Photoshop Plug-ins Make Photoshop Even More Powerful

Adobe’s Photoshop software is a very powerful image editing program that is by far the market leader for editing image files. I use Photoshop extensively when creating, and editing images for the web sites that I design. Almost all professional photographers and printers also use Photoshop to create all of the wonderful images that appear in magazines, billboards, and even on television. I am not the best artist in the world, but with Photoshop I have enough power to create brilliant images with tools that are built-in to the software.

The coolest thing about Photoshop is that even as powerful as it is out of the box, there are many different plug-ins to make Photoshop even more powerful. The Photoshop plug-ins can be grouped into a few major categories which include 3D, color management, digital asset management, photographic, retouching, and special effects.

The Photoshop plug-ins which are available can help perform tasks much faster and more efficiently than performing these tasks by hand. The 3D plug-ins are used to create 3D images and type very quickly and elegantly. The color management Photoshop plug-ins can create new colors to correspond to the printer that you are using, or the monitor that you are using to create your graphics. The digital asset management plug-ins are used to organize all of the digital images that you have created so that finding the correct image is much easier than without it. The photographic ones give many different professional lens techniques that you can apply to any picture to create amazing effects.

The retouching plug-ins can intelligently change the contrast, color, sharpness, and many other common filters to make a picture look as crisp as possible. The special effects plug-ins are my favorite, because they can make a rather plain image into something fantastic. If you use Photoshop on a regular basis, then you need to look at some of the plug-ins that are available, because they can make your life much easier, and your graphics look much better.

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Learn Photoshop Like A Pro

At the dawn of computer generation, image editing was made more efficient and remarkable by various photo editing software. But when people talk about the world leader in digital image editing, Adobe Photoshop takes center stage.

Photoshop is, above all else, a superior image editing tool, one that will always be remembered best as the software that forever changed the way the world looks. In many ways, Photoshop has become almost indistinguishable from photo or image editing. And as technology advances, it has become one of the most proficient tools in creating web-based images.

For all of their bells and whistles, however, Photoshop still serves best when used with Photoshop tutorials. Many people are familiar with Photoshop but not all of them are fully capable of managing the tricks and tips of the program. Hence, Photoshop tutorials can facilitate the full use of the software for better image editing.

There are so many websites that offer Photoshop tutorials nowadays. The best thing about Photoshop tutorials is that people can access them for free. Hence, they can learn many things about photo editing and other services needed to enhance the images.

When it comes to Photoshop tutorials, there are so many factors to consider in order to get the lessons you need to know. Some may go for the advanced tutorials while others may find basic Photoshop tutorials beneficial. If you really want to learn the basic tips and tricks in Photoshop, you may find these Photoshop tutorials useful:

1. Photographic effects

With the help of digital cameras, photographers nowadays can really make wonders on their images. However, with the help of Photoshop, they can truly create a new perception of the world. Professionals know how to do their thing but ordinary people cannot. Hence, with the help of Photoshop tutorials, they can create different photographic effects in their images the way the experts do.

2. Lighting

With light, you can create different moods in the picture. Through the use of lenses, flares, and other lighting effects, images may appear surreal, romantic, or morbid. Photoshop tutorials can teach you the basic tips in creating different lighting effects to achieve the mood that you want.

3. Touch ups

This is the most basic section of Photoshop tutorials. In fact, this is what Photoshop is all about. People would want to enhance their pictures. If the camera may not seem to do the tricks, Photoshop can fix it. All you have to learn is to identify the basic steps in doing touch ups. With Photoshop tutorials on touch ups you can even make an old picture look new or arrange some flaws and make it more appealing.

4. Image presentation

Photoshop tutorials can give your picture a good lift from the ordinary. You can make two people appear together in the picture even if they were taken separately. Photoshop tutorials will teach you various means of presenting your picture — totally different from the way you have captured the moment. You can mix and match, combine and contrast, or simply create a new background without having to take a new shot. You just need to learn the basic Photoshop tutorials on image presentations.

So if your books and magazines cannot tell you more than what you need to know about image editing, hook yourself to the Internet and learn the different image editing tips and tricks through Photoshop tutorials.

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Create a Simple Wooden Frame

1. Open Photoshop. Open the image to create Plain Wood frame.


2. Create New file with 640 X 480 Pixels and drag the image on it using Move tool.


3. Create a new layer in the middle of background and image layer. Keep it Selected. You can name it as a BASE frame layer if you want.


4. Draw rectangular selection around the image for frame using Rectangular Marquee Tool, on the BASE frame layer.


5. Edit > Fill > Pattern
   (Select Pattern from the Use drop down and Select Wood from custom pattern)
   Deselect using CTRL + D


6. Layer > Layer Style > Bevel and Emboss (Style : Inner Bevel)


7. Create another layer above BASE frame layer and draw another rectangle on it using Rectangular Marquee tool. It should be smaller than the rectangle on the BASE frame layer. Fill it with the same wood pattern used for the BASE frame layer. Deselect using CTRL + D.


8. Layer > Layer Style > Bevel and Emboss (Style : Inner Bevel)


9. Select image layer


10. Layer > Layer Style > Bevel and Emboss (Style : Pillow Emboss)


11. Image > Trim to trim the image.

Quality Image Cutouts

First select the polygonal lasso tool. Click and drag around the outside of the image you want to cutout.

Next use the lasso tool to cutout the inside parts of the image. You do this by holding [Alt/Option] and click with the lasso, then continue until you have covered the part you want to cutout. For this image you will need to cutout 2 places -- the hole for the top ring and the hole for the bottom ring.

Next go to [Select->Modify->Smooth] and enter in a radius of 2 pixels. The radius is how much to smooth the selection. If the selection you made earlier is very jagged you might want to experiment with higher radius levels to smooth out the selection.

Next go to [Select->Feather] and enter in a radius of 1. This will blur the edges of the selection a bit and give it a more real look.

Next go to [Select->Modify->Contract] and enter in an amount of one pixel. This makes the selection a little tighter which also helps in making a nice cutout.

After you have done these steps, just copy and paste the part of the image you have now cutout.

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Easily Change Hair Color

Learn to easily change hair color using this simple Photoshop technique

Using the Extract Filter In Photoshop

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How To Create Reflected Text

In this Photoshop tutorial you’ll learn how to create reflected text. Reflected text can add a unique and classy effect to your graphic designs. You have probably seen it all over the web, but never really knew how to do it. This is a lot easier than it looks and you will love how elegant it can make your websites or designs appear.

First, you want to open a new document in Photoshop. You will want to choose the 640×480 preset option in the New dialog box. Now you want to select the Text tool in the toolbox. It is the “T” icon and will type horizontally, which is what you need to have a reflection that goes below the text.

Now, let’s choose a color for your text. Click on the Swatches tab on the Color palette. If you don’t see it, press the F6 key and it will show the swatches palette and hide the colors. Click on the RGB Red in the top left hand corner with the eyedropper. You can select any color that you wish though. You have your text tool and your color, now you need a font. You can choose your font from the text options bar at the top of your screen. For a really elegant effect, choose a font such as Trajan and set it to 72 points. Type a word in your new document. It should be large and the color that you chose. Type in all caps to prevent any reflection problem later.

Now you are going to duplicate your type layer. Select the text layer in the layers palette and press Ctrl+J. This will create a copy layer. Now you have two text layers, you can use one of them to create your reflection. The reflection is an upside down version of your original layer, so you need to flip it upside down. You will flip the original text layer, so you need to select it and then go to Edit at the top of your screen and then select Transform. A sub menu will pop up and you will click Flip Vertical. The original text layer will flip upside down.

Drag the layer below the unflipped layer. You will want to drag it until it is touching the bottom of the unflipped layer. Now that you have your flipped text below the unflipped text, you are going to create a fade and this can be done by using a Layer Mask. At the bottom of your Layers palette you will see a little box with a circle in it. Click on this to add a layer mask. A layer mask is automatically filled with white. To make it appear as though our text is fading away, you are going to select the Gradient tool. On the Options Bar you will choose the black and white gradient. Ensure that your layer mask is selected and not the layer. With it selected, drag out a gradient vertically. When you release your mouse, Photoshop will apply the gradient. And your text will be faded. You will only want to draw the gradient about halfway between the top and bottom of your two rows of text. You can hold the Shift key as you make the gradient line to ensure that the gradient stays perfect straight. Once this is complete you have perfectly reflected text.

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How To Place A Photo Into Text

Have you always wondered how to put photos into text using Photoshop? This Photoshop trick is perfect for creating simple yet cool looking headers for your websites or blogs. Say you are planning on setting up a website, but you are totally clueless on how to design the header and hiring a professional graphic designer is out of your budget, no worries, with Photoshop you can bang out a simple and sleek looking website header in no time by applying this really cool Photoshop trick. You can also use this effect to create magazine covers, movie posters, ebook covers and much, much more.Ok, without further ado, here are the steps on how to place a photo into text:

1. Open a new file then go over to the Horizontal Type Tool or vertical Type Tool and click on the icon. Next just type whatever text you want using the type tool.


2. Open up a photo that you wish to place inside the text and the go to Select > Select All (alternately hit ctrl+A on the keyboard).


3. Once you've selected the whole image or photo, just go over to Edit > Copy (ctrl+ C on the keyboard).


4. Next head over to image where you created the text and hit ctrl + V on the keyboard or go to Edit > Paste. Now you have pasted the whole photo onto the text but how do you place it into the text? Take a look at your layer palette; notice that the image layer (layer 1) is right above the text layer? Yes? Cool, because in the next step you will discover how to insert the image layer into the text layer via the layer palette.
   


5. Go over to the layer palette and hold the Alt key on your keyboard. Then move the cursor right between the layer that contains your photo and the text layer. Once you do this, you should be able to see that the cursor has changed shape.


6. Left click on the mouse and bingo! You have successfully placed a photo into text. Of course you can still make some adjustments like moving or resizing the photo inside the text or even the text itself, so that the whole effect looks just right. Simply use the Move Tool (V) to move the image around or go to Edit > Free Transform (ctrl+ T) to resize the photo.

That is how you do a photo into text trick in Photoshop. It's so simple isn't it? You can also spice up the whole thing by adding a few layer effects like bevel and emboss and what not. With Photoshop, anything is possible so get creative!

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Create Panoramic Photos With Photoshop CS Photomerge

These days you don't need a special camera to create awesome panoramic photographs. With Photoshop CS using Photomerge makes the process quick and easy. Photomerge in Photoshop CS was created especially for panoramic photography. The process itself is really quite easy but the results of the merge will be depend on the layout and image source quality. The Photomerge feature permits the selection of images intended for automatic panoramic Photomerge and it also allows for manual arrangements.

Since your final photo depends on the quality of the source images it is necessary to make note of some tips when shooting scenic photographs. These tips include:

• Use manual exposure when shooting pictures. Merging the pictures later on will be difficult if different exposures per shot are used.
• Try to keep the camera as steady as possible when shooting. If you can, use a tripod to steady the camera.
• Keep a long distance between the camera and the subject, especially when working with landscapes. Chances of parallax are greater when objects are too close to the camera

Here are simple step-by-step instructions on how to come up with great panoramic images using Photoshop CS Photomerge:

• Open several images of a single scenery in Photoshop CS.
• Go to the File option, the select Automate, and then go to Photomerge. This will open the Photoshop dialog box.
• Check that the images you want to merge are in the dialog box.
• Next check the Attempt to Automatically Arrange Source Images box and then select okay
• The program will then automatically select the images one by one, and attempt to merge them into one panoramic photo. If your photos don't quite match you may get an error because the program cannot merge the images automatically. If this happens don't panic. It is still possible to arrange the images manually.
• If an errors does occurs, integrate the image or images that were not merged by pulling that image or the images from the top window into the panorama and arranging to the desired position. Photoshop CS will then integrate the image into the panorama automatically.

Tips for great Panoramic Photos:

Sometimes, clear lines that separate the images in the panorama may appear. It is possible to blend the lines so that they disappear. Select the Advance Blending option located at the right of the Photomerge window, then select Preview. Inconsistencies in color will be calculated by the program. At this point, the images will blend together.

Photoshop will combine all the individual images for your panoramic into a single layer. If you select the Keep as Layers option it is easier to edit each image individually. This is a great help if one of the images is brighter or darker then the other images. You can select that image in layers and adjust the brightness for just that image. It is a good idea to save the layers as a .psd file so that you can always come back and correct any mistakes or make any changes later. It's a real pain to have to redo everything from scratch just if you made a mistake or want to change something later.

You can also distort the pictures so that the scene will look like it is in perspective. Choose the Perspective option on the bottom of Settings. You can also do this by choosing Set Vanishing Point in the Photomerge window, then click to an area in the panorama.

Using the Perspective mode can often produce panoramic photos in a more accurate manner then the Normal mode. The Normal setting usually does not match the images seamlessly where Perspective does.

You can also use Cylindrical mapping which is where images are projected into a cylinder.

Beautiful panoramic photos are easy to create with Photomerge in Photoshop CS. Photomerge will make the task a breeze for just about anyone to produce inspiring and professional-looking images.

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Using Photoshop To Create The Perfect Shot

Many amateur photographers have recently switched over from using traditional film to the digital realm, especially with the advent of the cheaper digital SLR or DSLR cameras.

Now you can use your digital camera in exactly the same way that you could a traditional 35mm SLR. In fact the digital models are even better as you can set the film speed and make previews etc etc.

Having made the change to digital there are far too few photographers who realize the power of Photoshop.

Digital enhancement of your images is something that can turn some of the most amateur photos into professional looking shots.

The possibilities are endless but include;

Creating better composition.

This is the first and most important step in creating the perfect image. Get this right and your photo could be stunning.

There are certain rules to the composition of the perfect image which we will not go into in detail here but you can adjust your image in Photoshop so that it adheres to some of these rules. For example, with a little creative use of the crop tool you can resize your image and adjust the position of the subject to fall into one of the key positions making it more pleasing to the eye. For example, in most cases, a central subject is not as effective as one that is offset to the side (adhering to the rule of thirds). Using crop can effectively move the subject over, up or down to position it perfectly.

Create depth of field.

You can quite easily add depth of field to the images that you have taken "snaps" of. If you have an image that is completely in focus and the background too is in focus (a common effect of non SLR digital point and shoot cameras) the you can solve this using Photoshop. You simply draw a mask or make a selection around the subject, invert that mask so that it selects all but the subject and apply a blur effect to the part of the image that is selected. In the later versions of Photoshop there is actually a filter that emulates the natural lens blur. The end result is a sharp, in focus subject with an out of focus background. This can be very effective and can draw attention to the subject.

Color Correction

You can change the color of your image and balance the overall exposure of your images in a number of ways. The most common is by using the levels function or the curves. Here you can gently touch up your photo making the dark areas darker and the lighter areas lighter to achieve greater or lesser contrast.

There are countless other methods and techniques you can use with Photoshop to better your images without having them look like they have been altered. Selective blurring can give the impression of movement, you can change certain areas of a photo such as the color of a specific object, red eye effects can be removed, skin blemishes and spots can be hidden and even with a little more skill and knowledge, complete makeovers can be achieved.

Don't fall into the trap of thinking that Photoshop is a tool for designers and fantasy artists alone. It is fast becoming the chosen tool of the trade for most professional photographers and is used on a daily basis.

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Look Like A Professional Graphic Designer Using Photoshop

In the market for a digital imaging program that will take your photos and give them a professional appearance? Look no further, Adobe Photoshop has all the tools you need.

In the realm of professional photo design, the program Photoshop is the industry favorite. Adobe Photoshop has far-reaching abilities and a wealth of useful tools for the beginner and the professional alike. The only limitations are the user becoming familiar with its tools.

Do you have any old family photos from long ago that you wish you could restore? Are the prints damaged? This is a simple press of the button for Photoshop. You have at your hands the ability to restore damaged prints with the click of a mouse. Many possibilities are at your disposal with this tool. Start a restoration business on the side, fixing friends and families damaged pictures.Have you ever wondered how someone can take just the image of a person and put it in another background? They do it with Adobe Photoshop. With the cropping tool you can outline an image and crop out everything else. Cropping the picture is as easy as 1, 2, 3.

One of the most enjoyable aspects of picture making is the ability in Adobe Photoshop to change the picture to color or black and white. With the click of a mouse take a color picture and change it to a black and white or make it look like an old and weathered photo.

Interesting arrays of tools are at the users command and will transform average photos into awesome images that will look and feel as if it was professionally done. Many of the tools are redundant to all the various versions of Photoshop.

My personal favorite in Adobe Photoshop is the transformation aspects of the program. You are able to enlarge a person's nose, shrink their eyes, or distort them in any way you see fit. Make your children look like an alien! I distorted my children's pictures and framed them for people to see when they first walk into the house. The reactions I receive from people are hilarious!

Use Photoshop for all your photo editing. Photoshop has useful tools and a fun time can be had by all ages tweaking and editing your photos. Your graphic design images will take a leap and bound in their quality and look professional designed them.

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Remove Unwanted Objects From Photos

Simple trick how to erase unwanted objects like people from your holiday photos, without anyone noticing.





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Miniature Effect in Photoshop

Here’s a nice video tutorial on creating a miniature effect using Photoshop. The effect usually works best if it is an aerial view of a city / town / landscapes going off in the distance.





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