Photo-d-mention.com – photoshop & photography

Creating a panorama it’s really easy. First you have to start using your digital camera and take a few shots.  Lets assume that the image above is what you see.

First of all let me show you the wrong way to take the shots.

And the correct way is:

The reason why photos should intersect is that Photoshop can find the edges more precisely and blend them together correctly. Ok, so far so good. The next step is to load all photos into Photoshop. Go to File » Automate » Photomerge

Click Browse , search for your photos and load them. There are several options on the Layout section. For best fit set Auto. Click OK and let Photoshop do the trick. Wait a few moments and this is what you should get.

It’s time to make a few adjustments. You can clone edges for a more uniform photo. Use Clone Stamp Tool (S)

And then Crop (C) to fit:

Final result is:

Other adjustments: Levels, Hue/Saturation, Curves, etc.

If you like the final image, you can also add a border. See 3 ways to create a border

Method 1

This is a simple way to make crops and straighten images from a scanned image. If you are in the situation above just go to File » Automate » Crop and straighten photos. The screen will flicker a few times, and you’ll have an immediate result. Now you can save files separately.

Method 2

If you find yourself in this situation and want to do multiple crops you can to the following: take the rectangle shape tool and draw the ares where you want the crops. You can use free transform (CTRL+T), to scale and rotate. Also set the opacity value to 50% so you can be more accurate with the crop areas. Once you done this set the opacity up to 100% . Then select all shape layer, using Shift or CRTL and hit CTRL+E to merge them.

Now go to File » Automate » Crop and straighten photos. The screen will flicker and when it’s done, you’ll have your images separated, and the shape layer above. Turn off the visibility, or delete this layer and save the file. That’s it!

Let me share with you guys some thoughts about uCertify especially the PrepKit for Adobe Photoshop CS3. I had the chance to discover what this preparation kit offers to everyone who uses it.

In my opinion video tutorials are good, you can learn lots and lots of brand new things but, preparing by yourself, taking notes, see where your mistakes are, reviewing over and over again what you think you don’t know, it’s even better.

uCertity.com offers you an efficient self-evaluation PrepKit so easy to use.
It’s well structured, divided in 13 main chapters for example: General knowledge, Painting and retouching, Creating and using layers etc. Each chapter has a series of questions. And let me tell you, this is a big challenge. With this questions you test your Photoshop knowledge and abilities until your results are satisfying.

You also have Study Notes available. For example: What is the Ruler tool, What is the Color Sample tool. We all used this tools but do we really know what they are, how they are defined? Simple definitions, and easy to remember.

Let’s remember, we are preparing to become an ACE in Photoshop. Easy can be always hard. Little things we think we know…we don’t. uCertify offers the perfect simulation for the ACE exam. If you train with uCertify there is no way, not to become ACE.

If you pass all the Practice tests, you are ready for the big challenge

Give it a shoot! Good luck and happy Photoshoping

Let me introduce you three easy methods to make a smooth skin. One of them is a professional one Let me start the tutorial explaining the first method.

Method 1

It’s quick, results are poor but good in some situations.

1) Open a picture in Photoshop, a portrait maybe

2) Use Healing Brush or Clone to repair skin imperfections

3) Duplicate the layer (CTRL+J)

4) Go to Filters » Blur » Gaussian Blur, and enter the desired value, until you have a convenient result, and click OK.

5) Click Add layer mask, from the bottom of the Layers Palette to add a mask on the blurred image.

6) Select the Brush tool (B), set the foreground color to black, check out the size and the hardness, and start painting over the areas you want to reveal. Eyes, mouth, nose, ears, jewelry and maybe hair. This way you keep the skin blured, and yes, smoother.

7) Once you are done, reduce the opacity of the layer until you have your desired result.

You are done.

Method 2

It’s more accurate and preserves details nicely.

1) Open a picture in Photoshop, a portrait maybe

2) Use Healing Brush or Clone to repair skin imperfections

3) Go to Channels in the Layers Palette, hold CTRL and click the Red Channel. All red pixels in the image are now selected. Generally speaking red it’s found on skin.

4) Now go back to Layers and hit CTRL+J to make a copy of the selected pixels. New layer is created.

5) Like in the first method, go to Filters » Blur » Gaussian Blur, and enter a value, until you have the desired result, and click OK. As you can see the eyes, mouth, hair, are not so affected by the blur filter.

6) Click Add layer mask, from the bottom of the Layers Palette to add a mask on the blured image.

7) Select the Brush tool (B), set the foreground color to black, check out the size and the hardness, and start painting over the areas you want to reveal.Eyes, mouth, nose, ears, jewelry and maybe hair. In this case I recommed, the brush opacity somewhere around 30%. As you see the result are more complex and you have a nice blur over the skin.

You are done.

Method 3

This is the way most professional photographers use. Details are preserved. Skin = beautiful.

1) Open a picture in Photoshop, a portrait maybe

2) Use Healing Brush or Clone to repair skin imperfections

3) Right click the background layer and convert it to a Smart Object.

3) Hit CRTL+J to duplicate the layer.

4) Guess that? We are gonna we smart filters. Yes we can modify them any time without destroying the image. Go to Filters » Other » High Pass and set a value of 3 pixels or any other you feel comfortable with. And click OK.

5) The image will be gray. As you can see in the Layers Palette the filter is applied. There is a little icon there on the right, you can double click on to bring the High Pass filter window, and change the value.

6) If you already doubled clicked the icon change the Mode to Hard Light.The tone of skin should be uniform, but not so much, not to loose the details. You can reduce the opacity of the High Pass filter by clicking the little icon on the right. The window appears, set it, done. Check the results. One word: details

7) Next we are going to apply one more filter. It’s kind of the opposite. It’s a Low Pass filter. Simply go to Filters » Blur » Surface Blur. Carefully set the Radius and Threshold value until you have a fine result. The tone of skin should be uniform, but not so much, not to loose the details. You can reduce the opacity of the Surface Blur filter by clicking the little icon on the right. The window appears, set it, click OK.

Guess what! You are DONE!

Hope you enjoyed this tutorial, and maybe found it useful

Image source

“Thermo” is an upcoming Adobe product that makes it easy for designers to create rich Internet application UIs. Thermo allows designers to build on familiar workflows to visually create working applications that easily flow into production and development.

Features

• Use drawing tools to create original graphics, wireframe an application design, or manipulate artwork imported from Adobe Creative Suite tools.
• Turn artwork from Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, or Fireworks directly into functional components that use the original artwork as a “skin”.
• Define and wire up interactive behavior, such as what to do when a user clicks on something, without having to write code.
• Easily design UIs that work with dynamic data, such as a list of contacts or product information, without having access to the actual data source. Design-time sample data can be used as a realistic placeholder when laying out an application, testing interactivity, and choreographing motion.

Check out this link for more informations