Photoshop Video Tutorial : Change the colour of an object using Hue & Saturation

In this video tutorial, we’re taking a look at how to change the colour of an object by first of all selecting it and then using one of the image adjustment options to completely change the hue and saturation values.


Learn To Change The Colour Of Objects By Adjusting The Hue & Sat

Photoshop Tutorial: Transforming text

Some of my trainees are surprised to find that they can apply many transformations to text in Photoshop without having to rasterize the layer. You can Scale, Rotate, Skew, Warp, Flip Horizontal and Vertical and STILL go back and edit your type without any problems.

To apply transformations, make sure the Text layer is selected in the layers palette and then choose Edit > Transform. From there you can choose from all of the transformations listed above.

After you’ve made the transformation, you can edit the text again if necessary. Just select the type tool and click on the type you want to change.

If you want to use Distort or Perspective transformations, however, you will need to rasterize the layer first. Rasterizing means that you are converting vectors to a bitmapped (made up of pixels) image. To rasterise text, choose Layer > Rasterize > Type. Once the text is rasterized you can transform to your heart’s content.

Photoshop Brushes : The Simpsons

I've just added a new set of Photoshop brushes to the download page of the main Digital Design Cottage site. This set features Springfield's finest characters, over 20 different brushes - just in time for their movie debut later this year.



You can also download the zip file here.

Photoshop Quick Tip: Save time by making your own custom document sizes

When you create a new document, Photoshop offers you a pop-up list (the Preset option) of the most commonly used document sizes in terms of width, height, resolution and colour mode. This includes sizes such as A4, Letter and the more popular web page sizes. However, you will often find that you use other sizes over and over. So rather than type in the details each time, you can just enter the size and resolution you need, give it a name and then save it as a preset using the Save Preset dialog box.

For example, I sell t-shirts on CafePress. The size required for T-shirt designs is 10 inches by 10 inches and requires a resolution of 200 ppi. So I saved this as a preset called T-shirts and now it appears at the top of the list. You can make as many custom document sizes as you want, so save yourself some time and make some custom document sizes.

Photoshop File Download : Reusable Magnetic Poetry

Here's a PSD file I created that you may like to use. It's one tile based on the idea of magenetic fridge poetry. You can reuse it as much as you want and just change the text layer on the tile.



You can download a zipped version of the file here. Let me know if you find it useful.

Photoshop News

News reports about the release of Creative Suite 3 are mentioning a release date of around the 27th of March.

Betanews quotes an expert from Merrill Lynch:

"Jay Vleeschhouwer, the analyst who wrote the report disclosing the release date, says he expects about six different CS3 product suites, and 14 individual products overall. Core CS3 products would include Photoshop, Illustrator, and InDesign."

As an instructor in New Media Creative Design, this is very exciting but also means lots of hard work learning the new programs. (Although, realistically, it's not tooooo hard, having to play with Photoshop and checking out its new features).

Design Inspiration : DesignersWhoBlog.com

This is a super blog that I've only just discovered and it's fair to say it's bursting with inspiration for anyone with an interest in art, design, advertising and more.



DesignersWhoBlog.com is a jumping off point to (what seems like) hundreds of cool blogs from designers all over the world.

Photoshop Tutorial : Make a badge for your website

Badges or flashes are a bit of fun decoration that you can add to your site and they are appearing more and more on the web. They're also very useful for drawing attention to specific parts of your page. It's a good way to set up a call to action like "Buy Now" or "Join Here". So in this tutorial I'm going to show you how to make a badge using one of Photoshop's vector tools.

The Vector tools in Photoshop allow you to create all kinds of lines and shapes and their advantage over raster images is that you can scale the Vector paths up as much as you want and there is absolutely no loss of quality.

1. Create a new document - 400 x 400 pixels.


2. Select the Polygon Tool from the toolbox.


3. On the tool options bar at the top of the screen, select the Shape Layers option.
   
   
   


4. Again, on the tool options bar at the top of the screen, click on the down arrow for Polygon Options.
   
   
   


5. Check the Star check box to ensure that you draw a star rather than a polygon shape with lots of sides.
   


6. In the “Indent Sides By” field enter a percentage. To get a very pointy star enter a high number such as 60 - 70. For a less pointy star enter a lower number, say 20%. You will get very different effects with these numbers. I’m using 50% for this example.
   


7. In the colour picker, choose a foreground colour. I picked a red for mine.
   


8. Click and drag out a Star shape to the size you want.
   
   When you release the mouse you notice that a new shape layer had been added in the layers palette. This new layer consists of a red fill linked to a star shape mask.
   
   
   
   
   

Don’t worry that the edges of the star appear jagged. This is because the path around the star shape is selected. Click on the background layer to deselect the shape and you will see the nice sharp edges of the star appear.



9. Now it’s time to add some text to your badge. Select the Type tool, set the font colour to white and choose a solid, heavy-looking font. I used Arial Black, size 30. After you have typed in some text, commit it by clicking on any other layer on the layers palette.
   
   


10. Select the type layer again by clicking on it in the layers palette. Press Ctrl + T (windows) or Cmd + T (Mac) to free transform the text. Run your mouse over one of the corner handles so that the cursor changes to a double-headed arrow and drag to rotate the text. Press Enter (Windows) or Return (Mac) to apply the transformation.
    
    
    
    
    


11. The last thing to do is to add a drop shadow to the badge. Click on the star shape layer to select it, then click on the layer style button at the bottom of the layers palette.
    
    


12. Leave the blend mode at multiply, the shadow colour to black and set the angle to 90 degrees. Adjust distance, spread and size to your own taste or use the values I used in the Illustration below.
    
    
    
    


13. Click OK and Voila!
    
    
    

Photoshop Quick Tip: Time Yourself!

Photoshop can tell you how long you are spending on different commands as you work. To find out (if you really want to know how long you play with each toy, I mean tool), then click on the right-facing triangle at the bottom of the document window. Usually you will see document info here, such as the file size but when you click on the triangle, choose Show from the menu and then choose Timing. This is effectively a stop-watch which times your actions on each tool or command.

So now you can start working towards your personal best, painting a circle in under 0.5 seconds.

Photoshop Tutorial: How To Create A Vignette or Soft Fade Edges in a Photo

A vignette is a photograph or illustration in which the background fades gradually away until it blends into the paper on which it is printed. In this short tutorial, I'm going to show you one method (because in Photoshop there is nearly always more than one way to do things) to create this effect.

1. Open your image. I'm using a stock image of a family out skiing.
   
   
   
   
2. Double-click on the background layer to convert it to a “normal” layer. You can rename your layer in the New Layer dialog box that opens and I named mine “vignette”.
   
   
   
   


3. In the toolbox, select the Elliptical Marquee tool.
   
   


4. Drag out a circular marquee selection around the area of the image that you want to hold on to.
   
   


5. Click on the "Add layer mask" button at the bottom of the layers palette.
   
   
   


6. Click on the layer mask thumbnail in the layers palette.
   
   
   


7. Go to Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur and make sure the Preview option is checked.
   
   
8. Play with the radius values until you are happy with the amount of fade and then click OK.
   
   
   
   

You should now have a vignette with a transparent background. If you want to add a colour background, all you need to do is add a layer underneath your current layer and fill it with whatever colour you like.

Photoshop Video Tutorial : Setting a specific crop size

In this tutorial you'll learn how to set a specific size for cropping and printing your pictures from Photoshop. In a previous video I showed you how to create a basic crop using the Crop tool in Photoshop. In this video tutorial we’ll take a look at how to set definite dimensions for your crop, rather than just using a freeform crop.



Cropping To A Specific Size For Printing In Photoshop

Design Inspiration : MagazineArt.org

MagazineArt.org is a wonderful site featuring a huge database of magazine covers from the 19th and 20th century. It contains covers from magazines you probably never knew even existed - women's magazines, gardening, movies, pulp and the artwork is terrific. I particularly like the Adventure section with lots of fairly rough looking dudes or damsels in distress on the covers.

So if you're having a creative block, take a look at this site for some inspiration.

Photoshop Tutorial : Using the Sponge Tool to Adjust Saturation

In this tutorial, we’ll look at how to increase the saturation in selected parts of an image. When you change the saturation of a color, you adjust its strength or purity. The Sponge tool is useful for making subtle saturation changes to specific areas of an image.

I’m using an image of a bunch of roses on a wooden table. It is a slightly dull (in terms of colour) image of some red and pink flowers.

1. Select the Sponge tool (), hidden under the Dodge tool ().

2. On the tool options bar, do the following:

• Select a large, very soft brush, from the Brush pop-up palette.


• Choose Mode > Saturate. (Saturate increases the intensity of a colour, Desaturate decreases the intensity of a colour


• For Flow , enter 50% for starters – if the changes are happening too rapidly, then decrease the flow.

3. Drag the sponge back and forth over an area of the image. The more you drag over an area, the more saturated the color becomes. In the image, I’m using the petals are starting to look much more colourful.

Photoshop Quick Tip: Minimise the Toolbox

I'm in Spring Cleaning mode at the moment. Yesterday's tip was about getting rid of clutter in your Photoshop workspace by clearing away your palettes. Here's another quick one. Just double-click on the bar at the top of the toolbox and it is instantly minimised down to the bar with the feather image. To get the full toolbar back, double-click on the bar again.

Photoshop Quick Tip: Hide Those Unsightly Palettes

The Photoshop work area can become a very busy place with the wide variety of palettes that can be opened at any one time. If you want to show someone your work without all the clutter, a quick way to get rid of them all is to press Tab on the keyboard. That gets rid of ALL the palettes.

If you want to keep the Toolbox and the Options Bar visible, press Shift + Tab.

Photoshop Quick Tip: Find the centre of your document

Here's an easy way to find the exact centre of your image in Photoshop using the rulers and guides.

With your document open in Photoshop, make your rulers visible (Ctrl+R in windows, Cmd+R on the Mac). Make sure that Snap is turned on, you can check this by choosing View > Snap. Then click and drag a guide out from the left hand-side ruler towards the middle of your document. The guide should snap automatically when it reaches the vertical centre. Now click and drag on the ruler at the top of the document window and drag down towards the centre. Again the guide should snap when it reaches the horizontal centre. And there where they meet, you have the very centre of your document.

Photoshop Quick Tip: Flip those guides!

Yesterday we saw how you can use the guides to help you find the centre of your document. Today’s Photoshop tip shows you how you can flip a guide from being a vertical guide to being a horizontal (or vice versa).

Let’s pretend you’ve pulled out a vertical guide when you really wanted a horizontal guide (I know, my mind wanders too). Well you don’t have to go back to the rulers and start again, all you need to do is hold down the Alt Key (in windows) or the Option key (on the Mac). This will flip the guide from horizontal to vertical or vertical to horizontal. A handy little time saver.

Design Resources: Kuler

Kuler - From the Adobe Lab, this is a wonderful free application that lets you create colour themes and save them for your Creative Suite 2 applications. You can also share themes and save them on the site - you'll need an Adobe ID to this (that's free too, you just need to register).

So if you're a graphic designer, a web designer, a fashion designer, an interior designer or just someone who likes colours, this is a great site for ideas.

Photoshop Video Tutorial : Back to basics with the Crop Tool

In today’s video we go back to basics as we look at how to use the Crop tool in Photoshop. A bit of careful cropping can elevate an ordinary photograph to something very special. Did you know you can rotate your cropped area? Do you know what a shield is? Watch this short video to find out.


Back To Basics With The Crop Tool In Photoshop