I found this simple tutorial through an e-Newsletter that I subscribe to from StockExpert. Using half-tones in Photoshop is an excellent way to get incredible visual effects.

This tutorial will help you go from this:

To this:

Several effects added to a photo can take a normal photo and make it extraordinary. Click here to go to the tutorial.

As a designer, I'm always learning, new, faster and better ways to do something! One of my most recent discoveries: creating a 5 second contact sheet using Adobe Bridge and InDesign.  The functionality may have been around for a while, but it wasn't until reading "Adobe Master Apprentice" that I suddenly stumbled acrross this incredible feature.

Here's how it works:

1. Instead of having to place the images you wish to sample in InDesign in order to print them, simply collect the images into a folder on your machine.
2. Open that folder in Bridge.
3. If you're using CS3 go to the "Tools" menu and select "InDesign".
4. Select the option for "contact sheet"
5. Choose the number of rows and columns you want (this will adjust the size of the images)
6. Watch InDesign do the work for you, automated!

I hope this tip will save you tons of time! Enjoy!

Unless you have been formally educated in color chances are you may not fully understand the difference between Tints, Tones and Shades.

I'll never forget learning this principle during one of my first art classes way back in high school.  The teacher handed us 3 bottles of paint. 1 Red. 1 Black. and 1 White. She further instructed us that we would be creating a monochromatic painting.

I've been a bit under the weather the past couple of days so I'm gonna take this opportunity to do a little "sponsoring" and offer a shout out to Adobe. If you still haven't made up your mind whether or not you need to take the plunge and  upgrade to CS4, you might as well bite the bullet and go for it!

At the ministry where I spend my days we JUST upgraded to CS3 about 6 months ago, but I plan to have my girls go ahead with the smaller version jump to CS4 as soon as possible. We have to face it, Adobe OWNS desktop publishing. As designers, if we want to stay "in-the-know" we are going to have to stay as up-to-date as possible!

We all want to be faster. We look for the shortest check out lane, the quickest restaurant and the fastest cars. Unfortunately, when it comes to our design work, there are few areas we can "fly" through.

Thankfully, thanks to automation, masks, and layer comps we can save a lot of time, by simply thinking "speed" when we design.

One of my goals as a designer is to offer good quality at an affordable price. The way I do this best is by working quickly and allowing the computer to "work for me".  You will often finding me in my office "using" two machines!

How? I set one up on an automated task and do manual work on the other and vice-versa.

Automation. What is it and how can it work for you?  You may not realize how many things you can easily automate in photoshop, but before I discuss that, let's talk briefly about what it is and how you use it. Automation in Photoshop is done efficiently by creating "Actions". An action is a sequence of events that you "record" and play back to apply to an image or graphic. This sequence can be something as easy as changing the color mode, to a detailed series of color mode, sizing, saving and closing.

In case you're not familiar with actions, here's the palette you're looking for in Photoshop:

There are any number of tutorials on creating an action out there, so rather than re-iterate that information, here are some links:

http://blog.paranoidferret.com/?p=18
http://www.dpandi.com/actions/
http://www.photoshopcafe.com/tutorials/actions/actions.htm
http://www.tutorialsroom.com/tutorials/graphics/photoshop_actions.html

Now that you know HOW to create an action, let's discuss some great uses for them. I recently was asked to create a series of Flag icons for a Ministry with a large international reach. Needing over 65 countries I found it difficult to find an icon set that had all the flags I needed. Rather than purchasing an incomplete set, I decided to create my own.

Once the initial flags had been created, I opened all the files in Photoshop and set up actions to save them into a variety of sizes and file formats. By the time I had finished I had over 2000 different icons. Guess how long it took to convert and save them? About 2 hours of hands-free work. Photoshop did it all for me.

Learn to work smarter, not harder.

Adobe's done it again. Introducing a new suite of software that will be available in late October, the company has raised the bar for graphic design, web development and production creatives.

Is it all hype?

Collecting resources and opinions from a variety of designers and production professionals, the overall opinion seems to be positive. As designers we may dig our heels in for a while hoping to avoid the $600 upgrade fee, but in the end we know that we will have to adjust and move with the times or we will be limiting ourselves and our work flow with others.

The new edition of Photoshop is not without some new and promising features. Just to barely scan the surface, here are few to get you started:

• New configuration settings for the Burn and Dodge tool make more realistic looking changes, in contrast to the previously washed-out or over-exposed results that were so common with novices using the tool in the past.
• New "adjustments" dialog to quickly access effects and enhancements that were previously housed in various menus.
• New "real edge" features which take into account things like fur and hair
• For photographers there is a new depth-of-field feature that assists with short focus issues.

For the suite as a whole, Adobe is proud of their new level of cross-compatibility with more media, web and mobile integration. Interestingly enough, thats a subject I had trouble finding "actual" specifications on.

One thing I do know, as a designer I will be forced to take the plunge and buy the upgrade once it's released. And truth be told, I'm pretty excited about it regardless of the price!

Ever wished for a visual "cheat sheet" of blending options and their effects in Photoshop?

Wanna save the time of having to click through all the effects to find the right combination? Look no further! At the end of this post, you can download a handy PDF of these images that will show you an at-a-glance reference of blending options and their effects.

Enjoy!

For the sake of this example we'll be using to different images to clearly illustrate the blending options!

Image 1: A simple tree!

Image 2: A Hot Air Balloon.

One by one, we will go through each blending option. Without moving the images or changing the placement. Some results may be hideous, but the purpose of this exercise is to provide you with a visual example of each of the blending options located in this palette.

Darken: Darkens the areas that overlap.

Multiply: Combines the hues of the overlapping images.

Color Burn: Accentuates the brighter areas of the photos.

Linear Burn: Accentuates and darkens the lighter areas.

Darker Color: Shows the darkest common color in both images.

Lighten: Overlaying parts of the images are lightened and washed-out.

Screen: Similar to the "Lighten" mode, but creates a brighter sheen.

Color Dodge: Still brighter than the "Screen" mode.

Lindear Dodge: Washed out further.

Lighter Color: Removes the darker images within the composition.

Overlay: The top image is lightly displayed over the image.

Soft Light: Similar to the "Overlay" mode except lighter.

Hard Light: Shows the drastic difference between the top layer images.

Vivid LIght: Colors are show in their brightest hues.

Linear Light: Brighter lights colors on the top layer.

Pin Light: Removes and combines similiar colors between the layers.

Hard Mix: Colors are combined and then exagerated.

Difference: Great for creating mystifying night scenes.

Exclusion: The inverse of the difference mode.

Hue: Breaks the composition down into basic colors.

Saturation: Determines the vividness of the composition's colors.

Color: Changes color below the top image to reflect the image's hues.

Luminosity: Creates a dark, yet vibrant color layer on the bottom image.

If you want a downloadable copy of this cheat sheet, click here.

So how realistic are these blending options? Well, here's a recent project I did for an upcoming book that will be released in January. You may notice the iStockWatermarks on this copy as I haven't yet converted this to finished product with the purchased images. However, in this piece alone, I have 10 images and I have utilized a variety of blending options in the piece.

If you were to ask me which of the Adobe products was the hardest to learn, I'd have to answer Illlustrator. If you asked me which of the Adobe products I've had the most fun with, I'd have to say Illustrator!

That may be in part to the freedom that Illustrator gives you to be a "real" artist. I can sit down with my Wacom Tablet and just draw naturally. I love it.

Creating stunning illustrations, though time consuming is tons of fun. My favorite trick? I love to use illustrator for text that I want to blow up. I create my text box, choose type>create outlines and now I have a vector version of my text that can be blown out of proportion or used in tandem with other programs to create awesome posters and really fun effects.

When I was first learning Illustrator I came across a remarkable book by Scott Kelby, Illustrator Killer Tips. He's actually recently put this book on sale. It's a remarkable resource. Start having fun!

As a designer chances are one of your weaknesses is the "details". As artists we tend to look at the big picture. The details get lost somewhere in our need to be expressive and let "it all out"! Unfortunately, not paying attention to the details is one of the fastest way to lose a client. It only takes one print job that gets cut off, or messed up for you to lose good business. So how can we avoid this? 1. Use templates. Hang on now. When I say templates I do not mean for the design but rather for the document setup. For each printer I use I have a folder on my machine filled with Photoshop, indesign and illustrator documents that include the bleed settings and trim sizes. By doing this, not only do I insure that my designs will be the right size but additionally it saves me the time of gathering specs for every basic job. 2. Use master files. I've said it before but it bears repeating. When working with a file that contains multiple pages take advantage of the master file feature in InDesign. By using those master pages you can easily set up running heads ( the chapter titles that appear on the top of each page) that will be uniform, consistent and best of all quick!! Again keep in mind that paying attention to the details DOES not mean that your design time will be increased. 3. Know your color space. One of the biggest issues I see with student designers work is print files that are built as RGB files and web files built in CMYK. When this occurs they are often upset with the quality of the end result when the price is finalized. Pay close attention to your colorspace. If you need to use a filter that is only available in RGB you can convert using the option " do not merge", add your filter and then convert back to CMYK. As you do this you may realize that the RGB version appears more vibrant. You're right. It does BECAUSE YOU ARE VIEWING IT ON A SCREEN. Avoid the temptation to assume that those colors will print properly.

One of the most exciting discoveries I've made recently is the availability of LIVE PREFLIGHT in InDesign CS4. That in itself is well worth the fee to purchase an upgrade. Now, whether or not I will upgrade BEFORE the end of the year for tax purposes, well, that will depend.

I recently read an article that outlining some of the new features of Adobe's InDesign re-vamp and compared them to features of the new Quark 8. As a die-hard InDesign fan, I wouldn't be caught dead voluntarily using Quark. In fact, I've purchased Marksware's Quark to InDesign converter for the sole purpose of avoiding the product.

Interestingly enough, reading up on this list of "features" released in Quark 8 it was apparent that many of the "new additions" have been in InDesign for several years! Go Figure!

Back to Live Preflight, in InDesign CS4 with the "Live Preflight" option selected, you have the opportunity to have errors flagged in real time as they occur. Import a RGB photo? Live preflight will tell you. Is the font you're using missing a stroke? Live preflight will tell you.

Since I don't have my hands on it yet, I'm anxious to use this in a real production environment. Shoot me your feedback, I'd love to hear your experiences with InDesign CS4 vs. CS3.