Tuesday, August 19, 2008

Photoshop Video Tutorials - Learning the Ropes of Photoshop

By David Peters


In order to understand color management, it is important to get your hands around some of the workflow. It is also important to understand a little bit about the ICC itself. The ICC or "International Color Consortium" was created in 1993 by a number major corporations with the goal of assisting end users in creating consistent color throughout the entire reproduction process. ICC profiles are a means by which one device can translate the same color information to another. This process is applied in graphics programs like Adobe Photoshop, and created in color management systems like X-rite's Pulse or ColorVision's Spyder software.

Printer targets: Like transparent IT8 targets, printer targets are more complex. Similar to film, different papers or media can produce incredibly different color results. This has to be taken into account in the profiling stage. When creating a printer profile, you are essentially creating a description of the differences between what is ideal color and what is the result of the specific paper/ink/quality setting you choose. A profile created for a professional glossy photo paper will generally not produce good results if used to print on a matte heavy weight paper. The same holds true for differences in ink or quality/speed settings.

Okay, now that we've created all of the profiles, time to implement them. You monitor profile should be getting applied upon startup by your operating system, so let's move on to your scanner. Scan in an image-once again using the exact same settings that were used to create the profile (other than resolution). In Photoshop choose Image Menu>Assign Profile. Then choose Profile: Your Scanner Profile. Having done all of the previous steps in Photoshop correctly, you should now be amazed at how your image colors changes to appear incredibly like the original that you've just scanned in. From here go to Image Menu>Convert to Profile and choose working RGB from the profile selections. This will convert your document to the native RGB working space of Photoshop. When printing you will apply the printer profile by once again choosing File>Print with Preview, select Document as your Source Space (which this time should be your Working RGB space) and in your Print Space choose Profile: Your Printer Profile. Remember once again to disable any color options in your printer driver. Finally, Print!

For those who do not know, Adobe Photoshop is a program designed to let people edit various images on their computers. Its primary purpose is to let people perform touch ups on pictures before printing them. Of course, each succeeding version of Adobe Photoshop included more and more tools which let people add effects and do various other things to their photographs. The Adobe Photoshop of today actually allows people to add sound and animation to their photographs for sharing on the internet. In the past, people who took bad pictures were stuck with them. A lot of things can go wrong in a picture. There's the usual red-eye, skewed angles, shaky focus and others. Adobe Photoshop was the tool that made all of these things disappear. With Adobe Photoshop, people can take pictures like amateurs and still produce images like pros!

Are you amazed by the awesome pictures posted in magazines and various Internet sites? Believe it or not, but even if you are not a professional photographer, you could also come up with similarly fantastic pictures. Introducing the Adobe Photoshop CS. The Photoshop CS is the more advanced and updated versions of the Adobe Photoshop software that has been around for quite some time. During the pre-computer era, you were perhaps engrossed into the hobby of cutting out pictures for better album presentations. But now, everything can be done using the computer. Even the cameras with negative films on it are slowly becoming obsolete, in favor of the modern camera types, where images are stored not on films but virtually through computer memories. In that case, how could you make good albums or edit pictures?

Perform non-destructive scaling with Smart Objects. You know how it is: You try to make an imported object larger, and it goes all blurry and pixelated. With Smart Objects, that's a thing of the past, because you can scale, warp and rotate vector graphics in a non-destructive way. Do neat things in perspective with the new Vanishing Point feature. With Vanishing point you can cut and paste in perspective. Now you're able to turn a photograph of a wall into a "virtual art gallery" with all the pictures correctly skewed, or move a window from one side of a building to another and, because the perspective is correct, have it look like it's always been there. You can also draw lines that taper off into the distance - wide nearest the camera, narrow further away - just like in "real life". Get more accurate printing. With Photoshop CS2, the people at Adobe have improved the printing workflow. Now it's even easier to configure your inkjet printer to get more accurate colour printing.

PhotoshopSecrets for Wacom Tablets & Photoshop: This is a great Photoshop video tutorial if you are a tablet user. Currently, this is probably the most comprehensive, allowing you to learn how to use all the tools and features available with Adobe Photoshop. This tutorial video is authored and taught by Colin Smith and Weston Maggio of Photoshopcafe and Wacom Technology, respectively. Both are experienced trainers so you'll find the lessons well-paced and relevant. This DVD ROM tutorial has more than 120 minutes of 800x600 video. It's easy to navigate and you can click on any lesson you like without any trouble while still controlling the playback. If you prefer to learn on your own, just click on the lesson files and play the video clip of your choice on your own free time.

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