Posts Tagged ‘Photos’
Photoshop Tips - Adobe Photoshop and Text
Sunday, July 20th, 2008
The use of photographs as a way of expression has traversed a long and creative route. From scintillating images that were once considered the forte of niche artists, to using images as a captivating means to bring everyday necessities like calendars, e-cards and even online albums to share with the rest of the world, the modern-day perception of this art is indeed multifarious. When it comes to the more unconventional applications of photography, you may often find that a few words of wisdom, or humor as the case may be, often packs in a lot more punch than simply using the images themselves. In the days of yore, this option was considered a veritable taboo, in light of the tacky effect a caption or a tagline brought about. With Photoshop, however, this qualm is wiped away with the plethora of alternatives which have literally revolutionized the way the world views digital image editing.
Photoshop relies on the principle of Anti-Aliasing, which literally blends the text in with its background, so that the final result of your editing efforts is not a scintillating image and a few well-thought over words but an image of which the text and the photograph are fundamental parts. Anti-Aliasing works on the pixels of your text, partially filling in the edges to have them merge with the image. And this remarkable tool also allows you to be flexible and discreet in the extent to which you use it. If you are looking for an effect that is well-blended and yet retains the distinctiveness of the text, the ‘Sharp’ option allows you just what you’re looking for, while the ‘Strong’ alternative makes the text heavier than the rest of the image.
When working with text that is very small in size and falls under the threshold of 10 or 12 points, it is advisable that you refrain from using Anti-Aliasing, as this may modify your text in an inconsistent manner. The same applies to images that are not of a very high resolution which may lead to the text being blurred at certain points. To smoothen or sharpen the text, you can choose the similarly labeled alternatives while the ‘Crisp’ option lets you meander midway, with the text preserving its conspicuousness and yet not standing out too blatantly from the rest of the image. To use Anti-Aliasing on your image, go into the ‘Type’ layer in the ‘Layer Palette’ which brings you to the Anti-Aliasing menu. It is from this menu, which you will find in the ‘Options’ bar or in the ‘Character Palette’ that you can select the most viable alternative to apply to your frame.
A swift way to reach for the Type tool is with the letter ‘T’. This brings the Type Tool options to the Options bar, from where you can use the ones you want to work with. The first two buttons let you choose between creating a Type Mask, or a Type Layer, which you can, depending on what you’re more comfortable with. If you have a large amount of text you want to fit into your image, the best way to go about it is to create a Type Layer, click and drag a rectangle or square to size your text and fit it in the section of the image where you want the text to be featured. If you plan to type directly onto the document, you can save on a lot of time and effort by referring to the I-beam that appears on the image. The small horizontal line that cuts across the beam indicates the baseline, which you can use to align your text with the image, even as you’re working on it!
While Photoshop does allow you to preview the font and the character size of your text before you type it in, sometimes it can be quite difficult to figure out what the final product’s going to look like at the very outset. And if you are befuddled about which font you want to stick with for your text, you can simply fill it in, highlight in and then choose the font and style that seems most appropriate to your text and overall image. Color is yet another avenue where you can let your imagination run wild. Photoshop lets you coordinate the color of your text from character to character, or even hue your image in an assortment of colors, all within a single layer! You can either choose your color from the Color-Picker window or from the image itself by moving over the pertinent segment of the image while the Color-Picker window is still open.
Once you added your text and granted it all the enhancements you could think of, you may want to take a minute to gloat over your accomplishment. To do this, exit the type mode with the ‘Enter’ key on the ‘Numeric Keypad’. You can also exit the ‘Typing mode’ by selecting any other tool in the toolbox or clicking on the checkmark in the Options bar. And if you still aren’t satisfied with the text you’ve added, you can re-enter the Editing mode by double-clicking on the ‘T’ icon in the thumbnail area of the Layers Palette. For a quick-fix job where you just want to resize the text or move it around, remember to hold down the ‘Shift’ key while dragging the text to adhere to the proportions. Not doing so will lead to your text becoming taller or wider than it originally was and if that’s what you’re looking for, proceed the same way you would with the exception of holding down the ‘Shift’ key.
As Photoshop continues to advance and develop, it also expands in the opportunities it offers photography enthusiasts of every level of skill from beginners who are exploring new avenues to experts who seek challenge to rein their creativity. Learning your way about this software can seem an uphill task, in view of the expansive features that it boasts of, and all the possibilities it opens new doors to. If you haven’t begun already, master Photoshop today and let your ingenuity startle you with the heights it soars to!
Tags: Photos
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Learning Photoshop - The Fast and Easy Way For Photoshop Dummies
Sunday, July 20th, 2008
In order to have a fully color controlled environment you must have all devices displaying or printing color, profiled. How is this accomplished? Color management software (CMS) takes readings from your specific devices and compares their color with reference files of what color “should be” as defined by the ICC. For example, to profile a scanner you would scan in what is called an IT8 target. This scan is then compared with a reference file by the CMS. The differences between what the reference file says the color should be, and what the color your device actually output is meat of the profile. Basically, a profile says what’s not perfect about your particular device. If your scanner always seems to scan things in a little green, or your printer always seems to print things with a magenta cast-these are the things that are taken into account when color profiling your devices. To complicate matters a little further, this process also takes into account the differences in color between various paper and ink combinations.
This is where professional level CMS’s and entry level ones differ. At this point with the entry level you will scan in the printed target and the CMS will actually use the before generated scanner profile to correct the scan, so it can the correct your printed target. A professional level CMS will have a separate hardware device designed specifically for reading printed media targets.
I would recommend using Relative Colorimetric as your Rendering Intent when doing the Convert to Profile step and when printing with Print with Preview out of Photoshop. Rendering intents control how the profile is applied to either the scanner or printed image. Relative Colorimetric has proven to be the best in my testing. Read the documentation that came with your CMS in order to learn more about the other available rendering intents.
However, Adobe Photoshop today has gone beyond image editing. Today, the software is labeled as an image manipulation tool. This somehow gives people the impression that Adobe Photoshop actually gives them a greater degree of freedom than other image-editing programs available today. In fact, it actually does. If sight is reality, then Adobe Photoshop can help you create any reality that you want. With Adobe Photoshop, you will be able to create images of other worlds. You will be able to capture the beauty of the universe inside a glass jar. Your creativity will be unleashed. That’s how much Adobe Photoshop can change your life. In the world today, one can easily observe the impact that Adobe Photoshop has wrought on culture. Just like Google, Adobe Photoshop is now being used by people as a verb. When a person is said to be photoshopping something, it is always assumed that the person is editing an image of come sort, whether he or she is actually using Adobe Photoshop or not.
However, like almost any other person who has been held back by the fear that the Photoshop CS might be too sophisticated and complicated to be learned, there is a need to first familiarize with the basic and the advanced functions of the software. Even Adobe Systems recognize the fact that its Photoshop CS offering is challenging to use. Do not fret. There are now numerous ways on how you could easily and conveniently get a tutorial for the software. You would logically not be able to learn how to use the computer program for yourself. However, there are many centers and firms that aim to provide crash courses and lessons for the initiative. Find a personal tutorial center for Adobe Photoshop within your community. Usually, such centers train and educate people about many other computer programs as well. Enroll in such sessions. You would be left to decide whether you would prefer the classroom setup or the personal instruction or the one-on-one session.
Perform non-destructive scaling with Smart Objects. You know how it is: You try to make an imported object larger, and it goes all blurry and pixelated. With Smart Objects, that’s a thing of the past, because you can scale, warp and rotate vector graphics in a non-destructive way. Do neat things in perspective with the new Vanishing Point feature. With Vanishing point you can cut and paste in perspective. Now you’re able to turn a photograph of a wall into a “virtual art gallery” with all the pictures correctly skewed, or move a window from one side of a building to another and, because the perspective is correct, have it look like it’s always been there. You can also draw lines that taper off into the distance - wide nearest the camera, narrow further away - just like in “real life”. Get more accurate printing. With Photoshop CS2, the people at Adobe have improved the printing workflow. Now it’s even easier to configure your inkjet printer to get more accurate colour printing.
PhotoshopSecrets Special FX: This tutorial video contains 19 lessons packed in approximately 2 hours of fast-loading CD-ROM. If ‘cool!’ is the one word that you want to hear to feel validated for your Photoshop efforts, this video tutorial will teach you exactly how to use special effects like the pros. Learn about 3D lathing, liquid splashes, CS branding, pixel stretching, thermal vision, toxic waste and lots more. These are cutting-edge effects, the kind you find in more advanced Photoshop users’ works so you might want to try it out for yourself. Photoshopsupport.com. This site features some of the best and latest Photoshop tutorials, including those in video. Use Photoshop confidently in no time with the free video tutorials. You can even click on the links provided to find out about Photoshop products for more detailed tutorials. If you’re using Photoshop to come up with a cooler, meaner website, you’ll like the short tutorials on SiteGrinder 2, an Adobe Photoshop Plugin.
Tags: Photos
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Digital Photography - Take the Guesswork Out of Mega pixels
Saturday, July 19th, 2008
The number of features that come with a digital camera can be overwhelming and knowing what these features really mean can be a task in itself. From ISO to exposure, how do you know what you need? Here we are going to take the guesswork out of knowing how many mega pixels your photography will require. First let’s make sure we know what a megapixel actually is:
Megapixel is a technical term for “million pixels”, where a single pixel is the smallest unit of color that a camera’s sensor is able to capture. The more pixels in the sensor, the sharper the image a camera can reproduce. Note that some camera specifications abbreviate megapixel as “MP”.
So how exactly do we know how many pixels we need? Knowing the purpose for your photos is the first step. Uses that require a high resolution digital photo will naturally require a camera with a higher number of pixels. Photos for viewing on a computer screen need only a low resolution image making any camera sufficient if this is the only intention for the photos. However, the most common goal of printing or developing pictures requires a high resolution photo for quality results. With this in mind, we will use printing a photo as our example in determining megapixel need.
Now we need to decide on the largest print size we would like of our photo. Although pictures can be printed into poster-size images, the expense comes bigger also. Since most of us will not be using this size, we will consider poster prints a rarity. Since we have eliminated posters, next we find the three most common photo sizes to choose from. Online photo labs have specified that the following minimum resolutions are enough to generate high quality prints:
4 x 6″: 640 x 480 pixels (0.3 mega pixels) 5 x 7″: 1024 x 768 pixels (0.8 mega pixels) 8 x 10″: 1536 x 1024 pixels (1.6 mega pixels)
I have found through my own trial and error that my 3 megapixel camera serves as the bare megapixel minimum that I would use for an 8 x 10″ print. Mega pixels any lower will begin to show pixilation under close inspection. To prevent this, double the above megapixel recommendations when buying a camera. The example shows that if your goal is only for 4 x 6″ prints, a 0.6 megapixel camera is plenty. Most digital cameras start a 2 mega pixels, which would be enough for quality prints up to 5 x 7″.
Once you know the minimum mega pixels required for your image needs, you can move forward to other aspects of your camera in order to be prepared to capture whatever moment comes your way.
Tags: Photos
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