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What’s new in Creative Cloud

Illustrator, InDesign, Photoshop, Uncategorized No Responses »

May 152013

With Adobe’s recent announcement that Creative Cloud is to now supersede Creative Suite, we thought it might be nice to take a look at some of the new features that have been publicly announced as coming in Creative Cloud, especially in the main design packages.

Photoshop CC

Some of the new features announced in Photoshop CC include: Read more...

Camera shake reduction – helps to reduce motion blur in your photos.
Smart Sharpen – analyses images to produce the best possible sharpening, while minimising halos and noises.
Adobe Camera Raw 8 means edits can be applied as a filter to any layer or file.

Adobe dropping Creative Suite, it’s all about Creative Cloud

DreamWeaver, Illustrator, InDesign, Photoshop, Uncategorized No Responses »

May 072013

Probably one of the biggest announcements to come out of Adobe MAX so far, is the news that Creative Suite is being replaced with Creative Cloud. This means in the future you won’t buy licences of Creative Suite, instead you will subscribe to Creative Cloud to access all the same products.

So what does this mean? Here are some answers we have pulled together to try and help you get to grips with this change:

Do I still install the software?

Yes you still install all the products and they will be run locally on your machine. The products simply check back with Adobe’s servers once within every 30 day period to ensure your subscription is valid. Read more...

Introduction to Adobe Camera Raw and Some Beauty Retouching – Part 2

Photoshop No Responses »

Feb 252013

In January we looked at an Introduction to Adobe Camera Raw and some Beauty Retouching: and Fixing Common Beauty Problems in Photoshop.

Today, with the same image we’re going to look at beauty retouching in more detail, skin softening in particular. This is a convoluted process but the results are excellent!

So, with our image, I’ve opened in Photoshop and just for these purposes, so we can see the results in more detail, I’ve cropped in to the face, and the first thing to do is to duplicate the image; shortcut is Cmd (Ctrl) J or from the menus, Layer > Duplicate Layer. Alternatively, you can drag your current layer down to the Create a New Layer icon on the bottom of the layers palette. Read more...

Still haven’t upgraded to Photoshop CS6?

Photoshop No Responses »

Jan 102013

If you still haven’t upgraded to Photoshop CS6, and are wondering whether you should consider, let me give you some of the amazing new features that I find useful, to help you make a decision.

Auto-Save
Probably, one of the best things they’ve done in Photoshop, is something that you won’t see. How many times have you been working on a document only to have Photoshop crash and you lose all your work?! Read more...

Fixing Common Beauty Problems in Photoshop

Photoshop No Responses »

Jan 092013

Last time we looked at Introduction to Camera Raw and Some Beauty Retouching. Before going into skin softening techniques, we’re going to look a bit more into sorting out a common problem area in Photoshop.

If we look at the model’s left eye (our right) you’ll note that it’s a little lazy in this shot.

Lazy Eye

So we’re going to give the model a new eye!

Zoom in so the face fills the screen.
Using the lasso tool select a large section of the model’s right eye (our left).

Introduction to Adobe Camera Raw and Some Beauty Retouching – Part 1

Photoshop No Responses »

Nov 302012

Today we’re going to look at Adobe Camera Raw and a spot of beauty retouching.

I’ve chosen my image, which is how it is straight out of the camera and opened directly into Camera Raw. I’m using CS5. The controls in CS6 have changed and can cover this on another post.

Raw Image from Camera

You’ll see a histogram at the top right hand side. Below this, you’ll see a row of icons:

Right hand Icons

The first thing to look at is the brightness / exposure. So here I’m going to push the brightness up just a little. Read more...

Make a simulated overlay / photo-matte! (Part 2)

Photoshop No Responses »

Oct 222012

Today we’re going to carry on from before and customise your overlay! Click here if you missed Part 1 of this tutorial.

On your layered image, double click on the Background layer to bring up the New Layer dialogue box, then click OK.

This is because, as a background, we can’t make any adjustments to it unless we ‘convert’ it to a layer.

Now double click again on the background, now Layer 0, icon and you will see the Layer Style palette.

Click on Pattern Overlay. As a default, the first thing to happen on mine is to have heaps of bubbles! Read more...

Make a simulated overlay / photo-matte! (Part 1)

Photoshop No Responses »

Sep 122012

Today I’m going to take you through a tutorial on making a simulated overlay or photo-matte to give your images that professional finish on a website.

Open the image you want to ‘frame’ and make a copy of that ‘background’ layer by Cmd / Ctrl J or dragging your background onto the new layer tab of the layers palette.

Click with your cursor, back onto the background layer and choose the crop tool.

Ensure the crop dimensions on the toolbar are clear …
Read more...

Learning to Speak “Image Manipulator”!

Photoshop No Responses »

Aug 132012

Here’s a tutorial for those of you who have used Photoshop for a little while but are still baffled by some of the “Adobe Speak” that gets used in some of the tools!

There are a number of functions, buttons and tools in Photoshop that have some weird and wonderful names. In this article I’d like to look at a few of them and tell you what they’re used for.

Contiguous
Let’s start off with the word ‘contiguous’!

You’ll find the contiguous button in the options bar when you click on the Magic Wand tool. (It also pops up as an option for the background erase tool). Read more...

Basic Brushes, Photoshop and You – Part 2

Photoshop No Responses »

Jul 232012

The next section is really interesting. Colour Dynamics allow you to change the way colours work in your brush. To see this effect I have set the brush colour to red.

(Before colour Dynamics)

Hue jitter does just that, it varies the hue of the brush along the stroke. So when this is set low you will see a range of colours from yellows to reds, but if set to 100% you will see a whole range of colours from all hues.

Saturation jitter varies the saturation of the brush. So some spots of colour will be desaturated while others will be bright and vivid. Read more...

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