Wonder Women :: Art & Technology

Use the navigator window to zoom in, out, and move about with great ease.
**

Holding the SHIFT key while in free transformation will let you make the
image bigger or smaller and keep the shape.

If you have a photograph or scanned in a negative you can get rid of most of
the dust and scratches by going to the remove dust and scratches option in
the filter menu.

If you are merging two images into one with the layering system you can
change the opacity of the top layer to fit them better and erase around it.
The opacity controls are located on the layer pop up window on the right.

~Michael E Blomberg
**

Use Layers.
Layers are one of the most powerful aspects of Photoshop.
If you're blending 2 images, you can use a layer mask (Layer > New
Adjustment Layer > Reveal All) and a gradient ramp to do so. By
keeping the various aspects of your image separate, it makes your
image easy to edit. You should also use "adjustment layers" instead
of the image adjustments (brightness contrast, hue sat, etc). You can
find them under Layer > Adjustment Layers. They do the same thing but
they are not applied permanently so you can easily go back and tweak
their settings whenever you want. Remember, with all layers, there
are blending options, so using various gradients or the painting tools
you can chooses where you want that layer to be visible.

**

This is how you go about rotating separate images in Photoshop:

1. Select the layer you want to rotate from the list on the right.

2. Go Edit->Transform->Rotate-----(3rd one down)

3. Grab any corner with the cursor and drag it in the direction you want your image to rotate.

4. Once you have the image where you want it, press enter.

Pretty simple, but it took me a while to figure out...

Ian
***
Tip on Photoshop:
If you like to emphasize certain parts of your image, I found it helpful to blur, very slightly the edges of images other than your focal point. You can do this by using the Blur Tool (not the one under Layer-Blur-Blur Edges) but the blur tool on the left-hand toolbar (about halfway down). It will be a drop, triangle or hand shape. (If it is the triangle or hand shape, click on the bottom right-hand corner and select the drop shape-Blur tool). After you click on this you should be able to look at the toolbar at the top of your screen. Under "Brush" you can select the diameter of the blur tool and the hardness as well. Another way to emphasize which I found helpful, was to slightly desaturate the images I wanted to be afterthoughts. The focal point images I would up the contrast or saturate them slightly more. This makes them "pop" out at you. Hopefully it helps if you are looking to create a more certain focal point to your piece!

Use the navigator window to zoom in, out, and move about with great ease.
**

Holding the SHIFT key while in free transformation will let you make the
image bigger or smaller and keep the shape.

If you have a photograph or scanned in a negative you can get rid of most of
the dust and scratches by going to the remove dust and scratches option in
the filter menu.

If you are merging two images into one with the layering system you can
change the opacity of the top layer to fit them better and erase around it.
The opacity controls are located on the layer pop up window on the right.

~Michael E Blomberg
**
Here's my photoshop tip:

Use Layers. Layers are one of the most powerful aspects of Photoshop.
If you're blending 2 images, you can use a layer mask (Layer > New
Adjustment Layer > Reveal All) and a gradient ramp to do so. By
keeping the various aspects of your image separate, it makes your
image easy to edit. You should also use "adjustment layers" instead
of the image adjustments (brightness contrast, hue sat, etc). You can
find them under Layer > Adjustment Layers. They do the same thing but
they are not applied permanently so you can easily go back and tweak
their settings whenever you want. Remember, with all layers, there
are blending options, so using various gradients or the painting tools
you can chooses where you want that layer to be visible.

**

This is how you go about rotating separate images in Photoshop:

1. Select the layer you want to rotate from the list on the right.

2. Go Edit->Transform->Rotate-----(3rd one down)

3. Grab any corner with the cursor and drag it in the direction you want your image to rotate.

4. Once you have the image where you want it, press enter.

Pretty simple, but it took me a while to figure out...

Ian
***
Tip on Photoshop:
If you like to emphasize certain parts of your image, I found it helpful to blur, very slightly the edges of images other than your focal point. You can do this by using the Blur Tool (not the one under Layer-Blur-Blur Edges) but the blur tool on the left-hand toolbar (about halfway down). It will be a drop, triangle or hand shape. (If it is the triangle or hand shape, click on the bottom right-hand corner and select the drop shape-Blur tool). After you click on this you should be able to look at the toolbar at the top of your screen. Under "Brush" you can select the diameter of the blur tool and the hardness as well. Another way to emphasize which I found helpful, was to slightly desaturate the images I wanted to be afterthoughts. The focal point images I would up the contrast or saturate them slightly more. This makes them "pop" out at you. Hopefully it helps if you are looking to create a more certain focal point to your piece!