Monday, January 26, 2009

Learning photoshop can be easy with David Peters

By David Peters

Everything you want to learn about Photoshop is grouped into sections that are easy to identify and access. Tutorials are continually being made simpler and clearer so that everyone is included. If however, you think that the tutorials are not enough there are DVD Rom tutorials that you can purchase and have to access anytime that you forget how to do something and need to refresh your memory. This DVDROM has 120mins (yup, 2 hours) of tutorials that will help you know how to use Photoshop even in your sleep. If you already have more than a basic knowledge of using Photoshop you can take a look at the Photoshop Secrets Special FX. It's a tutorial CDROM with 19 lessons that are packed into 2 hours that will teach you exactly how to use the special cutting edge effects that the advance Photoshop users' use.

If you try to learn Photoshop yourself, a trial and error method of learning will allow you to become pretty good at a few fundamental techniques. But you'll never begin to imagine the unlimited potential of Photoshop CS2 until you sign up for Photoshop training. If you deal with images or graphics of any type in your work or in your favorite hobby, Photoshop training can help you reach your full potential. Adobe says that Photoshop CS3 Extended is ideal for film and video professionals, professionals in the manufacturing industry, medical professionals, architects and engineers, and scientific researchers. Photoshop CS3 lets professionals render 3D images and incorporate them in 2D composites. When CS2 came out, professional and novices alike were thrilled with the new Font Preview capability.

CROPPING. Select the "Crop" tool icon from your Tools bar, then drag it downward diagonally from the upper left corner to the bottom right corner. Release the mouse and then use it to manipulate the image size with the crop "handles." Hit "Enter" or "Return." RESIZING. Go to "Image" in your top menu, then choose "Image Size." Enter the dimensions you need and hit OK. (You can radically change the outer shape of the image by un clicking "Constrain Proportions" at the bottom of the page and entering different dimensions, then clicking OK.)

Strike a balance The Gradient Editor automatically places a midpoint between each colour stop to create a smooth linear blend between colors. You can tweak the effect of this blend by moving the midpoint to offset the mix between the colors. Using this technique you can create tight, dramatic blends between colors instead of gradual ones. The opacity stops run along the top of the preview bar. A black opacity stop indicates 100% solid, a white opacity stop indicates that that part of the gradient is 100% transparent and grey stops indicate values in between.

By dragging the bottom layer's white slider to the left, its lightest colors appear over the image. If you drag the "black" slider to the right, the darkest colors disappear and the image below appears. Dragging the underneath layer's black slider will bring out the darkest colors from the bottom image. To merge your blended layers when you're finished, so that any further styling will be applied equally, click Layer in your top menu, then either Merge Down, Merge Group, Merge Visible or Flatten Image. If you're the kind of person who loves to learn and master a subject of interest, try out all the various permutations available in your Layer Style box's Advanced Blending palette, under "knockout." Right away, you'll see how useful the three options in the Knockout menu itself can be: None, Shallow or Deep. Below that is a list of options providing even more precise blending for the perfectionist in you.

Indeed, Adobe's online push has as much to do with consumers' expectations as encroaching competition from Google, said Peter O'Kelly, an analyst at Burton Group."From a digital-media consumer experience, Adobe really needs, for competitive and customer value reasons, to be the end-to-end products and services supplier," O'Kelly said. "It doesn't portend well if Adobe can't get on top of it." The latest version of Google's Picasa, which is a desktop application, introduces features to post photos on the Web. It also allows people to read Photoshop files, O'Kelly noted. Showdown with Picasa? Chizen said that although hosted Photoshop is meant to be a low-end product, the company intends to ensure that it is of a higher quality than free alternatives. As an online image-editing application, Adobe faces a challenge in providing a good experience for customers, he added.

As you may already know, undoing steps is not difficult. You use the [Ctrl]/[Command]+[Z] and can move back through stored history using [Shift]+[Ctrl]+[Z].You can also use adjustment layers to do this and you will also be able to have instant access to the original file in its untouched state. Adjustment layers give you the opportunity to make changes to a single layer without changing any of the pixels on the layer itself. This is such a great way to work because you don't have to be concerned about altering the image permanently. When you find that you want to undo an adjustment layer you can simply drag it to the trash can that is located in the Layer palette. Another way to undo an adjustment layer is to turn it off using the eye icon. - 15485

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