Author Archive for Michael Hoffman

Mike has been a photographer, artist, educator, and technophile for most of his life. Early in his career, he created technical illustrations and photographs for electronic equipment manufacturers, and taught classes in computer aided drafting and 3D modeling software. When digital cameras became widely available in the late 1990s, the move was a natural one, and has led to a happy combination of technology, software, photography and art.

Mike is an Adobe Certified Expert in Photoshop and Acrobat, and is well versed in Lightroom and Photoshop Elements, as well as Illustrator and InDesign. He has also contributed his time and efforts to the excellent work being done by Operation Photo Rescue, in restoring photographs damaged by natural disasters. As an active member of the National Association of Photoshop Professionals, he continues his quest for excellence in art, excellence in design, and excellence in education.

Lighting 3D in Photoshop CS6

photoshop 3d lighting

In a continuation of my series on learning 3D in Photoshop CS6 today’s topic is lighting your models. Learn the different types of lights that are available in Photoshop’s 3D space, and how to control and manipulate them for best effect.

Smarter Sharpening in Photoshop

Photoshop_Smarter_Sharpening

Sharpening traditionally has three phases: capture sharpening, creative sharpening, and output sharpening. In a photographic workflow, Adobe Camera Raw or Lightroom does a fine job of capture sharpening, but where do you go for the rest? Unsharp Mask is tried and true, but no longer the best tool in the toolbox. In this video we’ll look at Smart Sharpen in tandem with Smart Objects for the ultimate in photographic sharpening control.

Lightroom 5 Beta My Three Favorite Features

Lightroom 5

As mentioned in a special post yesterday Lightroom 5 Beta is out, and in this video you’ll see my three favorite new features. You can get a trial copy of the new beta version of Lightroom 5 from labs.adobe.com.

Be sure to follow the Photoshop Nuts here on TipSquirrel as we keep you up to date with new features and information about Lightroom 5.

Heads Up! Getting Information in Lightroom

Lightroom is wonderful in the way it can stay out of the way and keep you immersed in your images. But, if you need some information while your images fill the screen, there’s no need to open up panels or access menus. Lightroom’s View Options open the door to a wealth of information, presented heads up style in both the Grid and Loupe views.

3D in Photoshop CS6 – Materials Properties

3D_Materials_Properties

In the conclusion of this segment, we will look at assigning and modifying properties of 3D objects to define transparency and reflections. We’ll create a reflection on the ground plan, and make some basic adjustments to the light in the image to soften the shadows.

If you missed the first part, you can find it in my post on 3D in Photoshop – Combining Objects.

3D in Photoshop CS6 – 3D Basics

3D in Photoshop CS6 - 01 - 3D Basics

Photoshop CS6 makes creating and using 3D objects easier than ever. In order to become proficient with 3D, you have to master the basics. In this first video of an ongoing series, we’ll explore the fundamentals of 3D and the Photoshop 3D workspace.

Layer Comps in Photoshop

The Layer Comps feature in Photoshop allows you to create and save a variety of different compositions within a single file, and switch back and forth between the layouts quickly and easily. You can even save all your comps automatically to a group of files.