Welcome to the March 2006 Newsletter. You'll find a whole slew of new Photoshop tutorials below, including 8 sample chapters from the Cookbook Series, and an extensive sample chapter from the Photoshop Hacks book that teaches you all about selection masks. You'll also find 6 great Flash video tutorials that are from a new Total Training series, and we've included a short interview with trainer John Ulliman as well.

At the end of the newsletter look for an Exclusive Discount Coupon that offers $50 off of pro masking software Fluid Mask. The offer also includes a free upgrade to version 2. And so until next month, happy Photoshopping!





Photoshop Digital Studio Cookbooks
The following sample chapters are taken from the Photoshop Digital Studio Cookbooks and are courtesy of O'Reilly Media.

Whitening Teeth & Eyes
Whenever the need arises to make a natural element white or whiter, it's tempting to set the foreground color to white and reach for the airbrush. This works if applied with care, but it's easier to achieve a more realistic effect using other Photoshop tools. Here, a small amount of whitening applied to the model's teeth and eyes will lift the whole image.

The first technique successfully whitens your teeth without placing demands on your brushwork. As with most retouching tasks, it's best to work on a duplicate layer in case you make a mistake.

Creating Black And White From Color
Black-and-white photography is as powerful today as it was when color photography was just a distant dream. A different set of skills is required when working with black and white, as the absence of color means the interplay of shape and contrast must work harder to tell the story or set the mood, but when it works, it's very effective.

Some cameras have a dedicated black-and-white mode, but even if yours doesn't, you can still work in black and white. In fact, it often works better to shoot in color and convert later on. Photoshop offers a breathtaking array of techniques for converting color to black and white (or more correctly, grayscale), and these enable you to control the process with a degree of finesse that would be difficult to match in the field.

How To Create A High-Contrast Sketch
Combining the Find Edges filter and the Overlay blending mode can produce a high-contrast sketch effect that works with many types of images. This recipe includes multiple Overlay layers, which boost contrast, so the recipe works particularly well with low-contrast images. In the recipe, I use three Overlay layers—you can use more or fewer, though more than three can produce excessive contrast. Another variation, if the result is too harsh, is to add some Gaussian Blur.

Powder Pastels — Hand-coloring Image Tips
This recipe replaces the colors of the original image with powdery pastels. Apart from being great on its own, this recipe can be a great shortcut for hand-coloring an image.

In "Reversed Color" where colored areas are very dark, they will become grayscale. In "Subtle Colors" shadows and midtones turn grayscale, pure blues become yellows, reds come out cyan, and greens go lilac. In "Color Midtones" you reduce the Pin Light layer's fill opacity to restore some pastel colors in the midtones.

Selective Coloring — Remove Color From An Image
Color has great power when it comes to conveying emotion and attracting attention. This power is multiplied exponentially when color is used as an accent in an otherwise monochrome image. By using selective coloring, we can draw the viewer's eye to the key areas of an image, with the colored areas adopting a jewel-like quality amid an expanse of gray.

The effect ranges from the subtle to the extreme. We can tint an image with just a hint of color, or apply an exciting splash of color to a specific area. Layer masks are an essential tool here, offering us the ability to restore color to the area of our choice, which can be controlled and restrained with the accuracy only a brush can provide.

Hand Tinting — Tips For Photo Coloring Effects
Before the age of color film, when black-and-white photography was the only option, it was common practice for photographers to tint a black-and-white image with colored dyes to mimic real-life colors. Although we now have all the advantages of stunning color photography, we can still use Photoshop to replicate this technique, and add great charm to black-and-white images.

What we're looking for here is not truly lifelike color, but a decorative and subtle effect. Essentially, we can tint as little or as much of the image as we like, but the effect works best where areas of color are contrasted with the uncolored grayscale image.

Watercolor — Creating Artistic Painterly Effects
Watercolor has long been a defining Photoshop filter, though the crucial illusion of one color running into its neighbor is only partly achieved. Use the Smudge or Healing Brush tool to help the illusion. If you're looking to imitate gouache painting, however, search no further — the slight darkening around the edge of each patch of color perfectly reproduces the effect of this more opaque pigment.

Ink Outlines — How To Give An Image A Drawn Look
The Ink Outlines filter offers an interesting "drawn" line effect in combination with a background mottling that recalls the Sponge filter.

In "Using The Ink Outlines Filter" You learn how you can use Ink Outlines as a remedy to breathe some life into otherwise flat subjects. In "Fixing Color Cast With Ink Outlines" you'll read about another rescue mission that involves mitigating irreversible color casts.



Photoshop Digital Studio Cookbooks From O'Reilly

Photoshop is the digital artist and photographer's premier choice for editing and manipulating digital photos. And with the mounting interest in digital photography, the demand for practical guidance, expert techniques, tips and solutions — recipes for success if you will — continues to grow. It's exactly all of this and more that O'Reilly delivers in its beautifully designed and visually stunning new series, the "Photoshop Digital Studio Cookbooks."

Packed with hundreds of full color images, inspiring digital imagery, and authoritative information and advice, the books provide everything the reader needs to retouch, create effects, use blending modes, and filter effects, with professional results. With the books in this collection, the digital artist or photographer doesn't need to be a Photoshop expert to succeed. The "Photoshop Digital Studio Cookbook Series" includes the following:

Photoshop Retouching Cookbook for Digital Photographers (Amazon.com - save 34%)
Photoshop Photo Effects Cookbook (Amazon.com - save 34%)
Photoshop Filter Effects Encyclopedia Cookbook (Amazon.com - save 34%)
Photoshop Blending Modes Cookbook (Amazon.com - save 34%)
Photoshop Fine Art Effects Cookbook (Amazon.com - save 34%)

Photoshop Hacks by Shangara Singh - Sample Chapter
"Chapter 9: Hacking Selection Masks"

To work on an isolated area of an image without affecting the rest of the image, Photoshop uses selections to isolate areas. The selections are variously referred to as selection masks, or often abbreviated to masks or selections. The selection edges are also sometimes referred to as marching ants.

When an area is selected, you can move the selection, or the content encompassed by the selection, around the image. You can even move the selection or the content to another open document. You can hide a selection from view, disable it altogether, or invert it so that the masked areas become exposed to editing and the unmasked areas become impervious to editing.

Below are links to sections of a sample chapter from the ExtremeTech book, Hacking Photoshop CS2 by Shangara Singh (ISBN 0-7645-9788-4) published by John Wiley and Sons, and available at your favorite book seller. (Reprinted with permission.)

We've divided "Chapter 9 Hacking Selection Masks" into the following 3 sections:

Creating And Saving Selection Masks
Selections can be created in a number of ways. They can be created from the ground up using the selection marquee or lasso tools, or with painting tools by entering Quick Mask mode, or they can be based on the luminosity or the color data in the image. They can also be created from existing paths and path components. In ImageReady, you can create selections from slices.

Editing And Modifying Selection Masks
Very rarely is a new selection perfect. Invariably, you have to do some work on it before you can use it. Fortunately, after you have stored the selection in an alpha channel, you can modify it in a number of ways. You can use painting tools, transform commands, or filters to modify the alpha channel and then load it as a selection mask.

Selection Mask Quick Hacks
The following hacks cover some of the methods most commonly used for creating selection masks. They are presented here in one place for your consumption. Feast on them from time to time when you feel hungry.



John Ulliman On 'Total Training For Macromedia Flash Professional 8' DVD Set & Free Sample Clips

Total Training recently launched a new series "Total Training For Macromedia Flash Professional 8" that includes 24 hours of indexed tutorials on using Flash Pro 8 for creating interactive websites. The training is led by John Ulliman, an authorized instructor for Macromedia's studio of products and principal of his own project development company. We'll be posting a review of this training series shortly, but in the meantime we asked John a few quick questions about the DVD set...

How would you describe the Flash learning curve for a total beginner?
The learning curve isn't really bad — most students assume that its worse than it is, simply because it's a program unlike others that they are used to. Most people are coming at flash from a static graphics experience and the timeline can be a bit intimidating at first. Once we get a little into using keyframes and staging things on the timeline — the "curve" flattens out quite a bit.

Is the Total Training series a complete program that starts you from zero, or does one need some knowledge of Flash beforehand?
I've designed the training series to start completely from zero — so you don't have to worry about knowing anything to get started. We take everything step by step, from the drawing to the animating so you don't have to have any experience with the tool at all to get going.

Do you suggest using a training book as well, or is video training enough?
You shouldn't need any books to accompany this training — most should find that with the dvd you can stop, pause and rewind, it should be much faster seeing the processes than reading about them. We show exactly where the controls are and what happens when they are used so there is no guesswork.

Do you believe that more of the web will feature pure Flash sites, or that sites will be a combination of Flash and HTML?
We are seeing a lot of our clients go for the full pure flash sites now — even though it is still a mix, especially now that we are moving flash on to other platforms like cell phones and PDAs. I would say that video projects are the largest use in combination sites with all the advantages that flash video has over other playback formats.

What are your favorite new features in Flash Pro 8?
I'd have to say that the new video and text rendering features are getting the most use in our new flash projects, and I know the clients are very excited when they see the quality of the video and size of the movie files — but my favorite feature by far is the custom easing control for animation. I have worked with a lot of animation software, and this one control is a huge leap forward for all animators in terms of control and ease of use — not to mention the professional motion results you can get with it.

That's it for now. Thanks John!

To give you an idea of what the training is like, here are some High Definition sample tutorials from the series that we are hosting, courtesy of Total Training.

How To Add Frames In The Timeline Window
In this tutorial you will learn how to add frames to individual elements in Flash, how to insert a frame using the menu in Flash, and how to manoeuver through the timeline window.

How To Prepare, Test And Publish A Movie
In this tutorial you will learn how to prepare items in the timeline window before publishing a movie in Flash, how to test a completed movie in Flash, and how to preview a Flash movie in a browser for final testing.

How To Set A Mute Sound Button
In this tutorial you will learn how to set a mute sound button in Flash, how to use the Behaviors Window to set common actions in Flash, and how to attach an action script to stop all sounds in Flash.

How To Create & Add A Simple Mask
In this tutorial you will learn how to create and use a fill shape as a mask in Flash, how to preview a mask in Flash, and how to use the timeline window to animate the mask.

How To Make New Layers - Flash Video Tutorial
In this tutorial you will learn how to make a new layer in Flash, how to rename and position a new layer in Flash, and how to work with the layers menu.

How To Import And Add Sound To A Movie
In this tutorial you will learn how to import sounds and place them in the timeline in Flash, how to preview a new imported sound in Flash, and how to add sound to a movie using the timeline window in Flash.

How To Work With The Size Report
In this tutorial you will learn how to work with the Generate Size Report in Flash, how to interpret the information generated in the Size Report in Flash, and how to double-check for certain elements that may create large files.

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New Photoshop Brush Set 'Fabric' From Kirsty

Kirsty sends this in: "Hi everyone, I'm sorry for the slight delay in brush news, but I finally managed to find some time to make a new brush set. The new set features different kinds of fabric textures which you can find at the usual address of 500ml Brushes. Hope you enjoy it!"

The Fabric set contains 9 brushes of different kinds of fabric and textures.

Scott Kelby's "The Photoshop Channels Book" Released

We haven't received our review copy yet, but wanted to mention that Scott Kelby's latest Photoshop book, "The Photoshop Channels Book" is now available for ordering. Here's some blurbs we found:

"One big advantage Photoshop professionals have always had was the understanding of channels. It was their secret weapon, and it enabled them to do things, and work in an entirely different way than their competitors, and maybe that's why the secret power of Photoshop's channels has been such a closely guarded secret. Until now.

"You'll learn how today's top photographers and graphic designers employ channels to make impossible selections, to speed their production workflow, to color correct images, to mask images, to create stunning color to black and white conversions, and to do dozens of inside tricks that set them apart from the field. You'll be amazed at not only what you're able with channels, but you'll love the competitive advantage that using channels will give you. Also covered are all of Photoshop's newest channel-related features, including an improved Histogram palette that displays channels in color with a dynamic view of how filters, curves, and other settings will affect tonal range and bit depth."

The book lists at $39 but is available at Amazon.com for $26.39 (34% off).

Monitor Calibration & Color Management Tool - Pantone Huey Solves Digital Image Problems on Monitors
buy Pantone huey at Amazon.com for $79 (11% discount) + free shipping.

Pantone have announced the availability of huey, an easy-to-use monitor calibration tool designed for digital photo enthusiasts, gamers and any computer user wanting absolute color and clarity. Developed in partnership with GretagMacbeth, huey is based on GretagMacbeth's technology and is a true breakthrough in terms of form, function and usability. About the size of a small marker, huey delivers excellent results on LCD, laptop and CRT displays without requiring users to have any knowledge of color management. In addition, huey is the first monitor calibration device to continually adjust the monitor as room lighting changes.

"The convergence of publishing, the Internet and entertainment has led to a generation of computer users whose primary media is the computer screen," explains Doris Brown, vice president of marketing for Pantone. "This has big implications in terms of color. In printed media, color can be carefully controlled during the printing process to ensure the viewer sees the intended color. Different monitors, on the other hand, interpret color differently, leaving a big question mark in terms of color accuracy. With huey, wondering if your color is right is a thing of the past."

"huey breaks new ground in terms of size, performance and ease-of-use," adds Iris Mangelschots, vice president and general manager of digital imaging at GretagMacbeth. "We've been able to leverage the technology used in our professional products, package it in a very affordable and convenient form factor and combine it with new software designed specifically for the non-technical user. Our partnership with Pantone and their ability to reach consumers is important to the success of huey."

In less than five minutes, huey can calibrate a user's monitor and adjust it based on their primary viewing activity viewing photos, playing games, creating graphics or browsing the Web. And it is priced at an affordable $89 ($79 at Amazon.com).

"huey may be the coolest tool I've seen for achieving color accuracy. With its portable, sleek design and professional-level technology, it's a great tool for any digital photography enthusiast who might want to edit or print digital images," said professional photographer and PANTONE Innovator, Jon Canfield. "huey makes sure the reds, greens and blues are all true. This is something anyone who uses a monitor will appreciate."

buy Pantone huey at Amazon.com for $79 (11% discount) + free shipping.

Adobe Announces Photoshop Elements 4 For Macintosh

Adobe Photoshop Elements 4.0 software for Macintosh combines power and simplicity to help you do it all. Edit and enhance your photos by fixing common flaws instantly or using advanced options for more control — you can even fine-tune the raw files produced by your digital camera. Features include: