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Articles by Web Editor | Page 14
Photoshop’s Hidden Step And Repeat
Although Photoshop doesn’t have a visible Step and Repeat function (like many vector or page-layout programs do), it still has the feature—it’s just a bit hidden. For example, let’s say you have an object on a layer, and you want to duplicate and move or rotate that object a number of times in succession (a typical step-and-repeat), here’s how you can do it in Photoshop CS2: Start by going to the original layer with the object, then press Command-Option-T (PC: Control-Alt-T) to bring up a special version of Free Transform. Now you can transform your object (move it, rotate it, skew it, etc.) then press Return (PC: Enter) to lock in your transformation. You’ll notice that your original object remains untouched on its layer and you now have a new layer with the transformed object. Now press Command-Option-Shift-T (PC: Control-Alt-Shift-T) and this will create a duplicate of your last move, and at the same time it creates a new layer, thereby giving you a step-and-repeat (you have to try this once, and you’ll immediately “get it”).
Photo-Retouching Safety Tip
Here’s a tip that many photo retouchers use—do all your retouching on a layer above your image. That way, you don’t damage the underlying image, and you have control over opacity and blend modes you normally wouldn’t have. It’s also easy to erase areas you wish you hadn’t retouched. The key to making this work is to get the Clone Stamp tool (S) and in the Options Bar, turn on the Sample All Layers option. That way you can sample from the underlying image and then paint on the layer above it (believe it or not, by default Photoshop doesn’t let you do that—it only lets you clone from the active layer to that same layer).
Lights, Camera, Action: Slide Shows Using Photoshop
You can create a mock slide show presentation by opening multiple images in Photoshop and then pressing Control-Tab to rotate through the images. Plus, you can hold the Shift key and click on the Full Screen Mode icon near the bottom of your Toolbox to allow your images to fill the full screen (holding Shift will switch all of your open images to the Full Screen Mode at once). Press Tab to hide your palettes and you’re all set to give a slick presentation. To exit your mini-slide show, press Tab to see the Toolbox, and then Shift-click on the Standard Mode icon.
Moving Your Image In Full Screen Mode
In Photoshop CS2 you can pull off something users have been wanting for years—the ability to change the placement of your entire image once you’re in Full Screen mode (where your image is centered onscreen, surrounded by a black border with no menus, palettes, or tools visible). Just enter Full Screen mode (press F, F, then Tab), hold the Spacebar, and your cursor will change into the Hand tool. Click-and-drag your entire image anywhere on the screen you’d like. To return to regular mode, press F then Tab.
Make A Photoshop Client Presentation
To hide all your palettes and all your menus, and to display your current image centered on your monitor with a cool black frame around your image, just press the letter F twice, then press the Tab key (F, F, Tab). To return to your regular Photoshop work area, press F, then Tab. You’ll be the envy of all your friends, and eventually they’ll write folk songs about you. It’s almost embarrassing.
The Advantage Of Photo Filter Adjustment Layers
One of the most brilliant things Adobe did when they added Photo Filters to Photoshop (these filters replicate the old traditional screw-on lens filters) was to make them adjustment layers. You can create one by clicking on the Create New Adjustment Layer pop-up menu in the Layers palette and choosing Photo Filter. After you apply a Photo Filter from the resulting dialog (let’s say, for example, you used Warming Filter 81 to warm a cool photo), you can get the Brush tool (B), set your Foreground color to black, and paint over any areas of the photo you don’t want to be warmed. This gives you a level of flexibility you wouldn’t get any other way.
The Gaussian Blur Keyboard Shortcut
I thought that would get your attention. That’s because you know there’s no keyboard shortcut for applying a Gaussian Blur. But there is in my copy of Photoshop CS2. How is that possible? Because I created one, and you can too. Just go under the Edit menu and choose Keyboard Shortcuts to bring up the Keyboard Shortcuts dialog. Then, from the Shortcuts For pop-up menu, choose Application Menus. In the list of menus in the window beneath it, double-click on Filter to reveal all the choices under the Filter menu. Scroll down to Gaussian Blur, then click on the name. This brings up a field where you can enter the shortcut by pressing the keys you want to use. I recommend using Option-Shift-Command-G (PC: Alt-Shift-Control-G) because there are so few shortcuts not already being used by Photoshop. Click OK, and not only is the shortcut activated but your custom shortcut now appears in the Filter menu to the right of Gaussian Blur.
Resizing Paths The Easy Way
When you’re working with paths, you can visually resize your path by using the Path Selection tool. To do this, press A to get the tool, then go up in the Options Bar and turn on the checkbox for Show Bounding Box. This puts a Free Transform-like bounding box around your path, and you can use this bounding box to resize your path by dragging the handles (remember to hold the Shift key to resize it proportionately).
Undo On A Slider!
If you apply a technique (such as a filter or a paint stroke) and the effect is too intense, you can always undo the effect by pressing Command-Z (PC: Control-Z). But if you just want to decrease the intensity, instead of completely undoing it, go under the Edit menu and choose Fade. Want a less intense effect? Just move the Opacity slider to the left. The farther you drag, the less intense the effect. Drag all the way to the left, and the effect is undone.
Cracking The Easter Egg Mystery
Easter Eggs are usually funny little messages hidden within an application (engineer humor just cracks us up). Photoshop has a few of its own, but one of the lesser-known Easter Eggs is Merlin Lives. To see this Easter Egg, go to the Paths palette (under the Window menu), hold the Option key (PC: Alt key), and in the palette’s flyout menu, choose Palette Options. When you do, a tiny floating palette will appear with a picture of Merlin and just one button named “Begone,” which closes the dialog. I have to party with those engineer guys.
Removing Edge Fringe When Collaging
Any time you’re creating a collage, you’ll eventually add an image that has little white pixels around the edges of your object. Here’s a tip for getting rid of that “fringe.” Go under the Layer menu, under Matting, and choose Defringe. Try the default setting of 1 pixel and click OK. What this does (here’s the techno speak) is replace the edge pixels with a combination of the pixel colors in your object and the colors in the background (whew, that hurt). That usually does the trick. If it doesn’t, Undo it, then try a 2- or 3-pixel Defringe.
How To Duplicate A Color Stop
Here’s the scenario: You’re making a custom gradient using the Gradient tool (G) (by double-clicking the gradient thumbnail in the Options Bar to get to the Gradient Editor) and you need to duplicate one or more of the color stops. No problem. Once you’ve created one gradient color stop, you can make copies by Option-dragging (PC: Alt-dragging) it. Also, as long as you keep the Option key (PC: Alt key) down while you drag, you can jump right over other existing stops. It’s a color stop love fest, can you feel it?
Zooming All Your Tiled Images At Once
If you’ve chosen to tile your open windows (in the Window menu, under Arrange, choose Tile Horizontally [or Vertically]), in Photoshop CS2 you get some hidden functionality. If you want all the tiled images to be displayed at the same level of magnification, just hold the Shift key, grab the Zoom tool (Z), zoom in on one of the images, and all the other tiled images will jump to that same magnification. This is great when you’re trying to compare a number of similar images for detail.
The Trick To Tricky Extractions
Adobe’s own Julieanne Kost (Photoshop guru and instructor supreme) showed this at the Photoshop World Conference & Expo, and it had everybody’s jaw dropping, but little has been said of it since, even though it’s built into Photoshop CS2’s Extract function (found under the Filter menu). It’s called Textured Image and you use it when you’re dealing with a tough extraction—a person with a dark shirt posing on a dark background, for example—and Extract can’t really tell where the shirt ends and the background begins. Turning this on helps detect the edges by examining the texture, and if it detects a texture (like you might find in a shirt), it can often help pull you out of a tight situation.
Having History Track Your Layer Visibility
By default, the History palette tracks the last 20 things you did in Photoshop, but (weird as this may sound), it doesn’t track when you hide or show a layer. For some reason, it just doesn’t record that. Well, that is unless you know this tip: Go to the History palette’s flyout menu and choose History Options. When the History Options dialog appears, turn on the checkbox for Make Layer Visibility Change Undoable. Now, you can undo your showing and hiding of layers from the History palette.
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Photoshop Tutorials
Design Effects
Corey shows how to use the luminosity of an image to create a cool design effect and spice up your simple photos.
Stylized Comic Book Effect
Using this effect, you can transform anyone into a comic book character with a halftone, saturated look.
Text Shape Layers
Converting text into shapes allows you to distort the text as you like while retaining straight, clean edges.
Borders Under a Minute
Create really cool borders in under a minute to use on virtually any one of your photos or even video for that matter.
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Energize That Photo
Learn how to add excitement and energy to your photo in just a few simple steps.
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Design Elements from Photos
Here is a cool way to use parts of you photos as abstract design elements.
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Vector Mask
Corey shows you how to use a vector mask to pull objects from their background.
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Fire Brushes
After creating a brush pattern from a stock image of a horse, Corey applies a layer style consisting of outer and inner glows
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Flash Video the Easy Way
In this three-part video series, Tom Green demonstrates the three ways to get Flash video up on the web using Flash CS3 and Dreamweaver. -
Flash Video the Easy Way, Pt. 2
Tom Green demonstrates how to embed a Flash document into a Dreamweaver document and play it on a browser. -
Flash Video the Easy Way, Pt. 3
Tom Green demonstrates how to embed a Flash document into a Dreamweaver document and play it on a browser using the Insert>Flash Video menu in Dreamweaver. -
Premiere Pro CS4 Lift and Extract
Franklin McMahon goes over Premiere Pro CS4's lift and extract tools and compares them with some of the other methods video editors may use when editing video clips.
Got A Folder Full Of Images For The Web? Batch ‘Em!
Do you have a whole folder of images that you’re going to convert to Web graphics? If the images are somewhat similar, don’t do them one at a time—automate the process using actions. Start by opening one image from the folder. Go to the Actions palette (under the Window menu) and click on the Create New Action button. Give this action a name (something like Optimize as JPEGs) then go about the business of optimizing this one graphic into a JPEG for the Web. When you’re done optimizing it, click the Stop button at the bottom of the Actions palette.
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