Podcamp Ireland Kilkenny 29th September
Posted by Jennifer Farley | September 28, 2007
Podcamp Ireland takes place on the 29th of September in lovely Kilkenny. This free event is open to everyone and is great opportunity to find out more about Podcasting, Social Media and Blogging. There are a wide range of speakers and topics, including myself. I’m going to be talking about Podcast Logos and the look and feel of Podcast Blogs. (The actual title is changing on an hourly basis!) So come along if you’re in the area and check out the Podcamp Ireland website for podcasts and more information.
Photoshop Tip : Create a flattened layer AND keep all your layers intact
Posted by Jennifer Farley | September 27, 2007
It’s always a good idea to keep an original PSD file with all your layers when you’re working on a project. If you want to flatten an image in Photoshop, you don’t need to make a duplicate file in order to create a fattened layer while keeping your original layers. You can use this keyboard shortcut to have both in one file.
In windows, use Ctrl + Alt + Shift + E
On the mac, use Cmd + Option + Shift + E
In the example below, you can see the layers palette on the left with four layers on it. By using the keyboard shortcut, Photoshop creates a new layer for you and places a flattened version of the image into this layer.
Photoshop Tutorial : Create a Postage Stamp With Your Artwork
Posted by Jennifer Farley | September 25, 2007
Today, I’m going to take a look at how to use Photoshop and one of your photographs (or any image) and make it look like a postage stamp. This technique uses the Eraser tool and paths.
1. Open up the pic that you want to make into a stamp. The picture below is the Ha’penny Bridge in Dublin.
2. Select the whole image by pressing Ctrl + A (windows) or Cmd + A (mac)
3. Press Shift + Ctrl + A (windows) or Shift + Cmd + J (mac) to cut the image from the background and pop it into a new layer.
4. Add some white space around your image by choosing Image > Canvas Size. In the dialog box check the Relative checkbox. Depending on the size of your image add between 2.5 – 5 cm (1 – 2 inches) all around. If the option is available, make sure that the Canvas Extension colour is set to white. Click OK.
5. On the layers palette hold down Ctrl (windows) or Cmd (mac) and click on the Create a New Layer icon. This will add a new blank layer under the layer you have selected. Select the Rectangular Marquee tool and draw a selection around your image, leaving an even amount of white space all around. See below.
6. Set the foreground colour to white and fill the selection by press Alt + Backspace (win) or Option + Backspace (mac). The image won’t look any different because you’ve added white on top of white. Press Ctrl + D / Cmd + D to deselect the marquee.
7. With the new white layer still selected, click on the Add a Layer Style button at the bottom of the layers palette. Choose Drop Shadow from the drop down menu. Set the Drop Shadow options so that at least a little bit of shadow appears on all sides. I used the following settings:
Angle 100 degrees
Distance 5 px
Spread 10 %
Size 10 px
Click Ok to apply the shadow.
8. Now we’re going to use the Eraser tool as a brush to knock some holes out of the border we just created. Select the Eraser from the toolbox and in the Options Bar at the top of the screen, set the Mode to Brush. Click on the down-arrow beside the Brush preview to pick a brush. Again, depending on the size of your image and the size of the border you created, the brush size will vary. I set the brush to around 20 pixels and the hardness to 100%.
In Photoshop you have great control over Brushes and how they work. Now we’re going to change some of the options on our current brush.
9. Choose Window > Brushes to open the Brushes palette. On the left hand side click on the words “brush tip shape”. Set the Spacing to about 200%. (Make sure the Spacing check box is checked first)
10. Hold down the Ctrl key (windows) or Cmd key (mac) and click on the white rectangle layer thumbnail (the one with the drop shadow on it). This selects the contents of the layer. Now select the Pen tool from the toolbox and then choose Window > Paths. This opens the Paths palette. Click on the triangle in the top right corner of the paths palette and from the flyout menu choose Make Work Path. Enter a tolerance of 2.0 pixels and click OK.
A new path will appear in the paths palette and by default it will be called “Work Path”. Click on this path and then click on the triangle at the top right and choose Stroke Path from the flyout menu.
11. When the Stroke Path dialog box appear, choose Eraser from the Tool pop-up menu. Click OK. This is where all your hard work of setting up comes into play. Photoshop now works its magic.
So now you should see your image with half-circles knocked out, giving the postage Stamp effect.
You’ll notice there is still a thin black line around the image. That’s the path. To get rid of it, go back to the paths palette and click below the Work Path to deselect it.
Now to finish up, you can add some text.
I’m embarrassed to say that it’s so long since I bought a stamp I can’t remember how much they are here so I’m guessing 50 cents. (Not that it makes any difference really). I used Myriad Pro Bold Condensed font for the text and … Voila!
Photoshop Brushes : Runes
Posted by Jennifer Farley | September 21, 2007
Here’s another set of beautiful brushes from one of my favourite Photoshop brush designers, Obsidian Dawn. These are Runes and Arcane Circles - high quality, close to 1000 pixels wide. They’re perfect for adding some other worldly effects.
And also suitable for branding people as witches, heretics and madmen…
New Photoshop Logo
Posted by Jennifer Farley | September 20, 2007
The Photoshop family of software has been rebranded with a new logo and a new tagline - “See What’s Possible”. The logo is going to appear on Photoshop CS3, Photoshop CS3 Extended, Photoshop Lightroom, Photoshop Elements, Photoshop Album Starter Edition, and Photoshop Express - the new online version of Photoshop
I like the tagline but I’m not too keen on the symbol. For the Big Daddy of the design world I would have expected something a bit more, ehm … wow!
Other logos that it reminds me of are;
iChat
What do you guys think about it?
Photoshop : Tutorial - Replacing Colours
Posted by Jennifer Farley | September 19, 2007
With the Replace Colour command in Photoshop, you can create temporary masks based on specific colours and then replace these colours. (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 Colour dialog box contains options for adjusting the hue, saturation, and lightness components of the selection: Hue is colour, Saturation is the purity of the colour, and Lightness is how much white or black is in the image.
In this tutorial, we’re going to look at how to use the Replace Colour command to change the colour of part of a baskeball court.
1. Open an image that you want to change part of the colour with. I’m using a stock image from iStockphoto.
2. Choose Image > Adjustments > Replace Colour.
The Replace Colour 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 Colour dialog box. One selects a colour; the second adds a colour to the sample; the third removes a colour from the sample.
3. Using the Eyedropper tool (
), click anywhere in the blue part of the court to sample that colour.
4. Then, use the Add to Sample eyedropper (
) to sample other areas of the blue part (the shadow of the basket for example) until the blue part is selected and highlighted in the mask display in the Replace Colour dialog box.
5. Drag the Fuzziness slider up to 190 to increase the tolerance level slightly.
Fuzziness controls the degree to which related colours are included in the mask.
6. If the mask display includes any white areas that are light blue part of the court, get rid of those now: Select the Subtract from Sample eyedropper (
) and click those areas in either the image window or in the Replace Colour mask display to remove those stray pixels. (It’s OK if a few remain in the selection.)
7. In the Replacement area of the Replace Colour dialog box, drag the Hue slider to –180, the Saturation slider to +3, and the Lightness slider to - 19. ( You may have slightly different values to achieve an orange colour.
As you change the values, in hue, saturation, and lightness, and the colour of the basketball court that has been selected becomes orange.
8. Click OK to apply the changes.
-
About
Hi, my name is Jennifer Farley and I am a designer and design instructor based in Ireland. Read more about Laughing Lion Design .
