Photoshop Tools - Take Control and Start Doing Professional Level Graphics

If you are learning Photoshop you are in for a treat. The capabilities of Adobe Photoshop are unlimited. There is virtually nothing you cannot do if you are familiar with all of the available tools, features and functions.

Some of the tools and features available in Photoshop include: text tool, paint bucket, lasso, magic wand, crop tool, gradient fill, layers, effects, history brush, and the clone tool. This is only a small sample of the functions available to Photoshop users for creating professional quality digital images and graphic designs.

The following are just a small sample of the cool things you will be able to do when you have learned how to use the basic tools available in Photoshop. Please note that these functions are available regardless of whether you are using Photoshop 7.0, Photoshop CS or Photoshop CS 2.

Color to Black & White

Now you can see how those photos will look black and white. There is no need to use expensive black and white film. You can easily convert any color image to black and white in Photoshop with just a few clicks. In fact, you can even apply various filters to adjust the contrast for truly professional results.

Color and Black and White

Everyone loves mixing a little color into an otherwise black and white image. For example, a close up of a bride and groom’s hands with everything black and white except the gold wedding bands. Creating this effect is simply when you have learned the tools available in Photoshop.

Restore Damaged Photographs

You can renew and restore old or damaged photos in minutes with Photoshop. Your family and friends will all be sending you’re their old photographs for restoration. You could even start a business providing this service.

Create Cool Effects

You will be able to add fancy borders to your photographs or create photos that look like a paintings and much more.

Crop and Resize

Crop photos to remove unwanted objects or resize for printing.

Learn Photoshop and master the tools available and these are only a few of the things you will be able to do. Photoshop is the only tool you will ever need for digital photo editing or graphic art design.

Don't forget to check out my Photoshop Newbie Online Video Tutorials and learn how to master the basics of Photoshop in just 2 hours!

Happy Photoshopping,
David.

Awesome Photoshop Work

Check out this great Photoshop work, sent in by a newsletter subscriber (by the way you can subscribe to my Photoshop Tips Newsletter here)

The Photoshop CS2 Book for Digital Photographers

A good friend just recommended this to me, you may want to check it out. The Photoshop CS2 Book for Digital Photographers

Very Cool Photo Site

If you want to learn more about Photography, then have a look at this:

"BetterPhoto brings together over 150,000 members from around the world for learning, fun, and community. The site offers over 80 courses on photography and Photoshop, taught by scores of published, professional photographers including Tony Sweet, Brenda Tharp, Jim Zuckerman, Outdoor Photographer editor Rob Sheppard, and Shutterbug editor George Schaub. Courses are offered every month. Sign up today to get your photos thoughtfully and promptly reviewed by professionals. The monthly BetterPhoto.com contest, considered the best on the web, brings in over 25,000 entries monthly, and awards winners in 10 categories."

Here's the link: http://www.betterphoto.com/

Photoshop CS2 9.0.2 Update Now Available for Mac

Quick update for you Mac lovers...

The Adobe Photoshop 9.0.2 update fixes a number of problems discovered after Photoshop CS2 (9.0) was released. The Photoshop 9.0.2 update includes all the fixes contained in the earlier Photoshop 9.0.1 update. Therefore, it is not necessary to apply the 9.0.1 update before running the 9.0.2 update on Photoshop CS2.

Go to Adobe's Photoshop site to see full details here

Free Photography Information

If you want some great free Photogrpahy information be quick and check out the offer here:

How to quickly and easily speed up Photoshop's start time

Here's a quick and easy way to speed up Photoshop’s start time.

Photoshop and the supermodels

If you ever wondered if the photos of the models you see in the magazines are "touched up" with Photoshop then just watch this video... no further comments needed...

Adobe Releases Photoshop Lightroom Beta 4.1

This is interesting and worth a look... "Adobe Systems today announced the release of Adobe™ Lightroom™ Beta 4.1."

Adobe Lightroom beta is the efficient new way for professional photographers to import, select, develop and showcase large volumes of digital images. Adobe Lightroom Beta 4.1 includes over 35 new product features and enhancements.

They have a whole new bunch of features. You can check it out here: http://labs.adobe.com/technologies/lightroom/

How to frame your photographs in Photoshop

(This article was kindly contributed by my Alicia, a keen reader of my newsletter... thanks!)

I am going to demonstrate here how to display your works simulating a gallery frame. It will enhance your images the same way framing enhances a painting or a photograph.

This technique has been around for quite sometime and does not need the latest version of Photoshop to do it.

Step One: Opening the Image to Be Framed

Open the image to be framed (Image 01). If the picture is intented for the Web, it does not have to be hi-rez (1024 x 768 pixels).

Step Two: Creating the Wall

First, you will create the wall on which to hang your digital picture frame.

1. To do this, you have to first separate the image from the background.

a. First make sure that the background color is white.

b. Select the image by pressing Command/Control+A.

c. Press Shift+Command/Control+J. This will create a separate background from the image (Image 02).

2. Go to Image > Canvas Size (Image 03). In the Canvas dialog box (Image 04), make sure that the setting for the Width and the Height is in inches. Check Relative. In this example, I added 5 inches all around the image which will serve the wall (Image 05).

Note:

If the framed images are intended to be exhibited on your Website, change the color of the wall to the color of the Web page containing your photo gallery.

Step Three: Creating the Frame

Now, you will create the gallery frame.

1. Create a new layer below the image. While the image is selected, press Command/Control as you click on the the Create new layer button at the bottom of the Layers palette. This will create a new layer immediately under the image layer rather than on top.

2. Command/Control+click on the image layer to load the hidden selection.

3. While the selection is active, go to Select>Transform Selection (Image 06).

4. In the Options bar, change the percentage of the Width and the Height to about 130% (Image 07).

5. Fill the new layer with white. If the background color is white, press Command/Control+Delete/Backspace. You will not see any changes but, if you look at the Layers palette, you will see that the middle layer is now filled with white (Image 08).

Deselect.

6. The next step is to stroke the edges of the middle layer. While the middle layer is active, click the Add a layer style button at the bottom of the Layers palette. In the drop down menu, choose Stroke (Image 09).

In the Layer Style dialog box (Image 10), change the default color to black, choose Inside as the Position and change the Size to suit your taste. In this example, I used 35 pixels for the size of the Stroke (frame). See Image 11.

7. At this point, the frame looks flat. We have to add shadows to create an illusion of depth. The first shadow we will add is the inner shadow to create a distance between the frame (the stroke) and the photograph.

As in No. 6, click the Add a layer style button at the bottom of the Layers palette and choose Inner Shadow from the drop-down menu.

In the Layer Style dialog box (Image 12), manually drag the shadow from the stroke to create an impressiob of distance between the frame and the image. In this example, I also reduced the Opacity slightly.

8. To complete the illusion, you will now create a drop shadow to separate the frame from the "wall". With the middle layer still active, click again on the Add layer style button at the bottom of the Layers palette, and this time choose Drop Shadow from the drop-down menu.

In the Layers Style dialog box (Image 13), reduce the Opacity just enough to give a hint of a shadow. In this example, I used 50%. I also increased the size to around 7 pixels.

With the drop shadow, you have now completed the frame. As a final touch, you will simulate a matte.

Step Four: Simulating a Matte

1. Create another layer below the image layer. With the middle layer still active, click on the Create a new layer button at the bottom of the Layers palette. A new layer now appears between the image layer and the layer containing the frame.

2. As in No. 3 of Step Three, Command/Control click on the image layer (Layer 1) to load the hidden selection. Then go to Select>Transform Selection. In the Options bar, choose 105 % for both the Width and the Height.

3. Fill the selection with white. See Image 14.

4. Click on the Add a layer style button at the bottom of the Layers palette and choose Inner Glow from the drop-down menu (Image 15).

In the Layer Style dialog box (Image 16), change the default color to black, change the Blending Mode from Screen to Normal and reduce the opacity so the outline will appear light gray. In this example, I used 25 pixels for the Opacity.

That's all there is to it!

Don't forget to check out my Photoshop Newbie video Tutorials and learn how to master the basics of Photoshop in just 2 hours!

Regards,
David.

Learning Photoshop: Learn the Difference between Canvas and Image Size

What happens if I change the canvas size? I want to print my photo as a 5x7 print. Should I change the image size or the canvas size?

These are common questions among beginners who are just learning to use Photoshop. Many who are just learning to use Adobe Photoshop often are confused by the differences in the canvas size and image size functions.

The ability to adjust the canvas size is just one of the many features available in Adobe Photoshop that puts the user in control of every aspect of the digital image editing process.

While there is much more too it, changing the canvas size essentially creates more work space by adding extra pixels to the total image. There are many ways you can use the canvas and image size functions to make your digital image editing work easier.

Not only can you change the size of the canvas but you can also change the canvas color. This function can be used to create frames or borders around your images. In addition, there are many other more advanced techniques for using the canvas size and image size functions.

As with all of the features and functions of Photoshop, the most important thing to keep in mind is that you take the time to learn how to properly use Photoshop’s image and canvas size functions before you jump into a photo-editing project.

Photoshop is not nearly as difficult to learn as many might think but it does require that you learn proper techniques. While with many lesser quality photo editing programs you can sometimes get by with trial and error, Photoshop is not that easy to just jump in and create professional quality graphic work without some knowledge.

With that being said, once you learn Photoshop there will be no limitations to what you can create.

Don't forget to check out my Photoshop Newbie video Tutorials and learn how to master the basics of Photoshop in just 2 hours!

Regards,
David.

Photoshop fun with pets

A newsletter subscriber showed me a few images (like this one) that a friend had sent them, and asked if they could make these in Photoshop.

The answer... Of course!

This is easy to do, and doesn't require much knowledge.

Check out my Photoshop Newbie Tutorials and watch video tutorials that SHOW you how to this and much more faster than you think!

Have a great week!

Bye,
David.

New Masking Tool

This is cool...

Digital Film Tools (www.digitalfilmtools.com) announces the release of EZ Mask version 1.0, an easy to use interactive image masking tool. Masking is the process of extracting or isolating an object in a picture.

EZ Mask extracts almost any object in an image--even if you are dealing with fine hair detail, smoke, or reflections. This extraction process creates what is known as a mask--essentially a black and white cutout. White mask areas are extracted, black areas not, and gray areas in between represent a level of transparency.

Once a mask is extracted, the foreground object can be seamlessly composed onto a new background in Adobe Photoshop or Photoshop Elements as well as apply filter and image corrections only within the area defined by the mask.

EZ Mask works on both 8 and 16 bit images and takes full advantage of the speed realized by multi-processor or dual core machines.

Save Time in Photoshop With Shortcut Keys

Keyboard shortcuts are a serious time-saver when working in the digital darkroom. You may be familiar with a couple of keystroke shortcuts, such as CMD + C for Edit>Copy, and CMD + Z for Edit>Undo, but there are many more keystroke shortcuts in Photoshop that can help make you a more effective digital darkroom technician.

Did you know these Photoshop "Shortcut Keys":

Rectangular Marquee Tool M
Elliptical Marquee Tool M
Move Tool V
Lasso Tool L
Polygonal Lasso Tool L
Magnetic Lasso Tool L
Magic Wand Tool W
Crop Tool C
Slice Tool K
Slice Select Tool K
Spot Healing Brush Tool J
Healing Brush Tool J
Patch Tool J Red Eye Tool J
Brush Tool B
Pencil Tool B
Color Replacement Tool B
Clone Stamp Tool S
Pattern Stamp Tool S
History Brush Tool Y
Art History Brush Y
Eraser Tool E
Background Eraser Tool E
Magic Eraser Tool E
Gradient Tool G
Paint Bucket Tool G
Blur Tool R
Sharpen Tool R
Smudge Tool R
Dodge Tool O
Burn Tool O
Sponge Tool O
Path Selection Tool A
Direct Selection Tool A
Horizontal Type Tool T
Vertical Type Tool T
Horizontal Type Mask Tool T
Vertical Type Mask Tool T
Pen Tool P
Freeform Pen Tool P
Rectangle Tool U
Rounded Rectangle Tool U
Ellipse Tool U
Polygon Tool U
Line Tool U
Custom Shape Tool U
Notes Tool N
Audio Annotation Tool N
Eyedropper Tool I
Color Sampler Tool I
Measure Tool I
Hand Tool H
Zoom Tool Z
Default Foreground / Background Colors D
Switch Foreground / Background Colors X
Toggle Standard / Quick Mask Modes Q
Toggle Screen Modes F
Toggle Preserve Transparency / Decrease Brush Size [
Increase Brush Size ]
Decrease Brush Hardness {
Increase Brush Hardness }
Previous Brush ,
Next Brush .
First Brush <
Last Brush >

File Menu:
New Cmd+N
Open Cmd+O
Browse Opt+Cmd+O Shift+Cmd+O
Edit in ImageReady Shift+Cmd+M
Close Cmd+W
Close All Opt+Cmd+W
Close and Go To Bridge Shift+Cmd+W
Save Cmd+S
Save As Shift+Cmd+S Opt+Cmd+S
Save for Web Opt+Shift+Cmd+S
Revert F12

Selections:
Select All Cmd+A
Deselect Cmd+D
Reselect Shift+Cmd+D
Inverse Shift+Cmd+I or Shift+F7
All Layers Opt+Cmd+A
Feather Opt+Cmd+D or Shift+F6

Adjustments:
Levels Cmd+L
Auto Levels Shift+Cmd+L
Auto Contrast Opt+Shift+Cmd+L
Auto Color Shift+Cmd+B
Curves Cmd+M
Color Balance Cmd+B
Hue/Saturation Cmd+U
Invert Cmd+I
Desaturate Shift+Cmd+U
Invert Cmd+I

Edit menu:
Edit Undo / Redo Cmd+Z F1
Step Forward Shift+Cmd+Z
Step Backward Opt+Cmd+Z
Fade Shift+Cmd+F
Cut Cmd+X F2
Copy Cmd+C F3
Copy Merged Shift+Cmd+C
Paste Cmd+V F4
Paste Into Shift+Cmd+V Clear
Fill Shift+F5

History Pallette:
Step Forward Shift+Cmd+Z
Step Backward Opt+Cmd+Z

Image Size:
Zoom In Cmd++ Cmd+=
Zoom Out Cmd+-
Fit on Screen Cmd+0
Actual Pixels Opt+Cmd+0

Layers:
Layer via Copy Cmd+J
Layer via Cut Shift+Cmd+J
Create / Release Clipping Mask Opt+Cmd+G
Group Layers Cmd+G
Ungroup Layers Shift+Cmd+G

Arrange Layers:
Bring to Front Shift+Cmd+]
Bring Forward Cmd+]
Send Backward Cmd+[
Send to Back Shift+Cmd+[
Merge Layers Cmd+E
Merge Visible Shift+Cmd+E

Image size:
Image Size Opt+Cmd+I
Canvas Size Opt+Cmd+C

Printing and File info:
File Info Opt+Shift+Cmd+I
Page Setup Shift+Cmd+P
Print with Preview Opt+Cmd+P
Print Cmd+P
Print One Copy Opt+Shift+Cmd+P

Miscellaneous:
Hide Photoshop Control+Cmd+H
Hide Others Opt+Cmd+H
Quit Photoshop Cmd+Q

Read the full article here and learn all about Photoshop's shortcut keys:
http://www.popphoto.com/howto/3170/save-time-in-photoshop-with-shortcut-keys.html

Precise Photo Editing is Made Easy with Photoshop’s Grow Tool

If you have been learning to do digital photo editing in Photoshop and have been going crazy trying to do precise object selection the following information is going to be music to your ears.

Just about everything you do in Photoshop seems to involve selecting objects or people for purposes such as copying, color correction, special effects, and more.

Have you ever wanted to cut an irregular shaped object out of the photo for use with another background? It can be difficult if not darned near impossible to perfectly select the object using your mouse and the selection tool.

Let me introduce you to the "grow" tool. The grow tool give you the ability to easily select an object with a photograph with almost perfection.

What used to be an enormous source of frustration is now a breeze. In fact, the "grow" tool makes what was previously often considered impossible possible.

Here is how the grow tool works. Let’s say you have an irregularly shaped object that you need to select for the purpose of extracting it from the original image for use in digital photo collage.

Without the grow tool you would have to increase the size of the image and slow move your curser around the object until you had selected the entire object and even then your selection would probably be off quite a bit.

Another option might be to use he magic wand tool but the grow tool works wonderfully for this purpose.

When you select an area within an object the grow tool makes the selection grow or expand to the areas adjacent that are similar in color.

Using the grow tool you don’t need to worry about selecting your object perfectly to the edge. Just select the best you can and let the grow tool expand your selection to the edge of the object.

Cropping for Perfect Composition in Photoshop

There are many things that make a great photograph but one of the most important elements of a good photo is composition. Composition has to do with the placement of the subject and objects in a photograph and how these various elements interact together.

Good composition is really what sets apart really good photographers from mediocre ones. Now while there are many aspects of good composition, framing or cropping of an image is an important part.

Photoshop makes it easy to improve the composition of a photograph if you become familiar with the cropping tool. You can quickly and easily cut out parts of the photo that you don’t want or that distract from the main subject. Photoshop makes cropping as precise as you need it to be by allowing you to measure areas to be cut.

The best part about cropping using Photoshop’s cropping tool is that if you don’t like how your photo looks after it has been cropped you can simply go back to where you started and try again. You can essentially experiment with an unlimited number of possibilities.

The following are some tips for better cropping.

Consider the Rule of Thirds

If you spend much time looking at the work of professional photographers you will notice that they rarely center the subject in the picture yet amateurs almost always center their subject.

By moving your subject off center you can create a much more profession and eye pleasing image. Imagine lines across your image breaking it up it thirds and then consider cropping your picture so that the subject is in one of the outer thirds.

Don’t be afraid to experiment but before you do make sure you make a copy of the original image and save it in a separate folder.

Crop to Traditional Print Sizes

When cropping your pictures check the sizing to make sure they will print in a standard size such as 4x6. If they do not correspond to these sizes try cutting a little more off. Otherwise when you take them into print at the local lab the photo lab may have to crop them even more to make them print the right size.

Photoshop makes it so easy to crop your photos that you really won’t have to worry about the framing when you take the picture on your camera because you can just fix it later on your computer. Regardless of whether you use Photoshop Elements or the more advanced version, Photoshop CS, the technical aspects of using the cropping tool are essentially the same.

..........

To learn more about Photoshop join my Photoshop Tips and Tricks Newsletter and then be sure to check out my Photoshop Newbie Tutorials and watch video tutorials that SHOW you how to master the basics of photoshop in just 2 hours!

Happy Photoshopping,
David