Category: Adobe Photoshop

How to use Adjustment Layers in Photoshop CS3 and CS4

By russell, September 9, 2009 10:17 am

When editing an image in Photoshop, it is very easy to run into the problem of digital image interpolation. You may be surprised how often interpolation occurs. Any time you resize (enlarge, compress, contract), resize, remap (rotate, flip), or resample an image, interpolation occurs.What is digital image interpolation?

Anytime you make an adjustment to an original image, the software has to guess where the pixels would normally be placed in that new changed (resized, flipped) image. Therefore, computer software has to make an estimation. And because the guess isn’t exact or fully accurate, the newly modified image instantly losses quality. The quality degradation is often untraceable to the eye, but it doesn’t mean that it’s not there!

However, if manipulation upon manipulation occurs (generations of changes), the result will soon be a poor quality image, and hence is considered destructive to the original image. When you make edits via the Levels Adjustment then this destruction will always occur.

These changes are permanent to the pixels and the missing information (the data the software had to “guess” upon), is completely gone.  If more and more of these destructive image adjustments occur, banding (also know as posterization) will take place. Banding can be described as when there is too little information spread too far apart and a rough transition between colors or tone develops. When banding occurs, it will become plainly visible to the eye and is especially apparent in print (or web) publications.

So, how can we avoid interpolation and create non-destructive image adjustments?

Adjustment Layers are the answer to non-destructively and safely manipulating images. By creating a New Adjustment Layer, you can avoid altering the original image information. The edits occur on a different layer, separated from the original image.  Plus, you can edit your adjustment at any time without losing all your past work.

By creating a layer mask, you will never truly alter the original image, because the layer mask is being applied to the individual adjustment, not the original photo.

Better yet, you can save your work to any adjustment you’ve made. The adjustment layer will not revert back to zero. It will stay the same using the latest information you’ve applied to it.

There are 12 adjustments (presets) that Photoshop offers:

•    Brightness/Contrast

•    Channel Mixer

•    Color Balance

•    Curves

•    Gradient Map

•    Hue/Saturation

•    Invert

•    Levels

•    Photo Filter•    Posterize

•    Selective Colors

•    ThresholdHaving flexibility in your photo editing is important. And learning to use adjustment layers is an important step in the process of becoming a professional Photoshop digital artist.

Learning The Basic Photoshop Tools

By russell, September 4, 2009 4:16 pm

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 basics 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.
Wit h 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.

Adobe Photoshop Learning to Sharpen your Skills

By russell, August 18, 2009 4:20 pm

We are all aware of Adobe Photoshop and how its application leads to better learning. It is a software program for image editing that enables its users to edit, change, add, improve or delete pictures. Those aspiring to learn how to use this program can very well become an expert of it and earn money from it.You would get the chance to know how to make photographs look professional and improve the quality and texture of the pictures so that it gives much more polished look to them. But for beginners don’t expect to start making money just in the starting phase of learning Photoshop. You got to learn certain tricks and techniques for successful application of Adobe Photoshop. Having self knowledge of Adobe Photoshop leads to saving of money as you yourself can do it for your website. As a option you can also hire graphic designers who can provide Adobe Photoshop services. This designing tool is considered as pioneer amongst various graphical applications and is a standardized format for image creation and editing for any website. Apart from those desiring to use Photoshop for professional usage, even people interested in learning graphical editing, photograph enhancing can use this skill.Getting well-versed with this skill can be a little taxing as it might take time and practice to excel it. However Adobe Photoshop contains user interface designed in a very well manner and has good features. Those who are new to Photoshop might not be familiar with all the technical terminologies and require sometime to understand it and use the tools for image editing.But learning this skill is not difficult as the records show how rapidly people excel this software application and master its basics provided they are trained by a proper source. There are many good and reliable Adobe Photoshop training programs and manual available online. Ample of Photoshop tutorial sites are found that teaches basics of Photoshop in a highly professional and simple manner. You can also refer to books written for this purpose. Many online Photoshop tutorial websites uses videos and audio presentations for learning purpose for better understanding and clarification. In Adobe Photoshop all buttons, toolbars, settings, etc are intact and user friendly so that you can understand it easily and apply it. Practice is of paramount importance if you want to excel in Photoshop usage.

The Tools and Features of Adobe Photoshop

Adobe Photoshop is one of the world’s leading graphics editing programs, developed by Adobe Systems. Available on Mac OS or PC, Photoshop is used as one of the leading image design programs for the World Wide Web. The most recent version of Photoshop, or Photoshop CS2, “bridges” between other Adobe products such as Image Ready, Illustrator, Premiere, After Effects, and Encore DVD to produce professional videos and DVDs. Photoshop uses a file format called a .PSD or .PDD to store multiple layers of an image. Recently Adobe released a program called Photoshop Elements in order to give a less expensive version of Photoshop with many of the same features. Although Adobe Photoshop is used primarily in doing touch-up for digital photos, it is also used for creating designs for web pages and professional companies.

Adobe Photoshop was originally created as a convenient and powerful way to retouch photos. Its most basic features include easily cropping and straightening photos that were either scanned ore taken with a digital camera. Under- or overexposed photos can be easily rescued with the retouch power of the Camera RAW and other plug-ins. Photos taken in difficult lighting situations can be perfected by a few clicks of a mouse. Filters and plug-ins can be used to make the picture seem old or change to black and white.

Many web and graphics designers use Photoshop to create and design company logos and advertisements. Built in Photoshop effects and filters can make designing professional logos or advertisements a quick and simple process. With the power of layers and opacity, pictures can be blended together and effects such as shadows, blurs, etc. are made possible. And, for those who desire to return to the finger painting days of their youth, Photoshop has a paintbrush tool with countless brush shapes and textures for anyone who just needs to let out their creativity.

Text editing has also become easily accessible because of Photoshop. Perspectives, shapes, and type on a path are just a few examples of the tons of amazing text effects that are available. Slimy, dripping letters or cloud-writing in the sky are made easy from filters and text effects built into Photoshop.

Web designers thrive on Photoshop for making animations using Photoshop with other Adobe products. The things that can be done with Photoshop are literally endless. This is truly and amazing program.

Finding the Right Adobe Photoshop Tutorial

By russell, August 17, 2009 10:20 pm

So you want to learn Adobe Photoshop to enhance your digital photography skills. Adobe Photoshop is the premier graphics editing software and has made its mark in print, TV, the internet, and even films. Whether you need it for business, pleasure, or to make your photography hobby more tolerable, you’ll find a lot of uses for Adobe Photoshop. There are an amazing number of resources one can use to learn the software’s tips and tricks: CDs, magazines, books, and online tutorials are all there to help you learn. By learning the trips and tricks to the latest version of Adobe Photoshop, your digital photography skills will become impressive. It is up to you to use the one that is most convenient.

Adobe Photoshop tutorials can come in two easy to use styles: through step-by step lessons or a more specific pick and choose style session. For example, you need to learn to use Adobe Photoshop’s watermark feature within 24 hours. It is unrealistic to go through the entire introduction and basics so you can get to the appropriate lesson. By searching through your tutorial options, you can find the best Adobe Photoshop tutorial that is the easiest and the best.

If time allows, the best Adobe Photoshop tutorial to learn from is the step-by-step process. It might take you some time to get to the more advanced parts of the program, but you will thank yourself later for taking the time to learn basic tips and tricks before moving on to more advance options. But if this style of tutorial is not convenient and you want to learn the advanced tricks now, you can choose the Adobe Photoshop tutorial that is more pick and choose.

The pick and choose style of Photoshop tutorial is the quickest way to learn a specific trick or tip in a short amount of time. If your project requires that you quickly learn such Photoshop skills as warping, color tricks, texture and background manipulation, or any of the program’s other features, the pick and choose type of Adobe Photoshop tutorial will certainly be your easiest choice.

Every new version of Adobe Photoshop contains more than what you get from the box. Even the most comprehensive instruction manuals will not expose you to many tricks and shortcuts. A good Adobe Photoshop tutorial will help you glean the most current and helpful tips possible. These hidden features can be subtle or plainly obvious but you will find them extremely helpful later when there is a particular editing job that stumps you or when you are pressed for time. A good Adobe Photoshop tutorial will help you stay on top of current versions and help you understand and use all of the features the latest version of Adobe Photoshop contains.

For more info about Photography discussion group or even about Marketing photography business and even about Professional photography forum please review these links.

For more info about Photography discussion group or even about Marketing photography business and even about Professional photography forum please review these links.

All About Adobe Photoshop Cs3

Overview

Adobe Systems Incorporated is engaged in building applications useful for photography, Web applications, designing etc. Adobe Photoshop cs3 (creative suite3) is the latest version of applications launched by Adobe systems on March 17, 2007. This is a highly professional application most suitable for photographers, designers and web site developers. Adobe Photoshop Creative Suite was initially introduced in 2003. The first two versions were named CS and CS2 which were available in two editions namely Standard and Premium. Adobe Photoshop cs3 is a widely updated version with so many additional features. Adobe has decided to market it under six different editions. With its new and powerful editing tools and smart filters it gives enough reasons for a user to upgrade to Adobe Photoshop cs3. The upgraded features offer more flexibility and faster work flow.

Editions and their applications

Adobe Creative Suite 3 Design Premium has a toolkit which is most useful for designing for web, printing, mobile design etc.

Adobe Creative Suite 3 Design standard mainly lays focus on professional print design.

Adobe Creative Suite 3 Web Standard helps website developers with its advanced tools and features.

Adobe Creative Suite 3 Web Premium is featured with the most advanced and latest web development

tools.

Adobe Creative Suite 3 Production Premium is most helpful to Professionals in Video photography for editing purposes.

Adobe Creative Suite 3 Master Collection is a comprehensive package for all designing needs for print, web, mobile, video, film etc.

Features

Smart Editing toolset: Adjusting color of pictures, editing the images, blur and sharpen them are some smart features which makes Adobe Photoshop cs3 the most suitable application for professionals related to photography and designing.

Drawing and painting tools: Wide varieties of drawing tools, artistic brushes and paint settings allows user of Adobe Photoshop cs3 to create and modify better quality images.

Selection and edge refining tools: Selecting and refining portions of an image with the click of a button is made easy with these tools.

Compositing features: There are more advanced layer aligning and compositing features in Adobe Photoshop cs3.

Better Printing quality: With more updated color management features, a bigger print preview window, more print control options – printing experience in Adobe Photoshop cs3 is much better than before.

Compatible with more file formats: JPEG, JPEG2000, OpenEXR,Cineon, PSD, BMP, TIFF etc. are all supported by Adobe Photoshop cs3.

User Community

Designers, Developers and Educators form the most vital portion of the user community of Adobe Photoshop cs3 application. In designing it has a solution for every industry be it manufacturing or services. Web designing, print designing etc. has got a certain facelift with the help of Adobe Photoshop cs3. Photography Industry is one which is largely benefitted with its applications. What would have been a photographers unachieved dreams are all being turned into reality with the tools and applications available in the software package. Video Editing and Digital imaging have reached highest standards all with the help of none other but Adobe Photoshop cs3. Education, teaching and learning has got an edge with the help of advanced curriculums and digital experiences.

Overall, Adobe Photoshop Creative Suite3 is a designers dream come true.

PhotoShop Layout Tutorials – Why You Must Learn How to Use Adobe PhotoShop Yourself

Adobe PhotoShop is a very useful tool of the trade nowadays. Knowledge of basic Adobe PhotoShop is sometimes required from applicants even if it is not really necessary in the job description. This is because employers would like to gauge the computer literacy of applicants through their knowledge of such skills. Hence it is now a necessity to learn how to use Adobe PhotoShop. In publication and journalism, for example, it is not really important for you to take PhotoShop layout tutorials if you are merely applying for a writing position. But most employers would take that as your edge.

Nonetheless, the booming industries during the advent of the Information Age require ample knowledge of PhotoShop. This is because Photo shop can perform numerous tasks even in simple office presentation works. In this day and age, multimedia is the name of the game. A simple proposal can be worth nothing if you can’t present it with flair. Getting you acquainted with PhotoShop techniques will already go a long way.

Jobs in the information technology industry requires more than PhotoShop basic understanding even if you are not on the creative department. Most of these jobs even require you to get a benchmark certification to qualify you for the position. Here comes the importance of getting PhotoShop training from a reputable school or online training. Most of these training courses equip you with the right knowledge to pass the Adobe benchmark exams.

More or less, free  PhotoShop tutorials found on the Internet are more than enough for you to become well versed in PhotoShop. It all depends on how you want to use your knowledge of the program. So what are you waiting for to start learning how to use PhotoShop like a Pro yourself? It’s easier than you might be thinking right now!

Printing Posters with Adobe Photoshop 4

By russell, August 10, 2009 4:30 pm

Adobe Photoshop 4 has the ability to either create and remove both illustrations and images as many times as you like, so experimenting is made a whole lot more easier. The required edits are done in simple stages that you can save independently, so messing up doesn’t matter at a later stage as you won’t have do start from afresh.

Whether you are a traditional artist or a professional art designer the ability to create stylish marketing resources remains the same and by only carrying out a couple of basic Photoshop commands. Adobe Photoshop 4 is perfect for the creating flyers and publicity posters and you will be amazed at how simple the steps are. Internet page creation is time consuming enough, but by investing in Adobe Photoshop 4 you will save so much important time for other important tasks.

The creation of quality looking posters is revealed in just 4 easy stages, so first sketch the design in Photoshop with the help of real life like tools such as the halftones which you can’t even produce with normal pencils.

You then venture into the creating of layers, so proceeding the sketching phase, you convert the image to sepia tones. Then you will start with colors and the halftones created will be more subtle looking and your colors will turn out a lot more natural and sharp looking.

Once the sketch has been altered into sepia tones, you create two layers. Proceed to the layers palette and there set the background layer to the “multiply mode” and insert it between the two new virgin layers. Be careful tp place the layers with colors into the lower layer, which is directly under the sepia layer.

Continue to work on this lower layer and choose a dominant dark color, as the secondary effects will be able to relate to this without losing any contrast. Finally you conclude by manipulating the higher layer of the drawing, where you will edit the “lines” of the drawing. You will find great edit options like “refine” and “correction” and you can even try using lighter colors to help smooth out any of the shapes in the drawing.

Adobe Photoshop The Digital Photographers Best Friend

By russell, August 9, 2009 5:16 pm

Adobe Photoshop is a digital image editing program that is used to fix or enhance digital photographs. With Photoshop you have the ability to touch up existing photos (remove red eye, etc.) and give them a professional appeal.

Photoshop has been used for many years by photographers’ who wish to enhance, edit, restore, and touch up dull looking photographs and turn them in to something elegant looking with vividly sharp colors that would be good enough to publish in magazines and newspapers.

With digital image editing software you don’t even need to be a “professional” photographer to produce high quality photographs. You don’t need to know about shutter speeds, film speeds, exposure compensation, white balance, and other photography jargons. All you need to be able to do is point your camera, shoot the photograph, upload it to your computer, and print it out. You don’t even need to have an expensive SLR camera to take quality pictures. With a regular digital camera, and Adobe Photoshop installed in to your computer, you can easily produce high quality photos. The great thing about this software is that it will allow you to correct color saturation, light balance, and exposure compensation after you take the pictures.

You can take a picture in poor lighting and edit it with Photoshop and make it look as if the photo you took was taken in the best possible lighting condition.

Existing historical photographs that haven’t weathered well can also be edited in Photoshop. Old faded, yellowed, torn photos with water damage can be easily repaired. All you need is a scanner to create a digital copy of the old photograph. You can then edit your digital image to fix tears, water damage, fading, etc. Using Adobe Photoshop, you will be able to turn old, faded, and damaged photos in to something that looks as if it was taken and developed moments ago.

Personally I love photos that are zoomed in. Unfortunately with these you run the risk of exposing your subject’s sore areas (wrinkles, zits, etc.) To avoid the risk of losing potential customers you can easily use Photoshop to brush away the problem areas, thereby making them look model perfect. No one other than you will know what the original looked like. Such is the magic of Adobe Photoshop.

The amazing thing is that you can do all this and more. You can make wrinkles disappear, make the face look thinner or fuller, make the zit disappear, and even add a healthy color to a pale looking face. In fact, you can even make someone look as if they just went to the beach for a tan.

Adobe Photoshop is a Required Photography Tool

However, thanks to technology, this is no longer the case. With the development of digital cameras and digital imaging, people are now able to improve the photos they took with just a few clicks of the mouse. And, this is done through an imaging software program, such as Adobe Photoshop.

Adobe Photoshop is one of the most popular and also one of the best digital imaging software programs available today. This particular software will enable you to edit digital images with almost unlimited possibilities. Whatever you can imagine, you will be able to edit photos with this software in the manner you see fit.

So, what’s with Adobe Photoshop that it is very popular among a lot of professional and amateur photographers?

Basically, Adobe Photoshop contains all the necessary tools you need in order for you to edit, enhance, and alter photos. For example, if a particular photo you took was too dark and the colors are quite dull, you can enhance the image and make it brighter and the colors more vivid with the use of Adobe Photoshop. You can adjust the brightness, contrast, and color balance and intensity to make the picture you took look as if it was taken in perfect conditions.

Another great thing about Adobe Photoshop is that you can easily edit out the red eye that often ruins any photograph. Adobe Photoshop has a red eye tool that will be able to detect red eye on any picture and eliminate it. And, you will see that the end result will look very natural.

Also, you have to consider the fact that there are times where you will take portrait pictures of someone. It may be a friend or a family member and all of them will have some form of complaint about the portrait picture you take. Some will complain about the zit on their face, some will complain about being too fat or too skinny, some will complain about looking too old, and some will even complain that they look rather pale.

Adobe Photoshop has all the tools you need to resolve the complaints. You can make someone look younger by erasing the wrinkles and age spots, you can make the face look fuller or thinner, you can add color to the cheeks to make pale faces look healthier, and you can even get rid of any unwanted objects in the face, such as pimples, and acne scars. You can even put make up on the face of the subject if you want.

In fact, you can even make fat people look like a supermodel with the tools of Adobe Photoshop.

Did you find this article useful? Curious about learning photoshop fast? Well now you can by watching this Photoshop Sample Video…what are you waiting for?

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