Tue, 03 Jul 2007 00:00:00 EST Keep up-to-date with all of the latest free Adobe Photoshop training tutorials at Photoshop Essentials.com. http://www.photoshopessentials.com/ en-us Copyright 2007, 2008 Photoshop Essentials.com Mon, 08 Mar 2010 00:00 EST http://www.photoshopessentials.com/basics/photoshop-brushes/brush-dynamics/ http://www.photoshopessentials.com/basics/photoshop-brushes/brush-dynamics/ In this series of tutorials, learn how to dynamically control various aspects of your brushes as you paint in Photoshop, including brush size, shape, color, and more, using the Brush Dynamics options in the Brushes panel! Mon, 22 Feb 2010 00:00 EST http://www.photoshopessentials.com/photo-effects/flip-mirror/ http://www.photoshopessentials.com/photo-effects/flip-mirror/ In this Photoshop photo effects tutorial, learn how to create fun and interesting designs and patterns from a single image by repeatedly flipping, rotating and mirroring it, and experimenting with different layer blend modes! Mon, 01 Feb 2010 00:00 EST http://www.photoshopessentials.com/basics/photoshop-brushes/make-brushes/ http://www.photoshopessentials.com/basics/photoshop-brushes/make-brushes/ Photoshop ships with lots of great brushes for us to use, but it's way more fun and interesting to create our own! In this tutorial, learn how to create a new brush from scratch, and how to control the behavior of the brush with dynamic brush options! Mon, 25 Jan 2010 00:00 EST http://www.photoshopessentials.com/photo-editing/black-and-white/ http://www.photoshopessentials.com/photo-editing/black-and-white/ In this series of tutorials, we'll learn the many ways of converting color photos to black and white in Photoshop, including a look at color modes, image adjustments, adjustment layers, gradients, layer blend modes, color channels, and more! With few exceptions, the tools and techniques we'll be covering here have been around in Photoshop for years and are available to anyone using any recent (and even not-so-recent) version of Photoshop! Mon, 07 Dec 2009 00:00 EST http://www.photoshopessentials.com/photo-effects/three-photo-template/ http://www.photoshopessentials.com/photo-effects/three-photo-template/ Learn how to create a simple three-image photo frame in Photoshop, then how to easily convert the final result into a reusable template with Smart Objects! Mon, 23 Nov 2009 00:00 EST http://www.photoshopessentials.com/photo-effects/torn-edges/ http://www.photoshopessentials.com/photo-effects/torn-edges/ Learn how to easily combine the Eraser Tool with one of Photoshop's built-in brushes, along with a few layers and some layer styles, to give a photo a worn, torn edges effect! Mon, 16 Nov 2009 00:00 EST http://www.photoshopessentials.com/photo-effects/action-zoom/ http://www.photoshopessentials.com/photo-effects/action-zoom/ Learn how to create a zoom blurring effect in Photoshop, a popular and easy way to give a photo a sense of action and motion! Mon, 09 Nov 2009 00:00 EST http://www.photoshopessentials.com/photo-effects/film-strip-photo-collage/part-two/ http://www.photoshopessentials.com/photo-effects/film-strip-photo-collage/part-two/ In the first of this two-part Photoshop tutorial, we created a film strip shape to use as a photo frame. In this second part of the tutorial, we'll use multiple copies of that film strip to create our photo collage! Mon, 02 Nov 2009 00:00 EST http://www.photoshopessentials.com/photo-effects/film-strip-photo-collage/ http://www.photoshopessentials.com/photo-effects/film-strip-photo-collage/ In this two-part Photoshop tutorial, learn how to create a fun photo collage using a film strip as a photo frame for multiple images. In this first part of the tutorial, we'll see how Photoshop's various shape tools make it easy to draw the actual film strip itself, which we'll then use in Part Two to create the photo collage! Mon, 26 Oct 2009 00:00 EST http://www.photoshopessentials.com/photo-effects/photo-borders-photoshop-brushes/ http://www.photoshopessentials.com/photo-effects/photo-borders-photoshop-brushes/ Learn how easy it is to create interesting photo border effects using Photoshop's brushes, including how to load additional brush sets and combine multiple brush strokes with different tools, like the Eraser Tool, for virtually endless creative possibilities! Thu, 15 Oct 2009 00:00 EST http://www.photoshopessentials.com/basics/selections/magnetic-lasso-tool/ http://www.photoshopessentials.com/basics/selections/magnetic-lasso-tool/ The Magnetic Lasso Tool is one of the best selection tools in Photoshop, giving us much better results than what the standard Lasso Tool offers in less time and with less effort and frustration. In fact, with a little practice, you may find yourself hopelessly attracted to it! Tue, 13 Oct 2009 00:00 EST http://www.photoshopessentials.com/basics/selections/polygonal-lasso-tool/ http://www.photoshopessentials.com/basics/selections/polygonal-lasso-tool/ The Polygonal Lasso Tool, another of Photoshop's basic selection tools, is perfect for selecting objects in a photo with many straight, flat surfaces or sides, allowing us to draw as many sides as we need in any direction with just the click of a mouse! Sun, 04 Oct 2009 00:00 EST http://www.photoshopessentials.com/basics/selections/lasso-tool/ http://www.photoshopessentials.com/basics/selections/lasso-tool/ Photoshop's Lasso Tool is probably the easiest of the selection tools to use, allowing us to draw freehand selections around objects in a photo as if we were outlining them on paper with a pen or pencil. While it may not be considered a professional level selection tool, we'll learn how to combine it with Photoshop's ability to add and remove areas of a selection to fix up problem areas and dramatically improve your results! Wed, 30 Sep 2009 00:00 EST http://www.photoshopessentials.com/basics/selections/elliptical-marquee-tool/ http://www.photoshopessentials.com/basics/selections/elliptical-marquee-tool/ The Rectangular Marquee Tool may be one of the easiest Photoshop selection tools to use, but it isn't much help to us when we need to draw oval or circular selections. That's where the Elliptical Marquee Tool comes in, and it's every bit as simple. In fact, the Elliptical Marquee Tool is really just the Rectangular Marquee Tool with extremely rounded corners! Thu, 24 Sep 2009 00:00 EST http://www.photoshopessentials.com/basics/selections/rectangular-marquee-tool/ http://www.photoshopessentials.com/basics/selections/rectangular-marquee-tool/ Being able to select objects or areas in a photo is one of the most important Photoshop skills you need, but not all selections need to be complex or time consuming. In this tutorial, we look at one of Photoshop's most basic and easy to use selection tools, the Rectangular Marquee Tool, perfect for making selections based on simple geometric shapes. Wed, 16 Sep 2009 00:00 EST http://www.photoshopessentials.com/basics/selections/why-make-selections/ http://www.photoshopessentials.com/basics/selections/why-make-selections/ There's lots of ways to make selections in Photoshop, some simple, some advanced, but having lots of ways to do something doesn't explain why we need to do it in the first place, so in this tutorial, we'll look at why we need to make selections in Photoshop at all and why Photoshop doesn't see things like we do. Mon, 24 Aug 2009 00:00 EST http://www.photoshopessentials.com/photo-effects/high-key-glow/ http://www.photoshopessentials.com/photo-effects/high-key-glow/ In this Photoshop photo effects tutorial, learn how to give your images a romantic, magical look by adding a glow effect to just the highlights in the photo, an easy effect to create thanks to Photoshop's Color Range command. Mon, 17 Aug 2009 00:00 EST http://www.photoshopessentials.com/photo-effects/text-portrait/ http://www.photoshopessentials.com/photo-effects/text-portrait/ In this Photoshop photo effects tutorial, learn how to create the illusion that a portrait photo is actually being created by multiple lines of text. Mon, 03 Aug 2009 00:00 EST http://www.photoshopessentials.com/photo-effects/halftone-pattern-photo-border/ http://www.photoshopessentials.com/photo-effects/halftone-pattern-photo-border/ Learn how to create a fun and simple halftone pattern photo border in Photoshop! We'll use Smart Filters in Photoshop CS3 and CS4 to keep the effect fully editable even after it's completed, but this photo border can be easily created with any version of Photoshop, including Photoshop Elements! Mon, 27 Jul 2009 00:00 EST http://www.photoshopessentials.com/photo-editing/dual-view/ http://www.photoshopessentials.com/photo-editing/dual-view/ If it's true that two heads are better than one, it's also true that two views of the same image are better than one, especially when it comes to photo editing. Learn how to keep a constant eye on your overall image in Photoshop no matter how far you've zoomed in with this dual view editing technique! Mon, 20 Jul 2009 00:00 EST http://www.photoshopessentials.com/photo-effects/motion-blur/ http://www.photoshopessentials.com/photo-effects/motion-blur/ In this Photoshop tutorial, we'll learn how to add a sense of speed to an object using an easy to create motion blur effect! This "speed trail" effect is very popular in sports photography since it's a great way to add motion, direction and excitement to an image, creating the illusion that an athlete, for example, is blazing past the competition at super human speed. Of course, this effect works just as well with a photo of your kids running in the backyard, or people dancing at a party, or any image where the subject should appear to be moving. Mon, 13 Jul 2009 00:00 EST http://www.photoshopessentials.com/photo-effects/dissolve/ http://www.photoshopessentials.com/photo-effects/dissolve/ Learn how the Dissolve layer blend mode in Photoshop can be used to add more interest to your photo effects, as well as how to easily create a speckled photo border! Thu, 02 Jul 2009 00:00 EST http://www.photoshopessentials.com/photo-effects/painterly-glow/ http://www.photoshopessentials.com/photo-effects/painterly-glow/ Learn how to blend multiple motion blurs together to create an interesting painting/glow photo effect, and discover why Smart Filters, first introduced in Photoshop CS3, are one of the best new features Adobe has added to Photoshop in years! Wed, 24 Jun 2009 00:00 EST http://www.photoshopessentials.com/basics/photoshop-cs4/arrange-documents/ http://www.photoshopessentials.com/basics/photoshop-cs4/arrange-documents/ Photoshop CS4 makes viewing and comparing multiple images easier than ever thanks to the new Arrange Documents feature and a bunch of new multi document layouts! Learn how to use them and even how to zoom and pan all of the images in a layout at once! Thu, 18 Jun 2009 00:00 EST http://www.photoshopessentials.com/basics/photoshop-cs4/tabbed-document-windows/ http://www.photoshopessentials.com/basics/photoshop-cs4/tabbed-document-windows/ If you've been wishing for a better way to work with multiple images open at once in Photoshop, one that doesn't involve endlessly dragging document windows around on the screen, check out the new Tabbed Document Windows feature in Photoshop CS4! Switching between multiple images has never been easier! Mon, 15 Jun 2009 00:00 EST http://www.photoshopessentials.com/basics/photoshop-cs4/interface/ http://www.photoshopessentials.com/basics/photoshop-cs4/interface/ New to Photoshop or upgraded from an earlier version? Check out our quick tour of all the features in Photoshop CS4's user interface, the most streamlined, efficient and user friendly interface so far! Learn what's what, what's new and where it all is, including a look at the brand new Application Bar and Application Frame! Mon, 08 Jun 2009 00:00 EST http://www.photoshopessentials.com/photo-editing/keystoning/ http://www.photoshopessentials.com/photo-editing/keystoning/ Tired of the buildings in your photos looking like they're leaning backwards? That's a common perspective problem known as keystoning, but Photoshop's powerful Lens Correction filter, first introduced in Photoshop CS2, makes it easy to fix! We can even take care of a few other potential image problems along the way, all with the same filter! Mon, 01 Jun 2009 00:00 EST http://www.photoshopessentials.com/photo-effects/panorama/ http://www.photoshopessentials.com/photo-effects/panorama/ Photoshop has been somewhat capable of creating panoramas for quite a while now, but it wasn't until Photoshop CS3 came along with its dramatically improved Photomerge command that its ability to stitch photos together really began to shine. Photoshop CS4 takes things even further with some additional new features, including the ability to remove vignetting, making it easier than ever to combine multiple photos into seamless cinematic panoramas! Sat, 16 May 2009 00:00 EST http://www.photoshopessentials.com/photoshop-text/text-effects/texture-text/ http://www.photoshopessentials.com/photoshop-text/text-effects/texture-text/ Learn how to create an interesting effect by adding a texture to text in Photoshop, using nothing more than a photo for the texture, a layer mask, a simple image adjustment, and of course, some text! Includes a trick for pasting an image directly into a layer mask in Photoshop! Wed, 13 May 2009 00:00 EST http://www.photoshopessentials.com/photo-editing/photoshop-cs3-curves/ http://www.photoshopessentials.com/photo-editing/photoshop-cs3-curves/ The Curves image adjustment is widely considered to be the most powerful and versatile photo editing tool in the entire program. While the basics of Curves may not have changed in Photoshop CS3, the Curves dialog box has received a major upgrade with new features and some welcome improvements! Mon, 11 May 2009 00:00 EST http://www.photoshopessentials.com/photo-editing/levels-curves/ http://www.photoshopessentials.com/photo-editing/levels-curves/ Photoshop's Curves adjustment can seem less like an image editing tool and more like something from a science lab, but in this tutorial, we compare it with the Levels adjustment to see just how simple Curves really is, and why Curves goes far beyond anything you could hope for with Levels!