Tips


Channel BlendingThe are no blending options in the channels palette, but is it still possible to blend? Yes, you can use Image / Apply Image, but I would like to show a different way.

In this example I have a copy of the green channel at the bottom of my channels palette. To blend this copy in overlay, I need to select the channel first with Ctrl+A (Command+C on the Mac) or in the menu: Select / All.

I then copy the image with Ctrl+C and paste it with Ctrl+V (Command+C and Command+V on the Mac).
As expected nothing happens. But it does allow us the use the fade command: Edit / Fade….

The fade command allows us to set the blending mode to overlay and after clicking on OK we’re blending the channel in overlay mode.

Note: blending channels can be very useful when you use channels to extract images from their background.

Picutel Smart Resize is a Photoshop plugin (only Windows supported for now) for advanced resizing of photos. Unlike ordinary resizing, Smart Resize can change the proportions (aspect ratio) of an image without introducing artifacts such as unnaturally tall or short people. This is accomplished by only rescaling the least interesting or important regions of the photo, leaving the more interesting regions untouched.

An example can be seen in the following video. At the top smart resizing is used, while ordinary resizing is shown at the bottom:


 

 

I’ve tested this plug-in with the following image:

Original

 

 

Photoshop ResizeI resized the image in Photoshop with Image/Resize, deselected Constrain Proportions and lowered the width from 500 to 300 pixels.

As you can see, the main subject is distorted.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Smart ResizeI used the same original, but this time I resized with Picutel Smart Resize after making a selection around the girl first.

This time no distortion of the main subject. Slight distortions in the background can be easily corrected with cloning, but wait…. there is more.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Smart Resize ExtraYou can even take it a step further and make multiple selections. In this example I included the big roll of hay in the background in my selection:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It doesn’t happen so often that you come across a plug-in that is actually useful. It’s not the ultimate solution, because in some cases you still need to do some cloning in the background, but regardless of this it’s still an impressive product and I’m looking forward to future developments.

Ever wondered why you don’t hear sound when you play a video in Photoshop CS3 Extended?
To play the video with sound, you need to hold down the Alt key (option key on the Mac) while clicking on the play button:

Video Sound in Photoshop CS3 Extended

Photoshoproadmap PuzzlePhotoshoproadmap, always good for unique tutorials with lots of detail, has released yet another great tutorial called “Create a colorful Print-and-Play puzzle for your kids with Photoshop”.
The 5 page tutorial explains how to create glossy looking shapes and text, how to add proper shadows, how to build the puzzle board and its pieces and how to add some finishing touches. You can even download two complete puzzles at the end of the tutorial and make your kids happy in no time!

To be able to select a single color with the Magic Wand tool, you need to use 3 different settings:

Eye Dropper tool  options1. Select the Eye Dropper tool and set the the Sample Size to Point Sample. This will not only have an effect on the Eye Dropper tool, but also on the Magic Wand tool.

2. Select the Magic Wand tool and set the Tolerance to 0.

Magic Wand options

3. Uncheck the Anti-Alias option.

 

 

Example 1
Example 1

Example 2
Example 1

Example 3
Example 1

Photoshop TV Episode 72
In this episode of Photoshop TV
- How to make a James Bond style screen effect using the Fibers, Cutout and Twirl filters.
- Put a showroom finish on a car with Shadow/Highlight adjustments and Levels.
- Create an Andy Warhol style effect with a psychedelic animation effect.

News
Scott Kelby has the breaking news on Adobe’s announcement of Photoshop CS3 and CS3 Extended.

This Week’s To-Do List
- Sign up at Fotolia.com to buy and sell photography and design
- Get amazing tips and tricks for just about everything at Lifehacker.com
- Stay up to date on the latest software at VersionTracker.com

In Vanishing Point, a tool available since Photoshop CS2, you can save the current grid to your document window by holding down the Alt key (Option key on the Mac) when you click OK to close the Vansihing Point window. The grid will then be saved to your current layer (recommended is to save it to an empty layer). You can then change its color, warp it or apply any other kind of effect.
The resulting grid is not ani-aliased, so the lines don’t look smooth. You can avoid this by creating the image in a large document (several thousands of pixels wide/high) and then resize the image to the format you’re working with.

The grid can also be useful for perspective drawing in Photoshop by transforming it using Edit/Transform/Distort.

Vanishing Point grid

Photoshop TV 67In the 67th episode of Photoshop TV, Matt, Scott and Dave share the following subjects with you:

- The best new features of Adobe Photoshop Lightroom: Target Adjustment Tool, Keyword Stamper, Virtual Copies and Tone Curve.
- How to use the Hue and Saturation in Adjustment Layers.
- How to use Free Transform for repeat Actions and across multiple Layers

This Week’s To-Do List
- Check out the new tutorials at PlanetPhotoshop.com
- Get a ton of Photoshop news and tips from Trevor Morris’s site.
- Enjoy the art of typography at Type For You.

The Mother of All Photoshop Sweepstakes
Enter to win an Alaskan cruise from the good people at Cruising Through Life and join our own Dave Cross, Moose Peterson and Vincent Versace for 7 days of amazing nature photography, Photoshop instruction and the best time you’ll ever have learning.

Prize contest
How you can win a full year of Layers magazine.

PixelPerfect with Bert MonroyIf you’re one of those people who love to study Photoshop by watching video tutorials, then it might be a good idea to visit PixelPerfect by Bert Monroy.

In 16 epsiodes (and growing) Bert is showing the viewer in great detail how to do things in Photoshop:

- Layer masks and alpha channels
- Making a ray gun
- Shadows
- Making tubes
- Filter effects
- Type effects
- Making a lamp
- Patterns and animation
- Lightning
- Drops of water
- Rapid weathering
- The extract command
- Colorizing

In episode 10-12 Bert also explains behind the scene certain aspect of his huge Photoshop work called Damen, a 15,000 layer Photoshop design.

Smooth SkinOn the Lunacore Forum I’ve posted an example of using Photoshop CS3′ Smart Filters to make a non-destructive skin correction, based on Lunacore’s original Smooth Skin tutorial.

You can check it out here.

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