Lightroom Adjustment Brush Presets

by Michael Hoffman

The introduction of the Local Adjustment Brush back in Lightroom 2 was the first step in transforming Lightroom from a global editor to a fully parametric, flexible content enhancement editor. The adjustment brush capabilities have improved with every release of Lightroom since then, but you may not have been aware of the existence of Adjustment Brush Presets. Adjustment Brush parameters can be set and reset at will, but Lightroom allows you to save specific settings together as an Adjustment Brush Preset. These presets may help you to speed your work and to operate more efficiently, especially in cases where you may be performing similar edits across many images. Check out the video for tips on using, creating and managing Adjustment Brush Presets. Lightroom Adjustment Brush Presets are not as powerful and flexible as their Photoshop brush cousins, but they are still quite useful. Keep in mind the main limitation of the Adjustment Brush Presets:

Adjustment Brush Presets store develop parameters only!

The Adjustment Brush Presets don’t contain brush tip parameters such as size, density, flow or feather. Furthermore, the actual shape of the area you have brushed on your image isn’t stored in the preset. With those limitations in mind, you’re ready to begin to use and create Lightroom Adjustment Brush Presets, as demonstrated here in the video. If you want to see more creative tips, check out my video on Lightroom adjustment brush tricks.

 

First published at TipSquirrel.com

Easy Folded Banner Vector Shape in Photoshop

First published at TipSquirrel.com by Eric Renno

The folded banner is a popular feature at the moment so it was no surprise that I was asked if I could come up with an easy way to create one. The result is not only easy but is created entirely with vectors which means its scalable while remaining  completely editable. Don't panic if you're not used to using vectors, there's nothing that a beginner won't be able to handle here, yes I use the Pen tool but to make just a single click. The circular 'Coffee' logo here is the result of another tutorial, Text on a Circular Path which you can find here. This tutorial was produced in response to a reader question. If you have a question you can email, comment or use the contact page to drop us a note.

Lightroom 5 – Keyboard Shortcuts

Originally posted at TipSquirrel.com 

Photoshop Nut : Michael Hoffman 

Everybody loves keyboard shortcuts, and today on TipSquirrel, we have Lightroom 5 Keyboard Shortcuts for you!

Learning keyboard shortcuts can help boost your productivity and can be the key to a smooth and consistent workflow. In addition, you’re taking some of the work away from your mouse, and that can be a benefit if you tend to suffer from repetitive motion stress.

There are a few Lightroom 5 keyboard shortcuts everyone should know – for example, the big three in my mind are “G, E, D” (for grid view, loupe view, and develop module view). And there’s “R” for the crop tool. But there are oh, so many more Lightroom 5 keyboard shortcuts.

The attached reference chart, in PDF format, is available for you to download, and it contains a list of no less than 6 pages of keyboard shortcuts, organized by Lightroom task, and easily searchable.

Click Here To Grab Your PDF at TipSquirrel.com

Pen Tool in Photoshop - Path Fundamentals

Originally posted at TipSquirrel.com 

Photoshop Nut : Michael Hoffman 

The pen tool is one of the most powerful means of creating precise selections. In this series of videos, we are going to work our way from the basics to pen tool mastery, but we need to start with the fundamentals. In fact, in this video, I’m not even going to use the pen tool. Instead, we’ll spend our time understanding how paths work in Photoshop, so that when we do start using the pen tool, we’ll be on familiar ground.

 

See more from this series at TipSquirrel.com

Coloring with Photoshop – Skin

Originally posted at TipSquirrel.com 

Photoshop Nut : Janine Smith

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We’re going to perk things up a bit with a little help from history. First, we need to ask ourselves a couple of questions; what era is our image from and what era’s style do we want to borrow from? Of course, you can color your images any way you like, but personally, I like to borrow styles from the era the image was taken in. For the really old images that may mean striving for a watercolor or pastel look of a hand tinted image and portraits taken in the 40’s may call for the more saturated, glamorous style of that era. I’ll go more into the styles of each era and inspiration at a later date, but for now, since the image I’m working on was taken in the 40’s, you can go online and find an image or images from that era that appeals to you in terms of skin and hair color. You may feel like it’s wrong to borrow an image, but It’s okay to use these images for this purpose – all you’re going to do is sample color palettes, you’re not using the image or reproducing it in any other way. I liked the skin tones in this image of Rita Hayworth so I sampled some of the colors"

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Creating Torn Edges in Photoshop and Photoshop Elements

Originally posted at TipSquirrel.com 

Photoshop Nut : David Asch

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Hello everyone. This month I'm donning my top hat and tuxedo to perform a spectacular card trick for you.

First, I'll tear the card in half and then, without so much as a wave of a magic wand, I'll seamlessly mend it right in front of your very eyes! Seriously, though, if you've ever gone delving into the many filters available in Photoshop and Photoshop Elements, you will no doubt have come across the Torn Edges filter.

As the name suggests, it will give you a super torn edge effect on your image. Well, no, actually it won't, not if it's applied directly to the image, that is; all you'll end up creating is a fuzzy monochrome graphic element. In this tutorial, that can be used with both Photoshop and Photoshop Elements, I'll be showing you how to create a realistic torn edge using the Torn Edge filter but done in a different way.

Rather than applying the filter to the image, it will be applied to a layer mask. As we'll see, working in this way produces very different results; the effect does exactly what it's supposed to. We'll also see how filters can be layered within the Filter Gallery to create composited effects. This is a great way of creating the effect and it can be applied in many different situations. It also gives you much more control over the result than you would when using custom brushes or scanned elements.

Continue to the Tutorial >>

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Originally posted at TipSquirrel.com 
Photoshop Nut : Howard Pinsky

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Many Photoshop users have asked how they would be able to add multiple Strokes, or outlines, to an object. This quick tip will show you how it's possible to add 6 outlines to a single object, using Layer Styles, and a new feature in Photoshop CS6. Starting out, you need a shape. I'm using a simple star shape that comes with Photoshop's Custom Shapes Tool.


 

 

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Selecting Hair in Photoshop Touch

Originally posted at TipSquirrel.com 
Photoshop Nut : Eric Renno


Selecting hair is one of the more challenging Photoshop skills if you want to start doing compositing. Photoshop Touch makes it very easy to do, on the go, using a couple of tools and a filter. In this video I take the photo of Paige and extract her, fly away hair included, and put her on a grungy background.    

Step Into Your Image with Photoshop and After Effects

Originally posted at TipSquirrel.com
Photoshop Nut : Eric Renno

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In this video I take a flat, 2D image and transform it into a 3D image that a camera can pass into. If you’ve not worked with Vanishing Point before then you may wish to take a quick look at Multiple Planes with Photoshop (No 3D Layers). There’s two techniques here, one uses only Photoshop while the second uses Photoshop and After Effects. 

Symmetry with Photoshop

Originally posted at TipSquirrel.com
Photoshop Nut : Gavin Hoey

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As a photographer symmetry is one of the hardest types of composition you can find. Nature has a habit of avoiding symmetry most of the time. You’ll never walk through a forest and find two identical trees and you’ll never see the left side of the sky perfectly matching the right. However it is dead easy to create symmetrical images using Photoshop, the knack is disguising the fact that you used Photoshop at all. In this video I’ll show you how to mirror an image and then apply a few tweaks to complete the perfect symmetric photo.

Photoshop Clipping Masks

Originally posted at TipSquirrel.com
Photoshop Nut : Eric Renno

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In this video I take a look at Clipping masks. They are really easy to create and have a whole host of applications. This video was made in response to a question in the Google Plus Community; Photoshop and Lightroom Users where I’m one of the moderators. i think it goes without saying, I’d love to see and chat to you there!

From The TipSquirrel.com Archive : Getting Started in HDR Pro

Originally posted at TipSquirrel.com
Photoshop Nut : Richard Harrington

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In this exclusive video for TipSquirrel.com Rich Harrington show’s us how to get our images into HDR Pro and what to do with them once they’re there!      

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From The TipSquirrel.com Archive : Vintage Effects with Photoshop

Originally posted at TipSquirrel.com
Photoshop Nut : Justin Seeley

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Justin Seeley returns to TipSquirrel.com with a video looking at a couple of ways to get a vintage effect using adjustment layers in Photoshop. Don’t forget to check out Justin’s brilliant series’ at Lynda.com where he presents tutorials on a range of subjects from Facebook and Pinterest to Magento Ga and Illustrator!

 

From The TipSquirrel.com Archive : HDR Sharpening in Photoshop

Originally posted at TipSquirrel.com
Photoshop Nut : Janine Smith

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I recently put a photo up on Facebook and Twitter that generated a lot of buzz, using HDR Toning in Photoshop as a way to sharpen old photos. I discovered this method while working on the Adobe Prerelease of CS5. Previously I had been using the High Pass filter, but I’ve since pretty much shifted my loyalty over to HDR Toning. Why? It’s a bit more difficult in that you have to make a duplicate of the photo and flatten it, then drag and drop it into the original file when you’re done, but for me it’s absolutely worth the two minutes worth of extra work because of the presets and, most of all, because of the results! People were messaging and emailing me asking me what, exactly, I did for this particular photo. It’s really quick and simple and goes something like this: In the midst of a huge restoration project for a client, I found this really great photo. Apart from the normal age-related damage, it had some problems. The top of the photo had some blurring – maybe due to the wind moving the trees, and it was dark and rather murky, but I love the sun shining through the trees and the two men walking along the snowy road. I’ve used HDR Toning on a lot of photos since Photoshop CS5 came out and thought it might be just the thing to sharpen the photo a bit and really bring out some detail. After I did all the normal restoration bits (specks, dots, spots, etc.), I went to Image > Duplicate. Don’t worry about naming the duplicate image, it’s a throw away, so just hit OK. Working on the duplicate, go back to the Image menu and select Adjustments, then HDR Toning. A pop-up will ask if you want to flatten the layers (assuming you have more than one, and since you hopefully won’t be doing your restoration work on the original layer, I’ll assume you do!). Click Yes. When the HDR Toning dialog box pop’s up, scroll through all the presets. There are a lot of sliders that adjust the Edge Glow, Tone and Detail and the Color; these are great to get to know and to experiment with to see how they can improve your photo, but for right now we’ll just go with a preset. I went with the Photorealistic preset, because I liked the way it sharpened up the trees without that heavy fringing that HDR can cause when not used lightly. The over-the-top HDR look has no place in photo restoration, in my opinion, but it can improve a photo if subtly done. Notice the sun looks pretty bad, but we’ll be taking care of that. After you’re decided what preset to use, click OK to close the dialog box. Making sure the Move Tool is active, drag and drop your HDR toned duplicate layer into your original file. Be sure to press the Shift key before you let go of your left mouse key to drop it into the file, so the new layer is centered. To make things look a bit better, a Layer Blend Mode is definitely in order! As with the HDR Toning presets, scroll through the Layer Blend Modes, find the one that lightens (or darkens if appropriate for the photo you’re working on) the photo enough to see all the detail, while still maintaining, or adding, plenty of contrast. I went with Lighter Color, lowering the Opacity to 70%, because it brightened up the sky in a way I liked. It still needs something, though, so I’m going back to HDR Toning! This is how easy it is to go back for another round or see if something else works better for you; just go back to your duplicate image and hit Ctrl+Alt+Z, Cmd+Opt+Z on a Mac, once to delete the state change and you’re back to your flattened image, per-HDR Toning, all ready to start again! Image > Adjustments > HDR Toning again, and you’re ready to try another preset or move some sliders around. This time, I went with the Default preset because it totally brightened up the whole image! After dragging and dropping this layer into my original file and cycling through the Layer Blend Modes, I decided to keep the LB Mode on Normal, 100% Opacity. It gave it a little more of a rosy glow that I liked and lightened up the details just a wee bit more. When you’re done trying out the HDR Toning presets and sliders and have found a look you love, you can delete the duplicate layer. And that’s really all there is to it! I initially tried all the other methods, Curves, Blend Modes, etc. to bring out the details and make a good photo great, but this worked better and, frankly, was a lot easier! Give HDR Toning a try on your next restoration project!

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From The TipSquirrel.com Archive : Using 3D Objects in Photoshop

Originally posted at TipSquirrel.com
Photoshop Nut : Richard Harrington

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Photoshop's 3D Engine is very flexible. It allows you to transform layers three dimensionally. More importantly, it lets you create new 3D elements including primitive shapes (such as cones or spheres). You can also make complex elements can be created using grayscale meshes. To make 3D tasks easier in Photoshop, choose Window > Workspace > 3D. This rearranges panels so that all the 3D tools are easy to access.

Creating 3D Layers

Photoshop offers several tools that allow you to create 3D primitives or shapes. These objects can be positioned, lit, and surfaced. Photoshop offers: • 3D Postcards – These layers are virtually identical to promoting a layer to 3D in After Effects. • 3D Shapes – Photoshop gives access to 12 shapes including several useful primitives that can be stretched or modified. • Grayscale Meshes – You can create very elaborate, custom 3D models from grayscale textures.

3D Postcard

Any layer in Photoshop can be converted into a 3D Postcard (Figure 1) by choosing a layer and selecting 3D > New 3D Postcard From Layer. A 3D Postcard works well to add a floor or wall used to catch reflections or shadows. Typically however, we choose to perform this task in After Effects with a new solid. 3D postcards can be rotated and positioned in 3D space inside of Photoshop Extended. What we find more useful is the ability to gain After Effects-style transformation controls when using 3D Postcards inside of Photoshop (Figure 8.14). When we are storyboarding animations, these controls are much more flexible than trying to fake transformations using Free Transform and Perspective commands.

3D Shapes

If you're looking to create basic 3D objects, Photoshop has a flexible 3D engine with preset shapes. There are 12 shapes to choose from, including single-mesh objects like a donut or sphere, as well as multiple mesh objects such as a cone, cube, cylinder, soda can (Figure 2), or wine bottle. New textures can be wrapped to the surface of objects. This includes both photos and video layers. To create a new 3D object, simply select the texture, photo, or video layer you want to use and choose 3D > New Shape From Layer, and select a shape from the menu. Several of the 3D models contain multiple meshes (such as the Cube). You can decide to open a model's surfaces independently by double-clicking a mesh in the 3D panel. Once open, you can assign new textures to your model. You can put your own custom shapes into the shape menu. Each shape is merely a Collada (.dae) 3D model files. To add more, place the Collada model file in the Presets\Meshes folder inside the Photoshop application folder.

Mesh

An interesting way to create custom 3D models is to use grayscale meshes (Figure 3). By starting with a layer filled with 50% gray (Figure 4), you can define what happens. Using darker colors will create a recessed area. Using brighter colors with create higher areas. The command is invoked by selecting a grayscale layer and choosing 3D > New Mesh from Grayscale. If you use a colored image, the green channel will be used for the mesh. If using a grayscale file, be sure to preprocess the layer with a Levels adjustment. Using darker or lighter shades will influence the direction of the extrusion. A quick way to access 50% gray is the press Shift+Delete to open the Fill dialog. This mesh can then be applied to a shape inside of Photoshop (Figure 8.19): Photoshop offers four different 3D shapes based on meshes • Plane: Applies the depth map data to a planar surface. • Two-Sided Plane: Creates two planes mirrored along a central axis. The depth map data applies to both planes. • Cylinder: Applies depth map data outward from the center of a vertical axis. • Sphere: Applies depth map data radially outward from a center point. To produce curves, blur the texture first to create a softer gray area. If you want harder angles, use a high-contrast mesh. The grayscale layer that created the depth map remains editable. You can double-click it in the 3D panel to open it and edit. Book excerpt from the new Adobe Press book – Motion Graphics with Adobe Creative Suite 5 Studio Techniques.

This article is an excerpt from the new Adobe Press book – Motion Graphics with Adobe Creative Suite 5 Studio Techniques. The book covers creative ways to use After Effects, Photoshop, Illustrator , and other Adobe tools to create professional motion graphics projects. The accompanying DVD brings it all together by providing source footage and project files, allowing readers to experiment on their own.Find this and all Richard’s books at;

From The TipSquirrel.com Archive : Sending images by email from Lightroom

Originally posted at TipSquirrel.com
Photoshop Nut : Michael Hoffman

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In the past few weeks we’ve looked at various ways to export image files from Bridge and Lightroom. In fact, in previous tips we’ve even looked at directly exporting to Social Media sites from Bridge and from Lightroom. But, what if I want to send a simple email to family or friends? Surely there must be a quick way to pick some files and send them by email? Of course you can! As long as you are using a true mail client, and not a browser based mail system, you can have Lightroom pass files directly over to the mail client. If you’re a Mac user, you’re in luck. You can create an alias to your email program, and add that as an export action to Lightroom. It’s as easy as 1, 2, 3:

1. Follow the steps in this Adobe article to create the alias in your export actions folder;
2. Select hard drive export (see last week’s tip) and configure the options as desired;
3. In the section called Post Processing, choose your mail alias (see below).

The photos will be left in the folder where you exported them, but they will be delivered to your mail client and will be attached to a new black message. Easy! If you’re a Windows user of Lightroom, this may not seem to work well, resulting in cryptic error messages. However, there is a great free plug-in called MapiMailer that will do an even better job! MapiMailer takes care of the handoff completely transparently, delivering the images to your email client without leaving files stranded on your hard drive. Sorry Mac users, but this power is reserved only for Windows users... it will take a bit of configuring to set it up the first time, but, hey, that’s what we’re here for at TipSquirrel! If you’d like to set up MapiMailer on your system, here is what you need to do:

• Download the MapiMailer plug-in, and extract the contents somewhere convenient. The plug-in consists of a folder named mapimailer.lrplugin, and that folder contains all the necessary files.
• Move the extracted folder mapimailer.lrplugin to the location where Lightroom can find it. This is typically:

Windows XP: C:\Documents and Settings\username\Application Data\Adobe\Lightroom\Modules Vista / Windows 7: C:\Users\username\AppData\Roaming\Adobe\Lightroom\Modules

• Once you’ve placed the folder, in Lightroom, choose File > Plug-in Manager…

• In the Lightroom Plug-in Manager, locate the Add button in the left panel and click it:

• This will bring up the Browse for Files or Folders dialog, open to your Modules folder from above. You may need to scroll a bit to find it. Select the mapimailer.lrplugin folder that you placed a moment ago and click OK.

• That should do it! MapiMailer should now show up in the left panel, with a green light and the status listed as “installed and running.” Click Done to exit the Plug-In Manager.

Using MapiMailer: OK, now we’ve installed it, how do we use it? It is quite simple and efficient. Start by choosing the images you want to mail, and choose File > Export… or click the Export… button: Next, in the Export dialog box, change the Export To: setting at the top to export to MapiMailer: With MapiMailer set as the Export plugin, you have access to all the same options we saw last week when exporting to hard drive – including the ability to export various file types: JPEG, TIFF, DNG, and even Original. Set these settings as desired and you’re ready to click on Export: But, keep in mind – we can save these settings also as presets, by clicking the Add button in the lower left. This brings up the New Preset dialog, and we can even create a separate folder to organize our mailer presets: You can, of course, create several different mailer presets – saving you lots of time in the future: Once you’ve clicked on Export, the system will launch your default mail client with a new blank message containing the images with the parameters you’ve specified: All you have to do is enter the email address and subject, and type your message. As you can see, the photos are already attached. And, as a bonus, MapiMailer cleans up behind itself – the exported files are not left cluttering up your hard drive. I hope you found this tip helpful! Let us know by leaving a comment, we love to hear from you.