PPSV Blog

Refine Edges Tutorial

2009-12-23T09:33:00.000-08:00

Photoshop Refine Edge Tool Removes Jagged Edges - Video Tutorial
December 21, 2009

Photoshop offers lots of tools for automating selections, but two stand out from the pack: The first, Refine Edge, lets you modify your selection using five different parameters and preview the results in five different ways. Use coupon code UGANN09 and save 20% off an Annual Subscription to lynda.com (save $50 off). Use coupon code UGPREM09 and save 20% off a Premium Subscription to lynda.com (save $75 off).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vn7TKTlxmDg&feature=player_embedded

PPSV Cruise to Cabo San Lucas

2009-08-22T14:35:00.000-07:00

FREE PhotoTools2

2009-05-27T15:16:00.000-07:00

onOne Software today announced a free Lite version of PhotoTools 2 Standard Edition.

PhotoTools 2 Standard Edition is a flexible, yet powerful, plug-in for Adobe Photoshop CS2, CS3 and CS4 that utilizes the power of Photoshop Actions to provide a range of imaging tools, including effects, corrections and production automation, in a full-featured interface.

Based on the exact same feature set as PhotoTools 2 Standard Edition, PhotoTools 2 Lite includes 14 of the most popular effects found in both PhotoTools 2 Standard Edition and PhotoTools 2 Professional Edition. The 14 effects available in PhotoTools 2 Lite range from reproducing classic photographic effects like Bleach Bypass and Cross Process, to reproducing film stock such as Kodachrome and Velvia, to modern effects, including automatic skin smoothing.

PhotoTools 2 Lite is offered at no cost and is only available as an electronic download direct from onOne Software. For users who wish to access the full database of effects that come with the Standard or Professional Editions of PhotoTools 2, they will need to purchase a copy of the Standard or Professional Edition. PhotoTools 2 Professional and Standard editions are available for $259.95 and $159.95, respectively, and may be ordered immediately from onOne Software.

Free Brushes

2009-05-12T08:53:00.000-07:00

BrushPortfolio.com just released a new set of Photoshop brushes inspired by the beauty of Italy and an infatuation with vintage post cards.

The new brush set, Italian Post Card Kit, features several collage-style brushes and an assortment of individual images that can be used to create your own vintage-inspired designs.

The images used for the brushes came from www.MorgueFile.com which is a great source for free images. Happy Creating!

Printer at a GREAT PRICE

2009-04-18T07:16:00.000-07:00

Get the Lexmark X4650 All-In-One Color Printer for just $70.42
with free shipping.

Multifunction printer, copier, scanner. Hi-Speed USB, 802.11b, 802.11g, USB host. High quality printing from virtually anywhere in the home over a secure wireless network.
Print up to 25 ppm black and 18ppm color.
Copy photos, b&W or color documents with the touch of one button.
Scan on the 36-bit flatbed scanner.

Price: $70.42 with free shipping!

Free Brushes = Leaf Swirls

2009-04-17T14:17:00.001-07:00

Free Leaf Swirls Photoshop Brushes

April 17, 2009

BrushPortfolio.com has just released a new set of free Photoshop brushes made from swirl patterns and scanned leaves.

These brushes are high resolution averaging between 2100 to 2400 pixels in size. Each brush was made in Adobe Illustrator and exported to Photoshop. Happy creating!

Free Brushes of Branches for spring

2009-04-08T04:15:00.000-07:00

Free Branches Photoshop Brushes

BrushPortfolio.com has just released a new set of free Photoshop brushes titled Branches.

There are 16 brushes in the set featuring leaves, branches and buds in the spirit of Spring. The design elements are perfect for scrap booking and card making. Each brush was made using Adobe Illustrator and exported to Photoshop at 300 dpi. Happy Creating!

Green Screen Gen Y Test Market

2009-03-24T15:11:00.000-07:00

Westcott Goes Green Screen

At PMA, Westcott introduced new uLite Photo and Video kits, the "industry's first turnkey solution" for Green Screen. Teaming up with Adobe and NAPP, these kits include lighting, green screen, software and educational dvds. Watch the test market 7-14 video video and see first hand how easy these kits are to use.

video: www.fjwestcott.com/ep0309/video.htm

Green Screen Gen Y Test Market
Prior to the new Green Screen Kits being released to market, the company wanted to insure that they did their homework correctly. The goal was to provide the first complete educational Photo and Video solution for Green Screen technology. These kits include quality lighting products, wrinkle-resistant Green Screen, industry-standard software, digital backgrounds and educational DVD.

To test the ease of use, 8 children (ages 7-14) were chosen to be part of a 4-hour documentary and given the task of creating a 6-minute web show. Westcott is pleased to share the results.

Free Photoshop Plugins

2009-03-14T09:14:00.000-07:00

Free Photoshop Plugins - PhotoFreebies For Windows - 12 Free Photoshop Plugins
March 13, 2009

The Plugin Site has released Version 2.0 of PhotoFreebies for Windows.

PhotoFreebies 2 is a collection of 12 Photoshop-compatible plugins for performing simple but useful photo adjustments and effects. They can be used with more than 60 different image editing applications e.g. Photoshop, Photoshop Elements, Paint Shop Pro, Photo-Paint, PhotoImpact and many others. PhotoFreebies is a part of the PhotoWiz product line.

Version 2 contains a new Color Blind plugin for simulating red/green color blindness, which can also be used for special color effects. The BW plugin now offers a dialog with 7 black and white variations. All PhotoFreebies 2 plugins are scriptable, which means that their parameters can be recorded in actions or scripts and that they can be used as smart filters in Photoshop CS3/CS4.

The dialogs were made resizable and support XP/Vista visual styles. Additionally the Remove Transparency plugin now works correctly on grayscale images, the plugins are compatible with Data Execution Protection (DEP) and offer improved compatibility with some applications. Their installation can be conducted in 38 languages and uses a Plugin Installer tool that also supports localized versions of Photoshop.

PhotoFreebies 2 are available as 32bit as well as 64bit versions. The 64bit versions can be used in 64-bit version of Photoshop CS4 under Windows Vista 64-bit.

The PhotoFreebies collections contains sepia effects, saturation gradients, B&W conversions, a color blindness simulation, color space transformations and many more. All plugins can be used on 8bit and 16bit RGB images, except the Histo Fix plugin which only works on 8bit images. The Remove Transparency plugin works in many different image modes that are provided by Photoshop. Some of the plugins have a dialog with a zoomable preview and adjustable controls whereas a few are applied instantly without displaying a dialog.

The Sepia plugin from PhotoFreebies lets you apply five sepia effects with the help of a combo box, a color slider and a Contrast Fix check box. The BW plugin lets you turn an image into black and white using seven option resembling a luminosity conversion and six color filters. Color Blind simulates red/green color blindness and offers a Keep Blue check box. The Desaturation Gradient plugin gradually desaturates the image in four possible directions, so that e.g. the left side is colored and the right side is black and white.

Luma Negative turns the image into a negative without changing the colors whereas Chroma Negative inverts the colors without inverting the image luminosity. Histo Fix fixes the chopped histogram of a repeatedly filtered image by interpolating lost image information. It offers an option to regain 1/2 bit, 1 bit or 2 bit of information. The Remove Transparency plugin makes a transparent layer fully opaque again. Last, but not least there are also four plugins that transform RGB values into HSL or YCbCr values and back again without leaving RGB mode. That allows you to manipulate images in color spaces that aren't provided by most image applications.

PhotoFreebies 2 is currently only available for Windows. Version 1 is also available for the Mac. PhotoFreebies is freeware and can be downloaded now. We also offer five more advanced PhotoWiz plugins as commercial products.

Beams of Sunlight from scratch -Photoshop Tutorial

2009-03-13T17:11:00.000-07:00

POSTCARD CONTEST 2009

2009-03-11T10:49:00.000-07:00

POSTCARD CONTEST 2009: Win one of up to 45 prices by sending a postcard to The Plugin News.
-----------------------------------
The Postcard Contest 2009 asks you to write a postcard and send it to us. The postcard can be purchased or created by yourself. The 20 best participants can win prizes consisting of a total of 57 software products and 5 books worth more than USD $3500. The contest runs until August 31, 2009.

Here is a list of the prizes:

Photo Tools 2: http://www.ononesoftware.com/
Exposure, Bokeh : http://www.alienskin.com/
nik Viveza: http://www.niksoftware.com/viveza/
IPX Paint Engine: http://fantasticmachines.com/
Curl Pro + Puzzle Pro: http://www.avbros.com/
DFT Light, Ozone and Power Stroke: http://www.digitalfilmtools.com/
PhotoMagic, PhotoZoom Pro 2, PhotoArtist: http://www.benvista.com/
FilterForge Standard: http://www.filterforge.com/
ContrastMaster, Plugin Galaxy: http://www.thepluginsite.com/
Fantastic Frames, Borders & Frames CDs: http://www.photoshopgraphics.co.uk/
Quasar, MetaGrad, Refiner and Conditioner: http://www.xero-graphics.co.uk/
Neat Image Pro: http://www.neatimage.com/
Namesuppressed Plugins: http://www.namesuppressed.com/
DOF PRO: http://www.dofpro.com/
Fractalius: http://www.redfieldplugins.com/
FilterMeister: http://www.filtermeister.com/
SF Maskerade + SF ColorMixer Pro: http://www.simpelfilter.de/en/
recolorST: http://foksmarx.com/
Andrews Plugins, Custom Shapes & Patterns Collection: http://www.graphicxtras.com/
Photo Purify: http://www.photopurify.com/ O'Reilly Books: http://oreilly.com/

For more details on the contest see
http://www.thepluginsite.com/gallery/postcard/

Comuter for $199

2009-02-28T08:18:00.000-08:00

New $199 Netbook (Very) Personal Computer Coming in March

Fidelity Electronics Introduces The Fidelity Netbook VPC (Very Personal Computer)
Very Portable, Very Functional, Very Affordable

TORONTO, CANADA (February 16, 2009) – Fidelity Electronics this week announced the launch of the VPC - Very Personal Computer: a fully preloaded, Wifi portable netbook computer at a very affordable price.
The VPC weighs only 1.5lbs and measures just 8.4” x 5.5” x 1”

Very functional: The VPC has both wifi and ethernet connections and a full function keyboard to connect, work and play

Very affordable: All programs and applications are preloaded and ready to use.
“At a $199 SRP, the VPC is perfect for students and people on the go,” says Richard Kizner, Director of Marketing for Fidelity Electronics. “Preloaded programs include internet browser, spreadsheet, word processor, a media player for movies, music and pictures, e-book reader, dictionary, calendar, PDF reader, email, chat, calculator, file manager and much more. VPC comes with a full function keyboard, touchpad, 7” TFT display with 800 x 480 WVGA resolution, 802.11g Wifi, 100 MHz internet browser, 2 GB internal storage, 3 hour rechargeable battery, microphone and a headphone jack. It has onboard USB, SD and Ethernet ports that make the VPC an incredibly affordable yet versatile device,” he adds.

The VPC is expected to retail at $199.99 USD and should arrive in stores beginning March, 2009. For more information go to the Fidelity Electronics Website.

Whiten Teeth the easy way

2009-02-24T15:31:00.000-08:00

Here's yet another way to whiten teeth . . . This is an interactive video where you actually follow along and do the steps as the author shows it done.

Click here and learn how to do it.

Get ready for wedding photography

2009-02-22T10:58:00.000-08:00

BOOK REVIEW-the Wedding Season

Get ready for wedding photography

In this all-new book review shootout, we put three books to the test.
Read on to learn how
100 Techniques for Professional Wedding Photographers by Bill Hurter,
Power Marketing, Selling, and Pricing: A Business Guide for Wedding and Portrait Photographers by Mitche Graf, and
Step-by-Step Wedding Photography: Techniques for Professional Photographers by Damon Tucci
stand up to our editorial review.
To read the full article, click here.

Free Fonts

2009-02-21T10:20:00.000-08:00

Font Bros Site Offers A Beautiful Selection Of Amazing Free Fonts

The Font Bros Site has just great looking fonts for sale at great prices, but if you like your fonts to be free, you'll also find an amazing assortment of top fonts right there for the taking. Just go to the front page and look at the menu on top — and the third item in from the left is a Free Fonts button. Click and go wild!

These are really nice free fonts so browse and download. Here are a few samples from the Font Bros Free Fonts Collection.

Warning-fraudulent business USA SEO Pros

2009-02-03T12:23:00.000-08:00

*************WARNING************

If a company called USA SEO Pro’s calls you with a great offer to optimize your web site, DON’T DO IT!!

One of our members agreed to have them optimize their photography web site and what was put online instead was a link to a cheesy site that was thrown together with very little effort and also contained links to porn!

It used the member’s company name which was on the first page of many search engine searches, but linked to this awful page which if anything would have lost business!

After disputing the charge on the credit card, there were many threats and a small claims suit was filed by our member, which ended up being settled, but at a cost to the member of $1400!

This company is a sham and takes advantage of small businesses promising the world and providing nothing good. It is not known where this member’s telephone number was obtained, but you could also be on their call list. If USA SEO Pros (also called Business Development Institute) calls you, don’t fall for it! USA SEO Pros is an unethical, fraudulent business!!

Valentine Card by PS

2009-02-03T12:15:00.000-08:00

Okay, it's that time of year again. February 14th is coming soon.

So, use your Photoshop skills to create a Valentine's card.

Use this tutorial and have some fun

Free Video- how to feather your main light

2009-01-24T10:46:00.000-08:00

From Studio Styles Online

Tips & Techniques
In this months Tips & Techniques section we will be talking about the main light.
I have created a FREE video showing some cool tips.

Check out this FREE video here:
http://www.studiostyles.net/2008/12/studiotip1/

Get LEXAR Compact Flash Cards - almost FREE

2008-12-06T10:02:00.000-08:00

GREAT VALUE
2 GB Reg. $32.95 One week only $2.95 after $30 mail-in rebate+ FREE shipping

4 GB Reg. $44.95 One week only $4.95 after $40 mail-in rebate+ FREE shipping

8 GB Reg. $89.95 One week only $9.95 after $80 mail-in rebate+ FREE shipping

They're speed rated at 133x, which means a minimum sustained write speed of - fasten your seatbelt - 20MB/second. And they're loaded with image recovery and browsing software too.

We're talking the amazing Lexar 133x Pro Compact Flash here, and it's a dream for photographer's workflow, and just what you need in a pro DSLR.

Now priced at 'virtually free' thanks to Lexar rebates that are truly INSANE, not to mention FREE shipping.

CLICK HERE

AKVIS Magnifier v.2.0

2008-11-06T09:37:00.000-08:00

AKVIS has announced the release of AKVIS Magnifier v.2.0, an efficient tool to increase image resolution. Featuring advanced photo resizing algorithms, AKVIS Magnifier enlarges digital pictures to super-high resolution producing stunning enlargements and poster-size prints.

Featuring advanced enlargement algorithms, Magnifier enlarges digital pictures to super-high resolution for producing stunning poster-size prints. The algorithm keeps edges smooth, sharp and clearly defined, while improving image appearance by removing unwanted noise and compression artifacts.

Whether creating poster-size images or adding resolution for printing an enlargement, AKVIS Magnifier will make your prints look sharper and better defined. For a free trial, AKVIS offers 10 days of fully functional use. http://akvis.com/en/magnifier/index.php

AKVIS Magnifier Home License (plug-in or standalone) sells for $129 USD or 99 Euro, downloadable from http://www.akvis.com/.

Wacom Bamboo pen tablet - just $61

2008-10-31T11:34:00.000-07:00

You can get a Wacom Bamboo pen tablet at Amazon.com for only $61.

That's a pretty good deal, especially if you're new at using a pen tablet and don't want to heavily invest.

Here's a little bit of info about the Bamboo:
Bamboo Pen Tablet Features Ideal for digital photo enthusiasts or those just wanting to satiate their creative hunger, Bamboo Fun makes it easy to enhance photos and create artwork for scrapbooks, craft projects and slide shows.
Many of the retouching and brush strokes required in Photoshop are accomplished more accurately and rapidly with the use of a pen.

Color Balance plugin

2008-10-21T15:49:00.000-07:00

The new Color Balance plugin (for Windows) from Easy Filter is very similar to the Color Balance filter in Photoshop.

It lets you change the image colors in the shadow, midtones and highlights regions separately.

In works on 8 and 16 bit RGB images.

http://free.pages.at/easyfilter/filtermeister.html

Halloween Photoshop Brushes

2008-10-18T18:20:00.000-07:00

Halloween Vector Brushes - Halloween Images And Halloween Graphics
October 18, 2008
Here's Stephanie with her latest Photoshop brushes,
Halloween Vectors Photoshop Brushes:

Time to break out those Halloween costumes and trick-or-treat bags! This week’s set of Photoshop brushes comes out in preparation for Halloween!

Halloween Vectors Photoshop Brushes are all very high resolution, with the average brush size being about 2000 to 2100 pixels.

They’re also all in vector format, so be on the lookout over the next few days for me to be releasing these as a set of custom shapes, as well!

Go Now to the Halloween Vectors Photoshop Brushes Downloads Page!

PHOTOSHOP CS4

2008-09-03T14:09:00.000-07:00

Adobe To Announce CS4 On September 23 And Reveal Release Date
September 03, 2008
Adobe will announce the 4th version of the Creative Suite, CS4, on September 23rd.
This is not the actual release date but rather the official unveiling of it by Adobe.
You can register to view a special web broadcast that will take place on the 23rd.

And this is from AppleInsider.com:
"People familiar with the ongoing development of Creative Suite 4.0 say a good chunk of Adobe's resources for the project were devoted to bringing two applications acquired from Macromedia -- Dreamweaver and Fireworks -- up to spec with its existing flagship offerings. However, the company is expected to tout a handful of significant enhancements to both Photoshop and Flash. For example, the company is expected to announce that Photoshop CS4 (codenamed Stonehenge) will be capable of pulling in 3D objects as wireframes. The new version of Photoshop will also feature a Flash services panel, natural canvas rotation, content aware image resizing and deliver 64-bit support for Windows users."

Dreamy Mystical Photo Effect

2008-09-01T10:07:00.000-07:00

Dreamy Mystical Photo Effect

This could be a great way to jazz up your bridal portraits.
Or senior portraits? Or children's portraits? Or???

This tutorial includes a stock background
and special Mystical brushes.

Try it out.

Of course it is Free....

How to Break Sunlight Through the Clouds

2008-09-01T09:54:00.000-07:00

How to Break Sunlight Through the Clouds

In Photo Effects by Kyle Pero

In this tutorial I will show you how to turn an overcast day into a stunningly dramatic scene with sunlight breaking through the clouds.

This technique can be used for other applications as well. I originally came up with it when I needed to create shafts of light coming through a canopy of trees.

The best part of this technique is that the beams are created from the actual imagery so they look very realistic.

Let's get started...

Free Brushes

2008-08-21T12:48:00.001-07:00

250 Hi Res Splatter, Spray, & Watercolor Photoshop Brushes

Don’t have the time to buy the right materials and create your own traditional-style-painting Photoshop Brushes? Maybe you just don’t know where to start? No worries - we’ve found nearly 250 of the best Splatter, Paint, Spray, and Watercolor brushes that we think you’ll love!
Free Hi-Res Messy Spraypaint Brushes
18 Hi-Res Watercolor Photoshop Brushes
20 More Hi Resolution Watercolor Photoshop Brushes
Free Acrylic Photoshop Brushes
Hard Brush Stroke Photoshop Brushes
Photoshop Splatter Brush Set
10 Hi-Res Splatter Photoshop Brushes
Vector Style Splatter Brush Set
Go Media Spray Paint Photoshop Brushes
Gradient Splats Brush Set
Hi-Res Grunge Ink Splatter Brushes

Have fun... Enjoy

Save on Epson Printer & Free shipping

2008-08-21T08:18:00.000-07:00

Epson will save you tons on a factory refurbished Epson Stylus Photo 1400 13x19" Photo Printer.

Print 13" x 19" enlargements fast
Amazing color and detail with six individual, high-capacity Claria ink cartridges

Automatic color and lighting correction for high quality photos

4" x 6" photos in as fast as 46 seconds

These printers have the same-as-new warranty but the price is great.

Right now Epson has the Stylus Photo 1400 for only $143.20 after an instant 20% rebate.

Plus they'll ship it FREE!
Price: $143.20

Go Here for details

Free Raw Importer

2008-08-14T14:11:00.000-07:00

Stepok's Raw Importer is a free and easy-to-use raw importing and converting tool, compatible with most camera models on markets. With the help of this tool, you can convert camera RAW files into best quality JPEG or TIFF format step by step. It support batch converting!

There are 4 reasons to choose this tool:
Wide compatibility with common cameras RAW formats include:
Canon RAW CR2,CRW;Kodak RAW DCR; Adobe Digital Negative DNG; Konica Minolta MRW; Nikon NEF; Olympus ORF; Fujifilm RAF; Leica RAW, Contax RAW, Casio RAW; Sony SRF …

Best quality result interpolated by AHD algorithm and full control of exposure, dynamic, color, white balance, focus … in 16bit channel space (48bit color). Powerful batch convert RAW files

BEST OF ALL - It is FREE -- DOWNLOAD HERE

Photo Editor

2008-08-14T13:32:00.000-07:00

Photo! Editor is an easy to use image editing tool (for Windows).

It lets you remove red eyes, enhance the colors, make funny caricatures, add lighting effects as well as straighten, resample and crop images.
Additionally there is a denoise tool and several makeup brushes.

Photo! Editor also supports batch processing, but only five common image file types.

Download here

ChromAcute beta-free plug-in

2008-08-14T13:21:00.000-07:00

ChromAcute beta removes chromatic aberrations (color fringing) from your digital photos.
It is a free plugin for Adobe Photoshop CS, CS2 and CS3.

DOWNLOAD HERE

Calibrate Your Eyes

2008-07-31T11:20:00.000-07:00

Calibrate Your Eyes

July 30, 2008

From Jim Hoerricks' site, Forensic Photoshop: "Check out the Center for Cognitive Neuroscience's "See it for yourself" page.

See just how "off" your perception may be.

Read the explanations as to why you see things the way in which you do.
The results will surprise you.

GigaPan

2008-07-23T14:44:00.000-07:00

Sweeping Panoramas, Courtesy of a Robot

ROBOTS already cut the grass and vacuum rugs. Now they are helping with a more artistic job: creating vast photographic panoramas with ordinary cameras.

A new, inexpensive robotic device from researchers at Carnegie Mellon University attaches snugly to almost any standard digital camera, tilting and panning it to fashion highly detailed panoramic vistas -- whether of the Grand Canyon, a rain forest or a backyard Easter egg hunt. The robot is called GigaPan, named "giga" for the billion or more pixels it can marshal for a typical panorama. It creates the huge, high-resolution vista by extending its robotic finger and repeatedly clicking the camera shutter, taking tens, hundreds or even thousands of overlapping images, each at a slightly different angle, that are then stitched together by software to create one gigapixel shot.
Read more here

Distressed and Vintage photo effects

2008-07-20T10:01:00.000-07:00

From Jonathan Penney:
I feel like digital images are often too perfect, too sterile, devoid of the "character" that was inherent to the look of the early photographic processes. I also like the idea of reaching back through the history of photography to find inspiration for the craft.

Most of these border effects are scanned from actual vintage images from my own personal collection of glass plates, daguerreotypes, tintypes, etc.

See part I in his series

Free Painter Tutorial from Karen Sperling

2008-07-17T13:37:00.000-07:00

Artistry Tips and Tricks is a monthly e-zine available
through the Artistry Online web site

Each issue is 30-40 pages long and contains information for painting from photos in Corel Painter and Adobe Photoshop.

Check out this excerpt from the July 2008 issue, where Karen Sperling explains how she painted from a photo by Phillip Stewart Charis.

See it here

14.7 Megapixel Point and Shoot

2008-07-16T09:54:00.000-07:00

Samsung TL34HD Digital Camera Introduction: 14.7-Megapixel and HD Video Output

Samsung Launches Its Second Point-And-Shoot Digital Camera Featuring High-Definition Video Capability

New TL34HD Stands Out With Broad Range of Impressive Features and Resolution

The Samsung TL34HD will be available in September 2008 at an MSRP of $329.95

Read the full scoop

Photography Tutorials

2008-07-12T15:12:00.000-07:00

Rick Rosen, one of PPC's many talented members,

is now offering tutorials on his website

You can also link to it on his blog which also has an Opt in function.

Check it out. This was posted on the PPC Blog on July 9

Five Tips For Great Sunset Photos

2008-07-12T15:07:00.000-07:00

Sunsets and sunrises are an inspirational subject for any photographer. In fact, a good sunset photo is often the reason many people become interested in nature photography.

You don't need to have a great camera or professional training; almost anyone with a camera can take great sunset photos.

Read more

Clouds Volume 2 Photoshop Brushes - Free Photoshop Brushes

2008-07-09T11:01:00.000-07:00

Clouds Volume 2 Photoshop Brushes - Free Photoshop Brushes

Stephanie has created her Clouds II Photoshop Brushes set. Wispy edges and all.
She says: These are some of the most realistic looking clouds brushes I’ve ever been able to produce, so I hope you all can find some use for them and enjoy them!

Download them here

Digital Retouching For Fashion, Beauty And Portrait Photography

2008-07-05T14:42:00.000-07:00

Gry Garness, the author of Digital Retouching For Fashion, Beauty And Portrait Photography, a new 190 page e-book on retouching and post-production, has kindly offered us an exclusive free PDF that highlights some of the tutorials from her book.

The Free Retouching Sample Tutorial PDF is 1.5 MB.

Here's an intro to what you'll find:

RESHAPING FEATURES
This sample tutorial demonstrates step-by-step how you can subtly reshape features using a Warp graft and a bit of clever shading, while maintaining top image quality for those hi-res print images. The tutorial also uses Smart Objects and Refine Edge; both are features which have emerged in the last two versions of Photoshop. You’ll never use the Liquify again!

THREE COLOR WORKFLOWS
Here are three examples of color workflows using adjustment layers. The book is full of step-by-step tutorials. These workflows are examples where the different approaches and many smaller steps come together to give rich dynamic color. The possibilities and limitations of color adjustment is carefully considered, and the image quality should always be our top concern. These examples are pretty straightforward, with no special effects. They reflect how we work with ‘normal’ images – first a global correction, then a few local corrections – all on adjustment layers, so that the adjustments are totally editable, and available for blending modes and masking.

Download the free Tutorial here

101 Photoshop Tips in 5 minutes

2008-07-05T09:54:00.000-07:00

If you've ever read a computer magazine, you know the idea behind "101 Tips."; One gala issue, lots of first-rate contributors, lots of quality information. And lots and lots of pages.

But when's the last time one lone guy tried to capture 101 tips in video? In just 5 minutes of video? Set to music?

This is the realm of dekePod, the once-every-other-weekly series from Deke McClelland. It's bold, it's brash, it's ridiculous. It's a podcast with serious issues. Enjoy.

Click here

Easily soften portraits without selections

2008-06-26T16:26:00.000-07:00

Easily soften portraits without selections

Create the silky soft look of a dreamy photo in a few seconds. No selections, but a sneaky channel move makes a quick fix. Remove surface blemishes like acne in a few seconds. This is useful in a time jam.

This is a video which takes a long time to load.

Free Photoshop Brushes

2008-06-18T12:43:00.000-07:00

Makeup And Face Sketches Photoshop Brushes - Free Photoshop Brushes

Bottles and tubes of various types of makeup, like lipstick, lip gloss, concealer, foundation, eyeliner, nail polish, a pencil, etc. All sketched / drawn by hand.

Should be a fun set to play around with, even if you just play around with the face parts!

Enjoy, and have a great week! Go now download Makeup & Face Sketches Photoshop Brushes

Corel Painter X for Photographers Tutorial 1

2008-06-06T10:26:00.001-07:00

This is a great tutorial to look at.

Digital Camera Exposes Original Paintings

2008-05-29T11:38:00.000-07:00

Digital cameras have come a long way in the past ten years. The quality of the pictures continue to improve. The number of megapixels continues to rise. There is a digital camera today that is truly mind-blowing. It shoots at 240 megapixels.

This camera was specifically developed to photograph "Old Master" paintings. You can read about how it was used to restore one of Leonardo da Vinci's paintings. The detail was so good that you can actually distinguish da Vinci's fingerprint in the paint!

What is truly cool about this is that the technology allows the painting to be virtually restored to how it originally looked. Colors that have been hidden for years will suddenly emerge. Dirt creating a haze can be removed and none of this poses any danger to the original painting.
You can read even more if you go to Lumiere Technology's Web site.

For example, there is a press release describing the virtual cleaning of the Mona Lisa. If you go to the home page of the site, there is a twelve minute movie showing how the Mona Lisa was photographed and how the technology works.

All in all, it is just fascinating. Check it out.

VerteX - a new way to FLASH!

2008-05-25T10:43:00.000-07:00

May 23, 2008 -- Presslite has announced a new product called the VerteX™.
The VerteX™ is a flash attachement that can project diffused and specular light at virtually any angle, in multiple directions simultaneously from a single flash unit. This introduces on-the-go lighting solutions never before possible.
PRESSlite™ will be selling the VerteX™ for $49.95 but is currently offering special discounts of up to 30%. Read more here

Add a Flower background Collage in Photoshop

2008-05-24T10:19:00.000-07:00

How to add a flower background collage to your photos in Adobe Photoshop.

Here is a neat tutorial you will get some great tips from.

Check it out here

Add Watermarks to your images with a simple batch action

2008-05-24T10:13:00.000-07:00

Learn how to use actions and batch automation to automatically add signatures or watermarks to your images.

Check out the tutorial here

Graduation Brushes for Photoshop

2008-05-24T10:09:00.000-07:00

Just in time for some graduations this year!

Scrapbookers, be ready!

This brush set will help... maybe just a little bit.

It’s made up of all kinds of stuff along the whole graduation theme.

Caps and tassles galore, of course.

Some being worn by silhouettes of various graduates (along with the gown, of course!), some being thrown up into the air, some vector-like, some sketchy, etc.

Also includes some class rings (University and High School, along with one generic), some balloons, a few diplomas, etc.

Get them here

The Six Basic Controls in Photoshop

2008-05-24T10:01:00.000-07:00

Bring impact to your photographic storytelling...

Jonathan Penney will show you how to use six of the most basic controls in Photoshop to transform your images from ordinary to spectacular.

Read the latest article

7 Reasons to Borrow Grandma’s Egg Timer

2008-05-21T09:34:00.000-07:00

7 Reasons to Borrow Grandma’s Egg Timer

If you’ve been looking for the edge in getting your task list done, you should consider investing in a timer. Picking up a timer stands out as the one thing I’ve done that significantly increased my productivity.

What’s so great about a piece of plastic with a couple of wires on the inside? After all, something that you can pick up at the dollar store can’t be a huge influence on our ability to get things done, or we’d all have one already.

It turns out that it isn’t the gadget that really provides the benefit, at least for me: it’s the ability to set firm boundaries on my time . . .

Read more

Free Book - 101 Tips, Tricks & Techniques

2008-05-19T13:27:00.001-07:00

Download SitePoint's entire 270 page "Photoshop Anthology: 101 Tips, Tricks & Techniques" book free of charge for the next 30 days.

CLICK HERE

Giveaway expires: Friday June 13th, 2008

Printer in a Bucket???

2008-05-08T10:08:00.000-07:00

Canon Introduces SELPHY CP760 and Printer In a Bucket SELPHY CP770

Wednesday,

05/07/08

Canon today introduces a new generation in the continuing evolution of its SELPHY compact photo printer line-up: the essential new SELPHY CP770 portable printer, and its affordable sister model, the SELPHY CP760.

The two models offer a convenient combination of lab-quality photo printing and supreme ease of operation.

Read Full Story

B*Gallery-FREE

2008-05-08T09:58:00.000-07:00

B*Gallery is freeware

Cerebrosoft has announced that B*Gallery, their Java-based image publishing application, is now available free of charge with "no strings attached."

B*Gallery was originally launched as shareware in 2003.

B*Gallery is a Linux, Mac OS X and Windows application that makes it easy to create HTML image galleries that can be updated, extended and shared.

Unlike most Web gallery applications that create simple, static galleries, B*Gallery makes it simple to add, update, customize and connect content into meaningful photo albums.

And did I mention it is FREE?

click here for more information or visit their website

Makeup Tips

2008-05-08T09:53:00.000-07:00

FASHION PHOTOGRAPHY

Makeup basics for fashion photography...

Have you ever wondered how to get your face "picture perfect" for photos?

Whether for professional sessions or group gatherings, here are a few tips to get your face ready for your closeup!

To read the full article, click here.

NEW free Tutorial for Adobe Camera RAW

2008-05-06T09:29:00.000-07:00

• NEW free Tutorial: Powerful color luminance adjustments in Adobe Camera RAW

From David Saffir's Photography and Digital Fine Art Printing Newsletter, May 2008

David is sharing a new, free tutorial on one of the "hidden" tools in Adobe Camera RAW - it is amazingly powerful - you can improve color and dimensionality in your images with a few sliders.

Click here to see the Camera RAW tutorial.

Use Liquify to make 'em smile!

2008-05-01T10:48:00.000-07:00

If you have a nice photo of a model, but she or he wasn’t smiling and you want the photo to feature a smiling face, or vice versa, you can use Photoshop to slightly tweak the facial expressions.

The key is to be subtle in your approach, unless you are creating a caricature or cartoon. With the Liquify tool, we can create some subtle changes to model photos that can affect the overall mood of the face and therefore affect the mood of the photo.

Learn how

Double up on SanDisk Ultra II Cards

2008-04-30T04:16:00.000-07:00

Calumet and SanDisk have teamed up again to bring you two speedy 2GB memory cards for the normal price of one. Until May 31, you can get two SanDisk Ultra II 2GB in your choice of CF or SD formats for $29.99!

Because serious digital photography requires speed and reliability, these cards are optimized to heighten the performance of your pro gear. Both the CF and SD cards boast minimum write speeds of 9MB/s and read speeds of 10MB/s. In your camera, they improve capture and recycle times for rapid-fire shooting and ultra-fast viewing. When transferring files, download speeds increase dramatically, shortening your post-production. And even with that swift performance, their minimal power consumption won't sap valuable battery life.

Each card also comes backed by a lifetime warranty to ensure you get the support you expect from the SanDisk name. Stock up now—this valuable offer ends May 31, 2008, or while quantities last! Limit five specials per customer per format.
Double up on SanDisk Ultra II Cards »

Frame your images - free

2008-04-17T10:48:00.000-07:00

8bf.net

Thirteen plugins designed by Jim Clatfelter and free to download from his page 8bf.net:

Frame Works, Foto Frame, Texture Frame, Transparent Frame, Marble Mask, Single Hue, Textures, Simplifier, Edge Art, Blot and Smudge, Good Vibrations (which makes waves, rumples, etc), Transparent Vignette, and Custom Filter (a convolution filter with many adjustable settings).

Available for Windows.

Deep Paint does a job for you

2008-04-17T10:40:00.000-07:00

Deep Paint 2

Once a retail product from Right Hemisphere, Deep Paint 2 is an application that can function as a photoshop plugin.

It lets you convert a photo to a painting, manipulate brush and canvas properties, and simulate acrylic, oil and watercolor paint.

The product was discontinued because of the graphics industry's recent transformation in focus from 2D to 3D. Though increasingly tough to find, it can still be downloaded as freeware.

Available for Windows.

Paint Engine

2008-04-17T10:37:00.000-07:00

Paint Engine

Offered as freeware by Fantastic Machines, Paint Engine is probably the quickest way to make a photo look like a painting in photoshop.

You can toggle brush type and stroke type, as well as other controls.

Fully functional beta version available for Windows.

The Best Things in Life are Free!

2008-04-17T10:34:00.000-07:00

AutoFX Dreamy Photo

Free plugin by Auto FX Software that give photos a soft, dreamy quality. Toggle functions include blur, blend, ghosting, tint color, soften mask, zoom, and zoom offset. Documentation also available. Email address needed to activate.

Available for Windows and Mac.

Reusable Paper?

2008-04-14T06:47:00.000-07:00

The future, reusable paper
At the Gartner Symposium/ITxpo in Las Vegas, Steve Hoover, vice president with Xerox Research Center Webster, shows off a technology being developed in the company's labs that enables people to reuse a piece of paper.
PLAY VIDEO

Free Audo Editor

2008-04-11T03:57:00.000-07:00

Free Audio Editor 2008

Like its name attests, Free Audio Editor 2008 is a multi-functional program that allows you to record, slice and mix audio.
The program includes more than 20 sound effects and filters. You can record new audio from your microphone or any other input source, insert noise or silence. It displays a waveform image of the audio files and allows you to visually edit it (Cut, Copy, Delete Silence, Paste, Paste From File, Mix, Mix From File).
Version 3.8 may include unspecified updates, enhancements, or bug fixes.
License: Free
OS: Windows NT/2000/XP/2003 Server/Vista
Check it out

Corel Painter Tutorial

2008-04-09T09:32:00.000-07:00

Auto-Painting a Photo with Varied Strokes

By Cher Threinen-Pendarvis

The Auto-Painting tools in Corel Painter X allow you to transform photographs into paintings by applying automatic strokes that incorporate stroke style, pressure and direction.

Learn more

Lightroom 1.4 update has bugs

2008-04-05T09:48:00.000-07:00

Lightroom 1.4 update has been temporarily removed from the Adobe web site, because of several bugs that were discovered after the update was released.

Adobe recommends uninstalling Version 1.4 and installing Lightroom 1.3.1.

Additionally Lightroom 2.0 is now available for public beta. It includes multiple monitor support, the ability to make localized corrections and improved organizational tools.

The beta will only operate for 30 days if you are not yet a Lightroom user.

http://blogs.adobe.com/lightroomjournal/2008/03/important_lightroom_14_and_cam.html
http://labs.adobe.com/technologies/lightroom/

Make a Photo into a painting - GMX for Windows

2008-04-05T09:42:00.000-07:00

GMX - PhotoPainter (for Windows) turns photos into artistic paintings of various styles, e.g. pen and ink, crayon, oil, watercolor, pastels and many others.

There is also the option of rendering the output at any resolution without quality loss.

The Autosketch option analyzes the image for flow directions and automatically adds brush strokes according to more than 40 parameters. But you can also draw the strokes yourself.

http://www.gertrudisgraphics.com/gmx.php

Free Color Tool

2008-04-05T09:32:00.000-07:00

Need to rid a complexion of that red hue? Here is a tool that may work and the plugin is free!

FoksMarx recolorLE (for Windows) is a feature-reduced free version of the commercial recolorST plugin.

It can be used for color equalization, color enhancement, removal of color stains and bleaches and also for artistic color effects.

http://www.foksmarx.com/?recolorLE-en

PHOTOSHOP BRUSHES

2008-03-23T10:42:00.001-07:00

Vector Foliage Swirls Photoshop Brushes From Stephanie

March 21, 2008

Here's Stephanie with her latest free Photoshop brush set, Vector Foliage Swirls, and some news about her new CD:

I’ve had a few requests for a compilation CD, that has every one of my brush sets available on it. Well, I’ve decided to go ahead and do it.

You can now order an Obsidian Dawn Brushes CD, which will have every single brush set that I’ve ever made on it (including some of those made exclusively for other websites!).

They’re $10, which covers the price of shipping, gas to drive to the USPS, and a bit extra for my time. A very reasonable price, I thought, though! (That $10 is ONLY for US addresses, btw... but I have a link to my email, where you can send me your address if you live overseas and I’ll get you a quote for how much it’ll be, as well.)

PhotographyBB Online Magazine

2008-03-12T12:00:00.000-07:00

PhotographyBB Online Magazine - PDF DownloadMarch 12, 2008

PhotographyBB announced today the release of the second edition of the PhotographyBB Online Magazine. By way of download in either PDF or ZIP formats, PhotographyBB is setting the stage for the future of magazine distribution. In a completely ad-free format, each issue contains informative and educational tutorials for amateur photographers.
In addition to articles which aide beginners in getting the most from their DSLR cameras, the PhotographyBB Online Magazine also features useful and applicable tutorials on how to use Adobe Photoshop to build digital photography post-processing skills.

"This recent release is even stronger than the first issue, which received rave reviews across the web," says editor and publisher, Dave Seeram. "We've raised the bar with this issue, and have included not only articles relating to techniques, but also some thought provoking articles for digital photographers of all disciplines. We are also introducing a photo-contest this month, which (based on last month's traffic) we are expecting hundreds, if not thousands, of submissions."
PhotographyBB Online Magazine is available for free download through the PhotographyBB Website.

St. Patrick's Day Photoshop Brushes-Free

2008-03-06T09:23:00.000-08:00

St. Patrick's Day Photoshop Brushes

From Stephanie-March 05, 2008.

Interestingly, St. Patrick's Day has been moved from its usual March 17th spot this year to March 15th. "Uh... wha?", right? Well, the Vatican approved it last year, and it was done to avoid conflict with "Holy Week" this year. This marks the first time the date has been changed since 1940. The next conflict with Holy Week is not expected until 2160.

This set is mostly made up of shamrocks and clovers, including both three and four leaf clovers (for luck!). Some are scattered, some are textured, some glittery, others are sporting some pretty Celtic designs, and there's even a few swirls with shamrock designs thrown in! Also included are a leprechaun, a pot of gold, and the letters "St. Patrick's Day" spelled in clovers.

10 Megapixel UNDER $500

2008-03-05T10:53:00.000-08:00

Let the Price Wars Begin:

Olympus Introduces 10-Megapixel DSLR with LiveView & Face Detection - Under $500

Wednesday, 03/05/08 -

Olympus today announces the extremely portable E-420 - perfect for everyone who wants to step up to the power and performance of a digital SLR (single lens reflex) yet enjoy the ease of use and ability to compose images on the LCD common to point-and-shoot cameras.

Weighing a mere 380 grams (13.4 ounces), the E-420 is 20 to 40 percent lighter than competing DSLRs. Good things come in this small package, including Live View, which enables users to hold the camera away from their faces and interact with their subjects - ideal when capturing photos of children, for example.

Read Full Story

Free Photo Effects

2008-03-01T06:13:00.000-08:00

Free Filter Forge Freepack 2 – Photo Effects

A set of seven photo enhancing effects.

Give your photos a sunny style, apply grunge look or color tints, age the image, and more – all filters are fully adjustable and resolution-independent.
Download (8.7 MB, Windows)

Photoshop CS3 Noise Removal Tutorial

2008-02-28T12:22:00.000-08:00

Photoshop CS3 Noise Removal Tutorial - Foresnic Photoshop Tutorial

February 26, 2008

Here's a new tutorial from Jim Hoerricks, the Senior Forensic Video Analyst for the Los Angeles Police Department's Scientific Investigation Division, a Photoshop instructor, an author, and a court qualified expert witness in Forensic Video Analysis.

In this Photoshop tutorial we'll look at a semi-destructive way to remove colour noise. I say semi-destructive because even though we are using a "painting tool," the content and context remains unchanged. Working from a layer copy and hiding the original, we're simply removing the noise in this image the easy way.

Read on...

4GB SDHC Memory Card for only $14.95

2008-02-28T10:01:00.000-08:00

Expires on or before: 03/01/08

Adorama is selling the Kingston 4GB SDHC Memory Card for only $14.95 after $5 mail-in rebate.

The lowest price ever for a 4GB SDHC memory card!

Photoshop Smart Objects - Tips

2008-02-26T10:39:00.000-08:00

Photoshop Smart Objects - Tips

How many times have you made an edit or applied a filter in Photoshop, only to realize later that your "improvement" destroyed pixels you needed?

After you read this how-to by Andrew Shalat at creativepro.com, you'll never be in that pickle again.

Good Customer Service Made Simple

2008-02-25T07:51:00.001-08:00

Good Customer Service Made Simple

Good customer service is the lifeblood of any business. Good customer service is all about bringing customers back. And about sending them away happy-happy enough to pass positive feedback about your business along to others, who may then try the product or service you offer for themselves and in their turn become repeat customers .

How do you go about forming such a relationship? By remembering the one true secret of good customer service and acting accordingly; "You will be judged by what you do, not by what you say."

Providing good customer service IS a simple thing. If you truly want to have good customer service, all you have to do is ensure that your business consistently does these things:

* Acknowledge your customers. Greet guests that arrive, and welcome them.
* Answer your phone.
* Don't make a promises unless you WILL keep them.
* Listen to your customers.
* Deal with complaints.
* Be helpful-even if there's no immediate profit in it. Customers remember if you are approachable and willing to help.
* ALWAYS be helpful and courteous-customers remember how they are treated and will let others know too.
* Take the extra step, go the extra mile or throw in something extra.

If you apply these eight simple rules consistently, your business will become known for its good customer service. And the best part, the irony of good customer service is that, over time, it will be bring in more new customers than promotions and price slashing ever will!Clay Blackmore

Digitizing Slides - inexpensively

2008-02-24T06:52:00.000-08:00

An inexpensive approach to digitizing slides.

Here is an article that tells about a product that could help in digitizing slides and negatives.

Click Here

How Peanut Butter Spreads Light on the Science of Photography

2008-02-18T04:52:00.000-08:00

Frank Dispensa, PPA Certified, M.Photog.CR., API, APM has written the following article for your enjoyment... just click on this link:
How Peanut Butter Spreads Light on the Science of Photography

1 TB External Hard Drive - $196.99 - Free Delivery too

2008-02-17T10:48:00.000-08:00

Retailer: Buy.com

eMail Deal
Expires on or before: 02/17/08

Lowest Price! Get the huge 1TB (2x500GB) Cavalry External Hard Drive with fast USB 2.0 interface for only $196.99* and Free delivery.
Price: $196.99* after rebate

ADOBE MAGAZINE - NOW AVAILABLE

2008-02-14T14:55:00.000-08:00

Adobe Magazine For Creative Professionals - Volume 2 Issue 1 - February 2008 - Now Available

February 14 2007

The February 2008 issue of Adobe Magazine is out.

The 12 MB PDF can be downloaded from the Adobe Magazine signup page.

How to Use Photoshop Smart Filters - Tips

2008-02-14T10:09:00.001-08:00

How to Use Photoshop Smart Filters - Tips

February 13, 2008

With CS3's Smart Filters, you can edit any filter at any time, without destroying any pixels.

Here's an article at creativepro.com by Andrew Shalat on how to use Photoshop's Smart Filters.

You'll walk away from this article knowing how to create Smart Objects and layers; how to apply Smart Filters; and how to use a Smart Layer Mask to make fine adjustments to your images. And you'll do it all without losing any pixels.

Free WPPI Pass - from Digital Anarchy

2008-02-11T17:14:00.000-08:00

Digital Anarchy will be at the Wedding & Portrait Photographers tradeshow in Vegas, March 17 - 19.

They will be in booth# 1121 and will be showing off Primatte, a new training DVD for shooting greenscreen, and Knoll Light Factory.

Should be a great show and you can get in free and cause all manner of anarchy by downloading this Anarchy Exhibits Only pass:

http://www.digitalanarchy.com/wppi/WPPI_anarchy_pass.pdf

Free Photoshop Plugins~Filter Forge

2008-02-07T13:58:00.000-08:00

Filter Forge Releases Second Free Photoshop Plugin - Announces 20% Discount
~February 07, 2008~

Continuing its series of free Photoshop plugins, Filter Forge, Inc. today released 'Filter Forge Freepack 2 - Photo Effects', and announced a 20% discount for its flagship product, Filter Forge.

The theme of the second Filter Forge freepack is photo effects and enhancements. The free plugin comes with seven filters, each capable of giving any photo a unique look and feel.

For example, 'Dreamy' filter gives photos a sunny, somewhat ethereal style; 'Grunge' works best on warm-colored images and produces a ragged, harsh look; 'Old Photo' automatically ages the image, giving it an authentic old-time feel.

Photoshop and Forensic Science

2008-02-06T09:47:00.000-08:00

FREEZE! - Forensic Photoshop Is On The Case

February 06, 2008Jim Hoerricks is the Senior Forensic Video Analyst for the Los Angeles Police Department's Scientific Investigation Division, a Photoshop instructor, an author, and a court qualified expert witness in Forensic Video Analysis. His site, Forensic Photoshop, contains lots of interesting posts and tutorials that deal with using Photoshop for forensic work.

This is an extremely interesting article about how Photoshop is used for forensic work. The tutorial shows another way of sharpening an image. Well worth reading.

Free Tutorial on Burn and Dodge

2008-01-31T09:37:00.000-08:00

Free Dodge and Burn Tutorial from Photoshop Cafe
See how you can improve your images with these tips...

Learn some new burning and dodging techniques in Photoshop

Feel like eating Italian Food and Learning too?

2008-01-23T16:29:00.000-08:00

Kevin Kubota's Photography Workshop 2008 Travels to Southern Italy
The 7-day workshop runs from October 5-11, 2008 and includes several photo excursions, classroom instruction and photography critiquing.

WEB GALLERY

2008-01-23T16:28:00.000-08:00

Komotion Introduces Shozam Web Gallery Generator
Photographers can create professionally designed Web galleries to showcase and sell their images online at a fraction of cost.

Photographer gets Kicked

2008-01-23T16:27:00.000-08:00

Lawmaker Faces Probe for Kicking Photographer
House Speaker Andrew Romanoff said he will form a special committee which can recommend discipline against Rep. Douglas Bruce.

Grunge is in - capitalize on it!

2008-01-19T09:49:00.000-08:00

Grungy Texture Photoshop Brushes From BittBox

January 18, 2008

Have you been to BittBox lately? It's a great site filled with amazing free textures and brushes. Just the other day a grungy texture Photoshop brush set was posted. It's in high resolution.

Here are the details from the mysterious BittBox himself:"It seems that most of you seem to LOVE my Photoshop brush sets, so this inspires me to make more. In this set you’ll find grungy textures, as well as some rocky cracks. There are 12 brushes in the set, and they are all 2500px. Available for CS3, CS1, and in PNG format for everyone else.

"All of these brushes were made from the images of the textures I gave away in a previous post. Hope you like them, and don’t forget to upload your designs to the BittBox User Showcase group over at Flickr."

Go to BittBox to downlaod your free copy. For more from BittBox and other brush artists, have a look through our growing collection of High Resolution Photoshop Brushes.

If you print something at 200 or 300 dpi then you'll need graphics that can be sized accordingly, and that's where high resolution brushes excel. Enjoy!

Photoshop Warp Toll - tutorial

2008-01-14T14:15:00.000-08:00

PixelPerfect

Photoshop Warp Tool

Bert shows us how to utilize Photoshop's warp tool to manipulated images.
Download the sample files and play along with Bert!

Tree Silhouettes - for free

2008-01-14T14:09:00.000-08:00

Free Vectors: Tree Silhouettes

It’s free vector time again, and I’ve got some tree silhouettes to share with everyone.

Download ‘em and stick ‘em in your archive. Hopefully they’ll be of good use!

Photoshop makes a Holiday E-Card

2007-12-24T04:58:00.000-08:00

How To Create That Last Minute Holiday e-Card in Photoshop

Christmas is just a day away, so here is a tutorial showing how to create a Christmas design using Photoshop.

Free Paper Textures

2007-12-24T04:55:00.000-08:00

BittBox-GRUNGE is in so try these free Textures...

Free High Res Grungy Paper Textures
Download the High Res images from Flickr by clicking on the pics. The full size images are 2005 X 3000 px :)

Retouching in Raw - by Jason Seely

2007-12-24T04:52:00.000-08:00

Photoshop Quicktips
Episode 60: Retouching in Raw

After a long absence Photoshop Quicktips is on the air once again and this week we take a look at a very cool feature of Adobe's Camera Raw. In this episode we learn how to use the new retouch tool in ACR and how it can help fix problem areas in our images quickly, efficiently, and most important non-destructively.

Free Books online

2007-12-12T10:13:00.000-08:00

WOWIO
Looking for a book to read? Here is a website you can browse and download FREE books.

You can download as many as three books in a given day. What you receive is a high-quality PDF file with the full contents of the book. The first couple of pages of the book are ads for the company sponsoring your "purchase" of the book. They even personalize the first page with your name.

You are simply receiving a PDF of the printed book. Still, you can get a wide variety of titles for free so it is a great way to check out some books that you might not normally order.

Some titles: The Great Puzzle Book
Brave New World
The Scarlet Letter
Stargate
Land of a Thousand Eyes
The 100 Best Movies You've Never Seen
The Cork Jester's Guide to Wine
The End of Celluloid
Essential Guitar Chords
Incredibly Silly Signs
The Original Million Dollar Mermaid
Winning at Poker: Essential Hints and Tips

Heck, there's something here for everyone... Enjoy

Camera Raw UPDATE and LightRoom Too

2007-12-06T11:10:00.000-08:00

Adobe has released an update to the recent Camera Raw 4.3.

This new update, designated Camera Raw 4.3.1, addresses issues with certain raw files and has added support for additional camera models like the new Nikon D300 and the D3.

There is also an update to Adobe Lightroom.

Find out more about the update and which cameras are supported here.

There are also links to download for Mac and PC.

Free Photoshop plugins

2007-12-04T04:08:00.000-08:00

Filter Forge Announces Series of Free Photoshop Plugins, Releases First Plugin

December 04, 2007

Filter Forge today announced an upcoming series of free Photoshop plugins and the availability of the first plugin in the series, "Filter Forge Freepack 1 - Metals", which generates photorealistic metal textures and effects.

Over the course of the coming year, Filter Forge plans to release seven free Photoshop plugins named Filter Forge Freepacks, with each plugin centered around a different theme. The freepacks are based on the technology used in the company's flagship product, Filter Forge, an innovative Photoshop plugin allowing users to create their own filters in a visual editor.

Each freepack will be capable of generating seamlessly-tiled textures with professional-grade anti-aliasing, and will take full advantage of modern dual-core processors.

The theme of the first Filter Forge freepack is metals — the plugin comprises seven filters that produce realistic metal textures and effects.

Alien Metal produces a sci-fi texture of an alien-looking metallic surface; Brushed Metal generates a texture of brushed aluminum; Foil produces a texture of crumpled aluminum foil; Diamond Plate creates a texture of an industrial diamond plate floor; Metal Panels generates a metal plating texture; Metalizer produces a smooth metallic surface based on the brightness of the source image; and Rust renders patches of corrosion over the darker areas of the source image. All textures generated by the plugin are seamlessly tiled and can be immediately used as a web background or a game texture.

The free plugin is available for download at the company website. Registration is not required.

The plugin currently works under Windows only, the OS X version for both Intel and PowerPC processors is in development.

Free Painterly Tutorial from David Rowley

2007-12-04T04:02:00.000-08:00

Ever had the feeling that you’re only harnessing a fraction of Photoshop’s real power?

Maybe the intimidation kept you from buying it at all.

To get your feet wet, here’s a sample tutorial from David Rowley, the Photoshop guru featured in the latest Imagemaker DVD: Photoshop Basics: I Can Do That!

In this tutorial, David walks you through a simple way to give your images an artistic painterly feel.

Download it for FREE and test-drive David’s straightforward teaching style.

Ready for more? Buy the DVD and bring your post-processing to a more professional level.

Free Retouching Video

2007-12-01T08:53:00.000-08:00

Free Photoshop Portrait Retouching Video From Dr. Brown

November 29, 2007xTrain.com has released the latest installment of their free Dr. Brown’s Photoshop Laboratory Classes featuring Photoshop Guru Russell Brown.

This new xTrain class titled “The Good, the Bad, the Ugly” features professional portrait retouching tips and techniques made easy by the comical and entertaining “Dr. Brown”.“This fun and exciting class features all of the professional techniques that anyone using Adobe Photoshop needs to know to make their portraits better than real life,” said Siotha Vest, xTrain’s Director of Training. “This latest addition to Russell Brown’s classes on xTrain provides our students with solid instruction enabling them to master Photoshop CS3 without the boredom of typical online video training.”