Wise SEO Project

Learning photoshop with Video Tutorials

Sunday, January 25th, 2009

With the spot healing tool, you simply click on or drag across the flaw you want to remove and it disappears. The retouched area is blended into the surroundings seamlessly – most of the time anyway. It takes a little practice getting a feel for how brush size and healing work together, but most of the time it does an impressive job.

CROPPING. Select the “Crop” tool icon from your Tools bar, then drag it downward diagonally from the upper left corner to the bottom right corner. Release the mouse and then use it to manipulate the image size with the crop “handles.” Hit “Enter” or “Return.” RESIZING. Go to “Image” in your top menu, then choose “Image Size.” Enter the dimensions you need and hit OK. (You can radically change the outer shape of the image by unclicking “Constrain Proportions” at the bottom of the page and entering different dimensions, then clicking OK.)

You can also add new colour stops to an existing gradient by clicking anywhere along the bottom edge of the preview bar. As well as editing colour stops for the gradient to blend between, you can also add different opacity settings to make it fade from solid to transparency. Strike a balance The Gradient Editor automatically places a midpoint between each colour stop to create a smooth linear blend between colours.

Image Adjustments: No doubt you’ll need to tweak things such as levels and colour values on occasion. These shortcuts will take you to the heart of the Image – Adjustments menu – Adjust Levels…….[Ctrl]+[L] – Auto Levels………[Shift]+[Ctrl]+[L] – Auto Contrast…….[Alt]+[Shift]+[Ctrl]+[L] – Auto Color……….[Shift]+[ Ctrl]+[B] – Curves …………..[Ctrl]+[M] – Color Balance…….[Ctrl]+[B] – Hue/Saturation……[Ctrl]+[U] – Desaturate……….[Shift]+[Ctrl]+[U] – Invert…………..[Ctrl]+[I] File Management: Browse, open, close and save your files for a variety of formats, all at the touch of a key or three – New File………….[Ctrl]+[N] – Open File…………[Ctrl]+[O] – Open File Browser….[Shift]+[Ctrl]+[O] – Save……………..[Ctrl]+[S] – Close…………….[Ctrl]+[W] – Save As…………..[Shift]+[Ctrl]+[S] – Save for Web………[Alt]+[Shift]+[Ctrl]+[S] – Undo last action…..[Ctrl]+[Z] – Step Forward………[Shift]+[Control]+[Z] – Step Backward……..[Alt]+[Ctrl]+[Z] – Page Setup………..[Shift]+[Ctrl]+[P] – Print…………….[Alt]+[Ctrl]+[P] – Print with Preview…[Ctrl]+[P] – Print One Copy…….[Alt]+[Shift]+[Ctrl]+[P] – Jump to ImageReady…[Shift]+[Ctrl]+[M]

To experiment with advanced Photoshop layering, you’ll need something to work on. So first bring up a photo inside Photoshop, then create another layer with something on it. On the bottom of your Layer Style box, you will find the “Blend If” settings. Choose either gray, red, green or blue inside the drop-down Blend If menu, then use your slider bars to control the opacity of the layer you highlighted or the layer underneath. Dragging the “white” slider left will diminish the whites or highlights, and the layer underneath will show through. You will quickly see how blending each color affects the image. You can use this versatile feature, for example, to replace a washed-out sky with a nice blue sky, blending the transparency to a gnat’s eyebrow.

Hoping to get a jump on Google and other competitors, Adobe Systems plans to release a hosted version of its popular Photoshop image-editing application within six months, the company’s chief executive said Tuesday. The online service is part of a larger move to introduce ad-supported online services to complement its existing products and broaden the company reach into the consumer market, Adobe CEO Bruce Chizen told CNET News.com. Chizen said Adobe laid the foundation for a hosted Photoshop product with Adobe Remix, a Web-based video-editing tool it offers through the PhotoBucket media-sharing site.

Your “Color Balance” and “Channel Mixer” are also valuable tools for transforming colors in an image. Find them both by clicking Image, then Adjustments. Inside your Photoshop Tool Box are all the icons you need to polish up an image to perfection. (If you don’t see your Tool Box, click “Window” and select “Tools.”) Almost every tool provides other hidden options, which become visible upon right-clicking. If you hover over the tool icons a message appears describing their function. Midway down on the right-hand column is the Dodge-Burn-Sponge tool. Try opening the “Sponge” function (you will probably have to right-click to find it). Under your top menu, you’ll see the sponge icon appear, with various options. Click on the pull-down Mode menu and choose “Saturate.

Why ‘I Know’ Are The Two Most Destructive Words To Learning.

Sunday, January 25th, 2009

How many times do frustrated parents correct their kids, only to be told ‘I know that’ by their half-listening offspring? Every mum and dad in that position knows the message hasn’t got through; the child obviously neither knows nor cares, and nothing of value has been learned.

To really get to grips with a subject, it’s vital to always be receptive and open-minded. It’s a common observation that the more you learn, the more you realise how much you don’t know – it’s a sobering thought that every single person in the world knows more about something than you do! This isn’t said to make you feel small, but simply to encourage a thirst for knowledge, rather than being a closed book.

Mentally assuming ‘I know’ is a directive to our inner consciousness that all is well, and there is nothing more to be learned about a subject. Adopting such an ‘ignorance is bliss’ type attitude is hardly conducive to learning and study, as our depth of understanding will always remain shallow.

Going through lessons just to say we’ve done them will achieve nothing if we’re convinced that we know it all. Mentally, the gate is locked, and so new material will go straight over our heads, as if it wasn’t actually there at all. A closed mind won’t even recognise knowledge when it’s presented.

School’s never out for the professional, and it’s a fact that everyone in the world knows something that you don’t know, however clever you are. Keeping an open mind yields new perspectives and avenues that weren’t seen before, and this can lead to a deeper understanding all-round.

If you really want to squeeze everything out of a subject, then repetition is key. Go over the same thing at a different time of day, and see how much more you can pull out of a lesson – there’s always a new angle you can see. Just like watching a good murder mystery on television; when the repeats come round we see so many more clues and ‘co-incidences’ that make up the whole plot than the first time around.

Occasionally we can experience a revelation when objectively going over previously learned material. A different approach to teaching might throw into question our perceived wisdom on a subject, and lead us to better comprehend that which we’d mis-interpreted in the past.

Society has developed over the years because of open-minded people keen to progress the thinking of their age. Those who ‘know everything’ can never improve, and their ‘knowledge’ becomes stagnant. Those who embrace the ideas and wisdom of others become the most valuable people on earth.