Advanced Photoshop 16

FREE CD!
Project files, desktop designs,

stock art
ISSUE 16
Retro Chic | Add shadows to your art | Charles Darby interview | Create urban snow scenes | Get more out of Bridge | Aqua art with blending modes
Build a Bridge
HIS
T
IMA OCRKES
INC G
THILUDE ES
S D
Organise and present your

photos with Adobe Bridge
IS O
FRESUESN
EC
D
MOVIE
MASTER
HOW TO
Add shadows to images

Create urban snow scenes
Design conceptual art
Work with Camera Raw 3
Produce abstract art
Top imageer Charles Darby on

the secrets of film backdrops
8-PAGE SPECIAL
RETRO CHIC
Recreate a myriad of classic film
photographic effects with Photoshop
ISSUE 16
ISSN 1748-7277
5.99
16
PRO LIGHTING EFFECTS
Create stunning aqua art using

layers and blending modes
001_APM04 2.indd 1
771748 727009
pages of professional
tips & essential stepby-step tutorials
ISS
UE
16
10/2/06 11:32:37
Cover
Cover image
This issues enigmatic cover image comes
courtesy of imageer Brianna Wettlaufer
and istockphoto.com. A superb example
of how digital technology and software
can be used to add authentic film effects
to digital photographs, you can find out
more about this type of imaging in Jason
Arbers Camera Effects masterclass
starting on page 44.
Imageer:
BRIANNA WETTLAUFER
A SUPERB
EXAMPLE OF HOW
SOFTWARE CAN BE
USED TO CREATE
FILM EFFECTS
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PEER PRESSURE
7 78
Get some inspiration from this readers and artists

gallery of high-end image editing
ISSUE #16
inside...
LETTERS
7 10
Your comments shared with fellow readers
INSIGHT
7 12
News and showcases from around the globe

Check out new art from Acidtwist
Glorious illustrations from James Jean
Work from the LA-based duo Kozyndan
The best wide-format printers on the market
HELPDESK
12
14
16
18
7 82
Your technical traumas shared with fellow readers

and answered by our expert
THE COVER
Brianna Wettlaufer captures the

retro-style in this months cover
image. Plus, Sam Gilbey dishes out
some underwater love in his subaqua tutorial. Find out how he did it
by turning to page 52.
RESOURCES
44
Recreate retro film

photo effects
Books
Stock Art
Websites
Plug-ins
a r S
th nd n t CR
e sa o p IB
co v a E
ve e ge ...
rp s 2
ric off 0
e
Typography
SU
Tu B
7 87
Vital assets to improve your Photoshop work
THIS MONTHS CD
88
91
92
93
94
7 96
Superb video tutorials, all the project files to go

with this months issue and more!
12 16
A glimpse into the

world of Acidtwist
Brush up on the illustrations

from Kozyndan
Advanced Photoshop
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62
Master the art of light,

shadow, colour and tone
TECHNIQUES
Faster, better, more How can you work smarter?
FEATURES
ONLINE PORTFOLIOS
Improve your chances of being commissioned
INTERVIEW: CHARLES DARBY

Discover the magic behind the movies
MASTERCLASS: ABSTRACTS
ZIP IT UP
7 22
7 30
7 38
Gritty and chaotic imagery with George Smith
DIGITAL CAMERA EFFECTS
Recreate some creative lens and darkroom techniques
UNDERWATER LOVE
How layer blending can help you create ocean scenes
7 44
7 52
MASTERCLASS: SNOW SCENES 7 58

Transform a summer street scene using Noise and Layer Masks
Create a realistic photo-montage with zest
CONCEPT ART
Be the master of sci-fi with this workshop
INSIDER INFO
ADOBE BRIDGE PARTS THREE AND FOUR
42
62
68
72
74
78
84
Search facilities, plus Slideshow and customisation
DEPTH OF FIELD
Recreate focus effects using Gaussian Blur
SHADOWS
Light sources, contours and textures
PEER PRESSURE
Eye-catching images from fellow readers
TECHNICAL RUN-THROUGH
Discover the power of Camera Raw 3
Advanced Photoshop
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Letters
Mailbox
Send your emails to the Advanced Photoshop team at
advancedpshop@imagine-publishing.co.uk
SUBJECT: Positive vibes
FROM: Philip Jean-Pierre, America
SUBJECT: Weather the storm

FROM: Steve Iles
I saw your first issue and took a pass. My girlfriend,

unknowingly, got me your second issue as a gift while
she was shopping. Let me just admit I am not the
brightest bulb and never was; the point slammed
home as much as when I read the second issue. To
say I regret not getting your first issue would be an
understatement! The second issue was amazing,
with tutorials that were great springboards for other
creative endeavours. I just added a new magazine
to a list of the must haves for my library. I am an
American, and while we have excellent magazines
on design, theres nothing around with the bare
bones hardcore information for the advanced
Photoshopper. With the world of design changing so
fast, its publications like these that help me keep up.
Keep up the excellent work...
Great mag a step up from my long-standing digital

photo imaging mags. It was a couple of years ago
when one of these titles showed you how to generate
lightning in an image, and this picture (below) is my
attempt at that time to make a winner. It sadly never
got picked. As your weather feature is in the current
edition, you may like to see my early attempts. The
pier is real and part of the sea, but some sky and sea
were added, and the tornado and sea spray, as well as
some debris on the pier. Oh yeahthe lightning and
flames (obviously). Still, I thought it was amazing
at the time. The original photo was heavily cropped
from a 3MP camera so I used a technique to sharpen
it (without generating so much noise) that is great for
fur etc. It is the old high pass filter adjusted on a
duplicate layer to get hard edges and blended in
layers with soft light. The effect can then be backed
off, as required. My son buys this mag regularly, so if
you print this he will see it, and that would be nice,
seeing my input to a pro mag!
SUBJECT: More praise!

FROM: Darren Firth
I picked up your Advanced Photoshop magazine in
Borders on Saturday. It was a pretty cool read; I know
some of the designers featured in your pages, so it
was pretty funny seeing their silly faces in there!
It seems there is a strong Pixelsurgeon vibe running
throughout! It would be cool to get any future
WEARITWITHPRIDE products and exhibitions in your
magazine you can see the fruits of our labours at
www.wearitwithpride.com.
Anyway, excellent job. Keep it up.
Editor replies:
Many thanks to both of you for your kind words on
the magazine. We welcome any feedback, whether it
is positive or negative so keep those comments
coming in. Together we can strive to shape the
Photoshop title that you deserve.
Publishing Ltd, Richmond House, Richmond Hill,

Bournemouth BH2 6EQ, UK, and well get you a
replacement out as soon as possible.
Subject: Course of action

FROM: erdj@btinternet.com
I was looking to take up a part-time Photoshop
course, but cant decide on a course or college.
I already know how to use Photoshop (up to a point!),
but I need a course that enables me to get
experimental and gain more in-depth knowledge of
the program. Can you suggest a course in London?
Many thanks!
Editor replies:
A good range of Adobe-accredited Photoshop
training courses are listed on the companys website
at www.adobe.co.uk/support/training.html. The
site will enable you to find an Adobe-certified training
centre in your area, or get online support.
Subject: Inspired!
FROM: Vincent MacTiernan
SUBJECT: Disc depression
FROM: Carol Fitzgerald
I am a first year graphic design student in Sydney,
Australia. Today (2nd Dec) I purchased the Oct issue
of your magazine ($15 AUD). I am running a Mac G5
with OSX. This is the first of your magazines that I
have purchased and probably the last. Your
magazine stated that on the discs it had stock photos
worth 1,200 pounds. I only managed to open two of
the photos. One of a ginger cat and one of a cow. Im
very disappointed by this state of affairs.
Editor replies:
Please return the disc to Cover Disc Returns, Imagine
I recently went to a bookstore where I live here in New

York, and saw your magazine on the rack. Normally I
bypass magazines such as yours, as I use After Effects
and 3D and never felt the need to look into
Photoshop for other than I what I need to make a
texture map. Your magazine changed all that. It has
to be one of the best, no, THE best magazine I have
ever seen on doing hi-end compositing with PS you
tell people not only HOW to make great images, but
also WHY they are doing things along the way.
I was so impressed by it that I was inspired to make
this image: www.extremedigitalpro.com/
extremereel/Photoshop%20Images/HeadCase
LowRes.jpg. Thanks for giving me more LONG
nights of discovering new techniques!
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insight
Acidtwist
Theres no question about it. For Acidtwist, real name Tavish, being the son of a
sculptor and architect has had a profound impact on his own career path. Growing
up, I never questioned whether I would go into a creative field; it was a given, he says.
Now an established painter in his own right, the Montreal-based creative freelances
as an art director for print and interactive design and has also recently begun
directing videos.
A multi-disciplined artist, Acidtwists degree in Art History continues to be relevant
in many aspects of his working life. Learning about everything from Graeco-Roman
art to contemporary video installations gave me a great exposure to so many styles of
work and I still refer back to that constantly.
His illustration style is a canny mix of East meets West Acidtwist puts the
influence down to growing up in Canada, where popular culture was often imported:
If I was watching a television cartoon, chances are that it was from America or Japan,
though I didnt know that when I was a kid watching Scooby-Doo or AstroBoy. One of
the key motifs in his work is Lichen, a sensual, green-haired figure, who brings to
mind the almond-eyed splendour of anime and Jap pulp magazines. Characters that
go on to have lives outside their initial media appearances fascinate me, he says.
I have this personal goal of creating 100 different images of her.
As for technique, Acidtwist draws first in pencil, then paints over the line-art in
Photoshop. Perhaps most surprisingly, he prefers using a mouse to a tablet. Im just
used to painting like this, he says. Ive been using a mouse for ten years now and it
feels natural. I should probably think about getting a tablet pressure-sensitivity
would be great but I still like the way my hand rests on a mouse.
www.acidtwist.com/
LICHEN AND THE GUN: I was in the mood

for doing something detailed and carefully
painted. This actually started out as a pencilsketch a couple of years earlier. I liked the
sketch, but never finished it because I felt there
was something missing. I solved this in the final
painting by putting Lichens gun in her right
hand, which adds more focus.
ITALIAN FASHION: This was a commercial

piece, made for a fictional Italian fashion label.
Unusually, it has a lot of layers. Most of my
paintings are done with only three: pencils,
figure and background. I like the look I achieved
by blurring the insects and using Gradients to
colour the background elements. I also added a
bit of texture with custom brushes.
nother
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04.06
LICHEN IN CHARCOAL: This was one of the

first series of Lichen paintings I did and all
four were drawn and later painted
simultaneously I was researching work by
Egon Schiele at the time. The figure was
painted with the standard Photoshop charcoal
brushes at half Opacity, and the background is
actually a scanned paper-bag.
LOLLIPOP GIRL: I specifically wanted to

paint something different from my usual work.
It took me a while to build up the dark, rich
browns, and the hair colour changed several
times before I settled on the typically for me
unnatural hair colour. I prefer to avoid using
Hue/Saturation to change a colour. I repaint
areas instead.
LATEST LICHEN: This is the first of my latest

series of Lichen paintings. Ive taken the
elements I had in the first paintings and
elaborated on them. For example, the white
outlines are wilder and flow into the
background. Ive also dropped the red from her
colour scheme to go with the stripped-down
aesthetic and upped the Saturation to reflect
my original comic/animation inspiration.
13
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insight
James Jean
I didnt know anything about illustration or art, for that
matter until I started art school. But when I first picked up a
paintbrush, I knew Id found my calling, says James Jean, former
alumni of the New York School of Visual Arts, now resident of
LA, where he counts DC Comics, TIME, Rolling Stone and
Atlantic Records, among his many prestigious clients. How did
he land the briefs?
I hit the pavement and walked right into the offices of DC
Comics. That was pretty much it, he says. Im notoriously
passive in all aspects of my life, so its been my great fortune
that my website does most of the work for me.
He puts the usefulness of Photoshop in context: For me, the
sketch stage is the most important. The essential structure of
the whole picture, the life-force of the drawing, originates in
the sketch. With some of my pieces, I take it to the halfway
point in terms of rendering and painting, and finish the rest
in Photoshop.
Hes a dedicated fan of Wacoms Intuos3 (Once Id tasted that
fruit, there was no going back, he says), but his view on Adobes
app is an interesting one.
I approach Photoshop as a printmaking tool, he explains,
using layers to build upon the original drawing. Even in
printmaking class, I would run a pencil drawing Id done in a
press under an etching plate to see what effect it would have, or
paint on top of monoprints. Photoshop is a natural extension of
that thinking. After applying basic colour, I use mostly layer
effects to achieve depth. I also scan in hand-painted textures to
develop the picture further. I do whatever it takes.
www.jamesjean.com
BEST LIFE BABIES: Germanys Best

Life Magazine asked me to illustrate an
article about the different ways couples
can start a family. The empty
silhouette is the projection of a couples desire
to have children.
SIGUR ROS: This illustration accompanied a

magazine interview with the Icelandic band
Sigur Ros. Their studio consists of an indoor
pool converted into a studio, so I immediately
thought of depicting them in a pool of sound.
They are known musically for creating complex
and fragile textures, so I have them floating
among coral in a composition that hopefully
evokes their unique sound.
RUNAWAYS #12 (MARVEL COMICS): A

cover for a popular Marvel Comics series. The
story in this issue takes place in St. Patricks
Cathedral in New York. Right across the street
from the cathedral, theres a terrific Art Deco
statue of Atlas in the Rockefeller Centre. I had a
vision of the superhero characters caged in the
globe held by Atlas, the original Incredible Hulk.
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04.06
BATGIRL #45 (DC COMICS):

This remains one of my most
popular comic book covers,
depicting the new Batgirl dressed
in the old Batgirl costume.
I created the halftone pattern
using the Colour Halftone filter
in Photoshop.
GREEN ARROW 49 (DC COMICS): A cover for

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

an entire issue of the New Yorker and asked me to
contribute an illustration to its campaign. The
only stipulations were that the illustration had to
reference New York, contain the Target logo, and
use red and grey. I had a lot of fun with this one,
since they gave me a free rein.
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insight
KIN-SANS BUSINESS TRIP: One from our Panoramic series. Id been seeing these
guys in my head for some time Japanese salary-men dressed as schoolgirls and had
some strange visions for what theyd be doing. If theres a standard style or process that
Kozyndan is known for, this would be it. The finished piece is kind of a jumbled
commentary on modern Japanese culture: the feminisation of the male populace, the
obsession with childlike purity, the sexualisation of young girls, and the overall
proclivity towards strangeness that the Tokyo megalopolis promotes.
UPRISINGS (BUNNY WAVE): Id been

into Hokusais work for a long time and
had in my mind an image of bunnies
forming out of the foam of the wave,
says Kozy. The final piece was painted
completely in Photoshop all the lines
using the Brush tool, on a Wacom tablet.
The paper textures were created
completely with filters.
Kozyndan
As a couple working comfortably (and successfully) together in illustration,
LA-based duo Kozyndan remain an industry rarity. We met in painting class in
college and had dated for a few years, says Dan. We were living together before we
made our first piece of art together. Kozy had done a long drawing of the inside of
our apartment and I liked it so much, I decided to colour it in Photoshop.
It was their famous collaborative design for the interior of LA store Giant Robot
spotted by shop founder Eric Nakamura that put them on the map. He liked it so
much, he asked us to do some illustrations for Giant Robot magazine, says Kozy. The
pencil lines are invariably still visible in their finished works, but, as Dan explains,
Photoshop is an essential tool: Once all the elements are scanned in, we composite
the characters into the environment and then clean the drawing up a process that
includes adjusting Levels, dodging and simply painting out imperfections and
mistakes. Then we put the image on both our computers and start painting under
the drawing in Photoshop. We just keep going until pretty much everything is
painted on either one file or the other, then we just put the colour layers from one
file into the other and clean everything up.
They dont use many techniques. We were both trained traditionally as illustrators,
says Kozy, so we treat Photoshop the same way we treat physical paintings
almost everything is done using the Brush tool. The pair are busy, but there was
one job they had to take. When the creator of Kozys favourite videogame, Katamari
Damacy, asked us to do an illustration about the game, we jumped at the chance.
www.kozyndan.com
/
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04.06
LIKE SANDS THROUGH THE

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

Katamari Damacy contacted us to do an illustration
about the game for an article in Relax magazine in
Japan. We wanted therefore to mix flat colours, like
those of the game graphics, with the more natural
look weve been working with this year. We achieved
this by simply scanning in a piece of cardboard and
laying it over the final artwork. A little real texture
always changes the dynamic of a piece of work.
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insight
Epson Stylus Pro 9800
Manufacturer: Epson
Price: 5,282
Web: www.epson.co.uk
The 44-inch Stylus Pro 9800 is part of Epsons UltraChrome K3 range and
exploits a proprietary inkset that offers three black inks for truly
superlative image quality. The print technology is Epsons own Micro Piezo
drop-on-demand with variable sized droplet technology and 3.5pl Epson
Ultra Micro Dot.
The print head configuration offers 180 nozzles in eight colours, and a
resolution of 2880x1440, with quoted print speeds for B0+/Plain Paper in Draft
Mode of up to 22.1m2 per hour. The 9800 also provides edge-to-edge and
borderless printing for media from 515mm-1117mm. Images printed with the
9800 will last a lifetime, with the UltraChrome K3 inks offering lightfastness for up
to 75 years for colour and 100 for black and white (if kept indoors).
The printer itself boasts a pleasingly formidable physical presence, measuring
1702mm x 678mm x1196m, weighing around 90kg and producing noise levels
around the 50dB mark.
Flexibility is the key for connectivity, offering USB 2.0, Firewire and optional
networking. The Stylus Pro is available for both the Mac and Windows platform,
supporting OSX, OS9 and Windows 98, 2000 and XP.
Wide-format
printers: best
of the best
For large-scale projects that demand
only the highest quality output and
performance, check out these six walletbusting offerings
By Steve Jenkins
HP DesignJet 110 Plus

Manufacturer: Hewlett-Packard
Price: 935
Web: www.hp.com
The DesignJet 110 Plus is very much the budget baby of this issues round-up,
coming in under the four-figure mark by an appreciable 65. Its a six-colour,
multi-format printing solution that delivers fade-resistant, photo-quality images
every time. A C-size tray and automatic roll-feed to 24 inches makes it ideal for
everything from postcards to posters, too. The standard tray holds up to 150
sheets (plain paper) and extra-wide front and rear paths allow oversize output up
to 24 inches x 64 inches.
A print resolution of 2400x1200dpi, combined with HP Professional Color
technologies (including Automatic Closed Loop Color calibration and CMYKplus)
gives quoted print speeds of 11.9 minutes for an A1 Normal/Glossy. But turn the
quality up a notch to Best/Glossy and youll be tapping your fingers for a further
six minutes. Standard connectivity is provided by the lesser USB standard USB 1.1,
but is compatible with USB 2.0, plus there is a Centronics parallel IEEE-1284 port
and 1 EIO slot for networking. Support is provided for all Windows platforms (95,
98, Me, NT 4.0, 2000, XP) plus Mac 9.x and OS 10.1 and higher.
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04.06
Canon W6400 Kodak T200+

Manufacturer: Canon
Price: 2,499
Web: www.canon.co.uk
The A1+ 24-inch W6400 is a six-colour pigment ink Large Format Printer (LFP)
aimed specifically at the graphic arts market. It features a one-inch-wide, highdensity print-head that can produce microscopic 4-picolitre droplets for highquality imagery free of graininess. Output speeds of up to 2.2 minutes per page
when producing an A0-size
image ensures optimum
hardcopy turnaround
at the proofing
stage. A1 output,
on the other hand,
slashes the output
time by nearly half,
offering an
impressive speed of around
1.3 minutes per page.
The printer comes complete with
two bundled software packages. The
first, Digital Photo Print Pro, enables
users to process, enhance and print
photographs. Poster Artist,
meanwhile, comes with a set of
templates and images to
help you create large
format designs.
Kodak 1200i
Manufacturer: Kodak
Price: 60-inch: 10,077; 42-inch: 7,121
Web: www.encad.com
While the Kodak 1200i system offers great cost per print, the initial outlay will set
you back around 7,000. Still, you get a lot for your money, including high-speed
printing that delivers excellent image quality on every page. The dualcomponent rapid evaporation drying system improves drying efficiency, too,
facilitating rapid dry times for instant take-up and faster print-to-lamination time.
The Intelligent Mask Technology optimises colour gamut, density and vibrancy
without compromising speed, while the Kodak Quantum Inks deliver an
expanded colour gamut, enhanced durability and longevity for both
indoor and outdoor applications. The 1200i is available in
both 60-inch and 42-inch versions to suit all
your outputting needs.
Manufacturer: Kodak
Web: www.encad.com
Price: 2,814
The Kodak T200+ offers two distinct outputs, effortlessly switching from fullcolour graphics printing to four-colour or monochrome Computer Aided Design
output. The new CIS2 ink-set creates brilliant full-colour photographic images,
plus CAD drawings with distinct line acuity, thanks to the CIS2 pigment black ink
(with cyan, magenta and yellow) option.
For ultra-fast monochrome printing, the T200+ also offers a CIS2 ink-set with
four black pigment inks. This dual functionality is made easy maintain thanks to a
range of pre-filled ink
cartridges that simply
snap on and off for
quick, clean
installation. In
addition, ENCADs Ink Caddy
System holds ample ink for
extended printing. Handy
transparent caddies ensure
that printer ink levels are
visible at all times.
Whats more, the compact
and sleek design of the T200
ensures the printer wil be
able to find a home in
more compact
creative studios.
Epson Stylus Pro 7400

Manufacturer: Epson
Web: www.epson.co.uk
Price: 2,814
The A1 24-inch Stylus Pro 7400 is a four-colour large-format printer aimed at
design professionals in the POS, CAD and GIS markets. The 7400 incorporates the
Epson UltraChrome inkset (2xCyan, 2xMagenta, 2xYellow and 2xBlack), ensuring
vivid, lifelike, edge-to edge output every time. These ink cartridges are deisgned
for a large workflow and offer
higher volumn capacities than
rivals. An intuitive
control panel and
interface ensures
quick and easy highresolution printing at
up to 1440dpi, with a
lightfastness of up to
75 years for
colour prints.
The 7400 supports matte
and glossy media up to
1.5mm thick, and even caters
for specialist techniques such
as screen-printing. It can also
print on transparent media
too, with screen rulings up to
150lpi for creating designs
like black-and-white masks.
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Feature
online
art
Are you sat at your desk waiting

for that big first break? Raise your
profile and get your work out into
the big bad world with this guide
to producing online portfolios
Before you contemplate setting up a portfolio site

of your own, consider realistically what you hope to
achieve. Are you out to sell prints, raise your profile
and kick-start your image-editing career, or produce a
portfolio aimed at advertising agencies and clients as
a means of securing further work? Identifying features
and design style that will work best for you is crucial.
Remember, a portfolio site may well be the first point
of contact for many of your future clients, and should
present a mature and professional image. As one
commercial photographer Lonna Tucker, recognises:
A website is crucial to marketing an imageers work.
Art buyers at advertising agencies now look at your
website first rather than calling in your book.
BY ROSS CONSTANTINI
personal portfolio website

can expand your potential
client base. Many imageers
have benefited from gaining contact
with clients through their sites, and
come to the realisation that a welldesigned and maintained website
can significantly raise your profile
and success as an illustrator. Other
than simply providing a permanently
accessible portfolio, a website can be
useful in many other ways
GALLERY
PAGES: Should
be simple to
navigate and
provide good
sized, clear
enlargements.
This example
shows effective
design together
with a userfriendly layout
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Online Art
DARRAN REES: Darran
has incorporated previous
contract work into his site,
acting both as a portfolio
and client list. This shot was
used in a Wrigleys
advertising campaign
Professional advice
KEEP IT SIMPLE: The simplicity
and strong graphical design on
Gene Peachs portfolio site provides
a professional appearance and
enhances the content, instead of
distracting from the photography
The Webby Awards is the leading international

award honouring excellence in web design,
creativity, usability and functionality. Tiffany
Shlain, founder and chairperson of The Webby
Awards, provides her top five tips for creating a
winning website:
LESS IS MORE
What really sets Google apart is its simple
interface. Avoid extraneous bells and whistles
that slow users down.
STAY ON COURSE
Keep your navigation bar consistent and
prominent on every page, so customers dont
get lost. Use guides to show users where they
are and how to get back to where they started.
MAKE CONTACT
Put a clear link from the home page that
leads to your contact info. Include as many
forms of contact as you can process: telephone
and fax numbers, postal mailing address and
email address. Customers will place more trust
in you if they know you are easily accessible.
SET EXPECTATIONS
Acknowledge all contact with an auto
response email so customers know you received
their message. In the auto response, let them
know how long it will take for you to get back to
them, and then respond in that time frame.
KEEP UP APPEARANCES
Unlike a movie or a book, a website is a
constant work in progress. Keep your customers
coming back by highlighting personal or
industry news on your home page to keep it
fresh. Every quarter (if not more often), review
your site thoroughly to make sure everything is
current and links are still live.
In addition to this, wed highly recommend
updating the site regularly with your most
recent work. This keeps visitors returning to your
site to view new material. Finally, always present
your best work. Avoid padding the galleries with
sub-standard images; it will do you no favours. It
is better to have a few top-notch images, rather
than a vast array of mostly mediocre content.
Jim Shannon from the Giraffe advertising
agency informs us that when searching for a
photographer, he looks for a website that is
primarily clear and easy to use. Contact details
are obviously important, as well as sites updated
occasionally with new work. A client list and a
stock selection is a good idea if a client wont
run to a full commission. Darran Rees has made
various re-usage sales specifically from his site.
Deborah Gasper from The Ad Agency says:
The site needs to be simple, images need to
download fast, and examples of their experience
need to be easy to find. Another major point
with the design of a website is to design it so the
search engines can pick it up.
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2
3
4
The method most suited to you will depend not

only on budget, but also the features you want to
see on the site, and how original and professional
the results are. Once you have established your
requirements, there are basically three main methods
of getting your own personal photography site up
and running. Choosing the correct option for you is
the first step on your way to a worldwide client base.
The budget site

For those with a limited budget the best option is to
design and develop the site yourself. This requires
relevant software, the technical knowledge, some
design sense and a whole lot of time, but provides
an original site that is designed around your
requirements. There are some online aids for those
new to the game, which guide you through the major
steps to launch your site. The only costs involved
are in securing a domain name and hosting the site,
which usually demands a yearly sum dependent on
the amount of space required. One good site to look
at for advice and information on all aspects of web
development and design is www.jessett.com.
The template site

A pre-designed template can be purchased fairly
cheaply, offers an easier option for those on a budget,
and is a popular way to get a site up and running
quickly. The text and images are added to the template
to complete the site. Finding a host and publishing the
site is still up to you. Xpose-gallery.co.uk and foliolink.
com offer templates specifically for photographic
websites. Webeden.co.uk and buildmygallery.
co.uk offer online website builders. This requires no
knowledge of website development, and by using the
wide range of template options you can be set up and
ready to go in a matter of hours.
Lonna Tucker, a commercial photographer from
Arizona, worked with Foliolink to produce her
template-based site. Using one of its Flash templates,
she worked closely with Foliolink to customise the site
to suit her requirements. She knew what she wanted
from the site beforehand, so they could arrange one to
suit her needs. I wanted a site I could manage, upload
photos and other content, and have a client area for
assignment pre-production requirements, like viewing
scout locations, casting pics, etc. It was a collaborative
BEFORE CONTEMPLATING SETTING

UP A PORTFOLIO SITE, CONSIDER
WHAT YOU HOPE TO ACHIEVE
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Feature
LONNA TUCKER: Lonna

has modified her template
site to her requirements. The
Flash-based site includes a
client area, and provides
information on each
process that took a few months, but it was an

enjoyable experience. Lonna made good use of the
template method to achieve a professional result.
The custom site

The site is designed and developed around your
needs all you have to do is supply the information
and images. This is by far the most expensive option,
but hosting and publishing can be managed by the
company, and the results will be of a professional
standard. Prices vary, but as with most things you get
what you pay for. Domain name and hosting fees are
typically not included, but offered by the company for
an additional charge.
Darran Rees, a London-based photographer,
employed the expertise of Taylor James to produce
his stunning custom site. Originally a photographic
retouching company, Taylor James has branched out
into website development, making use of its many
ESSENTIAL INFO: Incorporating contact details is a
must, and providing a client list will give integrity
years experience of the photographic industry to

produce effective custom websites for its clients. The
site was actually co-designed by myself and Taylor
James. The picture house idea was my own; I wanted
to get away from the usual two-dimensional way of
displaying pictures on-screen, and introduce some
perspective, while retaining the simple graphic of the
design. Its really the same as walking through a real
gallery; we see something that catches our eye, and
wander up to it for a closer look. Taylor James took
care of all the technical stuff like purchasing of space
and getting it all up and running, thankfully.
Content
It is important not to overwhelm the viewer with
information and pictures. Keep it concise yet effective.
We recommend you plan your site around these
simple contents:
5 GALLERY PAGES:
Thumbnails should be large enough for the viewer
to recognise the content, and ideally be continually
present on the portfolio page. The enlarged images

should display an increased level of detail, but avoid
huge images that require scrolling. A portfolio of more
than about 100 images becomes a chore to view, and
distracts from your best work; select your very best
photos and categorise clearly into different pages.
5 BIOGRAPHY:
A personal biography is often included to provide the
viewer with a bit of information on your background,
and perhaps your aspirations for the future.
5 CLIENT LIST:
For those of you who have been working for a while,
and have built up a client base, it might be worth
listing your major clients. If you have received any
recent press coverage, then this could be included
here, along with any awards that will add credentials
to your work.
5 CONTACT DETAILS:
This is an absolute essential if the potential buyers
or clients cant get hold of you, it defeats the purpose
of the site.
FOLIOLINK: There are many

companies offering template-based
website design; one of the better
providers is Foliolink. Dedicated to
photography clients, it provides a
range of solutions to meet your needs
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Online Art
Advertising your site is crucial. To avoid it getting
lost in the tangled mass of the web, its imperative
that your site has web presence. There are many
methods that can be used to raise your sites profile.
The most common and perhaps most effective is to
optimise it for search engines. This simply means that
by cleverly adapting the site coding, you can gain
a higher listing position in search engines. To have
your site listed among the first few results of a search
will guarantee more visitors. Another method is to
advertise your site on relevant photography sites
and search engines. This obviously costs money, but
it is a worthy investment if you advertise smartly. In
his experience, Gene Peach has seen the majority of
clients reach his site through group websites. Even
when my individual site floats at the top of a Google
search, I hear mostly from people who found it on
a New Mexico group listing. To get involved with a
local web group or with a group of similar content,
simply make contact and arrange a connection.
See www.guava.co.uk or www.Find-My-Link.com
for details on how a specialist company can help.
Copyrighting issues
Illegal downloading of images has always been a
hazard associated with portfolio sites. Darran Rees
was well aware of the risks, and ensured measures
were in place to protect his work. Illegal download
and copyright infringement are very important and
common parts of any web design or should be! In
my particular site we have an inbuilt mechanism that
prevents the download of images from the site, plus
the file-sizes are small enough so that they are not
able to be reproduced commercially. If you want to
keep image sizes as large as possible, watermarking
may be the best option.
Go interactive?
Macromedias Flash is increasingly being used in the
design and development of websites to enhance
the visual appeal and functionality. Incorporating
Flash content into a site is a great way of creating a
more appealing experience, and when used well can
RANCH ROAD: Taken from Lonna Tuckers portfolio
site, www.lonnatucker.com
Darran Rees
Publicising
TOO MUCH FLASH

CONTENT CAN ACTUALLY DISTRACT
FROM YOUR WORK IF NOT USED
WITH CAREFUL CONSIDERATION
provide a professional touch to your online portfolio.
Theres always a danger of overkill though many
sites overload on Flash, which becomes annoying.
Too much Flash content can actually distract from
your work if not used with careful consideration.
Jim Shannon from Giraffe says that when looking
for a photographer to shoot a job, Flash intro pages,
and especially waiting for large Flash files to load, is
not something were keen on! Unless it performs a
function like navigation or a slideshow, dont use it.
E-commerce
Producing an online portfolio is a great way to get
your work out there; however, selling prints through
your site is an opportunity too few photographers
embrace. Recently conducted research suggests that

just eight per cent of artists sell prints online, despite
the rapid growth of e-commerce. Selling prints
can be a good way of supplementing your income
and making the most of a site. The system can be
included in many templates, or custom-designed by
web-development companies.
Lonna Tucker has plans to sell art prints and stock
photography through her personal website, and
seems enthusiastic about the possibilities: Foliolink
is finalising the e-commerce end of things. I cant tell
you how exciting this technology is. It will enable
individual photographers to market their work, and
do it in a very professional, upscale way.
The management of online sales may put
some off the idea of selling prints. Artists need
the organisation and time to invest in such an
enterprise, as well as the extra costs involved in
printing, packaging and distributing the orders.
James Randklev, a landscape photographer
with an e-commerce-enabled site, unfortunately
has had little success selling his prints online. Its
not because people arent interested in having
prints made; its mainly the production and fineart costs of the prints. For those concerned about
overheads and organisation, there are other options.
Theimagefile.com offers an all-in-one solution, which
takes care of the complete process from ordering,
using secure online payment, to the production
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Feature
ORIGINALITY:
Darran Rees highly
original site was
custom made to his
rough design. The
virtual gallery idea
was Darrans
concept, which was
brought to life by a
web developer
Has your website had a

positive effect on your career?
Darran Rees
5 DARRAN REES
I think my own site that is linked to my agents
websites has aided my career. The proof is the
various contacts we receive from people who
would not otherwise have seen the work. Generally
speaking, more people know my work now, more
people have access to my work now, and this is no
bad thing for an artist.
www.darranrees.com
5 LONNA TUCKER
Imageers have been concerned about the
declining number of assignments in the USA, and
that coupled with the state of the stock art
industry leads to rampant pessimism about the
photo business here. Hopefully, my existing client
base will remain strong, and the website will bring
new business my way.
5 GENE PEACH
I have no doubts that creating my website was the
best marketing decision of my career. My website is
the strongest connection with the great wide
yonder I have. Living and working in rural New
Mexico makes it tough for Gene to find local work:
My website is definitely my best tool for attracting
outside clients.
For a top-notch design, we recommend you take
a look at Genes site: www.genepeach.com. His
instructions to the developer were for a very
simple, elegant, easy-to-navigate and quick-to-load
site, which has resulted in one of the best sites
weve seen. Although the gallery images could do
with being slightly larger, the balance of aesthetics
and functionality are spot on great design.
NICARAGUAN MAN: Taken from the dedicated

archive gallery in Darran Rees site
PHOTOGRAPHY SITES MUST BE

UPDATED WITH RECENT WORK AND
INFO. THIS CAN BE DONE AT HOME
and delivery of images. This service can be
incorporated into an existing site by simply
cutting the code from theimagefile and pasting it into
your site. Even those without a website neednt worry,
as one can be provided free by the system. Howard
Butterfield from theimagefile points out that: The
prints and products available for clients to purchase
through theimagefiles embedded e-commerce
service are of an extremely high quality. The system
even does a logic check on the image EXIF data to
automatically decide if the image should be balanced
and optimised, or printed as it is. The system then
generates an invoice, and processes and dispatches
the order, without any intervention from the
artist at all.
Jo Andreaes site, oneworldonecamera.co.uk, has
made good use of theimagefile system to create a
fully automated e-commerce business. Selling a range
of products, Jos site has been really successful. The
print sales are going well, and people like the site it
has well and truly paid for itself. As a small business,
I can alter the website to fit in with marketing
campaigns, and develop it as the business develops.
For more information visit www.theimagefile.com.
The service costs from 20 plus VAT per month.
Without exception, all those we spoke to believed
that the addition of an online portfolio had a positive
effect on their career. Gene Peach believes that the
lack of personal contact has an effect on his business,
meaning clients are less likely to form long-term
working relationships.
Whichever method of site construction you choose
though, the basics of getting your site up and running
remain the same. There are generally three major
steps to consider: the domain name (or URL), hosting
and promotion.
Before he was an ad man, Kerry took the art

foundation course route. It was here that he had his
first brush with graphic design. He immediately
connected with it and went on to do a degree in
advertising and graphic design. Today he is still
balancing the two an act he enjoys. All his freelance
work is done under the banner of You Are Beautiful,
his company, while between the hours of 9 to 5 he is
head of design and typography. I work for clients like
P&O and the Radio Times, so I cant be too wild. But
sometimes Ill get a client that likes the style of my
private stuff and itll find its way into the advertising.
Domain names
The domain name is the address of your website, for
example the Google search engines domain name is
www.google.com. Domain names are secured for a set
period; once the registration period is up, the domain
is free for other prospective web-developers to secure,
unless of course you decide to continue with the
domain. This should be the first thing you consider.
Names are being secured all the time, so when you
find an appropriate available name, secure it! Its
usually best to secure a domain thats simple and
provides a sense of the contents of the site. Involving
your name somewhere in the sequence is a good idea
because, after all, its your personal site and your name
is the front for your business. www.rc-photoshop.com
Contacts
www.Darranrees.com
www.lonnatucker.com
www.jamesrandklev.com
www.genepeach.com
www.taylorjames.com
www.foliolink.com
www.theimagefile.com
www.guava.com.uk
www.Find-My-Link.com
www.Xpose-gallery.co.uk
www.webeden.co.uk
www.buildmygallery.co.uk
www.jessett.com
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Online Art
Which host boasts
the most?
With so many options available, its worth
looking around for the best deal. Here are some
questions you should ask before picking a host:
How much space do they offer?

Make sure there is enough space available
for the site data, plus some additional space
for expansion.
How often is data backup conducted?
Ideally, daily backup will be offered,
meaning any updates are saved on a daily basis.
Look for companies that guarantee regular data
backup if you will be changing your site often.
Do they offer POP3 password-protected
email accounts?
Important for securing your email accounts.
What kind of technical support is offered?
In reality, you dont know what the support
will be like until something goes wrong. Phone
and email support should be offered; try
contacting previous clients for their experiences.
What is the speed of the connection?
The net connection should be at least T-3
(45 Mbps); anything less is simply inadequate.
Slow connections mean a slow-loading site,
especially evident when a number of visitors
access your site at once.
Do they offer full FTP access?
FTP access allows for updates to be made
personally anywhere in the world provided
Internet access is available, of course. If not, it
means costly updates, processed by your host.
With the right technical knowledge, users can
overhaul and redesign the website completely.
Do they offer website data logs?
Data logs allow you to assess the visitor
numbers, what pages are visited and even
where they have arrived from. This is a kind
of market research for your site, which can
help you understand how well your site
is functioning.
Do they have an uptime guarantee?
Downtime is the amount of time that your
website is down and out of action. Every now
and then, the host server fails and people
cannot access your site. Obviously this has to be
kept to a minimum. Cheap hosting from a
cowboy host company will inevitably involve a
lot of downtime. Companies with a minimum
uptime guarantee are more likely to provide a
consistent service.
Do they provide options for personal
updates, editing and email adjustments?
The ability to manipulate and edit certain
aspects of your site is an important feature that
gives control over the content and the working
of your site.
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3
4
is not quite as good as www.rosscostantini.com,
simply because when people search for your site, the
likelihood of them finding the latter is greater. If you
have a common name like John Smith, this domain
name may already have been secured by somebody
else. Therefore you may have to be a little creative,
and consider: john-smith, johnsmith-photo,
jsmithphotography, etc. Use www.checkdomain.com
to search for available domain names. Generally, .co.
uk/.info/.net names are less esteemed than .com, and
can be secured for a reduced price. However, domain
registration is very cheap, so go with .com if its still
available. To secure your domain name youll need to
register it through one of the numerous companies
that offers the service. Domains can typically be
secured for around 5 a year. www.godaddy.com is a
popular website where prospective webmasters can
register and secure their domain.
Hosting
Before you can publish your site, you will need to
arrange for it to be hosted on a dedicated computer
system. Hosting is a term used to describe a service
LOST IN THOUGHT: Greg Funnells striking

portrait taken from his self-built portfolio site
whereby all the website data is stored on a computer.
This computer system is known as a server, and is
permanently connected to the net. When somebody
wishes to access the site, the site data is lifted from
the server and displayed on the users screen. While it
is possible to use your home PC as a website host,
the technical knowledge required, along with the
slow connection speeds and intense requirements
on your system, make it more sensible to employ a
company to host the site for you. This does not mean
you should necessarily use the company that made
your site. There will probably be other cheaper and
better options available. Do not feel obliged to opt
for their hosting service these are two separate
services. There are usually a few options available,
the price dependent on the amount of space
required and options like email services. There are
some offers of free hosting on the net, but they
obviously dont offer a great service, and this is not a
good idea if you want a professional image.
Guy Tucker from the Internet design house
Webeurope spoke to us about hosting and the
process of publishing websites. We rent dedicated
servers and aim to fill each with around 100 websites
(depending on their popularity). Clients arent
actually involved in the hosting; we fully manage and
set up each hosting account. Our standard hosting
package includes telephone technical support and, if
required, control panel access (using software called
Plesk see www.sw-soft.com). The control panel
MAKE TEA MAN: Consider whether you want your work
just to be viewed, or if you want it to be possible for
purchases to be made as well
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6
7
8
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Feature
GIRL IN
HEADSCARF:
Taken from focus52.
com. Many include
their name in the
web address, but
Greg chose not to
personalise his site,
giving it the potential
for branding
allows the user to create, edit or delete email

accounts, and also many other features such as
installing applications (including forums) and creating
secure, password-protected directories. This allows
users to have full control over the site content, as well
as additional services provided with the hosting.
For affordable website hosting, try the awardwinning ipower.com. It offers hosting services for a
small monthly charge, and domain registration is
available for an additional yearly charge. powweb.com
also provides affordable website hosting from $93 a
year, setup and domain registration included.
Websites with e-commerce facilities need specific
hosting services to cope with the additional
requirements. For e-commerce sites, customers
ideally need a content management system to add,
edit or delete their products. This would require
hosting with PHP and MySQL (databases). The
products would have a unique ID, which could be
referenced and passed to a payment gateway like
PayPal. E-commerce-enabled sites and selling prints
or stock require a specialised hosting service to handle
the databases behind the order processing.
DOMAIN
REGISTRATION:
This is the first port
of call in your
publishing process.
The name can be a
crucial factor for a
successful site
PROMOTING YOUR SITE IS CRUCIAL.

THERES NO POINT IN HAVING A SITE
IF NOBODY KNOWS ABOUT IT
Hostrocket.com offers inexpensive hosting for
database sites and for a listing of other reputable
hosting companies, check out hostindex.com.
Website hosting services vary greatly, and some are
faster than others. It has been proved that the vast
majority of viewers will give up and look elsewhere if
it takes the site more than a few seconds to appear. It
is therefore imperative to have a quick-loading site.
Whereas a lot of this is down to the size of the website
and how much data has to be transferred, the actual
hosting performance has a major effect on the load
speed. If youre unsure of your hosting service
performance, check out alertbot.com. Net mechanics
Server Check Pro provides a similar service.
Updating your site

Illustration sites must be updated with recent work
and information. This can be achieved easily at home,
providing you have the correct software. Guy Tucker
says: Users have the ability to upload data from their
own computer systems using programs like
Microsofts FrontPage. They can be given FTP access so
they can keep their site up to date simply from
within FrontPage. FTP, or File Transfer Protocol, is a
method of interacting with the website server. It
allows the user to edit and adjust their websites from
home using their own computer. This is ideal for sites
that need continual refreshment, but requires some

form of web-design software such as FrontPage to
edit the content and upload the changes.
Once the site has been uploaded to the server, it is
important to test every aspect of it. Test all links, and if
it includes e-commerce, thorough testing of this
system is vital. Checks should also be conducted of
the content, as spelling mistakes and bad grammar
dont give a good impression.
Promotion
Promoting your website is extremely important. There
is simply no point in having a site published on the
net without anybody knowing about it. Promotion
can take many forms, and there are now services
available to help you publicise your site and increase
its visibility. Search engine optimisation is possibly the
most important promotional technique you can
employ. It is relatively easy to do, and can cost you
nothing. Search engine placement should be checked
regularly to maintain a high listing position. New
websites, and those that have been modified to
increase their visibility, may well push your site down
the listings, and so the likelihood is that your site will
get fewer visitors. Websites must be submitted to
search engines in order to be listed within searches.
Ideally, you should aim to submit your site to search
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Online Art
engines every four to six weeks. Start with the four
largest search engines: Yahoo, MSN, AOL and Google,
and work from there. www.addme.com offers free
submission to 14 major engines, saving you the
hassle of doing it yourself. To track the ranking of
your sites on search engines, take a look at SERanker
Pro from www.monocle-solutions.com.
Photographer Greg Funnell explained: Webrings
are now considered a degrading factor in this field,
alongside most links pages, with the exception of
those run by the search engine itself. It is important
that any sites you link to for promotion are
professional, and convey the same quality content as
your own. Webrings are not always a popular method
of promotion; almost anybody can join the ring, and
they generally do not help your image on the net.
Advertising is also a good way to increase
exposure and visitor numbers. Placing banners on
relevant websites is one way of advertising; another
is to exchange ad banners with other websites,
making it free! Paid advertising slots have to be
assessed to determine how many print sales are
generated from that particular ad. If the advert costs
50 a month and in that month only two sales were
directly generated, each sale cost 25 in advertising.
You have to decide whether this is an acceptable
margin. Other ads may have generated 20-30 sales, in
which case you are paying around 2 per print sale.
Assessing the performance of each advert is
important, firstly to understand what advertising
strategy works well, and secondly to eliminate those
ads which dont pay for themselves.
Linking with other related sites is a little more
discreet than banner ads. linkexchanged.com will put
you in touch with suitable partners. You should look
for sites with a good ranking, and plenty of traffic and
trade links with them.
Offline advertising is another way of generating
interest, and should not be forgotten. This method
allows you to target the audience, and can prove not
only cheaper but more effective than online
methods. Placing ads in specific magazines targets
the audience who may have a special interest in your
type of photography.
Other than that, just get your name out there.
Adding the URL and a short description of your
website to every email you send in your signature file,
letterheads and business cards is simple and free
marketing. Search for directories and listings of
photographic websites (or those relevant to your
area of specialisation), and get your site link up there.
Old fashioned business networking also helps; use
word of mouth both online and off. Relevant forums
are a good way to meet people and market your
MR HAWA: Greg
chose the name
focus52 because
he felt it rolled off
the tongue and
would therefore
be easier for
people to
remember it
work. Perhaps arrange to swap links, and generate

relationships and contacts with those in the same
business. Get yourself known these relationships
will help you to gain the most from the Internet, and
can be a valuable source of information, and helping
each other out will benefit both parties.
In producing his website, Greg explains: The
common practices of providing text links and metadata were followed, after which the site was
submitted to Google, Yahoo and MSN for indexing
during the next web-crawling cycle. Linking your site
to other relevant sites, web groups or directories is a
good way of attracting suitable visitors from
alternative sources. Gregs site, www.focus52.com
has a portfolio of his work which will be his major
contact point for future employees, and hopefully a
connection to freelance work.
www.apromotionguide.com will provide you with
useful tips on all forms of website promotion.
Maintenance
Apart from updating with new work, photographic
portfolio sites dont require much maintenance.
Some maintenance tasks however, are well worth the
small amount of time they take to complete. Your
sites search engine listing is something that should
be checked every now and again to make sure you
havent been pushed down the list by other similar
websites. Another important maintenance check,
especially after uploading and editing your site, is to
check all of your sites links. This is something that
many site owners overlook, and doesnt give a good
impression to prospective clients or customers.
CHECK YOUR WEBSITES SEARCH

ENGINE LISTING TO MAKE SURE
YOURE STILL HIGH UP THE LIST
All this, of course, can be handled for you

professionally. However, if you have the software and
basic website knowledge, these are all simple and
quick tasks that will ensure your site keeps running in
tip-top form without the added expenses. Check out
www.netmechanic.com for maintenance and
promotion tools. Promotion of your site is an
ongoing process the more effort you put into
advertising and generally promoting your site, the
more hits it will receive.
Now that you know the major steps to getting
your site up and running successfully, you are well on
your way to giving your career a major boost.
Whether a portfolio or e-commerce, print sales site,
your new website will make all the difference but
like many things in life, it will only be as successful as
the amount of time and effort youre prepared to put
into it. Donate a little time once a week to
maintaining, updating and possibly improving your
site to get the best out of it. 5
Case study
Advanced Photoshop spoke to photographer Greg
Funnell, a student who has recently set up his own
website with the help of his friend and
programmer Naresh Verlander. His deciding factors
when choosing a website host were partly specific to
his requirements:
When choosing a host, the deciding factor was
really reliability. However, obviously cost in hand,
and the features provided for that cost, also played
a decisive role (eg the inclusion of PHP, MySQL
processing, large space and bandwidth).
Once a host has been chosen, the domain has to be
pointed toward the host server. This basically means
that when the domain name is typed into a browser, it
knows where to find the site.
Contacts
netmechanic.com
addme.com
webeurope.co.uk
ipower.com
powweb.com
checkdomain.com
focus52.com
29
Advanced Photoshop
13/2/06 17:30:43
Inter
view
MATTE
MAN
TITANIC: Titanic was a hard one because it just

seemed to go on and on, says Darby. Like Crouching
Tiger, it was high-maintenance for historical reasons.
There are some photographs of the day Titanic left
Southampton, but as you can imagine, theyre pretty
rough to look at. We had to go into such detail exactly
which ships were in dock on that day, even which masts
would have been poking out and how tall, what the look
of the hotel in the background was... Thats fine with me,
because I find it interesting, the historical side. Youre not
only painting something memorable, but youve also
learned something at the end of it.
With Titanic, we truly believed the show we were
working on was going to be quite special, even if at times
it looked as though it could have been a flop. We just felt it
was great subject matter Titanic back on the water.
Its the kind of show where youre just excited about the
idea of it. There was a lot of pressure on all of us. It was fun
for a while and then got rather hard work, and by the time
we finished it we were about six months behind. But even
now, quite a few of the images really hold up, and
historically, its as good as its going to get.
His digital work may have

helped shape the look of some of
the biggest films of the last
decade but Charles Darby still
likes to whip out a traditional
paintbrush before dabbling with
cutting edge Photoshop effects
itanic, The Matrix, The Fifth Element,

I, Robot, Harry Potter Not a bad set of
films to have on your CV. And yet
esteemed Photoshop artist Charles Darby is
always at pains to emphasise just how basic
his working knowledge of Adobes app really
is. The difference, he believes, comes down to
his background in classical painting. Learning
[how to use] the computer, the Wacom tablet
and the software is actually the easier part, he
says. There are a few people who can use
Photoshop probably far better than myself.
They have a deeper understanding of it.
Born in Liverpool in 1969, Darby studied
painting in Florence, Italy from 1988-91, under the
guidance of Charles H Cecil, because it was the
only thing I was any good at. A stint at Goldsmiths
College immediately afterwards taught him that,
in painting, anything goes. But its his grounding
in classical technique that has served him well
as a matte painter and visual effects supervisor,
hes now one of the most sought-after talents
in Tinseltown. Such an outcome could not
have been predicted from his early encounters

with the technology.
Ive always been playing with computers,
although Id never tried to actually paint with
them, he recalls. When I was very young, I was
playing with rudimentary tablet software and
paint software, and I was using a Commodore 64.
I dont remember doing anything half-decent on
it and I didnt really use computers for anything
terribly creative until I was living in LA and was
asked whether I might be able to convert a
photo-real oil painting into something on the

computer. It took time to make the transition from
oils to digital, but perseverance paid off and hes
now as au fait with the brush as he is with a tablet
and pen.
I dont think about it any more, but when I
started, that was probably the hardest thing to get
used to the fact that theres no tooth to the
surface, so youre sliding along, almost like
painting on glass. It makes it much harder to draw.
Quite a few really good, traditional matte artists at
30
Advanced Photoshop
030-035_APM04_Darby.indd 30
13/2/06 12:33:33
Charles
Darby
the beginning of the Nineties hated having to use

the computer, and some of them didnt cross over
into digital because it was a different kind of
artform at that point.
Matte master
The bulk of Darbys commercial work is matte
painting for the movies, brought to life with the
help of Photoshop CS, a 2.5GB Mac G5 and
23-inch Apple monitor. Then, of course, theres his
trusty watercolour paints and brushes

Watercolours are the way I like to work, because I
tend to find that directors and producers are able
to comment more easily about the physical
drawing or painting. They can actually sketch on it
if they fancy. There isnt some sort of barrier there,
which a monitor actually becomes. So if theyre
looking at a watercolour, I can get feedback
quicker. I then scan it in, whichever version they
choose. Its like a blueprint. When you have a 3D
matte painting, where the cameras
CHARLES
DARBY:
Computers were just

for games, as far as
Charles was
concerned, when he
was young. But all
that changed after
he took an oil
painting into digital.
Now he produces
matte paintings for
the top movies
31
Advanced Photoshop
13/2/06 12:33:45
Inter
view
DUNGEONS &
DRAGONS: Director
Courtney Solomon asked

if I could re-do 12 shots
for the independent
movie, Dungeons and
Dragons, said Darby.
Production hoped Id
take LightWave files and
work with what had been
done already. But, given
the time-frame about
eight weeks it wouldve taken longer to
work with other peoples files.
He explained: These wouldve been quite complex
3D models that would have taken an eternity to
render. So I redesigned all 12 shots with watercolours
and then we created quite basic 3D models for the
main buildings and in a 2.5D-type matte painting
world, where youre taking a basic 3D model and
applying very advanced texturing. The textures give
the illusion of enormous detail, which means you can
render a scene overnight, rather than in a week or so.
moving far more, then the watercolour isnt quite

as beneficial because it can only cover one frame
of what could be a huge move. So here Ill do the
first and end frames.
Still, you tend to work out a lot of problems at
this stage, rather than finding them out later on.
Its almost like you build it and work out your
problems, then build it again, avoiding all those
problems. If you went straight into Photoshop,
youd tend to look at the composition differently.
Early in his film career, Darby worked for
Cinesite in LA and then Digital Domain,
subsequently setting up his own company Digital
Firepower. Although now defunct, DF started off
promisingly enough, albeit with a slight hiccup
when a deal to work on George Lucas Star Wars:
The Phantom Menace fell through at the last
minute. Thankfully, within two weeks, Darby
received a call from the makers of The Matrix.
They contacted us and said, Would you be able
to do these matte paintings?.
It was, however, a little like working in the dark.
Not only because we were separated by a few
hundred miles, says Darby. It was tricky to know

exactly what you were working on. It was all a
little bit abstract, and tricky to know the feel of
what they were after. We werent really shown
much of the rest of the movie, so by the time we
finished it, I dont think I was particularly excited
about working on the show. And when it came
out, it was completely different to anything Id
imagined. It was very surprising you cant guess
what shows are going to be like.
When in Rome
Darby has spent most of his life in America, but he
travels the world a lot, often because the
production on which hes working demands it.
His most recent project was the BBCs historical
drama Rome. I was living there for just over three
months and thats the perfect-case scenario,
where youre creating ancient Rome and you can
go into the town, live in the town and look at all
the small details not the big stuff that you can
read about in books anyway. Its the small details
STAR WARS FELL THROUGH,

BUT WITHIN TWO WEEKS HE
GOT A CALL FROM THE
MAKERS OF THE MATRIX
32
Advanced Photoshop
13/2/06 12:34:28
Charles
Darby
THE FIFTH ELEMENT: I was supervising a

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

WATERCOLOURS
This pre-production watercolour, and the subsequent computergenerated scene, from Michael Cristofers 2001 movie, provides an
insight into how Darby works. The watercolour is first presented to
the director, producer (or both), who then comment on it, decide
what they like and then mark changes on the artwork itself. Darby
then scans in the watercolour and works it up, typically at a very
high resolution, in Photoshop. He finds that watercolours tend to
produce a better response from the people whose job it is to make
decisions about the film: Computer monitors create a barrier
between the client and the artwork, which can seriously hamper
creativity and slow the production down.
33
Advanced Photoshop
13/2/06 12:34:43
Inter
view
MINORITY REPORT: The movie started and stopped production a few
times, recalls Darby. The first time, it was going to be 200 years in the future, or
something. When youre working on a Spielberg production, he juggles with
quite a few productions and he chooses quite late in. It was closed down for
about six months while everybody waited to see whether he would do it or not.
When it came back, it was 50 years into the future.
Fifty years ahead was chosen because its more believable and theres quite
a lot of buildings even now that, in 50 years time, represent what most cities
will look like. We went to Washington DC and shot plates from the top of the
USA Today building I nearly froze to death up there, taking those plates over
a number of days.
Then we started planning cities which were believable based in reality. I
also got a helicopter to take me over LA, which was where I was living, and you
get a lot of reference from the height of the more modern buildings. For
conceptual reasons, I started placing them into this scheme, painting new tops
and changing the sides. It was quite a long process. In the end, we chose
something that was believable, but it had magnetic strips on it, I think, so that
cars could travel.
ONE OF DARBYS MATTES

FOR HARRY POTTER AND THE
PRISONER OF AZKABAN WAS
OVER 600 FEET LONG
that you wouldnt ever consider or think about.
For instance, how the light is in that particular part
of the world. Every country has different light,
different clouds you notice that kind of thing
when youre travelling.
His work on Harry Potter And The Prisoner of
Azkaban was based on a different kind of reality,
but it introduced Darby to the delights of seeing
his mattes on a massive scale: One of them for
Azkaban was over 600 feet long, he reveals. It
covered the entire sound stage, all the way
around. This was a newer part of the job for me.
Im more used to taking my watercolour, scanning
it in and keeping it digital. Then you see it on
screen, which is great. But youre actually working
at a much higher resolution and printing it out,
then putting all the set pieces in front of it. Its
completely different, especially with the Potter
stuff. With the 600-foot fellah, you can only paint
in sections, and for that one thered be about
eight or nine sections and each would be about
2GB. You were running right to the edge of what
the hardware could do.
His superlative matte-work also graced the
most recent JK Rowling adaptation, Harry Potter
And The Goblet Of Fire. Its similar to what I did for
Azkaban, he says. Its the kind of work where it
was a very large-scale backing. Most was done
before the beginning of the shoot, so it feels like

some time ago now. Again, it was a section of
Hogwarts views using landscapes and putting
snow over everything at a very high resolution. It
was building locations such as Riddles house.
They dont have a proper house to do long shots
of, so I would create views of the house at
different angles within the landscape and at
enormous resolution. That in turn would be
turned into matte paintings and then supplied to
the VFX houses.
Composition counts
While the equipment may be struggling to keep
up, Darby avows that its not the be-all and end-all
of being a successful artist for film. When it comes
to VFX houses, theyve all got the same hardware
and software, so theres a level playing field, he
says. What they dont really find so easily is people
who understand what makes a good
composition; people who can draw out their ideas
and explain them. People who have a good sense
of history and can capture the flavour of a place.
For Rome, it wasnt just recreating Rome, but
having a flavour that feels right. You cant capture
it completely, because it has to work for a film.
And the better you are at drawing out your ideas
and creating compositions that convey a certain
feeling, the more effective will Photoshop and

that stuff be theyre just tools.
For anyone seeking to exercise their artistic and
Photoshop skills in the world of film, theres yet
more to learn, and its little to do with being a
computer-whiz or having skill with a brush. It
varies from person to person, says Darby. But
when youre in a meeting and youre trying to
work out what the client wants, youve got to ask
the right questions to figure out whether they
know exactly what they want, or whether theyre
just coming up with ideas that they actually want
to be changed.
You have to read between the lines a little bit
to see whether theyre open to one way or
another. Knowing the right questions to ask only
comes with experience, but its an enormous help,
and if you interpret the answers correctly it cuts
down the work by half. It may be the first time
theyve had to define what theyre after, and if
they cant do that, its up to you to start defining it
for them.
At present, Darby is having a rest and waiting
for the next job to come in, which is how the
movie industry works. However, hes still to be
found online at www.charlesdarby.com, where
you can see a full run-down of the productions on
which he has worked. A
34
Advanced Photoshop
13/2/06 12:36:09
CROUCHING
TIGER, HIDDEN
DRAGON
This scene from Ang Lees exotic

masterpiece was a real challenge for
Darby, who had to create a realistic look
with little or no reference material: I try
to avoid a generic look, which a lot of
visual effects can have. I guess thats one
of the advantages of travelling to a
location where youre actually recreating it
in a different period. With Crouching Tiger, I
didnt have that opportunity. I was in LA in
a studio, reading books and looking at
artists representations of what it might
have looked like, without the ability to
actually go there and get the information as
to what the skies looked like. It was one of
the hardest fought-for its quite a large
painting, and its slap in the middle of the
screen, and it lingers thats a tough one,
but it does look quite good in the context of
the movie.
35
Advanced Photoshop
13/2/06 12:36:29
WORKSHOPS
ZIP IT UP!
7
PEER PRESSURE
78
Want to see how powerful Photoshop can be in the right hands? Then
take a look at some of the stunning imagery this month, including Times
Square Aftermath by Meowza, and the powerful XBot and NGCBot by Wai
Mann. If you like what you see, you can contact the artist directly, or just
read our in-depth descriptions and set about creating some magnificent
imagery of your own.
iqu
es
Insider
Te
ch
n
Info
INSIDER INFO 1
THE BEAUTY OF BRIDGE
68
Parts Three and Four of our guide to Adobe Bridge concentrate on

the Find command, helping you master it within seconds.
7 42
Make sure fruit is kept firmly in its place, with the

help of our zipped-up orange tutorial.
UNDER THE SEA 7 52

Perfect complex underwater lighting effects
using Layers and Blending Modes
URBAN
SNOW SCENES
7 58
CONCEPT ART
7 62
All you need to know about transferring an urban

summer scene into a winter wonderland, making
use of Noise and Layer Masks.
Mastering the art of light, shadow, colour and

tone can make all the difference to your preproduction artwork, as we prove here.
CASTING SHADOW 7 74
Making shadows look realistic can be a bit of a
bind, but not if you follow our expert advice.
HELPDESK
82
Our resident expert Karl Foster sets out to solve your

technical conundra. Having trouble adapting to CS2?
Not sure of the best way to create black-and-white
shots from colour? Find the answers here!
37
Advanced Photoshop
037_APM04_techintro.indd 37
10/2/06 14:28:47
MASTERCLASS
38
Advanced Photoshop
038-040_masterclass.indd 38
13/2/06 12:42:16
Abstract design
Extra
Resources
Also included on the CD found on
the inside back cover of this months
Advanced Photoshop are nine other
renders that George is sharing with
you from his own personal
collection. Hes used these to create
some of his more recent artwork.
Feel free to use them to create some
of your own abstract designs.
Find out how to use selections to create abstract grit

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

Create a new document of 16x20 and 300 dpi
with a plain white background. On a new layer, using
the Gradient tool (press G in order to select the tool)
create a few black gradients to give the background
some depth. Now reduce the layer Opacity to 25% to
make the gradients very subtle.
Creating the bars

Next, create a new layer. Using the Square
Marquee tool (press M to select the tool), draw one tall
slim selection. Enter Quick Mask mode by pressing Q,
and then use the Marquee tool to select and clone your
visual representation of the selection. Hold Ctrl, Alt+Shift,
and then click and drag your selection to clone it and
keep it aligned horizontally. Press Q again to exit Quick
Mask mode.
Adding gradients
Use the Gradient tool to fill the selection and
make a transition from dark to light grey. Using the
Marquee, offset each bar a little from the previous one to
create a stair effect. (Make a selection around each bar
one at a time, then hold Ctrl+Shift while dragging up or
down to move the selection and lock it horizontally.)
Deselect everything, then rotate the bars 45 degrees
clockwise (hold Shift while rotating in order to snap to
15-degree increments)
39
Advanced Photoshop
13/2/06 12:42:35
MASTERCLASS
4
Creating grit
Open render01.psd (included on the CD). Remove
the object from the background by going to the
Channels window and Ctrl-clicking on the Alpha
channel. Click and drag the object to the main canvas
using the Move tool (press V to select the tool). Using the
Magic Wand tool (press W to select it), click anywhere on
the render to create a random selection (you can alter
the Tolerance level of the tool to make it grab more or
fewer similar pixels).
Try something different

You could also hold Ctrl, Alt+Shift after youve
made a selection, then click and drag to clone that fill on
the same layer. Also make sure to drop the Opacity of
some of your layers. You want to create some depth and
not be left with solid black/white/red bars all over the
place. Create a few bars that stand out on top of all the
others, using a contrasting colour (red, in our case).
Random shifts
Once you have your random selection, hide the
render layer and select your main bars layer. With the
Square Marquee tool, click and drag the random
selection so that a portion of it is overlapping our black
bars. Now press the Delete button on your keyboard.
Move the selection again and then hit Delete again.
Repeat this process a few times, moving the selection
each time in random spots. Also try Ctrl-clicking the layer
in order to create a selection; move it so that it is offset
and then hit the Delete button.
Adding elements
Now add elements to your work such as letters
and shapes. In this case well add a few capital letters
using the Ruritania font (included on the CD). Also try to
explore the grit you have created by Ctrl-clicking on
random layers to see what kind of random selections
you can get. We also added a regal lion (regal.psd on the
CD) which we duplicated and flipped horizontally to
make them standing with their backs to each other. Use
the same duplicate/select/delete technique to break
apart the lions and create chaos within them.
Duplicating the bars

Click and drag your main bar layer onto the New
Layer button to duplicate it a few times. Play around by
rotating, flipping horizontally or vertically, inverting the
colour (hold Ctrl then press the I button) and even filling
a layer with another colour. (Ctrl-click a layer to create a
selection, make a new layer, select a colour from the
Swatches window, then hold Alt and hit the Backspace
button to fill the selection with the foreground colour.
Deselect everything by pressing Ctrl+D.)
Adding more elements and depth

Another little technique we can use to create
some depth is to hide all the layers except the lions, text
and render layers. Press Ctrl+A to select the entire canvas,
then copy merged (Ctrl, Shift+C) and paste (Ctrl+V).
Gaussian Blur (20 pixels) the layer then set it to Overlay.
Paste two more copies and use the Quick Transform tool
to size each one down a little more than the previous
one. Set their Layer Modes to Lighten.
10
Colour layer
As a final touch, add a layer on top of
everything else and fill it with a solid colour, then play
around with the Layer Mode and Opacity. In this case, we
used Pastel Green Cyan, set the Opacity to 50% and set
the Layer Mode to Overlay. Change the Opacity and
overlap a few different colours to see what kind of results
you get. You can change the Layer Modes as well to
create even more different results.
TRY TO CREATE DEPTH, SO YOU

ARENT LEFT WITH SOLID BARS
40
Advanced Photoshop
13/2/06 12:43:43
Step-by-step
Workshop
Prepare your image

Open orange.jpg and orange_zip.jpg,
provided on Disc A. With both files open, use the
Move tool to drag-and-drop the zip-less orange
image over the top of orange_zip, so that the two
layers exist on orange zip. At the top of the Layers
palette, reduce the Opacity of the orange layer to
70 per cent and align it over the orange zip layer
until the zip is completely covered. Bring the
Opacity of the orange layer back to 100 per cent
and switch off visibility by clicking on the eye icon
next to it.
Isolate the zip

Select the orange zip layer, then choose the
Pen tool (check its set to Paths) and carefully draw
around the zips metal edge. Start at the top-left
and work your way down. At the bottom of the
orange, add a point that cuts across the zip and
start tracing up the other side. When the path is
complete, click the right arrow on the Paths
palette and choose Save Path. Now click on the
Load Path as Selection button at the bottom of
the Paths palette. Ensure the marching ants line is
around the zip and not the background, or youll
need to inverse the selection (Select>Inverse).
ZIP IT UP!
Theyre noisy fruit, oranges. Keep them in their place with

Operation Zip-Up. Just dont tell the rest of the fruit-bowl!
BY GILES ANGEL
ON THE DISC
Youll find all the files you need to
complete this tutorial (orange_
zip.jpg, orange.jpg and zip_base.
jpg) on Disc A. Dont forget to
check out the two .psd files, too.
OUR EXPERT
Giles Angel
Giles Angel is co-founder and director of Vision Architects, a

digital communications agency, and has five years
experience in media design. Past clients include 02, Microsoft
and Toyota. Hes also an award-winning photographer. For
more details, visit www.angelphoto.co.uk
ver told an orange to shut up?

Thought not. But the bizarre ap-peel
(sorry!) of this zipped-up orange
proved just too good to resist. This fun
tutorial is an excellent opportunity for testing
your montage techniques, taking into
account the subjects vivid textures and
curvaceous profile and the complex
interlocked design of the zip itself. In
addition, consider how light and shade
interact with the two objects once theyve
been carefully combined.
Feel free to follow our concept exactly, or
improvise and come up with a similar idea
yourself. The important point is to practise the
techniques here first, then branch out in new
creative directions. Youll be making extensive use
of Layer Masks and the Color Adjustment tool,
and you will need a steady hand when it comes
to isolating those zip-teeth.
Create an Adjustment Layer Mask

With the selection still active, select the
orange layer and go to Layer>Layer Mask>Hide
Selection. This will reveal the zip selection, which
is underneath.
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Te
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Make colour adjustments

Now that the zip is showing through the
mask, its time to make the zip blend in with the
orange peel. There are a number of tools for the
job, but in this instance were going to use Color
Balance. Select the orange zip layer (as this is the
layer showing through the mask). Go to
Layer>New Adjustment Layer>Color Balance and,
in the dialog, select the midtones and move the
top slider towards the red. Now move the middle
slider towards the green and the bottom one
towards the blue. Before clicking OK, repeat these
steps with the Shadow and Highlights
respectively. You should end up with a supersaturated dark reddish/orange tint. Now go to
Layer>New Adjustment Layer>Levels and move
the middle (midtones) slider towards the left
(shadows). This will lighten the colour saturation
for a closer match on the orange peel
Colour-adjust zip base

Duplicate the Colour Balance Adjustment
Layer above the orange zip layer and drag it
above the zip base layer. Now create a Clipping
Mask (Opt/Alt-click) and roll the mouse between
the Adjustment Layer and the zip base layer. As
you do so, youll see a little icon of two
overlapping circles appear. Click on it and the
Adjustment Layer becomes indented and a
downward arrow appears to indicate an active
clipping mask. The Colour Adjustment Layer now
only affects the layer immediately underneath.
Add one more Adjustment Layer, this time for
Brightness and Contrast, and reduce Brightness to
-29 to make the colour match the zipper. Now
create another Clipping Mask from this
Adjustment Layer so that both Adjustment Layers
are indented.
Adjustment
Layers
The beauty of
Adjustment Layers,
although RAMhungry, is that you
can go back and
make changes later
on. Just double-click
on the layer
thumbnail icon in
the Layers palette to
bring up the
settings and make
your changes.
will need a bit of skewing to make it look like its

wrapping around the orange. To skew an image,
just go to Edit>Free Transform, hold down Opt/Alt,
and drag on the corner handles.
10
Cut out the composite

Now flatten the file and cut out the
composite with the Pen tool. Make a selection and
press Cmd/Ctrl+J to bring it onto a new layer. The
image is now ready for a background. To make it
look more realistic, we took another low-angle
macro shot of an orange in some grass. Open
orange_grass.jpeg, provided on Disc A, and dragand-drop a copy of the cut-out layer onto it.
8
5
Adding zip base

Open up zip_base.jpg, provided on Disc A,
and drag it onto your working document so that
its sitting above the orange layer. Reduce Layer
Opacity and use the arrow tools to nudge it into
position. Go to Edit>Free Transform and, holding
down Shift (to constrain proportions), drag the
corner inwards to ensure its the correct size.
Isolating zip base

Now repeat steps 4 and 5 to isolate the
metal using the Pen tool, and mask out the
unwanted material around the edge. In each
instance, the original layer is intact underneath
the mask, so any tweaks are being done to the
mask not the image itself.
Prepare the shadows 1

The orange and the zip are now blended
together, but we need shadows to add realism.
Go back to the Paths palette, where we isolated
the zip in step 4, and load the path as a selection.
Click on the New Layer icon and fill it with dark
reddish brown. Next, reduce its Opacity to 33. Use
the arrow keys to nudge the new layer into
position over the zip. With the Eraser tool and a
small hard-edged brush, ease back the top edges
until a subtle shadow layer appears underneath
the metal. Now add a little Gaussian Blur from the
Filter menu to soften the shadow effect.
11
Blend composite with the

background
Align the composite layer over the orange in the
background layer. Now go to Layer>Add Layer
Mask Reveal and choose the Paintbrush with black
as the foreground colour. With the Layer Mask
selected in the Layers palette, start painting in
black to reveal the detail underneath. With
patience, youll be able to get a nice blend
between the two. If you make a mistake, simply
press X to flip the foreground colour to white,
which will enable you to paint the mask back in. 5
Prepare the shadows 2

Youll need to repeat step 9 with the zip
handle and zip base. The former, however, will
need a separate path, and the shadow-filled layer
43
Advanced Photoshop
042-043_APM04_orange.indd 43
10/2/06 14:28:02
MASTERCLASS
hen compared to film, digital images can

appear a little too polished, which is why
many photographers still cling to their
old equipment and modus operandi, which havent
changed fundamentally in over 160 years.
Thankfully, with Photoshop, you can duplicate many
of the films, processes and techniques of the pre-digital
era without having to bump into things in the darkroom
or put your hands into dubious, smelly chemicals. Best of
all, most of them are easy to achieve in a small number
of steps, and in many cases are non-destructive, thanks
to the power of Adjustment Layers.
In this Masterclass, well look at eye-catching
photographic effects, touch on the important topic of
colour spaces, show you how to add convincing film
grain to your images and reveal how to convert your
colour images into black and white.
Sepia-toning, cross-processing and solarisation are
what could be classed as darkroom techniques. Our
infrared technique on the other hand shows you how
to mimic the appearance of hard-to-find infrared film,
which can be difficult to handle in the field. And while
nothing can replace the pleasure of using a Lomo
Kompakt camera, one of Russias finest exports, you
can still replicate that unique Lomographic style by
following our simple steps.
Understanding colour spaces, together with regularly
calibrating your monitor, will help to ensure consistently
excellent results. But if your eyes start to glaze over at the
very words colour-management, then our concise
introduction to the subject (page 51) is for you.
A grainy, gritty image can look amazing, but
Photoshops built-in Grain filter isnt the best solution.
Rolling up your sleeves to do a bit of groundwork first,
then using small amounts of Noise and Gaussian Blur,
will produce better results indistinguishable from the real
thing. Its an ideal technique for digital artists who insert
new items into a photograph and then have to match
the film grain so that the new item doesnt look too crisp.
Thought there was only one way to turn a colour
image into black-and-white? Then think again. Here we
show you three ways of transforming your RGB images
into shades of grey. Usefully, we also explain the pros and
cons of each technique, so that you can decide which
ones best for you.
You can apply most of the techniques outlined here
to any digital image check out the Photoshop Actions
on our cover CD for one-click access. Theyre easy to edit,
so feel free to fine-tune them to suit your own needs.
Digital photography tricks

Give your digital images the traditional veneer of
analogue photography, complete with texture
and grain, using these easy-to-follow techniques
BY JASON ARBER
ON THE DISC
Youll find a stack of resources on the cover
CD to help you recreate the techniques
shown here, including a batch of handy
Photoshop Actions.
OUR EXPERT
Jason Arber
Jason is co-founder and Editor-in-Chief of online art and culture

magazine Pixelsurgeon (www.pixelsurgeon.com). Hes also an Art
Director at Start Creative in London, has used Photoshop since
version one and even dreams in Layer Blend mode.
44
Advanced Photoshop
044-051_APM04_camera.indd 44
10/2/06 14:24:35
Sepia
Sepia-toning can evoke the stylish look of an aged photograph if used in the right
way. In the 19th and early 20th Centuries, the pigment was prepared from the black
ink secreted by cuttlefish, but modern photographic processes rely on a chemical dye.
You can recreate this look in Photoshop with a high degree of flexibility
Colorize in Hue/Saturation
Open a colour image (or a greyscale one
converted to the RGB colour space) and select Hue/
Saturation from the Image menu (Image>Adjustments>
Hue/Saturation). Click the Colorize checkbox and move
the Hue slider until your image is a warm brown colour.
Tweak the slider

Adjust the Saturation slider to change the amount
of colour. Higher numbers will create a richer, more vivid
effect while smaller numbers create a subtler, more
realistic sepia look. Try adjusting the Hue slider to create
the look of blue or green photographic dyes, silver and
selenium toning. If you dont want to change the
underlying image, use an Adjustment Layer instead.
Solarisation
In photographic terms, solarisation is the overexposure of the dark parts of an image

and is easily achieved in the darkroom by quickly exposing a developing print to a
flash of light. Recreating the effect in Photoshop is simpler than you might think
Invert image
This technique will work with colour and greyscale
images. Take an image and make a copy of the layer by
dragging it to the New layer icon at the bottom of the
Layers palette. Invert the duplicated layer (Image>
Adjustments>Invert) to create a negative.
Apply Adjustment Layer and tweak

Change the duplicate layers Transparency mode
to Exclusion in the drop-down menu at the top of the
Layers palette. Create a Levels Adjustment Layer
(Layer>New Adjustment Layer>Levels), ensuring that
Use Previous Layer to Create Clipping Mask is checked
and tweak the Levels to find the correct balance that
works for your image. As this process is typically used
with black-and-white images, create a new Hue/
Saturation Adjustment Layer for the whole image and
reduce Saturation to make a greyscale image.
45
Advanced Photoshop
10/2/06 14:24:55
MASTERCLASS
Infrared
Special infrared film can photograph

the infrared spectrum, which is invisible
to the human eye. Blue skies darken
dramatically to black, while foliage
develops an unearthly glow. This
technique is best used on landscapes,
as infrared film can have an unusual
effect on human faces, which is
beyond the scope of this tutorial
Adjust Color Range

Open up an image that contains clear blue skies,
clouds and some foliage. Using the Color Range tool
(Select>Color Range) with a high Fuzziness setting,
sample the blue sky and click OK. This will create a
selection out of the blue sky. With the help of Levels
(Image>Adjustments>Levels), use the grey triangle to
darken the sky. Now use the Color Range tool again for
the green foliage and boost its saturation using Hue/
Saturation (Image>Adjustments>Hue/Saturation).
Blur and Grain

Go to the Channels palette and click the Green
channel. Youll notice that the sky is virtually black and
the foliage appears as though the leaves are white.
Select all (Select>All), copy the channel and paste it into
a new layer in the Layers palette. Use the Color Range
tool to select the foliage again (using the original layer),
create a new layer, fill with light grey, deselect and then
add a touch of Gaussian Blur (Filter>Blur>Gaussian Blur).
Finally, flatten the image and add a small amount of
Grain from the Filter Gallery (Filter>Filter Gallery).
46
Advanced Photoshop
10/2/06 14:25:12
Film grain
Unlike its digital counterpart, film thats

pushed several stops and then pushprocessed often achieves a grainy look
which is pleasing to the eye. High ISO
ratings on a digital camera, on the other
hand, result in digital noise that doesnt
look remotely aesthetic. Although
Photoshop has a handy Grain filter, it
doesnt look realistic because it applies a
uniform coating of noise. In film, grain is
more noticeable in the midtones and
shadow areas and tends to clump. By
excluding the highlights and repeating
a noise-blur-noise cycle with small
values, you can achieve a more lifelike
film grain without sacrificing detail
Drag background layer to new layer

Open an RGB image thats been desaturated or
channel-mixed to black and white. Make a duplicate
of the image by dragging the background layer to the
New Layer icon at the bottom of the Layers palette.
Tweaking the channels

Click on the Channels palette and duplicate one
of the channels by dragging it onto the New Channel
icon at the bottom of the palette. For black-and-white
images, the channels will all be pretty much the
same. On the duplicate channel, invert the image
(Image>Invert), boost Contrast using Levels (Image>
Adjustments>Levels) and click OK.
Load the selection

Making sure that the RGB channels have been
selected again, return to the layers and choose
Select>Load Selection and load the duplicated channel
to create a selection that will exclude the highlights.
Apply a small amount of noise (Filter>Noise>Add Noise)
the precise value of which depends on the size of your
image, but 10-15 is a good starting point and ensure
that Gaussian and Monochromatic are selected.
Repeat blur-and-noise cycle

With the midtones and shadows still selected
(you can hide the marching ants selection indicator
by turning off View>Show>Selection Edges), apply a
Gaussian Blur (Filter>Blur>Gaussian Blur) with a Radius
of no more than one pixel. Apply the Noise again and
repeat the blurring and adding of noise until a suitable
degree of grain is achieved.
47
Advanced Photoshop
10/2/06 14:25:37
MASTERCLASS
Lomo style
The Lomo Kompact was a Russianmade camera that, thanks to its unique
glass lens design and build, somehow
managed to produce vivid, saturated
images, even of the most mundane
subjects. Outgrowing its Communist
roots, Lomography has spawned
societies and aficionados all over the
world dedicated to the Lomo look
Retain image details

Open up an RGB image and duplicate the layer
by dragging it to the New Layer icon at the bottom
of the Layers palette. Change the Layer Blending mode
to Luminosity, so that details from the image that would
be lost implementing the next step are preserved. Now
select the bottom layer and create a new Hue/Saturation
Adjustment Layer to pump up Saturation to +58.
Create new Colour Balance

Adjustment Layer
To increase the vividness of the image and warm up the
tones, create a new Colour Balance Adjustment Layer,
and tweak the midtones. Increase the red and yellow
values (for example, to +17, 0, -43) and click OK. For
absolute authenticity, grab a large soft brush loaded with
black and on a new layer add a touch of vignetting to
the corners to mimic the cameras optics.
48
Advanced Photoshop
10/2/06 14:25:54
Cross process
Cross processing occurs when you use

the wrong chemicals to process colour
film processing negative print film in
E6 chemicals and colour reversal or
transparency film in C-41 chemicals.
This creates unexpected colour shifts
and higher-than-usual contrast
Remove contrast
Take an RGB image and duplicate the layer, turning
the top layers Blending mode to Luminosity to preserve
the image detail. With the bottom layer selected, create a
new Curves Adjustment Layer and remove some of the
contrast with a flattened S-shaped curve (ensure that the
light end of the curve is dragged down).
Adjust Colour Balance

Create a Colour Balance Adjustment Layer. Select
Highlights and shift the balance towards the Red and the
Yellow (for example +27, 0, -49), then select the Shadows
and move parameters towards the Cyan and Blue (for
example -70, -15, +32). Finally, create a Levels Adjustment
Layer above all the other layers and beef up the contrast
by dragging the white triangle to the left.
49
Advanced Photoshop
10/2/06 14:26:09
MASTERCLASS
Converting to
black and white
There are many ways to create a

black-and-white image from a colour
image, and each one has its own
advantages and disadvantages
Greyscale
RGB to Greyscale
The simplest and quickest way is to change Image
mode from RGB to Greyscale (Image>Mode>Greyscale).
Unless your image is destined for black-and-white
output, though, wed advise against this, since it throws
away two-thirds of the image information by condensing
three channels into a single Greyscale channel.
Duotone, tritone, quadtone

An advantage of the Greyscale mode is that its
a stepping stone to exploiting Photoshops Duotone,
Tritone and Quadtone capabilities, which can generate
very subtle effects. But this still doesnt change the fact
that valuable pixel information is being thrown away.
With this in mind, always remember to convert a
duplicate image to Greyscale, never the original.
50
Advanced Photoshop
10/2/06 14:26:30
Desaturation
Channel Mixer
Use a Hue/Saturation Adjustment Layer

For a non-destructive desaturation approach,
open up a colour RGB image and create a Hue/
Saturation Adjustment Layer. Take the Saturation
slider down to zero and click OK.
Use Channel Mixer Adjustment Layer

One of the most flexible ways of converting an
image to black and white is by using the recently
introduced Channel Mixer. Open up a colour RGB
image, then create a Channel Mixer Adjustment Layer
(Layer>New Adjustment Layer>Channel Mixer).
Add saturation
The advantage of this method is that it maintains
all the detail in your original image, resulting in a richer
print when its converted to CMYK and output on a
process colour page. By adding a little saturation back
into the image, you can create some subtle, aged looks
that look almost like hand-tinted photographs.
Adjust RGB sliders in Monochrome

Tick the Monochrome box and then adjust the
Red, Green and Blue sliders so that theyre all in roughly
the same position, but their values add up to 100 per
cent. If the sliders add up to less the 100 per cent, the
image may look underexposed, while values above 100
per cent may make the image look overexposed.
Experiment!
The real fun with the Channel Mixer comes
when you experiment with the RGB sliders to achieve
100 per cent values that arent uniform across the
channels. You can make blue eyes paler, darken skin,
bring out hidden freckles and completely change the
tone of your photograph. 5
Colour
space
Many digital artists, Photoshop users and
professional photographers have never really
considered colour spaces or, if they have, decided
the subject is far too complex and moved on to the
more exciting business of creating images instead.
But understanding the topic is vital if you want to
get the most out of your work.
To confuse matters, a number of colour models,
such as CMYK, RGB, HSB and Lab, are mistaken for
colour spaces. In fact, the models define how
colours can be represented in terms of values,
while colour spaces define what the colours should
look like. A colour profile is the combination of a

colour model and a colour space, which tells
external devices such as monitors and printers
how colours should be mapped.
Colour spaces essentially tell external devices
how to display the material you present them with.
This is the crucial part to remember, because a
pixel with an RGB value of 39, 210, 26 can look very
different on different monitors. For further details,
visit http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colour_space
and www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/
digitalphotography/prophoto/colorspaces.mspx
51
Advanced Photoshop
10/2/06 14:26:57
Step-by-step
Workshop
UNDERWATER LOVE
Combine hand-drawn techniques and careful use of layer blending
and effects to create a compelling ocean scene
BY SAM GILBEY
ON THE DISC
Youll find all the accompanying
files and images youll need to
complete this tutorial (sketch.jpg)
on this issues free CD.
OUR EXPERT
Sam Gilbey
Sams illustrations have appeared in numerous publications,

both on and offline, all over the globe. His observational,
colourful and distinct style often draws upon and celebrates
popular culture. He is also a senior editor for popular arts and
design news portal, Pixelsurgeon. More of his work can be
found at www.sam-gilbey.com
f youve seen Pixars epic movie Finding

Nemo, then you already know that
computers can help create a sumptuous,
convincing underwater world. Now, were not
saying that our humble piece could be lifted
from the movie as such, but we certainly had
lots of fun creating it. This has got a lot to do
with the fact that the way light plays
underwater is fascinating. Weve certainly
always wanted to try and recreate that wet
look, and on the following pages youll see
how we did it. As youll find, the key is in using
layers, and lots of them, to build up the image
piece by subtle piece. Weve also deliberately

steered clear of any ripple filters and effects,
preferring to create the look by hand as much
as possible.
As such, you may find the following tutorial a
little easier (and quicker) with a drawing tablet of
some kind, but its not essential. On the following
pages, youll cover brush dynamics, will see how
to create your own unique brushes, and work
through all manner of techniques leading towards
this striking underwater scene. From here theres
no limit to what you could do, from a simple fish
study to the whole of Atlantis.
52
Advanced Photoshop
052-056_APM04_ulove.indd 52
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iqu
es
Te
ch
n
THE KEY IS IN USING

LAYERS TO BUILD UP THE
IMAGE PIECE BY PIECE
1
It starts with a sketch
Open the file from the coverdisc called
sketch.jpg. Duplicate the background layer and
set the layer blending mode to Screen. Select all
of the background layer via the Select menu, and
then fill it with a deep sea green/blue. Flatten the
image. Duplicate the background layer again, and
this time set the blending mode to Multiply. Use
the Gradient Fill tool to render a gradient that
fades from a medium sea blue down to a darker
one on the background layer.
A slightly textured look

On the right of the Brush Diameter icon
theres a small arrow. Click on this. From the
palette that opens up, click the arrow towards the
top right, and select the Dry Media Brushes. At the
bottom of this brush set youll fine the Pastel
Medium Tip. Set the opacity to 50%, and the size
at 30, and start to add texture to the girl, following
the contours of the shading. Change the brushes
back to the default set.
Outlines beneath
Reduce the brush diameter, and use darker
tones to supplement the outline of the sketch.
Now proceed to work on the facial detail. Add a
subtle red to the cheeks. Adjust the brush size and
opacity as appropriate. Render the lips with some
light pink highlights, and introduce some varying
tones into the hair, following the basic flow of the
hairstyle. Use the Eraser to remove the crosshatched shading on the sketch.
Bolder outlines and highlight

Working beneath the sketch, darken the
main outlines further. Keep the brush opacity
around 50%. Now select a strong orange, and
paint a narrow orange highlight to the left side of
the character. This will ultimately be the light from
the jellyfish.
Flat colours and highlights

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

Your next step is to create a new layer
above the sketch, and then you can start to
thicken up the hair. Its best to begin with a
relatively small brush, adding in lighter and darker
tones that flow along the hair, and then to use a
larger, softer brush to blend everything together,
making it appear more natural. Alternate these
techniques until you can see that the hair is
starting to look more realistic.
Shadows and blending

Pick a darker tone for each area, and now
work some shadows in on the left of the character.
Use the Magic Wand to select the character
accurately (to reduce overlap), then use a larger
soft-edged brush (around 130 diameter), reducing
the opacity to around 40%. The idea is to blend
shadows and highlights with the main colour,
rendering the body, clothing and face as you go.
Layer blending modes

We have used a lot of layers in this piece, gradually building up
the textures and colours as we go. But thats only half the story. A
crucial part of getting the right look, especially when youre
creating an underwater scene such as this one, is to use the
correct blending modes on all those layers. Changing them from
one mode to another can have a dramatic effect on the image.
Learn how they all work, and then youll find that you have a
much better idea of which one to use in a given situation.
Remember, less is often more. The most dramatic one isnt
always the best for the job!
53
Advanced Photoshop
10/2/06 14:22:57
Step-by-step
Workshop
IF YOU GET
INTO THE
HABIT OF
USING LAYER
STYLES, YOU
WILL FIND
THEM
EXTREMELY
HANDY
A deeper blue
Duplicate the background layer, and then
drag it to the top of the layers. Now set the
blending mode to Multiply and the opacity to
48% so you can see through to the character.
Select the Eraser, and a soft-edged brush, setting
it to the largest size (2500). You may need to zoom
out, but proceed to erase the top half of this
gradient layer.
The power of layer styles

Layer styles are great, and if you can get into the habit of using
them you will find them extremely handy, partly because you
can add so many different effects to your images with ease.
Most importantly though, when youve got a better idea for
the effect youre using or want to adjust it slightly, you can go
back to it any time you want to. From your Layers palette,
simply double-click on the thumbnail of the layer, and the
Layer Style options will then pop up. This is also a shortcut to
adding a layer style in the first place, without having to use the
Layer menu.
Light rays
Create a new layer beneath the character
and use the Polygonal Lasso to define the
boundaries of a light ray. Use the Gradient Fill tool
to apply a gradient that fades from white down to
a bright blue. Apply a broad Gaussian blur via the
Filter menu. Go to Layer>Layer Styles>Outer Glow
and apply a soft, bright blue glow. Set the opacity
of the ray layer to around 20%. Duplicate it and
move the new layer across to the right a little.
Repeat this process a few times and build up a
few rays of light cutting into the scene. They
should open out across the composition.
12
More photography
Next, we have used a photograph
taken by Hrvoje Pastar, which you will be
able to find at the following website:
www.fotolia.co.uk/id/178135.
Paste this photograph in over the other photo
layers, and then scale it up in order to make it fill
the entire canvas. Having done that, your next
step is to set the blending mode to Overlay and
the opacity to 59%. Finally, apply a Motion blur
by using the Filter menu, and set it at an
angle of 62.
10
Photographic texture
Weve used an image by Chronis
Chamaldis here, which you can purchase
relatively cheaply at the following site:
www.fotolia.co.uk/id/90501.
Paste the image above the background layer,
setting the layer blending mode to Hard Light.
Now go to Image>Adjustments>Hue/Saturation.
Decrease the Hue to 26, and the Lightness to
13. Use the Clone Stamp to copy the texture so
that it reaches the edges of the canvas.
11
Brighter rays
Now its time to make another
copy of the rays. Having done that, set the
opacity to 30%, and then use the same large
eraser to rub out the lower half, leaving a
brighter highlight at the top of the screen. The
next step is to duplicate the photography layer by
right-clicking or pressing Control-click in the layers
palette. Now set the blending mode to Overlay,
and then use the same eraser to remove the lower
half of the texture, again brightening up the top
half of your screen.
13
Dappled light
Your next step is to create a new layer
above everything else, and then select white as
your foreground colour. Youre going to create a
dappled light effect, and in order to do this you
need to paint a rippled pattern of light over the
girl varying the width and opacity of your softedged brush as you go. Having done that, use
a large soft eraser with a low opacity to reduce
the intensity of the light in a few places. Finally,
apply a Gaussian blur with a radius of 10 pixels,
and add an outer glow layer style. Keep the
blending mode on Screen, the spread at 0, and
put the size up to 84px.
54
Advanced Photoshop
10/2/06 14:23:16
iqu
es
Te
ch
n
14
17
15
18
Blurred hair
Duplicate the hair layer above the
sketch and apply a reasonably subtle Motion blur.
Repeat the process, rotating the hair very slightly
each time and varying the blur. Its only really the
isolated hairs in the water that need to blur, so you
can erase anything else around the face.
Jellyfish colours
Create a new layer below the sketch,
and set the blending mode to Hard Light. With a
large soft-edged brush (around 150), at an opacity
of around 30%, start to paint in the jellyfish. Use
pinks and purples, building up the texture with
round marks. Paint the tendrils, and the inside of
the jellyfish that you can just see below, in white.
Jelly veins
Create a new layer on top of the
jellyfish, and using a fine brush with a very low
opacity, paint in pale orange veins spreading out
over the top of it. Apply a small Gaussian blur and
copy the layer. Increase the brush size and create a
soft halo of orange and white light around the top.
Brush creation
Weve just used brush creation tools in
Photoshop for our bubbles, but you could
easily exploit this technique further,
especially in the creation of an underwater
scene. Take a look at the other brush
dynamics that are available to you,
especially the Color dynamics. For
instance, you could create a brush design
of a single fish, and use brush dynamics to
quickly render a whole school of them in
the background. Play with brightness
settings, and theyll even start to shimmer
in the underwater light, or automatically
vary the angle that theyre placed at.
Perhaps you could use brush dynamics to
create coral, or simply to add texture to
sand and rocks on the seabed.
Jelly blur
Select all the layers that make up the jellyfish and group them. Duplicate the group and then merge the lower group.
Apply a gentle Radial blur of around 12 pixels to the layer, with the centre point near the top of the jellyfish. Now rotate the
blurred version about 2 degrees counter-clockwise to create a sense of movement. Enhance the pale orange highlights on both
the girl and jellyfish on a new layer, and Motion blur them slightly. At this stage weve also repositioned the light rays for better
composition, and added a new one in front of the girl.
16
Luminous tentacles
Create a new layer beneath, and use a
soft white brush at varying sizes and with a low
opacity, to build up the long tentacles. Apply a
bright blue/purple outer glow layer style, with the
blending mode set to Normal and a size of 18px.
Create a new layer above everything, and repeat
the technique, adding soft brighter highlights
here and there. Use a light blue outer glow on this
layer, and erase the pencil sketch over the jellyfish.
WEVE USED BRUSH CREATION

TOOLS JUST FOR BUBBLES, BUT
YOU COULD TAKE THIS FURTHER
55
Advanced Photoshop
10/2/06 14:23:30
Step-by-step
Workshop
20
TO GET THE
MOST OUT OF
THESE
TECHNIQUES,
IT WILL
HELP TO
STUDY SOME
UNDERWATER
PHOTOS
19
Bubble brush
Create a new document thats 500 x
500 pixels, at 300 dpi. Using the techniques you
prefer, create an image of a bubble, essentially a
circle with a soft edge and a few highlights. Note
that the blacker the line, the more opaque that
part of the brush will be, and white will be
completely transparent. Flatten the image once
youre ready, and go to Edit>Define Brush
Preset. Name your brush Bubble and click OK.
It will appear at the bottom of the current
brush set.
Look and learn

To get the most out of these techniques, it will naturally help to
carefully study some underwater photos. As well as places like
Fotolia, where you can purchase images relatively cheaply,
there are plenty of other places to look such as the
appropriately named www.underwater-art.com, for instance,
or even just a Google image search. Its by studying how light
plays underwater and how creatures move within it, that your
imagination can run riot, and your illustrations can be
fantastical but believable in their own right.
Brush dynamics
To the right of the Options bar,
youll find the Brushes tab. Open it and turn on
Shape Dynamics. Set Size Jitter to 100%. Also turn
on Scattering and set it to the maximum. From
Other Dynamics, set Opacity Jitter to 60%.
Proceed to paint bubbles around the canvas, with
the diameter at 80, on a new layer at the top.
Dont make more than a couple of bubbles at
a time. After a while, reduce the brush diameter
and add some smaller ones. Apply a soft white
outer glow layer style, and a vertical Motion blur
of 7 pixels.
23
Deeper sea
At this stage you might want to adjust
the colours of the girl, so that she complements
the background better. Use the Layer>
Adjustments options, or create a new Adjustment
layer in order to make your changes. Go back
down to the bubbles photo, and then add a new
layer. Create a gradient that fades up from the
bottom into nothing this time, covering
approximately one third of your screen. Now
apply a Color Overlay and experiment with
various tones. Weve gone for a suitable deep
sea green/blue.
21
More bubbles
On a new layer, create lots of tiny
bubbles, following the girls hair and the tendrils of
the jellyfish in particular. Go back down to the
photo of bubbles we added, and duplicate the
layer. Move it above the photo of the bubbles, set
the blending mode to Overlay and the opacity to
37%. Apply a Color Overlay layer style with a midtoned orange. Set the opacity of the overlay to
57%. Use a large soft eraser to remove the top
sixth or so of the layer, revealing the lighter
tones beneath.
22
Its brighter at the top

Beneath the bubbles photo, create a
new layer and set the blending mode to Overlay.
Use the Gradient Fill tool to add a gradient that
fades downwards from white to nothing, just
down say a fifth of the screen. Move it up a little so
the top of the image isnt quite so bright. For extra
effect, add a layer at the top, and paint in some
broad (but quite faint) white strokes at the top of
the image. Apply a Gaussian blur of 50 to the layer
to give the sense of more light breaking through.
24
Final details
Go and have another look at the
character, and then add any more detail that you
think it may need. Concentrate in particular on the
face, especially the lips and eyes. We have also
added quite a lot more bubbles here, on various
layers so that we can blur them to different
amounts. Besides this, weve also brought the hair
around the front of the neck to create the
impression that the water is swirling. Now why
dont you try experimenting with using some
of these techniques in an underwater scene of
your own?. 5
56
Advanced Photoshop
13/2/06 16:32:41
Step-by-step
Workshop
LET IT
SNOW!
Desaturate, invert and

make use of Noise
and Layer Masks to
transform this urban
summer scene into a
winter wonderland
BY TIM SHELBOURNE
ON THE DISC
Youll find all the files you need to
complete this tutorial (snow_start.
jpg, snow done.tif and snow smaller.
psd) on the cover CD.
OUR EXPERT
Tim Shelbourne
With 20 years experience as an artist and illustrator, Tim

Shelbourne is one of Photoshops leading lights. He believes
that too much instructional material intimidates new users
and is keen to help novices painlessly harness the softwares
true potential. For further details, check out his first book,
the Photoshop Photo Effects Cookbook (Ilex, 17.95, ISBN:
1-904705-61-8) or visit www.timshelbourne.com.
heres virtually no limit to the power

of Photoshop. Using Adobes flagship
application, we can distort reality with
incredible results as this workshop clearly
shows. Here youre going to learn how to
seamlessly change a summer scene into a
winter one and it wont just involve painting
white snow onto the image.
The key is to ensure that the snowy areas follow
the contours of the landscape, and fit in with the
original scene in terms of light and shade. The
solution? To desaturate and invert the image on a
number of separate layers, adjust the Levels on
each, and then combine the result with Layer
Masking to selectively reveal only parts of these
snow layers. Careful use of layer blending
modes ensures that the virtual snow interacts
convincingly with the underlying image layer.
For the falling snow, well use a simple Noise
layer. By manipulating and modifying this layer,
we can clump the noise together to form truly
realistic snowfall. You can then use another
variation of this Noise layer to create convincing
frost and the impression of lighter areas of snow.
If that isnt cold enough for you, well up the
chill factor a touch up by adjusting the overall
colour temperature of the final image.
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Create a snow layer

Open snow_start jpg. For the first areas,
we need an inverted copy of the background
layer. Duplicate this by going to Layer>Duplicate
Layer. On the duplicate layer, go to Image>
Adjustments>Invert. Desaturate this inverted
layer via Image>Adjustments>Desaturate.
Reveal some snow

With the brush set at 100 per cent Opacity,
and White for the foreground colour, paint directly
onto the Layer Mask over the pavement and road
area, revealing the snow from the associated
image layer. To be sure that youre painting onto
the mask and not the image layer itself, check for
a bold outline around the Layer Mask thumbnail
in the Layers palette. Create an uneven line
between the pavement and the building to
suggest that the snow has depth.
Fine detail
Reduce the Opacity of the brush to 40 per
cent and paint a rough line over the top of the car.
Paint a line across the cars bumper and over the
wheel arches to give the impression of settled
snow. You can easily reduce or increase the size
of the brush by using the [ or ] keys.
Adjust highlights
Now to lighten the snow highlights. Go to
Image>Adjustments>Levels. Drag the White
Point slider to the left, setting Input at 180, then
the Gamma (Midpoint) slider to the left to a value
of 1.00. Click OK and set the Layer Blending mode
to Hard Light in the Layers palette.
More snow
Now paint over the rooftops and chimneys
on the main building. Take care to keep to the
outlines of the rooftop areas. If you accidentally
paint over any areas of sky, simply swap your
foreground and background colour (X) and paint
back into the mask with Black. Reveal the snow
only along the top edge of the guttering, so that
the shaded area underneath shows through from
the background layer. By varying the Opacity of
the brush over parts of the rooftops you can easily
reduce/increase the apparent snow cover.
Hide behind the mask

Go to Layer>Layer Mask>Hide All. This
applies a mask filled with Black, which hides the
entire layer. Choose the Brush tool and click in
the Brush Picker. Scroll down the list of brush
thumbnails and select the Spatter 46 pixels brush.
Layer Mask
essentials
Thicker snow cover

Duplicate this layer via Layer>Duplicate
Layer. After making sure that youve clicked on the
Layer Mask thumbnail for this duplicate layer, go
to Edit>Fill, choosing Black for contents to fill the
duplicated mask with Black. Reduce the Opacity
of the brush to 50 per cent. Now, by painting
again into this mask with White, you can increase
the thickness of the snow in certain areas of the
pavement, road and rooftops.
Make some noise

Time to create that frosty effect. Add a new
layer to the image (Cmd/Ctrl+Shift+N) and hit D
to revert to default foreground and background
colours. Fill the Layer with Black via Edit>Fill>
Contents: Black. Now go to Filter>Noise>
Add Noise. Drag the Amount slider to 50,
choose Gaussian for Distribution and check
Monochromatic. Hit OK to apply the Noise.
To ensure that youre

painting on a Layer
Mask and not the
actual image layer,
click directly on the
thumbnail of the
Mask itself in the
Layers palette.
Before painting,
check for a bold
outline around the
thumbnail this
indicates that the
Mask is your target.
And remember that,
in Layer Masking
terms, Black conceals
and White reveals
the associated
image layer.
59
Advanced Photoshop
13/2/06 12:44:57
Step-by-step
Workshop
Blend the frost

Go to Image>Adjustments>Brightness
and Contrast and drag the Contrast slider to +80.
Now change the Blending Mode for this layer to
Linear Dodge in the Layers palette and reduce
Layer Opacity to 90 per cent. Hide this layer with
a mask via Layer>Layer Mask>Hide All.
Blizzard conditions
deciding which areas of snow should be the

thickest. Think where the snow would gather
To suggest that the snow is falling slowly here, weve assigned

small values to the Motion Blur settings on the snow layers (see
step 16). However, creating a blizzard is just as straightforward.
Simply duplicate one of the snow layers again and use a higher
Motion Blur value on each of the falling snow layers. Obviously, in
a blizzard, snow often blows across an image almost horizontally.
Modify the Angle value in the Motion Blur filter to recreate this
effect. It can really add atmosphere to your landscapes.
11
Frosty buildings and windows

Continue to paint with the brush over
parts of the rooftops and the windows to suggest
frost. By painting over parts of the building faces
and over the distant buildings, you can spread this
effect throughout the entire image.
10
Delicate frost effects

Choose the Brush tool again and click
in the Brush Picker. Scroll down the brushes and
choose Chalk 44 Pixels. Reduce the brush Opacity
to 50 per cent. Now, using White for your
foreground colour and ensuring that youre
painting onto the Layer Mask paint over the car
to reveal a little frost. Vary the Opacity of the brush
to simulate different densities.
Take your tablet

Although not essential, a pressure-sensitive graphic tablet and
stylus has huge advantages over a conventional mouse when it
comes to projects like this. Rather than having to constantly
adjust the Opacity of your brush in the Options bar, when youre
using a graphics tablet you can control the Opacity and even the
size of the brush by simply altering the pressure you apply to the
stylus. To activate these brush characteristics, hit F5. This brings
up the Brush Options panel in the Other Dynamic category, set
Opacity Jitter to Pen Pressure.
14
Snow is noisy
Add another new layer (Cmd/
Ctrl+Shift+N) and fill it with Black via
Edit>Fill>Contents: Black. Now go to
Filter>Noise>Add Noise. In the dialog, check
Monochromatic and choose Gaussian for
Distribution. Drag the Amount slider to 75
per cent. Click OK to apply the noise.
12
Using the Channel Mixer

Click on the background layer,
duplicate it (Cmd/Ctrl+J), then drag the duplicate
up to the top of the layer stack. Now go to Image
>Adjustments>Invert. The Channel Mixer will help
us to create snow on this layer. Go to Image>
Adjustments>Channel Mixer and, in the dialog,
check the Monochrome box and adjust the sliders
as follows: Red: +34, Green: +52 and Blue: 108.
Click OK to apply the adjustment.
15
Generating snowfall
Go to Filter>Blur>Gaussian Blur. Use a
Blur Radius of 5 pixels and click OK. Now go to
Image>Adjustments>Levels and drag all three
pointers, so that they sit closely together towards
the right-hand end of the short histogram. Youll
be left with just white clumps on a black
background, which look pretty much like
snowdrifts. To complete the illusion, set the
Blending Mode to Screen.
13
Increase snow density

Reduce the Opacity of this new snow
layer to 88 per cent, but leave the Layer Blending
mode set to Normal. Add a Hide All Layer Mask via
Layer>Layer Mask>Hide All. Now paint over it with
White to reveal some of this snow layer on the
bricks. Use a low Opacity (30-40 per cent) setting
and paint over some areas repeatedly to increase
the snow density. Use your intuition when
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A PRESSURE-SENSITIVE
GRAPHICS TABLET REALLY
WORKS WELL WITH THIS
KIND OF PROJECT. JUST
HIT F5 AND SET OPACITY
JITTER TO PEN PRESSURE
16
Swirling snow
Go to Filter>Blur>Motion Blur and
set the Angle to 23 and Distance to, say, 10-15.
Click OK to apply. To intensify the snow, duplicate
this layer via Layer>Duplicate Layer. Now use
the Eraser tool (with a soft brush) to erase some
areas of this duplicated layer and vary the opacity
of the swirling snowflakes.
slider to 13 per cent and click OK to apply the

Adjustment Layer. See the improvement?
21
Create a backup .psd file

Always save a version of your file with
the layers intact, so that you can make alterations
later simply go to File>Save and choose .psd.
Now you can safely flatten the layers in the image
via Layer>Flatten Image, and, via File>Save, save
the flattened image as a suitable TIFF or JPEG. 5
19
Automatic Layer Mask

The great thing about Adjustment
Layers is that they come complete with a Layer
Mask attached. So now you can paint onto this
mask with black to hide the summery blue
colour that appears in certain buildings.
17
Snow focus
Click on the lower snowflake layer
and duplicate it (Cmd/Ctrl+J). Flip the layer via
Edit>Transform>Flip Horizontal, then drag the
duplicate to the top of the layer stack. Now blur
this layer via Filter>Blur>Gaussian Blur. Use a Blur
Radius of 8 pixels and click OK.
18
Getting colder
To enhance the effect, we now need to
cool the entire image down a little. Photo Filter is
ideal for the job. Go to Layer>New Adjustment
Layer>Photo Filter, click OK, and, in the Filter dropdown, choose Cooling Filter (80). Set the Density
20
Painting fine detail

Finally, return to the Layer Masks on
the lower snow layers and paint onto each with
a small brush to reveal details of snow along
window ledges and on distant chimneys. Here,
weve painted around the edges of the shop signs
with a small brush on the upper snow Layer Mask
to indicate smaller areas of settled snow.
Where next?
Once youve mastered this technique, why not try it on a portrait
to add a little wintry interest? The secret is to use your Photoshop
brushes subtly on the Layer Masks to reveal the snow and frost
at varying intensities over skin and clothes. By increasing the
Density of the final Photo Filter Adjustment Layer, you can give
the finished portrait a strikingly cool blue ambience.
61
Advanced Photoshop
13/2/06 12:45:42
Step-by-step
Workshop
CONCEPT ART
Add a hand-drawn polish to your pre-production artwork with this sci-fi themed
workshop, where youll learn to master the art of light, shadow, colour and tone
BY SAM GILBEY
ON THE DISC
All the files you need to
complete this workshop
(concept_bck.jpg, robot_
sketch and final_artwork.psd)
are provided on the cover CD.
OUR EXPERT
Sam Gilbey
Sam Gilbey is a freelance graphic designer and illustrator

whose client list includes Weetabix, The British Museum
and Motorola. You can find further examples of his work
at www.sam-gilbey.com. He is also a Senior Editor for
popular web portal www.pixelsurgeon.com.
e all know that Photoshop is an

extremely powerful application,
but all too often its considered
just an image-manipulating tool rather than
a potent image-creator in its own right. Its an
unfortunate assumption as in reality many
artists rely on Adobes flagship app as a
primary design tool. The software is an
integral part of pre-production workflow in
both the videogame and film industries, for
instance, as youll know if youve read our
interview with Charles Darby on page 30.
Naturally, having ideas that lend themselves to
visual representation helps, particularly during the
initial drafting stage. But once youve mastered
the techniques outlined here, youll find that such
ideas flow much more freely anyway. The trick is

not to make anything too complex. Youre not
trying to create a realistic textured look for that,
you should use dedicated 3D software.
The best concept art is vibrant and evidently
made by hand. It reaches out and grabs you,
because it evokes a space without literally
demonstrating it. Concept art is about the
mastery of light and shadow, colour and tone. Its
about creating an illusion, and thats why
Photoshop is a natural choice for the job.
Once youve had a go at this workshop, why
not try creating something from your own
imagination? Never stray too far from a
sketchbook and pencil and, where possible, use
a graphics tablet for the most natural results.
62
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First marks
Open the file called robot_sketch.jpg and
create a new layer. Select the Brush tool from the
Tools palette and click on the small arrow next to
the icon on the Options bar showing the brush
diameter. From the default brush set, choose the
Hard Round 19 pixels brush. With the foreground
colour set to Black and Brush Opacity at 100 per
cent, start going over the pencil lines.
Keep it clean (ish)

Try to make each mark as smoothly and
deftly as possible, but remember that you want
the artwork to look hand-drawn; you dont want
the lines to be anywhere near as smooth as a
vector. If youre using a Wacom tablet, you can
control the width of the stroke via the pressure
you apply without having to resize the brush
diameter. Gradually build up the main lines, but
dont replicate any of the cross-hatching.
Extra definition
By and large, all your lines at this stage
will be of a similar thickness. We want to see a
difference between the lines that simply connect
shapes and those that make up the edges of the
character. So increase the brush size to around 25
and go over the edges with it. Make sure you do
the same with the head in front of the neck and
the gun arm in front of the leg.
Light and shadow

Imagining that the light source is on the
right-hand side, begin adding some black
shadows to the left side of the drawing. Use the
shape of the body-parts as your guide. For the
larger plates on the arms and legs, leave a gap
between the edge and the line of shadow. This
starts to give the illusion that theres a shiny
surface. Zoom in so that youre looking at the
image at 100 per cent. Fill in any obvious gaps
in the shadowed areas and use the Eraser to
correct any overlapping lines.
Night in at
the movies
Next time you watch
a movie, particularly
anything in the
sci-fi or fantasy
genre, remember
that everything you
see on screen was
visualised by an
artist long before it
became a 3D CG (or
real) model. Luckily,
thanks to the fact
that its become
the norm to offer
behind-the-scenes
footage on DVD
movie releases,
concept art galleries
are becoming
increasingly
accessible. Its always
interesting to see
why some ideas
never made it to
the final cut
Creating believable
worlds is all about
establishing a
coherent logical
narrative, and the
concept artist needs
to imbue his or her
work with sensible
choices as much as
creative flourishes.
A rough idea
Open the file called concept_bck.jpg.
As you can see, this is in a much rougher state
than the character design sketch. It has a strong,
angular composition, but well need Photoshops
help to turn it into something more tangible, and
with any luck, more impressive.
Keep things in perspective

Create a new layer and use the Marque
tool to draw a rectangle in landscape format, as
shown. The size isnt really important a sixth of
the image width at most is fine. You just need to
fill it in with a mid-grey colour and copy the shape
to your clipboard. Hide this layer and add a new
one. Now go to Filter>Vanishing Point.
Remove the drawing

Once youve replaced all the main defining
lines, its time to get rid of the original drawing.
Create a new layer above the sketch, select the
Paintbucket tool and fill in the whole layer with a
mid-toned petrol blue, as shown.
Two-toned robot
Create a new layer between the
background and the black outlines. After setting
the brush size to around 65, colour the robot in
with two flat tones. Use a light silvery grey for the
head and all the main limb panels, and a darker
grey/blue for the other areas and the gun. If you
havent already, save your file. Now its time to
work on the background.
63
Advanced Photoshop
10/2/06 14:20:46
Step-by-step
Workshop
Create a perspective plane

When the Vanishing Point window opens,
click on the second icon down the left-hand side
(the Create Plane tool). Were now going to base
our perspective on the diagonal panel visible on
the left. Move over to the image and click to add
perspective points at the four corners of the panel.
Now paste the rectangle youve already created
on the scene and simply drag it until it snaps into
the perspective of the grid. Select the fifth icon
down, the Transform tool, and resize the shape to
fit the panel. Click OK to render the results.
Master of
concepts
12
A question of symmetry
The reactor was drawn freehand, but is
meant to be symmetrical. Use the Pen tool to
create a shape that follows the outlines of the lefthand edge. When it comes to the ellipses at the
top, use the Convert Point tool to turn the straight
lines into curves. Adjust the handles of the points
using the Direct Selection tool.
10
Pasting on the ceiling

Reveal the layer with the rectangle and
use the Magic Wand to select it again. Fill it with a
slightly lighter grey, copy it and hide the layer.
Now create a new layer and open the Vanishing
Point filter. Create a new grid, with the vertical
centre-point roughly aligned with the centre of
the reactor object. If the grid is red, its not aligned
with the original perspective, so use the Transform
tool to adjust the corners until it turns blue. Paste
the rectangle in as before and attach it to the
ceiling. Click OK when youre done.
13
You may not have

heard of Feng Zhu,
but youve almost
certainly seen his
work he was a key
artist on Revenge Of
The Sith and his art
direction is hugely
impressive. Hes
also worked with
directors James
Cameron and
Michael Bay, as
well as countless
videogame
companies. If youre
really serious about
emulating the
techniques
established artists
like Feng Zhu use,
check out his
excellent tutorial
DVDs (available from
www.thegnom
onworkshop.com for
$49 each around
28). Its always
inspiring to see a
master in action,
especially with
concept art, where
the mark-making is
an intrinsic part of
the process. For
further examples of
his work, visit www.
fengzhudesign.com.
15
Thicker lines for edges

As with the robot figure earlier, we
want the edges of our subject to be more strongly
defined than the internal lines. Increase the brush
diameter and go over these edges. The drawing
will instantly acquire more depth.
16
Use Paths to
outline the ellipses
We want the ellipses at the top of the object to
have black outlines, too, but it can be difficult to
do this freehand when you cant rotate the canvas.
Starting with the internal ellipse, create a shape
using the Ellipse tool. Go to the Paths palette and
click on the small arrow at the top-right. Select
Make Selection from the options. Keep the
Feather Radius at 0 and make sure that its antialiased. Revisit the layer with the outlines and, via
Edit>Stroke, apply a 5-pixel centred stroke.
Halve the workload

Set the Opacity of the layer down, so
that you see through to the drawing. Duplicate it
and flip it horizontally. Move it so that the righthand side of the object matches. Set the Opacity
of the two layers back to 100 per cent and merge
the top one down. Reduce the Layer Opacity of
the combined layer a little.
17
Perfect all the main outlines

Repeat the previous technique,
creating a vector path and then a selection, to
add a stroke to the outer outline of the circular
section that meets the ceiling. Where the curves
overlap the central column, create a rectangular
marque and delete the contents.
11
When a circle
becomes an ellipse
Now its time to create a circle. Use the Elliptical
Marque tool, but hold down Shift to constrain
the shape. Fill the circle with a light blue. Copy it
to the clipboard and open the Vanishing Point
filter once more. Drag it so that it snaps to the
ceiling grid youve created, then position it over
the ellipse at the top of the reactor. Click OK.
14
Working with straight lines

On paper, drawing straight lines is
more natural at certain angles and you can
easily turn the paper if one is particularly tricky.
Obviously, working in Photoshop requires a
different method. Select the same hard-edged
brush you used for the character, but set its size to
around 50. Click on one of the corners and hold
down Shift. Click again at another point to draw a
straight line between the two points. Keep Shift
held and work around the object.
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18
Markings and indentations

Ever since Star Wars, sci-fi objects
need to consist of multiple, angled panels or they
just dont look right. Using the same technique
outlined in step 14, hold down the Shift key and
add detail to the reactor with the help of straight
lines. Theres not a right or wrong way to do this,
but try to be instinctive. Ideally, you want to lead
the eye around the object.
19
Vary line thickness

to add depth
As you work across the reactor, adding details,
include a variety of line types. As it all starts to
take shape, go over some of the lines to thicken
them up. This is how you decide which lines
represent a protrusion. The reactor soon starts to
acquire a suitably 3D, sci-fi look and its all down
to the varying thicknesses of the lines.
22
Time for a new brush

On a brand new layer between the
background colour and the outlines, its time to add
some texture. Select the Brush tool and click the
small arrow next to the Brush Size indicator. From the
drop-down, click the small arrow to the top-right.
Select the Dry Media Brushes set, scroll to the
bottom and youll find the Pastel Medium Tip.
An excellent
resource
One of the first
places you really
must take a look
at is the easy-toremember www.
conceptart.org.
Be warned, though
theres so much
talent in the field,
visiting the site can
be a little daunting.
Dont be put off,
though. Browse the
forums and, once
youve had a few
attempts at creating
your own pieces,
show them off. A
bit of constructive
criticism can only
improve your game.
25
A soft blue glow

We can now use some of the
indentations weve created to represent a channel
of power flowing through the reactor. On a new
layer, use a hard-edged brush from the default set
to colour in the channels with a flat blue. Go to
Layer>Layer Style and apply an Outer Glow. With
Blend Mode on Screen, set Opacity to 100 per
cent, Spread to 0 per cent and Size to 21 pixels.
26
23
Ramp up the textures

From the Dry Media brushes, select
the Soft Oil Pastel (fourth brush down). Set Size to
around 70 and Opacity to around 30 per cent,
then paint an additional layer of texture over the
reactor, on the layer below the blue glow. Increase
the contrast between light and dark across the
various sides, to give the object a stronger
presence. Also, add some texture to the wall
behind, on a separate (lower) layer.
Adding pastel textures

Using the adjusters on the Options
bar, set the Size of the brush to approximately 80
pixels, Opacity to about 50 per cent and Flow to
around 60 per cent. Start to add marks to the
bottom-left foot of the reactor. Dont worry
about overlap. Use a dark tone for the left-hand
side and a lighter tone for the right.
20
Completing the background

Once youre satisfied with the level
of detail on the reactor segment, use the same
straight-line technique to render the main edges
in the background. Theres no need to work on
any additional panels, because we want the
reactor to be the main focus. Concept art relies as
much on what you leave out as what you put in.
24
Building it up
Reduce the size of the brush slightly
and work over the texture with different tones.
Add depth by darkening the panels at the bottom
and around the edges. Use a clean hard Eraser to
remove brushstrokes that overlap the lines.
21
Time to hide the sketch

Youre now as familiar with the pencil
lines as their digital counterparts, but the best bit
comes when you hide the former for good. Create
a new layer beneath the black outlines layer and
fill it with a mid-toned grey/blue. Remember also
that you want to hide the angled rectangles you
created with the Vanishing Point filter at this stage
so make sure this layer is above them.
A Photoshop
specialist
Many still think
concept art is largely
produced in Painter,
not Photoshop, but
this isnt the case.
Painter certainly has
some interesting,
powerful features,
with its emphasis
on reproducing
natural media, but
Photoshop has its
own strengths, too.
Many artists use
both, of course,
but one artist who
swears by Photoshop
alone is Niklas
Jansson. Check out
his superb work at
www.itchstudios.
com/psg/.
27
Highlights and shadows

This simple trick is a great way to get a
hi-tech look with ease. Go back to a hard-edged
round brush from the default set, and, with Size
at 50 and Opacity at 35 per cent, paint in straightlined highlights and shadows on the appropriate
side of the panels. Go over some of the lines a few
times to increase their strength.
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28
Need more
brushes?
Burning in the shadows

To give the object more solidity, select
the Burn tool. Using a soft-edged round brush
(Size: 120, Range: Midtones, Exposure: 10 per
cent), subtly define the edges of the panels.
29
A new colour balance

The steely blues weve been using up
to now are a little cold. Add a new layer and set the
Blending Mode to Soft Light. Select an earthy
orangey brown tone. Then, with a soft-edged
round brush from the default range, and Opacity
set to 100 per cent, paint a layer of colour over most
of the reactor. Its okay to leave gaps here and there.
32
Intensify the colour

Create a new layer and set Blending
Mode to Color. Select a mustardy orange and a
solid brush, then paint over the lightest panels of
the reactor. On another new layer, above the black
outlines, use a soft-edged brush to paint in some
highlights for the blue energy channels. Apply an
Outer Glow to the Layer to intensify the effect.
30
Additional markings
The panels added earlier have given
the reactor presence, but we can go further. On a
new layer, with a round brush (Size: 9), draw in
straight lines to represent additional markings on
the structure. Dont think too much about where
these should go, but try and complement the
structure youve already established.
33
A blurry background
Create a new layer underneath all
those youve created for the reactor. Using the
brushes youve already used from the Dry Media
selection (but at much larger sizes), build up the
background in terms of tone and texture. Go to
Filter>Box Blur and apply a Blur of 99 pixels, then a
Motion Blur of 350 pixels at an Angle of 0 degrees.
Textures play an
important role in
concept art, even
if they lie hidden
beneath the broader,
obviously handmade strokes. Weve
used some of the
Dry Media brushes
to add detail to our
piece, but you dont
have to stop there.
Creating your own
brushes is easy
and you could even
bring in some
photographic
textures to help.
Essentially, you can
turn any bitmap into
a brush, by clicking
on Create Brush
Preset from the
Edit menu. When
combined with the
powerful brush
dynamics, such as
Scattering, the
possibilities really
are endless.
35
The hand-drawn look

At this point, the room is rendered
quite strongly, but it hasnt really got the fluidity
that a striking piece of concept art needs. Using
a hard-edged round brush, work hand-drawn
marks back into the piece. The trick is to follow
the contours of the objects and the perspective,
leading the eye to the focal points. Keep brush
Size as large as possible and Opacity low. Vary the
colours, so that its not just a two-toned piece. This
all helps the hand-drawn quality to shine through.
36
Something to reflect on
Once youre happy with the results,
its time to add the reflections of the objects in
the floor. Go to File>Save As and save your image
as a JPEG, 100 per cent quality. Open it up and
copy and paste the reactor onto the main canvas.
Flip it vertically, remove anything beyond its outer
edge, set Layer Mode to Lighten and Opacity to
50 per cent. Apply a Gaussian Blur of 2.3 pixels.
Repeat the technique for the rest of the
background, with the floor as the reflection
point. Cut around the reactor shape as well.
34
31
Scattering and radial blurs

On a new layer, choose a 19-pixel hard
round brush, Opacity set at 100 per cent. From the
Brushes tab to the right of the Options bar, turn on
Shape Dynamics and set Size Jitter to 29 per cent
and Minimum Diameter to 15 per cent. From the
Scattering menu, set Scattering to Max. Paint over
the ellipse at the top of the reactor, letting white
particles spill out. Go to Filter>Blur>Radial Blur
and apply a Radial Zoom Blur of 30 pixels, centred
on the middle of the reactor ellipse. Afterwards,
apply a blue Outer Glow Layer Style.
Just enough detail

The background still needs a little more
definition now youve created the main tonal
shape, work some of those Dry Media brush
textures back in. Use the Burn tool to solidify some
of the smaller panels on the door and add in lots of
fine straight lines, similar to the ones you created
on the reactor. Also, add highlights to the wall
behind, which would be cast by the reactor light.
37
A bit of character
Go back to the character design and
group the outline and flat colour layers. Drag the
result to the main canvas and position it
appropriately. Starting with hard-edged brushes
at a low Opacity, build up the surface with streaks
that follow the contours of the body. This should
be beneath the outlines. Apply a Color Overlay
style to the outlines layer, changing the colour
from black to dark grey. On a new layer above, use
a soft-edged brush to add glowing, airbrush-style
highlights. Finally, add a broad blue highlight to
the right-hand side of the character. 5
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Insider
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The beauty of Bridge:

Finding your files
A note
about Sets
Bridges Find command can not only help you to locate files by name,
date and type, but also by keywords and collection. Adobe expert Trevor
Morris explains how to get the most from this advanced functionality
OUR EXPERT
Trevor Morris
Trevor Morris is an official Photoshop beta tester

and amateur digital photographer with more than a
dozen years design experience. He works as a
Senior Graphic Designer for a Canadian web design
company and also maintains the Photoshop-centric
website GFX (http://user.fundy.net/morris/).
elcome to the penultimate part

of our four-part series dedicated
to Adobe Bridge. So far, weve covered
the interface, including its various panels,
View modes and the Toolbar, and
explained how to select, rank, label and
organise your media using a rack of
specialist tools. This issue, were exploring
Bridges keywords, the Find command,
Collections and Adobe Stock Photos.
Keywords
Quite simply, keywords are typically
nouns people, places or things that
you associate with your files to categorise
KEYWORDS PANEL: By default, the

Keywords panel contains only three sets
(plus Other Keywords). However,
youre free to add, edit or entries and
start from scratch.
them and/or distinguish them from other

files. For example, if you own a digital
camera, you might take several dozen
(maybe even hundreds of) photos on a
particular day, but not necessarily all of
the same subject matter. Assigning
keywords to each photo makes it easier
to find in the future.
In Bridge, keywords are organised into
sets (eg, Event, People and Place, by
default). New keywords and sets are
created via the icons at the bottom of the
Keywords panel, the panel flyout menu
or the panel context menu. Assigning
keywords is easy: simply select one or
more files and click the empty square to
the left of the desired keyword. You can
assign any number of keywords, even
entire sets, to the selected file(s).
Assigned keywords appear with a
checkmark and are also listed across the
top of the Keywords panel. A dash next to
a set name indicates that one or more
but not all of its keywords have been
assigned to the selected file(s). A dash
next to a keyword shows the keyword is
applied to only some of the selected files.
When Bridge finds an undefined
keyword (ie, an assigned keyword that
isnt in the Keywords panel), its displayed
in italics within the Other Keywords set.
These temporary keywords arent saved
as part of Bridges Preferences. But you
can add them by selecting Make
Persistent from the Keywords Context
menu. Or you can drag them from the
Other Keywords set and into any other
set, to make them persistent.
To delete a keyword or set, select it,
then press Delete or the Delete Keyword
button (at the bottom of the Keywords
panel). Alternatively, choose Delete from
the panel menu or context menu. Note,
however, that deleting a keyword from
It is worth remembering that Sets

are only an interface convenience
and therefore they are not stored
with files. For example, something
like Event>Wedding would only
store Wedding for the selected files.
Keywords saved
As of version 1.0.2, Bridge saves your keywords as an XML-based Preference file,
which makes them easy to back up, share and even edit with a simple text
editor. Keywords are saved on exit to a file named Adobe Bridge Keywords.xml,
located in the following folder:
Mac: <hard drive>/Users/<user name>/Library/Application Support/
Adobe/Bridge/
PC: C:\Documents and Settings\<user name>\Application Data\Adobe\Bridge\
Note: Bridge 1.0.2 is an essential update, with improved overall stability and
performance, and is highly recommended for all Bridge users.
FIND DIALOG: Bridges powerful Find dialog enables you to add up to 13 unique
criteria for finding exactly the files youre looking for. For example, this is what
the Find dialog might look like if you were trying to find all Raw photos that
contained the keywords sunset and Fredericton, shot this year, with a rating of
three stars or more.
the interface doesnt remove it from any

files to which it was assigned. In order to
remove keywords from files, uncheck
them in the Keywords panel or delete
them from the Keywords field in the File
Info dialog.
Search and Find

The Find command (located in the Edit
menu) uses the standard keyboard
shortcut Cmd/Ctrl+F. You can use it to
locate files anywhere on your local hard
drive, removable media, network or even
KEYWORDS ARE TYPICALLY NOUNS

PEOPLE, PLACES OR THINGS THAT
YOU ASSOCIATE WITH YOUR FILES
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Six top tips
1
2
3
4
5
6
Double-click on a keyword set

to expand/collapse it.
Click on (checkmark) a set to

apply all keywords within the
set to the selected files.
Not all files can be assigned
keywords (eg, Microsoft Word
and Macromedia Flash files).
To find the location of a file in a
collection, select it and choose
File>Reveal In Bridge.
Copy and paste a collection to
create/edit a new collection
based on an existing one.
Enable the Include All
Subfolders and Find All Files
options in the Find dialog, and then
save the search as a collection for
creating a flat view of any folder.
ADOBE STOCK PHOTOS: Available via the Favorites panel, this is an online library of royalty-free images. There are
thousands to choose from and you have the option to download free, low-resolution comps until you decide to buy the highresolution print versions.
your downloaded stock photos (if you

use the Adobe Stock more on this later).
While the majority of options in the Find
dialog are self-explanatory, there are a
couple that warrant further explanation.
For instance, Find All Files does exactly
what the name implies (and hence
disables the Criteria section below it), but
if you combine it with the Include All
Subfolders option you can create a flat
view of the specified folder.
The Criteria section of the Find dialog
enables you to refine your searches by
specifying up to 13 different criteria. Use
the adjacent + and buttons to add or
subtract a criterion, respectively. This
enables you to refine your search to an
astonishing degree. If I wanted to pull out
all the Raw files I have of sunsets taken in
my hometown, in a certain year, with a
rating of three stars or more, its just a
SAVE COLLECTION: A convenient way

to save search criteria so that the same
search can be quickly conducted again
at any time in the future. To access your
collections, click on the Collections icon
in the Favorites panel.
case of selecting the appropriate criteria

and letting Bridge do the hard work.
Another way to quickly search for files
with specific keywords is to Ctrl/rightclick on a keyword in the Keywords panel
and choose Find. This will open the Find
dialog with the selected keyword already
defined as part of the search criteria.
To access your saved collections,

choose Collections from the Favorites
panel. Double-click on a saved collection
to perform the search again. Use the Edit
Collection button (top-right of the
Content area) to edit the options and
criteria for the current collection.
Collections
The Favorites pane also provides quick

access to Adobe Stock Photos, a library of
online royalty-free images from leading
stock libraries. To find specific images,
enter the desired keywords. All searches
are saved for offline viewing and
searching, and may be accessed by
clicking on Previous Searches in the
Favorites panel.
Adobe Stock Photos gives you the
option to download non-watermarked,
low-resolution, complementary (comp)
versions of images for your mock-ups.
Once you make a final decision, you can
buy and download a high-res version. To
view your downloaded comps, click
Downloaded Comps in the Favorites
pane. Comps may be resized with the
thumbnail slider, or moved, copied,
renamed, deleted, etc. Theyll even show
up in your search results if their metadata
matches the search criteria used. A
Collections are nothing more than saved

search criteria (typically less than 1KB in
size). They enable you to repeat the same
search again at any time, on any folder.
Collections are also dynamically
generated, based on the saved search
criteria so if matching files are added or
removed, the results are reflected
whenever the collection is displayed.
To save a collection, use the Save As
Collection button that appears above the
search results (to the right of the Find
Criteria) after performing a Find. Enter a
name for the collection and enable Start
Search From Current Folder to perform
relative searches (based on the folder
specified by the Look In drop-down
menu). Alternatively, leave the option
unchecked to perform absolute searches
(based on the same path used for the
current search).
Adobe Stock Photos
Where are
comps stored?
To view and manage your offline
comps, first click on Adobe Stock
Photos in the Favorites panel, then
click on Downloaded Comps.
Alternatively, navigate to the
default folder where comps are
saved, as follows:
Mac: My Documents\
AdobeStockPhotos\
PC: Documents/AdobeStockPhotos/
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Bridge: Slideshow and customisation

W
elcome to the last chapter in our four-part Adobe Bridge series. Over the past
three chapters weve discussed: the interface; selecting, ranking and labelling;
managing and locating your media files; keywords, collections and Adobe Stock
Photos. In this final part well explore Bridges Slideshow as well as some ways
you can customise the Bridge interface and functionality to optimise your workflow.
Auto-launch
Theres a further Bridge setting that
might be of interest, but it actually
appears inside the Photoshop
Preferences dialog. Launch
Photoshop and choose Edit>
Preferences>General, then select
Automatically Launch Bridge to
have Bridge launch whenever
Photoshop does.
Locked files?
When a file is already opened in
another application (Photoshop, for
example), a document/paper icon
appears near the bottom-right of its
thumbnail (in the content area).
Until the file is closed (and the icon
disappears), you cannot rename or
delete the file, nor can you assign a
rating or label.
Slideshow
On the surface, Bridges Slideshow looks
and feels much like any other slideshow,
but its actually a surprisingly powerful
view mode. To launch Slideshow, press
Cmd/Ctrl+L, or choose View>Slide Show.
The first time you launch Slideshow, a
help overlay appears with a summary of
the available keyboard shortcuts: this
summary may be accessed again at any
time by pressing the H or ~ (tilde) key.
By default, Slideshow displays the
selected files in Fullscreen mode press
W to toggle Window mode on and off.
Press the spacebar to begin/pause
automatic playback, or use the left/right
arrow keys (or Page Up/Page Down) to
move to the previous or next file.
In addition to simply viewing your
media files, you can also perform the
following operations while youre in
Slideshow mode:
assign a rating of one to five stars (15)
increase/decrease ratings by one star
(period/comma)
clear ratings (zero)
apply a label (69)
rotate left/right ( [ / ] )
Slideshow is perfect for rating your
digital photographs, reviewing and
labelling comps with a client, or for
simply seeing your images fullscreen.
You can even view and navigate the
pages of an Acrobat document (PDF) in
Slideshow mode.
Workspaces
One of the things that makes Bridge such
a versatile application is its flexible user
interface: panels may be resized,
reorganised or hidden; there are four
different view modes; thumbnails can be
almost any size, and so on. Thankfully,
Two views
To compare two images
side by side in Windows, try
the following:
1. Launch Bridge and
choose File>New Window
(Ctrl+N).
2. In the Windows Taskbar,
Ctrl-click on the first
Bridge, so that both
application footprints
are selected.
3. Right-click on either of
the application footprints and choose Tile Vertically.
Voila! Now you can compare and rate your images without having to
remember your previous pics.
Note that while you cant save multiple Bridge windows as a single
workspace, you can save each one independently (ie, 2-Up View, Left and 2-Up
View, Right).
you can save these layouts as
Filmstrip Focus (Cmd/Ctrl+F5)
workspaces by choosing
horizontal Filmstrip view with large
Window>Workspace>Save Workspace.
thumbnails and all panels hidden
The Save Workspace dialog also enables
To delete a custom workspace, simply
you to save the window size and position choose Window>Workspace>Delete
as well as assign a keyboard shortcut
Workspace and select the workspace to
something we highly recommend if you
be deleted. Note that you cannot delete
plan to switch between workspaces on a
any of the five preconfigured workspaces
regular basis. Saved workspaces are
mentioned above.
appended to the bottom of the
Window>Workspace submenu.
Preferences
Bridge has five preconfigured
Like the rest of its CS2 siblings, Bridges
workspaces:
interface and behaviour can be further
Default (Cmd/Ctrl+F1) tiny
customised via the Preferences dialog:
Thumbnails view with three sets of
Bridge>Preferences (Cmd+K) on the Mac,
panels (Favorites/Folders, Preview and
or Edit>Preferences (Ctrl+K) on the PC.
Metadata/Keywords). This is the initial
The Preferences dialog is divided into
FIND DIALOG: Bridges powerful Find dialog enables you to add up to 13 unique
out
of
the
box
layout.
six
pages.
page
criteria for finding exactly the files youre looking
for.The
For General
example,
thisenables
is what you
the
Lightbox
to:tochange
background
ofcontained
the
Find
dialog(Cmd/Ctrl+F2)
might look like ifsmall
you were trying
find allthe
Raw
photos that
theThumbnails
keywords sunset
Fredericton,
shot
this year,
with
ratingof
ofgrey;
threetoggle
stars
view withand
all of
the
content
area to
anya shade
or panels
more. hidden
tooltips on/off; customise up to three
File Navigator (Cmd/Ctrl+F3) medium lines of thumbnail metadata; choose
Thumbnails view with the Favorites
which of the default icons appear in the
and Folder panel
Favorites panel. There are also two
Metadata Focus (Cmd/Ctrl+F4)
controls/buttons one to reveal the
medium Thumbnails view with the
scripts in Finder/Explorer, and the other
large Metadata panel, as well as the
for resetting all warning (ie, turn them
Favorites and Keywords panels
all back on).
The Metadata page allows you to
choose which metadata fields or groups
of fields appear in the Metadata panel.
Theres also an option at the bottom of
the page to hide empty fields.
The options on the Labels page enable
you to customise your labels just the
names, not the colours and designate
BRIDGES SLIDESHOW LOOKS AND

FEELS LIKE ANY OTHER SLIDESHOW,
BUT ITS A POWERFUL VIEW MODE
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Colour settings
If you own the entire Creative Suite
2, you can even synchronise your
colour settings by choosing Edit>
Creative Suite Color Settings. This
single set of preferences controls
the colour settings for Photoshop
CS2, Illustrator CS2 and InDesign
CS2, helping to ensure colour
fidelity as you move from screen to
print, and file to file.
SLIDESHOW HELP: Press the H or ~ (tilde) key while in Slideshow to display a summary of keyboard shortcuts.
whether or not the Cmd/Ctrl key is
required when applying labels and
also ratings.
The File Type Associations page is
used to specify which applications open
which types of files when double-clicked
or opened via File>Open (Cmd/Ctrl+O)
from within Bridge. Note that any
changes made on this page affect only
Bridge, not the operating system or any
other application.
The Advanced page is broken into two
main categories: Miscellaneous and
Cache. The first option under
Miscellaneous allows you to specify the
maximum file size (in Megabytes) for
which Bridge will create a thumbnail and
image preview. Immediately below that
you can indicate the number of folders
(between 0 and 30) to be displayed in the
Look In drop-down located on the main
application toolbar.
Next, you can designate which
application Bridge (checked) or
Photoshop (unchecked) will host the
Camera Raw plug-in when doubleclicking on camera raw files. Note that
regardless of which you choose, File>
Open in Camera Raw (Cmd/Ctrl+R) will
always open camera raw files in Bridge.
Finally, the Language drop-down allows
you to select your preferred language.

However, Bridge must be restarted for
the change to take effect.
The Cache section of the Advanced
page allows you to specify how and
where cache files are created. Centralized
implies that all cache files are stored in a
single location (specified via the Choose
button), while Distributed means that
the cache files are stored within each and
every folder you visit with Bridge (except
in the case of read-only devices, for which
cache files are written to the central
cache). So, while a centralised cache is
tidier, there are a few disadvantages.
First, if you move or rename a folder
outside of Bridge, its association to the
central cache is broken and the folder will
need to be re-cached. Second, when you
back up your files to an external/
removable device, you must first export
the cache using the Tools>Cache>Export
Cache command, otherwise the cache for
the backup will be recreated the next
time its read by Bridge.
The final page in the Preferences
dialog pertains to Adobe Stock Photos
(accessible via the Favorites panel or
Edit>Search Adobe Stock Photos). Here
you are able to configure such things as
search options, where to save
downloaded stock photos, billing

currency and download options.
Conclusion
That concludes our coverage of Adobe
Bridge, but weve only touched the tip of
the iceberg, so youre encouraged to
continue exploring its potential. Dont let
the simple interface fool you: Bridge is a
deceptively powerful application
especially for an initial release.A
Bridge & Camera Raw shortcuts

A complete list of Adobe Bridge and Camera Raw keyboard shortcuts is
available from Ian Lyons site, Computer-Darkroom (computer-darkroom.com):
Mac: www.btinternet.com/~ian.lyons/mac_kb.pdf
PC: www.btinternet.com/~ian.lyons/win_kb.pdf
Bridge updates
Make sure you get the Bridge 1.0.3 update from Adobes website:
PC: www.adobe.com/support/downloads/product.jsp?product=108&platf
orm=Windows
Mac: www.adobe.com/support/downloads/product.jsp?product=108&plat
form=Macintosh
This patch greatly improves the stability and speed of Adobe Bridge, and it
also adds a few enhancements. Note that 1.0.3 is a cumulative update, so you
need not download 1.0.1 or 1.0.2 before installing 1.0.3.
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Step-by-step
Workshop
LOSING FOCUS
Attempting to create the effect of narrow depth of field was a difficult task until
Adobe introduced its new Lens Blur filter into Photoshops arsenal of effects
BY JASON ARBER
ON THE DISC
Youll find lots of stock photos on
the disc to practise your depth of
field technique on, including
truskawki.tif.
OUR EXPERT
Jason Arber
Jason is the co-founder and Editor-in-Chief of online art and

culture magazine Pixelsurgeon (www.pixelsurgeon.com).
Hes also an Art Director at Start Creative in London.
f youve ever tried to create the illusion of

narrow depth of field in a photograph
that was uniformly sharp, youll know its
not as easy as it sounds. Creating a graduated
blur that gradually moved from sharp to out
of focus typically used to involve complex
layers and masks, and the results were
variable at best.
The problem was that the best blurring option
Photoshop used to offer was Gaussian but this
doesnt work as a cameras lens and optics, which
blur out-of-focus elements in a certain way. (See
Lens Blur vs Gaussian Blur boxout.)
With the introduction of Photoshop CS, Adobe

included a tool which is a photographer and
digital artists dream: the Lens Filter. But packing
this filter with a mind-boggling array of options
can make it seem a bit overwhelming. It works
best when you create a mask for the image
detailing the areas youd like to keep in focus and
those youd like to blur.
Initially you dont need to worry about the
professional features such as Iris Shape or Blade
Curvature, although they are fun to play with.
Simply create a mask, set the Blur Focal Distance
and the amount of blur, and away you go.
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Lens vs Gaussian Blur
See sharp
Open up the image truskawki.tif in
Photoshop CS2. Aside from a small amount of
blurring in the top and bottom left, most of the
strawberries are still quite sharp. The plan is to
create a plane of focus that concentrates on the
central strawberry.
Gaussian Blur is fine for most kinds of blurring, but its smooth
blur distribution doesnt reflect how the world is seen through a
camera lens. The new Lens Blur filter, on the other hand, has
been built from the ground up to emulate camera optics,
including specular highlights and a more natural looking kind of
focus bloom that increases as objects become more blurred.
Because its aimed at pro photographers and retouchers, the
Lens Blur filter includes useful features such as Noise
replacement for out-of-focus areas that emulates film grain or
digital camera noise still existing in the sharp areas of the image.
Its all a blur

With the Depth Mask channel deselected,
open up the Lens Blur filter (Filter>Blur>Lens
Blur). The large, friendly interface has a number
of options, including a generous preview area
which may have applied a default blur to the
image already.
New channel
Create a new channel in the Channels
palette by clicking the Create New Channel
button at the bottom of the palette. Double-click
on the new channel, rename the channel Depth
Mask and change the default colour to something
other than red.
Soften the focus

Fine-tune the results by increasing the
Radius to 50 in the Iris section. This increases the
amount of blur in the out-of-focus areas. In the
Specular Highlights section change the Brightness
to 2, which subtly blows out the highlights in the
blurred areas. Finally, click OK.
Sink to new depths

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

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

FILTER HAS BEEN BUILT
FROM THE GROUND UP TO
EMULATE CAMERA OPTICS
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Step-by-step
Workshop
CASTING SHADOWS
Discover how the characteristics of a light source and the contours and texture of
an objects surface impact on the casting of virtual shadows
ood shadows can bring a complex

composition to life, but making
them look realistic is tricky if your
project features lots of objects or layers. So
many amateur composites fail because the
creator lacks the experience to create
shadows suitable for the scene in hand.
Shadows generated by single, harsh lights are
strong and sharp, for example, while those
created by more uniform lighting are softer and
more diffuse. For external scenes, consider the
time of day shadows are shorter at dawn/dusk
than at midday. Then theres the nature of the
surfaces on which the shadows fall. Here, well
use techniques to produce realistic-looking
shadows for different lighting conditions.
ON THE DISC
Youll find all three .psd files to
accompany this tutorial
(cartoon001, cartoon002 and
cartoon003) on Disc A.
OUR EXPERT
Christian Darkin
Christian is a freelance illustrator and journalist who has

produced images for a range of high-profile newspapers and
magazines, including The Sun, the Financial Times, Now and
scientific journal Nature, as well as a mix of advertising
agencies, websites and museums. Hes also the man behind
the Darwin plug-in for 3ds max. For further examples of his
work, visit www.darkin.demon.co.uk.
ME AND MY SHADOW
Shadows generated by single, harsh lights

are strong and sharp, while those from more
uniform lighting are softer and more diffuse
Basic shading
Create a new layer

This shadow is going to be soft and
formless more a sketched shading than
anything else. Its the kind of shadow youd find on
a dull day and is simply there to relate the object
to its surroundings. Right now, for instance, the
sphere could be touching the ground or floating
above it. Theres no way of telling. Create a new
layer between the ground and the sphere layers
Set up the brush

Select a large, soft brush and set its Opacity
to about 40 per cent. Set Mode to Darken to
ensure it shades in (but doesnt entirely obliterate)
the colour beneath. Begin painting in black using
simple strokes, following the profile of the
underside of the sphere.
Paint in the shadow

Extend the shadow slowly outwards with
successive clicks of the mouse. Photoshop
interprets each click as a new paint stroke, which
adds to the Opacity of the shadow. This is why its
important to paint the first strokes closest to the
object, as subsequent strokes will darken the first.
Tidy up the shadow with a soft Eraser and then
fine-tune Opacity with the Layer Opacity control.
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Hard shadows
Copy your layer

Here, we want to produce the effect of a
strong single light, like bright sunshine. The shadow
will be sharp and a similar shape to the object
casting the shadow. Copy the objects layer and
place it between the object and its background
Darken the object

Reduce the Brightness/Contrast of the
shadow to zero to create this hard, black shape.
Feel free to use the Eraser tool or a brush to refine
the shape a little more naturally.
4
2
Distort the layer

Distort the layer using the Free Transform tool
(Edit>Transform). This isnt a perfect solution,
because, in reality, depending on the direction of the
light, the shadow can have an entirely different
profile to that of the object, but without a 3D model
this is as close as we can get.
DARK-LsoEftK
Exterminate give your

shadows and ng, hard
Dalek the stromands
shadow it de
Place it
You can now place the shadow and, if
necessary, distort it a little further to fit perfectly
with the object thats casting it. Reducing the
Opacity a little will allow for the effects of
bounced and filler lights in your scene.
Shadow
shapes
Using a duplicated
layer as a shadow
doesnt work all the
time. Beyond a
certain point (if the
shadow is cast at an
extreme angle, for
instance), youll
have to draw or edit
the outline by hand
or the result will
look unnatural. As
always, trust your
artistic instincts. If it
doesnt look right,
its time to get your
hands dirty.
Soft shadows
Create a shadow
Even on the brightest day, shadows are
rarely solid blocks of colour, and they blur and
fade with distance. To recreate this effect, start off
with a sharp shadow (as created on the left).
Add a blur
Now add a Gaussian Blur to diffuse the
shadow at its edges. Doing this often creates an
unwanted shadow around the bottom of the
object on its lit side, because the Blur tends to
spread the shadow out. Youll need to tidy this up
with an Eraser.
Fade the edges

Dab a much larger and very soft Eraser
around the furthest points of the shadow to
suggest that the shadow is dissipating with
distance. The degree of fading will depend on the
strength of the light in your scene
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Step-by-step
Workshop
Distorted
shadows
Create a sharp shadow

Here, our shadow is cast on an uneven
surface. The steps will break the shadow up suddenly,
while the undulating ground beneath will simply
distort it. Begin, as always, with a sharp shadow.
Adjust the Opacity

Each shadow section is now on a separate
layer, so you can easily adjust the Opacity settings
to make the shadow strongest where its closest
to the light source (and, of course, progressively
weaker the further away from the light you go).
wider at the furthest distance from the subject.

Such distortion can become quite pronounced in
long shadows.
3
2
Cut and Paste

Using the Polygonal Lasso, slice the shadow
along the edges of the steps, cutting and pasting,
as shown simply drag each section downwards
vertically until it meets the next step. With a
different configuration of steps, wed have had to
fill in the shadow on the upright sections as well.
Late and early

shadows
Shorten the shadow

For a midday shadow, distortion is minimal.
The sun overhead casts its shade straight down
and reduces the shadow to a blob around the
feet. For relatively short shadows, simply compress
the image vertically. Its best to do this distortion
before you rotate and place the shadow in its
proper place, though. In this way, you can judge
the length against the height of the object casting
the shadow.
Create a shadow
To produce a more sophisticated shadow,
and adjust it for different times of day, again, start
by copying the layer and eliminating Brightness
and Contrast. This time, well use a different kind of
Blur to produce a more realistic dissipating shadow.
4
3
Use Liquify on curved surfaces

Distorting the shadow on the bumpy ground
requires a different technique enter, stage right, the
Liquify tool. Follow the contours of the ground, but
dont worry too much about being exact. If the
correct distortion isnt obvious to you, then the
casual viewer is unlikely to notice any errors.
Create a gradient
Create a new layer and use the Gradient
tool to produce a gradient from black to white
over the length of the shadow. Select and cut the
gradient out, then, switching to the Channels
palette for the shadow layer, produce a new
channel and paste the gradient into it. Meanwhile,
fill in the background of the shadow layer with
white and set it to Darken mode..
Stretch and squeeze

To produce a dawn or evening shadow, use
Free Transform to pull it out to an appropriate
length. This will depend on how low the sun is in
the sky. Now apply a Distort to make the shadow
Subtlety
Most shadows in the real world are quite subtle. In most lighting
conditions, theres so much light bouncing around, that perfectly
sharp, solid areas of shadow are rare. The shadows were creating
are mainly there to convince viewers that the objects inserted
are part of the original shot, or at least to give them a solid
place within the shot. Theres really no need to make them
too powerful.
Add Camera Blur

Now to add a Camera Blur filter. Camera
Blurs are designed to create an accurate depth-of-
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field effect using a matte to define the depth of
objects in a shot. The upshot is that by producing
a simple gradient, and switching the Camera Blur
to use that alpha channel as its source, we can
produce a blur that grows uniformly stronger over
the length of the shadow.
Multiple shadows
With multiple light sources, youll need to generate more than
one shadow, of course, but bear in mind that each one will need
to be a different shape and Opacity settings will be affected by
neighbouring light sources. This kind of shading is most often
used when representing an object under artificial lights, such as
stage spotlights or stadium floodlights.
USE THE
LEVELS
FILTER TO
MAKE
SHADOWS
SHARPER OR
SOFTER
STEP-BY-STEP
Different surfaces have a range

of effects on shadows. Here,
the steps break up the shadow
Fade along the gradient

Using a large Eraser as before, you can fade
the shadow slowly over its length to produce a
very lifelike effect. Its possible to use the same
gradient that we used in step 5 to produce the
fade, but the results arent generally as good as
with an Eraser. Since smaller objects (such as the
figures hand) will become fainter more quickly,
a freehand approach provides a more
controllable look
Add a highlight
Depending on the time of day and strength
of the light, the shading of the object itself will
change. Of course, you cant switch the shadow
from one side of a face to the other very easily, but
you can use tools like the Levels filter to make
shadows sharper or softer, depending on the mood
of your image. Occasionally, painting in artificial
highlights can work, but if youre not careful, the
result can look unrealistic.
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Youll stand a better chance of seeing your work in print if you adhere to the
following criteria: make sure that your images are high-quality TIFFs or JPEGs (RGB
or CMYK), 300dpi minimum, and can be printed at 15cm x 15cm minimum. Dont
forget to include a small text file detailing how you created your work, too.
Eye-catching imagery that

both inspires and challenges
ictures may tell a thousand words, but sometimes you need a

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

blend the edges of the smoke. I used
the same technique with the fire.
And the collapsing signs? A simple
cut-and-paste job, says Meowza. I
added Motion Blur to some of the
debris to suggest movement and
violent force. He also used images
of damaged buildings and rubble
to replace those in the background,
adding a slight hint of scalding with
the help of the Burn tool.
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Security Beetle
ARTIST: Brant Vondruska
EMAIL: bvondruska@charter.net
XBot and
NGCBot
NAME: Wai Mann
CONTACT: wman@fullcontrast.com
These two mecha designs, created
entirely in Photoshop (bar the right
hand of the NGCBot, below-right,
created using 3ds max), prove just how
adept Adobes 2D app is at generating
3D effects. Each bot was assembled
from a basic image of its respective
console (NGC GameCube and Xbox),
before being edited into shape.
With the NGCBot, the flame effects
proved particularly troublesome. I
spent a long time manipulating them,
and they still didnt look like they
emanated from the robot in the correct
way, he says. But after some proper
research, I found a few images that
worked really well.
It was all a matter of resizing and
carefully masking out the areas that
werent required; the dark backdrop
helped immensely. Using the Screen
filter enabled me to place the flames
in the correct parts without having to
mask unwanted black areas, he says.
The electricity was added as a final
flourish and to fill out the left arm a
little. I lifted this from another piece of
my work. I altered the colours and
screen-filtered the background out.
Attaching real human fists helped the
Xbot (above) look more realistic,
reckons Wai: It makes it feel slightly
more organic. He created the head
entirely from shapes cut out using the
Pen tool, and used real shots of fire for

the foreground flames. But integrating
the bots hands with the Windows
Media Player skins on the figures
armature proved difficult: I had to
manipulate several skins to get the
angle of the arm, he says. I spent ages
trying to create a smoke/fire effect on
the samurai sword, too. Using the same
flame images for most part of the
sword, I had to Blur and Smudge green
flames to get the effect I wanted. A red
layer helps to suggest that the blade is
smouldering For the background, Wai
used simple green light layers, Blurred
and Motion Blurred several times. I
manually added the highlights under
the bots legs using a green highlight
layer, masked to blend with the bot.
After collating his source imagery a beetle, a key, a rusty

metal plate and a chain and lock Brant set about isolating
each item from its background, using the Pen tool for extra
precision. Its a time-consuming process, he admits, but
you cant beat the results and here it helped me to achieve
the rusty look I was aiming for.
For each layer (lock and chain, main beetle body and
hindquarters), Brant created a mask, then blended the
pieces together using a 200-pixel feathered brush. I used
Levels to bring down the contrast of all three elements by
30 per cent, he adds. This helped to retain detail, yet
introduce the rusty look I wanted.
And the rusty look itself? Turns out he used the same
process for all the elements in the composition, from the
beetles body right down to the lock and key. I created a
new layer underneath the subject, into which I placed the
rusty metal plate. Afterwards, I created a selection Altclicking the Edit icon on the Layers menu of the main
subject. Then it was a case of selecting the metal plate layer,
inverting it and hitting Delete. This erases all of the metal
plate except the selection in question, he explains. Now,
underneath, I have the exact shape of the insect/lock and
key in the form of the rusty metal plate. Back on the subject
layer, Brant selects Blending Mode>Luminosity and reduces
Opacity to 15 per cent. This brings the rust effect to the fore
without sacrificing any detail in the newly formed creature.
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Discover the thinking behind the art
Gargoyle
ARTIST: Den Cops
EMAIL: den@kyzer.co.uk, www.kyzer.co.uk
The idea here was to create a living gargoyle; the source
image simply showed a face with a cracking mud mask. Bits
of skin were still visible the area around the eyes, the lips
and ears which I had to cover, using mostly the Clone Stamp
and Patch tools. Den then placed a Hue/Saturation layer mask
over the top to homogenise the colour scheme. Out of this
Hue/Saturation layer, I masked the mouth and the eyes to retain
original flesh tones, and brightened the eyes a little. The
Liquify>Forward Warp tool helped with the fangs, but he had to
be careful. First, I had to copy-merge the mouth on a different
layer, mainly because, when using Forward Warp on the teeth,
the surrounding area the other teeth and the back of the
mouth were dragged along with it and unpleasant banding
appeared. After applying the filter, Den could more easily
mask out the unwanted liquified areas.
Blue Car
ARTIST: Den Cops
EMAIL: den@kyzer.co.uk, www.kyzer.co.uk
You dont need a multitude of layers and effects to create a
good image, argues Den. All I did here was cut out the car
and boost colour by increasing contrast and colour saturation.
The background is a photo of the sunrise taken from the window
of an airplane. Den altered the colours via a Hue/Saturation layer
so it would better match the tones of the car. The two images
had different levels of noise, too, so I had to blur the background
slightly and then add noise, so that the transition between car
and sky appeared seamless.
Downunder
ARTIST: Den Cops
Email: den@kyzer.co.uk, www.kyzer.co.uk
Here, I had to deal with the areas around the eyes and
anywhere not covered in black makeup, explains Den. In Hue/
Saturation, he desaturated the flesh tones and then retouched
the face with a little airbrushing to matte the skin. The filaments
effect is a photograph of ink drops in water, he adds. Once
placed, the two elements had to be colour-adjusted to blend in
with each other. I painted the tear on afterwards.
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Egg Boat and
Elastic iMac
ARTIST: Marcel Wiegers (Fris Design)
EMAIL: mrzl74@gmail.com, www.fris-design.nl
For artist Marcel, simply compositing broken

egg-shells into this water scene wouldve failed
to evoke the right impression. I had to bring
several broken shells together to get the right
shape, he explains, using the Blur tool to make
the inside of the shell look slightly out of focus,
and airbrushing the front of the egg back
together again from the broken original.
Shadows deftly applied to the egg-boats
underside add to the illusion. I did some colour
correction, adding shadows with the airbrush
and Burn tool. I also duplicated the egg layer,
darkened it with Levels, then masked it with
the airbrush to provide deeper areas of shade
( A - C ). Once hed located a suitable pilot (a
work colleague), he slipped him in, tweaking
colours and adding shadows en route.
Advanced Photoshop came to his aid with the
reflections: I used the techniques printed in
issue two, says Marcel. They worked a treat.
I made sure the two pictures were shot
under the same conditions, says the
Amsterdam-based designer, referring to the two
elements in his other startling montage: Elastic
iMac. I crudely masked out my arm ( D ), then
copied the screen to a separate layer and used
the Liquify and Smudge tools to flex the
display, as if my fist was going through it. I
darkened parts of it much as I did with the Egg
Boat ( E and F ). Creating the effect at the rear
of the display was quite challenging, he says. I
took the fist onto a separate layer, and, with a
little colour correction, turned it white. For the
screen, I created a shape using the Pen tool,
which I then airbrushed in ( G ). To finish off the
effect, Marcel duplicated the arm/fist and used
Filter>Artistic>Plastic Wrap. He then set the Layer
Blending mode to Multiply, reduced Opacity
and implemented a few colour corrections.
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Helpdesk
Our resident imaging uncle deals with a host of Photoshop dilemmas, from
cropping conundrums, through to handy key commands and Easter eggs
BY KARL FOSTER
CROPPING CAPER
I take a few digital photos and enhance them
in Photoshop. What puzzles me is cropping
them correctly for print. I have a couple of
photo printers, one for 6x4s and one that
prints at A4, but I find it a hassle getting
cropped images to match the aspect ratio of
the stock. Its usually a case of making my
best guess, then trimming the image to size
using the Canvas Size dialog, which is timeconsuming. Have you any advice on making
accurate crops more efficiently?
James Hanson, Macclesfield
There is a quick and easy means of forcing the Crop tool to
maintain a fixed aspect ratio as you drag it across an image,
and its also possible to set the print resolution as you go
typically to a value of 300dpi. Open the image you wish to
print at, say, 6x4, access the Crop tool and click on the icon
that appears at the top left of Photoshops interface. Youll find
a drop-down list of cropping presets, at the top of which is
6x4 at 300dpi. Thisll force the Crop tool to match the aspect
ratio of the paper as you drag. You can also create custom
presets should you ever need to print on other paper sizes.
Go to the Histogram
palettes Expanded
view to access the
option to define
which layers are
included in the
histogram display
PHOTO COMPOSITES
Having seen some excellent examples of
composite photos on the Internet, I thought
Id give it a go myself. Results have been
poor, however. Im fairly proficient at cutting
out, usually with a vector path, but when an
item is placed against a background, it looks
stuck-on. Ive tried burning in shadow, but it
still doesnt sit well. Have you any tips to make
composite photos look more realistic?
HISTOGRAM HELP
I create a lot of multi-layered documents in
Photoshop and rely on the Histogram palette
to ensure the tonal range of each document
is fully optimised. But are the values shown by
the histogram applicable to every layer in the
image? It would help to be able to switch
between the two so I can check each layer
individually and the composition as a whole.
Graham Brown, Brighton
Helen Harris, Cardiff

Use the Crop tools presets to ensure the crop will match
the aspect ratio of the paper on which you intend to print
Adding shade is a good ploy, but also ensure the lighting and
tonality of the new element matches the background. Choose
elements with the same direction and temperature of light
as the background. You can marry them up further by going
to Image>Adjustments>Match Color. Set the background as
the source, then use the Color Options sliders to match the
colour characteristics of the cut-out with the background.
Presumably, youve got the palette set to the Compact view. If

you click on the icon at top right and scroll to Expanded View
in the fly-out menu, you can set up the layers to be included.
Entire Image includes all layers, whereas Selected Layer just
shows a histogram of whichever layer is active in the Layers
palette. The bottom entry, Adjustment Composite, kicks in
when youre using adjustment layers. Select such a layer and
youll see its histogram, plus other adjustment layers below.
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SNAPZ PROBLEM
In my work, I have to take a lot of screengrabs
of Photoshop, but I find that it keeps locking
up and my copy of Snapz Pro bombs out,
which means force-quitting Photoshop or
rebooting entirely. Is there a stability issue
with this software combination? Im running
CS2 on a Mac G5 with OS X 10.4.3. It only
seems to have started happening since I
upgraded the Mac.
Adam Farmer, Nottingham
You dont mention which version of Snapz Pro youre using,
but it would be very much worth your while to visit the
publishers website (www.ambrosiasw.com/utilities/
snapzprox) and download the latest version, which is 2.0.2.
Its a free upgrade to users of Snapz Pro X 2 and is optimised
for use with Mac OS X Tiger. Both stills and video capture
versions have been updated and, from our tests, they appear
to work fine with Photoshop CS2.
TOOL TIPS
I frequently use keyboard commands to
access various Photoshop facilities, but find
the Toolbox a bit of a bother. Many of the
Toolbox icons have fly-out menus offering a
list of tools, all of which are accessible with
the same keypress. So if the tool Im after isnt
already showing in the box, I have to resort to
using the menus. Is there any way of getting
around this?
Peter Walker, London
Yes there is, and you can use your beloved keypresses to do it.
Hold down Shift and press the appropriate letter key. Youll
find that with each keypress, the tool selection will cycle
through the menu. Unfortunately, this doesnt work for the
anchor point conversion tools in the Pen tool menu, but you
probably already know the key commands for converting the
Pen in the work area.
Create fake italic text with any font on the system via the Character palettes fly-out menu
FAUX FUN
I read one of your magazines tips about
creating outline text from any font and
wondered if you could help me with another
typographical conundrum. Many of the fonts
in my copy of Photoshop CS dont show up
as having italic versions, which is a bit of a
problem for me. Should I rasterize the text
and distort it to create a fake italic effect, or is
there a better way of doing this?
Andrew Majors, Bristol
There is a way of creating bold and italic type from fonts that
lack italic versions, although its not immediately apparent.
Create some text with the font you plan to use and bring up
the Character palette from the Window menu, if its not
already open. Select the text for italicising and click at the top
right of the palette. Youll see an entry labelled Faux Italic in
the fly-out menu. Select it and see your text lean over.
MULTIPLE PROCESSORS
You can cycle between the Pen and Freeform Pen tools by
holding down Shift and pressing P
I have a copy of Photoshop that I use at

home and would like to install it on a
machine at work. But I dont want to fall foul of
the systems department by running an illegal
copy. Is it permissible to have the software
installed on more than one machine, or will I
get busted by the software police? Its a copy
of CS2 for Macintosh, by the way.
Provided, however, you only install it on two machines and

dont use it on both at the same time. You can, of course,
install Photoshop CS2 on many machines, but youll only be
able to activate it on two at once. So, as long as youre not
using the software at home and at work simultaneously,
youre fine. Best to give systems a copy of the licence
agreement, though.
MERLIN, BEGONE!
When I press the Alt key in Photoshop and
go to Palette Options in the Layers palette, a
little graphic of a wizard pops up with the
heading Merlin Lives. Underneath is a button
labelled Begone which, when clicked,
makes him disappear. Whats that about?
Sarah Matterson, Bournemouth
Thatll be an Easter egg. There are various ones in different
versions of Photoshop and theyre fun to find. The Photoshop
programmers put them in for amusement.
HELPDESK
CALL FOR QUESTIONS
Want help with your Photoshop problems?
Then let our team of experts sort you out.
Steve Kane, London
Send your emails to us at:

advancedpshop@imagine-publishing.co.uk
If you take a close look at the end-user licence agreement, a

copy of which is in the application folder on the computers
hard drive, you will indeed find that such usage is permissible.
Remember to specify whether you are

using a PC or Mac and the version number
of your edition of Photoshop.
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INSIDER
INFO
Insider
Info
The power of
Camera Raw 3
Whether youre a professional photographer

or an aspiring amateur, Camera Raw 3 is one
of the single best reasons to upgrade to
Photoshop CS2
ince its initial release as a plug-in for Photoshop 7, Adobe Camera Raw has
been a revolutionary tool for processing digital Raw photos. With the
release of version 3, Adobe raises the bar even higher.
Arguably the single biggest improvement to Adobe Camera Raw is the ability to
process multiple Raw files simultaneously. Now when two or more Raw files are
opened, theyre displayed as thumbnails down the left-hand side of the Camera Raw
dialog. With multiple files selected, any edits you make even panning and zooming
are applied simultaneously to each photo in the selection. Selecting files in the
Thumbnails panel is analogous to selecting them in Bridge or Finder/Explorer. Simply
use the Shift key for contiguous and Cmd/Ctrl for non-contiguous selections. You can
even rank and label select files inside the Camera Raw dialog.
Slew of new tools
ON THE DISC
Youll find all the files you need to complete this
tutorial (BackgroundRight.psd, BackgroundLeft.psd,
Banner.psd, FooterBackground.psd, Tabs.psd,
TabsBackground.psd and WebInterface.psd, as well
as an Optimized_Output folder, featuring all the
graphic elements used for this tutorial) on Disc A.
OUR EXPERT
Trevor Morris

and amateur digital photographer with more than a
dozen years design experience. He works as a
Senior Graphic Designer for a Canadian web design
company and also maintains the Photoshop-centric
website GFX (http://user.fundy.net/morris/).
While the layout of the interface hasnt

changed significantly since version 2, the
tools, Preview option and RGB readouts
have all migrated to the top of the dialog
to make room for the new Thumbnail
panel. Youll also notice several new tools
to the right of the White Balance tool.
The Color Sampler (S) A works just like
the Color Sampler tool inside Photoshop,
but instead of only four samplers, Camera
Raw actually enables you to monitor up
to nine regions at a time ten if you
Here, there, everywhere

With the release of Adobe Bridge, Camera Raw has become a shared plug-in
that can be hosted by both Bridge and Photoshop. This presents a number of
workflow advantages, including the ability to:
process and save Raw files without ever having to load Photoshop
execute a batch-process in Photoshop, while editing your Raw files in Bridge
open two Camera Raw dialogs at the same time (one in Photoshop as
well as one in Bridge)
Straight from the source

For all the latest news regarding Camera Raw, including a complete list of
supported camera models, visit the official Adobe Camera Raw website at
www.adobe.com/products/photoshop/cameraraw.html.
include the RGB readout for the current
cursor position.
Another great addition is the Crop tool
(C) B , which enables you to perform
non-destructive crops (stored as XMP
metadata for the associated Raw files).
The Crop button contains a drop-down
(or Context) menu with common aspect
ratios, as well as a Clear command. You
can also clear the crop by pressing Esc or
by clicking on the grey background of the
image Preview area. As in Photoshop, you
can drag the crop boundary to reposition
it, resize it using the corner nodes and
rotate it by dragging anywhere outside
the crop boundary.
Closely related to the Crop tool is the
Straighten tool (A) C , a real time-saver
B
A
THE INTERFACE: New tools and features ensure that Adobe Camera Raw 3 is now faster and more efficient than ever.
that simultaneously straightens and

crops the image based on a reference line
that you draw (eg, along a horizon, the
edge of a building, etc). Images are
cropped to the maximum size available
based on the original image dimensions,
or the Crop tools currently selected
aspect ratio. Note that if a crop already
exists, it will simply be rotated to match
the reference line.
To the right of the Preview are the new
Shadows (press U for Underexposed)
and Highlights (press O for
Overexposed) clipping warning
checkboxes. Previously, these two
options were only available by holding
down the Opt/Alt key while dragging the
Exposure and Shadows sliders (which still
works, if you prefer it to the checkboxes).
An interesting addition to Camera Raw 3
is the Auto Adjustments feature (Cmd/
Ctrl+T). When this feature is enabled, as it
is by default, a fairly sophisticated
algorithm attempts to establish the best
settings for each image (correcting for
both tone and exposure).
Also new is the Curve tab (Cmd/
Ctrl+Opt/Alt+4), which enables you to
fine-tune the tonality of the selected
image(s). If youre familiar with the Curves
command/dialog in Photoshop, youll
feel right at home here. One notable
exception is that you must hold down the
Cmd/Ctrl key when moving the cursor
over an image to see the corresponding
pixels on the curve.
Finally, the new Save button enables
you to save the selected image(s) as a
DNG, TIFF, JPEG or PSD directly from the
Camera Raw dialog without having to
involve Photoshop another huge timesaver when processing multiple Raw files.
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Scripting
Photoshop
Whether its automating tedious tasks,

customising commands or adding features,
scripting makes almost anything possible
OUR EXPERT
Trevor Morris

and amateur digital photographer with more than
a dozen years design experience. He works as a
Senior Graphic Designer for a Canadian web
design company and also maintains the
Photoshop-centric website GFX (http://user.
fundy.net/morris/).
he ability to script Photoshop

debuted in version seven as a
plug-in that could be
downloaded from Adobes website.
From version eight (CS), the
scripting plug-in was installed by
default. Today, in version nine (CS2),
scripting the back-end of Photoshop
is more accessible and powerful
than ever. But despite this, few
people take advantage of it and
many people dont even know that
Photoshop can be scripted.
The scripting advantage

So whats so great about scripting and
what can it do that cant be done via
traditional actions? Quite a lot. While
actions (including batches and droplets)
are powerful and flexible, they have
many limitations that scripts dont have.
Consider something as simple as
toggling the visibility of the current layer.
You could record an action to turn the
visibility on or off, but not both. The
problem is that actions arent capable of
decision-making, or conditional logic.
In addition, actions can only execute
commands within the host application,
whereas scripts can execute commands
involving multiple CS2 applications. For
example, you could write a single script
that initiated a procedure in Illustrator
CS2 and then forwarded the results to
Photoshop CS2 for completion.
Installing scripts
Installing scripts is much the same as
installing any other preset. First, copy the
script into the Presets/Scripts subfolder:
Mac: <hard drive>/Applications/
Adobe Photoshop CS2/Presets/Scripts/
PC: C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe
Photoshop CS2\Presets\Scripts\
After you quit and restart Photoshop,
the scripts will appear in the File>Scripts
submenu (in alphabetical order).
Running scripts
To run a script, choose it from the File>
Scripts submenu, or choose File>Scripts>
Browse to locate and run scripts that
dont appear in the Scripts menu. You can
also run scripts (or actions) automatically
based on an event, eg on startup, opening
a document or creating a new document.
To define an event-based script, go to
File>Scripts>Script Events Manager. Turn
on the Enable Events To Run Scripts/
Actions checkbox, and pick an event in
the Photoshop Event drop-down. Select
Script, and pick the desired script in the
drop-down (or choose Browse at the
bottom). Press Add to add the event to
the Event List. Finally, hit Done to apply
all changes and enable the event.
To remove an event, select it in the
Event List and press Remove; hit Remove
All to remove all events from the Event
List. To disable events without removing
them, turn off Enable Events To Run
Scripts/Actions. Press Done to apply.
Learn by example
For a better understanding of scripting,
check out the many resources installed
by default in the following locations:
Mac: <hard drive>/Applications/
Adobe Photoshop CS2/Scripting Guide/
SCRIPTS CAN EXECUTE

COMMANDS INVOLVING
MULTIPLE CS2 APPS
iqu
es
Te
ch
n
INSIDER
INFO
The Manager
Keep current
The Script Events Manager (File>

Scripts>Script Events Manager)
allows you to configure scripts (or
actions) to run automatically based
on certain events, for example on
startup, opening a document,
creating a new document, and so on.
The latest versions

of the Scripting and
Reference Guides
are available from
Adobes website at
the following
location:
Adobe Photoshop Scripting
Documentation
http://partners.adobe.com/public/
developer/photoshop/sdk/index_
scripting.html
You can also purchase a printed
version of the Photoshop Scripting
Guide from amazon.com:
Adobe Photoshop CS2 Official
JavaScript Reference
http://tinyurl.com/dqj6t
PC: C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe

Photoshop CS2\Scripting Guide\
Photoshop Scripting Guide intro to
scripting Photoshop CS2 (with examples)
AppleScript Reference Guide
AppleScript companion to the
Photoshop Scripting Guide
JavaScript Reference Guide
JavaScript companion to the Photoshop
Scripting Guide
VisualBasic Reference Guide
VisualBasic companion to the Photoshop
Scripting Guide
Samples Scripts folder sample scripts
written in AppleScript, JavaScript and
VBScript; see Sample Scripts Description.
pdf for descriptions of each script
Utilities folder the ScriptListener
plug-in. (For more information on the
ScriptListener plug-in, see Chapter 3 of
the JavaScript Reference Guide or
VBScript Reference Guide.)
Why JavaScript?
Although you can write Photoshop scripts using JavaScript, AppleScript or
VisualBasic, JavaScript has two advantages: its platform- independent (ie works
on both Mac and PC), and many web designers are already familiar with it.
Additional resources
Below is a selection online resources dedicated to sharing scripts and
information about scripting:
/ Adobe Photoshop Scripting Forum http://tinyurl.com/afncy
/ Adobe Studio Exchange Photoshop Scripts
http://share.studio.adobe.com/axBrowseSubmit.asp?t=74
/ Working With Photoshop Scripts (PhotoshopSupport.com)
www.photoshopsupport.com/tutorials/jennifer/photoshop-scripts.html
/ Photoshop Scripting using JavaScript (Tranberry.com)
www.tranberry.com/photoshop/photoshop_scripting/index.html
/ Scripts for Photoshop CS and Photoshop CS2 (Trevor Morris)
http://user.fundy.net/morris/?photoshop28.shtml
/ Photoshop Scripting Community Forum (PS-Scripts)
www.ps-scripts.com/bb/
/ Photoshop CS Scripting (Andrew Hall)
http://ah-photo.com/photoshop-scripts/index.html
/ CS User Interface Builder 1.0 (WYSIWYG GUI builder for Photoshop/Bridge)
www.jkozniewski.com/tools/csuib.html
(CSUIB 2.0 alpha: www.jkozniewski.com/tools/CSUIB_2.0a.zip)
85
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books
Erotique Digitale: The Art Of Erotic Digital Photography
Focal Easy Guide To Photoshop CS2, The
How To Cheat In Photoshop
Photoshop Masking & Compositing
Pixel Surgeons: Extreme Manipulation
Photoshop CS2 Book For Digital Photographers, The
Photoshop CS2 For Windows & Macintosh
Photoshop CS2: Up To Speed
Photoshop Filter Effects Cookbook
Photoshop LAB Color
Adobe Photoshop CS2 one-on-one
Digital Imaging: Essential Skills
Digital SLR Handbook. The
Photoshop Blending Modes Cookbook
Photoshop Photo Effects Cookbook
088
088
088
088
088
089
089
089
089
089
090
090
090
090
090
plug-ins
stock art websites

Acclaim Images
ArtBitz
Illustration Works
InMagine
Laughing Stock
ShutterStock
091
091
091
091
091
091
DesignsByMark
Eyes On Design
N-Sane
Phong
Photoshop Caf
Planet Photoshop
092
092
092
092
092
092
20/20 Color MD
3D Invigorator
ColorTheory Pro
Deep Paint 3D
Digitalizer
PhotoFreebies
Primatte Chromakey 2
Shadow Filter
093
093
093
093
093
093
093
093
typography
Download Free Fonts
FontFile
Font Garden
Font Pool, The
Identifont
Linotype
094
094
094
094
094
094
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resources
books
Staring bleary-eyed at your LCD? Need a little

inspiration? Then check out these excellent tomes
Further reading
Erotique Digitale:
The Art of Erotic Digital Photography
How To Cheat
In Photoshop
Author: Steve Caplin
Publisher: Sybex
Price: 24.99
ISBN: 0-240-51985-X
Web: www.focalpress.com
Authors: Minnie Cook, Rod MacDonald

Publisher: Ilex
Price: 17.95
ISBN: 1-9047-055-61
Web: www.ilex-press.com
Looked at in a certain way, all Photoshop

work could be considered cheating, really
after all, the whole idea behind the program
is to take a photo and fiddle around with it
in order to improve upon the original.
But with How To Cheat In Photoshop, author
Steve Caplin aims to broaden your horizons by
showing you how you can use a variety of
techniques to create an effect.
One of the books greatest assets is its sense
of humour, and although some of the images
arent particularly photo-realistic, the tips and
tricks are always superb. 5
rguably one of Photoshops greatest strengths is its

ability to help photographers turn standard
photographs into stunning works of digital art. Whether it
concerns basic photo retouches (in order to sort out skin
imperfections), the removal of unwanted items, the
correction of poorly reproduced colours, or, at a more
advanced level, implementing intricate photo-montages,
the program has the tools to get the job done.
Indeed, all of the above is used in one of the most emergent
digital art genres erotica and this style of imagery and
illustration is looked at in interesting depth in Cook and
MacDonalds Erotique Digitale: The Art of Erotic Digital
Photography. The tome is packed full of full-colour images
demonstrating some of the very best examples of digital
eroticism, from standard risqu portraiture to some more
elaborate illustrations.
Alongside each example is a short description of the
techniques used by the artist to create the image, although
Photoshop Masking
& Compositing
Rating:
these rarely go into enough detail to ensure you can reproduce

the effect yourself.
In essence, this is little more than a coffee-table showcase of
niche imaging, although its no less interesting for that. However,
if youre looking for a more tutorial-based erotic photography
handbook, youd do best to shift your attention elsewhere. 5
Rating:
2/5
Recom
mends
Author: Katrin Eismann

Publisher: New Riders
Price: 41.99
ISBN: 07-357-127-94
Web: www.peachpit.com
3/5
Pixel Surgeons: Extreme

Manipulation Of The
Figure In Photography
Author: Martin Dawber
Publisher: Mitchell Beazley
Price: 20
ISBN: 0-84533-157-5
Web: www.mitchell-beazley.com
For many creatives, its the sheer flexibility of

digital art that makes it such an appealing
medium. With stacks of pixel-mangling tools
on offer, its little surprise that many
examples of the most innovative new art
expressions are created using such popular
apps as Photoshop and Illustrator.
To get an idea of what these programs are
capable of, you need only turn to Martin
Dawbers stunning Pixel Surgeons. This coffeetable tome offers 224 pages of intriguing
imagery from a number of established digital
artists, plus a wide selection of material from
emerging imageers. Sadly, no-one explains how
such great images were created, which limits
the usefulness of the book to mere muse. 5
Rating:
3/5
The Focal Easy Guide

To Photoshop CS2
hen generating intricate photo-montages, its often

necessary to separate an image element from its
background before you can reposition it elsewhere within
the composition. Thankfully, Adobes top image-editing
suite has several tools that are perfect for the job, but
which one should you choose without adversely affecting
your subject?
Learning how to make the most of these procedures not to
mention being aware of the contexts in which you should apply
them takes time, patience and lots of trial and error; unless, of
course, you have this comprehensive guide to each technique
kept close at hand.
As its name suggests, Katrin Eismanns Photoshop Masking &
Retouching is dedicated to taking the mystery out of Photoshop
selection. Over the course of 300 pages, it unveils how to
properly use tools such as the Magic Wand, Freehand Selection,
Quick Masks and more, in order to make accurate selections of
mends
Recom
Author: Brad Hinkel

Publisher: Focal Press
Price: 14.99
ISBN: 0-240-52001-7
pretty much anything. Its clear, straightforward and easy-to-follow

workshops mean that youll rarely become stuck, and although
the many pictures and photos may seem conventional at first,
they serve to perfectly illustrate key points. Its expensive, sure, but
the advice offered is more than worth the asking price. 5
Rating:
5/5
Ready to step up your game? Mastered your

Spot Healing Brush and Red-Eye tool and
eager to explore Photoshop CS2s more
advanced facilities? Then read on
The Focal Easy Guide To Photoshop CS2 is an
easy-to-follow, 212-page guide to all of the apps
key features, and delivers simple step-by-step
instructions packed with colour screenshots.
Although theres no CD, the procedures are
explained clearly enough to ensure theyre
applicable to whatever subject youre looking at.
A concise introduction to Photoshop CS2s
many image-editing facilities. 5
Rating:
4/5
88
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Photoshop LAB Color F
Photoshop CS2:
Up to Speed
Author: Ben Wilmore
Publisher: Peachpit Press
Price: 17.99
ISBN: 03211330501
mends
Recom
Author: Dan Margulis

Price: 39.99
ISBN: 03-213-567-80
This concise guide focuses

exclusively on all the features new to
Photoshop CS2, from the enhanced Clone,
Spot and Healing brush, through Adobe
Stock Photos, Camera Raw, HDR and beyond.
Once comfortable with the ins and outs of the
new File Browser, youll soon be moving on to
enjoy Wilmores explanation of Adobes latest
application, Bridge. By explaining how the apps
older features relate to the newer ones, the
author helps us understand the reasoning behind
the changes Adobe has made. You can even
practise your new-found techniques on images
provided at the books companion website. 5
Rating:
5/5
Photoshop Filter
Effects Cookbook
ixing poor colour reproduction in Photoshop is a job

you can undertake in a number of ways. Beginners
immediately reach for the Hue/Saturation controls,
intermediate users tend to plump for a few canny
Adjustment Layers, while more advanced photo editors
head straight for the Curves dialog, in order to start
manipulating graph points.
However, no matter what your level of expertise, its
surprising how few people make use of one of Photoshops
most powerful and flexible gems: the Lab Color mode. Once an
image has been properly converted, the task of enhancing
colour tones in a digital photo becomes much more rewarding.
Its not all that surprising pixel-manglers are unaware of the
benefits of Lab Color, though. Its not something thats
commonly covered in any detail in Photoshop guidebooks. But
thats something renowned Photoshop Hall Of Famer Dan
Margulis hopes to change with his remarkable tome, entitled
Photoshop LAB Color.
Inside this book, Margulis offers up a wealth of techniques on
how to use this Photoshop mode to get the very best out of all
your digital images. Although the subject may at first seem dry,
the book takes such an approachable style that youll soon be
drawn into the world of professional prepress methodology. 5
Author: Roger Pring

Publisher: Ilex
Price: 17.95
ISBN: 1-904705-67-7
Rating:
Many people turn to Photoshops built-in

Filter menu when theyre looking for a quick
fix. Whether its correcting warped lens
effects, putting the detail back into blurry
photos with a spot of crafty sharpening, or
spicing things up by adding an artistic effect,
the Filter menu has an option to suit.
In the Photoshop Filter Effects Cookbook, Roger
Pring reveals how to take these filters and create
some even more interesting effects for use in
your artwork. Each chapter looks at how to
properly apply the settings available, and handson tutorials are provided to show you how to get
great results with ease.
Youll be hard-pushed to find a better
introduction to Photoshops built-in filter set. 5
Rating:
3/5
The Photoshop CS2 Book

For Digital Photographers
Author: Scott Kelby
Publisher: Peachpit
Price: 28.99
ISBN: 0-32133-062-5
Scott Kelbys no-nonsense approach to

image-editing has won him many fans in the
Photoshop community and this latest tome,
offering a variety of exciting tricks and
techniques, looks set to consolidate his
position as guru extraordinaire.
Illustrated throughout with stunning imagery,
the guide demonstrates how to perform such
feats as digital body sculpting, 16-bit editing,
correcting problem colour casts, and even how
to properly output images in order to maintain
the highest possible quality.
A useful look inside the professional world of
Photoshop pixel-tweakery. 5
Rating:
Photoshop CS2 for

Windows &
Macintosh
Authors: Elaine Weinmann, Peter Lourekas
Price: 17.99
ISBN: 03-213-365-50
resources
Further reading
4/5
s creative applications go, Photoshop can be

extremely tricky to get the hang of if youre a new
user. Its learning curve is particularly steep and the sheer
number of buttons, tools, palettes, filters, dialogs and
panels on display has been known to put off potential
imageers in their droves. If only there was a good basic
introduction to the program that enabled readers to get
inside the app and really start to get a feel for just what
it can do
Well, if youre looking to boost your Photoshop knowledge
fast, without having to fiddle around or get confused by
meaningless mumbo-jumbo, Photoshop CS2 for Windows &
Macintosh is a fairly decent place to start.
For a shade under 18, itll provide a pleasingly solid
grounding in many of the programs most important features.
Whats more, its been fully updated to cover a host of new
additions to the most recent version of Photoshop, CS2, so now
you can find out much more about the powerful new
possibilities of gadgets such as the Vanishing Point filter and the
one-click Healing Brush. This attention to detail is one of the
books major plus points.
Illustrated throughout with some superb full-colour photos,
step-by-step workshops and friendly advice, this tome proves a
useful if admittedly slightly low-end resource for those
seeking a quick and dirty introduction to the worlds leading
image-editing app. 5
Rating:
3/5
4/5
89
Advanced Photoshop
10/2/06 14:11:42
resources
Digital Imaging:
Essential Skills
Further reading
Adobe Photoshop CS2
one-on-one
Authors: Les Horvat, Mark Galer

Publisher: Focal Press
Price: 21.99
ISBN: 02-405197-1X
Author: Deke McClelland

Publisher: Deke Press/OReilly
Price: 28.50
ISBN: 0-596-10096-5
Web: www.oreilly.com
Both McClellands books

and Total Training video
mends
Recom
tutorials are proving to
be must-have resources
for aspiring creatives.
However, with Adobe Photoshop CS2 one-onone, both the print and multimedia worlds
collide; for here, McClelland provides over 470
pages of extensive Photoshop lessons, plus a
CD containing no less than two hours worth of
Total Training video workshops.
Its an essential addition to the bookshelf of
every Photoshop CS2 user. 5
n the heady pursuit of great digital art, messing around

with images in Photoshop is really only one part of the
creative process. Arguably, in order to generate inspiring
and mind-bending artwork that really guarantees
widespread success, you have to take the time to master a
number of visual disciplines.
With this in mind, Les Horvat and Mark Galer have produced
what is essentially a comprehensive crash-course in visual
design skills, one that will form the backbone of your further
artistic endeavours. Rather than simply focusing on Photoshops
all-powerful manipulation tools, this book goes back to the
source and demonstrates how to be more effective at every
stage of the design process, from early previsualisation
techniques and image capture, right through Photoshop
production, to prepress and output.
This tome is certainly a complete creative guide, and really
does manage to inject a sense of fun into the learning process.
This is all thanks to a wide range of easy-to-follow tutorials,
Rating:
mind-stretching briefs and limitless useful advice. If that wasnt

already enough to get your creative juices well and truly flowing,
the book also comes with a CD-ROM, which manages to include
a bit more than the average digital art guidebook. Take a peek
and youll find a host of video workshops, project files, sample
images, Photoshop presets and more, all ready and waiting to
power up your digital studio. 5
Rating:
4/5
The Digital SLR

Handbook
Author: Michael Freeman
Publisher: Ilex
Price: 24.95
ISBN: 19-047053-67
Photoshop Photo
Effects Cookbook
Author: Tim Shelbourne
Publisher: Ilex
Price: 17.95
ISBN: 1-904705-61-8
mends
Recom
Its rare to find a book as

jam-packed with useful
techniques as this. Put simply, this tome
provides wall-to-wall tutorials on how to
create a huge range of photo effects. Pared
down to the essentials, this isnt a hard work
read, but rather a full-colour, large-format
guide on how to turn photos into eye art.
Divided into nine chapters, the book details
how to create tonal effects and graphic art
effects, how to master lighting, and even how to
produce weather effects such as rain and snow.
Whats more, there are workshops on how to
make traditional photo effects such as colour
filters, contrast masking, infrared and duotones.
How refreshing to find a book so focused on
delivering hard-line techniques. 5
Rating:
Reco
mme
nds
5/5
Photoshop Blending
Modes Cookbook For
Digital Photographers
Author: John Beardsworth
Publisher: Ilex
Price: 17.95
ISBN: 1-904705-69-5
n the world of photography, no type of camera offers

more creative control than a digital SLR. Favoured by
enthusiasts and professionals alike, digi-SLRs present a
huge range of shooting options from which canny
photographers can elicit truly inspiring, high-resolution
photos. But the thing is, in order to get the most out of such
high-end equipment, its important to know how to master
its many advanced, configurable settings.
Thankfully, The Digital SLR Handbook is here to ensure that all
SLR owners are able to get the very best shots with relative ease.
But its not just committed to bringing new photographers up
to speed it also includes a range of articles that answer FAQs
by seasoned film-based shooters whove recently switched to
digital. Although the shooting process can be similar, there are
differences in the way digital cameras generate images
5/5
compared to film, so its great to find a book that seeks to

address (and explain) these differences.
However, dont be fooled into thinking that this is a dry, techy
manual. With comprehensive advice on how to properly take
control of shutter speeds, aperture, resolution, image formats,
histograms and much more, its an essential resource that
should be in the kit-bag of every self-respecting shooter. 5
Rating:
5/5
Blending Modes are one of the most widely

used yet misunderstood features in
Photoshop but the Photoshop Blending
Modes Cookbook aims to change all that.
Another excellent contribution from Ilex, it
comes packed with tutorials and information on
how to use Blending Modes to produce a
diverse array of impressive effects. Although the
subject matter may not be all that exciting,
theres no getting around the fact that this book
brilliantly explains one of Photoshops most
powerful and useful features.
Read and learn. 5
Rating:
4/5
90
Advanced Photoshop
13/2/06 16:09:19
resources
stock art
These tried-and-tested image libraries provide

excellent service at a price to suit every pocket
ArtBitz
Take stock
Web: www.artbitz.com
Shutterstock
Web: www.shutterstock.com
If youre a workaholic digital artist, chances

are youll need to get your hands on a large
number of stock images during the course
of an average month. Trouble is,
the cost of downloading images from
some premium sites can be restrictive,
particularly if youre on a tight budget.
The result? Valuable creative time wasted
shopping around for bargain photos that
help to keep your costs down.
But fear not, because there is a solution.
ShutterStock has been set up with these needs
in mind, and offers a monthly subscriptionbased service that enables you to download up
to 25 images per day, up to a maximum of 750
per month. One months subscription will set
you back $139 (around 78), or you can opt for a
three-month stint for $395 (around 223).
Sounds good value to us. 5
Rating:
3/5
Illustration Works
lthough the majority of online stock art repositories

concentrate on offering photographic images, theres
still a number of places that seek to deliver something a
little bit different. With a bit of determined searching, its
possible to turn up libraries that sell some more esoteric
material, which you can then use to build up excellent
illustration work.
As a case in point, ArtBitz is well worth checking out if youre
after some unusual image elements. Much of the stock on sale
here has a definite line-art, natural media look that should suit
more traditional illustrative styles. If this sounds like your creative
direction, dive right in and have a look at whats on offer. 5
Rating:
3/5
Acclaim Images
Web: www.acclaimimages.com
Web: www.illustrationworks.com
Many designers have

built up a number of
preconceptions about
stock art, with the most
mends
popular being that its all
Recom
about boring old photos
of business people chatting
ecstatically on the phone, or cherubic
kiddies playing with their parents in golden
pastures. In a word: cheesy. However, this
isnt always the case, as Illustration Works is
keen to point out.
At this site, youll find a vast library of royaltyfree illustrations, created by many industry
heavyweights, all of which you can pick up and
use in your designs. Theres a wealth of talent on
display and some really unusual ideas, so its
worth having a browse, even if youre just
looking for inspiration. 5
Rating:
n direct contrast to the largely illustrative material in

ArtBitz (above), Acclaim Images concentrates on
providing artists with more traditional photographic
pictures. And what a selection it boasts.
Head on over and youll find not only an intuitive, fully
searchable archive, but also a simply huge library of quality
photos that have been sorted into handy categories for easier
browsing. Whats more, if you havent the time to skim through
the extensive library yourself, you can make use of Acclaim
Images complimentary photo research facility, where you can
instruct the company to dig out the image you need without
having to part with a penny.5
Rating:
4/5
4/5
InMagine
Laughing Stock
Web: www.laughing-stock.com
Continuing the theme of alternative stock

art collections, Laughing Stock joins the
ranks by offering a particularly unusual
bundle of images that may well be just what
you need to pep up a lacklustre project.
Here, youll find an impressive archive of
illustrative designs, including logos,
animations, infographics, book covers,
posters and much more.
Again, its well worth a lengthy browse if
youre in need of some new ideas, or on the
lookout for a novel approach to a tired topic.
Even if you do want to use an image, the
competitive prices factor in exactly what youre
going to use the image for, so you may well find
yourself picking up a bargain. 5
Rating:
4/5
Web: www.inmagine.com
hen youre on the hunt for a specific image for use in

your current design project, its not uncommon to
have to scoot through a number of different stock art sites
before you uncover a suitable candidate. This, of course,
can be hugely time-consuming, so it makes sense to try
and keep search times down to an absolute minimum.
One of the best ways of doing this is to make your first step a
trip to InMagine. Put simply, this stock art repository houses one
of the webs largest image archives, so the chances of you
finding that perfect shot are pretty good. With over one million
photos on offer, theres every possibility that this could become
your one and only stock art bookmark.5
Rating:
5/5
Recom
mends
91
Advanced Photoshop
10/2/06 14:12:32
resources
websites
Tutorials, community forums, FAQs, special hints

and tips Keep abreast of whats available online
Catch it online
Phong
Planet Photoshop
Web: www.phong.com
Web: www.planetphotoshop.com
Planet Photoshop has become one of the

leading locations for digital imageers to
congregate when searching for new ideas.
And when you take a look at what this site
has to offer, its not hard to see why.
With its heady blend of the best up-to-date
Photoshop information, Planet Photoshop
keeps you informed of all the latest industry
goings-on via Photoshop TV, a video podcast
featuring such luminaries as Scott Kelby and
Dave Cross, to name but two. In addition, the
site offers some fantastic tutorials in which you
can learn new techniques with ease. 5
uite simply, Phong is one of the most impressive

examples of creative site designs on the net. Its a
visual feast of clever Flash programming, and, if youre not
pushed for time, wed recommend spending a good few
minutes playing around with the numerous Flash displays
on offer. If nothing else, its a great way to clear your head
from all those tough design decisions, and open up your
mind to a bit of unusual fractal-based inspiration.
But thats not all that Phong has to offer, because its also jampacked with excellent tutorials that demonstrate how to get the
very best out of myriad creative apps, including Photoshop. In a
word: unmissable. 5
Rating:
5/5
DesignsByMark
Web: www.designsbymark.com
f youre after some solid, beginner-friendly Photoshop

advice, DesignsByMark is an excellent place to start your
journey. Created by the eponymous Californian
Photoshopper, this site is a one-stop-shop for all kinds of
techniques, from creating stunningly realistic textured text,
through generating convincing 3D images using 2D
drawing and painting tools, to more general tasks such as
retouching poor digital photos and creating greeting cards.
Tutorials can be downloaded in various formats, including
written PDFs and even video files, which means theres little
chance of you becoming stuck during a particularly tricky or
time-consuming workshop. 5
Rating:
3/5
N-Sane
Web: www.n-sane.net
or one of the most useful and hands-on introductions

to Photoshop, there are few sites on the web that offer
a more comprehensive yet user-friendly selection of
workshops as N-Sane. This site is home to a huge number
of tutorials that covers all different skill levels, and whats
more, each task has been graded out of five in terms of
difficulty, so that you can be sure chosen techniques will
suit your proficiency.
Offering general tool introductions, texture generation
ideas, stunning text creation tutorials and so much more, this
website cannot fail to impress with the sheer quantity of its
high-quality resources. 5
Rating:
ds
men
m
o
Rec
Rating:
4/5
Photoshop Caf
Web: www.photoshopcafe.com
On the lookout for a relaxed yet still

professional Photoshop hang-out? Then
the Photoshop Caf may be just what
youre after. Plonk your virtual posterior
here and youll find an extensive set of
Photoshop resources that offer tips and
advice on a wide range of pursuits, including
some particularly innovative tutorials that
detail fresh new methods of performing
many common (and not-so-common)
image-editing tasks.
In addition, theres a load of Actions for you
to download that should make routine image
fixes a much quicker affair, a forum for the usual
community support, and a stack of images by
the sites creator Colin Smith. 5
Rating:
4/5
Eyes on Design
Web: www.eyeondesign.net
One of the best things

about working with
Photoshop is that when
youre suffering from
mends
artists block, you can
Recom
always turn to the web
and check out the works of
others to help you find a way through.
And theres no better place to turn to than
Eyes on Design.
Besides offering a stack of professional-level
tutorials that really do deliver first-class results, it
also provides a great gallery section where you
can peruse the latest creations by a host of
talented digital artists. Its top stuff, so wed
recommend making this one of your most
treasured bookmarks for those times when
ideas are a little thin on the ground. 5
Rating:
5/5
4/5
92
Advanced Photoshop
10/2/06 14:12:54
resources
plug-ins
Not all plug-ins are made equal. Here we

highlight some of the best money can buy
Expand your toolset

ColorTheory Pro
Developer: Digital Anarchy
Price: $99 (56)
Web: www.digitalanarchy.com
When preparing a digital illustration, an

important aspect to get right from the off is
the colour scheme. Not all colours work well
together, and sometimes a single jarring
hue is enough to spoil a piece of work.
Experience helps, of course, but sometimes
even an experienced eye needs help deciding
what to use. Which is where ColorTheoryPro
comes in. Wrapping armfuls of technical theory
into one easy-to-use plug-in, it can instantly tell
you which colours support each other (or clash),
based on established scientific criteria. 5
Rating:
4/5
Deep Paint 3D
Developer: Right Hemisphere
Price: $595 (334)
Web: www.righthemisphere.com
A number of artists build

3D models in apps such
as Maya, LightWave or
Cinema4D for use in
mends
their Photoshop work,
Recom
where they can add
textures, colour, etc.
Deep Paint 3D is specifically designed to
streamline this workflow by offering a bidirectional interface between Photoshop and
your 3D modeller of choice. Output quality is
second to none, so no wonder its a favourite of
pros in the film and videogame industries. 5
Rating:
5/5
Primatte Chromakey 2
Although Photoshop offers built-in tools to
help with the cut-outs, some materials are
tricky to excise so most imageers shoot
their subjects in front of a bright blue or
green screen, then digitally remove the
block of solid colour in post, using a
dedicated tool like Primatte Chromakey.
Primatte Chromakey 2 is the professional
choice for creating precise cuts from coloured
backgrounds. It may not be cheap, but the
results are uniformly spectacular. 5
5/5
3D Invigorator
Developer: Zaxwerks
Price: $49 (27)
Web: www.zaxwerks.com
Photoshop is good at helping artists create

pseudo-3D elements, but if you need to
build something a little more intricate, its
native design tools just arent up to scratch.
But now with 3D Invigorator, a Mac-only
plug-in from Zaxwerks, you can design, build
and render 3D objects right inside Photoshop.
Whats more, the company has even created
special versions for After Effects and Illustrator,
should you need them. Check it out now. 5
Rating:
Developer: The Plugin Site

Price: Free
Web: http://thepluginsite.com
Developer: Panopticum
Price: $25 (14)
Web: www.panopticum.com
hotoshops built-in collection of

filters enables artists to generate
a wide variety of effects without
having to invest in extra software. But
sometimes a brief requires you to look
for a third-party solution to a specific design problem that
Photoshops standard set of tools just cant create.
Panopticums Digitalizer is one such filter. It only really has one
application, but it performs it so well that its worth having, just
in case its unique effect can boost the occasional project.
In essence this useful filter enables users to covert a standard
photographic image into an amazing illustration thats made up
of an astonishing matrix of figures, text characters and a range
of other graphical symbols.
Although Panopticums Digitalizer is limited in its range of
effects, it is nevertheless certainly an extremely interesting effect
thats particularly suited to futuristic or science-fiction-based
briefs. Why not download the free demo right now and see just
what it can do for you? 5
Rating:
4/5
n a world full of highpriced, commercial

Photoshop plug-ins, its
always nice to stumble
across a selection of
freeware tools with
which to power up the
standard program
feature-set. Indeed, if
youre after a collection of useful Photoshop add-ons that
specialise in tweaking digital photos, you could do a lot
worse than head on over to The Plugin Site and download
the generous PhotoFreebies bundle.
For your efforts, youll be rewarded with a decent black-andwhite filter that improves on Photoshops native Greyscale tool, a
desaturation gradient, a particularly effective Sepia filter and
much more besides. Definitely one for photographers, this free
set is well worth investigating when youve got a few minutes
to spare. 5
3/5
Rating:
4/5
20/20 Color MD
Shadow Filter
Developer: Phototune
Price: $49.95 (29)
Web: www.phototune.com
Developer: Andromeda Software Inc

Price: $109 (63)
Web: www.andromeda.com
Developer: Digital Anarchy

Price: $299 (168)
Web: www.digitalanarchy.com
Rating:
PhotoFreebies
Digitalizer
reating convincing
shadow effects in
Photoshop can be one of the
trickiest of design duties, so
its nice to know that the
boffins at Andromeda
Software have made the
whole process much easier
with the innovative Shadow Filter. Billed as one of the most
advanced shadowing plug-ins currently available for
Photoshop, this friendly tool enables you to quickly and
effortlessly generate realistic shadow effects from 2D
image elements.
Its powerful virtual camera and perspective-correction
technology ensures that realist results are a given, no matter how
complex the object throwing the shadow. But before you write it
off as sounding too complicated, the software features both
novice and advanced modes to ensure that you can obtain
perfect drop-shadows, no matter what your level of proficiency.
Very impressive. 5
Rating:
4/5
ith todays crop of

intelligent digital
cameras, its possible to
capture great photos by just
pointing and shooting. With
impressive automatic
features built into even the
cheapest compact digicam,
theres no reason why you cant fill up a memory card of
useful shots in a single days shooting, right?
Well, thats not entirely true. In fact, theres still a lot that can
go wrong when capturing a photo, such as colour reproduction.
Of course, you can sort out such problems in Photoshop, but
sometimes correcting such things as colour casts can be a chore
unless you have 20/20 Color MD at your command.
This deceptively powerful plug-in presents a step-by-step
wizard with which you can quickly and efficiently correct the
colours in any digital shot. Better still, the technology it uses to
determine exactly what colours need to be correct utilises realworld eye exam techniques, so theres little room for error. 5
Rating:
3/5
93
Advanced Photoshop
13/2/06 16:01:38
resources
typography
Its not just what you say, its how you say it
Perfect fonts
FontFile
The Font Pool
Web: www.fontfile.com
Web: www.fontpool.com
Some font sites on the web mean well

but prove tricky to navigate when
you actually try to find a decent font in a
hurry. In light of this, The Font Pool feels
like a breath of fresh air, thanks to an
effortlessly usable search tool that manages
to pick out great fonts based on your
specifications in seconds.
Alternatively, you can manually browse
through the sites collection of over 27,000 fonts,
if you prefer to pick out a winning option based
on eye-catching appeal. But whichever method
you choose, you can be sure that youll find
something worth investigating in this huge
online repository. 5
inding the correct font for use in an illustration can be

one of the hardest parts of the design process. There
are just so many typefaces to choose from, and Internetbased archives often provide scarce idea of how a font will
appear once youve bought, downloaded and installed it
on your computer.
So the answer is to head to a freeware font depot that offers
not only an extensive collection of fonts to try, but also a usefully
large thumbnail preview of how itll appear on screen. As a good
starting point, FontFile offers all this and more, with a searchable
and categorised collection of styles all ready for your perusal. 5
Rating:
3/5
Rating:
4/5
Linotype
Web: www.linotype.com
When it comes to professional-level

typefaces, Internet-based retailers can
throw up a wide variety of standards. Some
sites will present some good yet still
noticeably amateurish options, while others
manage to offer extremely high-quality
items as a matter of course.
When you take a look at Linotype, youll
discover that this site falls into the latter
category. Although it carries only 6,000 fonts,
the quality on offer is second to none. Whats
more, the archive is fully searchable, so theres
no problem turning up specific matches when
youre in a hurry.
Furthermore, the innovative Font Finder
device enables you to locate typefaces based
on themes, categories, usage and more. 5
Download Free Fonts

Web: www.downloadfreefonts.com
ome font stores particularly those that offer

commercial typefaces unintentionally make it
difficult to locate suitable items by presenting tricky
interfaces, weird categorising and complicated checkout
processes. So its always a delight to come across a plain,
straightforward site that just offers easy access to a set of
varied freeware styles.
And this is just what Download Free Fonts provides. Here,
youll find little more than a scrollable list of free fonts that you
can download and use on both PC and Mac. Although its not
the biggest collection on the web, it still lists some great
lettering ideas that may just be what youre looking for.. 5
Rating:
Rating:
Font Garden
Web: www.fontgarden.com
3/5
Identifont
Web: www.identifont.com
inally, heres something a little different. We all know

how hard (not to mention time-consuming) it can be to
manually search or browse through expansive online font
archives in an effort to discover a typeface that conforms to
your strict requirements. So why not make things a bit
easier on yourself by taking a trip to Identifont?
This unique online system enables you to track down fonts
via a wizard-like process of elimination. Basically, it asks a set of
questions about the appearance of the font youre after (eg,
how letter tails behave) and shortlists a set of items that match
your requirements. Its quick, easy and undoubtedly effective, so
check it out right now. 5
Rating:
4/5
Reco
mme
nds
Ask any graphic designer whats the most

important yet often overlooked aspect
of illustration work and youll get an
unequivocal answer: the fonts you use. How
you incorporate these into your work can
make or break a design. But the problem is,
if youre after an organic, hand-drawn feel,
suitable typefaces can be hard to find.
So if youre looking for a font that emulates
decent handwriting, wed recommend that
you point your browser at Font Garden. Here
youll find a huge selection of freeware and
commercial offerings, covering a variety of
handwriting styles. Theres plenty here that
would complement a loose, traditional style
of illustration. 5
Rating:
3/5
5/5
94
Advanced Photoshop
10/2/06 14:13:22

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