Articles by Web Editor | Page 28

How To Use RGB Filters On Grayscale Images

If you’re working on grayscale images, you’ll find there are some Photoshop filters that won’t work (they’re grayed out, so you can’t access them). Of course, it’s always the really cool filters, such as Lens Flare and Lighting Effects, that are grayed out. But don’t be dismayed (in fact, be “mayed”) because you can still use those filters—just switch to RGB mode (it’s found under the Image menu, under Mode), apply the filters, then switch back to Grayscale mode. It won’t affect the color of your image because, well, there is no color—you’re working on a grayscale image. Switching to RGB doesn’t suddenly pour color onto your image; your grayscale image will still look grayscale in RGB. When you switch back to Grayscale mode (after applying the filters), you’ll get a warning asking, “Discard color information?” You can safely click OK, because after all, there was no color to begin with.

February 23rd, 2007 | Web Editor | Tip of the Day | Comments (0)

Get Print Resolution From Your Digital Camera Images

Problem: You imported an image from your digital camera and although the physical dimensions of the image are rather large, the resolution shows up as only 72 ppi. How can you get enough resolution to print this image? Solution: Go under the Image menu and choose Image Size. Turn off Resample Image, then in the Resolution field, type the resolution you need for the specific device you’ll be printing to. When you do this, Photoshop will automatically input the Height and Width that would result from using that resolution (the image size will definitely be smaller—the higher the resolution needed, the smaller the physical dimensions of your image). All you have to do is click OK and Photoshop will do the math, creating an image in the new smaller size, with the new higher resolution. The good news is that by doing it this way, there’s absolutely no loss of quality to the file whatsoever.

February 22nd, 2007 | Web Editor | Tip of the Day | Comments (0)

The Reappearing/Disappearing Brush Tip

This one gets more people because it’s a feature that acts like a bug. Has this ever happened to you? You’re working in Photoshop, you’re using the Brush tool (B), and everything seems fine. But a little later in your session, you get the Brush tool again, and it no longer displays the size of the currently selected brush tip. Instead, it displays a little crosshair cursor. So you go to the Preferences menu and choose Display & Cursors, and sure enough, you’ve got Normal Brush Tip chosen as your preference, but for some strange reason, it’s not showing your brush size; it’s showing that stupid crosshair. Here’s the problem: Check your Caps Lock key. It’s turned on, and turning it on changes your Brush cursor from displaying brush size to displaying the crosshair. This is actually a feature to be used when you need to see the precise center of your brush. The problem is it’s assigned to the Caps Lock key, so every time you turn on Caps Lock when you’re working with type, you just temporarily switched your Brush cursor (or any cursor for that matter). Does Adobe need to find a better key for this feature/bug? You betcha! Will it happen? Not as far as I know.

February 21st, 2007 | Web Editor | Tip of the Day | Comments (5)

Putting Your Lens Flare On The Spot

This tip lets you precisely position the center of the Lens Flare filter by using the Info palette and a little-known feature of the Lens Flare dialog. First, open the Info palette (found under the Window menu), then put your cursor over the precise spot in your image where you’d like the center of your lens flare to appear. Look in the Info palette, under the X and Y coordinates, and write down those two coordinates (I knew one day I’d find a use for the X and Y coordinate readings). Then go under the Filter menu, under Render, and choose Lens Flare. There’s a fairly large preview window in the center of the dialog. Hold the Option key (PC: Alt key), click once on the preview window, and it brings up the Precise Flare Center dialog. Enter those X and Y coordinates you wrote down earlier (you did write them down, right?), click OK, and your lens flare is precisely positioned.

February 20th, 2007 | Web Editor | Tip of the Day | Comments (0)

Locking A PDF Presentation

If you’re using Photoshop to create a PDF Presentation slide show (under the Automate submenu in the File menu) so you can email it to your clients for proofing, one of your concerns may be that your client will just print your photos out to a photo-quality printer, leaving you out in the cold (so to speak). But you can pull the plug on their printing aspirations. When saving your PDF Presentation, under Output Options, choose Presentation, then hit Save. It’ll ask you to name your PDF presentation (you’re not done yet), so name it and click Save. Then, a PDF options dialog will appear. Under Security (in the options along the left side), turn on the checkbox for Use a Password to Restrict Printing, Editing and Other Tasks under Permissions. Enter (and memorize) a password. Then, make sure Printing Allowed and Changes Allowed are set to None. Click Save PDF and it’ll ask for your password one more time. Now, when you email the PDF Presentation, printing will be grayed out, and even if they have the full version of Acrobat, they won’t be able to copy-and-paste your photos into something else for printing.

February 19th, 2007 | Web Editor | Tip of the Day | Comments (0)

Speeding Up Batch Actions

If you’re running a Batch action on a folder full of images, one of the things that can really slow the process down is the fact that the History palette keeps creating History States (undos) for each image. To keep your Batch actions running at full speed, there are two things you can do: In the History palette’s flyout menu, under History Options, turn off the checkbox for Automatically Create First Snapshot. Secondly, go under the Photoshop menu, under Preferences, and choose General (in Windows, Preferences can be found under the Edit menu). In the History States field, lower the number from 20 (the default) to 2 and click OK, then your Batch will run like a greased pig. Don’t forget to increase your History States or change your History Options back after you’re done batching or you’ll be down to two undos.

February 16th, 2007 | Web Editor | Tip of the Day | Comments (0)

Stroking Half A Path - Half A Path????

This is a mind-blowing advanced tip (not because it’s hard—it’s simple—but if you use the Pen tool [P], warning—your mind is about to spontaneously combust). Here’s the scoop: If you’re an advanced user, you already know that you can draw a path and then apply a stroke along that path (using the paint tool of your choice) by choosing Stroke Path from the Paths palette’s flyout menu. But dig this: If you draw your path, but only want to stroke a portion of that path, all you have to do is make a selection (using the any selection tool) of the part of the path you want stroked. Then when you choose Stroke Path, it will only stroke the area of your path that is contained within your selection. Boom! That was the sound of our heads exploding.

February 15th, 2007 | Web Editor | Tip of the Day | Comments (0)

Measure Twice, Look Once

If you need to measure more than one side of an object (for example, if you’re measuring a box, and you need the height and width), you can measure both at the same time. First, open the Info palette under the Window menu (so you can see the measurements that the Measure tool generates), then get the Measure tool (Shift-I until it comes up) and click-and-drag it along the first edge. Release the mouse when you reach the end of the edge. Then hold the Option key (PC: Alt key), click on the end of the first line, and continue on in a different direction. You’ll notice that another measurement line appears. Now, look in the Info palette and you’ll see your two measurements listed under D1 and D2.

February 14th, 2007 | Web Editor | Tip of the Day | Comments (0)

Embedding Paths Into Actions

If you’re creating actions and you want your action to include a path that you’ve created, you can do that, but you have to draw your path first, before you record your action. Once you’ve drawn your path, and it comes to the part of your action that requires the path, go to the Action palette’s flyout menu, choose Insert Path, and that path will be stored along with the action.

February 13th, 2007 | Web Editor | Tip of the Day | Comments (0)

Add To Your Selections Through The Channels Palette

If you’ve got the Channels palette open and you have multiple saved Alpha channels, you can load any Alpha channel as a selection by holding the Command key (PC: Control key) and clicking directly on the channel’s name. This instantly loads the selection. An even better tip: If you hold the Command key (PC: Control key) then add the Shift key (making it Command-Shift/Control-Shift) and click on another Alpha channel, it adds that to your current selection. You can keep adding more selections to your original selection until, well… until you run out of Alpha channels.

February 12th, 2007 | Web Editor | Tip of the Day | Comments (0)

Moving Multiple Curve Points At Once

If you’re working in the Curves dialog (Command-M [PC: Control-M]) and you want to make more than one point active at the same time, click on one point (to make it active) then hold the Shift key and click on another. As long as the Shift key is held down, you can click on as many points as you’d like to make them active at the same time.

February 9th, 2007 | Web Editor | Tip of the Day | Comments (0)

Making The Color Picker Show CMYK

If you’re working in CMYK mode and you go to the Color Picker, it still displays RGB colors. This is a bit of a problem, because you think you’re picking one color, but when you start to paint or fill with that color, you get the CMYK desaturated version. Here’s a tip to get around that. When you’re in CMYK mode and you go to the Color Picker, press Command-Y (PC: Control-Y), which is the shortcut for Proof Colors (found under the View menu). When you do this with the Color Picker open, it changes all the colors in the Color Picker to CMYK colors. That way, when you pick a color in the Color Picker, it looks the same when you paint or fill with it in your CMYK image.

February 8th, 2007 | Web Editor | Tip of the Day | Comments (0)

Tough Selection Tip

If you’re struggling to make a selection of an image that’s against either a background of a similar color or a very busy background, here’s a masking tip to make the process easier: Add a Levels or Curves adjustment layer above your image layer using the Create New Adjustment Layer pop-up menu, and use it to dramatically increase the contrast in the image to help make the edges stand out. This will often help make the difference between the object’s edge and the background more obvious. The great part is, you can totally damage the look of the image because you’re using an adjustment layer. When your selection is in place, just drag the adjustment layer onto the Trash to delete it, and your image is back to normal, but you’ve got that “impossible” selection still in place.

February 6th, 2007 | Web Editor | Tip of the Day | Comments (0)

Plot Multiple Curve Points In Just One Click

We showed you how Photoshop will plot a point on the curve for you if you Command-click (PC: Control-click) on a color in your image that you want plotted. However, there’s a power tip that we waited until now to share—if you add the Shift key, making it Command-Shift-click (PC: Control-Shift-click), Photoshop will add a point for that spot on all the color channels for you. This works in both RGB and CMYK modes.

February 5th, 2007 | Web Editor | Tip of the Day | Comments (0)

Load Any Saved Selection Without The Channels Palette

If you’re working on an RGB image and you’ve saved a selection (by drawing a selection and choosing Save Selection from the Select menu), you can instantly reload that selection at any time, without going to the Channels palette. If you have only one saved selection, just press Command-Option-4 (PC: Control-Alt-4), and the selection will instantly appear onscreen. If you have a second saved selection, press Command-Option-5 (PC: Control-Alt-5), and so on. The key to remember is that the RGB channels take up the 1, 2, and 3 spots, so always start with 4 to load your first Alpha channel. Note: If you’re working with CMYK images, remember to always start with 5, because the CMYK channels take up the first four spots.

February 2nd, 2007 | Web Editor | Tip of the Day | Comments (0)

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