the Wacom Tablet has arrived.. / the instruction sittin right in front of me…. / and it says i gotta shut down everythin before installin…
the Wacom Tablet has arrived.. / the instruction sittin right in front of me…. / and it says i gotta shut down everythin before installing.. and im just SO excited. / I think im more excited now then before i was goin overseas last year! / WOOooooOOOooOOOoTT!!! and again WOOooooOOOooOOOoTT!!! ok.. me gonna go and install it and all that….. / Back soonish.. EeeeK! gRiNzGiGGLeS WOOooooOOOooOOOoTT!!! UPDATE! / here my first piece /
The patch tool is often a very underutilized tool in Photoshop. Hidden under the Spot healing brush and 2 other tools, the Patch tool i…
The patch tool is often a very underutilized tool in Photoshop. Hidden under the Spot healing brush and 2 other tools, the Patch tool is similar to a combination of the lasso tool and the healing tool. You select an area, click the appropriate button (source or destination- mine is usually on source) and then drag the selection to another area that has characteristics that fit your needs. For example, in one of my photos, “Fall in the Hills”, the photo was dotted with houses and roads that didn’t add to the composition. I simply drew around the houses and roads with the patch tool and drug them into an area with trees. The result is no more houses/roads, that simple. The patch tool is often superior and easier to use than the clone tool, especially for large areas, achieving better results. Another example, if someone has black rings under the eyes, you trace around the area that needs work on, select “source” in the Tools Option Bar right above the Tools Palette), and drag it to an another area of skin that has a more likely color. Make sure that the area you are dragging to is blemish free, as you will pick up any blemishes that are in the destination area. The best way to see how this tool works is to practice with it. Easy to use, you can cut your work time way down by using this over the clone tool. I rarely use the spot healing tools any more as well, finding this faster and easier. For most general use, it is easy to use. It takes a little more practice to use when there are lines in the area that needs to be fixed. You must drag it to a destination that has the lines at the exact same angle. / The patch tool goes all the way back to Photoshop 7, and has been improved on in the newer versions of Photoshop.
It all depends on the photograph that I am taking as to how I will work it to a finish. This may sound a bit long-winded, but to really …
It all depends on the photograph that I am taking as to how I will work it to a finish. This may sound a bit long-winded, but to really understand how my photograph is being worked, it all comes together in a picture that you see in my portfolio on Redbubble! Most of my photographs have been taken in RAW, with my digital camera, Canon EOS 350D and EOS 20D. Not that this should make any difference to the image. Sometimes I will create an image with Sophia’s camera which is a compact zoom 8. Megapix. “Trapped in the light” was taken with that camera and was taken in JPG for ease of use. As for “Searching for Spring” , this image was HDR processed. To do this I have taken three images of the same, making sure that the camera is solid on a tripod, to avoid moving it from position. I then take three exposures of the same image. / 1 photograph is taken two stop over exposed, 1 photograph is taken two stops under exposed and the other 1 is correctly exposed. The subject, in Sophia’s case had to remain absolutely still down to her eyes, which is hard for a five year old to do! But she was a very good girl and it has taken her all the concentration to do it, and it is that what has given her this serious look bless her. I had no intention to portray her as an evil child, so that is something to watch out for when using HDR on youngsters! I always prefer to use natural surroundings and available light from that surrounding. I don’t like using flash, because I feel it can destroy the mood that natural light can create for me. For instance, the HDR method that I have used on Sophia in the mentioned image, the sun is behind her. To use flash would have completely changed the feel and the mood of the photography. Try this for yourself and look at the difference in your pictures and see what I mean? The type of light you use determines the mood that you want to create! This is true for any kind of photography. To create HDR images, I have downloaded Photomatix basic from Google search, and this is FREE! Any one who is interested in HDR? There is a group in RB that may be very useful and helpful to learn. Enhance Photo > Photo Fix / After I’ve HDR’d “Searching for Spring” in Photomatix basic, I opened this picture in Corel paintshop pro XI. In this software, I have “Enhance Photo” and open to “Smart Photo Fix”. This tool has several applications to darken or lighten the shadow area without affecting the over all photograph. The Overall slider affects the whole of the image by darkening or lighting it. A little bit like fill in light. The Highlight slider only affects the highlights of your picture. Then there is the Saturation slider and Focus slider, when you’ve finished, you click OK! I use this on most of my photographs to improve the overall appearance. Selection tool/Lasso tool / Now, I want to isolate and section areas that I feel needs working on without affecting the rest of my photograph! To do this I love the lasso tool or the selection tool that looks like a lasso. I zoom right into the picture for maximum control but leave enough room so that I can still recognise the edges that I need to go around with my selection tool. To select the horizon or the sky, I try to avoid the trees and bushes if I can, for they can get to dark or even black and will ruin the picture. Feather / Before I lasso, I decide what effect I want with the Feather tool from the select tool. This will determine if the edges are going to be smooth and straight, which would be 0! Or if I want a layering or vignette effect around the subject? This would be from 1 – 200! I suggest you should experiment to get to know how the feather effect looks on your work. This is all down to personal preferences. It is a bit like, how much salt do you like on your food? Adjust > Brightness and Contrast > Curves / Once the portion has been selected and I have lassoed around the sky, I will go into Adjust > Brightness and Contrast > Curves, select curves! A box comes up and you see your selected part of the image in a window. This is the part that is going to be worked on. In my case, I want to darken the sky and bring out the drama of the clouds. In the box there is a diagonal line. Grab the middle of the line and move it about. You will see how the selected part is changing in contrast. I drag the middle of the line slightly down until I am happy with the result, and then click ok! Get familiar with the different tools and experiment with them! This is what I do and am still learning. I build up my experience through experimenting. The result is seen in my portfolio in Redbubble for all to see! Invert selection / If I want to save time and work on the foreground of the picture, while the sky is still selected. I go into Selection and click on Invert. Or you tap on “Alt + Shift + I” to invert my selection. Now my foreground is selected and the sky deselected. Experiment / In the case of “Searching for Spring” I only selected Sophia by lassoing all around her and the Feather on 0. I needed to bring out detail that would otherwise be lost. / I have tried several applications, like Levels, Curves and even Histogram Adjustment. / These can all be found in, Adjust > Brightness and Contrast. Trying very hard to keep her in harmony with her surrounding. The same was also done with the table that Sophia stood on. Finally to the black and white effect! Adjust > Color > Channel Mixer / This method applies to most of my black and white images, whether they are a straight shot or have been enhanced first. I go into Adjust > Color > Channel Mixer, tick the Monochrome box. Red will default to 100, while green and blue to 0. This usually turns the blue sky very dark, and the skin or anything that has red in it very pale to white. A good guidance that I have learned from someone was, to make sure that, which ever way you choose to move the slider to maintain a total of 100%. As an example only; / Red% -40, Green% 28, Blue% 112, and it adds up 100%! Play about with that to get a feel for how this makes your black and white photograph look. / If the red lightens red, the green slider should lighten anything green and the blue, blue! / Use your judgement and then click ok. But make sure you don’t burn out any highlights in your photograph. This can look ugly if it is overdone. Once I am satisfied, I click ok and move on to the next treatment. Adjust > Brightness and Contrast > Histogram Adjustment. / To finish of my picture I will go into Adjust > Brightness and Contrast > Histogram Adjustment. There is a slider on the side that will affect the contrast of the image. Slide it down, the contrast increases. Slide it up and it will decrease. I like to increase the contrast, trying not to burn out highlights in Sophia’s face. On the bottom of the box of the histogram there are little triangles, / Low Gamma High / Move the middle triangle Gamma towards the high, and will bring out details in the shadow area. While moving towards the Low, it will bring out details in the highlights. / That is where the selection tool will also be useful if you don’t want to affect the rest of the picture but only one aspect. Click ok and I am almost done! Final finishing touches! Learning centre > Home > Effects > film and filter / Corel Paintshop XI have this extra facility that I love t use for effects. It has a learning centre > home > effects > film and filter. I love the Glamour and Warming, which I have been using with “Trapped in the light”. And finally save the finished work which you get to see on Redbubble if I am happy with it! Thank you all who have shown so much interest in my work and wanted to know about how I did them? I hope it makes sense and is easy enough to follow? My best regards Sylvia!
This is easy enough to do. But can be very time consuming to do it proper. It is also quite hard to have to think about how to explain th…
This is easy enough to do. But can be very time consuming to do it proper. It is also quite hard to have to think about how to explain this in text, which is probably harder then actually extracting a subject from its back ground, lol! / This is for anyone who has Paintshop software and not Photoshop! Photoshop has an extract tool, which is actually a lot easier and faster as well as a cleaner background. / Because Paintshop is a lot more messy to do, I crop the image right down to the subject. Making sure I don’t crop anything away that you need in the subject. To do that, you select the crop tool. Most tools are on the left side vertical in your screen. / In Paintshop, you also have an eraser tool on the left side. If you go over the different symbols it should highlight what they are. You select the background eraser tool. I also found, that if I need to zoom in or out of the image, I need to select the hand tool on the left side for the zoom tool to appear on the horizontal line above your work on the monitor. Zoom in first as much as you need to. Making sure you can still recognize the definition lines and you don’t accidentally erase out parts of the subject. Make sure you save your work in png and not jpg and keep saving it, in case your software crashes and you haven’t lost all that hard work only to do it again. / Once you have removed all of the background, you should be left with something like a chess board, with your subject resting on it. This means that it has no background and if you see any spots, do your best to erase it, as this will show up on another photograph when you come to layer it! / Now you have cleaned it all up and have your subject. / Open the picture you want for the subject to go on. Making sure you can see both images together. Click once one the subject image to select it. This will then show up in the layer box, which is on the bottom right of your screen. / You should have a list of headings, such as; Materials, Mixer, History, Script output, Overview, and Layers! Click on the double box to maximise it if it doesn’t show up. / I am also very happy if anyone would like to add any additional information to this journal so that others may benefit from your own expertise! / If you have your layer box showing, your subject should be in the layer box. / Now go over with your mouse on the image in your layer box and then left click on that image, most important, holding your mouse down, you are holding the image with your mouse. Now drag it over to the background photograph, still holding the mouse down until the symbol on your arrow changes to a rectangle and then you can release the mouse. By doing that you have now placed the subject onto your new background. You can repeat this exercise as often as you wish. Have a go and see what I mean, for that is the only way to learn after all! / Now you have your subject onto its new background, you can close the picture of the subject that you have created having saved it in png first of course for future use if you require. / You probably need to change the size of the subject to make it look a part of its new background? To do this, you need the Pick tool! Which is a white arrow on the left side under the pan tool, the white hand. You have two tools in the box of the Pick tool, the other is a Move tool. Select the Pick tool, because, this will change the scale of your subject. Now you’ve selected that tool, you will notice a box around your subject. This box has little boxes on the corners and the centre of each line. Place your mouse over one of the corners of the box holding the left mouse button down, you can now drag it any direction you like. Making the subject smaller or even bigger depending on what you want? Once you are happy with that, you can place the subject in position, by moving the Pick tool in the middle of the box a sort of X or cross should appear. Hold the left side button of the mouse down and drag the subject to any position you would like in your picture. When you have finally finished. Go into Layer on top of your screen and click on it. Layer > Merge > Merge All (Flatten)! / Now save your new work in jpg, and that is it! / Additional information! / When you use tools. Above, you will find you have further controls to select how you want your tool to behave. Do you need a hard effect or a soft and subtle? This is true for the background eraser and other things. Look at them, experiment and see what it does? You soon learn to be in control of your tools that way.
Hi everyone, / I have been attempting unsuccessfully to learn how to use the polygonal lasso tool. Every time I get half way around a shap…
Hi everyone, / I have been attempting unsuccessfully to learn how to use the polygonal lasso tool. Every time I get half way around a shape I somehow click twice and the lasso connects before I finish the edge. My question is this: is there any way to undo the lasso short of deselecting and starting over again. I am getting rather frustrated over the whole thing – it makes me not want to use this particular tool… / Allison :-)
Photoshop: Less Is More When I bought PhotoShop for the first time some years ago I was blown away by its power and potential. I’d he…
Photoshop: Less Is More When I bought PhotoShop for the first time some years ago I was blown away by its power and potential. I’d heard about this magic software but didn’t realise that with such power comes much responsibility. The first images I used with PhotoShop looked terrible. Clumsy lighting effects splashed with a pinch or wind effect. / As I experimented with the software I realised that to enhance my macro shots I needed a greater knowledge of Photoshop and some simple techniques that would allow my images to shine not become mutilated. These are some simple tools I have found extremely effective. / 1. Use Curves to illuminate your image without putting that haze over the image. Originally I played around with the lighting tool but found the Curves tool so much more effective. You can find Curves but going to IMAGE>ADJUSTMENTS>CURVES / 2. Make subtle changes to the colour of your image using the colour balance tool. Experiment with the Shadows, Midtones and Highlight. Be careful not to go to extremes. Over colouring can make the water red in a beach landscape shot. You can find the colour balance tool by going to IMAGE>ADJUSTMENTS>COLOUR BALANCE / 3. Experiment with the Crop tool. Look to erase meaningless space and colour that takes away from the focus of the photograph. Once again don’t go overboard. Some space around the main focal point of the photo will frame it beautifully. The Crop tool is found on the tool bar. / With these 3 tools do everything in moderation. These 3 tools work best with a great photo to start with. Whatever you’ve heard Photoshop will not create a great photo all by itself but can be used to great effect to make a good photo a great one. Kind Regards Paul
Ok, so here is how I used the Edit transform tools in Photoshop to create / / Wiseman / !http://images-2.redbubble.com/img/art/cropped/...
Ok, so here is how I used the Edit transform tools in Photoshop to create / / Wiseman / and Fish Monster / / / Have loads of fun and be creative – things just appear right before your eyes using this method. / / 1. Open Photoshop and create a new transparent document 3200 high by 2400 wide [you can post a Tshirt with these dimensions as well as an art piece]. / / 2. Create a new layer and fill the bottom layer with solid black [you will need this dark background to see what you are doing later]. / / / / 3. Working on the top, tranparent layer – draw a random shape using the pen tool [create smooth curves by clicking and dragging, until you get back to your first point to close the path]. / / / / 4. Down on the bottom right click on the Paths tab on the layers palette. At the bottom of the palette, click on the convert to selection icon [shown in red below] – this will convert your path to a selection. / / / / 5. Fill this selection with a multicoloured gradient [or two colours of your choice]. / / / / 6. Click on Edit [up the top], then on Free Transform. This puts a border around your selection so that you can resize it. hit enter when you are happy with the resize to apply it. Then use the move tool in the toolbar on the left to move it to the centre of your canvas. / / / / 7. Back in the bottom right Layers palette, click back onto the layer tab. Duplicate the top layer [right click it and click duplicate]. / / 8. Working on the top layer again, click Edit, Transform, rotate. This puts a border around your image and allows you to drag the corners to rotaate the layer. Rotate it enough so that it moves slightly away from the layer beneath [see below]. Hit enter to apply the rotation. / / / / 9. Repeat the layer duplication and rotate until you have about 6 layers – keep the rotation reasonably uniform. / / / / 10. In the layers palette, click the top layer, hold ctrl on the keyboard and click all the other layers – except the bottom, black layer. This will highlight [select] them all. Once selected, righ click them, and click on merge layers. You will now have two layers in the layers palette again. A black layer [at the bottom], and a new layer with your rotation work above it. / / 11. Working on the top layer, click on Edit, transform and warp. this puts a grid over the image, which you can drag in multiple places and directions to completely change the appearance of your image. Work with this until you have a long warped shape like below. hit enter to aply the warp efect. / / / / 12. Repeat the whole process again, duplicating and rotating the layers until you have something like the image below. / / / / 13. Select all the layers except the black layer again and merge them. [youre now back to two layers again]. / / 14. Duplicate the top layer again, move it away from the other layer on your canvas. Warp it so that it is longer and thinner than the original layer that you duplicated [see below] / / / / 15. Click Edit, Free Transform to resize it. / / / / 16, Rotate it and place it over the other layer on your canvas. In the layer palette, drag the long thin layer to underneath the other layer, so that it appears underneath it in the platte [and on your canvas]. / / / / 17. Select both layers [but not the black layer] and merge them. / / 18. Click on image [up the top], and then on rotate canvas, then on 90 degrees CW. Duplicate the top layer, then click on Edit, Transform, then flip horozontally. Now move this new layer over until it lies side by side to the other layer. Select both layers [but not the black layer], and merge them. / / 19. Working on the top layer, click layer up the top, and then New, and then Layer. Draw an oval selection using the circular marquee tool in the eye area, and fill it with white. / / / / 20. Duplicate this layer and drag it over using the move tool to cover the other eye with a white oval. / / 21. Create another new layer, and use the paintbrush and black, and click once on each eye white to create pupils. Ctrl click all the eye layers in the layer pallette and merge them. / / 22. Working on this eye layer, click the word Layer [up the top], then Layer style, then Inner shadow. Apply the settings below to give your eyes life. / / / / 23. Click on the black layer in the layer palette, then click on Layer, new layer up the top to create a new layer above the black layer. / / 24. Use the Polygonal Lasso tool and draw a shape within your image for a beak [see below]. / / / / 25. Fill this selection shape with a dark grey to yellow gradient [top to bottom]. / / 26. Still working on this beak layer, click on Layer [up the top], layer style, Inner Shadow, and use similar settings to when you did the eyes to give depth the the beak. / / 27. Crtl click all the layers except the black layer and merge layers. You are now back to two layers – one black, and one with your image above it. It will look something like the image below. / / / / To save your image to post as art on a black background, go to file, save as, and save as a jpeg. This will merge and flatten the work. / / To save your work to post as a Tshirt, first, click the eye icon next to the black layer in the layer palette to make it disappear – your black background will become invisible. Now go to file, save as, and save as a png file. / / Voila – you have created a critter using transform tools in Photoshop. / / You can also use this method with parts of photographs, like I did with Fish monster. Try all sorts of things to get neat effects – a spoon, as nail, a scewdriver even. / / Most importantly, transform, transform, duplicate and transform some more – the more you use, the better your results will be. / / Have fun! /
The smudge tool doesn’t sound like a terribly exciting tool, something that you could have some fun with – but it can be and we’re going …
The smudge tool doesn’t sound like a terribly exciting tool, something that you could have some fun with – but it can be and we’re going to look at one way in this tutorial. This tutorial is going to involve the use of the pen tool, but it will be painless :-) The first thing that you will need to do is create a new document, I have used 800×600 with a black background. Next you will need to create a new layer above the background layer by clicking on the new layer icon at the bottom of the layers palette and then select your elliptical marquee tool and draw out a small circle similar to the one below, holding down the alt + shift keys. Before deselecting the marching ants, go to the gradient tool and pick a gradient from the drop down menu, I’ve used the ‘copper’ gradient. Make sure you are using a linear gradient, and hold down your shift key while dragging from the top to the bottom of the circle – you can deselect the marching ants. You can go ahead and duplicate the small circle by selecting your move tool then holding down the Alt + Ctrl keys (this will copy and drop the copy onto a new layer), drag a little way then hold down your shift key as well and this will constrain the down movement. Next you’re going to grab the pen tool, and, starting from the centre of the top most circle, click a point then move across and click and drag another point. You will have to reduce the size of your image for this, but keep the canvas larger because you will have to click the final part of the path outside of the image. Go to your paths palette, which should be default with your layers and channels palette, if it isn’t go to Window>Paths – and at the bottom on that palette click on the ‘create new path’ icon. Go back to your tools palette and choose your pen tool again, click on the centre of the next circle and do something similar to the above, but change the direction a little. Repeat this for the other 2 remaining circles. The original path will be called ‘work path’ and then the rest will be called ‘1, 2, 3’ – you will need to line up the corresponding layer in the layers palette in one of the future steps, but first we have to go and choose a hard edge tip for the smudge tool. Click on the smudge tool and get a size similar to the one in the image below. I’ve made the circles and brush size bigger than I normally would for the sake of visibility. Depending on what you were going to do with this technique, all things can be changed. With the smudge tool selected, click on the first layer in the layers palette, then go to the paths palette and click on the ‘work path’ layer, then right click on this choose ‘stroke path’ from the fly out menu – a small dialogue will appear and ‘smudge’ should already be selected, but if it isn’t choose ‘smudge’ from the drop down menu. Click OK and you should have something similar to the next image. You can go to your paths palette now and drag the path you just stroked to the little bin icon at the bottom of the palette. Go to the next layer up the stack in your layers palette, make sure the smudge tool is still selected (it should be), go to your paths palette and click on the corresponding path in there, then at the bottom of the paths palette click on the small ‘stroke path with brush’ icon (second from the left) Continue to do this until the remaining paths are completed. Depending on the gradient you used and the size of the circles and brush size, your image might look something similar to the one below. Go ahead now and merge the 4 stroked layers in your layers palette to 1 layer. Next, press Ctrl + T on your keyboard to bring up the Transform tool, right click inside this and select ‘distort’. You can do something similar to the image below if you like, but I would suggest that you go to Layer>Matting>Defringe after you distort the selection – I used a 10 pixel radius on this particular image. From here you can go ahead and do a multitude of different things. Change the background and experiment with blend modes. Use the plastic wrap filter, or give the image a drop shadow then place the drop shadow on its own layer and blur it. You don’t even have to use 4 of these pipe effects. On the image below I changed the b/ground to blue with a radial gradient, and changed the blend mode to overlay. I then used the FX to give the pipes an outer glow by changing the glow colour to white, a blend mode of ‘Linear Dodge (Add) with an opacity of 50% Technique set to softer and a spread of 90%. Try out different things and see what you can come up with, but most of all – have fun!
Here’s a cool effect that you may want to try out at sometime. Create a new file 500px X 600 px with a transparent b/ground @ 72 dpi…
Here’s a cool effect that you may want to try out at sometime. Create a new file 500px X 600 px with a transparent b/ground @ 72 dpi and then duplicate the layer. This is just a file to practise on :-) Grab your Shape Tool and choose Custom, then go to the top toolbar and pick the black triangle shape. Working from the centre of the image, draw the shape upwards past the top of the file edge (see image below), you might want to bring up the transform tool by using Ctrl + T on the keyboard to get the shape how you want it, then duplicate the shape layer. Once you have duplicated the shape layer, go to the history palette and take a snapshot of the work so far. If your history palette isn’t visible go to Window>History and click on History. To take the snapshot use the middle icon (it looks like a camera). With the duplicate layer active, bring up the Transform Tool by clicking Ctrl + T on the keyboard. In the centre of the box that appears for the transform tool you will see a small circle with four small arms sticking out (this is the rotation axis for the transform) you will need to drag that down to the centre of the bottom line. With your cursor outside of the transform bounding box, rotate the shape to the right or left – whatever takes your fancy. Then you can hit the enter button to accept it. You’re probably wondering why I told you to take a snapshot when you had duplicated the shape layer – it was because the next part of this doesn’t always turn out correctly spaced and you will have to go back to the snapshot to start again :) Taking the snapshot after you duplicated the shape layer, means that you can bring up the transform tool again and try a different rotation – more or less, depending on how it turned out the first time. You should still be working on the shape copy layer, now, hold down the Ctrl + Shift + Alt keys and then press the T key repeatedly until you have as many of the shapes in place as you want. You should end up with something similar to the first image – although yours may be properly centered :) When you click onto the previous shape layer or b/ground layer, the bounding boxes will go away. You can see that mine didn’t quite end up centered and that I would need to paint in the small area top right that didn’t quite fill. You could merge the 2 shape layers at this point and lock the transparency to fill the shapes with a gradient or different colour. You could also clip an image with the shapes, you could also fill the b/ground with a colour or image – play around with it a little bit and see what you can come up with. On the first image I filled the b/ground layer with black, merged the 2 shape layers, locked the transparency of the layer and then filled with a circular gradient. On the 2nd image I simply used a 3 pixel black centered stroke on the shapes after I had filled it with the gradient.
This is a really easy way to get an effect in Photoshop. It can save you using layer masks and/or making selections. I’m not going to…
This is a really easy way to get an effect in Photoshop. It can save you using layer masks and/or making selections. I’m not going to do anything fancy with the effect in this, you just go ahead and experiment with that aspect of it. This image is 800×600 @72dpi. You can go ahead and use it to practise on if you like, copyright is mine blah, blah. Go ahead and unlock the background layer by double clicking on it and from the dialogue box just choose the default name. Go to Edit>Define Pattern and when the dialogue box appears, either give it a deep and meaningful name or leave it at the name it is. Next, duplicate the background by pressing Ctrl + J on the keyboard. What you do now is pretty much up to you, but making sure that the duplicate is active go to Image>Adjustments>Hue/Sat and choose colorize from the dialogue box. You can pick any colour you want really, or you can punch in the numbers I have below. Don’t panic if you don’t get the colour right, you can always go back and add a Hue/Sat adjustment layer to this layer later on. Still working on the Hue/Sat layer, go to Filter>Blur>Radial Blur and you can punch in the same settings I have. Notice in the second image that I have moved the central point of the blur to the top left hand corner. If you find that you have given it a little too much radial blur, before you do anything else, go to Edit>Fade Radial Blur and back off a little bit. Create a new blank layer at the top of the layer stack and go to the Tools bar and choose the Pattern Stamp Tool – you’ll find it nestled with the Clone Stamp Tool. Now go to the top menu bar and from the drop down menu pick the image as the pattern – make sure that Aligned is checked as well. / / At this point, you may want to drop the opacity of the blurred layer so you can see where you have to paint. Make sure that you are working on the blank layer, then start painting back in the bike and rider. Don’t panic if you make any drastic mistake, just add a layer mask and fix it, then go back to the Pattern Tool and carry on painting. I went ahead and added a layer mask to the newly created bike rider and used a Linear Gradient to blend the bottom part of the bike into the red radial blur. There wasn’t really a lot going on in the background of this image, but if you wanted to highlight a flower from a whole lot of flowers the blur would probably have a much better impact and you wouldn’t have to colorize the layer. Alernatively, you could have simply desaturated the layer. Here is the final image. Have fun and if you have any questions, just ask.
This quick tutorial for beginners was based on a request from CJ Hummel – she was looking for a…
This quick tutorial for beginners was based on a request from CJ Hummel – she was looking for a way to tanslate the positions and names of the tools from my regular tutorials for use in PS Elements. Sometime in the next week or so I’ll post a page with the PSE tools and the corresponding names/places of the PSCS tools. For now, I’ve written a quick tutorial for beginners that will show you how to replace a white or poor sky with a new sky. (Keep in mind…this is my first look at PSE). You can download the tutorial from here: Replacing A Sky with Photoshop Elements 7 (note: version 7 was all I could get on trial)
_*Aloha, mahalo nui loa to the Hosts for including and featuring this in many groups, and to all the members who have added this to your …
_Aloha, mahalo nui loa to the Hosts for including and featuring this in many groups, and to all the members who have added this to your favourites. If you favourite this, it would be so kind of you to leave me a note and let me know you are here. Today (24 August 2009) my journal has 1871 views. Today 28 September 2009 my journal has 2063 views. Check back often for additions and updates. Mahalo, thank you so much!_ Sharon Mau RedBubble Homepage Blogspot RedBubble Newsletters Chilling Effects Clearinghouse story on Derivative Works Tips for creating a Triptych in Lightroom Sell your images at Veer Marketplace ~ Stock Images Create an eye catching montage Adobe Photoshop Lightroom Killer Tips Time and Date World Clock Photographers’ Voices Heard at Congressional Briefing on Copyright 10 ways to take stunning portraits Certified Professional Photographer Ashley Riddell ~ ranash1995 Excellent Photoshop Tutorials Metallic BW portrait toning Lipo’s Photo Effect Tips – Portrait Photography Retouch Digital Makeup by Christian Reppen Ship Speedpaint Waterfall Speedpaint Basic Retouch and Makeup Glamour Glow Skin Retouch Facial scrub for even, glowing skin Body Reshaping with Liquify Applying Texture Without Looking Like a Douche IceflowStudios Awesome Eyes Photoshop Tutorial “Excellent Photoshop Tutorials” was accepted into the How To RedBubble group Google AdWords Keyword Tool Google Search Based Keyword Tool# Google Search Based Keyword Tool Help – How It Works
I’m excited and nervous at the same time… Tomorrow (Tuesday) 12/16/08, at 5pm (PST) I will be interviewed by Carol Denbow about my book…
I’m excited and nervous at the same time… Tomorrow (Tuesday) 12/16/08, at 5pm (PST) I will be interviewed by Carol Denbow about my book, Sailing through the 7C’s, then answer questions by whomever is attending this chat as well. / The site is Author and Book Event Center so if any of you who have read this book have something to say or ask, this would be the time and place… / Anyway, wish me luck and forgive me for not being around much tomorrow, as I will be preparing and promoting my page there ;) / Have an awesome day/evening!!! / TK
I’d like to offer a comment I’ve been giving to artists endeavoring to promote and illustrate their ideas and feelings of peace, especial…
I’d like to offer a comment I’ve been giving to artists endeavoring to promote and illustrate their ideas and feelings of peace, especially the concepts of oneness as a people of earth that rise above petty conflict and discord, each and every creative endeavor has a power in itself to influence, especially on the internet, be it painting or drawing, photo, digital, song, structure, sculpture poem performance story quilt ceramic cloth steel iron wood paper stone or even a batch of cookies, they all add to the undying ever growing Tools Of Peace, that’s our contribution as Creatives, evermore… I salute you!
With more people using adjustment layers, the History Brush Tool isn’t used as often as it used to be. It is still useful to know how th…
With more people using adjustment layers, the History Brush Tool isn’t used as often as it used to be. It is still useful to know how the tool works though, just in case you ever find the need to use it. I’m more likely to use the HB tool in image restoration than anywhere else, but it can do other things – lets have a look at a couple of them here. After you have performed a change to an image in Photoshop, it becomes a History State – and by default, Photoshop allows 20 history states. So once you hit 21 history states, the first change you did to the image will disappear forever. You can change the amount of History States in Photoshop by going to Preferences and changing the amount. The more History States you choose, the more memory Photoshop will need/use. You can borrow my image below to practise on if you like, the copyright remains mine etc., If your History Palette isn’t visible, go to Window>History to open it. Open my/an image in Photoshop. Lets use the image itself to do some dodging and burning on the flower. You can either press the Y key on your keyboard to bring up the History Brush tool, or go to the side toolbar to open it. Once you have the History Brush selected, you can use the top toolbar to choose a brush size/type, change the blend mode, opacity and flow. Change the mode to Multiply – Opacity to 25% and leave the flow at 100% (unless you want to change it) Go to the Layers Palette and duplicate the b/ground by dragging it to the new layer icon at the bottom of the layers palette, or pressing Ctrl + J on the keyboard. Go to the History Palette and click in the area at the left of the start image (where the eyball would normally be in the layers palette) See image below. Now paint on the image in some of the darker areas to give them some more depth. After you have done this – go to the blend mode and change it to Screen, then paint on the lighter areas. You can vary the opacity of the brush as well if you want. Change the blend mode of the history brush to Soft Light and paint over the b/ground to darken it, you can change the opacity of the brush to 100% for this. Try out different blend modes and opacities to see what you can come up with. You can also use different brush tip sizes and shapes. A comparison image is below. So lets look at other things you can do with the History Brush. Have the image open again and duplicate the layer , go to Filter>Artistic>Paint Daubs and choose something you like. Mine were Brush size 8 – Sharpness 7 and Brush Type simple. Take a snapshot of the image – see image below. Name the snapshot Paint Daubs. Name the layer you did the filter on, Paint Daubs also. Because the history brush has to have a corresponding layer we are going to delete the contents of the layer named paint daubs. Select the layer in the layers palette (not the history palette). Press Ctrl + A on your keyboard to select the contents of the layer, press either the backspace button or delete button on your keyboard to clear the layer contents, then press Ctrl + D to deselect the marching ants. You should end up with a palette that looks like the image below With the History Brush selected, in the History Palette click on the area on the Paint Daub state which says ‘Set the source for the history brush’ (see earlier image) Make sure you are working on the Paint Daub layer in the layers palette and brush away. You can change the blend mode, change the opacity etc., You can also duplicate the b/ground again, use a different filter, follow the steps above to take a snapshot, clear the contents of the layer, set the history brush source and paint the b/ground (example) I chose a palette knife effect for the b/ground in the image below. You can continue to build up different effects to your hearts content using this method. If you make a mistake while painting, simply use the eraser tool to correct and then carry on. One of the ways that you are most likely to see the History Brush used, is in image restoration. Along with the Dust and Scratches filter, Surface Blur, Median Blur etc., it can save huge amounts of time, compared to using the Healing brushes, Clone stamp tool etc., So lets have a quick look at how that works. You can use the image below to practise on, copyright is mine etc., It comes from another tutorial that you’ll find in my journal entries, where I took a new image and made it old. Open the image and then duplicate it (Ctrl + J) You will be concentrating on the white and black spider lines that I made on the image. Go to Filter>Noise>Dust and Scratches and you can use the same numbers that I have if you like. Click OK to accept the settings, then take a snapshot – name the snapshot dust and scratches. Go back to the layer in the layers palette and rename that as well. Then use Ctrl + A to select the contents of the layer – hit the backspace key to clear the layer and then hit Ctrl + D to deselect the marching ants. Grab the History Brush and in the History Palette click in the little box to the left of the Dust and Scratches snapshot to set that as the source. Make sure that you are working on the Dust and Scratches layer in the layer palette – choose an appropriate sized soft edged brush and check that the top menu is set to Normal and 100% opacity (you can try a smaller amount if you want). Zoom in on the layer, and then start to paint over the spider lines – see image below. Continue to go over the white and black spider lines until they have gone. You can see in the final image below that I haven’t lowered the opacity enough on the bridge (where the white spider lines were) so it looks smudged. The idea would be to take a bit more care :) Have fun!
Some tools are genuinely dangerous. Some can be – like a hammer – but rarely are. Some look really dangerous but aren’t – like a welder. ...
Some tools are genuinely dangerous. Some can be – like a hammer – but rarely are. Some look really dangerous but aren’t – like a welder. Some look dangerous and can be but you need to work at it to really do yourself mischief. Chainsaws are like that. And then there are the few really dangerous tools. And the worst of them, at least that I own, is the 12 inch angle grinder. It’s the mother of all cutting instruments and it combines all the elements to make it really dangerous – heavy, unwieldy, awesomely fast and with momentum that gives it a life of its own. Mostly I leave it on the shelf. But today I really did need it for something. OK, the job was cock-up from the start. And it was late and I should not have been anywhere near using the angle-grinder. But I wanted it finished. The trouble with this is that you make mistakes. And I made a big one – suddenly the bastard had kicked into gear and was careering across the work bench taking out other tools and huge gauges out of the wood. FUCK, FUCK, FUCK (and I don’t swear) but I that was too damn close. That could have been fingers, legs, eyes. Bloody stupid and bloody lucky. My guardian angel was on over-time. Some little incidents you just don’t tell your wife. So I will leave it with you bubblers.
In the Outsiders...My doors are doing well…how nice!! !http://images-3.redbubble.net/img/art/framecolor:black/framestyle:flat30/...
In the Outsiders...My doors are doing well…how nice!! / Door#1 Thank you to the Group Moderators
Often enough I find people asking for editing help that can’t afford or don’t want to download editing tools – not even free ones, for th…
Often enough I find people asking for editing help that can’t afford or don’t want to download editing tools – not even free ones, for their own reasons. I’ve spent some time checking out the online tools selection (Jo posted a listing of ten of these tools a while back). I didn’t use most of them, but looked them over, grabbed a screenshot and linked them all on a page in my blog. Besides photo editors, there are art pads and 3D avatars. I created myself one. This is “me” (minus some wrinkles and a few bulges) from the Meez site: Also on the list is one download tool that includes a community, BUT at this point in time, it’s only for mac users. Look near the bottom of the post for “Skitch”. Anyhow, here’s the list – all pretty with pics and links. Online Photo Editors and Art Tools On the list are the following: 14 Online Image editors 3 online art pads 3 online tools for adding bling 2 online tools for creating 3D avatars 2 online tools for funky text 1 download tool and online community for mac users.
I devised a tool that helps me deal with the sudden frustration felt during challenging moments of the creative process. Before releas…
I devised a tool that helps me deal with the sudden frustration felt during challenging moments of the creative process. Before releasing this tool as an app for US .99c in the iTunes App Store, I thought to first test it with my RedBubble friends. Let me know how you go. Click for the Frustration and Anxiety Release Tool for Artists One last note. I believe in the power of open source software development, so if you would like to augment my software tool, please feel free to download the software here. File in PSD format; font: Rockwell 28 pt Please send me links to any enhancements that you make to this tool. Back to work …
The following applications are free: / .. / G.I.M.P. The GNU Image Manipulation Program has a lot of the features f…
The following applications are free: / .. / G.I.M.P. The GNU Image Manipulation Program has a lot of the features found on high-end commercial photo editors such as Adobe’s Photoshop. It’s perhaps the best and most featured of the free image editors available, and as such will enable many artists on a budget to reach their potential. It’s FREE, people! / .. / Paint.NET A good basic image editor. Stable (at least on my systems). REQUIRES .NET Framework. (read the requirements) / .. / RealWorld Paint.COM A very basic,but competent editor. They have paid apps too. / .. / IrfanView “IrfanView is a very fast, small, compact and innovative FREEWARE (for non-commercial use) graphic viewer for Windows 9x, ME, NT, 2000, XP, 2003 , 2008, Vista, Windows 7.” As recommended by RB’er Frisson . Thank you. / .. / Blender Blender is the free open source 3D content creation suite, available for all major operating systems under the GNU General Public License. I haven’t tried it, but I know others who do use it. Get into 3D for free. / .. / Free AAA 8bf plugins Photoshop plugins that are well worth a look. Created by a fellow named Jim Clatfelter. He has a ‘buzzer’ which renders painterly effects on images. / .. / About.com’s Top 10 Free Photo Editors for Windows Check ‘em out, folks. There are some there I didn’t think of. (see also this list at Basic-Digital-Photography.com Paid applications worth a look: / .. / Topaz Simplify Plugin at this writing it’s $39.99 I tried the trial and it’s on my list of wanna haves. Topaz Simplify is a Photoshop plugin. Topaz sort of fills the gap left by the demise of BuzzSimplifier (see below). / .. / NeatImage Noise filtration software available as photoshop plugins or a standalone application. I have the pro version of the standalone application which, when I bought it several years ago was around $89. It is perhaps the state of the art noise reduction software available. They did have a fully functional free version of the standalone which was prohibited by licensing requirements from being used for any commercial uses (read for sale images). It was fully functional. If you sell your work, you must pay and register. / .. / Terragen Terragen is a 3d landscape generator capable of stunningly beautiful output. Like most 3d apps, it has a learning curve. From the website: “You are required to register your copy of Terragen if it is for commercial use, as specified in the License Agreement presented to you when you install or first use Terragen. If you only intend to use Terragen personally, on a non-profit basis, registration is optional and you may continue to use the unregistered version of Terragen free of charge.” Registration for Terragen Classic is $100. Still a lot less than Bryce, Hexagon, etc., which are high-end commercial apps. / .. / Other informational or service related sites: / .. / PlugsNPixels “where you can get one-stop, organized information about creativity and productivity software and related educational materials more quickly and easily than from any other source.” -quote from the site. / .. / MyFreeCopyright A copyright registration site that gives you a digital fingerprint of your work so you can prove infringement if it occurs. I don’t use this service, but I see it being used by others here on RB and elsewhere. Check it out and make up your mind. / .. / A couple of sites added by RB’er Syd Baker / .. / So sad, here are some very good things we have lost: / .. / optikVerve virtualPhotographer plug-in formerly at www.optikvervelabs.com this was a really ‘neato’ photoshop plugin and it was free. If anyone finds that this has been picked up (legitimately) by another vendor, let me know (no warez links, please!) / .. / Buzz Simplifier What a loss that Fo2Pix is out of business! I wanted this one and never ‘got around’ to buying it – my procrastination has cost me so much over the years…..(sighs…)
Vector art is created using graphics software programs such as Illustrator, Photoshop and …
Vector art is created using graphics software programs such as Illustrator, Photoshop and Inkscape. The pen tool is used to create points, lines and curves which make up the final image. Vector graphics files store the lines, shapes and colours that make up an image as mathematical formulae so that images can be increased in size without becoming pixelated. It takes some practice to master the art of using the pen tool but a little patience and persistence can result in some wonderful illustrations: As these examples demonstrate, vector graphics can be used to create all types of art, from basic logo designs to intricately illustrated scenes. There are hundreds of tutorials available on the web including: How to use Photoshop’s Pen Tool Draw A Realistic Vector Guitar in Inkscape Illustrator pen tool exercises Related RedBubble Groups: A Vector Tshirts Only Group Vector Goodness Lounge Pierre Bézier Fans | The Pen Tool If you’re keen to give this a try and don’t have Photoshop or Illustrator, Inkscape is a great, free software program. Please feel free to post your favourite vector based images below or share your experiences if you’re a dab hand with the pen tool. Nat See here for instructions on how to post your images.
*I am honoured to be featured with three of my paintings, along with other great RB artists in the magazine this month…I am also incred…
I am honoured to be featured with three of my paintings, along with other great RB artists in the magazine this month…I am also incredibly pleased with the wonderful article that was written by Richard Sutherland…thank you so much Frannie and Richard Inside Solo is the Art News and Resource magazine from Solo Exhibition...Please click on the image above, then click for the PDF…
Due to C.I.A. agents dropping a satellite on my shed I can now bring you Pen Tool [p] and Fignütts Tutorials 1 and 2 !! Click on Pic t…
Due to C.I.A. agents dropping a satellite on my shed I can now bring you Pen Tool [p] and Fignütts Tutorials 1 and 2 !! Click on Pic to be going there! (with your mouse pointer even!)
OK all you wonderful people out there in RB land – I have a task for those of you who feel like doing it:) There is a massive healing co…
OK all you wonderful people out there in RB land – I have a task for those of you who feel like doing it:) There is a massive healing conjunction happening at the moment and for those of you who need this time to push forward, through your doubts and fears and your insecurities and pain, then this is the time to do so. Suspend judgement, let go and simply work with the energies of the Universe… Take a blank sheet of paper and divide it into three columns… or take three sheets of paper if you want the room… In the first column write: GOODBYE LIST – And list ALL the things which affected you in 2009 which you want to leave behind GRATITUDE LIST – List ALL that you are grateful for in 2009 INTENTIONS LIST – List ALL that you are going to work towards achieving in 2010 Then you can read them all out on December 31:) Happy Solstice! Happy New Year! / May 2010 bring you joy, prosperity, serenity and lots of laughter:) / Blessed Be / Marg
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