September 3rd, 2010
Good morning 
Today a post about certain techniques in Photoshop used for unlocking layers. This may seem like an easy topic, however there are some very nice techniques I want to share with you.
To start with, Background layer is always locked by default. That’s the nature of Background layers. But today we are not talking just about background layers but about layers in general. Here is a screenshot of a typical layers structure with a locked background layer:
Any layer in Photoshop can be locked as well. It is as simple as selecting a layer and clicking the Lock icon at the top of the Layers panel:
Now, the question is “How do you unlock the layer?”
There are a number of techniques that can be used here:
- You can use the same icon you used to lock the layer, if you click on it again, this will unlock the layer.
- You can also click on the Lock icon next to the layer’s name and drag it to the bin! This is a nice one.
- You can also use “/” to toggle between locking and unlocking the layer – another very nice trick. I learnt this one from Zeno Bokor – the credit goes to you, Zeno!
Enjoy!
Tags: Layers, Photoshop
Posted in Photoshop | No Comments »
September 2nd, 2010
Good morning everyone!
This is the day we have been waiting for for the last couple of weeks and finally Lightroom 3.2 has arrived!
There has been going on a lot as Adobe team was working on some fixes for issues from Lightroom 3. Many people were complaining about some issues with Lightroom 3 so Adobe listened and started working on the issues to fix them.
What’s new in Lightroom 3.2? Here we go:
- Additional camera support for several new cameras including Panasonic DMC-LX5, Sony NEX-5 and Pentax 645D
- Fixes to many issues from Lightroom 3
- Direct publishing to Facebook
- Over 120 new lens profiles (!)
Here are links for downloads:
Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 3.2 for Windows
Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 3.2 for Mac
Enjoy!
Tags: Lightroom, Lightroom 3, Updates
Posted in Lightroom | No Comments »
September 1st, 2010
Hello hello, Happy Wednesday to everyone!
Two things today – PhotoshopLightroomTV Day! and OpenType in Photoshop.
1. Starting with another Episode of PhotoshopLightroomTV, go to PhotoshopLightroomTV website to watch it! Great resource for learning Photoshop and Lightroom and it is FREE! Find out how to use Graduated Filter and Adjustment Brush in Lightroom! Very very nice.
2. Adobe together with Microsoft (something a bit unusual) developed a cross-platform font file called OpenType.
OpenType format uses a single font file for Windows and Mac, which is a great feature because you do not need two different versions of the font. You can move files from one platform to another without worrying about font substitution.
OpenType in supported in Photoshop CS4 and CS5 and it offers expanded character sets. It also offers expanded layout features, for example discretionary ligatures which are not available in TrueType and PostScript fonts. Thanks to that, OpenType provides advanced typography control.
More information on OpenType can be found on the Adobe website. Here is the link – OpenType.
I hope you enjoyed that. See you tomorrow!
Tags: Photoshop, Photoshop CS4, Photoshop CS5, Text
Posted in Photoshop | No Comments »
August 30th, 2010
Good day to everyone,
Today is a bank holiday here in the United Kingdom so my post today will be short.
We are enjoying our long weekend, I hope those of you who live in the UK are doing the same. Because of bank holiday, Photoshop Lightroom TV will go live tomorrow, thank you for your patience.
I have just spotted a new book from Focal Press worth noting :
3D in Photoshop
The Ultimate Guide for Creative Professionals by By Zorana Gee.
This is the first book of its kind that shows you everything you need to know to create or integrate 3D into your designs using Photoshop CS5 Extended. Remember that only the Extended version has 3D so you will need Photoshop CS5 Extended (you will have it if you have CS5 Design Premium or Web Premium or Master Collection).
It looks like a great book and I will definitely get it! Make sure you check it out before I do!
Here is the link to the website where you can find out more about the book – 3D in Photoshop – Focal Press.
Tags: Books, Photoshop, Photoshop CS5
Posted in Photoshop | No Comments »
August 27th, 2010
Hello everyone,
If you are wondering whether you should shoot raw or jpegs, I will try to give you an explanation on how it works in Lightroom.
It is true that Lightroom is a pure non-destructive editor and even if you are working with Jpegs you are applying non-destructive editing to your images. It is also true that Jpegs are smaller than Raw (much smaller) in terms of file sizes on a hard drive.
There are certain setting you cannot change for Jpegs, f.ex. White Balance Settings. If you shoot Jpegs you are stuck, but if you shoot Raw you can play with White Balance so it doesn’t matter if you set it on Tungsten and you work outside in sunny weather – you can change it!
When you shoot Raw, your images are not fully processed by your camera. Also, what you see on the back of your camera is not a real Raw file, it is just a Jpeg preview that camera generates for you.
Shooting Raw gives you unlimited possibilities in making adjustments to your images and it is not true what many photographers say that they shoot Jpegs because it is faster to give them to the clients. You can export your Raw images as Jpegs with a click on one button! So no excuses any more.
Have a wonderful day and a fabulous weekend.
Tags: Lightroom, Photography, Raw
Posted in Lightroom, Photography | No Comments »
August 26th, 2010
Good morning!
Have you ever tried to remove EXIF information from the files in Photoshop? When you take photos, your camera automatically saves all the technical information about the photo – this is EXIF. To access EXIF in Photoshop, you can go to File -> File Info, then Camera Data category in the dialog box that opens:
This displays all the information registered by the camera including aperture settings, shutter speed and even whether flash was used or not.
What if you want to remove the EXIF? The information in Camera Data category is not editable. Here is the trick:
Go to Save for Web and Devices, File -> Save for Web & Devices:
On the right side of the screen, under Convert to sRGB, go to the submenu: Metadata and choose what you want to include with your file. To remove EXIF, just choose Copyright or None.
I hope this helps.
Have a wonderful day!
Tags: EXIF, Photoshop, Photoshop CS4, Photoshop CS5
Posted in Photoshop | No Comments »
August 25th, 2010
Hello hello,
How about cropping the images in Lightroom today? Here is an interesting question:
” Is there a way to crop outside the image in Lightroom to get an extended canvas/space like in Photoshop? Is this doable?”
This is a good question and the answer is: There is no direct way to do it using Crop but there is a trick that works. Here you go:
Use Manual Lens Correction in Lightroom3:
Now, use the Scale slider to create a border effect! When you reduce the value below 100, the image will scale showing the background.
And that how it is done! I learnt this trick from Lee Jay who gets credit for the trick. Thanks Lee Jay!
You will loose resolution when you scale the image down so bear this in mind.
Have fun!
Tags: Lightroom, Lightroom 3
Posted in Lightroom | No Comments »
August 24th, 2010
Good morning
Have you upgraded to CS5 already?
Maybe you want to play with the new features and you would like to use demo assets Adobe used in their presentations. Here is the answer for you. Adobe provided a link people can use to download the demo assets for every Creative Suite 5 product.
There are seperate downloads for Windows and Mac users and you can download demo assets for Photoshop and all the other applications.
You can download Demo Assets from this location. These assets can be used: “for demonstration and testing purposes.” (quote from one of Adobe employees).
Enjoy!
Tags: Creative Suite 5, CS5, Photoshop CS5
Posted in Adobe Creative Suite, Photoshop | No Comments »
