This tutorial shows a quick way to take your normal, boring product shot and make it look more professional and elegant. This isn’t a new trick, but it’s a really quick process with Photoshop.

Open your image. I started with this photo of a banana. I masked out the banana and slightly rotated it.

Behind my banana layer, I added a Gradient Adjustment Layer. Adjust the colors to something yellowish, or whatever color you want, and fading to black.

Set the Gradient Adjustment Layer to Style: Radial. I increased the scale to fit my banana better.

Make a rectangular selection on the lower 1/3 of your image. Add a new Solid Color Adjustment Layer under the banana layer and above the Gradient layer. Fill it with black.

Select your banana layer and press [Ctrl + J] to duplicate it. Select your lower, original banana layer and press [Ctrl + T] to bring up the free-transform. Right-click on your bounding box, and choose “Flip Vertical”.

Drag your new, flipped layer down, so that the bottom of the top layer, matches the top of the bottom layer. Confused? Picture:

Click on the Add Layer Mask button on your Layers Palette or go [Layer > Add Layer Mask > Reveal All]. Select the Gradient Fill Tool [G] and select your default colors [D]. With your Layer Mask selected, drag your Gradient from top to bottom until you get a nice reflective effect.

And that’s pretty much it. I explained it out in this tutorial, but it’s a few quick steps for a nice effect.

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Brusheezy is a new site offering large collection of free photoshop brushes.

Currently there are a total of 148 free brush sets under 15 categories such as abstract, nature, space, splatters etc.

What I like about the site is that users can comment on the brushes and contribute their own brush sets.

There is also a patterns section at the site however it currently has only 6 patterns for download. Nonetheless it is a very useful resource for all Photoshop users.

Photoshop Brush (4 in set)
Added: Oct 09, 2008
Category: Shapes
Photoshop Version: CS
Click here to download.

It’s quiet remarkable how accessible graphic design has become for people. Whether it’s designing party invitations, promoting a show, or advertising for a garage sale – it is now easier than ever to create remarkably good looking work through the power of your computer. In previous times, a person would have to go to school to learn the tricks of the design trade. However, all that you need now is a good graphics program and an Internet connection and you will find all of the information that you need.

Unreal Brushes v.4
by Edelihu
Photoshop Brush (9 in set)
Added: Sep 29, 2008
Category: Abstract & Fractal
Photoshop Version: CS3
Click to download

What are photoshop brushes?

Whether you are an expert at Adobe Photoshop or are just fooling around on it as a beginner, every person has the same goal – to create an interesting design that you will like and can show your friends. One of the most effective ways to add some flourish to your photoshop designs is by using a wide array of brushes. Photoshop brushes are essentially tools that can be used in the brush palette of adobe photoshop. Each photoshop brush has a specific design or an effect that can liven up the most drab project. From grunge effects to techno swirls to a soft cloud effect to Polaroid framing styles, you can obtain all of these different looks with the right photoshop brush.

Ask any graphic designer about what tool they use the most in adobe photoshop and they will immediately tell you – brushes. With a bit of minor tweaking, you are able to create some incredible effects and the best part is that you can save them as a photoshop brush. Photoshop Brushes have been instrumental in the illustration of websites, wallpapers, and graphics in general. They are a fantastic tool for implanting your own style on a design. From retro text styles like a typewriter font to vintage wear and tear styles to futuristic fonts, you will be able to add the extra flourish that will make your designs stand out.

One of the biggest attractions of using photoshop brushes are that they allow designers to get over their problem of being unable to draw well. Photoshop brushes work by determining the shape of something that you paint when you are utilizing the paint brush tool in adobe photoshop. You are able to add some nice patterns with photoshop brushes for your design or you are able to add some extra touches to a more comprehensive photoshop brush. They are also great because they are so diverse. When you are adding some photoshop brushes to your design, you are able to set the color of the photoshop brush by picking the color of the paint that you want to use. When they are create with an interesting size and shape, photoshop brushes can be dynamic to use in creating a collage.

In addition to adding some extra cool to a design, photoshop brushes are excellent artistic tools. With photoshop brushes that have a mosaic effect or a soft cloud style, you will be able to add a bit of extra emotional depth to your style. We live in a visual world and people are bombarded with television and advertisements on a daily basis. It is more important than ever to create stylish designs that will get your message out there instantly. Find out more about how you can add this fantastic tool to your design arsenal.

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404 Pages are a great place to highlight your tallent. Leats face it most people get there by mistake so why not entertain them.

Pick of the month:

This is not a working example, since the site isn’t using the page as a working 404 error page. Nevertheless it’s quite funny: the characters are talking, and as you might suggest, they are talking about 404 errors! Click to see in Action.

This person is really sorry you found their 404 page. See it here

Renet-web.met offers recent posts and a search box.

A couple of other interesting ideas.

Have fun with your 404 pages

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Hi Guys,

I’ve been going over the feedback and there were requests for more video tutorials for Photoshop, Dreamweaver, Photoshop Elements, etc.. So I’ve added a new section to this blog called “Tutorials”. I’ll be adding all kinds of videos to this section on everything design related. Some will be created by me, and some by other designers.

I have some for you today. I didn’t create these myself, but I did have to do some “digging” to find quality tutorials online. Here is a first batch for you, enjoy….

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I have been teaching some of my students Photoshop in a live web conferencing system so thought I would share it.

Learn the secrets of how small businesses are “communicating with clients and each other” for a fraction of the cost corporate giants are paying with VOIP Web Conferencing.

Online Web Conferencing has always been available to the large corporate sites and techies. Now you can use this brand new software to run your own web conferencing and even generate residual income just like the professionals with no knowledge of programming required.

VOIP or Voice Over Inernet Protocol is becoming one of the fastest growing technologies on the internet today. You can talk with a business associate, friend or family member anywhere in the world.

To find out more go here.

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While fractals are not actually anything to do with Photoshop when you know they are the product of a mathamatical equation then this one is absolutely beautiful.

A fractal is generally “a rough or fragmented geometric shape that can be split into parts, each of which is (at least approximately) a reduced-size copy of the whole,” a property called self-similarity. The term was coined by Benoît Mandelbrot in 1975 and was derived from the Latin fractus meaning “broken” or “fractured.”

A fractal often has the following features:

* It has a fine structure at arbitrarily small scales.
* It is too irregular to be easily described in traditional Euclidean geometric language.
* It is self-similar (at least approximately or stochastically).
* It has a Hausdorff dimension which is greater than its topological dimension (although this requirement is not met by space-filling curves such as the Hilbert curve).
* It has a simple and recursive definition.

Because they appear similar at all levels of magnification, fractals are often considered to be infinitely complex (in informal terms). Natural objects that approximate fractals to a degree include clouds, mountain ranges, lightning bolts, coastlines, and snow flakes. However, not all self-similar objects are fractals—for example, the real line (a straight Euclidean line) is formally self-similar but fails to have other fractal characteristics.

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That’s right! No catches, no samples. For a LIMITED TIME only, a COMPLETE COPY of Corrie Haffly’s Brilliant Photoshop Web primer is free to download.

The Photoshop Anthology: 101 Web Design Tips, Tricks & Techniques is the ultimate Photoshop compendium for web designers.

It’s brimming with tried and tested real-world Photoshop solutions that will add impact to your next web design project. If you’ve ever been stuck for inspiration, have puzzled over just how to create a shiny aqua-style button, or wanted to create that seamlessly tiling background image you saw on a site recently, you need download this book.

Download Here 

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If your just a beginner I have made a very simple to follow beginners video for you covering some of the basics. I did this for my wife on a Sunday afternoon so you see my mistakes, hear the traffic etc but they will show you the basics and get you up and running quickly.

Click here to watch the video.

Here is the action script for the ebook covers I used in the above tutorial Download here. (zip file 117kb)

If you prefer reading here is a great pdf that will also take you through the basics.

Once you learn the basics our friends over at Watch And Learn Photoshop are releasing a few new products and have also released not one, not two, not three but seven free photoshop video tutorials/tips. Their videos are a lot more professional than my Sunday afternoon effort.

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If your looking for professional graphics program I suggest you learn Photoshop however if you want a simple graphics program for web and general use then you have come to the right place!

I searched for years for software like this for my students and now you can profit from all my research. No this eBook cover is not made with the software but the header is and some samples below.

This Software is an open source, raster graphics editing program for Windows, developed on the .NET Framework. The Software has evolved from a simple replacement for the Microsoft Paint program, which is included with Windows, into a powerful editor with support for layers, blending, transparency, and plugins. It is available under MIT License.

Get your FREE Copy here

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The world’s FIRST stand-alone Virtual Sales Agent enables you to put an automated chat solution on your website WITHOUT having to pay someone else for the service…

This Software Turns Non-Buying Website Visitors Into Happy Customers in a Matter of Minutes… Totally Hands Free!

• Increase your website conversions up to 20-40% in a little as 2 weeks!
• Dramatically reduce your shopping cart abandonment.
• Instantly increase the value of each website visitor.
• Improve your website visitor’s experience (builds trust and repeat business).
• Increase your customer loyalty and overall satisfaction
• Quickly grow a highly responsive opt-in list of interested prospects.
• Reduce labor costs.
• Save time by reducing questions and support requests.
• Up-sell or cross-sell similar and/or additional products to boost your revenue.
• Find out WHY customers are leaving your site.
• One installation works on ALL your websites… boost your entire business

P.S.- If you are questioning whether or not you can “afford” this program, please think about this…

How many sales of your product would it take to reach $97 of income? For example, if you’re selling a product for $97 it would only take ONE saved sale to make up for the cost of this program.

Whether you’re selling a product for $5 or $5,000… your Virtual Smart Agent will be putting more of those sales into your pocket.

And your virtual agent will keep saving sales forever… so how can you afford NOT to invest in this today?

Even if your not ready to purchase you should at least visit the site and have a look at this amazing software.

Click here to visit now with no obligation.

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