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Tip of the Day | Page 18

 

NEW BRISTLE BRUSHES

There is a great new set of bristle brushes now available in Photoshop CS5 that allow you to paint with virtual bristle brushes. They are available in the brush menu and the previews show the style of bristles on the brush. Simply choose a brush then open the Brush options to make adjustments.

March 15th, 2011 | | Tip of the Day | Comments (1)

CROPPING NOW WITH RULE OF THIRDS

We now finally have a “rule of thirds” grid as a default feature for the crop tool. This gives you a visual aid for achieving a better composition on images you are cropping. Generally you would position the point where the lines intersect over your objects of interest in your image. You can change to a full grid or no grid at all by accessing the Crop Guide Overlay menu in the options bar.

March 14th, 2011 | | Tip of the Day | Comments (2)

PUPPET WARP GETS SMART!

The new Puppet Warp feature is a great way to have more control over image distortion but did you know that if you convert the layer into a smart object it will then apply the Puppet Warp as a Smart Filter. This gives you the freedom to work non-destructively by allowing you to access the distortion control points even after you have applied the distortion.

March 11th, 2011 | | Tip of the Day | Comments (1)

MINI BRIDGE IN FILMSTRIP MODE

Ok, so we know how cool Mini Bridge is right? Here’s something just as cool. Did you know that if you drag the Mini Bridge panel to the bottom of your screen it will dock at the bottom in a filmstrip look similar to Lightroom. Allowing maximum screen area while still accessing Bridge.

March 10th, 2011 | | Tip of the Day | Comments (2)

CREATING 3D TEXT RASTERIZES

Hooray! Photoshop can now create 3D text! However it also rasterizes it. Meaning when you go to convert a text layer into 3D it will convert the text to pixels, making it un-editable. I would recommend making a duplicate of the text layer before converting to 3D. This will save you having to completely start over of something goes wrong.

March 9th, 2011 | | Tip of the Day | Comments (1)

MINI BRIDGE IN FILMSTRIP MODE

Ok, so we know how cool Mini Bridge is right? Here’s something just as cool. Did you know that if you drag the Mini Bridge panel to the bottom of your screen it will dock at the bottom in a filmstrip look similar to Lightroom. Allowing maximum screen area while still accessing Bridge.

March 9th, 2011 | | Tip of the Day | Comments (2)

HDR TONING ONLY WORKS ON A FLAT IMAGE

As cool as the new HDR Toning feature is, there is still one little caveat. You can only apply to a flattened image. Meaning no layers. It will prompt you to flatten the image if you try. Also it will not work on a smart object. Believe me, we tried. Best thing to do is apply the image in a duplicated flattened version and then drag into your layered document.

March 8th, 2011 | | Tip of the Day | Comments (1)

CUSTOM DEFAULT LAYER STYLES

Tired of those silly default colors and settings in the layer styles panel. Well the suffering ends now. You now have the ability to save a layer style, perhaps one you use all too often, as a default setting. Simple set up your layer style then click the Make Default button at the bottom of the panel window. Voila!

March 7th, 2011 | | Tip of the Day | Comments (2)

DELETE EMPTY LAYERS

You ever have a whole lot of scattered empty layers in your document. It just takes forever to go in there and delete each one especially if they are mixed with other layers. Now all you need to do is go under the File menu to Scripts and choose Delete All Empty Layers. Done!

March 4th, 2011 | | Tip of the Day | Comments (2)

PROGRESSIVE RENDER SELECTION

In order to see reflections and shadows in 3D you must do a Ray Trace render. However, when you select Ray Trace it will attempt to render the entire image. Sometimes you just need to see a render of the area you are working. You can save time by creating a marquee selection round the area you want to render. Then choose Progressive Render Selection under the 3D menu.

March 3rd, 2011 | | Tip of the Day | Comments (1)

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Photoshop Tutorials

  • Flare Effects

    Corey has a cool trick for creating a flare brush and see how one effect can lead to another.

  • Hollywood Touch-Ups

    See how you can add some subtle touches to give that green screen studio shot the Hollywood treatment.

  • 3D Christmas Ornaments

    Corey shows how to create reflective holiday ornaments using 3D in Photoshop.

  • 3D Distortions

    This week Corey has a cool new trick for using 3D reflections in a rather creative way!

Premium Video Tutorials From NAPP


 

Create A Composite Layer

If you have a multilayer composition and you
want to apply an effect to all the layers at once, don’t flatten the layers–use a composite layer instead. Hide the layers you want excluded, and press Shift-Command-Option-E (PC: Shift-Ctrl-Alt-E). A new layer will be created at the top containing a merged copy of all the visible layers.

Another option is to create a new layer at the top of the stack and make it active. Command-click (PC: Ctrl-click) each layer you want to include to make those layers active, as well. Press Option-Command-E (PC: Alt-Ctrl-E).
by Colin Smith

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