Hamideyes

Resolution and image size

2009-02-17T07:08:00.000-08:00

The first step in retouching a photograph in Photoshop is to make sure that the image is the correct resolution. The termresolution refers to the number of small squares known aspixels that describe an image and establish its detail. Resolution is determined by pixel dimensions, or the number of pixels along the width and height of an image.

In computer graphics, there are different types of resolution:

The number of pixels per unit of length in an image is called the image resolution, usually measured in pixels per inch (ppi). An image with a high resolution has more pixels (and therefore a larger file size) than an image of the same dimensions with a low resolution. Images in Photoshop can vary from high resolution (300 ppi or higher) to low resolution (72 ppi or 96 ppi).

The number of pixels per unit of length on a monitor is themonitor resolution, also usually measured in pixels per inch (ppi). Image pixels are translated directly into monitor pixels. In Photoshop, if the image resolution is higher than the monitor resolution, the image appears larger onscreen than its specified print dimensions. For example, when you display a 1-x-1-inch, 144-ppi image on a 72-ppi monitor, the image fills a 2-x-2-inch area of the screen.

4 x 6 inches at 72 ppi; file size 364.5

100% onscreen view

4 x 6 inches at 200 ppi; file size 2.75 MB

100% onscreen view

The number of ink dots per inch (dpi) produced by a platesetter or laser printer is the printer, or output, resolution. Of course, higher-resolution printers combined with higher-resolution images generally produce the best quality. The appropriate resolution for a printed image is determined both by the printer resolution and by the screen frequency, or lines per inch (lpi), of the halftone screens used to reproduce images.

Keep in mind that the higher the image resolution, the larger the file size and the longer the file takes to download from the Web.

For more information on resolution and image size, see Adobe Photoshop Help

Applying the Unsharp Mask filter

2009-02-17T07:06:00.000-08:00

The last task you may do when retouching a photo is to apply the Unsharp Mask filter. The Unsharp Mask filter adjusts the contrast of the edge detail and creates the illusion of a more focused image.

Choose Filter > Sharpen > Unsharp Mask.
In the Unsharp Mask dialog box, make sure that the Preview box is checked so that you can see the results in the image window.
You can drag inside the preview in the dialog box to see different parts of the image, or use the plus (+) and minus (–) buttons below the thumbnail to zoom in and out.
Drag the Amount slider to about 62% to sharpen the image.
Note
As you try different settings, toggle the Preview check box off and on to see how your changes affect the image. Or, you can click and hold the mouse button on the thumbnail preview in the dialog box to temporarily toggle the filter off. If your image is large, using the thumbnail preview can be more efficient, because only a small area is redrawn.
Drag the Radius slider to determine the number of pixels surrounding the edge pixels that will affect the sharpening. The higher the resolution, the higher the Radius setting should be. (We used the default value, 1.0 pixel.)
(Optional) Adjust the Threshold slider. This determines how different the sharpened pixels must be from the surrounding area before they are considered edge pixels and subsequently sharpened by the Unsharp Mask filter. The default Threshold value of 0 sharpens all pixels in the image. Try a different value, such as 4 or 5.
When you are satisfied with the results, click OK to apply the Unsharp Mask filter.
Choose File > Save.

About unsharp masking

Unsharp masking, or USM, is a traditional film-compositing technique used to sharpen edges in an image. The Unsharp Mask filter corrects blurring introduced during photographing, scanning, resampling, or printing. It is useful for images intended for both print and online viewing.

The Unsharp Mask locates pixels that differ from surrounding pixels by the threshold you specify and increases the pixels’ contrast by the amount you specify. In addition, you specify the radius of the region to which each pixel is compared.

The effects of the Unsharp Mask filter are far more pronounced onscreen than they are in high-resolution output. If your final destination is print, experiment to determine what settings work best for your ima

Getting started

2009-02-17T07:01:00.000-08:00

The image you’ll work on in this lesson is a scanned photograph. You’ll prepare the image to be placed in an Adobe InDesign layout for a fictitious magazine. The final image size in the print layout will be 2 x 3 inches.

You’ll start the lesson by comparing the original scan to the finished image.

Start Photoshop and then immediately hold down Ctrl-Alt-Shift (Windows) or Command-Option-Shift (Mac OS) to restore the default preferences. (See “Restoring default preferences” on page 6.)
When prompted, click Yes to confirm that you want to reset preferences, and Close to close the Welcome Screen.
Click the Go to Bridge button () on the tool options bar to open Adobe Bridge.
In the Favorites palette in the upper left corner of Bridge, click the Lessons favorite, and then double-click the Lesson03 folder in the preview area to see its contents.
Make sure your thumbnail previews are large enough for a good look at the images, and compare the 03Start.psd and 03End.psd files.
Notice that the scan is crooked, that the colors in the original scanned image are relatively dull, and the image has a red color cast. The dimensions are also larger than needed for the requirements of the magazine. You will fix all of these qualities in this lesson, starting with straightening and cropping the image.
Double-click the 03Start.psd thumbnail to open the file in Photoshop.
In Photoshop, choose File > Save As, and save the start file in the Lesson03 folder, but rename it 03Work.psd.
Remember, when you’re making permanent corrections to an image file, it’s always wise to work on a copy rather than on the original. Then, if something goes horribly wrong, at least you’ll be able to start over on a fresh copy of the original image.

The Crop tool rocks!

Here are two little-known but great ways to use the Crop tool (Z) more effectively:

Use the Crop tool to add canvas to any image. With an image open in Photoshop, drag to enlarge the image window so that you have gray empty space beyond the edge of the image. Then simply drag a marquee with the Crop tool, and after you release the mouse you can drag the handles outside the image area. When you apply the crop (by pressing Enter or Return), the area will be added to the canvas and filled with the background color.
Use the dimensions of one image to crop another. Open both images in Photoshop, and make the image with the desired crop dimensions active. Select the Crop tool, and click the Front Image button on the tool options bar. This enters the image’s height, width, and resolution in the respective fields on the options bar. Switch to the image that you want to crop, and drag with the Crop tool. The tool constrains the aspect ratio as you drag, and when you release and apply the crop, the image will be resized to the desired height, width, and resolution

Replacing colors in an image

2009-02-17T06:58:00.001-08:00

With the Replace Color command, you can create temporarymasks based on specific colors and then replace these colors. (A mask isolates an area of an image so that changes affect just the selected area and not the rest of the image.) The Replace Color dialog box contains options for adjusting the hue, saturation, and lightness components of the selection: Hue is color, saturation is the purity of the color, and lightness is how much white or black is in the image.

You’ll use the Replace Color command to change the color of one of the tulips in the image we’ve been correcting throughout this lesson.

Select the Rectangular Marquee tool (), and draw a selection border around the yellow tulip in the left foreground of the image. Don’t worry about making a perfect selection, but be sure to include all of the yellow flower.
Choose Image > Adjustments > Replace Color.
The Replace Color dialog box opens, and by default, the Selection area displays a black representation of the current selection.
Notice the three eyedropper tools in the Replace Color dialog box. One selects a color; the second adds a color to the sample; the third removes a color from the sample.
A. Eyedropper tool
B. Add to Sample eyedropper
C. Subtract from Sample eyedropper
Using the Eyedropper tool (), click anywhere in the yellow tulip in the image window to sample that color.
Then, use the Add to Sample eyedropper () to sample other areas of the yellow tulip until the entire flower is selected and highlighted in the mask display in the Replace Color dialog box.
Click to view larger image.
Drag the Fuzziness slider up to 45 to increase the tolerance level slightly.
Fuzziness controls the degree to which related colors are included in the mask.
If the mask display includes any white areas that arenot part of the tulip, get rid of those now: Select the Subtract from Sample eyedropper () and click those areas in either the image window or in the Replace Color mask display to remove those stray pixels. (It’s OK if a few remain in the selection.)
In the Replacement area of the Replace Color dialog box, drag the Hue slider to –40, the Saturation slider to –10, and leave the Lightness slider at 0.
As you change the values, the color of the tulip changes in hue, saturation, and lightness, and the tulip becomes red.
Click OK to apply the changes.
Choose Select > Deselect, and then choose File > Save.

Creating Smoke

2009-02-17T06:16:00.000-08:00

Some time ago I had posted an article showing how to create a smoke effect in photoshop, and to achieve that I used a photo of smoke and some photoshop filters. However, some people had said at the time that I should have done the smoke as well and it´s exactly what I will show on this post right now.

I had previously thought about what would be the best way to create smoke in photoshop, and I’ve read some tutorials online and watched some episodes of the amazing pixelPerfect podcast, to find a good and easy solution for the matter at hand.

Actually it was easier than I had expected.

1 - Create some Shapes: I created some random shapes.

2 - Apply a Gaussian blur on each shape

3 - Using the liquify filter

4 - Positioning the shapes

5 - Adding some colors

Add a background color on the layer of the shape, otherwise the Hue/Saturation won't work

6 - Creating a cloud behind the smoke

Set a feather with a high value, like 40 to 80, and after that apply the hue/saturation on the cloud too

7 - Adding a gradient to create an atmosphere

The gradient will give a atmosphere and more depth to the image

Final Result

Photoshop Elements

2009-02-11T08:12:00.001-08:00

Explore the Photoshop Elements workspace in this illustrated tutorial.

1 of 14

Gallery Index

Prev Next

Let's start by getting to know the Photoshop Elements workspace. Early versions of Photoshop Elements had a user interface very similar to Photoshop. Since version 3, it's changed quite a bit, but the two still share many tools and features. Throughout this tutorial, I'll be working with Photoshop Elements 4. Users of Photoshop Elements 3 should be able to follow along but there are a few things that might be slightly different in that version.

When you first start Photoshop Elements Editor with the default preferences, you should see something like the screen shot here. If the workspace looks vastly different to you, you'll want to reset your preferences back to default settings. To do that in Photoshop Elements, hold down Ctrl-Alt-Shift (Win) or Command-Option-Shift (Mac) immediately after launching Photoshop Elements Editor, then answer Yes when asked if you want to delete the settings file.

If you get the welcome screen when you launch Photoshop Elements, click the option to Edit and Enhance Photos to open the Editor.

My screen shot shows the Windows version of Photoshop Elements. If you are using a Macintosh, the basic layout will be the same, although the style may appear slightly different.

These are the main counterparts of the Photoshop Elements workspace:

Menu Bar
Shortcut Bar
Toolbox
Tool Options Bar
Palette Bin
Photo Bin

You can explore each one of them in more detail on the following pages.

Lesson 1c: The Toolbox

2009-02-11T08:09:00.000-08:00

Let's continue our exploration of the Photoshop workspace. There are four main counterparts to the Photoshop workspace: the menu bar, the status bar, the toolbox, and the palettes. We've already covered the menu bar and the status bar. In this lesson we'll be learning about the toolbox. Since this is a general overview of the toolbox, the materials here are useful for any version of Photoshop.

The contents of the Graphics Software site are copyright © Sue Chastain and About.com. These pages may be printed for personal reference, but they may not be distributed or republished for any purpose without prior written permission. Please see the About.com User Agreement for more information.

The Toolbox
You got a jump start on learning about the zoom tool while we were studying the status bar in the last section. Now let's explore more of the Photoshop toolbox. If you have the Quick Reference Card that came with Photoshop, it would be a good idea to locate it now. If you cannot locate a copy, Version 6.0 users can find a PDF file of the Quick Reference card on the main level of your Photoshop installation CD. Version 5.x users can find a diagram of the toolbox and all hidden tools on page 25 of the Photoshop 5.0 User Guide.

When you look at the toolbox, notice how some of the buttons have a tiny arrow in the lower right corner. This arrow indicates that other tools are hidden under that tool. To access the other tools, click and hold down on a button and the other tools will pop out. Try this now by clicking on the rectangle marquee tool and changing to the elliptical marquee tool. The hidden marquee tools are shown here.

Now hold your cursor over one of the buttons and you should see a tooltip appear that tells you the name of the tool and its keyboard shortcut. All the marquee tools have a shortcut of M. An easier way to switch between the different hidden tools is to use the keyboard shortcut along with the Shift key modifier. For the marquee tools, the Shift-M combination toggles between the rectangular and elliptical marquee tools. The single row marquee tools are less often used and must be selected from the toolbox flyout. Another shortcut for cycling through the hidden tools is to Alt/Option click on the toolbox button.

Take a few moments now to familiarize yourself with the tool names using the tooltips. Use the shortcuts you've just learned to explore all the hidden tools. As you select each tool, note the hints provided in the status bar area for each tool. Don't worry about using each tool for now; we'll get to that soon enough. For now, you should just get to know the tool locations and their icons.

Moving down in the toolbox, we come to the color swatches. This is where the foreground and background colors are displayed. The tiny arrow to the top right allows you to swap foreground and background colors. The tiny black and white swatch symbol to the lower left allows you to reset the colors to the default of black foreground and white background. Hold your cursor over those two areas to learn the keyboard shortcuts. To change a color, simply click on either the foreground or background color swatch and select a new color in the color picker. Experiment by changing the foreground and background colors and then resetting them back to defaults.

The next two buttons on the toolbox allow you to toggle between quick mask and selection mode. We'll learn more about this later in future lessons.

Below that you have a set of three buttons that allow you to change the appearance of the workspace. Hold your cursor over each button to see what it does. Notice the keyboard shortcut for all three is F. Hitting F repeatedly toggles between all three modes. Try it now.

This is a convenient place to mention a few more shortcuts for modifying the workspace appearance. Feel free to try them out as you read. When in either of the full screen modes, you can toggle the menu bar on and off with the Shift-F key combination. In any screen mode you can toggle the toolbox, status bar, and palettes on and off with the Tab key. To hide only palettes and leave the toolbox visible, use Shift-Tab.

The last button on the toolbox is for moving your document to ImageReady. We will not be exploring ImageReady in this course.

Before we move on to the palettes, let's review what we learned about the toolbox:

An arrow indicates a flyout of hidden tools.
Each main tool has a single letter keyboard shortcut assigned to it.
The Shift key combined with a tool shortcut allows you to toggle the hidden tools.
D = resets the foreground color to black and background color to white.
X = swap foreground and background colors.
F = toggles screen modes
Shift-F = Turns menu bar on and off in full screen modes
Tab = toggles the toolbox, status bar, and palettes on and off
Shift-Tab = toggle only the palettes on and off

How to Make a Color Image Look Like a Sketch

2009-01-30T08:52:00.000-08:00

1.Open a color image in Photoshop. To get the best sketch image, high contrast images are preferable. If it's needed, you can adjust the image's contrast (Image>Adjust>Brightness/Contrast).
Optional: After you choose an image (but before you adjust the contrast) select that image by pressing (Ctrl + A) and then press (Ctrl + C) to copy that image. Open a new Photoshop window and paste that image in the new window by pressing (Ctrl + V). Save it as a copy. This is done to preserve the original image.

2.Desaturate the layer that contains the image. You can desaturate by clicking on Image>Adjust>Desaturate.

3.Duplicate the desaturated layer. On the layer palette, you can duplicate the layer by right clicking on the previous layer and selecting the option of duplicating that layer

4.Note that there should now be at least two layers: two desaturated layers, and depending on which version of Photoshop you're using, you may have a blank background layer

5.Select and invert the duplicate desaturated layer. You can invert an image by clicking on Image>Adjust>Invert

6.Notice that now, with the inverted layer selected, change the blending mode to "color dodge." The image will turn all white with few black spots on it.

7.Set the Gaussian blur to this layer. You can do that by clicking on Filter>Blur>Gaussian Blur. Then you can set the radius in between 4.0-9.0. Choose the one that creates a nice sketch effect

Fire Text

2009-01-28T08:51:00.000-08:00

1.First of all, in order to make that picture you should know a few things about it. It’s only a text, some lines behind it and a fiery background. Make a new document 500x500 pixels, white background and mode RGB. Now we are going to make the lines

2.Select black as the foreground color and with the paint bucket tool paint it black. Now select the foreground color as white, select the gradient tool and in it’s editor select the transparent lines. After that paint the left and the right sides with the gradient so your picture become as this:

3.
The next thing we’ll do is to set the lines such as the finished picture. To do that go to: Filter/Stylize/Trace Contour. Set the level (128) and the edge upper, OK. Now go to: Filter/Distort/Polar Coordinates
4.Now we are going to make the background. It’s very simple just go to: Filter/Render/Difference Clouds and repeat the filter ‘til you have a picture similar to that one:

5.Now it comes to the text. Select the type tool and go somewhere in the document place your text (usually on the top) with 18pt text, Times new roman (or anything you want, depending what you want to write), and select the create wrapped text, and write the following options, Shell Lower, Horizontal, bend +50, Horizontal distortion 0 and vertical distortion 0. OK and OK now you should have a picture like this:

6.Carry on and we are goin’ to finish. There are only to steps remaining. The text effects and the color. In order to make the text effects you should do: Filter/Stylize/Wind (it’ll ask you about rasterizing the type, click OK.) Method wind, direction from the right. Repeat the previous step but with the direction from the left. Now go to Image/Rotate Canvas/90o CW, repeat the two steps of the wind and go again to the Image/Rotate Canvas/90o CCW. Finally go to Filter/Distort/Ripple, amount: 100 size: medium, Ok

7.It comes to the final step, the color. Go to Image/Mode/Grayscale (Click Merge). And now Image/Mode/Indexed Color (OK Flatten Layers). Image/Mode/Color Table à Table Black Body. (OK). Image/Mode/RGB Color and then you have it

CREATING THE OLYNPIC RING

2009-01-27T09:07:00.000-08:00

Sometimes you need to make it appear that the content of one layer appears both in front of and behind another layer. One example is the Olympic rings. The rings appear to be linked, with each ring "passing through" another. Here's an easy way to handle that problem.
CREATING THE OLYMPIC RINGS: We'll start with a new blank image. I'm working with a 400 pixel by 200 pixel RGB original. Add a new layer (don't work on the "Background" layer). In the Toolbox, select the Elliptical Marquee tool. Hold down the Shift key (to ensure that the selection is perfectly round) and drag a circle from the upper-left corner of your image. The circular selection should be about 30% the width of your canvas.
TIP: Press Command-R (Mac) or Control-R (Windows) to show the Rulers. Control-click (one-button mouse) or right-click (multi-button mouse) on one of the Rulers and select Percen

[OPTIONAL: You can name each of the layers in your artwork according to the content, in this case we can use the color of each ring. Double-click the name in the Layers palette and type the new name, then press Enter or Return on the keyboard.]
Select the color for the first of your rings. Use the menu command Edit> Stroke. Select an appropriate width (I'll use 6 pixels) and select Inside. Leave the blending mode set to Normal and the opacity at 100% (unless, of course, you're creating a special effect for a more elaborate piece of artwork). Click OK

Click the New Layer button at the bottom of the Layers palette to add a new layer. With the selection tool still active, Shift-drag the active selection to the right, into the upper-center of the image. (When dragging, the Shift key constrains the drag to 45-degree angles. In this case, it makes sure that the next Olympic ring is perfectly aligned with the first.) Make the foreground color black (the color of the upper-center ring) and again use the Edit> Stroke command

Add a new layer, Shift-drag the selection, and stroke with the appropriate color until you've created all five of the Olympic rings

INTERLEAVING THE LAYERS: Now that the rings are created, each on a separate layer, it's time to link them.
In the Olympic rings, the yellow ring appears to be in front of the bottom of the blue ring, but behind the blue ring to the right, linking the two rings. In this example, the yellow ring is on a layer above the blue ring, so it appears in front of the blue ring. To make the yellow ring appear to be going through the blue ring, we'll simply erase a small part of the yellow ring.
To ensure that we make a very precise erasure, we'll start with a selection. In the layers palette the yellow ring's layer is the active layer (because that's where we want to erase), but we can Command-click (Mac) or Control-click (Windows) on the thumbnail of the blue layer to select that layer's conten

Now, using the Eraser tool and just about any size brush or the Eraser's Block option, we can quickly --and, thanks to the selection, very precisely-- erase only that part of the yellow ring that falls directly over the blue ring

With the yellow layer still active in the Layers palette, Command-clicking or Control-clicking on the black ring's layer makes another selection, enabling us to precisely erase the area where the yellow ring should appear to be passing behind the black ring

Leaving the selection active, we can click on the green layer in the Layers palette (to make that layer active) and quickly erase the area where the green ring should appear to pass behind the black ring. Leaving the green layer active and Command-clicking or Control-clicking on the red ring's layer enables us to create the final "link" with one more click of the Eraser tool.

THE IMPORTANT LESSON: When elements of your artwork are on separate layers, you can make one layer active, make a selection of another layer's content, then erase the active layer to make it appear to be "behind" the selected layer

Making Those Little "Colored Ball" Icons in Photoshop

2009-01-26T20:55:00.000-08:00

. Open a small file in Photoshop - say 40 pixels by 40 pixels, by selecting from the Photoshop menu bar File > New.

Create a new layer by clicking the new layer icon at the bottom of the Layers palette. (If the Layers palette is not open, select Window/Layers)

2. Use the marquee tool to draw a circle. Click and hold on the marquee tool to reveal the elliptical Marquee tool.

Double check the Options bar to make sure that the Elliptical Marquee Tool is set to anti-aliased.

You can constrain the marquee to a perfect circle by holding down the SHIFT tool as you drag the marquee tool. Make the circle a little smaller than the file (so that you'll have room for a drop shadow).

3. Select the Gradient Tool from the toolbar, by clicking and holding the Paint Bucket Tool to reveal the Gradient Tool.

Next, click on the Gradient Editor in the Options Bar.

You'll be creating a new gradient. To add a new color to the gradient, click just below the gradient preview.

click to enlarge

Next, click on the color stop to change the color to whatever color you'd like. For the colored ball, create a gradient that goes from white to red to black. To save the gradient in the Gradient Editor dialog, click the New button and then the Save button to save your current set of gradients.

click to enlarge

4. In order to apply the gradient, change the gradient type to radial in the Photoshop options bar.

Next, drag the gradient tool from the upper left corner of the document to the lower right corner.

click to enlarge

Congratulations! You've created a new gradient and a ball with dimension. The next step is learning how to add a drop shadow to your image.

5. Make sure you have the layer with the colored ball on it selected. Click the Layer Effects button at the bottom of the Layers Palette. The Layers Effect dialog will open. Click Drop Shadow on the left side of the dialog box and change these settings: Opacity: 50%; Distance: 3px; Size: 2pixels.

click to enlarge

Voila! There you have it ! A simple colored ball icon. Want to shrink it? Select Image/Image Size and change the pixel value to a smaller number. You never want to size something larger because you'll end up with a poor quality image.

One last tip - you can create consistent images with different colors in 2 simple steps. First, duplicate the layer with the colored ball on it by right-clicking on the red colored ball layer and selecting Duplicate Layer. Next, Select Image/Adjust/Hue-Saturation (or use Ctrl+U on Windows, Command+U on the Mac). Drag the Hue slider until you find a new color you like. Go wild!

Create the World in Sixty Seconds

2009-01-26T20:47:00.001-08:00

what is graphic pictures

2009-01-25T23:29:00.000-08:00

People often ask what makes photography an art form. The camera is capable of creating cool graphic images and other photo art. Graphic elements are found in every art picture; these graphic elements include form, design, texture, and content

2009-01-25T23:19:00.000-08:00