Tutorials Tested and Reviewed – week of Oct 22-29

Realistic Fog Effects – Good, quick and simple. Though, I decided to use the “Edit in Quick Mask Mode” button and a huge brush then filling, instead of painting my image with a small brush as they suggested. (My image was HUGE!) Also, when you do the last gradient step, make sure you cover the whole image with the gradient.

Sonic Effects – Fun little tutorial. Highlights several filters. Though, I had a heck of a time getting black to be the outer glow – not sure what was up with that.

Tabbed Horizontal Menu – Good tutorial. For some reason I had a harder time following it, despite good directions being there. But you end up with a nice looking Menu bar when done. (On top of that figured out how to save a new gradient.)

Make Groups to Organize Layers – Man this is handy. Tried it out for the file I made in the tutorial above. Super Tip!

Guru Lounge’s – Line Art from a photo – Super effect. Takes a few tries to get it to look right. Learned much along the way. (So far they only have one Photoshop tutorial. But it’s on video and VERY GOOD! Brian and Deke, we want more Photoshop guru lounge!)

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My 4th attempt with this tutorial…

–Avlor

Lab Color Enhancement

This is a tip that has been published in several places. I learned it from someone else attending Photoshop World, but it goes back to Dan Margulis and his book on Lab color (Photoshop LAB Color: The Canyon Conundrum and Other Adventures in the Most Powerful Colorspace, ISBN-10: 0-321-35678-0; ISBN-13: 978-0-321-35678-9).

Convert the image to Lab color (Image>Mode>Lab Color). Then make a Curves adustment layer. If you have the “small” dialog box, click on the icon in the lower right corner of the dialog box to enlarge it. Also, if you only have 4 subdivisions in the curves area, {Alt/Option} Click on the curves area to get 10 subdivisions. I also like to click the reverse gradient arrows on the bottom gradient so that I have the darks in the lower left corner and the lights in the upper right.

Now adjust the L channel (Lightness) to get the contrast where you want it. Next adjust both of the curves for the a and b channels (color). I usually do this by bringing both the control points on the extreme ends of the line two squares inward. This will vary image to image (and camera to camera). The important thing to remember is that the line must go through the exact center of the curves area or your image will have a distinct color cast. This could also be a way to remove a color cast you don’t want if you are very careful.

To make finer adustments you can hover the cursor over parts of your image to see where that area falls on the curve you are working on. {Ctrl/Command} clicking on the image will add a control point on the curve in that exact spot. This works for all of the curves (Lab, RGB, etc.).

The advantage to doing this techinque as an adustment layer is that you can go to your image and examine it closely and then go back to make more subtle changes. Once you are satisfied, go to Image>Mode>RGB Color and choose the Flatten option.

Random Photoshop Site

Ok, I know there are tons of photoshop tip sites out there, but this is one that caught my eye. Check out http://www.biorust.com/tutorials/index/

Under the “Basic Principles” tab there are some good tips (and Alvor, check out the Anime tutorials here), and some of the “Special Effects” are kind of interesting.

-Ghostrock

Worth 1000

One of the sites I visit almost every day is Worth 1000 (http://www.worth1000.com/). The name of the site comes from the old saw that one picture is worth a thousand words. This site isn’t focused on tips or ticks so much (although they do have some tutorials on some cool topics), this site is all about testing your photoshop skills. Every day there is a new contest and they usually have some weird or funny theme to them. For instance, changing the look of the materials of objects (make wood look like glass), or merge two animals (give a rhino zebra stripes), and to push the artist to be creative. The deal is you only have 2 days to finish an entry. And this is no “cut and paste”, slap it together as fast as you can stuff either. The ones that win are very high quality. Even the ones that end up at the bottom of the voting are better than ones that I’ve seen on other photoshop contest sites.

There are two contests every day; a beginners contest (Training Grounds), and an advanced contest. You have to sign up to the site (free) and when you do you get 10 credits. The contests cost credits to enter, and the prizes are more credits. You can also buy credits on the site. I also received 10 credits on new years day and I think that was just a one time thing. Winning a contest is determined by the votes a piece gets. Voting is only open for one day, and you can only vote if you are a member of the site.
As I am usually very busy at work and home, I don’t have the time do justice to the quality they demand (in fact I’ve only submitted one entry to date), but I do like going to the site and seeing what can be done with photoshop.

-Ghostrock

Podcast update

Looks like I was wrong about the “2 Minute Photoshop Tricks” having gone under. I went to the site (http://tricks.onigo.net/) and looked around, and there were new tricks that hadn’t downloaded into my podcatcher. I hit the Subscribe button, and in they came, So it looks like either the info I had was wrong, or the feed changed somehow and I never got the update. In any case, I’ve got some catching up to do. And that’s a good thing!
-Ghostrock

Photoshop Online and Pixel Perfect Podcasts

A few podcasts I’ve been subscribing to:

Photoshop Online with Jan Kabili. Covers fairly basic PS tips and tricks, for those of us new to Photoshop. Short (about 5 minutes) and sweet, fairly specific uses so far. (For anyone who doesn’t want to be forced to use itunes for the feed, the url is here.)

Pixel Perfect with Bert Monroy. Is aimed at more advanced users. I’ve been learning more overarching ideas and techniques that will help me use PS as a whole more “professionally”. Only a few episodes out so far, but they are superb!

–Avlor

Some Podcasts

Ok, I talk in my sidebar about how many podcasts I listen to, so I guess I’d better give up a few

First there is Photoshop TV (http://www.photoshoptv.com/). Bar none this is my favorite. Once a week a dose of Photoshop goodness from NAPP (National Association of Photoshop Profesionals). I’ve heard some people complain that they are too un-professional, but I really like their “don’t take it too seriously” attitude. I’m not too sure about the new guy they’ve added. He doesn’t seem to have quite the sense of humor that Scott, Matt and Dave have, but I’ll give him a shot.

Matt Kloskowski also does the Photoshop Killer Tips podcast (http://www.photoshopkillertips.com/). This is a good one as well. Usually very short (longest one I have in my collection is 3:14), and usually some helpful shortcut or tip. Usually not mind blowing (although the one about better layer styles made my jaw drop), but good stuff. Usually one a day M-F.

One of the ones I liked seems to have podfaded. 2 Minute Photoshop Tricks hasn’t put out a new episode since late July 2006, but if you can download back episodes, there are some good ones.

More next time.

-Ghostrock

Photoshop Easter Egg

I found out about this one a while back, and I know it will work on versions of PS going back to 7, and possibly back to version 5.

Hold down {Option (mac), Alt (win)} (Avlor – please confirm the win side) and click on the flyout triangle on the upper right corner of the layers palette. Drag down to Palette Options and let go.

Admittedly, not very spectacular, but fun. Click Begone to dismiss the dialog box.

-Ghostrock

PDF of CS2 keyboard shortcuts

Being new to Photoshop, I wanted a list of the shortcuts. (My brain can only store so many at a time at this point…) Here’s what I’ve found:

GFX has listings for versions all the way back to PS 5.

Adobe Evangelists hosts “power shortcuts” that help improve efficiency.

–Avlor