Photoshop Blur Gallery and Selections
While recently writing an upcoming post for Fotolia about the Photoshop Blur Gallery and Iris Blur I made a selection and found the difference between selection, non selection and Smart Objects is [More]
layers
Running Photoshop Levels, Curves and other Adjustments as a Smart Filter
For as long as I can remember the advise to all Photoshop users is 'Never use the Levels and Curves from the menu, always use an Adjustment Layer.' This is good advise, working non destructively is the best plan, but with the update to Photoshop CC 2015 things have changed. [More]
Create A Template To Display Your Image As A Mounted Canvas In Photoshop Part 2
In my last tutorial we saw how to create a reusable template to display our artwork as though they were mounted on canvas in situ. The base image I used is a sofa against a wall, both in neutral colours. Whilst this works well most for most images, what if we want to see how the picture would fit a particular location: a client's office or a married couple's lounge, perhaps?
In this article I’m going to take the template idea further to enable us to alter the colour of both the sofa and wall colour, giving us far more freedom to match the artwork to specific decor. As before, this will be completely non-destructive as we'll be using adjustment layers and masks to create the effect. We can continue where we left off the last time. If you didn’t see the article, you can access it here, or you can just work with the base image – link below – and add in the artwork later. [More]
Lightroom and Photoshop – Open as Layers
Now that Photoshop and Lightroom are available as part of the popular Photoshop Photography program from Adobe, many people are starting to use Lightroom and Photoshop together for the first time. Naturally, that leads to some confusion when it comes to workflow. [More]
Manipulating Layers in Photoshop and Photoshop Elements
In this video for Fotolia for those relatively new to the software I take a look at manipulating layers in Photoshop and Photoshop Elements [More]
Book Review – Mastering Photoshop Layers
As a reader of many Photoshop related books I’ve come to expect certain aspects to be contained within them. I want clear instructions, illustrated examples and information I haven’t found anywhere else. Mastering Photoshop layers ticks all the boxes. [More]
Replacing a view through a window with clipping masks in Photoshop Elements
In this month's Photoshop Elements tutorial I'm going to demonstrate a neat trick for changing the view through a window. There are many ways to approach this, of course, this is a particularly versatile method, however. Instead of cutting out the glass areas of the window and putting the new view beneath, we'll use the window panes as a clipping mask. If you're unfamiliar with the concept of clipping masks, it's a way of hiding parts of a layer based on the visible areas of the layer below. In this case, only the parts of the new view will be visible where they overlap the window panes, giving the impression that we're seeing the scene behind the window frame. This is often preferable to the usual masking technique, particularly if we want to use multiple images to build the composite, where the layers would need to be beneath the target layer as we can control the visibility without the need to move the layers around in the stack. If we want to see the whole image, we simply unclip it. [More]
Quick Mask-Style Selections in Photoshop Elements
I recently wrote an article here on TipSquirrel about using Photoshop's Pencil tool to make complicated selections. A comment was posted asking if the same thing was possible using Photoshop Elements. The answer to that is yes, but, as with a few things in Elements, we have to use a couple of workarounds. The original tutorial used Photoshop's Quick Mask feature. This allows us to create selections by painting them with the Brush tool (or any other of the drawing tools); the selected areas show up as a coloured overlay. Elements doesn't have this feature, sadly, so we'll be using an adjustment layer and its mask to achieve the same result. [More]
Quickly Spot Mistakes in Your Photoshop Masks
If you do any kind of Photoshop work using selections and cutouts, you'll know how important it is to be as accurate as possible, particularly when working with images of people. It's easy to miss areas of an object when using the Quick Selection tool, especially when working in intricate areas such as hands, bits of clothing and so on; irregularities can stick out like a sore thumb - or a missing one. They also have a habit of only showing themselves after we think we've finished the cutout, or worse still, we don't notice them at all! [More]
Single Image Collage in Photoshop
Starting with a single image in Photoshop, we can create the illusion of a casually stacked collage of smaller snapshots. It's a great look for event and vacation images! [More]
Creating Torn Edges in Photoshop and Photoshop Elements
This month I'm donning my top hat and tuxedo to perform a spectacular card trick for you. First, I'll tear the card in half and then, without so much as a wave of a magic wand, I'll seamlessly mend it right in front of your very eyes!
Seriously, though, if you've ever gone delving into the many filters available in Photoshop and Photoshop Elements, you will no doubt have come across the Torn Edges filter. As the name suggests, it will give you a super torn edge effect on your image. Well, no, actually it won't, not if it's applied directly to the image, that is; all you'll end up creating is a fuzzy monochrome graphic element. [More]
Creating a Glittery Text Effect in Adobe Photoshop
Inspiration often comes from things we've seen as we go about out day-to-day business; posters, TV and printed ads, etc. I was in town the other day and noticed a poster in a bus shelter for a soft drink. The ad headline featured a fancy glittery text effect. I took a photo with my phone for reference and set about seeing what I could come up when I got back to the computer. I wanted to make sure it was easy to create and versatile enough to apply in different situations. [More]
Photoshop Text on a Circular Path
Using our Contact Us page The Photoshop Nuts were asked if we could explain how to put text on a circle. This was covered a while back by Michael Hoffman in his post Working With Type On a Path as a written tutorial but I thought I’d create a video for those that prefer to learn that way too.
In the video, I also explain a technique for creating concentric circles and explain why you’d want to have two windows displaying one image. [More]
Working with Smart Objects and transformations in Photoshop CS6
This month I thought I'd highlight a feature of Smart Objects in Photoshop and, to an extent, Photoshop Elements that often gets overlooked. Aside from the ability to scale and distort layers without loss of quality and change the contents simultaneously across multiple copies, another useful trait is that they remember the previous distortion settings; image warp in particular. This is incredibly useful for designers, as it makes it far easier to experiment with idea or creating photo montages, where objects need to be placed into a scene in perspective [More]
Photoshop Touch for iPad – Part 2
Picking up from Part 1 of our Photoshop Touch tutorial (where I covered the organization of the UI, basic layering and selection options, basic tool options, and a simple layered workflow for [More]
