Written by Steve Patterson. In this Photoshop Effects tutorial, we’re going to learn how to use a photo as a layer mask, essentially using the image to mask itself, something that Photoshop doesn’t normally allow us to do. We’ll be using it to give the image a nice soft glow effect, but if you experiment […]Read more

  Anomalously residing within the pixel-gridded world of Photoshop are a series of tools waiting to break out of the canvas’ inherent squareness. Mastering these tools opens the stage for a higher level of flexibility, full of clean lines and non-destructive editing. Presented here is a guide to help you build proficiency, increase productivity and […]Read more

  Written by Steve Patterson. Let’s face it, Photoshop’s built-in drop shadow effect has it’s limitations. It’s fine for basic shadow effects, like making text appear to be raised slightly off the background on a web page, but if you’re after something more photo realistic, the drop shadow on its own doesn’t cut it. With […]Read more

  Final Image     Several years ago a friend of mine asked me to teach him how masks work in Photoshop. This is my incredibly late response. We’ll go over the basics of what masks are, what they’re used for and how wielding them properly will take your Photoshop skills to an entirely new […]Read more

  Did this ever happen to you? You catch your pet looking irresistibly cute so you grab your camera and snap a picture. When you view it, suddenly instead of looking cute they look like they’re possessed by some demon. Their eyes are glowing white or some other unnatural color. Don’t panic and call an […]Read more

Written by Steve Patterson. In this tutorial, the first in a series on editing and retouching images with Adobe Camera Raw, we’ll take a quick look at the main difference between the two most popular file formats used by digital cameras today – raw and JPEG – and learn why one of them has a major advantage over the other […]Read more

        Welcome back to Tutorial Tuesday! It’s kinda ironic to me that I am teaching ANYTHING.  I mean…I’m a homeschooler…who went to college to be a teacher…realized VERY quickly that I am not cut out for it and will praise the fine educators of the world till kingdom come…took up a camera less […]Read more

  Final Image As always, this is the final image that we’ll be creating:     In the following tutorial your will learn how to create a lighter illustration from scratch in Photoshop.Read more

  Final Image       Anyone can cobble together a few photos and textures and create a humdrum montage. To elevate yours beyond this it takes a few simple tricks using Photoshop’s awesome array of tools. Do it right and the style has got dozens of applications from static navigation or graphics, through to […]Read more