Greg Patterson asked:


You might find it helpful to apply a masking on your photo to choose which areas you want to change and leave untouched before you apply any of these special effects. You can create a soft fade between the areas with effects added and those without.

This is called masking and can be done in a variety of ways. One method is called the ‘quick mask mode’. This is quick and easy to do and results are typically acceptable.

Quick masking:

Locate the button called ‘edit in quick mask mode’ in Adobe Photoshop. It is located near the bottom of the main tool bar and appears as a circle in a rectangle. There’s also a short-cut key: Q. Once in quick mask mode, you can select and deselect areas by painting them with white and black respectively, using the standard brush tool.

Zoom to 100 or 200 % for best precision. A soft-edged brush can be used to avoid hard edges. When done, exit the masking mode and go to ‘Select > Feather’ and set the feather radius somewhere in the range of 5-10 pixels. A nice feature is that you can set the opacity to anywhere between 0 and 100%, allowing you to apply the effect stronger or weaker in one part of the image than another.

Layer masking:

Somewhat more complicated, you can add a layer mask. This permits you to apply any effect gradually from any point in your photo. Follow these steps in Photoshop:

1. Select ‘Windows > Layers’.

2. Right click on your layer and choose ‘Duplicate layer’.

3. Click on the little icon in the bottom of the layer box called ‘Add layer mask’.

4. Choose the ‘Gradient tool’ on the main tool box.

5. Select a gradient style from the top ‘Options’ bar (linear, radial etc.).

6. Click on your image on the point you don’t want to change, and drag the mouse away to the point where you want the full effect to take place. The effect will be applied gradually more and more along this line you’ve now created.

7. Last, return to your original background layer and apply any effect you want. This will apply the effect in a soft, gradual way. Use opacity to turn the effect down to less than full strength if you want.

Lens-like effects:

Using the same layer masking explained from above, you can apply ‘Gaussian blur’ which will make the selected areas appear soft-focused, a bit like if you had used a large-aperture lens. With ‘Curves’ you can make your corners darker than the center, replicating the lens effect called vignetting.

In principle, vignetting is considered a lens dysfunction, but subjectively it can add an extra feeling to your photo. It will create a kind of frame that will have a ‘sucking’ effect, drawing more focus to the center of your photo. You can also just lower the contrast and/or color-saturation around your main subject, helping to divide it from the background clutter. Be creative with the many options you have available.



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Pratibha asked:


Photoshop is an Adobe Systems Product. Now days Adobe Systems is one of the biggest software development companies in the world. This company provides all multimedia application for all community designers. Graphic designers are using its Photoshop, Illustrator, Indesign, and Freehand etc. Web designers are using its Photoshop, Flash, Dreamweaver, Sound Booth, and Fireworks etc. Post-production artists are using Photoshop, Premiere, Sound Booth, and After Effects etc.

All above explanation is showing that photoshop belongs to the biggest technologies owning community. Now, I am going to tell you about why Photoshop is necessary for each and every designer of graphic designing, web designing, animation, photography and video editing industry. Photoshop has strong ties with other Adobe software for media editing, animation, and authoring. The .PSD (Photoshop Document), Photoshop’s native format, stores an image with support for most imaging options available in Photoshop.

In 1987, Thomas Knoll, a PhD student at the University of Michigan, began writing a program on his Macintosh Plus to display grayscale images on a monochrome display. This program, called Display, caught the attention of his brother John Knoll, an Industrial Light & Magic employee, who recommended Thomas turn it into a full-fledged image editing program. Thomas took a six month break from his studies in 1988 to collaborate with his brother on the program, which had been renamed ImagePro. Later that year, Thomas renamed his program Photoshop and worked out a short-term deal with scanner manufacturer Barneyscan to distribute copies of the program with a slide scanner; a “total of about 200 copies of Photoshop were shipped” this way.

During this time, John traveled to Silicon Valley and gave a demonstration of the program to engineers at Apple Computer Inc. and Russell Brown, art director at Adobe. Both showings were successful, and Adobe decided to purchase the license to distribute in September 1988. While John worked on plug-ins in California, Thomas remained in Ann Arbor writing program code. Photoshop 1.0 was released in 1990 for Macintosh exclusively, and now the latest released version of Photoshop is cs4.

 It was just introduction and a little bit history of the Photoshop. This software is able to provide all solutions related to image editing, digital painting, textures/pattern designing, special effects, lay outing and any type of bitmap or raster graphics editing. Do you want to learn this program, then their are so many professional institutions just go and enquire about the course.



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pkeck asked:


When I open a photo in Photoshop Elements or Photoshop and zoom in on it so much that some or all of the image goes off the screen, I can’t crop the image anywhere near the corners without the image rapidly moving once I drag the crop mark. How do I “freeze” the image so it doesn’t start scrolling around, so I can then start my crop from any of the corners of image?

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Sofiana asked:


I recently purchased a pc with windows vista on it. I installed photoshop. But when photoshop opens I get a dialog box that says I don’t have administrative access. However my user account is the only account on my computer, and the title of it is administrator. Anyone know how I can fix this?

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Sandee Lembke asked:


For an easy-to-implement web page effect, add a Web Page Shadow all the way around your webpages using the Photoshop Slice Tool and HTML coding. Doing so not only adds visual interest but also gives your website a professional look. Read these step by step instructions or watch a video tutorial and follow along with a PDF supplement.

High Level Process:

Create 2 blank documents in Photoshop, one smaller than the other On the smaller one, add a Photoshop drop shadow all the way around image Drag the smaller document on top of the larger one to create one flattened image Use the Photoshop Slice Tool to slice the image into 3 smaller images and upload as 3 separate gifs Create a table in your HTML document within the body to hold gifs and content

Step By Step:

Create the larger of two documents in Photoshop (or another image editor). Width is the same as your website template (ex. 950 pixels). Height does not matter but should be big enough to easily use Photoshop Slice Tool (ex. 250 pixels). Color should be the same as your website body. Create the smaller of two documents in Photoshop. Width should be smaller than the larger document (ex. 800 pixels). Height should be smaller than the larger document (ex. 100 pixels). Color should be the same as your content area. Add a Photoshop Drop Shadow to the smaller document. In the Layers Palette, double click on the word “Background” and change it to any other name. This will free up functionality and allow you to easily add a drop shadow. Open the Layers Style dialog box, click on “Drop Shadow” and set the variables as follows: Opacity 75% Angle -90 degrees Distance 0 px Spread 35% Size 35 px Color #7B7979 (gray shadow) Drag the smaller document on top of the larger document to create one image. Using the examples above, this image will be 950 pixels wide by 250 pixels high with the smaller, shadowed image embedded on top of it. Slice the document into 3 smaller images horizontally. Grab the Photoshop Slice Tool from the Tool Palette. In the top toolbar, set the Style to “Fixed Size” to ensure exact proportions. Using the 950px X 250px example, input width and height as follows: Top slice equals 950px X 100px Middle slice equals 950px X 50px Bottom slice equals 950px X 100px Now you have one document sliced horizontally into 3 smaller images. The next step is to “Save For Web” and upload each image as a separate gif. In the “Save For Web” dialog box, save each slice separately by clicking on the slice and naming it. Upload the 3 gif images as usual. Create a table in the body section of your HTML document to hold the shadow gif images and your content. The first row in your table contains the top shadow gif, the middle row contains your middle shadow gif and content and the last row in your table contains the bottom shadow gif.

Creating a web page shadow using the Photoshop Slice Tool and HTML coding ensures that you do not end up with a jagged, unprofessional looking shadow. If you use this process, you will undoubtedly achieve the results you are looking for.



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Xanerarticle asked:


Why are people so motivated to learn Photoshop?

Photoshop is an art to put it in the simplest form. It is a way for an artist to express him or herself as it can allow for the creation of an image which could never really happen or take place. Photoshop is a difficult program to learn. A novice user cannot just sit down and instantly be able to master the program in one night and create some stunning images. It takes years of practice and honing of skills in order to create a fantastic Photoshop image.

One reason to learn Photoshop is to simply express yourself. You may want to be an artist but you may not be able to sit there or want to sit there and paint on a canvas. Photoshop is the canvas of the future as it allows the freedom to do virtually anything you want with an image as long as you have the skills to pull it off and make it pure quality.

It is a form of expression because it allows a user to create an image any way they want and express it any way they want and then show it off to the world in a very easy and efficient way as that image can then be used on various mediums. A Photoshop user will create a style of his or her own and then use it whenever they please and with all of the options that the program offers, there truly are no limits to what can be done.

Besides the form of expression Photoshop is also something which can make you a great deal of money in the future. Photoshop is a skill which not very many people have and one which can take a long time to master. So if you have this skill and you are going for a job that requires an artistic background of sorts then knowing Photoshop can put you leaps and bounds above the competition.

An example of this could be if you are working for a marketing firm of sorts and you need to create something for an advertising campaign. The person with the skills in something like Photoshop would be able to create something far more complex and professional-looking compared to someone who may be a novice at using Paint or another program.

Photoshop can help in many ways as it can act as a form of expression, help get jobs, and even make you money in contests and such as it does on sites like this. If you have the skills you can put them to work and add some extra cash in your pocket while at the same time earning the respect of the Photoshop community and others who will look up to you and aspire to learn the technique and mastery which you have acquired.



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David Peters asked:


toshop is considered to be one of the best and the most popular photo editing software programs available in the market today. If you are a professional or an amateur photographer, you will definitely want to get the latest version of this software.

Why?

Well, first of all, Adobe Photoshop provides all the tools you need to enhance, edit, and alter photographs. The creative capabilities that this software gives to its user are virtually unlimited and you will have a lot of fun using the tools that Adobe Photoshop provides.

In addition to that, even if you took bad pictures, you will be able to make it look professional with Adobe Photoshop. So, what are the aesthetic corrective tools that you can use in Adobe Photoshop for your photography hobby?

The first and the most common problem that most photographers have is the red eye phenomenon. This particular phenomenon happens because of the wide open pupil of the subject reflecting light back to the lenses of the camera. Although some digital cameras have flash settings to eliminate the occurrences of the red eye phenomenon, it will still happen even if you are using the latest professional grade SLR digital camera. Adobe Photoshop has red eye tool that will be able to identify red eye in a photograph and completely eliminate its appearance.

Adobe Photoshop will be able to remove all red eyes even those of your pet dog or cat.

Adobe Photoshop will also be able to let you create clearer and brighter photos. You need to remember that Adobe Photoshop is a software program meant for cleaning up an image. If you took a picture in a bad lighting condition, you will be able to improve its appearance with Adobe Photoshop. With Adobe Photoshop, you will be able to increase or decrease contrast, brightness, huge, and even color intensity. Even if the photo you are working on was taken on a dark environment, you will be able to make it look as if it was taken on the best possible light condition.

It is also possible to remove objects in a particular photograph. For example, if your vacation group pictures were ruined by a complete stranger in the background, you can have them removed. You can use the clone tool to preserve the texture of the image and also on the area where you removed the object. For close up headshots or portraits, you can edit imperfections on the face.

For sure, you will hear complaints about their own close up pictures. Some will say that they look so old with the wrinkles on their face; some will say that they look too pale; some will even say that they look too fat or thin in the picture, and you will even hear some people complain about their acne marks and pimples. You can edit all these things according to the preferences of the people complaining about their own picture.

With Adobe Photoshop, you can make the face look fuller or thinner, remove wrinkles to make the subject look younger, get rid of unwanted acne marks and pimples, make pale faces look healthier, and it can even make the lips fuller or redder as well as give you the possibility to shave off the eyebrows.

These are just some of the fun things that you can do with Adobe Photoshop. As you can see, there are quite a lot of possibilities that you can do with Adobe Photoshop when it comes to image editing. So, as a photographer, you will definitely need Adobe Photoshop. With the tools provided, you will be able to make your work look clean and professional.

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Mary Markell asked:


If you use Photoshop then you must be aware of its fine printing capabilities. People create images with Photoshop mostly for web design or printing purposes. Let’s discuss how you can print an image through the Photoshop interface the right way.

When printing through Photoshop there’s one thing you need to be aware of, the dots per inch (dpi). This refers to how many dots per inch of paper, your printer can print. If you want a clearer image then you want more dots per inch. The more dots a printer can print in an inch of paper the better the quality. Printers are clarified according to the dots per inch they print. A printer which prints more dots per inch is generally better and more expensive.

The most commonly used dpi value for image printing is 300 dpi. Meaning that the printer will print 300 dots per inch of paper. That is, if your printer can actually print in that resolution which is very likely, unless you own a really old printer.

You can set the dpi of an image through the Photoshop menu:

Image > Image Size.. > Resolution

In the Resolution input box enter the value you want for your image. Your version of Photoshop might not mention dots per inch but pixels per inch, which is the same thing.

Now let’s talk about the quality of ink for your image. This depends on your printer type. Inkjet printers for example can be cheap and they use jets of ink that they spray on paper. Ink quality is medium. Dye printers are more expensive than Inkjet printers and use a system to melt dots of dye that can generate over 16 million of colors. Ink quality is medium to high. Laser printers are very popular these days and they print in good quality. Ink quality is high. Last but not least there are the Thermal Wax printers that use blocks of wax that melt on the paper.

Now let’s say you want to print an image through Photoshop. Before doing anything else go to:

File > Print with Preview

A dialog opens. Through that dialog you can set all kinds of properties for your image. For example you can define the position of the image on the piece of paper. You can specify the space you want to be left blank from top or bottom or you can let Photoshop center the image by ticking the “Center Image” check box.

Then you can define the scale of the image, it’s height and width. I use the “Scale to Fit Media” check box a lot, since it lets Photoshop automatically adjust the printable size of the image.

Depending on your image you might want to print on portrait or landscape. You can change that through the “Page Setup…” button on the right of the dialog. A new dialog will appear that also allows you to choose the type and the size of paper you will use for printing.

Well, that’s about it. All you have to do now is click the “Print…” button. Depending on your printer, a dialog will appear that will let you customize printer properties. For example you might want to print three copies of the image or tell the printer to use more or less ink. It’s really easy to print images through Photoshop. I use this software all the time mostly for the “Scale to Fit Media” check box I mentioned above.



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J N asked:


I am working in Photoshop CS3 and would like to edit a photograph of mine to make it look like a Japanese woodblock print. This would probably involve creating a dark outline around the objects, and flattening planes to make them look more 2D. I’m also interested in trying to replicate the colours. Thanks!

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theinterwebs asked:


I’m trying to think of a project I can do with Photoshop. I’m a novice at using Photoshop, but what are some things I can do with it that aren’t too hard, but aren’t too easy either?

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