Adobe Photoshop – Graphic Design and Photo Editing Tips

For high school seniors with an interest in turning their love of art into a career, The Art Institutes is sponsoring a Poster Design Competition, a program which awards tuition scholarships of up to $25000 to study graphic design at a participating Art Institute location. In partnership with the not-for-profit organization Americans for the Arts, The Art Institutes Poster Design Competition is an opportunity for talented young artists at the high school level to study graphic design, earn a degree and launch a professional career in the graphic design field. Deadline for entries is February 8, 2008. Judging at the local level will take place by March 28, 2008. National winners will be notified by May 9, 2008. In all, approximately $100000 in tuition scholarships will be awarded by The Arts Institutes schools. According to John Mazzoni, President of The Art Institutes, “For many high school students who love to draw and illustrate, the Poster Design Competition is a scholarship competition opportunity for prospective students to have a career in a field that they are passionate and excited about.” Now in its fifth year, The Art Institutes Poster Design Competition, “encourages and rewards exceptional young artistic talent and nurtures it in a formal, academic setting.” He says. Robert Lynch, President and CEO of Americans for the Arts, says that “each year since Americans for the Arts has been working with The Art Institutes, we are amazed at the skill level of high …

Technorati Tags: 2007, Competition, design, Institutes, Poster

One of the biggest needs that one will need to consider in digital photography is the use of the memory cards. These are in essence the replacement for film in the digital age. These are the simple cards that one can buy to insert into their camera. They increase the memory that the camera originally came with and to improve photo quality as well.

There are many different styles and sizes of memory cards for one to choose from when it comes to digital photography. Different types and styles of cameras will of course require different types and styles of memory cards ranging from the size and the shape of the card in order to accommodate the memory card slot. In some cases, the camera will only be able to hold the type of card made by the camera company. This way you will need to stay specific and will have to only use the equipment available.

There are of course different amounts of memory available on these little memory cards. The will range in sizes and depending on the amount of memory available on the card will also depend on the number of pictures that it will hold as well. Another factor for use in determining how many pictures that can be held on the memory card will be the quality of the pictures taken. If the camera is set at a lower quality you will be able to get fewer pictures saved on the memory card. However, if the quality is set just a little lower you will be able to store more pictures on the card. If the number of pictures is not important , but the quality is what matters then you will want to go with a name brand memory card simply because they will be able to provide you with a higher quality photo.

Choose the size and the brand based on your needs with digital photography. Remember that the card is a temporary storage device and you can save all of your pictures onto your computer at home and reuse the card. You can also have different memory cards for different situations. Use one for work and one for family or something similar. With the use of the cards your options are fairly broad in regards to picture taking in both number and storage. Choose what works best for your situation .

Technorati Tags: Cards, digital, Memory, photography

Every year the Apple iPod gets better. Every year they come up with new and great features that people will love and become dependent upon. First, it was just great to be able to carry your favorite music with you everywhere you went. You could even set up different music mixes- one for the gym, one for meditation, one for the grocery store, one for the commute. Wasn’t that just the best thing invented since sliced bread? The iPod Photo allows you to carry 15,000 songs and 25,000 pictures along with you. No more school pictures in the wallet you proud parents, put them on your iPod.

So, here are the details. The Apple iPod Photo (4th Generation) allows you to carry your great music and photos and will also display them on the lighted two-inch screen. The iPod has fifteen hours of battery life when fully charged. The iPod is compatible with Mac OS X or Windows 2000 SP4 and XP and all the essentials including FireWire and USB cords. The iPod photo dock is also handy for picture lovers and allows you to upload your pictures in a snap.

Twenty-five thousand photos, which covers five thousand square feet of wall space. Have a really big family? Well, you can store them all on your iPod. The picture display is fantastic with vivid colors. You can view your pictures exactly the way they are supposed to look with all 65,536 colors. The iPod also displays 25 full-color thumbnails on the screen. This is a great way to share photos with friends and family. No more carrying around pictures in your wallet or purse and no more having to worry about special photos becoming scratched, bent or torn.

ITunes 4.7 has been optimized for photo importation. Simply move your photos to iTunes and then onto your iPod photo folder on your Mac or PC. You can also organize your photos or make changes and adjustments through the Adobe Photoshop Album 2.0 or Adobe Photoshop Elements 3.0. From here you can zip your photos straight to your iPod for easy viewing. Another great feature is that iTunes 4.7 will auto-synchronize album art onto your iPod.

The 60 GB iPod includes all the great features with massive amounts of memory. With the 40 GB iPod, you can still enjoy your music and photos – just not as many. The 40 GB model holds 10,000 songs and 25,000 photos.

Digital photography is now the way of the world in most situations. Everybody has a digital camera these days and the iPod is making it easier to view and share your photos. Even if you don’t have a digital camera, you can upload photos from a photo CD into iTunes and then place them on your iPod. These CDs are available at most photo shops when you have your film developed. The iPod Photo is a really handy way of carrying around your memories.

With You in Technology
Adam White

Technorati Tags: Carry, photos

The Smart Brush tool in Adobe Photoshop Elements 7 combines the Quick Selection tool (Elements 6) and adjustment layers; it offers a quick way to adjust, enhance, and add effects to your photographs and is located in the Full Edit area of the Editor.

When you click on the Smart Brush a menu pops open showing nine categories of nearly 70 effects that can be applied to your photo. It\’s great because all you have to do is make your choice from the list and simply paint over the area you want the effect to be applied. After you begin drawing your initial selection the tool automatically switches to the Add to Selection mode. To remove any part of your selected area you can hold down Alt on your keyboard and paint away the parts you want to get rid of.

Just how does it work? If you take a look at the Layers palette, you\’ll see that an adjustment layer was created-in our example, a Hue/Saturation adjustment layer-along with the layer mask that accompanies adjustment layers. The area you selected is shown in white on the mask, thus revealing the effect. The black areas on the mask are hiding the effect.

To edit the effect, you can either double-click the adjustment layer in the Layers palette or you can double-click the red adjustment pin located in your selection on the image. As long as the adjustment layer is one supported by Adobe Elements, the dialog box for that adjustment layer will open and you can make any changes you wish.

Please take note that some of the presets were actually created using an adjustment layer included in the full version of Photoshop and not in Elements, so you won\’t be able to edit these effects.

The very latest tips on leaning photoshop and elements editing software along with simple to follow videos. You will be provided with the first steps to get to grips with learning Photoshop tricks and you will build up your confidence as an Adobe editing software user.

Technorati Tags: Adobe, brush, elements, Photoshop, smart, tool

Graphic Design Festival Breda (GDFB) celebrates graphic diversity through exhibitions, workshops and lectures in the city of Breda. Design spreads and evolves, crossing boundaries between disciplines. The trailer focuses on the omnipresence of such an element of design. Opening film for the Graphic Design Festival Breda and Nominee for The Dutch Design Awards 2008 For more info check: www.dutchdesignawards.nl www.graphicdesignfestival.nl

Technorati Tags: Animation, GDFB, Smack, studio

I need to find some adobe photoshop (all versions) tutorials online or even to download them.Please reply

Technorati Tags: Download, find, great, Online, Photoshop, some, them, tutorials

In this week’s website design video blog, James demonstrates how to add a preloader to your Flash Animation (Action Script 2), improving your website’s usability. The supporting blog for this video can be found here: www.crearedesign.co.uk Where you can download the ZIP file that is used in the demonstration.

Technorati Tags: design, flash, Preloader, Simple, tutorial

It’s a common question asked with many Photoshop users: How can I make the hair selection from an image with accuracy? This question mostly asked by Photoshop beginners which usually tend to choose their own photo as the object of their exercise. They started to make selection around the body, and as the selection is done, they erase the outer parts of the selection so changing the background images would be a lot easier. But the hardest part came when they reach the hair area which usually blended with the background.

Forcing to close the selection with manual hair-by-hair tracing would almost make the selection result became jagged and the hair look would become unnatural. Some users then apply the fastest way by applying “feather” to smoothen the selection, so there would be a soft transition between the object and the background. This might work in some cases, but sometimes not. The picture gets the bad collage effect that the picture couldn’t balance with the new background, whether it’s blended or contrasted.

So what is needed to be done to have the perfect hair selection as it would possible to combine with any backgrounds? The answer still gets around the selection techniques, but it’s more than just using tools and how to apply them. You should combine the following items in your preference.

Selection tool; undoubtedly there are many tools to do the selection from lasso, magic wand, marquee, and pen tool [if you feel more comfortable to deal with it].

Channel palette; this palette contains information from each of your separated colors based on the active color mode. RGB color mode consists of Red, Green, and Blue channels which usually proofed on screen media, such as monitors or LCD projectors. Otherwise the CMYK color mode is made up from 4 separated channels which are Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, and Black. This color mode usually applied on printed media such as papers.

Remember, that every channel provides certain values which represented on a monotone-colored look. By using it, you can make a selection based on certain channel which provides more detail selection range.

Layer Blending Modes; this palette applies the behavior of certain layer against the layer below it. Spanning from multiply, lighten, screen, overlay and up to 23 modes you can experience to get various blending effect throughout your image. You can maximize the feature of these blending modes to enhance the quality of your hair selection.

Defringe; the final way to enhance your selected image to get blended with the new background. It will automatically remove the tiny edge pixel which usually occurs on every selection. You can have it from the Layer – Matting menu, and select Defringe. When a dialog box of certain number appears, I usually left it with 1 pixel amount and let them do the best work.

So, what’s the step?

The first step is use the selection tool to manually select your image area. But, this I usually do: separate the image between the body and the head. Why is that? Since hair selection is the hardest part, I can easily select the body part and left the head for the main task. By separating the head, it also means that you are working on less area which requires less resource from your machine.

After separating the head section and put it on a new separated layer, you can start using the help of channel palette. I usually work within the RGB color mode and choose the green channel since it contains the contrast value of an image. The shortcut to load from channel is by holding the Ctrl [Mac: Command] key and clicking on the corresponding channel. You should have a more detailed hair selection by now and erase the outer part of your selection.

Using the Layer Blending modes is the next step to enhance your selection quality. You can have those blending modes right at the top of your layer palette. I usually choose the screen mode to do the work and the image will automatically blended with the new background. But if try to experiment with another mode, maybe you’ll find a more interesting result.

The last key is defringing your selection to wipe those white pixels around your selection. I think you have a better result for your hair selection right now.

And, if you want to make yourself inside a movie poster, maybe you’ll be interested on my other photoshop tips here.

Technorati Tags: Easier, hair, Making, More, Photoshop, Selection

By photo software, I mean fully capable digital photo editors, such as Adobe Photoshop, Corel Paint Shop, paint.NET, etc. I’m looking for one to get, and need some advice for which one to get. And keep in mind that budget is a bit of an issue, since I’m only 14. Thanks in advance for any help .

Technorati Tags: Photo, Prefer, software

For the past year I’ve been compiling a list of model train stores for my model railroading website.  These shops all look like fantastic places to visit, but what are the most popular?   Here is a list for the great state of Texas.

The most popular model railroading shops (based on online chatter) in the state of Texas are:

10. Model Train Crossing in Hurst

9. Papa Ben’s Train Place in Houston

8. Rebel Hobbies in San Antonio

7. Midlothian Hobbies in Midlothian

6. RC Hobby Shop in Sugar Land

4. Victoria Hobby Shop in Victoria (tie for fourth place)

4. Larry’s Hobbies in Houston (tie for fourth place)

3. Collectible Trains and Toys in Dallas

2. King’s Hobby in Austin

…and the most popular shop for model trains in Texas is…

1. G and G Model Shop in Houston

Hobby shops not quite making my top 10 were Collectible Caboose in Cedar Park, Dibble’s Hobbies in San Antonio, Hal’s Hobby Warehouse in El Paso, Kerbey Lane Doll Shoppe in Austin, Mikes Hobby Shop in Carrollton, and Wild Bill’s Hobby Shop in Irving.

Nice to see that the four biggest cities in Texas all have great train shops with Houston, Austin, Dallas, and San Antionio all in the top 10.  However, Houston looks like “train city” in Texas with almost a third of the top stores being there.

Also in Texas be sure to visit some of the great railroading museums including Amarillo Railroad Museum in Amarillo, Greenville Railroad Museum in Greenville, and Railway Museum of San Angelo in San Angelo.

I compiled this list by searching for the hobby shops listed on a number of search engines and ranking them by the number of web pages, discussion forums, photos, videos, etc that are available online.  I further screened this list to include only pages that mentioned model railroading.

Check out my complete list of Model Train Shops in Texas at www.ModelTrainsWithLarry.com which has complete contact information for each shop including an address, phone number, and map to the store.

Technorati Tags: model, Shops, Texas, Train