Twitter
RSS
Sponsored by the National Association of Photoshop Professionals. Learn More
Tip of the Day | Page 35
Full-screen preview in Bridge CS4
Bridge CS4 lets you quickly get a full-screen preview of any image. Select the image and press the Spacebar or select the Full Screen Preview from the View menu. This opens the selected image in a full-screen preview. Click on the image and it zooms to a 100% preview; Control-click (PC: Right-click) and drag on the image to move around; press the Arrow keys to move between images. Pressing the Spacebar a second time returns Bridge to the previous mode.
Use Refine Mask instead of Refine Edge
If your aim in making a selection is to turn it into a layer mask for an adjustment layer, skip the Refine Edge controls in favor of the new Refine Mask controls, found in the Mask panel (Window>Masks) in CS4 – just click on Mask Edge to open the dialog. The controls in Refine Mask are the same as Refine Edge, but they affect a mask and not a selection, allowing you to see in real time how the edges of an adjustment layer’s mask are affected and what works best for that particular layer.
Resurrect the Extract Command
The Extract command is no longer offered in Photoshop CS4, but you can still access its functionality in the new version of Photo-shop by transferring a file called ‘Extract-Plus.plugin’ from the Plug-Ins>Filters folder of Photoshop CS3 to the same folder in Photoshop CS4. It works fine and hopefully, there’ll be something even better in CS5.
Tame out-of-gamut colors
Next, choose Select>Color Range, and in the Select menu, choose Out of Gamut, and Click OK to load a selection of the out-of-gamut colors. Then, choose Image>Adjustments>Hue/Saturation and move the Saturation value to #10, and click OK. You should see the gray areas get smaller. Deselect and repeat this procedure using the same #10 Saturation setting until the gray color indicating out-of-gamut colors is no longer visible.
Identify out-of-gamut colors
If you’re prepping a flattened copy of an image for press reproduction and need to tame out-of-gamut colors prior to convert-ing to CMYK, choose Gamut Warning from the View menu. Flat gray will appear over colors that are out of gamut.
Transfer selections or alpha channels
If you have different images open that share the same pixel dimension, you can load a selection from any of the other images, or save a selection to any of the other open files. Choose Select>Load Selection or Save Selection and in the Document menu at the top of the dialog, choose the file where you want to either access an existing alpha channel, or where you want to save a new channel.
Select with color channels
Sometimes, targeting a specific color channel can help create a much better selection, especially if there are distinct color differences you can take advantage of. In this example, the same diagonal move with the Quick Selection tool resulted in a much better selection of the heart when it was applied only to the Red channel in the Channels panel (Window>Channels).
Zoom in the Color Range preview
The preview in the Color Range dialog shows the entire image by default, which can make it hard to judge the potential selection mask if you’re trying to select only small areas. The solution is to first create a selection around the area on which you want to work before you choose Select>Color Range. Once you do, the preview in the dialog will only show what you have pre-selected.
Remove Lasso tools: control points
When using either the Polygonal Lasso or the Magnetic Lasso tools (both nested under the Lasso tool [L]), you can remove control points in the order in which they were put down by backtracking along the selection path and pressing the Delete (PC: Backspace) key for each point. The Magnetic Lasso tool may try to add new points as you back up; just delete them until you get back to where you need to be.
Fine-tuning with the Quick Selection Tool
When adding or subtracting small areas with the Quick Selection tool (W), your results will be more accurate if you use the Zoom tool (Z) for a close view and then use a smaller brush tip combined with shorter strokes.
Pages: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120
Photoshop Tutorials
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.
Styles & Text
This week Corey has a tutorial using layer styles and text shapes to create energetic effects.
3D Light Beams
This effect was discovered by a 'happy accident' and uses the 3D features inside of Photoshop CS4 Extended.
-
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
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.
You Don't Need to be a Pro to Join 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
