Category: tips and tricks

Creative Presentations

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The aforementioned tutorial is now recorded and up for your viewing pleasure. Lots of content here including multiple layers, layer masks, gradients, keyboard shortcuts, and marquee selections in place, so hopefully a helpful tutorial all around. In the interests of providing a web-based version and a downloadable version, I am going to embed the flash one with this post, and provide a link to download either a WMV version or a Quicktime version. Fair warning, but the Quicktime version has a short feedback issue from when I re-recorded the intro vocals…will attend to that today (hopefully), but if you skip over the first ten seconds, a new musical intro is also in place (yup, I’ve been busy…new vocals, new musicals, and new tutorials!) So, without further ado, here’s today’s tutorial:

Mac Version

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Centering Objects

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Just a quick video podcast today, I ahd a few ideas on what to do, but the hours in the day ran short on me yet again, so, in time for the weekend, here is one on how to center objects inside of Photoshop. I used text here, but it really would work with any object you want to have completely centered across an entire image area. Check it out – it’s only 3 minutes total! Thanks for watching, and don’t forget to tune in next week when my new audio equipment will finally be up and running – microphones, cables, phantom power supplies, wall mounts and all!

Life Lessons (and a tutorial)

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The last week has been an interesting one… I got a call at work saying that my wife was at the doctor’s office and they were transferring her to the hospital as a precautionary measure for some elevated blood pressure levels. Needless to say, the next few days I was not thinking much about getting a new podcast tutorial out. After getting every test known to mankind done, the good news is that she is fine and will be sticking around for a while. The bad news is that she needs to go on some blood pressure medication and she has now joined the ranks of Vytorin membership (although her dosage is lower than mine).

That was Wednesday and Thursday.

Friday was pretty much a “recovery day” and I attended to the typical daily minutia that was not taken care of on Wednesday and Thursday.

Saturday, I had a photo assignment for a real estate agency, so I headed out to Daniel Island and shot the property from every angle you could think of. On the way back, I stopped off to get some pumpkins for carving today at one of the local farmer’s market vendors. The pumpkins and flowers made for such vibrant colors I couldn’t help but take some pictures there too.

So, now it’s Sunday and I’ve settled down in to do the post processing from my shoot yesterday, look at my fantasy football setup for the day, and record a tutorial for the blog!

It’s a quickie today, but something that has a lot of uses, and is so easy once you know how to do it, you’ll find yourself playing with Photoshop more and more as a result. The subject is creating backgrounds, and it’s pretty cool. Check it out: Creating Backgrounds in Photoshop

In the meantime, here’s one of the better shots that came from the pumpkin outing:

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Tuesday’s Tutorial – Creating Actions in PS

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While I don’t have a regular schedule for releasing content, tutorials or otherwise, the alliterative bonus of having a tutorial on Tuesdays tastes terrific to tongues. And…since i posted it before midnight, it technically was released on Tuesday, even though it’s 11:20pm! Well, what was neat about this was that on my weekly visit to Photoshop User TV, Matt Kloskowski showed how he created an action for curves adjustments in LAB, and this same technique is what I used for the sharpening aspect of my work flow. While I also have the LAB action assembled, I had split that up into three different ones (one at 3 hashes, one at 2 hashes, and another at 1 hash). Check out the video on their weekly blog post here: Photoshop User TV. I gotta admit though, it was kind of cool though to see a technique I use also be showcased in the tip from the likes of Matt Kloskowski. So, in keeping with the use of layers adjustments as a means of applying different effects repeatedly for evaluating images, my tutorial follows the same theory, but applies it to sharpening rather than curves.

It’s kind of long (12 minutes) because I went through every step, AND I left a mistake in intentionally to show how you can edit an action while you are recording it! Take a peak at it here: Creating a Sharpening Action in Photoshop

As for consolidating the curves adjustments from 3 to 1 using this technique, I actually will pass on that because for me, I am usually pretty close in my “guesstimation” of what will work, and I just want the action to do that for me, not multiiple layers of different curves adjustments. Sharpening is tougher though, so I think it’s more valuable as a method in that regard. We’re all different though, and that’s what makes the world go around, so if you like it, go for it! Enjoy and have a great Wednesday. Oh, and I would be remiss if I didn’t give Matt the courtesy of a link to his site on Lightroom Killer Tips. Check them out too…I am always learning from this guy…

Applying Gradients to Text in Photoshop

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Another tutorial has been uploaded and is ready for viewing. This tutorial shows how to use layers to apply a gradient effect to text inside of Photoshop. With the layers, you can preserve the text and the gradient independently of one another for future editing and customization, depending on the need and use. Check it out by visiting the tutorial page for it today:

Applying Gradients to Text in Photoshop

As always, feedback, comments and ideas are always welcome either here or via email: Jason AT Canonblogger DOT com! Thanks for tuning in and happy shooting!

More reading materials…

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While we are definitely in a digital world, from images and pictures to audio and video podcasts as well as streaming media are the rule rather than the exception, there is always content that is just not deliverable in these formats. Essays and articles on photography may seem like a contradiction in terms, but the quality of some stuff out there is just amazing. Scott Kelby, for example, knocks out about 2-3 books per year. There’s a reason for this….some things just can’t be done with images and videos. So, as Canon Blogger.dot is intended to be a resource for many media types, I’ve got another article I’d like to share with the readers (it looks like about 30 per day, so thanks to the growing audience!).

This one is titled “Considering the ‘Why?'” and looks into what motivates us as photographers. I originally wrote this as a response to a podcast recorded by Craig Tanner over at The Radiant Vista, a few months ago, but the theory and idea behind it still holds true, so I thought I’d share it here. Thanks for taking the time to read/listen, and another video podcast should be coming out soon!

Download the PDf article here: Considering the ‘Why?’

Type Tool presets

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On the heels of the last tutorial, this week, the focus shifts to pre-sets. While Photoshop is not the best program for creating style sheets for text, the presets can make things easier if you want to re-use the same format. So, check out the latest video tutorial. It’s online now and again under 5 minutes for those on the go. In the meantime, happy shooting! I’ll have some pics up from the weekend later this week. ETA: Link is fixed, was pointing to an earlier tutorial on a different tip for the type tool. Sorry for the mix-up.

Type tool Presets

Type Tool Tricks

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Today’s treat talks truthfully to type tool tricks! Terrific! I love alliteration, in case you couldn’t tell! All joking aside, since shorter videos seem to generate more interest (5 minutes or less), I’m trying to keep it under 5 minutes per video, so check out the latest one today, on manipulating text in Photoshop. Today’s is kind of neat because it shows a not often used (at least to my knowledge) palette – the character palette! Here the video shows how you can stretch a font across the width of the entire image without changing the font size or type (horizontally scale the text in other words). Check it out:

Type Tool Trick

Sharpening in LAB Mode

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That’s right, the podcast is done…this is part deaux of what will likely be a three part series that speaks to my work flow in LAB mode. The first tutorial dealt with curves and luminance adjustments in the LAB color space, and here, I illustrate how to sharpen in the LAB color space. Great stuff here, and I also briefly touch on producing an action that will create various layered sharpness levels so you can pick and choose which suits your needs best.

Also helpful are some formulas I’ve learned on what works best for various scenarios. I intended to include these in the podcast, but I am trying to cut down on podcast length and keep extraneous info to a minimum. Nevertheless, the various sharpness levels are relevant, so I am including them here:

For people, portraits, etc.: An amount of anywhere from 120-150%, a Radius of 1.o, and a Threshold of 10 works well.

For cities, architecture, etc: An amount ranging from 50-65%, a Radius of 3 and a thresh hold of 2 does great.

For general everyday use: For all others, I try an Amount in the range of 80-85%, a Radius of 1, and a Threshold of 4.

As always, these numbers are not set in stone, and will vary depending on the types of photos you are working with and your particular tastes. Nothing is ever set in stone in a subjective field like photography, so take this information with a grain of salt, and pepper to your own tastes.

Anyway, without further ado, here’s the Sharpening in LAB tutorial! Enjoy! (And feel free to leave a comment or idea – if you do, you’ll be the first!)

Outpatients and outages, but we have a new tutorial!

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It’s been a few days since making a post, as there have been a few issues that have come up, not the least of which was an outage or two from my provider. As a result, I was not able to get online for more than a few minutes at a clip for Monday and Tuesday as a result.

Additionally, I had an outpatient procedure done yesterday at the Doctor’s Office so I needed a little time to recuperate after that. Things are slowly working their way back to normal though, and I have the first in a two part series of tutorials designed to give some insight to my work flow and the use of the LAB workspace for both lightness and curves adjustments. Check them out via the link at the end of this post. In the meantime, happy shooting, and I’ll be back in a day or two with the remainder of the LAB work space tutorial…

Curves Adjustments in LAB