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Photoshop Elements 6 for Mac
March 25th, 2008 | Corey Barker
The wait is finally over for Mac users. That’s right, Elements 6 for the Mac is now shipping. Most of you remember there was no Mac version for Elements 5 and this caused quite a stir among Mac users. Well it seems that Adobe has heard their pleas and finally made this newest version compatible with the Mac. Complete with all new features and a slick new interface, this version promises to be easier and more fun to use. If you haven’t checked out my Elements Killer Tips podcast lately, you will want to see the latest episodes, which were done in this newest Mac version.
A New Design Contest
March 21st, 2008 | Corey Barker
In case you haven’t heard yet. There is a really cool design contest over at the Layers Magazine website. The idea is simple. Download the image provided and incorporate it into any design you like. It doesn’t just have to be a design. You can do a Flash banner, an animation, or whatever you want in whatever app you want. Just go nuts. The grand prize is a $300 shopping spree at the Kelby Training website and the bragging rights that you won the first official Layer Magazine design contest. Get more details and download the image here. Good Luck! Continue Reading »
Photoshop Book of the Week
March 20th, 2008 | Corey Barker
This week I have chosen the all new Photoshop Elements 6 Book for Digital Photographers. This new edition is co-authored by Scott Kelby and Matt Kloskowski and is jam packed with all the goodies you would expect from this series. With things like Camera Raw image correction techniques, retouching, sharpening, and really cool image effects, you will want to keep this book close by at all times. This book is designed to be the definitive resource for everything you might need to do with your photos and the information is delivered in the funny, entertaining, straightforward style that’s Scott and Matt’s book are famous for. Find out more about the book and order your copy here.
Cool Illustration Stuff!
March 18th, 2008 | Corey Barker
On this week’s episode of Pixel Perfect my good friend Bert Monroy has a really cool technique for creating an ice cream bar, all from scratch. I certainly have learned a lot from Bert over the years and while most of you may not be illustrators, there is always something in his tutorials you can use for almost anything. If you would like to see Bert’s vast collection of impressive Photoshop paintings, go here. Incidentally, Bert has a new book coming out later this month: Photoshop Studio with Bert Monroy. AHHHH! Too much good stuff! Enjoy!
Update on Adobe Updates
March 17th, 2008 | Corey Barker
From John Nack’s Blog: Ugh. I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but the Lightroom team has uncovered some problems with the Lightroom 1.4 and Camera Raw 4.4 releases posted on Thursday. The updates have been pulled down temporarily while the team addresses the problems. In the meantime Lightroom PM Tom Hogarty has posted details and guidance on how to roll back to previous versions. The most serious issue is that the time stamp generated by your camera & stored in EXIF metadata can get overwritten when you update other file metadata.
Adobe Updates
March 14th, 2008 | Corey Barker
Adobe has just released a new update for Lightroom 1.4 and Camera Raw 4.4. These updates add newly-supported camera models and address a couple of functionality issues. Also, the Lightroom update provides an updated printer driver compatibility for Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard. These updates are available now and can be downloaded at the Adobe site. Click Mac|Windows for Lightroom 1.4 and Click Mac|Windows for Camera Raw 4.4.
Cool New Course!
March 12th, 2008 | Corey Barker
A new course was just recently released on the Kelby Online Training site by John Paul Caponigro. It’s called Atmospheric FX. This covers some of the coolest effects that are featured in his book, The Adobe Photoshop Master Class. These techniques can be used to enhance your photos, or can even be used in an illustration. That’s what I really love about these techniques; that they have so many uses. For those of you who don’t know of John Paul, he is an author as I mentioned, but he is also a remarkable photographer, a Canon Explorer of Light, and an Epson Stylus Pro. He is also among the who’s who of Photoshop instructors at Photoshop World. Click here for info on the course and you can find out more about John Paul at www.johnpaulcaponigro.com.
Photoshop for Forensics
March 10th, 2008 | Corey Barker
Here is a site I stumbled upon over the weekend. With forensic imaging becoming more and more prominent, it was only a matter of time before someone started writing about it. This blog is hosted by Jim Hoerricks and discusses news and techniques in the world of forensics. The blog includes tips and techniques for using Photoshop in a forensic workflow. So, even if you are not a criminalist, it’s still interesting to see what other industries are doing with Photoshop.
That Coveted Gritty Look
March 7th, 2008 | Corey Barker
There has been a surge of people trying to get that really gritty look that has been made famous by photographers like Dave Hill. Most want to be able to get the effect entirely in Photoshop. Here’s is the bottom line. You have shoot for this technique. Meaning the success of the the effect depends on how you set up your lights. Then you can use software like Lucis Art. Interestingly I was assisting on a shoot with Scott Kelby and he processed the images entirely using Lightroom and Photoshop and actually achieved a really good result. Now you can also use Camera Raw if you don’t have Lightroom. Scott breaks it all down on his blog here. (There is a cool photo of me with my mini.)
A Little Inspiration…
March 6th, 2008 | Corey Barker
If you’re a designer, illustrator, or even a photographer you may find yourself in a creative rut at some point. Trust me this does happen. I always find it a good idea to go a spend an hour or two at the bookstore. It’s an amazing source for inspiration, especially the news stands. With hundreds of magazines on virtually every subject, there is always a spark of something creative in there. It’s really interesting to see what other designers are doing and it helps to keep up on current design trends, which is always a good idea. The key here is this: In order to produce something you need the ingredients. Fill your creative mind with the right ingredients and it will all come together.
Photoshop Book of the Week
March 5th, 2008 | Corey Barker
This week’s book is the Photoshop Studio with Bert Monroy. This book’s new edition is scheduled to be released later this month and I can’t wait. Bert’s books are always inspiring and always have that little something you may never have thought of. Bert’s last Studio book was simply amazing. Now you may say to yourself, “I am a photographer why would I want a book on illustration?” It’s simple, you never know what you can use these techniques for. What works for one illustration may work wonders on a photograph. Trust me, you won’t be disappointed. To find out more, click here and go here to check out more of Bert’s paintings.
Spotlight: Ben Willmore
March 3rd, 2008 | Corey Barker
Ok, I felt I had to post this because Ben Willmore was just in my office. If you have been using Photoshop for a while you know that name. Ben is a world-renowned Photoshop author and instructor at events such as Photoshop World. I have truly learned a lot from Ben and I highly recommend you check out his sites. The first site, Digital Mastery.com is basically the Ben store. It has his newest training, dvds, books, and information on current projects. Also check out whereisben.com. This is his blog on what he is doing and where. As some of you know, Ben lives and works in his coach bus that he drives around the country. Lastly, make sure you check out the Kelby Online Training site. Ben will have some new classes coming soon.
The Next Generation of Doodling
February 27th, 2008 | Corey Barker
I came across this on John Nack’s blog. It’s a really cool drawing and painting program that is designed to educate and entertain. Developed by Umeå University, it’s basically a drawing a painting program but with a little extra. It’s actually physics-based drawing, meaning you can interact with the objects you draw and make those objects interact with each other. It’s certainly taking the average sketch pad to a whole new level. It’s kind of hard to describe, you just have to see it. Here is a link to a demo of the software and go here for more information.
Adobe AIR is Live
February 26th, 2008 | Corey Barker
Adobe has officially launched Adobe AIR which, for those of you who may have perhaps been living under a mouse pad for the past several months, is a new runtime that allows developers to create rich internet-based applications that deploy right to the desktop. Imagine being able to build a custom interface catered to your particular business, running as an application instead of a simple web page. That is what AIR provides - the technology to be able to do this. It really is going to be something big. Find out more here.
Just 5 Days Left…
February 25th, 2008 | Corey Barker
Take advantage of the early bird registration pricing for Photoshop World in Orlando, FL on April 2-4. You only have ’til this Friday, February 29, 2008 to save $100 on the full registration price. Also, if you are planning to enter the prestigious Guru Awards, the deadline for that is also this Friday the 29th. This is a great opportunity for you to get your work noticed. Hey, it worked for me. Find out more about this contest and other specials at Photoshop World here. Hope to see you there.
Photoshop Tutorials
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Wild West Grunge
Corey shows you how to recreate this rugged, weathered look using a couple of filters, blending modes, and layer masks.
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Wall of Text
Use a clipping group to place an image inside of a background of text, with another layer of text placed in front to create depth.
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Natural Brushes
In this tutorial Corey shows you how to take an existing image and turn it into it’s own custom brush.
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Custom Coins
In this tutorial Corey creates a realistic-looking coin effect using the channels palette and the lighting effects filter.
Text Shape Layers
Converting text into shapes allows you to distort the text as you like while retaining straight, clean edges.
Borders Under a Minute
Create really cool borders in under a minute to use on virtually any one of your photos or even video for that matter.- Custom Coins
In this tutorial Corey creates a realistic-looking coin effect using the channels palette and the lighting effects filter. - Natural Brushes
In this tutorial Corey shows you how to take an existing image and turn it into it's own custom brush.
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Creative Contrast in Photoshop CS3
In this tutorial, we’ll take a look at some interesting techniques for improving contrast using the Shadow/Highlight command, empty adjustment layers, blend modes, and the Blend If sliders in the Layer Style dialog. -
Enhanced Workflow in Lightroom 1.1
In this article, we'll focus on techniques that will strengthen your workflow skills and simultaneously reveal some of the new features in Lightroom 1.1. -
Handlin’ Photoshop and Illustrator Content in Flash
we’ll take a look at how things work across Photoshop, Illustrator, and Flash-specifically, some features and techniques for getting rasterized Photoshop content and vector Illustrator content into your Flash movies. -
Understanding Channels in Photoshop CS3
Photographer Chris Alvanas wants to go over Channels, because understanding what they are and what they do is key to understanding what their potential is.
Removing Those Typographically Incorrect Spaces
If you’re trying to set type that looks typographically correct in Photoshop, there’s an old habit you’ll have to break, and that’s the curse of putting two spaces at the end of every sentence. This is a holdover from people who at one time used traditional typewriters, where adding two spaces was necessary, but in typesetting that’s a huge no-no. About 70% of the text I copy-and-paste from text files that people give me has two spaces, but I use this Photoshop tip to fix the problem in just seconds. First, go under the Edit menu and choose Find and Replace Text. In the Find field, press the Spacebar twice (entering two spaces), then in Change To, press the Spacebar just once. Click Change All, and every time Photoshop finds two spaces at the end of a sentence, it will replace it with just one, making you typographically correct.
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Photoshop CS3 for Photographers Tour May. 19 - Nashville, TN
Photoshop CS3 for Photographers Tour May. 22 - San Francisco, CA
Photoshop CS3 for Photographers Tour May. 28 - New York, NY
Maximum Photoshop Tour May. 30
