Photoshop Tutorials

Archive for the ‘Photoshop Quicktips’ Category

If your just starting with Photoshop many of the terms may seem a little foreign. The help files for photoshop are pretty good so just hit help and go to search and you will find pretty simple information where to find what ever function your looking for.

This tutorial will teach you how to create a speech bubble which is resizable without getting jagged edges.

Creating a speech bubble shaped path in Photoshop

In this step we will create a path with the shape of a speech bubble, we will use the Ellipse tool and the Pen tool.

Start out by selecting the Ellipse tool in the tools menu. Now the options bar for the Ellipse tool should be visible above your work area.
The important settings here is to select paths mode, you can see my settings below.

Now you should draw an Ellipse that looks something like the one I have drawn bellow. Adjust the size of the Ellipse to match the content you want to have inside the speech bubble.

Now it’s time to add the part of the speech bubble that indicates the origin of the speech. For this task we will use the Pen tool, select the Pen tool in the tools menu and in the options bar set the mode to paths mode and set it to Add to path area.

Below are my settings for your comfort.

Draw a triangle like I have done in the image below and make sure to connect the third dot with the first by clicking in it.

Time to style our speech bubble
Now we need to fill the path with a white or whitish color.
First create a new layer, then go to the tools menu and select the Path selection tool. Click the ellipse path, hold down shift while clicking in the triangle path, now you have selected both paths. Right click anywhere in the work are and select Fill path in the menu.

The Fill path dialog in the image below will appear, in the drop down select color and the Color picker will appear, select the color you want.

 

Now we can start applying layer effects to style the speech bubble.
Right click the layer you just created and select Blending options, now apply all the settings that I have used in the images bellow.

And that how you use photoshop to make a speech bubble.Below is my final result, remember since we have used paths you can resize the path without getting jagged speech bubbles.

Large areas on your page which are monotone (a single colour) can look very drab. The best way to rectify this problem is by using a watermark. A watermark is a lightened area, as if someone had poured water onto it.

To start with, get your monotone slab. (Not really an award-winning piece of art yet)

(This step is optional, but adds to the watermark’s effect) Choose a slightly darker shade of the colour, and put a gradient across the area.

To create the watermark shape, put some swirlies in. Choose font “Wingdings”, and type “jk” in white. Increase the font size, and position the watermark symbols so that there are no “ends” on your image.

This watermark might look alright now, but if you were to put text on it, it would be unreadable. Select your watermark layer, and decrease the opacity to 25%. This completes your watermark.

In this weekâs episode we take a break from the CS3 âexclusiveâ content
and get back into a creative mindset using clipping masks. This is a
very popular technique that is used in all sorts of magazine ads,
posters, invitations, and book covers. Youâll learn how to quickly
âclipâ your photographs into your text layer to create a very
eye-catching effect, without harming any pixels in the image and
keeping your text live and editable.

Iâve had several requests to create more content that will work in ALL
versions of Photoshop and not just CS3. After some serious thinking I
think I have a solution that will please everyone. I am going to do my
best to create tutorials that apply to most versions of Photoshop (CS2,
CS, and maybe even 7), however I cannot promise that I wonât have any
CS3 specific content on the show at all. That being said, whenever I do
cover a CS3 specific technique, I will (if at all possible) show how to
achieve the same effect using older versions of Photoshop as well. This
will make some episodes a little bit longer, but I think this is the
overall best solution to the CS3 specific issues weâve been having
lately.

Download Exercise File

In this episode of Quicktips I show you how to crop in perspective using one of the often overlooked features of the crop tool. This is a great little trick that will allow you to rip photos from frames, take posters off walls, and even (as we see in this podcast) rip images from a computer screen.

Be sure to check out SeeleyMedia.com for more information on my podcasts and all the projects I am working on. Also check out the new Community Forum and the FREE CS3 Learning Center.

Download Exercise File.

In This episode we take a look at a very simple way of blending an image into another background using the Blend If Sliders inside the blending options of Photoshop.

This is a great technique for silhouetting simple objects onto new backgrounds as well as dropping the white backdrop from scanned line-art.

Stay tuned for some EXCITING news here on the podcast as well as the 50th Episode Extravaganza! No Quicktips next week, but I promise it will be worth the wait. Don’t forget to check out SeeleyMedia.com for more information and more FREE videos!

This is something kind of new for me but I am going to try and post some news here on the blog periodically so here goesâ

Due
to the lack of response from the Quicktips Live chat session I am
putting it out of its misery. If the demand for such a service rises
again sometime in the future however, I will not be opposed to bringing
it back again. My thanks to those who did show up and to all of you for
watching the show each and every week.


I would also like to
announce some new projects I am currently working on. The first is a
new Podcast called Photoshop Help Desk LIVE! This show will be a sort
of call-in radio show that will be broadcast via talkshoe. Stay tuned for more information regarding this show.

I
also would like to announce that my next training DVD will be available
in April and will be titled "Practical Photoshop". This will be an
interactive DVD-ROM geared towards beginners and intermediate users and
will cover a variety of "everyday issues" and how to fix them. I will
be announcing the pre-sale date within the next few weeks so stay tuned.

In this episode of Quicktips we take a look at how to create a very cool and very random border effect using the extract filter. This is one of my new favorites because you never know what you’re getting when you do it.

This tip comes from Dave Cross and his Finishing Touches book. For more information on Dave or to purchase his books check out his blog at davecross.blogspot.com.

Download Exercise File