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CALENDAR - All Photography and Photoshop related Events & Trainings in North America we could find!

Here are all tips from our website combined on one page. Enjoy!

Image too large to scan? Got an image that's too large to scan in one piece? Simply scan each half, making sure that there's a significant overlap between the pieces (for example, include the same person or portion of the same building in each scan). Then, open both halves and use File>Automate> Photomerge to automatically stitch the two halves together.

Repositioning Marquees If you start to make a Rectangular Marquee tool (M) selection and discover that you don't have the selection positioned where you want it, don't start over. Before you finish creating the Marquee, press and hold the Spacebar, reposition the selection, and then finish making the selection. This trick also works with the Crop tool and the Shape tools.

Fit photos when printing Many new digital camera owners run into trouble when they try to print their photos and discover that the photos are too big to fit on the paper (even 8.5x11" paper). How can you make the images print? Choose Image>Image Size, uncheck the Resample Image checkbox, and then change the Resolution to 300 ppi. By unchecking Resample Image, you tell Photoshop to make the pixels smaller but to use all of them. You can now print a high-quality image that preserves all of the original data.

Correcting moiré in scans Is moiré a problem in your scans? (Visible line patterns that really should not be there) Check your scanners dialog and look for an option called Descreening or Moiré Removal. In some scan dialogs, you'll need to choose the option Color (Document) rather than the Color (Photo).

Layer Comps to the Web After you've created Layer Comps, you can easily show them to your client as a Web Photo Gallery. From the File menu, look under Scripts and select Layer Comps to WPG. In the dialog, choose the location in which you want your website to be created, and enter the name of the Web photo gallery layout you want to use (that's the only catch: You have to know the exact name of the WPG and type it in). Click Run and you'll end up with the HTML and graphic files for your very own website based on your layer comps.

Greater sharpening control For a different type of sharpening, use Filter>Other>High Pass on a duplicate of the layer that you want to sharpen. Change the layer's Blend Mode to Overlay, Soft Light, or Hard light. Smaller High Pass settings emphasize tiny details in the image where you need to keep the tiny details (such as wrinkles) unsharpened. You can reduce the opacity of the sharpening layer and mask areas to keep them from sharpening. It gives you total flexibility.

Healing to a blank layer Take advantage of the ability of the Healing Brush to "use all layers." Add a blank layer above your image and in the Options Bar, check the Use All Layers box. Then use the Healing Brush as usual, but now the pixels appear on the new layer. Then you can use the layer's opacity and/or blending modes to alter the effects of the Healing Brush.

One-Touch rotate Did you know that you know have one-touch ability to rotate or flag images in the File Browser? There's an easy-to-overlook set of icons to the right of the menus in the file File Browser that provide a fast way to rotate (clockwise or counterclockwise), flag, search, or delete files.

Greater sharpening control For a different type of sharpening, use Filter>Other>High Pass on a duplicate of the layer that you want to sharpen. Change the layer's Blend Mode to Overlay, Soft Light, or Hard light. Smaller High Pass settings emphasize tiny details in the image where you need to keep the tiny details (such as wrinkles) unsharpened. You can reduce the opacity of the sharpening layer and mask areas to keep them from sharpening. It gives you total flexibility.

A better Dodge and Burn Instead of using the Dodge and Burn Tools inside of Photoshop (which by the way are very damaging), simply create a new layer and chenge its Mode from Normal to Soft Light. By painting with White you dodge, and with Black you burn. You can also see step-by-step instructions for this on the Articles page, under the article: Make any photo of a person, better!

Use Tight Cropping To Spice Up Images We've all had those times when we're given less-than-spectacular images to work with. It's your client's son or daughter, or maybe a really bad snapshot of a boring showroom or storefront. Here's a quick tip to give unimpressive photos a cool, hip, new look: Simply use the Crop tool to tightly crop the image. You may even try rotating the image slightly, to give it that hip look. I know, it's really a no-brainer, but it does add a little pizzazz to boring images.

Correcting moiré in scans Is moiré a problem in your scans? Check your scanners dialog and look for an option called Descreening or Moiré Removal. In some scan dialogs, you'll need to choose the option Color (Document) rather than the Color (Photo).

Removing Red Eye with the Color Replace Tool Although this doesn't sound like a standard use for the Color Replacement tool, it works amazingly well for removing red eye from photos. Just press the letter "d" (default colors) to set your Foreground color to black, grab the Color Replacement tool (it's under the healing brush in the toolbox), click on the red area in one of the eyes, and then just paint it away (the brush will snap to the red color, which makes the repair a breeze). If this sounds like a weird use for the Color Replacement tool, it's not as weird as you think - just move your cursor over the tool's icon in the Toolbox, and you'll see the eye next to the icon turns red. Coincidence? I think not.

RGB Flesh Tones: Getting the "Red" Out If you're working in an RGB image and you've done your basic color correction but the flesh tone in your image still seems to red (a common problem), here's a tip to fix it fast. First, select the flesh tones area in your image (using the Lasso tool, etc.). Add a slight feather by going under the Select menu and choosing Feather. Enter a 1-pixel feather for low-res images; 3-5 pixels for high-res images. Go under the menu Image>Adjustments>Hue/Saturation. From the Edit pop-up menu, choose Reds. Now lower the Saturation slider until your skin tones look more natural, and click OK.

Removing Edge Fringe When Collaging Anytime you're creating a collage, you'll eventually add an image that has little white pixels around the edges of your object. Here's a tip for getting rid of that "fringe". Go under the Layer menu, under Matting, and choose Defringe. Try the default setting of 1 pixel and click OK. What this does (here's the techno speak) is replace the edge pixels with a combination of pixel colors in your object and the colors in the background (whew, that hurt). That usually does the trick. If it doesn't, Undo it, then try a 2- or 3-pixel Defringe.

Overlap Graphic Elements to Add Visual Interest A great way to add visual design interest to any design project is to overlap an image over text. This simple technique will add depth to your design project, giving even a simple newsletter or masthead a more dramatic visual impact. First, place your text or nameplate over a background image. Now, go back to the background image in the Layers palette and select the areas you want to overlap the text (using the selection tool of your choice). Place this selection on its own layer by pressing Command-J (PC: Control-J), then move it to the top of the Layers palette above your text or nameplate layer. It's that simple.

Creating Temporary Brushes It's easy to create a temporary brush based on your preset brushes in Photoshop CS. Just click on the Brush Sample in the Options Bar to bring up the Brushes Picker. With the Masters Diameter slider you can change your brush size from 1 to 2500 pixels. If you like the size of your new brush and want to save it, just click the New Brush icon at the top right of the dialog. The Brush Name dialog will appear so you can name your new brush. When you click OK, the new brush will immediately be added to your Brushes palette.

Get Rid of the Annoying Checkerboard Pattern Any time you create a new layer, by default Photoshop puts a checkerboard pattern behind the transparent areas of your layer. The idea is so that you'll know which areas are transparent. We've always felt we had something that would tell us which areas were transparent - our eyes. So we (and many other users) turned this annoying checkerboard off as soon as we learned how. Here's how: In Mac OS X, go under the Photoshop menu, under Preferences, and choose Transparency & Gamut (in Windows, Preferences can be found under the Edit menu). In the dialog change the Grid Size from medium to none. That's it - click OK and the annoying grid is gone. (Want to play a Photoshop prank? Go to a friend or coworkers computer and change their Grid Size to Large and the Grid Colors to Dark. If that doesn't send them into rehab, nothing will.)

Moving Multiple Layers From Document to Document Want to move more than one layer at a time from one document to another? It's easy, as long as you know where to drag from. First, link your layers together, then make sure that you drag your layer from within the document itself, rather than trying to drag the layer from the Layers palette. Dragging a layer from the Layers palette to another document is fine, as long as you only want to drag one layer at a time.

Hide Your Other Layers in the Blink of an Eye To hide an individual layer, click on the Eye icon in the first column next to that layer in the Layers palette. To make the layer visible again, click on the spot where the Eye icon used to be. If you want to keep one layer visible and hide all the others, hold the Option key (PC Alt key) and click on the Eye icon beside the layer you want to keep visible again, repeat the process.

CALENDAR - All Photography and Photoshop related Events & Trainings in North America we could find!

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