3 posts tagged “photoshop”
It’s all but impossible for me to
go into a bookstore without doing a pass at the design/computer section. When
it comes to Photoshop, you’ll typically find a glut of titles that usually do a
halfway decent job of listing all of its features with brief instructions on
how to use them. There is certainly nothing wrong with these books, and I own
several such titles. In fact, that’s why I almost didn’t even leaf through the
copy of Scott Kelby’s 7-Point System for Adobe Photoshop CS3 at my local
Border’s.
Judging from the title, I was expecting it to be a beginners-only book. As it
turns out, the book assumes you already have a comfort level with the finer
workings of Photoshop. The underlying concept of the book is that all other
Photoshop books simply dissect the various components of the application and
tell you how to use them. Do you have a dark image? Use levels to lighten it.
Have a blurry image? Use Unsharp mask. Want to get rid of a blemish? Use the
rubber stamp tool. The issue that Kelby addresses is that many digital artists
don’t know how to assess a photo and determine what needs to be done to it
overall and in what order. In simpler terms, the question becomes how to make a
good photo a great photo. As a master Photoshop user, Kelby audited his own
process as he worked on hundreds of images. He realized that the majority of
photos required a combination of the same seven steps. In the book, Kelby
breaks down each of those seven steps and applies them to real photos using
detailed tutorials.
The 7-Point System is actually a complete course in a book. Readers are
“required” to work their way through the entire 21 chapters, with each chapter
detailing all the things you need to “fix” the tutorial image. Chapters take
about 10-20 minutes to complete. Initial chapters walk the reader through each
detail of the correction, for instance, how to do an appropriate amount of
Unsharp Mask followed by a Fade Unsharp Mask to Luminosity. In later chapters
it simply will say, “then do Unsharp Mask as before.” This technique keeps the pace
of the book up so you don’t get bogged down in repetition.
If you are a Photoshop user, your first instinct when looking at the book might
be: “yeah, I already do all this stuff.” Perhaps, but the book tells you how to
most efficiently use the various tools and techniques. It also helps cut down
on lots of trial and error work when it comes to correcting images (should I
lighten in RAW, with Curves, by Dodging, etc).
This is certainly one of the most enjoyable Photoshop books I’ve purchased for
some time. Even if you consider yourself to be an advanced user, you would
benefit from checking it out.
- S. Running
Photoshop can be, at times, cumbersome with each new
edition, although this is not to say completely futile. What commences
as a brief look into creating conceptual art, culminates into an
exceptional discovery. PSDTUTS.com
is anything
and everything Photoshop related. Lessons range from applying realistic
tattoos, retouching facial imperfections, creating conceptual art,
building seamless collages, fine tuning techniques of illustration, to
making rad text effects. PSDTUTS is not only a prime
resource for Photoshop tutorials, but it is also an online community
where readers have the opportunity to suggest topics and even write in
for paid publishing on the site. Definitely a hot resource right now.
- B. Juergens
Tutorialblog has been posting tutorials on subjects from Photoshop to web design since 2005. Yesterday, it ran an interesting post about the use of photography in web design, making this thought-provoking observation:
“Photography can make or break a website. Got a great site with lame pictures, then you’ve got a lame website.”
But as anyone even remotely acquainted with web design recognizes, the reverse can be equally as true: got a website with great photography but lame site design, then you’ve a got a lame website. Elements like tone, placement and a heavy dose of AJAX help aid the overall effectiveness of photography in a site design.
Granted, stellar professional images are (obviously) attention arresting. But it’s important to remember the unsung heroes like CSS and Ruby on Rails (web dev’s latest bellwether open source app) and the dynamic effect they have upon otherwise static images—not to mention the fact that they make those sharp, professional shots manageable for web browsers and BlackBerry’s alike.
Topping Tutorialblog’s list of sites that ‘get it right’ are Incase for its crisp, close-up product detail, Brook Pifer for its audacious large scale gallery and Nike because, well, it’s Nike.
- Carley Johnson
