Photoshop CS5.5

Even if you are really familiar with Photoshop, you’ll always find ways to master and evolve your skills further.I will be adding a ton of Photoshop articles which will give you different tips on how to use and improve your Photoshop skills, as well as teach you some new techniques that you may not know.

You’ll find several simple but effective photo enchancing techniques on topics such as how to choose the best image format for web or how to create croplet for repeatedly image editing process.

You can never stop improving your web and graphic design skills, you can always find something new and handy as you’ll see in the following collection.

When it comes to designing in Photoshop, there is a myriad of ways one could use to achieve a certain result, especially when it comes to photo retouching. Designers use technique they are most confident as well as comfortable with, which is great because it’s always useful to peek into the workflow of our colleagues and learn new design approaches. We have had articles on cloning, compositing, masks andobscure Photoshop time-savers in the past. This article is different.

I’ll be covering some of the useful techniques and tricks which I’ve learned from my experience. You may know some of them, but hopefully not all of them. All images used in this article were purchased and are used according to their licenses. The second part of this post will be published in 2 weeks.

Here is a short overview of the techniques we’ll be covering:

The light of the sun creates texture. There are shadowy areas and spots where the sunlight can shine without interference. To control the intensity, you can draw more light onto a separate layer or increase already existing light. Create a new layer by going to Layer → New → Layer, or by pressing Shift + Control + N on Windows or Shift + Command + N on a Mac. Set the blending mode to “Color Dodge” and the opacity to about 15%.

Increase light on a separate layer.

Then use the brush tool with a soft brush, and hold the Alt/Option key to pick up colors from the area that you want to brighten. Continue to brush in some light, picking up appropriate colors if the background changes. This way, you increase not only the light, but the saturation, which makes for more realistic results.

The blending mode “Color Dodge” creates realistic results.

Open a photo in Camera Raw; you can do this either in Bridge, using the right mouse key and clicking “Open in Camera Raw,” or directly in Photoshop, by selecting File → Open as Smart Object. Apply basic adjustments to optimize your image (for example, with the “Recovery” and “Fill Light” slides), then switch to the “HSL/Grayscale” tab. Check “Convert to Grayscale,” and set the Blues down to around -85. Set the Greens to +90 and the Yellows to +20.

Trees and bushes should now shine in the typical white, and the sky should appear almost black. If you want to go on and simulate some grain, switch to the “Effects” tab, and enter 15 for the amount, 20 for size and 80 for roughness. You could also apply a “Vignette.” Here I used -30 for the amount, 40 for the midpoint and -35 for roundness.

It’s almost like an infrared image.

When applying a “Levels adjustment,” you can set black and white points in order to decrease color tints, but where are the darkest and brightest spots in the image? Go to New Adjustment Layer → Threshold to find those areas. This function is available under the “Layer” menu.

Move the slider so far to the right that only a few white spots remain in the document. Use the “Color Sampler tool” and set down a point there. Move the slider to the left until only a few black spots remain, and set a second point down there.

One could also find a neutral gray in the image by using a “Threshold adjustment layer.” Add a new blank layer between the original image and the threshold adjustment layer, and fill this layer with 50% gray. Go to Edit → Fill or press Shift + F5, then select “50% Gray” under “Contents” and click “OK.”

Here is the threshold adjustment layer at work.

Change the blending mode of this layer to “Difference.” Select the “Threshold adjustment layer” again and move the slider all the way to the left. Slowly move the slider back to the right until black dots start to appear. These are the neutral gray areas in the image (if neutral grays are present). Add a “Color Sampler spot.”

Now delete both the threshold adjustment layer and the 50% gray layer. Create a new adjustment layer, “Levels.” Use the first Eyedropper tool to click on the darkest area, then use the third Eyedropper on the brightest area.

Here’s a before-and-after comparison.

Now you can use the gray Eyedropper tool on the third Color Sampler spot. The color tint will be decreased. Color Sampler spots can be deleted by dragging them off the canvas with the Color Sampler tool.

Go to the Layer menu, and then New Adjustment Layer → Hue/Saturation, and set the blending mode to “Soft Light” and check “Colorize.” Use the Hue, Saturation and Lightness sliders to control the color: for a cool look, for example, set the hue at 210, the saturation at 50 and the lightness at 10; for a warm look, set the hue at 30, the saturation at 30 and the lightness at 5.

Here is Hue/Saturation and Color Fill.

Alternatively, you could use several color layers. Create them from the layer palette with the “New Fill/Adjustment Layer” button. Choose a color, then set the blending mode to “Vivid Light.” Reduce the opacity to about 12%, and invert the layer mask with Control/Command + I. Paint in the colored light with a big brush and white color. This works especially well for the lighting in portraits that have a textured background.

Here’s the Color Look with an Adjustment Layer.

To increase detail in landscape shots, boost the mid-tone contrast. Copy the background layer withControl/Command + J, and then click on Filter → Convert for Smart Filters in the menu. Then go to Filter → Other → High Pass and enter a radius of 3 pixels. Change the blending mode to “Overlay” and double-click the layer next to its name to open the “Layer Style” window.

Layer Style window: This Layer

For the first gradient, “This Layer,” split the sliders by holding the Alt/Option key and trim the layer effect to the “50/100” and “150/200” ranges. As soon as you move the sliders, you’ll see where those numbers are. This increases contrast only for the mid-tones. Double-click the “High Pass” filter in the layer palette to bring the dialog box up again in order to adjust the radius to your liking.

Check out these mid-tone contrasts.

A sunset, especially at sea, can be an amazing color spectacle. The hues will depend heavily on the weather, though — but you can push them a bit with a gradient map. Click on the “New Fill/Adjustment Layer” button in the Layer palette and select “Gradient Map” from the list. Click on the gradient to open the “Gradient Editor.”

Gradient Map

Click on the first color patch below the gradient, and change the color to red. Set the color patch on the opposite side to yellow, and click “OK.” Set the blending mode to “Soft Light” and reduce the opacity to about 50%. This will create a warm, almost golden sunset.

Observe the movement from a blue to a golden sunset.

Roughly select the area around the mouth with the Polygon Lasso tool. Go to Select → Modify → Feather, and enter a radius of 10 pixels. Confirm, then click on Layer → New → Layer via Copy (or pressControl/Command + J), then Edit → Puppet Warp. Photoshop will put a mesh over the entire layer in the shape of your previous selection.

Here’s the mesh over the layer.

You can control the size of the mesh with the “Expansion” value in the Options bar. Increase the density to “More Points” for increased precision. Press Control/Command + H to hide the mesh, then set the first pins to the corners of the mouth. Add more pins to distinctive spots of the mouth. By clicking and dragging the mesh, you can shape a nice smile.

Macro shots of water drops are appealing, and shapes can be further accentuated with discreet coloring. You could treat the bland surface with a linear gradient from #772222 (RGB 119, 34, 34) to #3333bb (RGB 51, 51, 187). If the photo is on a layer of its own, click on Layer → Layer Style → Gradient Overlay or double-click the layer next to its name.

Layer Style: Gradient Overlay

Set the blend mode to Color, the opacity to 50%, the gradient to “Foreground to background color” and the angle to 90%. The gradient will be saved as a layer style, so you can come back at any time to adjust the values. Double-clicking the style name opens up the dialog window once more.

See the colorful drops with optimized colors.

If the skin is not quite perfect after retouching, it might be because of the general hue. You can control it by going to New Adjustment Layer → Hue/Saturation. Click on the miniature mask, and pressControl/Command + I to invert the mask.

Adjustment Layer: Hue/Saturation

Using white color and a soft brush, paint over the skin areas so that only they get treated. For the adjustment, switch from Standard to “Reds” (found in the Hue drop-down menu of the Adjustment layer), and use the Hue, Saturation and Lightness sliders to adjust the skin color. Switch to “Yellows” and optimize the skin tone. Getting the colors exactly right depends very much on the image material. Rely on your common sense.

Optimized skin tones

A sunburn or a blush can disrupt a portrait, especially if there is a contrasting pale person nearby. Photoshop has a tool to correct that: “Match Color” offers control over skin tones. Open your image and use the Quick Selection tool to roughly select the red skin areas.

You can hold down the Alt/Option key and subtract areas from the selection. Click on Select → Modify → Feather and enter a value of about 15 pixels. Use the Control/Command + J shortcut to copy the selection to a new layer.

Adjustments: Match Color

Using the same technique, copy the non-reddened skin to a new layer. In the next step, you’ll have to differentiate between the source layer and the layer to edit, so rename these two layers meaningfully; all it takes is a double-click on the layer name. You could use the naming scheme shown here and call them “Beautiful skin” and “Reddened skin.”

Activate the layer with the red skin, and select Image → Adjustments → Match Color from the menu. For “Source,” select the current document, and for “Layer,” select the one with the beautiful skin. Control the effect using the “Luminance” and “Color Intensity” sliders in the Image Options area. Once you confirm, you can control the effect’s strength with the Opacity slider.

Paler skin after Match Color

Noisy images are annoying. One way to reduce noise is through the channels. Copy the background layer by pressing Control/Command + J, switch to the Channels palette, and select the channel that shows the least noise. Drag that channel down to the “New Channel” icon (next to the trash can) and go to Stylize → Find Edges. Then apply a Gaussian Blur with a radius of about 3 pixels.

Look at this copy of the red channel.

Click on the new channel’s miniature icon while holding the Control/Command key to select the content. Activate the “RGB channel” (top-most), and switch back to the Layers palette. When the duplicated background is selected, click on the “Add Layer Mask” icon.

Click on the Layer Miniature icon, and select Filter → Blur → Surface Blur from the menu. Play around with the Radius and Threshold sliders until the noise has been reduced as much as possible. Thanks to the mask you created, the contours are safe.

With and without noise

Go to Layer → New Adjustment Layer → Curves and switch from RGB to Reds. Then drag the line downwards a little for the shadows and upwards for the highlights, creating a slight “S” curve. Do the same for the Greens. For the Blues, drag the highlights down a little and the shadows up (for an inverted S shape). The shadows should now be slightly blue-ish, the highlights slightly yellow-ish.

Adjustment Layer: Curves

Create a new layer with Shift + Control/Command + N, and fill it with #000066 (RGB 0, 0, 102). Set the blending mode to “Exclusion.” Now copy the background layer by clicking it and pressing Control/Command + J. Set the blending mode for this copy to “Soft Light.”

To decrease the effect overall, activate the top-most layer and then click on the background copy while holding the Shift key, thereby selecting both layers. Alternatively, you can add them to a group withControl/Command + G. Reduce the layer’s (or group’s) opacity. Note that in Photoshop versions prior to CS5, you’ll have to reduce the opacity for each layer individually.

Achieve a simple retro look in a few steps.

If you’re ambitious with your collages, then you’ll be familiar with this problem: meaningful layer names are often neglected during the creative process. This can result in layer names like “Layer 4” and “Layer 5 Copy 2,” which are not very helpful when you need to quickly identify the contents of a layer.

Photoshop offers a number of solutions for our laziness. For example, you can click on the element you want to select by using the “Move tool” and holding the right mouse key; you’ll see which layer contents are below the tool. Photoshop will display a list in a drop-down menu, from which you can easily select the desired element.

Right click with the Move tool

Control/Command + left-click with the Move tool selected and, in most cases, you’ll select the corresponding layer of the element that your mouse is over (unless Photoshop can’t distinguish between the multiple layers).

You could also Control/Command + left-click on a layer’s miniature icon to get a selection of the content of that layer. The marching ants will show you what is on that layer and where it is.

Another option is to click on the Layer palette’s Options icon, in the top-right corner, and select “Layers Palette Options.” From here you can adjust the size of the layer’s miniature preview and concentrate the miniature’s content to the layer’s bounds, which should cut down on future guesswork when it comes to layer contents.

Layers Palette options

Plug-ins save time, but they’re a bit resource-hungry; at least, they lengthen Photoshop’s start-up time. Your plug-ins might have functionality that you rarely use, so deactivate them until you need them. To do so, create a new folder by going to Adobe → Adobe Photoshop CS5 (or whatever your version) and name it something like Plugins_deactivated.

After disabling some plug-ins.

Now move all of the extensions that you don’t need for the moment. When you restart Photoshop now, those plug-ins won’t load, so the program will start up quickly. Your RAM will be relieved. Because you neither deleted nor uninstalled the plug-ins, they’re available to use anytime. If you need them, just move them back to the plug-in folder.

The sepia look is an absolute classic. To enhance a black and white image with a classy sepia tone, follow these steps. Click on Layer → New Adjustment Layer → Photo Filter, and select the Sepia filter, with a density of 100%. Double-click the layer (not the layer name) to open up the Layer Style window. This will show the Blending options.

A view of the Layer Style window.

At the bottom of the dialog box for the first gradient, move the white slider to the left while holding theAlt/Option key. This creates a smooth transition between adjusted and unadjusted areas. The sepia will now look elegant.

Subtle sepia

I’m sure you’ve often been irritated by Photoshop’s tendency to position elements on its own, but the program is just trying to help you align an element that is on its own layer with the outer edge of the document or with the edge of another object. To your frustration, the layer’s content will jump to the edge, even though you wanted to leave a few pixels of space in between. You can temporarily deactivate the automatic snapping by holding the Control/Command key as you position.

A banner, close to the edge.

Usually, layer styles can be applied only once. For example, if you click on Layer → Layer Style → Drop Shadow, you cannot create a double drop shadow, one of which has an angle of 120°, a distance of 2 pixels and a size of 2 pixels, and the other of which has an angle of 180°, a distance of 12 pixels and a size of 12 pixels.

Actually, it is possible! It just requires a little detour. Create the first drop shadow as you normally would. Then right-click on the layer and select “Convert to Smart Object” from the menu. This smart object can be assigned another drop shadow, and you can convert the smart object into yet another smart object. This way, you can easily add a third and fourth drop shadow. Alternatively, you could apply multiple strokes.

Three shadows in combination.

By the way, to put one or even several styles onto their own layers at once, right-click on the FX symbol and select “Create Layer” from the list. Now you can apply filters to these styles, but they won’t be editable anymore.

From : http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2011/03/09/useful-photoshop-tips-and-tricks-for-photo-retouching/

Photoshop is an incredible tool for graphic design, but there is certainly a lot to learn for new designers, and there’s always more to master for those who are already experienced. If you’re currently working as a designer and looking to improve your skills, you probably find that time is a major constraint to improving your abilities.

If so, you’ll need to develop a plan to improve your skills step-by-step in the time that you have available. If you’re an aspiring designer, you may have no idea where to start in order to achieve the level of success of some of the Photoshop masters that we see online. In this, article we’ll look at ten steps you can take to progressively build your skills using resources that are readily available.

Psdtuts+ is obviously focused on providing excellent quality tutorials for readers. Like Psdtuts+, there are a growing number of other websites and blogs that regularly publish Photoshop tutorials. All of these sites are valuable resources for improving your skills, whether you’re looking to develop specific skills or just looking to improve in general.

In order to take advantage of the tutorial sites that are available, subscribe to a few that you like the most so you don’t miss out on new posts (you may also want to bookmark other tutorial sites in case you want to find them in the future). With the amount of content that is published, you’ll never be able to work through each tutorial, and you’re unlikely to have an interest in all of them anyway.

Try to get in the habit of picking one or two per week to attempt on your own. For most of us, learning is much easier when we’re actually doing something ourselves, so working through the tutorials is essential rather than just browsing through them. If you use Google Reader you can star the tutorials that interest you the most so you’ll be able to easily find them when you have some spare time.

About six months ago Collis published a list of his favorite tutorial sites, which included: Tutorial9, PS Hero,Tutzor, PhotoshopStar, Tutorial Dog, Abduzeedo, PhotoshopGUIDesign, Worth1000, Digital Grin, andPhotoshop Support. In addition to Collis’ list, PSD Learning, PSDFAN, PhotoshopTutorials.ws, andPhotoshop Essentials are also good resources.

The best way to learn anything new is to experience it for yourself. While following tutorials can be incredibly helpful, you should also take some time to just experiment on your own to see what you can create. You can try to apply things you have learned from tutorials, or just experiment with things you’re not familiar with. Photoshop has so many different functions, features and settings that you’ll really need to become familiar with them in order to understand their potential.

Free form experimentation can open up your creativity and help you to get more comfortable with Photoshop. In order to ever be able to put the lessons you learn from others into practice in real world scenarios, you’ll need to be able to do some experimentation and adaptation. There may be some tutorials that teach you exactly what you need to do, but more likely they’ll teach you a skill or technique that can be used on your own projects, but you’ll need to adjust it to fit with your particular needs.

When working with experimentation, find something that works best for you in terms of learning new things. I like to work with large images by experimenting with wallpaper design because the large canvas size opens up all kinds of opportunities and you can take it in just about any direction that you want.

There’s so much to learn with Photoshop and so many possibilities that it is essential to get a firm grasp of the basics and fundamentals before attempting to move too far along. Like anything else, the foundation of your Photoshop knowledge is critical to the end result. If you’re new, rather than trying to follow along with advanced tutorials, take some time to get familiar with the basics before anything else.

Elite by Design published an excellent three-part series a few months ago on How to Master Photoshop in Just One Week. Part one of that series starts with some tutorials on all of the basics of Photoshop, including the interface, the tools, shortcuts and more. Having a solid working knowledge of these items will make it much easier when you want to work on something more complex later. Part two of the series covers such topics as typography, web components and photo manipulation. Part three covers more advanced tutorials.

On the subject of fundamentals, Psdtuts+ has some resources including: A Comprehensive Introduction to Photoshop Selection Techniques, Tools & Tips: Photoshop Actions, Tools & Tips, Smart Objects and Smart Filters, Tools & Tips, Photoshop Brushes, and 30+ Useful Resources for Improving Your Photoshop Efficiency.

After you’ve learned by following tutorials and you’ve done some experimentation on your own, it can be helpful to get feedback and constructive criticism from other designers. There are groups of graphic designers all over the place that can be excellent sources of feedback. Psdtuts+ has its own Flickr group for this purpose and a number of other design blogs have their own groups as well. Additionally, there are hundreds of Flickr groups for designers that are not associated with a specific blog or website.

The Psdtuts+ Flickr group is very active with over 11,000 items and 4,000 members. Groups like this are great places to share your work with other designers who are also interested in improving their own skills. You can get involved by providing feedback to others on their work, and you’ll likely get more of a response on your own work. If you’re interested in a place where you can comfortably share your experimental work to continue the learning process, try some Flickr groups.

Other Flickr groups worth checking out include Abduzeedo, Go Media, Fuel Your Creativity, My Ink Blog, and Design Shard.

If you’re attempting to improve your abilities with Photoshop, blogging on the subject will help you to stay active in your pursuits and it will force you to keep learning. Working on the content for your blog will be an excellent educational experience. Not all blogs are run by experts on the subject, in fact most probably are not. Many blog readers enjoy following a blogger who is truly developing along the way, and many of your readers will be going through similar situations in their own learning.

Once your skills have developed to a certain point you may also want to look into the opportunities available to write for other design blogs. Many of the larger blogs pay writers for their work, and blogs of all sizes are open to free guest posts in exchange for a link back to your own blog. While writing for your own blog will allow you the freedom to work on developing any skills that you like, writing for others will push you in other ways. In most cases, if you’re being paid for your posts, it is going to have to be quality work in order to get published. This means that you’ll need to keep stretching yourself and learning new things in order to develop the content. It can be difficult to write for other blogs, but it’s a tremendous growth opportunity if you’re willing to put in the work.

Psdtuts+ accepts unsolicited article/tutorial submissions, and a number of other sites are also actively looking for writers. Other websites and blogs that are looking for graphic design content includeGoMediaZine, CreativePro, and SitePoint.

Online galleries that display exceptional work by various artists are an excellent source of design inspiration. This inspiration will come in handy when you’re looking to experiment on your own and create impressive results. Galleries are great because you can quickly browse through a large amount of items, plus you can subscribe to get constant updates and you’ll never lack inspiration.

There are galleries for all different kinds of purposes. If your work in Photoshop is primarily related to web design, you may want to subscribe to a few web design or CSS galleries. Some of the top web design galleries include Best Web Gallery, CSS Mania, CSS Drive, and CSS Elite. If you’re focused on other types of design you may want to look for galleries that specialize in that particular aspect. Some good examples are Design Flavr, UCreative, FAVEUP, Logo Pond and Design Snips.

In addition to online galleries, social networking sites that allow members to post a portfolio can also be outstanding sources of inspiration. They can be a resource for posting your own work in addition to viewing the work of others. Top sites in this category include Behance, Carbonmade, and deviantART.

Regardless of what field you’re in, following and learning from an expert can be incredibly beneficial, and graphic design is no different. If you hope to become a standout designer, why not find someone that you admire and pay close attention to their career and their work? Fortunately, being in a field that is often closely related to technology, it’s easy to find experts online and get exposure to their work, read their blog, and read interviews with them.

Psdtuts+ frequently publishes informative interviews with accomplished designers. These interviews provide insight into their lives and their careers that may help you some way in your own work. If you already have someone in particular that you admire, subscribe to their blog if they have one, find them on social networking sites, keep and eye on their portfolio, and just generally keep tabs on their career.

If you don’t have anyone in mind at this point, pay attention to work that you like in Flickr groups that you visit, see what stands out to you at design galleries, or find a particular tutorial writer that has a style which you appreciate. In some cases you may be able to get in touch with this person through their site or through profiles on networking sites, or you may choose to just quietly watch and learn from a distance.

One of the downfalls of being in a field that has so many resources available online is that it’s easy to forget about all of the great offline resources at your disposal. While browsing through designer portfolios and subscribing to online galleries are great sources of inspiration, you may be missing out by not reading any traditional print magazines.

In addition to the inspirational aspect, articles in design magazines will often be a little bit different than the type of content you’ll typically find on blogs. If you want a well-rounded educational experience, find a few design magazines and see what appeals to you. Of course, each magazine will have a slightly different focus or approach, so look around a little bit to find a good match for your interests.

Just a few months ago You the Designer published a list 10 Amazing Graphic Design Magazines over a two-part series (see parts one and two) of magazines that are worth a look.

One proven way to learn is to attempt to replicate the work of other designers. I’m not suggesting that you rip off other designers by selling this work or taking credit for it as your own (which unfortunately is all too common, especially online). What I am suggesting is that in your own experimental work that is meant just for learning purposes, take an exemplary piece from another designer and do your best to duplicate it. If it’s just used for your own educational purposes and not sold or re-distributed it is perfectly acceptable. Also, unless you change and personalize this design dramatically, do avoid placing it in your portfolio.

In my own effort to learn web design I used to start with a finished product from another designer and attempt to achieve the same layout or some other aspect of the design. This was a valuable learning experience that helped to see how I could accomplish things that worked in real world scenarios. The same thing can be done regardless of what kind of design you’re working on. For example, find a few album cover designs that you like and attempt to re-create them.

By doing this you’re working towards the goal of creating a design that already has proven to be successful as a finished product. In addition to hopefully learning some new techniques in Photoshop, you’ll also pick up some general principles of good design that can be carried over to any work that you do.

Once you’ve become pretty comfortable with your own progress in learning Photoshop, you may want to challenge yourself and have some fun at the same time by entering a design competition. In most cases there will be some potential prizes and you’ll be motivated to push yourself towards your true potential. Plus, you’ll often be able to see the work of other designers in the competition, which can provide you with some inspiration, and can give you a way to gauge your own skills and progress.

While the goal of entering a contest may be to win something, you’ll still benefit just by participating. It will give you the opportunity to create something specific for the purpose of being judged by others. In some cases you may receive some valuable feedback and you may get to see where you stand in comparison with some other designers.

Psdtuts+ has run several contests in the past, including the solving poverty button design contest, theAudioJungle wallpaper contest, and the Flickr group contest. Other blogs such as You the Designer have had design contests as well.

What do you do in effort to learn more about Photoshop and graphic design in general? If you’re an experienced designer, what approach helped you to get to where you are today, and what do you do to keep learning new things?

From : http://psd.tutsplus.com/articles/techniques/10-steps-to-improving-your-photoshop-skills/