Whilst going through my RSS reader, I came across this amazing achievement of tech and photography via Photography Blog. An amazing 70 Gigapixel 360° panoramic photograph of Budapest.

The photograph was taken from a 100-year-old observation tower built on the highest point of Budapest, the stitched panorama is over 590,000 pixels wide by nearly 121,000 pixels tall. The young Hungarian photographers used two Sony A900 bodies – each outfitted with a Minolta AF 400mm f/4.5 APO G lens and 1.4x teleconverter – on a sturdy tripod complete with a custom-designed robotic head. The image capturing stage of the project took over three hours to finish. The source images were then stitched with Autopano Giga software  and this process took two full days and resulted in a 200GB file!!

Click the image below to see the panorama on their website ( you will need microsoft Silverlight installed)

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With all the talk about the content-aware features in Adobe Photoshop CS5 – I think the following feature has been somewhat over shadowed but for me its ridiculously intuitive. I love it! I am already imagining the hours of time it is going to save me when retouching photographs.

The tool makes use of various different techniques which have been seen before such as not removing edges – but removing colours to define edges – but has condensed them into a simple to use and effective little tool which has an amazing amount of accuracy and control.

I honestly haven’t been this excited about Photoshop since CS2.

Enjoy the video!

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I recently created this wallpaper for Lucidry an online inspirational, business, social media and creative professional website. I thought it would be great to share my process in a tutorial! You can download my version here. Hope you enjoy.

Step 1

Create a new document that is the screen resolution of your PC/Laptop Screen – So for me that was 1920×1080.

Step 2

Then fill the background layer with the color #2d2d2d – To do this, with the background layer selected, hit SHIFT + F5 and select color ; or go to Edit –> Fill –> Colour.

Step 3

Now create a new layer above background and name this ‘texture’. Ensure your foreground color is black and your background color white. With this layer selected, fill the layer with black by hitting SHIFT+F5 and selecting black, or by going to Edit –> Fill –> Black. When this is complete, go to Filter –> Noise –> Add Noise . You should then have a new dialog box pop up – here you want to drag the percentage noise to 160-ish and select ‘Uniform’ and ‘Monochromatic’

Step 4

You are now going set the blending mode of the layer ‘texture’ to Overlay and its Opacity to 33%. You hsould now have anice textured/grainy background.

Step 5 – Download the Galaxies Brush File here – download.

Create a new layer above texture. You are now going to use your Galaxy brush – (installing new brushes tutorial is –  here) and by using a combination of the different brushes in the set create a cloud like shape as below.

Step 6

Create a new text layer above texture. In this layer type your main heading i.e – ‘SUCCEED’ . When you have typed your word(s) and placed them where you want their position to be. You are going to hold CTRL (CMD) and click on the layer’s thumbnail in the layer panel. This should create a selection of the text. Now go with the selection active, click on your cloud layer and the hit CTRL+X or CMD+X to delete. Now go and delete your text layer. You should be left with the cloud layer having a perfect cut out of the text characters. To add ‘i am going to’ simply repeat this process.

Step 7

Create a new layer above your text-cloud and select a large soft round brush and spot brush over the cloud area. Then choose some bright colours such as #00baff (blue); #ff4000 (red); #5afe00 (green); #fcff00 (yellow);#ff9000 (orange). Then once you have done this, set the layer blending mode to color.

Step 8 – Download Grunge Brush here – download

Now create a new layer, and with a grunge brush in different complementing colours, gently add a little grunge to to the tips and bottoms of some of your text characters. this will help to merge the characters with the aurora.

Step 9

Now create a new shape layer by selecting the shape tool and selecting a rectangle. Set your color to black and then draw a slim rectangle underneath your main type to add your subtitle/quote inside. Once drawn, rasterise the shape layer by going to Layer –> Rasterise —> Shape. This will make it editable. Select the eraser tool with a soft brush and set its opacity to 60% and brush away at the edges to make the box fade out at either side. Set the rectangle’s layer opacity to 50%.

Step 10

Select the text tool and add your quote to sit on top /inside the rectangle. Add a Drop Shadow to make it pop up off from the rest of the composition.

You can download my finished versions here: Succeed Wallpaper

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1) Water Goddess by Sugargrl14

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Morning All,

I recently got some of my photographs printed at A1 size ready for sale for the very first time. At the printers, I was lucky enough to catch some advice from some more experienced photographers who were printing their work, involving post-processing images ready for print.

Add Noise – 5%
- Filter- Noise – Add Noise – 5%
Adding 5% worth of noise to my image, actually brang out some of the details in the image I was getting ready to print. It appears to give the illusion of sharpening the image. Furthermore, it gives a bit of ‘texture’ to areas of flat colour, that otherwise were a bit lifeless. Obviously the grain you witness below is one section of a much larger photo, so the grain is much less pronounced when going to print. Experiment with this, print some photos and see if it will help your images!

The first image is the original with no noise added… The second image below has 5% worth of noise added.

Feel free to view my photography portfolio.

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Designing for print, and designing for web are two different kettles of fish, and learning some of the basic considerations between the two can save you many of the traditional rookie mistakes that plagued us, in our teething process. this little article should hopefully stop you from making any huge mistakes early on.

Firstly, lets seek to define the two:

Typically when designing for print, I am talking about the following medium:

• Business Cards
• Brochures
• Magazines
• Flyers
• Posters
• Packaging

Typically when designing for web, I am referring to the following:

• Flash Websites
• E-mail Newsletters
• Banners
• Advertisements
• HTML Websites

When designing for web, the common goal is to keep the user on your website for as long as possible or for them to be able to access and process the information they have come to seek as quickly and easily as possible. When designing, for print however, you generally have an aim of catching the demographic’s eye to pick up/read/interact with your print. An advantage of print design is that you are designing for an eventual physical result, so physical properties such as texture , shape, paper weight, size can help you achieve the desired outcome.

Colour Considerations

One must first understand that colour can be segmented primarily for ease in this article into models called RGB and CMYK. When designing graphics for the web, you will need to set your relevant graphics program (e.g Adobe Photoshop) to RGB Mode. This is because the RGB model is used in computer screens. Thus, when designing websites (and other on-screen projects such as presentations), the RGB model is used because the final product is viewed on a computer display and as such the colours you design with will be able to be output accurately by these devices and in these situations. The CMYK color model is used when designing for print. To understand it, it is best to start with RGB color. The RGB color model (made up of red, green and blue) is used in your computer monitor, and is what you will view your projects in while still on screen. These colors, however, can only be viewed with natural or produced light, such as in the computer monitor, and not on a printed page. When designing for print , dependant on your relevant software, you will be working in RGB or in CMYK if your program can. All completed digital files should be converted to CMYK before sending to printers. Because of this issue, it is important to proof prints. (i.e print a copy to test how the colours are produced on paper, so that you can then adjust and correct your colours). Furthermore, designers often use swatches, to show clients what colours look like when printed onto different kinds of paper.

It is also very important to consider that colours which work well in print, do not always work well on the web and vice a versa. If your client, comes to you with a set of pre-determined colours from say a successful print campaign and wishes the same colours to be used on their website; you have to consider whether a bright yellow background with pink text is appropriate for a users bright computer monitor and whether they will find that setup attractive on the web etc. Much of it is trial and error, common sense and a general appreciation for the difference between print and web interaction with the user.

Layout Considerations

When designing for print, you are given a determined an exact size – as such you are 100% per cent sure on how the end result will look and be structured for all who encounter it. When designing for web it is is important to note that people have different monitors, and as such different resolutions. A common early mistake is to design a website on your great spanking high resolution graphic smonitor and then wonder why it does not fit on the standard home users screen. The most common screen resolution is 1024×768 pixels; as such this should be a huge consideration when designing websites. When designing, many web designers use maximum widths of 960 pixels, or alternatively in flash – one can also design sites that resize acording to the users screen resolution/browser area. Another key consideration when designing for web is to place your navigation in a clear and easy to find area. Also, striving to keep it as simple and straight forward as possible. There is no use having great information on a website, if your users struggle to get to it! When designing for print, it is essential that an appropriate trim and bleed is left around the edge of your design to accomodate for the prinitng process. Outside this area, you should avoid placing any vital information such as text which may be trimmed/binded/lost away after printng.

Summary for Print:

• Work in or convert all files to CMYK so you know how colours differ from normal RGB model
• Print a proof before sending to the printers/ or ask for a proff from the printers before the main run
• Leave an appropriate trim or bleed around the edge of you design, free of important information. The size of this will depend on what you are designing. Some already configured Photoshop documents with guides already set for you can be found in this post: (for free download) Print, business card, flyer, poster templates
• Check how colours print on different weights, finishes and textures of paper

Summary for Web:

• Design with the common monitor resolution of 1024×768 in mind
• Check colours you have used are web friendly for accessibility and usability. For information on accessibility and usability click here.
• Ensure you are designing using the RGB colour model.

Further Reading and Sources:

http://www.useit.com/alertbox/990124.html

http://graphicdesign.about.com/od/printvsweb/a/print_vs_web.htm

http://www.grantasticdesigns.com/printweb.html

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Hi all.

I learnt Photoshop like many through resources and tutorials available online. We all however know, that there are few quality sites out there, many are filled with the types of effects and filter processes that leave you with amateur and poor results. The sites below, all have a degree of quality control of their articles and the content of them. I find them useful, hope you all do to:

1) Photoshop Lady

2) PaintBits.com

3) 10 Steps Photoshop Tutorials

4) iDo tutorials

5) Smashing Magazine: Photoshop Tutorials

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Recently, I went out with my camera, captured around 200 10MP photos with my DSLR. I then wanted to upload each picture to the web. Instead of resizing and individually sharpening each one, I created an Action; Photoshop then automatically converted all 200 images for me, whilst preserving the originals in their source folder.

Lets begin:

Preparation
1. I gathered all my images and placed them within one folder.

2. Now, we need to create the ‘Action’. To do this open (Ctrl/Command + O) one of the images in Photoshop and open your actions palette. This can be done by:

You should now see the following palette box:

Creating Your Action

3. Click the “Create New Action” symbol at the bottom of the palette box and name your new action appropriately and hit enter. This will start recording your action, from this point on, Photoshop is recording exactly what you do…

4. So now that photoshop is recording, you are going to need to resize your image. Navigate to Image>Image size and then enter the new values for which you wish to resize your image to and hit ok.

5. Next, Navigate to file>save as and select the appropriate options for your image.

6. Click the “Stop playing/recording” icon at the bottom of the Actions palette.

7. Penultimately, navigate to File>Automate>Batch and select the action you named in step 3, and the source folder that contains the multiple images you want to resize and then specify a destination folder for the new files the process will create.

8. Now hit OK, and you should watch photoshop enter into a flurry of windows. Wait as it does all the leg work for you.

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Hey all. Every now and then you take a beautiful picture of  a clear scenic day and nothing could make it better than adding a wonderful rainbow into the shot. Or in your designing etc, you may just want to add a rainbow to the composition. Below, is a tutorial, showing you how to add a rainbow in a simple manner to your work.

Firstly, open up your photo and create a new layer above your photo. Name this layer “Rainbow”.

Now, select the gradient tool and then select the following options:

Click the drop down arrow on the gradient preview, then click n the right button for more options and scroll down to ‘Special Effects’. A pop-up box will appear asking if you want to append the special effects, click ‘OK’ to replace.

Your gradient options should now look like the following. Hover your mouse over the 4th box called ‘Russell’s Rainbow’.

Select Russell’s rainbow and set your gradient tool to ‘radial.

Now with your ‘Gradient’ layer highlighted. Click in the center of your canvas and drag your mouse up to create a radial rainbow gradient. You should have something as follows.

To then make it as realistic as possible: I then moved the gradient layer across my canvas, dropped its layer opacity all the way down to 10% and erased the excess of the circle gradient to make it appear the rainbow is behind the trees.

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Introduction
This tutorial should hopefully have you adjusting and touching up all your photos at an intermediate level in no time. the techniques and principles can ten be applied in doing other things within photoshop. Adjustment layers can allow you to create simple 30-second effects as the one below: (this is shown in the video at the end of the tutorial)

Firstly some quick thoughts:

Adjustment layers?
Adjustment layers work in the same way as normal photoshop layers. You can apply an adjustment (such as levels or contrast changes) on a transparency/layer and it will become an adjustment layer. Next you take this adjustment layer and place it on our stack of layers. The adjustment layer will not actually affect your original image but by placing it on top of your original image, you then hyperthetically, look ;through; that adjustment to see your original image. Then when look through the adjustment layer everything seen through it seems to have that adjustment. Adjustment layers also remain editable and their settings can always be returned to and tweaked etc. Now to the nitty gritty:

Creating an Adjustment layer:
1) Go to Layer > New Adjustment Layer >

2) Click on the icon for adjustment layers and select your required type of adjustment.

What do they all do?
There are 12 Adjustment Options available to you when you create an adjustment layer. I will go over them in more detail for beginners in later posts but I will give a general description now. They are:

* Solid Color
Places a solid color layer on top of your layers.

* Gradient
Places a gradient on top of your layers.

* Pattern
Applies a pre-defined, saved pattern to your layer.

* Levels
This allows you to control the brightness of the various tones in your image. Playing with the slider can increase or decrease the intensity of darker and lighter tones.

* Curves
You can use this to fix your highlights and shadows using this option.

* Color Balance
Adjust the colors of highlights, midtones and shadows separately using this option.

* Brightness/Contrast
This lightens or darkens your image and increases or decreases the contrast.

* Black and White
Turns a colour image into a black and white, giving you a much greater control of output than the desaturaute method which is done using Ctrl+Shift+U on Pc or Cmd+Shift+U on Mac.

* Hue/Saturation
This can be used to control the colors, the saturation and lightness or darkness of the image.

* Selective Color
This allows you to add or remove percentage of a color present in your image. If you want your reds redder and your blues less bluer then this is what you use.

* Channel Mixer
This allows you to adjust the reds, blues or greens. So you are adjusting each color channels itself

* Gradient Map
This adds gradients insides different colors of the image. Unlike the gradient tool, that put a solid gradient over everything, this puts colors in each color of the image.

* Invert
Changes all the colors to what is opposite to them in the color wheel.

* Threshold
This changes stuff to black or white. The slider allows you to choose what tones it will be changing.

* Posterize
This reduces the number of colors used in the image.

With the white square of your adjustment layer selected you can choose to have the adjust only appear/take effect on areas of choice. If you paint on the square with a brush, using the colour black, the adjustment will disappear for the painted area. Using shades of gray will have the adjustment only appear at certain intensities. Below is a video tutorial showing you this technique.

Photoshop Adjustment Layer and Retouching Tutorial with Video from Acuity Designs on Vimeo.

Any questions or revsions, let us know below!

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