Learn photoshop

Quick tip 28 – Install brushes in Photoshop

2011-12-24T02:50:00.000-08:00

This is part 28 of the Photoshop quick tip series where you will learn how to install brushes in Photoshop. I have provided a list of free Photoshop brushes that can be downloaded here.

1. Firstly, you will need to download your brush.

2. Then go to the folder C:\Program Files\Adobe\Photoshop\Presets\Brushes (Windows machine) and copy and paste your downloaded brush.

3. Open up Photoshop and click on the Brush tool (B), open up the palette and select the Brush preset picker. Click on the little triangle at the top right, and then on the drop down menu click the ‘Load Brushes’.

4. Finally, choose the .abr file you want to load and the brush will appear in the Brush palette.

Change tone of photo in Photoshop

2011-09-12T04:40:00.000-07:00

It been quite a while since I have posted any Photoshop tutorials, so I thought I would write a quick post today. When you take a photo outdoors, the colours of the photograph may appear cold. By cold I mean lacking in warm colours such as yellows and oranges. To change the tone and to increase the warm of the image, you can use the hue/saturation adjustment layer. I have used a free stock image for this tutorial. If you need to find any stock images, take a look at this post.

Change tone of a photo in Photoshop

Step 1

Open an image in Photoshop that you feel is lacking in warmth.

Step 2

On the menu bar at the top of the screen, select Layer > New Adjustment Layer > Hue/Saturation. If a new window appears, click the OK button and continue.

From the Hue/Saturation drop down menu, change the ‘Default’ setting to ‘Yellow Boost’. This should increase the yellow colours in your image and give an overall sense of warmth and depth. If you are happy with the result, you can leave the colours setting as it is. Or you can alternatively, select the ‘Yellows’ from the drop down menu and adjust the hue/saturation/lightness sliders to your liking.

Notice the before and after images you should see the colours are richer and warmer after the hue/saturation layer has been applied.

If you like this tutorial, be sure to checkout some of my other tutorials and please remember to subscribe to keep up to date with the latest updates. Also take a look at my freebies sections to the left of the page, to get your hands on some free stuff.

Sepia effect in Photoshop

2010-04-07T14:33:00.001-07:00

In this tutorial you will learn how to add a sepia effect to an image in Photoshop. There are many ways to achieve this effect but I will be using the channel mixer. I have used a free stock image for this tutorial, a full list of site containing free stock images can be found here.

Sepia effect in Photoshop

Step 1

Open an image in Photoshop. I have used an image of a lion and lioness, but you can use any image.

Step 2

Remove the colour from the image by selecting on the menu bar Images > Adjustment > Desaturate. Alternative ways of removing colour can be found on this post.

Step 3

Now open up the channel mixer by selecting Images > Adjustment > Channel Mixer and add the following settings. I have set the output channel to red and the 35% for red, 70 for green and 10 for blue and 8% for the constant. You can feel free to change these settings to your liking.

You should now have a sepia effect in Photoshop and remember to subscribe in a RSS reader.

Quick tip 27 – Seeing font changes

2010-03-31T14:55:00.000-07:00

This is part 27 of the Photoshop quick tip series where you will learn how to visually see the font changes in Photoshop. Normally when you type some text on the canvas and want to change the font, you have to manually have to select the font from the drop down menu to see a different font.

Now wouldn’t it be easily if you could see the font changes directly instead of manually cycling through all the fonts. There is a quick solution to this problem which is to click the font from the drop down menu. Then use the up and down keys on the keyboard to cycle through the fonts. This means you will visually see the changes from the font instead of manually change the fonts.

Quick tip 26 – The hand tool

2010-03-13T12:29:00.000-08:00

This is part 26 of the Photoshop quick tip series where you will learn how to quickly select the Hand tool. The hand tool is similar to the selection tool, but you can click and drag around the Photoshop document. The main function of this tool is basically navigation.

To use the Hand tool you need to firstly open an image in Photoshop. If you want to quickly open a document in PS, checkout quick tip 3.

On the toolbar the Hand tool can be located just above the foreground and background palettes. Another method is to hold down the spacebar which is a very useful keyboard shortcut. The great benefit of this tool is that it will activate no matter what tool is currently selected.

Now zoom into your image Ctrl + then select the Hand tool (Spacebar) and you will be able to move around the zoomed in image by clicking and dragging.

Airbrushing skin technique

2010-02-22T09:48:00.000-08:00

I found an excellent skin airbrushing tutorial over at tutorialpulse.com. This is a detailed thirteen step tutorial which layouts exactly how to have smooth skin using Photoshop. Each step contains a detailed description as well as a high resolution image to explain the procedures. The full article can be found here.

There is also an option to download the source files for free. If you want more digital makeovers checkout the, Digital makeover series and remember to subscribe.

Photoshop is 20 years old

2010-02-18T16:34:00.001-08:00

Today, 19/02/10, Adobe Photoshop is 20 years old. Photoshop has remained successful for the whole 20 years. It started as a black and white image editing program and now it has grown to a multi-product franchise with many different products in the Adobe family. As the years have progress Photoshop has develop new features with every new release and each time the interface get even better and more refined.

Over at the photoshopuser.com you can find details of an event which will take place to pay homage to this program. I believe Adobe are putting on an event to celebrate the 20 years since the first release of Photoshop 1.0.

Auto Contrast in Photoshop

2010-02-13T14:39:00.001-08:00

When you take Photographs outdoors, the weather can be misty, cloudy and hazy which can have a dull effect on your Photographs. You can try manually adjusting the contrast, brightness and gamma of the image, but this can take some time to tweak. A quick method of fixing the contrast in Photo is to use the Auto Contrast feature. The auto contrast works by adjusting shadows and highlights values in an image and then set the darkest and lightest pixels to pure black or pure white. This makes the highlights appear lighter and shadows darker and improves the appearance of your photographs.

To use the Auto contrast feature, follow the steps below.

1. Open up an image you wish to edit in Photoshop. To quickly auto up an image, checkout quick tip 3.

2. Then select Image > Auto Contrast if you are using Photoshop CS4. If you are using CS3 you may have to select Image > Adjustments > Auto Contrast.

Quick tip 25 – Black and white image

2010-02-05T14:33:00.000-08:00

This is part 25 of the Photoshop quick tip series where you will learn how to convert an image into black and white. I have actually previously created a tutorial that show you how to turn an image black and white which can be found here. I will be briefly discussing these methods in this quick tip.

The first method involves changing the default RGB mode in a colour image to the greyscale mode. This is not the most common method of converting to a black and white image. If you are using Photoshop CS4 you will receive a message asking if you want to discard the colour information. You click the discard button if you want to follow through with the conversion.

The second method is the most common and can be done through the menu bar or using shortcut keys. The default desaturate keyboard shortcut is Shift + Ctrl + U, or the menu bar option is Image > Adjustment > Desaturate.

The third method is similar to the second as it desaturate the image, the only difference is that it takes more time. You again can use keyboard shortcuts (Ctrl + U), or you can go through the menu bar by selecting Image > Adjustment > Hue/Saturation.

Quick tip 24 – Close multiple windows

2010-02-02T13:43:00.001-08:00

This is part 24 of the Photoshop quick tip series where you will learn how to close multiple windows in Photoshop. If you have several windows open in Photoshop you will receive a message asking whether you want to close down the window. This is not a problem if you have one or two windows, but if you have over ten windows open, this will be a very time consuming problem. When you close a window you get the following message.

There are two methods to close multiple windows. The first method is to hold down the Shift key then select File > Close on the menu bar. Or you can go directly to the menu bar and select File > Close All. This will close all the opened windows in Photoshop.

Photoshop keyboard shortcuts archive

2010-01-29T08:43:00.000-08:00

Keyboard shortcuts have major benefits in improving speed and efficiency when working with Photoshop. Shortcuts allow use to quickly switch to a different tool without going to the tools panels. This can save a considerable amount of time when working with PS.

I previously wrote a post on the keyboard shortcuts for Photoshop which can be found here. The shortcuts from this post were from the default Adobe website. However, I found an excellent resource for shortcuts over at: morris-photographs. The photographer Trevor Morris has a great series of Photoshop keyboard shortcuts for most versions of Photoshop. I believe the version range from PS5 to PS CS4 which is seven series. These shortcuts are available to download in PDF format for free. To download these files, simply right click and select save as.

If you want to find out about quick tip for Photoshop then checkout this series.

Using the extract filter in Photoshop

2010-01-26T11:53:00.000-08:00

In this tutorial you will learn how to extract the background from an image using the extract filter in Photoshop. Extracting removes the background and leaves the object in place. You can also use the pen tool or the quick mask tool to remove the background, but I find using the extract filter easier.

Using the extract filter in Photoshop

Step 1

Open an image in Photoshop. I have used a free stock image, but you can use whatever image you wish.

Step 2

Select the Extract filter by going to Filter > Extract. On the Tool options to the right, adjust the brush size to your liking. Then paint over the areas of the image to create an edge of where you want to retain like below. Notice that you don’t have to be too accurate with the paint brush as any mistakes can be later corrected.

Step 3

Select the Fill tool (G) on the tools panel on the left and fill in the selection. The selection will appear in a blue colour. If you wish to see what your image will look like you can click the preview button, otherwise click ok.

Step 4

My extracted image has not come out perfectly, but this can easily be fixed. Select the History Brush tool and recover any missing areas. Then select the eraser tool to remove any extra areas.

Once you have corrected the damaged area you will be left with the following image.

Now you can add any background of your choice to the image.

Quick tip 23 – Clear purge cache

2010-01-25T07:56:00.000-08:00

This is part 23 of the Photoshop quick tip series where you will learn how to clear the purge cache. The purge cache is basically the temporary files such as the undo states that Photoshop stores so that data can be easily retrieved at any point.

The process of storing all these files will cause Photoshop to slow down considerably especially if you have an older machine. This will also depend on the length of time you used Photoshop, so if you use PS for a short period of time then everything should be fine. However, if you use PS for longer periods of time, you may start to notice a slow down in the performance as PS is consuming lots of RAM memory. If you have an update to date machine with plenty of free RAM then clearing the purge should not be a problem.

To clear the purge in Photoshop, go to the menu bar then select Image > Purge this will remove all the temporary files, and your computer should run faster.

Remember to subscribe to keep up to date with all the Photoshop quick tips.

Quick tip 22 – Open two windows in Photoshop

2010-01-23T14:34:00.001-08:00

In this quick tip you will learn how to open two windows in Photoshop. For more quick tips, checkout the article on the Photoshop quick tip series.

When you are zoomed into an image in Photoshop making modifications, you sometimes need to see the overall result of your work. This involves zooming in and out of an image to see the results which can be rather time consuming. There is an easy solution to this problem. Simply go to menu bar and select Window > Arrange > New Window.

This will basically open up a new window of your current PS document. So if you make changes to the zoomed image, the results will be updated immediately in the new window. This allows you to see the overall PS document when you making modifications.

Quick tip 21 – Revert original features

2010-01-21T10:39:00.000-08:00

In this Photoshop quick tip series you will learn how to revert back to the original features of your image/file.

When you make lot of modifications to your image, you will sometimes need to revert back to the original features. Of course you can use undo, but this only has a certain number of undo slots. So if need to undo a lot of changes then this is not possible. You can the history panel as well, but this also has the same problem. Although you can increase the number of history slots from the Photoshop preferences.

To revert back to the original settings you select File > Revert or F12 on the keyboard. When you select this option, all the changes you had made to this file will get removed and will return to its original settings.

Quick tip 20 – Full screen mode

2010-01-19T15:52:00.000-08:00

In this Photoshop quick tip you will learn how to quickly switch to full screen mode. This is part 20 of the PQTS.

There are three screen modes in Photoshop with the default view being the most common. The default is when the screen shows all the palettes, menu bars and other screen elements.

To change to the full screen mode, you press the ‘F’ key on the keyboard. When you press this key you will notice the size of your current document expand while the menu bar still remains. If you press the ‘F’ key again, you will see the menu bar disappear while the background of Photoshop turns to a black colour.

You can also change to a different screen mode from the menu bar by selecting View > Screen mode.

Quick tip 19 – Hide the workspace

2010-01-18T07:02:00.000-08:00

This is part 19 of the Photoshop quick tip series where you will learn how to hide the workspace in Photoshop.

Hiding the workspace removes the toolbar and the palettes from view in Photoshop. This can be useful if you have an extremely large image and wish to see the whole image without zooming out.

To hide workspace including all the panels and palettes you select the Tab key on the keyboard, and you will be left with the following image in Photoshop. As you can see, only the menu bar still remains.

You can also only hide the palettes by selecting Shift + Tab which will leave the tool bar in place.

Please remember to subscribe to keep up to date with the latest tips.

Quick tip 18 – Font update

2010-01-15T16:03:00.000-08:00

This is part 18 of the Photoshop quick tip series where you will learn about the updating of fonts in Photoshop.

Did you know you can update fonts without needing to restart Photoshop, or have PS initially closed down? You can simply place the font file inside the system font folder and PS will update the changes instantly. So, for example if you have downloaded a new font from the internet, you can place the font inside the system font folder and use the new font straight away. The default location for font’s folder in windows is Start > Control Panel > Fonts.

If you want some free fonts, checkout my post on 8 free manga fonts and 8 free graffiti fonts.

Quick tip 17 – Redo Filter

2010-01-13T03:34:00.001-08:00

This is part 17 of the Photoshop quick tip series where you will learn how to repeat he last filter you applied to your image. Remember to subscribe to keep up to date with all the Photoshop quick tips.

Assuming you have already open up Photoshop and applied a filter to your image. To repeat the same filter, you simply select Ctrl + F on the keyboard, and you should notice the filter being applied again. The alternative method is to go through the menu bar by selecting Filter then choosing the first menu item. I applied a noise filter to my image, so will see the ‘Add Noise’ item. If you look very carefully you will see the shortcut keys beside the menu item which is Ctrl + F.

Did you know you can also open up the last filter dialog box by selecting Ctrl + Alt +F on the keyboard? This is useful if you wish to make adjustments before applying the filter again.

If you know anymore shortcut regarding the filters, feel free to lave any comments below and remember to subscribe.

Black and white sketch effect

2010-01-10T09:39:00.000-08:00

In this tutorial you will learn how to create a black and white sketch effect using the threshold adjustment and various filters. The black and white sketch gives the effect of a hand drawn picture using black and white paint. I have used a free stock image of a woman, a full list of free stock images can be found here. This effect works best if you use a self portrait image.

Black and white sketch effect

Step 1

Open an image in Photoshop.

Step 2

Select Image > Adjustments > Threshold and adjust the threshold levels to your liking and click ok. I have set my level to 109.

Step 3

Add a diffuse filter by selecting Filter > Stylize > Diffuse and select the option Anisotropic and click ok.

Step 3

Now add a sharpening filter by selecting Filter > Sharpen > Sharpen edges.

You should now have a black and white sketch effect.

6 Free New Year wallpapers

2010-01-04T15:22:00.001-08:00

The New Years celebrations have just finished, and what better way to honour the New Year by offering six free wallpapers. To download the wallpapers, simply right click and select ‘Save As’. All the wallpapers below are free to download.

Quick tip 17 – Resize an image

2010-01-02T09:12:00.000-08:00

This is part 17 of the Photoshop quick tip series where you will learn how to resize an image. Resizing an image is useful for reducing the size of an image file. Note that increasing or decreasing the size of an image too much can cause the image to become distorted and blurry.

Firstly, open an image in Photoshop. Then in the menu bar choose Image > Image Size and the following window dialog will appear.

Now, changing the image size is as simple as adjusting the width and height of the pixel dimensions. By default the ‘Constrain Proportions’ option is checked which means that if either one the width or height settings are changed. The other option will be changed to match the aspect ratio of the overall image file. However, if you want custom dimensions you can uncheck this option.

Quick tip 16 – Add extra canvas space

2009-12-30T05:22:00.000-08:00

This is part 16 of the Photoshop quick tip series where you will learn how to add more canvas space around an image.

You need to firstly have an image open in Photoshop. Then from the menu bar select Image > Canvas Size and you should see the following dialog window should open up.

To increase the canvas size, you simply adjust the width and height settings to whatever size you like. You can also set the anchor point of the canvas which will specify the direction where you want to increase the canvas size. So, for example if you want to increase the canvas in the left direction then you would select the right anchor point.

For more quick tips, checkout the post on the Photoshop quick tip series.

Quick tip 15 – Find centre of an image

2009-12-28T16:25:00.001-08:00

This is part 15 of the Photoshop quick tip series. In this tip you will learn how to quickly find the centre of an image.

You need to firstly open up an image in Photoshop. Then choose Select > All from the menu bar or Ctrl + A. Your image should be selected like below.

Now, you need to enter into ‘Free Transform Mode’ by pressing Ctrl + T on the keyboard. You should now see a crosshair at the centre of the image like below:

Drag guides out to the centre of the crosshair and you should notice that it will snap into position. To remove the free transform mode, hit the Esc key on the keyboard. And to remove the selection around the image, hit Ctrl + D.

You should now be able to quickly find the centre of an image.

Colour correction in Photoshop

2009-12-22T08:20:00.000-08:00

In this tutorial you will learn how to perform colour correction in Photoshop using the Hue/Saturation adjustments settings and the Quick mask tool. I will be correcting the man’s t-shirt colour in this tutorial.

Colour correction in Photoshop

Step 1

Open an image in Photoshop and the reset the colour palette by pressing the ‘D’ key on the keyboard.

Step 2

Select the Brush tool with an appropriate size and then enter the quick mask mode by selecting the Q key. Then paint over the areas of the image where you don’t want to change the colour. Since, I only want to change the t-shirt colour this would be most of the image like below.

Step 3

Exit out of the Quick mask mode by selecting the Q key, and you should see the area around the t-shirt selected.

Step 4

Select Image > Adjustment > Hue/Saturation and then drag the sliders to your liking. I have added the following settings: Hue = 50, Saturation = 69 and Lightness = -18. Make sure you select the saturation checkbox.

You should now be able to perform colour correction in Photoshop.