Articles by Web Editor | Page 37

Zoom Out For Sharper Web Images

This is a tip we use almost daily when we have to greatly reduce the size and/or resolution of an image. Sometimes when you make a drastic size/resolution change, it can really make the resulting image blurry, so what we do is simply zoom out on the image so that the window and image are at either 50% or 25% view. Then, we take a screen capture of our image window at the new smaller size. That way, the image still looks sharp, but it’s much smaller when we open the screen capture in Photoshop. The trick to making this work is using either a 50%, 25%, or 12.5% view size for making the capture. If you view the image at 66.7%, 33.3%, or 16.7%, the image won’t be as crisp (because of the way Photoshop draws the image at those views).

September 19th, 2008 | Web Editor | Tip of the Day | Comments (2)

Let Photoshop Make The File Size Call

Oftentimes you have a target size you’re trying to hit when creating Web graphics; for example, you’re creating a Web banner and your file size limit is 32 K. If that’s the case, and you know the target size, why not let Photoshop do all the work? Here’s how: Under the File menu, go to Save for Web. In the Save for Web dialog, just to the right of the Settings pop-up menu, is a right-facing triangle. Click-and-hold it and when the pop-up menu appears, choose Optimize to File Size. In the dialog, enter the target file size you need your graphic to be and click OK to have Photoshop optimize the graphic to fit your target file size. If it doesn’t matter to you whether it’s a GIF or JPEG, choose Auto Select GIF/JPEG and Photoshop will “make the call.”

September 17th, 2008 | Web Editor | Tip of the Day | Comments (1)

Crop It Even Closer

When you’re designing graphics for the Web, you don’t want even one extra pixel of unused space, because it adds to the overall file size of the image. Because of that, you want to crop your Web graphics as tightly as possible. Luckily for us (you, them, etc.), Photoshop CS can do it for you automatically. Just choose Trim from the Image menu, click OK in the dialog, and it will crop your Web graphic as tightly as possible for the smallest possible file size. It does this by looking at the pixel color in the upper left-hand corner of your image and cropping down until it hits another color. (Note: The Trim dialog also gives you the option to base the crop on the bottom right-hand corner pixel color or transparent areas). This works especially well when creating type for the Web, because you’ll often create it on a white background.

September 16th, 2008 | Web Editor | Tip of the Day | Comments (0)

Need To Shrink The File Size? Use Transparency

Want a killer tip for squeezing even more size out of your GIF Web images? Make something transparent. That’s right, if you can pick an area of your image to make transparent, your file size will drop like a rock. For example, if you’re putting a logo over a white background and you can make the white area around the logo transparent, your file size will be significantly smaller, because the transparent areas are virtually ignored when determining file size, because, after all, there’s nothing there.

September 15th, 2008 | Web Editor | Tip of the Day | Comments (0)

Lose Those Annoying Numbers In The Upper Left-Hand Corner

We get more letters from people who ask us, “How do I get rid of that number in the top left-hand corner of my image?” This little puppy appears if you accidentally click on the Slice tool in the Toolbox. Even if you notice your error and immediately switch to another tool, it’s too late. The “slice number” is already in place. To make it go away, go under the View menu, under Show, and choose Slices. Then try not to accidentally click on the Slice tool again. (Sorry, I just felt like scolding somebody. You know, just for fun.)

September 12th, 2008 | Web Editor | Tip of the Day | Comments (0)

Adding Music To Your Flash Web Gallery

In CS2 Adobe added two Flash-based templates you can use for your online Web Photo Gallery. Even cooler is the fact that you can now add a background music track to one of these Flash galleries. Just follow these steps: First find the MP3 audio track you want to use as your background music and rename the file as “useraudio.mp3”. Then open your Photoshop CS2 application folder and navigate to Presets>Web Photo Gallery. Inside that folder look for either Flash Gallery 1 or Flash Gallery 2. Depending on which gallery you chose within Photoshop, drag-and-drop your audio file into the corresponding folder. That’s it! You’ve got background music.

September 11th, 2008 | Web Editor | Tip of the Day | Comments (0)

Getting Smaller Photoshop Files

Do your Photoshop PSD file sizes seem a little large? It may be because of a Preferences setting that makes Photoshop save a flattened version of your Photoshop image, along with your layered Photoshop file. Why does Photoshop do this? Because there’s a slight possibility you might share this file with someone using Photoshop 2.5 (just like there’s a slight possibility that Congress will vote to cut their own salaries), and Photoshop 2.5 didn’t support layers, so it can’t read your layered document. But because, by default, that flattened version is included in your layered file, guess what—2.5 can open the flattened image. What luck! Who cares? Continue Reading »

September 10th, 2008 | Web Editor | Tip of the Day | Comments (9)

Don’t Use Crop To Fix Barrel Distortion

Problem: You’re trying to fix barrel distortion that appears on a photo you’re editing, but using the Crop tool’s Perspective feature is a guessing game. You try the crop and it doesn’t look right; you have to undo it, and guess again. Solution: Don’t use the Crop tool’s Perspective feature (found in the Options Bar), even though it was specifically designed to address barrel distortion. Use the standard Free Transform command instead by pressing Command-T (PC: Control-T) and then pressing-and-holding the Command (PC: Control) key while you drag the corner handles to create your perspective. Doing this gives you a live onscreen preview as you work, so fixing the distortion takes just a few seconds—unlike Crop’s Perspective.

September 9th, 2008 | Web Editor | Tip of the Day | Comments (1)

Will More RAM Make Photoshop Run Faster?

Problem: You added more RAM to your system and assigned more RAM to Photoshop, but it doesn’t seem to run any faster. Reason: Adding RAM doesn’t always make Photoshop run faster. It only works if you didn’t have enough RAM to begin with. Adding RAM will only help to make your computer run as fast as it can, but it won’t make your 800-MHz computer run at 801 MHz. For example, if you work on Web images and the average image you work on is 3 MB, you only need about 15 or 20 MB assigned to Photoshop to have it run at full speed. If you’ve got that, and add another 256 MB of RAM, Photoshop won’t run any faster, because Photoshop only needs that 15 or 20 MB that you already had. Freaky. To check your RAM usage, go under the Photoshop menu, under Preferences, and choose Memory & Image Cache (on a Windows PC, Preferences are under the Edit menu).

August 29th, 2008 | Web Editor | Tip of the Day | Comments (1)

Faster Application Switching

Do you often copy-and-paste images from Photoshop into other applications (such as FileMaker Pro, Word, etc.)? I’m not talking about importing a TIFF or EPS, I’m talking about copying the object, switching to another application, and pasting your copied image from the Clipboard. You don’t? Great, then we have a tip for you that will speed up your application-switching pretty dramatically. Go under the Photoshop menu, under Preferences, under General, and turn off the checkbox for Export Clipboard (in Windows, Preferences can be found under the Edit menu). Here’s what’s happening when it’s turned on: Whatever you last copied in Photoshop gets transferred to your system’s Clipboard memory when you switch to another application, just in case you want to paste it. If you have a large image in clipboard, it’ll take some time to export the image to the other application (or it’ll be so large it won’t export at all—you’ll get a warning dialog instead). So, turn off that preference, and wait no more.

August 28th, 2008 | Web Editor | Tip of the Day | Comments (1)

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Photoshop Tutorials

3D Light Beams
This effect was discovered by a 'happy accident' and uses the 3D features inside of Photoshop CS4 Extended.
More Texture Effects
Further experiments into what you can do with texture images in Photoshop.
Reverse Restoration
Corey shows you how to make a new photo look damaged by blending in some unusual textures.
Rain Drops
In this tutorial, Corey not only creates the raindrops, but also the splashes that are formed with the raindrops hit the hands.

Light From 3D Shapes

Corey shares another way to get a cool 3D light beam effect.
Olympic Graphics, Part 2

Corey finishes up the Olympic-inspired design that he began last week in Part 1.
Olympic Graphics, Part 1

The Olympic-inspired tutorial will be coming in two parts. Stop by next week for the conclusion to this video.
Masking with Channels

This week’s tutorial deals with creating masks for complicated images by using channels.

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.
Join NAPP & Get a Free DVD.

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.
Want More?

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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Check Out Photomerge!

You can create really cool panoramic images with Photomerge. Located under File>Automate, Photomerge has taken great leaps to make your panoramic photos as painless as possible. In some cases, you can shoot holding your camera close, and shoot in a circle. Thanks so much to Dave Cross for the tip, although I’m sure many people will wonder what I am doing spinning in a circle like I’m seven years old. At least I have an excuse.