Have a Great New Year from Learn Photoshop Now.

Just a quick note to say thanks to everyone that has stopped by for the last 12 months. We would like to wish you all A Happy New Year, and all the very best for 2007.

- LearnPhotoshopNow Team

Glassball in Photoshop

Thankyou must go out to one of clients who sent in this awesome video.

How to Remove 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.

Beef up your images with Photoshop Plugins

Master The Basics Of Adobe Photoshop With My 2 Hour Easy To Use Photoshop Video Tutorial.

Advanced Photoshop Fun

If you’ve gotten a good handle on the basics of Adobe Photoshop and just want to take a few tutorials to learn some advanced speedy little tricks here are some neat online Photoshop tutorials to try.

The very newest of the Photoshop tutorials is the lesson on replacing color. This will teach you not only how to replace color throughout the image, but how to go about replacing a series of the same color in various shades with the same kind of color gradient in a different color.

You can take part in this Photoshop tutorial from the vendor’s Web site or can download it as a PDF and read it at your leisure.  

Should you have no Adobe Acrobat reader installed on your computer you’ll need that to use the PDF but it’s easily downloaded from the site at no charge in just a few quick seconds.

Another of the clever Photoshop tutorial lessons is the means to form your Photoshop text in a circle. This circular text formatting has traditionally called for a vector but the version 5 lets you create your circular text with much more ease, and no vector.

This Photoshop tutorial, as with the other advanced training programs, can be read online or with a downloadable PDF.

For those of you who like the creative effect of a curling page you can learn how to do this with a Photoshop tutorial as well. In the same lessons you can learn to use Adobe paths and to create gradients of your own.  
 
One whimsical little Adobe Photoshop trick taught through tutorials is called flag in the wind. Created at the request of several Photoshop users who logged onto Usenets, the technique teaches photographers how to use Photoshop’s displace filter to create the look of a breezy movement.  

Once the above techniques have been mastered additional advanced Photoshop tutorials teaching things like custom interfaces, and the quick photo effects of masking. One of the fun uses for this tactic is to take one head and place it on the body of another person. Everyone needs that technique right?

Some of the Photoshop tutorials are specific to materials and fabric. Tutorial number nine, for example, teaches the use of Adobe Photoshop with metal, while the next lesson number ten teaches the use of wood as a Photoshop material.

Textured spheres and round buttons can be designed with Photoshop with any material once you’ve taken the basic materials lessons.

Wood texture tutorials teach bevel and button creations, while metal textures can be used for interfaces as well.

GIF lessons are important additions to your Photoshop basic tutorials. GIFs are not that easy to master, but their transparency is the reason they’re still important.  

You can tackle runny text lessons in advanced tutorials too. Just in case you have a bent for the bloody, say at Halloween time, you can learn this point and click technique with Photoshop classes.

Other advanced Photoshop tutorials teach gold and raised text creation, soft text with a beveled look and an alien skin, chrome and textured 3-D text, and layered masking.

Master The Basics Of Adobe Photoshop With My 2 Hour Easy To Use Photoshop Video Tutorial.

Merry Christmas to you all from Learn Photoshop Now

We'd just like to thankyou for sending us your photoshop images, videos and articles over the last year. LearnphotoshopNow would like to wish you all the very best for Christmas.

Cool Photoshop Video

You just have to check this video out , this was sent in from Felipe.

Cool Photoshop Image

Karen sent this cool Photoshop image in off her cat Lilli.

Learning the Basic Photoshop Tools

Adobe has its own Photoshop tutorials that run the gamut of instruction.

You can find Photoshop tutorials on the Adobe site on abstracts, automation, animation, the basics of using Photoshop, buttons and brushes, using color effectively, digital art, drawing, creating desired effects with drawing or photos, retouching photos, photography in general, scripting, textual effects, Photoshop patterns and textures, graphics for the Web, and layouts for the Web.

One of the most basic of Photoshop tutorials is a complete explanation of all you’ll find on the Photoshop toolbar.

You’ll learn lessons that include the use of the marquee tools. There are several: the elliptical, the single row, the single column and the rectangular.

The rectangular and elliptical marquee tools lets you expand or reduce an area that is shaped as the tools indicate. You can use a tool to size one row or one column with the appropriate marquee tool.

These basic will be taught in this Photoshop tutorial, along with the use of the move tool which lets you create movement of a layer, the lasso tool which lets you capture a specific area, and the magnetic lasso tools, which lets you change the location of images with varying colors.

The polygonal lasso tool, in contrast, will go from point to point in a straight line or lines. You’ll even learn how to use a magic want with Adobe Photoshop tutorials. This magic want tool lets you click inside a one color area and move only that area.

The Photoshop crop tool, part of this tutorial, lets you delete parts of a photo.

With this Photoshop tutorial you’ll learn other basic tools such as the spot healing tool, the healing brush tool, the red eye tool, the patch tool, the brush tool, the pencil tool, and the color replacement tool.

With the clone stamp tool, you’ll learn how to use Photoshop to copy only parts of a particular image, while the pattern stamp tool will teach you how to take an image and brush a pattern on to it.

The Photoshop tutorial will teach you the mechanics of history brush tool use, how it is used to undo what you’ve created by simply brushing over the image you’ve altered and taking it back to the image it was before.

It has an even more advance use, though, in that, you can actually undo the image change in only the specific parts from which you wish to remove your latest alteration.

The art history brush, another tool taught in Photoshop tutorials, is much the same as the history brush except that it also lets you style at the same time.

Photoshop tutorials teach three eraser tools – the standard eraser, the background eraser and the magic eraser tool. With the first you can do just as its name suggests – erase part of the image you’ve created with Photoshop.

With the background version you can erase only the image background, while the magic eraser which lets you make even more varied choices of what to eliminate from the image.

Master The Basics Of Adobe Photoshop With My 2 Hour Easy To Use Photoshop Video Tutorial.

You just have to check this image out.

Thank you very Jim for sending in this amazing photoshop picture. Please keep them coming in.

Adobe Photoshop CS3 beta to drop this friday

Exclusive news just in: Adobe Systems Inc. on friday will make available for download an early public beta of its next-generation graphics editor, Photoshop CS3, but will otherwise abstain from delivering pre-release copies of other Creative Suite 3.0 applications.

People familiar with the matter tell AppleInsider that Adobe chief executive Bruce Chizen will formally announce plans for the beta release during the company's fiscal fourth quarter conference call with analysts and members of the media on Thursday.

On the other hand, those same people say that the San Jose, Calif.-based software developer does not plan to release or discuss details of other Creative Suite 3.0 applications, such as Illustrator, Dreamweaver and InDesign.

The Photoshop CS3 beta, which will be posted to the Adobe Labs website on friday, will include Adobe Bridge and Device Central components, and be available simultaneously for both the Mac and Windows operating systems.

People familiar with the Macintosh version of the editor confirm it to be a Universal Binary which "simply screams" on Apple Computer's new Intel-based hardware. However, they tell AppleInsider that this week's beta will include only the standard version of Photoshop CS3.

In its labs, Adobe has also been developing an "Advanced" version of Photoshop CS3 -- geared towards the video and science markets -- with enhanced capabilities for the most demanding and specialized images.

Among the many features expected in Photoshop CS3 Advance, due alongside Creative Suite 3.0 in March, are: Vanishing Point 2, HDR support, rotoscoping, Dicom support, 3D file support, and a fast fourier transform filter.

In order to download the Photoshop CS3 beta, users will need a valid serial number to one of the various Creative Suite 2.0 distributions. The release will be made available exclusively in English, AppleInsider has been told, but that will not preclude users of international distributions from participating in the beta test.

Although Adobe will welcome feedback on Photoshop CS3 beta through the Adobe Labs forums, it will not be providing technical support on the release.

Word of Adobe's intentions to hold an early CS3 beta was reportedly exclusively by AppleInsider this past weekend.

Simple Image Manipulation

Some very cool images done on Photoshop.

Photoshop basic tools and technique tips

Photoshop tutorials not only teach you about the basic tools and technique but give you some tips on enhancing your Photoshop use and image results.

Here are four great Photoshop tutorials tips.

The first tip in the Photoshop tutorials is the way to boost Photoshop’s performance by customizing the settings of your scratch disk. It’s actually quite simple.

The scratch disk is part of your computer’s hard drive, and Photoshop uses it just like virtual memory. The way you customize is to open your Photoshop program, then use the command control + K. This will bring up the preferences. You then choose “Plug-Ins and Scratch Disks” from your pull down menu. Its found at the top left of your dialog.

From this step you’ll be taken to four more menus. Here is where you set the scratch disks one by when. Photoshop tutorials teach you the steps.

They are, in performance order, a hard drive other than the one in which you installed your Photoshop. The second move is to select a logical drive partition other than that chosen for installation of Photoshop. Next you select the Photoshop installation drive.

The final step is to select either a RAM disk or an external hard drive. If you don’t have an external hard drive you can pick one up of 20g or more for under $40.

Photoshop tutorials also teach you how to use the addition of noise for cleaning up printed gradients. Gradients sometimes print out with striations that ruin the smooth clean color transition that you’re looking for and that you saw on the computer screen.

The way to resolve this, according to the Photoshop tutorial, is to go to the noise filter, choose three percent, choose Gaussian, and then monochromatic. You will now have smooth Photoshop gradients.

If you would like to create snapshots before you run your actions Photoshop tutorials can help. The difficulty without just trying to undo the process when you don’t like the result of these procedures is that there are too many steps to make it easy to go all the way back.

The very simple resolution is to create a snapshot of your image before you start running your action. All you have to do is open your Photoshop history palette and choose “Create New Snapshot.

The other option is to save the file before you start your action and revert your File to get back to this saved version.

The same Photoshop tutorial guides you through the use of the unsharp mask to improve your image’s local contrast. This tool is handy for enhancing sharpness and detail.

Used at low settings, however, it also can be terrific for contrast improvement. What the Photoshop tutorials teach you to do is open the image needing improvement.

You then go to filter, to sharpen and to unsharp mask. The percentage you choose is 20, the radius is 50 and the threshold zero. It may be necessary to tweak the numbers a little. All that is left to do is to click okay.

Master The Basics Of Adobe Photoshop With My 2 Hour Easy To Use Photoshop Video Tutorial.

Is it a Hawk or a Plane?

Check this very cool picture out that Jamie sent in

Simple Moves for Greater Shots

Check out these short but great tips on Adobe Photoshop. The first of these Photoshop tutorials tells you how to edit several layers of text at one time. This will prevent the nasty problem of ending up with layers of text on top of layers of text.

You could have identical text but varying style sets. You can also use this if you ever have to edit the text layer. With this tip you can edit all layers at the same time.

The first step is to open the Photoshop Layers palette, select one of the layers, then hit control + click on the next layer to select it at the same time. You can do this with several text layers.

The tutorial emphasizes that you must click not on the icon but on the words. The next step is to grab the Photoshop type tool, then select the text and edit it. Your changes will affect every layer you have chosen. To apply all changes use the shift key when you make the changes.

Another of the Photoshop tutorials is about improving the programs performance by enlarging tiles. All you need is at least one gig of RAM.

When you are performing Photoshop functions such as opening, running filter or effects or saving, the applications breaks the image into tiles, processing them one at a time, conserving the use of memory.

What happens because of this is your computer has to frequently read and write to the scratch disk or the RAM. If your computer’s RAM is adequate your tiles can be processed at a size that is larger. This will reduce the times the computer has to do the reading and writing. The result is improved performance.

The process, according to Photoshop tutorials, is to close the Photoshop program and then open Internet Explorer in Windows. Next navigate to drive C and the Adobe Photoshop Plug in extension program that says ~Bigger Tiles 8BX.

You should rename the file to Bigger Tiles 8BX. You then simply restart Photoshop.

Photoshop tutorials help you with your black and white photos as well. One tip offered is about the conversion of a color image to black and white by using the channel mixer.

What you should do is open the image you’re trying to convert, and then go to the Photoshop menu, to Image and then to Adjustments, and then finally to Channel Mixer.

Here you check monochrome at the bottom or your dialog. This may be all it takes to make the right black and white look. If the result isn’t perfect you can tweak it by making small adjustments to your program’s color channel.

The effect is much better than using the standard Photoshop desaturate process.

Another of the Photoshop tutorials offers precision editing tips.

To convert your layer styles in Photoshop into layers, thus providing even more style opportunities, all you need to do is open your Layers palette, select your layer and right click on the styles icon. Now select the create layers option. It’s that simple.

Master The Basics Of Adobe Photoshop With My 2 Hour Easy To Use Photoshop Video Tutorial.

Photoshop CS 3 emerging from the shadows

The next version of Photoshop will offer much-improved performance on both Intel and PowerPC-based Macs.

Adobe Photoshop CS3 will offer native Intel Mac support for the first time, and will be furnished with an improved user interface (UI).

Features of the UI (according to Think Secret) will include better organisation of palettes, which will be resizable, movable and generally more flexible for users who need destop space to show the image, not the UI.

Filters have also been improved and are much faster than ever before, the report explains, citing "sources".

Video, 3D, a built-in device library (which lets image editors prep pictures for any mobile device) and a new analysis menu will also debut in this version.

Save for Web will also be improved, the report explains, and suggests the software will be officially revealed in March or April.

You can check more out here: Mac World

Adding Text to Images in 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.

Master The Basics Of Adobe Photoshop With My 2 Hour Easy To Use Photoshop Video Tutorial.

Check Out These Simple Tricks.

Some very cool and yet very simple tricks done with Photoshop. You could be doing this with in 24hours.