6 Secrets to Photoshop Mastery

The excitement that comes from downloading your digital photos can dissipate quickly as you discover the shots you took were not so great after all. But then, that’s what Photoshop is for.

But if you haven’t mastered this powerful digital image editing software yet, you’re in for a bumpy, if not totally frustrating ride ahead. With so many options to choose from in Photoshop and procedures that require you to follow “the rules”, it’s easy to get lost. It’s easy to spend hours tweaking and re-tweaking your photo only to find you have to scrap the whole project anyway because you just can’t figure out how to do what you want to do.

So where can you turn for help?

Google

I think at this point in time, Google is everyone’s first choice when they want to find information. Simply type into their search box whatever you are trying to do, for example: “photoshop how to remove red-eye”. I just tried that phrase and got 380,000 possible ways to remove red-eye and it only took .22 seconds. The only problem with that is, I will spend the next hour clicking on and trying different methods. One sure thing about Photoshop, if you ask 10 people HOW to do something, you’ll likely get 10 different answers.

YouTube

The greatest thing about YouTube is you get to see someone actually do what you want to do. They have a search engine there, so again I type in, “photoshop how to remove red-eye”. This time I get 51 possible choices. 51 videos to watch and learn and try for me. Again, the same problem as the original Google search only with fewer options to try. With all the different versions of Photoshop and all the different skill levels displayed on YouTube, I know I can succeed in removing the red-eye, but it could still take quite a while to watch 51, 5-minute videos.

Online Courses

Many online “gurus” are offering programs to teach you Photoshop. You buy their books on PDF, follow along with their videos, or receive their CD or DVD in the mail. While it beats sitting through an adult learning course at your local school, you’ll still be investing a lot of time and money in learning “stuff” you may never use. Why endure the expense and time required to learn a lot, when you can get just what you want more simply? Ultimately, without good notes, you still won’t find the information you need, when you need it, although you know you have it somewhere.

Local Library

Your local library will no doubt contain several books on mastering Photoshop. Only trouble is, you’ll have to read and return the book. Photoshop is one of those things where if you don’t use it, you lose it. It’s hard to remember all the steps and procedures if you only use them infrequently. You could buy the book at the bookstore, but really, how many times do we open a book these days for reference? See #1.

Forums

There are millions of photographers on this planet. One thing for certain is they all want to know what everyone else is doing. We’re constant learners, always looking for that next great tip to make our shots easier or more creative. A quick Google search of “photoshop forums” nets me 494,000 possible forums to look at for answers to previously asked questions. While I might meet a group of photogs I’d like to hang with long-term, it’s likely there are better places for getting my photo fixed before bedtime tonight.

Tip Cards

Tip cards are my favorite resource when it comes to getting fast results. For hundreds of years, folks have used recipe cards to turn a bunch of kitchen ingredients into a delicious finished product. Isn’t that essentially what we’re trying to do with Photoshop? Aren’t we trying to take a bunch of computer commands and turn them into a great finished photograph? Yes, we are! The great thing about these tip cards, or “photoshop recipe cards” is they sit right beside your computer for easy reference. You know what you want to do, you pull that cards from the deck and get to work. In just minutes you’re finished. You can find a lot of TIP CARDS on our website!

Nothing beats the feeling you have when you finally rescue your hum-drum photograph from Dullsville and turn it into something great. Having the right Photoshop tools and tips at your disposal can make all the difference between photographs that proudly hang on your wall, or pictures that never get printed at all.

Professional Text Reflection Effect – Photoshop

Create a quality, professional text header for your website with this technique.

STEP 1

Get your background and create a new text layer on top of it.

STEP 2

Duplicate this text layer (Layer >> Duplicate Layer)

Flip the new text layer vertically (Edit >> Transform >> Flip Vertically)

Place it right under the existing text layer and lower its opacity (42% is what I have)

Right click on the new layer and select “Rasterize Type” so that it is editable.

STEP 3

Now take your eraser (brush setting, 17 pixel diameter, 52% opacity worked for me) and erase through the bottom of your text a few times.

Tip: Hold shift and drag to make a straight eraser line.

STEP 4

Create a new layer and with your airbrush (soft, 13 pixel diameter ,100% opacity) draw a line right under your main text.

STEP 5

Lower the opacity of this layer (12% opacity was used here).

10 Time-Saving Photoshop Shortcuts

Adjust brush size. With the Brush Tool activated, rather than accessing the dropdown menu on top of the screen, press the best bracket key, ], to increase how big the brush along with the left bracket key, [, to decrease.
Adjust brush hardness. Along with size, brush hardness frequently has to be adjusted. Holding shift + ] (right bracket key) increases the hardness with the brush while holding shift + [ (left bracket key) will reduce the hardness. Now you can maintain the brush tip where it belongs, in the heart of your image, instead of making frequent trips up to the properties bar.
Copy to a new layer. Again, keep the pointer around the artboard. Duplicating a layer is actually pressing CTRL + J (PC) or Cmd + J (Mac). This will build a copy with the active layer within the layers palette. It will also copy an engaged selection onto a brand new layer, leaving the existing layer intact. Also, pressing CTRL+ Shift + J (PC) or Cmd + Shift + J (Mac) will cut the actual active selection from the active layer and paste it onto a brand new layer. If you name your entire layers, simply adding the ALT (PC) or Option (Mac) critical for either of such combinations will open the New Layer dialog box so you can name the new layer for the fly. You can also adjust the opacity and blend mode of the new layer right within the New Layer dialog box, saving you an additional vacation to the Layers Palette.
Fill the layer or selection with color. Press CTRL + Backspace (PC) or Cmd + delete (Mac) to fill the layer with the present foreground color. Press ALT + Backspace (PC) or Option + delete (Mac) to fill the layer with the present background color. These same commands may also be used to fill some. Bonus: To change the foreground and background colors time for the default colors (black for your foreground and white for the background) simply press the D key.
Undo. No need to look at the History palette. CTRL + Z (PC) or Cmd + Z (Mac) will undo a stride. Pressing this combination again will redo (or rather, enable you to get time prior to undoing). Need to go back further than the last step? Simply hold CTRL + Alt (PC) or Cmd + Option (Mac) and press Z. Every time you press the Z key, you are going to move backward one more step.
The Hand Tool. Forget the scroll bars with the edges with the document window. To quickly navigate across the image, hold around the spacebar to temporarily activate the Hand Tool. Click and drag with all the Hand Tool to advance the document. To deactivate the Hand Tool, release the area bar.
Favorite Tools. Learn the keyboard shortcuts to your favorite tools. For example B = Brush Tool, V = Move, J = Spot Healing Brush. As you become familiar with these, you may notice that teams of tools all share a similar shortcut key. For example, the Spot Healing Brush, the Healing Brush, the Patch Tool as well as the Red Eye Tool all share the identical shortcut key – the letter J. By pressing J, you’ll activate the last used tool in the group. To cycle, although other tools inside the group, hold Shift + the letter for that group of tools, along with the active tool will cycle to another tool within the group.

If you’re continually using a command that does not possess a keyboard shortcut, you can easily assign one. Go to Edit > Keyboard Shortcuts. Find the command on the list and assign the true secret combination you desire to use. If you try to assign a previously used combination, Photoshop asks if you want to reassign that key combination. This dialog box is also a good spot to learn what keyboard shortcuts are allotted to all commands.

Layer Opacity. To quickly change the opacity in the current layer, simply press a number key. Pressing 5 = 50% opacity, press 3 = 30%, etc. To narrow the opacity to some percentage more specific when compared to a multiple of 10, press both numbers quickly. For example, pressing 5, 5 in quick succession set the opacity to 55%. (To get returning to 100%, quickly press 1, 0, 0.) Please note, this shortcut won’t work if one with the tools inside the second group is active.
Zoom in and out. To zoom into a graphic, press CTRL and + or Cmd and +, and also to zoom out press CTRL and – (PC) or Cmd and – (Mac).
Scrubby sliders. Most settings in Photoshop give you a slider to adjust to your liking.

Click and drag on the name of the setting to activate the Scrubby Slider. Sliding to the left or right will adjust the setting value up or down without needing to open the slider. You will know that a Scrubby Slider can be acquired whenever your cursor turns into a little pointing finger with arrows left and right.

Unfortunately, there is not any shortcut once and for all, old fashioned practice, but once you’ve memorized these shortcuts, you will be on the right path to finishing projects in record time! As anybody who sells their stock photos knows, you need to get the maximum revenue in each and every way possible.

Use These Web Design Tips To Maximize Your Site’s Look

If your knowledge is less than thorough, the topic of web design may feel overwhelming. You will soon discover, though, that familiarizing yourself with the necessary skills is not such a hard task. With the provided tips, you will be able to design an impressive and enchanting website for any type of purpose.

Avoid using so-called “mystery meat navigation”. This involves using unlabeled images or other elements for the site’s navigation. In many cases, the visitor has to mouse over the buttons to even see what they do. Navigation is best kept simple. Use text links across the top or along the left side of the page.

Don’t overload a website with more graphics and photos than necessary. Although graphics are necessary to make your site project a professional, well-designed, and cohesive look, having too many can make it look cluttered. Don’t just use graphics to decorate the website; they should be used to make it better. Using an adequate amount of graphics keeps clutter away and helps you focus on site usability.

Break up long text blocks. Having a huge wave of text is unnecessary for any site, especially when you can break it up by using images, or even separating it into different pages. Boring your viewers will only make them leave, so keep things as simple and fresh as possible.

Make sure that you use the right anchor text. The anchor text of a link should clearly describe what the visitor should expect to see when he clicks on the link. For instance, if a link leads to your widget ordering page, the anchor text might read “Order widgets.” Specifically, avoid using “click here” as anchor text.

For your image tags, always try to include a brief description in the ALT attribute. Not only is this good for search engine optimization, but it is also beneficial to the sight-impaired users who rely on screen readers to describe image tag contents. Make your description short and as descriptive as possible.

When designing a website for a mobile application, it’s important that you pick the right screen resolution. From an Android to an iPad, the sites are going to be displayed on the devices differently. If you’re hoping for the best results, go with a screen resolution that looks good on any type of screen.

A great web design tip is to ensure that your site is able to be found with or without the subdomain. You should be able to find your site by typing www.mysitehere.com and also https://mysitehere.com. Sites that work like this are also able to be found without a prefix at all. You can type mysitehere and find it.

It’s all right to rely on a host for tools to set up your basic design, but to add more advanced touches, you’ll want to do some of your own work. Your site should reflect you and your personality, so you want to make sure it’s not too generic.

We hope this article has taken the mystery out of website design. As you learn more about web design, creating a website will not seem so difficult. With the advice from this article, you have what you need to start moving forward.

Website Design Suggestions For Newbies

I lately got excited about these designs after seeing a Youtube tutorial about them. Maybe I can discover a college that gives an online bachelor’s diploma in graphic design and see if I can take it since I’m not too occupied at the moment. If you don’t nail the feel, your design might feel busy or overwhelming—and that’s never what you’re going for.

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If you may be already working in an artistic or graphic design subject, take into consideration the belongings you already know you could apply to website design as properly. The rules that make something visually appealing don’t change based on medium and all that design principles will turn out to be useful within the digital area as nicely. So you need to become an online designer, but you do not have any concept of the place to begin out. It’s not as exhausting as it seems, though it requires effort and time to be taught.

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Last, of all, we add our cube to the scene, then call our draw() perform to begin off the animation. We first create a cube international variable so we are in a position to access our cube from any place within the code. To start with, make a neighborhood copy of index.html in a model-new folder, then save a replica of metal003.png in the same folder.

I don’t care if there is something original left in this world or there isn’t. I’ll hold doing what’s proper for me and pursue progress and success. But artists should not feel guilty to make a fortune from their artwork. You aren’t promoting out as an outcome of you’re making money–artists still need to eat, after all.