The Newest Photoshop Program Adobe CS4

Adobe software is some of the best in its class and every year it continues to improve the previous versions in functionality and ease of use. At first, Adobe became known for a series of individual products, such as Photoshop and Acrobat, however they've also got an entire line of design software, which is also called "Creative Suite," and contains a whole host of useful products. The latest version of the software is Adobe CS4 and contains the following:
o Adobe Photoshop, which is a very popular graphics editor.
o Adobe Illustrator, which is a vector style graphics editor.
o Adobe InDesign, which is a web-design product.
o Adobe Acrobat, which creates and manages PDF files.
o Adobe Flash, which is the software you can thank for various movie style web pages and scenes and can turn any web page into a dynamic browsing experience.
o Adobe Dreamweaver, which is an html based web page manager and html editor. Dreamweaver has been around for quite some time and is a very advanced product when compared to others in its class.
o Adobe Fireworks, which is a bitmap and vector based graphic design editor, mostly used for creating and modifying web based images and designs.
o A mix of 10 other programs ranging from audio editors, advanced management systems, and other organizational style software programs.
Adobe CS4 is a comprehensive software suite that is capable of turning your PC or laptop into a product creation machine. You can literally do anything in the realm of graphics or web design using these tools, and if you learn how to use them properly you can create a skill set that is sought after across the industry.
There are approximately 4 editions to the software, which range in price and value. There is an edition for web focused businesses or individuals, one for design, one for production, and one that contains every piece of software in the suite.
As you can imagine, the price of this package is somewhat expensive, as many of the programs are several hundred dollars individually. The bottom line price is $999 retail and the most expensive package is well over $2,000. Obviously, unless you have a use for all of these products, you might be better off buying them individually. However, if you use more than a few, you should consider buying the base package at a minimum.
Adobe CS4 is the best in its class and contains more than you'll ever need to create graphics, web pages, flash movies, and PDF files. There is so much that you can do with the software that I'd have a hard time fitting it all within this post, but I would strongly consider taking a look at the individual product pages to learn more. Adobe CS4 might be expensive, but it is well worth it when you consider the power it gives you to create and produce great products. There is a reason that the professionals use it, so I would definitely give this software a 2nd look.

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Become a Photoshop Expert in 10 Steps

After working with Photoshop since version 4 in 1999, I realize that nobody really knows every thing that Photoshop can do. This makes it a great toy and tool, because there's always something new to discover. But you can learn most of it and keep learning. I recommend the following habits if you want to become a Photoshop Expert.
For this article, I'm defining expertise as being able to:

• imitate something from real life (e.g. how shadows and light really work, how glass and water bend light).
• guess with reasonable accuracy how a particular effect was created by someone else in Photoshop.
• troubleshoot your own errors as well as someone else's.
• manipulate pixels non-destructively.
• work efficiently through the proper use of shortcuts, panels, actions, and tools.
• know how and when to use most of the features in Photoshop.

Here are the 10 things I recommend you do if you want to be a Photoshop expert.
#1: Own the latest version of Photoshop
It's pretty hard to really experiment with Photoshop if you don't have your own copy at home. Having the latest version is important too. Particularly with the last two versions, CS3 and CS4, new features are added all the time. These features usually either make your job easier (like the Adjustments panel), or give you tools that didn't even exist in prior versions (like some of CS4's 3D capabilities).
I do recommend you purchase your own copy. Please don't used pirated stuff. If you are a teacher or student who is not using Photoshop for commercial purposes, you are allowed by Adobe to purchase the educational version at about half-price. It is as fully-featured as the non-educational version. You can usually buy this version at college book stores, or online at sites such as creationengine.com.
You are allowed to run your Photoshop software on two machines. I have one copy on my desktop PC and one on my laptop for travel.
#2: Play and Make Mistakes
Experimentation and play is the key to learning something beyond the basics. Try out all kinds of tools and filters, and see what they do with different settings. You can't really ruin Photoshop. And if you do, you can reset all the defaults by closing Photoshop, then pressing and holding the Shift+Ctrl+Alt keys (Mac: Shift+Cmd+Opt) while Photoshop restarts.
Take a bunch of photos from your camera (or online) and throw them together. See how blend modes change an overall image as layers are moved around. Try all of the layer adjustments, and every filter combined with another filter. Don't worry if it's ugly. You're learning. And there's always the History panel to allow you to back up several steps and try something else.
#3: Take a Class
To be honest, I had an awful Photoshop teacher. He did little beyond schedule what we were supposed to complete in the textbook. I stopped going at one point. I had learned how not to teach, and four years later I was teaching Photoshop. What a good teacher can do is give you assignments you never dreamed you could do (and enjoy!) More importantly, a good instructor can give you personal guidance when you don't even realize you made a mistake, or there's a typo in the textbook, or you accidentally skipped something, and something goes wrong.
Finally, a good instructor will give you projects to do that give you real-world scenarios and specifications. This prepares you for making real money with Photoshop.
#4: Go to Seminars
Kelby Training provides absolutely fantastic seminars all over the United States. I have had teachers such as the amazing Bert Monroy and Dave Cross. These seminars have increased my creativity and efficiency in Photoshop beyond belief. The day-long seminar is always fun and very inspiring. Go to one of these seminars if you can, or find something comparable in your area.
#5: Read Photoshop Magazines
Photoshop User Magazine from NAPP is the undisputed master when it comes to American Photoshop publications. You can find it for $10 at book stores, or you get an automatic subscription when you become a NAPP member. You will need that NAPP membership to access the tutorial files online. Each issue has a bunch of tutorials at all levels, plus reviews of products and news about the industry. The magazine caters to photographers, designers and hobbyists alike.
Layers Magazine is great too, but does not cater just to Photoshop users. It addresses almost all of the Adobe design products. It only has a couple of Photoshop tutorials per issue. If you work with Illustrator, InDesign, Flash, and Dreamweaver as well, this mag's for you.
I also like to buy those really expensive ($15) imports from the U.K., such as Advanced Photoshop and Photoshop Creative. These can be found at book stores too. Unlike Photoshop User, they include a CD-Rom with every issue that provides all the resources for the tutorials, plus brushes, textures, and the like. These magazines sound like an awfully big expense at first, but they are so worth it. The tutorials are always very well done, and gorgeous to boot.
#6: Read Photoshop Books
Some Photoshop books out there are not so great, but most of them are really top-drawer. When considering a Photoshop book for purchase, look for three things:

• Are the images really beautiful or interesting? I have a book here I taught from before I really evaluated the images. They are bordering on ugly. Find a book that makes you feel like you can't wait to create those images.
• Is the book written to your level? It can be really frustrating if the instructions are too easy or too hard for your experience level.
• Does the book match your learning style? Some books use blocks of text and others make each step into a bullet point. Some have more step-by-step images than others. Decide what works best for you and look for books written that way.

I do have three specific book recommendations. Each of the books below contains wonderful tutorials, and is written very well.
"Layers: The Complete Guide to Photoshop's Most Powerful Feature" by Matt Kloskowski
"Photoshop Fine Art Effects Cookbook: 62 Easy-to-Follow Recipes for Creating the Classic Styles of Great Artists and Photographers" by John Beardsworth
"Adobe Photoshop CS4 One-on-One" by Deke McClelland
#7: Do Online Tutorials
I love doing online tutorials. Some good places to find Photoshop tutorials are psd.tutsplus.com, good-tutorials.com, and tutorialized.com. If you work with online tutorials enough, you find some favorite writers. Look for tutorials writers who provide enough images, proofread their work, and don't leave steps out. You should be able to create a result that looks much like the one promised by following exactly what they have written. As with books, look for tutorials written to your skill level. But push yourself to do more challenging stuff than you're used to.
#8: Be a Community Member
This can take many forms. Sometimes I like to check out online Photoshop forums and see if anybody needs a question answered. I often find cool ideas for myself as well. I also hang out on Twitter, and follow a large number of fellow graphic and Web designers. They are always feeding me new links to incredible online resources. I have RSS feeds I read from my favorite design blogs, and I comment on all of the articles that move me. I read everything by smashingmagazine.com and minervity.com.
There are design communities in the offline world too, of course. I am a member of the local group called ADAC. When I had more time a few years ago, I was even a board member. Real-world design clubs are a great opportunity to learn all about design in addition to some of the business aspects of freelancing (ADAC once had a great talk from an intellectual property attorney about copyright law for artists.) More importantly, you can come away inspired with fresh ideas by looking at the works of others.
#9: Learn Other Adobe Programs Too
Photoshop rarely works in a vacuum for most designers. There are many times when a Photoshop project is enhanced by the contributions of artwork done in Illustrator, for example.
Learn how to save your work for the press using Acrobat. Learn how to create vector artwork in Illustrator and import the paths into Photoshop. Learn how to place your Photoshop files into InDesign. Learn how various Photoshop plugins can expand your design horizons or make your work easier. These are but a few examples. A thorough understanding of Photoshop must include an understanding of how well it plays with others.
#10: Teach Photoshop
I wasn't a Photoshop expert when I started teaching Photoshop. I am now, thanks in part to having taught it. Teaching Photoshop helped me develop my expertise in ways that no other experience can. When you have to communicate how to do something to someone else, you come to understand it in a way that sets it in concrete in your brain.
I often get my students to find something new to learn, and then have them turn around and teach it to another student. And when both students make mistakes during this teaching process, they both learn more. Writing tutorials - and finding out if someone can follow them - takes this concept step further.

Dawn Pedersen
Blue Lobster Art and Design
Web Design, Graphic Design, and Design Tutorials

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Designing Logos In Photoshop CS4 for Beginners

3 simple tricks that will save you hours and headaches
So you can navigate your way around Photoshop but are frustrated by all the things you can't do? Here are 3 simple tricks to help you design better logos more quickly and easily.
1. Learn to duplicate. Many logos require duplicate images or shapes. Maybe you just need two arrows pointing back to back. Drawing them twice and trying to size them is time consuming and imperfect. To duplicate an image you can right click on the layer in the layer navigation menu and choose duplicate image. The image will appear exactly under itself and will only show once you try and drag it to a different place on the page. My favorite way to duplicate and image, however, is to hold the alt key and click to drag the image. You should see a little white duplicate mouse arrow under the normal black arrow if you are in duplication mode. You can create copies as fast as you can click with this neat little trick.
2. Make custom shapes. Most people don't know that you don't need to be able to draw to create great looking art. If you want to create say, a perfect head shape, you can simply borrow an image you want to imitate from a Google image search. Once you have opened the file and dragged it onto your existing pdf you can create a mask over the image like a paint by number. Go to your pen tool and click once at your starting point to create a little black dot called an anchor point. If the image is a polygon with all straight lines than you can click at every angle until you end up at the original point. Once you have clicked on the original anchor point you can right click to create a mask and fill your new shape with any color you wish. If your shape has round edges make 3 anchor points. One at the beginning of the curve one directly in the middle and one at the end of the curve, then click on your original point to close the shape. Now find the convert point tool that looks like a less than math symbol and click on the middle point and drag your mouse up and down until the line bends like the image underneath.
3. Save for web - It is a good rule of thumb to always create logos in 300 dpi (dots per inch) or better quality but when you want to save them for use on the internet it is best to use the option "save for web" in the file tab. Save for web automatically converts pixel ratio and colors to standard web preferences and does it all smartly for you. There is also a huge preview screen for you to see what your option choices are doing to your image before you save it for good.

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The Tools You Need to Cast a Shadow in Photoshop

Casting a shadow is one of the most important competencies one must learn in order to bring his or her visual media to life. It is the final addition that helps render an object so that it stands out and appears more integrated into the background. Furthermore, it adds dimension to a complete piece so that a viewer perceives an actual object in space rather than flat shapes on a surface.
A shadow is cast because of blocked light emanating from a given source. This tutorial will use that principle in order to illustrate how to cast a shadow in Adobe Photoshop. There are a number of ways this can be accomplished in this highly effective graphic program, but only one of these techniques will be covered.
The Simplest Way to Cast a Shadow in Photoshop (aside the automatic option provided in the program):
Foremost, one must create two layers: one exclusively for the object (separate of the background), and another for its shadow. Then, select the layer in which the object is placed, activate the magic wand selection tool (set at a 50% tolerance) and select the field outside of the object. This should select the entire field outside the object, but none of the object whatsoever (if some of the object is selected, undo the selection, decrease the wand's tolerance, and repeat this step). Then, from the "Select" menu, click "Inverse." This will instead select the object. Then, without deselecting, activate the layer designated for the shadow. Make the layer with the object in it invisible so that selected outline of the object is all that appears in the layer. Activate the paint bucket fill tool (which shares a space in the tool box with the gradient fill tool) and fill the selection with the color black. Then, reduce the opacity of the layer to roughly 50%-80% (this can be adjusted as needed, and depends on the darkness of the background as well as the intensity of the light source).
Now that a base shadow as been created, it must be transformed in order to appear as though it is "laying flat" on the background (as would a shadow). At this point, it is easiest to make the object layer visible in order to use the object as a reference point. One should also ensure that the shadow layer is below the object layer so that it appears behind the object. Then, with the shadow still selected, select "Free Transform" from the Edit menu in order to adjust the slant and the size of the shadow. Then, open the "Transform" submenu from the Edit menu and select "Skew." Adjust the shadow as necessary so that it appears as though it is laying flat. Continue to apply adjustments until the shadow looks as realistic as possible.
Finishing Touches
Once the shadow has been successfully cast, one can apply final changes in order to render it even more realistic. For example, one can apply a simple fade-out that one can accomplish using an eraser with a large swatch that has blurred edges and opacity of 70%-50%. Another example could be the application of a Gaussian blur to the shadow layer to add a more evanescent feel to the shadow. At this point, one can play with the shadow endlessly to make it seem as realistic as possible.

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What is Adobe Photoshop?

There are many programs out there for digital artists to use but none are as multipurpose as Adobe Photoshop. Originally just a picture editing program it has evolved to be one of the most useful and indispensable tools in the industry. Add to the fact that it is easy to use and people become intimate with it very quickly. Even if you can only use it at a basic level it can still offer tremendous results in any project.
But what use is a program to make and edit pictures in our modern world? The answer to this is very long and perhaps too big to fit here. However there are a few examples that can illustrate just how important it has become. Have you seen a movie that had 3d models and expansive special effects recently? Chances are that if you're been to a movie house in the past ten years then yes. Would it surprise you to know that without pictures those special effects would be meaningless?
While a 3d modeler can make impressive designs and characters for movies and games they will look like nothing more than grey avatars. This is where the need for competent and creative digital artists comes in. These models and sculptures require textures in order to look as intended and good ones in order to be believable. Almost every texture used is a picture of something in the environment or an artistic pattern to be cut and applied to the model.
While the medium may have changed the concept is the same and traditional artists that can work with digital tools are in high demand. This covers the movie and game aspect of it but what else can the program do? For starters you can edit images, resize them, graft them onto one another, or make original works of art. There are several peripherals for the program that are in essence a pen and pad for you to draw with.
If you are skilled enough you can also recolor and restore faded pictures or bring color to old black and white photos. Both of these methods can be time consuming but they are nonetheless rewarding. Many people have started up businesses based on these two facets of the program alone and have been tremendously successful. Professional purposes aside the program also offers various alterations to personal art works.
While many artists work with the program there are a great many still that prefer to do most of their work with old fashioned paper. Those that make their own work and wish to either touch it up or color it simple use a scanner and import their works of art into the computer. This takes less than a minute and they have a digital copy of their artwork to work with.
Adobe releases a new version of Photoshop every year or so and includes new features as well as program enhancements and bug fixes. This is one of the company's flagship programs and there is rarely a dissatisfied customer.
Adobe Photoshop is one of the best photo creation and editing programs in existence at the moment. There have been few programs that can compare to its capabilities and it has given people many ways to start up businesses and express their personal art. This program can take you places that you may never have dreamed of, so if you have artistic talent don't be afraid to use it.

Copyright (c) 2010 Mandi Pralle

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Choosing the Right Version of Photoshop

Adobe Photoshop is one of the most versatile and outstanding editing programs out on the market. With just a handful of photos and some exploring, anyone from amateurs to professional photographers can crate masterpieces within a matter of hours. There are two versions to choose from: Photoshop CS and Elements. What's the difference? The first one is for pros and other is for home use (amateurs). Both come in standard and plus, which gives you extra cloud storage on top of the free space already provided on the regular version.
With Photoshop Elements, users have plenty of controls to add effects, clip art, text, and other features that come with every other editor out today. They also have the ability to make images transparent in certain areas, which is great for designing T-shirts and printed materials. If used in the right sequence, users can take advantage of various combinations to turn their photos into unique works of art for everyone to admire and praise. There is a slight learning curve when it comes to navigating through the program, but it pays off after doing some exploring and experimenting.
Photoshop CS has the entire package of Elements, but with more advanced controls and features to take a user's photos to new heights. If a user wants to touch up photos or add some clip art, CS is not for them. This version is specifically for professional photographers due to the level of editing needed. From the lighting and tone to 3D modeling, CS goes beyond the call of duty to produce images that can be used for more than just centerfolds or advertisements. If a user goes for Photoshop CS extended, they could even create entire websites that not only look beautiful, but can be driven by Flash to include animations and transitions.
Both versions of Photoshop can be used on Windows or Apple computers. The one thing to keep in mind is that the program does require quite a lot of space and power to run smoothly. If users have at least a 2 Ghz processor and around 4 Gigs of RAM, they should be fine. Any faster and their copy of the program will open and run perfectly. As far as price, expect to pay between $80 (Elements) to $1000 (CS). For what users get for their money, this is a fair price to pay for the quality provided by Adobe.
Those interested in buying either version of Photoshop can find copies in most retail stores and online as well. If someone just wants to touch up photos from their cellphone or camera, they can go to Photoshop.com and do it for free. It's also great for educating those who are curious about the program as well. Also, they get 2 gigs of free storage to store and share their creations online. For the rest, check the prices in stores to get either of the full versions at a discount or in a package deal.

Your graphics can pop, and you don't have to take forever to create them when you know HOW to use the right tools effectively.

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Professional Photo Maker - Adobe Photoshop CS4

As we find in our searching for that professional photo maker, the life of the software product usually has a number of releases offering different versions. Within these versions, changes can be seen normally by the author providing a new re-installable product or just the modified files.
When searching for a professional photo maker, most look for software that may be suited for an expert or even a novice. Within this software should be the simple and easy to use features for all who are tending on utilizing this software.
There is quite a bit of professional photo software out on the market today. This can be a time consuming task if not sure what you are looking for when first starting out or what one might need.
Once you type on those magic words looking for the one great piece of software you will find results that can confuse a person. There will is a wealth of information that is provided which can lead to an overwhelming feeling and frustration.
One of the top results is going to be the Adobe Photoshop CS4 or CS5. This professional photo maker has some great features geared to those who are looking for that ease of use and understanding of how these tools work.
Access of this powerful software will provide its users with a greater sense of freedom while editing, enhancements with efficiency, creating masks and fine-tuning of images, color correction, increased speed with graphic handling, plus raw image processing.
In using Adobe Photoshop CS4 or CS5 users will not need any special requirements, Users can make a variety of adjustments to images without corrupting the value of the image itself. One of the great benefits if wanting to try this piece of software is its free trial version. This is a wonderful way of utilizing the features to see if this is the right software before investing.
As one searches, there will be many more of a certain type of professional photo maker that users can try with its free trials. Before choosing, one should look into other upgrades that might be available for that specific software. As the user increases their experience, they may need to upgrade to a more professional photo software that offers more advanced tools that offers different features.

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Wrap 2D Images Onto a 3D Object Using Adobe Photoshop CS4

Adobe Illustrator is a vector-based drawing program created to assist any user in editing with greater effects for the image. Similar to Adobe's Photoshop, Illustrator uses a vector-based program instead of using a bitmap-based program such as Photoshop. Many users do not understand the difference between bitmap and a vector-based program, so here it is. A bitmap image-processing program is ideally used for creating, modifying, and then outputting digital images of any type of photography/ graphic.
Though Adobe Photoshop contains many tools and various abilities to create, edit, and output wonderful images, the tools are nothing compared to that of Illustrator's. Typically, users purchase Adobe Photoshop for digital photography editing while Illustrator is purchased for creating images and graphics. Both can be used for each other's purposes and will do each other's job; yet they are specified for their abilities. It is recommended to purchase both instead of using Photoshop for Illustrator's purposes. Top new features for the CS4 version of Illustrator include the new transparency in gradients. This feature gives the user the ability to reveal underlying objects and create a richer color and texture when mixing multiple layers then covering them up with fades.
Following this there is a Blob Brush tool which will allow you to sketch with a brush then allow it to generate a clean vector shape which will even show the overlapping strokes. This will allow a smoother finish towards the end of your project. Refined Graphic styles will allow you to combine styles for unique looks, which will not disturb the object's current experience. Through this you may use an In-Panel editing tool which will give you access to editing tools directly onto the appearance panel, eliminating the necessity of opening fill in/ stroking/ or other tools which require more RAM (Random Access Memory) for opening. Overall, that feature will give the user the ability to finish quicker and run Illustrator more efficiently.

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Professional Graphics Can Be Simple With Photoshop CS4 Tutorials

High-quality graphics don't need to be a mystery if you take Photoshop CS4 tutorials. Websites, magazines and other publications have beautiful images: clean, colourful and attractive. With a professional package, like Adobe Photoshop CS4, you can create designs with the same standard of quality. However, if you're new to the program, it can take a while to get your head around it.
Being able to create beautiful graphics in Photoshop is a highly useful skill, both in work and at home. Trying to struggle through learning it yourself, though, can be a lengthy process and caught in the middle of masks, layers and brushes, you might wonder why you ever even started.
There are instructor led, classroom courses available, but not everyone has the time or money to invest in one of them. Life is busy and things never happen according to schedule. A viable alternative to learning in a classroom is CBT or computer based training: CD-ROM or online tutorial programs that teach you what you need to know from home whenever you are able to learn.
It's also possible, if you know the basics, to find an advanced course, or jump ahead to the parts you're not so sure about. Make this training work for you, you don't need to spend hours wading through lessons you don't need.
Made by professionals, this training is not just a jumble of 'how to's from self-appointed 'experts' on the Internet. It is an accurate, high quality learning tool that can help you improve your skills and prospects.

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Top 5 New Features in Photoshop CS4

On the 23 September 2008 Adobe Systems announced the release of the highly anticipated latest version of Photoshop, Photoshop CS4.
Photoshop has long been the industry standard professional digital image manipulation program. It fact it would be hard to get a job as a graphic designer if you didn't have experience using Photoshop.
So let's explore the new features in Photoshop CS4 and then decide whether for $199 it's worth upgrading from CS3 to CS4. If you are still working on an older version of Photoshop such as CS2 or CS then I would definitely recommend upgrading.
This article is going to focus on the top 5 new features in Photoshop CS4.
1. Smoother panning and zooming and fluid canvas rotation
Working with bitmap images often involves editing pixel by pixel. The smoother zooming feature will give you much more control as you zoom in and out of your bitmaps. Plus the new rotation feature is very cool and is a huge improvement on the somewhat clumsy rotate image handles. I give these new features 9 out of 10.
2. New Adjustments Panel
This panel contains some of the most commonly used color and tone correction tools. Tools, which Photoshop users use every day such as Levels, Curves and Hue & Saturation are now all located on this single panel. Photoshop allows you to edit in a non-destructive mode using an Adjustments layer. Even though this feature is not new per se, this new Adjustment panel makes it easier to work with many of these stable Photoshop tools. I give this new feature 5 out of 10.
3. New Masks Panel
This is a very cool new feature. The new Masks Panel is really powerful and it gives you full control over both pixels and vector masks. You can adjust mask density and feathering, easily select noncontiguous objects, and much more.
You can still create layer masks in the old fashioned way but this new panel is much more powerful and will make learning masking easier for new users of Photoshop. I give this new feature 8 out of 10.
4. Content-Aware Scaling
This is my favorite new feature in Photoshop CS4. This new and revolutionary Content-Aware Scaling feature is used when re-sizing images. Users can select an area of an image that you do not want to lose when resizing and Photoshop will protect it, by removing other areas first.
Content-Aware Scaling automatically recognizes skin tones to keep people from being squeezed when you resize an image. So as you resize an image, people in the picture may move closer together or further apart, but they will remain properly proportioned whilst the background changes. I would have to give this feature a 10 out of 10.
5. Many enhancements
My final new feature is really just a whole bunch of cool improvements to existing features in Photoshop CS3. These include:
1. Improved color correction with re-engineered Dodge, Burn, and Sponge tools
2. Improved auto-blending of images.
3. New preview feature on the Clone Tool.
4. Better raw image processing.
I give these new features a 7 out of 10.
So in conclusion, Photoshop CS4 introduces some very new and exciting features such as fluid canvas rotation and content-aware scaling, a few new panels such as Mask Panel and Adjustments panel which help to improve your workflow, and a whole bunch of enhancements to existing features.
Overall I would have to say that $199 investment to upgrade is a no-brainer. Enjoy!

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Photoshop Benefits to Industries and Professions

One of the most prolific and exponentially valuable Internet tools is Adobe's Photoshop software. But this software has more far reaching possibilities than the normal industrial uses it sees now. Presently, this software is used in web design and graphic creation business fronts, especially online. But what OTHER industries and professions can benefit from Photoshop?
Well, one of the most obvious ones is businesses that produce graphic designed items. These can be things like tee shirts, coffee mugs and other personalized or gag items. Customers or clients can send in their own photo and ask for it to be "enhanced" in a certain way. That is especially useful since not everyone knows how to use Photoshop that way.
Another one is graphic web design or personalized social networking page templates. Imagine having a picture of yourself or your kids as your MySpace profile page background. In the area of web design, the possibilities are truly endless with Photoshop. These folks can create page templates, buttons or any type of graphic that people are in the market for.
But there are some industries that can benefit that you may not have thought of. The add-ons that exist for Photoshop make it a widely versatile tool for manufacturers of machinery parts and service repair manuals. Since the graphics are loaded into Photoshop as a non-graphic format, the possibilities are limitless as to what can be done with them.
For instance, using Adobe's Fireworks add on, graphics can be given life and become animated at a level not seen before. Images can be loaded from CAD software, brought into the Photoshop program and then turned in a real time environment. This essentially gives the item a 3 dimensional feel and view. In the area of parts and repair manuals, this can be extremely helpful since the finished pages can be saved as an Internet file and posted for repair technicians to view online from anywhere in the world.
Some of the software add ons even allow you to create a moving real time animation of a repair procedure, step by step. This is a huge benefit to companies that run service personnel overseas when questions come up. Time, money and prestige are saved as a result.
Photoshop can even be a benefit to video game walk through writers. A screen shot can be taken of progressive screens and captioned with instructions or helpful information. Novice players can suddenly play like world-class pros in a fraction of the time without the frustration of the learning curve. For this, they are willing to pay and pay handsomely.
As you can see, Photoshop can be used in many industries and the uses are only limited by the user's imagination. Many Internet marketers have used Adobe's PDF format for many years to display information to customers. It really is surprising that so few of those people took advantage of Photoshop's full capabilities. Animations, colored fonts and hyperlinked text or graphics are all possible inside the Photoshop software and it can be a benefit to YOUR business. All you have to do is try it and see.
Copyright (c) 2010 Mandi Pralle

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Adobe Photoshop Video Tutorials Best Ever

Adobe Photoshop Tutorials have hit a new level in being able to learn any Adobe Photoshop software in record time. Yes it's true - You can dominate any Photoshop software with these specially prepared photoshop video tutorials and you don't have to wait as access is immediate. You can get started right away with photoshop video tutorials and master any Adobe Photoshop software in record time.
"Hang on!" - What makes these Adobe Photoshop tutorials so special? That is the question that will be fully answered below showing just how effective they are in producing quality edits with ease.
Statistics show that most Photoshop users want to learn how to transform old pics into new looking pics. This system will provide that knowledge and other important shortcuts that will turn your low quality photos into real masterpieces.
I quite often watch the news and am disgusted with the images they show of people with "red eye". This photoshop edit is so basic but you will discover how easy Photoshop makes it to remove red eye from your digital photos as well as other great tricks to make turn family and friends into Hollywood stars.
Don't shy away from all of the special effects like "flip", "add shadows" and "crop" as these video tutorials will make them look so easy and you will soon be turning out photos that will impress all of your family and friends.
You will soon come to terms with features like "effects", "text tool", "gradient fill", "layers", "paint bucket", "lasso" and "magic wand". Remember that this training system simplifies Photoshop into just a few video tutorials, so you will never be overwhelmed with these professional editing tools.
Discover how to create your Adobe Photoshop environment with the "Palette Well" tool, which isn't as complicated as it first may seem. These Adobe Photoshop tutorials will assist you in dominating all of those tools, providing you with optimum results as well as saving a lot of your time. The "toolbox" is another great feature that sometimes causes learning difficulties but you will soon feel comfortable about it after seeing just how easy it is explained in Photoshop video tutorials.
Do you know how to find your digital images on your hard drive through your Photoshop software? You won't ever have that problem again as these photoshop videos will reveal just how simple Adobe Photoshop software really is!

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No More ImageReady in CS3? - Not a Problem!

OK, accept the sad news - ImageReady was discontinued.
Hopefully most of its features have been included in Photoshop CS3. Of course it is not as convenient as before, but I already know guys who are happy with changes.
So, we have lost (it is in Adobe Fireworks CS3 now):
- Export to Macromedia Flash SWF
- Image Map tool
- Group Slices Into Table (however, you can export subgroup of slices as a table)
As you have noticed, this features are very helpful for those who are into web design.
If you hope that new and improved Fireworks-2-Photoshop integration will make you happy, you are wrong. It sucks actually. Fireworks simply doesn't understand styles and clipping layers. Hope Adobe will fix that someday.
Now I should say that everything is not so bad and we are not doomed still...
So here are features which were included:
- Slice tool/Slice Select tool -
These tools are available on the Toolbar.
- Tab Rectangle tool/Pill Rectangle tool -
This is available through the Rounded Rectangle Shape tool.
- Slice palette -
In the Slice Options dialog box.
- Animation palette (love this one) -
Window > Animation. It has two modes: Frames and Timeline. Frames mode corresponds to the Animation palette in ImageReady.
Timeline gives you a simplified version of timeline in Adobe After Effects, which is really cool.
- Edit Animated GIF files -
Photoshop CS3 can create animated GIF files.
File > Save For Web & Devices. Unfortunately you cannot just open an existing animated GIF file as before.
BUT! you can do it if to use Import function.
File > Import > Video Frames to Layers... you won't find GIF in the list of available formats. It doesn't matter, in the File Name: type GIF file name with extension.
For example: animation.gif and press Load button.
That's it, now you have your GIF animation and can edit it the way you got used to in ImageReady.
Import > Folder as Frames - do the next:
File > Scripts > Load files into Stack.
In the Load Layers dialog box, select Folder from the Use menu. Browse to the folder that contains the images you want to include and click OK.
Select Make Frames from Layers in the Animation palette menu.
Export > Layers as Files -
File > Scripts > Export Layers to Files.
Variables -
Image > Variables.
Select File > Save For Web & Devices -
This is very important menu. Here you can save your file as GIF animation.
Just select desired GIF preset and if satisfied, you are done. If not, there are a lot of settings to play with. Under color table you can choose loop options.
That's it, hope after this article you won't blame Adobe for what they have done :)
You better not to know what Autodesk have done to Maya. Guess it is a nice topic for the next article 8)

See you next time.
Good luck and have fun!
Kostya Koss (aka) Almakos.

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Photoshop Tutorial Basics Introduction

One image can yield a wide array of manipulations in Photoshop CS3. Using only filters already built in to the program, users can render the same file into different images for a variety of applications. This tutorial highlights some basic effects which can be achieved in just a few steps.
Open Photoshop CS3; and then open any image which you own, have permission to use, or is in the public domain. Save a copy of the image and then close the original to use again. You may choose to save multiple copies to avoid numerous undo steps.
Textures applied to the whole image can render different appearances. To make an image appear to be under mottled glass, click on Filter, scroll down to Distort, and then click on Glass. In this menu choose Canvas, leave the Scaling at 100%, and then adjust the Distortion and Smoothness to your liking. Give the image a cross-stitch look by clicking on Filter, scrolling down to Texture, and then clicking on Patchwork. A Square Size and Relief of 5 seem to work well for many images.
Change a photo into a painting or drawing by applying basic filters. To convert to a painting, click on Filter, scroll down to Brush Strokes, and then click on Angled Strokes. Make adjustments to the Direction Balance, Stroke Length, and Sharpness until you are satisfied with the preview. Render a quick cartoon drawing by first making a duplicate layer of your image. Click on Layers, and then click on Duplicate Layer. With the Background Copy layer active, click on Filter, scroll down to Artistic, and then click on Poster Edges. The default settings should be sufficient, though you can make adjustments as you choose. Click OK to exit the Poster Edges menu. Go back to Filter, down to Artistic, and click on Cutout. In this menu, Number of Levels and Edge Simplicity set at 4, with Edge Fidelity set at 2 appear to give a great effect.
Converting an image to grayscale in Photoshop used to mean simply using the Desaturate option. Photoshop CS3 has introduced the Black and White adjustment, allowing for more control. Click on Image, scroll to Adjustments, and then click on Black & White. Explore the Presets and move the sliders around to get a feel for the customization available. Place a check in the Tint box to give the image a sepia or monotone appearance.
Basic manipulations can be quick and easy in Photoshop CS3. A few simple steps allow users to alter images for graphic and web design, scrapbooking, or any other application. Apply one effect or several for a variety of results.

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All About Adobe Photoshop CS3

Adobe Photoshop is a well known high quality software package for working with raster graphic images and bitmaps. Most people consider it a superiour product when compared with the existing competition and almost certainly the markets leading programme of its type. Photoshop is frequently used as a tool in graphic design, for manipulating and editing images and has wide applications. CS3 is the latest and greatest version of Adobe Photoshop at this time. CS3 which stands for "Creative Suit 3" is available with various developed software programmes and bundles from Adobe. There are several different bundles available but most of them are not incorporated with the version of either Adobe Photoshop or Adobe Photoshop CS3 Extended. It should also be noted that the Apple Macintosh computers and PC's running current versions of the Microsoft windows operating system are supporting the versions of CS3.
You can have quick advance compositing and quick selection tools by the use of Adobe Photoshop CS3 software. It comes with powerful editing tools, work flow enhancements and has a streamlined interference. The CS3 extended version provides great help to graphic and web designers, engineers and scientific researchers, medical and manufacturing professionals.
Several useful features like spot-healing brush, smart objects, red-eye reduction and illustrator are all loaded into Adobe Photoshop CS3 software.
Broadly speaking the products contained in Adobe Photoshop CS3 are intended for professional use but thats not saying you need proper training to get most out of this software.
With Adobe Illustrator CS3, you can create sharp edged artistic illustrations like clip arts, cartoons and other geometric complex patterns. You can have complete color exploration environment with the help of this software, along with that it allows you to apply colors dynamically to selected objects.
It should be noted that Adobe Photoshop CS3 is a very powerful programme which can in turn make it difficult to learn due to its sophistication.

Article by Kevin M. Sugrue

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Tutorial For Adobe Photoshop - How to Use Photoshop CS3 Interface

The Photoshop CS3 interface is very user friendly and has many customizable features in it. This makes the user at ease while working with the product. You can customize the workspace and organize the tools which you use very often so that you have easy access to it and working on the tool becomes a wonderful experience.
If you are using CS2, you can upgrade to CS3 as it has many better and enhanced features incorporated. There are many video demonstrations available on the web giving you instructions on how to use the Photoshop CS3 interface. If you have been using the previous versions, then using CS3 interface would not be any difficult to you.
In CS3 interface you use floating palettes or dock them together to a side when not in use. The palettes can be grouped together and you can make multiple palettes for easy working. If you feel that these docks are taking up much of the workspace, just collapse them down. Expand them only when you need them so that you get ample of workspace for your images or videos. And if you feel that your current work does not need the docks, you can hide all of them by using the Shift+Tab keys on your keyboard. To make them re-appear, just move your mouse over to the area where the palettes were before hiding them.
The Maximize Screen Mode is a useful feature in the CS3. With the help of this feature, your working window gets re sized automatically as and when you expand or collapse your customized palette. So you do not have to go and manually maximize or minimize the screen, thus giving you more time to concentrate on your work.
CS3 works well on Intel Mac and Windows. The Layers palette, you can collapse it down to a small box. And when you hit the Tab key, the palette is back on the screen. And the F key is another useful shortcut in the CS3. Using this key you can juggle between the full screen views.
In Photoshop CS3 you have some new features like the enhanced Vanishing Point and Live Filter. Using Adobe Bridge you can organize and manage all your files and folders well. There are many tutorials available on the web as well as with the product which gives you a better idea of how to use Photoshop CS3 interface. These tutorials will contain tips and shortcuts which can save lot of time and energy while you work. You can also view the video tutorials on the web for better understanding of the working tips. The shortcuts can be better understood when you use the video tutorials. Also when selecting your tutorial, be sure of the type of tutorial you choose. If you are a fresher on Photoshop CS3 opt for the beginner's tutorial. Instead, if you choose the advanced tutorial you may not be able to understand the interface well as many basic functions will be missed out in the advanced tutorial

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Adobe Photoshop CS3 - 3D Pop Out Image

This Adobe Photoshop CS3 tutorial will demonstrate how you can make a figure in an image pop-up from the background and the image border itself. It is a very cool effect if you do it correctly. It also works better if you have a better image to work with than the one you see below. However, this should be good enough to demonstrate what is possible. I hope that you find a better use for it than I have. I have found this useful to use in newsletters when you send out pictures of people and it makes the scene come to life and everybody feels really good about themselves. Enough of the chit-chat though. Let's continue with the tutorial.
First, let's open up the picture we want an object to jump out of!
Image #1
Now we must change the name of the picture layer from background to something else and then copy it. You must also create a new layer and drag it to the bottom of the layer list.
Image #2
Now we will change the background color of the image to white.
Image #3
Now you can see the new white background layer.
Image #4
The next thing you want to do is select the layer that is on top of the list.
Image #5
Then select the Quick Selection Tool.
Image #6
Use the Quick Selection tool to trace the object that you want to pop-out of the image.
Image #7
Now you want to right-click on that area and select (inverse). This will select the outside area of what you have selected. Then you can press the delete button or right-click and delete and that area will be erased. That is when you will see the white background from the bottom most level.
Image #8
Now select the layer that is in the second position.
Image #9
Now we will take a section of the picture that we want to retain inside of the picture frame. Anything outside of this region will either disappear or become part of the pop-out effect.
Image #10
Now will select the "Mask Button" that is below the layers. You can see my cursor pointing to it.
Image #11
Now you have a finished project. A little weak in its effect and maybe not appealing, but it works none the less.
Image #12
I am sure you will have much better ideas of what to do with this knowledge and how to use it. Now that I think about it I think that I could use it in some places right now that would help me out a little. I think I will get to work on that. The 3d pop-up effect will be great for making pictures of your family and friends come alive right before your eyes. If a picture is worth a 1000 words then a pop-out picture is worth 5,000! Have fun exploring Adobe CS3 and always strive to learn more!

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Adobe Photoshop CS3 - Dodge and Burn Tools

This tutorial will go over too underused programs by Adobe Photoshop CS3. These two tools are the Dodge tool and Burn tool. These tools have the unique characteristic of lightening or darkening an area in an image. This comes into handy when you have pictures that may be too dark in some areas to see what is going on or to bright to see things. I have used a picture with a mixture of dark and light areas that could use some fabrication. This tool has been around for quite some time, but is very useful none the less. Let's continue with the tutorial so we can see just how this affects the image.
First open up Adobe Photoshop CS3 and select an image that you want to lighten or darken. now select the Dodge tool as shown in the diagram below.
Image #1
Now select an area that you want to lighten.
Image #2
Now click once or twice and check the changes this makes to an area on image. You can change the amount it changes per click by going to the top and changing the Exposure percentage. You can also change the brush size up there if you want to do a bigger or smaller area at a time.
Image #3
Now select the Burn tool from the menu on the left.
Image #4
Now you can see the tool image on the left.
Image #5
Now select the lightened area that we just changed.
Image #6
Now click a couple times and look at the output. It looks almost like it did when we started. It will probably never go back to the same way it was though. We can always try to get close though.
Image #7
Now if you click a few more times you make that little house in the background behind the photographer almost disappear. I can see this being used when something revealing is showing in a reflection in a picture. This is how they would try to make it unviewable.
Image #8
I hope that this tutorial has taught you how to effectively use the Dodge tool and the Burn tool. I am sure that you will find more useful things to do with it, but this is a nice example of it being used on an image in real life. Whatever image you choose to change make sure you take your time and display some effort in your work. It will go a long way in creating your masterpiece.

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You Just Installed Photoshop CS3 - Now What?

Q. I just installed Photoshop CS3, is there anything I can use it for to make some money?
When I get asked that question, my coaching skills kick in and I start pulling out my entrepreneurial cap. The first thing I think about is all the people who ask me for minisites, headers, footers and ecover art.
Just because you don't know how to use the software, does not mean you can't make money with it. It turns out that some very industrious people created action scripts that they can use to make anything that they desire.
Basically what an action script does is repeat a set group of actions with the starting image in the template. These actions can be anything from shrinking the size of an image to making it into a hot air balloon. The main thing to remember is that you just have to edit the template that the action creates for you.
First Things First
Once you have installed the actions into Photoshop, you simply start with no open documents. You find the action script that you are looking for. Let's choose the ebook cover. Then you select it and click the play arrow, and the script starts out by opening a template for you to edit.
Make note of the layers, and then make your changes to the template, flatten the layers back into the ones that you originally had, making sure to select the items that are all in the same section.
For example, on our ebook cover, we might have layers named front cover and spine. First you would add the cover text, a photo of the author, some related graphics from istockphoto.com and the author's name. You would select all of those layers and merge them into one layer. Then you would rename that layer front cover again, since Photoshop does not ask you if you want to name it a particular name from the layers you just merged.
You would repeat this with the spine, and then merge those layers and rename the resulting layer spine. At this point you have made your ecover in flat form, and all you have to do it run the script again. Just click on the little play button and the action script does its thing and you have a finished ebook cover! All that is remaining to do is save it as the name you want to give it and export it to a format that you can use on the web.
Build It And They Will Want Graphics For It
Now that you are able to easily make graphics for yourself, you should be able to find others who also need graphics done. With these action scripts, you can be the person they call on to make all of their cover art.  As you get better at using the scripts, and you find more complex ones, you will be able to offer your customers even more. So now that you have installed your Photoshop CS3, what are you going to make next? 

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Learn Adobe Photoshop CS3

Adobe Photoshop is a graphics editing software package developed and marketed by Adobe Systems Incorporated: it is the market leading program for editing professional raster graphics.
Today, most people who purchase Photoshop will probably get as one of the Adobe Creative Suite 3 packages. Adobe Creative Suite 3 is a collection of graphic design, web development and video editing applications. The package is available for both Apple Macintosh computers and PCs running Microsoft Windows. In the case of the Apple Macintosh, all major programs are provided in the form of "universal binaries", a single program file that can run on both PowerPC and x86 (Intel) Apple Macintoshes.
There are several variants of the Creative Suite 3 package available: Design Standard, Design Premium, Web Standard, Web Premium, Production Premium and Master Collection. Each of these packages includes a different bundle of software applications. Adobe Photoshop CS3 or Adobe Photoshop CS3 Extended is included in all variants of package except for Web Standard (in fact, most variants include Adobe Photoshop CS3 Extended).
It should be noted that Adobe Photoshop is a very powerful program, but because of its sophistication, it can quite hard to learn. This difficulty arises not because of any flaws in Photoshop - on the contrary, Photoshop is very well thought-out and easy to use - but simply because the program has so many features. Additionally, many news users to Photoshop will need not only to learn the program itself, but also to learn graphic design and prepress terminology and techniques. However don't let that stop you - there are many excellent online tutorials, software training packages, books and even DVDs that can help you quickly learn Adobe Photoshop CS3.

http://www.graphicsacademy.com/howto_tutorials_adobe_photoshop.php

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Hot Tricks And Tips To Dominate Photoshop CS3 Tools

Photoshop CS3 gives its users some hugely improved features and tools compared to earlier releases of Photoshop. Once you take the time learn a few of the tricks Photoshop CS3 has in store for you, you'll find you can edit your images with ease and panache.
Photoshop CS3 is decked out with a new intuitive interface. This may not be a very flashy trick, but it is one that you will appreciate; it makes all of Photoshop easier to use. Most of your screen is taken up by the drawing canvas. You can make your toolbox one or two columns. Your palettes docked or minimized. There are four different options for the full screen mode.
Smart Filters are one of the most long-awaited tricks for CS3. Smart filters are filters that you can apply and then edit or remove without destroying your work. First, make your image a Smart Object using the Layers palette. Then apply and edit your filters. It is possible to toggle your filters on and off. This trick is especially cool when presenting different views of a graphic to a client.
One of the coolest tricks with Photoshop CS3 tools holds is its ability to bend and align multiple photos to create a seamless panoramic image. In the past, even the most carefully shot and stitched photos would still have some discrepancies in the skyline or foliage. Now, simply put two slightly overlapping photos in a single layer, go to Edit, and select Auto-Bend Layers. Photoshop will create a seamless photo for you. If you have three or more pictures, place them all in separate layers, go to Edit and select Auto-Align Layers. Once this is complete, use the Auto-Bend option to create a great panoramic shot.
You no longer need the magnetic lasso tool in Photoshop CS3. Instead click on the Quick Selection tool. It will show you areas of your image that you may want to select, such the people in the foreground. Couple this trick with the new Refine Edge function and you'll get seamless edits without extra jagged lined or bumps every time.
The black and white adjustment has been beefed up on CS3. Previously, if you wanted to quickly create a grayscale image from a color photo you would lose a lot of depth and shading. Now, Photoshop allows you to click a few buttons and drag a few sliders to create your perfect black and white image. The sliders correspond to the original red, blue, and green shades in your original photo. You can also use the adjustment trick to create a sepia-toned or duo tone image.
Camera Raw also has a few tricks up its sleeve. Most prominently, you can open jpeg and tif files in Camera Raw. Previously only raw files were allowed, discriminating against those of use with less sophisticated digital cameras. While the same corrections and compressions are still in place, you are just able to use Camera Raw controls on jpeg files.
There are still many more tricks available in Photoshop CS3. Take advantage of the huge amount of literature on the web to learn more. I would also suggest you take a look at this FREE video that shows you how to use other Photoshop CS3 tools

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Tutorial For Adobe Photoshop CS5

Hopefully sometime this week Adobe Photoshop Creative Suite 5 (CS5) will officially be released, although I can already expose a few of the new features in this tutorial dedicated to the latest version of Adobe Photoshop CS5.
The team at Photoshop has been concentrating their efforts in improving two major areas of improvement as they have done for each and every one of the latest CS versions. First they take a look at what needs to be improved on in CS4 - There is nothing better than user feedback, so they will have already spent a lot of time looking improving existing CS4 functions and applications.
Even though we will now be looking at the new Adobe Photoshop CS5 functions, I must stress at this stage that overall new CS5 product will be practically 90% the same as CS4, so if you do decide to upgrade, there is only about 10% of the total program that you will need to learn how to use effectively.
So the main area of improvement is without a doubt the brand new features that Photoshop add, allowing the Adobe brand always one step ahead of the competition, and these new tools will also allow us to edit photos like no man has edited them before. Are you getting excited now???
First of all, CS5 is going to allow major improvements to the way "brushes" and "painting" can function in Photoshop. We will have the ability to use a photo (or any image) like a template canvas or color palette for painting. By clicking on a certain area you will be able to simulate dipping your brush into paint. Then you will be able to drag that color out to be spread around while simulating a wet brush. You can also mix colors as much as you like, and achieve a number of different effects that will give your images a completely new look.
The second improvement will allow you to simulate brush physics while you are painting. An animated 3D brush preview will show alterations based on pressure, and rotation. This in turn will affect the means in which the paint is applied to the canvas as though you had a real brush. A variety of presets are available, although you will even be able to use your own creativity in order create your own.

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Adobe Photoshop Tools

One of many extremely impressive and additionally the finest, enterprise standard software system on image and also artwork enhancing or development is the Adobe Photoshop, or merely Photoshop. When you're recently preparing in grasping regarding Photoshop, you might probably already know some of its tools plus common editing steps such as resizing and cropping. But, to be able to thoroughly understand as well as master pretty much everything of its tools takes you a huge amount of time. However, you do not need to understand all kinds of things though and thus screw up among Photoshop prime features and extensions even though you still have no idea in relation to it. It's always ideal to make use of Photoshop tutorials to begin with. At this time there a variety of cost-free Photoshop tutorials around the world wide web. Some of them feature Photoshop tutorials that make use of real world graphic design examples and illustrations.
The primary goal of this document shall be to make you to start with the basic principles of Photoshop (getting started with Photoshop Tools) in order to get started with it. Everyone possess a tendency to skip basic principles or the fundamentals and begin on knowing the advanced and complex Photoshop tutorials in which most people believed is better. But they are completely wrong. Jacob Gube once said, "If you take the time to learn the basics, you'll run into less trouble because you understand how things work."
Let me reveal the full list of Photoshop Tools:
Move Tool (V)
Rectangular Marquee (M)
Elliptical Marquee (M)
Single Row Marquee
Single Column Marquee
Lasso (L)
Polygon Lasso (L)
Magnetic Lasso (L)
Quick Selection (W)
Magic Wand (W)
Crop (C)
Slice (C)
Slice Select (C)
Eyedropper (I)
Color Sampler (I)
Ruler (I)
Note (I)
Spot Healing Brush (J)
Healing Brush (J)
Patch (J)
Red Eye (J)
Brush (B)
Pencil (B)
Color Replacement (J)
Clone Stamp (S)
Pattern Stamp (S)
History Brush (Y)
Art History Brush (Y)
Eraser (E)
Background Eraser (E)
Magic Eraser (E)
Gradient (G)
Paint Bucket (G)
Blur
Sharpen
Smudge
Dodge (O)
Burn (O)
Sponge (O)
Pen (P)
Freeform Pen (P)
Add Anchor Point
Delete Anchor Point
Convert Point
Horizontal Type (T)
Vertical Type (T)
Horizontal Type Mask (T)
Vertical Type Mask (T)
Path Selection (A)
Direct Selection (A)
Rectangle (U)
Rounded Rectangle (U)
Ellipse (U)
Polygon (U)
Line (U)
Custom Shape (U)
Hand (H)
Rotate View (R)
Zoom (Z)

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Learn Photoshop With Movie Tutorials

Adobe Photoshop is a powerful image editing tool, the standard in the industry. It is widely considered to be the best program for the purpose, beating out a number of competitors. Photoshop comes with a wide array of versatile and useful features. Unfortunately, these very features can be confusing and bewildering to the new user. Attempting to learn to use this tool from the manual can be difficult and frustrating. Manuals are usually written as reference for users who already have an idea of what they are doing, rather than for beginners. Even books on the subject seem dense and hard to understand. There may be many features in your copy of Photoshop that you don't yet know how to use, because of the difficulty of learning this complicated program on your own.
To harness the potential of Photoshop in your image editing, consider making use of movie tutorials. This type of tutorial allows you to see how a given feature is used or effect is accomplished in real time, as the action is performed. You can even stop the video to go try it out in your own copy of Photoshop. Because of the ability to stop, rewind, and replay scenes in video tutorials, you can use them as a constant reference. If you do not have time or money to attend classes and seminars, video tutorials can be a great help in learning to use your copy of Photoshop.
Some video tutorials are available for free, others require some payment for the effort that has gone into them. These latter type are more likely to be professional. The saying goes that you get what you pay for, and this is still the case with Photoshop tutorials. However, even the free type of tutorial can be useful. They are readily available online, and can be used to find out if you like the video style of tutorial before you buy more professional video instructions. These tutorials may be offered in one of two ways. They can either be purchased individually, or a user who is learning Photoshop may purchase a membership in a site that offers tutorials.
Membership in a video tutorial site brings you the widest variety of professional video tutorials to help you learn how to maximize the features in your copy of Photoshop. Some topics which may be covered are how to remove red eye from your photos, cropping your photo to a more attractive size, and removing unwanted objects from the photograph. Video tutorials can also be found to help you remove damage and make recent photographs appear to be antique. Video tutorials allow you to learn how to use the many features of Photoshop easily. Compared to bulky, confusing manuals, these short movies are the best choice when it comes to learning this versatile program.

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Can You Make Money Using Photoshop?

You most likely already know that Adobe Photoshop is great for making your digital and online pictures look more professional. But do you know how to make money with Photoshop? Learn how to use Photoshop to make a profit. With the growing prominence of digital photos, photo-editing software like Adobe Photoshop has grown in usage and popularity.
Learning Photoshop, however, is not easy. You really need to dedicate yourself to learning the ins and outs of the software. More than technical skill, you need to be creative if you want to excel with Photoshop. Any good Photoshop tutorial will inform how to edit your images, how to add attractive framing and borders, and the way you can work with different layers and masks to give your images that professional look. What standard tutorials don't tell you is that you can actually use Photoshop to make some money.
Nonetheless, learning to harness the power of Photoshop can be very rewarding. Mastering the visual graphics realm of Photoshop can give you livable income. Strong editing and creative skills in Photoshop can open career possibilities for you, whether you want to do it on a full-time basis or as a part-time business. Here are some of the various ways you can use Photoshop to generate an income;
1. Start a photo editing service. One possible business you can start is to offer digital picture editing and image optimization services. You basically take the client's less than perfect digital photo and turn it into a masterpiece. As a "photo doctor," you can remove unwanted people and objects from a photograph, insert someone or something into a photograph, repair over- or under-exposed photos, convert colored photos to black and white (and vice versa), or do something as basic as removing red-eye from photos. You can also do color correction, background change, contrast adjustment, and size enlargement. The key is to offer high quality work at reasonable prices.
2. Write Photoshop tutorials. You can write and sell your tutorial to article sites or article directories, anywhere from $10 to $100 depending on the length and quality of your tutorial. Be ready to write at least a 1,000 words tutorial with detailed and step-by-step screenshots. Examples of tutorial topics could include photo effects/manipulation, contemporary web layout design, special effects or filter effects. You can use sites such as eHow.com, or find freelance job postings from sites needing content on Photoshop.
3. Create a tutorial site and earn through advertising. You can also create your own blog or website where you publish the tutorials you write and monetize the site through advertising. You can use contextual advertising links such as Google AdSense, use a banner-advertising network such as BurstMedia, or a combination of various advertising models and networks.
4. Create video tutorials. You can also earn by creating video versions of your Photoshop tutorials. You can monetize it via advertising, or by joining advertising programs such as the YouTube Partner Program. Are you can sell your tutorials from a website through popular third-party programs such as Clickbank or Plimus.

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Photoshop Video Tutorials - Your Key to Learning How to Photoshop

Finding the right Photoshop tutorial could be your key to developing your skills in using Adobe Photoshop. Visual artists and design professionals know that Adobe Photoshop is an indispensable tool in creating and enhancing digital images, and has become the standard for high quality digital image enhancement software's.
If you spend sometime on learning how to Photoshop, you are actually investing in your future because the skills that you master will be very useful in your future career or business.
Learning how to Photoshop can really be a challenge though. It takes a lot of patience and determination in order to master each technique and to apply the lessons in creating the effects that you hope to achieve. It's a good thing that learning how to Photoshop is now possible through online and video tutorials.
When choosing the right Photoshop tutorials, you can either consider free tutorials on the web or invest in acquiring Photoshop tutorials on CD or DVD formats. The advantage of using Photoshop video tutorials is that you can learn at your own pace and you can keep reviewing the CD or the DVD until you master each technique.
What makes a good Photoshop video tutorial?
1. A good tutorial allows the user to choose the level that he or she is most comfortable with. Since the users of tutorials may either be beginners or advanced professionals, tutorials that advance from one level to the next in an organized way are the most effective ones.
2. A good tutorial is direct to the point and does not include irrelevant data in the presentation. Too much information that may not be related to the topic or the technique that is being discussed may only confuse the user. A tutorial that is concise yet informative offers more benefits than one that tries to cover too many things in one video.
3. A good tutorial gives several examples and presents the basic principles involved in each technique. All the stages of each technique should be presented visually in order to motivate the user to try the techniques himself.
4. A good tutorial uses simple language for the simple reason that not all of its viewers may already be familiar with the language or the jargon associated with Photoshop.
5. A good tutorial also includes a how-to manual or is linked to a website where questions may be posted, in case the user wants to know more information the techniques which may have not been included in the tutorial.

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Making Picture Changes - Getting Help With a Photoshop Tutorial Effect

While a picture speaks a thousand words, those words tend to have one main meaning - with the possible exception of the still-mysterious Mona Lisa. But what if you had the chance to change those words? Are you interested in having that chance? If so, all you need to do is get help with a Photo Shop tutorial on effects.
Adobe Photo Shop today is the world's leading digital imaging software program, and it allows users to edit their pictures with an amazing array of tools.
Tone - With just a click of your mouse, you can immediately turn your 100% colored photo into a black and white picture to make it seem older. You can also choose to give it a sepia look for a similarly quaint but more artistic impact.
Text - With the help of an Adobe Photo Shop tutorial on effects, you can also add cute text or captions to and within your photos. Unlike older programs which require you to copy and paste text with white backgrounds, Adobe Photo Shop has a transparent background so that only the very shapes of the letters are pasted on your photo. With this option, the text you're adding will be made a part of the very photo.
Selection - Sometimes, you wish to create an effect on only one part of the photo. Adobe Photo Shop anticipates this need, and even better, lets you choose the shape of your selected part. When you've selected which part of the photo you wish to edit, all subsequent changes will then take effect on that part alone. It's as easy and simple as that!
Mosaic - Remember your old art lessons in primary school and you had to create a mosaic project? Well, how about doing a mosaic version of your photo? It seems to require harder work with only your keyboard and mouse, but think again. Thanks to Adobe Photo Shop, you can create your own mosaic with just a click and even choose the cell size for your photo.
Blur - Faded patches in a photo are interesting, and you can intentionally make such patches on your photo if there are none to begin with. Under the same category of tools - Filter - in which you'll also find other effect options like Mosaic and Pointillize, you can use the Blur option and apply it to a selected part of your photo or all of it. Keep pressing the Blur button until you reach your preferred degree of blurriness.
Color Pencil - Have you ever imagined what your photo would look like if it had been drawn using colored pencils? Imagine no more with the help of Adobe Photo Shop. Under the colored pencil function (still in the Filter category), you can also choose the degree of stroke pressure, paper brightness, and pencil width applied to your photo.
Neon Glow - Do you want your photo to outshine everything else in its vicinity? You can literally achieve that with the neon effects of Adobe Photo Shop. Once more, it can be a part of or the whole photo that could be changed with this option. The impact of this function can be modified according to neon color, glow, and brightness.
There are many other effects that Adobe Photo Shop can provide you and to change your photo, but self-study and self-exploration won't get you anywhere fast anytime soon. If you want to learn now, find the best Photo Shop tutorial in the Internet and start watching.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Mario_SG_Churchill

Photoshop Tutorials For Everybody

Photoshop, developed by Adobe Systems, is a graphic editing program used to edit or create graphics or pictures. It is a popular software to media editors nowadays.
Photoshop is quite difficult to beginners. It requires months of extensive study to be fully adept at the various features of this software. Try to learn first the three simplest ideas of the program to begin your study.
Study the basics of Photoshop. These basics will be the foundation in further exploring the program. Search the internet for various free tutorials and try to do them on your own. It may take a little while to perfect the craft. Continue using the program to be familiarized with the most often and basic tools used.
Explore the "Edit" function. Under "Edit" is the "Help File." Read extensively about the different tools and functions of Photoshop.
Always save your working image under a different filename. Keep your original file unaltered. Explore the different tools by trying their effects on your working image. Hit the undo button to revert back to the previous action.
If you feel lost on what to do next, try searching the internet for tutorials. There are also many online forums you can participate on, for your questions and further reading about the program.
Photoshop has a "Preserve Transparency" feature that keeps a transparent background for your graphics. The "Type Tool" creates text on an image.
After learning the basics, go further on exploring the other functions. You will be amazed at how extensive Photoshop is.

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The Many Forms of Adobe Photoshop Tutorials

When the Adobe Systems Inc developed and launched the Adobe Photoshop in the 1990s, not many people thought the software would reach its current big status. Currently, the Adobe Photoshop is considered the standard computer program for digitally manipulating images and visuals using the Internet.
Because of its complexity, however, it took quite some time before people took notice and realized the usefulness of the software. Too many people are very much adept in using different computer programs, bit only a few are skilled to use and navigate the Adobe Photoshop.
Many computer users would argue that there is no need for them to learn how to use the Adobe Photoshop. But as time goes by, they are finding out for themselves that they are wrong. Almost all industries that need computer functions nowadays recognize the need for the services of the Adobe Photoshop.
Now, almost all companies globally are putting into the requirements for their job posting the knowledge and skill in using the Adobe Photoshop. It is because modern documents and files are basically coming with photographs, and such pictures need to be processed virtually before being stored in computer memories.
Learning to operate the Adobe Photoshop would not be easy if you are not open to learning it. Of course, the software is for advanced users of the computer. If you are just a beginner in using the equipment, it would be recommended that you first familiarize yourself with basic computer applications.
Adobe Photoshop truly is more complicated because of the sophistication of its features. But once you manage to learn even just the most basic functions and uses, a wide and vast array of opportunities would come your way.
Tutorials for Adobe Photoshop
If you are aiming to take tutorial lessons to learn how to use the Adobe Photoshop, be informed that you could have many choices in the mode of instruction. Considering the convenience and the costs, you would be offered choices. There are many tutorial centers and products in the market, so feel free to exercise your options and underpin the increased competition for your advantage.
For those just starting to know about the Adobe Photoshop, it is advised that you take personal tutorials, which can be in the form of classroom setups or one-on-one sessions.
Usually, classroom set-up tutorials last for about a couple of sessions. During the classes, you would be taught the basic applications and functions of the software. The mode of instruction is demonstrative and interactive, so if you have queries, you could easily raise your hand.
For the one-on-one setup, the mode of instruction of course is more personal so you could easily make queries if certain instructions are not that clear. Others find this set up more accommodating and comfortable. The instructor could really focus on you. However, such set-ups are usually a little more expensive.
Self-help tutorials
If the classroom and one-on-one setups are not convenient for you, you could tutor yourself. How, buy printed self-help books for using the Adobe Photoshop. There are also e-books, or computer-file versions of those books.
In such materials, the basic knowledge and operating standard procedures in using the Adobe Photoshop are discussed. Such books were written in instructional formats, so you could follow procedures step by step.
There you go. The Adobe Photoshop can be too complicated for you, but you could do something to make use of it. It would be easier for you to use the software if you would only strive to know how.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Mario_SG_Churchill

Photoshop Tutorial Basics Introduction

One image can yield a wide array of manipulations in Photoshop CS3. Using only filters already built in to the program, users can render the same file into different images for a variety of applications. This tutorial highlights some basic effects which can be achieved in just a few steps.
Open Photoshop CS3; and then open any image which you own, have permission to use, or is in the public domain. Save a copy of the image and then close the original to use again. You may choose to save multiple copies to avoid numerous undo steps.
Textures applied to the whole image can render different appearances. To make an image appear to be under mottled glass, click on Filter, scroll down to Distort, and then click on Glass. In this menu choose Canvas, leave the Scaling at 100%, and then adjust the Distortion and Smoothness to your liking. Give the image a cross-stitch look by clicking on Filter, scrolling down to Texture, and then clicking on Patchwork. A Square Size and Relief of 5 seem to work well for many images.
Change a photo into a painting or drawing by applying basic filters. To convert to a painting, click on Filter, scroll down to Brush Strokes, and then click on Angled Strokes. Make adjustments to the Direction Balance, Stroke Length, and Sharpness until you are satisfied with the preview. Render a quick cartoon drawing by first making a duplicate layer of your image. Click on Layers, and then click on Duplicate Layer. With the Background Copy layer active, click on Filter, scroll down to Artistic, and then click on Poster Edges. The default settings should be sufficient, though you can make adjustments as you choose. Click OK to exit the Poster Edges menu. Go back to Filter, down to Artistic, and click on Cutout. In this menu, Number of Levels and Edge Simplicity set at 4, with Edge Fidelity set at 2 appear to give a great effect.
Converting an image to grayscale in Photoshop used to mean simply using the Desaturate option. Photoshop CS3 has introduced the Black and White adjustment, allowing for more control. Click on Image, scroll to Adjustments, and then click on Black & White. Explore the Presets and move the sliders around to get a feel for the customization available. Place a check in the Tint box to give the image a sepia or monotone appearance.
Basic manipulations can be quick and easy in Photoshop CS3. A few simple steps allow users to alter images for graphic and web design, scrapbooking, or any other application. Apply one effect or several for a variety of results.

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Adobe Photoshop Tutorial on Layers

I guess the easiest way to think of a layer is like a transparency for over head projectors.  You know, the old style projectors people use to use for PowerPoint presentations?
Nowadays, of course, they have the fancy LCD projectors, but back in the old school days you had to lay these transparency sheets on a projector and it let you put drawings up on the screen.  The neat part though was that because the light had to shine through, most of the transparency was exactly that, transparent.
That allowed for you to stack multiple transparencies on the projector and create a 'composite'.  A composite is a collection of multiple images or elements, arranged together to make a final 'composite image'.  Basically, it's a stack of images arranged so that it made a new picture, one that didn't exist before.
So let's say you had a transparency of a tree.  A transparency of a hill.  A transparency of a sky.  And a transparency of a cloud, and even one of a sun.
You could lay down the sky transparency first, then the hill.  You would now have a scene with a sky and hill!
Next, you could add the clouds, the sun, and the tree.  The final resulting image would be a beautiful picture.  If you wanted, you could move the tree, and ONLY the tree to a different location.  You could move the sun, or the clouds.  You have a lot of power and flexibility.
Not only could you move an element, you could remove it altogether.  You could take out the tree, or the cloud, for example.
Again, you could REORDER the elements and make an entirely new scene.  For example, you could put the sun BEHIND the cloud by placing the transparency for the sun underneath the cloud.
You could do the same to make the cloud appear either behind or in front of the tree (which would have to be a tall tree).  You get the idea, you can do whatever you want.  That's the point.  With each of these elements, you control the composite image and make it into whatever you want it to be.
The same thing applies to layers in Photoshop.  You simply create layers, add elements to those layers (by draing on them, for example) and then you arrange the order of the 'stack' of layers.  Layers on the bottom of the stack, are behind layers that are at the top of the stack.
That means that if a layer is at the very top, anything drawn on that layer will show up over top of anything else.
If a layer is at the bottom of the stack, it can easily be covered up by other elements that are on layers above it.
It's so easy and so powerful.  But you know what?  It's not just the layer order that controls how the final composition looks, you also have opacity and layer blending modes.  But that, is for another article.

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