Thursday, January 22, 2009

Learn photoshop the fast way with David Peters

By David Peters

Everything you want to learn about Photoshop is grouped into sections that are easy to identify and access. Tutorials are continually being made simpler and clearer so that everyone is included. If however, you think that the tutorials are not enough there are DVD Rom tutorials that you can purchase and have to access anytime that you forget how to do something and need to refresh your memory. This DVDROM has 120mins (yup, 2 hours) of tutorials that will help you know how to use Photoshop even in your sleep. If you already have more than a basic knowledge of using Photoshop you can take a look at the Photoshop Secrets Special FX. It's a tutorial CDROM with 19 lessons that are packed into 2 hours that will teach you exactly how to use the special cutting edge effects that the advance Photoshop users' use.

Photoshop training is one of the best investments you can make in your professional career. Whatever field you're working in, Photoshop training can help you reach your full potential. Anyone who works with digital images and graphics knows that the Adobe Photoshop line of software is the tool of choice for graphic designers and professional photographers around the world. The Photoshop interface hasn't changed a great deal since the earliest versions, so users can easily upgrade to Photoshop CS2 from any previous version. Photoshop CS2 has powerful new features that will aid designers in all fields. You can literally use Photoshop CS2 to create any visual effect that you can image-if you can dream it, you can create it with Photoshop. Like previous versions of Photoshop, CS2 is available for both Macintosh and Windows. And the best thing about the new version is the price: Photoshop CS2 costs less than previous versions of Photoshop.

RESOLUTION. The "Auto" resolution button on the right of your Image Size dialog box will resize your image to small, medium and larger sizes. Under "Document Size" in your Image Size box, you'll see a place to enter the desired resolution. For the Web, normal resolutions will be 72 pixels per inch. For print work, the resolution should be at least 300 ppi. When you increase the resolution, you increase the image size, and may need to re size it, but the resolution will stay the same. COLOR CASTS. Go into your Image - Adjustments menu and try using the automatic presets there: Auto Levels, Auto Contrast, Auto Color and/or Variations. This last option is especially fast and flexible, offering fine-tuning for shadows, mid tones and highlights as well as saturation. Click Image, then Levels in your top menu. You will see a Channel box on top with a pull-down arrow that exposes options for red, green or blue. You can affect the color cast of an image inside this level box by clicking on that color and moving the slider bars. Watch the image as you make the changes.

You can modify a gradient by changing the colour of the stops - simply click on one and choose a new colour from the Color Picker. Alternatively, click on an image and sample a colour for your customized gradient using the Eyedropper Tool. You can also add new colour stops to an existing gradient by clicking anywhere along the bottom edge of the preview bar. As well as editing colour stops for the gradient to blend between, you can also add different opacity settings to make it fade from solid to transparency.

By dragging the bottom layer's white slider to the left, its lightest colors appear over the image. If you drag the "black" slider to the right, the darkest colors disappear and the image below appears. Dragging the underneath layer's black slider will bring out the darkest colors from the bottom image. To merge your blended layers when you're finished, so that any further styling will be applied equally, click Layer in your top menu, then either Merge Down, Merge Group, Merge Visible or Flatten Image. If you're the kind of person who loves to learn and master a subject of interest, try out all the various permutations available in your Layer Style box's Advanced Blending palette, under "knockout." Right away, you'll see how useful the three options in the Knockout menu itself can be: None, Shallow or Deep. Below that is a list of options providing even more precise blending for the perfectionist in you.

Like Adobe Remix, the hosted Photoshop service is set to be free and marketed as an entry-level version of Adobe's more sophisticated image-editing tools, including Photoshop and Photoshop Elements. Chizen envisions revenue from the Photoshop service coming from online advertising."That is new (for Adobe). It's something we are sensitive to because we are watching folks like Google do it in different categories, and we want to make sure that we are there before they are, in areas of our franchises," Chizen said.Chizen described the introduction of Adobe Remix and the forthcoming hosted Photoshop as part of a larger move toward integrating hosted services into the company's product mix.Bruce Chizen Like Microsoft, Adobe's business is built largely around packaged software, installed locally on users' PCs. Likewise, Adobe's plans to diversify its business with online services mirrors a large-scale effort at Microsoft to introduce a combination of software and services.

When you want to add an adjustment layer quickly, the best way to do it is to click on the shortcut option that is located at the foot of the Layers palette. You can also go to the Layer - New Adjustment Layer in the main menu. If you use the Lasso Tool when making a selection on your original layer, any adjustment layers you design will only affect the selected area. A mask protects the unselected parts of an image on each new adjustment layer. You can build your image adjustments effectively and slowly if you combine the effects of multiple adjustment layers. You also have the option of turning them off and on when you are ready to fine-tune the overall effect. Use the thumbnail icons to quickly identify your adjustment layers. These thumbnail icons are attached to the corresponding layer and they are labeled so you can see which layer applies which effect. - 20896

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