Photoshop CS4 introduced document tabs that make it easy to switch between a variety of open images. It’s a terrific feature that I usually like a lot.

But there are days the tabs feature drives me crazy! If you’ve ever dragged one Photoshop window over another, only to have it sucked in as a new tab, you know what I mean.

So for you, a checkbox in Photoshop’s Interface preferences: Turn off "Enable Floating Document Window Docking" and say goodbye to that annoying feature.

Source: Working with lots of small images for our tips newsletter, this is one of the very first preferences I disabled in CS4. Adobe even posted a recent technote covering how to How to un-tab image windows in Adobe Photoshop CS4.

I was working on this week’s tip, when I got an email from Steve Laskevtich from Luminous Works with a PDF handout titled “11 Ways to Zoom in Photoshop CS4.” There are SO many ways to do the the same thing in Photoshop, that I (like I expect many of you will do) immediately set out to find ways of zooming that Steve had missed.

So let’s call this a group project. How many different ways are there to zoom in Photoshop CS4? I’ve started us off with the eleven from Steve. I’ll be contributing my own additions in the comments along with the rest of you.

Zoom #1. Choose the zoom tool.

You can select the zoom tool from the Toolbar (where it has always been) or at the top of the screen in the Photoshop Application Bar (shown below). Click to zoom in preset increments. Hold Alt or option to zoom out. You can also draw a box with the zoom cursor and the area you surround will fill the image window.

Tip: Press and hold in one place for an animated zoom effect.

Zoom #2. Press Z to select zoom. Press-and-hold Z to make it temporary.

With any tool active, hold down (no, not just click) the Z key to temporarily activate the Zoon tool. Release the Z key to return to the tool you were just using.

Zoom #3. Hold down Cmd/Ctrl+Spacebar to access the zoom tool.

Tip: On the Mac, the Command+Spacebar conflicts with the default Spotlight search shortcut. You can turn the Spotlight search shortcut off in System Preferences under Keyboard & Mouse (look under Keyboard Shortcuts).

Zoom #4. Type a magnification value at the top of the screen.

Same Application Bar as before. Choose the pop-down menu or type your an exact zoom percentage.

Zoom #5. Type a magnification at the lower left of your image.

Zoom #6. Hold down Alt/option and use your mouse’s scroll wheel.

On a Mac multitouch trackpad or Magic Mouse, you may also use option + two finger scrolling. (I borrowed this graphic from an old tip titled Use a scroll wheel to zoom in Adobe Photoshop.)

Zoom #7. Choose Zoom In or Zoom Out from the View menu.

Zoom #8. Use the shortcuts Cmd/Ctrl+= or Cmd/Ctrl+–

Although the shortcut is technically an equal sign, everyone thinks of these as plus (+) and minus (-) to zoom in and out.

Zoom #9. Navigator Panel take 1: Use the slider along the bottom of the panel.

Zoom #10. Navigator Panel take 2: Click the buttons at either end of the slider to zoom in preset increments.

Zoom #11. Navigator Panel take 3: Enter a magnification value in the field at the lower left of the panel.

Source: Steve Laskevtich is lead instructor at Luminous Works, author of Photoshop CS4 Photographer’s Handbook and is currently teaching a terrific 10-Week Lightroom Course in our online classroom.

We teach clients how to manage their professional image libraries using a combination of Adobe Lightroom and Bridge. I typically don’t recommend iPhoto for most professional libraries.

Then Apple added Faces (facial recognition) in the latest version of iPhoto. I’m loath to give up my professional workflows, but easily keywording photo libraries with people’s names is a game changer for many businesses.

This week I started testing Picasa 3.5, free software from Google, which now includes face-matching. It works great, integrates easily with Lightroom or Bridge, and did I mention it’s free?

Download a Free copy of Picasa 3.5.

Picasa is free photo editing software from Google. I haven’t worked with the previous versions, however the latest version, Picasa 3.5, adds powerful new facial recognition features, which is what attracted my interest this time around. You can download Mac or Windows versions:

Download: Picasa 3.5 for Mac.
Download: Picasa 3.5 for Windows.

Step 1. Launch Picasa the First Time.

The first time you launch Picasa, a dialog box announces that Picasa is ready to search your computer for photos. This dialog nicely sums up Picasa’s strengths and weaknesses for our purposes.

Strengths: Picasa doesn’t move or copy your image files. You’ll be able to easily add new keyword metadata without upsetting your current file management system.

Weaknesses: Picasa makes it difficult to work on a specific photo library. The default options of searching default user folders or everything is terrible. We’ll get into that in Step 2.

Step 2. Use Folder Manager to target specific folders.

In Picasa, choose Tools > Folder Manager. This is where you tell Picasa which folder to scan for photos, and which to ignore.

We’re using Picasa to augment existing photo libraries, so you may have to do a little digging in this dialog box. In this example I’ve disabled all the folders except for the specific collection I am interested in.

Step 3. Wait for Picasa to scan your photos for People.

This will take a while. To demonstrate this tip I used a folder of family photos from our trip to Maine in 2007. Picasa took about 1 hour to scan 1,711 photos (about 4GB of disk space). Bigger collections take longer.

“Enable Face Detection” is turned on by default. You can find options for that in preferences under the “Name Tags” tab.

Note: Yes, we do take a lot of family photos!

Step 4. Start Identifying People’s Faces.

This is the fun and time consuming part. Picasa automates and streamlines the face-matching process. Here is the short version. Click on “Unnamed” under the People tab, pick a face, and start naming.

I can’t turn this tip into a detailed Picasa tutorial, so I recommend reading Google’s help files for more details.

Help Files: Adding Name Tags in Picasa.

My biggest time-saving tip is that you’ll end up identifying the same people again and again. Once you’ve started naming a few faces, you can select multiple photos of the same person in the Unnamed list and drag them over to the correct name. Saves a lot of time.

Step 5. Add People’s Names as Tags.

You just finished identifying everyone’s name right? But Picasa doesn’t embed that information in the metadata of your files. The goal this tip to get those names into your keyword lists to Lightroom or Bridge, so we need to add this extra step.

First, display the Tags palette by choosing View > Tags.

Under the People list, click each name one at a time and select all the photos in that set (Command-A on the Mac). Then in the tags column on the right, add a Tag with that person’s name. As you work, those tags are automatically added to the original image file metadata.

Step 6. Names are now embedded in image metadata!

Your work is done! The name tags are now embedded in the metadata of each of your photos. Which means they should be visible in Adobe Bridge, Photoshop or other image management tools. (Read below for an extra detail for incorporating this technique into Adobe Lightroom).

Bonus: Using this technique with Lightroom!

Unlike Bridge, Lightroom will not automatically recognize these metadata changes in your image library. If we wanted to use a tool like Picasa to quickly run facial recognition on a collection of photos, here is the process you should use:

Before Using Picasa: Select all the photos in your library, and choose Metadata > Save Metadata To File. (This writes any metadata changes from Lightroom back to the original files).

After Using Picasa: Now, back in Lightroom, select all the photos in your library again, and choose Metadata > Read Metadata From File. (This imports all your new name keywords into your Lightroom database.

Enjoy!

Source: This tip was inspired by the 10-Week Lightroom Course that Steve Laskevitch is currently leading in our live, worldwide classroom. In fact, in today’s class Steve is digging into keywording in Lightroom, and we just might throw in a live demonstration of this tip in action!

I’m always delighted when I discover basic Photoshop techniques I missed along the way. We all know you can drag selected pixels from one window into another. Somehow I missed that if you drag that same selection while using one of Photoshop’s selection tools, you can drag the selection itself (with no pixels) over into a new document.

I must have known this at some point, but I’d obviously forgotten because I have a clumsy method I’ve used for years when I needed to copy selection outlines between documents. If this little tip saves anyone those extra steps, then revealing my personal ignorance was worth it.

Source: This is one of those little details I picked up during Jason Hoppe’s 5-Week Photoshop Fundamentals course. For as long as I’ve been using these tools, I still learn something new from almost every course I sit in on.

Did you spend the extra for an "Extended" version of Photoshop CS4? If so, your copy of Photoshop sports a new 3D menu that you’ve never touched. (Tip: If you bought the bundle of CS4 that included Flash and Dreamweaver, you got Photoshop Extended in the deal.)

You’ll get your money’s worth today. This 3D Postcard trick lets your extra Photoshop investment finally pay off. This is a great trick for adding a sense of dimension to your portfolio when you need to show off flat screenshots, webpages, or examples of printed projects. Adjust your flat object in 3D space, add an appropriate shadow and you’re set!

Photoshop 3D Postcard Feature: Quick Video

Here is a quick video (no sound) that shows how you can use the new 3D Postcard feature. Here are the basic.

1. Select a Photoshop layer you want to convert into a postcard.

2. Choose 3D > New 3D Postcard From Layer.

3. Select the 3D Rotate Tool (shortcut: K) and start rotating your art.

Experiment and have some fun. It will feel odd at first, but once you starting playing around with this feature, you’ll discover all sorts of fun ways to put it to use.

Photoshop CS4 Extended 3D Axis

If OpenGL is enabled on your computer, the 3D Axis tool will appear. This shows the current X, Y, and Z-axis orientation of your 3D model in space. You can use the 3D Axis as an alternative to the 3D position tools to move, rotate, or resize a 3D model in object space. (To change scene view, use the 3D camera tools.)

For more details on using this tool, read about Using the 3D Axis Tool in Adobe’s online help files. And enjoy yourself.

Source: First off, I’d like to extend a big thank-you to everyone who has been very patient over the dearth of tips over the last several months as I’ve been engrossed in improving our online classroom. This particular tip is one of my favorite quickie 3D techniques in Photoshop CS4 Extended. I use it all the time when illustrating certain types of screenshots or icons.

I just spent (yet another) weekend getting our September course list posted. The upcoming class calendar is pretty cool. Take a look through the slate of upcoming free classes, and sign up for a couple that catch your interest:

Link: Photoshop Course (6-Months!)

Link: Digital Photography Course (10-Weeks)

Link: Lightroom Course (10-Weeks)

Link: Dreamweaver Course (10-Weeks)

Here is the problem: I’m leaving for an extended family vacation in two days. I’m frankly a little concerned that with so many classes starting at once, we’re not going to get the number of people we need signed up by the end of August.

Help Spread The Word! Our free training model only works when we’re sharing with a large worldwide audience. Help us keep these classes free.

I’m delighted to announce that instructor Erik Fadiman will be leading a special 10-Week Dreamweaver Course in our worldwide classroom starting in the fourth week of September.

Enroll via Email: Dreamweaver Course Enrollment.

The free weekly webinars are free. In order to join us, you’ll need to sign-up for a special weekly email notification we’ve created for this course.

We have dates set aside for this class. Erik will post a breakdown of the individual weeks we get closer to the start.

Week 1 – Sep 22
Week 2 – Sep 29
Week 3 – Oct 6
Week 4 – Oct 13
Week 5 – Oct 20
Week 6 – Oct 27
Week 7 – Nov 3
Week 8 – Nov 10
Week 9 – Nov 17
Week 10 – Nov 24

And yes, you can pass this offer along to friends, or even post it on your blog. Help spread the word. We need a minimum of 1,000 people enrolled to make this free class viable.

Read on for an extended Q&A, and to ask your own questions in the comments. John is currently developing material for this extended course, so if you have a topic you’d like to see him cover, mention it in the comments below.

Q: What Time Do Classes Start?

A: That depends on where you live. People attend these workshops from all over the world. This class starts at 3PM afternoons in Seattle. That’s a different time from most of our other courses. Here are the start times for time zones in the United States:

6PM – Eastern (New York, Boston, Philadelphia, Florida)
5PM – Central (Chicago, Minneapolis, Dallas)
4PM – Mountain (Denver)
3PM – Pacific (Seattle, Los Angeles)
2PM – Alaska
1PM – Hawaii

For international participants, follow this link to see how 3PM in Seattle translates to time zones around the world: What time is 3PM in Seattle? Here are some example start times for different cities:

11PM – London, Dublin, Algiers, Lagos
Midnight – Amsterdam, Paris, Berlin, Prague, Zagreb
1AM – Athens, Jerusalem, Kyiv
2AM Wednesday – Moscow, Dubai
3AM Wednesday – Tashkent
4AM Wednesday – Islamabad
5AM Wednesday – Bangkok, Hanoi, Jakarta
6AM Wednesday – Hong Kong, Beijing, Perth
7AM Wednesday – Tokyo, Seoul
8AM Wednesday – Melbourne, Sydney
9AM Wednesday – Vladivostok
10AM Wednesday – Auckland

Q: How Long Are Classes?

A: Each class is roughly 90 minutes long, with an additional 30 minutes for audience questions. The Q&A is typically pretty valuable, so plan to stick around.

Q: How Many People Can Attend Each Webinar?

A: Our Webinar tool, GoToWebinar, has a limit of 1,000 attendees per class. Based on the popularity of our other free training, we expect to reach that limit on most classes.

Q: Can I Download Recorded Copies of Classes?

A: We record a high-resolution copy of each class, and we plan to make recorded copies available for a slight fee.

Q: How Can This Be Free?

A: We are trying to make a big splash, and we love working with a large audience. Help us spread the word. If we continue to attract a full audience, we’ll be able to keep offering these types of free courses for InDesign, Illustrator, Fireworks, Dreamweaver, and other Adobe products.

Q: Can I Post an Invitation on my Blog?

A: Yes. Please help spread the word. We need as many people as possible enrolled to make this free class format viable for us. You can post a link to the following URL, which we will keep updated as details change:

http://creativetechs.com/training

Thank you. This should be a fun course!

I’m delighted to announce that instructor Steve Laskevitch will be leading a special 10-Week Lightroom Course in our worldwide classroom starting in the third week of September.

Enroll via Email: Lightroom Course Enrollment.

The free weekly webinars are free. In order to join us, you’ll need to sign-up for a special weekly email notification we’ve created for this course.

We have dates set aside for this class. Steve will post a breakdown of the individual weeks we get closer to the start.

Week 1, Sep 14 – Overview.
Week 2, Sep 21 – Importing
Week 3, Sep 28 – Library Module pt1
Week 4, Oct 5 – Library Module pt2
Week 5, Oct 12 – Develop Module pt1
Week 6, Oct 19 – Develop Module pt2
Week 7, Oct 26 – Exporting
Week 8, Nov 2 – Juggling Catalogs
Week 9, Nov 9 – Output Module
Week 10, Nov 16 – Editing in Photoshop

And yes, you can pass this offer along to friends, or even post it on your blog. Help spread the word. We need a minimum of 1,000 people enrolled to make this free class viable.

Read on for an extended Q&A, and to ask your own questions in the comments. John is currently developing material for this extended course, so if you have a topic you’d like to see him cover, mention it in the comments below.

Q: What Time Do Classes Start?

A: That depends on where you live. People attend these workshops from all over the world. We start at 11AM mornings in Seattle. Here are the start times for time zones in the United States:

2PM – Eastern (New York, Boston, Philadelphia, Florida)
1PM – Central (Chicago, Minneapolis, Dallas)
12PM – Mountain (Denver)
11AM – Pacific (Seattle, Los Angeles)
10AM – Alaska
8AM – Hawaii

For international participants, follow this link to see how 11AM in Seattle translates to time zones around the world: What time is 11AM in Seattle? Here are some example start times for different cities:

7PM – London, Dublin, Algiers, Lagos
8PM – Amsterdam, Paris, Oslo, Prague, Zagreb
9PM – Athens, Jerusalem, Kyiv
10PM – Moscow, Dubai
11PM – Tashkent
Midnight – Islamabad
1AM Tuesday – Bangkok, Hanoi, Jakarta
2AM Tuesday – Hong Kong, Beijing, Perth
3AM Tuesday – Tokyo, Seoul
4AM Tuesday – Melbourne, Sydney
5AM Tuesday – Vladivostok
6AM Tuesday – Auckland

Q: How Long Are Classes?

A: Each class is roughly 90 minutes long, with an additional 30 minutes for audience questions. The Q&A is typically pretty valuable, so plan to stick around.

Q: How Many People Can Attend Each Webinar?

A: Our Webinar tool, GoToWebinar, has a limit of 1,000 attendees per class. Based on the popularity of our other free training, we expect to reach that limit on most classes.

Q: Can I Download Recorded Copies of Classes?

A: We record a high-resolution copy of each class, and we plan to make recorded copies available for a slight fee.

Q: How Can This Be Free?

A: We are trying to make a big splash, and we love working with a large audience. Help us spread the word. If we continue to attract a full audience, we’ll be able to keep offering these types of free courses for InDesign, Illustrator, Fireworks, Dreamweaver, and other Adobe products.

Q: Can I Post an Invitation on my Blog?

A: Yes. Please help spread the word. We need as many people as possible enrolled to make this free class format viable for us. You can post a link to the following URL, which we will keep updated as details change:

http://creativetechs.com/training

Thank you. This should be a fun course!

Jason Hoppe’s first 10-Week Photoshop course was the success that kicked off our “free training” experiment. This time we’re taking things to a whole new level.

Want to enroll? Sign-up here: 6-Month Photoshop Course.

LIVE Webinar: www.gotomeeting.com/register/775748320
Date:Thursday, September 3, 2009
Time: 11am Pacific (Seattle) [Other Time Zones]
Duration: 90-120 Minutes

So what does a 6-Month Photoshop Course cover? Here is the tentative schedule. We’ve built this as an ongoing series of 5-week courses, building from basic fundamentals, up to some fairly advanced techniques. With a fun side-trip around the holidays for digital scrapbooking topics.

Course I – Photoshop Fundamentals
Sep 3 – Basics
Sep 10 – Layers
Sep 17 – Selections
Sep 24 – Masks
Oct 1 – Pen Tool

Course 2 – Color Correction
Oct 8 – Advanced Selections
Oct 15 – Color Correction pt1
Oct 22 – Color Correction pt2
Oct 24 – Cloning Basics
Nov 5 – Final Touches

Course 3 – Photoshop Fun
Nov 12 – Scrapbooking Techniques
Nov 19 – Brushes
Dec 3 – Layer Effects
Dec 10 – To Be Announced
Dec 17 – To Be Announced

Course 4 – Advanced Retouching
Jan 7 – Advanced Cloning Techniques
Jan 14 – Retouching Skin
Jan 21 – Retouching Hair
Feb 4 – Retouching Landscapes
Feb 11 – Repairing Digital Anomalies

Course 5 – To Be Announced!
Feb 25 – TBA
Mar 4 – TBA
Mar 11 – TBA
Mar 18 – TBA
Mar 25 – TBA

The dates may shift a bit as we get going. We’ll be fleshing out the details on the final five as that gets closer.

And yes, you can pass this offer along to friends, or even post it on your blog. Help spread the word. We need a minimum of 1,000 people enrolled to make this free class viable.

Read on for an extended Q&A, and to ask your own questions in the comments. We’ve left some open slots on our schedule, so if you have a topic you’d like to see us cover, mention it in the comments below.

Q: What Time Do Classes Start?

A: That depends on where you live. People attend these workshops from all over the world. We start at 11AM mornings in Seattle. Here are the start times for time zones in the United States:

2PM – Eastern (New York, Boston, Philadelphia, Florida)
1PM – Central (Chicago, Minneapolis, Dallas)
12PM – Mountain (Denver)
11AM – Pacific (Seattle, Los Angeles)
10AM – Alaska
8AM – Hawaii

For international participants, follow this link to see how 11AM in Seattle translates to time zones around the world: What time is 11AM in Seattle? Here are some example start times for different cities:

7PM – London, Dublin, Algiers, Lagos
8PM – Amsterdam, Paris, Oslo, Prague, Zagreb
9PM – Athens, Jerusalem, Kyiv
10PM – Moscow, Dubai
11PM – Tashkent
Midnight – Islamabad
1AM Friday – Bangkok, Hanoi, Jakarta
2AM Friday – Hong Kong, Beijing, Perth
3AM Friday – Tokyo, Seoul
4AM Friday – Melbourne, Sydney
5AM Friday – Vladivostok
6AM Friday – Auckland

Q: How Long Are Classes?

A: Each class is roughly 90 minutes long, with an additional 30 minutes for audience questions. The Q&A is typically pretty valuable, so plan to stick around.

Q: How Many People Can Attend Each Webinar?

A: Our Webinar tool, GoToWebinar, has a limit of 1,000 attendees per class. Based on the popularity of our other free training, we expect to reach that limit on most classes.

Q: Can I Download Recorded Copies of Classes?

A: We record a high-resolution copy of each class, and we plan to make recorded copies available for a slight fee.

Q: How Can This Be Free?

A: We are trying to make a big splash, and we love working with a large audience. Help us spread the word. If we continue to attract a full audience, we’ll be able to keep offering these types of free courses for InDesign, Illustrator, Fireworks, Dreamweaver, and other Adobe products.

Q: Can I Post an Invitation on my Blog?

A: Yes. Please help spread the word. We need as many people as possible enrolled to make this free class format viable for us. You can post a link to the following URL, which we will keep updated as details change:

http://creativetechs.com/training

Thank you. This should be an amazing trip!

I’m delighted to announce that instructor John Greengo will be leading a special 10-Week Digital Photography Course in our worldwide classroom starting in the first week of September.

Enroll via Email: Digital Photography Course Enrollment.

The free weekly webinars are free. In order to join us, you’ll need to sign-up for a special weekly email notification we’ve created for this course.

Here is the tentative schedule for this class. We may be adjusting this slightly as we get closer to the start.

Week 1, Sep 2 – Introduction
Week 2, Sep 9 – Digital Cameras
Week 3, Sep 16 – Lenses
Week 4, Sep 23 – Exposure I
Week 5, Sep 30 – Exposure II
Week 6, Oct 7 – Focus
Week 7, Oct 14 – Aesthetics I
Week 8, Oct 21 – Aesthetics II
Week 9, Oct 28 – The Gadget Bag
Week 10, Nov 4 – Full Exposure

And yes, you can pass this offer along to friends, or even post it on your blog. Help spread the word. We need a minimum of 1,000 people enrolled to make this free class viable.

Read on for an extended Q&A, and to ask your own questions in the comments. John is currently developing material for this extended course, so if you have a topic you’d like to see him cover, mention it in the comments below.

Q: What Time Do Classes Start?

A: That depends on where you live. People attend these workshops from all over the world. We start at 11AM mornings in Seattle. Here are the start times for time zones in the United States:

2PM – Eastern (New York, Boston, Philadelphia, Florida)
1PM – Central (Chicago, Minneapolis, Dallas)
12PM – Mountain (Denver)
11AM – Pacific (Seattle, Los Angeles)
10AM – Alaska
8AM – Hawaii

For international participants, follow this link to see how 11AM in Seattle translates to time zones around the world: What time is 11AM in Seattle? Here are some example start times for different cities:

7PM – London, Dublin, Algiers, Lagos
8PM – Amsterdam, Paris, Oslo, Prague, Zagreb
9PM – Athens, Jerusalem, Kyiv
10PM – Moscow, Dubai
11PM – Tashkent
Midnight – Islamabad
1AM Thursday – Bangkok, Hanoi, Jakarta
2AM Thursday – Hong Kong, Beijing, Perth
3AM Thursday – Tokyo, Seoul
4AM Thursday – Melbourne, Sydney
5AM Thursday – Vladivostok
6AM Thursday – Auckland

Q: How Long Are Classes?

A: Each class is roughly 90 minutes long, with an additional 30 minutes for audience questions. The Q&A is typically pretty valuable, so plan to stick around.

Q: How Many People Can Attend Each Webinar?

A: Our Webinar tool, GoToWebinar, has a limit of 1,000 attendees per class. Based on the popularity of our other free training, we expect to reach that limit on most classes.

Q: Can I Download Recorded Copies of Classes?

A: We record a high-resolution copy of each class, and we plan to make recorded copies available for a slight fee.

Q: How Can This Be Free?

A: We are trying to make a big splash, and we love working with a large audience. Help us spread the word. If we continue to attract a full audience, we’ll be able to keep offering these types of free courses for InDesign, Illustrator, Fireworks, Dreamweaver, and other Adobe products.

Q: Can I Post an Invitation on my Blog?

A: Yes. Please help spread the word. We need as many people as possible enrolled to make this free class format viable for us. You can post a link to the following URL, which we will keep updated as details change:

http://creativetechs.com/training

Thank you. This should be a fun course!