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ISSUE
ISSUE
5049
47
50 covers by 50 artists | First look at Photoshop CS4 | Matte painting skills | 50 killer Photoshop tips | Interview: Shane Pierce

50
SPECIAL FIFTIETH ISSUE

50 COVERS BY 50 ARTISTS
inspirational images make great covers
Photoshop artists explain why these

£5.99
50

771748 727009
ISSN 1748-7277
ISSUE 50
www.advancedphotoshop.co.uk

KILLER PHOTOSHOP TIPS PHOTOSHOP CS4 EXPERT RETOUCHING

50 pro artists reveal their ultimate top New tools, improved 3D From photoshoot to Photoshop:
tip to improve your creative skills and faster performance follow our six-page Masterclass
001_AVP_50_CoverWk4 50 Covers.in9 9 16/10/08 17:04:46
 Cover
Imageers:
CRISTIANO SIQUEIRA
ADAM BENTON
JEFF FINLEY (GO MEDIA)
ALEX JANSSON
SI CLARK
CHRIS EDE
YAGA KIELB
ANGEL D’AMICO
HEISUKE KITAZAWA (PCP)
BOGAC ERGUVENC
ZEPTONN
DAREK KOCUREK
JESS VOLINSKI
RODRIGO REYES
TANYA YAKIMOVA
DOUGLAS A. SIROIS
JOHN STILL
KERRY ROPER
TAVISH (ACIDTWIST)
CHRISTOPHER COX
COOL SURFACE
COLIN BERWICK
JENA DELLAGROTTAGLIA
CHRISTIAN ‘TIGAER’ HECKER
TYSON KOERPER
MAGOMED DOVJENKO
STEFAN VALENT
THEO GENNITSAKIS
SUSI LAWSON
EE VENN SOH
NICKI HART
JAMES FOX
MARIO VELTRI
BERT BLONDEEL
YASSER AZARNOUSH
NICK MASTERS
TIM WISE
ANDREEA ALEXANDRA CERNESTEAN
FRANK NADARZYNSKI
MATT HILL
MEHRDOKHT AMINI
MIKE WOLFF
SAM GARTON
VICTOR HABBICK
MANUELA PENTANGELO
MICHAEL I. ALEJANDRO
JAMES KNOWLES

Cover image DAN MAXWELL

CHUCK ANDERSON
For our 50th issue, we challenged 50 artists to send DEREK H. CINALLI
in the one image that they think would work well on
our cover. Our main cover this issue shows off the For more information on these artists and
excellent results of that challenge – we simply to see all the covers, turn to page 64
couldn’t pick any one of them to be our cover image,
so we used them all! In fact, there are over 100 artists
included in this issue one way or another, making it
the biggest celebration of digital art we’ve ever WE COULDN’T PICK
done. Let us know what you think of it!
/ www.advancedphotoshop.co.uk ANY ONE OF THEM... SO WE
USED THEM ALL!
3
Advanced Photoshop

003_AVP_50_CoverImage.indd 3 17/10/08 17:39:21

 Editorial

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004_AVP_50_EdIntro.indd 4 17/10/08 12:05:02
 E
K SIT d
-LOO e
NEW .advanc .uk
wwwoshop.co
phot

ADVANCED PHOTOSHOP WEBSITE

www.advancedphotoshop.co.uk
The Advanced Photoshop website has been given a major overhaul,
making it easier than ever to upload your images into our gallery, read
the latest Photoshop and magazine team news, buy current and back
issues and play with our new Photoshop Face-Off feature.

ISSUE #50

inside... 36 INSIGHT
Perfect your painting techniques
with this retro pin-up News
7 10
News and showcases from around the globe
10

COMMUNITY 7 26
Our readers’ comments, feedback and images
from our mailbox, email, website and forum
Mailbox 26
On the web 28
Peer Pressure 76

THE COVER
Our cover this month showcases the images sent in
by 50 top artists that they think would look great on
HELP
Tips, techniques and problems solved
7 14
14
our cover. Turn to page 64 to see them all in more
detail and let us know your favourite! 50 top tips
Helpdesk 72
Insider Info: View options 74

RESOURCES 7 90
Vital assets to improve your Photoshop work
Hardware and software 90
d va nced p at Book reviews 92
isit the A nline shoo.uk
V o .c
shop ineshop oks
ot o
Ph .imag es, bo 48 76 THIS MONTH’S CD 7 96
www ack issu andise Learn how to create your Our pick of the best reader Superb stock art, project files and more!
for b d merch
own destroyed city submissions this month
CD guide 96
an Brush index 98

6
Advanced Photoshop

006-007_AVP_50_Contents.indd 6 17/10/08 18:33:16

 14
50 top tips for you to get
more from Photoshop

© Mark Mayers

TECHNIQUES/REGULAR
FEATURES
7 14
Essential guides to professional Photoshop skills
FEATURE: 50 TOP TIPS
50 artists share their ultimate Photoshop tips and tricks
FIFTIES PIN-UP ART 7 36
Inspired by our fiftieth issue, we look at painting a retro image

INTERVIEW: SHANE PIERCE 7 30 DEPICTING A DESTROYED CITY 7 48

The senior concept artist for Epic Games talks us through his career Build your own alien invasion with stock images

FEATURE: CS4 INTRO – PART 1 7 42 FASHION RETOUCHING

High-end retouching from shoot to Photoshop
7 56
Your guide to the best new features in the latest version of Photoshop

FEATURE: 50 COVERS 7 64 PEER PRESSURE

Readers explain how their images are created
7 76
We challenged 50 artists to send in an image for our cover
RESOURCES
FEATURE: HISTORY OF PHOTOSHOP 7 82 PRODUCT REVIEWS 7 90
A look over the formation and development of the Adobe app Mr Site, eframe.co.uk and books rated here

7
Advanced Photoshop

006-007_AVP_50_Contents.indd 7 17/10/08 18:33:49

 Keeping an eye on the latest trends in contemporary photography, art
and design, Insight sets out to snapshot innovation in the making
SPORT WINNER 2008 (ABOVE): Robin Utrecht,
credit Sony World Photography Awards
PHOTOJOURNALIST WINNER 2008 (RIGHT):
Moises Saman, credit Sony World Photography Awards
Sony World Photography Awards 2009
The prestige of the Sony World Photography Awards 2009 is
once more presented to the creative community. Now
collaborating with The Prince’s Rainforests Project, this year
builds on the success of previous events.
This latest installment will include 12 categories for
professionals and nine for amateurs. The event theme centres on
the idea of the environment. Those professionals entering will do
so with the hope of being selected to participate in a fully funded
project to document the rainforest regions of the globe.
Amateurs are invited to submit images for a global awareness
campaign, using the photo to educate and inform.
A host of new inclusions are also prevalent to improve the
event. The Festival @ The Sony World Photography Awards is a
week-long event of photography taking place in the artist
hotbed that is Cannes. This includes a list of attractions, such as
seminars, screenings, networking events and many other
programmes and events.
The Sony Campaign Award has been introduced for amateur
photographers and aims to unite obsession about football with
the enthusiasm and passion of photography. Amateur
photographers are prompted to submit single images that
capture the beauty and spirit of the game in unexpected places.
The winner will also have the chance of being one of the
photographers used in Sony’s forthcoming digital imaging 2009
campaign work.
10
Advanced Photoshop
010-012_AVP_50_News.indd 10
FASHION, TOMAMASO AWERBUCH (LEFT):
The Festival @ Sony World Photography Awards is
also creating a new annual cultural event for the
general public and all of those interested in
contemporary art
NATURE WINNER 2008 (ABOVE): Giacomo
Brunelli, credit Sony World Photography Awards
There are also advanced opportunities for students worldwide
as the event extends its university programme. This has seen
growth from ten universities in Europe in the inaugural year of
the awards to 60 universities across six continents. Students this
year can participate in a competition, the brief for this being to
produce one image that highlights a single environmental issue
specific to their country.
Add a new category list created for professional
photographers, which spreads across the three photographic
genres – photojournalism and documentary, commercial and
fine art – and the Sony World Photography Awards have never
looked so healthy. The event is now much more than an awards
programme, transgressing its boundaries into a contemporary
mix of festival events, exhibitions, award schemes and student
programmes throughout the year.
The Sony World Photography Awards welcome submissions
from every corner of the world, and competition is healthy to say
the least. The inaugural year saw over 70,000 entries received
from 178 countries. If you wish to make your mark at a global
competition that rewards professional and amateur
photographers alike, then visit the website below.
www.worldphotographyawards.org
17/10/08 18:34:28
 D3 success
11.08
AFTERMATH: The day-long programm
including digital seminars, presentatio
dedicated to the digital media design
culminated in the third annual Y Desig
e of activities,
ns and networking
community,
What’s
hot?
n Awards, celebrating
and awarding the best in digital and
interactive design

ing behind Digital
SETTING THE STANDARD: “The think
as part of the London
Design Day was to create a new event
celebrates London’s
Design Festival, which recognises and
provides an open
position as a leading digital hub, and
ts of the digital
platform to bring people from all aspec
w Minhinnick,
design community together” – Andre
nza
business development director at Carre
The launch of D3, the first day dedicated to digital design at
London Design Festival ‘08, was a resounding success.
Providing a forum for design students to network with
professionals and a place for development groups and
design agencies to showcase their work and interact with
the general public, D3 served as an innovative inclusion in
the creative calendar.
A resounding success, its aim to educate, engage and
interact through free exhibitions and interactive workshops
with some of the digital industry’s big commercial hitters,
including Apple, Smoothe, Future Sound and Digital Urban
was achieved.
HOT
BUNDY BOYS
22 ‘one of a kind’ vinyl figures, from
$85, approximately £45
http://illogator.com/colinjohnson/
These customised vinyl toys come in
22 vibrant styles, depicting Hulk
Hogan’s old nemesis King Kong
Senior staff writer Adam Smith was on site to question
Bundy. Pop-culture keepsakes.
Andrew Minhinnick, business development director at
Carrenza, who agrees: “This year’s event tested the water
and it proved that the demand from the design community PANTONE COLOR
is definitely there. Next year we expect the event to grow, CUE 2.1
and it may take place over several days. I can’t give anything $349, approximately £190
away, but there are several very exciting companies that www.pantone.com
have already said they would love to be involved”. This stylish hardware now features
seven PANTONE Libraries, including
the complete PANTONE Goe System,
both coated and uncoated.
www.londondesignfestival.com
SEARS VIRTUAL
DRESSING ROOM
http://searsvdr.mvm.com/pages/

i-Tonie Awards sears/layout.html

One for the ladies; browse your
shopping delights online and create
Mohawk Fine Papers have launched its first a live fashion selection with the
ever annual i-Tonie Awards. Calling for all power of 3D.
designers to contribute, there is only one
condition with this fledging contest, and that
is that all exceptional applications must be
PEUGEOT DESIGN
printed on any of the i-Tone paper on any HP CONTEST 2008
Indigo press. www.peugeot.com
Works produced from January through to Log on and sample some truly
December are eligible for entry, and a broad mouthwatering and inspiring
innovative concept car designs for
base of end products are welcomed,
Peugeot’s fifth edition contest.
including books, brochures, direct mail
pieces, etc. There is plenty of incentive to
enter with some promising cash prizes on PERMANENT PRESS
offer, including $1,000 for the Best of Show winner. LOOKING FOR EXCELLENCE: A distinguished
jury, including Frank Romano, Bill Garno, Todd Kalagher and Brett
FILTER
However, to compete for this sum your work will be judged $99, approximately £53
Traylor, will convene to review entries
on the merits of intelligent design, the maximisation of HP www.misterretro.com
Indigo capabilities and excellence in production. Inspired by the aesthetic of vintage
Multiple-piece projects, such as identities or
offset printing, Mister Retro looked
marketing campaigns, should be submitted as one entry. for a way to reproduce this
www.mohawkpaper.com Entrants ought also to be aware that the final submission appearance and fortunately,
deadline is 31 December 2008. entertainingly succeeded.

11
Advanced Photoshop

010-012_AVP_50_News.indd 11 17/10/08 18:34:51

 insight
Fun and games at uni
For our younger readership looking to the future and
considering your further education options, then perhaps

DIARY
the University of Portsmouth could well be the place for
you to expand your creative horizons.
Investing heavily in their creative departments over the
years, the university has now affiliated itself with Tiga, the ADVANCEMENTS: This collaboration means that students will

DATES
national trade association that represents computer benefit from the development of even stronger links between
the University and computer games companies
games developers in the UK. So what are the implications
producing graduates with industry-relevant skills. Closer
relationships with that industry mean we have first-hand
knowledge of developments in the field and we can tailor
our courses accordingly. The collaboration with Tiga
MIRÓ, CALDER, demonstrates our continued commitment to giving our
GIACOMETTI, BRAQUE: graduates the edge”.
AIMÉ MAEGHT AND This is no idle boast either, with recent graduates presently
working for some of the industry’s finest, such as Kuju and
HIS ARTISTS Rebellion Studios. Couple this with the university’s numerous
Until 2 Jan 2009 visits to and strong relations with Sony Studio in Soho, and it
www.royalacademy.org.uk
seems just the place to study for those with designs on a
Royal Academy of Arts, London, UK
career in the gaming industry. The ongoing investment in
this working arena can only be good for both artist and
industry, enhancing the competitiveness of the UK games
FRANCIS BACON TIGA WHO?: Tiga is the national trade association that development industry. Richard Wilson, CEO at Tiga, adds:
Until 4 Jan 2009 represents games developers in the UK and in Europe with “The University of Portsmouth’s decision to join Tiga is
www.tate.org.uk approximately 160 members
excellent news. It will facilitate greater knowledge-sharing
Tate Britain, London, UK between the University of Portsmouth and the rest of the
of this to those students who attend or are thinking about
games industry”.
going to the University of Portsmouth?

ANDY WARHOL: Dr Steve Hand, head of the Department of Creative

Technology, explains: “The University is one of the top www.port.ac.uk/departments/
OTHER VOICES, providers of computer games courses in the country, academic/ct/courses
OTHER ROOMS
Until 11 Jan 2009
www.haywardgallery.org.uk
The Hayward Gallery, London, UK Cut & Paste
Cut & Paste is introduced to creatives
as “the digital design
tournament formatted to blow the
BROUGHT TO LIGHT: definitely a date to add to anyone’s
dust off your brain”. It’s

PHOTOGRAPHY AND those of you who have never heard

creative calendar. For
of this event, it’s an
THE INVISIBLE eclectic mix of creativity and entertain
ment, a ‘design rave’
1840-1900 of sorts. Held at hot nightspots in parti
Cut & Paste packs in all ranks of desig
cipating cities,
Until 4 Jan 2009, not Wed ners elbow to elbow,
www.sfmoma.org with crowds swelling with drinks and
gadgets firing up to
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, create a congregation of immense
enthusiasm and
San Francisco, US creative energy. THE NEXT INSTALLMENT: The Digita
l Design Tournament
2009 will be launching in the spring
Promoting even the most anonymo of that year so keep an
us designer, Cut & eye out on the official website for furth
er details
Paste is a great networking opportuni
ty to meet those
WALL STORIES: rooted in the design industry. However,
when the games
Cut & Paste’s 2009 global tour will begi
continue through to June, leading the
n in February and
CHILDREN’S begin, it’s survival of the finest. Com
petitors participating competitions in North America, mov
charge with city
WALLPAPER in the Digital Design Tournament are
Apple MacPro workstation, Adobe
equipped with an Europe and rounding things off with
ing across the pond to
the Asia/Pacific
AND BOOKS Wacom Cintiq interactive pen displ
Creative Suite 3 and a
ay. With 15 minutes on
region. But this event continues, culm
inating in the first-
Until 8 May 2009 the clock, designers must apply their ever Cut & Paste Global Championship.
styles in three timed This climactic battle
http://cooperhewitt.org rounds with their work streamed live will take place at the birthplace of Cut
across the venue. & Paste, New York
Cooper-Hewitt National Design City, with a guns-a-blazing internatio
nal showdown of
Museum, New York City, US skills, speed and style.
www.cutandpaste.com To keep up to date on the Cut & Paste
2009 calendar, visit
www.cutandpaste.com.

12
Advanced Photoshop

010-012_AVP_50_News.indd 12 17/10/08 18:35:13

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013_AVP_50_eMagHouseAd.indd 1 17/10/08 17:43:26

 50
Feature

KILLER PHOTOSHOP

TIPS
50 of Advanced Photoshop’s top creative contributors
over the years give their ultimate tips for getting more
from Photoshop. Here’s what they have to say…

01
01. PAT BRENNAN
DAYBREAK © PAT BRENNAN
“There is no such thing as ‘correct colour’ when you colour-correct an image. It is
more of an art than a science and has more to do with how you, the artist, want it
to look. Adobe Photoshop contains some very sophisticated and powerful tools
to aid you. Basic colour correction include using Image>Adjustment>Levels and
Image>Adjustment>Curves. These tools deserve close study, as it’s possible to
make very accurate corrections with them. My absolute ‘must do’ in the final
stages of an image is the fine-tuning using Image>Adjustment>Color
Balance. Rather than trying to calculate the end result, it allows for more of an
intuitive and interactive working method.”

www.moonmomma.co.uk

03
03. ECHO CHERNIK
BELLAGIO © ECHO CHERNIK
“Always let your imagination
control your tools, not the other

02 way around. I prefer to think of

the Adobe suite as my palette and
I liberally skip from one program
02. NYKOLAI ALEKSANDER to the next, mixing and matching
IN NOMINE PATRIS © NYKOLAI ALEKSANDER to suit my needs. Eve’s body is
“There are several ways of blending colours when you painted in Photoshop and the
paint in Photoshop. You can either manually blend by rest of the piece is vector. A great
lowering the opacity of your paintbrush and layering your way to integrate small bits of
colours like watercolour washes until you have the desired painted Photoshop elements into
result. You can do this with both smooth brushes and Illustrator is to use a clipping
textured ones. When using textured brushes, try using it mask. I lay out her general form
with the Angle Jitter function as it will make it look more early and clip in a raw
random. Another way to blend is using the Smudge tool. underpainting. Then I go back
For very smooth blending, pick a round brush tip, set it to and forth between programs,
Scatter, either manually changing the percentage or set it working on the painting and
to Pen Pressure, and blend the colours. Be careful, though, vectors simultaneously to bring
as things can quickly look plastic or just too smudged and them smoothly to a balanced
smooth with this technique. If you want some texture, pick finish. Finally, I export into
a speckled or textured brush instead, while leaving the Photoshop for final
settings the same.” colour adjustments.”

www.admemento.com www.echo-x.com

14
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 50 KILLER PHOTOSHOP TIPS
05. JEFF M. DE GUZMAN
ESPRILANDRHU © JEFF M. DE GUZMAN 05
“I could finish a well-defined and polished painting using only the
Dodge and Burn tools. But, of course, the outcome is in Grayscale. The
tools work so well in creating armour when digitally painting. Start
off with a plain silhouette using the Dodge tool, then set the range to
Midtones and Exposure at 10%, gradually brushing in areas where
highlights can be seen. Using the Burn tool with the same setting as
the Dodge tool, brush in areas where shadows and dark areas appear.
Use this sparingly to effectively
block in shapes. Once the overall
look has been achieved, change
the Range settings to Highlights
for both the Dodge and Burn
tools. This allows you to further
work in and define those shapes,
which give you great control over
the areas that need detailing. The
Dodge tool under these settings
will create a shiny look to your

04
armour paintings, giving the
impression of a real metal texture
feel to it.”
04. BEN TEMPLESMITH
www.jeffmdart.com
HOXFORD
© BEN TEMPLESMITH
“I always find one of the things
a lot of people don’t think about
when starting out is if you’re
working from existing artwork,
you should know what you’re
wanting to do further to it in
Photoshop once it’s digital.
Have a plan. Don’t just think
that this software can make
your drawing better just for the
mere fact you can use it on it. At
the end of the day, Photoshop is
still just a tool for artists, like
any other. I always have a clear
idea of what strengths I want to
harness with the program when
I’m initially drawing my art. Be it
a way I’ll treat the lighting, what
textures I’ll add to segments of
the art using layering or how I’ll
shape the black-and-white art
with a colour scheme that will
make it pop once I can add
tones in Photoshop.”

www.templesmith.com

06
06. AIMEE STEWART
ADAGIO © AIMEE STEWART
“Using textures in conjunction with layer blending modes,
such as Multiply, Overlay, Soft Light and others, is key in
getting the most out of your texture files. By playing with
the Opacity value once the modes are applied, the fine-
tuning process is fun. There are countless ways to play
with these features, so experiment. Don’t limit yourself to
one texture. Mix and match. Also keep a camera handy at
all times and you can easily build your own essential
texture library by photographing old crackled walls, rusty
cars, painted wood, scuffed floors, etc. Let your daily
experiences provide you with stock images.”
07
07. MIKE CORRIERO
TILTADRON © MIKE CORRIERO
“The placement of objects, the direction of shapes, the saturation of colour, values
and details will all affect where the viewers’ eyes are drawn, ultimately leading the
viewer to the most important aspect of the scene and the main focal point. I try to
capture the initial attention of a viewer through a strong use of value and
contrasting colours that complement each other. While I want the image to look
believable, I also want to provide a bit of a painterly feel so it’s not so noticeable
that the image was created digitally. Photoshop allows me to do this with its
multitude of brush applications, customisation and hidden treasures that are yet to
be learned.”

www.foxfires.com www.mikecorriero.com

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 Feature
08
08. PHILIP STRAUB
MONOLITH © PHILIP STRAUB
“The Custom Brush palette offers an almost infinite amount of
possibilities for those who are willing to experiment. There are a myriad
of brushes available for you to try out on the internet, as well as hundreds
located on the Adobe site. Learning the finer points of manipulating the
Brush Preset options like Shape Dynamics, Scattering and Dual Brush can
net some really interesting results that will increase your workflow and
allow you to focus on making a good picture instead of details. Try
grabbing some found textures, scan in your own natural elements and
see what you can come up with. Once you’ve created some brushes that
work well, organise them into categories for easy use. For example, create
a bunch of metal structure brushes and apply them to a brush set called
’metal structures’. Any time you need a texture or quick details for a scene
like you see in Monolith, just load it up and you’re good to go.”

www.philipstraub.com

11. MARTIN LISEC

09
09. STEFAN MORRELL
THE INEVITABLE MONOLITH © MARTIN LISEC
© STEFAN MORRELL “In my work, it’s really helpful to use layer groups to link related layers. Don’t forget to
“When using 3D packages like name layers and groups correctly. This saves you time and your nerves. I like to have all-
Autodesk 3ds Max, images are important objects in special layers, because at any time I’ll have easy access to each object
usually rendered and passed to and there is no problem with adjustments. For example, grass in my artwork isn’t only one
Photoshop for further editing. It’s background layer, but I have one layer with generic grass in front, another layer with
often useful to generate a Z Depth shorter generic grass for middle distance and roughly painted grass in the background
pass along with your regular and then several layers with detailed custom flowers for a more realistic look.”
‘beauty’ render and take advantage
of the scene depth it can offer. Z www.martinlisec.com
Depth is a mask that defines the

10
near and far points of a 3D scene,
with black being distant and white
being closest to the camera. In The
Inevitable, I made heavy use of this
pass to paint in smoke and steam
elements, to add atmospheric
perspective and some depth of
field. These were things that could
be done in a 3D package, but the
same effect could be achieved
using Photoshop much faster and
with more freedom. Loading the Z
Depth as an Alpha channel, you can
use the pass with Photoshop’s Lens
Blur tool. This is incredibly useful to
have. In 3ds Max, a Z Depth can be
generated as a render element,
found under Render Options.”

www.stefan-morrell.com

12. MARIO SANCHEZ NEVADO

12 THE CARNIVAL IS OVER © MARIO SANCHEZ NEVADO

11 11. PAUL GERRARD

RHINO © PAUL GERRARD
“If you are trying to develop a realistic image with all
of its elements completely integrated, lighting is the most
important factor. What I do for this is, apart from usually creating
“With so much imagery at your the lighting from scratch in all elements using Dodge/Burn,
fingertips, it’s easy to overwork painting and some adjustment layers (Levels, Curves, etc), is to
an image, add too much detail or put a Black & White adjustment layer over the composition in
to tweak too much. With Lighting blending mode and play with that. A Monochrome
Photoshop, we can tweak Channel Mixer with the same setting is also useful. From here, you
highlights and shadows in just have to play the controls and see what fits best with your
seconds, affect colour and image; thanks to this, you will enlarge your lighting possibilities
contrast, but having this control and you’ll be able to change all the mood and visual appealing of
can also become detrimental to the final image.”
the art in question. One of the
largest failings in image www.aegis-strife.net
production is the overuse of
contrast, bringing out all the

13
detail with light and dark Levels 13. ADAM TREDOWSKI
and using Curves to make the FAR FROM THE CITY © ADAM TREDOWSKI
image stand out more. If I want to “After rendering, my pictures of models are initially
judge how far to push saved as a PNG file with an Alpha channel used to
application, I just look outside, get rid of the background. I create a new
bring myself back to earth and background in Photoshop on a separate layer,
focus more on realism and which helps me change the atmosphere of the
contemporary techniques. I step picture. I don’t texture the model in 3D software
away from Photoshop tweaks for because it is easier for me to perform this in
a while. A good tip is always Photoshop using the Free Transform tool (Cmd/
adding layers of subtle dust to Ctrl+T), Vanishing Point (Cmd/Ctrl+Opt/Alt+V) as
soften shadows, further dulling well as Warp. Using these tools makes it possible to
all the most vibrant light sources.” adjust the texture to a given shape.”

www.butterflysoldiers.com www.tredowskiart.blogspot.com

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14. JERRY LOFARO
ARCTIC KISS © JERRY LOFARO
“When creating a reflection, I first use an image of water ripples
with clearly defined light and dark areas. Then, using Color Range
in the Select menu, I select the light colour in the water while
playing around with the Fuzziness. Next, I delete the selection,
leaving the dark ripples on a separate layer. After duplicating the
sky, bear and ice layers in this image, I flipped them upside down.
I was then able to move these three layers beneath the dark
ripples to create a reasonably natural reflection and finish it off
with some blending techniques, such as Smudge, Blur, Airbrush
and various filters.
www.jerrylofaro.com
14
15. ELDA THE
WATER LANTERN © ELDA THE
“In order to mix the colour in your composition far more easily and
professionally, most people would suggest applying the Smudge
tool. However, I’d prefer to recommend the Airbrush tool. Set this
to 50% Opacity for much better effects.”
www.thousandskies.com
15
014-023_AVP_50_Feature.indd 17
50 KILLER PHOTOSHOP TIPS
16. SAM GILBEY
NO HEROICS © SAM GILBEY, ITV
“When you’ve been working on a complex piece
with lots of different elements, it’s very important
to colour grade them together, ie to composite
them convincingly. A way of doing this is to apply a
photo filter at the top of your image, done by
selecting Layer>New Adjustment Layer>Photo
Filter. By default it’s orange, which can bring you a
nice warm feel to the work, but you could go for a
cold blue or anything else you like, depending on
the mood that you’re trying to create. You’ll find
that instantly the colours of your piece are brought
together more harmoniously, without needing to
set the filter at a really high opacity.”
www.sam-gilbey.com
16 18. KIRK NELSON 18
PHOTOSHOP TOOLS © KIRK NELSON
“Learn to use channels. These are one of Photoshop’s most
overlooked features by beginners. Using channels to make
difficult selections like hair is just the tip of the iceberg.
Channels can be used for storing, combining and building
selections. Often, dramatic noise reduction is as simple as a
blur on the blue channel of an image. Several powerful
filters, like Lens Blur and Lighting Effects, have the option of
using a channel to control how the effect is applied.
Removing or adjusting colour bleeds are a snap when you
can work with the channel containing the offending colour.
Once you master the mystery of channels, you’ll wonder how
you ever got along without them.”
www.trikirk.com
17. JEFF MIRACOLA
LIFE IS GOOD © JEFF MIRACOLA
“Use colour and textures to your advantage to
convey mood and direct the viewer’s eye to
important elements in your work. Using textures
will give your work an interesting surface quality,
set up your intended mood and therefore make a
more interesting piece of art. The strategic
placement and use of colour will appeal to your
viewer’s emotions and also tell the story within
your artwork. Make sure you give thought to
colour choices and textures at the beginning of
your project so those elements don’t feel like
afterthoughts tacked on at the end.”
www.jeffmiracola.com
17
19. TIM SHELBOURNE
19
MAGIC © TIM SHELBOURNE
“Layer masks and Alpha channels will always be the key to
professional, polished Photoshop work. Using a simple
concept, such as layer masks, in an advanced way allows me
to really ‘paint with light’, which is key to the effects achieved
in my photorealistic images. Even a simple gradient applied
to a layer, in conjunction with layer blending modes, can be
transformed into a magical light source by painting and
blurring a layer mask attached to it. Humble Alpha channels
can become light maps in just a few clicks. Layer masks in
CS4 promise even more potential for light painting, so
naturally I can’t wait!”
www.timshelbourne.co.uk
17
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17/10/08 18:38:57
 Feature
20. STEWART M BRUCE
METROPOLIS © STEWART M BRUCE 21. MARK MAYERS
“Adobe Photoshop CS3 is without a doubt the best program on the market for graphic POP ART © MARK MAYERS
design, illustrators or digital artists. I first fell in love with Photoshop way back in the days of “The great advantage of Photoshop’s nondestructive
version 3 and have been with it ever since. Don’t forget, however, that there are other great editing is that images can be revisited at any time.

21
applications out there that complement Photoshop. For example, Adobe has Lightroom 2, a An adjustment layer will modify your target layer
photographic ‘darkroom’ that steps in where Photoshop can’t go. This program is great for as well as those beneath it, but you can also clip an
professional photographers. Also there is Corel Painter X. With Painter, you have all the tools adjustment to a single layer by holding Opt/Alt and
you would need to be a great artist. Spend some time creating unique backgrounds in clicking the Adjustment Layer icon at the foot of the
Painter and then you can export your creation into Photoshop to incorporate into your Layers palette, and then checking the clipping mask
illustration or graphic designs.” option in the next window. Smart Objects can consist
of pixel or vector-based content. You can make multiple

20
www.stewartbruce.clara.net copies of a single object and update their instances
easily. Pixel-based Smart Objects also remember
their original size and can be transformed multiple
times without loss of quality. Smart Filters work in
tandem with Smart Objects so that any filter effect is
not permanent”

www.markmayers.co.uk

23
23. MCFAUL
VIVA1 © MCFAUL
“These days, as a creative
agency we have learnt to
approach clients we want to
work with. We don’t wait by
the phone in the vain hope
22 they ‘might’ ring us with that
ever-illusive amazing project.
22. TEODORU BADIU We go to them armed with
FLYTRY © TEODORU BADIU ideas of where we can take
“Using different cutouts from different digital their business. We’re not
photographs for composition work in scared of doing so even with
Photoshop may let the finished work look a bit the bigger clients. They will
dull and unbalanced. One method I use often to give you the time of day if
deal with this problem is to apply a smooth they think you know your
Gaussian Blur filter with a Radius of about 0.5 to stuff and their brand. Spend
1px on the finished composition. After that, go some time immersing
to Edit>Fade>Gaussian Blur, select the Soft yourself within it.
Light mode with Opacity between 50 per cent Obviously, there is some
and 70 per cent then click OK. Now all the degree of ‘what have you
different parts are blending smoothly and the done before’ with most
colours look much better.” clients, but if you focus on
being proactive rather than
www.apocryph.net playing the classic waiting
game, you’ll definitely reap
the benefits by climbing the
ladder more rapidly. The
24. GARY J LUCKEN
MH FAIR 24 client has to believe in you
and your ability to take their
© GARY J LUCKEN product/brand where it wants
“When working with pixel art, you will find that you often use a zoomed-in view as you add to go. It’s a issue of trust and
fine details to your artwork. To save time zooming in and out to check if everything looks belief on both sides.”
good at 100%, it’s quite handy to have another view of your artwork next to the canvas you
are working on. To do this in Photoshop CS3, go to Window>Arrange and select New www.mcfaul.net
Window. Now you can work on your canvas zoomed in but also have a nice preview of your
image at 100%, so there’s no need to keep zooming in and out all the time.”

www.armyoftrolls.co.uk

25
25. KRISTIAN OLSON
CALENDAR GIRL
© KRISTIAN OLSON
“Never label your layers unless
you have to give the file to a
client or colleague. You can
easily navigate through many
layers by clicking on any
element using the Move tool
while holding down the
Command key. This will speed
up your process and allow you
more spontaneity.”

www.kristianolson.com

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 26. THOMAS BOROWSKI
2K © THOMAS BOROWSKI
“One of the best friends a digital
artist can have is their own photo
library. Creating a photo library with
50 KILLER PHOTOSHOP TIPS
stocked images that you shoot with

26
your own camera is helpful down
the line when looking for textures,
objects or reference. Don’t try to
reinvent the wheel. Sometimes even 27
building models or using household
objects to create sets adds the extra
touch needed to create a realistic
scene. Also, check your lighting and
value constantly. I like to use the
Create New Fill or Adjustment
Layer>Hue/Saturation with the
Saturation set to -100. Having this set
as my top layer allows me to toggle the
effect on and off.”

http://tomborowski.com

28. MIKE CAMPAU

STAY GREEN © MIKE CAMPAU
“When compositing multiple images from unrelated sources, eg, stock
photos, illustration and CG-rendered elements, it’s always a good idea
to keep in mind the main light source and the direction of the shadows.
For the elements that don’t quite match, use the Lighting Effects filter to
re-render the image with the type of lighting you need. This is a good,
quick fix that you should do on a separate layer and adjust the amount 27. KAREEM RIZK
that looks best.” BIRD NO.5
© KAREEM RIZK
www.seventhstreetstudio.com “Create realistic and detailed gritty
textures by scanning photocopied dust
28 and scratches found on old
photocopies. Carbon photocopies
create more natural and detailed
scratches, distress marks and lines. By
applying the Darken or Multiply
blending mode, all white areas will be
knocked out, leaving only the raw
markings to overlay on a background
or image. By simply applying the Invert
function under the Edit menu, white
grit can be created for dark
backgrounds and black grit can be
created for light backgrounds”

www.kareemrizk.com

30. GEORGE SMITH

ALIEN REVISIONED
© GEORGE SMITH
“Large, sweeping gradients produce a
lot of banding – that nasty ‘colour
stepping’ effect – in Photoshop,
especially at low transparencies. One of
the easiest ways to reduce, or in some
cases remove banding completely, is to
add a touch of noise to the layer causing
it. You will have to play with varying
levels of noise to fine-tune it because it
can get out of hand very quickly and
cause a lot of unwanted grain. There is a
very fine line between just enough
noise and too much. I have found that
Uniform Noise usually works better than
Gaussian Blur.”

30 www.georgesmith.co.uk

29
29. DAVID AND SARAH COUSENS AKA COOL SURFACE
IRON LADY © DAVID AND SARAH COUSENS
“As a professional, you’re often working on several briefs at the same time, so you’ve got to
make things as good as possible as quickly as possible. Anything that improves your workflow
is brilliant, but there are more tricks available in Photoshop than just learning hotkeys. If you
find yourself doing any task repeatedly, it’s time to start using Actions. Select the Actions
palette, then click Create New Action. Name it something appropriate then click the red record
button and start performing your task. When you’re finished, hit Stop. Don’t worry about the
speed that you do things, as Photoshop will only remember what you did, not how fast you did
it. When you next need to perform the recorded task, just click on the Play symbol in the Actions
palette and Photoshop will do the repetitive task for you, only much faster.”

www.coolsurface.com

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Feature
31. NIK AINLEY 32. MAGICTORCH
FLUID © NIK AINLEY WINDOWS 7, COMMISSIONED BY PCPRO MAGAZINE
“Working at print resolution, © MAGICTORCH
whether your image is for print or “It’s been said before no doubt, but good use of layer masks and groups is key to an
web, gives you much more control undisturbed workflow and thus a less obstacle-ridden route to a successful illustration.
over the quality of your image. Masks can be applied to both single layers and layer groups, giving you the freedom to
Generally, I work at a zoom of either edit your image without the nervous twitch of multiple Undos and scratch disc-
25% or 12.5% in Photoshop, sapping History palette hell. Groups can in turn be placed inside other groups, ridding
depending on the size of the image. you of an unwieldy Layers palette and allowing you to work into multiple groups at
You will find this allows you to once, while maintaining the full editability of all your separate elements.”
produce much crisper images with a
higher level of detail than working
at a 1:1 ratio. Whereas before the
lowest level of detail or setting for a
www.magictorch.com
32
tool you had was one pixel, you will
now effectively have a finer level of
precision available. If you do scale
the image down when you’ve
finished, running a light Unsharp
Mask is a good idea to pick out the
finer details.”

www.shinybinary.com

33. AMY NEAL

EV2KE © AMY NEAL 33
“Fully take out the background
of stocks using layer Masks and
your Pen tool. In my opinion, it is
the only real way to make sure it
is completely gone. If you use
your eraser, you can end up with
edges that are not precise and
using the Magic Wand or cut
functions is just asking for
trouble. With masks, you can go
back and revisit spots that you

34
may have needed to keep, and
the Pen tool is very precise in
selecting what you need and
nothing else. I love the Pen tool 34. JONATHAN WONG
and mask functions, they are IDIO © JONATHAN WONG
essential in keeping your images “Adobe Photoshop has a
clean and looking amazing.” wide range of features to
help you create
www.starfantazy.com professional standard
works. Level and Curve
adjustment layers can
really make a difference
through tweaks, however
small. Frequently, work
can look a lot worse than
it seems because of
saturation levels being too
high or too low. It is
only through
experimentation and
experience that you will
begin to have an eye for
such things. That’s why the
best designers produce the
most professional work.
Experience and having the
eye to know when
something is out of place.”

www.artofwong.com

35 36
36. ALEX HAIGH
INJECT YOUR CREATIVITY
© ALEX HAIGH
35. MIKE HARRISON
“One of the most common mistakes I see in designers is the lack of detail and patience
LET GO © MIKE HARRISON
put into a piece of work. At first you may be blown away by the aesthetics of a piece of
“Instead of opting for the standard Gradient tool, which is good but limited, grab the Brush tool. Not
work, however, when you look closer you can spot how something has been poorly
only will you be able to use unlimited colours in whatever area you like, but you can create some
put together. Even major brands let the error of a poorly cut out image slip by into the
really beautiful gradients when the brushing is contained within a selection by using the Lasso tool
mainstream of communication. Compositions should feature a small variety of
or Cmd/Ctrl-clicking on a layer to create a selection, then creating a new layer for the custom
elements that work together in sync to make the piece work perfectly.”
gradient. Then you can adjust the hue/saturation of that layer to create any gradient of colours you
like. This gives much more versatility and adaptability than the Gradient tool found on the toolbar.”
www.thinkdust.com
www.destill.net

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 50 KILLER PHOTOSHOP TIPS
38. MARTIN BLAND
BVAMP PRINT © MARTIN BLAND
“Remember that every stroke
you lay down is editable. If you
apply a little more pressure than
intended when laying down a line,
instead of hitting the Undo button,
try the Fade tool. Here you have a
very powerful, built-in option to
mess with every stroke, every
erase, every filter applied; anything
you do can be altered via a very
responsive slider giving you much
more control. It allows you not
only to fade your last action,
but use all the blending modes too,
which is particularly useful when
applying an effect or filter that you
wish to tone down, sweeping a
texture brush over an area, then
fading it into place or overlaying it.
All without having to touch the
Layers palette.”

www.spyroteknik.com 38

37
37. ADAM SMITH
CONTEMPORARY STYLE © ADAM SMITH
It’s essential even before you start your
compositions that the quality of your stock
imagery is high. This will give you a great head
start. Crisp, clean visuals are paramount in
presenting finished, polished professional
imagery. However, sometimes you can excel an
image’s quality even further with some of
Photoshop’s image-enhancing sharpening
functions. My favourite is to treat the final image
to some High Pass filter. Once satisfied with your
artwork, create a single merged composition then
duplicate this. Set the copy layer’s blending mode
to Overlay, then select Filter>Other>High Pass.
Usually, a treatment of 2px will work wonders,
and you can also apply this effect throughout
your working process, in styles such as high-end
photography and draganized imagery. 39. PETE HARRISON
LURE FULL © PETE HARRISON
www.advancedphotoshop.co.uk “To create pixie dust and magic effects, select a soft white
round brush and create a new layer. Open the Brush window
and change the Spacing to 100%. Click on Shape Dynamics
and make the Size Jitter 80%. Under Scattering, make that
440%. Start brushing areas on the canvas, alternating the
brush diameter. Give some layers Outer Glows and use the
bracket keys to alter the softness of the brush.”

www.aeiko.net
39

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 Feature 40
40. VINCE FRASER
LE COOL FRONT COVER © VINCE FRASER
“Combining adjustment colour layers with layer masks can
give you some really interesting effects. I generally use a
Levels adjustment layer, first just to tweak and enhance the
overall image, then combine it with a Hue /Saturation layer,
experimenting with both until I get the desired effect I’m
looking for. Once that is done, add a layer mask to the Hue/
Saturation adjustment layer and invert the mask and erase
the areas you don’t want. You can repeat this process as many
times as you want with different colour Hue/Saturation layers
to create some cool psychedelic colour effects.”

www.vincefraser.com

41. DANI DIXON

PHOTOSHOP CREATIVE COVER IMAGE
© PHOTOSHOP CREATIVE
“The Pen tool can be a slightly tricky tool to master. But this
tool is a very powerful multifunctional addition to the
Photoshop creative’s arsenal. The Pen Shape tool, for
example, can be used to simulate and produce vector-like
illustrations in Photoshop and dually can be utilised as a
selection tool to optimise the possibility of crisp edges in
cutout image sections. Selecting the Pen Path tool can act as
a powerful illustration tool and is great in producing fluid
and flowing shapes.”

www.photoshopcreative.co.uk
41

42. ANDY POTTS

CARRARO © ANDY POTTS
42 43
“This is a great way to apply vivid colours to the tonal
43. NEIL DUERDEN
qualities of an image to achieve an instant pop-art effect.
URBANITE © NEIL DUERDEN
Select your image or layer and a foreground and
“If you are creating a commissioned piece, always consider
background colour – the more high contrast the better – and
where it is to be used and the intended media. For instance, if
go to Image>Adjustments>Gradient Map to see how the
it’s going in the national press, the complexity has to be
colours are mapped into your image. Ensure that the
dropped to make sure the end result looks good with the
preview box is switched on and experiment with different
relative print processes. This applies oppositely if the piece, for
colour combinations or reverse the effects. Apply textures
example, is going into high-end fashion magazines. Again, if it’s
using layer effects such as the Overlay and Hard Light
going to be used across TV and press, make sure you consider
blending mode to distress the image.”
the ratios for different applications as portrait images can be a
nightmare to get in a landscape format ready for TV executions,
www.andy-potts.com
and the last thing you want to do is compromise your concept
for the sake of bad planning. So always make your document
the right sizes to start with. It’s basic advice, but it does matter.”

www.neilduerden.co.uk

45
44. ARCHAN NAIR
WELCOME TO JUNGLE © ARCHAN NAIR
44 45. TEIS ALBERS
“First off, before beginning with any form of digital artwork, MODERN FANTASY © TEIS ALBERS
it’s important to have the concept very well thought out and ”If you want to give a photograph more
the theme very well studied. A study can be in the form of a interest, try using the following technique.
personal interpretation or of research. Once the theme and Duplicate the layer you want to spice up and
concept is ready, I source and collect the royalty-free stock Gaussian Blur that new layer. Blending mode
images for that particular artwork and then to create various this layer with the original layer beneath and
illustrations, brush effects and forms, I use Illustrator, which play with the Opacity and various blending
is then rendered into Photoshop. The composition of the options. Then layer mask it and brush away
artwork, the photomanipulations and vector objects are the centre with a big soft brush. Now you can
then rasterised into various layers according to the adjust elements, for example, the colour or
composition, and blend methods and Quick Masks are levels for an interesting effect. Of course,
applied to achieve the desired effect. The most important
part is to be focused on achieving what you desire and to
maintain patience.”
45 outcomes depend on the photograph or
image, but it always adds more detail and
finesse to your art.”

www.humblevoice.com/archanN www.hypnoteis.nl

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 46
50 KILLER PHOTOSHOP TIPS
46. SAM HAMPTON-SMITH
TYPOGRAPHY POSTER © SAM HAMPTON-SMITH
“Ramp up the colour in your photographic assets without adversely impacting the luminance by
converting to Lab colour. Lab supports a much wider gamut of colour than RGB, so you can push the
saturation without burning out individual colours. The image data is separated differently in Lab than
other colour models. There are three channels: Luminance (L) and two colour channels (A and B).
Experiment with the Curves and Levels adjustment layers. Select individual channels for the
adjustments to target your changes precisely and make the most of the opportunities. This technique
is useful for recovering washed-out images, or simply giving an image more pop.”

www.hampton-smith.com

47. NELSON BALABAN

XTRA SPACE © NELSON BALABAN
“The Warp tool allows you to create 3D effects with a simple
47
but effective result. Explore it in many ways as possible and
discover how to take the best from it. Use gradients,
patterns, abstract textures and warp it. Another great tool
for distortion is the Spherize filter. You can combine it with
the use of the Selection tool in order to create 3D effects.”
www.xtrabold.net
48. RADIM MALINIC
NUNIPPON © RADIM MALINIC
“It’s quite easy to get comfortable with
newly learned techniques while putting
the intrigue to a side when too much
work comes in. Clients commission new
work vastly based on your previous
portfolio. However, if you don’t fancy
doing the same thing over and over,
strive to excite and don’t be worried to
suggest ideas in addition to the art
director’s brief. Remember, though, to
first listen to what they’ve got to say,
and not look like a smartarse when
selling them your opinion.”

www.brandnu.co.uk
48

49. ROSIE TANNER

TRAMP © ROSIE TANNER
“Photoshop is high functioning when it
comes to its photo-editing capabilities,
49 and can transform any sample from
home photo to professional shot in
numerous short techniques.
A great way to achieve professional
monochrome imagery is to open your
desired shot and then select Layer>New
Adjustment Layer>Hue/Saturation. Set
50. JUSTIN MALLER
OMBRES
50 Mode to Color, click OK and then
reactivate the same option, this time
© JUSTIN MALLER setting Mode to Normal and decreasing
“Ever found yourself staring at a piece wondering where to take it? The best thing to do at Saturation to -100. Now you can
this point is to strip your PSD down to its barest components, remove all of the clutter from reactivate the first adjustment Hue/
your document and leave yourself with the bare essentials. Once you’ve done this, try and Saturation layer and alter the Hue value
strip it further and examine every single element you have in your composition. Decide to justify the desired exposure in your
whether it really adds anything to the piece as a whole. Be honest with yourself. Just image. Applying a black-to-white
because it took you ages to produce a facet of the piece doesn’t mean it makes the piece Gradient Map as well as altering
stronger. It’s a tough thing to do, but your work will be stronger because for it.” blending modes and Opacity can also
evolve your image effect.”
www.superlover.com.au
www.photoshopcreative.co.uk

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 Letters
Mailbox
Do you have a question or opinion about the
magazine? Email your thoughts to
advancedpshop@imagine-publishing.co.uk
or visit www.advancedphotoshop/forum
FONT FUN: What did you think of our use of a
different font on the cover of issue 48?
SUBJECT: Font overkill
FROM: Alexander Nerdrum-Hansen
Hi there Advanced Photoshop. May I first say
that I loved the step-by-step guide to creating
the front cover’s character on issue 48; it gave
me some inspiration, which I’ve really been
desperate for recently.
Now, over to my point. Could you please tell
people, designers and whatnot to start to
consider the fonts they use more carefully?
You can’t just stick any font to your artwork,
design, graphic and such. It needs to fit in with
the style and use; it needs to flow with
everything else. I keep seeing the Bleeding
Cowboys font everywhere I turn my head
since it was out on www.dafont.com, and I
keep seeing so many bad uses of a font that
actually looks cool, only the overuse of it is
criminal and I shiver every time I see it now.
There are, after all, so many other good fonts
that can be used instead.
IMPROVE THE MAG: Help us shape the future of
Advanced Photoshop by filling in the short readers’
survey on our website
26
Advanced Photoshop
026-027_AVP_50_Letters.indd 26
A font is an important part of a piece and
shouldn’t be rushed in any case. Go through
the available fonts you have and test them out!
If you can’t find one, go online and check out
some new ones.
And yes, I did spot your use of it in issue 48!
Editor replies: Hi Alex. Thanks for your comments
– I can feel a debate coming on! I completely
agree with you that fonts can be overused on
release and be used badly. However, I love our
last cover (to be fair, I am pretty biased) and we
had a lot of fun choosing a font to go with the
excellent cover image. We don’t go crazy with
fonts too often, but I’d love to know what
everyone things of issue 48’s use. Is it something
we should be doing more often, or should we
stick with our standard fonts and let the picture
speak for itself? And on a slightly related subject,
what do you think of the magazine’s fonts in
general? Are we ready for an update? Email me
and let me know!
SUBJECT: Love the mag
FROM: Frank Geralds
Hello Julie. I am new to the world of
Photoshop and your publications, but I would
like to say how extremely impressed I am with
publications of Advanced Photoshop and
Photoshop Creative. I tried to phone your
offices but couldn’t get through – you’re all
probably busy producing the next couple of
fantastic issues. But I feel that it’s always
better to tell people how pleased you are with
their work. The quality and content of
Photoshop publications is professionalism at
its best. I read your magazines over and over –
I can’t wait for the next issues. A very, very big
thank you to you and all the Imagine
Publishing team.
Editor replies: Thanks so much for your email,
Frank. It’s always nice to receive praise and to
know that the hard work that goes into the
magazine is appreciated! Readers’ opinions are
always taken on board, so if you have an opinion
that you want to share, then why not fill in our
new readers’ survey online at www.
advancedphotoshop.co.uk. It only takes a few
minutes to complete, but it helps us shape the
magazine exactly how you want it!
SUBJECT: Email error
FROM: Hayley Clifton
Dear Julie. I was lucky enough to be featured
in Advanced Photoshop magazine’s Peer
Pressure section (issue 46). It was fantastic and
I am really pleased about the article.
Unfortunately, there was a misprint on my
email and I wondered whether you could put a
correction in. I would really appreciate this as I
am freelancing at the moment and would love
to be able to get some more work.
17/10/08 18:44:32

YOUR WORK HERE: Turn to page 76 to find out
how you can get your artwork printed in this
very magazine
Editor replies: Hi Hayley. Thanks for writing in
again, and apologies for the misprint. For those
of you interested in getting in touch with
Hayley, her correct email address is
d.christian4@ntlworld.com.
SUBJECT: Fantasy art rules!
FROM: Adam Michaelson
Wow – just got my issue 48 through the door
and I had to write in to say how much I loved
the feature on The Rules Of Fantasy Art. It was
fascinating to see those great painters
breaking down their images, especially when
you see the before and after shots. More
features like this please!
Editor replies: Hi Adam, glad you liked the
feature. There are a lot of really good fantasy art
painters out there, and it’s great that they were
happy to share their secrets for this feature.
Hopefully, the rules that were uncovered in the
“FILL IN OUR
NEW
READERS’
SURVEY
ONLINE – IT
ONLY TAKES
A FEW
MINUTES”
026-027_AVP_50_Letters.indd 27
FANTASY ART UNCOVERED: We’ve had loads of
people writing in about this feature in issue 48 saying
how much it has helped their artwork
feature will work across all genres of digital
painting, and many of the compositional tricks will
work in other types of digital art, too. Keep your
comments coming!
SUBJECT: Issue 50?
FROM: Sarah Painter
Hi Advanced Photoshop. I was thinking the
other day that issue 50 is on its way, but when I
looked on the website, I couldn’t see anything
before issue 16. I’d love to complete my back
catalogue of AP issues. Is it possible to get
earlier issues?
Editor replies: Hi Sarah. This is a common question
that we get asked and, sadly, you won’t be able to
find issues before 16. Advanced Photoshop has
existed in its current incarnation since issue 16,
when it was brought into the Imagine Publishing
fold. Before that it existed in a different
incarnation, leaving previous issues unavailable.
ISSUE 16: The first issue of Advanced Photoshop as
we know it today
On the
forum
SUBJECT: iMac 20-inch 2GHz 2GB
RAM – problem?
FROM: StudioWorks
I got this Mac for £800 and was hoping it
would provide more speed than my old
1.8GHz laptop. Currently, I use Photoshop
CS. I ran a simple test. I opened an A4 file at
300dpi and ran a large brush around the
screen… it jumped about and was not
smooth at all. I got the Mac with 1GB RAM
and upgraded it a few days later because I
noticed the RAM was maxing out. Now with
the 2GB RAM, it’s still maxing out. Should I
be concerned about this or is my Mac
considered usable for what I use it for? I’m a
web developer, but design CD covers and
vector artwork.
FROM: Nick S
I’m no Mac expert, but it should be fine and
run smoother than that with 2GB installed,
which is considered the minimum for PS,
etc. Was your Mac new and have you seen
any other problems especially when
running other applications?
FROM: StudioWorks
Yeah, it’s brand-new. Some programs like
Firefox will halt – you get the spinner
coming up.
FROM: revjessecuster
Maybe you should take it back. I had a PC
that kept freezing all the time and it turned
out that there was a problem with the fan
and motherboard.
FROM: Nick S
I agree with revjessecuster, sounds like
there’s a problem. Frustrating I know, but in
the long run you need to get this resolved.
FROM: MikiV6
Totally agree with the comments here,
StudioWorks. I run CS3 as well as Illustrator
together with the same amount of RAM on
my MacBook Pro. Are you running any
other graphic-intensive program on it at
the same time? If you are, then have you
thought about activating spaces for them?
If your problem continues to persist, then I
would get in touch with Apple and see if
they can sort it out. Good luck!
Join the debate at
www.advancedphotoshop.co.uk/forum
27
Advanced Photoshop
17/10/08 18:45:08
 Website

On the web
www.advancedphotoshop.co.uk
Our website and readers’ forum is perfect for
showing off Photoshop creations. We present
the best images on the site this month. Log on
and upload to get your images here next issue!
HYBRID STUDY
ARTIST: Sharonne Parfait
EMAIL: amadeus.love@gmail.com
WEB: www.advancedphotoshop.co.uk/user/amadeus_love
“This piece’s creation was totally experimental and was really
THE NIGHT KEEPER
ARTIST: Ida Larsen
a lot of fun. I wanted to try to incorporate a character to its
EMAIL: missdraconia@hotmail.com
surroundings and it ended up with an overly surreal look. This
WEB: www.advancedphotoshop.co.uk/user/Mizzdraconia
photomanipulation took me about two hours in Photoshop.”
MODEL: Elandria
“This image was initially inspired by a model stock photo
by Elandria Broughton-Sheard. I wanted to transform this
photo into a creature of the night. A goddess-like dark
fairy of the night, who would sit in the treetops and watch
ATTEMPTE everything that moves in the darkness. In this image she
ARTIST: Rebecca Parker
is catching a moth, drawn to her by her magnetic charm
EMAIL: rebecca_parker@mac.com
and the lights from the lantern and candles.”
WEB: www.rebecca-parker.co.uk
“I am a semiprofessional, self-taught digital artist
and photographer based in west Wales. I have
recently got enthused with fashion portraiture, but I
still like to mess with my images in Photoshop and
see what effects I can come up with. This image
was created initially by organising a studio shoot
with the prolific and popular model, Ulorin Vex.
The pose was all her idea, she is very creative!
The image has five texture layers over it using
mainly cloudy and painted textures. The main
one can be downloaded for free from http://
attempte-stock.deviantart.com/art/dazed-
36483438.”

CROOKED LOAN WRITER

ARTIST: Cliff Behum
EMAIL: cliffbehum@sbcglobal.net
WEB: www.advancedphotoshop.co.uk/user/cliffbehum
“This project was for Ohio Student Lending. The art
director, Stephanie Young, explained that the monster
represented the hidden ‘gotcha!’ traps in a loan
contract’s fine print. I wanted to give the monster
more character and connect him to the subject, so I
loosely fashioned him after the stereotypical shady
used car salesman.
Once the pencil sketch was approved, I created paths and basic colour shapes
in Illustrator and exported them to Photoshop in layers. Having a traditional airbrush
background, I use that tool the most, but I take advantage of layer effects, masks,
adjustments, custom brushes, 3D and anything else that helps me get the job done.
That’s why I find the Advanced Photoshop magazine and website so inspiring!”

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 Inter
view

LANDOWN
© EPIC GAMES INC:
“Being self-critical is a great way to ‘level up’ your skills
as an artist. I have to be really honest with myself. That
means if something is going wrong after I’ve spent
three hours on it, then I need to tell myself to scrap it
and not worry about it, to have faith in myself”

SHANE PIERCE
Shane Pierce, senior concept artist for Epic Games, has seen the bigger picture
through attention to detail. We question him on his own successes and ideals in
the ever-expanding creative game industry
30
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030-035_AVP_50_Interview.indd 30 17/10/08 18:45:54


SHANGRIL
A
© EPIC GAM
ES
“The desire to INC:
m
going, and co ake my family proud also
mpeting with ke
toes as well” my peers keep eps me
s me on my
W
hen you make the conscious
choice to become an artist,
attention to detail becomes
extremely important. Artists everywhere must
acknowledge this aspect in numerous ways, from
their design approach to their creative manner, if
they wish to accomplish anything in their own
careers. Being successful is as much about attitude
as it is about talent. Many creative individuals
believe that they have the skills to go pro and
make a name for themselves, and in most cases
they’re absolutely justified. However, skill alone is
not nearly enough. Investing in the values of
discipline and humility can go a long way into
obtaining a thriving and prolonged existence in
the creative industry.
Shane Pierce, internationally renowned
concept artist, is someone who will wholly agree
and his opinion comes with great authority.
030-035_AVP_50_Interview.indd 31
Working in the world of art since the age of 18,
Pierce has steadily worked his way up the
commercial ladder and now occupies the station
of senior environment concept artist at global
gaming corporation Epic Games. He realised, and
still does, the virtues of hard work as a self-taught
artist with humble beginnings. “My first artistic job
was designing motorcycle T-shirts,” he explains.
“The company had a couple of Apple Quadras
with Photoshop installed on them out in the back,
but I was trained in analogue techniques. No one
knew how to really use those computer programs
back then. We just designed type on them.”
However, Pierce was able to take away an
understanding of how art fitted into a production
environment. He also discovered restraint, and
more specifically how to distance himself
personally from a piece of art and ultimately act in
a productive professional manner.
Shane Pierce
Such production seems far removed, as these
days Pierce finds himself working on international
projects for popular-culture favourite franchises,
such as Gears of War and Unreal Tournament.
“Creating environment art for these projects has
been the most challenging and the most
rewarding for me,” he explains. “This genre of real
world with accents of fantasy is right up my alley
and the team here at Epic Games is amazing. My
art director on Gears of War is Chris Perna, who
always keeps me pumped up and positive about
creating great art. He will let me know in a split
second whether the concept is going the right
way or not, and I really love that instant feedback.”
Resolved attitude
Appreciating others’ opinions and the details
within advice is a big step for any artist, perhaps
31
Advanced Photoshop
17/10/08 18:46:09
 Inter
view
WHAT
KEEPS
ME HUNGRY
AS AN
ARTIST IS
HOSPITAL INTERIOR
© EPIC GAMES INC: ANTICIPATING
“I have worked on at least eight games, but the Unreal
Tournament and Gears of War franchises have been
WHAT
THE NEXT
the best fit for me. I love the artistic styles”

PAINTING’S
DISCOVERIES
MAY HOLD
FOR ME

more so than familiarising with new tools. It is

an essential evolution that we must all take to
prosper, and Pierce agrees: “I would say some of
the biggest lessons I had to learn along the way
involved getting the chip off my shoulder.
Working well with people is a big part of most
jobs. Taking art direction and being able to
incorporate that information into the concept is
a skill that you definitely need.”
Pierce finds himself working with an
environment team of ten and directly under the
director on a daily basis. This habitat, providing
HOSPITAL MEDICAL regular contact with other inventive minds, is a
© EPIC GAMES INC: strong influence in keeping Pierce creatively sharp:
“When it comes to art, my motto is to not
stand still. So I will keep evolving, painting as “Epic is really like a Willy Wonka factory. So much
fast as I can, researching new ways to pull off talent runs through this company, and every time
new effects and studying life in general. I’m
we have an art meeting I’m blown away by what
looking forward to Photoshop CS4 for its
page rotation and masking abilities” other artists are creating. I can create a piece of
concept art and with the help of the Unreal
engine, the artists here take it to the next level. It’s
always an evolutionary process; as an asset gets
passed from one person to the next, it gets better
and better.
“What keeps me hungry as an artist is
anticipating what the next painting’s discoveries
hold for me. Creating art has always been an
addictive, compulsive act, and wanting to see
what’s around the corner motivates me. The desire
to make my family proud also keeps me going,
and competing with my peers keeps me on my
toes.” Consistently motivated by that new creative
horizon, this allows Pierce to focus his inventive
energies to, time and time again, deliver his

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stunning conceptual landscapes and
environments. Yet what of the details of his
creative past? How have these shaped him into
the artist he is today? Popular culture seems to
feature heavily in his work.
Being predominantly self-taught, Pierce
explains: “I got into art at an early age by reading
comics and being inspired by artists within my
family. I started out drawing low-budget comics
and then moved into graphic design. As I got
older, I got into heavy metal music: Metallica, Iron
Maiden and such. Listening to that music always
brought out these awesome landscapes and
badass places envisioned in my head. Frank
Frazetta’s art made me want to draw like crazy.
030-035_AVP_50_Interview.indd 33
KARGO,
© EPIC GAMES IN
“I still look at a lot of
Old Ma
Joaquín Sorolla y Bas sters’ art: George Inness,
tida, as well as all of
Hudson River Schoo
l and Brandywine art
Star Wars was a big influence when it came out,
but movies like Tron, Aliens and Blade Runner were
equally awe-inspiring.”
Creative elements
It is no surprise that these movies present some of
the most “awe-inspiring” settings in cinematic
history, which have undoubtedly left their mark in
Pierce’s inspirational compositions. But
interestingly, he also showed an eager interest in
the finer details of art. “I moved into architectural
illustration, which is where most of my education
came in. I learned a ton about perspective and
Shane Pierce
HALLWAY
HOSPITAL ES INC:
© EPIC G M
A
en
ojects has be
t for these pr
vironment ar t rewarding fo
r me”
“Creating en ging and th e m os
ch allen
the most
how buildings are built, the materials that are
used, etc. While I was doing this, I stayed
afterwards at night and learned how to use an SGI
machine. I then made a demo reel and managed
to get into the game industry. I started out as an
animator, but my passion for drawing rose to the
top and I eventually made the transition to
concept artist. I have created textures, 3D models
and animation, even interfaces, but concept art is
where I really wanted to be. Being able to create
worlds for players to run around and have an
adventure in is amazing.”
Pierce’s creation of such worlds is extremely
delineated and precious, an evolution in itself as
he explains his method. “I like to start out very
C:
loose in Adobe Photoshop. I immediately throw
the old
ists”
lots of gestured paint strokes everywhere to get
rid of the white. From there, I can only describe it
as a method of ‘controlled chaos’. I throw shapes,
strokes and textures everywhere until I start to see
something in the image that is interesting enough
for me to pull objects out of it. Then I start to think
about overall mood. Once I get the time of day
and overall view established, I start on the details.
Detail is what designing is all about; a strong
overall shape is essential, and details inside that
shape reinforce it.”
To the small detail of style, we questioned
Pierce about his, how like his compositions evolve
and where he sees this heading. He explains with
enthusiasm: “My art style is still defining itself and I
think my job influences that style as well. I’m a
senior environment concept artist at Epic
33
Advanced Photoshop
17/10/08 18:46:59
 Inter
view

DUSK © EPIC GAMES INC:

“Current artists that inspire me are Erik Tiemens, Richard
Schmid, Craig Mullins and Justin Sweet”

JACINTO
© EPIC GAMES INC: “My inspiration when I was a
kid growing up out in the country was my grandpa and
uncle. They both could draw and paint well, and
constantly gave me positive encouragement”

JACINTO ST
“My wife and © EPIC GA REET
e were in high MES INC:
I met while w
gave me the sc
confidence to hool, and she
keep up my ar
t”

34
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030-035_AVP_50_Interview.indd 34 17/10/08 19:04:56


Games and I actually try to make my art fit each
project. Having the ability to draw upon multiple
styles is a big plus. Digital tools like Adobe
Photoshop allow me to take textures and mash
them together with different layer styles to create
an abstraction that I can’t initially achieve in
analogue forms. Digital tools also give me the
freedom to explore many ideas at once. There is
no pencil or paint to clean up, so the freedom to
create and try another layer and idea is invaluable
for concept art. It’s all about generating art ideas
for the art director as fast as possible while still
maintaining quality. Photoshop allows me to do
just that.”
Stay stimulated
This necessity to provide quality within his own
design is fuelled by the expansion of the working
arena he finds himself in. “The gaming industry is
amazing for artists. The sky is the limit, and then
you can go even further than that! It’s the most
creative field to be in because of the simply
amazing stories being told within the medium.
The gaming industry is becoming home to a lot of
the most creative people in entertainment. In
terms of artwork, it’s drawing the top talent from
the movie industry. As far as concept art goes, the
trend will continue to advance design and result
in high-quality textures, lighting, animation mock-
ups, etc.”
MY ART STYLE IS STILL
DEFINING ITSELF AND I
THINK MY JOB INFLUENCES
THAT STYLE AS WELL
030-035_AVP_50_Interview.indd 35
OUTPOST 2
© EPIC GAMES INC:
“Surrounding yourself with work you admire and then
having an imaginary competition in your head to push
yourself to get better is a good exercise”
It’s certainly been a good home to Pierce and a
place where he’s ultimately always wanted to be.
So what’s his advice for those also seeking refuge
in the gaming industry? He reveals: “I love to sit in
the corner of a room and paint all day. I like my art
to speak for itself, and I like it to be useful to the
company for which I work. There is a trend
currently in concept art for ‘pretty’ paintings
without a whole lot of thought on the design
and details within. I really try to make sure that I
have assets inside my environments that artists
can use to build from; otherwise, all you have is a
Shane Pierce
JACINTO INTERIOR,
COPYRIGHT EPIC GAMES INC:
“Knowing which colours and lighting help the situation
and feeling is something you learn as you grow. Watching
movies, travelling and just being observant of everything
around you is a good way to go”
pretty but nonspecific painting – which also
serves a purpose, but I find in games it’s a much
smaller one.
“My advice for getting into the artistic sector of
gaming is something I truly believe in. Work your
butt off. If you are working somewhere you don’t
want to be career-wise, then you need to be
pushing toward your artistic goal every second
you have free. Go home after your day job and
work at home on your own art with a specific plan
in mind. Find out the requirements for where you
want to be and then map out how you can get
there. Like most people, I have never had anything
handed to me, I have always worked like crazy to
get where I wanted to be. So my advice is that
hard work really does pay off, but make sure you
are having fun. If you are working hard on your art
and you are not having fun, then you are not
going to have fun when it becomes a full-time
job. So make sure you pull your head back from
the monitor and smile at what you are creating
once in a while.”
35
Advanced Photoshop
17/10/08 18:47:41
 MASTERCLASS

36
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036-040_AVP_50_Pinup.indd 36 17/10/08 18:48:29

 50s Pin-Up Art
Befitting for our esteemed magazine’s 50th issue, we
expert guide to creating popular Fifties pin-up art
bring you an

ON THE DISC
The CD contains a Custom Skin blender,
Skin Pore brush and Custom Texture Cracks
brush. Also included is the PSD layer on
which the Skin Blender brush was set up.
OUR EXPERT Jeffrey M. De Guzman, aka Jeff MD
A concept artist for a VFX company in the Philippines, Jeff has
been an Excellence Award winner for his work Golden Bee in the
Portrait Painted category for Ballistic Publishing’s Exposé 6, as
well as being chosen as the cover for the limited edition. See
more at www.jeffmdart.com.
I
n this tutorial, we will go back in time and try to reproduce retro pin-up art. This is a bit tricky, especially when
trying to get the feel and the colours just right. But with the help of Photoshop’s powerful filters, it is easy to extract
the colours that pin-up art normally uses. We will be using loads of filter effects to help you create instant textures,
and this tutorial also tackles the painting of authentic skin. We will go on to show you how to create your own brush to
efficiently paint it with. It has always been emphasised that a good knowledge of anatomy is helpful, and it will be
aiding us from start to finish within these pages, from blocking out shapes to creating the correct pose.
We also need to familiarise and educate ourselves in the history of pin-up art; what made it so popular and what
distinct features are seen in this type of art? Who are the master artists famous with this style of art, and where can we
find their artworks? We will tackle all these questions as we move along in this masterclass.

1 Concept sketches
You should start off making small sketches to
exhibit your intended wonderful pose with lovely
expressions to match it. There’s no need to get bogged
down with the application of too much detail here. For
now, we just want to have a general feel of the model.
2 Anatomy references
If you can’t find somebody to pose for you nor find
a pose to closely match what you want, you can simply
just look for parts of the body that serve as a good match
for the use of reference. But be cautious in doing so as
this technique can present different lighting. A good
knowledge in anatomy is very helpful in properly laying
things out.
“LOOK FOR
PARTS OF THE
BODY THAT
SERVE AS A
GOOD MATCH”
4 Pin-up face
We will now re-create a famous facial expression
that’s predominantly seen in pin-ups. Find a good
reference for the pouting mouth. Big eyes will also match
this well. If you can’t find one, just Free Transform the
eyes until you get them to match the expression.
Additionally, look in the mirror and do the same
expression; it will help, trust us.

3 Blocking out the figure

Now it’s time to start work on the figure that we
have selected. Working on a standard 8 x 11-inch canvas
at 72dpi, create a background with a lighting effect in
the direction you want and start blocking out shapes
according to the light direction. It is always good to start
out in Grayscale and worry about colours later on. Once
you’re happy with the general outcome, increase the
resolution size to 300dpi.

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 MASTERCLASS
Finding vintage 5 Instant colour palette
Pin-up images present a distinct colour palette. 6 Colouring
Add a layer above the Grayscale image, name the

inspiration Rather than colour pick, we have a fast and easy way of
getting it. Find a desired old pin-up image, go to
layer ‘Colour’ and add a clipping mask (Cmd/Ctrl+G or
Cmd/Ctrl+Alt+G for CS2 onwards). With a clipping mask,
There is a wide selection of great pin-up artists Filter>Stained Glass and press OK. Photoshop has now you don’t need to fear colours spilling away from your
to choose from, with names such as Peter extracted a colour palette automatically. We can easily character’s main shape. Start laying down colour with
Driben, Harry Ekman, Gil Elvgren, Earl Moran and colour-pick it and group according to its use in the our base colours for the image. Press Cmd/Ctrl+E to
Bill Medcalf to name but a few. You may also visit Swatches palette, using the Create New Swatch or merge layers. We need to create our own brush to easily
www.pinupfiles.com, which has a wide Foreground button. achieve smooth, flawless-looking skin.
selection of pin-up artists, including their
artworks, listed. You can find loads of
inspirational images to start with there.
In order to attempt to emulate these great
artists, we must carefully observe how light
reflects on an image. Their artwork clearly reflect
the kind of texture they painted. Clothing has its
own sense of texture, while skin looks soft and
props like chairs or cars reveal their rigid
structure. It is by the artist’s knowledge of lighting
that they are able to simulate these and apply
such brilliant colours.
Also notice how they paint skin. We can always
see lots of colour information in each body part.
Yellow or bright colours in areas where light is

7
more lit, gradually fading to the base skin colour.
Custom Skin Blender brush
Shadowed areas have a slight touch of blue,
which also applies to areas where blood circulates In a new file sized to 200 x 200px, activate a soft-
less, like those near the bones. We must never edged brush with Scattering checked in the brush
forget ambient or bounce lighting, which is settings. Create a new layer, loosely painting shapes as
present most of the time. This falls differently on shown. Gaussian Blur by 26%, then lower the layer
other materials or hard surfaces. You’ll rarely see Opacity to 40%. Select Edit>Define Brush Preset. In the
lots of colour change in it as it shows only Brush tab, under Shape Dynamics apply a Size Jitter of
reflections to imply that it is a solid object. 11% and Angle Jitter of 10%. Also check Other Dynamics
Artist Gil Elvgren has mastered these with Pen Pressure set to On.
techniques, as most of his artworks showcase
great use of colour with a limited palette but can
still clearly be seen in the majority of his paintings
within skin and textiles. See his work at www.
gilelvgren.com. On the other hand, another great
artist Harry Ekman not only shows painting skills
like Gil, but also displays his excellent lighting
skills with intentional use in his paintings, with a
complementary addition of environment. Take a
look at his work at www.thepinupfiles.com/
ekman.html.

8 Blend more colours

Again, add a new layer and set a Soft Light
blending mode, then add a clipping mask, setting the

“PIN-UP IMAGES layer’s blending mode to Soft Light in order to blend

more colours to the base. Using our Skin Blender brush,

HAVE A DISTINCT paint light yellow to the highlighted areas, pink to the
midtones, green or violet to shadows and orange and

COLOUR PALETTE” pink to bounce lights. Once again, merge both layers. Set
the brush Opacity to 40% and paint directly to the
image, blending the colour and paintstroke transitions.

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 9 Know your folds
There’s no need to be very accurate when trying to
apply all the clothing folds and creases. We just need to
know where the general folds and creases occur. Look at
your shirt or reference images and try to see how things
fold when posed on a certain body part. Adding
shadows plays a big role in creating this effect.
12 Skin textures
Back in issue 48, we showed you how to
make a Skin Pores brush. Using that brush, which is
included in the CD files, create a new layer and set a Soft
Light blending mode, and then add both freckles and
skin pores. Emphasise those parts where bumps and
facial contours build up and gradually fade to the dark
parts of the body.
15 Painting hair
First paint the base hair colour, using Default
Brush Spatter 59, applying paint in groups. Use the
Dodge tool to add highlights, varying the Opacity for
desired effects, giving it volume and a wavy feel. Use a
solid circular brush without any Pen Pressure to paint any
single, loose strands. This will certainly add a natural feel
to your model’s hair within the composition.
036-040_AVP_50_Pinup.indd 39
10 Sailor costume
It’s not totally essential to be specific, but we
still need to find the right uniform for the image subject.
11 Cloth texture
We no longer need to find or create a cloth
texture for this. An image created this far only needs to
This contributes a lot in the logical and storytelling part suggest there is a fibre woven into it. With the Marquee
of our character painting. From the references we have tool, make a square on a separate layer. Go to Edit>Fill,
gathered, we can then paint and design our own and then use Pattern. Use the preset Optical
costume to suit our intended model. Checkerboard to fill your square selection. Set the layer’s
blending mode to Soft Light, carefully arrange it to the
costume areas and erase any unwanted parts.
13 Power of two… and more
Rather than constantly zooming out to see
the overall image, why not open another window for it?
Photoshop has the capability to create multiple windows
on a same file. Whatever you do in one window will
reflect on the other. To activate this option, go to
Window>Arrange>New Window.
14 Go inverse
Can’t find the right light source reference? Try
to invert the image by clicking Cmd/Ctrl+I. This time, the
shadows become the highlight and so on. Now you will
have an idea how an image is lit in that area. This may
not be perfect in other areas, but giving you an idea on
how a certain part is lit and where the shadows are will
be good enough.
“EMPHASISE
THOSE PARTS
WHERE BUMPS
AND FACIAL
CONTOURS
BUILD UP”
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17/10/08 18:50:03
 MASTERCLASS
16 Plastic shoe texture
It is very easy to simulate a plastic texture for
your model’s shoes. Carefully select the would-be plastic
part of the shoes, then press Cmd/Ctrl+J. This duplicates
the selected area to its own new layer. Go to Filter>Plastic
Wrap and max out all the setting, then press OK. Set the
layer to Soft Light again and merge with the figure layer.
18 Constructive erasing
Here, the best practice is to use a layer mask,
applying a black-coloured brush to erase image
elements and unwanted parts rather than using the
Eraser tool. This technique is extremely helpful during
the construction stage of an image. With this method,
we could easily retrieve those parts that we have masked
out using a white-coloured brush.
“IT IS BETTER
TO PAINT OVER
OUR MISTAKES”
21 Making clouds using skin brushes
Your skin brushes can also be used to create
cloud formations. In a new layer, paint cloud formations
using the Skin Blender brush, with colours from our
shadows colour palette. Swap between this brush and
the Skin Pores brush to add alternative textures. Set the
layer’s blending mode to Soft Light and merge with the
Background layer.
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036-040_AVP_50_Pinup.indd 40
17 Shadow
Duplicate the image to a new layer. Press
Cmd/Ctrl+U and move the Lightness slider to -100. Free
Transform the silhouette to the shadow’s direction and
apply a Gaussian Blur set to 12 pixels. Add a layer mask to
the layer, and with this active, select Create New Fill or
Adjustment Layer>Gradient to apply a gradual fading
look to our shadow. Set the layer blending mode to
Multiply and Opacity to 55%.
19 Crack brushes
When importing a photo of cracked
soil, activate Levels and move the left and right
sliders until they’re almost at the centre. Next,
gradually erase the edges and corners of this photo
image. Now go to Edit>Define Brush. In the Brush
settings, adjust Spacing to 107%, with Other Dynamics
checked along with Pen Pressure, as well as Shape
Dynamics checked with a Size Jitter and Angle Jitter of
100%. Save this as a new brush.
Quick
tip
Avoid using the Undo command or the famous
Cmd/Ctrl+Z when painting. It is better to paint
over our mistakes thus building up painting
strokes in our images, which gives it beauty,
texture and attitude.
20
Textured floor
Add a new layer and set it once more to a Soft
Light blending mode. Paint the floor area with our newly
created Crack brush and randomly erase areas. You don’t
really need to create a fully textured floor here; all you
really need to see are suggestions of these textures to
show that a floor exists within the composition.
22
Adding film grain
Now you can add overall texture to your
image. Create a new layer above all the layers in the stack
and fill it with white. Then go to Filter>Texture>Grain and
set the Intensity and Contrast to 50%. Set the layer’s
blending mode to Multiply and lower the layer Opacity
to 25%. Go to Layers>Flatten Image and call it a day. Your
pin-up is complete.
17/10/08 18:50:25
 Feature

Photoshop 3D menu There is a

dedicated 3D menu
in CS4 Extended,
giving you access to
functions like New
Layer from 3D File,
New toolbar There is now a new toolbar 3D Paint Mode and
along the top, which gives you fast access to the 3D Layers
window arrangements, Screen Modes and the options. We’ll look
Hand and Zoom tools, as well as the new at Extended in more
Rotate View tool, which only works if you have detail next time
a OpenGL-accelerated graphics card

Kuler One of the two built-in

Extensions palettes, Kuler lets
you access the colour theme
community directly from within
Photoshop, browse the
uploaded themes, edit them
and create your own to upload.
It also shows off the ability to
run applications in the palettes

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 Photoshop CS4 beta

CS4 beta Advanced Photoshop

takes a look at the
Part
one
Photoshop CS4 beta to see
Adjustments panel what Adobe has improved,
The new Adjustments
panel is where you now added and increased

E
add adjustment layers
(although you can still ver since CS3 was launched, we’ve been
do it the old way, too). wondering what Adobe could possibly pull
Simply click the out of the hat next. Sure, CS3 has its flaws,
adjustment you want to
make, the layer will be but in terms of functionality it’s pretty good. So
added and you can when CS4 was announced, we couldn’t wait to get
change the default our hands on it and see what was new, what was
settings in the palette improved and whether it was worth the upgrade
itself. Plus, there are a from CS3 (or even from earlier versions, which so
whole host of handy
presets to choose from many people still use).
As with CS3, Photoshop CS4 is going to be
available in two standalone versions – CS4 and CS4
Extended – and as part of Creative Suite packages,
which will include Design, Web, Production Premium
and Master collections. With the announcement of
Creative Suite 4, Adobe revealed that there will be a
massive choice of six suites and 13 standalone
applications across the range, so you can mix and
match to suit your needs if you want other programs
aside from Photoshop as well. And if you do invest in
Masks panel Another
new palette, the Masks more than one Creative Suite package, you are
section, controls and promised better integration and easier switching
builds complex masks between the different software. CS4 was never going
Vibrance much more intuitively to come cheap: the suites start from £1,195, while
adjustment layer and precisely than
before, and will Photoshop alone is going to weigh in at around £485
There is now a for the standard version and £755 if you want the
new Vibrance definitely be a time-
adjustment, which saver if you use a lot of features in the Extended version. Upgrade options
is the same as has masks in your work will be available for a lower price.
been in Lightroom If you’re going to be shelling out this sort of money,
for a while. This is then you’re going to want to be sure of what you’re
another way of
adjusting the actually getting. We’ve been having a play with the
saturation, but CS4 beta, codenamed Stonehenge, getting to grips
without altering with the new features and finding out its best bits.
skin tones. It is also Over the next few pages and continuing on through
more intelligent, the rest of the series, we’ll guide you through the
saturating the pixels
that need it most, must-know features of Photoshop CS4.
rather than those
that are already
more saturated First impressions
A lot of the major changes to the program are under
the surface, such as Content-Aware Scaling and GPU

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 Feature
CONNECTIONS: Another
Extension included in CS4 is
Connections, which allows you to
share your projects with others
TOOLBAR: CS4’s main toolbar has
been changed very little, but there
are two new 3D related tools in the
CS4 Extended package
acceleration, which you can read about in more detail
in the boxouts. But from the outset, there are still
changes that are obvious to the naked eye. The
interface itself is pretty similar, except for a change to
capitals on the menus and slightly more streamlined
palettes. There is an extra toolbar on top of the main
toolbar (the one with the tool options in that is in
CS3). This gives you instant access to Bridge (which
itself has been improved), quick drop-down menus to
turn Grids and Guides on or off, access different
Screen Mode options and arrange the windows
quickly, as well as shortcuts to the Hand tool, the
Zoom tool and the new Rotate View tool. It’s a handy
addition that will really speed up your workflow,
especially when it comes to customising your
workspace to suit.
Be aware, though, that depending on your system,
some tools, which include the aforementioned Rotate
View tool, might not work – you’ll just get an error
message instead. This is down to whether your
Next month: We get hands-on with the new tools
44
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042-045_AVP_50_Feature.indd 44
TABBED
DOCUMENTS:
Proving a useful
addition to browsers in
recent years, tabbed
documents are now
employed in CS4
graphics card has OpenGL, which we’ll look at in more
detail in the boxout. On the right-hand side of this
new toolbar is the word ‘Essentials’, which refers to the
preset workspace that you are currently using. Click
that to select from all the other preset workspaces, or
create your own and access them easily from here.
Open a couple of Photoshop documents and you’ll
see the next subtle, but oh-so-useful, change to the
interface: tabbed documents. We’re all used to using
tabs when browsing the internet and it’s such an
intuitive way of working. Switching between open
documents is infinitely easier.
Perfect palettes
The palettes in Photoshop are really where the action
is. CS3 saw them get more streamlined in the way
they are presented on-screen and CS4 continues the
trend, maintaining the same docking and minimising
capabilities, grouping together similar palettes.
However, there are a couple of noteworthy new
palettes and Extensions that are rather impressive.
For a start, there are two completely new palettes
to help you access and control two popular methods
“WITH THE ANNOUNCEMENT OF CS4, ADOBE REVEALED
THAT THERE WILL BE A MASSIVE CHOICE OF SIX SUITES
AND 13 STANDALONE APPLICATIONS ACROSS THE RANGE”
Content-Aware Scaling
Content-aware scaling is a new technology that
has been integrated into Photoshop CS4, which
enables you to resize an image without losing
the areas that you want to keep. You can select
the part of the image that you want to protect
and, when resizing, Photoshop will automatically
remove other areas of the image before touching
the areas you want to keep. This means that you
can select your key subjects in a scene and lose
only background information that doesn’t add to
the image, such as excess sky. Content-Aware
Scaling also recognises and protects skin tones
when there is a person in the shot. If there are
multiple subjects, they may move close together
or further apart, but individually they’ll maintain
proportion while the background is removed.
You can find out more about the
algorithm that powers this new feature at www.
seamcarving.com.
a
17/10/08 12:06:24
 Photoshop CS4 beta

used in image creation. First up, there is now an
Adjustments palette, which is where you can apply
adjustment layers to your images (although you can
still apply them in the usual manner from the Layers
palette). There are icons for each of the adjustments
that you can make; click one of them and adjust the
controls as you usually would (except that they are
contained within the palette rather than coming up in
a new dialog window). However, you can now alter
these same controls on the image itself, clicking and
dragging where you want the adjustment to affect.
For example, pick a Hue/Saturation adjustment layer
and you can use the eyedropper to select the area of
the image that needs changing, which will change
the target colour accordingly, then you can simply
click and drag with your mouse to alter the colours,
just as if you were using the slider. It’s wonderfully
intuitive to use and you get instant feedback.
There’s also the addition of one new adjustment
layer in CS4 and that is Vibrance. Vibrance is a control
that has been seen in Lightroom in the past and is
used to adjust the saturation, but it increases the
saturation of less-saturated colours more than
already-saturated colours, while protecting skin tones
from oversaturation.
The other new palette that will likely become your
new best friend overnight is the Masks palette. Once
you’ve made your selection as usual, you can add a
mask from the palette (either a Pixel or Vector mask),
then adjust the Density and Feather sliders to suit.
There are further options available to help you refine
the mask, and complex masks can be built really
quickly and intuitively.
Community connections
Also additional to these two new palettes are a couple
of exciting Extensions, which can be selected from
the Window menu. The first of these is Kuler, which
we have covered in Advanced Photoshop in the past.
Kuler is an online community for colour sharing,
where you can build custom colour themes and share
them. Now, through the dedicated panel in CS4, you
can access the community directly within Photoshop
(with an internet connection). Here you can browse
the highest-rated themes or the most popular, edit
the themes and create your own to add to the
community. While it’s great to have this power within
Photoshop, the really exciting thing about this is that
it shows the potential for future palettes to run mini
applications – and that’s an exciting thought.
The second Extension that you can run is
Connections, which is a professional method for
sharing projects with other users and allowing them
to contribute to your project. This has been added to
many applications in the Creative Suite and is easy
enough to use once you’re registered for the service.
This month, we have focused on the new palettes
and interface, but next month we’ll take a closer look
at the new tools and improved features, such as Brush
and Clone Source previews, and added tool options.

GPU acceleration
Some features of Photoshop CS4 take advantage of
OpenGL, and if your graphics card doesn’t support
this then you won’t be able to use some of the
tools and others won’t work to their full benefit. For
example, the fantastic Rotate View tool simply
won’t work without the right graphics card. When
it does work, however, you get a compass on- CURVES ADJUSTMENT: You can drag the curve here MASKS:
as usual, or click on the image and drag there instead Adjacent to
screen that enables you to rotate your image by
Adjustments is
dragging it in a circle, rather than having to type in Masks, with the
the rotation angle manually. Zooming is also choice of a Pixel
improved with OpenGL technology. You can get in or Vector mask
to a pixel-by-pixel view for incredibly accurate
editing – without the accelerated option, you will
see bleeding between the pixels. Panning, likewise,
is a lot faster and smoother with an accelerated
graphics card. While using Photoshop CS4 without
WORKSPACE:
this technology is still going to give you a great
With CS4, you
experience, it is worth the (not-too-expensive) can choose
upgrade to really enhance your use of the program from a number
and save you time in your workflow. of preset
workspaces, or
create your own

s and features in CS4 and CS4 Extended

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 masterpieces
From Advanced Photoshop issue 38

46
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 47
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 MASTERCLASS

48
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 49
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 MASTERCLASS
Improve your
matte paintings
Create a professional-looking matte painting by combining reference
photos with a sprinkling of traditional skills
ON THE DISC
The files on the CD incorporate mainly
architectural images and photos that relate
to an urban landscape. The content is
particularly applicable to a city theme such
as this piece and covers a variety of man-
made environments and structures, both
old and new.
OUR EXPERT Richard Tilbury
Richard studied Fine Art at Bath Academy before acquiring an
MA in Computer Animation at the NCCA. He began his current
career as a texture and character artist in the games industry.
Currently, he is the resident artist at 3D Total as well as
working freelance.
www.richardtilburyart.com
1 Composition and tonal range
Once you have decided on the size and format of
your image, start by selecting one of the standard hard,
round brushes and begin blocking in your tonal range.
Make sure to set the Opacity of the brush to Pen
Pressure if you are using a graphics tablet. At this stage,
try to decide on your light source and imagine where
the overall shadows and highlights will appear, then
use this as a structural device to help the composition.
“IT IS IMPORTANT TO ALWAYS
THINK OF THE IMAGE AS A WHOLE
AND NOT GET CARRIED AWAY WITH
DETAILS AT THIS STAGE”
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048-055_AVP_50_AlienMC.indd 50
T
his tutorial will aim to show how a finished matte painting can be developed from a simple
compositional sketch, with the aid of photographic reference. During the process, we will show how these
references prove not to be the driving force behind the picture, but rather fill a more supportive role. By
approaching a subject in a more creative and painterly fashion, we will see that the photographs do not dictate the
results so much as our imagination and artistic merit. Upon deciding on a composition first and foremost, we shall gain
an insight into the power of Photoshop’s layers and realise how blending modes can be exploited to gradually build an
image, similar to how the old masters used glazes. You will see that no complex techniques or lavish brushes are used,
but rather an attention to more universal principals, such as tone, colour and light. These are the key lessons that will
enable you to attain a greater degree of truth and plausibility in your own work.
Establishing the tonal range within our composition early on will help as a guide in choosing which elements of the
photos we shall use. You will also see how light and tone are deciding factors in developing our image and controlling
the contrast throughout the process.
Inspiration for the project came from films like War Of The Worlds and Independence Day for obvious reasons, but a
small statue will also be incorporated as a reference to a scene in Cloverfield.
3 Selecting photo elements
You can see that so far we have worked broadly
across the image and not focused on any one area in
particular. It is important to always think of the image
as a whole and not get carried away with details at this
stage, otherwise you risk over-working one area and
making it the focus. With the rough composition, light
source and initial colour scheme in place, it is time to
select some photo elements and begin adding
definition. In order to keep your options open, make
2
sure that when you copy and paste selections (Cmd/
Adding colour Ctrl+C and Cmd/Ctrl+V) you keep them on separate
As the buildings are quite high, much of the layers. Also be mindful to desaturate them by the
scene is in shadow. Therefore, we wanted the necessary amount so that they conform to the lighting
foreground to have a different colour compared to the in your picture. These can remain at the default
sunlit middle distance. On a new layer set to Overlay, blending mode.
use a pale yellow for the sunlight and a warm brown for
the shadows. By selecting this blending mode, colour
can be added and changed quickly without altering
the tonal relationships, affording great flexibility.
17/10/08 18:52:17
 4 The beauty of Overlay
We decided at this point that the yellow colour of
the sunlight looked too stylised. Because this exists on a
separate layer, it was easy to try a variation. We opted
for a slightly less defined colour that verged towards
the foreground more. Always feel free to make changes
such as this as you go along and remember to
experiment. The advantage of structuring your PSDs in
this way means that you can do this with ease and is
something that the CG industry will often demand of
you, so plan ahead.
5 Never too late to change
We added some more photo elements along the
left side of the street and blended these in using a
brush. These were kept on separate layers and
desaturated. In order to blend these with the painted
aspects, we simply sampled the photos using the
Eyedropper tool and then extended them into the
image with a standard brush – see the near building
that has been partially destroyed. I also changed the
colour scheme once more, which now contrasted
nicely with the background.
Starting
photos
Because you are laying colour over all the
elements in the image, it is possible to use
photos for detail instead of having to draw
from scratch. Make sure that you desaturate
any photo element you include because that
will make it far easier to paint over. If you are
out with your camera, start to build up a library
of architecture, textures and objects to use in
scenes such as ours.

6 Copy and paste

The street is now
taking shape, but the focus
of the picture is still absent,
ie an invading alien. As a
starting point, we used an
image of some form of
industrial structure, which

looked quite insect-like in
silhouette. We decided
that a walkway spanning
the road would be the
target of attack along with
the adjacent building. We
used three photos to build
these elements after simply
pasting them into the
existing document.
8
Custom brushes
You will notice that we have pasted in a fallen
structure, which will eventually substitute part of the
destroyed walkway. To add drama and show the
impact, we used a custom brush to add in some dust
and smoke below it. We also used the same brush to
paint in some flames spewing from the building above.

7 Curves vs Levels
With the smoke now
in the picture, we used the
Edit>Transform tools to
scale and rotate it into
position. We then
integrated it using the
following procedures, all
found under Image>
Adjustments. First, darken
the smoke by altering the
Brightness and Contrast.
Next, alter the Color
Balance to reflect the
lighting scheme. Finally,
use Curves and/or Levels to
create the correct contrast.

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 MASTERCLASS
9 Colour and shape
The alien so far amounts to a floating abstract
shape, so the time has come to add legs. Because detail
11 Foreground detail
Because the spectator’s viewpoint is at close
proximity to the foreground buildings, it makes sense to
would be almost indistinguishable at this range a brush place the photo detail here. We found a sympathetic
can be used to integrate it into the scene. The key thing façade, which we then masked from the background by
to get right is the tonal value, which again adheres to using the Select>Color Range tool. When an image has
the lighting conditions in the scene. The same rule clean lines and stark contrast, this is an effective way of
apples to the running figures. You can see that these cropping. Then it is just a case of using the Eraser to
are merely coloured shapes with subtle variation. blend the image in once it has been colour-corrected.

10 Perspective
Whenever you copy and paste parts of one
image into another, it is very unlikely that the
perspective will match. In order to alleviate this
problem, use the Edit>Transform tools, such as Rotate,
Skew, Distort and Perspective. These will give you a
good deal of control and should enable you to
overcome most problems. These techniques were
applied to the foreground pipe and rubble, as well as
many building sections.

12 Nothing is stranger
than reality
As the focal point of the image is
13 Layer effects
To achieve the laser fire, simply paint two
white lines and maybe apply a little Gaussian Blur. Then
the alien in the background, it is click on Layer>Layer Styles (or click on the small ‘f’ icon
time to pay it some attention. The at the base of the Layers palette) and select Outer Glow.
design of the main body is taken Here, you can tailor the blending mode and colour
directly from a nautical apparatus. It of the glow as well as the size, which can be found
proves the perfect shape, and with under Elements.
some simple transformation and
brushwork, fits right in with the
theme. ILM’s art department
traditionally takes inspiration from
everyday objects, so we followed its
lesson. It’s a good one to learn from
and really helps exercise your
creative thinking!

14 Cloning to save time

When creating something like a crowd of
people, it is a good idea to paint a few key figures and
15 Painting as mortar
As you add in more photographic elements,
don’t get carried away with the process. Let the painting
then duplicate these to make up numbers. To avoid too drive the image forward. Although the smoke here is
much symmetry, you can change the colours and effective (top image), it needs some brushwork to gel it
proportions, and flip some of the characters horizontally. into the picture (bottom image). Always let the painting
Because we wanted a few people further away emerging
from the dust, we simply copied the nearest figures and
dictate the choice of photographs and not the other way
around, and use your brush to cement the pictorial “WHEN CREATING
pasted them behind the dust layer. space together.
A CROWD OF
PEOPLE, PAINT A
FEW FIGURES
AND DUPLICATE
TO MAKE
UP NUMBERS”
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 Workflow
16 Tone and colour
Paintstrokes used in the form of colour
and shape help bind photo elements together and
17 Lighting schemes
We have seen how painting over the photos
is a necessary aspect to the process. The alien body

suggestions
can be seen in numerous areas. The left of the stone comprises of completely painted legs and a
turret continues the overhanging roof and windows. photographic body that is welded together with
The cylindrical towers are joined by a walkway. The brushstrokes. However, this is only the first step. The next
You will have noticed that we have worked flames bind the smoke to the building façade, and the stage involves integrating the alien (and all the various
across the picture as a whole so far and no one alien body has detail attaching it to the undercarriage elements) into the lighting scheme and conforming to
area in particular is completely polished and legs. atmospheric perspective. At the moment, the alien looks
compared to the rest. Some sections on close very dark considering it is far away and partly in sunlight.
scrutiny look very rough and this applies to
painted sections as well as how the
photographs have been integrated. Don’t be
too concerned about this unless you are
producing a matte painting for film purposes –
the overall structure is the important thing and
how each part of the image relates to the
other. A good habit to adopt is to work on the
image at a reduced size so you never lose sight
of this, and to always zoom out after adding
detail to be sure it works. Flip the image
vertically and horizontally (a common
technique) as this often reveals hidden
problems. Don’t be afraid of making mistakes
either – it is far easier to correct something
when it is in front of you rather than in your
head. Think of painting as being similar to
building a house – start with the foundations
and finish with the decorating. You would
never tile the bathroom before the roof was on!

18 Adding a layer mask

To fix this, first of all copy the layer by right-
clicking it and selecting Duplicate Layer. Now we add a
layer mask to this new layer by clicking on the small
‘circle in a box’ icon below the Layers palette. You can
now see the new layer that contains the mask (white
square) and icon on the left. Before we continue, switch
this layer off.

19 Nondestructive editing
The next step involves using the Curves to
lighten the initial layer and give it the effect that it is in
full sunlight. The idea is to brighten the layer so that it
represents how the object would appear when fully lit in
the scene. We will then use the mask to reveal or hide
parts of this layer to control the way light hits it and
therefore create shadows in the correct places.
20 Let there be light
Now switch on the layer with a mask, which
will show the original alien. With the mask selected, use a
pure black and paint across the alien and the sunlit
version will magically appear! Go ahead and highlight
the appropriate areas to match the light source. If you
make a mistake, simply use white to undo – none of the
original alien will be lost.
21 Explosion
It was tricky trying to decide on the general
colour of this, so we began with a brown to try and
suggest grime and dust mixed with smoke. We used a
standard soft Airbrush to imply motion, although we did
later apply some Gaussian Blur to exaggerate this. We
added a new layer over it, and with a dull yellow painted
over the centre of the explosion, setting the blending
mode to Color Dodge to add intensity.

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 MASTERCLASS
22 Foreground focus
To help add some interest in the foreground,
we thought it would be interesting to have a soldier
firing a rocket towards the alien, leaving a smoke trail in
its path. This would help lead the viewer’s eye towards it
Image and also emphasise the perspective to a degree. The eye
23 Smoke trail
With the soldier in place, it was time to add in
the smoke trail behind the rocket. For this, we used the
same brush as for the debris smoke. A good technique is
to paint it and then duplicate the layer. Blur the bottom
layer to soften the edges and also use the Eraser to make

breakdown
would then be led back into the picture via the laser the smoke nearby to look a little more transparent as
beams and hopefully add a certain dynamic. though it has dispersed more.

Sci-fi element
To help add a subtle futuristic aspect to the scene,
we pasted in a photo of a whaling harpoon and
then rotated it 90 degrees. We wanted it to remain
ambiguous, but look like an exciting device from a
different era.

Blending elements
The small section of a building with three windows
required more integration, so we painted in the
two far windows and extended the architrave above.

Blinding light

We added a pale orange to the second Overlay
colour to make the sky brighter and add a further
dynamic. This we carried over to the top section of
the building right of the traffic light to help tie it in
better with the turret, which had a strong highlight
that we wanted to preserve.
Road works
We pasted an image of a road and some cracks to
the right of the soldier to help link the middle
distance to the foreground. The cracks also served
to emphasise destructive tremors caused by falling
buildings and the immensity of marching alien
machines on the city.
24
Flare
To add some drama, we painted in some heat
flare behind the rocket by way of the layer effects. This is
done in the same way that the laser beams were created
previously. First, paint in the flare using a near white and
then click on the ‘f’ icon in the Layers palette. Here we
chose Color Dodge as the blending mode, combined
with a yellow hue.
25
Organising layers
The colour in the image so far has been
restricted to one layer set to Overlay, which is normally
the uppermost layer. However, elements such as the
lasers and smoke trail would look wrong if tinted by this,
so need to be placed above it in the palette. Often a
second colour layer is required to refine additional
details, eg, rocket glow on the soldier’s back. You can see
in the palette which elements are placed above the
original colour layer so far.

26 Building detail
With the main “A SMOKE TRAIL
structure of the composition in
place, detail can now be added HELPS LEAD THE
across the image. Here, we
have placed some extra VIEWER’S EYE
characters running for cover
beneath the explosion and TOWARDS THE
refined the broken walkway.
You will also notice that we ALIEN AND ALSO
have used the second Overlay
layer to add a reflective glow to EMPHASISES THE
the alien body caused by the
laser beams. PERSPECTIVE”
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 27 Special effects
The picture is coming together now, but it
needs a few tweaks that will make all the difference. The
flames from the building can be intensified by adding a
new layer and effect. Some orange strokes were painted
over the top on Overlay mode and then a yellow Outer
Glow was applied and set to Color Dodge. The same
procedure was done for the distant fire.
29
Sewing things together
When adding extra elements to your image,
such as the enhanced explosion and fire, it is important
to bear in mind how these would affect other parts of
your picture. Having a Color Overlay at the top of the
palette means that you can update changes to the
image and allow for swift editing at any point. Here, we
have added a glow to the road, fire and rocket launcher
to reflect the changes.
32
Filling a
few cracks
The image is all but complete,
but a few issues still need
addressing. Again on separate
layers, we have extended the laser
beams into the explosion and also
added a bluish glow to help bind
the two aspects together more.
We have also altered the car yet
again. We scaled the front slightly
to remove the foreshortening
and perspective caused by the
camera angle.
048-055_AVP_50_AlienMC.indd 55
28 Explosion mark two
To enhance the main explosion, we followed
the same procedure. This time it was done using two
layers: the lower layer set to Color Dodge at 46% Opacity
with Screen Outer Glow, and the other set to Screen at
100% with a Color Dodge Outer Glow.
30
Back to basics
Every now and then, you need to try and
divorce yourself from the picture and take an objective
view. Sometimes things are wrong and you are too
involved to notice. Here, we have changed the scale of
the car, which was certainly too big. As the rocket is well
on its way to the target, we felt that the smoke looked as
though it had just been fired, so lessened the heat and
widened its area. We also darkened the foreground to
emphasise the sunlight and intensified the laser.
Quick
tip
If you wish to have pinpoint accurate perspective,
use Photoshop CS3’s in-built Vanishing Point filter.
When you paste in orthographic images, they
will automatically conform to the grid. To quickly
change brush sizes while painting, use the
bracket keys.
31 Extra ammo
To add some interest to the foreground, we
placed two more soldiers firing towards the viewer at an
unseen enemy heading towards them. These were
created on separate layers along with the muzzle flare,
which once again utilised the Outer Glow layer effect.
As we discussed earlier, we used the Overlay layer to
add some colour tints to the surrounding areas to reflect
the changes.
33 Final tweaks
We made a few slight alterations to the
perspective of the near building on the left and the
one on fire, and also added in the shadow of another
alien machine, which is somewhere right of the
picture behind the viewer. Of course, there are always
areas you could refine, such as the distant towers and
right side of the street, but we felt as though the picture
had reached a stage that looked complete and yet
retained a rawness and vitality that conveyed something
of the creative process.
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Advanced Photoshop
17/10/08 18:54:19
 MASTERCLASS

i o n al
sp irartclasres
n
I asteal artists sthoashop
MProfessioents and Phheolp you
secr to ills
their chniquees your sk
te prov
im

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 Fashion retouching
Learn how to create a polished and flawless fashion image

I
n this tutorial, you will learn about the process
On the disc
of fashion image production from setting up the
You will need to use your own portrait
photoshoot to developing the look of the final image to complete the tutorial. The tutorial
image. You will go behind the scenes of a professional is designed to give you an overview of the
techniques and skills used by a professional
fashion shoot and gain an insight into set design, photographer and retoucher to go from
lighting and directing the model. You will find out what photoshoot to final creation. The
techniques and methods are used in fashion retouching techniques are transferable to any image.

to give the final image a crisp and polished look. Our expert Julian Knight
In producing this type of image, there are some Formerly an art director for London’s advertising agencies,
fashion photographer Julian Knight uses his Photoshop skills
fundamental requirements. Aside from the necessary
to enhance and develop the look of his images. Julian’s
photographic equipment, you will also need a photography has been featured in a variety of magazines
professional model with striking features, a good across the globe. www.slingshotphotostudios.com

knowledge of lighting and a professional make-up artist

who has experience in working on photoshoots. and pale skin, elements that were essential for this
project. Once the model was confirmed and I had a
clearer picture of the look I wanted the shot to have, I set
out to select an appropriate background. I decided to
use light gold material wrapped around diamond-
shaped self-adhesive tiles to give it some texture and
detail, while keeping it subtle enough to allow the
foreground to dominate the image.
The set, outfit and equipment I wanted to keep the make-up simple to emphasise
the model’s fresh yet glamorous looks with false
gold in the natural hair colour, the ribbon, the texture of eyelashes and glossed-up pink lips. The model had
the background and the dominant fabric of the outfit strong facial features so I wanted to soften them with the
with its stronger yellows. I liked the paper-like crinkly hair style. We went for flowing, fluid and very feminine
texture of the jacket and the contrast it would bring to hair, exaggerated with a big oversized bow.
the picture in comparison to the smoothness of the I had poses in mind for the model, so it was a matter
model’s skin. of getting the facial expression right. I was aiming to get
I chose CJ from the London agency Oxygen Model intense eye contact without it being angry or arrogant.
Management, as she had natural gold tones in her hair The poses were simple and needed to look relaxed; it
was more of a mood and feel that I wanted to create.
I used one small flash head for edge lighting and
placed that on the right side of the model. This was a
Portaflash 336 VM. The main light was set in front of the
model, offset to her left by 45 degrees. Both lights were
The model having her hair curled approximately four feet from the model. The main light
was a Portaflash 536 studio flash head. I also used a gold
You have to start with a strong photograph that is not reflector to enhance the golds in the image. I used this
underexposed, overexposed or out of focus, and with lighting setup because it produces gentle edge lighting
good composition. The light and shadows need to bring on the model, soft shadows and a good sense of depth
out the best features in the image. Then with Photoshop, and texture.
streamline the image by cleaning up imperfections,
tweaking colours using the Dodge and Burn tools,
smoothing skin tones, and so on. With a history in “The light and
design, for me Photoshop is the only option for
professional image retouching. I don’t use any additional shadows need
plug-ins, aside from Adobe Camera Raw and DNG
Converter 4.4.1, which gives me the chance to work with to bring out
an uncompressed file, tweak the image and then save it
in several different formats. the image’s
I have always found shiny metallic textures
captivating. I wanted to produce an image that was
almost duotone by mixing different hues of gold: the Adjustments being made on the set
best features”
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 MASTERCLASS
1 Tweaking the image in Raw editor
Open Adobe Bridge, select the chosen image in
RAW format and hit Enter. Turn the Vibrancy slider up to
2 Beginning the process
Open the PSD in Photoshop and begin
the editing by cleaning up the skin. Zoom in to 100%
The 25 to increase the saturation in the skin. I wanted this to and examine the image for obvious artefacts and

team be a bold image so I also turned the Clarity slider up to

Tamara Ramsey-Crockett
Make-up artist/hair stylist
crockett_t@hotmail.co.uk
60. Then turn the Temperature slider to the value of
4,350 to increase the warm tones and save the RAW
image as a PSD.
skin flaws. Although the model has very clear skin,
upon close examination you would be able to see
some minor flaws: moles, eye bags, bloodshot eyes that
need fixing.

Marilyn Narayan
Outfit designer
m_narayan@hotmail.co.
uk
maxine@oxygenmodels.com
www.oxygenmodels.com
Model
CJ

3 Patch tool
Zoom into 400%, select the Patch tool and get to
work on some of the skin flaws by individually
removing them. When using the Patch tool, circle the
flaw that you want to fix and drag your selection to a
neighbouring area of skin that resembles the same
texture as the area you want to change. Repeat this
process around all the moles, pimples, lines, etc, on the
4 Fixing eye bags
Fixing a very prominent eye bag will take several
steps. First of all, use the Patch tool to draw a large tear-
shaped selection around the bag and drag the
selection downwards until the eye bag just leaves the
top of the selected area. Let go of the selection and the
Patch tool will resample the image, having removed the
main crease of the eye bag. Use the Patch tool to get

5
model’s face and body. the remaining lines out.
Polygon Lasso
At 300% magnification, you can still see
some unwanted texture under the eye. To eliminate
this, take the Polygon Lasso tool, select a smooth piece
of skin next to the problem area, hit Cmd/Ctrl+Opt/
Alt+D to feather the selection. I chose a Radius of 2,
hit Cmd/Ctrl+C and Cmd/Ctrl+V to copy and paste,
moved the pasted skin into position to cover the
remaining flaws and rotated the selection until the
subtle lines in the skin matched. I used the Burn tool
set on Midtones at an Exposure of seven per cent to
darken the edges of the new skin slightly. Then to
blend it in, I dropped the Opacity to 66% and hit

Cmd/Ctrl+E to merge that layer of skin into the main
image. That has now removed the eye bag. Skin
smoothing, which I will come to later, should blend the
area even more.
6
The lip line
Looking at the lips, I’d like to reduce the lipstick
line on the bottom lip a little. Use the Polygon Lasso to
carefully draw a line where you intend the new lip edge
to be, and double back on that line to make a blade-
shaped selection. Feather the selection by one pixel
and move it to the very edge of the current lip line,
where you will want to copy and paste another
selection of skin.

“ENSURE YOU ARE PRODUCING EVEN

RESULTS, OTHERWISE THE SKIN CAN
BECOME TOO MUCH LIKE PLASTIC”
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 7 Adjusting the selection
Drag the new selection inwards several pixels
until you’re happy with the reduction. To achieve more
realism, I’m dropping the Opacity to 85% on this layer
to ensure that the edge of the lip line is not unnaturally
sharp, then merge the layer down.
10
The eyes
Zoom in to 800%, use the Dodge tool
set to Highlights at 5% Exposure with a brush of 10 pixels
and Hardness 0%, and brush repeatedly over the
highlights in the eye to gain the desired effect. I like to
use a low exposure to make sure I do not overdo it. I only
did it on one eye as the other eye had no distinct
highlights. Use the Burn tool set to Shadows with an
Exposure of 5%, brush diameter of 4px, Hardness at
0% and brush carefully along each eyelash to darken
them individually.
13 Altering the features
Next up, we want to use Photoshop to edit
some of the model’s features, but only very slightly. To go
about this, select the Forward Warp tool (the top tool
with a hand icon), then zoom into 300 per cent with a
brush size of 90 and very gently push the edges of her
nose inwards, just a matter of several pixels. Bear in mind
that even the smallest alteration on a person’s facial
features creates a dramatic result so you need to be very
delicate with this procedure. It is imperative to make sure
that you do not overdo it or else your result will not look
natural. Now use the Forward Warp tool, again set at its
largest brush size of 600px, and begin to push the
model’s waistline in from both the left and the right side,
once again making sure that it is done in small steps and
not overdone.
056-061_AVP_50_GoldphotoMC.indd 59
8 Smoothing the skin
Use the Clone Stamp tool to gently smooth out
some areas of the skin on the face and body. To start
with, I used the diameter of 60px, the Hardness of 0%
and Opacity of 22%. Zoom into 300% magnification,
click on one area of the skin, move the Patch tool close
by and click again to start smoothing out rough areas.
Increase the Clone Stamp tool diameter to 130px for
smoothing the body. Be careful as you go along to
ensure you are producing even results and not
overdoing it, otherwise the skin can become too much
like plastic.
11
Small flaws and hairs
Carry on with the Patch tool and remove
even the tiniest flaws. Although we do want the pores of
the skin to remain visible, any sign of a clogged pore or a
small pimple have to be removed. I also removed the
hairs that cover the forehead unnecessarily with the
same method.
9 Facial hair
Where there is some facial fluff on the chin, I used
the same technique as used on the lip line. Choose the
Polygon Lasso, draw a smooth arc on the line of the
chin, feather the selection by two pixels, use the down
arrow key to nudge the selection six to seven pixels
away from the facial hair and make a new layer (Cmd/
Ctrl+J). Choose the Move tool and nudge the layer up,
covering the fluff. Merge down the layer.
12
Liquify – the Freeze Mask
Some of the model’s features and her
waistline needed minor alterations so I used the Liquify
filter (Cmd/Ctrl+Shift+X). Use the Freeze Mask tool with
60px brush size, Density of 35 and Pressure of 20, and
draw around her lips and edge of her face to prevent
altering those areas while you edit the nose.
Quick
tip
When using the Clone tool or painting a quick
mask – any time you are using a brush – to
ensure the highest accuracy, remember to zoom
in as close as you need while also varying brush
diameters and opacity to suit the restrictions of
the area that you are working on. Make sure you
zoom back out to 100 per cent as you go along
to check your work repeatedly. Use Cmd/
Ctrl+Opt/Alt+Space+left-click to zoom out, and
Cmd/Ctrl+Space+left-click for zooming in.
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 MASTERCLASS
14 Burning and dodging the hair
Now increase the contrast in the picture
by lifting the highlights and deepening the shadows.
Start with the Burn tool, set at a 70px brush, Hardness
0%, range Shadows on a 5% Exposure. Zoom in closer to
the hair at 200%. Go over the shadowing in the hair
lightly with the brush, the low exposure ensures you it
will not be overdone, we just want to make a subtle
difference. Reduce the brush size to 25, zoom in a little
closer, lift the Exposure to 7% and brush around some
of the dark contours of the curls and the smaller
shadowed areas just to pronounce the body of the curls,
waves and hair a bit more. Use the Dodge tool, set on
Highlights with Exposure at 8%, small brush of 15px,
zooming into 300% and brushing over some of the
lighter highlights in the hair and the ribbon to get the
most out of the gold tones.
16
Painting the Quick Mask
In order to affect all the golds in the image
except for the model’s skin and features, work in Quick
Mask mode. Start with the brush Radius of 50 and then
paint over her skin, avoiding the major parts of the hair.
Once you have done this, it will become a selection that
will allow you to tweak all the golds in the picture
without altering the skin.
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Advanced Photoshop
056-061_AVP_50_GoldphotoMC.indd 60
15 Dodging the skin
Next, use the same tool with a brush of
40 pixels and an Exposure of 4% on some areas of her Planning a
shoot
skin, such as the bridge of her nose, the side of her
nostril, etc, where there are highlights. I also brushed
over the bangles with the Dodge tool to bring out
the highlights.
In general, photoshoot production is a process
that requires several days to complete. I usually
spend a couple of days conceptualising the
image and working on the idea until I can
clearly see it in my mind. Choosing the right
model is very important; I have good working
relationships with several of the UK’s top
modelling agencies and select models from
their books. Apart from the right look, my
models need to have character in order to be
able to pull off concepts, which are often quite
demanding. Once I have a good idea of the
look and feel of the shot, I will spend a day or
two shopping for props and building the set.
The shoot itself takes on average around seven
to eight hours, including hair and make-up
17
preparation. A lot of the final details tend to
Making the mask more accurate come together at the very end when the model
Once you have painted your mask broadly is in front of the camera.
and filled it in with this brush, reduce the size of the
brush to go over the mask and make it slightly more
18
accurate. While you are painting a Quick Mask tool, you
can hit Q to check the selection. Saturating the golds
Once you have your selection, you can work
with the golds. Hit Cmd/Ctrl+H to hide the selection,
then open Hue and Saturation (Cmd/Ctrl+U) and
increase the Saturation to 8. Adjust the levels to
strengthen the shadows and the midtones.
19 Changing the skin tones
We now want to affect the skin separately
from the other elements. Hit Cmd/Ctrl+H to make your
selection visible again, then Cmd/Ctrl+Shift+I to invert
the selection so now it is a selection of the skin only.
Hide the selection and open up Levels again. Take the
slider on the right and slide it left to lift up the highlights
slightly. Hit Cmd/Ctrl+D to deselect.
17/10/08 18:57:36
 20 Lift up the hair tones
Some areas of the hair may have got a little
too dark in the process, so use the Dodge tool on 5%
21 Eye colour
To make the iris more vibrant, make a
selection with Polygon Lasso, being sure to remain inside
with a Range on Midtones and lightly brush over some the iris and not to go into the white. Feather the
of the hair and ribbon. This will then lift it back up a selection by 1px, hit Cmd/Ctrl+J to make a new layer
little bit. from that selection. In Levels, select the Green and Blue
channels, lifting the Highlights a little to bring out the
blue. Merge the layer into the background.
“YOU DON’T
WANT TO 23 Even out contrasts in
the background
OVERSHARPEN, To even out the extreme contrasts in the background
such as the tile on the bottom left where there is too
OR YOU WILL much shadow, I copied another piece of tile that would
match it. Once copied, I created a new layer and put the
MAKE IT LOOK piece in place, then cut around the bangles and wrist to
fit it in.
OBVIOUSLY
RETOUCHED, SO
KEEPING IT
NATURAL IS KEY”
24 Sharpen the image
Finally, in order to sharpen the image,
first select Unsharp Mask, which can be found under
the Sharpen drop-down menu, and then choose a
Radius of 1px and also give it an Amount of 35%. This
is essential to get the focus of the image just right and
will also help it to stand out from the page. You don’t
want to oversharpen here, or you will make it look
obviously retouched, so keeping it natural is key to the
desired end result.
056-061_AVP_50_GoldphotoMC.indd 61
22 Smoothing the background
To smooth the background and take out
larger dimples, use the Patch tool once again. Circle
around the dimples and heavy wrinkles and drag your
selection to a smoother area. Repeat the process
wherever necessary. Because of the grainy texture of the
background, the Patch tool may not always provide an
adequate result. Wherever that is the case fix up the
background by covering the bad areas with patches
selected with the Polygon Lasso, copied and pasted from
smooth areas.
Essential kit for
fashion shoots
If you’re thinking of doing your own
photographic shoot like the one shown here,
whether you’re using a professional team, or
getting your friends to pitch in, there are some
pieces of kit that will make your life easier.
First, you will need to get your hands on a
decent camera to make the shots worthy of
touching up. We’d recommend that you think
about buying or borrowing a DSLR, as you’ll
get a much better image quality that won’t
degrade as you work on it. You can get a DSLR
for a really good price these days, for example
the Nikon D40x is under £400. You’ll also want
to invest in a good tripod, as this will help you
to compose your shot and give you better
stability. Look for one with a good head for
plenty of motion, making it easier to set up
multiple poses.
Next, essential to this particular project,
you’ll want to get a couple of gold reflectors.
These aren’t too expensive and will bounce the
light around, giving it a warm glow for that
gold effect. Lastolite (www.lastolite.com) does
some great options in all sizes, shapes and
colours, which are also collapsable for easy
transport. If you are going to be doing a lot of
shoots, then you can get a full studio lighting
kit for around £500, all packed in one box, with
everything you need to set up a small home
studio for photographing just about anything.
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 masterpieces
From Advanced Photoshop issue 28

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 50
1. Name: Cristiano Siqueira (CrisVector)
Location: Brazil Occupation: Illustrator
Website: www.crisvector.com Image: Ad Infinitum
Ad Infinitum is meant to be about energy and power.
The creativity is a power we all have, but sometimes we
can’t put this away as a wished-for lack of technique.
The software and the technology help us to improve
our creativity and make it live. I believe that Ad
Infinitum brings all these feelings of power and new and
infinite possibilities.

AS R E D 2. Name: Adam Benton Location: UK

E ATU UR Occupation: Freelance illustrator

F NO R
Website: www.kromekat.com
Image: You And Whose Army?
O OVE I have always like the contrast of a blue and grey stormy

C sky, and extreme low sunlight, creating a strong colour

opposition In this image, I think that is what makes the
main figure stand out so strongly, and would make for a
very eye-catching cover!

3. Name: Jeff Finley Location: Cleveland, OH

Occupation: Artist and designer
Website: www.gomedia.us Image: Bold Is Beautiful

COVERS BY 50 ARTISTS It’s striking and grabs attention. Most of the work was
done in Photoshop apart from the 3D typography. I think
it jumps off the page.

We challenged 50 artists to provide us with one image that they thought would
look great on our cover. We then created a cover out of each image and asked the
artists to explain why they thought their image would work on the cover. Here are
their thoughts and the results
4. Name: Alexander Jansson Location: Gothenburg,
Sweden Occupation: Artist, illustrator and animator
Website: www.alexanderjansson.com
Image: Finale
It’s an image containing many elements and
experimentation. I’ve used a wide range of the
possibilities in Photoshop to create it. It’s also a type
image, which isn’t that common on your cover, and would
add some eye-catching freshness.

5. Name: Si Clark Location: London

Occupation: Illustrator and animator Website: www.
si-clark.co.uk Image: Fallen Utopia
Compositionally, I think this image would work well for
the cover format, and was designed with this in mind with
ample space for titles. The contrast of colours makes it
very eye-catching, and is something a bit different and
handmade compared to some cleaner Photoshop images.

6. Name: Chris Ede Location: Midhurst, West

1 2
3 4
Sussex Occupation: Illustrator Website: www.
chrisede.com Image: Nature At Your Fingertips
Well, it contains a flying stag beetle while battling a slug.
What more could you ask for? It’s bold and also full of
small details that you discover through close inspection. I
use Photoshop to do what I intend, without the program
dictating me.

7. Name: Yaga Kielb Location: Canada

Occupation: Graphic designer Website: www.
yagak.com Image: Sinner
I think that this image would be suitable for the 50th issue
of Advanced Photoshop’s magazine cover because it is an
original photomanipulation. It has an eye-catching colour
theme and interesting topic. There hasn’t been that many

5 6 7 8 photomanipulations on the magazine’s covers, and I

would be really glad if my artwork was one of them.

8. Name: Angel D’Amico Location: Chicago, IL

Occupation: Freelance designer and illustrator
Website: www.angeldamico.etsy.com
Image: Beautiful Rain
I believe my artwork look like complete illustrations when,
in fact, they are layers of illustrations and designs put
together and finished in Photoshop.

9. Name: Heisuke Kitazawa Location: Tokyo, Japan

Occupation: Freelance illustrator
Website: www.hypehopewonderland.com

9 10 11 12
Image: Been There, Done That, But Doing It Again
A central focus and the lines leading into the main

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 characters give this a strong cover potential. The colours
are sophisticated and muted, which we would be a nice
change from the bright, vibrant colours often seen.

10. Name: Bogac Erguvenc Location: Istanbul,

Turkey Occupation: Director/fashion photographer
Website: www.bogacerguvenc.com
Image: Ice Queen
This image was produced for a fashion prêt-à-porter
brand, and used both Photoshop and 3D techniques to
create beauty. I think this is a good example for not
overusing those techniques. Sometimes Photoshop

13 14 15 16
obviates the idea, but if the idea comes first and you
create an image after you find a good concept, Photoshop
is a great tool to use.

11. Name: Zeptonn (Jan Willem Wennekes)

Location: Groningen, The Netherlands
Occupation: Illustrative designer and art director
Website: www.zeptonn.nl Image: Land Of Rainbows
Who could say no to a happy land full of rainbows, where
imaginary creatures both ground-dwellers and airborne,
are reading magazines? So get in your air balloon and
spread the word!

12. Name: Darek Kocurek Occupation: Computer

graphic Website: www.darekkocurek.com
Image: Emerald Bliss
The atmosphere of this graphic is mild and optimistic,
17 18 19 20
created in accord with the canon of the fantasy, a very
popular style these days. What attracts the eye of the
reader, apart from the riot of colour and theme, is the
multitude of details. This is one of my favourite works,
and I would gladly see it on the cover of Advanced
Photoshop magazine.

13. Name: Jess Volinski Location: New Jersey, USA

Occupation: Illustrator and surface designer
Website: www.jessvolinski.com
Image: Floral Overload
This image is a great example of how Photoshop allows
me to combine my digital and handmade techniques for a
truly unique effect. It might be a touch girly, but who
wouldn’t be intrigued by trippy psychedelic flowers
dripping colour? This cover would definitely grab
someone’s attention from the magazine rack!
14. Name: Rodrigo Reyes Location: Oslo, Norway
Occupation: Diplomat Website: www.
advancedphotoshop.co.uk/user/RodrigoReyes
Image: Linda Clone
I believe this particular image would make a good cover
for your magazine because it can show the artistic side of
Photoshop. I believe this image can give the magazine a
kind of fancy Vogue style, which can attract a different
kind of photoshop user to develop that editorial style.
Sorry that this is not a vertical picture, but with some
cropping and maybe a black background it might fit the
layout of the magazine. Please bear with me on the details
because I’m not a professional photographer or graphic
designer, and the model in most of my pictures is my wife,
Linda, who I thank so much for her patience.
15. Name: Tanya Yakimova Location: London, UK
Occupation: Graphic designer Website: http://
sonymony.deviantart.com Image: Feeding
This image would make a good cover because it shows
how to use a lot of different techniques to reach your full
potential of creativity. It combines photomanipulation,
painting and 3D elements.
16. Name: Douglas A Sirois Location: Claremont,
California Occupation: Freelance illustrator
Website: www.dougsirois.com
Image: Dragon Master
This image was originally painted as a sample book cover.
It works perfectly with type and title because there is
room at the top for it. Many covers are done that don’t
have the type in mind, and that leaves much work for a
typesetter. This is a cover that depicts a fantasy story or
fantasy painting.
21 22
17. Name: John Still Location: Boston, USA
Occupation: Visual designer Website: www.
johnstill.com Image: Convergence Redux
This image represents literally and figuratively the
convergence of analogue and digital toolsets, and the
freedom of image content from the delivery medium.
Photoshop is at the nexus of this visual convergence, and
acts as my hub for interchanging imagery between
applications, platforms and media.
18. Name: Kerry Roper Location: London
Occupation: Graphic designer Website: www.
youarebeautiful.co.uk Image: Dead Souls II
It’s vibrant and demonstrates Photoshop’s ability to
combine digital and handcrafted elements.
19. Name: Tavish Location: San Francisco
Occupation: Artist, art director Website: www.
acidtwist.com Image: Alice World 1-1
I combined two of my favourite childhood influences,
Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Super Mario Bros.
After exploring a world of cards and one of chess, it seems
natural to me that Alice would go on to explore a
videogame, and I hope your readers would agree.
20. Name: Christopher Cox Location: Denver,
Colorado Occupation: Creative director Website:
www.changethethought.com Image: Lost In Space
This image represents the culmination of my push
towards melding vector art with advanced effects in
Photoshop. A lot of people starting out in creating
complex imagery with Photoshop don’t realise the time it
takes to build a base of images and techniques to work
with. This image was created by stripping down an
incredibly complex vector, combined with paint splatter
and a little Photoshop magic.
23 24
21. Name: Nicki Hart Location: Pueblo, Colorado
Occupation: Marketing specialist and designer
Website: www.multi-designs.com Image: Tech 2007
Abstract art has been around for so long, yet it is a new
realm when it comes to digital. The use of colours and
endless shapes make this form of digital art both
breathtaking and unique. To feature abstract art on
your cover would share the options available to
Photoshop artists.
22. Name: James Fox Location: Birmingham, UK
Occupation: Graphic designer and illustrator
Website: www.jamesfox.org Image: Reach Out
The image is full of life and energy, and the ‘reach out
and grab it’ theme encapsulates the ambitions and
aspirations of everyone from Photoshop beginners to
experienced pros, and the desired expression of digital
art in general.
23. Name: Mario Veltri Location: Rende, Cosenza, IT
Occupation: Lead illustrator Website: www.
marioveltri.com Image: Alice in Wonderland
Redcap
Alice and her rabid white rabbit together make for two
nice characters for a cover with a strong graphic impact.
The white background will help when putting in the texts
and titles of the cover composition. It was my will not to
give Alice the proportion of a fashion model, so don’t
worry about that.
24. Name: Bert Blondeel Location: Belgium
Occupation: Teacher, graphic designer Website:
www.greyclouds.be Image: Offworld Spaceport
It’s different from usual covers and adds a great sci-fi
element to the cover, plus their is plenty of space to add
in coverlines.

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 25. Name: Timothy L. Wise Jr. Occupation: Circuit
control supervisor – US Army Website: www.flickr.
com/photos/twise Image: Portrait Five
I honestly feel that the overall weight and composition
of the image submitted is one of the strongest I’ve created
to date. The Mediterranean feel and approach to the
image is rather refreshing and would work well for a
strong cover image. There is plenty of space to add in the
necessary coverlines.
26. Name: Yasser Azarnoush  Location: UAE
Occupation: 3d artist Website: www.visualact.com
Image: Namaki (sweetie)
I think using the power of pass rendering for my case
means rendering an alpha from every object in the scene.
To have control over the colour correction and make a
good contrast out of the image is the key, plus making the
centre of the eyes in Photoshop with a simple technique is
another key to my work.
27. Name: Nick Masters Location: London, UK
Occupation: Photographer Website: www.nickidm.
com Image: Um
It is time for young men in show-stopping fashion poses
to grace the wondrous frontage of Advanced Photoshop.
I think that this image is a little different from what you
would normally use, and so it is likely to draw attention.
Plus the image was modelled for, shot, retouched and
artworked by one person: me!
30. Name: Frank Nadarzynski Location: Encinitas,
California Occupation: Photoshop guy Website: In
progress! Image: Passage
I think it would make a good cover because I think it’s
soothing to the viewer’s eye and has a calming quality to
it. It demonstrates the capabilities of Photoshop to
produce artistic images.
31. Name: Matt Hill Location: Dorking, UK
Occupation: Illustrator, photographer and designer
Website: www.illustration-source.com
Image: Shrooms Village
I love the quiet serenity of this illustration. When I
started this one, I wanted to produce something with
plenty of small details that would not be immediately
obvious. Something that every time you look at it you
see something new, while asking the question, “Who
lives here?”

28. Name: Sam Garton Location: London
Occupation: Digital illustrator Website: www.
illustration-source.com Image: Underground plans
I think this could make a good cover, as it’s rather
different! I would hope people would have the desire to
pick it up to see what exactly it is all about… what are
those dogs doing underground?
29. Name: Andreea Alexandra Cernestean
Location: Baia Mare, Maramures, Romania
Occupation: Student, freelance digital artist
Website: www.frozenstarro.deviantart.com
Image: Forest Sprite
25 I think a change to more fantasy work would be nice for
the magazine. Also, it’s easy to fit the AP logo on the top
and add images and text on the sides.
32. Name: Cool Surface (aka David and Sarah
Cousens) Location: Wiltshire, UK Occupation:
Illustrators Website: www.coolsurface.com
Image: Distorted Pink Top
This cover has a lot of strong eye-catching elements:
heavy black-and-white contrast, bright pink and eye
contact with a sexy lady (if that doesn’t get your attention,
what will?!?). We’ve also included a film strip featuring
our long history with Advanced Photoshop: our winning
Peer Pressure appearance, our first ever tutorial, the first
ever winning monthly competition image and our most
recent tutorial!
33. Name: Colin Berwick Location: London
Occupation: Graphic renegade Website: www.
colinberwick.co.uk Image: Clarity
If images like this aren’t used, birds will not sing and
kittens will become ugly.

34. Name: Jena DellaGrottaglia Location: Northern

California Occupation: Make-up artist, digital artist
Website: www.autumnsgoddess.deviantart.com
Image: The Web Weaver
This is a mixed-media image. Rather then just
manipulating a photo, there is much painting and
thought, as well as time and love invested in this piece.

35. Name: Christian ‘Tigaer’ Hecker Location:

Germany Occupation: Freelancer Website: www.

26 27 28 29 tigaer-design.com Image: Hell

This image is actually part of a much bigger painting
I did mid-2008. I liked that part alone so much that I
wanted it to be a standalone picture. Covers
usually favour character paintings and rarely scenery or
environments, so here it’s the format that makes it work
nicely as a cover. It’s not too busy, has room for text and
yet displays a neat composition and eye-catching
futuristic scene.

36. Name: Tyson Koerper Location: Arizona, United

States Occupation: Freelance graphic designer
Website: www.tkoerper.com Image: Valerie
This work incorporates many techniques that I have
learned through past issues of Advanced Photoshop and
30 31 32 33 through my own experimentation in the program. It
serves as an example of Photoshop’s ability to be a
tool that allows an artist to bring their ideas into reality in
more impacting ways than other media.

37. Name: Magomed Dovjenko Location: Cologne,

Germany Occupation: Student Website: www.
dovjenko.net Image: Hola Amigo!
A good cover means something that can catch the
attention of the potential buyers of the magazine. My
cover has everything to take their attention and hold it
as much as it needed; a simple yet effective colour
combination. There is a nice flow to the shapes, forming
a very interesting object. Design-led covers are about the
trends of the moment, and that’s one of the reasons

34 35 36 37 why I’ve included the illustrated type treatment in

the composition.

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 38 39
42 43
46 47
38. Name: Stefan Valent Location: Toronto, Canada
Occupation: Illustrator Website: www.stefanvalent.
com Image: Fait Dormi
Through 50 issues, there are two things that the covers
of Advanced Photoshop magazine have come to mean to
me. The first is pushing the boundaries of Photoshop
technique, and the second are hot babes. It pleases me
to no end to provide both with this portrait of singer
Fait Dormi.
39. Name: Théo Gennitsakis Location: Paris/Athens
Occupation: Creative director Website: www.
theogennitsakis.com Image: Mur Coulures
This image is very colourful, using simple forms to
great effect.
40. Name: Susi Lawson Location: Wytheville, VA,
USA Occupation: Artist, photographer, writer,
instructor Website: www.susilawsonphotography.
biz Image: Holiday Magic
I think this would make a good winter cover as it relates to
‘magic’, which is what Photoshop helps us to create! There
is plenty of space for the name of the magazine and room
for other copy.
41. Name: Ee Venn Soh Location: Malaysia
Occupation: Student Website: www.behance.net/
vennsoh Image: Apple!
This image is simple, retro and funky, and will definitely
blend well with other images. The design itself is a mixed
media of photomanipulation, shapes and patterns. The
colour is fixed in a soothing and refreshing manner, too.
42. Name: Manuela Pentangelo Location: Italy
Occupation: Illustrator Website: www.ohfolio.com/
064-067_AVP_50_50CoversFeat.indd67 67
40 41
44 45
48 49
Manuela/ Image: Falling
Based on the Alice story. I think this would make a good
cover because this is done in a sketchy style, which you
don’t often see in Photoshop work, and I hope it’s
different enough to stand out!
43. Name: Michael I. Alejandro Location:
Philippines Occupation: Multimedia Artist
Image: Tribe Youth
This image is very in-depth and flexible to many terms of
conceptability. It is a vision of art and reality.
44. Name: James Knowles Location: Stratford-upon-
Avon, UK Occupation: Retail Advisor Website: www.
grungetv.deviantart.com Image: Absoluminous
Redux
It is lively and colourful, and, surely, would attract
the attention of people browsing for magazines, and
existing readers of Advanced Photoshop! It also has
several areas suitable for text as well as the main header. I
think it would appeal to both 3D artists, and
Photoshoppers alike.
45. Name: Daniel Maxwell Location: Southampton,
UK Occupation: Graphic Designer Image: Last
House of Madjeek
I think this image would make a great front cover… bright,
colourful with plenty of small details to hopefully intrigue
and draw people into something a little bit different. I
tried to incorporate many of the different styles/area that
Photoshop is applied (photo manipulation, Vector art,
Illustration, lighting effects).
46. Name: Chuck Anderson Location: Grand Rapids,
MI Occupation: Designer
50
Website: www.nopattern.com Image: Ontario Dusk
Stark, simple, and peaceful in a chaotic era in our world.
The colors make you look twice to figure out if it’s real or
not. Simple magazine covers stand out nowadays more
than busy ones. I would leave the cover almost entirely
void of text except for the title across the top.
47. Name: Victor Habbick Location: Scotland, UK
Occupation: Artist, photographer Website: www.
thedreamenclosure.com Image: Elegy
The image is both striking and bold. It displays typical use
of various Photoshop techniques and a little 3D. There is
ample space for logo, strap lines and the blue butterfly
wings, while the chequered floor presents an eye-
catching combination with the added bonus of an
attractive female model.
48. Name: Mehrdokht Amini Location: UK
Occupation: Freelance illustrator Website: www.
illustration-source.com Image: El Dorado
This image would make a good cover because it is created
as a cover for a children’s book, and it has been very
successful since it has been published in Poland. I think it
has the elements that are attractive to children, like
mystery, colour and details, and wouldn’t be missed
among the other covers.
49. Name: Mike Wolff Location: Brighton, UK
Occupation: Illustrative designer Website: www.
illustration-source.com Image: The Wonderful
World Of Mr Doodle
The bright, eye-catching nature of the design creates a
strong first impression, while the quirky style and
composition add an intriguing and playful quality to the
image, making it ideally suited for a magazine cover. It
also breaks away from the more obvious Photoshop
images, emphasising the diversity of Photoshop as an
image-making tool.
50. Name: Derek H. Cinalli Location: New Jersey,
USA Occupation: Engineer Website: www.dcriler27.
deviantart.com Image: The Bank Job
This image would make a good cover because it’s a sexy
twist on Steampunk, with a little humour.
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 masterpieces
From Advanced Photoshop issue 20

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 Helpdesk
This month, our Helpdesk expert fields questions regarding trendy reflections, creative
approaches to layer styles and misbehaving blending modes BY KIRK NELSON
REALISTIC REFLECTIONS So how do you accomplish a proper reflection for an
Hi Advanced Photoshop Helpdesk guy. I’ve elevated-angle shot? You need to somehow create the
been trying to do one of those ‘shiny table’ image as it would be seen from the floor. One method of
effects that are so common these days, but doing this is to use the 3D capabilities of CS3 Extended.
the reflection just doesn’t look right. The After you’ve obtained a 3D model of your object, import it
angles are all off and I can’t quite figure into the scene and position it to be a direct extension of
out why. What am I doing wrong? What’s the bottom of the object. Once the position is properly
the correct way to do this reflection effect adjusted, you can add the blur and mask as you would
in Photoshop? do otherwise.
James Wade

Hey James! I like the monicker; Advanced Photoshop
Helpdesk guy (APHG) doesn’t quite roll off the tongue,
but I’ll take what I can get!
You are right, those reflections are everywhere. You see
them in adverts for everything from mobile phones to
jewellery to cars. The trick for getting the reflection to look
right is to consider what angle the image is shot at. The
technique that is generally used is to flip the image
vertically, add a Gaussian Blur and then a layer mask to
fade it out.
This is a legitimate strategy and easy enough to pull off,
but it only works for images that are low-angle shots to
begin with. If the image is taken at even a slightly elevated
angle that shows any top-facing surface, it fails totally. The
physics behind it are impossible. A floor simply cannot
show a reflection of a surface that is facing away from it,
as any top surface would be. Instead, it would show the
bottom surfaces of the object.
FEELING REFLECTIVE: Put some thought into
your reflections
MERGING BLENDING MODES
I’m having quite a problem in Photoshop and I
can’t quite seem to figure out why. Whenever I
combine several layers together, I lose the
blending modes of the original layers. Is there
any way to combine layers and retain the
properties of the blending modes?
Regina Sandsworth
Regina, this is one of those odd areas that seems to cause
a problem for quite a number of people. You’re working
on a complicated design with dozens of layers, and then
when you try to simplify things by merging several of
them, the blending modes just disappear! What’s going
on? Is it some sort of wormhole in the time and space
Photoshop continuum?
No, the explanation is actually rather mundane. Each
layer can only be displayed by a single blending mode. So
let’s say you have several different layers, each with its
own blending mode, like our illustration of old Al (above
right). Now if you grab all those layers and hit Cmd/Ctrl+E
to merge them together into a single layer, Photoshop
can still only display that layer with a single blending
mode. And it always picks Normal. There are a few
workarounds that can be of help to you, though.
The first option is to flatten the entire design
(Layer>Flatten Image). This maintains the
appearance of the blending modes but
eliminates the layering, making future editing
difficult. The Stamp Visible command
(Cmd+Opt+Shift+E or Ctrl+Alt+Shift+E) does
the same thing as flattening, but places the
flattened image as a new layer at the top of
the layer stack. This means you can always go
back and adjust those source layers, and then
restamp if needed.
GETTING THE PERFECT BLEND: It’s all relative with
blending modes
Combining all the layers together into a group (Cmd/
Ctrl+G) retains the source layers and their individual
blending modes, but the group itself can be treated as a
single layer and have its own mask.
Alternatively, combine the layers into a Smart Object
(Layers>Smart Object>Convert to Smart Object). This
approach doesn’t appear to work at first, but you will
realise that you need to include the background as part of
the Smart Object. A good strategy would be to make a
copy of the background and mask out the areas not
directly behind the blended layers. The Smart Object can
also use a unique mask and can even contain Layer Styles.
HELPDESK
CALL FOR QUESTIONS
Want help with Photoshop?
Send your emails to us at:
advancedpshop@imagine-publishing.co.uk
or post a message on our forum board at
www.advancedphotoshop.co.uk/forum.
Remember to specify whether you’re using
a PC or Mac and the version number of
your edition of Photoshop.

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DIFFERENT STROKES
Hello Advanced Photoshop! I’m hoping you
could help me out of a bind. I’m designing a
logo and I’d like the text to have several
different outlines, but I can’t quite figure out
how to do that in Photoshop. I tried using the
layer styles, but I can only add one stroke. Is it
possible to have different coloured strokes on
a single layer?
Will S.
Hello Will S! What an enigmatic name you have! Well,
to answer your question, there’s a little-known feature
of the Stroke layer style that allows for multiple
colours within the same stroke. Open up your
Layer Style control box and go to the Stroke style.
Now adjust the size to be large enough to contain
several coloured strokes, then change the Fill Type to
Gradient and the Style to Shape Burst. Then click on
the Gradient bar to bring up the Gradient Editor and
adjust the gradient to include several colours. You’ll
probably want to place the colour stops fairly close
together to make sure you get sharp lines for the
different strokes.
The common follow-up for this question is how to
create multiple versions of any of the other styles, like
Bevel, Emboss or Gradient Overlay. Well, those styles don’t
include a fun little trick like the Stroke style does, but that
shouldn’t stop you! Add the layer style as you like and
072-073_AVP_50_Helpdesk.indd 73
es
n iqu
ch
Te
DOTTED LINES
Dear Advanced Photoshop, I’m trying to accomplish
something that should be simple, but having the
hardest time at it. I want to create a dotted line that
follows a specific shape, sort of like a cut-out effect that
you see on various books and cards. I can’t figure out
how to get Photoshop to make a dotted line in a shape!
Sarah Engleton
Dear Sarah, you’re asking about a dotted line? Seriously?
In a powerful program like Photoshop? Let’s see here,
add a stroke, change it to… wait, hold on… hmm. Why
isn’t there a dotted line option for strokes!? Wouldn’t
that just make sense? Well, Sarah, until Adobe figures
that out, here’s a pretty good alternate method.
IT’S ALL JUST A STROKE AWAY: Get clever with
1 Choose a path
Begin by creating a new layer for the dotted line.
Then produce a path either by the Pen tool, Shape tool
layer styles
or converting a selection.
then convert your layer into a Smart Object (Layer>Smart
Object>Convert to Smart Object). Then add another layer
style to the Smart Object. If you really want, convert it yet
again and add yet another style!
So you see, Will S, this technique can be used
to add many, many different strokes to a single
text element. Wait a minute – ‘Will S’ asking about
‘Different Strokes’ – I think I’ve just been had!
SPECIAL CHARACTERS
Hi guys, first I wanted to tell you that I love
2 Set up a brush
Open the Brushes palette and select a
Round Brush Tip. Set the Roundness to somewhere
the magazine. It’s been a huge help to me, around 40% and Spacing to around 500%. In the
so keep up the great work – I’m sure you will! Shape Dynamic section, set the Angle Control
Do you know how I can insert special to Direction.
characters into Photoshop? Thank you all
very much!
Emily Gates
‘Special characters’, Emily? You mean like that weird
uncle that nobody really likes? Fortunately, Photoshop
doesn’t seem to mind how many times they make a
‘pull my finger’ joke, it treats their picture the same
3
as any other. What’s that? You don’t mean Uncle Lou?
Oh! You mean special characters like the copyright Stroke the path
symbol or Greek alphabet! So sorry. Go to the Paths palette and select your path,
Yes, you can use these characters in Photoshop, but it’s then, from the palette fly-out menu, choose Stroke
a system function, not a Photoshop function. You need to Path. Be sure to identify the Brush tool, and there you
look for a Character Map on your system. On a PC, it’s have it!
often under the Accessories program group (on a Mac,
use the Key Caps application). Anyway, once you have the
Character Map open, you can either copy and paste the
symbol into Photoshop or note the keystroke for
generating it.
If this doesn’t get you what you need, then it’s possible
that the font you are using isn’t capable of producing the
character you are trying for. In this case, either pick a
different font or a different symbol. But remember, what
ever you do, just don’t pull Uncle Lou’s finger!
73
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17/10/08 11:59:12
 Insider
Info
v INFO
View menu options
Photoshop is known for its intuitive interface and customisable workflow solutions.
Through the range of View options, you can help to improve your workspace to suit your
needs or individual projects
F
amiliar with Photoshop 7 and the software’s relevant evolution up to
present-day versions, senior staff writer Adam Smith reveals more ways in
which to maximise your workflow and obtain specific effects relevant to
your creative projects.
Screen Mode
Activating the Screen Mode makes
for quick viewing options, but in
this instance we would advise using
the similar function in the Toolbar.
It’s a lot quicker unless you’re
utilising the View options at the
necessary moment.
With the imminency of an Adobe CS4
beta, Photoshop users worldwide will
once more have to get to grips with
brand-new option sets, let alone an
innovative interface. Yet there are still
some of you enthusiastic digital
creatives maximising your CS software
versions and, with regards to improved
interfaces, there are ultimately ways to
get the most from your present
Photoshop packages.
Digital artists are more than aware
that the properties of their digital
workspace are paramount when
concerning productive invention, and
this Insider Info shows how you can
further maximise your creative
approach through workspace
preferences, namely the View drop
option set. We’ll approach each
command in a coherent and orderly
fashion, demonstrating how they
benefit pre and postproduction,
application and effects. Let’s begin by
addressing the Proof Setup options, the
most intensive option in the set.
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074_AVP_50_InsiderInfo.indd 74
Proof Setup and Plates
Essentially, the Proof Setup options
permit you to experiment with soft
proofs, meaning an on-screen accurate
preview showing what your printed
image colours will look like before
producing hard proofs – the printed
work itself. Individual colour mode
tones can be edited by activating the
Working Plate options, including Cyan,
Magenta, Yellow and Black. On
activating an option, you can decrease
or increase tonal values, using the Hue/
Saturation Edit drop menu and
Saturation and Brightness sliders. The
darker the image, the more specific the
tone value applied and vice versa.
Proof Setup also permits you to soft
proof in CMYK standard, meaning you
see what your design looks like in this
colour mode while making changes in
RGB mode. This also serves an
alternative purpose, benefiting creative
application. Specifically, it allows you to
utilise all filter effects when working in
simulated CMYK. It’s common
knowledge that working in CMYK mode
‘greys out’ many Photoshop options.
Activation of the Proof Colors option
(Cmd/Ctrl+Y) allows you to toggle the
OFF-COLOUR: Coupling the Gamut Warning
options and Color Swatches alert option will
provide you with perfect colour results every time
INSIDER
Now you see it, now you don’t
proof display on and off at all times, by
way of comparison between the
original and the application.
Gamut Warning
Proof Setup is the View option’s ‘bread
and butter’, so to speak, being its most
operated function. However, this option
set provides more quick-fire tools that
can make the scrutiny and editing of
imagery far more productive. Take, for
example, the Gamut Warning option.
Gamut is the range of colours that your
colour system can display and print.
Colours that appear in the RGB gamut
may not always be printable in CMYK
mode, and so activating the Gamut
Warning upon colour mode change will
be displayed on-screen with the
greying out of colour pixels. If this
occurs, correction is enhanced by
activating your foreground swatch and
CUSTOMISATION: Soft Proof options also
include custom options where you can specify the
colour profile of the device, which simulates how
the colours will appear without being converted
to the colour space and simulating the dingy
white of real paper
The Extras options are apparently
essential when aligning composition
elements. But when applied, they
may obscure your image, making it
hard to perceive the significance of
both application and position. This
can be resolved by pressing Cmd+H
to show and hide your Extra options,
allowing comparisons.
OUR EXPERT Adam Smith
Senior staff writer Adam Smith works across a variety of
creative projects and warrants the merits of Photoshop’s
powerful filter effects. He knows all too well how the use
of these can be efficient time-wise, as well as being
extremely entertaining.
utilising the Color Picker to select
greyed-out areas. Adjacent to the new
colour swatch in the dialog box is the
Gamut alert triangle, and clicking this
will automatically suggest the correct
colour for you to reapply.
Extras
Rulers and Show extras can be great for
those utilising Photoshop in a layout
capacity. Graphic designers and art
workers will find these options a
godsend. You can activate these
options in the View>Extras>Show
Options palette and they can be
coupled for maximum effect. Rulers,
Guides and Grids are great ways to
apply precise position of image
elements. Rulers, applicable to all forms
of measurement (Cmd/Ctrl-click work
area), allow you to place guidelines that
you can snap images to by selecting the
Snap command.
Another of the Extras>Show’s more
efficient options is Smart Guide. With
this option, you can disregard the time-
consuming process of playing with
Selection and Align tools, as it
essentially reveals snapping guides that
appear when dragging your image,
allowing you to align perfectly with
visual elements in your composition.
17/10/08 11:57:19
 Our pick of the best reader submissions
sent to us this month

P
eer Pressure has once again been inundated with great artwork. The
chosen entries this month offer an array of insights into the creative mind,
sharing and revealing individual approaches and skills. We always include
your email and web address so that interested parties can get in touch.
All you have to do is send us high-quality TIFFs or JPEGs (RGB or CMYK) at 300dpi,
which can be printed at a minimum size of 15 x 15cm. Send us low-res versions to
advancedpshop@imagine-publishing.co.uk – we’ll get back to you for work with a
higher resolution if needed. Alternatively, log on to our forum at www.
advancedphotoshop.co.uk/forum. We cannot provide individual image assessment.
Each issue we select one image to be Best In Show, and that lucky person will win
a fantastic prize, courtesy of The Illustration Source (www.illustration-source.com),
which is a great way to get your work seen. So, what are you waiting for?

Monochrome magic
NAME: Magomed Dovjenko
EMAIL: endemo@live.de
WEB: http://dovjenko.net

Looking at these compositions, it is hard to believe that the artist BUBBLE UNIT: “This
behind them is just 14 years old. Magomed is from Cologne, Germany, illustration came when I wanted
and has been designing for two years, starting illustrations about six to make a big print in A0. I had a
lot of fun doing this one because I
months ago. His talent has already been recognised by others in the
was looking forward to having
design arena, and he is a regular on communities such as depthCORE such a big poster in my room, so I
and Evoke. worked extra quick”
He has a strong web presence too, giving his work a platform to be
displayed, and you can find plenty of his impressive work on his
personal website, http://dovjenko.net, or on the Behance network
under his Aureax alias at www.behance.net/aureax.

“LVSD is a piece that

LVSD (LEFT): tes of darkness and
bu
shows the attri ce,
ath. With this pie
light, life and de ORE’s latest
de pthC
I’m serving
exhibition, Noir”

EVK TYPOGRAPHY (RIGHT): “This was

originally done for Evoke’s exhibition, Evoke II.
A friend of mine will collaborate on the
background and other elements, but I wanted
to show off this one to Advanced Photoshop
for sure, as it’s one of my favourite projects”

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 THE TALOS
novel project, Th PROJECT: “This is the open
e Talos Project ing shot from my
Alaska) building , depic web comic/gra
in Alaska where ting the PFT-AK (Pandora Futu phic
and the foregro th e sto ry be gins. The main re Technologies
und rooftop we building, vehic –
re built and tex les , road
rendered with me tured using Ma
ntal ray. The res ya and Photosho
t was painted in p, and
Photoshop”

Dimension jump
NAME: Giorgos Chronopoulos
EMAIL: giochrono@thetalosproject.com
WEB: www.thetalosproject.com

Giorgos has always had the passion to create, whether with a simple pencil and paper or playing
with clay or wood as a child. After school he studied Art and Design at college, then at 17 he did
a few freelance illustrations for local businesses before dedicating his time to a new project. “I
decided to quit the HND in Graphic Design I was in, and dedicate my time to teaching myself
3D animation and creating a four-minute animated short, for which I composed a couple of
songs and edited it together.” He finished it when he was 18, and after sending the tape out, he
got some work experience at a studio in central London. “I landed my first full-time position at
19 working for Striker 3D Ltd, creating the ‘Striker 3D’ comic for The Sun newspaper. I worked
there for three years before moving to work in-house for News International Ltd as part of a
four-man team producing ‘The Premier’, a new 3D football-related comic featured in The Sun
newspaper and The Sun Online.”
The Talos Project, which is where the images featured here are from, is a web comic and
graphic novel that Giorgos is currently producing. “There is a huge amount of work involved
in making The Talos Project, but it is something I’m passionate about, and so I make time
around other freelance projects to keep working on it. I plan to release the first book next
spring. I have recently been contacted by a movie producer about the idea of making it into
a movie, which is something I definitely plan to do when the time is right.”

PROFESSOR CAIN: “This is a portrait of Professor Edward

Francis Cain, a character from The Talos Project and an employee
of PFT. The base head was modelled and UVd in Maya, and then
taken into ZBrush to refine and sculpt the higher-level detail, skin
pores and wrinkles along with all the texturing, which was also
done in ZBrush from reference photos I took of my stepfather”

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 Discover the thinking behind the art

BEST
IN SHOW

CLONE WAR: “This piece was a little tough to make. I took

a stock and duplicated it three times. Then I did my lighting
technique with soft brushes to create most of the lighting. I
also used a background stock, which created the
black background”

Simple
yet effective
NAME: Angel Rivera
EMAIL: billiejoeblvd@yahoo.com
WEB: http://thelrd.deviantart.com

Angel Rivera hails from Tampa in Florida. His

style is very clean and crisp, and while the
techniques used aren’t overly complex, the
images themselves look modern,
commercial and professional. He has been
designing for just two years, which is
impressive given that these images look as
though they have been created by someone
with a great deal more experience.
When asked about how he creates his
bright artworks, he says: “I have always liked
to use simple yet effective techniques, such
as soft pixel brushing on Linear Dodge to
create some great lighting.” We expect great
things from this talented designer, so
remember where you saw him first!

LIVING IN FEAR: “To create this piece, I used a lot of soft

brush lighting. I picked out a good render provided from a
good friend and went from there. I added soft brushing on
Linear Dodge plus Splatter brushes, which I distorted in order
to create the shape I wanted them to be”

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 Creative stock

best
NAME: John Cathcart
EMAIL: finelines99@googlemail.com
WEB: www.advancedphotoshop.co.uk/user/Keyline

John is a 27-year-old Graphic Design student living in Belfast, Northern Ireland. His interest in graphic
design began as a teenager quite accidentally. “During my teenage years I had an interest in web design,
which I studied in my spare time. I gradually became aware that to design an inspiring website, the content
relied heavily on the visual content, forcing me to delve into the work of Photoshop. Immediately, I was
hooked, leaving behind my HTML and Flash passions.”
He describes himself as being “absorbed into the wonderful world of Adobe”. Now, more than ten years on,

show
his life’s passion is in creating digital artwork and pushing his ability to create new and exciting images.
“Through the constant support of my family, friends and amazing girlfriend, I continue to spend every waking
moment imagining new avenues in which to pursue my creativity.”

ATHEIST ALLEY (BELOW): “This piece

Sponsored by…
Not only is Angel Rivera this
started off with an idea to create a
postapocalyptic scene of torment and dark month’s Best in Show, he has also
ambience. I took several royalty-free stock won a year’s full Option 3
images, centring on a remote alley membership to The Illustration
photograph and replacing a very uneventful Source, worth £150, and Featured
sky with a raging, stormy background. After Artist slot for November. The
many colour corrections, Level and Curve Illustration Source Ltd is the newest
adjustments, I set the scene for a very dark and source of original art, freelance
frightening street scene. After collecting
illustrators, photographers, artists
numerous fire and flame photographs, I used
Layer Masks, warp transforms and soft and designers on the net. Visit
brushes to blend the inferno raging down the www.illustration-source.com for
street. Finally, I added the little girl with the more information. If you’d like to
umbrella, using colour corrections and layer stand a chance of winning an
manipulations to use her as my final subject” Illustration Source portfolio, send
your images to advancedpshop@
imagine-publishing.co.uk.

FIELD OF DREAMS: Another example of Image requirements

John’s world, this time showing off his skill with
colour and contemporary styling
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 15 x 15cm minimum.
Don’t forget to include a small text
file detailing how you created your
work as well.

Terms and conditions

By submitting images to Advanced
Photoshop’s Peer Pressure, you
hereby grant Imagine Publishing
and, if relevant, clients to whom the
relevant work has been provided,
an irrevocable, perpetual, royalty-
free licence to use such intellectual
property in relation to work similar
or equivalent to the work. This
includes the right to showcase work
on multimedia formats. By
submitting work, you also confirm
that your images do not infringe
any copyright regulations should
they be published.

THE PRIZE: Check out The Illustration

Source’s website to see the portfolios of
previous winners of Best in Show

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 web
Discover the thinking behind the art

chall
enge THIS
MONTH’S
PRIZE
Our prize this month is a copy of our
popular (and sold out!) bookazine,
Advanced Photoshop: The Premium
Peer Pressure WEB Collection 2. The lucky winner will
receive a copy of this essential
CHALLENGE – THE WINNERS resource, which contains our pick of
Challenge reference: AP 049 the best tutorials, features and
portfolios from past issues, along with
a CD of all the project files needed.
On our website, www.advancedphotoshop.
co.uk/competitions.php, we run a web
challenge where you are asked to create Runner-up
an image in Photoshop using at least one of NAME: Ana Mlinar
three images provided. These challenges WEB: www.advancedphotoshop.co.
are updated monthly and they are uk/user/ancica
becoming increasingly popular, so get your FLY AWAY: We liked the way that
entries in for a chance to win. Ana used the landscape image that
Check out the website for details of our we provided and gave it a completely
different look and feel. The
latest challenge and how to enter. The
colouring is great and gives it that old-
winner will collect a special prize for that fashioned authenticity
month (prizes change frequently) and will
also have their design printed in the
magazine, along with two runners-up.

W EB
W I NNE R

NAME: Steve Wagner

Runner-up
NAME: Liwei Wang
WEB: www.advancedphotoshop.co.uk/user/WIS
THE LAST ONE: “The concept was to create a
blueprint look for the ruins, as if they were built that way.
I scanned a penned version of the image, and mixed the
lines with bits from the original image. A few textures
and other stock images were used here. Those numbered
lines are actually from photos of clear rulers.”
WEB: www.
aliasentertainment.net
EMAIL: steve@aliasentertainment.net
UNTITLED ENTRY: “My intent with this project was to completely reverse the mood of the Cape Town
photo. The original was bright and fresh, so my version would have to be oppressive and frightening. To begin, I
erased the sky, painted a volcano in the distance and began adding layers of clouds, smoke and ash (with the
help of blending modes). This provided depth to the image and illustrated the devastation’s creeping advance
toward the foreground. Lighting came next as I painted the black sooty sky, and gave the sun a chance to bloom
behind a layer of smog. A few finishing touches then drew the scene together – lava, fires and reflections in the
water, horizon blending and birds in the sky. My final adjustments were the usual fare: Curves, Color Balance,
Levels, etc.
The scene is comprised of approximately 50 layers, which includes a handful of my own stock photos. If I had
to assign it an emotion or theme, it would be ‘apprehension’.”

www.advancedphotoshop.co.uk/competitions.php
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 Feature

PAST,
PR ESENT,
FUTUR E:
a history of Photoshop
Over 20 years young, Photoshop still has the power to dazzle and
inspire. Nick Spence explores its long history and future potential

I
f you’re reading this article, or even browsing
this magazine in a store, chances are you’re a
fan of Photoshop. The vast, sometimes
baffling, array of tools and tricks available at your
fingertips has changed how photographers,
artists, illustrators, designers and many more
work. From enthusiast snappers and students to
high-end professional retouchers and top design
studios, Photoshop’s appeal is wide, offering both
basic editing tools and increasingly advanced
features, well beyond its original remit. It has
crossed into the mainstream more than any other
software application, with its very own verb in
‘Photoshopped’, and plays a vital role in any
advertising campaign. Everything from fashion to
food is filtered through Photoshop to ensure the
tempting and desirable never looks less than
perfect. Photoshop has made the impossible
possible. Hours of work in the traditional
photographer’s darkroom can now be effectively
achieved digitally, while endless variations on a
theme can be produced without the cost and time
needed previously. Above all, it has given anyone
with the desire and dedication to learn the
potential to create stunning work, blurring the
line between enthusiast and professional.

John Warnock and Charles JANUARY: Adobe enters the Display changes name several Thomas and John Knoll
1987

1989
1988
1982

Geschke found Adobe to
develop and sell the PostScript
page description language
consumer software market:
Illustrator 1.0, codenamed
Picasso, ships for Mac OS
Thomas Knoll begins writing
graphics subroutines on a
Mac Plus
times; ImagePro and PhotoHut continue developing
are both dropped for PhotoShop Photoshop with help and
suggestions from Adobe
Barneyscan licenses the
application to bundle with its
slide scanner, with around 200
copies shipped

Knoll and brother John team up John Knoll impresses Adobe’s art
and combine these subroutines director Russell Brown enough
into the Display application for a deal to be struck

SEPTEMBER: Adobe buys the

licence to distribute Photoshop
(now with a lowercase ‘s’)

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 Past, present, future: a history of Photoshop
L
ike most great applications, Photoshop
started with a simple idea. In 1987, Thomas
Knoll, a PhD doctoral candidate in computer
vision studying Image Processing at the University of
Michigan, was dismayed to find he couldn’t easily
display greyscale images on the black-and-white
monitor of a newly purchased and expensive
Macintosh Plus computer. Knoll set about writing
code to rectify this problem, something he thought
would have limited appeal at best, and called it
Display. His brother John, who worked at Industrial
Light and Magic, the visual effects arm of Lucasfilm,
founded by Star Wars creator George Lucas, took a
shine to it and encouraged Thomas to develop it into
a fully fledged program. Both had been influenced
and inspired by their father, a professor at the
University of Michigan, who maintained a
photographic darkroom in their basement and had
been an earlier adopter of Apple Mac computers.
Together, the Knoll brothers began looking at ways
to process digital image files with the intention of
harnessing the results for the film industry, helping to
create the kind of stunning effects Industrial Light
and Magic are best known for. Thomas took six
months off from his studies to concentrate on
developing the software, with the pair adding a
Macintosh II, the first Apple computer with a colour
“THOMAS KNOLL
NEVER DID HAVE
TIME TO FINISH
HIS THESIS, BUT
HIS LOSS WAS
VERY MUCH
OUR GAIN”
FEBRUARY: Photoshop 1.0 JUNE: Photoshop 2.0,
1990
1991
shipped, including selection codenamed Fast Eddy, is
tools and basic image filters released with paths
and adjustments
082-088_AVP_50_Feature.indd 83
display, to help speed development. Display was
renamed ImagePro in 1988 when the two began to
see the commercial potential of selling their hard
work, possibly to a Silicon Valley computer company.
That said, passion outweighed any desire to make
their fortune early, despite money concerns. When
the pair were among the first inducted into the
Photoshop Hall of Fame, created by the National
Association of Photoshop Professionals (NAPP) in
2000, John Knoll reportedly asked on being
approached, “Why would you want to induct me? I
didn’t do anything special. Writing Photoshop was
just something we did for fun back then, it was
basically a hobby.”
John Knoll gave a demo of the program to
engineers at Apple, who reportedly widely copied the
software internally, a story that still amuses many
today. The Knoll brothers also approached Adobe,
who at the time had recently launched its own
software application in Illustrator, and was
concentrating primarily on developing PostScript
print technology. Meanwhile, Barneyscan agreed,
temporarily at least, to bundle the Knoll brothers’
software with its slide scanner. By this time, ImagePro
had become Photoshop, or PhotoShop as it appears
on some early splash screens, possibly at the
suggestion of a potential publisher during a demo,
although no one seems certain where the name came
from. Briefly named Barneyscan XP, around 200
copies, now in Version 0.87, were shipped with the
scanners before the arrangement came to an end.
Adobe shakes hands on a deal
John Knoll visited Adobe again later in 1988 to report
what progress had been made with the software, now
offering a range of features, including tone, colour,
hue and saturation controls, paint brushes and
support for multiple file formats. Adobe cofounder
John Warnock was only available for the first 15
minutes of the demo, but creative director Russell
Brown was suitably impressed to stay around. Legend
NOVEMBER: Version 2.5 becomes
1992
the first version compatible with
Windows as well as Mac
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17/10/08 19:00:16
 Feature
Q&A
John Nack, principal product manager, Adobe
Photoshop and blogger supreme (http://blogs.adobe.
com/jnack), took time off from promoting CS4 to
answer some questions
Q. WHY DO YOU THINK PHOTOSHOP
CONTINUES TO DOMINATE MORE THAN
20 YEARS AFTER ITS INTRODUCTION?
A: I think a lot of factors have contributed to
Photoshop’s longevity. From the first version, the
app was designed to be broad, flexible and
extensible. That’s meant that even as new
technologies and workflows have emerged, eg,
the web, then digital raw photography,
Photoshop has been able to adapt. The plug-in,
actions and scripting architectures have helped
make it possible to make the core application do
tricks that the Photoshop team may never have
envisioned. I also think the Photoshop
development team deserves credit. It’s one of the
most stable, long-serving groups of engineers
around, and they’ve been around the block
enough times that they won’t pursue lame
solutions that would end up painting us or
customers into a corner. We’ve had the benefit of
decades’ worth of service from geniuses like
Thomas Knoll and Mark Hamburg, to name just
two among many, and they’ve brought to their
work a ton of insight into the future. I also have to
give great credit to the Photoshop community. To
some extent, we’re just the farmers who supply
the raw materials; it’s you guys who are the chefs,
who figure out how to make things people would
actually want to eat.
Q. EVEN THOUGH YOU HAVE INSIDER
KNOWLEDGE, DO YOU STILL GET A
THRILL WHEN, FOR INSTANCE, YOU GET
CS4 IN YOUR HANDS?
A: Most definitely. The funny thing for me is that
our internal clocks are off. That is, by the time we
announce a version, we’ve been staring at it for
at least 18 months. Often, I’ve given my demo
Adobe Photoshop Seminar Tour
1993
1994
forms, leading to The National
Association of Photoshop
Professionals (NAPP)
NOVEMBER: Version 2.5 is
released for the IRIX, Solaris
operating systems
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082-088_AVP_50_Feature.indd 84
many
hundreds of times that I
almost can’t stand to hear
myself talk. Having said that,
when you get the features in front of
people and see their eyes light up, that
makes it all worth it.
Q. YOU WRITE A POPULAR ADOBE BLOG, DO
THE FEEDBACK COMMENTS LEFT BY
READERS AFFECT HOW FUTURE VERSIONS
OF PHOTOSHOP WILL DEVELOP?
A: Absolutely. They help us keep it real, so to speak,
especially because anyone can comment, not just
folks we already know and like. People hold our feet
to the fire on things both big and small, and that’s
essential to moving the product forward. The
perverse thing is that even though I got here by
living in Photoshop every day, after coming to
Adobe I spend far more time in email than I do in
Photoshop. That’s a necessary evil, as so much of
the job is about communication, so we need the
community, the people who really do live in the
tools, to keep us grounded in reality.
Q. AND DO YOU THINK THE BLOGS
GENERALLY HAVE GIVEN ADOBE A MORE
HUMAN FACE?
A: Indeed. Hopefully, it’s not one from which you’ll
recoil in horror!
Q. FINALLY, DURING YOUR TIME AT ADOBE,
WHAT HAVE BEEN YOUR FAVOURITE
PHOTOSHOP NEW FEATURES?
A: I always say that my eyes were opened when I
first joined the team and started demoing Photoshop
7. The big ‘wow’ feature was the Healing Brush tool:
no one had ever seen anything like it. But do you
know what was the runner-up, beating all the other
big, marquee features in terms of ‘wows’? It was the
ability to double-click a layer name and change in
the Layers palette. Even though that tweak didn’t
change anything in terms of total clicks, speed, etc,
it just felt right. I delight in mixing the ‘sizzle’ with
the ‘steak’, for example, Content-Aware Scaling in
CS4 combined with the dozens of small tweaks I’ve
listed on my blog. It’s that kind of high/low mix that
keeps customers smiling.
SEPTEMBER: Version 3.0 NOVEMBER: Photoshop 4.0, aka
1996
released, adding tabbed palettes Big Electric Cat, adds
and much-requested layers adjustment layers and Actions
has it that Brown ran, not walked, to Warnock’s office
after the demo, insisting they invest in the future of
Photoshop. Thankfully, Warnock shared his
enthusiasm and had made up his mind in those short
15 minutes. Brown had only just signed a
nondisclosure agreement (NDA) with Letraset, the UK-
based dry transfer lettering company, to view its
ColorStudio software, but believed Photoshop would
be a better product.
In September 1988, a handshake sealed the deal
between the Knoll brothers and Fred Mitchell, head of
Adobe Acquisitions, the company agreeing to buy the
licence to distribute Photoshop. Further details were
sorted out over the months and a legal agreement
was drawn up by April 1989. The brothers were
guaranteed no less than $250,000 over the first two
years, while the ‘licence to distribute’ agreement
ensured a major payday for the pair when the
agreement came to an end. Indeed, come 1995
Adobe bought Photoshop outright, paying an
incredible $34.5 million for the privilege, proving that
some hobbies are more profitable than others. Adobe
kept the name Photoshop despite looking around for
potential alternatives, none of which proved to be
particularly popular or inspiring. Despite the
handshake and the beginning of a productive
relationship, the hard work was not over.
Thomas Knoll continued to write all the code for
the application in Ann Arbor, while John Knoll worked
on developing a series of plug-ins based in California.
These initially failed to impress some Adobe
employees who saw them as gimmicky, potentially
undermining the value of a serious application.
Ironically, over time these plug-ins were to become
some of the most popular features in Photoshop, and
contribute significantly to its enduring popular
appeal. Encouraged by Russell Brown and others,
Photoshop 1.0 finally saw the light of day in February
1990 for Macintosh exclusively. Weighing in at a puny
1.44MB, Photoshop came on a single floppy diskette
and was competitively priced for the day, costing less
Adobe is number two software
1997
firm behind Microsoft
17/10/08 19:00:36
 Past, present, future: a history of Photoshop
Q&A
Robin Preston (www.nw-5.com) studied Illustration at
Saint Martins School of Art in London, and went on to
work for renowned retouching houses in London, later
becoming director and co-owner of the largest
professional colour laboratory in Germany. During the
Nineties, he moved his company to the principal litho
group in Holland to work for the advertising industry, and
was also involved with DICOMED in the US, one of the
first companies to produce a high-resolution digital
camera. He now works as a digital artist and illustrator
based in London, and is a beta tester for Adobe as well as
a senior evangelist for Wacom tablets
Q. HOW DID YOUR WORKING TECHNIQUES
DIFFER BEFORE PHOTOSHOP?
A: I’d been putting photographic images together by
creating transparency compositions, cutting masks
than $1,000, half the price of the competing
ColorStudio from Letraset. With Macs equally paltry,
typically 1MB of RAM and 20MB of storage, Adobe
cofounder Chuck Geschke thought they’d be lucky to
sell a few thousand copies of Photoshop a year.
Despite some bugs and the obvious limitations,
Photoshop 1.0 remains a classic; capable of creating
sophisticated results that effectively helped make
many competing software applications obsolete.
New features and tools
The growth and popularity of computers, printers and
scanners, combined with falling hardware prices,
helped ensure in the long term that Photoshop was a
resounding success. It may have been a slow process,
but Photoshop put into the hands of many the tools
to be able to compete creatively with large studios
First issue of Photoshop User
1998
magazine produced by NAPP
is released
MAY: Version 5.0 adds editable
type, multiple Undos (History
palette), colour management and
the Magnetic Lasso tool
082-088_AVP_50_Feature.indd 85
manually and exposing images through an enlarger
onto dupe film. This, of course, took a long time, and if
you wanted to make adjustments you would often have
to start all over again. The retouching was also manual
with different types of bleaches and special techniques;
you will find all the terms we used then in Photoshop
today, so that’s why it’s maybe easier for me to work with
Photoshop. When we started working digitally around
1987 with Quantel Paintbox and Barco Creator, our first
system cost £600,000.
Q. AND WHAT DID PHOTOSHOP ALLOW YOU TO
DO THAT YOU COULDN’T EASILY PREVIOUSLY?
A: Photoshop was written on a platform. I started with
Macs, which were much easier to understand, so it was
easier for people to write third-party plug-ins with an
open interface so we could export as TIFF, etc.
Q. OVER THE YEARS, WHICH SIGNIFICANT NEW
FEATURES DRAMATICALLY IMPROVED HOW
YOU WORKED?
A: Layers and layer masks, multiple Undos, an open
interface and third-party developers developing the
software together with Adobe, so instead of using and
“THE TEMPTATION
TO UPGRADE
BECOMES MORE
TANGIBLE AS
EACH VERSION IS
ANNOUNCED AND
NEW ENTICING
TOOLS ARE
INTRODUCED”
FEBRUARY: Version 5.5 comes
1999
bundled with ImageReady and
adds Save for Web and Extract
Adobe InDesign, competitor to
QuarkXPress and eventual
replacement for PageMaker,
is released
buying different programs,
you could find everything you
needed in one program.
Q. AS A BETA TESTER FOR ADOBE,
WHAT INFORMATION AND
FEEDBACK DO YOU GIVE?
A: Coming from an illustrative and photographic
background, I’m always trying to get the guys at
Adobe to develop things I miss from the early days
of imaging. Of course, part of our function as
testers is to inform Adobe of any bugs we find and
hopefully together solve them.
Q. AS SOMEONE WHO HAS BEEN USING
PHOTOSHOP FOR OVER 20 YEARS, WHAT
FEATURES WOULD YOU IDEALLY LIKE TO
SEE FOR FUTURE VERSIONS?
A: I’d like the Warp tool to develop further,
allowing me to set anchor points where I need
them, otherwise it’s already moving in the
direction I would like, as we are increasingly being
asked by our clients to move into creative 3D and
digital video and audio.
and those with plenty of financial clout. Revisions
continued regularly over the following years, with
version 2.0 arriving in June 1991 for Mac complete
with support for paths. November 1992 saw another
major landmark. A Microsoft Windows port of version
2.0 was released, opening Photoshop up to a whole
new audience. Photoshop 3.0 released in September
1994 for Mac and in November for Windows, IRIX and
Solaris saw the introduction of layers and tabbed
palettes. For many, the introduction of layers was the
moment Photoshop really came into its own, offering
a level of image manipulation previously difficult
traditionally. Released in November 1996, version 4.0
added adjustment layers and Actions, while 5.0,
introduced in May 1998, added a Magnetic Lasso, a
Type tool to make text editable without resorting to it
being rasterised and the History palette, which
allowed cancelling multiple actions.
SEPTEMBER: Photoshop 6.0 offers
2000
vector shapes, the Liquify filter,
layer styles/blending options and
an updated user interface
85
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17/10/08 19:00:56
 Feature
Q&A
Andy Vella (www.velladesign.com) is a designer,
photographer and educator who has been responsible
for hundreds of album and book covers over the years,
including work for The Cure, Warp Records, Picador and
Bloomsbury Publishing
Q. WHEN DID YOU MAKE THE MOVE TO
WORKING DIGITALLY?
A: 1992. I remember getting my first Apple Mac from
Albion computers. I didn’t want to be left behind in
design, and foreseeing that computers were the way
forward, I purchased it as a bundle: a Macintosh IIsi
with a hard disk memory of 40MB and RAM of 8MB.
Those were the days and it cost me a bloody fortune.
Q. WHEN WERE YOU FIRST MADE AWARE OF
ADOBE PHOTOSHOP?
A: I used to get repro done at Graphic Response with
my old mate Peter Paterson; this was for a particular
job for Polydor to remove the genitals from the lead
singer of this band I was doing the cover for. This was
done on a Scitex scanner, but the idea of
Photoshop 6.0, released in September 2000, saw an
improved interface as well as the addition of the
Liquify filter and vector shapes. 7.0, launched in
October 2003, introduced both the Healing Brush tool
and the ability to make text fully vector. Importantly, a
7.0.1 update added support for Camera Raw 1.x.
Developed by Thomas Knoll, Camera Raw is now
central to many photographer’s workflow and at the
heart of both Photoshop and Lightroom. The
introduction of an integrated Adobe Creative Suite
saw version 8.0, renamed CS in April 2005, with the
introduction of a new browser in Adobe Bridge.
Camera Raw was updated to 2.x and new additions
included the Shadow/Highlight command, Match
Color command, Lens Blur filter, Smart Guides and a
real-time Histogram. CS2 arrived in April 2005 with
Camera Raw 3.x support, Smart Objects, Image Warp,
APRIL: Photoshop Elements 1 for
2001
PC and Mac is released
86
Advanced Photoshop
082-088_AVP_50_Feature.indd 86
manipulation of images was definitely something
that was going to take me to dizzy heights later on
when I discovered the Mac and Photoshop.
Q. AND WHY DID YOU MAKE THE DECISION
TO START WORKING DIGITALLY?
A: Well, I just really had the fear that I was going to
be left behind; I was not from the computer
generation so it felt like an uphill struggle. Turning
the computer on was really a big thrill for me, and
then I had to learn how to make it work. I had an
acquaintance who had just left college, Mark
Sampson (www.seismicdesign.co.uk), who used to
come in to help and assist, and he was and still is a
whizz on Photoshop. He made it sing and showed
me the way really, and so once you can see what it
can do then you can take it for miles.
Q. WHAT FIRST IMPRESSED YOU ABOUT
ADOBE PHOTOSHOP?
A: To be honest I was only really impressed once
Photoshop with layers came out, as before then I
found it a nightmare and I did expect more and
hoped to be able to do similar effects and apply it
like I had done with the Scitex.
“CS3 ARRIVED IN
APRIL 2007 IN
NOT ONE BUT
TWO OPTIONS,
OFFERING SOME
POTENTIALLY
TEMPTING
EXTRAS AT A
PREMIUM PRICE”
MARCH: Version 7.0 adds the
2002
Healing Brush tool, a new
painting engine and ability to
make text a vector
Adobe celebrates its 20th
anniversary, now employing over
3,000 people
AUGUST: Version 7.0.1 adds an
important Camera Raw 1.x as
optional plug-in
AUGUST: Photoshop Elements 2
for PC and Mac is released
Q. HOW DID IT CHANGE
THE WAY YOU WORK?
A: Well, I do a lot of commissioned
photography work and freelance
design work, so image manipulation is
vital. In fact, I would be lost without.
Q. OVER THE YEARS, HAVE YOU FELT
THE URGE TO UPGRADE WITH EACH
NEW PHOTOSHOP?
A: I don’t need to upgrade as the places I work at
and go to have their new up-to-date versions, but as
I teach I do hope to get the whole new Adobe
Creative Suite.
Q. OVER THE YEARS, WHICH TOOLS HAVE
YOU FOUND TO BE MOST USEFUL?
A: Layers definitely, the Eraser, Gaussian Blur and
using the Pen tool for cutouts. I love it all, though to
be honest, I don’t really like the textures. I think they
are very false-looking, but I do like creating my own.
Q. THINKING ABOUT THE FUTURE, WHAT
PHOTOSHOP ADDITIONS WOULD YOU LIKE
TO SEE?
A: The ability to do both layouts and Photoshop all
in one. I guess we are near that now, though.
Spot Healing Brush tool, Lens Correction filter,
Vanishing Point and at last a Red Eye tool among
many new and tweaked features.
CS suite introduced
Controversially, CS3 arrived in April 2007 in not one
but two options, offering some potentially tempting
extras, although at a premium price. Photoshop CS3
and CS3 Extended added native support for recently
introduced Intel-based Macs and improved support
for Windows Vista. Nondestructive Smart Filters, Quick
Select tool, Auto-Align and Auto-Blend and a
streamlined user interface were among the new
features. CS4 and CS4 Extended, announced in
September this year and available from October,
features a newly refined, tab-based interface in a
OCTOBER: CS (Version 8.0) adds
2003
Camera Raw 2.x, the Slice tool,
the Shadow/Highlight command,
the Match Color command, the
Lens Blur filter, Smart Guides and
a real-time Histogram
17/10/08 19:01:16
 Past, present, future: a history of Photoshop
single, integrated window, with self-adjusting panels
arranged in docked groups. Also new are Adjustments
and Masks panels, fluid canvas rotation, content-
aware scaling, file display options and in CS4
Extended, 3D object and property editing.
Adobe’s product cycle ensures you can expect
updates every 18 months or so. For many, the
temptation to upgrade becomes more tangible as
each new version is announced and new enticing
tools and tricks are introduced. Relative old-timers
had until 15 October 2008 to upgrade from version
7.0 to CS4, but you should really ask yourself what
new additions you would actually use. To prove a
point, the renowned illustrator Bob Staake (www.
bobstaake.com) still works with 3.0 on his Mac, and
has said, “the familiarity of Photoshop 3.0 keeps me
locked into the program.” Each new addition does,
however, widen your creative horizons, offering new
and untapped potential and areas to explore you may
have previously overlooked. Developing new skills is
always a plus, and Photoshop has continuously
offered more than one way of achieving stunning
results and experimenting. As for Photoshop
Extended, Adobe provides some useful online side-
by-side comparisons between Photoshop and
Photoshop Extended, so you can see at a glance what
you might be potentially missing.
Over the last 20 years or so, third parties, covering
everything from plug-ins and brushes to this very
magazine, have helped fuel the growth of Photoshop.
Books, periodicals, CD-ROMs, DVDs, hands-on
training, online training, tutorials, blogs, podcasts,
free resources and much more have ensured
Photoshop maintains unprecedented support. A
quick Google of ‘Photoshop tutorial’ offers around
1,880,000 hits, so choosing Photoshop has become a
pretty safe bet if you want to learn and create. While
websites such as Dear Adobe (www.dearadobe.com)
and Adobe’s own support section have highlighted
some frustrating oversights, bugs and issues,
Photoshop still maintains top spot as industry leader.
Thomas Knoll never did have time to finish his thesis,
but his loss was very much our gain. As we celebrate
OCTOBER: Photoshop Elements 3
2004
for PC and Mac is released
082-088_AVP_50_Feature.indd 87
50 issues of Advanced Photoshop magazine, let us all
raise a glass to Thomas and John Knoll.
Looking forward
It’s true to say Adobe has worked hard in recent years
to streamline and simplify its range of programs,
particularly those acquired from Macromedia in 2005,
to ensure that jumping from one application to
another is a fairly short step. Tools in one should look
familiar in another, with on-screen clutter kept to a
minimum, the interface more consistent throughout
each application. However, Photoshop is notoriously
difficult for a newbie, and it’s hoped future versions
will look at simplifying complex tasks further.
Incorporating some of the third party plug-ins
currently available that seek to improve ease of use
and speed up convoluted tasks could help.
With the emphasis more than ever on your ability
to multitask and Adobe bundling its software in such
a way to make it more cost effective for many to
purchase a Creative Suite, it pays to master more than
Easter eggs include the codenames for various
Photoshop versions, including Space Monkey in CS2
APRIL: CS2 (version 9.0) adds
Camera Raw 3.x, Smart Objects,
Image Warp, the Spot Healing
Brush, the Red-Eye tool, the Lens
Correction filter, Vanishing Point,
Smart Sharpen and Smart Guides
OCTOBER: Photoshop Elements 4
for PC and Mac is released
Adobe acquires main rival
Macromedia in a stock swap
2006
2005
valued at about $3.4 billion
OCTOBER: The first issue of
Advanced Photoshop goes
on sale
Easter eggs
A virtual Easter egg is an intentionally hidden
message or feature often found in DVDs,
videogames and in the case of Photoshop and
ImageReady, computer programs. The Easter Egg
Archive (www.eeggs.com) lists many of them, and
several more can be found via Google. Adobe has a
long history of including these amusing additions,
and among our favourites are a Merlin icon, cats,
dogs, comical credits from the development team,
ducks in ImageReady and splash screens revealing
the alpha versions and codenames for Photoshop.
These include Liquid Sky for 7, Dark Matter in CS
and Space Monkey in CS2, a Red Pill in CS3 and
Stonehenge in CS4. In CS2, for instance, click the
Photoshop menu then hold down the Command
and Option keys on an Apple Mac computer and
click About Photoshop to reveal the splash screen.
For Windows, simultaneously press both Ctrl+Alt
and hold them down. Still pressing them down,
click on the Help menu and select About
Photoshop. Similarly, CS3 not only includes pills
inspired by the film The Matrix, a cat image and
paw print, but also a fitting tribute to Photoshop
evangelist Bruce Fraser who died in 2006 from lung
cancer aged just 52.
CS3 includes pills inspired by the film The Matrix, a cat
image, paw print and a tribute to Bruce Fraser, author
of several bestselling Photoshop guides
Photoshop Elements 5
for PC
is released
Adobe surpasses $2
billion revenue mark
APRIL: Advanced
Photoshop is
acquired by
Imagine
Publishing,
beginning its
evolution into
the magazine
we know and
love, going on
sale as issue 16
87
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17/10/08 19:01:43
 Feature
“ADOBE APPEARS
just Photoshop. With practice, you can be your own
designer, publisher, webmaster, motion-graphics
Forum
INTENT TO
maker and much more, and all by using industry-
standard software from the same provider. Adobe
appears intent to ensure that all your creative needs
are catered for under one roof, and are acutely aware ENSURE THAT Advanced Photoshop forum members’ own
thoughts on what they’d like to see in future versions
that the specialist areas of print, web and video are
blurring as designers become acquainted by ALL YOUR “I’d love to see Illustrator and Photoshop as one app.”

CREATIVE NEEDS
necessity with a wider set of skills. Revjessecuster
Photoshop’s original remit has already developed “I’d say a higher-functioning colour selective tool with
well beyond its core image correction and
manipulation tools, and it looks certain that this trend ARE CATERED masking capabilities. The Color Range is great and
when coupled with Channels it is powerful. However,
will continue, especially since the introduction of
Photoshop Extended CS4 and the addition, for FOR UNDER plug-ins such as onOne Plug-In Suite 4 with its colour-
masking technology, Mask Pro, make it far more

ONE ROOF”
automated and effortless.” Rook1983
example, of advanced 3D tools. The Photoshop family
now includes Photoshop Extended, Photoshop, “Dotted lines. It still amazes me that we have to use a
Photoshop Lightroom, Photoshop Elements, Brush palette trick to create a dotted line.
Photoshop Album Starter Edition and Photoshop Diagonal guidelines and the ability to specify the new
positions when moving guidelines.
Express. Adobe is clearly keen to stress it can offer Ability to apply filters in any direction. Right now,
something for everyone. We may see that line-up fibres can’t be horizontal and wind can’t be vertical.
extended further, with the possibility of advanced I’m constantly rotating my canvas/layer because of a
editing tools being offered online for a fee as filter constraint.
Make actions record brushstrokes.
Photoshop.com is developed or the introduction of
A Curved Line tool. I end up using the Pen, then Stroke
Photoshop complementary Path, but then I have to delete and restroke every
applications. The idea time I change the curve.
of having your work Don’t have ‘hidden’ functions that can’t be found in
stored centrally, your the menus. Cmd/Ctrl+Opt/Alt+~ selects Luminosity,
but I can’t find that in the menu.
images and tools An Align To function where you can pin down the
available on any position of one element and align other elements to
computer might appeal that. Currently, the Align function aligns the whole lot
to many. What is certain to an averaged position.
In the same idea, a simple ‘centre on the canvas’
is that Adobe’s already
hotkey would be great.
planning to wow users Image sprayer. Paint an entire forest by loading your
again early in 2010 with a brush tip with several tree images.

?
range of new and Realistic paint blending. Painting yellow onto blue
improved CS5 features. should produce green.
How’s that for a start?” Kirk_3d

FEBRUARY: Advanced Photoshop Photoshop Elements 6 for Mac is CS4 and CS4 Extended (version
issue 27 takes an in-depth look at released 11.0) adds a newly refined, tab-
the new Photoshop CS3 beta based interface, Adjustments
Photoshop Elements 7 for PC panel, Masks panel, integration
APRIL: CS3 and CS3 Extended is released with Adobe Lightroom 2.0 and
(version 10.0) offers a new general improvements
interface, the Quick Select tool, Photoshop Express, a Flash-
Smart Filters, Auto Align and Auto based image-editing web SEPTEMBER: Adobe delivers
Blend, alterations to Curves, application, is launched Creative Suite 4 Design
2008

Vanishing Point, Channel Mixer, Premium

2007

Under pressure from potential

The future
Brightness and Contrast and the
users, Adobe changes Photoshop SEPTEMBER: Adobe unveils
Print dialog
Express’s Terms of Use policy Adobe Creative Suite 4
MAY: Advanced Web Premium
Photoshop.com launches for
Photoshop issue 30 takes
new Photoshop Elements users in Advanced Photoshop magazine
a more detailed look at
the US turns 50, celebrates in style with
CS3 and CS3 Extended
trip to the pub!
Adobe opens Photoshop.com
Photoshop Elements 6 for
mobile beta for Windows Mobile
PC is released
MAY: Public betas of
DECEMBER: Bruce
Dreamweaver, Fireworks and
Chizen, Adobe CEO,
Soundbooth are released
steps down after seven
years leading the SEPTEMBER: Adobe introduces
company. Shantanu Creative Suite 4 product family
Narayen replaces him

88
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082-088_AVP_50_Feature.indd 88 17/10/08 19:02:15

 masterpieces
From Advanced Photoshop issue 43

89
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resources

eFrame.co.uk
It’s mounting made easy with this effortless professional online service
Manufacturer: eFrame.co.uk
Web: www.eframe.co.uk
Price: Base price, standard A4 from £10.61,
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About: Cost-effective frame solutions
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Extensive dimension application options
Wide range of colour types
Speedy delivery

E Frame boasts at being a leading online picture frame,

mounting and mirror manufacturer, supplying to
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we thought it necessary to put it to the test, specifically the
facility of its latest Image Upload service.
After accessing the eFrame website, the link to this service
is clear, and upon activation you’ll be presented with a run-
through of this service’s three main functions: image upload,
frame experimentation and ordering. Proceeding with a
simple screen click, you are offered your initial option of
designing a frame, mount or both.
After your choice is made, you will be provided with an
extensive set of design-related options. Option one allows
eframe.co.uk
you to either upload an image or not. Choosing to upload, the (Above & right):
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Upon activating your choice, option two (Sizes)
automatically calculates the appropriate frame dimensions to Effective extras
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Cost-efficient
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service isn’t one that will
hit you too hard in the
pocket department

dimensions as you see fit, making for an accommodating
service. Once satisfied with your designated dimensions, you
can select from a broad set of mount styles. These include
professional appearances, such as single and double mount,
luxury deep-bevel single mount and our favourite, single
mount with ’V’ groove.
Mount colour choices are also plentiful. However, one
worrying indication is the statement, “Colours are indicative
only and should not be relied upon for colour matching
purposes”. In a way, this defeats the purpose of accurate
presentation and could prove a possible disruption to your
work. We advise you to make your choice wisely, perhaps
even conservatively.
This coherent options list then presents you with a choice
of frame mouldings and related colour finishes. Here, the on-
screen examples make for easier recognition of styles and
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What is great about the eFrame service is that with
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When we received the finished product,
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Summary: A coherent, professional and
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Rating: 5/5

90
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Mr Site Takeaway Website Pro
This all-inclusive software gives you easy creative options to produce a professional-looking site
Manufacturer: Mr Site Ltd
Web: www.mrsite.com
Price: £99.99, approximately $184
(Standard & Beginner versions also available)
About: Choose your own dotcom
600MB hosting for your site and email inbox
Sell online with a secure PayPal shop
99 website pages available
Simple MP3 upload
M r Site Takeaway Website Pro makes the promise of
providing those without web design experience the
means to produce effortless professional websites all from
one box. Well, Mr Site is a man of his word.
Already with a glowing reference from previous users, and
with 60,000 consumers deploying the software as a creative
solution across industries, we were very optimistic about
testing this product. We weren’t left feeling short-changed,
either. Mr Site Pro is a product that really does consider ways
in which to maximise the needs of its target audience. From
the moment of installation, we knew we were going to have a
leisurely experience.
The software’s interface is coherent and defined in
numbered stages that are apparently labelled in order to
provide methodical creation. First of all, users are provided
with the means to choose a site template, with over 100
styles available. Fashionable favourites include Sharp Black 2,
White Mint Robot and Swoosh, but all offer something
whatever your taste.
Once you’ve chosen your style, you can then activate an
extensive array of design options that function similar to
those found in Adobe software. Needless to say, this makes
application a familiar process and you’ll acclimatise quickly.
Tools include Color Swatches to determine background
colour and simple-to-apply drop options that determine
LET’S INTERFACE IT: The application of tools and options are familiar
with the Mr Site software, which allows you to focus 100 per cent on
fashioning your creations
091_AVP_50_Resources.indd 91
resources
JOIN THE MASSES:
Mr Site’s options also permit
you to boost your site
reputation by joining up to
the Mr Site directory
ENDORSEMENT (BELOW):
Not only does Mr Site provide
you with the means to create
professional creative websites,
but also professional means
of advertising your products
contemporary applicable patterns and the style and
orientation of your menu bars and icons. Some of our
favourite types include Coal and Dawn.
Establishing page numbers, with option two, is easy to
apply once more through drop options. From here, we used
the Quick Jump Menu to navigate to option five (Extras) as
we couldn’t wait to upload some artwork. To do so is
effortless, working in a basic Browse function. You can also
apply tags for copyright or annotation purposes.
But this option provides much more in the way of its own
set of sub-options, where you can further specify the site
design. One specific option, Add Features, allows you to
experiment with the adding of shop, gallery, contact forms
and submenus that will only add to the dynamics and
entertainment of your site. There’s just no stone left unturned
on what you can present to your audience using Mr Site.
We did find that some of the fonts available might not be
suitable for the more adventurous of creatives. We all love to
personalise, and with Mr Site, creating and uploading your
own header, banner or logo is absolutely no problem. This
can take up to 30 minutes maximum if the software has to
automatically resize uploaded image files, but in our case it
took no more than 20 seconds as we applied the correct
image dimensions.
The Site Boost tools are an extremely valuable addition to
this package. These undoubtedly improve your site with
metadata, site maps and importantly, boost your reputation TIME-EFFICIENT: Results may not be sure-fire at
the best of times, but publishing and editing
by showing you the means to submit to popular search doesn’t seem to be as time-consuming as
engines through a serious of specific and comprehensible adjusting HTML
on-screen walkthroughs.
Summary: For anyone who fears the
Include all this with the extensive widget applications,
nature of web design, this software will
including clock, countdown, visor counter, Google search and put your worries to bed. As entertaining
more, as well as the ability to revise, edit and compare your as it is easy, Mr Site delivers 100 per cent
site at all times with the Change Content and Publish Your to its target audience.
Site options, and you’re on to a real winner with Mr Site Rating: 5/5
Takeaway Website Pro.
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17/10/08 11:48:08
resources
Soul i-D
An enticing title that bares the creative soul, inventive as it is sensitive
Authors/Publisher: Taschen
Web: www.taschen.com
Price: £24.99, approximately $43
About: All-star contributions
Over 600 full-colour pages
Four poignant chapters
Anthology of contemporary working samples
in photography and fashion
S oul i-D is an expressive and inventive anthology of the
best special projects produced by the contemporary
style guide that is i-D magazine. It is also a title that is not all
that it seems – it’s much more.
The approach of the title seems like most highbrow, fine-
art models packed with conceptual and highly subjective
imagery. These sorts of titles are, of course, not every artist’s
cup of tea, and its presented photography and fashion
examples seem to appeal to a limited audience.
However, Soul i-D is actually an expansive book that not
only educates artists through inspiration, but also instigates
an emotive and poignant response. Once you pay closer
attention, having investigated the book and got to grips with
the concept behind it, it becomes a title that reflects as much
about artist approach as it does the human condition that art
strives to capture.
Take Your Best Shot
This creative title connects with its target audience with its highly informative and supportive approach
Author/Publisher: Tim Grey/O’Reilly
Web: www.oreilly.com
Price: £21.99 / $34.99
About: Q&A format
Ten specialist chapters
Presented by Photoshop World Dream Team
member Tim Grey
Over 200 full-colour pages
T ake Your Best Shot sums this latest O’Reilly title up in
one friendly sound bite. Those of you considering an
educational course or commercial course of action in the
discipline of digital photography should get this book. Authored
by Tim Grey, a member of the Photoshop World Dream Team,
the educational value of this book is guaranteed.
This title houses ten all-inclusive chapters that cover
relevant digital photography subjects in a progressive order.
This, of course, may sound very similar to other previous
examples in the publishing market, and in a way it is.
However, Take Your Best Shot excels due to its reassuring
layout, presenting case studies and teachings through an
extensive set of questions and answers.
Encouragement is enhanced when coupling this factor
with the chapter format. These start with the very basics and
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092_AVP_50_Resources.indd 92
© CRAIG MCDEAN – LIFE, LOVE AND WISDOM
AS SEEN BY I-D: This title’s chapters include Family
Future Positive, Beyond Price, Learn and Pass It On and
Safe+Sound
Throughout its 600 full-colour pages are an
array of wonderful contributors, including
Christopher Bailey, Alexander McQueen,
Vivienne Westwood and Giorgio Armani. Their
works and accompanying information are
displayed through a contemporary layout that
relates professional and fashionable ways to
approach your own graphic projects and makes the
aesthetics of the title that more creatively profound.
Each image corresponds with its chronicled ideas and
provides an insight into the attitude behind its creation,
making this not only a visual treat, but also a compelling and
enlightening read. With all images responsive to real-life briefs
and working scenarios, artists, both enthusiasts and students,
can obtain valuable insight into how to approach a project Summary: This book will pluck the
with perspective from an emotive and expressive stance as emotive as well as the creative
well as a technical and astute one. heartstrings, and seems a bargain for
In all, Soul i-D presents a mix of irreverence and attentive the emotional and inventive
expression, presented by some of the most creative names in encouragement invested in it.
the fashion, music and art industries, culminating in a fine Rating: 5/5
artistic resource as well as an essential creative pick-me-up.
SAGE ADVICE: Grey answers often-asked questions in an easy-to-read
format, organised by subject, and illustrated with full-colour crisp
photographs and instructive screenshots
evolve in technical capability as you read. The first opening
pages deal solely with the endorsement of digital
photography, confronting some of the commercial and
professional stigmatisms towards the format, and don’t look
back. Later chapters address issues such as Optimizing In
Photoshop, exploring CS2’s lack of RAW capability and using
Curves to its optimum effect, and Image Problem-Solving,
tackling topics such as colour compensation and professional
sharpening techniques.
This slow and steady pace is essential as Grey says, “Digital
has added an incredible amount of complexity to
photography. But if you make your way up the learning
curve, you’ll be rewarded. And you’ll probably have a lot
more fun.” This almost narrative format provides cohesive
understanding of core issues as well as technical instruction. Summary: This is a title that sets itself
apart by answering questions that those
The book’s personal approach also provides some
serious about photography are asking.
interesting extras, in the fashion of Pet Peeve Alert boxouts.
This consideration is reflected in the title’s
These are valid opinions that provide a source of format, making it an appealing resource
entertainment as well as prompt consideration into a range for any digital photographer.
of topics, including ethics, technology and creativity Rating: 4/5
concerned with digital photography.
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