Thursday, January 22, 2009

Learn photoshop the fast way with David Peters

By David Peters

Have you always wanted to learn how to use Adobe Photoshop but you think that it's not possible? Think again. There are easy to use step by step guides on how to use every feature on Photoshop so you can start making pictures and design graphics that look like they've come right out of a magazine. You can get started by learning the basics like removing red eyes, creating 3D effects logo techniques (text swoosh) etc. Learning Photoshop in a couple hours is definitely a possibility. It won't take you that much time to view the tutorials and apply them, but as with everything practice makes perfect and this is no different. Once you learn how to use Photoshop it will only be a matter of time before you become an expert.

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.

Unleash the power of the Gradient Editor to customize Photoshop's default gradients. The key to using the Gradient Tool effectively is to be able to master its editing options. Select the Gradient Tool and click on the gradient preview in the options bar to open the Gradient Editor. You'll see a variety of preset gradients displayed, from the default Foreground to Background gradient to the more complex Chrome gradient. All these preset gradients can be edited to create new gradients. You'll notice that some gradients have more colour 'stops' than others; the Foreground to Background gradient has two colour stops - black and white - while the Spectrum gradient has seven colour stops.

Photoshop offers blending options unsurpassed in the design industry in your "Layer Style" dialog box, you will first find "General Blending" options, which are often enough for any task. Experiment with the Blend Modes and their opacity to see just how incredibly flexible the normal Blending Options can be.To find your advanced blending options in Photoshop, double-click a layer or click the "Add a Layer Style" icon at the bottom left of your Layers palette, and then choose "Blending Options." Your "Layer Style" dialog box will appear.At the bottom of the Layer Style box, you will find, under "Advanced Blending," something called the "Blend If" tool. What is the Photoshop "Blend If" tool, exactly? Blend If is a "smart" blending tool. You can use it to blend images or create a more transparent image with almost infinite precision. This one tool is so flexible and handy it behooves any serios Photoshop designer to learn to use it, and use it well.

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.

You can use adjustment layers to do all kinds of experimenting and not one pixel will be damaged. There are ways to do this and they are not time consuming or difficult to learn.Sometimes you may use Photoshop to do some magic pixel manipulation but other times you may just want to make a few small changes. What about the times when you just want to make a minor change to an image's color balance? Maybe you have had occasion to tweak a contrast balance to achieve a print that is more pleasing to look at. You can do this by learning how to take control over the way in which you adjust the image. It's a good thing to be able to try various things in the adjustment department while being able to go back and retrace your steps if you encounter a problem. Smart layering allows you the ability to do these things. - 16069

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