Photoshop Tutorials

[brownjason]

thanks for your sharing,it may help me a lot !

[SicK As mY SecReTs]

I have a problem! font size acts really weird

 

no matter what size I choose, it's still tiny! it changes size but is really tiny, I even tried 500 and 1000pt but still tiny any ideas ?

[donbot]

Check and see what your image resolution is. If you go to Image > Image Size... what does it say in "Resolution"? If you change it to 72 pixels/inch (untick "Resample Image" before you do this) does the font size go back to normal?

[SympathysSilhouette]

Can someone tell me how you can make gifs in PS that are reasonably sized?

Mine are either very big or crap quality.

I have no idea how you guys make good quality gifs that are not huge files.

[donbot]

Things you can do to reduce the file size of an animated GIF:

1. Make it smaller (width/height)

In making signatures/avatars, there's not really much you can do about this unless you want one that's smaller than the norm.

2. Reduce the number of frames by shortening the animation

Obviously the most effective without sacrificing quality, however not always the most desirable. I've cut sections out of many of my sets to try and get the size down though.

3. Reduce the number of frames by deleting every second frame (result will obviously not be as smooth)

Not something I ever do really, but it's a possibility.

4. Reduce the number of colours

The easiest thing to tinker with to try and get the size down, but is where you will get the most reduction in quality. GIF files only support 256 colours in total, but you can save them with less than this to make them smaller. The quality degradation is more noticeable the more colourful your original animation is. There are only 256 possible shades of grey in RGB, including black & white, so if you save a greyscale image as a GIF you won't get any quality loss at all if you save it in maximum colour resolution. Even if you cut the colours though, the loss in quality is less than it would be for a colour image. This is why I use a lot of greyscale and/or desaturated images in my sets.

eg. Compare the size vs quality below:

Specs: Coloured animation saved with 256 colours (maximum quality), saved with "noise" dither:

Size: 1019kb

Quality: Pretty good, but still has visible noise

Specs: Coloured animation saved with 32 colours, saved with "noise" dither:

Size: 484kb

Quality: Pretty awful!

Specs: Greyscale animation saved with 256 colours (maximum quality), saved with "noise" dither:

Size: 1367kb

Quality: As good as it gets - equal to the original video file

Specs: Greyscale animation saved with 32 colours, saved with "noise" dither:

Size: 607kb

Quality: Pretty good, but with visible noise - about on par with the first example (max quality coloured GIF)

[SympathysSilhouette]

Thanks for that donbot!

[SicK As mY SecReTs]

Check and see what your image resolution is. If you go to Image > Image Size... what does it say in "Resolution"? If you change it to 72 pixels/inch (untick "Resample Image" before you do this) does the font size go back to normal?

thank you, donbot! it helped!

[SicK As mY SecReTs]

hmm me again

 

 

can anyone pls explain me how to make this effect ? I kinda know but still can't fully figure it out   actually it was two pics and I just joined them

  

[Lkjh]

You can do so by adding a layer mask to the black and white effect, and then use a black brush over all the squares you want to have color again.

In that way you will 'erease' the black and white so what's underneath will have color again.

I don't know if that makes sense

 

If you need me to put some pictures with it to make it more understandable, let me know hun

[SicK As mY SecReTs]

yeah I figured it out but don't know how to make those squares

[donbot]

Easy :Dinah:

Like with anything in Photoshop, there's more than one way to do it, but see how you go with this:

1. Select the Rounded Rectangle Tool. It might be behind the Rectangle/Ellipse/etc tools.

2. In the toolbar up the top, change the Radius field to 2px. This will control how curvy the corners are.

3. Draw a rounded rectangle on the canvas - doesn't matter what colour. Depends on how anal you want to be with making the boxes even, etc.. but I made the document 199x199 pixels, which fits a 3x2 grid of rectangles that are 65x98 pixels, allowing for 1px between each, and 1px around the edge. You can see the size of the rectangle as you're drawing it in the Info palette (Window > Info), or it might just popup near your cursor as you're drawing (depending on Photoshop version).

4. Once you've drawn the first rectangle at the right size, make sure it's positioned correctly (1px from the top edge, and 1px from the left). You can use the arrow keys on your keyboard to nudge it 1px at a time when you have the Move Tool selected. Then (also with the Move Tool selected), hold down Alt and drag the rectangle to the right. It will leave the first one where it is, and make a copy which you will be moving. Before you let go, hold down Shift, which will make it stay vertically aligned with the first rectangle. Let go once it's in position, and again nudge it if you need to, to make sure it's 1px away from the first one.

5. Repeat the process until you have 6 rectangles.

6. Bring your image in on top of all the rectangles.

7. Hold down Ctrl and click one of the rectangles to load it as a selection. Make sure you click the little thumbnail in the Layers palette (eg. not the layer name).

8. Hold down Ctrl + Shift and click each of the remaining rectangles in the Layers palette - this will add each to your selection. It should look something like this:

9. Select your image layer, and press the Add layer mask button.

10. You can hide or delete all the rectangles now - you no longer need them.

11. Click the Create new fill or adjustment layer button and choose Hue/Saturation...

12. In the adjustment layer options, drag the Saturation slider all the way to the left. The entire image should now be in greyscale.

13. Click on the layer mask of the adjustment layer.

14. Select the Rectangular Marquee Tool and make a selection over the first panel you want to re-colour.

15. Fill the selection black. This will knock out the desaturation in that area.

16. Repeat 14 & 15 over the other panels.

17. Done

[SicK As mY SecReTs]

yay! done!

 

thanks a lot, donbot! you rock!    

 

 

during making of it one question popped up in my mind, what if the pic is black and white and I want some rectangles to be for example red-ish or blue-ish color ? what I got is that Layer Mask gives original color of the pic and what if I want other color ?

[donbot]

^Same process, but add a second adjustment layer on top of the first one to do the colouring.

If the original image is coloured:

- Do up to step 12 above

- Create a second Hue/Saturation adjustment layer on top of the first one

- In the adjustment layer options, click on the Colorize checkbox, then adjust the Hue slider to the colour you want

- Do steps 13-16 for the second adjustment layer instead of the first

If the original image is already greyscale, same thing but you don't need the first adjustment layer at all.

[SicK As mY SecReTs]

done!

 

thanks again! 

[SicK As mY SecReTs]

ahm one more question

 

drawing rectangles is kinda confusing me, I did them with my eye size but it's not always good :trout: I'm using CS5 now and here's info window

 

 

these circled X and Y shows mouse's position yeah ? but how should I know I have 1px from borders or between rectangles, I mean I can't get how it works, should I watch mouse's little arrow or little cross aside arrow ?

[Lkjh]

Donbot, you should publish a book containing this stuff

[SicK As mY SecReTs]

Donbot, you should publish a book containing this stuff

+1

 

 

I'll be the first to buy it! well you definitely have 2 buyers now! :dance:

[PinkCouture]

^ Count me in, so 3! (Y)

[donbot]

ahm one more question

 

drawing rectangles is kinda confusing me, I did them with my eye size but it's not always good :trout: I'm using CS5 now and here's info window

 

these circled X and Y shows mouse's position yeah ? but how should I know I have 1px from borders or between rectangles, I mean I can't get how it works, should I watch mouse's little arrow or little cross aside arrow ?

Yes, they show the position of the mouse. But don't worry so much about the position as you're drawing, because you can move it later. Just make sure it's the right size (see the W & H in the info palette). Actually one thing I forgot to mention is that you should make sure you have the "Snap to Pixel Grid" option on. You'll find it in the vector shape options - the button looks like a blob shape in the toolbar up the top, when you have the Rounded Rectangle Tool selected. It's the difference between sharp and blurry edges and will make sure everything lines up properly.

So once you have it at the right size, just move it into position using the Move Tool. As I mentioned, you can nudge it 1 pixel at a time using the arrow keys too, and you should be able to tell when it's 1px away from the edge. Hope that helps!

[SicK As mY SecReTs]

yeah I saw this Snap to Pixels and also I chose Fixed Size and it's easier to me now

 

thanks again!