Photoshop : Tutorial - Using the Metallic Gradients

You’re probably well aware of the “regular” gradients that come with Photoshop but did you know that there are lots of other gradients that come with the program that are just waiting for you to load them up. In this short tutorial, I’m going to show you how to add extra gradients into the Gradient Picker and how to make a super quick “silver” pipe.

1. Open a new RGB document, 300 x 300 pixels.

2. Select the Rectangular Marquee Tool from the toolbox and draw a long skinny rectangle, similar to the one I’ve drawn below.



In the toolbar, select the Gradient Tool .



3. On the tool options bar, click on the down triangle next to the Gradient thumbnail to open up the Gradient Picker. In the right-corner, click on the triangle to open up the Gradient Picker pop-up menu. At the bottom of the menu you’ll see a list of all the other gradients that come as presets with Photoshop. Cool or what?



4. Choose Metals from the list . Photoshop will ask you if you want to replace your current gradients with the new set or if you want to append (or add) them to your current set. I usually choose Append.

5. Now that the new gradients are added, you can run your mouse over them and you will see that they have names such as Silver, Gold, Brass, Steel Blue and so on.



6. To make the Silver pipe, choose the Silver gradient , then using the gradient tool, click and drag from one side of the rectangular marquee to the other.


7. Ta Da! You now should have one nice looking “silver” pipe, made literally in seconds. Press Ctrl + D (Windows) or Cmd + D (Mac) to deselect the new pipe.

As well as the "metallic" gradients there are quite a few more to choose from so take a look at those ones too.

Photoshop : Tutorial - Using "Lock Transparent Pixels"

Changing the colour of an object that is semi-transparent or has faded edges in Photoshop is easy when you know how! In this short tutorial, I’m going to show you how to use the “Lock Transparent Pixels” button on the layers palette to do just that.

Let’s start off with a yellow blob. As you can see from the image below, it is definitely yellow in the middle but then it starts to fade out at the edges.

If you try to use the Paint Bucket tool on this faded edge, you will just end up with a circle with very rough edges, as seen below.

To get over this problem, click on the “Lock Transparent Pixels” button near the top of the layers palette in Photoshop.

Note that you cannot use this on the background layer only on layers with transparency.

By locking the transparent pixels, we can now only manipulate the opaque areas of the layer.

Now when I use the Paint Bucket on the yellow blob, the fade is preserved.

Obviously this is a very simple example, but as you can imagine this would be extremely useful when you are designing things like t-shirts or print work where you may need to change an objects fade colour.

Photoshop : Tutorial - Using Filters and a Quick Mask to Create A Border

In this Photoshop tutorial, I’ll show you how to make a border using a quick mask and a couple of filters. It’s quick and easy and you can get all kinds of cool results by using different filters.

1. Open up the image that you want to apply a border to.



2. Using the lasso tool , draw a rectangular(ish) marquee around the area of the image that you want to keep. It doesn’t matter if the edges look a bit rough, that all adds to the, ahem, “character” of the piece.



3. Press Q on the keyboard, or click on the Quick Mask mode button on the Photoshop toolbar.



4. Now we’re going to apply some filters to the area we have Quick Masked. You can play around here and try out several filters to get different effects. For this example, I chose Filter > Brush Stokes > Sprayed Strokes. This opens the Sprayed Filter dialog box.



Here I set the stroke length to 18, the stroke radius to 14 and the stroke direction to left diagonal. Click OK to close this filter.

5. At this point you might like to use this jagged edge as your border or you can go on and try out more filters. Again, I chose Filters > Distort > Glass.



6. The settings used here were Distortion of 7, Smoothness of 3 and Texture set to Frosted. Click OK when you’re happy with the effect.

7. The Quick Masked area will now look quite different than when you first selected it. Press Q on the keyboard to return to Standard Mode. You’ll see the dancing ants indicating the selected area.

8. Invert the selection by choosing Select > Inverse.




9. Create a new layer and make sure that it is selected. Set the foreground colour to white and then using the Paint Bucket tool, click anywhere on the selection to fill the area. Your border should now look something like this:




By adding the white border on a new layer, you haven’t damaged your original image. Now save your masterpiece and impress friends and loved ones with your new found border-making skills.

Photoshop Tutorial : Creating an Ansel Adams Style photograph

Here's a quick photoshop video tutorial showing you how to use the Colour Mixer to create a very "contrasty" black and white image.


Creating An Ansel Adams Style Photograph In Photoshop -

Photoshop : Tutorial - Usint The Art History Brush

Rather than using the filters to create a watercolour or painterly effect, you can use the Art History Brush in Photoshop to create a nice looking "painting". And it will make you feel like you're part of the process of making something because with this tool you need to make decisions about how the effect will look.


1. Start by opening the image you want to paint in Photoshop. I’m using this close up of a flower. This is a large, high resolution image.



2. Select the Art History brush from the toolbox. It may be hidden underneath the History Brush.



3. On the tool options bar, click on the Brush options. Choose a “Dry Brush Tip Light Flow” brush from the list of brushes available. Depending on the size of your image you may need to change it from the default of 66 pixels. For this image, I’m going to leave the brush size as 66
pixels.





4. Open the brushes palette and click on the Shape Dynamics under Brush Tip Shape.



5. Drag the Roundness Jitter to about 50%

6. Click on the Color Dynamics. Drag the Hue Jitter to about 10%.
That’s all the brush adjustments that we need to make.



7. On the Tool Options bar, set the style of the Art History Brush to Tight Short.

(You may want to try out different styles depending on the effect you want to achieve). Set the area to 50 pixels.




8. Start painting on the image. It’s a good idea to paint over large areas of similar colour to get a feel for how the art history brush works.

9. Continue painting into the more detailed areas of the image. Reduce the brush size where required on the intricate areas.




10. Keep working on the image until you have painted the whole area and you have what should look like a nicely painted watercolour image.

Photoshop : Tutorial - Eyecatching Text Effect Using Layer Effects

Here’s a very simple and quick way to create some eye-catching text. It’s all based around one Text layer with three layer effects added. Let’s get started.

1. Create a new file with dimensions of 500 x 200 pixels.

2. Select the Type tool and add some text. I’m using the Cooper Black font, size 72, anti-aliasing set to smooth and colour set to red.



3. Make sure the text layer is selected then click on the Layer Effect button on the bottom of the layers palette.

4. Select Drop Shadow from the Layer Effect drop down menu and choose a Distance and Size of 5 and Spread of 0%.



5. Don’t click OK, yet. Click on the words “Inner Shadow” on the left hand side of the Layer Style dialog box. This will change the options available in the dialog box. Again, set a Distance and Size of 5% and Choke of 0%.



6. Don’t click OK, again! Click on the word “Stroke” on the bottom left of the dialog box. Set the Size to 3 pixels, Position to Outside and the Colour to white.



7. Click OK. The final layer set-up and the text below:

Photoshop Tutorial : Create an electrical current effect

This short tutorial shows you how to create the effect of arcing current in the air. Because it uses the “Difference Clouds” filter, the effect can look different every time you try it.

1. Open a new file. Make it 500 x 500 pixels.

2. Set the foreground colour to black and the background to a light grey.

3. Select the gradient tool and in the tool options bar, set the gradient to Foreground to Background.

4. Drag the gradient tool diagonally across the image.

5. Choose Filters > Render > Difference Clouds.

6. Now Invert the colours in the image by pressing Ctrl + I.



7. Choose Image > Adjustments > Levels to open the Levels dialog box.

8. Drag the black slider to the right to dramatically darken the image. At this point the effect of “electrical currents” should become apparent.


At this stage the current looks pretty cool but if you would like to add some extra colour to the image. choose Image > Adjustments > Variations. From the Variations dialog you can add colour by clicking directly on any of the preview images. Each time you click , the colour will change.

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 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 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 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 Tutorial : Warping Type

It’s easy to add a bit of flair to your text using the Warp dialog box. Warping lets you distort type into a wide range of shapes, such as a flag, a wave or a fisheye. The warp style you select is an attribute of the type layer - you can change a layer’s warp style at any time to change the overall shape of the warp.

1. Open a new file or open an existing image file that you want to add some text to. I’m using an image of some running legs.

2. Select the Horizontal Type tool (), and in the Character palette, choose Century as the typeface, 72 pt as the size and white as the colour. (make sure you don’t have a white background or you won’t see your text!)

3. Click anywhere on the image and type some text. Then click the Commit Any Current Edits button () on the tool options bar.

The words appear on the image and a new layer appears in the Layers palette. The new layer will be name whatever you typed in. In this example, I typed the word Running, so the new layer is automatically called Running.

4. Click on your new text layer in the Layers palette to make sure it is selected and then click on the Create Warp Text button on the tool options bar.

The Warp Text dialog box opens.

5. In the Warp Text dialog box, choose Style > Flag and click the Horizontal radio button. For Bend , specify + 25%. Then click OK.

The words you typed will appear to ruffle like a flag in the wind. Easy as that!

I repeated steps 4 and 5 with the words “Away” layer, to create the image below:

PhotoshopTutorial : Create Lomo Style Photographs

Accidents such as over-saturated colors, lens artifacts, and exposure defects are just some of the wierd and wonderful effects acheived using a Lomo camera.

What's Lomo?

"In 1991 a group of Viennese students discovered the Lomo Kompakt Automat when on holiday in Prague. This mass-produced Soviet camera was so cheap and easy to use that they shot rolls of film, ignoring the established rules of "good" photography. The resulting snaps were often odd to look at, out of focus and, due to the character of the Lomo lens, garishly coloured. But they were wonderfully fresh."

- From the BBC 4 website


In this tutorial, I'm going to show you how to create an image in Photoshop that looks like it was taken using a Lomo camera.

1. Open the photograph that you are going to work with. We’re going to start by making a vignette.

2. Select either the Elliptical Marquee tool (), or the Lasso tool (). In the tool options bar, set the feather to 90 pixels.

3. Draw a circle around the photograph.

4. Now that you’ve made a selection, you’re going to invert it. Do this by choosing Select > Inverse or pressing Shift+Ctrl+I (Windows) or Shift+Cmd+I (Mac).

5. Add a new adjustment layer by clicking on the “New Adjustment Layer” button on the bottom of the Layers palette. Choose Levels from the pop-up menu.

6. Drag the left arrow (representing the dark pixels) towards the centre of the histogram. You will see that the selected are becomes very dark, producing a vignette. How dark you want to go is up to you, so you can try out various settings, but there should be a definite dark edge around your photograph.

That’s the vignette created.

Now you’re going to fake the effect of cross processing. Lomo pictures tend to look bright, blurred and extremely colourful. Like an old TV that’s starting to go on the blink.

7. Flatten the image by pressing Shift+Ctrl+E (Windows) or Shift+Cmd+E (Mac), or choose Layer > Merge Layers.

8. Add another adjustment layer, this time choose Curves from the pop-up menu.

9. In the Curves dialog box, add two points and create a slanted S shape, as illustrated.

10. Add a new layer (just a normal layer this time) on top of the Curves adjustment layer and fill the new layer with solid black.

11. In the Layers palette, make sure the new Black layer is selected and change the blending mode from Normal to Hue. Reduce the opacity to around 40%.

And that completes your “Lomo-like” photograph.

Optional Step:

At this point, you could, if you want, sharpen the image using Filter > Sharpen > Unsharp Mask. Lomo photographs tend to be blurry – that’s part of their charm – so I’m just leaving my image alone at this point.

Other examples:

Before	After

Photoshop Tutorial : Fake InfraRed !

In this tutorial, you'll see how to use the Channel Mixer, Gaussian Blur and Film Grain in Photoshop to create the impression of an photograph which has been taken using a camera with an infrared filter.

The effect works really well and can completely change the look of a photograph.

1. Open the photograph that you want to work with.

2. Make a duplicate of the background layer (in the layers palette drag "background" over the new layer icon at the bottom of the palette next to the trash can).

3. Select the new duplicate layer and rename it “Infrared” by double clicking on the layer name.

4. Create a new Channel Mixer adjustment layer by clicking on the New Adjustment Layer button at the bottom of the layers palette. Choose "Channel Mixer" from the pop-up menu.

5. The Channel Mixer dialog box will open.

6. Make sure the “Preview” option is checked so you can see how your photo will change. Then check the "Monochrome" option on the bottom left of the dialog box. (Leave it unchecked for a bizarre color effect.)

7. Set Red = + 100%, Green = + 200% and Blue = - 200%

8. Use the slider on the Constant option to reduce the brightness. I set this picture -10%.

9. Click OK. Your image will now start to have a hint of infrared about it.

10. Merge all the visible layers by choosing Layer > Merge Visible.

11. Create another duplicate layer on top of the existing layer.

12. On the document window, click on the corner of the window and drag out until there is at least one inch of gray showing all around your image window.

13. With the topmost duplicate layer selected press Ctrl + T to Free Transform the layer. With the Shift key held down, drag out each of the corner adjustment handles until the image expands out equally into the gray area by about 1/4 to ½ an inch. Hit Enter on the keyboard to apply the transformation.

14. Go to Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur and move the slider up to around 4.5 and clickOK.

15. On the layers palette go to the layers tab and change the blending mode from normal to Screen. Now adjust the opacity slider down to approximately 50%, or what ever suits your image best.

At this point you should have a nice glow or halo around parts of the image.

16. Choose Filter > Artistic > Film Grain. Drag the slider to between 4 and 6 to add a visible level of graininess to the photograph. Click OK to exit the Filter dialog box.

Your image is now complete and you will have achieved a good if not perfect impression of a photograph taken using an Infrared filter.

Other examples: The beautiful west coast of Ireland.

The Ha'penny Bridge, Dublin

Photoshop Tutorial : Make a Text Clipping Mask

Here's a new tutorial - all about how to use text as a clipping mask in Photoshop. Many people avoid clipping masks because there is a perception that they are difficult or that you need to be some kind of Photoshop master to use them. As you'll see in this tutorial there is nothing to be afraid of, they are straightforward and produce great effects.



To briefly explain what's happening here: You can use the content of one layer to mask the layers above it. The transparent pixels of the bottom or base layer mask the content of layers above it that are part of a clipping mask. The content of the base layer clips or reveals, the content of the layers above it in the clipping mask. It's like looking through a stencil.

1. Open an image in Photoshop. I’m using a snowy scene, but you can use a picture of anything at all.
   
   
   
   
   
2. Select the Horizontal Type Tool and in the tool options bar at the top of the screen, choose a font (heavy, solid fonts work best for clipping), and a fairly large font size.
   
   
   
   
   (I used the following settings: Font Family – pussycat, Size 250, Text aligned Centre and Anti-aliasing set to Strong. )
   
   


3. Click on the image in the document window and type some text.
   
   
   
   
   
   
4. Use the Move Tool, to centre the word in the middle of the image or over an area of interest in the image.
   
   
   
5. Click on the background layer in the Layers Palette to select it and then click on the Create A New Layer button.
   
   
   
   
   
   A new empty layer will appear in the Layers Palette.
   
   
   
6. Using the Paint Bucket tool, fill the new layer with white.
   
   

You now need to rearrange the stacking order of the layers to create your clipping mask. If your image has a ”background” layer, it will probably be locked.

1. Double-click anywhere on the background layer to open up the New Layer dialog box. Rename the layer and click OK.
   
   
   
   
   


2. Click on the layer you have just renamed in the Layers Palette and drag it to the top of the layers so it is hiding the words you’ve typed.
   
   
   
   
   


3. With the topmost layer selected, click on the Layers Palette menu (the little triangle in the upper right corner) and choose Create Clipping Mask.
   
   
   
   
   The clipping mask, kicks into action and you will see the letters forming the word Snowfall are filled with the image of the snowy trees.
   
   
   
   

Adding A Drop Shadow


To complete this image add a drop shadow to the text. It adds a little extra impact!

1. Select the type layer to make it active, and then click the Add a Layer Style button () at the bottom of the Layers palette and choose Drop Shadow from the pop-up menu.
   
   
   
   
   


2. In the Layer Style dialog box, change the Opacity to 100%, the angle to 180 and the distance, spread and size to 3 (or choose whatever options you like best).
   
   
   
   
   The final image should look something like this:
   
   
   

Photoshop Tutorial : Using Solid Colour Layers

In this tutorial you'll learn how to generate a solid colour layer in Photoshop. This is a special layer which allows you to quickly and easily change the background colour of images with the colour picker.

Publish

In this tutorial you'll learn how to generate a solid colour layer in Photoshop. This is a useful way to change backgrounds on images. I'm using an image of a purple car which has areas of transparency which lets the yellow background layer show through.

1. In Photoshop, click on the Layer1 layer in the Layers palette to select it.
   
   
   


2. Click on Create New Fill or Adjustment Layer menu.
   
   
   


3. Choose Solid Color from that menu.
   
   
   
   This will open the Colour Picker.
   
   
   


4. I chose a blue colour and clicked OK.
   
   A new layer called Color Fill 1 has appeared in Layers Palette. This layer has two thumbnails and a link symbol associated with it. The thumbnail on the left is a solid color fill. The white thumbnail on the right is a layer mask. You can see the solid color fill through the mask because the mask is set to white. The reason for using a solid color layer is that it gives you the flexibility to easily change a solid fill.
   
   
   
   


5. Click on the new Color Fill 1 layer and drag it down below the Layer 0 (the car layer).
   
   Now the car is at the top of the stack in the Layers Palette and the background appears blue. Using this new layer it is now extremely easy to change the background colour easily and quickly.
   


6. In the Layers palette, double-click on the thumbnail on the left side of the Color Fill 1 layer. This will open the Color Picker again. Choose a new colour and notice the live preview of the colour changes to the layer. This is what makes it so good. Click OK when you find a colour you like.

Photoshop : Tutorials - Create a simple 3D logo

This tutorial shows you a quick and easy way to create a simple 3D logo using the Distort Transformation in Photoshop.

1. Create a new document – 500 pixels by 500 pixels. Click on the Foreground Colour Swatch and pick a dark green colour. (I chose a green with the RGB value #336633).
   
   
   
   


2. Fill the background with the colour you selected by pressing Alt+Backspace (Windows) or Option+Delete (Mac).
   
   


3. Press "d" to set the Foreground and Background colours to their default of Black and White.
   
   
   
4. Press "x" to set your Foreground colour to white.
   
   
   
5. Select the Horizontal Type Tool () and select the following settings on the tool options bar.
   
   
   
   
   Font Family – pussycat, Size 250 (you will need to type this into the Size field and press Enter (Windows) or Return (Mac)), Text aligned Centre and Anti-aliasing set to Strong.
   
   
   Add some type to your image.
   
   
   
   
   
6. Click on the Create A New Layer button in the Layers Palette.
   
   
   
   
   A new empty layer will appear in the Layers Palette.
   
   


7. Select the Elliptical Marquee tool from the toolbox.
   
   
   
   


8. Press Shift and drag out a circular selection that's larger than your type (illustrated below).
   
   
   
   
   
9. Click on the Edit menu and choose Stroke. In the Stroke dialog box, choose 20 for your Width, set the Location to Centre and set the Colour to white. Click OK. This puts a white stroke around the circular selection you made.
   
   
   
   
   
   


10. Press Ctrl+D (Windows) or Cmd+D (MAC) to deselect the circular marquee.
    
    


11. Click on the type layer in the Layers Palette and then Shift+click on the white circle layer to select both layers at the same time. Click on the Link Layers button at the bottom of the Layers Palette. Now that the layers are linked you can merge them together by pressing Ctrl+E (Windows) or Cmd+E (Mac).
    
    
    
12. Press Ctrl+T (Windows) or Cmd+T (Mac) to bring up the Free Transform bounding box.
    
    
    
    
    
    
13. Hold down Ctrl (Windows) or Cmd(Mac) key and click on the bottom-right corner point of the Free Transform bounding box, and up and to the right. (Holding down Ctrl causes the contents of the bounding box to distort.) The logo will appear to tip forward. Do the same thing with the upper left handle of the bounding box until you get a sense of perspective on the logo. Press Enter (Windows) or Return (MAC) to commit the transformation.
    
    
    

(Optional) For an extra effect, add a drop shadow. In the Layers Palette, click on the layer with the merged text and circle to make it active, and then click the Add a Layer Style button () at the bottom of the Layers palette and choose Drop Shadow from the pop-up menu.

Play around with the Drop Shadow dialog box to see which settings work best. I used the following settings:

Your final logo should look something like this:

Photoshop: Tutorial - Vertical Type Tool & Character Palette

The Vertical Type tool is used for typing text (surprise!!)vertically on your image. But did you know that you can also rotate the vertical text using the character palette? Here's a short tutorial to show you how to use the tool and also how to change the orientation of the text.

This short tutorial, shows you how to use the Vertical Type Tool in Photoshop and how to rotate the Vertical text using the Character Palette menu.

1. Open an image file. I'm using a portrait shaped picture of two boats.


2. Choose the Vertical Type tool from the tool box.
   
   
   
   Select any font you like, preferably something that looks quite heavy, choose a large size and set the anti-aliasing to strong. It's also a good idea to use capital letters when you're working with Vertical Type because each letter is the same height and therefore there won't be large gaps between the bottom of one letter and the top of the next letter.( I selected Arial Black, size 72)
   


3. Type some text onto your image.
   
   Your typing will appear vertically on the screen.
   
   
   
   Click on any tool on the toolbox to commit the type OR click on the Commit Any Current Edits button () on the Options tool bar to commit the type.
   

Change the orientation of text by 90 degrees with the Character Palette

1. Select the Vertical Type Tool again and highlight the words you have typed on your image.


2. Choose Window > Character to open up the Character palette menu
   
   
   


3. Click on the small triangle in the upper right corner of the Character palette menu and then click on Standard Vertical Roman Alignment. (It will initially have a check mark beside it indicating that the option is selected).
   
   
   
   When you release the mouse button, the text will change direction.
   

Photoshop: Tutorial - Spot Healing Brush

Using the Spot Healing Brush tool is a great way to quickly get rid of zits, blemishes and other imperfections from photos. It's a new feature in Photoshop CS2 and it works by painting with sampled pixels from an image or pattern and matches the texture, lighting, transparency, and shading of the sampled pixels to the pixels being healed. The Spot Healing Brush doesn't require you to specify a sample spot, you simply click where you want to remove a spot and it automatically samples from around the retouched area. It is absolutely incredible.

In this example I'm using the Spot Healing Brush to remove some orange spots from a butterfly’s wing.

1. In the toolbox, select the Spot Healing Brush tool (J).
   
   
   
   
2. On the tool options bar, click the Brush pop-up menu and make the brush larger, about 32 pixels and set the hardness to 25%.
   
3. Using the Spot Healing Brush, click once over the orange spot at the top of the butterfly’s wing. When you press down with the mouse, the shape of the brush will appear black or dark grey

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Once you release the mouse button, the area will be “healed” and the spot will disappear.

Here I've used the Spot Healing Brush to remove all four orange spots on the butterfly.

Photoshop: Tutorial - Removing Red Eye in CS2

The Red Eye tool in Photoshop CS2 removes red eye in flash photos of people and white or green reflections in flash photos of animals. It's incredibly quick and easy to use.

1. Open an image of a person with red eye.

2. Select the Red Eye tool from the toolbox.



3. Click in the red eye area on the image. The eye should change to a dark pupil.



If it doesn’t work out as you expected, set one or both of the following options in and click in the red eye area again:

• Pupil Size sets the size of the pupil (dark center of the eye).
• Darken Pupil Sets the darkness of the pupil.

Severe Red Eye
Even when the red eye is severe, Photoshop still does a good job of removing it. Occasionally it will make the person look like they have cataracts but generally it's a huge improvement.



Even when the red eye problem is reminiscent of The Terminator, as in this photo, it still does a good job. The results can be seen below.

Photoshop Tutorial : A visual overview of the toolbox

Just like an artist’s work table, the toolbox - the long, narrow palette on the far left side of the work area in Photoshop - contains the tools you'll use to draw, paint, erase, and do a myriad of other things whilst working on your image. There are several distinct categories of tools in Photoshop's toolbox:

• Selection tools

• Painting and editing tools

• Vector drawing and Text tools

• Foreground and background colour selection boxes

• Viewing tools

When you let your mouse hover over any tool in the toolbox, you will see a tooltip which lets you know the name of the tool and the tool's keyboard shortcut. It's worth making a concious effort to learn the shortcuts as it speeds up your work enormously. Some of the shortcuts are really easy to remember such as Z for the Zoom tool or E for the Eraser.

Whenever you see a little arrow on the bottom right of a tool in Photoshop (or any Adobe application for that matter), it means there are other “hidden” tool choices. Hidden tools are accessed by clicking and holding on any tool that contains a small black triangle, located in the lower-right corner of the tool. It can sometimes be hard to find that one tool you're looking for because it's hidden under a fly-out menu icon.

The illustrations below show an overview of the toolbox, with each tool available and its shortcut key

Selection Tools


Retouching Tools

Painting Tools

Vector drawing and Text Tools



Annotation, Measuring and Navigation Tools

Colour Tools

Other Tools