In 1990, I had the great pleasure of introducing Russell Brown and a new software package from Adobe to several hundred attendees of my Great Graphics Tips session at Macworld. Photoshop Tips & Tricks has been part of DT&G ever since.
Photoshop Madness... it's a jungle out there
It's been quite a while since our last edition of Photoshop Madness because the Photoshop 911 folks were deeply involved in getting the forums up and running. * Photoshop Scalped and Hijacked * The Art & Times of Rodny Mella * Bert Monroy on Creating Photorealistic Reflections and Shadows * Creating Realistic Water in Photoshop * Real World Image Sharpening Tips * Art (bling) is where you find it . . . What Photoshop Madness have you encountered? Let us know about it ...
Enjoy this month's edition of Photoshop Madness
Digital Photo Depth of Field - Focus Fall-Off
In this free Photoshop tutorial we demonstrate the ease of gradient masks, layer masks and blurring to save a one-time-only photograph for a web page. We also utilize the cool photo filter to finish this shot with Depth of Field or Focus Fall-Off
Chrome : the Path Styler Pro way
Our quest for the perfect chrome never really went away. But we really came close here! You need to check out the WOW stuff you can do with Path Styler Pro -- the powerful styling plug-in for Photoshop makes stunning filter effects with a simple click or two... Check out this chrome
Digital Photo Fixes for Beginners
This series looks at several areas where beginners really need quick and easy solutions... here we cover exposure, levels, cropping, sizing, scaling, flash corrections for fall-off, and we'll show you a digital step wedge that saves a bunch of paper and ink ... Easy Photo Tricks
Blow up those JPGs
one of those frequent questions we get all the time is "How can we enlarge our JPG images, or shots downloaded from the web?" Sooner or later, if you have a digital camera and a computer, you're going to want to enlarge an image. This time we're challenged with enlargements over 1000 percent... but we solved the problems with a good dose of Genuine Fractals
Balancing the light in Night Scenes
While there are several dozen ways to adjust lighting, (from two to 300 minutes) if the scene is affected by a single overall condition, the solution could be more simple than you think. Here, we'll fix this photo spoiled by artificial outdoor lighting with a single-step lighting adjustment.
Add Drama to your Photos with Motion Blurs
Follow along as we add drama to two photos using Adobe Photoshop motion blur filters. We explore the directional motion blur and the radial motion blur as taught by expert Barry Huggins, author of the Photoshop Retouching Cookbook for Digital Photographers. Photoshop and the Motion Blur
Photoshop: Creating Mirror Reflections...
A frequent question is how to create the realistic mirror surface reflections of an isolated image -- as popularized by Web 2.0, and Apple iPhone marketing. This tutorial shows you the easy way, and the best way in Photoshop or Photoshop Elements to make Photoshop Mirror Reflections...
Clip from one... add to the other
What happens when you have two photos of two people and you need to join them into a single photo? Here, we illustrate a quick and easy way to bring another person into your photo, and make them look naturally at homne... clipping from one, and adding to the other!
Creating a Custom Drop Shadow
Photoshop's shadow layer effect does not always provide the correct shadow. The pros know you need to know how to produce realistic drop shadows by hand. Learn how to generate shadows for multiple surfaces, and projection distances by Creating your own Custom Drop Shadows
Creating Black & White from Color
another of those frequent questions from the Photoshop 911 emergency room gets answered by expert Barry Huggins, author of the Photoshop Retouching Cookbook for Digital Photographers. Through four different techniques, we learn a different set of skills is required when Creating Black & White from Color
Saving Photos: Dark, Under Exposed
Low lighting, camera movement, and other woes spoil the photo. Sometimes a photo just looks too dark to save. Sometimes it just can't be saved. But before trashing the photo, here are a number of exercises that show some easy tricks you can employ to save underexposed photos
Degrading Color for Hand Tint Look
A Photoshop 911 reader asks how a certain 'tinted' look was achieved in some sample photos... these are near grayscale with muted color. We knew we could accomplish the look by pulling an adjustment layer called the Gradient Map
Photoshop's "Match Color"
A Photoshop 911 reader asks how the "Match Color" function works to save two of his photos. Match Color uses the color map from one photo to change another -- and it works great -- sometimes. But when it doesn't, you have to look for other solutions. Matching Color
Painter: Photo to Woodcut
Painter is one of the premier natural medial programs, and ideal for converting that coveted vacation shot to a graphic work of art -- follow along as award-winning fine artist, designer and educator Cher Threinen-Pendarvis shows you how noted artist John Derry created his Pagoda Woodcut
One Photo to Many: Collage Mosaic
Several readers have asked about breaking apart a single photo so it looks like a collection of snap shots. There are actually a number of ways to do this from the quick and easy "SLICE" method, to the more difficult and time consuming "random" method - we think makes a much better looking Photo Collage Mosaic
Photographically Correct Film Simulator Effects for Photoshop
Alien Skin is back with an all new features list for Exposure 2 Film Stock Simulator! This new effects package plug-in features more than 300 presets for film simulation and a full range of photo lab and darkroom effects... Exposure 2 for Photoshop and compatibles
Photoshop To Painter & Back Again
Many Photoshop users think the word "Corel" is a thing of the past. However, those truly in the know will say Painter does it all. We do get a lot of questions about using the two together -- so we turned to the award-winning fine artist, designer and educator Cher Threinen-Pendarvis with her excellent tips for Using Photoshop with Painter
Photoshop Madness: Type & Lettering Tutorial Hell
It's a jungle out there... For this years Fall Fonts Festival we intended to send you some good tutorials on working with type in Photoshop. There are thousands of them, but unfortunately we began turning up some rather disturbing results for this month's Photoshop Madness
Outlining Type: Right or Wrong:
If you read the Photoshop Madness listed above, then you'll understand what we're doing here. This tutorial points out the wrong and right ways to outline shapes, like typography, in Adobe Illustrator and Adobe Photoshop. Outlining Type: What's Right or Wrong
Photoshop's Photo Filter Adjustment Layer
This is one of the little known gems you'll find in Adobe's Photoshop and Photoshop Elements because it's a filter, but it's not in the filters menu. Use it when you want to change the color temperature of a photo... here's the value of Photoshop's Photo Filter Adjustment Layer
Photoshop 911: Spot Adjustments using a Mask
Someone asked how to make slight spot adjustments in just the dark areas of an image. Levels, or any other adjustment are easily fine-tuned by painting black and white into the mask area an Adjustment Layer Spot Adjustments using a Mask
Photoshop 911: Pop an image out of the border
A Photoshop 911 forum question was how to make a photo break out of the frame. Even though this has been around longer than Photoshop has, it can be daunting to a new user. But it's simple to Pop an image out of the border
Harrys Filters are back
... along with PhotoFreebies for Windows - Harry's Filters is a free Photoshop-compatible plugin containing dozens of useful image effects. The PhotoFreebies are a collection of 11 freeware plugins with various effects for digital photos. Harrys Filters
Photo Vector for Windows
Vectorizer and image cleaner: a proven handy tool for designers and CAD/CAM professionals to cleanup, reduce number of colors and vectorize images. AlgoLab Photo Vector for Windows
Learning: Separations for Screen Printing
One of the frequent questions we get is how to separate flat art for making silkscreen stencils. Rather than flood you with a lot of geek gibberish, we present the easiest, most direct method in Photoshop and Illustrator for making flat color separations for screen printing.
Major Event: Removing Backgrounds with Katrin Eismann
This is the ultimate tutorial for selecting fine images, delicate objects, wispy hair, and removing the background to replace it with a totally different image. This is the absolute best, anywhere when you have questions about Selecting hair and fine details in Photoshop
Photoshop Elements QuickFix & Color Corrections
You can dramatically improve the appearance of all your summer photos with just a click or two -- even if you have no idea of what you're doing. Let image specialist Barbara Brundage show you how in this 7-page chapter on QuickFix & Color Corrections using Photoshop Elements
Photoshop blending Photos to Sketches
Turn your summer photos into works of art by combining the Find Edges filter and the Overlay blending mode in Photoshop. Noted Photoshop guru John Beardsworth shows you how with these recipes for Blending Photos to Sketches
Photoshop Watercolor Filter
Sooner or later, you're going to have a photograph that suggests an artistic treatment. Photoshop expert Roger Pring joins us to give you some starter points on... Photoshop's Artistic Watercolor Filter
Photoshop: Carved in Wood
A reader wrote in with a client who wants his web site menu buttons to be on a tree -- looking hand-carved. So, this tutorial gives you nice sign boards with the type routed in to nail to the tree. Carved in Wood
Photoshop: Changing Colors
We get quite a few requests for this kind of technique for people colorizing houses, cars, people's clothing, and from time to time a boat or two. In this tutorial, we must change the color of a boat, then apply lettering to the side to show the client the finished lettering job.
Photoshop: Clipping Path makes a Hole in the Doughnut
More frequently asked questions: "...if I were creating a clipping path of a donut, how would I put a path around the outside and the inside of a donut?" In this tutorial, we using image clipping paths to create a hole where the background shows through!
Photoshop: Saving an old, faded photo
Photoshop 911 question: "... I've read plenty of tutorials on how to repair dents and scratches with the clone/stamp tool, but haven't found anything to help with the color problems" In this tutorial, we bring this old photo back to life with a lot of adjustment layers
April Onslaught of Adobe CS3 Products
In case you didn't see the live web-cast demonstrations of the new Adobe product line -- here are all the detailed releases: Adobe Delivers Two Editions of Photoshop CS3 along with a powerful InDesign CS3 Release and an entire new Creative Suite 3 Product Line, including Creative Suite 3 Design Premium products, Creative Suite 3 Web Premium, Creative Suite 3 Production Premium. They're posted with an overview in the Adobe Directory.
Removing Backgrounds 2: Save Shadows
From Photoshop 911 Forums: "I want to replace white backgound with another color but to save shadows on image. With "replace color" is inposible to replace white. So here's what the 911 Dream Team sez: Load a little luminosity!
Layer Mask: merging photos
This is one of the most frequent questions we get in the Photoshop Forums and Photoshop 911. So here the Photoshop 911 dream team provides a fairly simple solution that will work in almost all versions of Photoshop and Photoshop Elements... Montage Making Masks
Setting a HEX color for GIF format graphics
Optimizing color fields for the Web can be daunting -- but when you need a specific range of HEX colors, it can be downright frustrating. Question was: "How can I change this HEX color in a gradient?"; Photoshop 911 sez: Put the HEX on a GIF
Photoshop question of the year: Removing Backgrounds
This is the most frequently asked question of them all: "How can I remove the white background around my logo?" We've talked about clipping paths and layer masks many, many times... just this once we wish everyone would listen and learn how to Remove the White Background from Graphics
Photoshop: Text Mask to Embossed Watermark for Photos
A reader in the Photoshop 911 Emergency Forum wanted help making a watermark. This tutorial shows you how; plus shows you how to make a custom shape, and put it to work as a powerful custom shape tool to watermark all your photos
Photoshop: Place a picture into text
A reader in the Photoshop 911 forum asks "how can i turn a picture of a dog into text" ... and since we all love dogs, we decided to demonstrate the easy way to use all versions of Photoshop and Photoshop Elements to Put an image into type
Painting into a Layer Mask to Reveal Image
Photoshop 911 reader L.W. restoring color to a black and white image. This basic tutorial shows you how in all image editors that use layers and layer masks for Painting into a Layer Mask to Reveal Image.
CONTINUES on the next page
... more and more Photoshop tips, tricks and tutorials on the next page...
If you have Photoshop Problems
If you need assistance with the operation, tips, tricks, techniques etc., relating to Photoshopp or Photoshop Elements, then go directly to the EMERGENCY ROOM
Submit a Photoshop Web Site to the directory
If you have favorites, or would like to tell all our readers about a new Photoshop site, just add it to the Photoshop911 directory database. It will become active in the directory once a Photoshop911 volunteer has visited, and validated the link. Your link and reference will be used, when appropriate, in email correspondence with patients to get them quickly to the help they need.
Are you a Photoshop Guru?
Then you should want to REGISTER YOUR SERVICES with Photoshop 911 so you can be called upon when emergencies require a professional in the field who is available to take on new clients. Once you register you will be contacted for particulars. Please be patient, there's already a long list. Use this Registration Form... thank you
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