FREE CD!

Project files, desktop designs,

stock art…
ISSUE 16
Retro Chic | Add shadows to your art | Charles Darby interview | Create urban snow scenes | Get more out of Bridge | Aqua art with blending modes

Build a Bridge S T
HI-
IMA OCRKES
Organise and present your INC G
photos with Adobe Bridge THILUDE ES
S D
IS O
FRESUE’SN
EC
D

MOVIE HOW TO…

MASTER
Top imageer Charles Darby on
the secrets of film backdrops
Add shadows to images
Create urban snow scenes
Design conceptual art
Work with Camera Raw 3
Produce abstract art

8-PAGE SPECIAL

RETRO CHIC
Recreate a myriad of classic film
photographic effects with Photoshop

ISSUE 16
ISSN 1748-7277 £5.99
16

9 771748 727009

PRO LIGHTING EFFECTS pages of professional

Create stunning aqua art using tips & essential step-
16
UE

layers and blending modes by-step tutorials

ISS

001_APM04 2.indd 1 10/2/06 11:32:37

 Cover

Cover image Imageer:

BRIANNA WETTLAUFER
This issue’s enigmatic cover image comes
courtesy of imageer Brianna Wettlaufer
and istockphoto.com. A superb example
of how digital technology and software
can be used to add authentic film effects
to digital photographs, you can find out
more about this type of imaging in Jason
Arber’s Camera Effects masterclass
starting on page 44.

A SUPERB
EXAMPLE OF HOW
SOFTWARE CAN BE
USED TO CREATE
FILM EFFECTS
5
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 PEER PRESSURE 7 78
Get some inspiration from this readers’ and artists’
gallery of high-end image editing

ISSUE #16

inside... LETTERS 7 10
Your comments shared with fellow readers

INSIGHT
News and showcases from around the globe
7 12
Check out new art from Acidtwist 12
Glorious illustrations from James Jean 14
Work from the LA-based duo Kozyndan 16
The best wide-format printers on the market 18

HELPDESK 7 82
Your technical traumas shared with fellow readers
and answered by our expert

THE COVER
Brianna Wettlaufer captures the
retro-style in this month’s cover 44 RESOURCES 7 87
Vital assets to improve your Photoshop work
image. Plus, Sam Gilbey dishes out Recreate retro film
some underwater love in his sub- photo effects Books 88
aqua tutorial. Find out how he did it
by turning to page 52. Stock Art 91
Websites 92
Plug-ins 93
Typography 94

7 96
ve e £ ge ...

THIS MONTH’S CD
ric off 0
co v a E
rp s 2
e sa o p IB

Superb video tutorials, all the project files to go

e
th nd n t CR

with this month’s issue and more!

a r S

12 16
Tu B
SU

A glimpse into the Brush up on the illustrations

world of Acidtwist from Kozyndan

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 62
Master the art of light,
shadow, colour and tone

TECHNIQUES
Faster, better, more… How can you work smarter?

FEATURES
ZIP IT UP
Create a realistic photo-montage with zest
7 42
ONLINE PORTFOLIOS 7 22 CONCEPT ART 7 62
Improve your chances of being commissioned Be the master of sci-fi with this workshop

INTERVIEW: CHARLES DARBY 7 30 INSIDER INFO

Discover the magic behind the movies ADOBE BRIDGE PARTS THREE AND FOUR 7
Search facilities, plus Slideshow and customisation
68
MASTERCLASS: ABSTRACTS 7 38
Gritty and chaotic imagery with George Smith
DEPTH OF FIELD
Recreate focus effects using Gaussian Blur
7 72
DIGITAL CAMERA EFFECTS 7 44 SHADOWS 7 74
Recreate some creative lens and darkroom techniques Light sources, contours and textures

UNDERWATER LOVE 7 52 PEER PRESSURE

Eye-catching images from fellow readers
7 78
How layer blending can help you create ocean scenes

MASTERCLASS: SNOW SCENES 7 58 TECHNICAL RUN-THROUGH 7 84

Transform a summer street scene using Noise and Layer Masks Discover the power of Camera Raw 3

7
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 Letters
Mailbox
Send your emails to the Advanced Photoshop team at
advancedpshop@imagine-publishing.co.uk
SUBJECT: Positive vibes
FROM: Philip Jean-Pierre, America
I saw your first issue and took a pass. My girlfriend,
unknowingly, got me your second issue as a gift while
she was shopping. Let me just admit I am not the
brightest bulb and never was; the point slammed
home as much as when I read the second issue. To
say I regret not getting your first issue would be an
understatement! The second issue was amazing,
with tutorials that were great springboards for other
creative endeavours. I just added a new magazine
to a list of the ‘must haves’ for my library. I am an
American, and while we have excellent magazines
on design, there’s nothing around with the bare
bones hardcore information for the advanced
Photoshopper. With the world of design changing so
fast, it’s publications like these that help me keep up.
Keep up the excellent work...
SUBJECT: More praise!
FROM: Darren Firth
I picked up your Advanced Photoshop magazine in
Borders on Saturday. It was a pretty cool read; I know
some of the designers featured in your pages, so it
was pretty funny seeing their silly faces in there!
It seems there is a strong Pixelsurgeon vibe running
throughout! It would be cool to get any future
WEARITWITHPRIDE products and exhibitions in your
magazine – you can see the fruits of our labours at
www.wearitwithpride.com.
Anyway, excellent job. Keep it up.
Editor replies:
Many thanks to both of you for your kind words on
the magazine. We welcome any feedback, whether it
is positive or negative so keep those comments
coming in. Together we can strive to shape the
Photoshop title that you deserve.
10
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010_APM04_letters.indd 10
SUBJECT: Weather the storm
FROM: Steve Iles
Great mag – a step up from my long-standing digital
photo imaging mags. It was a couple of years ago
when one of these titles showed you how to generate
lightning in an image, and this picture (below) is my
attempt at that time to make a winner. It sadly never
got picked. As your weather feature is in the current
edition, you may like to see my early attempts. The
pier is real and part of the sea, but some sky and sea
were added, and the tornado and sea spray, as well as
some debris on the pier. Oh yeah…the lightning and
flames… (obviously). Still, I thought it was amazing
at the time. The original photo was heavily cropped
from a 3MP camera so I used a technique to sharpen
it (without generating so much noise) that is great for
fur etc. It is the old high pass filter adjusted on a
duplicate layer to get hard edges and blended in
layers with soft light. The effect can then be backed
off, as required. My son buys this mag regularly, so if
you print this he will see it, and that would be nice,
seeing my input to a pro mag!
SUBJECT: Disc depression
FROM: Carol Fitzgerald
I am a first year graphic design student in Sydney,
Australia. Today (2nd Dec) I purchased the Oct issue
of your magazine ($15 AUD). I am running a Mac G5
with OSX. This is the first of your magazines that I
have purchased and probably the last. Your
magazine stated that on the discs it had stock photos
worth 1,200 pounds. I only managed to open two of
the photos. One of a ginger cat and one of a cow. I’m
very disappointed by this state of affairs.
Editor replies:
Please return the disc to Cover Disc Returns, Imagine
Publishing Ltd, Richmond House, Richmond Hill,
Bournemouth BH2 6EQ, UK, and we’ll get you a
replacement out as soon as possible.
Subject: Course of action
FROM: erdj@btinternet.com
I was looking to take up a part-time Photoshop
course, but can’t decide on a course or college.
I already know how to use Photoshop (up to a point!),
but I need a course that enables me to get
experimental and gain more in-depth knowledge of
the program. Can you suggest a course in London?
Many thanks!
Editor replies:
A good range of Adobe-accredited Photoshop
training courses are listed on the company’s website
at www.adobe.co.uk/support/training.html. The
site will enable you to find an Adobe-certified training
centre in your area, or get online support.
Subject: Inspired!
FROM: Vincent MacTiernan
I recently went to a bookstore where I live here in New
York, and saw your magazine on the rack. Normally I
bypass magazines such as yours, as I use After Effects
and 3D and never felt the need to look into
Photoshop for other than I what I need to make a
texture map. Your magazine changed all that. It has
to be one of the best, no, THE best magazine I have
ever seen on doing hi-end compositing with PS – you
tell people not only HOW to make great images, but
also WHY they are doing things along the way.
I was so impressed by it that I was inspired to make
this image: www.extremedigitalpro.com/
extremereel/Photoshop%20Images/HeadCase
LowRes.jpg. Thanks for giving me more LONG
nights of discovering new techniques!
10/2/06 14:29:49
 insight
Acidtwist
There’s no question about it. For Acidtwist, real name Tavish, being the son of a
sculptor and architect has had a profound impact on his own career path. “Growing
up, I never questioned whether I would go into a creative field; it was a given,” he says.
Now an established painter in his own right, the Montreal-based creative freelances
as an art director for print and interactive design – and has also recently begun
directing videos.
A multi-disciplined artist, Acidtwist’s degree in Art History continues to be relevant
in many aspects of his working life. “Learning about everything from Graeco-Roman
art to contemporary video installations gave me a great exposure to so many styles of
work and I still refer back to that constantly.”
His illustration style is a canny mix of East meets West – Acidtwist puts the
influence down to growing up in Canada, where popular culture was often imported:
“If I was watching a television cartoon, chances are that it was from America or Japan,
though I didn’t know that when I was a kid watching Scooby-Doo or AstroBoy.” One of
the key motifs in his work is Lichen, a sensual, green-haired figure, who brings to
mind the almond-eyed splendour of anime and Jap pulp magazines. “Characters that
go on to have lives outside their initial media appearances fascinate me,” he says.
“I have this personal goal of creating 100 different images of her.”
As for technique, Acidtwist draws first in pencil, then paints over the line-art in
Photoshop. Perhaps most surprisingly, he prefers using a mouse to a tablet. “I’m just
used to painting like this,” he says. “I’ve been using a mouse for ten years now and it
feels natural. I should probably think about getting a tablet – pressure-sensitivity
would be great – but I still like the way my hand rests on a mouse.”
/ www.acidtwist.com/

ITALIAN FASHION: “This was a commercial

piece, made for a fictional Italian fashion label.
Unusually, it has a lot of layers. Most of my
paintings are done with only three: pencils,
figure and background. I like the look I achieved
LICHEN AND THE GUN: “I was in the mood by blurring the insects and using Gradients to
for doing something detailed and carefully colour the background elements. I also added a
painted. This actually started out as a pencil- bit of texture with custom brushes.”
nother
sketch a couple of years earlier. I liked the DRA: “A
sketch, but never finished it because I felt there E D C ASSAN lot, but never
MIS ed a
was something missing. I solved this in the final CUSTO etch that I lik ed new custom
old sk e d . I design for the entire
painting by putting Lichen’s gun in her right fin is h em s
d used th no pencil line
hand, which adds more focus.” shes an are
paintbru or once, there is blocked out in
F
image. all; everything with the loose
t y
visible a was very happ e final image.”
I f th
colour. -l ik e look o
bru sh

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 04.06
LICHEN IN CHARCOAL: “This was one of the
first series of Lichen paintings I did – and all
four were drawn and later painted
simultaneously… I was researching work by
Egon Schiele at the time. The figure was
painted with the standard Photoshop charcoal
brushes at half Opacity, and the background is
actually a scanned paper-bag.”
LOLLIPOP GIRL: “I specifically wanted to
paint something different from my usual work.
It took me a while to build up the dark, rich
browns, and the hair colour changed several
times before I settled on the typically – for me –
unnatural hair colour. I prefer to avoid using
Hue/Saturation to change a colour. I repaint
areas instead.”

LATEST LICHEN: “This is the first of my latest

series of Lichen paintings. I’ve taken the
elements I had in the first paintings and
elaborated on them. For example, the white
outlines are wilder and flow into the
background. I’ve also dropped the red from her
colour scheme to go with the stripped-down
aesthetic and upped the Saturation to reflect
my original comic/animation inspiration.”

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 insight
James Jean
“I didn’t know anything about illustration – or art, for that
matter – until I started art school. But when I first picked up a
paintbrush, I knew I’d found my calling,” says James Jean, former
alumni of the New York School of Visual Arts, now resident of
LA, where he counts DC Comics, TIME, Rolling Stone and
Atlantic Records, among his many prestigious clients. How did
he land the briefs?
“I hit the pavement and walked right into the offices of DC
Comics. That was pretty much it,” he says. “I’m notoriously
passive in all aspects of my life, so it’s been my great fortune
that my website does most of the work for me.”
He puts the usefulness of Photoshop in context: “For me, the
sketch stage is the most important. The essential structure of
the whole picture, the life-force of the drawing, originates in
the sketch. With some of my pieces, I take it to the halfway
point in terms of rendering and painting, and finish the rest
in Photoshop.”
He’s a dedicated fan of Wacom’s Intuos3 (“Once I’d tasted that
fruit, there was no going back,” he says), but his view on Adobe’s
app is an interesting one.
“I approach Photoshop as a printmaking tool,” he explains,
“using layers to build upon the original drawing. Even in
printmaking class, I would run a pencil drawing I’d done in a
press under an etching plate to see what effect it would have, or
paint on top of monoprints. Photoshop is a natural extension of
that thinking. After applying basic colour, I use mostly layer
effects to achieve depth. I also scan in hand-painted textures to
develop the picture further. I do whatever it takes.”
/ www.jamesjean.com

BEST LIFE BABIES: “Germany’s Best

Life Magazine asked me to illustrate an
article about the different ways couples
can start a family. The empty
silhouette is the projection of a couple’s desire
to have children.”

RUNAWAYS #12 (MARVEL COMICS): “A

cover for a popular Marvel Comics series. The
story in this issue takes place in St. Patrick’s
Cathedral in New York. Right across the street
from the cathedral, there’s a terrific Art Deco
SIGUR ROS: “This illustration accompanied a statue of Atlas in the Rockefeller Centre. I had a
magazine interview with the Icelandic band vision of the superhero characters caged in the
Sigur Ros. Their studio consists of an indoor globe held by Atlas, the original Incredible Hulk.”
pool converted into a studio, so I immediately
thought of depicting them in a ‘pool of sound.’
They are known musically for creating complex
and fragile textures, so I have them floating
among coral in a composition that hopefully
evokes their unique sound.”

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 04.06
BATGIRL #45 (DC COMICS):
“This remains one of my most
popular comic book covers,
depicting the new Batgirl dressed
in the old Batgirl costume.
I created the halftone pattern
using the Colour Halftone filter
in Photoshop.

GREEN ARROW 49 (DC COMICS): “A cover for

Green Arrow for DC Comics. One of the
maddening joys of Photoshop is the myriad of
choices it affords the digital artist. The inverted
look happened by accident. I find that the most
successful pictures occur via the most circuitous
and surprising methods. I never complete an
illustration the same way twice.”

SUBWAY TARGET: “Retailer Target bought out

an entire issue of the New Yorker and asked me to
contribute an illustration to its campaign. The
only stipulations were that the illustration had to
reference New York, contain the Target logo, and
use red and grey. I had a lot of fun with this one,
since they gave me a free rein.”

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 insight

KIN-SAN’S BUSINESS TRIP: “One from our Panoramic series. I’d been seeing these
guys in my head for some time – Japanese salary-men dressed as schoolgirls – and had UPRISINGS (BUNNY WAVE): “I’d been
some strange visions for what they’d be doing. If there’s a standard style or process that into Hokusai’s work for a long time and
Kozyndan is known for, this would be it. The finished piece is kind of a jumbled had in my mind an image of bunnies
commentary on modern Japanese culture: the feminisation of the male populace, the forming out of the foam of the wave,”
obsession with childlike purity, the sexualisation of young girls, and the overall says Kozy. “The final piece was painted
proclivity towards strangeness that the Tokyo megalopolis promotes.” completely in Photoshop – all the lines
using the Brush tool, on a Wacom tablet.
The paper textures were created
completely with filters.”

Kozyndan
As a couple working comfortably (and successfully) together in illustration,
LA-based duo Kozyndan remain an industry rarity. “We met in painting class in
college and had dated for a few years,” says Dan. “We were living together before we
made our first piece of art together. Kozy had done a long drawing of the inside of
our apartment and I liked it so much, I decided to colour it in Photoshop.”
It was their famous collaborative design for the interior of LA store Giant Robot –
spotted by shop founder Eric Nakamura – that put them on the map. “He liked it so
much, he asked us to do some illustrations for Giant Robot magazine,” says Kozy. The
pencil lines are invariably still visible in their finished works, but, as Dan explains,
Photoshop is an essential tool: “Once all the elements are scanned in, we composite
the characters into the environment and then clean the drawing up – a process that
includes adjusting Levels, dodging and simply painting out imperfections and
mistakes. Then we put the image on both our computers and start painting under
the drawing in Photoshop. We just keep going until pretty much everything is
painted on either one file or the other, then we just put the colour layers from one
file into the other and clean everything up.”
They don’t use many techniques. “We were both trained traditionally as illustrators,”
says Kozy, “so we treat Photoshop the same way we treat physical paintings –
almost everything is done using the Brush tool.” The pair are busy, but there was
one job they had to take. “When the creator of Kozy’s favourite videogame, Katamari
Damacy, asked us to do an illustration about the game, we jumped at the chance.”
/ www.kozyndan.com

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 04.06

LIKE SANDS THROUGH THE

HOURGLASS: “Another in our
Panoramic series, this one set at a street
corner on Berwick Street, London, where
Kozy and I once had a fight while on
holiday. Most of the imagery revolves
around the passage of time, with scenes
covering vastly different lengths of time
converging in one image. For example, a
sequence showing a strawberry gleefully
diving into whipped cream intermixes
with Kozy and I as babies, growing up,
meeting and growing old together.”

KATAMARI DAMACY: “The creator of videogame

Katamari Damacy contacted us to do an illustration
about the game for an article in Relax magazine in
Japan. We wanted therefore to mix flat colours, like
those of the game graphics, with the more natural
look we’ve been working with this year. We achieved
this by simply scanning in a piece of cardboard and
laying it over the final artwork. A little real texture
always changes the dynamic of a piece of work.”

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 insight
Epson Stylus Pro 9800
Manufacturer: Epson
Price: £5,282
Web: www.epson.co.uk

The 44-inch Stylus Pro 9800 is part of Epson’s UltraChrome K3 range and
exploits a proprietary inkset that offers three black inks for truly
superlative image quality. The print technology is Epson’s own Micro Piezo
drop-on-demand with variable sized droplet technology and 3.5pl Epson
Ultra Micro Dot.
The print head configuration offers 180 nozzles in eight colours, and a
resolution of 2880x1440, with quoted print speeds for B0+/Plain Paper in Draft
Mode of up to 22.1m2 per hour. The 9800 also provides edge-to-edge and
borderless printing for media from 515mm-1117mm. Images printed with the
9800 will last a lifetime, with the UltraChrome K3 inks offering lightfastness for up
to 75 years for colour and 100 for black and white (if kept indoors).
The printer itself boasts a pleasingly formidable physical presence, measuring
1702mm x 678mm x1196m, weighing around 90kg and producing noise levels
around the 50dB mark.
Flexibility is the key for connectivity, offering USB 2.0, Firewire and optional
networking. The Stylus Pro is available for both the Mac and Windows platform,
supporting OSX, OS9 and Windows 98, 2000 and XP.

Wide-format HP DesignJet 110 Plus

Manufacturer: Hewlett-Packard

printers: best
Price: £935
Web: www.hp.com

of the best
The DesignJet 110 Plus is very much the budget baby of this issue’s round-up,
coming in under the four-figure mark by an appreciable £65. It’s a six-colour,
multi-format printing solution that delivers fade-resistant, photo-quality images
every time. A C-size tray and automatic roll-feed to 24 inches makes it ideal for
everything from postcards to posters, too. The standard tray holds up to 150

For large-scale projects that demand sheets (plain paper) and extra-wide front and rear paths allow oversize output up
to 24 inches x 64 inches.
only the highest quality output and A print resolution of 2400x1200dpi, combined with HP Professional Color

performance, check out these six wallet- technologies (including Automatic Closed Loop Color calibration and CMYKplus)
gives quoted print speeds of 11.9 minutes for an A1 ‘Normal/Glossy’. But turn the
busting offerings quality up a notch to ‘Best/Glossy’ and you’ll be tapping your fingers for a further
six minutes. Standard connectivity is provided by the lesser USB standard USB 1.1,
By Steve Jenkins but is compatible with USB 2.0, plus there is a Centronics parallel IEEE-1284 port
and 1 EIO slot for networking. Support is provided for all Windows platforms (95,
98, Me, NT 4.0, 2000, XP) plus Mac 9.x and OS 10.1 and higher.

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 Canon W6400 Kodak T200+
Manufacturer: Canon
Price: £2,499
04.06
Manufacturer: Kodak
Web: www.encad.com
Web: www.canon.co.uk
Price: £2,814

The A1+ 24-inch W6400 is a six-colour pigment ink Large Format Printer (LFP)
The Kodak T200+ offers two distinct outputs, effortlessly switching from full-
aimed specifically at the graphic arts market. It features a one-inch-wide, high-
colour graphics printing to four-colour or monochrome Computer Aided Design
density print-head that can produce microscopic 4-picolitre droplets for high-
output. The new CIS2 ink-set creates brilliant full-colour photographic images,
quality imagery free of graininess. Output speeds of up to 2.2 minutes per page
plus CAD drawings with distinct line acuity, thanks to the CIS2 pigment black ink
when producing an A0-size
(with cyan, magenta and yellow) option.
image ensures optimum
For ultra-fast monochrome printing, the T200+ also offers a CIS2 ink-set with
hardcopy turnaround
four black pigment inks. This dual functionality is made easy maintain thanks to a
at the proofing
range of pre-filled ink
stage. A1 output,
cartridges that simply
on the other hand,
snap on and off for
slashes the output
quick, clean
time by nearly half,
installation. In
offering an
addition, ENCAD’s Ink Caddy
impressive speed of around
System holds ample ink for
1.3 minutes per page.
extended printing. Handy
The printer comes complete with
transparent caddies ensure
two bundled software packages. The
that printer ink levels are
first, Digital Photo Print Pro, enables
visible at all times.
users to process, enhance and print
What’s more, the compact
photographs. Poster Artist,
and sleek design of the T200
meanwhile, comes with a set of
ensures the printer wil be
templates and images to
able to find a home in
help you create large
more compact
format designs.
creative studios.

Kodak 1200i Epson Stylus Pro 7400

Manufacturer: Kodak Manufacturer: Epson
Price: 60-inch: £10,077; 42-inch: £7,121 Web: www.epson.co.uk
Web: www.encad.com Price: £2,814

While the Kodak 1200i system offers great cost per print, the initial outlay will set The A1 24-inch Stylus Pro 7400 is a four-colour large-format printer aimed at
you back around £7,000. Still, you get a lot for your money, including high-speed design professionals in the POS, CAD and GIS markets. The 7400 incorporates the
printing that delivers excellent image quality on every page. The dual- Epson UltraChrome inkset (2xCyan, 2xMagenta, 2xYellow and 2xBlack), ensuring
component rapid evaporation drying system improves drying efficiency, too, vivid, lifelike, edge-to edge output every time. These ink cartridges are deisgned
facilitating rapid dry times for instant take-up and faster print-to-lamination time. for a large workflow and offer
The Intelligent Mask Technology optimises colour gamut, density and vibrancy higher volumn capacities than
without compromising speed, while the Kodak Quantum Inks deliver an rivals. An intuitive
expanded colour gamut, enhanced durability and longevity for both control panel and
indoor and outdoor applications. The 1200i is available in interface ensures
both 60-inch and 42-inch versions to suit all quick and easy high-
your outputting needs. resolution printing at
up to 1440dpi, with a
lightfastness of up to
75 years for
colour prints.
The 7400 supports matte
and glossy media up to
1.5mm thick, and even caters
for specialist techniques such
as screen-printing. It can also
print on transparent media
too, with screen rulings up to
150lpi for creating designs
like black-and-white masks.

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 Feature

online
art
Are you sat at your desk waiting
for that big first break? Raise your
Before you contemplate setting up a portfolio site
of your own, consider realistically what you hope to
achieve. Are you out to sell prints, raise your profile
profile and get your work out into and kick-start your image-editing career, or produce a
portfolio aimed at advertising agencies and clients as
the big bad world with this guide a means of securing further work? Identifying features
and design style that will work best for you is crucial.
to producing online portfolios Remember, a portfolio site may well be the first point
of contact for many of your future clients, and should
BY ROSS CONSTANTINI
present a mature and professional image. As one
commercial photographer Lonna Tucker, recognises:
“A website is crucial to marketing an imageer’s work.
Art buyers at advertising agencies now look at your
website first rather than calling in your book.”

GALLERY

A
personal portfolio website PAGES: Should
be simple to
can expand your potential
navigate and
client base. Many imageers provide good
have benefited from gaining contact sized, clear
with clients through their sites, and enlargements.
come to the realisation that a well- This example
shows effective
designed and maintained website design together
can significantly raise your profile with a user-
and success as an illustrator. Other friendly layout
than simply providing a permanently
accessible portfolio, a website can be
useful in many other ways…

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DARRAN REES: Darran
has incorporated previous
contract work into his site,
acting both as a portfolio
and client list. This shot was
used in a Wrigleys
advertising campaign
The method most suited to you will depend not
only on budget, but also the features you want to
see on the site, and how original and professional
the results are. Once you have established your
requirements, there are basically three main methods
of getting your own personal photography site up
and running. Choosing the correct option for you is
the first step on your way to a worldwide client base.
The budget site
For those with a limited budget the best option is to
design and develop the site yourself. This requires
relevant software, the technical knowledge, some
design sense and a whole lot of time, but provides
an original site that is designed around your
requirements. There are some online aids for those
new to the game, which guide you through the major
steps to launch your site. The only costs involved
are in securing a domain name and hosting the site,
which usually demands a yearly sum dependent on
the amount of space required. One good site to look
at for advice and information on all aspects of web
development and design is www.jessett.com.
BEFORE CONTEMPLATING SETTING
UP A PORTFOLIO SITE, CONSIDER
WHAT YOU HOPE TO ACHIEVE
022-029_APM04_feature.indd 23
Online Art
KEEP IT SIMPLE: The simplicity
and strong graphical design on
Gene Peach’s portfolio site provides
a professional appearance and
enhances the content, instead of
distracting from the photography
The template site
A pre-designed template can be purchased fairly
cheaply, offers an easier option for those on a budget,
and is a popular way to get a site up and running
quickly. The text and images are added to the template
to complete the site. Finding a host and publishing the
site is still up to you. Xpose-gallery.co.uk and foliolink.
com offer templates specifically for photographic
websites. Webeden.co.uk and buildmygallery.
co.uk offer online website builders. This requires no
knowledge of website development, and by using the
wide range of template options you can be set up and
ready to go in a matter of hours.
Lonna Tucker, a commercial photographer from
Arizona, worked with Foliolink to produce her
template-based site. Using one of its Flash templates,
she worked closely with Foliolink to customise the site
to suit her requirements. She knew what she wanted
from the site beforehand, so they could arrange one to
suit her needs. “I wanted a site I could manage, upload
photos and other content, and have a client area for
assignment pre-production requirements, like viewing
scout locations, casting pics, etc. It was a collaborative
Professional advice
The Webby Awards is the leading international
award honouring excellence in web design,
creativity, usability and functionality. Tiffany
Shlain, founder and chairperson of The Webby
Awards, provides her top five tips for creating a
winning website:
1
LESS IS MORE
What really sets Google apart is its simple
interface. Avoid extraneous bells and whistles
that slow users down.
2 STAY ON COURSE
Keep your navigation bar consistent and
prominent on every page, so customers don’t
get lost. Use guides to show users where they
are and how to get back to where they started.
3 MAKE CONTACT
Put a clear link from the home page that
leads to your contact info. Include as many
forms of contact as you can process: telephone
and fax numbers, postal mailing address and
email address. Customers will place more trust
in you if they know you are easily accessible.
4 SET EXPECTATIONS
Acknowledge all contact with an auto
response email so customers know you received
their message. In the auto response, let them
know how long it will take for you to get back to
them, and then respond in that time frame.
5 KEEP UP APPEARANCES
Unlike a movie or a book, a website is a
constant work in progress. Keep your customers
coming back by highlighting personal or
industry news on your home page to keep it
fresh. Every quarter (if not more often), review
your site thoroughly to make sure everything is
current and links are still live.
In addition to this, we’d highly recommend
updating the site regularly with your most
recent work. This keeps visitors returning to your
site to view new material. Finally, always present
your best work. Avoid padding the galleries with
sub-standard images; it will do you no favours. It
is better to have a few top-notch images, rather
than a vast array of mostly mediocre content.
Jim Shannon from the Giraffe advertising
agency informs us that when searching for a
photographer, he looks for a website that is
primarily clear and easy to use. Contact details
are obviously important, as well as sites updated
occasionally with new work. A client list and a
stock selection is a good idea if a client won’t
run to a full commission. Darran Rees has made
various re-usage sales specifically from his site.
Deborah Gasper from The Ad Agency says:
“The site needs to be simple, images need to
download fast, and examples of their experience
need to be easy to find. Another major point
with the design of a website is to design it so the
search engines can pick it up.”
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 Feature
LONNA TUCKER: Lonna
has modified her template
site to her requirements. The
Flash-based site includes a
client area, and provides
information on each
process that took a few months, but it was an
enjoyable experience.” Lonna made good use of the
template method to achieve a professional result.
The custom site
The site is designed and developed around your
needs – all you have to do is supply the information
and images. This is by far the most expensive option,
but hosting and publishing can be managed by the
company, and the results will be of a professional
standard. Prices vary, but as with most things you get
what you pay for. Domain name and hosting fees are
typically not included, but offered by the company for
an additional charge.
Darran Rees, a London-based photographer,
employed the expertise of Taylor James to produce
his stunning custom site. Originally a photographic
retouching company, Taylor James has branched out
into website development, making use of its many
ESSENTIAL INFO: Incorporating contact details is a
must, and providing a client list will give integrity
24
Advanced Photoshop
022-029_APM04_feature.indd 24
years’ experience of the photographic industry to
produce effective custom websites for its clients. “The
site was actually co-designed by myself and Taylor
James. ‘The picture house’ idea was my own; I wanted
to get away from the usual two-dimensional way of
displaying pictures on-screen, and introduce some
perspective, while retaining the simple graphic of the
design. It’s really the same as walking through a real
gallery; we see something that catches our eye, and
wander up to it for a closer look. Taylor James took
care of all the technical stuff like purchasing of space
and getting it all up and running, thankfully.”
Content
It is important not to overwhelm the viewer with
information and pictures. Keep it concise yet effective.
We recommend you plan your site around these
simple contents:
5 GALLERY PAGES:
Thumbnails should be large enough for the viewer
to recognise the content, and ideally be continually
present on the portfolio page. The enlarged images
should display an increased level of detail, but avoid
huge images that require scrolling. A portfolio of more
than about 100 images becomes a chore to view, and
distracts from your best work; select your very best
photos and categorise clearly into different pages.
5 BIOGRAPHY:
A personal biography is often included to provide the
viewer with a bit of information on your background,
and perhaps your aspirations for the future.
5 CLIENT LIST:
For those of you who have been working for a while,
and have built up a client base, it might be worth
listing your major clients. If you have received any
recent press coverage, then this could be included
here, along with any awards that will add credentials
to your work.
5 CONTACT DETAILS:
This is an absolute essential – if the potential buyers
or clients can’t get hold of you, it defeats the purpose
of the site.
FOLIOLINK: There are many
companies offering template-based
website design; one of the better
providers is Foliolink. Dedicated to
photography clients, it provides a
range of solutions to meet your needs
13/2/06 17:28:42
 Online Art
Publicising
Advertising your site is crucial. To avoid it getting
lost in the tangled mass of the web, it’s imperative
that your site has ‘web presence’. There are many
methods that can be used to raise your site’s profile.
The most common and perhaps most effective is to
optimise it for search engines. This simply means that
by cleverly adapting the site coding, you can gain
a higher listing position in search engines. To have
your site listed among the first few results of a search
will guarantee more visitors. Another method is to
advertise your site on relevant photography sites
and search engines. This obviously costs money, but
it is a worthy investment if you advertise smartly. In
his experience, Gene Peach has seen the majority of
clients reach his site through group websites. “Even
when my individual site floats at the top of a Google
search, I hear mostly from people who found it on
a New Mexico group listing.” To get involved with a
© Darran Rees

local web group or with a group of similar content,

simply make contact and arrange a connection.
See www.guava.co.uk or www.Find-My-Link.com
for details on how a specialist company can help.

Copyrighting issues TOO MUCH FLASH

CONTENT CAN ACTUALLY DISTRACT
Illegal downloading of images has always been a
hazard associated with portfolio sites. Darran Rees

FROM YOUR WORK IF NOT USED

was well aware of the risks, and ensured measures
were in place to protect his work. “Illegal download
and copyright infringement are very important and
common parts of any web design – or should be! In
my particular site we have an inbuilt mechanism that
prevents the download of images from the site, plus
the file-sizes are small enough so that they are not
able to be reproduced commercially.” If you want to
keep image sizes as large as possible, watermarking
may be the best option.
Go interactive?
Macromedia’s Flash is increasingly being used in the
design and development of websites to enhance
the visual appeal and functionality. Incorporating
Flash content into a site is a great way of creating a
more appealing experience, and when used well can
RANCH ROAD: Taken from Lonna Tucker’s portfolio
site, www.lonnatucker.com
WITH CAREFUL CONSIDERATION
provide a professional touch to your online portfolio.
There’s always a danger of overkill though – many
sites overload on Flash, which becomes annoying.
Too much Flash content can actually distract from
your work if not used with careful consideration.
Jim Shannon from Giraffe says that when looking
for a photographer to shoot a job, “Flash intro pages,
and especially waiting for large Flash files to load, is
not something we’re keen on! Unless it performs a
function like navigation or a slideshow, don’t use it.”
E-commerce
Producing an online portfolio is a great way to get
your work out there; however, selling prints through
your site is an opportunity too few photographers
embrace. Recently conducted research suggests that
just eight per cent of artists sell prints online, despite
the rapid growth of e-commerce. Selling prints
can be a good way of supplementing your income
and making the most of a site. The system can be
included in many templates, or custom-designed by
web-development companies.
Lonna Tucker has plans to sell art prints and stock
photography through her personal website, and
seems enthusiastic about the possibilities: “Foliolink
is finalising the e-commerce end of things. I can’t tell
you how exciting this technology is. It will enable
individual photographers to market their work, and
do it in a very professional, upscale way.”
The management of online sales may put
some off the idea of selling prints. Artists need
the organisation and time to invest in such an
enterprise, as well as the extra costs involved in
printing, packaging and distributing the orders.
James Randklev, a landscape photographer
with an e-commerce-enabled site, unfortunately
has had little success selling his prints online. “It’s
not because people aren’t interested in having
prints made; it’s mainly the production and fine-
art costs of the prints.” For those concerned about
overheads and organisation, there are other options.
Theimagefile.com offers an all-in-one solution, which
takes care of the complete process from ordering,
using secure online payment, to the production

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 Feature
Has your website had a
positive effect on your career?
5 DARRAN REES
“I think my own site that is linked to my agent’s
websites has aided my career. The proof is the
various contacts we receive from people who
would not otherwise have seen the work. Generally
speaking, more people know my work now, more
people have access to my work now, and this is no
bad thing for an artist.”
www.darranrees.com
5 LONNA TUCKER
“Imageers have been concerned about the
declining number of assignments in the USA, and
that – coupled with the state of the stock art
industry – leads to rampant pessimism about the
photo business here. Hopefully, my existing client
base will remain strong, and the website will bring
new business my way.”
5 GENE PEACH
“I have no doubts that creating my website was the
best marketing decision of my career. My website is
the strongest connection with the ‘great wide
yonder’ I have.” Living and working in rural New
Mexico makes it tough for Gene to find local work:
“My website is definitely my best tool for attracting
outside clients.”
For a top-notch design, we recommend you take
a look at Gene’s site: www.genepeach.com. His
instructions to the developer were for a very
simple, elegant, easy-to-navigate and quick-to-load
site, which has resulted in one of the best sites
we’ve seen. Although the gallery images could do
with being slightly larger, the balance of aesthetics
and functionality are spot on – great design.
© Darran Rees
NICARAGUAN MAN: Taken from the dedicated
archive gallery in Darran Rees’ site
26
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022-029_APM04_feature.indd 26
PHOTOGRAPHY SITES MUST BE
UPDATED WITH RECENT WORK AND
INFO. THIS CAN BE DONE AT HOME
and delivery of images. This service can be
incorporated into an existing site by simply
cutting the code from theimagefile and pasting it into
your site. Even those without a website needn’t worry,
as one can be provided free by the system. Howard
Butterfield from theimagefile points out that: “The
prints and products available for clients to purchase
through theimagefile’s embedded e-commerce
service are of an extremely high quality. The system
even does a logic check on the image EXIF data to
automatically decide if the image should be balanced
and optimised, or printed as it is. The system then
generates an invoice, and processes and dispatches
the order, without any intervention from the
artist at all.”
Jo Andreae’s site, oneworldonecamera.co.uk, has
made good use of theimagefile system to create a
fully automated e-commerce business. Selling a range
of products, Jo’s site has been really successful. “The
print sales are going well, and people like the site – it
has well and truly paid for itself. As a small business,
I can alter the website to fit in with marketing
campaigns, and develop it as the business develops.”
For more information visit www.theimagefile.com.
The service costs from £20 plus VAT per month.
Without exception, all those we spoke to believed
that the addition of an online portfolio had a positive
effect on their career. Gene Peach believes that the
lack of personal contact has an effect on his business,
meaning clients are less likely to form long-term
working relationships.
Whichever method of site construction you choose
though, the basics of getting your site up and running
remain the same. There are generally three major
steps to consider: the domain name (or URL), hosting
and promotion.
ORIGINALITY:
Darran Rees’ highly
original site was
custom made to his
rough design. The
virtual gallery idea
was Darran’s
concept, which was
brought to life by a
web developer
Before he was an ad man, Kerry took the art
foundation course route. It was here that he had his
first brush with graphic design. He immediately
connected with it and went on to do a degree in
advertising and graphic design. Today he is still
balancing the two – an act he enjoys. All his freelance
work is done under the banner of You Are Beautiful,
his company, while between the hours of 9 to 5 he is
head of design and typography. “I work for clients like
P&O and the Radio Times, so I can’t be too wild. But
sometimes I’ll get a client that likes the style of my
private stuff and it’ll find its way into the advertising.”
Domain names
The domain name is the address of your website, for
example the Google search engine’s domain name is
www.google.com. Domain names are secured for a set
period; once the registration period is up, the domain
is free for other prospective web-developers to secure,
unless of course you decide to continue with the
domain. This should be the first thing you consider.
Names are being secured all the time, so when you
find an appropriate available name, secure it! It’s
usually best to secure a domain that’s simple and
provides a sense of the contents of the site. Involving
your name somewhere in the sequence is a good idea
because, after all, it’s your personal site and your name
is the front for your business. www.rc-photoshop.com
Contacts
www.Darranrees.com www.guava.com.uk
www.lonnatucker.com www.Find-My-Link.com
www.jamesrandklev.com www.Xpose-gallery.co.uk
www.genepeach.com www.webeden.co.uk
www.taylorjames.com www.buildmygallery.co.uk
www.foliolink.com www.jessett.com
www.theimagefile.com
13/2/06 17:39:39

is not quite as good as www.rosscostantini.com,
simply because when people search for your site, the
likelihood of them finding the latter is greater. If you
have a common name like John Smith, this domain
name may already have been secured by somebody
else. Therefore you may have to be a little creative,
and consider: john-smith, johnsmith-photo,
jsmithphotography, etc. Use www.checkdomain.com
to search for available domain names. Generally, .co.
uk/.info/.net names are less esteemed than .com, and
can be secured for a reduced price. However, domain
registration is very cheap, so go with .com if it’s still
available. To secure your domain name you’ll need to
register it through one of the numerous companies
that offers the service. Domains can typically be
secured for around £5 a year. www.godaddy.com is a
popular website where prospective webmasters can
register and secure their domain.
Hosting
Before you can publish your site, you will need to
arrange for it to be hosted on a dedicated computer
system. Hosting is a term used to describe a service
022-029_APM04_feature.indd 27
Online Art
LOST IN THOUGHT: Greg Funnell’s striking
portrait taken from his self-built portfolio site
whereby all the website data is stored on a computer.
This computer system is known as a server, and is
permanently connected to the net. When somebody
wishes to access the site, the site data is lifted from
the server and displayed on the user’s screen. While it
is possible to use your home PC as a website host,
the technical knowledge required, along with the
slow connection speeds and intense requirements
on your system, make it more sensible to employ a
company to host the site for you. This does not mean
you should necessarily use the company that made
your site. There will probably be other cheaper and
better options available. Do not feel obliged to opt
for their hosting service – these are two separate
services. There are usually a few options available,
the price dependent on the amount of space
required and options like email services. There are
some offers of free hosting on the net, but they
obviously don’t offer a great service, and this is not a
good idea if you want a professional image.
Guy Tucker from the Internet design house
Webeurope spoke to us about hosting and the
process of publishing websites. “We rent dedicated
servers and aim to fill each with around 100 websites
(depending on their popularity). Clients aren’t
actually involved in the hosting; we fully manage and
set up each hosting account. Our standard hosting
package includes telephone technical support and, if
required, control panel access (using software called
Plesk – see www.sw-soft.com). The control panel
MAKE TEA MAN: Consider whether you want your work
just to be viewed, or if you want it to be possible for
purchases to be made as well
Which host boasts
the most?
With so many options available, it’s worth
looking around for the best deal. Here are some
questions you should ask before picking a host:
1 How much space do they offer?
Make sure there is enough space available
for the site data, plus some additional space
for expansion.
2 How often is data backup conducted?
Ideally, daily backup will be offered,
meaning any updates are saved on a daily basis.
Look for companies that guarantee regular data
backup if you will be changing your site often.
3 Do they offer POP3 password-protected
email accounts?
Important for securing your email accounts.
4 What kind of technical support is offered?
In reality, you don’t know what the support
will be like until something goes wrong. Phone
and email support should be offered; try
contacting previous clients for their experiences.
5 What is the speed of the connection?
The net connection should be at least T-3
(45 Mbps); anything less is simply inadequate.
Slow connections mean a slow-loading site,
especially evident when a number of visitors
access your site at once.
6 Do they offer full FTP access?
FTP access allows for updates to be made
personally anywhere in the world – provided
Internet access is available, of course. If not, it
means costly updates, processed by your host.
With the right technical knowledge, users can
overhaul and redesign the website completely.
7 Do they offer website data logs?
Data logs allow you to assess the visitor
numbers, what pages are visited and even
where they have arrived from. This is a kind
of market research for your site, which can
help you understand how well your site
is functioning.
8 Do they have an uptime guarantee?
Downtime is the amount of time that your
website is down and out of action. Every now
and then, the host server fails and people
cannot access your site. Obviously this has to be
kept to a minimum. Cheap hosting from a
cowboy host company will inevitably involve a
lot of downtime. Companies with a minimum
uptime guarantee are more likely to provide a
consistent service.
9 Do they provide options for personal
updates, editing and email adjustments?
The ability to manipulate and edit certain
aspects of your site is an important feature that
gives control over the content and the working
of your site.
27
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13/2/06 17:30:02
 Feature
GIRL IN
HEADSCARF:
Taken from focus52.
com. Many include
their name in the
web address, but
Greg chose not to
personalise his site,
giving it the potential
for branding

allows the user to create, edit or delete email

accounts, and also many other features such as
installing applications (including forums) and creating
secure, password-protected directories.” This allows
users to have full control over the site content, as well
as additional services provided with the hosting.
For affordable website hosting, try the award-
winning ipower.com. It offers hosting services for a
small monthly charge, and domain registration is
available for an additional yearly charge. powweb.com
also provides affordable website hosting from $93 a
year, setup and domain registration included.
Websites with e-commerce facilities need specific
hosting services to cope with the additional
requirements. “For e-commerce sites, customers
ideally need a content management system to add,
edit or delete their products. This would require
hosting with PHP and MySQL (databases). The
products would have a unique ID, which could be
referenced and passed to a payment gateway like
PayPal.” E-commerce-enabled sites and selling prints
or stock require a specialised hosting service to handle
the databases behind the order processing.
DOMAIN
REGISTRATION:
This is the first port
of call in your
publishing process.
The name can be a
crucial factor for a
successful site
PROMOTING YOUR SITE IS CRUCIAL.
THERE’S NO POINT IN HAVING A SITE
IF NOBODY KNOWS ABOUT IT
Hostrocket.com offers inexpensive hosting for
database sites – and for a listing of other reputable
hosting companies, check out hostindex.com.
Website hosting services vary greatly, and some are
faster than others. It has been proved that the vast
majority of viewers will give up and look elsewhere if
it takes the site more than a few seconds to appear. It
is therefore imperative to have a quick-loading site.
Whereas a lot of this is down to the size of the website
and how much data has to be transferred, the actual
hosting performance has a major effect on the load
speed. If you’re unsure of your hosting service
performance, check out alertbot.com. Net mechanic’s
Server Check Pro provides a similar service.
Updating your site
Illustration sites must be updated with recent work
and information. This can be achieved easily at home,
providing you have the correct software. Guy Tucker
says: “Users have the ability to upload data from their
own computer systems using programs like
Microsoft’s FrontPage. They can be given FTP access so
they can keep their site up to date simply from
within FrontPage.” FTP, or File Transfer Protocol, is a
method of interacting with the website server. It
allows the user to edit and adjust their websites from
home using their own computer. This is ideal for sites
that need continual refreshment, but requires some
form of web-design software such as FrontPage to
edit the content and upload the changes.
Once the site has been uploaded to the server, it is
important to test every aspect of it. Test all links, and if
it includes e-commerce, thorough testing of this
system is vital. Checks should also be conducted of
the content, as spelling mistakes and bad grammar
don’t give a good impression.
Promotion
Promoting your website is extremely important. There
is simply no point in having a site published on the
net without anybody knowing about it. Promotion
can take many forms, and there are now services
available to help you publicise your site and increase
its visibility. Search engine optimisation is possibly the
most important promotional technique you can
employ. It is relatively easy to do, and can cost you
nothing. Search engine placement should be checked
regularly to maintain a high listing position. New
websites, and those that have been modified to
increase their visibility, may well push your site down
the listings, and so the likelihood is that your site will
get fewer visitors. Websites must be submitted to
search engines in order to be listed within searches.
Ideally, you should aim to submit your site to search

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engines every four to six weeks. Start with the four
largest search engines: Yahoo, MSN, AOL and Google,
and work from there. www.addme.com offers free
submission to 14 major engines, saving you the
hassle of doing it yourself. To track the ranking of
your sites on search engines, take a look at SERanker
Pro from www.monocle-solutions.com.
Photographer Greg Funnell explained: “Webrings
are now considered a degrading factor in this field,
alongside most ‘links’ pages, with the exception of
those run by the search engine itself.” It is important
that any sites you link to for promotion are
professional, and convey the same quality content as
your own. Webrings are not always a popular method
of promotion; almost anybody can join the ring, and
they generally do not help your image on the net.
Advertising is also a good way to increase
exposure and visitor numbers. Placing banners on
relevant websites is one way of advertising; another
is to exchange ad banners with other websites,
making it free! Paid advertising slots have to be
assessed to determine how many print sales are
generated from that particular ad. If the advert costs
£50 a month and in that month only two sales were
directly generated, each sale cost £25 in advertising.
You have to decide whether this is an acceptable
margin. Other ads may have generated 20-30 sales, in
which case you are paying around £2 per print sale.
Assessing the performance of each advert is
important, firstly to understand what advertising
strategy works well, and secondly to eliminate those
ads which don’t pay for themselves.
Linking with other related sites is a little more
discreet than banner ads. linkexchanged.com will put
you in touch with suitable partners. You should look
for sites with a good ranking, and plenty of traffic and
trade links with them.
Offline advertising is another way of generating
interest, and should not be forgotten. This method
allows you to target the audience, and can prove not
only cheaper but more effective than online
methods. Placing ads in specific magazines targets
the audience who may have a special interest in your
type of photography.
Other than that, just get your name out there.
Adding the URL and a short description of your
website to every email you send in your signature file,
letterheads and business cards is simple and free
marketing. Search for directories and listings of
photographic websites (or those relevant to your
area of specialisation), and get your site link up there.
Old fashioned business networking also helps; use
word of mouth both online and off. Relevant forums
are a good way to meet people and market your
CHECK YOUR WEBSITE’S SEARCH
ENGINE LISTING TO MAKE SURE
YOU’RE STILL HIGH UP THE LIST
022-029_APM04_feature.indd 29
Online Art
work. Perhaps arrange to swap links, and generate
relationships and contacts with those in the same
business. Get yourself known – these relationships
will help you to gain the most from the Internet, and
can be a valuable source of information, and helping
each other out will benefit both parties.
In producing his website, Greg explains: “The
common practices of providing text links and meta-
data were followed, after which the site was
submitted to Google, Yahoo and MSN for indexing
during the next web-crawling cycle. Linking your site
to other relevant sites, web groups or directories is a
good way of attracting suitable visitors from
alternative sources.” Greg’s site, www.focus52.com
has a portfolio of his work which will be his major
contact point for future employees, and hopefully a
connection to freelance work.
www.apromotionguide.com will provide you with
useful tips on all forms of website promotion.
Maintenance
Apart from updating with new work, photographic
portfolio sites don’t require much maintenance.
Some maintenance tasks however, are well worth the
small amount of time they take to complete. Your
site’s search engine listing is something that should
be checked every now and again to make sure you
haven’t been pushed down the list by other similar
websites. Another important maintenance check,
especially after uploading and editing your site, is to
check all of your site’s links. This is something that
many site owners overlook, and doesn’t give a good
impression to prospective clients or customers.
MR HAWA: Greg
chose the name
focus52 because
he felt it rolled off
the tongue and
would therefore
be easier for
people to
remember it
All this, of course, can be handled for you
professionally. However, if you have the software and
basic website knowledge, these are all simple and
quick tasks that will ensure your site keeps running in
tip-top form without the added expenses. Check out
www.netmechanic.com for maintenance and
promotion tools. Promotion of your site is an
ongoing process – the more effort you put into
advertising and generally promoting your site, the
more hits it will receive.
Now that you know the major steps to getting
your site up and running successfully, you are well on
your way to giving your career a major boost.
Whether a portfolio or e-commerce, print sales site,
your new website will make all the difference – but
like many things in life, it will only be as successful as
the amount of time and effort you’re prepared to put
into it. Donate a little time once a week to
maintaining, updating and possibly improving your
site to get the best out of it. 5
Case study
Advanced Photoshop spoke to photographer Greg
Funnell, a student who has recently set up his own
website with the help of his friend and
programmer Naresh Verlander. His deciding factors
when choosing a website host were partly specific to
his requirements:
“When choosing a host, the deciding factor was
really reliability. However, obviously cost in hand,
and the features provided for that cost, also played
a decisive role (eg the inclusion of PHP, MySQL
processing, large space and bandwidth).”
Once a host has been chosen, the domain has to be
pointed toward the host server. This basically means
that when the domain name is typed into a browser, it
knows where to find the site.
Contacts
netmechanic.com
addme.com
powweb.com
checkdomain.com
webeurope.co.uk focus52.com
ipower.com
29
Advanced Photoshop
13/2/06 17:30:43
 Inter
view TITANIC: “Titanic was a hard one because it just
seemed to go on and on,” says Darby. “Like Crouching
Tiger, it was high-maintenance for historical reasons.
There are some photographs of the day Titanic left
Southampton, but as you can imagine, they’re pretty
rough to look at. We had to go into such detail – exactly
which ships were in dock on that day, even which masts
would have been poking out and how tall, what the look
of the hotel in the background was... That’s fine with me,
because I find it interesting, the historical side. You’re not
only painting something memorable, but you’ve also
learned something at the end of it.
“With Titanic, we truly believed the show we were
working on was going to be quite special, even if at times
it looked as though it could have been a flop. We just felt it
was great subject matter – Titanic back on the water.

MATTE
It’s the kind of show where you’re just excited about the
idea of it. There was a lot of pressure on all of us. It was fun
for a while and then got rather hard work, and by the time
we finished it we were about six months behind. But even
now, quite a few of the images really hold up, and
historically, it’s as good as it’s going to get.”

MAN
His digital work may have
helped shape the look of some of
the biggest films of the last
decade – but Charles Darby still
likes to whip out a traditional
paintbrush before dabbling with
cutting edge Photoshop effects

T
itanic, The Matrix, The Fifth Element,
I, Robot, Harry Potter… Not a bad set of
films to have on your CV. And yet
esteemed Photoshop artist Charles Darby is
always at pains to emphasise just how basic
his working knowledge of Adobe’s app really
is. The difference, he believes, comes down to
his background in classical painting. “Learning
[how to use] the computer, the Wacom tablet
and the software is actually the easier part,” he
says. “There are a few people who can use
Photoshop probably far better than myself.
They have a deeper understanding of it.” have been predicted from his early encounters photo-real oil painting into something on the
Born in Liverpool in 1969, Darby studied with the technology. computer.” It took time to make the transition from
painting in Florence, Italy from 1988-91, under the “I’ve always been playing with computers, oils to digital, but perseverance paid off and he’s
guidance of Charles H Cecil, because “it was the although I’d never tried to actually paint with now as au fait with the brush as he is with a tablet
only thing I was any good at”. A stint at Goldsmiths them,” he recalls. “When I was very young, I was and pen.
College immediately afterwards taught him that, playing with rudimentary tablet software and “I don’t think about it any more, but when I
in painting, anything goes. But it’s his grounding paint software, and I was using a Commodore 64. started, that was probably the hardest thing to get
in classical technique that has served him well – I don’t remember doing anything half-decent on used to – the fact that there’s no ‘tooth’ to the
as a matte painter and visual effects supervisor, it and I didn’t really use computers for anything surface, so you’re sliding along, almost like
he’s now one of the most sought-after talents terribly creative until I was living in LA and was painting on glass. It makes it much harder to draw.
in Tinseltown. Such an outcome could not asked whether I might be able to convert a Quite a few really good, traditional matte artists at

30
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 Charles
Darby

the beginning of the Nineties hated having to use trusty watercolour paints and brushes…
the computer, and some of them didn’t cross over “Watercolours are the way I like to work, because I CHARLES
DARBY:
into digital because it was a different kind of tend to find that directors and producers are able Computers were just
artform at that point.” to comment more easily about the physical for games, as far as
Charles was
drawing or painting. They can actually sketch on it
concerned, when he
if they fancy. There isn’t some sort of barrier there, was young. But all
Matte master which a monitor actually becomes. So if they’re that changed after
he took an oil
The bulk of Darby’s commercial work is matte looking at a watercolour, I can get feedback painting into digital.
painting for the movies, brought to life with the quicker. I then scan it in, whichever version they Now he produces
help of Photoshop CS, a 2.5GB Mac G5 and choose. It’s like a blueprint. When you have a 3D matte paintings for
the top movies
23-inch Apple monitor. Then, of course, there’s his matte painting, where the camera’s

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Advanced Photoshop

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 Inter
view

moving far more, then the watercolour isn’t quite
as beneficial because it can only cover one frame
of what could be a huge move. So here I’ll do the
first and end frames.
Still, you tend to work out a lot of problems at
this stage, rather than finding them out later on.
It’s almost like you build it and work out your
problems, then build it again, avoiding all those
problems. If you went straight into Photoshop,
you’d tend to look at the composition differently.”
Early in his film career, Darby worked for
Cinesite in LA and then Digital Domain,
subsequently setting up his own company Digital
Firepower. Although now defunct, DF started off
promisingly enough, albeit with a slight hiccup
DUNGEONS & when a deal to work on George Lucas’ Star Wars:
DRAGONS: “Director The Phantom Menace fell through at the last
Courtney Solomon asked
if I could re-do 12 shots minute. Thankfully, within two weeks, Darby
for the independent received a call from the makers of The Matrix.
movie, Dungeons and
Dragons,” said Darby.
“They contacted us and said, ‘Would you be able
“Production hoped I’d to do these matte paintings?’.”
take LightWave files and It was, however, a little like working in the dark.
work with what had been
done already.” But, given “Not only because we were separated by a few
the time-frame – about
hundred miles,” says Darby. “It was tricky to know
exactly what you were working on. It was all a
little bit abstract, and tricky to know the ‘feel’ of
what they were after. We weren’t really shown
much of the rest of the movie, so by the time we
finished it, I don’t think I was particularly excited
about working on the show. And when it came
out, it was completely different to anything I’d
imagined. It was very surprising – you can’t guess
what shows are going to be like.”
When in Rome…
Darby has spent most of his life in America, but he
travels the world a lot, often because the
production on which he’s working demands it.
His most recent project was the BBC’s historical
drama Rome. “I was living there for just over three
months and that’s the perfect-case scenario,
where you’re creating ancient Rome and you can
go into the town, live in the town and look at all
the small details – not the big stuff that you can
read about in books anyway. It’s the small details

STAR WARS FELL THROUGH,

eight weeks – it would’ve taken longer to
work with other people’s files.
He explained: “These would’ve been quite complex
3D models that would have taken an eternity to
render. So I redesigned all 12 shots with watercolours
BUT WITHIN TWO WEEKS HE
GOT A CALL FROM THE
and then we created quite basic 3D models for the
main buildings and in a 2.5D-type matte painting
world, where you’re taking a basic 3D model and
applying very advanced texturing. The textures give
the illusion of enormous detail, which means you can
render a scene overnight, rather than in a week or so.” MAKERS OF THE MATRIX
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 Charles
Darby

THE FIFTH ELEMENT: “I was supervising a

sequence for The Fifth Element at Digital Domain a
while ago now,” recalls Darby. “Most of the model-work
had been shot in Pinewood and the rest we were doing
in Venice, California. It was beautiful stuff – large-scale.
Most of The Fifth Element was not only a lot of fun, it
was taking these fantastic models and expanding the
whole universe from them.” Everyone involved was
guessing what it would look like in the final movie,
remembers Darby: “People were reporting it as
Bladerunner with the lights turned on. Everything gels
really nicely. It was great for my line of work, because I
had something to base the city on, which was the
model-work, and then you could go crazy from there.
As long as you kept a colourful, intricate, highly
detailed look, everything worked.”

INSIGHT INTO DARBY’S

WATERCOLOURS
This pre-production watercolour, and the subsequent computer-
generated scene, from Michael Cristofer’s 2001 movie, provides an
insight into how Darby works. The watercolour is first presented to
the director, producer (or both), who then comment on it, decide
what they like and then mark changes on the artwork itself. Darby
then scans in the watercolour and works it up, typically at a very
high resolution, in Photoshop. He finds that watercolours tend to
produce a better response from the people whose job it is to make
decisions about the film: “Computer monitors create a barrier
between the client and the artwork, which can seriously hamper
creativity and slow the production down.”

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 Inter
view
MINORITY REPORT: “The movie started and stopped production a few
times,” recalls Darby. “The first time, it was going to be 200 years in the future, or
something. When you’re working on a Spielberg production, he juggles with
quite a few productions and he chooses quite late in. It was closed down for
about six months while everybody waited to see whether he would do it or not.
When it came back, it was 50 years into the future.
“Fifty years ahead was chosen because it’s more believable and there’s quite
a lot of buildings even now that, in 50 years’ time, represent what most cities
will look like. We went to Washington DC and shot plates from the top of the
USA Today building – I nearly froze to death up there, taking those plates over
a number of days.
“Then we started planning cities which were believable – based in reality. I
also got a helicopter to take me over LA, which was where I was living, and you
get a lot of reference from the height of the more modern buildings. For
conceptual reasons, I started placing them into this scheme, painting new tops
and changing the sides. It was quite a long process. In the end, we chose
something that was believable, but it had magnetic strips on it, I think, so that
cars could travel.”

ONE OF DARBY’S MATTES

FOR HARRY POTTER AND THE
PRISONER OF AZKABAN WAS
OVER 600 FEET LONG
that you wouldn’t ever consider or think about.
For instance, how the light is in that particular part
of the world. Every country has different light,
different clouds – you notice that kind of thing
when you’re travelling.”
His work on Harry Potter And The Prisoner of
Azkaban was based on a different kind of reality,
but it introduced Darby to the delights of seeing
his mattes on a massive scale: “One of them for
Azkaban was over 600 feet long,” he reveals. “It
covered the entire sound stage, all the way
around. This was a newer part of the job for me.
I’m more used to taking my watercolour, scanning
it in and keeping it digital. Then you see it on
screen, which is great. But you’re actually working
at a much higher resolution and printing it out,
then putting all the set pieces in front of it. It’s
completely different, especially with the Potter
stuff. With the 600-foot fellah, you can only paint
in sections, and for that one there’d be about
eight or nine sections and each would be about
2GB. You were running right to the edge of what
the hardware could do.”
His superlative matte-work also graced the
most recent JK Rowling adaptation, Harry Potter
And The Goblet Of Fire. “It’s similar to what I did for
Azkaban,” he says. “It’s the kind of work where it
was a very large-scale backing. Most was done
before the beginning of the shoot, so it feels like
some time ago now. Again, it was a section of
Hogwart’s views using landscapes and putting
snow over everything at a very high resolution. It
was building locations such as Riddle’s house.
They don’t have a proper house to do long shots
of, so I would create views of the house at
different angles within the landscape and at
enormous resolution. That in turn would be
turned into matte paintings and then supplied to
the VFX houses.”
Composition counts
While the equipment may be struggling to keep
up, Darby avows that it’s not the be-all and end-all
of being a successful artist for film. “When it comes
to VFX houses, they’ve all got the same hardware
and software, so there’s a level playing field,” he
says. “What they don’t really find so easily is people
who understand what makes a good
composition; people who can draw out their ideas
and explain them. People who have a good sense
of history and can capture the flavour of a place.
For Rome, it wasn’t just recreating Rome, but
having a flavour that feels right. You can’t capture
it completely, because it has to work for a film.
And the better you are at drawing out your ideas
and creating compositions that convey a certain
feeling, the more effective will Photoshop and
that stuff be – they’re just tools.”
For anyone seeking to exercise their artistic and
Photoshop skills in the world of film, there’s yet
more to learn, and it’s little to do with being a
computer-whiz or having skill with a brush. “It
varies from person to person,” says Darby. “But
when you’re in a meeting and you’re trying to
work out what the client wants, you’ve got to ask
the right questions to figure out whether they
know exactly what they want, or whether they’re
just coming up with ideas that they actually want
to be changed.
“You have to read between the lines a little bit
to see whether they’re open to one way or
another. Knowing the right questions to ask only
comes with experience, but it’s an enormous help,
and if you interpret the answers correctly it cuts
down the work by half. It may be the first time
they’ve had to define what they’re after, and if
they can’t do that, it’s up to you to start defining it
for them.”
At present, Darby is having a rest and waiting
for the next job to come in, which is how the
movie industry works. However, he’s still to be
found online at www.charlesdarby.com, where
you can see a full run-down of the productions on
which he has worked. A

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 CROUCHING
TIGER, HIDDEN
DRAGON
This scene from Ang Lee’s exotic
masterpiece was a real challenge for
Darby, who had to create a realistic look
with little or no reference material: “I try
to avoid a generic look, which a lot of
visual effects can have. I guess that’s one
of the advantages of travelling to a
location where you’re actually recreating it
in a different period. With Crouching Tiger, I
didn’t have that opportunity. I was in LA in
a studio, reading books and looking at
artists’ representations of what it might
have looked like, without the ability to
actually go there and get the information as
to what the skies looked like. It was one of
the hardest fought-for – it’s quite a large
painting, and it’s slap in the middle of the
screen, and it lingers… that’s a tough one,
but it does look quite good in the context of
the movie.”

35
Advanced Photoshop

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 WORKSHOPS
ZIP IT UP! 7 42
Make sure fruit is kept firmly in its place, with the
help of our zipped-up orange tutorial.
PEER PRESSURE 7 78
Want to see how powerful Photoshop can be in the right hands? Then
take a look at some of the stunning imagery this month, including Times
UNDER THE SEA 7 52
Perfect complex underwater lighting effects
Square Aftermath by Meowza, and the powerful XBot and NGCBot by Wai using Layers and Blending Modes
Mann. If you like what you see, you can contact the artist directly, or just
read our in-depth descriptions and set about creating some magnificent
URBAN
7 58
imagery of your own.
SNOW SCENES
All you need to know about transferring an urban
Insider summer scene into a winter wonderland, making
es
iqu

Info
n
ch

use of Noise and Layer Masks.

Te

INSIDER INFO 1
THE BEAUTY OF BRIDGE 68 CONCEPT ART 7 62
Mastering the art of light, shadow, colour and
Parts Three and Four of our guide to Adobe Bridge concentrate on tone can make all the difference to your pre-
the Find command, helping you master it within seconds. production artwork, as we prove here.

CASTING SHADOW 7 74
Making shadows look realistic can be a bit of a
bind, but not if you follow our expert advice.

HELPDESK 7 82
Our resident expert Karl Foster sets out to solve your
technical conundra. Having trouble adapting to CS2?
Not sure of the best way to create black-and-white
shots from colour? Find the answers here!

37
Advanced Photoshop

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 MASTERCLASS

38
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 Abstract design Extra
Resources
Also included on the CD found on
the inside back cover of this month’s

Find out how to use selections to create abstract grit

Advanced Photoshop are nine other
renders that George is sharing with

and chaos. Keyboard shortcuts help speed the process

you from his own personal
collection. He’s used these to create

and create smooth workflow

some of his more recent artwork.
Feel free to use them to create some
of your own abstract designs.
BY GEORGE SMITH

ON THE DISC
Want to try out these expert techniques for
yourself? Then check out the relevant tutorial
file (‘R ender01.psd) provided on the cover
CD. Simply insert the disc into your drive and
follow the on-screen prompts.
OUR EXPERT
George is a self-taught 24-year-old digital artist who has been
creating for eight years. He houses his digital pieces on his
personal website EndEffect.com and also runs a clothing line,
Naature.com. Personal quote: “I made fkn Gravity Well!”
C
reating generic abstract designs can be a nightmare for a graphic artist. With vague commissions and
maybe only one or two elements to include within the artwork, the initial stages can be a traumatic
time. However, more often than not you’ll find that as soon as you start on your project, your creative
juices will begin to flow and your design will soon start to form. Knowing some essential skills and techniques
can help you make the process run a lot smoother and give you a great starting base for your art.
This tutorial sets out to show you how the abstract artwork on the previous page was created. More important than
the final design are the techniques used to create it. Once you’ve got the hang of the processes involved in shaping
together this design, you can create a masterpiece out of any original elements.
We’ll start off with some simple gradient techniques to give the design a strong, aesthetic background. Then, using
the file found on this month’s disc, the shot will be built together using basic selection commands and layer masks and
modes. You can also find out how to speed up the process with invaluable keyboard shortcuts. As the core of this
tutorial relies on some random image shifting, your end result will probably differ slightly from our final image. Don’t fret
– this is just your creative side letting rip!

Discover your abstract side

1 Start with a new document
Create a new document of 16x20” and 300 dpi
with a plain white background. On a new layer, using
the Gradient tool (press G in order to select the tool)
create a few black gradients to give the background
some depth. Now reduce the layer Opacity to 25% to
make the gradients very subtle.
2 Creating the bars
Next, create a new layer. Using the Square
Marquee tool (press M to select the tool), draw one tall
slim selection. Enter Quick Mask mode by pressing Q,
and then use the Marquee tool to select and clone your
visual representation of the selection. Hold Ctrl, Alt+Shift,
and then click and drag your selection to clone it and
keep it aligned horizontally. Press Q again to exit Quick
Mask mode.
3 Adding gradients
Use the Gradient tool to fill the selection and
make a transition from dark to light grey. Using the
Marquee, offset each bar a little from the previous one to
create a stair effect. (Make a selection around each bar
one at a time, then hold Ctrl+Shift while dragging up or
down to move the selection and lock it horizontally.)
Deselect everything, then rotate the bars 45 degrees
clockwise (hold Shift while rotating in order to snap to
15-degree increments)

39
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 MASTERCLASS
4 Creating grit
Open ‘render01.psd’ (included on the CD). Remove
the object from the background by going to the
Channels window and Ctrl-clicking on the Alpha
channel. Click and drag the object to the main canvas
using the Move tool (press V to select the tool). Using the
Magic Wand tool (press W to select it), click anywhere on
the render to create a random selection (you can alter
the Tolerance level of the tool to make it grab more or
fewer similar pixels).
5 Random shifts
Once you have your random selection, hide the
render layer and select your main bars layer. With the
Square Marquee tool, click and drag the random
selection so that a portion of it is overlapping our black
bars. Now press the Delete button on your keyboard.
Move the selection again and then hit Delete again.
Repeat this process a few times, moving the selection
each time in random spots. Also try Ctrl-clicking the layer
in order to create a selection; move it so that it is offset
and then hit the Delete button.
6 Duplicating the bars
Click and drag your main bar layer onto the New
Layer button to duplicate it a few times. Play around by
rotating, flipping horizontally or vertically, inverting the
colour (hold Ctrl then press the I button) and even filling
a layer with another colour. (Ctrl-click a layer to create a
selection, make a new layer, select a colour from the
Swatches window, then hold Alt and hit the Backspace
button to fill the selection with the foreground colour.
Deselect everything by pressing Ctrl+D.)

7 Try something different

You could also hold Ctrl, Alt+Shift after you’ve
made a selection, then click and drag to clone that fill on
the same layer. Also make sure to drop the Opacity of
some of your layers. You want to create some depth and
not be left with solid black/white/red bars all over the
place. Create a few bars that stand out on top of all the
others, using a contrasting colour (red, in our case).
8 Adding elements
Now add elements to your work such as letters
and shapes. In this case we’ll add a few capital letters
using the Ruritania font (included on the CD). Also try to
explore the grit you have created by Ctrl-clicking on
random layers to see what kind of random selections
you can get. We also added a regal lion (regal.psd on the
CD) which we duplicated and flipped horizontally to
make them standing with their backs to each other. Use
the same duplicate/select/delete technique to break
apart the lions and create chaos within them.
9 Adding more elements and depth
Another little technique we can use to create
some depth is to hide all the layers except the lions, text
and render layers. Press Ctrl+A to select the entire canvas,
then copy merged (Ctrl, Shift+C) and paste (Ctrl+V).
Gaussian Blur (20 pixels) the layer then set it to Overlay.
Paste two more copies and use the Quick Transform tool
to size each one down a little more than the previous
one. Set their Layer Modes to Lighten.

10 Colour layer
As a final touch, add a layer on top of
everything else and fill it with a solid colour, then play
around with the Layer Mode and Opacity. In this case, we
used Pastel Green Cyan, set the Opacity to 50% and set
the Layer Mode to Overlay. Change the Opacity and
overlap a few different colours to see what kind of results
you get. You can change the Layer Modes as well to
create even more different results.

“TRY TO CREATE DEPTH, SO YOU

AREN’T LEFT WITH SOLID BARS”
40
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 Step-by-step
Workshop
1 Prepare your image
Open ‘orange.jpg’ and ‘orange_zip.jpg’,
provided on Disc A. With both files open, use the
Move tool to drag-and-drop the zip-less orange
image over the top of orange_zip, so that the two
layers exist on orange zip. At the top of the Layers
palette, reduce the Opacity of the orange layer to
70 per cent and align it over the orange zip layer
until the zip is completely covered. Bring the
Opacity of the orange layer back to 100 per cent
and switch off visibility by clicking on the eye icon
next to it.

2 Isolate the zip

Select the orange zip layer, then choose the
Pen tool (check it’s set to Paths) and carefully draw
around the zip’s metal edge. Start at the top-left
and work your way down. At the bottom of the
orange, add a point that cuts across the zip and
start tracing up the other side. When the path is
complete, click the right arrow on the Paths

ZIP IT UP!
palette and choose Save Path. Now click on the
Load Path as Selection button at the bottom of
the Paths palette. Ensure the ‘marching ants’ line is
around the zip and not the background, or you’ll
need to inverse the selection (Select>Inverse).

They’re noisy fruit, oranges. Keep them in their place with

Operation Zip-Up. Just don’t tell the rest of the fruit-bowl!
BY GILES ANGEL

ON THE DISC
You’ll find all the files you need to
complete this tutorial (orange_
zip.jpg, orange.jpg and zip_base.
E
ver told an orange to shut up?
Thought not. But the bizarre ap-peel
(sorry!) of this zipped-up orange
proved just too good to resist. This fun

jpg) on Disc A. Don’t forget to
check out the two .psd files, too.
OUR EXPERT Giles Angel
Giles Angel is co-founder and director of Vision Architects, a
digital communications agency, and has five years’
experience in media design. Past clients include 02, Microsoft
and Toyota. He’s also an award-winning photographer. For
more details, visit www.angelphoto.co.uk
3
tutorial is an excellent opportunity for testing
your montage techniques, taking into Create an Adjustment Layer Mask
account the subject’s vivid textures and With the selection still active, select the
curvaceous profile and the complex orange layer and go to Layer>Layer Mask>Hide
interlocked design of the zip itself. In Selection. This will reveal the zip selection, which
addition, consider how light and shade is underneath.
interact with the two objects once they’ve
been carefully combined.
Feel free to follow our concept exactly, or
improvise and come up with a similar idea
yourself. The important point is to practise the
techniques here first, then branch out in new
creative directions. You’ll be making extensive use
of Layer Masks and the Color Adjustment tool,
and you will need a steady hand when it comes
to isolating those zip-teeth.

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4 7
Make colour adjustments
Now that the zip is showing through the
mask, it’s time to make the zip blend in with the
orange peel. There are a number of tools for the
job, but in this instance we’re going to use Color
Balance. Select the orange zip layer (as this is the
layer showing through the mask). Go to
Layer>New Adjustment Layer>Color Balance and,
in the dialog, select the midtones and move the
top slider towards the red. Now move the middle
slider towards the green and the bottom one
towards the blue. Before clicking OK, repeat these
steps with the Shadow and Highlights
respectively. You should end up with a super-
saturated dark reddish/orange tint. Now go to
Layer>New Adjustment Layer>Levels and move
the middle (midtones) slider towards the left
(shadows). This will lighten the colour saturation
for a closer match on the orange peel
5 11
Adding zip base
Open up ‘zip_base.jpg’, provided on Disc A,
and drag it onto your working document so that
it’s sitting above the orange layer. Reduce Layer
Opacity and use the arrow tools to nudge it into
position. Go to Edit>Free Transform and, holding
down Shift (to constrain proportions), drag the
corner inwards to ensure it’s the correct size.
6 Isolating zip base
Now repeat steps 4 and 5 to isolate the
metal using the Pen tool, and mask out the
unwanted material around the edge. In each
instance, the original layer is intact underneath
the mask, so any tweaks are being done to the
mask not the image itself.
042-043_APM04_orange.indd 43
es
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Adjustment will need a bit of skewing to make it look like it’s
Colour-adjust zip base Layers wrapping around the orange. To skew an image,
Duplicate the Colour Balance Adjustment The beauty of just go to Edit>Free Transform, hold down Opt/Alt,
Layer above the orange zip layer and drag it Adjustment Layers, and drag on the corner handles.
although RAM-
above the zip base layer. Now create a Clipping hungry, is that you
Mask (Opt/Alt-click) and roll the mouse between can go back and
make changes later
the Adjustment Layer and the zip base layer. As on. Just double-click
you do so, you’ll see a little icon of two on the layer
overlapping circles appear. Click on it and the thumbnail icon in
the Layers palette to
Adjustment Layer becomes indented and a bring up the
downward arrow appears to indicate an active settings – and make
clipping mask. The Colour Adjustment Layer now your changes.
only affects the layer immediately underneath.
Add one more Adjustment Layer, this time for
10
Brightness and Contrast, and reduce Brightness to
-29 to make the colour match the zipper. Now Cut out the composite
create another Clipping Mask from this Now flatten the file and cut out the
Adjustment Layer so that both Adjustment Layers composite with the Pen tool. Make a selection and
are indented. press Cmd/Ctrl+J to bring it onto a new layer. The
image is now ready for a background. To make it
look more realistic, we took another low-angle
macro shot of an orange in some grass. Open
‘orange_grass.jpeg’, provided on Disc A, and drag-
and-drop a copy of the cut-out layer onto it.
8 Prepare the shadows 1
The orange and the zip are now blended
together, but we need shadows to add realism.
Go back to the Paths palette, where we isolated
the zip in step 4, and load the path as a selection. Blend composite with the
Click on the New Layer icon and fill it with dark background
reddish brown. Next, reduce its Opacity to 33. Use Align the composite layer over the orange in the
the arrow keys to nudge the new layer into background layer. Now go to Layer>Add Layer
position over the zip. With the Eraser tool and a Mask Reveal and choose the Paintbrush with black
small hard-edged brush, ease back the top edges as the foreground colour. With the Layer Mask
until a subtle shadow layer appears underneath selected in the Layers palette, start painting in
the metal. Now add a little Gaussian Blur from the black to reveal the detail underneath. With
Filter menu to soften the shadow effect. patience, you’ll be able to get a nice blend
between the two. If you make a mistake, simply
press X to flip the foreground colour to white,
which will enable you to paint the mask back in. 5
9
Prepare the shadows 2
You’ll need to repeat step 9 with the zip
handle and zip base. The former, however, will
need a separate path, and the shadow-filled layer
43
Advanced Photoshop
10/2/06 14:28:02
 MASTERCLASS
W
hen compared to film, digital images can
appear a little too polished, which is why
many photographers still cling to their
old equipment and modus operandi, which haven’t
changed fundamentally in over 160 years.
Thankfully, with Photoshop, you can duplicate many
of the films, processes and techniques of the pre-digital
era without having to bump into things in the darkroom
or put your hands into dubious, smelly chemicals. Best of
all, most of them are easy to achieve in a small number
of steps, and in many cases are non-destructive, thanks
to the power of Adjustment Layers.
In this Masterclass, we’ll look at eye-catching
photographic effects, touch on the important topic of
colour spaces, show you how to add convincing film
grain to your images and reveal how to convert your
colour images into black and white.
Sepia-toning, cross-processing and solarisation are
what could be classed as ‘darkroom’ techniques. Our
infrared technique on the other hand shows you how
to mimic the appearance of hard-to-find infrared film,
which can be difficult to handle in the field. And while
nothing can replace the pleasure of using a Lomo
Kompakt camera, one of Russia’s finest exports, you
can still replicate that unique ‘Lomographic’ style by
following our simple steps.
Understanding colour spaces, together with regularly
calibrating your monitor, will help to ensure consistently
excellent results. But if your eyes start to glaze over at the
very words colour-management, then our concise
introduction to the subject (page 51) is for you.
A grainy, gritty image can look amazing, but
Photoshop’s built-in Grain filter isn’t the best solution.
Rolling up your sleeves to do a bit of groundwork first,
then using small amounts of Noise and Gaussian Blur,
will produce better results indistinguishable from the real
thing. It’s an ideal technique for digital artists who insert
new items into a photograph and then have to match
the film grain so that the new item doesn’t look too crisp.
Thought there was only one way to turn a colour
image into black-and-white? Then think again. Here we
show you three ways of transforming your RGB images
into shades of grey. Usefully, we also explain the pros and
cons of each technique, so that you can decide which
one’s best for you.
You can apply most of the techniques outlined here
to any digital image – check out the Photoshop Actions
on our cover CD for one-click access. They’re easy to edit,
so feel free to fine-tune them to suit your own needs.

Digital photography tricks

Give your digital images the traditional veneer of ON THE DISC

analogue photography, complete with texture

You’ll find a stack of resources on the cover
CD to help you recreate the techniques
shown here, including a batch of handy

and grain, using these easy-to-follow techniques OUR EXPERT

Photoshop Actions.

Jason Arber
BY JASON ARBER Jason is co-founder and Editor-in-Chief of online art and culture
magazine Pixelsurgeon (www.pixelsurgeon.com). He’s also an Art
Director at Start Creative in London, has used Photoshop since
version one and even dreams in Layer Blend mode.

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 Sepia
Sepia-toning can evoke the stylish look of an aged photograph if used in the right
way. In the 19th and early 20th Centuries, the pigment was prepared from the black
ink secreted by cuttlefish, but modern photographic processes rely on a chemical dye.
You can recreate this look in Photoshop with a high degree of flexibility

1 Colorize in Hue/Saturation
Open a colour image (or a greyscale one
converted to the RGB colour space) and select Hue/
Saturation from the Image menu (Image>Adjustments>
Hue/Saturation). Click the Colorize checkbox and move
the Hue slider until your image is a warm brown colour.
2 Tweak the slider
Adjust the Saturation slider to change the amount
of colour. Higher numbers will create a richer, more vivid
effect while smaller numbers create a subtler, more
realistic sepia look. Try adjusting the Hue slider to create
the look of blue or green photographic dyes, silver and
selenium toning. If you don’t want to change the
underlying image, use an Adjustment Layer instead.

Solarisation
In photographic terms, solarisation is the overexposure of the dark parts of an image
and is easily achieved in the darkroom by quickly exposing a developing print to a
flash of light. Recreating the effect in Photoshop is simpler than you might think

1 Invert image
This technique will work with colour and greyscale
images. Take an image and make a copy of the layer by
dragging it to the New layer icon at the bottom of the
Layers palette. Invert the duplicated layer (Image>
Adjustments>Invert) to create a negative.
2 Apply Adjustment Layer and tweak
Change the duplicate layer’s Transparency mode
to Exclusion in the drop-down menu at the top of the
Layers palette. Create a Levels Adjustment Layer
(Layer>New Adjustment Layer>Levels), ensuring that
‘Use Previous Layer to Create Clipping Mask’ is checked
and tweak the Levels to find the correct balance that
works for your image. As this process is typically used
with black-and-white images, create a new Hue/
Saturation Adjustment Layer for the whole image and
reduce Saturation to make a greyscale image.

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 MASTERCLASS
Infrared
Special infrared film can photograph
the infrared spectrum, which is invisible
to the human eye. Blue skies darken
dramatically to black, while foliage
develops an unearthly glow. This
technique is best used on landscapes,
as infrared film can have an unusual
effect on human faces, which is
beyond the scope of this tutorial
46
Advanced Photoshop
044-051_APM04_camera.indd 46
1 Adjust Color Range
Open up an image that contains clear blue skies,
clouds and some foliage. Using the Color Range tool
(Select>Color Range) with a high Fuzziness setting,
sample the blue sky and click OK. This will create a
selection out of the blue sky. With the help of Levels
(Image>Adjustments>Levels), use the grey triangle to
darken the sky. Now use the Color Range tool again for
the green foliage and boost its saturation using Hue/
Saturation (Image>Adjustments>Hue/Saturation).
2 Blur and Grain
Go to the Channels palette and click the Green
channel. You’ll notice that the sky is virtually black and
the foliage appears as though the leaves are white.
Select all (Select>All), copy the channel and paste it into
a new layer in the Layers palette. Use the Color Range
tool to select the foliage again (using the original layer),
create a new layer, fill with light grey, deselect and then
add a touch of Gaussian Blur (Filter>Blur>Gaussian Blur).
Finally, flatten the image and add a small amount of
Grain from the Filter Gallery (Filter>Filter Gallery).
10/2/06 14:25:12

2 Tweaking the channels
Click on the Channels palette and duplicate one
of the channels by dragging it onto the New Channel
icon at the bottom of the palette. For black-and-white
images, the channels will all be pretty much the
same. On the duplicate channel, invert the image
(Image>Invert), boost Contrast using Levels (Image>
Adjustments>Levels) and click OK.
044-051_APM04_camera.indd 47
3 Load the selection
Making sure that the RGB channels have been
selected again, return to the layers and choose
Select>Load Selection and load the duplicated channel
to create a selection that will exclude the highlights.
Apply a small amount of noise (Filter>Noise>Add Noise)
– the precise value of which depends on the size of your
image, but 10-15 is a good starting point – and ensure
that Gaussian and Monochromatic are selected.
Film grain
Unlike its digital counterpart, film that’s
pushed several stops and then push-
processed often achieves a grainy look
which is pleasing to the eye. High ISO
ratings on a digital camera, on the other
hand, result in digital noise that doesn’t
look remotely aesthetic. Although
Photoshop has a handy Grain filter, it
doesn’t look realistic because it applies a
uniform coating of noise. In film, grain is
more noticeable in the midtones and
shadow areas and tends to clump. By
excluding the highlights and repeating
a noise-blur-noise cycle with small
values, you can achieve a more lifelike
film grain without sacrificing detail
1 Drag background layer to new layer
Open an RGB image that’s been desaturated or
channel-mixed to black and white. Make a duplicate
of the image by dragging the background layer to the
New Layer icon at the bottom of the Layers palette.
4 Repeat blur-and-noise cycle
With the midtones and shadows still selected
(you can hide the ‘marching ants’ selection indicator
by turning off View>Show>Selection Edges), apply a
Gaussian Blur (Filter>Blur>Gaussian Blur) with a Radius
of no more than one pixel. Apply the Noise again and
repeat the blurring and adding of noise until a suitable
degree of ‘grain’ is achieved.
47
Advanced Photoshop
10/2/06 14:25:37
 MASTERCLASS
Lomo style
The Lomo Kompact was a Russian-
made camera that, thanks to its unique
glass lens design and build, somehow
managed to produce vivid, saturated
images, even of the most mundane
subjects. Outgrowing its Communist
roots, Lomography has spawned
societies and aficionados all over the
world dedicated to the Lomo look
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Advanced Photoshop
044-051_APM04_camera.indd 48
1 Retain image details
Open up an RGB image and duplicate the layer
by dragging it to the New Layer icon at the bottom
of the Layers palette. Change the Layer Blending mode
to Luminosity, so that details from the image that would
be lost implementing the next step are preserved. Now
select the bottom layer and create a new Hue/Saturation
Adjustment Layer to pump up Saturation to +58.
2 Create new Colour Balance
Adjustment Layer
To increase the vividness of the image and warm up the
tones, create a new Colour Balance Adjustment Layer,
and tweak the midtones. Increase the red and yellow
values (for example, to +17, 0, -43) and click OK. For
absolute authenticity, grab a large soft brush loaded with
black and on a new layer add a touch of vignetting to
the corners to mimic the camera’s optics.
10/2/06 14:25:54
 Cross process
Cross processing occurs when you use
the wrong chemicals to process colour
film – processing negative print film in
E6 chemicals and colour reversal or
transparency film in C-41 chemicals.
This creates unexpected colour shifts
and higher-than-usual contrast

1 Remove contrast
Take an RGB image and duplicate the layer, turning
the top layer’s Blending mode to Luminosity to preserve
the image detail. With the bottom layer selected, create a
new Curves Adjustment Layer and remove some of the
contrast with a flattened S-shaped curve (ensure that the
light end of the curve is dragged down).

2 Adjust Colour Balance

Create a Colour Balance Adjustment Layer. Select
Highlights and shift the balance towards the Red and the
Yellow (for example +27, 0, -49), then select the Shadows
and move parameters towards the Cyan and Blue (for
example -70, -15, +32). Finally, create a Levels Adjustment
Layer above all the other layers and beef up the contrast
by dragging the white triangle to the left.

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 MASTERCLASS
Converting to
black and white
There are many ways to create a
black-and-white image from a colour
image, and each one has its own
advantages and disadvantages

Greyscale
1 RGB to Greyscale
The simplest and quickest way is to change Image
mode from RGB to Greyscale (Image>Mode>Greyscale).
Unless your image is destined for black-and-white
output, though, we’d advise against this, since it throws
away two-thirds of the image information by condensing
three channels into a single Greyscale channel.

2 Duotone, tritone, quadtone

An advantage of the Greyscale mode is that it’s
a stepping stone to exploiting Photoshop’s Duotone,
Tritone and Quadtone capabilities, which can generate
very subtle effects. But this still doesn’t change the fact
that valuable pixel information is being thrown away.
With this in mind, always remember to convert a
duplicate image to Greyscale, never the original.

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 Desaturation
1 Use a Hue/Saturation Adjustment Layer
For a non-destructive desaturation approach,
open up a colour RGB image and create a Hue/
Saturation Adjustment Layer. Take the Saturation
slider down to zero and click OK.
Channel Mixer
1 Use Channel Mixer Adjustment Layer
One of the most flexible ways of converting an
image to black and white is by using the recently
introduced Channel Mixer. Open up a colour RGB
image, then create a Channel Mixer Adjustment Layer
(Layer>New Adjustment Layer>Channel Mixer).

2 Add saturation
The advantage of this method is that it maintains
all the detail in your original image, resulting in a richer
print when it’s converted to CMYK and output on a
process colour page. By adding a little saturation back
into the image, you can create some subtle, aged looks
that look almost like hand-tinted photographs.
2 Adjust RGB sliders in Monochrome
Tick the Monochrome box and then adjust the
Red, Green and Blue sliders so that they’re all in roughly
the same position, but their values add up to 100 per
cent. If the sliders add up to less the 100 per cent, the
image may look underexposed, while values above 100
per cent may make the image look overexposed.

3 Experiment!
The real fun with the Channel Mixer comes
when you experiment with the RGB sliders to achieve
100 per cent values that aren’t uniform across the

Colour channels. You can make blue eyes paler, darken skin,

space
bring out hidden freckles and completely change the
tone of your photograph. 5

Many digital artists, Photoshop users and
professional photographers have never really
considered colour spaces – or, if they have, decided
the subject is far too complex and moved on to the
more exciting business of creating images instead.
But understanding the topic is vital if you want to
get the most out of your work.
To confuse matters, a number of colour ‘models’,
such as CMYK, RGB, HSB and Lab, are mistaken for
colour spaces. In fact, the models define how
colours can be represented in terms of values,
while colour spaces define what the colours should
look like. A colour profile is the combination of a
colour model and a colour space, which tells
external devices such as monitors and printers
how colours should be mapped.
Colour spaces essentially tell external devices
how to display the material you present them with.
This is the crucial part to remember, because a
pixel with an RGB value of 39, 210, 26 can look very
different on different monitors. For further details,
visit http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colour_space
and www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/
digitalphotography/prophoto/colorspaces.mspx

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 Step-by-step
Workshop

UNDERWATER LOVE
Combine hand-drawn techniques and careful use of layer blending
and effects to create a compelling ocean scene
BY SAM GILBEY

ON THE DISC
You’ll find all the accompanying
files and images you’ll need to
complete this tutorial (‘sketch.jpg’)
on this issue’s free CD.
OUR EXPERT Sam Gilbey
Sam’s illustrations have appeared in numerous publications,
both on and offline, all over the globe. His observational,
colourful and distinct style often draws upon and celebrates
popular culture. He is also a senior editor for popular arts and
design news portal, Pixelsurgeon. More of his work can be
found at www.sam-gilbey.com
I
f you’ve seen Pixar’s epic movie Finding
Nemo, then you already know that
computers can help create a sumptuous,
convincing underwater world. Now, we’re not
saying that our humble piece could be lifted
from the movie as such, but we certainly had
lots of fun creating it. This has got a lot to do
with the fact that the way light plays
underwater is fascinating. We’ve certainly
always wanted to try and recreate that ‘wet
look’, and on the following pages you’ll see
how we did it. As you’ll find, the key is in using
layers, and lots of them, to build up the image
piece by subtle piece. We’ve also deliberately
steered clear of any ripple filters and effects,
preferring to create the look by hand as much
as possible.
As such, you may find the following tutorial a
little easier (and quicker) with a drawing tablet of
some kind, but it’s not essential. On the following
pages, you’ll cover brush dynamics, will see how
to create your own unique brushes, and work
through all manner of techniques leading towards
this striking underwater scene. From here there’s
no limit to what you could do, from a simple fish
study to the whole of Atlantis.

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 es
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“THE KEY IS IN USING 6 A slightly textured look

LAYERS TO BUILD UP THE On the right of the Brush Diameter icon

there’s a small arrow. Click on this. From the

IMAGE PIECE BY PIECE” palette that opens up, click the arrow towards the
top right, and select the Dry Media Brushes. At the
bottom of this brush set you’ll fine the Pastel

1
Medium Tip. Set the opacity to 50%, and the size
It starts with a sketch at 30, and start to add texture to the girl, following
Open the file from the coverdisc called the contours of the shading. Change the brushes
‘sketch.jpg’. Duplicate the background layer and back to the default set.
set the layer blending mode to Screen. Select all
of the background layer via the Select menu, and
then fill it with a deep sea green/blue. Flatten the
image. Duplicate the background layer again, and
this time set the blending mode to Multiply. Use
the Gradient Fill tool to render a gradient that
fades from a medium sea blue down to a darker

4
one on the background layer.
Outlines beneath
Reduce the brush diameter, and use darker
tones to supplement the outline of the sketch.
Now proceed to work on the facial detail. Add a

subtle red to the cheeks. Adjust the brush size and
opacity as appropriate. Render the lips with some
light pink highlights, and introduce some varying
tones into the hair, following the basic flow of the
hairstyle. Use the Eraser to remove the cross-
hatched shading on the sketch.
7
Bolder outlines and highlight
Working beneath the sketch, darken the
main outlines further. Keep the brush opacity
around 50%. Now select a strong orange, and
paint a narrow orange highlight to the left side of
the character. This will ultimately be the light from
the jellyfish.

2 Flat colours and highlights

Create a new layer in between the
background and the sketch. Use a hard-edged
round brush at 100% opacity to paint the different
areas of the girl in. Make sure you go up to and
include the edges with the various tones. Then,
for each area, use a slightly lighter tone to paint
in a flat highlight, as if the light is on the right of
the scene.

5 More hair detail

Your next step is to create a new layer
above the sketch, and then you can start to
thicken up the hair. It’s best to begin with a
relatively small brush, adding in lighter and darker
tones that flow along the hair, and then to use a
larger, softer brush to blend everything together,
making it appear more natural. Alternate these
techniques until you can see that the hair is
starting to look more realistic.
Layer blending modes
3
We have used a lot of layers in this piece, gradually building up
Shadows and blending the textures and colours as we go. But that’s only half the story. A
Pick a darker tone for each area, and now crucial part of getting the right look, especially when you’re
work some shadows in on the left of the character. creating an underwater scene such as this one, is to use the
Use the Magic Wand to select the character correct blending modes on all those layers. Changing them from
accurately (to reduce overlap), then use a larger one mode to another can have a dramatic effect on the image.
soft-edged brush (around 130 diameter), reducing Learn how they all work, and then you’ll find that you have a
much better idea of which one to use in a given situation.
the opacity to around 40%. The idea is to blend
Remember, less is often more. The most dramatic one isn’t
shadows and highlights with the main colour,
always the best for the job!
rendering the body, clothing and face as you go.

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 Step-by-step
Workshop
“IF YOU GET 9 Light rays

INTO THE Create a new layer beneath the character

and use the Polygonal Lasso to define the

HABIT OF boundaries of a light ray. Use the Gradient Fill tool

to apply a gradient that fades from white down to

USING LAYER a bright blue. Apply a broad Gaussian blur via the
Filter menu. Go to Layer>Layer Styles>Outer Glow

STYLES, YOU and apply a soft, bright blue glow. Set the opacity
of the ray layer to around 20%. Duplicate it and

WILL FIND move the new layer across to the right a little.
Repeat this process a few times and build up a

THEM few rays of light cutting into the scene. They

should open out across the composition.
12 More photography

EXTREMELY Next, we have used a photograph

HANDY”
taken by Hrvoje Pastar, which you will be
able to find at the following website:
www.fotolia.co.uk/id/178135.
Paste this photograph in over the other photo
layers, and then scale it up in order to make it fill
the entire canvas. Having done that, your next
step is to set the blending mode to Overlay and
the opacity to 59%. Finally, apply a Motion blur
by using the Filter menu, and set it at an
angle of 62°.

10 Photographic texture

8
A deeper blue
Duplicate the background layer, and then
drag it to the top of the layers. Now set the
blending mode to Multiply and the opacity to
48% so you can see through to the character.
Select the Eraser, and a soft-edged brush, setting
it to the largest size (2500). You may need to zoom
out, but proceed to erase the top half of this
We’ve used an image by Chronis
Chamaldis here, which you can purchase
relatively cheaply at the following site:
www.fotolia.co.uk/id/90501.
Paste the image above the background layer,
setting the layer blending mode to Hard Light.
Now go to Image>Adjustments>Hue/Saturation.
Decrease the Hue to –26, and the Lightness to –
13. Use the Clone Stamp to copy the texture so

13
gradient layer. that it reaches the edges of the canvas.
Dappled light
Your next step is to create a new layer
above everything else, and then select white as
your foreground colour. You’re going to create a
dappled light effect, and in order to do this you
need to paint a rippled pattern of light over the
girl – varying the width and opacity of your soft-
edged brush as you go. Having done that, use
a large soft eraser with a low opacity to reduce
the intensity of the light in a few places. Finally,
apply a Gaussian blur with a radius of 10 pixels,
and add an outer glow layer style. Keep the

The power of layer styles

Layer styles are great, and if you can get into the habit of using
them you will find them extremely handy, partly because you
can add so many different effects to your images with ease.
Most importantly though, when you’ve got a better idea for
the effect you’re using or want to adjust it slightly, you can go
back to it any time you want to. From your Layers palette,
simply double-click on the thumbnail of the layer, and the
Layer Style options will then pop up. This is also a shortcut to
adding a layer style in the first place, without having to use the
Layer menu.
11
blending mode on Screen, the spread at 0, and
Brighter rays put the size up to 84px.
Now it’s time to make another
copy of the rays. Having done that, set the
opacity to 30%, and then use the same large
eraser to rub out the lower half, leaving a
brighter highlight at the top of the screen. The
next step is to duplicate the photography layer by
right-clicking or pressing Control-click in the layers
palette. Now set the blending mode to Overlay,
and then use the same eraser to remove the lower
half of the texture, again brightening up the top
half of your screen.

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14 Blurred hair
Duplicate the hair layer above the
sketch and apply a reasonably subtle Motion blur.
Repeat the process, rotating the hair very slightly
each time and varying the blur. It’s only really the
isolated hairs in the water that need to blur, so you
can erase anything else around the face.
15 Jellyfish colours
Create a new layer below the sketch,
and set the blending mode to Hard Light. With a
large soft-edged brush (around 150), at an opacity
of around 30%, start to paint in the jellyfish. Use
pinks and purples, building up the texture with
round marks. Paint the tendrils, and the inside of
the jellyfish that you can just see below, in white.
16 Luminous tentacles
Create a new layer beneath, and use a
soft white brush at varying sizes and with a low
opacity, to build up the long tentacles. Apply a
bright blue/purple outer glow layer style, with the
blending mode set to Normal and a size of 18px.
Create a new layer above everything, and repeat
the technique, adding soft brighter highlights
here and there. Use a light blue outer glow on this
layer, and erase the pencil sketch over the jellyfish.
052-056_APM04_ulove.indd 55
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Brush creation
17 Jelly veins
Create a new layer on top of the
jellyfish, and using a fine brush with a very low We’ve just used brush creation tools in
Photoshop for our bubbles, but you could
opacity, paint in pale orange veins spreading out
easily exploit this technique further,
over the top of it. Apply a small Gaussian blur and
especially in the creation of an underwater
copy the layer. Increase the brush size and create a scene. Take a look at the other brush
soft halo of orange and white light around the top. ‘dynamics’ that are available to you,
especially the Color dynamics. For
instance, you could create a brush design
of a single fish, and use brush dynamics to
quickly render a whole school of them in
the background. Play with brightness
settings, and they’ll even start to shimmer
in the underwater light, or automatically
vary the angle that they’re placed at.
Perhaps you could use brush dynamics to
create coral, or simply to add texture to
sand and rocks on the seabed.
18 Jelly blur
Select all the layers that make up the jellyfish and group them. Duplicate the group and then merge the lower group.
Apply a gentle Radial blur of around 12 pixels to the layer, with the centre point near the top of the jellyfish. Now rotate the
blurred version about 2 degrees counter-clockwise to create a sense of movement. Enhance the pale orange highlights on both
the girl and jellyfish on a new layer, and Motion blur them slightly. At this stage we’ve also repositioned the light rays for better
composition, and added a new one in front of the girl.
“WE’VE USED BRUSH CREATION
TOOLS JUST FOR BUBBLES, BUT
YOU COULD TAKE THIS FURTHER”
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 Step-by-step
Workshop
20 Brush dynamics
To the right of the Options bar,
you’ll find the Brushes tab. Open it and turn on
Shape Dynamics. Set Size Jitter to 100%. Also turn
on Scattering and set it to the maximum. From
Other Dynamics, set Opacity Jitter to 60%.
Proceed to paint bubbles around the canvas, with

“TO GET THE the diameter at 80, on a new layer at the top.

MOST OUT OF
Don’t make more than a couple of bubbles at
a time. After a while, reduce the brush diameter

THESE
and add some smaller ones. Apply a soft white

23
outer glow layer style, and a vertical Motion blur

TECHNIQUES,
of 7 pixels. Deeper sea
At this stage you might want to adjust

IT WILL the colours of the girl, so that she complements

the background better. Use the Layer>

HELP TO Adjustments options, or create a new Adjustment

layer in order to make your changes. Go back

STUDY SOME down to the bubbles photo, and then add a new
layer. Create a gradient that fades up from the

UNDERWATER bottom into nothing this time, covering

approximately one third of your screen. Now

PHOTOS” apply a Color Overlay and experiment with

various tones. We’ve gone for a suitable deep
sea green/blue.

19 Bubble brush
Create a new document that’s 500 x
500 pixels, at 300 dpi. Using the techniques you
prefer, create an image of a bubble, essentially a
circle with a soft edge and a few highlights. Note
that the blacker the line, the more opaque that
part of the brush will be, and white will be
completely transparent. Flatten the image once
you’re ready, and go to Edit>Define Brush
Preset. Name your brush ‘Bubble’ and click OK.
It will appear at the bottom of the current
21 More bubbles
On a new layer, create lots of tiny
bubbles, following the girl’s hair and the tendrils of
the jellyfish in particular. Go back down to the
photo of bubbles we added, and duplicate the
layer. Move it above the photo of the bubbles, set
the blending mode to Overlay and the opacity to
37%. Apply a Color Overlay layer style with a mid-
toned orange. Set the opacity of the overlay to
57%. Use a large soft eraser to remove the top
sixth or so of the layer, revealing the lighter

24
brush set. tones beneath.
Final details
Go and have another look at the
character, and then add any more detail that you
think it may need. Concentrate in particular on the
face, especially the lips and eyes. We have also
added quite a lot more bubbles here, on various
layers so that we can blur them to different
amounts. Besides this, we’ve also brought the hair
around the front of the neck to create the
impression that the water is swirling. Now – why
don’t you try experimenting with using some
of these techniques in an underwater scene of

Look and learn your own?. 5

To get the most out of these techniques, it will naturally help to

carefully study some underwater photos. As well as places like
Fotolia, where you can purchase images relatively cheaply,
there are plenty of other places to look – such as the
appropriately named www.underwater-art.com, for instance,
or even just a Google image search. It’s by studying how light
plays underwater and how creatures move within it, that your
imagination can run riot, and your illustrations can be
fantastical but believable in their own right.
22 It’s brighter at the top
Beneath the bubbles photo, create a
new layer and set the blending mode to Overlay.
Use the Gradient Fill tool to add a gradient that
fades downwards from white to nothing, just
down say a fifth of the screen. Move it up a little so
the top of the image isn’t quite so bright. For extra
effect, add a layer at the top, and paint in some
broad (but quite faint) white strokes at the top of
the image. Apply a Gaussian blur of 50 to the layer
to give the sense of more light breaking through.

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 Step-by-step
Workshop

LET IT
SNOW!
Desaturate, invert and
make use of Noise
and Layer Masks to
transform this urban
summer scene into a
winter wonderland
BY TIM SHELBOURNE

ON THE DISC
You’ll find all the files you need to
complete this tutorial (snow_start.
jpg, snow done.tif and snow smaller.
psd) on the cover CD.

OUR EXPERT Tim Shelbourne

With 20 years’ experience as an artist and illustrator, Tim
Shelbourne is one of Photoshop’s leading lights. He believes
that too much instructional material intimidates new users
and is keen to help novices painlessly harness the software’s
true potential. For further details, check out his first book,
the Photoshop Photo Effects Cookbook (Ilex, £17.95, ISBN:
1-904705-61-8) or visit www.timshelbourne.com.

T
here’s virtually no limit to the power
of Photoshop. Using Adobe’s flagship
application, we can distort reality with
incredible results – as this workshop clearly
shows. Here you’re going to learn how to
seamlessly change a summer scene into a
winter one – and it won’t just involve painting
white ‘snow’ onto the image.
The key is to ensure that the snowy areas follow
the contours of the landscape, and fit in with the
original scene in terms of light and shade. The
solution? To desaturate and invert the image on a
number of separate layers, adjust the Levels on
each, and then combine the result with Layer
Masking to selectively reveal only parts of these
‘snow’ layers. Careful use of layer blending
modes ensures that the virtual snow interacts
convincingly with the underlying image layer.
For the falling snow, we’ll use a simple Noise
layer. By manipulating and modifying this layer,
we can clump the noise together to form truly
realistic snowfall. You can then use another
variation of this Noise layer to create convincing
frost and the impression of lighter areas of snow.
If that isn’t cold enough for you, we’ll up the
chill factor a touch up by adjusting the overall
colour temperature of the final image.

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1 Create a snow layer
Open ‘snow_start jpg’. For the first areas,
we need an inverted copy of the background
layer. Duplicate this by going to Layer>Duplicate
Layer. On the duplicate layer, go to Image>
Adjustments>Invert. Desaturate this inverted
layer via Image>Adjustments>Desaturate.
2
Adjust highlights
Now to lighten the snow highlights. Go to
Image>Adjustments>Levels. Drag the White
Point slider to the left, setting Input at 180, then
the Gamma (Midpoint) slider to the left to a value
of 1.00. Click OK and set the Layer Blending mode
to Hard Light in the Layers palette.
3
Hide behind the mask
Go to Layer>Layer Mask>Hide All. This
applies a mask filled with Black, which hides the
entire layer. Choose the Brush tool and click in
the Brush Picker. Scroll down the list of brush
thumbnails and select the Spatter 46 pixels brush.
058-061_APM04_urbsnow.indd 59
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4 Reveal some snow
With the brush set at 100 per cent Opacity,
and White for the foreground colour, paint directly
onto the Layer Mask over the pavement and road
area, revealing the ‘snow’ from the associated
image layer. To be sure that you’re painting onto
the mask and not the image layer itself, check for
a bold outline around the Layer Mask thumbnail
in the Layers palette. Create an uneven line
between the pavement and the building to
suggest that the snow has depth.
7 Fine detail
Reduce the Opacity of the brush to 40 per
cent and paint a rough line over the top of the car.
Paint a line across the car’s bumper and over the
wheel arches to give the impression of settled
snow. You can easily reduce or increase the size
of the brush by using the [ or ] keys.
5
More snow
Now paint over the rooftops and chimneys
on the main building. Take care to keep to the
outlines of the rooftop areas. If you accidentally
paint over any areas of sky, simply swap your
foreground and background colour (X) and paint
back into the mask with Black. Reveal the snow
only along the top edge of the guttering, so that
the shaded area underneath shows through from
the background layer. By varying the Opacity of
8
the brush over parts of the rooftops you can easily
reduce/increase the apparent snow cover. Make some noise
Time to create that frosty effect. Add a new
layer to the image (Cmd/Ctrl+Shift+N) and hit D
to revert to default foreground and background
colours. Fill the Layer with Black via Edit>Fill>
Contents: Black. Now go to Filter>Noise>
Add Noise. Drag the Amount slider to 50,
choose Gaussian for Distribution and check
Layer Mask Monochromatic. Hit OK to apply the Noise.
essentials
To ensure that you’re
painting on a Layer
Mask and not the
actual image layer,
click directly on the
thumbnail of the
6
Mask itself in the
Thicker snow cover Layers palette.
Duplicate this layer via Layer>Duplicate Before painting,
check for a bold
Layer. After making sure that you’ve clicked on the outline around the
Layer Mask thumbnail for this duplicate layer, go thumbnail – this
indicates that the
to Edit>Fill, choosing Black for contents to fill the Mask is your target.
duplicated mask with Black. Reduce the Opacity And remember that,
of the brush to 50 per cent. Now, by painting in Layer Masking
terms, Black conceals
again into this mask with White, you can increase and White reveals
the thickness of the snow in certain areas of the the associated
pavement, road and rooftops. image layer.
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 Step-by-step
Workshop
9
Blend the frost
Go to Image>Adjustments>Brightness
and Contrast and drag the Contrast slider to +80.
Now change the Blending Mode for this layer to
Linear Dodge in the Layers palette and reduce
Layer Opacity to 90 per cent. Hide this layer with
a mask via Layer>Layer Mask>Hide All.
Blizzard conditions
deciding which areas of snow should be the
thickest. Think where the snow would gather…
To suggest that the snow is falling slowly here, we’ve assigned
small values to the Motion Blur settings on the snow layers (see
step 16). However, creating a blizzard is just as straightforward.
Simply duplicate one of the snow layers again and use a higher
Motion Blur value on each of the falling snow layers. Obviously, in
a blizzard, snow often blows across an image almost horizontally.
Modify the Angle value in the Motion Blur filter to recreate this
effect. It can really add atmosphere to your landscapes.

11 Frosty buildings and windows

Continue to paint with the brush over
parts of the rooftops and the windows to suggest
frost. By painting over parts of the building faces

14
and over the distant buildings, you can spread this
effect throughout the entire image. Snow is noisy
Add another new layer (Cmd/
Ctrl+Shift+N) and fill it with Black via
Edit>Fill>Contents: Black. Now go to
Filter>Noise>Add Noise. In the dialog, check
Monochromatic and choose Gaussian for

10
Distribution. Drag the Amount slider to 75
Delicate frost effects per cent. Click OK to apply the noise.
Choose the Brush tool again and click
in the Brush Picker. Scroll down the brushes and
choose Chalk 44 Pixels. Reduce the brush Opacity
to 50 per cent. Now, using White for your
foreground colour – and ensuring that you’re

12
painting onto the Layer Mask – paint over the car
to reveal a little frost. Vary the Opacity of the brush Using the Channel Mixer
to simulate different densities. Click on the background layer,
duplicate it (Cmd/Ctrl+J), then drag the duplicate
up to the top of the layer stack. Now go to Image
>Adjustments>Invert. The Channel Mixer will help
us to create snow on this layer. Go to Image>

Adjustments>Channel Mixer and, in the dialog,
check the Monochrome box and adjust the sliders
as follows: Red: +34, Green: +52 and Blue: 108.
Click OK to apply the adjustment.
15
Generating snowfall
Go to Filter>Blur>Gaussian Blur. Use a
Blur Radius of 5 pixels and click OK. Now go to
Image>Adjustments>Levels and drag all three
pointers, so that they sit closely together towards
the right-hand end of the short histogram. You’ll
be left with just white clumps on a black
background, which look pretty much like
snowdrifts. To complete the illusion, set the
Blending Mode to Screen.

Take your tablet

Although not essential, a pressure-sensitive graphic tablet and
stylus has huge advantages over a conventional mouse when it
comes to projects like this. Rather than having to constantly
adjust the Opacity of your brush in the Options bar, when you’re
using a graphics tablet you can control the Opacity and even the
size of the brush by simply altering the pressure you apply to the
stylus. To activate these brush characteristics, hit F5. This brings
up the Brush Options panel – in the Other Dynamic category, set
Opacity Jitter to Pen Pressure.
13 Increase snow density
Reduce the Opacity of this new snow
layer to 88 per cent, but leave the Layer Blending
mode set to Normal. Add a Hide All Layer Mask via
Layer>Layer Mask>Hide All. Now paint over it with
White to reveal some of this snow layer on the
bricks. Use a low Opacity (30-40 per cent) setting
and paint over some areas repeatedly to increase
the snow density. Use your intuition when

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“A PRESSURE-SENSITIVE
GRAPHICS TABLET REALLY
WORKS WELL WITH THIS
KIND OF PROJECT. JUST
HIT F5 AND SET OPACITY
JITTER TO PEN PRESSURE”
16
Swirling snow
Go to Filter>Blur>Motion Blur and
set the Angle to 23 and Distance to, say, 10-15.
Click OK to apply. To intensify the snow, duplicate
this layer via Layer>Duplicate Layer. Now use
the Eraser tool (with a soft brush) to erase some
areas of this duplicated layer and vary the opacity
of the swirling snowflakes.
17 Snow focus
Click on the lower snowflake layer
and duplicate it (Cmd/Ctrl+J). Flip the layer via
Edit>Transform>Flip Horizontal, then drag the
duplicate to the top of the layer stack. Now blur
this layer via Filter>Blur>Gaussian Blur. Use a Blur
Radius of 8 pixels and click OK.
18
Getting colder
To enhance the effect, we now need to
cool the entire image down a little. Photo Filter is
ideal for the job. Go to Layer>New Adjustment
Layer>Photo Filter, click OK, and, in the Filter drop-
down, choose Cooling Filter (80). Set the Density
058-061_APM04_urbsnow.indd 61
slider to 13 per cent and click OK to apply the
Adjustment Layer. See the improvement?
19 Automatic Layer Mask
The great thing about Adjustment
Layers is that they come complete with a Layer
Mask attached. So now you can paint onto this
mask with black to hide the summery blue
colour that appears in certain buildings.
20 Painting fine detail
Finally, return to the Layer Masks on
the lower snow layers and paint onto each with
a small brush to reveal details of snow along
window ledges and on distant chimneys. Here,
we’ve painted around the edges of the shop signs
with a small brush on the upper snow Layer Mask
to indicate smaller areas of settled snow.
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Create a backup .psd file
Always save a version of your file with
the layers intact, so that you can make alterations
later – simply go to File>Save and choose .psd.
Now you can safely flatten the layers in the image
via Layer>Flatten Image, and, via File>Save, save
the flattened image as a suitable TIFF or JPEG. 5
Where next?
Once you’ve mastered this technique, why not try it on a portrait
to add a little wintry interest? The secret is to use your Photoshop
brushes subtly on the Layer Masks to reveal the snow and frost
at varying intensities over skin and clothes. By increasing the
Density of the final Photo Filter Adjustment Layer, you can give
the finished portrait a strikingly cool blue ambience.
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 Step-by-step
Workshop

CONCEPT ART
Add a hand-drawn polish to your pre-production artwork with this sci-fi themed
workshop, where you’ll learn to master the art of light, shadow, colour and tone
BY SAM GILBEY

ON THE DISC
All the files you need to
complete this workshop
(concept_bck.jpg, robot_
sketch and final_artwork.psd)
are provided on the cover CD.
OUR EXPERT Sam Gilbey
Sam Gilbey is a freelance graphic designer and illustrator
whose client list includes Weetabix, The British Museum
and Motorola. You can find further examples of his work
at www.sam-gilbey.com. He is also a Senior Editor for
popular web portal www.pixelsurgeon.com.
W
e all know that Photoshop is an
extremely powerful application,
but all too often it’s considered
‘just’ an image-manipulating tool rather than
a potent image-creator in its own right. It’s an
unfortunate assumption as in reality many
artists rely on Adobe’s flagship app as a
primary design tool. The software is an
integral part of pre-production workflow in
both the videogame and film industries, for
instance, as you’ll know if you’ve read our
interview with Charles Darby on page 30.
Naturally, having ideas that lend themselves to
visual representation helps, particularly during the
initial drafting stage. But once you’ve mastered
the techniques outlined here, you’ll find that such
ideas flow much more freely anyway. The trick is
not to make anything too complex. You’re not
trying to create a ‘realistic’ textured look – for that,
you should use dedicated 3D software.
The best concept art is vibrant and evidently
made by hand. It reaches out and grabs you,
because it evokes a space without literally
demonstrating it. Concept art is about the
mastery of light and shadow, colour and tone. It’s
about creating an illusion, and that’s why
Photoshop is a natural choice for the job.
Once you’ve had a go at this workshop, why
not try creating something from your own
imagination? Never stray too far from a
sketchbook and pencil – and, where possible, use
a graphics tablet for the most natural results.

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1 First marks
Open the file called ‘robot_sketch.jpg’ and
create a new layer. Select the Brush tool from the
4 Extra definition
By and large, all your lines at this stage
will be of a similar thickness. We want to see a
Night in at
the movies
Next time you watch
a movie, particularly
Tools palette and click on the small arrow next to difference between the lines that simply connect anything in the
the icon on the Options bar showing the brush shapes and those that make up the edges of the sci-fi or fantasy
genre, remember
diameter. From the default brush set, choose the character. So increase the brush size to around 25 that everything you
Hard Round 19 pixels brush. With the foreground and go over the edges with it. Make sure you do see on screen was
colour set to Black and Brush Opacity at 100 per the same with the head in front of the neck and visualised by an
artist long before it
cent, start going over the pencil lines. the gun arm in front of the leg. became a 3D CG (or
real) model. Luckily,
thanks to the fact
that it’s become
the norm to offer
behind-the-scenes
footage on DVD
movie releases,
concept art galleries
are becoming
increasingly
accessible. It’s always
interesting to see
why some ideas
never made it to
the final cut…
Creating believable

7
worlds is all about

2
establishing a A rough idea
Keep it clean (ish) coherent logical Open the file called ‘concept_bck.jpg’.
Try to make each mark as smoothly and narrative, and the As you can see, this is in a much rougher state
concept artist needs

deftly as possible, but remember that you want
the artwork to look hand-drawn; you don’t want
the lines to be anywhere near as smooth as a
vector. If you’re using a Wacom tablet, you can
control the width of the stroke via the pressure
you apply without having to resize the brush
diameter. Gradually build up the main lines, but
don’t replicate any of the cross-hatching.
5
to imbue his or her than the character design sketch. It has a strong,
Light and shadow work with sensible angular composition, but we’ll need Photoshop’s
choices as much as
Imagining that the light source is on the help to turn it into something more tangible, and
creative flourishes.
right-hand side, begin adding some black with any luck, more impressive.
shadows to the left side of the drawing. Use the
shape of the body-parts as your guide. For the
larger plates on the arms and legs, leave a gap
between the edge and the line of shadow. This
starts to give the illusion that there’s a shiny
surface. Zoom in so that you’re looking at the
image at 100 per cent. Fill in any obvious gaps
in the shadowed areas and use the Eraser to
correct any overlapping lines.

8 Keep things in perspective

Create a new layer and use the Marquée

3
tool to draw a rectangle in landscape format, as
Remove the drawing shown. The size isn’t really important – a sixth of
Once you’ve replaced all the main defining the image width at most is fine. You just need to
lines, it’s time to get rid of the original drawing. fill it in with a mid-grey colour and copy the shape
Create a new layer above the sketch, select the to your clipboard. Hide this layer and add a new
Paintbucket tool and fill in the whole layer with a one. Now go to Filter>Vanishing Point.
mid-toned petrol blue, as shown.

6 Two-toned robot
Create a new layer between the
background and the black outlines. After setting
the brush size to around 65, colour the robot in
with two flat tones. Use a light silvery grey for the
head and all the main limb panels, and a darker
grey/blue for the other areas and the gun. If you
haven’t already, save your file. Now it’s time to
work on the background.

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 Step-by-step
Workshop
9
Master of
Create a perspective plane
concepts
When the Vanishing Point window opens,
You may not have
click on the second icon down the left-hand side heard of Feng Zhu,
(the Create Plane tool). We’re now going to base but you’ve almost
certainly seen his
our perspective on the diagonal panel visible on work – he was a key
the left. Move over to the image and click to add artist on Revenge Of
perspective points at the four corners of the panel. The Sith – and his art
direction is hugely
Now paste the rectangle you’ve already created impressive. He’s
on the scene and simply drag it until it snaps into also worked with
directors James

15
the perspective of the grid. Select the fifth icon
Cameron and

12
down, the Transform tool, and resize the shape to Michael Bay, as Thicker lines for edges
fit the panel. Click OK to render the results. A question of symmetry well as countless As with the robot figure earlier, we
videogame
The ‘reactor’ was drawn freehand, but is companies. If you’re want the edges of our subject to be more strongly
meant to be symmetrical. Use the Pen tool to really serious about defined than the internal lines. Increase the brush
create a shape that follows the outlines of the left- emulating the diameter and go over these edges. The drawing
techniques
hand edge. When it comes to the ellipses at the established artists will instantly acquire more depth.
top, use the Convert Point tool to turn the straight like Feng Zhu use,
check out his

16
lines into curves. Adjust the handles of the points
excellent tutorial
using the Direct Selection tool. DVDs (available from Use Paths to
www.thegnom outline the ellipses
onworkshop.com for
$49 each – around We want the ellipses at the top of the object to
£28). It’s always have black outlines, too, but it can be difficult to
inspiring to see a do this freehand when you can’t rotate the canvas.
master in action,
especially with Starting with the internal ellipse, create a shape

10
concept art, where using the Ellipse tool. Go to the Paths palette and
the mark-making is
Pasting on the ceiling click on the small arrow at the top-right. Select
an intrinsic part of
Reveal the layer with the rectangle and the process. For Make Selection from the options. Keep the
use the Magic Wand to select it again. Fill it with a further examples of Feather Radius at 0 and make sure that it’s anti-
his work, visit www.
slightly lighter grey, copy it and hide the layer. fengzhudesign.com. aliased. Revisit the layer with the outlines and, via

Now create a new layer and open the Vanishing
Point filter. Create a new grid, with the vertical
centre-point roughly aligned with the centre of
the ‘reactor’ object. If the grid is red, it’s not aligned
with the original perspective, so use the Transform
tool to adjust the corners until it turns blue. Paste
the rectangle in as before and attach it to the
ceiling. Click OK when you’re done.
13
Edit>Stroke, apply a 5-pixel centred stroke.
Halve the workload
Set the Opacity of the layer down, so
that you see through to the drawing. Duplicate it
and flip it horizontally. Move it so that the right-
hand side of the object matches. Set the Opacity
of the two layers back to 100 per cent and merge
the top one down. Reduce the Layer Opacity of
the combined layer a little.

17 Perfect all the main outlines

Repeat the previous technique,
creating a vector path and then a selection, to
add a stroke to the outer outline of the circular
section that meets the ceiling. Where the curves
overlap the central column, create a rectangular
marquée and delete the contents.

11 When a circle
becomes an ellipse
Now it’s time to create a circle. Use the Elliptical
Marquée tool, but hold down Shift to constrain
the shape. Fill the circle with a light blue. Copy it
to the clipboard and open the Vanishing Point
filter once more. Drag it so that it snaps to the
ceiling grid you’ve created, then position it over
the ellipse at the top of the ‘reactor’. Click OK.
14 Working with straight lines
On paper, drawing straight lines is
more natural at certain angles and you can
easily turn the paper if one is particularly tricky.
Obviously, working in Photoshop requires a
different method. Select the same hard-edged
brush you used for the character, but set its size to
around 50. Click on one of the corners and hold
down Shift. Click again at another point to draw a
straight line between the two points. Keep Shift
held and work around the object.

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18 22 25
An excellent
Markings and indentations Time for a new brush resource A soft blue glow
Ever since Star Wars, sci-fi objects On a brand new layer between the One of the first We can now use some of the
need to consist of multiple, angled panels or they background colour and the outlines, it’s time to add places you really indentations we’ve created to represent a channel
just don’t look right. Using the same technique some texture. Select the Brush tool and click the must take a look of power flowing through the reactor. On a new
at is the easy-to-
outlined in step 14, hold down the Shift key and small arrow next to the Brush Size indicator. From the remember www. layer, use a hard-edged brush from the default set
add detail to the reactor with the help of straight drop-down, click the small arrow to the top-right. conceptart.org. to colour in the channels with a flat blue. Go to
Be warned, though
lines. There’s not a right or wrong way to do this, Select the Dry Media Brushes set, scroll to the Layer>Layer Style and apply an Outer Glow. With
– there’s so much
but try to be instinctive. Ideally, you want to lead bottom and you’ll find the Pastel Medium Tip. talent in the field, Blend Mode on Screen, set Opacity to 100 per
the eye around the object. visiting the site can cent, Spread to 0 per cent and Size to 21 pixels.
be a little daunting.
Don’t be put off,
though. Browse the
forums and, once
you’ve had a few
attempts at creating
your own pieces,
show them off. A
bit of constructive
criticism can only
improve your game.

19 Vary line thickness

to add depth
As you work across the reactor, adding details,
include a variety of line types. As it all starts to
take shape, go over some of the lines to thicken
them up. This is how you decide which lines
represent a protrusion. The reactor soon starts to
acquire a suitably 3D, sci-fi look – and it’s all down
to the varying thicknesses of the lines.
23 Adding pastel textures
Using the adjusters on the Options
bar, set the Size of the brush to approximately 80
pixels, Opacity to about 50 per cent and Flow to
around 60 per cent. Start to add marks to the
bottom-left ‘foot’ of the reactor. Don’t worry
about overlap. Use a dark tone for the left-hand
side and a lighter tone for the right.
26 Ramp up the textures
From the Dry Media brushes, select
the Soft Oil Pastel (fourth brush down). Set Size to
around 70 and Opacity to around 30 per cent,
then paint an additional layer of texture over the
reactor, on the layer below the blue glow. Increase
the contrast between light and dark across the
various sides, to give the object a stronger
presence. Also, add some texture to the wall
behind, on a separate (lower) layer.

20 Completing the background

Once you’re satisfied with the level
of detail on the reactor segment, use the same
straight-line technique to render the main edges
in the background. There’s no need to work on
any additional panels, because we want the
reactor to be the main focus. Concept art relies as
much on what you leave out as what you put in.

24 Building it up
A Photoshop

27
Reduce the size of the brush slightly
and work over the texture with different tones. specialist Highlights and shadows
Add depth by darkening the panels at the bottom Many still think This simple trick is a great way to get a
concept art is largely
and around the edges. Use a clean hard Eraser to produced in Painter, hi-tech look with ease. Go back to a hard-edged
remove brushstrokes that overlap the lines. not Photoshop, but round brush from the default set, and, with Size
this isn’t the case. at 50 and Opacity at 35 per cent, paint in straight-
Painter certainly has
some interesting, lined highlights and shadows on the appropriate
powerful features, side of the panels. Go over some of the lines a few
with its emphasis
times to increase their strength.
on reproducing

21
natural media, but
Time to hide the sketch Photoshop has its
own strengths, too.
You’re now as familiar with the pencil Many artists use
lines as their digital counterparts, but the best bit both, of course,
comes when you hide the former for good. Create but one artist who
swears by Photoshop
a new layer beneath the black outlines layer and alone is Niklas
fill it with a mid-toned grey/blue. Remember also Jansson. Check out
his superb work at
that you want to hide the angled rectangles you
www.itchstudios.
created with the Vanishing Point filter at this stage com/psg/.
– so make sure this layer is above them.

65
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062-066_APM04_concept.indd 65 10/2/06 14:21:42

 Step-by-step
Workshop
28
Burning in the shadows
To give the object more solidity, select
the Burn tool. Using a soft-edged round brush
(Size: 120, Range: Midtones, Exposure: 10 per
cent), subtly define the edges of the panels.
29
A new colour balance
The steely blues we’ve been using up
to now are a little cold. Add a new layer and set the
Blending Mode to Soft Light. Select an earthy
orangey brown tone. Then, with a soft-edged
round brush from the default range, and Opacity
set to 100 per cent, paint a layer of colour over most
of the reactor. It’s okay to leave gaps here and there.
30
Additional markings
The panels added earlier have given
the reactor presence, but we can go further. On a
new layer, with a round brush (Size: 9), draw in
straight lines to represent additional markings on
the structure. Don’t think too much about where
these should go, but try and complement the
structure you’ve already established.
31
Scattering and radial blurs
On a new layer, choose a 19-pixel hard
round brush, Opacity set at 100 per cent. From the
Brushes tab to the right of the Options bar, turn on
Shape Dynamics and set Size Jitter to 29 per cent
and Minimum Diameter to 15 per cent. From the
Scattering menu, set Scattering to Max. Paint over
the ellipse at the top of the reactor, letting white
particles spill out. Go to Filter>Blur>Radial Blur
and apply a Radial Zoom Blur of 30 pixels, centred
on the middle of the reactor ellipse. Afterwards,
apply a blue Outer Glow Layer Style.
66
Advanced Photoshop
062-066_APM04_concept.indd 66
35
Need more
brushes? The hand-drawn look
Textures play an At this point, the room is rendered
important role in quite strongly, but it hasn’t really got the fluidity
concept art, even
if they lie ‘hidden’
that a striking piece of concept art needs. Using
beneath the broader, a hard-edged round brush, work hand-drawn
obviously hand- marks back into the piece. The trick is to follow
made strokes. We’ve
used some of the the contours of the objects and the perspective,
Dry Media brushes leading the eye to the focal points. Keep brush
to add detail to our Size as large as possible and Opacity low. Vary the
piece, but you don’t
have to stop there. colours, so that it’s not just a two-toned piece. This
32
Creating your own all helps the hand-drawn quality to shine through.
brushes is easy
Intensify the colour and you could even
Create a new layer and set Blending bring in some
Mode to Color. Select a mustardy orange and a photographic
textures to help.
solid brush, then paint over the lightest panels of Essentially, you can
the reactor. On another new layer, above the black turn any bitmap into
outlines, use a soft-edged brush to paint in some a brush, by clicking
on Create Brush
highlights for the blue energy channels. Apply an Preset from the
Outer Glow to the Layer to intensify the effect. Edit menu. When
combined with the
powerful brush
dynamics, such as
Scattering, the
possibilities really
are endless.
36 Something to reflect on
Once you’re happy with the results,
it’s time to add the reflections of the objects in
the floor. Go to File>Save As and save your image
as a JPEG, 100 per cent quality. Open it up and
copy and paste the reactor onto the main canvas.
Flip it vertically, remove anything beyond its outer
33
edge, set Layer Mode to Lighten and Opacity to
A blurry background 50 per cent. Apply a Gaussian Blur of 2.3 pixels.
Create a new layer underneath all Repeat the technique for the rest of the
those you’ve created for the reactor. Using the background, with the floor as the reflection
brushes you’ve already used from the Dry Media point. Cut around the reactor shape as well.
selection (but at much larger sizes), build up the
background in terms of tone and texture. Go to
Filter>Box Blur and apply a Blur of 99 pixels, then a
Motion Blur of 350 pixels at an Angle of 0 degrees.
34 Just enough detail
The background still needs a little more
definition – now you’ve created the main tonal
shape, work some of those Dry Media brush
textures back in. Use the Burn tool to solidify some
of the smaller panels on the door and add in lots of
37
fine straight lines, similar to the ones you created
on the reactor. Also, add highlights to the wall A bit of character
behind, which would be cast by the reactor light. Go back to the character design and
group the outline and flat colour layers. Drag the
result to the main canvas and position it
appropriately. Starting with hard-edged brushes
at a low Opacity, build up the surface with streaks
that follow the contours of the body. This should
be beneath the outlines. Apply a Color Overlay
style to the outlines layer, changing the colour
from black to dark grey. On a new layer above, use
a soft-edged brush to add glowing, airbrush-style
highlights. Finally, add a broad blue highlight to
the right-hand side of the character. 5
10/2/06 14:22:03
 Insider
Info
The beauty of Bridge:
Finding your files
Bridge’s Find command can not only help you to locate files by name,
date and type, but also by keywords and collection. Adobe expert Trevor
Morris explains how to get the most from this advanced functionality
OUR EXPERT Trevor Morris
Trevor Morris is an official Photoshop beta tester
and amateur digital photographer with more than a
dozen years’ design experience. He works as a
Senior Graphic Designer for a Canadian web design
company and also maintains the Photoshop-centric
website GFX™ (http://user.fundy.net/morris/).
W
elcome to the penultimate part
of our four-part series dedicated
to Adobe Bridge. So far, we’ve covered
the interface, including its various panels,
View modes and the Toolbar, and
explained how to select, rank, label and
organise your media using a rack of
specialist tools. This issue, we’re exploring
Bridge’s keywords, the Find command,
Collections and Adobe Stock Photos.
Keywords
Quite simply, keywords are typically
nouns – people, places or things – that
you associate with your files to categorise
KEYWORDS PANEL: By default, the
Keywords panel contains only three sets
(plus “Other Keywords”). However,
you’re free to add, edit or entries and
start from scratch.
68
Advanced Photoshop
068-069_APM04_Adobebridge.indd 68
A note
about Sets
It is worth remembering that Sets
are only an interface convenience
and therefore they are not stored
with files. For example, something
like Event>Wedding would only
store Wedding for the selected files.
them and/or distinguish them from other
Keywords saved
files. For example, if you own a digital
camera, you might take several dozen
(maybe even hundreds of) photos on a
As of version 1.0.2, Bridge saves your keywords as an XML-based Preference file,
particular day, but not necessarily all of which makes them easy to back up, share and even edit with a simple text
the same subject matter. Assigning editor. Keywords are saved on exit to a file named ‘Adobe Bridge Keywords.xml’,
keywords to each photo makes it easier located in the following folder:
Mac: <hard drive>/Users/<user name>/Library/Application Support/
to find in the future.
In Bridge, keywords are organised into Adobe/Bridge/
PC: C:\Documents and Settings\<user name>\Application Data\Adobe\Bridge\
sets (eg, Event, People and Place, by
Note: Bridge 1.0.2 is an essential update, with improved overall stability and
default). New keywords and sets are
performance, and is highly recommended for all Bridge users.
created via the icons at the bottom of the
Keywords panel, the panel flyout menu
or the panel context menu. Assigning
keywords is easy: simply select one or
more files and click the empty square to
the left of the desired keyword. You can
assign any number of keywords, even
entire sets, to the selected file(s).
Assigned keywords appear with a
checkmark and are also listed across the
top of the Keywords panel. A dash next to
a set name indicates that one or more –
but not all – of its keywords have been
assigned to the selected file(s). A dash
next to a keyword shows the keyword is
applied to only some of the selected files.
When Bridge finds an undefined
keyword (ie, an assigned keyword that
isn’t in the Keywords panel), it’s displayed
in italics within the Other Keywords set.
These ‘temporary’ keywords aren’t saved
FIND DIALOG: Bridge’s powerful Find dialog enables you to add up to 13 unique
as part of Bridge’s Preferences. But you criteria for finding exactly the files you’re looking for. For example, this is what
can add them by selecting Make the Find dialog might look like if you were trying to find all Raw photos that
Persistent from the Keyword’s Context contained the keywords ‘sunset’ and ‘Fredericton’, shot this year, with a rating of
menu. Or you can drag them from the three stars or more.
Other Keywords set and into any other
set, to make them persistent.
To delete a keyword or set, select it, the interface doesn’t remove it from any Search and Find
then press Delete or the Delete Keyword files to which it was assigned. In order to The Find command (located in the Edit
button (at the bottom of the Keywords remove keywords from files, uncheck menu) uses the standard keyboard
panel). Alternatively, choose Delete from them in the Keywords panel or delete shortcut Cmd/Ctrl+F. You can use it to
the panel menu or context menu. Note, them from the Keywords field in the File locate files anywhere on your local hard
however, that deleting a keyword from Info dialog. drive, removable media, network or even
“KEYWORDS ARE TYPICALLY NOUNS –
PEOPLE, PLACES OR THINGS – THAT
YOU ASSOCIATE WITH YOUR FILES”
13/2/06 12:32:28

ADOBE STOCK PHOTOS: Available via the Favorites panel, this is an online library of royalty-free images. There are
thousands to choose from and you have the option to download free, low-resolution comps until you decide to buy the high-
resolution print versions.
your downloaded stock photos (if you
use the Adobe Stock – more on this later).
While the majority of options in the Find
dialog are self-explanatory, there are a
couple that warrant further explanation.
For instance, Find All Files does exactly
what the name implies (and hence
disables the Criteria section below it), but
if you combine it with the Include All
Subfolders option you can create a ‘flat
view’ of the specified folder.
The Criteria section of the Find dialog
enables you to refine your searches by
specifying up to 13 different criteria. Use
the adjacent + and – buttons to add or
subtract a criterion, respectively. This
enables you to refine your search to an
astonishing degree. If I wanted to pull out
all the Raw files I have of sunsets taken in
my hometown, in a certain year, with a
rating of three stars or more, it’s just a
SAVE COLLECTION: A convenient way
to save search criteria so that the same
search can be quickly conducted again
at any time in the future. To access your
collections, click on the Collections icon
in the Favorites panel.
068-069_APM04_Adobebridge.indd 69
INSIDER
INFO
case of selecting the appropriate criteria
and letting Bridge do the hard work.
Another way to quickly search for files
with specific keywords is to Ctrl/right-
click on a keyword in the Keywords panel
and choose Find. This will open the Find
dialog with the selected keyword already
defined as part of the search criteria.
Collections
Collections are nothing more than saved
search criteria (typically less than 1KB in
size). They enable you to repeat the same
search again at any time, on any folder.
Collections are also dynamically
generated, based on the saved search
criteria – so if matching files are added or
removed, the results are reflected
whenever the collection is displayed.
To save a collection, use the Save As
Collection button that appears above the
search results (to the right of the Find
Criteria) after performing a Find. Enter a
name for the collection and enable ‘Start
Search From Current Folder’ to perform
relative searches (based on the folder
specified by the Look In drop-down
menu). Alternatively, leave the option
unchecked to perform absolute searches
(based on the same path used for the
current search).
To access your saved collections,
choose Collections from the Favorites
panel. Double-click on a saved collection
to perform the search again. Use the Edit
Collection button (top-right of the
Content area) to edit the options and
criteria for the current collection.
Adobe Stock Photos
The Favorites pane also provides quick
access to Adobe Stock Photos, a library of
online royalty-free images from leading
stock libraries. To find specific images,
enter the desired keywords. All searches
are saved for offline viewing and
searching, and may be accessed by
clicking on Previous Searches in the
Favorites panel.
Adobe Stock Photos gives you the
option to download non-watermarked,
low-resolution, complementary (comp)
versions of images for your mock-ups.
Once you make a final decision, you can
buy and download a high-res version. To
view your downloaded comps, click
Downloaded Comps in the Favorites
pane. Comps may be resized with the
thumbnail slider, or moved, copied,
renamed, deleted, etc. They’ll even show
up in your search results if their metadata
matches the search criteria used. A
es
iqu
n
ch
Te
Six top tips
1 Double-click on a keyword set
to expand/collapse it.
2 Click on (checkmark) a set to
apply all keywords within the
set to the selected files.
3 Not all files can be assigned
keywords (eg, Microsoft Word
and Macromedia Flash files).
4 To find the location of a file in a
collection, select it and choose
File>Reveal In Bridge.
5 Copy and paste a collection to
create/edit a new collection
based on an existing one.
6 Enable the Include All
Subfolders and Find All Files
options in the Find dialog, and then
save the search as a collection for
creating a ‘flat view’ of any folder.
Where are
comps stored?
To view and manage your offline
comps, first click on Adobe Stock
Photos in the Favorites panel, then
click on Downloaded Comps.
Alternatively, navigate to the
default folder where comps are
saved, as follows:
Mac: My Documents\
AdobeStockPhotos\
PC: Documents/AdobeStockPhotos/
69
Advanced Photoshop
13/2/06 12:32:49
 Insider
Info
Bridge: Slideshow and customisation
W elcome to the last chapter in our four-part Adobe Bridge series. Over the past
three chapters we’ve discussed: the interface; selecting, ranking and labelling;
managing and locating your media files; keywords, collections and Adobe Stock
Photos. In this final part we’ll explore Bridge’s Slideshow as well as some ways
you can customise the Bridge interface and functionality to optimise your workflow.
Auto-launch
There’s a further Bridge setting that
might be of interest, but it actually
appears inside the Photoshop
Preferences dialog. Launch
Photoshop and choose Edit>
Preferences>General, then select
Automatically Launch Bridge to
have Bridge launch whenever
Photoshop does.
Locked files?
When a file is already opened in
another application (Photoshop, for
example), a document/paper icon
appears near the bottom-right of its
thumbnail (in the content area).
Until the file is closed (and the icon
disappears), you cannot rename or
delete the file, nor can you assign a
rating or label.
“BRIDGE’S SLIDESHOW LOOKS AND
FEELS LIKE ANY OTHER SLIDESHOW,
BUT IT’S A POWERFUL VIEW MODE”
70
Advanced Photoshop
070-071_APM04_ITbridge.indd 70
Slideshow
On the surface, Bridge’s Slideshow looks
and feels much like any other slideshow,
but it’s actually a surprisingly powerful
view mode. To launch Slideshow, press
Cmd/Ctrl+L, or choose View>Slide Show.
The first time you launch Slideshow, a
help overlay appears with a summary of
the available keyboard shortcuts: this
summary may be accessed again at any
time by pressing the H or ~ (tilde) key.
By default, Slideshow displays the
selected files in Fullscreen mode – press
W to toggle Window mode on and off.
Press the spacebar to begin/pause
automatic playback, or use the left/right
arrow keys (or Page Up/Page Down) to
move to the previous or next file.
In addition to simply viewing your
media files, you can also perform the
following operations while you’re in
Slideshow mode:
● assign a rating of one to five stars (1–5)
● increase/decrease ratings by one star
(period/comma)
● clear ratings (zero)
● apply a label (6–9)
● rotate left/right ( [ / ] )
Slideshow is perfect for rating your
digital photographs, reviewing and
labelling comps with a client, or for
simply seeing your images fullscreen.
You can even view and navigate the
pages of an Acrobat document (PDF) in
Slideshow mode.
Workspaces
One of the things that makes Bridge such
a versatile application is its flexible user
interface: panels may be resized,
reorganised or hidden; there are four
different view modes; thumbnails can be
almost any size, and so on. Thankfully,
Two views
To compare two images
side by side in Windows, try
the following:
1. Launch Bridge and
choose File>New Window
(Ctrl+N).
2. In the Windows Taskbar,
Ctrl-click on the first
Bridge, so that both
application ‘footprints’
are selected.
3. Right-click on either of
the application footprints and choose Tile Vertically.
Voila! Now you can compare and rate your images without having to
remember your previous pics.
Note that while you can’t save multiple Bridge windows as a single
workspace, you can save each one independently (ie, ‘2-Up View, Left’ and ‘2-Up
View, Right’).
you can save these layouts as ● Filmstrip Focus (Cmd/Ctrl+F5) –
workspaces by choosing horizontal Filmstrip view with large
Window>Workspace>Save Workspace. thumbnails and all panels hidden
The Save Workspace dialog also enables To delete a custom workspace, simply
you to save the window size and position choose Window>Workspace>Delete
as well as assign a keyboard shortcut – Workspace and select the workspace to
something we highly recommend if you be deleted. Note that you cannot delete
plan to switch between workspaces on a any of the five preconfigured workspaces
regular basis. Saved workspaces are mentioned above.
appended to the bottom of the
Window>Workspace submenu. Preferences
Bridge has five preconfigured Like the rest of its CS2 siblings, Bridge’s
workspaces: interface and behaviour can be further
● Default (Cmd/Ctrl+F1) – tiny customised via the Preferences dialog:
Thumbnails view with three sets of Bridge>Preferences (Cmd+K) on the Mac,
panels (Favorites/Folders, Preview and or Edit>Preferences (Ctrl+K) on the PC.
Metadata/Keywords). This is the initial The Preferences dialog is divided into
FIND DIALOG: Bridge’s powerful Find dialog enables you to add up to 13 unique
‘out of the box’ layout. six
criteria for finding exactly the files you’re looking pages.
for.The
For General
example,page
thisenables
is what you
the
Lightbox
Find
● dialog(Cmd/Ctrl+F2)
might look like– ifsmall to:tochange
you were trying find allthe
Rawbackground
photos that ofcontained
the
theThumbnails
keywords “sunset”
view withand “Fredericton”,
all of the shot this year,
content with
area to anya shade
ratingof
ofgrey;
threetoggle
stars
or panels
more. hidden tooltips on/off; customise up to three
● File Navigator (Cmd/Ctrl+F3) – medium lines of thumbnail metadata; choose
Thumbnails view with the Favorites which of the default icons appear in the
and Folder panel Favorites panel. There are also two
● Metadata Focus (Cmd/Ctrl+F4) – controls/buttons – one to reveal the
medium Thumbnails view with the scripts in Finder/Explorer, and the other
large Metadata panel, as well as the for resetting all warning (ie, turn them
Favorites and Keywords panels all back on).
The Metadata page allows you to
choose which metadata fields or groups
of fields appear in the Metadata panel.
There’s also an option at the bottom of
the page to hide empty fields.
The options on the Labels page enable
you to customise your labels – just the
names, not the colours – and designate
13/2/06 13:07:36

SLIDESHOW HELP: Press the H or ~ (tilde) key while in Slideshow to display a summary of keyboard shortcuts.
whether or not the Cmd/Ctrl key is
required when applying labels and
also ratings.
The File Type Associations page is
used to specify which applications open
which types of files when double-clicked
or opened via File>Open (Cmd/Ctrl+O)
from within Bridge. Note that any
changes made on this page affect only
Bridge, not the operating system or any
other application.
The Advanced page is broken into two
main categories: Miscellaneous and
Cache. The first option under
Miscellaneous allows you to specify the
maximum file size (in Megabytes) for
which Bridge will create a thumbnail and
image preview. Immediately below that
you can indicate the number of folders
(between 0 and 30) to be displayed in the
‘Look In’ drop-down located on the main
application toolbar.
Next, you can designate which
application – Bridge (checked) or
Photoshop (unchecked) – will host the
Camera Raw plug-in when double-
clicking on camera raw files. Note that
regardless of which you choose, File>
Open in Camera Raw (Cmd/Ctrl+R) will
always open camera raw files in Bridge.
Finally, the Language drop-down allows
070-071_APM04_ITbridge.indd 71
INSIDER
INFO
you to select your preferred language.
However, Bridge must be restarted for
the change to take effect.
The Cache section of the Advanced
page allows you to specify how and
where cache files are created. ‘Centralized’
implies that all cache files are stored in a
single location (specified via the Choose
button), while ‘Distributed’ means that
the cache files are stored within each and
every folder you visit with Bridge (except
in the case of read-only devices, for which
cache files are written to the central
cache). So, while a centralised cache is
tidier, there are a few disadvantages.
First, if you move or rename a folder
outside of Bridge, its association to the
central cache is broken and the folder will
need to be re-cached. Second, when you
back up your files to an external/
removable device, you must first export
the cache using the Tools>Cache>Export
Cache command, otherwise the cache for
the backup will be recreated the next
time it’s read by Bridge.
The final page in the Preferences
dialog pertains to Adobe Stock Photos
(accessible via the Favorites panel or
Edit>Search Adobe Stock Photos). Here
you are able to configure such things as
search options, where to save
es
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n
ch
Te
Colour settings
If you own the entire Creative Suite
2, you can even synchronise your
colour settings by choosing Edit>
Creative Suite Color Settings. This
single set of preferences controls
the colour settings for Photoshop
CS2, Illustrator CS2 and InDesign
CS2, helping to ensure colour
fidelity as you move from screen to
print, and file to file.
downloaded stock photos, billing
currency and download options.
Conclusion
That concludes our coverage of Adobe
Bridge, but we’ve only touched the tip of
the iceberg, so you’re encouraged to
continue exploring its potential. Don’t let
the simple interface fool you: Bridge is a
deceptively powerful application –
especially for an initial release.A
Bridge & Camera Raw shortcuts
A complete list of Adobe Bridge and Camera Raw keyboard shortcuts is
available from Ian Lyons’ site, Computer-Darkroom (computer-darkroom.com):
Mac: www.btinternet.com/~ian.lyons/mac_kb.pdf
PC: www.btinternet.com/~ian.lyons/win_kb.pdf
Bridge updates
Make sure you get the Bridge 1.0.3 update from Adobe’s website:
PC: www.adobe.com/support/downloads/product.jsp?product=108&platf
orm=Windows
Mac: www.adobe.com/support/downloads/product.jsp?product=108&plat
form=Macintosh
This patch greatly improves the stability and speed of Adobe Bridge, and it
also adds a few enhancements. Note that 1.0.3 is a cumulative update, so you
need not download 1.0.1 or 1.0.2 before installing 1.0.3.
71
Advanced Photoshop
13/2/06 13:07:56
 Step-by-step
Workshop

LOSING FOCUS
Attempting to create the effect of narrow depth of field was a difficult task until
Adobe introduced its new Lens Blur filter into Photoshop’s arsenal of effects
BY JASON ARBER

ON THE DISC
You’ll find lots of stock photos on
the disc to practise your depth of
field technique on, including
‘truskawki.tif’.
OUR EXPERT Jason Arber
Jason is the co-founder and Editor-in-Chief of online art and
culture magazine Pixelsurgeon (www.pixelsurgeon.com).
He’s also an Art Director at Start Creative in London.
I
f you’ve ever tried to create the illusion of
narrow depth of field in a photograph
that was uniformly sharp, you’ll know it’s
not as easy as it sounds. Creating a graduated
blur that gradually moved from sharp to out
of focus typically used to involve complex
layers and masks, and the results were
variable at best.
The problem was that the best blurring option
Photoshop used to offer was Gaussian – but this
doesn’t work as a camera’s lens and optics, which
blur out-of-focus elements in a certain way. (See
Lens Blur vs Gaussian Blur boxout.)
With the introduction of Photoshop CS, Adobe
included a tool which is a photographer and
digital artist’s dream: the Lens Filter. But packing
this filter with a mind-boggling array of options
can make it seem a bit overwhelming. It works
best when you create a mask for the image
detailing the areas you’d like to keep in focus and
those you’d like to blur.
Initially you don’t need to worry about the
professional features such as Iris Shape or Blade
Curvature, although they are fun to play with.
Simply create a mask, set the Blur Focal Distance
and the amount of blur, and away you go.

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Lens vs Gaussian Blur
1 See sharp
Open up the image ‘truskawki.tif’ in
Photoshop CS2. Aside from a small amount of Gaussian Blur is fine for most kinds of blurring, but its smooth
blur distribution doesn’t reflect how the world is seen through a
blurring in the top and bottom left, most of the
camera lens. The new Lens Blur filter, on the other hand, has
strawberries are still quite sharp. The plan is to
been built from the ground up to emulate camera optics,
create a plane of focus that concentrates on the including specular highlights and a more natural looking kind of
central strawberry. focus bloom that increases as objects become more blurred.
Because it’s aimed at pro photographers and retouchers, the
Lens Blur filter includes useful features such as Noise
replacement for out-of-focus areas that emulates film grain or
digital camera noise still existing in the sharp areas of the image.

4 It’s all a blur

With the Depth Mask channel deselected,
open up the Lens Blur filter (Filter>Blur>Lens
Blur). The large, friendly interface has a number
of options, including a generous preview area
which may have applied a default blur to the
image already.

2 New channel
Create a new channel in the Channels
palette by clicking the Create New Channel 6 Soften the focus
Fine-tune the results by increasing the
button at the bottom of the palette. Double-click Radius to 50 in the Iris section. This increases the
on the new channel, rename the channel Depth amount of blur in the out-of-focus areas. In the
Mask and change the default colour to something Specular Highlights section change the Brightness
other than red. to 2, which subtly blows out the highlights in the
blurred areas. Finally, click OK.

5 Sink to new depths

In the Depth Map section, select the Depth
Mask as the source from the drop-down menu of
options, and set the Blur Focal Distance to the
halfway point to represent the 50% black.
Immediately the preview should update to reflect
the mask.

3 Create the mask

With all the channels selected, fill the Depth
Mask channel with 50% grey, which will represent 7 Finishing touches
The filter can take a while to apply its
the area of 100% sharpness. Black will be out of calculations to the whole image. Once done
focus behind the plane of sharpness, and white check the results, which may vary slightly from the
will be out of focus in front. Using a combination preview if the Faster option was selected. Undo
of large soft brushes and small soft brushes, paint the results if you’re not happy with them and
in the areas you want to be in and out of focus. reapply the filter, tweaking the settings. Once
you’re happy, apply the Smart Sharpen filter
(Filter>Sharpen>Smart Sharpen) to make the in-
focus areas really sharp. 5

“THE NEW LENS BLUR

FILTER HAS BEEN BUILT
FROM THE GROUND UP TO
EMULATE CAMERA OPTICS”
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 Step-by-step
Workshop

CASTING SHADOWS
Discover how the characteristics of a light source and the contours and texture of
an object’s surface impact on the casting of virtual shadows

G
ood shadows can bring a complex
composition to life, but making
them look realistic is tricky if your
project features lots of objects or layers. So
many amateur composites fail because the
creator lacks the experience to create
shadows suitable for the scene in hand.
Shadows generated by single, harsh lights are
strong and sharp, for example, while those
created by more uniform lighting are softer and
more diffuse. For external scenes, consider the
time of day – shadows are shorter at dawn/dusk
than at midday. Then there’s the nature of the
surfaces on which the shadows fall. Here, we’ll
use techniques to produce realistic-looking
shadows for different lighting conditions.

ON THE DISC
You’ll find all three .psd files to
accompany this tutorial
(cartoon001, cartoon002 and
cartoon003) on Disc A.

OUR EXPERT Christian Darkin

Christian is a freelance illustrator and journalist who has
produced images for a range of high-profile newspapers and
magazines, including The Sun, the Financial Times, Now and
scientific journal Nature, as well as a mix of advertising
agencies, websites and museums. He’s also the man behind
the Darwin plug-in for 3ds max. For further examples of his
ME AND MY SHADOW
work, visit www.darkin.demon.co.uk. “Shadows generated by single, harsh lights
are strong and sharp, while those from more
uniform lighting are softer and more diffuse”
Basic shading

1 Create a new layer

This shadow is going to be soft and
formless – more a sketched shading than
anything else. It’s the kind of shadow you’d find on
a dull day and is simply there to relate the object
to its surroundings. Right now, for instance, the
sphere could be touching the ground or floating
above it. There’s no way of telling. Create a new
layer between the ground and the sphere layers
2 Set up the brush
Select a large, soft brush and set its Opacity
to about 40 per cent. Set Mode to Darken to
ensure it shades in (but doesn’t entirely obliterate)
the colour beneath. Begin painting in black using
simple strokes, following the profile of the
underside of the sphere.
3 Paint in the shadow
Extend the shadow slowly outwards with
successive clicks of the mouse. Photoshop
interprets each click as a new paint stroke, which
adds to the Opacity of the shadow. This is why it’s
important to paint the first strokes closest to the
object, as subsequent strokes will darken the first.
Tidy up the shadow with a soft Eraser and then
fine-tune Opacity with the Layer Opacity control.

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Hard shadows Soft shadows
3
Shadow
Darken the object shapes
Reduce the Brightness/Contrast of the Using a duplicated
layer as a shadow

1 1
shadow to zero to create this hard, black shape.
doesn’t work all the
Copy your layer Feel free to use the Eraser tool or a brush to refine time. Beyond a Create a shadow
Here, we want to produce the effect of a the shape a little more naturally. certain point (if the Even on the brightest day, shadows are
shadow is cast at an
strong single light, like bright sunshine. The shadow rarely solid blocks of colour, and they blur and
extreme angle, for
will be sharp and a similar shape to the object instance), you’ll fade with distance. To recreate this effect, start off
casting the shadow. Copy the object’s layer and have to draw or edit with a sharp shadow (as created on the left).
the outline by hand
place it between the object and its background or the result will
look unnatural. As
always, trust your
artistic instincts. If it
doesn’t look right,
it’s time to get your
hands dirty.

4 Place it
You can now place the shadow and, if

2
necessary, distort it a little further to fit perfectly

2
Distort the layer
Distort the layer using the Free Transform tool
(Edit>Transform). This isn’t a perfect solution,
because, in reality, depending on the direction of the
light, the shadow can have an entirely different
profile to that of the object, but without a 3D model
this is as close as we can get.
with the object that’s casting it. Reducing the Add a blur
Opacity a little will allow for the effects of Now add a Gaussian Blur to diffuse the
bounced and filler lights in your scene. shadow at its edges. Doing this often creates an
unwanted shadow around the bottom of the
object on its lit side, because the Blur tends to
spread the shadow out. You’ll need to tidy this up
with an Eraser.

3 Fade the edges

DARK-LsoEftK
Dab a much larger and very soft Eraser
around the furthest points of the shadow to
suggest that the shadow is dissipating with
Exterminate give your distance. The degree of fading will depend on the
shadows and ng, hard strength of the light in your scene
Dalek the stromands
shadow it de

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 Step-by-step
Workshop
Distorted
4
wider at the furthest distance from the subject.
Adjust the Opacity Such distortion can become quite pronounced in
shadows Each shadow section is now on a separate
layer, so you can easily adjust the Opacity settings
long shadows.

to make the shadow strongest where it’s closest

1
to the light source (and, of course, progressively
Create a sharp shadow weaker the further away from the light you go).
Here, our shadow is cast on an uneven
surface. The steps will break the shadow up suddenly,
while the undulating ground beneath will simply
distort it. Begin, as always, with a sharp shadow.

3 Shorten the shadow

For a midday shadow, distortion is minimal.
The sun overhead casts its shade straight down
and reduces the shadow to a blob around the
feet. For relatively short shadows, simply compress
the image vertically. It’s best to do this distortion

Late and early before you rotate and place the shadow in its
proper place, though. In this way, you can judge

shadows
2
the length against the height of the object casting
Cut and Paste the shadow.
Using the Polygonal Lasso, slice the shadow

along the edges of the steps, cutting and pasting,
as shown – simply drag each section downwards
vertically until it meets the next step. With a
different configuration of steps, we’d have had to
fill in the shadow on the upright sections as well.
1
Create a shadow
To produce a more sophisticated shadow,
and adjust it for different times of day, again, start
by copying the layer and eliminating Brightness
and Contrast. This time, we’ll use a different kind of
Blur to produce a more realistic dissipating shadow.

4 Create a gradient
Create a new layer and use the Gradient
tool to produce a gradient from black to white
over the length of the shadow. Select and cut the
gradient out, then, switching to the Channels

3
palette for the shadow layer, produce a new
Use Liquify on curved surfaces channel and paste the gradient into it. Meanwhile,
Distorting the shadow on the bumpy ground fill in the background of the shadow layer with

requires a different technique – enter, stage right, the
Liquify tool. Follow the contours of the ground, but
don’t worry too much about being exact. If the
correct distortion isn’t obvious to you, then the
casual viewer is unlikely to notice any ‘errors’.
2
white and set it to Darken mode..
Stretch and squeeze
To produce a dawn or evening shadow, use
Free Transform to pull it out to an appropriate
length. This will depend on how low the sun is in
the sky. Now apply a Distort to make the shadow

Subtlety
Most shadows in the real world are quite subtle. In most lighting
conditions, there’s so much light bouncing around, that perfectly
sharp, solid areas of shadow are rare. The shadows we’re creating
are mainly there to convince viewers that the objects inserted

5
are part of the original shot, or at least to give them a solid
place within the shot. There’s really no need to make them Add Camera Blur
too powerful. Now to add a Camera Blur filter. Camera
Blurs are designed to create an accurate depth-of-

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field effect using a matte to define the depth of
objects in a shot. The upshot is that by producing
a simple gradient, and switching the Camera Blur
to use that alpha channel as its source, we can
produce a blur that grows uniformly stronger over
the length of the shadow.
Multiple shadows
With multiple light sources, you’ll need to generate more than
one shadow, of course, but bear in mind that each one will need
to be a different shape – and Opacity settings will be affected by
neighbouring light sources. This kind of shading is most often
used when representing an object under artificial lights, such as
stage spotlights or stadium floodlights.
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6
Fade along the gradient
Using a large Eraser as before, you can fade
the shadow slowly over its length to produce a
very lifelike effect. It’s possible to use the same
gradient that we used in step 5 to produce the
fade, but the results aren’t generally as good as
with an Eraser. Since smaller objects (such as the
figure’s hand) will become fainter more quickly,
a freehand approach provides a more
controllable look

“USE THE
LEVELS
FILTER TO
MAKE
SHADOWS
SHARPER OR
SOFTER”
STEP-BY-STEP
Different surfaces have a range
of effects on shadows. Here,
7 Add a highlight
Depending on the time of day and strength
of the light, the shading of the object itself will
the steps break up the shadow change. Of course, you can’t switch the shadow
from one side of a face to the other very easily, but
you can use tools like the Levels filter to make
shadows sharper or softer, depending on the mood
of your image. Occasionally, painting in artificial
highlights can work, but if you’re not careful, the
result can look unrealistic.

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 You’ll stand a better chance of seeing your work in print if you adhere to the
following criteria: make sure that your images are high-quality TIFFs or JPEGs (RGB
or CMYK), 300dpi minimum, and can be printed at 15cm x 15cm minimum. Don’t
forget to include a small text file detailing how you created your work, too.

Eye-catching imagery that Kitty Koozie

both inspires and challenges and Times
Square
P Aftermath
ictures may tell a thousand words, but sometimes you need a
thousand words just to get to the bottom of a picture. Here we
look at strange and interesting images created by readers and ARTIST: Meowza
artists and we find out how they were executed and the problems EMAIL: meowza@gmail.com
encountered along the way. SOURCES: www.sxc.hu, Times Square image
by Rose Forschen (used with permission)
All the images featured in Peer Pressure demonstrate a diverse range of
techniques that you’ll find useful in your own work. Like what you see? Then
The faintly disturbing Kitty Koozie
contact the artist directly – or read the accompanying rubric, which details proved a great testbed for Meowza’s
how the image was created. hair and fur techniques – particularly
If you’d like to see your own work on these pages, please send the furry edges of the cat’s head: “I did
us JPEGs at advancedpshop@imagine-publishing.co.uk and we’ll get back to this simply by taking a one-pixel brush
you if we want to print them. and ‘painting’ in some rough fur around
the figure,” he says. “I then used the
Smudge tool, set at 50-60 per cent
pressure, to ‘pull’ the tips of the fur to
create a more natural, flowing look.”
Wooden Shoe After that it was a case of finding an
object to insert into the hollowed-out
NAME: Juthathip Tybon feline… “I played around with a number
EMAIL: jeab_qld@yahoo.com.au of objects, including a cat wearing a
SOURCE: Original photography by Ernest von Rosen cat-suit and a mouse in cat’s clothing,
but ultimately went with the beer-can.”
After preparing the ‘raw materials’ – generating the best The scene of devastation seen in
black-and-white image by selecting the optimum Colour Times Square Aftermath goes to show
Channel, then duplicating the selection into a new just how powerful Photoshop can be
image – Juthathip applied a Gaussian Blur to in the right hands – and enabled
eliminate sharp edges. She then saved this as Meowza to practise his flame and
a new .psd file, to be used as a Displacement smoke effects. “Starting with a and pressure-settings, to draw in and
Map later on. “Now it was simply a matter of strong, clean image is the most blend the edges of the smoke. “I used
manipulating the image using two layers, important step,” he says. “There are the same technique with the fire.”
created from the original shoe shot and a million ways to create fire and And the collapsing signs? “A simple
the wooden texture,” she explains. “After smoke, as any Photoshopper can tell cut-and-paste job,” says Meowza. “I
selecting the layer with the wooden you. My approach was to find strong added Motion Blur to some of the
texture, I applied the Displacement source images of fire, explosions and debris to suggest movement and
filter, using the .psd file. After smoke to reduce the amount of violent force.” He also used images
placing the texture over the shoe, I drawing-in work I’d have to do.” of damaged buildings and rubble
applied a Layer Mask to cut out He set about pasting these source to replace those in the background,
the unwanted regions of the images into his original image, using adding a slight hint of ‘scalding’ with
wooden texture layer.” the Smudge tool set at various widths the help of the Burn tool.

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Security Beetle
ARTIST: Brant Vondruska
EMAIL: bvondruska@charter.net

After collating his source imagery – a beetle, a key, a rusty

metal plate and a chain and lock – Brant set about isolating
each item from its background, using the Pen tool for extra
precision. “It’s a time-consuming process,” he admits, “but
you can’t beat the results – and here it helped me to achieve
the rusty look I was aiming for.”
For each layer (lock and chain, main beetle body and
hindquarters), Brant created a mask, then blended the
pieces together using a 200-pixel feathered brush. “I used
Levels to bring down the contrast of all three elements by
30 per cent,” he adds. “This helped to retain detail, yet
introduce the rusty look I wanted.”
And the rusty look itself? Turns out he used the same
process for all the elements in the composition, from the
beetle’s body right down to the lock and key. “I created a
new layer underneath the subject, into which I placed the
rusty metal plate. Afterwards, I created a selection – Alt-
clicking the Edit icon on the Layers menu – of the main
subject.” Then it was a case of selecting the metal plate layer,
inverting it and hitting Delete. “This erases all of the metal
plate except the selection in question,” he explains. “Now,
underneath, I have the exact shape of the insect/lock and
key in the form of the rusty metal plate.” Back on the subject
XBot and Pen tool, and used real shots of fire for
the foreground flames. But integrating
layer, Brant selects Blending Mode>Luminosity and reduces
Opacity to 15 per cent. This brings the rust effect to the fore
NGCBot the bot’s hands with the Windows
Media Player skins on the figure’s
without sacrificing any detail in the newly formed creature.
NAME: Wai Mann
armature proved difficult: “I had to
CONTACT: wman@fullcontrast.com
manipulate several skins to get the
angle of the arm,” he says. “I spent ages
These two mecha designs, created
trying to create a smoke/fire effect on
entirely in Photoshop (bar the right
the samurai sword, too. Using the same
hand of the NGCBot, below-right,
flame images for most part of the
created using 3ds max), prove just how
sword, I had to Blur and Smudge green
adept Adobe’s 2D app is at generating
flames to get the effect I wanted.” A red
3D effects. Each bot was assembled
layer helps to suggest that the blade is
from a basic image of its respective
smouldering… For the background, Wai
console (NGC GameCube and Xbox),
used simple green light layers, Blurred
before being edited into shape.
and Motion Blurred several times. “I
With the NGCBot, the flame effects
manually added the highlights under
proved particularly troublesome. “I
the bot’s legs using a green highlight
spent a long time manipulating them,
layer, masked to blend with the bot.”
and they still didn’t look like they
emanated from the robot in the correct
way,” he says. “But after some proper
research, I found a few images that
worked really well.”
It was all a matter of resizing and
carefully masking out the areas that
weren’t required; the dark backdrop
helped immensely. “Using the Screen
filter enabled me to place the flames
in the correct parts without having to
mask unwanted black areas,” he says.
The electricity was added as a final
flourish – and to fill out the left arm a
little. “I lifted this from another piece of
my work. I altered the colours and
screen-filtered the background out.”
Attaching real human fists helped the
Xbot (above) look more ‘realistic’,
reckons Wai: “It makes it feel slightly
more organic.” He created the head
entirely from shapes cut out using the

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 Discover the thinking behind the art

Gargoyle
ARTIST: Den Cops
EMAIL: den@kyzer.co.uk, www.kyzer.co.uk

The idea here was to create a living gargoyle; the source

image simply showed a face with a cracking mud mask. “Bits
of skin were still visible – the area around the eyes, the lips
and ears – which I had to cover, using mostly the Clone Stamp
and Patch tools.” Den then placed a Hue/Saturation layer mask
over the top to homogenise the colour scheme. “Out of this
Hue/Saturation layer, I masked the mouth and the eyes to retain
original flesh tones, and brightened the eyes a little.” The
Liquify>Forward Warp tool helped with the fangs, but he had to
be careful. “First, I had to copy-merge the mouth on a different
layer, mainly because, when using Forward Warp on the teeth,
the surrounding area – the other teeth and the back of the
mouth – were dragged along with it and unpleasant banding
appeared.” After applying the filter, Den could more easily
mask out the unwanted liquified areas.

Blue Car
ARTIST: Den Cops
EMAIL: den@kyzer.co.uk, www.kyzer.co.uk

“You don’t need a multitude of layers and effects to create a

good image,” argues Den. “All I did here was cut out the car
and boost colour by increasing contrast and colour saturation.”
The background is a photo of the sunrise taken from the window
of an airplane. Den altered the colours via a Hue/Saturation layer
so it would better match the tones of the car. “The two images
had different levels of noise, too, so I had to blur the background
slightly and then add noise, so that the transition between car
and sky appeared seamless.”

Downunder
ARTIST: Den Cops
Email: den@kyzer.co.uk, www.kyzer.co.uk

“Here, I had to deal with the areas around the eyes and
anywhere not covered in black makeup,” explains Den. In Hue/
Saturation, he desaturated the flesh tones and then retouched
the face with a little airbrushing to matte the skin. “The filaments
effect is a photograph of ink drops in water,” he adds. “Once
placed, the two elements had to be colour-adjusted to blend in
with each other. I painted the tear on afterwards.”

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Egg Boat and
Elastic iMac
ARTIST: Marcel Wiegers (Fris Design)
EMAIL: mrzl74@gmail.com, www.fris-design.nl

For artist Marcel, simply compositing broken

egg-shells into this water scene would’ve failed
to evoke the right impression. “I had to bring
several broken shells together to get the right
shape,” he explains, “using the Blur tool to make
the inside of the shell look slightly out of focus,
and airbrushing the front of the egg back
together again from the broken original.”
Shadows deftly applied to the egg-boat’s
underside add to the illusion. “I did some colour
correction, adding shadows with the airbrush
and Burn tool. I also duplicated the egg layer,
darkened it with Levels, then masked it with
the airbrush to provide deeper areas of shade
( A - C ).” Once he’d located a suitable pilot (a
work colleague), he slipped him in, tweaking
colours and adding shadows en route.
Advanced Photoshop came to his aid with the
reflections: “I used the techniques printed in
issue two,” says Marcel. “They worked a treat.”
“I made sure the two pictures were shot
under the same conditions,” says the
Amsterdam-based designer, referring to the two
elements in his other startling montage: Elastic
iMac. “I crudely masked out my arm ( D ), then
copied the screen to a separate layer and used
the Liquify and Smudge tools to ‘flex’ the
display, as if my fist was going through it. I
darkened parts of it much as I did with the Egg
Boat ( E and F ).” Creating the effect at the rear
A B C
of the display was quite challenging, he says. “I
took the fist onto a separate layer, and, with a
little colour correction, turned it white. For the
screen, I created a shape using the Pen tool,
which I then airbrushed in ( G ).” To finish off the
effect, Marcel duplicated the arm/fist and used
Filter>Artistic>Plastic Wrap. He then set the Layer
Blending mode to Multiply, reduced Opacity
and implemented a few colour corrections.
D E

F G

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 Helpdesk
Our resident imaging uncle deals with a host of Photoshop dilemmas, from
cropping conundrums, through to handy key commands and Easter eggs
BY KARL FOSTER

CROPPING CAPER
I take a few digital photos and enhance them
in Photoshop. What puzzles me is cropping
them correctly for print. I have a couple of
photo printers, one for 6x4s and one that
prints at A4, but I find it a hassle getting
cropped images to match the aspect ratio of
the stock. It’s usually a case of making my
best guess, then trimming the image to size
using the Canvas Size dialog, which is time-
consuming. Have you any advice on making
accurate crops more efficiently?
James Hanson, Macclesfield

There is a quick and easy means of forcing the Crop tool to

maintain a fixed aspect ratio as you drag it across an image,
and it’s also possible to set the print resolution as you go –
typically to a value of 300dpi. Open the image you wish to
print at, say, 6x4, access the Crop tool and click on the icon Go to the Histogram
that appears at the top left of Photoshop’s interface. You’ll find palette’s Expanded
a drop-down list of cropping presets, at the top of which is view to access the
option to define
6x4 at 300dpi. This’ll force the Crop tool to match the aspect which layers are
ratio of the paper as you drag. You can also create custom included in the
presets should you ever need to print on other paper sizes. histogram display

PHOTO COMPOSITES HISTOGRAM HELP

Use the Crop tool’s presets to ensure the crop will match
the aspect ratio of the paper on which you intend to print
Having seen some excellent examples of
composite photos on the Internet, I thought
I’d give it a go myself. Results have been
poor, however. I’m fairly proficient at cutting
out, usually with a vector path, but when an
item is placed against a background, it looks
stuck-on. I’ve tried burning in shadow, but it
still doesn’t sit well. Have you any tips to make
composite photos look more realistic?
Helen Harris, Cardiff
Adding shade is a good ploy, but also ensure the lighting and
tonality of the new element matches the background. Choose
elements with the same direction and temperature of light
as the background. You can marry them up further by going
to Image>Adjustments>Match Color. Set the background as
the source, then use the Color Options sliders to match the
colour characteristics of the cut-out with the background.
I create a lot of multi-layered documents in
Photoshop and rely on the Histogram palette
to ensure the tonal range of each document
is fully optimised. But are the values shown by
the histogram applicable to every layer in the
image? It would help to be able to switch
between the two so I can check each layer
individually and the composition as a whole.
Graham Brown, Brighton
Presumably, you’ve got the palette set to the Compact view. If
you click on the icon at top right and scroll to Expanded View
in the fly-out menu, you can set up the layers to be included.
Entire Image includes all layers, whereas Selected Layer just
shows a histogram of whichever layer is active in the Layers
palette. The bottom entry, Adjustment Composite, kicks in
when you’re using adjustment layers. Select such a layer and
you’ll see its histogram, plus other adjustment layers below.

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SNAPZ PROBLEM
In my work, I have to take a lot of screengrabs
of Photoshop, but I find that it keeps locking
up and my copy of Snapz Pro bombs out,
which means force-quitting Photoshop or
rebooting entirely. Is there a stability issue
with this software combination? I’m running
CS2 on a Mac G5 with OS X 10.4.3. It only
seems to have started happening since I
upgraded the Mac.
Adam Farmer, Nottingham
You don’t mention which version of Snapz Pro you’re using,
but it would be very much worth your while to visit the
publisher’s website (www.ambrosiasw.com/utilities/
snapzprox) and download the latest version, which is 2.0.2.
It’s a free upgrade to users of Snapz Pro X 2 and is optimised
for use with Mac OS X Tiger. Both stills and video capture
versions have been updated and, from our tests, they appear
to work fine with Photoshop CS2.
TOOL TIPS
I frequently use keyboard commands to
access various Photoshop facilities, but find
the Toolbox a bit of a bother. Many of the
Toolbox icons have fly-out menus offering a
list of tools, all of which are accessible with
the same keypress. So if the tool I’m after isn’t
already showing in the box, I have to resort to
using the menus. Is there any way of getting
around this?
Peter Walker, London
Yes there is, and you can use your beloved keypresses to do it.
Hold down Shift and press the appropriate letter key. You’ll
find that with each keypress, the tool selection will cycle
through the menu. Unfortunately, this doesn’t work for the
anchor point conversion tools in the Pen tool menu, but you
probably already know the key commands for converting the
Pen in the work area.
You can cycle between the Pen and Freeform Pen tools by
holding down Shift and pressing P
082-083_APM04_Helpd.indd 83
Create fake italic text with any font on the system via the Character palette’s fly-out menu
FAUX FUN
I read one of your magazine’s tips about
creating outline text from any font and
wondered if you could help me with another
typographical conundrum. Many of the fonts
in my copy of Photoshop CS don’t show up
as having italic versions, which is a bit of a
problem for me. Should I rasterize the text
and distort it to create a fake italic effect, or is
there a better way of doing this?
Andrew Majors, Bristol
There is a way of creating bold and italic type from fonts that
lack italic versions, although it’s not immediately apparent.
Create some text with the font you plan to use and bring up
the Character palette from the Window menu, if it’s not
already open. Select the text for italicising and click at the top
right of the palette. You’ll see an entry labelled Faux Italic in
the fly-out menu. Select it and see your text lean over.
MULTIPLE PROCESSORS
I have a copy of Photoshop that I use at
home and would like to install it on a
machine at work. But I don’t want to fall foul of
the systems department by running an illegal
copy. Is it permissible to have the software
installed on more than one machine, or will I
get busted by the software police? It’s a copy
of CS2 for Macintosh, by the way.
Steve Kane, London
If you take a close look at the end-user licence agreement, a
copy of which is in the application folder on the computer’s
hard drive, you will indeed find that such usage is permissible.
es
n iqu
ch
Te
Provided, however, you only install it on two machines and
don’t use it on both at the same time. You can, of course,
install Photoshop CS2 on many machines, but you’ll only be
able to activate it on two at once. So, as long as you’re not
using the software at home and at work simultaneously,
you’re fine. Best to give systems a copy of the licence
agreement, though.
MERLIN, BEGONE!
When I press the Alt key in Photoshop and
go to Palette Options in the Layers palette, a
little graphic of a wizard pops up with the
heading Merlin Lives. Underneath is a button
labelled Begone which, when clicked,
makes him disappear. What’s that about?
Sarah Matterson, Bournemouth
That’ll be an Easter egg. There are various ones in different
versions of Photoshop and they’re fun to find. The Photoshop
programmers put them in for amusement.
HELPDESK
CALL FOR QUESTIONS
Want help with your Photoshop problems?
Then let our team of experts sort you out.
Send your emails to us at:
advancedpshop@imagine-publishing.co.uk
Remember to specify whether you are
using a PC or Mac and the version number
of your edition of Photoshop.
83
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 Insider INSIDER
Info INFO
The power of Here, there, everywhere
Camera Raw 3 With the release of Adobe Bridge, Camera Raw has become a shared plug-in
that can be hosted by both Bridge and Photoshop. This presents a number of
workflow advantages, including the ability to:

Whether you’re a professional photographer • process and save Raw files without ever having to load Photoshop
or an aspiring amateur, Camera Raw 3 is one • execute a batch-process in Photoshop, while editing your Raw files in Bridge
• open two Camera Raw dialogs at the same time (one in Photoshop as
of the single best reasons to upgrade to well as one in Bridge)
Photoshop CS2

S Straight from the source

ince its initial release as a plug-in for Photoshop 7, Adobe Camera Raw has
been a revolutionary tool for processing digital Raw photos. With the
release of version 3, Adobe raises the bar even higher.
Arguably the single biggest improvement to Adobe Camera Raw is the ability to For all the latest news regarding Camera Raw, including a complete list of
process multiple Raw files simultaneously. Now when two or more Raw files are supported camera models, visit the official Adobe Camera Raw website at
www.adobe.com/products/photoshop/cameraraw.html.
opened, they’re displayed as thumbnails down the left-hand side of the Camera Raw
dialog. With multiple files selected, any edits you make – even panning and zooming –
are applied simultaneously to each photo in the selection. Selecting files in the include the RGB readout for the current that simultaneously straightens and
Thumbnails panel is analogous to selecting them in Bridge or Finder/Explorer. Simply cursor position. crops the image based on a reference line
use the Shift key for contiguous and Cmd/Ctrl for non-contiguous selections. You can Another great addition is the Crop tool that you draw (eg, along a horizon, the
even rank and label select files inside the Camera Raw dialog. (C) B , which enables you to perform edge of a building, etc). Images are
non-destructive crops (stored as XMP cropped to the maximum size available
ON THE DISC Slew of new tools metadata for the associated Raw files). based on the original image dimensions,
You’ll find all the files you need to complete this While the layout of the interface hasn’t The Crop button contains a drop-down or the Crop tool’s currently selected
tutorial (BackgroundRight.psd, BackgroundLeft.psd, changed significantly since version 2, the (or Context) menu with common aspect aspect ratio. Note that if a crop already
Banner.psd, FooterBackground.psd, Tabs.psd,
tools, Preview option and RGB readouts ratios, as well as a Clear command. You exists, it will simply be rotated to match
TabsBackground.psd and WebInterface.psd, as well
as an Optimized_Output folder, featuring all the have all migrated to the top of the dialog can also clear the crop by pressing Esc or the reference line.
graphic elements used for this tutorial) on Disc A. to make room for the new Thumbnail by clicking on the grey background of the To the right of the Preview are the new
panel. You’ll also notice several new tools image Preview area. As in Photoshop, you Shadows (press U – for ‘Underexposed’)
OUR EXPERT Trevor Morris to the right of the White Balance tool. can drag the crop boundary to reposition and Highlights (press O – for
Trevor Morris is an official Photoshop beta tester The Color Sampler (S) A works just like it, resize it using the corner nodes and ‘Overexposed’) clipping warning
and amateur digital photographer with more than a
dozen years’ design experience. He works as a the Color Sampler tool inside Photoshop, rotate it by dragging anywhere outside checkboxes. Previously, these two
Senior Graphic Designer for a Canadian web design but instead of only four samplers, Camera the crop boundary. options were only available by holding
company and also maintains the Photoshop-centric
Raw actually enables you to monitor up Closely related to the Crop tool is the down the Opt/Alt key while dragging the
website GFX™ (http://user.fundy.net/morris/).
to nine regions at a time – ten if you Straighten tool (A) C , a real time-saver Exposure and Shadows sliders (which still
works, if you prefer it to the checkboxes).
B
An interesting addition to Camera Raw 3
is the Auto Adjustments feature (Cmd/
A C Ctrl+T). When this feature is enabled, as it
is by default, a fairly sophisticated
algorithm attempts to establish the best
settings for each image (correcting for
both tone and exposure).
Also new is the Curve tab (Cmd/
Ctrl+Opt/Alt+4), which enables you to
fine-tune the tonality of the selected
image(s). If you’re familiar with the Curves
command/dialog in Photoshop, you’ll
feel right at home here. One notable
exception is that you must hold down the
Cmd/Ctrl key when moving the cursor
over an image to see the corresponding
pixels on the curve.
Finally, the new Save button enables
you to save the selected image(s) as a
DNG, TIFF, JPEG or PSD directly from the
Camera Raw dialog without having to
involve Photoshop – another huge time-
THE INTERFACE: New tools and features ensure that Adobe Camera Raw 3 is now faster and more efficient than ever. saver when processing multiple Raw files.

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084_APM04_ii_cameraraw.indd 84 13/2/06 16:06:44


S
Scripting
Photoshop
Whether it’s automating tedious tasks,
customising commands or adding features,
scripting makes almost anything possible
OUR EXPERT Trevor Morris
Trevor Morris is an official Photoshop beta tester
and amateur digital photographer with more than
a dozen years’ design experience. He works as a
Senior Graphic Designer for a Canadian web
design company and also maintains the
Photoshop-centric website GFX™ (http://user.
fundy.net/morris/).
T
he ability to script Photoshop
debuted in version seven as a
plug-in that could be
downloaded from Adobe’s website.
From version eight (CS), the
scripting plug-in was installed by
default. Today, in version nine (CS2),
scripting the back-end of Photoshop
is more accessible and powerful
than ever. But despite this, few
people take advantage of it – and
many people don’t even know that
Photoshop can be scripted.
The scripting advantage
So what’s so great about scripting and
what can it do that can’t be done via
traditional actions? Quite a lot. While
actions (including batches and droplets)
are powerful and flexible, they have
many limitations that scripts don’t have.
Consider something as simple as
toggling the visibility of the current layer.
You could record an action to turn the
visibility on or off, but not both. The
problem is that actions aren’t capable of
decision-making, or ‘conditional logic’.
In addition, actions can only execute
commands within the host application,
whereas scripts can execute commands
involving multiple CS2 applications. For
example, you could write a single script
that initiated a procedure in Illustrator
CS2 and then forwarded the results to
Photoshop CS2 for completion.
“SCRIPTS CAN EXECUTE
COMMANDS INVOLVING
MULTIPLE CS2 APPS”
085 _APM04_ii_scripting.indd 85
INSIDER
INFO
Installing scripts
Installing scripts is much the same as
installing any other preset. First, copy the
script into the Presets/Scripts subfolder:
Mac: <hard drive>/Applications/
Adobe Photoshop CS2/Presets/Scripts/
PC: C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe
Photoshop CS2\Presets\Scripts\
After you quit and restart Photoshop,
the scripts will appear in the File>Scripts
submenu (in alphabetical order).
Running scripts
To run a script, choose it from the File>
Scripts submenu, or choose File>Scripts>
Browse to locate and run scripts that
don’t appear in the Scripts menu. You can
also run scripts (or actions) automatically
based on an event, eg on startup, opening
a document or creating a new document.
To define an event-based script, go to
File>Scripts>Script Events Manager. Turn
on the ‘Enable Events To Run Scripts/
Actions’ checkbox, and pick an event in
the Photoshop Event drop-down. Select
Script, and pick the desired script in the
drop-down (or choose Browse at the
bottom). Press Add to add the event to
the Event List. Finally, hit Done to apply
all changes and enable the event.
To remove an event, select it in the
Event List and press Remove; hit Remove
All to remove all events from the Event
List. To disable events without removing
them, turn off ‘Enable Events To Run
Scripts/Actions’. Press Done to apply.
Learn by example
For a better understanding of scripting,
check out the many resources installed
by default in the following locations:
Mac: <hard drive>/Applications/
Adobe Photoshop CS2/Scripting Guide/
es
iqu
n
ch
Te
The Manager Keep current
The Script Events Manager (File>
Scripts>Script Events Manager)
allows you to configure scripts (or
actions) to run automatically based
The latest versions
of the Scripting and
Reference Guides
are available from
on certain events, for example on Adobe’s website at
startup, opening a document, the following
creating a new document, and so on. location:
Adobe Photoshop Scripting
Documentation
http://partners.adobe.com/public/
developer/photoshop/sdk/index_
PC: C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe scripting.html
Photoshop CS2\Scripting Guide\ You can also purchase a printed
Photoshop Scripting Guide – intro to version of the Photoshop Scripting
scripting Photoshop CS2 (with examples) Guide from amazon.com:
AppleScript Reference Guide – Adobe Photoshop CS2 Official
AppleScript companion to the JavaScript Reference
http://tinyurl.com/dqj6t
Photoshop Scripting Guide
JavaScript Reference Guide –
JavaScript companion to the Photoshop
Scripting Guide
VisualBasic Reference Guide –
VisualBasic companion to the Photoshop
Scripting Guide
Samples Scripts folder – sample scripts
written in AppleScript, JavaScript and
VBScript; see ‘Sample Scripts Description.
pdf’ for descriptions of each script
Utilities folder – the ScriptListener
plug-in. (For more information on the
ScriptListener plug-in, see Chapter 3 of
the JavaScript Reference Guide or
VBScript Reference Guide.)
Why JavaScript?
Although you can write Photoshop scripts using JavaScript, AppleScript or
VisualBasic, JavaScript has two advantages: it’s platform- independent (ie works
on both Mac and PC), and many web designers are already familiar with it.
Additional resources
Below is a selection online resources dedicated to sharing scripts and
information about scripting:
/ Adobe Photoshop Scripting Forum http://tinyurl.com/afncy
/ Adobe Studio Exchange – Photoshop Scripts
http://share.studio.adobe.com/axBrowseSubmit.asp?t=74
/ Working With Photoshop Scripts (PhotoshopSupport.com)
www.photoshopsupport.com/tutorials/jennifer/photoshop-scripts.html
/ Photoshop Scripting using JavaScript (Tranberry.com)
www.tranberry.com/photoshop/photoshop_scripting/index.html
/ Scripts for Photoshop CS and Photoshop CS2 (Trevor Morris)
http://user.fundy.net/morris/?photoshop28.shtml
/ Photoshop Scripting Community Forum (PS-Scripts)
www.ps-scripts.com/bb/
/ Photoshop CS Scripting (Andrew Hall)
http://ah-photo.com/photoshop-scripts/index.html
/ CS User Interface Builder 1.0 (WYSIWYG GUI builder for Photoshop/Bridge)
www.jkozniewski.com/tools/csuib.html
(CSUIB 2.0 alpha: www.jkozniewski.com/tools/CSUIB_2.0a.zip)
85
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 books
Erotique Digitale: The Art Of Erotic Digital Photography 088
Focal Easy Guide To Photoshop CS2, The 088
How To Cheat In Photoshop 088
Photoshop Masking & Compositing 088
Pixel Surgeons: Extreme Manipulation… 088
Photoshop CS2 Book For Digital Photographers, The 089
Photoshop CS2 For Windows & Macintosh 089
Photoshop CS2: Up To Speed 089
Photoshop Filter Effects Cookbook 089
Photoshop LAB Color 089
Adobe Photoshop CS2 one-on-one 090
Digital Imaging: Essential Skills 090
Digital SLR Handbook. The 090
Photoshop Blending Modes Cookbook 090
Photoshop Photo Effects Cookbook 090

stock art websites plug-ins

Acclaim Images 091 DesignsByMark 092 20/20 Color MD 093
ArtBitz 091 Eyes On Design 092 3D Invigorator 093
Illustration Works 091 N-Sane 092 ColorTheory Pro 093
InMagine 091 Phong 092 Deep Paint 3D 093
Laughing Stock 091 Photoshop Café 092 Digitalizer 093
ShutterStock 091 Planet Photoshop 092 PhotoFreebies 093
Primatte Chromakey 2 093
Shadow Filter 093

typography
Download Free Fonts 094
FontFile 094
Font Garden 094
Font Pool, The 094
Identifont 094
Linotype 094

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 books
resources
Staring bleary-eyed at your LCD? Need a little
inspiration? Then check out these excellent tomes
Erotique Digitale:
The Art of Erotic Digital Photography
Authors: Minnie Cook, Rod MacDonald
Publisher: Ilex
Price: £17.95
ISBN: 1-9047-055-61
Web: www.ilex-press.com
A rguably one of Photoshop’s greatest strengths is its
ability to help photographers turn standard
photographs into stunning works of digital art. Whether it
concerns basic photo retouches (in order to sort out skin
imperfections), the removal of unwanted items, the
correction of poorly reproduced colours, or, at a more
advanced level, implementing intricate photo-montages,
the program has the tools to get the job done.
Indeed, all of the above is used in one of the most emergent
digital art genres – erotica – and this style of imagery and
illustration is looked at in interesting depth in Cook and
MacDonald’s Erotique Digitale: The Art of Erotic Digital
Photography. The tome is packed full of full-colour images
demonstrating some of the very best examples of digital
eroticism, from standard risqué portraiture to some more
elaborate illustrations.
Alongside each example is a short description of the
techniques used by the artist to create the image, although
Photoshop Masking
& Compositing
Author: Katrin Eismann
Publisher: New Riders
Price: £41.99
ISBN: 07-357-127-94
Web: www.peachpit.com
W hen generating intricate photo-montages, it’s often
necessary to separate an image element from its
background before you can reposition it elsewhere within
the composition. Thankfully, Adobe’s top image-editing
suite has several tools that are perfect for the job, but
which one should you choose without adversely affecting
your subject?
Learning how to make the most of these procedures – not to
mention being aware of the contexts in which you should apply
them – takes time, patience and lots of trial and error; unless, of
course, you have this comprehensive guide to each technique
kept close at hand.
As its name suggests, Katrin Eismann’s Photoshop Masking &
Retouching is dedicated to taking the mystery out of Photoshop
selection. Over the course of 300 pages, it unveils how to
properly use tools such as the Magic Wand, Freehand Selection,
Quick Masks and more, in order to make accurate selections of
88
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087-094_APM04_resources.indd 88
these rarely go into enough detail to ensure you can reproduce
the effect yourself.
In essence, this is little more than a coffee-table showcase of
niche imaging, although it’s no less interesting for that. However,
if you’re looking for a more tutorial-based erotic photography
handbook, you’d do best to shift your attention elsewhere. 5
Rating:
Recom
mends
pretty much anything. Its clear, straightforward and easy-to-follow
workshops mean that you’ll rarely become stuck, and although
the many pictures and photos may seem conventional at first,
they serve to perfectly illustrate key points. It’s expensive, sure, but
the advice offered is more than worth the asking price. 5
Rating:
Further reading
How To Cheat
In Photoshop
Author: Steve Caplin
Publisher: Sybex mends
Price: £24.99 Recom
ISBN: 0-240-51985-X
Web: www.focalpress.com
Looked at in a certain way, all Photoshop
work could be considered ‘cheating’, really –
after all, the whole idea behind the program
is to take a photo and fiddle around with it
in order to improve upon the original.
But with How To Cheat In Photoshop, author
Steve Caplin aims to broaden your horizons by
showing you how you can use a variety of
techniques to create an effect.
One of the book’s greatest assets is its sense
of humour, and although some of the images
aren’t particularly ‘photo-realistic’, the tips and
tricks are always superb. 5
Rating: 3/5
Pixel Surgeons: Extreme
Manipulation Of The
Figure In Photography
Author: Martin Dawber
Publisher: Mitchell Beazley
Price: £20
ISBN: 0-84533-157-5
Web: www.mitchell-beazley.com
For many creatives, it’s the sheer flexibility of
2/5 digital art that makes it such an appealing
medium. With stacks of pixel-mangling tools
on offer, it’s little surprise that many
examples of the most innovative new art
expressions are created using such popular
apps as Photoshop and Illustrator.
To get an idea of what these programs are
capable of, you need only turn to Martin
Dawber’s stunning Pixel Surgeons. This coffee-
table tome offers 224 pages of intriguing
imagery from a number of established digital
artists, plus a wide selection of material from
emerging imageers. Sadly, no-one explains how
such great images were created, which limits
the usefulness of the book to mere muse. 5
Rating: 3/5
The Focal Easy Guide
To Photoshop CS2
Author: Brad Hinkel
Publisher: Focal Press
Price: £14.99
ISBN: 0-240-52001-7
Web: www.focalpress.com
Ready to step up your game? Mastered your
Spot Healing Brush and Red-Eye tool and
eager to explore Photoshop CS2’s more
advanced facilities? Then read on…
The Focal Easy Guide To Photoshop CS2 is an
easy-to-follow, 212-page guide to all of the app’s
key features, and delivers simple step-by-step
instructions packed with colour screenshots.
Although there’s no CD, the procedures are
explained clearly enough to ensure they’re
applicable to whatever subject you’re looking at.
A concise introduction to Photoshop CS2’s
many image-editing facilities. 5
5/5
Rating: 4/5
10/2/06 14:11:29

Further reading
Photoshop CS2:
Up to Speed
Author: Ben Wilmore
Publisher: Peachpit Press
mends
Price: £17.99 Recom
ISBN: 03211330501
Web: www.peachpit.com
This concise guide focuses
exclusively on all the features new to
Photoshop CS2, from the enhanced Clone,
Spot and Healing brush, through Adobe
Stock Photos, Camera Raw, HDR and beyond.
Once comfortable with the ins and outs of the
new File Browser, you’ll soon be moving on to
enjoy Wilmore’s explanation of Adobe’s latest
application, Bridge. By explaining how the app’s
older features relate to the newer ones, the
author helps us understand the reasoning behind
the changes Adobe has made. You can even
practise your new-found techniques on images
provided at the book’s companion website. 5
Rating: 5/5
Photoshop Filter
Effects Cookbook
Author: Roger Pring
Publisher: Ilex
Price: £17.95
ISBN: 1-904705-67-7
Web: www.ilex-press.com
Many people turn to Photoshop’s built-in
Filter menu when they’re looking for a quick
fix. Whether it’s correcting warped lens
effects, putting the detail back into blurry
photos with a spot of crafty sharpening, or
spicing things up by adding an artistic effect,
the Filter menu has an option to suit.
In the Photoshop Filter Effects Cookbook, Roger
Pring reveals how to take these filters and create
some even more interesting effects for use in
your artwork. Each chapter looks at how to
properly apply the settings available, and hands-
on tutorials are provided to show you how to get
great results with ease.
You’ll be hard-pushed to find a better
introduction to Photoshop’s built-in filter set. 5
Rating: 3/5
The Photoshop CS2 Book
For Digital Photographers
Author: Scott Kelby
Publisher: Peachpit
Price: £28.99
ISBN: 0-32133-062-5
Web: www.peachpit.com
Scott Kelby’s no-nonsense approach to
image-editing has won him many fans in the
Photoshop community – and this latest tome,
offering a variety of exciting tricks and
techniques, looks set to consolidate his
position as guru extraordinaire.
Illustrated throughout with stunning imagery,
the guide demonstrates how to perform such
feats as digital body sculpting, 16-bit editing,
correcting problem colour casts, and even how
to properly output images in order to maintain
the highest possible quality.
A useful look inside the professional world of
Photoshop pixel-tweakery. 5
Rating: 4/5
087-094_APM04_resources.indd 89
resources
Photoshop LAB Color F ixing poor colour reproduction in Photoshop is a job
you can undertake in a number of ways. Beginners
Author: Dan Margulis immediately reach for the Hue/Saturation controls,
Publisher: Peachpit Press intermediate users tend to plump for a few canny
Adjustment Layers, while more advanced photo editors
Price: £39.99
head straight for the Curves dialog, in order to start
ISBN: 03-213-567-80
Web: www.peachpit.com manipulating graph points.
However, no matter what your level of expertise, it’s
surprising how few people make use of one of Photoshop’s
most powerful and flexible gems: the Lab Color mode. Once an
image has been properly converted, the task of enhancing
colour tones in a digital photo becomes much more rewarding.
It’s not all that surprising pixel-manglers are unaware of the
benefits of Lab Color, though. It’s not something that’s
commonly covered in any detail in Photoshop guidebooks. But
that’s something renowned Photoshop Hall Of Famer Dan
Margulis hopes to change with his remarkable tome, entitled
Photoshop LAB Color.
Inside this book, Margulis offers up a wealth of techniques on
how to use this Photoshop mode to get the very best out of all
your digital images. Although the subject may at first seem dry,
the book takes such an approachable style that you’ll soon be
drawn into the world of professional prepress methodology. 5
Rating: 4/5
Photoshop CS2 for A s creative applications go, Photoshop can be
extremely tricky to get the hang of if you’re a new
Windows &
user. Its learning curve is particularly steep – and the sheer
number of buttons, tools, palettes, filters, dialogs and
Macintosh panels on display has been known to put off potential
imageers in their droves. If only there was a good basic
Authors: Elaine Weinmann, Peter Lourekas introduction to the program that enabled readers to get
Publisher: Peachpit Press inside the app and really start to get a feel for just what
Price: £17.99 it can do…
ISBN: 03-213-365-50 Well, if you’re looking to boost your Photoshop knowledge
Web: www.peachpit.com fast, without having to fiddle around or get confused by
meaningless mumbo-jumbo, Photoshop CS2 for Windows &
Macintosh is a fairly decent place to start.
For a shade under £18, it’ll provide a pleasingly solid
grounding in many of the program’s most important features.
What’s more, it’s been fully updated to cover a host of new
additions to the most recent version of Photoshop, CS2, so now
you can find out much more about the powerful new
possibilities of gadgets such as the Vanishing Point filter and the
one-click Healing Brush. This attention to detail is one of the
book’s major plus points.
Illustrated throughout with some superb full-colour photos,
step-by-step workshops and friendly advice, this tome proves a
useful – if admittedly slightly low-end – resource for those
seeking a quick and dirty introduction to the world’s leading
image-editing app. 5
Rating: 3/5
89
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10/2/06 14:11:42
resources

Digital Imaging: Further reading

Essential Skills Adobe Photoshop CS2
one-on-one
Authors: Les Horvat, Mark Galer
Author: Deke McClelland
Publisher: Focal Press Publisher: Deke Press/O’Reilly
Price: £28.50
Price: £21.99 ISBN: 0-596-10096-5
ISBN: 02-405197-1X Web: www.oreilly.com
Web: www.focalpress.com Both McClelland’s books
and ‘Total Training’ video mends
tutorials are proving to Recom

I
be must-have resources
n the heady pursuit of great digital art, messing around for aspiring creatives.
with images in Photoshop is really only one part of the However, with Adobe Photoshop CS2 one-on-
creative process. Arguably, in order to generate inspiring one, both the print and multimedia worlds
and mind-bending artwork that really guarantees collide; for here, McClelland provides over 470
pages of extensive Photoshop lessons, plus a
widespread success, you have to take the time to master a CD containing no less than two hours’ worth of
number of visual disciplines. Total Training video workshops.
With this in mind, Les Horvat and Mark Galer have produced It’s an essential addition to the bookshelf of
what is essentially a comprehensive crash-course in visual every Photoshop CS2 user. 5
design skills, one that will form the backbone of your further Rating: 5/5
artistic endeavours. Rather than simply focusing on Photoshop’s mind-stretching briefs and limitless useful advice. If that wasn’t
all-powerful manipulation tools, this book goes back to the already enough to get your creative juices well and truly flowing, Photoshop Photo
source and demonstrates how to be more effective at every the book also comes with a CD-ROM, which manages to include Effects Cookbook
stage of the design process, from early previsualisation a bit more than the average digital art guidebook. Take a peek Author: Tim Shelbourne
techniques and image capture, right through Photoshop and you’ll find a host of video workshops, project files, sample Publisher: Ilex
Price: £17.95
production, to prepress and output. images, Photoshop presets and more, all ready and waiting to ISBN: 1-904705-61-8 mends
Recom
This tome is certainly a complete creative guide, and really power up your digital studio. 5 Web: www.ilex-press.com

does manage to inject a sense of fun into the learning process. It’s rare to find a book as
This is all thanks to a wide range of easy-to-follow tutorials, Rating: 4/5 jam-packed with useful
techniques as this. Put simply, this tome
provides wall-to-wall tutorials on how to
create a huge range of photo effects. Pared
down to the essentials, this isn’t a hard work
read, but rather a full-colour, large-format
guide on how to turn photos into eye art.
Divided into nine chapters, the book details
how to create tonal effects and graphic art

The Digital SLR

effects, how to master lighting, and even how to
produce weather effects such as rain and snow.
What’s more, there are workshops on how to

Handbook make traditional photo effects such as colour

filters, contrast masking, infrared and duotones.
How refreshing to find a book so focused on
Author: Michael Freeman delivering hard-line techniques. 5
Publisher: Ilex Rating: 5/5
Price: £24.95
Reco
ISBN: 19-047053-67 mme
nds
Photoshop Blending
Web: www.ilex-press.com
Modes Cookbook For
Digital Photographers
Author: John Beardsworth

I n the world of photography, no type of camera offers

more creative control than a digital SLR. Favoured by
enthusiasts and professionals alike, digi-SLRs present a
Publisher: Ilex
Price: £17.95
ISBN: 1-904705-69-5
Web: www.ilex-press.com

huge range of shooting options from which canny
photographers can elicit truly inspiring, high-resolution
photos. But the thing is, in order to get the most out of such
high-end equipment, it’s important to know how to master
its many advanced, configurable settings.
Thankfully, The Digital SLR Handbook is here to ensure that all
SLR owners are able to get the very best shots with relative ease.
But it’s not just committed to bringing new photographers up
to speed – it also includes a range of articles that answer FAQs
by seasoned film-based shooters who’ve recently switched to
digital. Although the shooting process can be similar, there are
compared to film, so it’s great to find a book that seeks to
address (and explain) these differences.
However, don’t be fooled into thinking that this is a dry, techy
manual. With comprehensive advice on how to properly take
control of shutter speeds, aperture, resolution, image formats,
histograms and much more, it’s an essential resource that
should be in the kit-bag of every self-respecting shooter. 5
Blending Modes are one of the most widely
used yet misunderstood features in
Photoshop – but the Photoshop Blending
Modes Cookbook aims to change all that.
Another excellent contribution from Ilex, it
comes packed with tutorials and information on
how to use Blending Modes to produce a
diverse array of impressive effects. Although the
subject matter may not be all that exciting,
there’s no getting around the fact that this book
brilliantly explains one of Photoshop’s most
powerful and useful features.
Read and learn. 5

differences in the way digital cameras generate images Rating: 5/5 Rating: 4/5

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Take stock
Shutterstock
Web: www.shutterstock.com
If you’re a workaholic digital artist, chances
are you’ll need to get your hands on a large
number of stock images during the course
of an average month. Trouble is,
the cost of downloading images from
some premium sites can be restrictive,
particularly if you’re on a tight budget.
The result? Valuable creative time wasted
shopping around for bargain photos that
help to keep your costs down.
But fear not, because there is a solution.
ShutterStock has been set up with these needs
in mind, and offers a monthly subscription-
based service that enables you to download up
to 25 images per day, up to a maximum of 750
per month. One month’s subscription will set
you back $139 (around £78), or you can opt for a
three-month stint for $395 (around £223).
Sounds good value to us. 5
Rating: 3/5
Illustration Works
Web: www.illustrationworks.com
Many designers have
built up a number of
preconceptions about
stock art, with the most
mends
popular being that it’s all Recom
about boring old photos
of business people chatting
ecstatically on the phone, or cherubic
kiddies playing with their parents in golden
pastures. In a word: cheesy. However, this
isn’t always the case, as Illustration Works is
keen to point out.
At this site, you’ll find a vast library of royalty-
free illustrations, created by many industry
heavyweights, all of which you can pick up and
use in your designs. There’s a wealth of talent on
display and some really unusual ideas, so it’s
worth having a browse, even if you’re just
looking for inspiration. 5
Rating: 4/5
Laughing Stock
Web: www.laughing-stock.com
Continuing the theme of alternative stock
art collections, Laughing Stock joins the
ranks by offering a particularly unusual
bundle of images that may well be just what
you need to pep up a lacklustre project.
Here, you’ll find an impressive archive of
illustrative designs, including logos,
animations, infographics, book covers,
posters and much more.
Again, it’s well worth a lengthy browse if
you’re in need of some new ideas, or on the
lookout for a novel approach to a tired topic.
Even if you do want to use an image, the
competitive prices factor in exactly what you’re
going to use the image for, so you may well find
yourself picking up a bargain. 5
Rating: 4/5
087-094_APM04_resources.indd 91
stock art
resources
These tried-and-tested image libraries provide
excellent service at a price to suit every pocket
ArtBitz
Web: www.artbitz.com
A
lthough the majority of online stock art repositories
concentrate on offering photographic images, there’s
still a number of places that seek to deliver something a
little bit different. With a bit of determined searching, it’s
possible to turn up libraries that sell some more esoteric
material, which you can then use to build up excellent
illustration work.
As a case in point, ArtBitz is well worth checking out if you’re
after some unusual image elements. Much of the stock on sale
here has a definite line-art, natural media look that should suit
more traditional illustrative styles. If this sounds like your creative
direction, dive right in and have a look at what’s on offer. 5
Rating: 3/5
Acclaim Images
Web: www.acclaimimages.com
I
n direct contrast to the largely illustrative material in
ArtBitz (above), Acclaim Images concentrates on
providing artists with more traditional photographic
pictures. And what a selection it boasts.
Head on over and you’ll find not only an intuitive, fully
searchable archive, but also a simply huge library of quality
photos that have been sorted into handy categories for easier
browsing. What’s more, if you haven’t the time to skim through
the extensive library yourself, you can make use of Acclaim
Images’ complimentary photo research facility, where you can
instruct the company to dig out the image you need without
having to part with a penny.5
Rating: 4/5
InMagine
Web: www.inmagine.com
W hen you’re on the hunt for a specific image for use in
your current design project, it’s not uncommon to
have to scoot through a number of different stock art sites
before you uncover a suitable candidate. This, of course,
can be hugely time-consuming, so it makes sense to try
and keep search times down to an absolute minimum.
One of the best ways of doing this is to make your first step a
trip to InMagine. Put simply, this stock art repository houses one
of the web’s largest image archives, so the chances of you
finding that perfect shot are pretty good. With over one million
photos on offer, there’s every possibility that this could become
your one and only stock art bookmark.5
Recom
Rating: 5/5 mends
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 websites
resources
Tutorials, community forums, FAQs, special hints
and tips… Keep abreast of what’s available online
Phong
Web: www.phong.com
Q
uite simply, Phong is one of the most impressive
examples of creative site designs on the net. It’s a
visual feast of clever Flash programming, and, if you’re not
pushed for time, we’d recommend spending a good few
minutes playing around with the numerous Flash displays
on offer. If nothing else, it’s a great way to clear your head
from all those tough design decisions, and open up your
mind to a bit of unusual fractal-based inspiration.
But that’s not all that Phong has to offer, because it’s also jam-
packed with excellent tutorials that demonstrate how to get the
very best out of myriad creative apps, including Photoshop. In a
word: unmissable. 5
Rating:
DesignsByMark
Web: www.designsbymark.com
I f you’re after some solid, beginner-friendly Photoshop
advice, DesignsByMark is an excellent place to start your
journey. Created by the eponymous Californian
Photoshopper, this site is a one-stop-shop for all kinds of
techniques, from creating stunningly realistic textured text,
through generating convincing 3D images using 2D
drawing and painting tools, to more general tasks such as
retouching poor digital photos and creating greeting cards.
Tutorials can be downloaded in various formats, including
written PDFs and even video files, which means there’s little
chance of you becoming stuck during a particularly tricky or
time-consuming workshop. 5
Rating:
N-Sane
Web: www.n-sane.net
F or one of the most useful and hands-on introductions
to Photoshop, there are few sites on the web that offer
a more comprehensive yet user-friendly selection of
workshops as N-Sane. This site is home to a huge number
of tutorials that covers all different skill levels, and what’s
more, each task has been graded out of five in terms of
difficulty, so that you can be sure chosen techniques will
suit your proficiency.
Offering general tool introductions, texture generation
ideas, stunning text creation tutorials and so much more, this
website cannot fail to impress with the sheer quantity of its
high-quality resources. 5
Rating:
92
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Catch it online
Planet Photoshop
Web: www.planetphotoshop.com
Planet Photoshop has become one of the
leading locations for digital imageers to
congregate when searching for new ideas.
And when you take a look at what this site
has to offer, it’s not hard to see why.
With its heady blend of the best up-to-date
Photoshop information, Planet Photoshop
keeps you informed of all the latest industry
goings-on via Photoshop TV, a video podcast
featuring such luminaries as Scott Kelby and
Dave Cross, to name but two. In addition, the
site offers some fantastic tutorials in which you
can learn new techniques with ease. 5
Rating: 4/5
ds
ommen Photoshop Café
5/5 Rec Web: www.photoshopcafe.com
On the lookout for a relaxed yet still
professional Photoshop hang-out? Then
the Photoshop Café may be just what
you’re after. Plonk your virtual posterior
here and you’ll find an extensive set of
Photoshop resources that offer tips and
advice on a wide range of pursuits, including
some particularly innovative tutorials that
detail fresh new methods of performing
many common (and not-so-common)
image-editing tasks.
In addition, there’s a load of Actions for you
to download that should make routine image
fixes a much quicker affair, a forum for the usual
community support, and a stack of images by
the site’s creator Colin Smith. 5
Rating: 4/5
Eyes on Design
Web: www.eyeondesign.net
One of the best things
about working with
Photoshop is that when
3/5 you’re suffering from
mends
artist’s block, you can Recom
always turn to the web
and check out the works of
others to help you find a way through.
And there’s no better place to turn to than
Eyes on Design.
Besides offering a stack of professional-level
tutorials that really do deliver first-class results, it
also provides a great gallery section where you
can peruse the latest creations by a host of
talented digital artists. It’s top stuff, so we’d
recommend making this one of your most
treasured bookmarks for those times when
ideas are a little thin on the ground. 5
Rating: 5/5
4/5
10/2/06 14:12:54

Expand your toolset
ColorTheory Pro
Developer: Digital Anarchy
Price: $99 (£56)
Web: www.digitalanarchy.com
When preparing a digital illustration, an
important aspect to get right from the off is
the colour scheme. Not all colours work well
together, and sometimes a single jarring
hue is enough to spoil a piece of work.
Experience helps, of course, but sometimes
even an experienced eye needs help deciding
what to use. Which is where ColorTheoryPro
comes in. Wrapping armfuls of technical theory
into one easy-to-use plug-in, it can instantly tell
you which colours support each other (or clash),
based on established scientific criteria. 5
Rating: 4/5
Deep Paint 3D
Developer: Right Hemisphere
Price: $595 (£334)
Web: www.righthemisphere.com
A number of artists build
3D models in apps such
as Maya, LightWave or
Cinema4D for use in
mends
their Photoshop work, Recom
where they can add
textures, colour, etc.
Deep Paint 3D is specifically designed to
streamline this workflow by offering a bi-
directional interface between Photoshop and
your 3D modeller of choice. Output quality is
second to none, so no wonder it’s a favourite of
pros in the film and videogame industries. 5
Rating: 5/5
Primatte Chromakey 2
Developer: Digital Anarchy
Price: $299 (£168)
Web: www.digitalanarchy.com
Although Photoshop offers built-in tools to
help with the cut-outs, some materials are
tricky to excise – so most imageers shoot
their subjects in front of a bright blue or
green screen, then digitally remove the
block of solid colour in post, using a
dedicated tool like Primatte Chromakey.
Primatte Chromakey 2 is the professional
choice for creating precise cuts from coloured
backgrounds. It may not be cheap, but the
results are uniformly spectacular. 5
Rating: 5/5
3D Invigorator
Developer: Zaxwerks
Price: $49 (£27)
Web: www.zaxwerks.com
Photoshop is good at helping artists create
pseudo-3D elements, but if you need to
build something a little more intricate, its
native design tools just aren’t up to scratch.
But now with 3D Invigorator, a Mac-only
plug-in from Zaxwerks, you can design, build
and render 3D objects right inside Photoshop.
What’s more, the company has even created
special versions for After Effects and Illustrator,
should you need them. Check it out now. 5
Rating: 4/5
087-094_APM04_resources.indd 93
plug-ins
resources
Not all plug-ins are made equal. Here we
highlight some of the best money can buy
Digitalizer PhotoFreebies
Developer: Panopticum Developer: The Plugin Site
Price: $25 (£14) Price: Free
Web: www.panopticum.com Web: http://thepluginsite.com
P I
hotoshop’s built-in collection of n a world full of high-
filters enables artists to generate priced, commercial
a wide variety of effects without Photoshop plug-ins, it’s
having to invest in extra software. But always nice to stumble
sometimes a brief requires you to look across a selection of
for a third-party solution to a specific design problem that freeware tools with
Photoshop’s standard set of tools just can’t create. which to power up the
Panopticum’s Digitalizer is one such filter. It only really has one standard program
application, but it performs it so well that it’s worth having, just feature-set. Indeed, if
in case its unique effect can boost the occasional project. you’re after a collection of useful Photoshop add-ons that
In essence this useful filter enables users to covert a standard specialise in tweaking digital photos, you could do a lot
photographic image into an amazing illustration that’s made up worse than head on over to The Plugin Site and download
of an astonishing matrix of figures, text characters and a range the generous PhotoFreebies bundle.
of other graphical symbols. For your efforts, you’ll be rewarded with a decent black-and-
Although Panopticum’s Digitalizer is limited in its range of white filter that improves on Photoshop’s native Greyscale tool, a
effects, it is nevertheless certainly an extremely interesting effect desaturation gradient, a particularly effective Sepia filter and
that’s particularly suited to futuristic or science-fiction-based much more besides. Definitely one for photographers, this free
briefs. Why not download the free demo right now and see just set is well worth investigating when you’ve got a few minutes
what it can do for you? 5 to spare. 5
Rating: 3/5 Rating: 4/5
Shadow Filter 20/20 Color MD
Developer: Andromeda Software Inc Developer: Phototune
Price: $109 (£63) Price: $49.95 (£29)
Web: www.andromeda.com Web: www.phototune.com
C W
reating convincing ith today’s crop of
shadow effects in intelligent digital
Photoshop can be one of the cameras, it’s possible to
trickiest of design duties, so capture great photos by just
it’s nice to know that the pointing and shooting. With
boffins at Andromeda impressive automatic
Software have made the features built into even the
whole process much easier cheapest compact digicam,
with the innovative Shadow Filter. Billed as one of the most there’s no reason why you can’t fill up a memory card of
advanced shadowing plug-ins currently available for useful shots in a single day’s shooting, right?
Photoshop, this friendly tool enables you to quickly and Well, that’s not entirely true. In fact, there’s still a lot that can
effortlessly generate realistic shadow effects from 2D go wrong when capturing a photo, such as colour reproduction.
image elements. Of course, you can sort out such problems in Photoshop, but
Its powerful virtual camera and perspective-correction sometimes correcting such things as colour casts can be a chore
technology ensures that realist results are a given, no matter how – unless you have 20/20 Color MD at your command.
complex the object throwing the shadow. But before you write it This deceptively powerful plug-in presents a step-by-step
off as sounding too complicated, the software features both wizard with which you can quickly and efficiently correct the
novice and advanced modes to ensure that you can obtain colours in any digital shot. Better still, the technology it uses to
perfect drop-shadows, no matter what your level of proficiency. determine exactly what colours need to be correct utilises real-
Very impressive. 5 world eye exam techniques, so there’s little room for error. 5
Rating: 4/5 Rating: 3/5
93
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13/2/06 16:01:38
 typography
resources

It’s not just what you say, it’s how you say it…

Perfect fonts
FontFile The Font Pool
Web: www.fontfile.com Web: www.fontpool.com

F inding the correct font for use in an illustration can be Some font sites on the web mean well
but prove tricky to navigate when
one of the hardest parts of the design process. There you actually try to find a decent font in a
are just so many typefaces to choose from, and Internet- hurry. In light of this, The Font Pool feels
based archives often provide scarce idea of how a font will like a breath of fresh air, thanks to an
appear once you’ve bought, downloaded and installed it effortlessly usable search tool that manages
to pick out great fonts based on your
on your computer.
specifications in seconds.
So the answer is to head to a freeware font depot that offers Alternatively, you can manually browse
not only an extensive collection of fonts to try, but also a usefully through the site’s collection of over 27,000 fonts,
large thumbnail preview of how it’ll appear on screen. As a good if you prefer to pick out a winning option based
starting point, FontFile offers all this and more, with a searchable on eye-catching appeal. But whichever method
you choose, you can be sure that you’ll find
and categorised collection of styles all ready for your perusal. 5 something worth investigating in this huge
online repository. 5
Rating: 3/5
Rating: 4/5

Linotype
Web: www.linotype.com
When it comes to professional-level

Download Free Fonts

typefaces, Internet-based retailers can
throw up a wide variety of standards. Some
sites will present some good yet still
noticeably amateurish options, while others
Web: www.downloadfreefonts.com
manage to offer extremely high-quality
items as a matter of course.

S ome font stores – particularly those that offer

commercial typefaces – unintentionally make it
difficult to locate suitable items by presenting tricky
When you take a look at Linotype, you’ll
discover that this site falls into the latter
category. Although it carries only 6,000 fonts,
the quality on offer is second to none. What’s
interfaces, weird categorising and complicated checkout more, the archive is fully searchable, so there’s
processes. So it’s always a delight to come across a plain, no problem turning up specific matches when
straightforward site that just offers easy access to a set of you’re in a hurry.
varied freeware styles. Furthermore, the innovative Font Finder
device enables you to locate typefaces based
And this is just what Download Free Fonts provides. Here,
on themes, categories, usage and more. 5
you’ll find little more than a scrollable list of free fonts that you
Rating: 4/5
can download and use on both PC and Mac. Although it’s not
the biggest collection on the web, it still lists some great
lettering ideas that may just be what you’re looking for.. 5
Font Garden
Web: www.fontgarden.com

Rating: 3/5 Ask any graphic designer what’s the most

important yet often overlooked aspect
of illustration work and you’ll get an
unequivocal answer: the fonts you use. How
you incorporate these into your work can

Identifont make or break a design. But the problem is,

if you’re after an organic, hand-drawn feel,
suitable typefaces can be hard to find.
Web: www.identifont.com Reco So if you’re looking for a font that emulates
mme decent handwriting, we’d recommend that
nds
F inally, here’s something a little different. We all know you point your browser at Font Garden. Here
you’ll find a huge selection of freeware and
how hard (not to mention time-consuming) it can be to commercial offerings, covering a variety of
manually search or browse through expansive online font handwriting styles. There’s plenty here that
archives in an effort to discover a typeface that conforms to would complement a loose, traditional style
your strict requirements. So why not make things a bit of illustration. 5
easier on yourself by taking a trip to Identifont? Rating: 3/5
This unique online system enables you to track down fonts
via a wizard-like process of elimination. Basically, it asks a set of
questions about the appearance of the font you’re after (eg,
how letter tails behave) and shortlists a set of items that match
your requirements. It’s quick, easy and undoubtedly effective, so
check it out right now. 5

Rating: 5/5

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