Articles by Web Editor | Page 33

Try Not To Correct More Than Once

When correcting images in Curves, Levels, etc., it’s best to try to do all your corrections at one time rather than changing each setting individually (by that I mean, don’t set a highlight in Curves, then close and reopen it to set a shadow). The reason is, each time you apply a tonal correction, it puts some strain on the quality of the image. So to keep your image from having unnecessary data loss, when you open Curves or Levels, make your shadow, highlight, and midtone adjustments, and then click OK to apply all three adjustments at once.

July 9th, 2008 | Web Editor | Tip of the Day | Comments (2)

Making Sure Your Whites Are Really White

If you have an image that appears to have solid white areas (maybe the background surrounding a logo), but when you put the Eyedropper on that area, it gives you a 1% or 2% reading in one of the CMYK values in your Info palette, you can use Levels to gets those areas back down to 0% so they don’t print with a dot. Here’s how: Go under the Image menu, under Adjustments, and choose Levels. The third field from the left (at the top of the dialog) shows your current highlight value (your white point setting). The default value will be 255. Enter 252 or 250, then move your cursor over the white area in question and look in the Info palette to see if the readings are now all 0% (that change should be enough to remove the stray colors). When it’s right, click OK, and you’ll have solid white in your white areas.

July 8th, 2008 | Web Editor | Tip of the Day | Comments (1)

Get More Realistic Drop Shadows On Press

Here’s a quick tip for getting more realistic drop shadows in print: Add some noise. When you choose Drop Shadow from the Add a Layer Style pop-up menu in the Layers palette, there’s a slider for adding noise to your shadows in the Layer Style dialog. When you add just a small percentage, it makes your shadows appear more realistic when they show up in print.

July 7th, 2008 | Web Editor | Tip of the Day | Comments (1)

Cloning From Image To Image

If you’re retouching an image using the Clone Stamp tool (S), not only can you clone from the image you’re in but you can also clone from any other image that you have open. All you have to do is make sure both images are open at the same time. Go to the other image, Option-click (PC: Alt-click) on the area you want to clone from, switch back to the image you’re working on, and then start painting. When you do, you’ll be cloning image data from the other image.

July 3rd, 2008 | Web Editor | Tip of the Day | Comments (0)

Want Better Gradients On Press? Here’s The Tip

If you’re designing a job that will ultimately go to a printing press in CMYK mode and it’s going to contain one or more gradients, you’ll get better printed results (less color shifts) if you create those gradients after you convert to CMYK mode.

July 1st, 2008 | Web Editor | Tip of the Day | Comments (1)

Going To Press? Make Sure Your Monitor Is In The “Right Space”

By default, the RGB space for your monitor is set to sRGB, which is an okay mode for designing Web graphics. However, if you’re producing graphics for print, the sRGB mode is just about the worst RGB space your monitor could possibly be set at. It clips off lots of colors that are actually printable in CMYK mode, and therefore is pretty unsuitable for prepress work. We recommend changing your RGB workspace to an RGB space that’s more appropriate for doing print work. We like Adobe RGB (1998), which is a very popular RGB space for prepress work. You choose this RGB space under the Photoshop menu, under Color Settings (in Windows, Color Settings can be found under the Edit menu). When the Color Settings dialog appears, under the Working Spaces area, choose Adobe RGB (1998) from the RGB pop-up menu.

June 30th, 2008 | Web Editor | Tip of the Day | Comments (1)

Never Swap Colors Again When Cleaning Line Art

When cleaning up line art images with the Pencil tool, you can spend a lot of time going back and forth to the Toolbox to switch your Foreground color to black (to fill in missing pixels) and then to white (to erase pixels that shouldn’t be there in the first place). It does help if you use the keyboard shortcut D to set your Foreground to black, and then X to make white your Foreground color, but there’s actually a faster way. Once you select the Pencil tool, go in the Options Bar and turn on Auto Erase. What the Auto Erase option does is pretty neat—when you click the Pencil in a black area of pixels, it paints white; when you click it on a white pixel, it automatically paints black. It happens automatically—so you never have to switch colors again—saving you a ton of time, travel, and keystrokes.

June 25th, 2008 | Web Editor | Tip of the Day | Comments (0)

Are Your Colors Press Ready?

If you’re working on an image that will be printed on a printing press and you select a color that’s outside the range of what a CMYK press can reproduce, you’ll get what’s called a Gamut Warning right within Photoshop’s Color Picker. This is just to let you know that the color you’ve chosen is outside the CMYK gamut. Just below the warning is a tiny color swatch showing you what the color you picked will really look like when printed in CMYK mode. To find out where that color resides within the Color Picker, click once directly on that tiny swatch and Photoshop will pick that color for you.

June 24th, 2008 | Web Editor | Tip of the Day | Comments (0)

Scanners Aren’t Just For Flat Objects

Even though your flatbed scanner is normally used for scanning (you guessed it) flat images, it doesn’t mean you can’t scan images that have more dimension (such as a watch, a ring, a yo-yo, you name it). The only problem is, scanning an image that lifts the lid adds lots of ambient light into your scan, introducing so many outside colors and reflections that it makes the scan all but unusable. The tip for getting around this is deceivingly simple: Just put a black sweater (or black felt cloth) around the object you’re going to scan, and you’ll get great-looking scans, even with the lid open. The black sweater soaks up that ambient light and you’ll be amazed at how natural and balanced your scanned objects will look.

June 23rd, 2008 | Web Editor | Tip of the Day | Comments (1)

Straightening Scans In 10 Seconds (Or Less)

If you’ve scanned an image and it’s crooked when you bring it into Photoshop, you can fix it in about 10 seconds flat. Just switch to the Measure tool (it lives behind the Eyedropper tool in the Toolbox) and drag it along the top edge of the image you want to straighten. That’s the hard part (and that should give you an idea of how easy this technique is). Next, go under the Image menu, under Rotate Canvas, and choose Arbitrary. Photoshop automatically enters the amount of rotation (courtesy of your earlier measurement), so all you have to do is click OK and bam!—the image is perfectly straightened.

June 20th, 2008 | Web Editor | Tip of the Day | Comments (1)

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Photoshop Tutorials

2012 Text Effect

Recreate the text effect from the title to the new blockbuster movie.
More Fun with 3D

Continue exploring the possibilities with Photoshop’s new 3D tools.
Reverse Restoration

Corey shows you how to make a new photo look damaged by blending in some unusual textures.
3D Background Effects

Use Photoshop’s new 3D tools to create some dazzling background effects.

Premium Video Tutorials From NAPP

Photo Retouch
Scott Kelby shows you how to take an overexposed photo into a great photo using Photoshop. Want Great Photoshop & Photography Skills?

Extended Definition Processing
Scott Kelby shares a technique he's been working on, which gives your final image an HDR look using just one photo.
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Smart Object Masking Trick
Dave Cross shares a trick he discovered that will help you remove white from around your subject when using smart objects.
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Light Painting
Dave Cross takes a popular trend - light painting - and shows you how you can paint text recreating this cool trend.
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Viewing and Basking in your Image

When I’m done working with an image, I like to sit and admire it (hey, I spent six hours working on it, I should). To do that, I hit the Tab key, then hit the F key three times. This hides all of the panels and toolbars and lets you see the image by itself surrounded by black. To get back to regular mode, press the F key and the Tab key one more time.