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The Photoshop Blog offers the latest Photoshop news and software updates, Photoshop tips and tutorials, and random thoughts from graphic artist and Photoshop expert Jennifer Apple.




March 15, 2008

Here's my latest collection of Photoshop tips, news and tutorials...

John Nack
Lightroom 1.4, Camera Raw 4.4 now available
Adobe has released updates to Photoshop Lightroom (Mac|Win) and the Photoshop Camera Raw (Mac|Win) plug-in, both available immediately for download from Adobe.com or via the Adobe Update Manager (choose Help->Updates from within Lightroom or Photoshop). The releases provide added raw file support for nine additional digital cameras, including the Canon EOS 450D and Nikon D60 -- bringing the total number of supported cameras to nearly 200. Lightroom 1.4 also provides updated printer driver compatibility for Apple Leopard Mac OS X 10.5.

A tip on Photoshop Mac stability
According to an Adobe tech note, it's possible that the Adobe Version Cue CS3 3.1.0 update won't get installed correctly, leading to a damaged framework file that can cause Photoshop to crash. To fix the problem, you can download this small updater and run it. If you're not able to run the script (e.g. you don't have admin privileges on your machine), you can go into Photoshop preferences (Cmd-K), then go into File Handling and uncheck "Enable Version Cue." The tech note mentions other Adobe CS3 apps, but I've tried the fix only with Photoshop. In any event running the updater is a good idea.

PSDTuts
Creating an Urban-Style Piece of Artwork
While grunge has its origins in the 90's, recently the style has been gaining in popularity once more. In this tutorial I will show you how to create a dirty, urban style image using both well known techniques as well as a few new ones. You will learn to easily extract complex shapes and we will also create our own grunge texture.

Fiery Photoshop Space Explosion Tutorial
Illustrating scenes from the final frontier can make for some beautiful work. In this tutorial - the longest we've ever published - I'll walk you through creating a spectacular space scene featuring two planets colliding. Strap yourselves in photoshoppers!

Create an Illustrated Look From a Photograph
In Photo Effects by Kyle Pero In this tutorial I will show you how the create a stylized illustrated look from a photograph. The best part is that it requires no artistic ability! You can do this to any photo and pretty much any subject but I think it works best with people.

Creating a Cool Brushed Metal Surface in Photoshop
Today's tutorial comes in response to a reader request, it comes from Tom and it won't be about lighting effects, glows, and sparks. Instead, I will show you how to create the brushed aluminum texture similar to the Apple products!

Digital Arts
PHOTOSHOP MONTAGES
Cut-&-paste creativity has always had a bad press – but digital artist Mike Harrison shows that it can be used to generate inspirational surreal images. Cut-&-paste montages in Photoshop are probably the first creative exercise new pixel jockeys do, after cut-outs and colour conversion. And while it can be a quick process to seamlessly blend a multitude of images together, there is a real knack to using them to build up a creative landscape. In this masterclass, designer and illustrator Mike Harrison has created a surreal digital scene using layer effects, vector masks, and the liberal use of dodge and burn tools in Photoshop. The result is a fantastic, genre-defying montage that shows that you can take cut-&-paste to new heights.

CREATE AMAZING PSYCHEDELIC ART IN PHOTOSHOP
Rob Carissimo reveals how to layer and blend images in Photoshop to create a hazy, dreamlike effect that’s straight from 60s California. The psychedelic look is always in demand. However, creating an illustration that has the appearance of being formed under the influence of LSD in a hippie commune in San Francisco circa 1968 is tricky if you’re in a studio in the UK in 2008 with nothing stronger than coffee in your system.

FILTER-FREE ART IN PHOTOSHOP
In this step-by-step tutorial, we’ll create a photomontage in Adobe Photoshop CS3 using only the layer palette. Our goal is to achieve stunning results without using any of Photoshop’s filter options.

VINTAGE COLLAGES IN PHOTOSHOP
Layer found images and handmade elements with Photoshop and Illustrator techniques for a witty, retro style that’s got dozens of uses.

PluginsWorld.com
Warping plug-in by 4N6site.com: plugin for Adobe Photoshop
The plug-in warps an image to map 4 chosen source points to 4 chosen target points. This transformation can change a perspective image to a perpendicular view (see example), or remove other distortions and misalignments as well. It makes it possible to make a perfect overlay of two images.

Color Deconvolution plug-in by 4N6site.com: plugin for Adobe Photoshop
The Color Deconvolution plug-in uses the sophisticated color deconvolution algorithm in 3D color space to separate or remove color components.

UnPlugged-X by VanDerLee: plugin for Adobe Photoshop
With UnPlugged-X you have access to over 100 unique filters and effects. These effects have been made famous by the long-running freeware series of UnPlugged but have now been enhanced in many ways and wrapped into one convenient plug-in which allows you to save and store settings, quickly browse through the effects and offers largely improved ease-of-use.

BittBox
Free Hi-Res Photoshop Brushes: Messy Spraypaint
It’s Photoshop Brush time again, and I’ve got a new set of 10 high res brushes for you. These aren’t traditional spraypaint brushes, so “Messy Spraypaint” is as close as I could get to an accurate name. Most of them are 2500px, and I also included PNGs for anyone not using Photoshop. CS1 & CS3 brushes, PNGs, screenshots after the jump.

PC World
Clone Away Your Problems
Use your photo editor's coolest tool to make unsightly parts of your photos go away. Have you ever taken a great vacation shot only to realize later that a telephone booth obstructs the middle of an otherwise picturesque duck pond? Or that a tourist in a loud shirt is right behind your family, poised in front of a famous landmark? Thankfully, you can easily eliminate those distractions with a little digital airbrushing.
This week, I'll show you how to clone away unwanted elements in Adobe Photoshop Elements, with emphasis on some of the tool's handier--but lesser known--options.

StockVault.net
10 free dirty and grunge textures
In case you didn’t know, stockvault.net began as a texture gallery back in 2003. And through the years all of the lovely textures have followed us through upgrades and changes. Still, a rather large part of them has not been key-worded yet, and therefor, does not appear in site searches (working on fixing that issue). Here is a list of 10 amazing grunge textures from our gallery that you might have missed.

Brusheezy
Complete Tree Brush Pack by Horhew - Photoshop Brush (40 in set)
Brush pack for Photoshop CS (may work on older versions, didn’t check out though). Highly detailed trees, rendered in Vue Professional 4.5, FULL VIEW for details, brushes have high resolutions. Contains about 40 tree brushes (didn’t count them):
-dead trees
-winter pear trees
-maple trees
-cherry trees
-palm and coconut trees(2 types)
-papyrus
-bamboo

Grunge Wood Brushes by Literary Spring - Photoshop Brush (5 in set)
This set has five old grungy wood brushes. The brushes are all at least 800 pixels wide and are from pictures I took. I also have a zip of jpg image files that are available on my website for those who can’t use Photoshop CS2 brushes.

As always, a special Batgirl thank you to James Jean
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SiteGrinder Photoshop Plugin - Create Websites Instantly

There often seems to be a strict division of labor within the world of web design and development. Creative professionals tend to stick to the Photoshop domain, while those well-versed in scripting are left to the task of implementing their work. Indeed, the two realms are quite different from each other, to which any of us even vaguely familiar with either can easily attest.

Essentially, Photoshop is a no-holds-barred design studio, offering the artist a seemingly endless array of creative options. On the other hand, HTML, CSS, Java and the like follow strict rules of engagement, requiring the developer to take any number of esoteric concerns into consideration in order to ensure that designs are properly displayed on the web.

Turn Photoshop Into A Complete Web Design Tool
SiteGrinder seeks to bridge this gap between design and development. Basically, this program turns Photoshop into an easy-to-use and fully functional web design tool. With SiteGrinder, designers will now have the freedom to totally let their creativity loose and then, without skipping a beat, transfer their designs to the web. Bringing esthetic concerns together with more practical considerations, this program is an amazingly powerful tool that would make a fantastic addition to any web designer's bag of tricks.

Generate Your Web Pages Directly From Photoshop
By generating web pages directly from Photoshop, you'll be able to spend much more time on the creative end of the spectrum, since you'll know right off the bat how well particular designs will translate to the web. No more going back to the Photoshop drawing board after getting a phone call from your development team, telling you that what you had envisioned doesn't have a chance of being displayed on the web. You can immediately visually and interactively test your designs, which permits you to then make changes to either esthetics or functions while it's still relatively early on in the design process.

Pricing and Availability
Mac OS X and Windows versions of the SiteGrinder unlockable demo are available now via download. SiteGrinder can be ordered from Media Lab's online store.

Photoshop CS3 Upgrade Options And Bundles From The Adobe Store

Photoshop CS3 Extended is ideal for film, video, and multimedia pros and for graphic and web designers using 3D and motion. Get the full version for US $999, or upgrade for US $349. The standard version of Photoshop CS3 is available for US $649, or as an upgrade for US $199. See all upgrade options at the Adobe Store. See our CS3 Resource Center for free Photoshop CS3 tutorials.

Photoshop Extended is also available as part of Adobe Creative Suite 3 Design Premium, which combines all-new CS3 versions of Photoshop, Flash Pro, Dreamweaver, Illustrator, InDesign and Acrobat 8 Pro. Upgrade options for customers in Europe, the UK, Australia, New Zealand and Asia can be found at the Adobe International Store.

Adobe Photoshop Lightroom Available At The Adobe Store

There are tons of new features in Adobe Lightroom 1.0 that you won't find in the beta version. From Clone and Healing functionality to metadata browsing, you'll be able to free-up post-processing time like never before. Get it now at the Adobe Store. Customers in Europe, the UK, Australia, New Zealand and Asia can find special pricing and offers at the Adobe International Store. For free Lightroom tutorials see our Lightroom tutorials page.

Photoshop Masking Plugin Fluid Mask 3 - $15 Discount Special

The 4 1/2 out of 5 star review of Fluid Mask 3 at MacWorld begins by saying that this "Photoshop plug-in takes the pain out of extracting backgrounds," and goes on to recommend the latest version, stating that "Fluid Mask 3.0.2 is a very effective tool for separating objects from their backgrounds. It offers a variety of useful features for tackling almost any difficult image, from wispy hair to complex foliage. Online video tutorials and live training sessions help ease the learning curve."

Our friends at Vertus, the makers of Fluid Mask 3 Photoshop Plugin, have set up a special exclusive discount for PhotoshopSupport.com. Just follow this discount link and instantly get $15 off your purchase of Fluid Mask 3.

Fluid Mask 3 is designed for photographers, image editors, graphic designers and all those who take digital image editing seriously. In a streamlined interface and workflow, Fluid Mask 3 instantly shows key edges in the image and provides comprehensive easy to use tools that work with difficult-to-see edges and tricky areas like trees & lattices. Features include: