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In a perfect world your old photographs will always be out of a frame, or can be easily removed, in great shape and you’ll always have the most perfect equipment. Unfortunately, for most of us anyway, it’s not a perfect world and sometimes photos a...

With Photoshop CS5, Adobe brought us the Mixer Brush, which, along with the new Bristle Brushes, are perhaps the biggest makeover in the brush engine since version 7.0. In today’s video tip, you’ll learn a few basic techniques for setting up and using Mixer Brushes – including the often overlooked capability of loading your brush with multiple colors at one time. Happy painting!

Those that follow TipSquirrel on Facebook or Twitter might know that for the last little while I’ve been saying how excited I am about a new TipSquirrel.com project. This week we take a huge step so I thought I’d let you in on what its all about, who the first guest will be and who’ll be the host;

Photoshop's filters are pretty powerful (and certainly diverse). Knowing this, you may find yourself wanting to apply a filter to a video clip. This is very possible, but there's a specific workflow you must follow.

Are you tired of the hunt and peck method of finding your favorite Photoshop brushes? Learn to organize and save your favorite brushes with Preset Manager. With you could save an entire palette of brushes with color and opacity preset? You can, and today we'll see how using Tool Presets.

When making fantasy pictures its often useful to have a moon in a night sky, we can easily fake a nice convincing moon using a couple of Photoshop Filters.

With all the whizz bang thrills that software such as Photoshop has given us, you’d be forgiven for thinking that it’s Photoshop that’s driven photographers to be creative. But that’s not exactly true. Of course Photoshop has helped unlo...

One of the fantastic things about Lightroom is the way it can streamline a photographer's workflow. Lightroom allows the creating of presets and applying them over a complete shoot, even applying those presets on import ( see my previous tutorial). The...

In today’s video tip, you won’t learn how to create or apply cool develop settings to make your images look amazing. What you will learn is how to set or change your Camera Raw workflow, how to understand when and why unusual things are happening in Camera Raw, and ways to gain speed and efficiency with your Camera Raw workflow

Courtesy of our friends at NAPP UK we’ve got a great DVD to give away this month .   Adobe Photoshop CS5 Crash Course by Matt Kloskowski This DVD isn’t just about what you’ll learn in Photoshop CS5 – it’s also about what you w...

It seems that nearly every third party plug-in these days has some ability to provide a variety of image borders, but so far that capability isn’t in Photoshop. At least, not directly. But, with this simple trick using the combined power of Smart Obj...

When we talk about the Levels dialog in Elements, we generally stick to the default mode of adjusting the shadows, midtones and highlights of the overall image in order to correct and boost the existing tones. There is far more to the Levels adjustment, however, as we’ll find out in the following tutorial.

Here’s a problem that has plagued everyone at some point in the Lightroom learning curve, and it can be a real stumper if you aren’t paying attention, or if you aren’t wise to the ways of Lightroom. This problem occurs when you send a photo or ph...

You no doubt have heard the good news, that Adobe launched its public beta of Lightroom 4, and there's plenty to be excited about! For this tutorial we'll take a quick look at the brand new Map module, which allows you to organize your photographs base...

Over the coming months I will show you a range of techniques and styles of animating through Adobe Photoshop, which you could include within your own work, encompassing genres of TV and film, through to corporate use. In order to create the animated...

So, what do you do when you have a picture you love with a background you hate? Why change it, of course! Take, for example, this picture of my cousin David; he loves the pic but hates the pink! So being the wonderful cousin I am I’m going to show hi...

Sometimes the simplest things can create the biggest headaches, and so it is with the Brush tool in Photoshop. You might think, grab the tool, set the color, shape and brush size, and paint away. But then… something is wrong. The brush isn’t painting at all, or it’s painting in a way you aren’t expecting? What’s gone wrong? Should I reset preferences? Reinstall Photoshop?

Recently, I have seen a lot of discussion regarding the changes to the development module in Lightroom 4 Beta and I wanted to go over some of these changes since Lightroom 3. In my previous post, I briefly mentioned the changes to the Basics tab in ...

In this exclusive to TipSquirrel.com video, Rich Harrington takes us through a real world scenario using Adobe Camera Raw and Photoshop.

Exciting news yesterday as Adobe released the first public beta for Lightroom 4. Lots of people have been asking me what has changed since LR3? is it worth upgrading? etc. Based on my first impressions there are some big name changes such as the Map &a...

Its a new year so time for something that's good for you but not necessarily fun, sorry. You’ve probably let the new year’s resolution for keywording slip already so here’s something that you only need to do once a year but is worth the (small) e...

Photoshop can be a strange beast when it comes to working with type. While Photoshop isn’t designed to have a powerful text layout engine, lacking the full-featured capabilities of InDesign for layout, and Illustrator for working with fonts and paths...

It’s been a while since we had a quiz or puzzle on the blog so I thought I’d remedy that today. Each number corresponds to a different letter, can you break the code to discover what the twenty Photoshop related words are?   We’...

If you’re a regular Lightroom user then you’ll know just how fast your Lightroom Catalogue can grow. It’s not unusual to find photographers with tens of thousands of images in a single catalogue. Of course Lightroom offers up several ways to mana...

  This month I thought I'd show you a nice easy way to create a cool photo effect using the Rectangle Marquee Tool and the Stroke Layer Style. Step 1 For this project you will need a Photo to work with, I chose this one from morguefil...

In my role as moderator of the member forums over at the National Association of Photoshop Professionals Website, I routinely help struggling users to come to grips with the powerful, yet temperamental program we all love. Some of the most common probl...

With thanks to our friend and Nut David Asch and the nice people at Focal Press, we've got a copy of the hot off the press How To Cheat in Photoshop Elements 10 To enter just complete the question below. We're asking for your email address so that...

We’re off for a week, returning on 2nd January so on behalf of everyone involved in TipSquirrel.com; Have a Happy Christmas and a Prosperous New Year! TipSquirrel.com is a collaborative site and everyone involved gives their time and expertise ...

Earlier this week, Topaz Labs announced a free upgrade (for existing users) to its Lens Effects plugin. One of the more interesting and useful features it offers is a simulated Fog Effect (who doesn't enjoy a nice holiday mist? ;) ), using either Light...

The gifts are wrapped, the tree is decorated, and you’re ready for your long winter’s nap. But wait – you’ve forgotten something: the cookies! Never fear, with Photoshop you can whip up some great Christmas cookies from scratch. In this ...

Join Rich as he tackles 12 holiday images. This in-depth class will show you how to fix both standard and advanced problems that often plague holiday photos. With almost an hour of tuition Rich shares some great techniques that will be handy all year!

If you’ve never experienced the amazing power of Photoshop actions before, then you may well have missed out on something special. Perhaps you’re one of the many people who have tried the built in actions that come with Photoshop and found them to ...

Courtesy of Nut Janine Smith and Lynda.com we’ve got a great prize for you. Janine’s latest course “Photo restoration With Photoshop” on DVD Here’s a little about the course; Professional photo restorer Janine Smith describes how to ...

‘Tis the time for snow and Christmas cheer, as such I thought I'd show you how to fake snow. Step 1. Download a good snowy picture – we used this one here Add a Levels Adjustment Dialogue and drag the middle slider to the right slightly m...

One of the most tedious tasks with maintaining a large catalog of images is maintaining the list of keywords and applying the right keywords to an image. Following on from the great tutorials of my fellow Nut, Michael Hoffman (Tag your images), I'd lik...

Hi Folks, For this month’s tutorial I thought I’d share a technique with you that I used recently on an image that I made during one of my Character Portrait Workshops. (New course date just released for January) To give you an idea of what m...

Back in Bridge CS4, Adobe introduced a cool navigation feature in Bridge called “Folder Cruising.” It’s very simple, but really effective, and in Bridge CS5 it received some slight tweaks that make it even easier to use. Here’s how it works. ...

Stylized Black and White Photos with Topaz BW Effects  By Dan Moughamian This month I thought it would be fun to cover a Photoshop plugin that I discovered this summer, which has quickly become one of my favorites. Topaz BW Effects (from [M...

This month I thought it would be fun to cover a Photoshop plugin that I discovered this summer, which has quickly become one of my favorites. Topaz BW Effects (from Topaz Labs) contains a wide range of creative presets that make it a snap to create som...

In this tutorial we’ll firstly be creating the effect of a slightly worn out rubber stamp. Once we’ve created our stamp, we’ll be converting it to a brush preset that can be used over and over again and at any size. We’ll also take a look at El...

If you've created a 3D object with complex materials, you may have been disappointed with the appearance and shape of the features on your 3D object. In today's video, learn how to tweak the scale and position of the 3D diffuse texture to correct any o...

In this follow-up to last week’s video, Rich Harrington teaches us how to fix clipped shadows, overblown highlights, and soft detail when working with photos shot under low lift conditions.

This month’s tutorial is going to be an in-depth look at a black & white photograph that was used in one of my tutorials on black & white conversion earlier this year. I recently showed this image at Beacon Camera Club, where I was a gu...

Adobe Photoshop CS5 Extended has a wonderfully capable 3D environment. It isn’t high powered like some advanced 3D modeling software, but the capabilities are really good, and the learning curve is nowhere near as steep. In today’s tutorial, we’l...

In this, made for TipSquirrel.com, video, Rich Harrington explores the power of Adobe Camera Raw. Here Rich has a real world example to work though with amazing outcomes.

Here’s a super simple way to add a little depth to an old image just by making certain elements stand out from the rest.

You may have used Quick Collections in Lightroom to create temporary sets of photos to organize your work. Here’s a tip to show you how to extend the Quick Collection feature to apply to any collection in Lightroom, making ALL your collections “qui...

A little while ago Adobe UK gave us a copy of Adobe Master Suite CS5.5 and we invited readers to enter through our Twitter, Facebook and  Google+ accounts. The response was awesome, so thank you to all that entered. We represented the three way...

Vintage photo effects are all the rage in photography at the moment. Often they created in mobile apps or in Photoshop, but in this tutorial I’m going to show you a simple vintage effect that can be applied to images inside Adobe Camera RAW. Aged an...

One of the things about Lightroom that I love is that even though it is the little brother to the mighty Photoshop, it is still has a few tricks up its sleeve. I am always looking for ways to do 'Photoshop' things in Lightroom, there are 2 reasons for ...

When you resize images in Photoshop, you are adding or deleting pixels to your image. As the pixels are created or destroyed, how do you control the way Photoshop decides how to color the new pixels, or what to throw away? Photoshop has several methods...

Making horror art I often get asked how I get texture to show through flesh, its actually very simple and uses my favourite Photoshop tool, Layer Masks.

If you’re like me, you’ve been working on larger and larger files, and sometimes the Liquify command in Photoshop just can’t keep up with all those pixels. Fear not! Here’s a tip that allows you to Liquify smaller files, and transfer the changes you’ve made to a much larger resolution original.

I must admit, when it comes to skies… I’m not above cheating. In this tutorial, I’ll show you a technique from my book Understanding Adobe Photoshop CS5. Be sure to also click here to download the hands on-practice files. The book contains hundre...

Its that time of year again, so here’s a little rundown of some of the goodies we’ve posted here on TipSquirrel in previous years; Halloween Brushes from Janine Smith In this post Janine provided us with (29)  Photoshop brushes she made fr...

Hi Folks, For this month's tutorial I thought I'd put together a short video showing you a couple of quick and easy techniques that I regularly use to both Brighten and Colour eyes. As always if you have any questions about what's covered in this...

Smart Objects are one of the more powerful features that have been added to Photoshop in recent years. I think it safe to say that smart objects are considered by most people to fall in to the "advanced Photoshop" category and for that reason alone a...

Janine Smith was one of the first ‘Photoshop Nuts’ and shared her restoration expertise with readers on a regular basis. Last year saw her record her first course for the excellent Lynda.com called Photoshop Elements 9: Scanning and Restoring Photo...

Using a simple 2D layer with a grayscale pattern, it’s possible to create some really interesting and organic looking 3D surfaces using Photoshop Extended CS5. In this video, we examine how the “Create New Mesh from Grayscale” command works, and put it to practical use.

The Photoshop Nuts are a busy bunch so let’s take the opportunity to see some of the things they’ve been up to. This week we’ll take a look at those that train for a living, while next week we’ll look at those that work in the industry and pass...

The Spot Healing Brush tool was added to Photoshop as a way to harness powerful blending technology with less work (although the Healing Brush is pretty labor-free to begin with). It can quickly remove blemishes and imperfections in photos wit...

One of the great things about Adobe Lightroom is its ability to speed up a photographer's workflow. There are many ways to do this within both the Library module and the Develop module, but there is an often overlooked method when Importing. It mak...

Using Photoshop CS5 Extended, you can create opacity masks for your 3D objects. A 3D opacity mask works like a regular layer mask, except that it shows or hides the 3D surface itself. Once you’ve created your 3D model, why not add some animation to really set things off?

If you’re like me, you probably have stacks of old photographs sitting around in the “to be scanned” queue. In fact, you may, like me, have additional piles from family and friends in the same category. How do we work through all those images wit...

TipSquirrel Win Adobe Master Suite CS5.5 To celebrate the launch of Adobe UK Education’s great new competition they’ve kindly given us a copy of Adobe Master Suite CS5.5 Teacher and Student Edition to give away to one of our readers. All you have...

The Dust & Scratches filter provides a more powerful way to remove noise from an image. Dissimilar pixels are modified to achieve a balance between sharpening and hiding defects. You’ll want to try different settings on your image because...

This month I thought I'd show you how to make a simple grunge effect for text using a very simple technique utilising a very powerful feature found in the Layer Styles dialogue box. Step 1. Make a new document and fill with a light green colour (#8d...

There are quite a few commands embedded under Photoshop’s Edit > Transform submenu: From Scale and Rotate, to Skew, Perspective and Warp. But when push comes to shove, there’s really only one command you need to remember – Free Transform. The ...

To celebrate the launch of Adobe UK Education’s great new competition they’ve kindly given us a copy of Adobe Master Suite CS5.5 Teacher and Student Edition to give away to one of our readers. All you have to do to win is to Tweet this; I’d...

This week Adobe released the latest version of their prosumer photo editing package, Photoshop Elements 10. This new release offers several new features that are useful to photographers and scrapbookers. One of my favorites is a new option within Gu...

Hey Folks, For today I thought I'd record a video showing a Photoshop technique that has come in handy for me on more than one occasion; I call it 'The Never Ending Lighting Rig' and it's based on a technique I learned from my good friend, Photographe...

If you’ve played around with Layer Styles in Photoshop, you’ve almost surely seen the “Contour” setting in the “Quality” section of the layer styles dialog box. More that likely, you’ve just moved right on by. Or, if you’ve clicked on i...

If your photos are unintentionally crooked, they can look very distracting. There's lots of contributing factors including a crooked tripod, shooting handheld, or just an uneven surface. But solving the problem is really easy. In Photoshop, select t...

This will be a quick and short tutorial today, to show you the benefits of a sharpening mask within Lightroom. I have had a couple of  people ask me about noise in high ISO images and how to maintain details while removing the background noise,...

Today’s tip is a simple but powerful trick to create a more powerful mood within your photos, using Photoshop with just some adjustment layer and masking techniques. I first saw Eddie Tapp use a similar technique years ago in a Canon workshop, and it...

Photoshop Elements 9 packs some very impressive technology under its dark interface and much of it has been lifted straight from it’s bigger brother, Photoshop CS5. But there’s more to Elements then a few borrowed features. Elements has been...

Sometimes I like to save an image and continue to work on it. There’s a lot of ways Photoshop allows you to do that but we’ll have a look at just a couple of them here. What we’re after is to be able to work on a new version of our image without ...

This week brings us Photoshop World, three days of 100+ Photoshop, photography and lighting classes – taught by 35 of the best instructors on the planet. It is quite an experience, and if you ever have the chance to attend this conference… just do ...

Its with great pleasure and a lot of excitement that I can announce that I’ll be leading a Photowalk in Peterborough for the 4th Annual Scot Kelby Worldwide Photowalk. Following on from our successful workshop that took place within Peterborou...

Lightroom provides a variety of different ways to help organize your catalog and your workflow, and color labels rank up there as some of the most useful features. Color labels have more capabilities than meets the eye, and you can customize your label...

In this exclusive video for TipSquirrel.com Rich Harrington show’s us how to get our images into HDR Pro ad what to do with them once they’re there!

Last month I wrote a tutorial on how to remove a digit from a hand, this month I thought I'd show you how to add some blood to this picture. This isn’t the only way you can make blood and I’m sure other people have other ideas. Treat this more of a stepping stone on the way to creating the effect you want.

When Adobe released Lightroom 3, and Camera Raw 6 (as part of Photoshop CS5), the new lens correction feature was a great new feature that almost got lost in the shuffle. The new lens correction features can work automatically, recognizing many popular lenses and cameras (new lens profiles are being added constantly). But, to really kick this feature into gear, switch to manual mode, and behold the power of geometric anti-distortion!

No nonsense guide to getting the most out of your images using Photoshop Elements. Save time with invaluable shortcuts and tips to cut through unnecessary steps, helping you to work faster and smarter. With thanks to Photoshop Nut David...

  Do you ever look at other people's amazing HDR images and wonder why your HDR images never quite look as good? Well you're not alone. In fact creating a really great HDR takes more than simply merging a series of images together in your c...

Before I go into the how’s and wherefores of this tutorial I think I ought to explain a few things in case any of you are a little unsure of what panoramic photographs are and how they are made. A 360° panorama from the top of Cats Bell, Cumbria...

Do you use Photoshops Maximum filter? Did you even know there was a Maximum filter in Photoshop? If so, you win a gold star! If not, you should; it may actually come in handy some day! Lines in images can be a real challenge when it comes to restora...

With the popularity of Photoshop plug-ins from companies like Topaz, On One and Nik, it’s easy to forget that much of the capability to create dramatic images already exists within Photoshop. It’s a little more work, but it’s fun, rewarding, and comes with no additional price tag!

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="550" caption="Photo by Gavin Hoey"][/caption] A couple of days ago TipSquirrel.com held its first workshop at the beautiful Peterborough Cathedral. Fortunately the rain held off and most people found their way...

Recently it was brought to my attention that there are a number of folks who aren't using the Watermark feature inside of Lightroom 3. I was surprised to find some folks didn't know about it, or more importantly weren't aware of the ability to create custom watermarks. For today's article I have two items-first I've embed my video tutorial on how you can create your own custom watermark in Lightroom 3. Second, based on a number of requests, I'll walk you through the steps to edit an existing watermark.

I have to admit a certain bias here, I have a strong fondness for the Print module in Lightroom.. After years of trying to get Photoshop to print something that resembles what I have on the screen, Lightroom (with the proper printer/monitor calibration...

We’ve got two of the best Photoshop Elements books to give away to one lucky reader. No nonsense guide to getting the most out of your images using Photoshop Elements. Save time with invaluable shortcuts and tips to cut through unnecessar...

Now the very first TipSquirrel Workshop  being held at the incredible Peterborough Cathedral is fast approaching and following a recent visit to get a feel for the place and narrow down what kind of portraits I'll be working on a gothic/vampire theme ...

Ask what adjustment they think of when they hear “color correction in Photoshop” and most people will answer “Curves”. Nothing wrong with that, I pretty much always use it myself, either alone or in combination with another adjustment. For some...

As part of the Creative Suite, Photoshop offers a very nice integration with other CS products, including one that you may have overlooked – Adobe Acrobat. Photoshop can create native Acrobat PDF files directly from the File Save feature, but that’...

Sometimes I come across something that changes the way I use Photoshop and today I share one such thing. I’m a fan of Adobe Camera Raw and it’s where I like to start my editing but what if you’re working with a PSD file? No worries, there’s a way to access Adobe Camera Raw right from inside Photoshop.

I'm not sure how many people have seen my horror work but I spent years removing faces and turning people into monsters. So for this tutorial I thought I'd show you a simple method of how to remove a finger using Photoshop. Step 1 I took a photo ...

Here on TipSquirrel we’ve looked at Smart Objects and Smart Filters, but there are two commands “squirreled” away, that are available as Smart Filters – but aren’t at all obvious (hint: they aren’t located under the Filter menu). Today, we�...

In my last post I used the Warp function to make a page curl effect, but it looks a bit flat. In this video I add a couple of shadows and a highlight and use Warp again to get just the right shape.

If you haven’t used the full version of Photoshop, you might not be familiar with the concept of actions. Essentially, they are sequences of commands designed to quickly reproduce a particular effect on an image. They range from simple enhancements to extremely complex manipulation operations and are designed primarily to save you time by doing all the repetitive parts of a technique at speed. Although you can’t actually create your own actions from within Elements, you can install and run them.

Its a helpful feature of Photoshop but can test the patience of a saint sometimes. Here’s an example of when I wanted to use Photoshop’s Warp function but it just wouldn’t do what I wanted. In this video I convince Photoshop that up is down and back is front.

Practically every decade has a signature look when it comes to portraits, not only due to the fashions of the time, but of the lighting and style of the photography. Today we’ll turn an ordinary black & white into a portrait reminiscent of the glamour portraits of the 30’s and 40’s popularized by George Hurrell.

This week’s tip is a two-for-one, bringing you some classic techniques. We’ll create a nice stone texture, then carve some text in it using layer styles, as well as a few additional tricks.

In this video I help those opening up Photoshop for the first time and being a little overawed by it all. We’ll take a quick look at the layout of Photoshop before singling out the tools and filters best suited for your first ‘play’ with this amazing software.

  NB: This tutorial specifically refers to the Wacom Intuos 4 tablets If, like me, you have a Wacom tablet and have spent hours fiddling around with the settings and options rather than doing proper work you are probably aware that you can b...

  Congratulations to Mark Pearce Who has won 2 tickets to three days at this year’s Birdfair! Since launching the competition I’ve been asked “what its got to do with Photoshop?”. On the surface, not a lot, but a look at the sponso...

In today’s video tip, learn how to create and use a clipping mask within Photoshop. Clipping masks can be used like a digital cookie cutter, to provide a quick and easy way to use the shape and form of one layer as a mask to determine the visibility ...

In this video I take a look at an old favourite Stroke Path With Brush. This time though I go a little further and experiment with more options. I admit, I love using this feature and may have been a little more joyous than you’d expect. &n...

In this video, photographer and trainer Rich Harrington takes 3 images and works with them to complete a single HDR image with multiple effects. Combining the images and them post processing within Photoshop Rich gives us a real world example of photographic workflow.

Recently, I've been asked to set up a few web galleries from a recent shoot, and I thought that I would show you how easy it is to create galleries from within Lightroom. To do this tutorial, you will need the following 1) Space on a website to u...

Today, we’ll finish up the image we started last week. We’ll start with the basic 3D text and postcard elements we created, add a 3D model of a wine glass, and finish off with some standard Photoshop graphical elements that aren’t 3D, but...

This action set includes some techniques you’ll want to use again and again on your images, including; High Contrast, Color Separation in LAB, Duo Tone, Fixing Faded Photos, Grunge Border, LensBaby Effect, Soft Glow, Soft Vignette, Stars, Star Wars Text effect. The techniques are all based on tutorials from The Photoshop Nuts at TipSquirrel.com.

A few days ago Gavin Hoey posted a great tutorial on his YouTube Channel showing how to create a Fractured Image Effect. A lot of people asked how Gavin created his background for the tutorial so he’s very kindly recorded a new tutorial for TipSquirrel.com showing just that.

For this tutorial I thought I’d share with you a real quick technique for creating realistic looking smoke/mist in just 4 simple steps... This is one of those techniques that when used on the right image can really add that something extra and...

I used to run around like a chicken with my head cut off looking for images with obliterated eyes to practice flipping off…I mean flipping eyes, but then it hit me, duh!

Today we start a multi-part tutorial in creating complex 3D images in Photoshop 3D Extended. The image we’ll create was inspired by a magazine advertisement I spotted while “relaxing” on a recent airline journey. The interweaving reflections caught my eye, and the idea for a tutorial was born.

For some years I’ve been invited to go along to Birdfair, and every year I’ve made some excuse or another. You see, I’m not a birdwatcher so why would I want to go? Last year however I succumbed, and off I went. During my day I looked at all manner of photographic and optical equipment, watched TV nature presenters battle it out in a Call My Bluff style game show and heard the gasps as nature photographer and presenter Chris Packham ‘confessed’ to using Photoshop. So enthused and inspired by what I saw I’ve had a chat with the lovely people at the Birdfair office and managed to grab 2 three day passes to this year’s event!

In this month’s tutorial we’ll take a look at creating a rustic painterly effect in Elements. We’ll do this by merging a photograph and a wood panel texture together using a combination of filters, blend modes and masks to give the impres...

I love typography – its fun and easy. Today I wanted to show you how to make a simple “Swiss cheese effect”. Step 1. Start by making a 1024x768 pixel document and colour it #3f2004, Next choose select the text tool and using a...

As we’ve seen in the past few tips on HDR, the process of combining and tone mapping the bracketed images is only a small part of the overall process. In today’s video tip, we will see some additional quick tips for finishing up your images...

In this video I take a look at the old and new vignette settings in Adobe Camera Raw. Previously designed to remove unwanted vignettes from images they have become part of the artistic toolbox of the photographer.

One of the more useful improvements to Photoshop CS5 is the addition of the HUD (or Heads Up Display) Color Pickers. A bit of random trivia: this name was borrowed from military aviation. The idea is that vital flight information can be displayed (on a...

Ever had one of those images where whatever you do with the White Balance sliders in Lightroom you can never get it just right? Its a problem I get a lot working as a wedding photographer especially in churches where you can have a blend of umpteen lig...

Janine’s latest course at Lynda.com is; Photoshop Elements 9: Scanning and Restoring Photos Click here for a 7-day free trial and give it a go! [Authors note: The image used in this article is not the image referred to in the sto...

  Today, we wrap up the HDR Image that we started last week. As a recap, in Beyond Ordinary HDR, we introduced the idea that HDR isn’t an end in itself, just another tool that ought to be considered part of y...

  Welcome to the fifth quiz here at TipSquirrel.com. This time were looking at the unsung hero that is Adobe Camera Raw.  Have fun, why not share your scores in the comments. [QUIZZIN 6]   Other Quizzes...

  The Content-Aware scale command is a useful way to force your still photos to fit a specific shape (for example that of a video screen or particular print size). When used correctly, the Content-Aware Scale command can automatical...

As my good friend J. Schuh aka The Texas Animator likes to say, "How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time." Photoshop certainly is an elephant of a program to wrap your head around. Keeping with my Top Ten series, here are ten more things you can...

I've seen a few questions recently concerning Lightroom Catalogues and back up workflows. Often people get confused when it comes to the difference with backing up images and backing up LR catalogues. Some tutorials are fun to try, others are lifesaver...

As we discussed in last week’s introduction to taking your HDR Beyond the Ordinary, using the HDR and Tone Mapping software is only one step in what should be a much bigger workflow. In today’s video tip, we look at ways of preparing your images for the HDR process – there are a lot of image artifacts and problems that can be removed from the equation before we even open up Photomatix, or HDR Efex Pro, or Photoshop’s Merge To HDR Pro.

I was asked recently about grungy text. There’s plenty of tutorials out there but I wanted something simple, that can be done in a couple of minutes but has a great effect. Here’s my solution.

There’s something magical about a really eye catching black and white image. A full range of tones running from deep black to bright white always adds a touch of drama and impact to the mono image. Conversely a mono image that is full of muddy greys ...

Unlike Adobe Illustrator, Photoshop doesn’t have a grid tool (as yet?), so we’re forced to find ways to make our own. In this video, I’ve demonstrated a couple of ways of making a grid both with guides, that aren’t printable and with a scal...

When you’re taking images of pictures on walls for archival or restoration purposes, be sure to take several shots from different angles so you have a better chance of combining them into a great final image. This is especially important if the image...

HDR has been a hot topic over the past few years, although not everyone likes it. You’ve seen the images – the typical HDR image posted to the web is an over-processed, grainy, surreal image that you either love or hate. In fact, I’ve found tha...

When I received my copy of Capture, Digital Photography Essentials I was a little confused. At first glance it wasn’t immediately apparent who the book is aimed at. A flick through revealed some beautiful photographs and plenty of chapter headings an...

In this exclusive video, author Rich Harrington uses some of the newer features and Blend Modes of Photoshop to styalise a portrait.

In this tutorial we’ll use Photoshop Elements to create an effect similar to Andy Warhol’s iconic pictures of Marilyn Monroe, Elizabeth Taylor et al. We’ll use layers and blend modes to build up the effect, making it easy to correct mistakes or change the look at a later stage.

We can use the eyes to focus attention onto what we want the viewer to look at, by emphasising the eyes we encourage the focal point. In this tutorial we will be adding shadows and changing the colour of the eyes, to give it a more fantasy / mystical feel.

In previous tips here on TipSquirrel, we’ve looked at various ways of creating and modifying paths in Photoshop. Today, we’ll explore methods for combining paths using the interaction modes in order to create more complex shapes of our own. In doin...

In this video TipTorial I take a quick look at some of the parameters that can be changed when using Photoshop’s Clone Stamp Tool. In particular, how to rotate and flip the stamp. Many thanks to Janine Smith for providing the photograph. Also a nod to Gavin Hoey for helping me realise the difference between CS5 and earlier versions.

It's a problem most photographers face on a regular basis: you've got a subject or composition you'd like to focus on, but because weather conditions or other variables change rapidly, you must continue to capture the subject until you get it just righ...

I currently use SilverEfex Pro, although Nik have released a SilverEfex Pro 2 which I’ve downloaded a trial of for the purposes of this tutorial. I’m still undecided whether to upgrade to the new version, but hopefully by the time I’m finished writing Ii’ll have made my mind up if I need to put my money down.

A friend asked me, this past week, if I knew of any gold or silver fonts I could tell her of. Naturally, I explained that fonts aren’t of any particular color, but are rendered in the color you have selected as your foreground color. In order for the...

Creating arrows (such as we here use in our tutorials) shouldn’t be too hard in Photoshop, and it actually isn’t. However, you may find it frustrating to find out the best way to accomplish such a seemingly simple task. For example, there are some ...

A little while ago David Asch wrote Mimicking Long Exposure Cloudscapes with Photoshop Elements. This led to a question asking if there was a way to simulate long exposure on water, so here we are;

The following tutorial is adapted from the book Understanding Adobe Photoshop CS5 from Peachpit Press Several commands are associated with printers. Those specific to your printer are controlled by the printer driver (software ...

[caption id="attachment_9792" align="alignleft" width="150" caption=" "][/caption] Greetings all! Hope your week has been brilliant, and you have plenty to look forward to this weekend. Today I've made a video on how to use Quick Mask mode in Photos...

I like working with the Layer Effects in Photoshop but what really stated me using them more was when I learnt how to seperate the effects. In this ‘tiptorial’ I’m going to use put Layer Effects onto Layer Effects.

In this week’s tip, we’ll look at some fast and easy ways to start with existing shapes (vector paths) in Photoshop, apply some quick modifications, and make the shapes into your own unique design. We’ll be drawing heavily on the tips presented i...

There are times when all you want to do is dive into Photoshop, create a quick effect and move on. So if that's you and what you need right now is a quick grunge border read on, because I've got the perfect tutorial. Step 1 Open your image in P...

As a Portrait Photographer, nothing beats the luxury of working with a Professional Makeup Artist....but what if that's not possible? Well, here's a simple technique for applying makeup using Photoshop that can certainly help out:

One unfortunate result of taking pictures with flash in front of glass is glare. I can’t tell you how to avoid the glare to begin with, but I may be able to help you get rid of it, once it’s already there. This tutorial was done in Photoshop CS5, b...

In last week’s post on TipSquirrel, we started looking at drawing with shapes and paths in Photoshop. In the interest of getting our toes wet, so to speak, we looked at the shape tools, and saw that they could be used to create shape layers, paths, o...

Actions are a great way to get things done quickly, but they’re also a wonderful learning tool. Knowing how to examine an action can help you find new techniques as well as discovering bases that you can build on yourself.  In this vi...

Photoshop's 3D Engine is very flexible. It allows you to transform layers three dimensionally. More importantly, it lets you create new 3D elements including primitive shapes (such as cones or spheres). You can also make complex elements can be created using grayscale meshes.

In this tutorial I’m taking a break from my usual Photoshop Elements techniques and instead, switching to Lightroom 3; where I’ll be demonstrating how to convert a modern colour image into a low-quality vintage photo. We’ll be using a variety of features found in the Develop module to desaturate and soften the image, add grain and a rounded border, and finally create a preset enabling us to apply the effect on different images with the click of a mouse.

Let’s take the classic lightning effect and add a little scatter effect too; Step 1. Make a new 1024x768 sized documents, set the background colour to black. Next using the Text tool Type “Hero” or any other word you like in a large bold ...

Today we begin an exploration of drawing in Photoshop. Not drawing as in grabbing a brush and making marks or blobs, but drawing with precision and with flexible elements that provide a multitude of capabilities. I’m talking about the vector tools in...

  I was recently adding a sepia tone to a photo and wanted to change the tone that was being used.I fiddled about getting the tone. Once I'd done that  I couldn’t help but feel that the toning wasn’t that strong oeither.  ...

When you need to improve the contrast in your raw photos, Parametric Curves are a great way to simplify the thought process and task of making a Curves adjustment. Instead of guessing or arbitrarily placing your points along an abstract line, y...

Welcome to my third tutorial on black and white photography. In this tutorial we will be looking at ways to further enhance your images once they have been converted into black & white. Contrast The first of these methods we will discuss is contr...

NB: Variations is not available in the CS5 64bit Mac version. Variations is the Rodney Dangerfield of Photoshop; it just doesn’t get any respect! I tend to think it’s because there are so many tools that do the same things in Photoshop, and ...

As a Tolkien fan, I’m always interested in the lore and art that accompany the Lord of the Rings literature. So, I thought, why not try to recreate the One Ring in all its fiery presence? Fortunately, this isn’t a tremendously difficult task wi...

Elements really has come of age recently and the release of Elements 9 with all its improvements and new features makes it a consideration of both amateur and professional photographers. In this video Gavin Hoey shows us one feature of Elements that makes editing images that much easier, the Smart Brush.

  Richard Harrington, author of Understanding Adobe Photoshop, From Still to Motion and other great books demonstrates a technique for using HDR Toning on a black and white image. From Bridge, through Photoshop's HDR Pro and then into Phot...

There's a few things that often trip up the new Photoshop user. In this post AJ wood points out the top 10 to bear in mind.

For this video I’ve taken four photographs, all focused on a different Lego figure. Using Photoshop I’m going to blend them together so that I get one, in focus image. This technique is great for macro photography for shooting flowers, insects and other small objects.

Almost everyone who has used Lightroom has, at some time, encountered the dreaded question mark icon – indicating a missing file or missing folder. Sometimes it is a nuisance, but other times I’ve had to help people who have managed to have the...

Ever wanted to have a tattoo but were too afraid to ask? Well, here's a quick and simple Photoshop tutorial to show you how you can do exactly that; and what's more if you're squeamish there's no need to look away :)

If you've already upgraded to Photoshop CS5 then you have probably already tried some of the amazing headline grabbing new features. Things like Puppet Warp, Content Aware Fill and HDR Pro are the talk of the town, but I bet you didn't even not...

I was recently asked about recreating the Tilt Shift effect in Photoshop. Looking back through TipSquirrel.com I realised that we’d covered it a couple of times, but never as a video.   Can’t see the video? Click Here

I’ve spent the last few months working with the Epson Perfection V700 Photo (V700), courtesy of the wonderful folks at Epson, and am finally ready (I think!) to share my opinion of this marvel of scanning goodness! I’ll start off by saying t...

With Photoshop, sometimes things don’t always go as planned. If they did, you’d never learn anything! But today, we’ll look at a common problem that has a simple, but obscure solution. It all has to do with layer effects, and how they respond to ...

Another quiz, this time we're giving you the answers! All the questions are based on something discussed in the video above it.

Recorded at Photoshop World 2011, instructor and author Rich Harrington gets creative in an unusual and surprising way with the Black and White adjustment layer.

Its April 1st and I fancy a little bit of fun, so today I’m getting silly with Liquify and a couple of Layer Styles to make a grumpy chap much more friendly looking.

There has recently been an explosion of smartphone apps that create all kinds of faux vintage camera effects; particularly those of the somewhat unpredictable Lomo and other poorly constructed cameras. Their easily recognizable characteristics incl...

I always enjoy the beginning of star wars, the scrolling text gets me in the mood for a sci-fi fest! :D so I thought I'd show you a way of faking it in Photoshop :) Step 1 First go to DaFont  and download and install the Star Jedi fonts, then m...

If you’ve been following my past couple of tips on Tagging your Lightroom Images with Keywords, and Organizing and Searching in Lightroom with Keywords, you are well-prepared for this week’s tip. Today, we will explore how collections can help us t...

Keyframes are used throughout the Creative Suite in animation. In Photoshop Extended you can do simple animations. Here TipSquirrel gives a short introduction.

  For a prior tutorial, I demonstrated how to create a vignette effect around the subject of a photograph, using Lightroom 3. Today we'll take a look at a subtly different technique, which is to create a "soft focus vignette" around the cent...

Peterborough Cathedral is a beautiful example of Norman architecture and is why we’ve chosen it as the location for our first Photography Workshop. We’ll be exploring all that the cathedral has to offer both inside and out including having access to it’s towers where we’ll be able to take panoramas of the city as well as some of the ‘behind the scenes’ sights. At the end of the day we'll have a look at some post processing that can be applied to our images. (Bring a laptop to work along)

You’re stumped, you’ve met your match, you don’t know what to do – have you ever felt like that when you see a photo, or a particular area on a photo? I’m sure you have! I know I have, and do, quite often. When you do feel this way, just stop...

In last week’s tip, we looked at adding Keywords to tag your images in Lightroom. Now that you’ve got them tagged, how do you take advantage of it? The underlying fact is that Lightroom is, in its roots, a database – and databases were made for s...

When Photoshop CS5 was released one of the stand out new features was Content Aware Fill. This function could be used to remove unwanted objects or, as we see here, fill empty space around a panorama with new content. Photoshop Elements 9 came shortly after and boasted the Content Aware Spot Healing brush but not Content Aware Fill, so there’s no way of filling in those blank spaces in panoramas right?

In this video, Richard Harrington takes a look at an HDR workflow. Using Bridge, HDR Efex Pro and Photoshop he demonstrates techniques and tips for all HDR photography.

I have to admit up front that the bulk of this technique is one I learnt from my buddy Glyn Dewis where he double processes a raw file using smart objects in Photoshop. The link to Glyn's tutorial is here. I read Glyn's tutorial and found it very us...

Today’s tip is one that grew in the telling. When I sat down to create today’s tutorial, I had originally intended to discuss Collections in Lightroom, as a great way to organize your images. However, the best Collections are Smart Collections, bas...

In this article let's look at some Marquee Tool Options. You‘ll notice it changes depending on which tool you have selected, even which marquee tool. So lets have a look at what’s what. I’ll start by having a look at some of the features that ...

Every version of Photoshop seems to do something better and faster then it's predecessors and Photoshop CS5 is no exception. At a recent photography trade show I spent many happy hours answering Photoshop CS5 related questions, but one topic kept comin...

For this tutorial I want to share a technique with you that I use on virtually all of my images when I'm looking to add some High Contrast. Now this technique it could be considered a little on the unconventional side seeing as it makes use of the U...

Newsflash! I love OnOne Software’s Perfect Resize 7! I’ve gone on for years about the resizing wonders of Genuine Fractals, and that hasn’t changed just because the name has; in fact, now there’s even more to love! The resizing power of Perfec...

In the past few weeks we’ve looked at various ways to export image files from Bridge and Lightroom. In fact, in previous tips we’ve even looked at directly exporting to Social Media sites from Bridge and from Lightroom. But, what if I want to send ...

There’s few occasions when I’m in Photoshop that I don’t have my thumb resting on the Alt key. What makes this humble little key so special? Well, let me show you just a few of the occasions where I really couldn’t do without it.

A common problem with old black-and-white or sepia-toned photos is that they fade over time. You can use a Levels or Curves adjustment to improve contrast, but both commands often introduce color artefacts into the image. A few extra steps are needed to get the best results when you want to restore proper balance to an old photo.

I found out today (well about ½ hour ago) that it was my turn to write – eeep! I thought, “I’ve not prepared anything” So here I show you a very easy (and quick!) way of creating engraved looking text. Step 1. First create a new docu...

If you’re not familiar with the Lensbaby range, they are a set of lenses you can buy to attach to your SLR or DSLR camera. They are manual focus and designed especially to produce random and creative effects, where the image has a strong centre of fo...

Over the past two weeks, I’ve presented some tips on exporting multiple images from Adobe Bridge using Image Processor and the Bridge Export Panel. However, some photographers among you might be thinking to yourselves, “but Mike! I’ve spent the p...

Welcome to the second part of my series on black & white photography. In the first part of the series we discussed what black & white photography entails and some considerations you should make when thinking about shooting black & white. In...

So, it’s TipSquirrel.com’s second birthday and I've been struggling to decide what to write about to mark this occasion. I could run through a list of all the people I'm grateful to for making TipSquirrel such fun to work on, but I've already d...

In this video tutorial,The Restorationist Janine Smith takes a restoration project and uses a combination of curves and Blend mode to bring out the detail of her image.

Last week, we examined Bridge CS5’s capability to export multiple files with the Image Processor script. We found a powerful utility, but one that had a few shortcomings. In today’s tip, we’ll take a look at Bridge CS5’s Export Panel, and we�...

Anyone familiar with my work knows that I’m a big fan of compositing images in Photoshop, and can spend hours sometimes on one image tweeking this and that. For this short tutorial I want to cover with you what I consider an extremely importa...

The following tutorial is adapted from the book Motion Graphics with Adobe Creative Suite 5 Studio Techniques from Adobe Press. This is the second part of the tutorial. Be sure to check out part 1 and download the source files as well. I’ll add part ...

10. The "F" key cycles through screen modes just like Photoshop. Your menus have gone missing? Press CMD+OPT+F (CTRL+ALT+F) to immediately return to the normal screen mode. 9. Side panels keep disappearing? Turn off Auto-Hide for Panels. Right-click...

I, like most photographers I know, are paranoid when it comes to back ups of their images. We know it is not a matter of 'if' hardware will fail but 'when' it will fail. Personally, I have a Mac for my works machine, but the same principles apply to Wi...

Sometimes tried-and-true methods are very efficient at getting the job done, and the Image Processor script (which has been around for quite some time) is one of those old standby tools. When you need to export many images in a batch, and especially wh...

Time for another quiz! This time all the questions have a visual clue. Feel free to share you score in the comments below, I'll be very impressed with anyone that gets the full 20 / 20. Good luck and have fun!

Valentines day is fast approaching, so here at TipSquirrel we've got the perfect tutorial for you. Depending on your point of view, this technique will either help you make a very personal and romantic valentines card, that truly expresses your deep and undying love... or... it can save you a load of time and small fortune on shop bought cards. Either way watch the video to discover exactly how it's all done.

In this exclusive TipSquirrel.com episode of PhotoWalkthrough, John Arnold shows us how to export JPGs from Lightroom 3 and have them automatically added back to your catalog and stacked with their original version.

In this follow-up to the inlaid tabletop we made last time, we'll make a simple frame and duplicate it to make a heap of photos. We'll then add our family photos and lay them all on the table.

A couple of weeks ago, fellow Photoshop Nut A.J. Wood presented an “old school” technique for tightening layer masks, a great solution for when you can’t use the newer Refine Mask feature in Photoshop CS5, or are prevented from using it by the de...

When you open a  New Group dialogue box, you might notice that there's something a little different in there, 'Pass Through'. What, you may ask is all that about? Well, let's take a look. Here's the layers that I'll be working on; You can see I ...

This is the first part of the tutorial. We’ll be back in 2 weeks with part 2 on how to clean up the panoramic file. If there’s enough comments and interest, I’ll add part 3 on how to bring the file into After Effects as a virtual set. Photomerge is a specialized “mini- application” within Photoshop that assists in combining multiple images into a single photo. You can access it from either Photoshop or Bridge. Depending on the resolution of your sources and the speed of your machine, it can take a while to complete.

I was browsing through Flickr the other day when I came across this image by DanleyC. I thought it would make an interesting and fun Elements (or Photoshop) project; so here it is. The image concept is simple and effective, of course, and has been u...

I'm a huge fan of comics – not that I've been able to buy any in the last 5 years or so :( but I do love rereading my old ones. This had me thinking about the old style Pow's and Thwaks they used to put in fight scenes. I liked them, so I thought I'd...

Over the past few weeks, we’ve looked at selections and masking, and today we will take masking to yet another level, as we create an entire design using nothing but layer masks. If you’ve been following along, you know that layer masks actually re...

On a recent trip to Lanhydrock I came across what can only be described as my dream tray. To me, this is how tea is supposed to be served! The lack of room and other visitors meant I just about had time to fire off a quick shot before moving on. So...

For this tutorial we take a look at how the Post-Crop Vignette feature in Lightroom 3 helps us to add a bit of style to the image, but more importantly, it also helps to direct the viewer's focus towards the central regions of a photograph, when that e...

Howdy & Hello! As Photoshop continues to improve, our digital workflows become more efficient as we replace old techniques with new features. How many of you have embraced the Refine Edge dialogue commands, or the Adjustment & Masking panels? I...

  Recently my fellow Photoshop Nut, Gavin Hoey, posted a great tutorial on an Out of Bounds effect that I loved. Just for fun, I decided to use the technique on an old photo and change the background up a bit to an inlaid wood table top with some...

Yesterday, Richard Hales began an introduction to Black and White images. In conjunction with that, I wanted to present an oldie-but-goodie technique that you can use to spice up your black and white images – you can create a Duotone image. Duotones ...

When I first started out on this series of tutorials on black & white conversion techniques I started to think about how black & white photography has changed since the advent of digital and I think our relationship to the medium has been radic...

Photoshop CS5 is packed with new features and here regular Nut Rich Harrington demonstrates the very best. Taking us through Mini Bridge, Puppet Warp, and a whole host of other great new features

On my own blog recently I posted a photograph I’d taken of a guy riding a Harley Davidson motorcycle and went on to explain that on the day of the shoot there wasn’t a single cloud in the sky. In fact no lighting or cranking up of shutter speed...

Last week on TipSquirrel, I introduced the Masks Panel, and today we’re going to take a closer look at an old feature that is new again with CS5. A few versions ago, Adobe introduce the Refine Edge command, and in Photoshop CS5, the Refine Edge gains...

The Digital Photography Workflow Book – From Input to Output Written by Juergen Gulbins and Uwe Steinmueller Published by RockyNook ISBN: 978-1-933952-71-0 Fitting Photoshop into your digital workflow seems easy enough, take the photograph, pop...

[caption id="attachment_7887" align="alignleft" width="210" caption=" "][/caption] Here’s a great little technique that makes use of one of the best new features that Adobe added in Photoshop. It’s called mini bridge and as the name suggests it�...

The Shadows/Highlights adjustment allows you to perfect local areas of contrast in your scene, but unfortunately there is not currently an Adjustment Layer for Shadows/Highlights. Instead we'll create a Smart Object layer and integrate the adjustment into that layer (as a Smart Filter) so that we can revisit the settings as many times as we need to after saving the document.

Last month, Scot showed how to boost colour contrast using the Lab colour space. This week he stays within LAB, and looks at a simple colour correction. The original image is a mix of flash and a rather warm background light, creating a mixed balance of light throughout the image.

In the past several tips I’ve explored ever more deeply into the art of creating selections. Of course, one of the primary uses of selections is to create a mask, in order to non-destructively hide part of our layers to create composite images. Today...

In this video for TipSquirrel.com, digital artist Tim Shelbourne uses adjustment layers, masks and brushes to add some tones to his painting.

Creating files for special uses often requires special processing. The creation of specialized formats for the Internet and mobile electronics requires a mastery of one useful command: Save For Web & Devices. Preparing images for the Web or mobi...

When used it produces ethereal clouds that spread across the sky. It can be very tricky to achieve, however, especially during the day, as the shutter speed needs to be fairly long; a tripod is a must and neutral density filters are usually required to...

In this tutorial, artist and writer Simon Rudd explores the use of Actions to create a repeating pattern. Make a new Photoshop document – I'm using a canvas that is 1024x768, as always you can set your own size if you want. Make the background black by pressing D on your keyboard followed by ALT and Backspace (or go to Edit>Fill>Black). Finally make a new Layer above the background Layer called Pattern1.

One of the most powerful and useful tools for creating a selection in Photoshop is also the most often ignored and the least understood. In fact, it generally isn’t even regarded as a tool at all, because it doesn’t appear in the tools panel. And w...

Regular readers will know I like to do something a little different with my posts, I figure I’ll leave the tutorials to those that know what they’re doing. So today I’m setting a challenge; Download the image of the train and process it howeve...

Its a pleasure to tell you that all the Nuts have all agreed to keep TipSquirrel.com rolling, plus we’ll have David Asch and Tim Shelbourne joining us in the new year! We’re off for a week, returning on 3rd January so on behalf of everyone inv...

Greetings TipSquirrel Fans!!! Today I want to take a moment to talk about a few panels in Photoshop that often get overlooked. The Navigator Panel This is a necessary part of my retouching/restoration workflow. It's an even better tool if ...

I recently put a photo up on Facebook and Twitter that generated a lot of buzz, using HDR Toning in Photoshop CS5 as a way to sharpen old photos. I discovered this method while working on the Adobe Prerelease of CS5. Previously I had been using the Hig...

Over the past few weeks, I’ve discussed various basics of creating and selecting areas of your image, and today, we’ll have a bit of fun with it – to give you an idea of the power that is at your fingertips. Beware – for your image is not what ...

Happy Holidays everyone! For this final TipSquirrel installment of 2010, we'll take a look at how you can help protect your photos by applying important copyright and contact information (metadata) to your files, directly from Photoshop. Once that's do...

This time I've put together a video tutorial showing a super fast Photoshop technique for creating composite images. This is a technique I turn to 99.9% of the time when creating composites out of studio images; it's super fast, super effective and super easy.

In this exclusive TipSquirrel.com video, trainer and author Richard Harrington uses a real world example to demonstrate a Photoshop 'Triage'. By going through this workflow he takes an image and makes it 'pop'.

I would like to thank Dan Margulis for the technical expertise behind today's article. He gives a convincing argument of LAB colour space's hidden power. If you would like to find out more about LAB I can recommend Dan's book 'Photoshop LAB Color: The ...

Over the past two weeks, we’ve looked at Selection Basics and Selection Techniques using Photoshop CS5, and we’ve developed a fundamental framework of understanding about selections, masks and channels that will allow us to work quicker and more ef...

Sorry. This competition is now closed TipSquirrel and the Rocky Mountain Ventures Company are joining to together to give our lucky readers the chance to win a Flip-Pal Mobile Scanner! If you haven’t heard of the Flip-Pal, you can read this rev...

It’s that time of the year when your house starts filling up with Christmas cards from all your friends and family but no matter how good your planning has been, there’s always someone’s card you’ll forget to send. Well I’m here to save y...

Here we take a look at a simple way to limit our Photoshop Image Adjustment Layers to affect only certain regions of the photograph. We'll do this using the built-in layer mask and the Gradient tool. The adjustment layer featured in this video is the ...

When we left our holiday card last time, we’d just combined three photos into one. Now we’ll finish things up by adding a moon and a bit of nighttime ambiance. First, find a photo of the full moon. You can either go outside and take one, or ...

In last week’s tip, I presented some Selection Basics in Photoshop that were intended to get you thinking about selections in new ways and with a better understanding of what was happening. In particular, we learned that: A selection is a channel...

To celebrate Janine Smith's course at Lynda.com we've got two copies of Adobe Photoshop Elements 9 to give away. All you have to do is answer two simple questions. Firstly, visit the Adobe Photoshop Elements 9 website and have a look at all th...

Dear Santa, There’s something I’ve been asking for for some time but you seem to think I’ve been too naughty, a Wacom Cintiq 12WX. I know I don’t need one, and that I’m not talented enough to really put it through it’s paces but it mak...

Blending modes are both a mystery and a source of great design power. Each blending mode controls how one layer's pixels are affected by those in another layer (or by a tool from the Tools panel). Most users give up on blending modes because the techni...

Following on from last month's tutorial on Recreating Lith Grain, I’m going to show you how to recreate another darkroom effect in Photoshop. The effect were’re recreating, diffusing the image, was created by placing something between the enlarger ...

More text antics with Photoshop. We shall try and create this... Step 1. Start by creating a new Photoshop Document, I used 1024x768 at 72 ppi, but as always its really up to you. I then set my background Colour to Red #c0292f, you can either...

This competition was kindly sponsored by; The Winner: An awesome photograph, which really does go to show there’s a great image to be found in everyday objects. Congratulations Andy, your prize will be spinning its way to you! Thank...

Way back in my early days of learning Photoshop, selections were a mystery to me. Sometimes they made perfect sense, and other times they were nothing but a source of frustration. This cloudy understanding of selection basics came to a head as I was wo...

There were a few things that went through my mind when I held the Elements 9 box in my hand; Why would I want to use it if I already had Photoshop CS5 on the computer? Isn’t Elements just Photoshop with bits taken out? If I know Photoshop the...

In this tutorial, we'll take a look at one of my favourite tricks for improving photographic contrast more quickly and more accurately, using the Histogram sliders in Curves. This technique also works with the Levels command in Photoshop. Quick Cont...

A Happy Thanksgiving to those of you that are state side in the USA. For this week's article, I thought I'd share the "nose trick" everyone's been asking about. In case you missed it, I used Lightroom to get the red out, while doing a portrait model re...

For this year’s holiday card, I figured we try something a little tougher. Sometimes when looking through your family photos to find the perfect one for a card, you realize that instead of one perfect photo, you actually have two or three, that if co...

Today’s tip comes to you courtesy of my wife, Carol, who liked the image you see below well enough to hang it on a wall in our house. That’s saying a lot to me, since I have over 30,000 images in my library to choose from! We’re going to take a p...

Its no secret that I’m a fan of Lynda.com so I was thrilled when one of our Photoshop Nuts was asked to record a course for them. Janine Smith’s course Photoshop Elements 9: Scanning and Restoring Photos went live a little while ago and anyone fami...

For this tutorial I want to share a couple of techniques with you for changing the look and colour in the background of your photographs. These are techniques that I employed recently when I decided later in the post production stage that the origina...

Yep, that’s right, you can win a copy of Gavin’s latest DVD 15 Minute Photo Challenges- Best of Vol.1. What you have to do Gavin’s video is all about finding a great photo wherever he is, so that’s your challenge here. We’re not looking fo...

Back in the days before Photoshop CS, type on a path was the domain of Adobe Illustrator. With CS, and every version since, Adobe added type on a path to the arsenal of tools available to Photoshop users. However, this nifty capability is under-used an...

For this tutorial we'll take a look at how we can add a soft glow to the background of our raw images, using ACR's local adjustment and masking tools, without softening the subject area. This technique can also be used in Lightroom. Blurring the Bac...

I love Photoshop for many reasons. One of those reasons is the huge number of filters, effects and actions that come built in as standard. Great as Photoshop is, there are a few things that Adobe seem to have missed out. Despite the many filter effe...

First off, let me say that I never intended this to happen. What I intended was a thoughtful, clear review of the Flip-Pal mobile scanner, complete with what I liked and didn’t like about the device. The last thing I wanted it to be was an all-out lo...

  Here’s a fun effect and a way to change perspective on reality… using Photoshop adjustments to turn day into night. The difference is mostly a matter of temperature and illumination, after all, and with a picture captured in the daylight yo...

In this post, author Richard Harrington shows us how to use the Black and White Adjustment layer for a combination of effects, including on colour images. Richard Harrington on Amazon.com

This week I'm going to show you how to recreate a black & white effect that was all the rage back in the day when I used to spend hours stuck in a darkroom straining over a hot enlarger... You will need an image converted to black & white to...

I'd like to continue my TS tutorials with a text effect I like, its fairly simple but looks effective. Step 1. We start by making a 1000x1000 pixel document – we have to have a square canvas because one of the later steps will scream and cry if...

Over the past few version updates, Adobe has given us a Photoshop capable of creating some magnificent large images using the Merge to Panorama feature. Creating these images can give you quite a sense of accomplishment, but then how do you include the...

So, you think you know the Photoshop shortcuts eh? After the popular feedback for A Little Photoshop Multi Choice Quiz and Another Multi-choice Photoshop Quiz I thought I’d put together another little something, this time though it’s a crossword...

In the second instalment of the "fun with Liquify" series, Dan focuses on brush parameters and useful masking options to help ‘carve’ a Halloween Jack-o-Lantern.There’s also a few extras at the end to help bring the image together. See part 1 ...

In a previous TipSquirrel article I explained how to size images for print & web. As a matter of practice, I use the Crop Tool when I want to quickly make adjustments to image or canvas size. Here are some of my favorite tips: Resample an Image t...

When I was a kid, my mom went all out with decorating on holidays and for special times during the year. One of her favorite times to decorate was October. On Halloween, there were always decorations galore in the Smith house; napkins, cups, candles, d...

Last week on TipSquirrel, I started a project to create a 3D scene of a Jack-O-Lantern, together with some spooky text. This week, as promised, we will finish this project by adding some light effects, building on my tip from two weeks ago on Lighting ...

Regular readers of TipSquirrel.com and certainly those that follow TipSquirrel on Twitter, will be aware of Stuart Little and A Little Photoshop. In the first incarnation of this blog I would report on what interesting stuff I’d found, Photoshop wise...

A new addition to Photoshop CS5 Extended is the Repoussé command. The command can be used to create a 3D model from a 2D object (like shape layers or text). Making a selection first can also isolate the effect. The target pixels can be extruded, infla...

There's nothing quite like a 'How did you do that?' question to prompt a tutorial, so seeing as I was asked how I created this 'Soft Glow' effect on a series of images recently I thought I'd share with you all exactly what's involved. This really is...

One of the things I love about Lightroom is the flexibility of the Adjustment brushes. Most people know how to dodge or burn an area of the photo with these adjustment brushes but are maybe unaware of the benefits such as clarity, contrast and saturati...

Almost exactly one year ago, I posted my first tutorial on TipSquirrel – carving a Jack-O-Lantern using layer styles. And, since it is that time of the year once again, I thought it would be a good idea to revisit that theme – this time, using Phot...

The Move tool is probably one of the most selected tools, but have you ever stopped to look at the options to the left of the contextual menu? Those ones to the right do all kinds of aligning but what about Auto Select and Show Transform Controls? ...

In this classic Photoshop tutorial I’m going to show you just how easy it is to turn a modern digital image into a traditional postage stamp. We’ll even go as far as creating perforations around the edge of the stamp and adding real post marks. Al...

Hello, just a quick note; We've just set up a Facebook Group page where we can all come together as a community. Feel free to share with the rest of the group any Photoshop, Photoshop Elements and Lightroom links that you've found interesting or ...

In this first part in a 2 part series we look at the often over looked Liquify Filter. Liquify can do a great job both for traditional retouching workflows and more creative, illustrative edits. Here we take to the task of melting a stone fish (jus...

In this video, The Restorationist Janine Smith demonstrates one of her favorite features of Photoshop Elements, Slideshow. Here is the slideshow Janine produced in just 15 minutes.

In the past few weeks on TipSquirrel, I’ve explored some of the new ways to create 3D models with Photoshop CS5, and touched on adding materials to your 3D objects to give them a more photo realistic appearance. Today, we begin exploring the final pi...

In this Lightroom 3 video tutorial we take a further look at Picture Packages - an extremely useful feature for event photographers wanting to print and sell their images at the event. In this show we learn how to use identity plates in a picture packa...

Most people spend a lot of time trying to keep their digital photos tack sharp. This quest for sharpness however overlooks that blurring can be an excellent tool for guiding the viewer’s focus when looking at a photo. The following tutorial is ad...

Vignettes are a bit of a Marmite addition to an image, you either love them or hate them. However, if used carefully they can be a useful tool to help lead the viewer's eye to an area of a photograph. The advantage of the method I will go through is...

Here is a nice easy way to create wooden looking letters, great for cards, web pages or wall papers. We are going to start this project by first creating our background. Start a new document, I chose a one that was 1024x768 pixel 72ppi but you can m...

Over the past couple of weeks, my tips have focused on new and interesting ways to create 3D objects with Photoshop CS5. However, the objects we’ve created have all been a bit cartoonish, with solid colors and no texture. Today, we’ll take a look a...

In this Lightroom 3 video tutorial John Arnold takes a look at Picture Packages - an extremely useful feature for event photographers wanting to print and sell their images at the event. We see how to make a picture package layout, customise it with yo...

For this tutorial I want to start off by first of all giving you a little bit of a background story... A couple of months back I was asked to take a promotional photograph advertising an event raising money for both Cystic Fibrosis Research and the...

If you shoot or edit any kind of portraiture you will eventually end up with images of a lovely model that has been working on his or her tan a little too vigorously and as a result has pretty bad sunburn that can ruin the final image. As you can see i...

There comes a time when you inevitably want to change or alter a keyboard short cut. In this 2 minute video TipSquirrel outlines how to go about it.

As I was experimenting with Photoshop CS5’s new Repousse feature for 3D last week, I had the sudden realization that I hadn’t had this much fun since I was a kid. And that led me to the realization that a certain children’s toy was in fact a grea...

Masks a re a hugely powerful feature inside Photoshop and now they've been added to Photoshop Elements. In this 2 minute video TipSquirrel gives us an introduction to Masks to set us on our way.

For the last couple of months I've been pretty busy what with school holidays and writing things from Photoshop Creative Magazine. So I've decided to make a nice easy fun tutorial that is totally at the beginner level but is also effective and looks q...

For the last couple of months I've been pretty busy what with school holidays and writing things from Photoshop Creative Magazine. So I've decided to make a nice easy fun tutorial that is totally at the beginner level but is also effective and looks q...

So, what happens when you give award winning photo-restorationist Janine Smith a copy of Photoshop Elements? She's already an expert with Photoshop so just what will she make of its little sister? (Surprisingly, unbeknown to Janine, the parts she high...

Adobe announced the release of Photoshop Element 9 today so I took a look around. I'm new to elements and I have to say, I quite like it. In this short video I look at a few of the major improvements and additions that have caught my eye

For artists and designers who have been working with Photoshop, Illustrator and other traditional 2-dimensional graphics programs, the thought of moving into 3D can be intimidating. And, in earlier versions of Photoshop, the tools that Adobe provided h...

[caption id="" align="alignright" width="126" caption=" "][/caption] So there we are, two weeks of nothing but Lightroom. In case you missed any posts, here's a list of what we've covered; We started with an introduction, asking  What is Li...

In this video tutorial Dan Moughamian opens Lightroom's Develop panel and uses the Adjustment Brush.Using the auto mask feature he's able to quickly edit his image's exposure, saturation and hue levels in a non destructive and selective manner.

Full Title: Adobe Digital Imaging How-Tos. 100 Essential Techniques for Photoshop CS5, Lightroom 3 and Camera Raw 6 The blurb on the back of this book reads “... is a concise, current and affordable full color guide...” and in that short phrase ...

What are collections and why are they different from folders? Folders are where your images are imported and, conventionally, they are titled by date and that's about it; they don't tell you a whole lot about what's in there unless you can remember on ...

One of the biggest advantages Lightroom brings is the ability to build a path of non-destructive editing, and this is especially effective in a workflow that includes camera raw images. You can make changes all day long, close Lightroom, open it next w...

One of the biggest advantages Lightroom brings is the ability to build a path of non-destructive editing, and this is especially effective in a workflow that includes camera raw images. You can make changes all day long, close Lightroom, open it next w...

Lightroom is a powerful piece of kit but it is useless unless you know how to import images into your catalogues. So in the tutorial I will go through the methods of importing existing images and importing new images from you camera and/or memory card...

love Lightroom for it’s simplicity. It allows me to get my photos looking exactly how I want without any of the flashy extras that you’ll find in Photoshop. Lightroom is blissfully free from distractions like filters, layer styles and arty effect b...

[caption id="attachment_5966" align="alignleft" width="160" caption="Vision & Voice by David duChemin"][/caption] So you've got a nice new book that will help you produce the photos in the way you've always wanted, you fire up the computer and begi...

Adobe Photoshop Lightroom has always had the capability to export images from the catalog. You could create presets, select your images, start the export job and send them on their merry way. The catch has always been that, once exported, the images ar...

Adobe Photoshop Lightroom has always had the capability to export images from the catalog. You could create presets, select your images, start the export job and send them on their merry way. The catch has always been that, once exported, the images ar...

What is Lightroom? "Adobe Photoshop Lightroom delivers a complete workflow solution for the digital photographer - from importing, reviewing, organizing, and enhancing digital images to publishing photos, producing client presentations, creating web...

For this new Colortrails tutorial, you'll see how easy it is to create a classic BW film grain look in ACR 6. This technique also works in Lightroom 3. Remember to join us again on Monday for the start of our Lightroom 3 series!

Do you have any photos that have spots and splotches of color on them that was never part of the original photo? Fellow NAPP member Bob Byington had such a photo and asked me if I could help him to get rid of the spots, yellow stains which, as he said,...

If you’ve ever needed to take screenshots of a Photoshop, or Photoshop Elements technique that demonstrates making selections, you’ll know how difficult it can be to get their marching ant border to show up properly, especially against a low-cont...

XOR is a technical term that comes to us from computer science, but in Photoshop we see it all the time. It is the computer graphics effect that causes our cursor to always be a different color from the background, and always causes the marching ants o...

Hello, and thanks for joining us again here on TipSquirrel.com. It's been awhile since I last did a "What's happening at TipSquirrel" type post and with subtle changes due to start in September I thought this would be a good a time as any. The bigge...

I find that most users quickly master the Clone Stamp tool. Unfortunately many become truly stumped by its two cousins, the Healing Brush tool and the Patch tool. Knowing when to turn from cloning to healing and patching is an important distinction. ...

Dan  is back with a new tutorial (and more cool tips on the way for September!). In this segment he takes a look at the considerations from ACR to Photoshop CS5, for creating a nice black and white image and styling it with with a faux infra-red effec...

Sometimes even I, your humble (*cough*) restorationist, am called upon for a bit of photo retouching. While it’s indeed wonderful to sometimes work with this new-fangled thing called “color”, it is a little out of my comfort zone. This is why it�...

Last week, we looked at a process for adding copyright metadata to your images using Adobe Bridge CS5, applying the data during the Bridge “Import Photos” process. Before that, we looked at adding copyright data in Lightroom. However, I’ve not fo...

[caption id="attachment_5634" align="alignleft" width="246" caption="Photoshop CS5 One-on-One by Deke McClelland"][/caption] If you're new to Photoshop, or just starting to get more into it, then this book really is for you. This book does exactly wha...

I have seen a few tutorials about setting up work spaces in Photoshop, and they are split on whether to have the Navigation Palette open or not. There's no doubt it should be there, but should you have it displayed as default, or maybe you prefer the I...

In photomontage work there’s sometimes a need to have people or objects behind glass, or other transparent surfaces. This might be someone outside a window or, as we’ll be demonstrating in this tutorial, putting something in a jar; an unlucky b...

Last week on TipSquirrel, we looked at a process for adding copyright metadata to your images using Adobe Photoshop Lightroom. Today, we’ll cover a similar process for those of you who are using Photoshop and Bridge to work with your images. We can m...

I was contacted recently by someone that had done the two quizzes here on TipSquirrel.com for a list of short-cut keys, or at least the most commonly used. What this person didn't realise is that they, like you, already have a comprehensive list, here'...

The images above show the 'out of camera' and 'final edit' versions of a photograph that I took of a 'Rough Sleeper' when out on a photo walk in the coastal town of Brighton, UK, and in this post I want to show you each of the stages I went through i...

Its a big TipSquirrel welcome to Erik Bernskiold. Here Erik shows how to work in the Lab color mode to enhance our photos both in contrast and color balance using just a simple curves adjustment.

I had a friend call me in a panic the other day. She was scanning some 35mm film and she was freaking out because they kept scanning bright red. I’ve seen it before I told her, and it’s not as devastating as she might think. Her scanner, an inexpe...

Over the next few Tuesdays, we’re going to undertake a project, one in which we take steps to protect our art. If you’re not adding copyright information to your images, you are leaving yourself wide open to having your intellectual property draine...

Lets get a few things straight from the outset so we know where we all stand. I'm a male, I like to take things apart and leave the bits scattered about the place, I put flat-pack wardrobes together with just a cursory glance at the assembly instructi...

Back when Adobe engineers were developing CS4, the social network phenomenon was just hitting the mainstream, and there was no way to predict the popularity of these types of sites. However, in the development cycle for CS5, it was apparent that social...

July was a great month for TipSquirrel.com. Modesty prevents me from shouting too loudly, but suffice it to say that recognition for our hard word is very much appreciated. July was perhaps our most diverse month, but this is the way the site is movin...

Here are some quick setting changes to fine tune your settings in Lightroom 3. What Happened to Optimize Catalog? One of the first things you may have noticed upgrading to Lightroom 3 is "Optimize Catalog" appears to be missing from the Catalog Settin...

I’ve been digitally restoring photographs for a long time, using Photoshop even longer, and I’ve picked up a few things over the years; simple tips on tools or workflow which have made my life a bit easier. I thought I’d share a few of them with ...

Here’s a little tip that works with Photoshop Extended, versions CS3 or later, and Smart Objects. We’ve all been in public places trying to take a photograph, and people just keep walking by. Just when you think there will be a break, someone else ...

I've had some great feedback from the first quiz so here's another. This time I've tried to really push you so, if you're new to Photoshop don't get too disheartened if your score isn't great. More quizes and maybe even a crossword to follow in the com...

There are few things i hate more than a snapshot of myself....my nose looks large, my eyes are non-existent, and my face is round.  Snapshots don't usually get the pro retouch...but I really like my friends and would like to keep them as friends...so ...

I had a few minutes free on Thursday, so I made a website. Ok, maybe not, but pretty close! Before I go any further, just allow me to say that I am not a web developer! In fact, it could be said, quite correctly, that I know just enough HTML to be dang...

As I’ve noted, Photoshop version CS4 semi-retired the Contact Sheet, Picture Package and Web Contact Sheet plug-ins. Last week we looked at the modern method of creating contact sheets with Photoshop CS5, and earlier  we reviewed an alternative appr...

With the introduction of the new and improved Refine Edge in Photoshop CS5, making selections has never been easier...or has it? In this tutorial I show you a technique using Blend Modes to make composite images that's not just incredibly effective, b...

When you make a good picture you should really get in the habit of signing it, this has the advantage of getting your name out there and also letting people know its your work.  Now signing using Photoshop can be tricky – you can use a scanned copy ...