Articles by Michael Hoffman

About Michael Hoffman (224 Articles)

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.

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Pen Tool in Photoshop – Path Fundamentals

28/01/2014

In this series of videos, we are going to work our way from the basics to pen tool mastery, but we need to start with the fundamentals. In fact, in this video, I’m not even going to use the pen tool. Instead, we’ll spend our time understanding how paths work in Photoshop, so that when we do start using the pen tool, we’ll be on familiar ground. [More]

The new Perspective Warp in Photoshop CC

21/01/2014

Adobe Photoshop CC now has a new Perspective Warp feature, just introduced, that will allow you to adjust the perspective of image elements in an automated and controlled way. This will help you to create more realistic composites from images that may not match in their original perspective. [More]

Photoshop’s Perspective Crop Tool

14/01/2014

Sometimes it is the simplest tools that get the job done most quickly and efficiently. Photoshop's Perspective Crop Tool isn't the most glamorous tool in the toolbox, but it does its job well and with a minimum of fuss. Fix perspective distortion quickly and easily with this simple tool. [More]

3D Particle Field in Photoshop CC

07/01/2014

Creating a particle field using Photoshop's 3D features requires a few tricks, but with a little setup and the right techniques, you can create some fantastic random effects. [More]

Noise Reduction in Lightroom 5

31/12/2013

It’s inevitable when you’re making digital photographs that you are going to encounter digital noise. Noise in an image is the result of variability in the light level readings from one sensor pixel to the next. Even the best quality sensors will produce some level of noise, and the noise will be amplified under certain conditions. Fortunately, with Lightroom, we have built-in noise reduction capability, and the performance is exceptionally good. [More]

Simulating Film Grain in Lightroom 5

17/12/2013

Add some character and grit to your black and white conversions with Lightroom's film grain simulator. This feature is great for bringing a little bit of nostalgia and that old time film look into your Lightroom black and white conversions. [More]

Lighting Effects in Photoshop CC

10/12/2013

The lighting effects filter in Photoshop has come a long way, and it borrows many concepts from the world of 3D. However, you don't need 3D to create some very dramatic lighting effects very quickly with this often overlooked filter. [More]

Photoshop 3D Depth Maps

26/11/2013

Creating a depth map within Photoshop's 3D engine is easy, and it's a great way to allow you to sculpt irregular surfaces. Using black and white similar to dodging and burning, you can lift and push the surface of your 3D object to give it added depth and realism. [More]

Photoshop Symmetry with the Clone Source Panel

19/11/2013

When you use the Clone Source Panel in conjunction with the Clone Stamp Tool in Photoshop, you can make your image literally stand on its head. Use the Clone Source Panel to display, distort, mirror and stretch your clone source to create a more dynamic effect. [More]

Color Correct Mixed Light Sources in Photoshop

12/11/2013

Wouldn't it be great (for image artists) if you could arrange to have all your light sources share the same temperature? Unfortunately, that doesn't happen in real life, and between flash, tungsten lights, fluorescent lights, and sunlight, you may find yourself with a mixed lighting bag. No single white balance setting will correct the entire image, so you have to resort to local corrections. In this video, I'll show you a technique in Photoshop for selecting the contaminated color areas easily, then a way to match the color of these areas to the rest of the image using some layer blending mode tricks. [More]

Customizing the Lightroom Interface

05/11/2013

Lightroom is very efficient at importing, organizing, sorting and developing, but it makes a great tool for showing your work as well. The interface, while flexible and useful, can be customized to some degree so that you can present a professional, more polished image to your clients. With Lightroom's customization features, you can simplify the visible part of the interface, and this can even help you streamline your workflow as well. Today, we're going to look at customizing the side panels. [More]

Customize your Lightroom 5 Splash Screen

29/10/2013

A new and little-known feature in Lightroom 5 is that we now have the ability to customize the splash screen – the initial graphics that show up when the program starts. The default splash screen for Lightroom 5 is one that you’ve grown accustomed to, and it follows the Creative Cloud design style: [More]

Photoshop Workspace Automation

15/10/2013

By default, Photoshop remembers the last workspace configuration you had active, and returns to that configuration when you restart the application. However, you might prefer to have Photoshop always start in one specific custom workspace configuration. Here's how to do it, with a simple action and the Script Events Manager. [More]

Saving custom book pages in Lightroom 5

09/10/2013

New in Lightroom 5, you can save custom page layouts within the Book Module. This is a great time-saver, and a good way to develop and re-use your own unique page styles as you create photo books. [More]