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admin | January 19, 2009
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Creating A Two-Tone Silhouette Effect

This tutorial will show you a quick way to use photoshop to create a trendy, effective, two-tone silhouette effect. Once you have mastered creating the two-tone silhouette effect you can experiment with different colours and filters. 

1.) First you need to start with the photo you want to apply the effect to, any photograph will work well with this effect as long as it is of a good quality. 

2.) You then need to duplicate your layer, this isn’t essential but it helps if you make a mistake when completing the design, then desaturate your duplicated layer, you do this by using Image > Adjust > Desaturate. 

3.) Now go to Filter > Artistic > Cutout and use settings similar to the following:

Number of Levels: 2

Edge Simplicity: 3/4

Edge Fidelity: 3

4.) The next step is to go to Image > Adjustments > Levels to bring up the Levels Dialog Box. Drag your sliders very close to each other, until your image is only black and white.

5.) Your image will probably have some pretty jagged edges. To fix this go to Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur. Enter a value of around 2.0 pixels, or whichever makes your edges look smoothed.

6.) Bring up the Curves Dialog Box by going to Image > Adjustments > Curves. Adjust the curves so the edge blurriness is gone, but there is still no jagged edges. You could get a little more advanced with this by masking your subject out (cutting out) first, then running through the steps, this could give you the option to have a coloured background etc. 

Category: Photoshop, Photoshop Filters, Tutorials | Tags: , , ,
admin | January 16, 2009
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Electrical Currents In Photoshop

This short tutorial shows you how to create the effect of arcing current in the air. Because it uses the “Difference Clouds” filter, the effect can look different every time you try it, as that particular filter changes each time you use it. 

1. Open a new file. Make it 500 x 500 pixels, this is a nice size to work with for this tutorial. 

2. Next you need to set the foreground colour of the file to black and the background to a light grey.

3. Select the gradient tool and then in the tool options bar, set the gradient to Foreground to Background.

4. Drag the gradient tool diagonally across the image from one corner to another.

5. The next step choose Filters > Render > Difference Clouds, which as said earlier will give a different effect each time you use it. 

6. Now Invert the colours in the image by pressing Ctrl + I.

7. After doing this you need to choose Image > Adjustments > Levels to open the Levels dialog box. Drag the black slider to the right to dramatically darken the image, when doing this the effect of “electrical currents” should become apparent.

At this stage the electrical current looks very realistic but if you would like to add some extra colour to the image you can play choose Image > Adjustments > Variations. From the Variations dialog you can add colour by clicking directly on any of the preview images. Each time you click on the preview images the colour will change.

Category: Photoshop, Photoshop Filters, Tutorials | Tags: , , , ,
admin | January 15, 2009
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Layering Images In Photoshop

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. 

Category: Image Formats, Photoshop | Tags: , , , ,
admin | January 14, 2009
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Image Formats In Photoshop

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. 

Category: Image Formats, Photoshop | Tags: , , ,
admin | January 13, 2009
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Photograph Restoration In Photoshop

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.

Category: Photoshop, Tutorials | Tags: , , , , , , , ,
admin | January 12, 2009
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Adobe Photoshop Features

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.

Category: Photoshop, Tutorials | Tags: , , , , ,
admin | January 9, 2009
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Adobe Photoshop Overview

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. 

Category: Photoshop, Tutorials | Tags: , , , ,
admin | January 8, 2009
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Can A Machine Design

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. 

Category: Design And Technology, Visual Communication | Tags: , , , , ,
admin | January 7, 2009
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The Design Process And Computers

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.             

Category: Design And Technology, Visual Communication | Tags: , , , ,
admin | January 6, 2009
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The Design Industry And Machines

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.                                                                                                 

Category: Content, Design And Technology | Tags: , , , ,
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