What Photoshop Tutorials Could Not Teach You

Even the best  Photoshop  tutorials on the web cannot teach you everything. It is important that you are armed with the right knowledge and attitude towards learning. You have to determine your purpose to better anticipate the results.

Most untrained  Photoshop  users forget the importance of theories behind the tools and functions found in the interface. Theory alone can’t stand but skill alone neither prevails. You have to know the logic behind the techniques in order to take advantage of them. Asking why is as important as asking how.

Successful designers often have a background in fine arts. Learning the fundamentals in drawing and illustration makes you more adept with the theory behind the elements of graphics and images. It helps you create original and evocative designs because you, more than anyone else, know how to achieve such effects.  Photoshop  tutorials don’t always tell you why a certain step should be performed. But with the right theory, it is easier to understand why you have to go through such lengths to achieve a certain design.

Here are some essentials you won’t learn from  Photoshop  tutorials.

Design Theory. It may sound banal to some but there are self-professed graphic designers who don’t even know how to properly juxtapose text to graphics and arrange all elements of design in an aesthetically pleasing and functional manner. It pains to know that some clients let these mistakes pass with a shrug but behind the eyes of fellow graphic designers who know better, erring on the fundamentals is just unacceptable.

Great  Photoshop  tutorials are all about manipulating elements such as color, line, shape, scale, space, texture and how they complement in order to achieve a certain visual effect. It is important to know design theory because you can’t just follow tutorials blindly. The techniques used by a tutorial writer on his/her design might have worked for the image he/she used but not necessarily for your own. Knowing design concepts eliminate these blunders.

Color Theory. Color experimentation makes or breaks a design. Colors evoke emotions, set moods, attract attention, and make a statement. It creates a visual ambiance. It conveys imagery beyond what you can illustrate.

Harmonious color combination is important to avoid straining the eyes of your spectator. Instead, it encourages your audience to try and find meaning on the design even if you did not deliberately inject meaning into it. The important thing is that color moves your audience because he/she perceives a message out of it.

Psychologists found out that exposing oneself to a certain color has an effect on the person’s behavior. Although these effects are somewhat subjective, there are colors that possess universal meanings. Authors of  Photoshop  tutorials take advantage of color theory in their works. To understand them better, you have to know color theory yourself.

Typography. Never say that graphic design is all about, well, graphics. There are times when you just can’t help but use text in your design especially for advertising purposes. This is why another essential knowledge you should have before navigating around  Photoshop  is typography. Designers tend to forget that texts are also visual elements. To be more specific, they can easily become graphic elements as well.

Typography involves the ability to juxtapose one font to another to achieve a certain contrast and to control the visual effects created by text blocks and empty spaces.

How some  Photoshop  tutorials explain text is somewhat arbitrary. The usual mistake of novice designers is that they tend to clutter the design with pompous fonts that evoke certain ambiance but are not readable. Typography is the art of balancing artistry and function when it comes to texts.

Basic knowledge about each of these theories can already do wonders to your work. The quickest route to  Photoshop  prowess is never the shortest. It’s always the safest. Understand the elements of design lead to original and thought-provoking work.

Nashville Flood, After the Rainfall

Beginning Saturday May 1, a steady rain began to fall on Nashville and all throughout middle Tennessee. This is the Spring rainy season and a heavy rainfall is normal for this area.

Within hours however, it became clear that this was not the typical Spring showers. Rivers, creeks, any tributary carrying water began to swell. Within hours electric power failed in many areas throughout the city. At the same time land line telephone service also failed widely.

What happened next is what differentiates this Spring storm from any before. It rained over 6 inches on Saturday setting a lifetime record for this area. Then on Sunday it rained another 6 inches, amounts vary from reports in different areas. For most of Nashville, roads were blocked, power was interrupted, water supply and quality was challenged.

If not for the cell phone area we live in, there would have been a widespread block of communication. Even so, most Nashvillians were simply shocked when they did get their first view out into the world again.

Nashville has not seen this kind of widespread devastation. Homes and business close to water were seriously damaged, some simply carried away. Many however who were not in harm’s way felt many of the same effects: widespread power outages, phone service failure. Today nearly a week after the storm and flood large areas still do not have landline phone service, some still do not have power.

Each neighborhood has it’s own story. Remote areas see single houses swept by the river but businesses such as Opry Mills, the Schermerhorn Symphony Center, were flushed by flood waters and had to evacuate everyone. We were blocked on our road for several days.

What was different this time was seeing the rest of the city when power was returned Tuesday. We are told this is the highest flood recorded since 1939. Everywhere you go, roads are blocked off, buildings are damaged, debris appears in the middle of a field as if tossed by a tornado wind. Occasionally you see houses completely missing with only a foundation visible.

Many major roads are still blocked. You can see asphalt buckling as the undertow of the flooding river simply lifted the road into it’s current. West Nashville and Cheatham County shared the combined burden of the Cumberland River and Harpeth River. The Harpeth snakes through countless acres of Williamson, Cheatham, and parts of West Davidson County. It is not unusual for the same road to cross the Harpeth.

One week later some homes are just now being evacuated. There are countless citizens who have lost their cars, can’t return to their homes, and you hear questions of flood insurance and what FEMA can do to help in many conversations.

It will be several months before life returns to normal for Middle Tennessee and for some life will never be the same.

Post Production and Editing

Editing is one of the most popular and creative trends out there today. Editing is a real art forum and creates the pace for your film or video. A video editor is given a huge amount of material “raw footage” and has to take it all away to create something that engages the audience. In a lot of ways its kind of like what Michelangelo did for the famous David statue. He was given lots of marble and over time chipped away at it and created something that is considered a masterpiece.

The video by itself is usually long and boring, not very interesting to watch. A great editor will see it and instantly get inspiring ideas on how to make it look good. A video editor also bring a huge amount of himself to the project. The finished project is usually determined on how the editor interprets it. So a good editor is key.

Video editing can be a very long process and requires much patience while putting the clips together. Seeing it as an art form and a creative process can bring a lot of excitement into what you are doing and actually make it fun.

In today’s industry there are many different editing platforms such as Final Cut Pro and Adobe Premier Pro. The editing software keeps getting more advanced which is also helping video editors do complicated jobs much quicker and the programs are becoming way more user friendly.

The creative process of editing includes first organizing your project by importing all of the raw footage into folders. Then you bring the clips into the edit timeline. When you feel like the clips are in good order inside the timeline you can then add music, titles and graphics to make the project more exciting and enjoyable to the viewer.

Another part of the post production process is sound editing and mixing. Program’s such as logic pro and pro tools are probably the most used out there today. This is one of my favorite areas because it is even possible to import your edited video to the sound production program and actually mix the sound while watching your edited clip. Logic pro and pro tools also allows you to compose music to the pictures while watching them back. This is such a cool process and the more production skills that you have built over the years the more exciting and enjoyable this becomes.

Blogs, Special Effects and the Google-Meister

It’s a crazy world in the Internet and we’ve become accustomed to connectivity, visibility, and ‘reach ability’ that we never dreamed of. However, when it comes to site visibility and having browsers find your niche, there’s quite a population to contend with. There is millions of us out there, looking and wanting to be seen.

So how do you stand out? What will help your site catch their attention, and keep their attention long enough to evaluate your product and /or services?

I like the word balance and using balance, having attractive catch phrases, a well designed site, useful information, easy navigation are the ‘pillars’ of good site design but – what more?

We know that blogs have become a primary resource for entertainment, information, and promotion. What’s so special about Blogs ? They have become our third person referral, the Not – in your face direct sell. In this world of open source and sharing details of your work challenges with strangers across a continent, it’s typical to learn something, something really useful, beneficial in your work from an online forum, from a post, from a Blog.

Much like the company you keep, the tone and beat of your Blog promotes you passively with your association. As a web designer I regularly run into new issues, challenges, constantly updated technology and one of the first places I go when I’m stumped – need I say is – to forums, to sites that support my issues, and yes, that first stop is usually Google – because it works.

When I look at the comments on my blog, the most popular keyword is this obscure error message I received with an Adobe application upgrading to Vista. The error message isn’t terribly meaningful, logic didn’t really help me figure it out – but when I did, the solution was so simple, I posted it in my blog. I get great responses, ‘Your solution saved me at crunch time’ – this simple problem solution ‘sharing’ helped many other developers, and this is much of what our Internet experience is now.

We get to help each other out, a lot, and there’s not always a direct link between the information you share and the next sale you get on your services, but it all goes into the mix, and your blog speaks of your experience and Web savvy.

As it turns out the Google-meister loves blogs and the leading blog tool, WordPress is flush with open source and free goodies, one of the other amazing qualities of our Internet life – very talented programmers create plugins, and widgets, and special apps, and search engine friendly tags, resources that are available in popular blog applications…for free! As a developer I know that sense of figuring out some code, just to see it work but the Internet and blogging in particular has become a veritable library of free goodies and as soon as there is something notably missing, a need for a new shortcut or plugin…someone creates it, and makes it available to the general public.

So…that leaves us with the special effects and what can I can say? There’s nothing more annoying than an otherwise useful site that completely distracts you with noise and motion. Distracting marquees, pop-up windows, looping movies you can’t turn off – but these effects…well these aren’t what I would call special…they’re just effects.

I advise all my web clients that it is their product that is the star of the show, their service that everyone wants to hear about but – special effects provide the ‘window dressing’.

Once you have your product well illustrated, once your site does the job of clearly presenting ‘what you’ve got’ , this is where the special effects come in and they are, to some degree autonomic – like that pleasing color, or the well designed landscape that appeals to your senses but you don’t really ‘process it’.

We might call this ‘right brained’ but the text falling out of the sky with a little Hollywood glisten, the soft motion backdrop enhancing one of your images, some clever animation using your logo – these ‘extra’ effects, when done tastefully, add polish and professionalism to your site.

The notion that first impressions are made in the first few seconds certainly predates the Internet, using tasteful special effects only enhances these first, these lasting impressions.

Video Compression Standards

If you have no idea what video compression is all about, chances are that you will be lost when it comes to the different standards. In fact, even if you do deal with video compression on a regular basis, the standards can become difficult to deal with. Luckily, once you have some knowledge of video compression standards you should be well on your way to working with success.

Generally speaking, each video compression standard was designed with specific details in mind. This includes everything from bit rate to the application that is being used.

MPEG-1 is made for up to 1.5 Mbit per second. This is the standard for moving audio and/or pictures. When you see videos on the internet, it is safe to say that MPEG-1 is behind them.

MPEG-2 is made for anywhere from 1.5 to 15 Mbit per second. This is where DVD compression comes into play. And as you probably know, this is becoming more popular as each day goes by. MPEG-2 is also the standard for digital television boxes.

MPEG-4 is used primarily for web compression. This is a very high compression format which allows developers to independently control objects within a particular frame. As far as complexity and advanced applications are concerned, it does not get much better than MPEG-4.

At this time, MPEG-7 and MPEG-21 are under development. These are going to bring added benefits to users, but until they are fully developed, it is best to opt for the three options listed above. They are the ones that are used most commonly at this time, and learning about them can be a task in its own right.

Overall, learning these video compression standards, as well as how they work and what they offer can be quite difficult. But of course, you should not let this stop you. Instead, take the time to become familiar with the details, and how you can make them work to your advantage.

5 Frequently Asked Questions About Fast Video Indexer

Turning still images into an actual video on your own is something that many wish they could do. It allows you to enjoy the best moments in your life on video. Fast video indexer gives you the opportunity to take advantage of this and much more. Here are five frequently asked questions about this amazing program to help you better understand it.

1. What type of video clips can be captured?

The wonderful thing about this program is that it supports almost all video formats. A basic rule of thumb is if it can be played in windows media player, it can be captured. Just know that Mpeg-2 and VOB files are supported from version 1.04. However, you still need an mpeg2 codec on your computer.

2. How do you capture screens from your movie?

In order to capture screenshots from a video, you need to have the correct direct show video codecs installed. You will want to start by trying to play the movie with Microsoft media player. If it will not play there, the program will bring you to the correct codec.

3. Where can you download video codecs?

There are several places you can go about downloading video codecs to use with Fast Video Indexer. You should start by downloading packages like XP codec pack fourcc.org. If you are looking to play avi files, the GSpot program will help you determine the right program for you. Free-codecs.com is a great place for you to find numerous programs to identify the codec you are missing if you still need help.

4. What if the indexer crashes while indexing a movie?

If this happens while using Fast Video Indexer, you will want to try and play the movie in windows media player. If it still crashes in the media player, the problem you are facing is the codec used to play the movie. For this, you will need to download a new or different codec for the movie format.

5. How do you capture every frame of a video?

It really is a simple process to capture every frame of a video. On the options screen you want to set the start after value to 0 and the save every time to 0. After doing this, you need to go to the advanced settings and set the name by frames to 1. What this will do is allow you to capture all frames of a video as several frames will be captured each second.

Getting to know about the Fast Video Indexer allows you to see just how great of a program it really is. Take these frequently asked questions into consideration as you learn how to capture your greatest moments and make a video out of them.

Listing of Horror Films That Don"t Suck

Horror movies have invariably been the preferred genre of many film lovers around the globe. Regrettably horror films don’t receive the respect from film critics that some other genres get. It’s very difficult to come up with a great and frightening horror movie. The listing of horror films that come worth it isn’t very long. Slasher flicks attempted to substitute horror flicks about 20 years ago but those aren’t real horror motion pictures. On any list of horror flicks that do not suck you will see some truly nightmarish motion pictures. Here is my list of horror films that are worthy of seeing.

“Rosemary’s Baby” might be a little bit dated these days and may not really give you the kind of chills it did when it initially came out, but it’s still among the excellent atmospheric films ever made and still can creep you out. “Psycho” may have been the very first slasher film but it’s a true scary movie and has all the gothic trademarks of excellent horror films plus a dangerous and cheesy contemporary setting that everyone who has ever spent the nights at a roadside motel can verify.

“The Exorcist” certainly is still at the peak on anyone’s list of horror motion pictures that don’t suck. If you have never watched it, then you need to drop anything and everything you’re doing and go purchase it right now. Put it on your big flat tv screen tonight and watch it with someone else that has never seen it. It is still the most unsettling and significantly frightening film ever made by a longshot and will certainly keep you awake for several nights to come. This flick is certainly not for young children and not for the faint of heart. It is very brutal and very disturbing.

“The Blair Witch Project” was probably the greatest grossing film of all time in any genre since it cost so very little to produce and yet generated hundreds of millions of dollars. Making use of handheld shaky video cameras the movie is a mock documentary about a group of students filming a documentary on the well-known “Blair Witch” in the Maryland forest. The 3 students get lost deep in the forest and experience some truly frightening things out there. Without spoiling it you should stick with this one till the very end.

2009’s Blair Witch Project was a little independent film called “Paranormal Activity” and is about a suburban couple that discover their San Diego residence haunted by an evil demon (are there any other kinds?) and they once again make use of handheld cameras and night vision cams to film the ghostly circumstances. This is a movie that begins slowly but builds to a surprising final act. This movie joins our list of horror flicks that don’t suck as it will definitely scare you. Many of the directors of these motion pictures have gone on to greater glory outside the independent horror arena. Directors including Ethan and Joel Coen (The Big Lebowski) as well as Sam Raimi (Spiderman) have started out in the independent horror world only to discover themselves with big Hollywood careers.

Preparing For a Visit to the GYN Doctor

As a woman, it’s especially important for you to see a physician who specializes in female care. Each year, you’ll need to have a Pap smear, a vaginal exam, and a breast exam. These procedures check for cancer, infections, and other problems, and are preventative care to help you stay healthy. A doctor GYN specializes in caring for the female anatomy, and is the best type of physician to see for these exams.

Unfortunately, many women are embarrassed about this essential medical care. They may have difficulty choosing a caregiver, or may feel stressed about asking their provider questions. This may cause them to ignore red flags about their health. In order to receive the best possible care and treatment, it’s important to maintain open lines of communication with your physician. Choosing a doctor GYN that you are comfortable with and can talk to is an essential part of healthcare. Here are a few tips to help you prepare for your visit.

Don’t Be Afraid to Ask Questions

Before your first appointment, call your provider’s office and ask any questions that you have. If you’re concerned about what happens in the visit, what instruments will be used, or how procedures are preformed, as before your appointment. This will help you to be more relaxed about the visit. You can also ask billing, insurance, or payment questions at this time.

Discuss Your History

If you have been sexually assaulted or abused, you may have valid fears about going to the gynecologist. Let your care provider know about your history before your visit or during your intake interview. He or she will be able to work with you and will take special care to make you comfortable during your exam.

Talk About Your Symptoms

While gynecological symptoms may seem embarrassing to you, they’re all in a day’s work for your gynecologist. Be sure to tell your doctor about any symptoms that you’re experiencing, so that he or she can make the best possible diagnosis. By withholding information or not sharing your symptoms, you only make the diagnostic process more difficult for your physician.

As you prepare for your visit, keep in mind that your doctor sees multiple patients every day. He or she chose this career because they wanted to help people like you take good care of themselves. Nothing you say or share will be shocking to your doctor, and providing them with accurate information is a key part of receiving the best possible treatment. Work with your doctor GYN to build an open relationship where you can talk about your healthcare.

TMJ - Know The Syndrome To Be Safe

There is currently estimated to be over 35 million people in the United States who are suffering with TMJ. The majority of them are women in their child bearing years although doctors still do not understand why this segment of the population is targeted.

Because the cause of Temporomandibular Joint Syndrome is unknown and the symptoms can vary widely from person to person, there is no standard test to diagnose it. Instead it is often diagnosed by ruling out other conditions that mirror symptoms similar to this such as ear infections, sinus infection, facial neuralgia and headaches. Ruling out these medical conditions can help a doctor rule in it.

The first step in treating this syndrome is for a doctor to get a thorough medical history and then do a physical exam to look for symptoms such as pain in the jaw, limited jaw opening, muscle tenderness and noises such as jaw popping. In seeking medication, it is highly recommended that patients seek out a conservative plan with the goal to control it not eradicate the problem.

A conservative plan does not involve any permanent changes in the structure or position of the jaw or teeth. The most widely used short term cure is the use of stabilization splint or a bite guard. This is a plastic guard that fits over the upper or lower teeth and should only be prescribed for short term use only. If the pain increases or gets worse with the use of a bite guard the use of it should be discontinued.

Other options include the use of anti inflammatory drugs such as ibuprofen, Motrin or Tylenol to help with some relief. For worst cases, an over the counter medicine can help, a doctor can prescribe prescription pain relievers.

Sufferers can do some things to help find some relief with self care treatment options. Self care treatment options include a diet of soft foods and avoiding anything that requires excessive use of the jaw muscles such as gum chewing, in order to give the jaw a chance to rest and recover on its own. The use of alternative heat packs and ice packs after gentle exercises to stretch the jaw muscles has also been shown to help in recovery.

Irreversible treatment options such as surgery are generally not recommended due to the fact that there is no cure for TMJ and invasive surgery can make TMJ worse. Surgery is primarily for patients with a birth defect that involves a malformed jaw or patients who have loose fragments of bone in their Temporomandibular joint. The majority of people will not fall into this category.

The treatment goal should be pain relief not an attempt to cure it. Some irreversible treatments may come with a promise to cure and eliminate it but so far no studies have proven that any orthodontic changes are effective.

Some of these procedures which include orthodontics to change the bite, crown and bridge work to balance the bite or grinding down the teeth to bring the bite into balance have not turned out to be the miracle cure hoped for and instead often they only make the pain worse, not better.

Produce No Budget Animation

The key to produce animation with no budget is by getting all the resources for free, like software or training.

Production Workflow

Of course, to produce animation you need to understand the complete process. Here is the summary of what is needed: Script, Storyboard, Audio Dialogue Recording, Music, Sound Effects, Sound Editing, Animatic, Character Design, Animation, Scene Compositions and finally, the Editing.

And if you want to achieve this, you need software. Don’t worry, at the end of this article you will find the names of the programs and applications that you can download for free.

Script and Storyboard

Before the script, you need the idea for your next story, once you have that, you can start writing. The best way to do this is by using a professional Script Writing Application that can be accessed online for free. I recommend Adobe Story.

Then, after the script, you continue to visualize your project in a Storyboard. How can you do this for free? Well, simple. Does pencil and paper ring any bells?

Audio

A word of warning for those who have projects with dialogue. you need a couple of dollars to at least buy a microphone. That’s why if you have no budget at all, stay out of stories with dialogue.

Now, if your project doesn’t have dialogue, then you need an Audio Software to mix all the sound effects and the music. I recommend Audacity, because it’s free and it has a lot of tutorials on YouTube.

Animatic

The animatic is a video of the storyboard with music and sound, maybe even some dialogue. This video can be edited in a Video Editing software. For that, you can try Avidemux.

Animation and Editing

Now that you have your animatic, you can do all your animation with Synfig, which is also free. Of course, it will not have all the features that any professional software has, but it will do the trick.

Once you have your animations ready, you can put all the scenes together using your Video Editing Software, click Render and you have your animation.

Final thoughts

You should know that everything free comes at a cost. In this case, because you are not spending a dollar, it only means you are going to work harder and invest more time because all the free software has limitations.

My suggestion is to go for two Adobe Products, one for animation (it can be Flash or After Effects) and one for video editing (Premiere Pro), which means spending $40.00 USD a month, saving a lot of time thanks to the great features they have.

And if you are a teenager reading this with no credit card, then you can try the free alternative, just keep in mind that this will mean more investment of your time.

Free Resources: Here are the names of the all the Software you can download for free. Look for them in Google.

Script Writing Online Apps

Adobe Story

Celtix

Drawing Software

Alternatives for Adobe Photoshop:

Gimp

Seashore

Alternatives for Adobe Illustrator:

Inkscape

Apache OpenOffice Draw

Animation Software

Synfig Studio

Audio Recording and Editing Software

Audacity

Video Editing Software

Avidemux

Royalty free music

Incompetech

Photoshop Tutorial: 5 Best Hidden Secrets

Whether you’re just starting out with Photoshop or you’re a seasoned pro, it’s likely you’ve experienced instances where you wished a certain action was easier to do. This article will provide you with a few tips to consider as you explore Photoshop.

Keep an Eye Out for Tutorials: Is there a specific technique or command that’s giving you a lot of trouble? In cases like this, sometimes it’s simply not enough to consult the help file or ask questions online. Fortunately, you can find literally thousands of video tutorials that provide everything from shortcuts to the latest techniques on how to shade and texture.

Keep Keyboard Shortcuts Firmly in Mind: You would be surprised at just how many users waste significant amounts of time struggling with the mouse. There are thousands of keyboard commands that make copying, pasting, switching layers, undo an action, create a new file, and more. Using these commands may feel a bit strange at first, but over time they’ll become as natural as any point, click, or drag command.

Keep an Eye Out for Original Downloads: Are you sick of the default tools that Photoshop provides you with? Whether you want to learn how to use a new tool or you want to give your creations an original new twist, there are thousands of fonts, brushes, and more for prices that won’t break your budget. Regardless of what you pick, you’ll be able to enjoy the novelty of using brushes, fonts, and textures that other users may not necessarily have.

Newer is Not Always Better: There are some users who simply must have the latest version of Photoshop. However, if you’d like to simplify your experience, there’s no sin in using a version that’s a year or two behind. Keeping up with all of the latest features, extras, and downloads can be an enormous pain, especially if you’re just learning. While some of the newer features may not always be compatible with older versions of Photoshop, if you’re the type of no nonsense user who simply wants quality photo editing software without the bells and whistles, feel free to check out an earlier version.

Don’t Be Afraid to Alter the Default Settings: There are many small things you can do that make Photoshop a bit more user friendly. For example, performing simple tasks such as color coding menu bars, changing the shape of the cursor, or creating options for showing and hiding menu boxes can do wonders for speeding up your work. Along with allowing you to access commands quickly, altering the default settings allows you to customize Photoshop in a way that suits you the best. If you find that your alterations don’t suit, it’s a simple matter to change the program so that it displays its factory settings once more.

Photoshop can be one of your most valuable business tools. By following these tips and more, you will be able to do your best to take advantage of this amazing software program.

Photoshop - Selections and Masks

We have been exploring selection and channels, how these Photoshop features add so much to your creative potential. Blending these tools with masks opens up another world all its own. Masks let you combine objects and migrate objects. Your friend can be standing in the Himalayas, your product can be sitting on the President’s desk.

Masks do just that. They ‘mask’ a portion of your image which is simple enough but with Photoshop layers it is very easy to bring other things into your image. Of course as your blend these in clever ways, you create your own scenarios and this ability to create is much of the mask’s magic.

We like to set up simple exercises that focus on the basics of how to use a new tool. Once you are comfortable with how it works, you can move on to more complicated and creative applications. To apply a mask, a good playground is much like our selection models. We are going to highlight an image in a particular background, then mask, ‘hide’ the background so a different layer comes forth. You might use two images, one as your foreground object, then copy the second into the first as a layer. This masking works by exposing imagery from an otherwise hidden layer so you can think of these two images, these two layers, as your two scenarios.

For example, you might have an image with a candle on a table but your second image is an outdoor scene. When we apply our mask your highlighted object will appear in the different backdrop so you could have your pet on the patio, then apply a mask that will place him on a mountaintop.

Once you choose the two images to work with, be sure your have placed them in the same image, in the same file, but on two different layers. If you are not sure about this, simply copy your complete ‘second’ image, go back into your first, create a second layer by choosing the far right icon at the bottom of the layers panel, next to the trash can, then copy this second image on your new layer. You want this to be in the backdrop so drag the new layer under the first and the first layer will be the only one visible. Only when we apply a mask will part of your second image show through.

Now create a selection on the object that will appear in both images. I’m going to use a candle so for the remainder of this exercise, I will refer to my candle. I will apply a selection to my candle, but now I will add a layer mask from this selection by choosing the third icon from the left at the bottom of the layer panel. This option looks like an empty circle placed inside a square. When you click on this option, a layer mask is created for you using your selection boundary as the definition of your layer mask.

Once you create your mask, you will see the remainder of your image disappear. In my case, only the candle remains but I do see the image that I copied in as my second layer. This is pretty close to instant gratification! You apply a mask and instantly your image is now superimposed on another background!

With what we have learned about selections and channels, there must be a new channel at work here… and there is. If you switch to your channel tab, you will see that creating layer mask did create a new channel. This understanding of how this information is kept and saved is helpful as you get more creative with your designs and backtrack over previous ones.

Knowing this newly created ‘mask’ is indeed a channel means you can do all the things we have learned up to this point: you can load this channel as a selection to use it again, you can save this channel with a new name and you can save this channel to a different file.

How to Build The Ultimate Adobe Photoshop CS6 PC

Building the Ultimate Photoshop CS6 PC.

Here is the dawn of the highly anticipated Photoshop CS6. Photoshop has always been a power hungry application which pushes the most powerful of desktops to their limits.

Even the smallest bottleneck can have your system on its knees and you sat around twiddling your thumbs waiting for it to load.

It goes without saying, the better and more powerful your PC is, and the easier it will handle the pressure put upon it by Photoshop.

Today we are going to illustrate to you the best set up for using Photoshop CS6 to its full potential.

To start with the basics, you are going to need the following: –

• A high-end processor.

• Lots of lovely Ram

• A large hard drive

• A graphics card which supports GPU-Acceleration found in CS6.

Lets have a look at these four basic in a bit more detail.

Processor

For high demand graphical applications, Intel processes truly triumph over AMD processors. With Photoshop CS6 the speed of the CPU really does make a difference, so if you want the best out of this software opt for an Intel CPU.

You also need a quick powerful CPU, so I would definitely recommend a Core i7 processor, maybe the 3.6ghz if your budget allows. This will set you back around £250 but is the core of your system. If your going to spend big on any of the computer hardware needed, then make it the processor.

RAM

To really see this software cruise along flawlessly you’re going to need RAM and plenty of it. I stress this when I say it, an absolute minimum of 8GB but anything up to 16GB or 32Gb, if your motherboard will accommodate it.

You don’t need the really quick ram associated with gaming PCs, so stick with stable high quality RAM from brands like Crucial or Kingston and you wont really go wrong. Not only will you get robust and stable memory but they also come with rock solid warranties so if the RAM goes wrong, they will replace it for you.

Storage

If you’re doing a lot of high-end graphic work your going to need plenty of storage space. This isn’t because the program itself is big, but the files, which output can be.

In an ideal world you will need four drives. I know this sounds a lot, but we are building the Ultimate CS6 PC, so four drives is the only way to get optimal performance. Ill explain why. One for your operating system, one for the your files and one for what is called the “scratch disk”.

The scratch disk is a part of the hard drive which Adobe uses as virtual memory.

You can use fewer drives if you wish, but the most common reason for performance slow down is bottlenecks and having just one disk for everything will create bottlenecks. The cost of Computer Hardware is cheap these days and especially hard drives, spending money in this area will pay off.

Graphics Card

The new Photoshop CS6 runs on Adobe new Mercury Engine which is equipped with new GPU Acceleration tools such as blur and liquefy and more wide angled effects.

To make the most of these new tools you will need a graphics card from the new NVIDIA Quadro range and these aren’t something you will find in a normal high street bought PC.

The Quadro graphics cards can be very expensive, but you will not need the top of the range, even the modest Quadro 2000 will suffice.

When you put all these together you should have the hardware which will allow you to experience the best of Photoshop CS6 in all its glory. This is a very capable piece of software which will push to Computer Hardware of today to its very limits, but the end result if something quite spectacular.

Graphic Creations With Software

A basic understanding of computers is all a person needs to create their own graphics with today’s design software. Even with just small amount of design understanding, people can still use simple design programs to build their own cartoons strips, holiday cards, flyers and invitations. Your business and yourself can save money on special occasions by using one of the several user friendly affordable programs that are out there.

The number one choice for design software by both professionals and amateurs is Adobe   PhotoShop . By cropping, recoloring and adding special effects,  PhotoShop  allows users to change photos anyway they wish. Entirely new pictures can also be created by using special drawing tools, or existing pictures can be modified anyway the user desires.  PhotoShop  uses a system of “layers.” By using layers, separate pieces of a picture can be changed while keeping the changes separate. For example, you can change the color on the bottom layer without affecting the color on the top layer. If you wish to draw more than creating full pictures, Adobe Illustrator may be the choice for you.

 PhotoShop  is a pixel-based program while Adobe Illustrator is vector based. What does this mean your probably asking yourself? When you make a picture in  PhotoShop , you must use a certain resolution. A computer screen displays 72 pixels per inch for a clear picture, but when you print a 72 dpi picture, it appears blocky and blurred. If you are making a picture for printing in  PhotoShop , you need to use 300 pixels per inch to get a nice, sharp image. Because Illustrator is vector-based, it uses a system of paths rather than pixels. In simple terms, it uses lines rather than colors. This means that everything you create in Illustrator can be enlarged up to any size you wish without ever becoming blurry or grainy. Designers often use Illustrator software to build logos for a variety of advertisements. The same picture or logo drawing can be used on a small business card or enlarged to fill an entire billboard.

For those wishing to create simple greeting cards or party invitations, there is a variety of user friendly software programs made specifically for these purposes. Many offer templates for several print sizes and folding options. For the more experienced user, the software program Quark is an excellent print layout tool. Adobe InDesign also offers professional quality layout options along with many of the same tools used in Adobe  PhotoShop  and Illustrator. If you are to use these two programs, you will easily be able to create professional quality materials with InDesign.

There is a wide variety of file types used in graphic software programs. Most have their own native formats that can only be read by the parent programs.  PhotoShop  files have a .PSD extension, and Illustrator files are AI, making them only accessible by  PhotoShop . When you are working with a work in progress, it is a good idea to save files in these formats, as they offer you the greatest flexibility in altering your creation. However, once you have completed your work and are ready to print your materials, you can save them in a variety of ways. Web pictures should saved as JPEGs, GIF or TIFF files. Pictures ready for printing are best saved as EPS files, to preserve color accuracy. If you plan to send graphics via e-mail, PDF offers the greatest flexibility, as most computers have Acrobat Reader, the program needed to read the PDF file type.

No matter what software fits your needs, making digital graphics can be a enjoyable and simple hobby, or even a professional career. It can take some time to get used to the terminology, but once you learn the tools of digital art, you will be on your way to building functional and decorative graphic masterpieces to share with the electronic world.

Photo Editing Tips

Who likes bad looking photos? If you have taken a photo that you feel to be bad you don’t have to worry as you can easily edit and give it a perfect look. To help you out here are some of the tips that you should put into consideration when doing the editing:

Straighten

Does your photo look like it was taken by a drunk person? You should straighten it using the ruler tool. One of the best programs to use is Photoshop. You should click and hold the eyedropper tool and select the ruler tool from the drop-down menu.

Lightening the Image

You should remove the sad underexposure on the photo by adjusting the contrast. If you are using Photoshop software you can easily adjust the contrast by using the levels adjustment tool. Using the tool you can easily adjust the lights, darks, and mid-tones to give your photo the look that you have always desired.

Color

It’s common for raw photos to have the wrong color. This results when you use unnatural, incandescent lighting when taking the photos. To give your photos a perfect look you should aim at fixing the white balance. One of the best tools to use is the Photoshop’s color balance tool. Using this tool you will be able to reduce any color issue that you might be having. For example, if your photo is yellow you have to increase the blue color.

Cropping

For ideal results it’s always good that you ensure that your subject is large enough for you to clearly recognize it. You can easily enlarge your subject by cropping.

Mistakes to Avoid When Undertaking Photo Editing

Do you want your photos to be perfect? You should avoid these photo editing mistakes:

Over-cropping: while it’s good to display as much information as possible, you should avoid overdoing it. To ensure that you are cropping the image correctly you should sit down with your client and understand the features that you need to show and the ones that you should leave out.

Conclusion

This is what you need to know about photo editing. For ideal results always remember that less is more; therefore, you should avoid making too many edits. This calls for you to keep the textures, colors and other effects to a minimum. Before you print your photo always first ask a friend to take a look at it and give his/her opinion.

Photography: How to Stay Inspired

Photography is the art of capturing the original scene that you see in front of your eyes through an electronic device called Camera. The art not only illustrates the originality of the images but also give large scope for changing or manipulating the very nature of them.

The required changes or illustrations can be done effectively through amazing software known as “  Photoshop “. You need not rely on  Photoshop  for every alteration that you prefer instead your camera settings and some of its functions can help you in bringing out the feel.

Photography might bore you down when you come around same venues and do the same type of shooting every time you pick up the camera. To maintain the professionalism in photography one has to stay inspired and stay in line with the latest technology.

When you do not have that inspiration, your work will definitely show your disinterest. Today people who want your service can very well estimate your inspiration towards photography. You must know the tactic of pleasing the clients with your exponential photography skills. You have to prove them that you offer unique services and excite them with captivating images.

To stay inspired with Photography, here are the few suggested methods that will sculpt you to be an eminent photographer.

View Movies – By watching movies that are skilfully cinematographed you can enhance your technical skills. Here you are observing the movements with your own eyes and the visual interpretations are always well registered in the human minds. You have to look for the lighting and ideas that the cinematographers used to make the movie appreciable.

Visit cities – Visit the nearest cities and capture the monuments, architects, lifestyle and nightlife of people living there.

Visit zoos – Taking pictures in a zoo is not an easy task, as you have to hide all the barricades that obstruct your views. This is the place where you can capture the close movements of animals that are comparatively difficult in an open forest. Try to show that you have shot the animals from a close distance.

Time of shooting – Do not stick always to the daytime shooting. Show some variations by shooting images somewhere in the dusk or early morning. This will give you enough knowledge about the light variations and the filters that you can conveniently use to capture a good image.

Surfing sites – To stay connected with the current market need you have to go through few stock sites that offer competitive images. You can collect some ideas as well as know the commercial needs.

Go to racing sports – This gives you the opportunity of capturing the speed. Capturing images of objects that are in motion requires specific talent. It is highly regarded as a photography skill as you bring out the clarity in motion. Your interest in the sports also brings out your real skill.

Get into the crowd – Clicking images in the crowd is a special talent. This only develops when you start clicking images from your living street and extend further. Street photography offers you many good things to capture and is popular in the photography world.

Go under water – You are getting into a different world. You need not be a diver for this purpose and it is enough that you protect the camera with proper waterproof materials. More captivating images can be got on the surface of the water where you get ample light.

View packaging materials – An example for this is a CD packaging material, which always try to bear an eye catchy image. The photography skill involved in this also highly contributes to the sales volume.

Try with different lenses – Try shooting images with different lenses. Best landscape photographs are derived through using various lenses.

Participate in competitions – It is not enough that you concentrate only on accumulating skills. Your skills have to be examined to stay in the market. The only way to identify where you stand in the photography lies in participating in various photography competitions.

Use different cameras – When you generally work with digital camera try using analogue and vice versa.

Help society – Your photography skill will provide you more solace when you help the society with it. You can teach others or contribute to society by offering free services.

Work with  Photoshop  – You can give new touches to your images using  Photoshop .  Photoshop  offer wonderful tools that can bring colours in your images. As a photographer, an excellent knowledge in  Photoshop  is a must and greatly required in profession.

Model Photography – This will give you a special place in the Fashion World. Taking photographs of models requires high skills and is an ever-rewarding job as the fashion is ever changing.

Membership in Photography Organization – Always aspire to become a member in Photography organization and participate in discussions. This will yield you more photography friends and support for your profession.

Blogging – This gives you an opportunity to write your experiences in the field of photography. This might help other struggling photographers to develop their skills and also provide you some fresh inputs.

Read Blogs – Reading blogs created by other photographers will inspire you in many ways. This is where you get new ideas for developing your photography skills in various dimensions. You will also get some tips for selling your work.

Read Books – This is something like a dictionary that you will refer at the time of need. Owning excellent books on photography is also one way of developing your skill. You can come across lots of techniques that great people have adopted.

Bye new cameras – This is one great way of staying inspired with photography. New equipments will generally carry new features, which everybody like to try. You also tend to get new ideas when you start working with new equipments.

Generally all images come with a spark of inspiration. Inspiration differs in each photographer. It is often difficult to stay with the same inspiration throughout the career. By adopting the above-suggested tips, a photographer can positively stay inspired throughout his/her career.

How to Recover Lost or Deleted Photos From Adobe Photoshop

How often have you deleted a file, only to require it later? Have you deleted a PSD (Photoshop Document) and then realized the mistake? By the time you understood that the deletion is accidental, you are unable to restore the PSD file because the Recycle Bin is empty. It leads to critical photo loss situations and you need to go for Photo Recovery Software to retrieve lost files, if an updated backup is not in place.

What is PSD File?

Adobe Photoshop has firm ties with other applications from Adobe for animation, authoring, and editing. PSD is the native format of Photoshop that stores image with support for all imaging options of Photoshop. These options includes color spaces, layers with masks, text, transparency, spot colors, and alpha channels. PSD is a well-known file format, which is supported by various competing software. You can also save the PSD image, after editing, to other image formats, such as JPEG, GIF, PNG, and EPS.

When a file gets deleted or goes missing, you lose your project. This situation cannot be accepted at any cost and you wish to get it back. You may lose your PSD due to any of the below reasons:

-Accidental deletion of important PSD files.

-Unintentional hard drive formatting.

-File system or other system meta data structure corruption.

-System crash or operating system malfunction.

-Your computer is infected by viruses or other malicious programs.

-Partition corruption or deletion.

-Boot errors or missing boot files.

If any of the above problems occur, your file may become inaccessible. In such circumstances, you need to Recover Deleted Photos to get them back.

How to Recover Lost PSD Files?

-Check Recycle Bin of your computer. If you simply deleted the file, using Delete key and have not emptied Recycle Bin, the file is there in Recycle Bin. You can restore the file from there.

-Restore PSD file from the most recent backup.

-Use commercial Digital Photo Recovery Software to recover lost PSD files.

The Photo Recovery tools are particularly designed to scan your hard drive using advanced scanning algorithms and retrieve all lost multimedia files. They provide easy and safe recovery in all cases of PSD file loss.

Adobe Photoshop CS3 (PC) Full Version for PC

The Adobe  Photoshop  CS3 software offers you new advanced Compositing and Quick Selection tools. It has a streamlined interface and comes with powerful editing tools and workflow enhancements. The software is available in two editions – the Adobe  Photoshop  CS3 the Adobe  Photoshop  CS3 Extended.

The CS3 version is aimed for professional and amateur photographers. It can be of great help to graphic and web designers. The CS3 Extended version is meant for film, video and multimedia professionals. It can be of great help to graphic & web designers, medical & manufacturing professionals, architects, engineers and scientific researchers.

The Adobe  Photoshop  CS3 software is loaded with several useful features like Smart Objects, Spot-Healing Brush, Red-Eye Reduction Tool, InDesign, Illustrator, ImageReady and AfterEffects. The software is available in six separate suites viz. Design Premium, Design Standard, Web Premium, Standard Production, Premium and Mater Collection. You need an Intel Pentium 4 processor, a DVD-Rom Drive and 1024 x 768 pixel monitor resolution to run the software.

The Illustrator CS3 is a vector graphics editor that allows you to create sharp-edged artistic illustrations like cartoons, clip-arts and complex geometric patterns. It provides you a complete colour exploration environment. Its Live Colour dialogue box allows you to dynamically apply colours to selected objects. The Control Panel automatically displays the options that are most appropriate for your current selection. This feature makes it easier for you to find the tools that you need for the task at hand. It eliminates the need to open a full panel of tools and reduces your workspace cluster. It also makes you more efficient as you need not dig deep into menus to find what you need.

The Adobe  Photoshop  CS3 software is available on a DVD format and requires 1.5 GB of disk space for installation. The software features a streamlined interface and Camera Raw enhancements. It has unparalleled editing powers that include live filters, powerful cloning & healing tools and precise colour correction. The software comes with improved Photo merge technology. It allows you to edit your 3D content. You can then incorporate those changes into your 2D compositions as well. The Adobe  Photoshop  CS3 also comes in a Student Edition. You need to submit a proof that you are a student to get the Student Edition at lower rates. You cannot use the Student Edition for commercial purposes.

How to Speed Up Photoshop CS3

To speed up  Photoshop  CS3, one should understand that its speed is affected most by the available RAM memory as well as the computer processor speed. But those aren’t just the factors that affect performance. There are other things as well like the options you have selected, the workflow, your operating system as well as your hardware configuration. Optimizing your operating system as well as your hardware configuration would not only help speed up  Photoshop  CS3 but improve the performance of your applications as well.

 Photoshop  CS3 supports many new image dimensions as well as files and as such it requires more advanced system performance when compared to its predecessor. The maximum file size that it can support is 300,000 x 300,000 pixels, except for PDF files because those are still constrained by the 30,000 x 30,000 pixel limitations.

So, what can you do to speed up  Photoshop  CS3? Look below for some tips.

The options you select as well as the plug-ins that you use in  Photoshop  greatly affects its performance, the ones which affect it the most are the ones listed here.

• Setting Scratch Disks
  

What is a scratch disk? A scratch disk is similar to a virtual memory in a Mac OS. So for the best performance possible, you must set the primary scratch disk to an already defragmented hard drive that is not used to run the operating system as well as having a good amount of unused space. It should also have a fast read and write speed.

• Adjust Cache Levels
  

 Photoshop  makes use of image caching to draw high resolution pictures faster on-screen. To enable the Cache Levels options, specify the number of low resolution versions you want  Photoshop  to store or cache. The more versions you save the slower  Photoshop  would open the files. The default setting for this is 6 but you can go lower by choosing a number between 1-8. Setting it to the lowest possible would help increase and speed up  Photoshop  CS3 performance.

• Minimizing Palette Preview Thumbnails
  

 Photoshop  uses extra memory to display the thumbnail previews in the layers, paths and channels palettes so the more preview thumbnails that  Photoshop  displays and the larger their size, the more memory is being used to draw and update them. To minimize these previews, click on Palette Options from the Palette pop-up menu then select the smallest size or none for the thumbnail size and then click OK.

• Dragging and dropping files
  

Dragging and dropping in between layers of files is way more efficient than when you are copying and pasting them. Dragging files bypasses the clipboard and directly transfers the data. Copying and pasting on the other hand would involve more transferring of data and takes more time.

By customizing the system you can help speed  Photoshop  cs3. You can also do this by increasing the amount of memory allocated to  Photoshop  you can do this by closing applications that you are not using or by disabling extensions that aren’t significant.

Photoshop Tutorial - An Ideal Modifying Tool For Photography Lovers

In this  Photoshop  tutorial we will reveal the main reasons why a modern day to day photographer needs to have  Photoshop  installed on their PC, as the idea way to spruce up their digital photos.

Shooting photos that seize your audience’s attention and hold their attention will make you extremely popular. These days the majority of professional photographers tend to use a digital camera, as it’s much easier to handle and provides instant satisfaction. Regardless if you are an amateur or a professional, Adobe  Photoshop  could possibly be the digital image enhancing program for you.

Why? Well  Photoshop  is a digital graphic editing system which can be used to repair or enhance digital photos. Using Adobe  Photoshop  you will have the capability to edit your pictures, (eliminate red-eye, etc.) giving them a really professional appeal.

Basically,  Photoshop  is used by photographers all over the world to improve, modify, restore, and edit uninteresting looking pictures and turn them in to something stylish looking along with clearly sharp shades that will be good enough to post in gossip columns and periodicals.

With modern tools you needn’t be described as a “professional” digital photographer to produce incredible photographs. There’s no longer a necessity to completely comprehend what exposure compensation, white balance, shutter speeds, as well as other photography terms imply. All that is required is that you simply point, snap, submit, and print. Top grade, expensive dslrs just aren’t essential any more, and by using a mainstream digital camera, and  Photoshop  set up on to your personal computer, you can actually create amazing, high quality pictures. It is simple to rectify color saturation, light balance, and also exposure compensation after you shoot the images, cutting down on the time needed throughout the photo shoot.

And even in case your pictures are shot in poor lighting settings you are able to modify them with  Photoshop  to make them appear as if they were taken in the ideal lighting conditions.

Photographs which do not last that test of time may also be modified in  Photoshop . Old faded or damaged pictures can definitely be restored by using  Photoshop . All you need is some sort of scanner which will create a digital copy of that old image. By using  Photoshop , it is possible to turn aged, washed out, and defective photos into something which appears like it had been taken and produced seconds ago.

Also up close face shots are not a problem anymore. Generally such photographs amplify flaws and have to be taken very carefully. Lots of people refrain from getting close-ups taken just because of their particular defects. Luckily Adobe  Photoshop  allows us to solve all these issues.

The astonishing factor is that you may accomplish all of this and more. You can make wrinkles disappear, make the face seem slimmer or even fuller, make a pimple go away, and also give a healthier color to a paler looking face.

There are so many tools in  Photoshop  you will be able to use. As a photographer, you’ll love to have  Photoshop  as one of your resources for picture taking. You can be sure that you will have loads of enjoyment through using this program and also be sure that you will soon be churning out loads of top quality photos.