Photoshop

With Apple's release of iWeb -- an amazing web site building tool -- I've been getting a steady stream of emails wanting to know how to recreate the nifty photo reflection effect which appears at the top of iWeb pages and in the slide shows (here's a sample). Adding such a reflection is a super easy way to add depth and a bit of sophistication to your photographs.

Does the thought of isolating (also referred to as "knocking out") a person in a photo with big hair fill you with dread? Never fear for the Extract filter is here!

Let's take this image of a frizzy-haired hippy I snatched from iStockphoto. To change the background, it would mean creating a selection around the hippy dude and his frighteningly frizzy hair. Yes, there are third-party plug-ins who'd make haste of this task for a price, but what if I don't want to spend the extra money? I can turn to the Extract filter for help instead.

The question, "How do I create a Che-Guevara effect?" appeared on the Planetphotoshop.com forums last week. It's an effect you've all seen on t-shirts: the high contrast face of the famous revolutionary on a red background. It's a neat effect which, as it turns out, is very versatile.

We've all seen the effect before: The screen of a computer monitor, TV, cell phone or digital camera display has been altered; that is, the picture you see on the screen has been simulated -- it's not what was originally there. This is a fun technique that's really quite useful, especially when creating advertising materials containing product shots or electronics in the background.

More and more I see the following question appear on various Photoshop forums: How do I create a fade? Some folks want to fade out a line at one end, some want to fade a photo into a background, and the list goes on. No matter what element you want to fade into another, the secret to creating truly fabulous fades is to use a gradient layer mask.

Let's start off by defining the word "gradient."

Did you know you could do that? What a nice way to further customize the way you work in Photoshop. Installing a new color picker is surprisingly easy and there are some great options available, both freeware and shareware, that make choosing beautiful, complementary color palettes a breeze. First I'm going to show you where to find these little critters, and then I'll show you how to install my favorite one.

David Pogue called me the other day and needed some graphics for his keynote presentation at PhotoPlus. He was speaking about the future of digital cameras and wanted some funny graphics representing a futuristic vision of cameras built into unlikely objects, such as, well, a belly ring.

There are three very cool things which occurred during this project, henceforth why I'm sharing it with you.

Hey you Led Zeppelin fans (yes I had fun with the title)! Today I want to bequeath to you one of my very favorite Photoshop tricks. It's fast, it's easy, and I use it on almost every human photo I encounter.

It seems like there's always an over abundance of red areas (especially in skin tones), where normal color correction techniques fear to trot. The way to zap such a contrary color cast is by using a Hue/Saturation adjustment layer. This technique is 100% guaranteed to get the red out each and every time, and it works in both Photoshop and Photoshop Elements.