Adobe Photoshop – Graphic Design and Photo Editing Tips

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Adobe Photoshop is the worlds most used photo editor series, but still people hesitate to make a few clicks to work on it. There is a technical phobia for the term “Adobe Photoshop”. Seldom do they realize it is easy to use, very user friendly, and a few hours to learn it is going to make you a Photoshop wizard! Believe me.. I am not blowing stories. It is as easy as 1, 2, and 3.
There are many features available in this software. You can just go through the help contents leisurely and try them one by them. Start with just 1 topic every day if you believe you are going to get bored. You will gradually not move out of chair after you start.

Abstracts are an interesting feature in Photoshop. The lens flare option in Adobe helps you create countless background effects, which you can use for your desktop or a screen saver. There are many online tutorials that give step by step guide to create 3-D shapes, Silver Abstract Vortex, Blood effects, glowing background effects and many more. There are very many abstract pattern motion backgrounds that can be created with this software. For any of these the steps are generalized as follows: click on white color for the layer that is background and hold down shift and then hit backspace. Then a few steps with the filter options within minutes you get abstract motions.

Animation is another feature of Photoshop you can fade the pictures out and in, you can manipulate the dark lights, you can create rain effects for the videos, you can create bumping balls, and many more 3D images too! It is a very, very interesting and colorful journey one you peep in to the various tutorials that are available for individual activity. The Adobe Photoshop site has elucidated tutorials for each such feature! It is in the interest of the learner to spend some time to go through it.

Basics, refers to the very many short cuts available in Photoshop that you can get used to so that as you climb the ladder of advanced lessons the software becomes easier. You can download and practice some of such short cuts from the various search engines. The cross processing effect in Photoshop can be used to create leaves and flowers in Photoshop. Basic cut and paste options go a long way with the other manipulative points in Photoshop to create an effective digital output.

Well there are many such options in Adobe, brushes, buttons, color application, digital arts, effects, photo effects, text effects, web graphics, and web layouts, and many, many more. Drawing is an option in Photoshop that is a very interesting application that is used to create 2D and 3D effects, like a baby dancing, creating simple icons and buttons, metal effects, templates to create your own advertising page for an e-book and many, many more features.

Photoshop finds wide application in web designing and has ample vacancies in the job market if one masters this particular photo editor. In this world of web page contacts you become an easy pick up employee for many companies that are in need of photo editors. So break the phobia and spend some time learning this efficient user friendly software.

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Apply color and tonal adjustments to areas of a photo, like traditional dodging and burning, with the Adjustment Brush and Graduated Filter. Presented by Chris Orwig. For Help & Support on Photoshop, visit www.adobe.com

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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.

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Web Design Tutorial – Nick and James from Creare demonstrate a quick and professional method for web designers of producing prototype web pages for clients. Part one starts in Photoshop with Part 2 & 3 covering Fireworks and Dreamweaver. Find the supporting blog post at: www.crearedesign.co.uk

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i was just wondering… i’m new to photoshop and i was wondering if anyone had any tips for making a good blend. =]

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While a picture speaks a thousand words, those words tend to have one main meaning – with the possible exception of the still-mysterious Mona Lisa. But what if you had the chance to change those words? Are you interested in having that chance? If so, all you need to do is get help with a Photo Shop tutorial on effects.

Adobe Photo Shop today is the world’s leading digital imaging software program, and it allows users to edit their pictures with an amazing array of tools.

Tone – With just a click of your mouse, you can immediately turn your 100% colored photo into a black and white picture to make it seem older. You can also choose to give it a sepia look for a similarly quaint but more artistic impact.

Text – With the help of an Adobe Photo Shop tutorial on effects, you can also add cute text or captions to and within your photos. Unlike older programs which require you to copy and paste text with white backgrounds, Adobe Photo Shop has a transparent background so that only the very shapes of the letters are pasted on your photo. With this option, the text you’re adding will be made a part of the very photo.

Selection – Sometimes, you wish to create an effect on only one part of the photo. Adobe Photo Shop anticipates this need, and even better, lets you choose the shape of your selected part. When you’ve selected which part of the photo you wish to edit, all subsequent changes will then take effect on that part alone. It’s as easy and simple as that!

Mosaic – Remember your old art lessons in primary school and you had to create a mosaic project? Well, how about doing a mosaic version of your photo? It seems to require harder work with only your keyboard and mouse, but think again. Thanks to Adobe Photo Shop, you can create your own mosaic with just a click and even choose the cell size for your photo.

Blur – Faded patches in a photo are interesting, and you can intentionally make such patches on your photo if there are none to begin with. Under the same category of tools – Filter – in which you’ll also find other effect options like Mosaic and Pointillize, you can use the Blur option and apply it to a selected part of your photo or all of it. Keep pressing the Blur button until you reach your preferred degree of blurriness.

Color Pencil – Have you ever imagined what your photo would look like if it had been drawn using colored pencils? Imagine no more with the help of Adobe Photo Shop. Under the colored pencil function (still in the Filter category), you can also choose the degree of stroke pressure, paper brightness, and pencil width applied to your photo.

Neon Glow – Do you want your photo to outshine everything else in its vicinity? You can literally achieve that with the neon effects of Adobe Photo Shop. Once more, it can be a part of or the whole photo that could be changed with this option. The impact of this function can be modified according to neon color, glow, and brightness.

There are many other effects that Adobe Photo Shop can provide you and to change your photo, but self-study and self-exploration won’t get you anywhere fast anytime soon. If you want to learn now, find the best Photo Shop tutorial in the Internet and start watching.

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I’m in a street team for a band, and a contest is to make a shirt on photo shop,
First of all, I have adobe photo shop thats all- i think,
what kind of things do I need todo, to make it look, descent, like how do I start to edit a shirt?

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In today’s world of computers, it would seem so impossible if you have not even heard of Adobe Photo Shop. It hails among the most important programs of today, being the leading photo-processing and graphics software in the market. Learning how to use this program is already a prerequisite for anyone who wants to venture into digital visual arts. It is therefore not surprising why there are tons of photo shop tutorials out there. People really want to learn how to use the program. But among tutorials, the best type for learning is probably the photo shop video tutorial.

In all fairness to other types of photo shop tutorials, normal photo shop instructional resources are indeed very useful. They teach people a wide range ways to use photo shop to their advantage. However, most of these usual tutorial versions can be hard to follow since they only tell people what to do, but not necessarily show them how to do it. When such is the case, it would really be helpful to see what is being taught. This is normally something that people taking photo shop classes can enjoy, but now even people at home can learn photo shop and see how it is down with the help of a photo shop video tutorial.

What a Photo Shop Video Tutorial Can Teach You

There are many specific types of photo shop video tutorials available, some very specialized while others very simple. However, they have a common goal of making you understand the capabilities of photo shop better and make use of them for your own projects. Some photo shop video tutorials teach basic stuff about the program. This type of tutorial instructs users in making themselves familiar with software – its regular menus, common tools and basic functionalities.

There are also photo shop video tutorials that teach more specific functions of the program. Some specifically teach the color enhancing and manipulation capabilities of photo shop that help adjust the tints or hues of photos. There are also photo shop video tutorials that teach users how to scan pictures for optimum quality. While other tutorials instruct the various ways of editing pictures to make them even more interesting than they already are. These tutorials are very useful for photographers, both digital and film users.

Other photo shop video tutorials teach more advanced functionalities of the program. There are tutorials that teach how to make effects out text, making them even more interesting and very catchy. Others show how to make special effects out of images to make them even more appealing, exciting, or fascinating to viewers. There are some that how to come up with textures that make pictures pop out into real life. These tutorials are very useful for the more advanced graphics designers and visual artists.

Where to Look for Photo Shop Video Tutorials

There are many places to look for photo shop video tutorials. Most software stores have them on stock together with video tutorials for other software. Tutorials can also be found online through various instructional websites sites that offer those who want to learn how to use the program. The good thing about them is that they can easily be reached via the Internet and some of them are even for free.

Here are some websites that offer photo shop video tutorials:

http://video-tutes.com/packages/PSDesign1.php
http://www.photoshopsupport.com/tutorials.html
http://www.tutorialized.com/tutorials/Photoshop/1
http://www.photoshop-tutorials-4-you.com/

Learning photo shop is now very easy thanks to video tutorials.

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With the improvement of digital cameras as well as the home photo printers, demands for photo editing software is rising high. It helps the families to keep the family photos organized without requirement of any huge learning curve.  Over the years, high quality and affordable photo printers are becoming mainstream items and therefore the photo editing software has become even more important for people who wish to give their snaps a professional touch.   

Photo editing requirements

Why do you require photo editing at all?  It is because you do not want to have some images kept stored in hard disk or camera reels.  You want them organized and also want to give them finishing touches as per your desire without wasting huge money on professional photo editors. There are numerous photos editing software available in the market.  However, you must first assess your requirements for which you need the photo editing software precisely. Knowing your exact requirements can help you make optimum use of your photo editing software.

You can use a computer with loaded photo editing software.  However buying the software separately could give you additional features not available with your preloaded one.  The only thing you require for best use of your photo editing software is that they should be easy to use and adjustable to the requirements. Learning will not be a problem since most of these software programs come with a manual book or learning software combined with the original one.  Some software has preloaded manual as well.

Free or paid, use makes the difference

A number of free photo editing software are available in the market.  However it does not mean they are inferior to those for whom you pay the prices.  If you require only regular works without the requirements of any special effects, the free software will be extremely convenient for your use.  You can put them to best uses for quickly and easily formatting your photographs.  In the process you can resize them quite conveniently and rectify defects if any in the photographs.

The fact remains that whether your software is free or is paid one, the use makes all the differences. You can paint, draw, airbrush and make many more uses of the software.  You can create really stunning logos.  One of the most important uses of the software is for designing purpose.  You can also create many artworks when you ask some provider to manufacture the promotional products for your enterprise.  They will ask for the artwork and designs and you can make them conveniently with the use of photo editing software. However, all these features become more quality oriented as you go for paid versions of the software. Your photographs literally speak with many features available on paid software.

Even better use of photo editing software is when you resize and reformat the designs provided to you for approval by your designers.  You can easily edit them and make necessary changes to make them tailor fit for your requirements.  Since most such software supports all types of formats including the mostly used GIF, BMP and JPG formats, you can really put your photo editing software to best uses according to your requirements.

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