If you’re yet to see the latest Photoshop Creative Issue 100, then here’s a little look inside at some of the hottest features making up this grandiose occasion.

We present our top 100 tips, under topics including layers, workflow, tools, scrapbooking, painting and more.

Creativity is bursting at the seams, with top tutorials taking you through artistic and practical processes.

We have a huge offering in issue 100, in the style of a £2,400 giveaway extravaganza!

We look at Fotolia’s TEN Collection and interview Mike Harrison on his creation and involvement with the TEN project.

FREE GIFT! with the print edition:
To celebrate a milestone issue we’re giving away an amazing amount of Photoshop creative goods like 100 stock photos, 100 premium brushes, 100 vectors and 100 textures. Also on the free disc are 25 video tutorials! Learn our essential editing secrets and discover how to turn a lacklustre portrait into a beautiful image with our ultimate guide to retouching.

In a string of announcements Adobe has unveiled a major upgrade to Photoshop, making it more in tune with Creative Cloud.

Photoshop CC features powerful new tools and methods for editing, including advanced deblurring and sharpening technology, and a Camera Shake Reduction tool for tracking and correcting camera movement.

The new Smart Sharpen tool uses adaptive sharpening to minimise noise and halo effects.

According to the released information, there are new upsampling methods which let you increase the size of an image to billboard proportions without distortion – something we’re looking forward to seeing first hand.

This major update combines the Extended and standard versions of Photoshop, such as offering up the 3D tools in Photoshop CC.

The release is confirmed for June. For more information you can download the full press release, or head to Adobe.com.

Set your alarm for tomorrow at 10am for yet another free PSD released for 24 hours only.

Details from the full press release below…

The PSD file for his design will be available for free download on Wednesday, April 10^th, from 10am for 24 hours at www.tenbyfotolia.com.

Marumiyan gets his inspiration from music: “I love painting sounds,” he says. Even his pseudonym is inspired by its resonance. He is a free-lancer because, as he says: “it’s easier to create your own signature style that way.”  His style is decorative, and he uses flowers, animals and women to enhance his artwork because he believes they reflect a natural sophistication, which has allowed him to work for clients such as Wacom, Panasonic and NTT Docomo.

For TEN, Marumiyan showcases Japanese elegance and style.

Meet the artist

Two videos were filmed in Japan, one presenting the artist and his lifestyle, and another to presenting the techniques used in the making of his design. The first video is a short biography of the artist and his vision, and will be released on the TEN Facebook page in April to coincide with the release of his artwork. In the second short film, the artist shares the techniques he used to create the graphic. This will be available on YouTube alongside the PSD file. Watch it on www.tenbyfotolia.com, or on TEN’s YouTube channel on April 10th. Subtitles for both videos are available in 12 languages.

High resolution wood textures are readily available on line. However you may not want to purchase the rights to use these in commercial works.

In that case you’ll want to take your own photos. Here we show you how.

We explore ways to set up and shoot in the studio and outdoors. You’ll also discover which cameras to use to capture the perfect megapixel image and the settings to shoot with for the clearest clarity for first-class results.

Capture perfect outdoor textures

Use the right camera

A camera that supplies a minimum of 24-megapixels in size, whether shooting inside or out, will provide the best-quality texture shots.

This means you can edit and retouch considerably before sizing your image down. Cameras such as the Nikon D600 and Sony a99 are exemplary choices as these also include full-frame sensors.

External lighting

When shooting your wood textures, first avoid having hard shadows fall across your subject. Also shoot in soft uniform (neutral) light, on an overcast day not a bright sunny day.

This will not just limit the affects of shadows, but also surface light reflection.

Camera shoot settings

Shoot in RAW format with Auto White Balance activated, setting the ISO between 100 and 400 for better light quality.

Use a smaller aperture setting with a higher f-stop number, like f11 or f16, to ensure a good depth of field.

Shoot textures in the studio

Tip 1: One light can be sufficient enough, but keep this near the camera and shoot head-on

Tip2: Introduce a second light near the camera position if you must. Still light the texture head-on

Tip3: Use a tripod to shoot perpendicularly, avoiding lens distortion

Tip4: A low ISO and smaller aperture may cause a slow shutter speed. A tripod will solve any issues

Fix hi-res wood textures in Photoshop

Work with RAW

Following the previous shoot settings will let you easily adjust colour and contrast. When inside the RAW interface (now standard with Photoshop CS6) edit the Exposure, Contrast, Highlights, Shadows and Clarity sliders to define clearer contour and stronger detail.

Quick retouch

For those who fail to shoot in RAW, Photoshop can still solve your post-production needs. Lighting and exposure can be easily manipulated using Levels, or more intuitively with the Shadow/Highlights options. Wield the Selective Color adjustment to make intuitive tonal changes. Sharpen filters also help.

Fix skewed angles

We recommend that you shoot perpendicular, but no one’s fool-proof. If you do recognise curved distortions, don’t despair, you can simply fix this with CS6’s Adaptive Wide Angle option. Apply the Constraint tool to visible image curves, then edit further using control points and sliders to straighten your photo.

Photoshop Creative is hosting the official design-a-poster competition for the latest Warner Bros release The Incredible Burt Wonderstone.

Prizes include Blu-ray player and a bundle of Warner Bros comedies – The Hangover, The Hangover Part II, Horrible Bosses, Due Date, The Campaign and Yes Man!, as well as international publication in the magazine’s Issue 100.

For competition rules and how to enter, check out Photoshop Creative’s blog.

Canon announced its new top-of-the-range CanoScan 9000F Mark II at Europe’s biggest annual imaging show FOCUS ON IMAGING yesterday.

This 9600 dpi CCD scanner comes complete with advanced software, for exceptional quality, high-speed photo, document and film scanning.

Find a list of its most impressive features below.

New, Advanced Software

The CanoScan 9000F Mark II features new My Image Garden software. This includes cool new functionality such as photo organising and face recognition.

File sharing is now made almost instant, with users now able to transfer files to Evernote or Dropbox cloud services with a touch of a button.

Enhanced Power Efficiency

The 9000F Mark II uses white LED light, promising impressive zero warm-up times for reflective and film scanning. This makes this forward thinking scanner more energy efficient., reducing power consumption compared to traditional fluorescent lamps.

Superior Scan Quality

The 9000F Mark II offers impressive scan quality and easily captures exceptional detail from photos and film.

This is due to an included CCD sensor that handles a maximum optical scanning resolution of 9600 x 9600 dpi for film; 4800 x 4800 dpi for flatbed scanning,

Versatile Film Handling

The CanoScan 9000F Mark II is capable of scanning up to twelve 35mm film strips or 4 mounted slides in a single operation (either positive or negative).

Cool Film Automatic Retouching Enhancement (FARE) means you can make the most of scans, even those suffering from dust, scratches, fading or requiring backlight correction.

Quick and Easy to Use

The new CanoScan 9000F Mark II comes with a range of features that improve ease of use. The seven EZ buttons located on the front of the scanner offer one touch scanning and can be configured to individual user requirements. In addition, Auto Scan Mode automatically recognises the type of document that is being scanned and saves the scan as a photo or document using the optimum settings, with just a single click.

For more information click here.

Pricing and availability

The CanoScan 9000F Mark II is available in the UK and Ireland from April 2013 with an RRP price of £219/€240.

Adobe has just launched a new version of its Photoshop Touch app, optimised for iPhone, iPod Touch and Android smart phones.

The app – adapted from the tablet-based version – makes the touch gestures and other features now more intuitive on a mobile.

The new version of Photoshop Touch for mobile is priced at £2.99 and is available from Apple App Store and Google Play.

Download full press release.

Want to know more about the Creative Cloud and what’s new? Not sure where to start when looking into a subscription to the Creative Cloud?

Join top Adobe evangelists Rufus Deuchler, Jason Levine and Paul Trani in the Create Now World Tour, stopping off in London on 5th March.

Learn more about the tools and services that Creative Cloud offers, and also updates and advances in the company’s Creative Suite products.

The location for the London date is 30 Euston Square, London. Registration is now open.

This free event is open to anyone interested in learning more about these services and products.

Before starting this project, try finding an assortment of stocks and resources. There’s plenty of offer here at PhotoshopDaily.com.

The aim here is to create something fantastical while maintaining a level of realism. But don’t be afraid to deviate or experiment with your own ideas.

This tutorial is for intermediate users with excellent knowledge of using the tools provided in Photoshop.

We recommend using a graphics tablet to speed up workflow

Build the basic layout

Our model is from Dreamstime (image no: 13151452). Begin by clipping the model with your preferred extraction method, before pasting her into your background (we are using a pre-composited background from Dreasmtime, image no: 9324588). Cut out the mushroom to use later. Using a graphics tablet, paint over the moon and mushroom by selecting similar tones.

Retouch the model

This step requires some experimentation to achieve the surreal colouring. Create a gradient with three to five colours of your choice and set it to Radial. On a clipping mask (Cmd/Ctrl+Opt/Alt+G) click and drag out a gradient over the model. Set the blending mode to Lighten. Duplicate this layer, change some hues (Cmd/Ctrl+U) and experiment with blending modes like Soft Light.

Finish retouching and add elements

After the colouring portion, take the original image of the model and place it over the other layers. Add a Filter>Other>High Pass around 10-20px and set to Soft Light. We also added adjustment layers and painted on a layer mask to reveal vital details. We also clipped out the mushroom from the original background and placed two more back into the scene.

Begin blending

We need to blend everything more accurately into the surroundings. Select a soft-edged brush (100 to 200px, 20% Opacity) with the colour set to ‘#161c24’. On a clipping mask, begin to paint over the elements so they appear more backlit. Adjust the opacity and blending mode as needed. Create a clipping mask and paint in some brighter tones for rim lighting around the outside of the elements. Using the Color Picker, select various hues in the piece and paint over the woman and mushrooms. Set the blending mode to Soft Light. Be sure to paint in a rough shadow underneath the woman.

Paint the grass

Take a small hard-edged brush (10 to 20px) and use the Color Picker to sample tones from the grass around the model’s feet. Slowly paint around the feet to mimic the surrounding grassy areas. If you don’t have a tablet, try the Dune Grass brush in the Default set to generate an easy workaround. Use this technique for around the mushrooms and any other elements we add later on. Implementing these fine details adds to the overall image. Do it in many areas so the level of detail and blending is evident.

Add mountains

The background looks a bit dull and flat, so we’re going to add some faded mountains to bring a sense of depth and add to the surrealism of the scene. Create a new layer just above the background and add in your mountain stock (we used Dreamstime, image no: 1252648, but there are other options on the disc too). Add a layer mask and use a Soft brush in black at around 20% Opacity to start blending it. We set the blending mode to Vivid Light in this case, but experiment as you see fit.

Liven up the sky

The sky here is also very bland, so let’s bring in some more prominent clouds. The key is to simply find a cloud stock with a good contrast between the sky and clouds (again, there are options on the disc and we used Shutterstock, image no: 63948211). Use Cmd/Ctrl+L for Levels and drag the sliders around to maximise the contrast. Once it looks good, simply set the blending mode to Screen and bring in a layer mask to blend them in more seamlessly. The screenshot here shows the clouds before applying the Screen blend. We will add more details using this technique later.

Surreal sparkle touches

On the original composite background used, we clipped some of the simple sparkles coming from the original mushroom. To create more streaks, simply take the Smudge tool at 5 to 10px, 90% Strength and hold Shift to pull up some more vertical lines. Add in more sparkles by adding a Scatter to a 4px brush in the Brush palette and set the Count to 1 as seen in the screenshot. If brushing on black background, set to Screen or Color Dodge blending mode to achieve the desired effect.

Hairpiece

To build on the surreal look, use the Polygonal Lasso tool to cut out the bun from her hair and copy that layer. Here, we placed it on top on a new layer to give the impression of longer hair being tied up. To blend, use a 3px brush and Opt/Alt-click on a tone in the hair. Slowly brush some strands back in to remove the choppiness from the cutout. We also added a small branch in her hair from a Dreamstime vine (image no: 1238379). There are also some leaves images on the disc.

Push the details

We cut out a frog stock (there are some samples of the disc; ours is from sxc.hu, image no: 554538) and employed some of the same blending techniques. Make sure to darken the back of it using Hue/Saturation and adjust the lighting so it hits the edges. Since it’s up front, add a slight Gaussian Blur at 5-7%. Draw in some grass again around the frog and other new elements to improve blending. Also explore some of the colouring techniques on them used early to add to the overall feeling. Also added during this stage is the dragonfly photo of our own and a blurred vine up front (10 to 15%) from Dreamstime (image no: 1313045).

Painting layers and atmosphere

Let’s paint in some mist and more sparkles using the supplied brush set. The key is to add some touches to the atmosphere that seem a bit empty or lacking. The set works well with a tablet due do its variation. No need to use blend modes here, just select white for your Foreground colour and carefully paint more details. They can easily be used with a mouse as well. The screenshot shows the painting layer on a black Background as well.

Foliage

In order to blend the model a bit more with the surroundings, gather various vine and foliage stocks to place around her. We also painted some simple thin branches in a couple tones of brown and added leaves to them. Don’t worry about making it perfect since errors in small elements aren’t very discernable. Position them so it flows around her body and looks more elegant rather than messy. Also be sure to create a shadow underneath in the right spots to add some dimension to the foliage.

Adjustment layers and finalising

Last, we need to add some drama to the image using adjustment layers. Using your preferred method, first add some contrast. In this case we used a Curves layer. We added some blue tones using Color Balance, brought out some warm highlights with selective colour, and also a black/white Gradient Map set to Luminosity among others. A PSD marked as adjustment layers is included on the disc in order to obtain all the adjustments made on this final image.

Finished Image

Before

After

Bench removal

The goal in this project is to clean up the scene by removing the benches from the pier and the boats from the water. Begin by creating a copy of the background layer to work on. Roughly select the pier pavement and add a layer mask, this will ensure that only the pavement pixels are resampled. Create a new selection around one of the benches, being careful to include the shadows and bench edges. Then go to Edit>Fill and select Content-Aware for the use. Repeat the process for the other benches.

A little filter help

Delete the layer mask and evaluate the new bench-less pavement. The Content-Aware algorithm struggles to match the perspective pattern of the bricks on the pier. To help things match up, go to Filter>Vanishing Point. Draw out a plane to match up with the pier, then grab the Clone tool within the vanishing point window. Hold down Opt/Alt to set a source point and watch the cursor overlay to help align the Clone brush. Use this to clone out the pavement areas that are obviously out of perspective.

Boats be gone

Zoom in on the background area to get a close look at the boats and buoys. The small buoys are an easy task for the Spot Healing brush when set to Content-Aware. Use a brush radius slightly larger than the dark dots and a single click will remove each of them. The boats can be easily removed using the Patch tool with its Content-Aware option. Select a boat outline and then drag the selection to another area of the horizon to define a sample point. When released, the boat will seamlessly disappear.

Download the image used in this tutorial to experiment with techniques learned.