cool fun things to do with photos

Tutorial and hint for Photoshop

If you are new to Photoshop, then you may feel overwhelmed. Like learning any new program, it will take some time to get an overall feel for how the program works, the basics, and then of course- learning tricks to cut corners or achieve the best desired results. Here are some excellent sites that I have gleaned from the web, that can help you get started using Adobe Photoshop, and have you making excellent images in no time at all.

Well, it stands to reason that if you want to learn more about how to use Adobe Photoshop that you should go directly to the source. So that’s what we are going to do.


· Here is a link to many tutorials and tips provided by Adobe. Some of the tutorials include topics such as: Edit in Perspective with Vanishing Point; The 3D Picture Trick; and How to Animate a Layered Photoshop File http://studio.adobe.com/us/search/sort?sort=topic&product=15&topic=0&type=all&level=all&x=8&y=6

· This site is aptly titled, “Photoshop Tutorials and Training.” It is a wonderful resource with tons of tutorials written by Photoshop gurus. There are easily 100 tutorials listed on this site. http://www.graphicdesign.com/Photoshop/tutorials/index.html

· About.com’s Graphic Software Guide: Sue Chastain has created an entire online course for learning the Basics of Adobe Photoshop. The best part is it is entirely free. You can even have the lessons delivered to your Email! Here is a link: http://graphicssoft.about.com/c/ec/1.htm



· Laurie McCanna’s Site offers great user-friendly Photoshop tutorials and tips. http://www.mccannas.com/index.html

· This site: Photoshop Support (Photoshop Tutorials & Photoshop Plug Ins) not only has great free tutorials, but also has excellent graphic based lessons as well as free videos that you can use for instruction. They are QuickTime and easy to download. http://www.photoshopsupport.com/

Error Code 704

I searched for why GMail would not work and all I really found was this blog entry on authenticgeek.


Error Code 704
April 06, 2006
Gmail has been a really great tool up until yesterday and today. Server errors, 704 errors, emails that show up 40 minutes after they've been sent... other people using gmail don't seem to have the same issues but I have them across all my machines and browsers. Is it fixed yet?


Update: As I mentioned before, this never seems to be an issue with all users. Search queries for "error code 704" from google (irony?) spike on this page usually for less than an hour at some peak times (6AM, 10AM PST) so I suspect it's a scaling issue which google is dealing with by shedding certain groups of users. I believe the best way to deal with the issue is to blog about it considering that issues with gmail went away shortly after I did the same.

I wonder if anyone else has any ideas why that does that to me...
And another great question..
Should vegetarians eat animal crackers?

~Corena

Free image sites are a way to get your work out and known!

There are no usage restrictions for this photo. It is one of my favorite things to read! That is what is under some of the images I find and use at the SXC.hu site.

I made this banner and many many more with images that I find at different sites around the net. I want to thank all the photographers around the world that give their great images for use by many people!

I used this gents self portrait http://www.sxc.hu/photo/486624 for the above banner and a huge amount of pictures from the SXC.hu and the morgue file went into an ebook called "Your Guide to Digital Photography".

One of the best ways to build a portfolio is to submit your images to a free image site. Most photography sites have forums and blog space that build communities of talented people. These communities can help a novice pick up tips that can be invalueable. For the professional these sites can lead traffic to your own portfolio. Allowing people to use one or two good images can be a grand sales tool. As a designer I know this as a fact. If I see a photo on a site that I can use over and over I often go to the photographers linked site to see what else is available.

I am glad these sites exist and are around to help designer and photographer....Again THANKS

Royality free is not FREE

A royality is a use license for images. You pay for the use of the image..you can pay each time it shows.

A royality-free image is an image that you pay a one time fee to use it many times.

A completely free image is a image that the photographer has given free use.

A copyright free image is an image that has no copyright attach and can be used by anyone..nasa often posts copyright free images and PD PHOTO give copyrights to users.

Often "free" sites attach a "link" trade to the images. You may use the images for any reason as long as you link back to the website.

The STOCK EXCHANGE Has many completely free to use images but you must look under the large thumb nails of the images to find out if the photographer has given free use of the image.So in conclusion....If it says royality free..it is not free.

Public Domain is free to use as you wish.

Here are some links that might be of interest to help understand the public domain, and thus contrast it against the minimally-restricted permissions granted for photos in site like the morgueFile archive and royality free sites differ:

US Copyright Office: Definitions

Electronic Frontier Foundation

Free Software Foundation: License Overview

Creative Commons: Public Domain Dedication

Union for the Public Domain

AND even if you get a photo from a site that offers it free you still need to realize that they may not have gotten a model release from the person in the photo and if you are publishing a image of a person on a product you will need that permission.

This is a handy guide to the keyboard short cuts for CS2
Photoshop CS2 Shortcuts pfd

ENJOY!

When I first started in photoshop I did not know ....

How to add a font.
You can manually install them in C:\Windows\Fonts\. You can install about a thousand fonts in C:\Windows\Fonts\ and use them in many different programs not just Photoshop

OR

Add Fonts
1. Click the Start button, point to Settings, and select "Control Panel" from the menu that appears.
2. Double-click the "Fonts" icon.
3. Click the File menu and select "Install New Font..." from the menu that appears.
4. Navigate to the location of the font you would like to install.
5. Select the font to install (the fonts in the selected folder will be shown in the "List of fonts:" list).
6. Click OK.

Photoshop tips and links to free photoshop plug-ins

Tips from Don thank you.

In reference to an offhand remark I made a few days ago, Angel wrote me a PM and asked me if I really thought her images were too gray. I wrote back a short note telling her it wasn't just a problem with HER images, but with many images captured by photographers of all skill levels. And I gave her a really nice trick to help remove polluting grey casts and improve overall contrast. She jumped all over me once about not sharing more Photoshop knowledge, so I figure I'll just put this nice little trick out there. When you open an image for the first time, change the mode immediately to LAB. This "gamut" is a range that is defined by three channels, two devoted to color and one to tone. The "L" stands for "Lightness". Once in LAB mode, apply the CURVE command, and play with the two extremes of the curve, especially the highlight end.What happens is a shift in grey without affecting the actual colors. The LAB gammut (a gammut is a range, in this case a range of grey values) is larger than both the CMYK and RGB gammuts, giving more flexibility to change colors and tones.By changing the Lightness curve one can remove grey casts while improving contrast and allowing color to come out more vibrantly. When turns back to RGB or CMYK one will find the changes have been non-destructive to the histograms, leaving one with the full range of gray values. I've prepared a before/after to show several different images, and what happens on blanket, non masked processing using this technique. You'll see how it cleans up many areas, making it much more pleasant, while other areas are harmed. Changes may not be totally obvious at first glance, but these two images would print with amazing differences.http://www.s30d.com/sxc/lab.htmTo localize the effect, simply click on the "Create new fill or adjustment" icon on the layer palette, choose curves, apply the desired curve, then airbrush onto the layer to eliminate where you don't want it applied.It's quick, it's easy, and you'll be amazed at the non-destructive improvement in quality.

PHOTOSHOP TIP # 2

Want a soft, rich photo done easily? This is a really basic tip that will make lights lighter, darks darker, and colors colorer. Not for every picture, not for every occasion, and when used in moderation is quite nice. I will use this trick to pleasantly saturate while (often) removing polutant blacks and cyans in highlights. It is best to scale your image to the 100% output size and work from there. Duplicate image to a second layer. Gaussian blur the image on the second layer to the point where it's not recognizable. (Play with this as different blurs will give different final effects.) On the layer palette, turn the mode of the second layer to "overlay." Play with the opacity slider until you get what you like best.You're done.This isn't an uncommon trick, and many users who are even novices will say "hey, I know that one!" It's quick, simple, and one of the most satisfying PS quicktricks to improve shots.

A few Plug- ins

Visit http://www.freephotoshop.com http://www.mediachance.com

http://www.optikvervelabs.com/

offering free plugins for any adobe-compliant image editor.