Posted February 2nd, 2009
by David Peters
by David Peters
If you are not quite familiar with Photoshop, this program has these wonderful little features called Actions. These Actions have many different uses from creating remarkable effects to maximizing your productivity and of course they can always be counted on to handle the common and tiresome tasks that are nothing more than time consuming.
I recently had the pleasure of a little thing called Batch Processing. I’m a dedicated designer, but there was no way I was going sit in front of my computer for hours changing the Hue/Saturation for every single image for my forum. What is Batch Processing, you say? Well, it’s something that processes a batch,and I’m going to show you how to do it.
When you’re creating an action you need it to do one thing: Something. In my case, I needed to change the Hue/Saturation for 75+ images from blue to my “trademark” teal. Maybe you need an action for a different purpose, but humor me and tell yourself, “Hey, I need to make my image the same color as hers!” Next, you’ll need something to work on. Get a small image, like an icon, preferably the one I’m using for this tutorial.
Next go to Windows – Actions, making sure it is checked. If checked, you should see a tab in the Layers Palette appropriately labeled Actions.
Click on the arrow button to enter the Actions menu and then “new Set.” This will create a folder for your newly created action (the folder is not mandatory, but it does help with organization.)
Go back to the Actions menu and select “New Action.” I’ll give you three guesses as to what this does. Now, before recording an action you need to figure out the steps you’ll need to take and the order in which you’ll need to take them. Since this is a pretty simple action you can do this is your sleep eventually.
Now for the recording part. There will be a small circle icon between the square and the triangle at the bottom of the palette that you will need to click. Now Photoshop will record everything you do until the end of the Action. If you have an error, simply stop the Action by pushing the square icon and go back to your last step taken.
For my action, the first thing I need to do is change the Mode of the image to RGB, since .gif files are saved in Index mode which don’t take too kindly to colorization. So with the action recording, go to Image – Mode – RGB. Now take a look at your Actions palette, it should look like this:
Next, strip the image of the current color in order to apply our own color easier by going to Image – Adjustment – Desaturate.
Now that we have a naked grey image, we need to add some color. Make sure your action is still recording and go to Image – Adjustments – Hue/Saturation. I have the settings for my teal color saved in a .ahu (Hue/Saturation) file already so all I have to do is click Load and select Teal.ahu, but since you don’t have that you’ll have to use the sliders. Use these settings for my color:
Our final step is to save it for the web. Make sure your action still recording and go to File – Save For the Web and set your file type and optimization settings. I use the standard GIF settings. Select your destination directory and save.
Stop recording and say “Yay, I made an action!” because you’re finished. Now to put your newly born action into… ahem… action, we’ll do a Batch Process. What this will do is take all the images in a specified directory and apply whatever changes were recorded in the action. Just for the sake of the tutorial, create a directory and drop some images into it, or just duplicate one that you already have.
Go to File – Automate – Batch and make sure the name of the Action Set you just created is in the first dropdown list and the name of the Action is in the second. Set the third dropdown box (next to Source) to Folder and use the Choose button to find your duplicated or created folder of images. For destination, you can either leave it set to it’s default “None” to have the action applied and saved in the source folder, or save the “actionized” images into a separate folder. Once you have everything configured to your liking, click OK.
The hard part of the job is now done for you! All that is left is to relax and watch your pictures color themselves thanks to Actions and Batch Processing.
Tags: adobe photoshop, editing photos using photoshop, get photoshop, hobbies, internet, learn photoshop fast, Learn Photoshop now, learning photoshop, Photography, Photoshop, photoshop guide, photoshop tutorials, software help Posted in Photography
Posted January 11th, 2009
by David Peters
by David Peters
I came across an in-depth article that details a lot of information regarding Adobe CS4, mostly things about Photoshop CS4, Bridge CS4 and the launch date of the latest version of Adobe’s Creative Suite.
First of all, the launch is predicted to be around the time of Adobe Max, which takes place November 16th-19th in San Francisco. Typically Adobe Creative Suite product cycles are 18 months and since Adobe CS3 was released on April 16th, 2007 Adobe Max would mean 19 months since the last product release. Let’s look at some features that may or may not be included in Adobe CS4.
Adobe Photoshop CS4: Codename: Adobe Stonehenge CS4 Extended. Stonehenge is the splash screen. 1. The User-Interface is similar to CS3 however there are some minor polishes that complete the look. 2. Support for “Extensions” is listed under the “Window” menu 3. The extension manager is in every CS4 application 3. “Kuler” which is an Intranet color pallet collaboration tool for sharing color swatches with others on your team. 4. Support for Flash (more on this later)
Adobe Panel Configurator 1.0 (Alpha Version): 1. It’s a way to create Photoshop toolboxes. 2. Choose from over 860+ commands, tools and application features and create your own toolboxes that work in any CS4 application 3. Supports Actions and Scripts too 4. Drag and drop text fields into these toolboxes 5. Support for SWF and Quicktime video files in toolboxes (not sure why) 6. Export the toolbar file and open it in any CS4 application.
CS4 Suite New Features: 1. Flash SWF support across all applications 2. You can play SWF files in any app 3. A tool is being developed for creating flash content without any coding experience
Adobe Bridge CS4: 1. New User-Interface 2. Sidebar and search tool location similar to Mac OS Leopard 3. Navigation in folders similar to Windows Vista Explorer 4. Labels and star ratings are easier to access. 5. Filtered searches are now much faster even across thousands of images 6. List View in Bridge 7. Auto Photo Downloader to download photos from your camera is now easier and better than Bridge CS3 8. Improved slideshows using your spacebar 9. From Slideshow, press “r” and Adobe Camera Raw opens automatically. 10. Review Mode: (full screen review of photos) a. Just like a full screen version of Apple coverflow b. Loopt tool built in c. The ability to open all, review, and drop photos out of view that you don’t want and others stay full screen d. When leaving review mode the photos you kept are now selected in bridge. Ones you dropped are still there but not selected. e. You now have the ability to create photo-collections from within review mode 11. Collections are just like Playlists in iTunes. You have the ability to group photos. The location where photos are stored is not changed. 12. More sharing options a. Upload directly to FTP within Bridge b. Web gallery templates are easy and use the same templates available in Lightroom 2 c. Ability to create flash galleries with a few clicks and upload instantly d. Uses the Opera engine to render galleries within Bridge e. Photoshop Web Gallery is going away and being replaced by Bridge Web Gallery 13. Bridge CS4 Menus (in order left to right) File – Edit – View – Sttacks – Label – Tools – Window – Help
Adobe CS4 Applications are exactly the same as CS3 but the text in the icons is black instead of white.
Tags: adobe photoshop, editing photos using photoshop, get photoshop, hobbies, internet, learn photoshop fast, Learn Photoshop now, learning photoshop, Photography, photogrpahy, Photoshop, photoshop guide, photoshop tutorials, software help Posted in Photography
Posted December 27th, 2008
by David Peters
by David Peters
I came across an in-depth article that details a lot of information regarding Adobe CS4, mostly things about Photoshop CS4, Bridge CS4 and the launch date of the latest version of Adobe’s Creative Suite.
First of all, the launch is predicted to be around the time of Adobe Max, which takes place November 16th-19th in San Francisco. Typically Adobe Creative Suite product cycles are 18 months and since Adobe CS3 was released on April 16th, 2007 Adobe Max would mean 19 months since the last product release. Let’s look at some features that may or may not be included in Adobe CS4.
Adobe Photoshop CS4: Codename: Adobe Stonehenge CS4 Extended. Stonehenge is the splash screen. 1. The User-Interface is similar to CS3 however there are some minor polishes 2. Support for “Extensions” is listed under the “Window” menu 3. The extension manager is in every CS4 application 3. “Kuler” which is an Intranet color pallet collaboration tool for sharing color swatches with others on your team. 4. Support for Flash (more on this later)
Adobe Panel Configurator 1.0 (Alpha Version): 1. Allows you to create your own Photoshop toolboxes. 2. You can choose from over 860+ commands, tools and application features and from there create your own toolboxes that work in any CS4 application 3. Supports Actions and Scripts 4. Drag and drop text fields into toolboxes 5. Support for SWF and Quicktime video files in toolboxes 6. You can export the toolbar file and re-open it in any CS4 application.
CS4 Suite New Features: 1. Flash SWF support across all applications 2. You can play SWF files in any app 3. A tool is being developed for creating flash content without any coding experience
Adobe Bridge CS4: 1. New Interface (cleaner, more like Apple’s Leopard Finder) 2. Sidebar and search tool location are just like Mac OS Leopard 3. Folder navigation just like Windows Vista Explorer 4. Labels and star ratings are easier to access. 5. Filtered searches are now much faster even across thousands of images 6. List View in Bridge 7. Auto Photo Downloader to download photos from your camera is now easier and better than Bridge CS3 8. Improved slideshows. Spacebar starts slideshow (like quickview in leopard) 9. From Slideshow, just hit “r” and Adobe Camera Raw opens automatically. 10. Review Mode: (full screen review of photos) a. Just like a full screen version of Apple coverflow b. Loopt tool built in c. Open all photos and review photos and drop photos out of view that you don’t want and other stay in full screen d. Upon leaving review mode, photos you kept are now selected in bridge. Ones you dropped are still there but not selected. e. Ability to create photocollections from within review mode 11. Collections are just like Playlists in iTunes. Ability to group photos. Location of photo is not changed. 12. More sharing options a. Upload directly to FTP within Bridge b. Web gallery templates are easy and uses the same templates available in Lightroom 2 c. Ability to create flash galleries with a few clicks and upload instantly d. Uses the Opera engine to render galleries within Bridge e. Photoshop Web Gallery is going away and being replaced by Bridge Web Gallery 13. Bridge CS4 Menus (in order left to right) File – Edit – View – Sttacks – Label – Tools – Window – Help
Adobe CS4 Applications are exactly the same as CS3 but the text in the icons is black instead of white.
Tags: adobe photoshop, editing photos using photoshop, get photoshop, hobbies, internet, learn photoshop fast, Learn Photoshop now, learning photoshop, Photography, photogrpahy, Photoshop, photoshop guide, photoshop tutorials, software help Posted in Photography
Posted November 8th, 2008
by David Peters
by David Peters
Digital photographs are something that are important to all of us. Most of the pictures we take happen once in a lifetime, which is why they are so very important. From your child’s first steps to pictures of your family, photographs are very important. As important as they are, nothing is worse than losing them. This can be very traumatic and frustrating, especially knowing that you’ll never to capture the picture again.
Take heart however, although it may seem as if the camera malfunctioned, this may not always mean the loss of your digital photographs. These photos may be recovered by methods you may not be aware of. Smart cards are used in most of today’s digital cameras to store information. Always save your photographs to the smart card and transfer them to your computer at first opportunity to ensure their safekeeping. From the computer, then back them up to a DVD or CD for a hard copy if needed.
Many people have thought themselves to have lost or deleted their photos from the computer. This can potentially be a quick fix correction. Check in the recycle bin to see if the photos were moved into here. Drag the photo files to the desktop, then right click and choose restore. Following this procedure will return the photo to the location it was in prior to being moved into the recycle bin.
There may be occasional when your digital photos are not so simple to retrieve. It will be much harder to recover your photos if the camera itself has had hardware problems to occur, or if the smart card has become corrupted. Should this be the case, refer to the software or consult a professional repairman. In the instance of a malfunction, there is software available on the market created for the purpose of correcting digital camera problems. Normally this software can recover the photographs.
Most services and software can recover almost all files that you have on your camera, from JPEG pictures to video files. Most people transfer their pictures to their computer as soon as they can, which can be recovered using data recovery methods. On the other hand, those who don’t, will need a professional to take a look at the camera. If you don’t waste any time and seek a professional immediately, your pictures can normally be recovered.
Digital cameras are something that most of us own these days, as they take professional quality photos. Anytime that it appears you have lost your pictures, you can turn to software and professional recovery services to get your pictures back. Your digital photographs are very important, which is why you’ll want to take care of them. Mistakes and disasters do happen though – which is why there are recovery services.
Tags: adobe photoshop, advanced adobe, advanced photoshop, Digital Cameras, Digital Photography, edit photos, editing digital photography, internet, Photography, photography guide, Photoshop, photoshop tutorials, software, software help Posted in Photography
Posted July 10th, 2008
by David Peters
10 Top Photoshop Tips
1) Auto-Select a Layer – Hold down the Cmd/Ctrl key and at the same time click on a layer in the main image window in Photoshop.
2) Remove Color – Removing all color from an image without going into grayscale mode simply press Shift Cmd/Ctrl U (‘Desaturate’) while still in RGB mode to make your image grayscale. Another option is to use the channel mixer which will actually create a better result. In this option, all you need to do is click on the Grayscale option.
3) Move Selection to its Own Layer – Copy the selection by pressing Cmd/Ctrl J. Press Shift Cmd/Ctrl J to cut and move a selection.
4) Hide the Selction Marquee (‘Marching Ants’) – Press Ctrl/Cmd H.
5) Feathering ” When setting a feather using the Lasso Tools, press the Return/Enter key. This will highlight the Feather field in the Options palette and you can enter or change the value.
6) Color Fill – Press Alt/Option Delete to fill a layer or area with the color in the forefront. To fill a layer or selection with the background color, press Cmd/Ctrl Delete.
7) Changing Brush Size – Press the [ ] keys. By holding the shift key down and pressing the [and ] keys, the brush gets softer and harder, correspondingly. You are allowed to change the level up to five times).
Removing Scratches or Blemishes ” If your edition of Photoshop does not have the Spot Healing Brush, edit out blemishes or scratches from a photo by double clicking on the Blur Tool. Next in the Blur Tool Options palette, decrease the opacity to 15%, and then change the mode to Lighten. Now when you paint over scratches they will vanish.
9) Drawing With Brush Tools ” If you want to draw a straight line with one of the brush tools, click, hold the Shift key, and click again where you want the line to end. The Photoshop program will draw a straight line from point to point. These steps also work with most tools, including erasers and even the highlight tool in the Extract filter.
10) Creating Duplicates ” Choose Duplicate Layer in the Layers palette and change the document setting to New to generate a new picture from any layer.
