something more on the scale of Photoshop. Developed by university students from the ground up, it is a project to watch, and runs much faster than Photoshop does with an arguably more intuitive interface.

Of course, if you’re just after a simple program for converting file formats, rotating pictures and removing red eye, then all of this is complete overkill – even something like Paint Shop Pro is really too advanced for these simple tasks. Instead, you should be looking at programs like Microsoft’s Digital Image, IfranView and Google’s Picasa. At heart, these are simple photo management programs with only the functions that you’re likely to need for digital photo adjustment, avoiding all the distractions that high-end tools like Photoshop can bring.

How to Resize a picture Using Adobe Photoshop?

Photoshop is a wonderful tool for graphic design, web development and any other form of digital media creation. In this article, we discuss resizing an image using the program.

Photoshop has many uses and is a very powerful program with many different capabilities and functions. Photoshop can have a high learning curve and may be a little overwhelming at first because of all the different tools and options available to use, but I am sure you thought the same thing about learning to read. Now look at you, you are a pro.

As with any thing in life practice is the key to becoming better at things you don’t know or think are too difficult. Try not to become intimidated and don’t be afraid to try new things and experiment. Someone famous once said that learning from failure is the key to success.

While Photoshop may be a lot more program than you need to resize an image, it is an important function to learn because it is a common technique in digital media development. Why would you want to resize an image in the first place? There are numerous reasons, but the most common is to make photos fit on web pages or print material.

Ok, as for the actual steps involved in resizing an image here they are:

1. Open Adobe Photoshop and the photo you wish to resize.

2. Once you have your photo open navigate your mouse to the tool bar that runs along the top of the screen and click on “Image”.

3. Once you click on “Image” from the tool bar, a drop down menu will appear. Select “Image Size” from the drop down menu. A window should popup with the images properties.

4. Initially, for our intents and purposes we only want to pay attention to “Pixel Dimensions” in the popup window. You will see that you can control the width and height values of the image in the popup window. You should also see a drop down menu for selecting “pixels” or “percent”. Make sure pixels is the unit selected in both the width and height fields. Pixels are tiny dots of color that make up the photo. If you ever look at printed material under a magnifying glass you will notice that the image is made up of tiny dots of color. These tiny dots of color are analogous to what pixels are in a digital image.

5. Okay. Let’s pretend that the image you opened up at the start of this tutorial is very large, something like 2000 pixels wide by 1500 pixels in height and we want to resize the image to fit on a web page. Most web pages are somewhere around 800 pixels wide by some arbitrary height. The reason height is arbitrary is because it is determined by how much content appears on the page. Let’s say that we want the image to take up about half the width of the web page. To accomplish this we would change the pixel width value from 2000 to 400 pixels (which is half of 800 pixels, the width of the web page). Make sure that the “Constrain Proportions” option is checked so that the ratio between width and height is preserved and the image does not become distorted.

6. Click “OK” and save the newly resized version of your image. YOU’RE DONE!

You just resized your first photo using Photoshop and are now 100 times more advanced. Congratulations you are on your way to becoming a Photoshop master.

How to remove cracks and creases from old photos?

A common problem with old photos is that they often have un-desirable cracks and creases.

These can be removed quite easily using the Clone, Healing and Patch tools found in Adobe Photoshop.

The problem is that this can become a very time consuming activity if the photo in question is severely damaged.

This article describes a correction method using a free Action for Adobe Photoshop that can take less than five minutes to correct the majority of cracks and creases in an old photo

For several months now I have been using a Photoshop Action called de-crack, developed by Tim J. Edwards, with very effective results.

The original example image (Image 1) on our web-site page is typical of the sort of damaged photos we encounter on a daily basis.

As mentioned, correcting these flaws in Photoshop is actually not difficult but can take a lot of time.

Using Tim's excellent de-crack Photoshop Action will not necessarily result in a perfect "de-cracked" photo.

Having said that, it certainly eliminates the more obvious cracks and creases resulting in you then needing to "tidy up" the outstanding cracks and creases manually with the Clone, Healing and Patch tools.

Now before we get started, you will need to get a hold of a copy of Tim's de-crack Photoshop Action which you can download for free from the RetouchPRO web-site by searching for "de-crack" at the following link:-

"http://www.retouchpro.com/pages/search.html"

You will have to download a very small .ZIP file which will contain the single Photoshop .ATN action file.

After you uncompress the de-crack.zip file you will need to save decrack.atn in Photoshop's "Photoshop Actions" folder and then "load" the de-crack action into your current action list.

You're now ready to give it a try ...

Step – 1

Open up your damaged image in Photoshop

Step – 2

Run the De-crack Action with a high-pass value of 0.3.
Run the De-crack Action with a high-pass value of 0.3 again.
Run the De-crack Action with a high-pass value of 1.5.

Each steps takes only a few seconds and should result in three new layers which collectively mask out the majority of image damage.

Step – 3

The end result is the elimination of most of the cracking damage, which will then allow you time to spend on the remaining cracks and creases, which are usually quite easy to correct manually.

If you find that the de-crack action has in-advertently lost some of the detail of parts of the image, you can easily go to the offending “de-crack” layer in question and erase the de-crack effect selectively using the eraser tool, bringing back wanted detail.

And there you have it!!

Less than five minutes of digital image manipulation to remove cracks and creases from old photos.

Digital photography Tips for Photo Editing

Digital photography has a lot of advantages over film photography in many areas, but one of the most useful is the final output of the image itself. With film cameras you had to rely on the processing lab to make any general adjustments needed to your photos to make them appear their best, but with digital photos you as the photographer have all the tools you need to enhance and edit your own photos right at home.

Of course, how much editing you do to your photos before printing is entirely up to you and there are all kinds of preferences on photo editing from those that do almost no editing at all, to those who like to make major adjustments to almost every photo that they take. And there is plenty of middle ground in between those two extremes as well.

Quite often, many basic editing tasks can be done in the camera itself after the picture is taken including some simple cropping, removing red eye from flash photos, and rotation from landscape to portrait and vice versa. For many people, this is about all that they require anyway before printing out their snapshots, and this keeps things very easy and simple.

But to start to realize the potential that digital photography puts in the hands of the average person, a photo editing software program will be needed where you upload your photos from the camera to your computer and then open them in the program. You can then begin to perform all kinds of editing tasks including more advanced cropping, change the file size or format, adjust color saturation, contrast and brightness, and apply special effects.

There are several good free digital photo editing software programs available for download that can fit the bill for most common photo editing needs. All you have to do is perform a search for "free photo editing software" and you should have plenty of results to choose from.

But there are two programs for sale that seem to meet the needs of most average photographers whether novices or even serious hobbyists, and they are Adobe Photoshop Elements and Corel Paint Shop Pro 9. Both of these programs are very highly rated in most independent and consumer reviews as being very easy to learn and use, while also handling most any editing task that the average photographer could need.

For even more high end photo editing the full Adobe PhotoShop program will provide enough editing power to meet the needs and expectations of even the most discriminating photographers, but expect to pay quite a bit more for the added power and capability.

It should be clear then that regardless of the amount and scope of photo editing that you intend to do, there is a program that will let you do exactly what you want.

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.

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!

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.