Thursday, January 15th, 2009
Layering begins once the image is stored on your computer, the image will usually open itself in the default programme so you will have to open Photoshop and then find the image you want to open using file – open – and then where the image is stored.
This is when you will do all your manipulation, layering and resizing using Photoshop itself. Once you have completed this you will then save your changes, if you save the images straight into Photoshop it will save them as a PSD, PDD or EPS file. If your image is saved in these particular formats your file will stay large and hold the quality whilst preserving all layers, this is the best file format to use if you are going to be reworking the image.
Other choices of formats for your file are TIFF – which will keep the quality but are large files and best used in design for print, BMP or bitmap is a windows file that creates good photos but creates large files and a PDF is a adobe acrobat file which locks texts and images so they cannot be further manipulated, usually used as a file for sending information or important documents.
Tags: layers, Layouts, Photographs, Photoshop, Photoshop Features
Posted in Image Formats, Photoshop | No Comments »
Wednesday, January 14th, 2009
Photoshop is capable of adjusting to numerous ‘types’ of formats and its tools if used to their full capacity can create some amazing results including even the smallest detailing, It also uses many different formats and there are advantages and disadvantages to which format you choose to save your work in.
Photoshop can also open and save several kinds of files and the more you further your knowledge as to why these files exist you can apply the correct files to the correct image type. When choosing your file format there are three main things you should consider which will help you to determine how to save your file – web use, layering and image quality.
Image quality begins when you first take a photograph with your camera, you should use the highest pixel setting that your camera contains because the higher the level of pixilation the better the quality of the final image, but this also means that the higher the quality of the image the bigger the overall file size will be. You camera will give you the option of how high or low you want the pixilation to be, so change this in accordance to what the final image is going to be used for.
Photographs are best taken as a raw image to begin with as you will have the option to convert them into a smaller file once you have imported them onto your computer, and the larger the image is to begin with I have found, the easier it will be to manipulate using Photoshop’s tools. Photographs can be imported as JPEG’s or as a raw image but if you save as a JPEG you will lose some of the quality of the image from the start.
Tags: Digital Images, Image Formats, Image Types, Photoshop
Posted in Image Formats, Photoshop | No Comments »
Tuesday, January 13th, 2009
This tutorial will teach you how to add colour onto an old photograph that may of lost colour through fading or an image that is originally black and white or greyscale, sometimes this can take a lot of time but the more time spent the better the final result.
1.) Open up the image that you want to use and ensure that the image mode is set to RGB, you can do this by going into Image > Mode and then check its set to RGB.
2.) Press Q to go into quick mask mode and make sure that the quick mask option that is on the main toolbar are set to selected areas. Using the Paintbrush fill in the area that you would like to colourize, this area will then appear in red.
3.) Press Q again and this will send you back into standard mode and a selection will appear around the area you filled with the Paintbrush, when completing the next step your selections will be saved as Layer Masks which you will be able to restore later but you could also save your selections by going to Select > Save Selection and then name the selection after the area which you have just outlined in the image you are using.
4.) Click on Create New Adjustment Layer icon which is at the bottom of the layers palette and choose the option of colour balance from the menu, you will be given a option of highlights, mid-tones and shadows and adjust the sliders for these until you find the colour that you think looks the best, this choice isn’t final you will have the option of going back and editing using your layers palette by double clicking on the adjustment layer icon for the layer that you want to edit.
5.) Repeat this process over again for the other parts of the photo that you need to colourize, when this is al done and you have got colour using your colour balance adjustment layer you can also make further additional adjustment layers to adjust each colour layer more, you will be given a selection of options including Contrast, Shadows, Brightness, Saturation, Hue… Just load the particular selection by clicking CTRL and then clicking onto the adjustment layer, and repeat the process of adding a new adjustment layer.
Tags: Adobe Photoshop, Brightness, Contrast, Hue, Image Restoration, Photoshop, Saturation, Shadows, Tutorials
Posted in Photoshop, Tutorials | No Comments »
Monday, January 12th, 2009
Photoshop has features that adjust your photographs at the click of a button, one of these being the shadow and highlight correction tool that is under the adjustments menu. The shadow and highlight correction tool is a tonal editing option and makes adjusting pictures much easier.
The tool has a set of sliders for shadows and highlights that you adjust until the balance of tones is correct. I have found using sliders is much easier than levels and curves and gives better results.
Match Colour is another feature that will help you to make two pictures that need to be combined look like they have similar colour tones. For example if you have had a portrait taken with flash and want to combine another photograph of someone taken in sunlight. To do this you need to open both images and select the target and destination and then adjust the sliders until it’s as close as you want. The match colour tool also works if you are copying and pasting parts from one image onto another and it is ideal for people who shoot panoramas and want a natural colour transition from one frame to the next so that the entire image blends together perfectly.
Photomerge is another feature that is good for people who want to piece together panoramic photographs. The feature has been programmed to stitch together photographs that have been taken in a series such as a panorama, it automatically finds the edges where a blend should occur and merges them for you without you having to cut and blend the photos yourself.
Tags: Adobe Photoshop, Design, graphics, Photographs, Photoshop, Photoshop Features
Posted in Photoshop, Tutorials | No Comments »
Friday, January 9th, 2009
Adobe Photoshop is one of the most popular design programmes used by Graphic Designers and Web Developers today, this is because of its advanced level of tools and effects when it comes to editing photographs and designing graphics.
The programme was created by Adobe and works with both Windows (PC) and Macintosh. Photoshop’s name portrays it to be a programme solely designed to edit or repair photographs but it is capable of far more than this and once you have practiced tutorials and used your imagination you can create some amazing imagery using Photoshop.
The original versions of Photoshop were produced only for the Mac that allowed image editing to become affordable and accessible on your own personal computers; now Photoshop is industry standard when it comes to image editing.
The programme contains a large selection of image editing tools alongside an advanced capability of producing numerous layers, allowing images to be added, moved and rearranged over and under each other for different effects. It will also read from and convert to a large number of formats but uses its own format for layers, which is PSD.
Tags: Adobe Photoshop, graphics, Photoshop, photoshop CS3, Photoshop Effects
Posted in Photoshop, Tutorials | No Comments »
Thursday, January 8th, 2009
I think it is clear that a machine can design and there will come a time when all the human designer does is supervise the work of the computer which will be programmed to be able to complete design work whilst supervised by a human designer, perhaps computer aided design is actually the future of the digital world?
If this is the case then there may come a time where the human designers are not even needed to supervise the design process because the work completed by the computer is somewhat better than the human design and human input into the computers work.
Computers continue to shock us with what they are actually able to do, machines are now being able to do things which humans thought only they would ever be able to do, all of these are factors which prove the development of technology and artificial computer intelligence. I think that the design industry doesn’t necessarily want computers to be able to do everything that human designers can do, but setting certain challenges for computers can help to aid the human designers so they can focus on work that needs more human input and information from a human source.
If machines do become as creative and intelligent as humans, in the future will there actually be any need to further education after school? Education is there to help broaden a persons knowledge of a subject with exploration of certain topics and issues, in order to have an advantage over others when it comes to getting a job, but within the design industry if it is machines that do all the work and there is no need for human input, post-graduates regardless of their knowledge, fresh idea’s and possibility of input to a brief will not be needed, machines may be used for all aspects of the process of design causing knock on effects within the vacancy for jobs in the creative industry.
Tags: Computers, Design, Design And Technology, Design Process, digital design, graphics
Posted in Design And Technology, Visual Communication | No Comments »
Wednesday, January 7th, 2009
The design process in terms of design on the computer at present uses the human designer to complete the majority of the work, and the computer helps throughout this process by correcting any mistakes and providing a range of tools to help with the design, also giving suggestions as to where things should be, colour palettes, sizes, layouts etc… the computer is merely a clever tool used to design on and helps to produce the human designers expectations.
As technology and computers become more advanced I believe the role of the human designer and the computer will change dramatically, the computer will be given the job of completing a design and the human designer will be an observer ensuring the design was produced correctly. This way the human designer suffers no stress and simply has to provide small instructions to the computer of they need to – the computer does all the hard work.
Computers will have a far more active roll in the production of the design and will ask questions of the designer to problems which the computer believes it cannot handle itself, so the designer will still be making small decisions but only when needed, drawing work will be being completed by the computer and small changes will be being made by the designer if they are needed, computers will be participating more in the design process and this will also help the human designer to stop producing similar work over and over, making them to stay out of ‘routine’ work.
Tags: Design, Design And Technology, Design Process, graphics, Technology
Posted in Design And Technology, Visual Communication | No Comments »
Tuesday, January 6th, 2009
Machines and their developing technology are now used so frequently in the design industry I believe there will come a time in the near future where the machine is the only tool used in design, and humans may not even be needed anymore to help with the design process. As newer and more advanced programmes are introduced more artists and designers are using them as their ‘tool’, this is also because a computer, colour printer, scanner, modem and design package can cost as little as £1,500, and the majority of artists take advantage of this and the creative possibilities it can offer.
Gallery owners, they people who are commissioned to sell design/artwork are uncertain whether it is right to sell computer-generated work, they question if it is ethically correct to sell computer-generated work as fine art. The question is will technology become so clever that it can design everything itself, or for the final design to be successful does the computer also be able to think – like a human. “By the late twentieth century, our time, a mythic time, we are all chimeras, theorized and fabricated hybrids of machine and organism; in short, we are cyborgs.” Donna Haraway’s interpretation of our time to come and that we as humans will develop to become part of the world of technology ourselves.
Will there become a stage where computer can also think? Research has already been done to determine whether or not a computer can ‘think’, part of this research was known as the “Turing test” provided by Alan Turing, he blinded folded a group of humans and told them to ask questions, these questions were then answered by either a computer or a human being and if the human could not distinguish the difference between a answer from a human or a computer then the machine was showing intelligent known as thinking.
Tags: Creative, Design, Design Industry, Future Design, Technology
Posted in Content, Design And Technology | No Comments »
Monday, January 5th, 2009
The format GIF’s can be transformed to create a transparent background or element to the image, meaning a background colour or image of the website you are using your GIF files on can be seen through the particular areas which you define to become transparent. To create transparency first you need to –
1.) Open the image that you would like to add transparency to, if the image has already been highly compressed to prepare for use on the web when you zoom into the image you will notice all the pixels are distorted around the edges, pixilation will be especially high if the compressed image was originally saved as a highly compressed JPEG format. If the image was originally created in Photoshop and saved as a PSD then pixilation wont be a problem but if the image has come from another source then it will more than likely have this problem.
2.) Before you can start working on the image you will need to get rid of all the extra dots around the edges so you can make a clean selection around the image itself, the cleaner the edges of a image the easier it will be to later get a perfect selection with the Magic Wand Tool. The same applies if your image is part of a larger image; everything surrounding it needs to be removed
3.) Using the Zoom Tool zoom into your image so you can see all the edges clearly and then use to Eraser Tool to remove the extra pixels from the edges of the image, including any extra white space, the more precise you are the better your final transparent GIF will be, especially if your final outcome is going to be placed on a contrasting coloured background.
4.) Once you have cleaned up your image use the Magic Wand Tool to select the white space around your image and you should have a perfect selection around the white space (non image) area of the document, drag this layer onto the New Layer Icon and this will make a copy. Select the new copy of the layer and press Delete which will remove the surrounding white space, then click onto the background layer and go Select > All > Delete, click on the eye icon on the background layer and this will hide the layer and show you the transparent areas – CTRL & CLICK on the new layer and your selection will appear back around the image.
5.) In Channels make a new channel and fill the selection of the image with white, then press CTRL & D – this will deselect.
6.) Return to the layers palette to make your image layer active, go to Image > Mode > Indexed Colour and click OK, then go to File > Export > GIF89a. A drop down will appear called Transparency from, choose Alpha 1 and you should see your image turn greyed out in the preview, showing the areas which will be transparent, click OK and then test your image on your web page.
Tags: Design, GIF files, graphics, Images, transparent
Posted in Tutorials | No Comments »
Layering begins once the image is stored on your computer, the image will usually open itself in the default programme so you will have to open Photoshop and then find the image you want to open using file – open – and then where the image is stored. 
