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David Peters's Articles in Photography

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  • Easy step by step processes for Photoshop
    There are some pretty cool things you can do with Photoshop that can changed your view of text for a while. One interesting one is having some normal text and adding a few shades to make it fun and more interesting. It is in two easy steps: 1. First, create an image about 300 x 100 pixels, and 72 pixels/inch. Select a foreground color of #CACACA, and fill the image, to make the background this color. When you've filled the background, then select your text tool, and add the text you want to add, make the color of the text close to #3F3F3F A darker grey. 2. OK, now we can add the shadow. It is as easy as adding a layer effect and can come in very useful for other things too. Go to Blending Options (Right-click on text layer).You will get a menu with structure, elements and quality. In the structure menu you would select 100% opacity, 0% noise, and the solid not gradient option. For the elements you would want the technique to be softer, the spread 2% and the size 8pixels. For quality you want 55% range and 0% jitter. You can always play around a little with these, if it does not suit. (The color used for the shadow is #8A8A8A) So once you have that, just click OK, and you should get your final result. It's as easy as that!
  • Figuring out photoshop just got easier
    Click on the Brustic to open the Brush Preset picker, and scroll down to see the default set of brushes. Towards the foot of the list of default brushes you'll find a variety of unusually-shaped brush tips, including brushes shaped like stars and blobs. Click on the picker's menu icon to access other, specialised sets of brushes. You can use the picker's menu to display a thumbnail of the brush stroke, or set it to show the brush tip and name. The numerical value indicates the brush's initial diameter in pixels. You can customise this to suit your requirements. When you select a new set of brushes, you can either replace the existing default set or append the new set to it so you can use both.
  • Get more done with Photoshop
    A fun idea to do is create an abstract picture, you can do anything you want to it. One fun idea is the add a fire look to a picture, here is a step by step way to do it: First thing's first, get a nice stock photo. I used a stock photo of an eye from deviantART.First of all I opened the photo and resized it to 75% of it's original size. 1. After you've opened your photo up, duplicate the background layer then apply Filter > Distort > Twirl and use the default setting. That should have just distorted it slightly. Now change the layer mode for your duplicated layer to Lighten. That will have made the eye look a little bit alien-like. 2. Now brighten up the picture a little bit by adding in a Brightness/Contrast adjustment layer (Layer > New Adjustment Layer > Brightness/Contrast...) Now this is the part where you choose the fiery color for your photo. Go to Layer > New Adjustment Layer > Gradient Map. I changed the layer mode for this layer to Linear Light and lowered the opacity to 85%. 3.Ok, here are some nice optional effects.Before adding effects like these, you'll probably need to flatten your image (Layer > Flatten Image) then duplicate the one remaininglayer. First, I applied Filter > Artistic > Rough Pastels with the default settings. Now change the layer mode for this layer to Lighten and maybe lower the opacity if you see it need sit. I lowered the opacity to 70%. 4. To finish this tutorial off, I flattened all the layers, applied Filter > Sharpen > Sharpen, faded the sharpen to about 40% (Edit > Fade) then I added in a little bit of tech and grunge.
  • Get some cool Photoshop tips
    Want to add some metal and ink to people in your family, well read this: Press SHIFT+M and cycle through the marquee tools until you come to the circle (alright, elliptical marquee tool) . Once that's selected, you'll see some options at the top of the canvas. In the drop down list next to Style, choose 'Fixed Aspect Ratio'. This of course gives us a perfectly round circle selection every time. Go ahead and drag one out now. Not too big, though. Good. Now we need to go Select->Modify->Border. A screen pops up asking you how many pixels wide you want it to be. I put 3 here. Now we need to put something in it. Stop! Before we fill it with color, we have to make a new layer (CRTL+SHIFT+N). Now press SHIFT +F5 to bring up the Fill screen, and from the drop down menu choose '50% grey'. We don't need the selection now, so CRTL+D to deselect. Now a round circle isn't going to be very realistic. What we need to do now is distort it a bit. Press CRTL+T to enter transform mode, then right-click and choose 'Distort' from the menu. Now play around moving the handlebars around the square. Good. We could now just take the eraser tool and get rid of that bit in the middle. A better way, though, is to use a mask. At hte bottom of the layers panel you'll see a little grey rectangle with a white circle in it. Click it and our layer gets a brother. The foreground/background colors also change to black and white. Now if we paint black, it will take away the ring, and if we then paint white, it will bring back what we painted black. Just to the left of the mask icon on the layers panel, you will see as well the Layer Style icon. Click it now and from the list that springs down, choose 'Bevel and Emboss'. This is pops up another screen with lots of options on it. We don't need to change anything for now, though. You will also see that our ring is updated in real time, so we can see the results straight away. To give it more highlights and make it shinier, hit the 'Gloss Contour' box. Another screen pops up where you can alter the mapping. Just click and drag the black line until it is like the example.
  • Have some fun with Digital Photography
    Photography is not just about pointing and pressing a button; it's a decision-making process. One of the best reasons for working photography into your activities and projects is that it helps people better understand the media images they're bombarded with every day. Photography is also just plain fun, and it's a wonderful foundation for community-based projects. If you introduce photography properly, it helps you look much more carefully at the world around you.
  • Learn the ropes of Digital Photography
    There are certain features on modern digital cameras that you can live without. Two closely related features in that category are digital zoom and interpolated resolution. Both rely on the same principle, and it is definitely something better left to the editing software on your computer. When on the subject of digital cameras, interpolation is just a term for a computer's best guess as to what should happen when you try to turn one large pixel into more than one smaller pixels. The computer (whether it's your home PC, a dedicated graphics machine at a photo lab, or the chip in your camera) uses mathematical formulas that try to guess, based on the colors of surrounding pixels, what the new substitute pixels should look like. For example, if a series of black pixels in a line on a white background are doubled, the pixels added between the black pixels will be black, and those between the white pixels will be white.
  • Lots of information on Photoshop
    Wouldn't it be cool to create abstract art? Want to create a mysterious lady that is fire, follow these step by stepy instructions: Start by opening an image of a model in an interesting pose. Create path surrounding her body using pen tool in path mode. Ctrl+Enter the path to get the selection. Hide the image layer. Create a new layer and fill with a solid yellow color. Select gradient tool. Create a gradient. Duplicate the layer. Enable lock transparency pixels form the layer palette. Select multiply as gradient mode from the options bar at top. Apply the gradient several times. Change the layer mode to "Linear Light". Duplicate layer. From "Filter" menu select "Liquify". Select forward warp tool and apply on this layer from down to upwards to create an effect of flames. Change the layer mode to "Pin Light". Select the background layer. Apply the same gradient that we used in the lady silhouette on the background layer. From "Filter" menu select "Render>>Difference Clouds". Reapply this filter a number of times. Press Ctrl+U to open hue/saturation window. Duplicate the layer. Change the layer mode to "Linear Light".
  • Want some great and interesting Tips on Learning Photography
    A very important thing in this part of the process to remember is that you need to back up the picture first or save your changed picture to a different name. If you don't, you won't have a chance to use the original to edit. If you make a mistake at this point, you will be up the proverbial creek without a paddle! If you are going to print a picture, but don't want every piece of the image, then you need to crop it out. This is a basic step to take, especially if you want to enlarge an image, or only use part of the picture itself. You can easily crop (take out) outside areas of a photo, without being an expert at it! Absolute must haves when it comes to printing out a picture, are the proper printer and paper. Without these two items, printing out pictures can be impossible! They don't need to be the most expensive items you can find, but you will want them to be a good quality and easy to use.
  • Wondering how to use your digital camera? Wonder no more
    Though digital photography has come a long way, beginning photographers must still maintain control of the shots they intend to take. For example, focusing and clarity can be sensed automatically by most digital cameras, but that doesn't necessarily make the picture a good one. Therefore, choosing the right camera, one which allows you to control intensity, contrast and lighting, is not a choice to make sparingly. Most often, people review cameras and pick their own personal favorite, and while the advice may be helpful to others, it is not necessarily for everyone. First, your needs must determine the type of camera you will buy. Do you prefer to have a smaller camera that can be carried around in your pocket, or would you rather a full-size camera which is carried in a bag? The choice is up to the buyer, and should be thought about carefully before making a decision.
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