Archive for the ‘Photoshop Articles’ Category

Content aware was added in Adobe Photoshop CS5—users described it as magical. With the release of CS6, Photoshop added a content aware option to the patch tool. It is very quick and easy to use and yes, magical. If you have used Photoshop’s cloning, patch or healing tools in the past, you will find the content-aware tools take blending a few steps further. Here is a quick demo of how of how to use the content aware patch in Photoshop CS6. 

When you use the Patch tool in Content-Aware mode, you aren’t just copying one part of an image to another part. This is where the magic comes in. There are many factors at play in a photo—color, lighting, texture, etc…making it difficult to remove an object from a photo like it never even existed. Fortunately, the Patch tool does this work for us.

First, select the Patch tool in the Tools panel (beneath the Spot Healing Brush). In the options bar, make sure “Content-Aware” is selected from the Patch menu. In the photo below, see how I dragged an outline (using the Patch tool) around the figure I want to remove. You do not want this to be an exact trace around the figure.

Image 1.

Next, you want to click in the selected area and drag it to an area you want it to match (in color, lighting, texture, etc…). See example in Image 2.

Image 2.

In the image below you can see the final result. I also used the Content Aware Patch to remove the date in the lower right-hand corner of the photo. It’s like the figure was never even there—it is MAGIC!

Image 3.

One of the great new features in Adobe Photoshop CS6 is the Tilt-Shift effect—its a photographic filter located in the new Blur Gallery. There are 3 new blur effects: Field, Iris and Tilt-Shift. This post will feature the Tilt-Shift blur effect.

What is a Tilt-Shift effect?

This effect uses a localized blurring technique to take your full scale photo and give the illusion that everything is miniature. You could create this effect in previous versions of Photoshop, however in CS6 it only requires one step. Select Filter > Blur > Tilt-Shift and now you are ready to play with the different Tilt-Shift options on your image. Below is an example of a photo before the blur effect is applied.

Original photo

In the image below, the photograph is open in Photoshop and the Tilt-Shift effect is being applied. There are many variables that an be changed—the focal point, amount of blur, the angle of the blur, the progression of the blur, etc… As you can see the angle of the of the blur was changed below to match the angle of the objects in the photo. Once I was satisfied, I clicked “OK” resulting in the final image below. This is a great tool to just get into Photoshop and play around with—it’s easy and the results are great!

Tilt-Shift Effect in Action in Photoshop

Photo After Tilt-Shift Effect has been applied

The Mixer Brush was added in Photoshop CS5. This new tool allows the user to simulate realistic painting techniques—mixing colors on the canvas, controls for the wetness of the brush, the amount of paint loaded on the brush and the mixing ratio. In addition, Photoshop added several Bristle Brush presets that have characteristics that can paint lifelike, more natural strokes. While you can select from several presets, you can also make modifications to your brush—controlling the shape, bristles, length, thickness, stiffness, angle and spacing.

One of the great features of the Mixer Brush is that you can paint from scratch or you can use an existing image to transform into a realistic painting. And it’s very easy!

Step 1: Open the photo you want to use for your painting in Photoshop

Step 2: You want to keep the original photo intact, so create a duplicate layer of your background layer

Step 3: You want to adjust the Mixer Brush settings so that you are using the colors from the original photo to paint. I recommend starting with a large brush and removing a lot of the detail from the original photo. The magic of the Mixer Brush is that you can add detail back in. In this step, select the Mixer Brush you want to use.

Step 4: The different settings that will affect how your brush color interacts with the canvas (original photo) are the wetness of the paint, the load of the brush, and the mix ratio between the paint and canvas. If you are pulling the colors directly from an image (like I did below), make sure “Load the brush after each stroke” is turned off in the Control panel. Experiment with the different settings until you find what works for you. I highly recommend painting in Photoshop using a Wacom drawing tablet—it recognizes pressure, angle and it is just easier to use than a mouse!

Step 5: In the step above, I used a large brush and painted over the original photo rather quickly, removing a lot of the detail. In the last step, I add some of the detail back in. I first decided what my focal point of the painting is. My favorite part of the photo is the door and I wanted to make it pop. So I added a new transparent layer to my Photoshop document to add more detail back into the truck door. When you are painting on the transparent layer you want to make sure you have “Sample All Layers” checked in the Control Panel—you can see I don’t have it checked in my example below. Use a smaller brush and paint back over the area you want to add detail. Important note: make sure you have your original layer you were painting on turned off when you are adding detail. I have added my detail back in—you can now see much more detail in the lady’s face on the truck door. This painting still needs some touch up, but I’m well on my way to having a painting from my original photograph!

The release of Photoshop CS5 was an exciting time—CS5 brought about many BIG changes to this program. The most popular updates included the Content-Aware Fill, Refine Edge enhancements, the Mixer Brushes and the Puppet Warp tool. This particular post will focus on using the new Puppet Warp tool in Photoshop CS5.

Puppet Warp is a new tool in transforming objects, but in a way that you never could before…and it’s so easy!

Step 1:  Isolate the object you want to transform—you need to be able to select it. For example, the rope image below was on a white background and I removed the white background so I could select just the rope. The checkered background indicates the rope is on a transparent background.

Step 2: Select the layer/object you want to transform and choose Edit > Puppet Warp

Step 3:  In the last step you added a mesh over your selection. Now you can click and add pins on that mesh. These pins become points in which your object can move (like a puppet!). You can also use the pins in areas you want to anchor in place.

Step 4:  Drag the pins to warp the mesh and transform your object (see rope below). Press return to apply the transformation and you are done!

The computer is one of the most important tools that a modern person needs to know and how to manipulate. It can help you with a lot of things, allowing you to live easier and more comfortably in the information era. However, there’s a lot to a computer that you may want to know about. If you’re creative, though, you’ll surely get interested with Photoshop. Basically a program that will allow you to edit photos and create artworks digitally, it could be very handy for you to know how to use this software to your advantage. Especially if you’re eyeing the graphic design line, you’ll surely get a lot out of this skill.

The thing is that Photoshop can be quite tricky. It’s not exactly the easiest program to handle or work with. It’s actually quite technical, making beginners and first timers baffled with what to do with it. Luckily, you don’t need to spend hours just to learn how to use each and every function in the program. With the help of training courses, you can easily learn or even master the ins and outs of Photoshop.

But before you sign up in one, you should know that different courses have various offers. Some are more useful than others, so you have to be careful in selecting which one to pay for. You have to make sure that you will learn how to work with the vital elements and tools in the program, besides, you’re paying for it anyway.

In order to be sure that you’ll really get the most out of your time and money with these courses, here’s a list of the top things that you should get out of a Photoshop training course:

1. How to use the basic tools

By the end of the course, you should know what the Layers are, how to crop, merge, brighten, correct colors, refine edges, trim, and resize on Photoshop. These are the most basic things people need to do when editing photos with any digital software, so you should at least know how this particular one can help you complete such tasks.

2. How to use the “fancy” effects Photoshop has to offer

This program is a favorite among a lot of other image editors because you can do a lot with it. The filters section alone can already give you ample choices in how to edit your photo. Technically, the functions under this category (brush strokes, sketch, stylize, pixelate, sharpen, blur, etc.) are very basic, so you should definitely know more about that if you’re going to take a course.

3. Good idea with what more you can do with Photoshop

If you’re a beginner, you will need to know about the basics. However, you should at least get a good idea what more can be done with Photoshop in your course, so you’ll know what you can continuously improve yourself in the area.

Photoshop is really a useful tool to have in your computer. However, it is better if you actually know how to use it to create things, especially if you’re in the arts and other creative fields. If you want to be a professional graphic designer, learning this would be essential, so you can get certification. This can better improve your image and career, so make sure to take this tiny step today.

Discover how to use the special features in Adobe Photoshop CS5 to create award winning graphics from an experienced professional. Learn more about the Adobe Photoshop through our Adobe Photoshop CS5 Classes.

Adobe Photoshop can be a daunting program to learn for the newcomer to digital art. Its many features can be overwhelming and the resource data on the web can give the feeling of being lost in a gigantic library. As you can guess this can be very intimidating, but there is always a starting point when learning any skill or program. With digital arts programs there are many of these points and the one that is right for you is dependent on the kind of artist you are.

For some fiddling around with pictures and photo editing might just be a hobby. They don’t want to make a career out of it but they enjoy doing it in their free time. For a person such as this Adobe Photoshop can only be learned by throwing oneself into the program. While they can read tutorials or books they prefer the hands on approach to things and will poke and prod until they get the results they want.

The people that learn things the hard way often end up becoming the best artists in the industry. But for those of us that prefer a more orderly educational approach there are tutorial books. These are often divided up into lessons and are designed for those that learn best via a structured organized plan. This often results in artists that are very knowledgeable and skilled with many features of the program.

For those of us that prefer to work hands on but also prefer to follow a lesson plan there are thousands of audio and video tutorials on the internet to learn from. There are both paid and free versions but for the most part they are all solid. This results in an artist who can work at a fast pace and still deliver results. All of the above mentioned methods can lead a person to become familiar with Adobe Photoshop but each must find their own method.

This is true for all artists across all fields and has been so for several hundred years. If we could all get the same amount of knowledge, experience, and talent from the same method then there would be less individuality in our art works. However finding your own path when trying to become an artist is a hard thing to do, and at times may seem hopeless.

This is when it pays to talk to those around you that have experience with the problem you are having. Tutorials, lesson plans, and projects can teach you how to make things but poor writing can lead to confusion when looking for certain tools or functions. Speaking to others who have been through this or are going through it themselves can often help you find that elusive tool that you’re looking for.

They’re also a great source of advice and can often teach you a thing or two that you did not know. Regardless of how you learn to use the program remember to be patient. It has hundreds of functions and it takes time to get acquainted with them and even more time to memorize them.

Adobe Photoshop can be a great program to learn and can provide you the skills to do almost anything in the film industry. Or it may simply allow you to work on your hobby in a new way. Regardless remember to be patient and enjoy the learning experience. If you have trouble there is a massive wealth of resources in tutorials, audio video files, and people to talk to.

Discover the Adobe CS5 Creative Suite through our very affordable Adobe Photoshop CS5 Classes.

For the purpose of this article, we’ll be describing the transition from graphic file creation in Photoshop to published web content. These graphic files, be they gifs or jpgs, are manufactured at your “Photoshop factory” so to speak, and transported to your host server. There, they are available in a specified place on the “shelf” for your web page’s html code (or php, or whatever you are using) to be plucked off and fitted into the correct spot on the site when it is accessed. You can think of this transporting or “uploading” of files as a railroad taking the parts to the assembly plant (your web hosting server).

Since this article doesn’t cover Photoshop image manipulation, we’ll assume that your pictures are ready to go. You have two options here, depending upon whether or not Adobe Bridge is installed on your machine. If it is, you may upload your images from there. To do so, first make sure that your service is discovered by opening the Tools menu in Adobe Bridge. Under Photoshop Services you will see Automatically check for services. If Photoshop Services isn’t there, open your Bridge CS3 Preferences, and highlight “Startup Scripts”. Check the checkbox that says “Photoshop Services”, click Ok, then restart Bridge. You will now be able to upload.

The other option is to disregard Adobe Bridge altogether and use another program to upload them. Uploading files to your website is virtually the same regardless of what type of files they are. Normally some program that uses “ftp” (which stands for File Transmission Protocol) is used to transmit your files to the host server. There are several available, but a reliable and free one is “FireFTP” which is an add-on utility for the FireFox browser. It uses an intuitive web interface which looks something like a split file browser with arrows in the middle that point both left and right. The left side is your computer, and the right side is the ftp host.

To install FireFTP, simply open your FireFox browser, go to the “Tools” menu and click “Add-ons”. A window will pop up that lists several recommended add-ons. If FireFTP isn’t listed there, then click on the link at the bottom of the pop up window that reads “See All Recommended Add-ons”. This will open either a new tab or new window (depending on your FireFox settings) that takes you to the add-ons site for Mozilla. FireFTP will be listed there. Click on the FireFTP link and follow the instructions. Once installed, the FireFTP Add-on will appear under the “Tools” menu. It is assumed that the reader already possess knowledge of their FTP server login and folder structure.

Once you have created a profile in FireFTP for your server login, simply click on the files on the left hand side of the browser window, choose where they’re going on the right hand side, and hit the green arrow pointed to the right. It’s that simple.

Discover the Adobe CS5 Creative Suite through our very affordable Adobe Photoshop CS5 Classes.

One of the most prolific and exponentially valuable Internet tools is Adobe’s Photoshop software. But this software has more far reaching possibilities than the normal industrial uses it sees now. Presently, this software is used in web design and graphic creation business fronts, especially online. But what OTHER industries and professions can benefit from Photoshop?

Well, one of the most obvious ones is businesses that produce graphic designed items. These can be things like tee shirts, coffee mugs and other personalized or gag items. Customers or clients can send in their own photo and ask for it to be “enhanced” in a certain way. That is especially useful since not everyone knows how to use Photoshop that way.

Another one is graphic web design or personalized social networking page templates. Imagine having a picture of yourself or your kids as your MySpace profile page background. In the area of web design, the possibilities are truly endless with Photoshop. These folks can create page templates, buttons or any type of graphic that people are in the market for.

But there are some industries that can benefit that you may not have thought of. The add-ons that exist for Photoshop make it a widely versatile tool for manufacturers of machinery parts and service repair manuals. Since the graphics are loaded into Photoshop as a non-graphic format, the possibilities are limitless as to what can be done with them.

For instance, using Adobe’s Fireworks add on, graphics can be given life and become animated at a level not seen before. Images can be loaded from CAD software, brought into the Photoshop program and then turned in a real time environment. This essentially gives the item a 3 dimensional feel and view. In the area of parts and repair manuals, this can be extremely helpful since the finished pages can be saved as an Internet file and posted for repair technicians to view online from anywhere in the world.

Some of the software add ons even allow you to create a moving real time animation of a repair procedure, step by step. This is a huge benefit to companies that run service personnel overseas when questions come up. Time, money and prestige are saved as a result.

Photoshop can even be a benefit to video game walk through writers. A screen shot can be taken of progressive screens and captioned with instructions or helpful information. Novice players can suddenly play like world-class pros in a fraction of the time without the frustration of the learning curve. For this, they are willing to pay and pay handsomely.

As you can see, Photoshop can be used in many industries and the uses are only limited by the user’s imagination. Many Internet marketers have used Adobe’s PDF format for many years to display information to customers. It really is surprising that so few of those people took advantage of Photoshop’s full capabilities. Animations, colored fonts and hyperlinked text or graphics are all possible inside the Photoshop software and it can be a benefit to YOUR business. All you have to do is try it and see.

Discover the Adobe CS5 Creative Suite through our very affordable Adobe Photoshop CS5 Classes.

A Photoshop Action is a preprogrammed command or series of commands that one can record and replay in order to save time and reduce the monotony of the repeated actions often required during the development of visual media. It includes all automated commands available within the program through its various menus. For example, if there are a series of steps that a designer prefers to follow in order to achieve a certain effect, that artist can program those steps into one Photoshop Action with the option to create a shortcut key for that action so that this effect can be applied automatically. As another example, if there is a certain format in which a designer must save all of his or her work, a Photoshop Action can be recorded that goes through the entire “Save As” process. This would result resulting in a save that can be completed with the push of a button similar to how one would save a project with the default extension, which can save a good amount of time.

How It Is Done

A Photoshop Action is programmed as follows. Initially, one must ensure that the History/Action window is visible. If not, one can select “Show History” or “Show Actions” from the “Window” menu. Once the History/Action window has been identified, select the “Actions” tab. From there, select the right-pointing arrow just below the “Exit” (“x”) button, which opens up the window’s menu. From the menu, select “New Action…,” which appears first on the list. One can then name the action, select the set under which the action will fall under (this does not need to be changed if one is not interested in stratifying his or her actions), set the color scheme that is associated with this action, and select the shortcut key that will initiate this action, if desired. Once this is completed, click the “Record” button that appears above the “Cancel” button. The window will disappear and the user can then perform the set of commands of which he or she would like the Action to be comprised. Although the program would then be recording the commands input by the user, it does not record the amount of time it takes to perform these commands. Therefore, any amount of time can be spent recording the commands so that no mistakes are programmed into the Action as well. Once all of the necessary commands have been performed, the user can then open the menu from the arrow in the Actions window and select “Stop Recording,” which will likewise be the first option on the list. The Photoshop Action is thus created. A user can then apply this action whenever necessary by either selecting it from the list within the Actions window or by pressing the designated shortcut keys.

One must bear in mind that Photoshop Actions only apply to automated commands within the program. Subsequently, it excludes all actions performed through the tools menu, such as hand drawn lines, selections, erasures, and paintbrush functions. It is merely used for a series of steps that would otherwise require navigation to various menus followed by numerous selections. In other words, one can program an automated shadow rendering Action by manipulating various menu settings such as the creation of adjustment layers, copy-pastes, the application of bevels and other filers, layer property adjustments, and rasterizations. Alternately, one cannot automatically shadow an object by recording various maneuvers using the dodge and burn tools.

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Casting a shadow is one of the most important competencies one must learn in order to bring his or her visual media to life. It is the final addition that helps render an object so that it stands out and appears more integrated into the background. Furthermore, it adds dimension to a complete piece so that a viewer perceives an actual object in space rather than flat shapes on a surface.

A shadow is cast because of blocked light emanating from a given source. This tutorial will use that principle in order to illustrate how to cast a shadow in Adobe Photoshop. There are a number of ways this can be accomplished in this highly effective graphic program, but only one of these techniques will be covered.

The Simplest Way to Cast a Shadow in Photoshop

Foremost, one must create two layers: one exclusively for the object (separate of the background), and another for its shadow. Then, select the layer in which the object is placed, activate the magic wand selection tool (set at a 50% tolerance) and select the field outside of the object. This should select the entire field outside the object, but none of the object whatsoever (if some of the object is selected, undo the selection, decrease the wand’s tolerance, and repeat this step). Then, from the “Select” menu, click “Inverse.” This will instead select the object. Then, without deselecting, activate the layer designated for the shadow. Make the layer with the object in it invisible so that selected outline of the object is all that appears in the layer. Activate the paint bucket fill tool (which shares a space in the tool box with the gradient fill tool) and fill the selection with the color black. Then, reduce the opacity of the layer to roughly 50%-80% (this can be adjusted as needed, and depends on the darkness of the background as well as the intensity of the light source).

Now that a base shadow as been created, it must be transformed in order to appear as though it is “laying flat” on the background (as would a shadow). At this point, it is easiest to make the object layer visible in order to use the object as a reference point. One should also ensure that the shadow layer is below the object layer so that it appears behind the object. Then, with the shadow still selected, select “Free Transform” from the Edit menu in order to adjust the slant and the size of the shadow. Then, open the “Transform” submenu from the Edit menu and select “Skew.” Adjust the shadow as necessary so that it appears as though it is laying flat. Continue to apply adjustments until the shadow looks as realistic as possible.

Finishing Touches

Once the shadow has been successfully cast, one can apply final changes in order to render it even more realistic. For example, one can apply a simple fade-out that one can accomplish using an eraser with a large swatch that has blurred edges and opacity of 70%-50%. Another example could be the application of a Gaussian blur to the shadow layer to add a more evanescent feel to the shadow. At this point, one can play with the shadow endlessly to make it seem as realistic as possible.

Your graphics can pop, and you don’t have to take forever to create them when you know HOW to use the right tools effectively. Learn more about the Adobe CS5 Creative Suite and Adobe Photoshop classes.