Learn Photoshop the fast and easy way

Because the Clone Stamp's function is to subtly replace one area of pixels with another, you don't need its brush tip to be shaped like a rubber duck, for example! However you can use the Brush Preset picker to arm yourself with a variety of creatively-shaped brushes, should your project require them. Working smarter with the Brush Preset picker means maximising its potential. If you're not already familiar with this interface.

Making custom brushes is one of the easiest things in the world. Seriously! I don't know why I've read some tutorials that make it out to be this multi-step, intimidating process. Creating your own brushes helps to customize both your artwork and the Photoshop work environment. The Hard Part: "But ... you said this would be easy!!" Technically, yes, but I've found that some people actually reach a little stumbling block when trying to think of what would make a good brush. Well, the short answer is ANYTHING! I've made brushes out of fuzzy leopard slippers, bananas, old trash cans, fabric swatches, dirt ... hundreds of things. It helps to have a scanner and/or a digital camera ... that really opens up your possibilities. Just a quick walk around your house might yield dozens of fun textures you can make brushes out of. But, even if you don't have either of those, you can often snurch some good textures off the internet. Try a google search for marble tile and see what comes up. Sometimes you'll get a nice big image to work with. I'm not condoning stealing someone's art photos to rip a brush off with, but if it's just a sample photo of tile, or fabric, or screen, or whatever, I think it's perfectly fine ... you'll be drastically changing the image in the next steps anyway.

Whatever you're trying to do in Photoshop, then, the chances are that your starting point will be either the toolbox or the menus. While the toolbox contains everyday tools such as selecting, filling and making shapes, the menus have more complicated functions like blurring, sharpening, and all the other effects Photoshop can achieve (mostly to be found under the Filter menu). When you have selected a tool from the toolbox, you can alter its settings using the toolbar - options from the menu will generally open a dialog box. Finally, when you want to go back and alter something that you already put on the image, you can use the palettes, although they have some other uses too, notably changing colors.

The problem with many of these applications is that they use pre designed templates which the user pieces together to form logos that really are not that original and sometimes appear a little generic. While these applications allow the user to quickly begin creating graphic designs and logos they often simply do not produce designs that are original and in demand by web design clients. If you take the time to learn adobe Photoshop there will be no limit to the logos and graphic designs you can put together. Although the interface can seem a little overwhelming at first, learning Photoshop is not difficult if you have the right tools and take the time to practice.

Do you have old photographs that are faded, worn out, crinkled or even torn? Of course you do, everyone does. Many of these photos are likely very old family photographs that are simply irreplaceable should something happen to them. In the past it was very expensive and time consuming to have old damaged photographed restored. It usually required a photo restoration expert and sometimes the results were not really that great. Digital imaging, and more specifically Adobe Photoshop, has revolutionized the process of renewing and restoring old photographs. It is amazing the results you can achieve with Photoshop. Old and damaged, even torn, photographs can be restored and renewed to their original colors and vitality using the tools available in Photoshop.

The Caledonian Digital website is user friendly and offers extensive information relating to the services provided, as well as providing recent articles on various aspects of digital photography, and links to sources of hardware, software, and reference material for photo restoration enthusiasts.For additional information on the launch of Caledonian Digital's new hassle free photo restoration and enhancement service contact Charlie Templeton or visit www.caledoniandigital.co.uk.

The tools we use in Photoshop are levels, curves and saturation for changing contrasts; and, color balance to bring the image back to the way the natural eye would see the color. Here is what we tell our photographers in the Handbook of Reuters Journalism... Photoshop is a highly sophisticated image manipulation programme. We use only a tiny part of its potential capability to format our pictures, crop and size them and balance the tone and colour. For us it is a presentational tool.The rules are - no additions or deletions, no misleading the viewer by manipulation of the tonal and colour balance to disguise elements of an image or to change the context. Photoshop is a powerful image processing program with many more tools to help photographers produce the best quality image they can for the type of photography they do.

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