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Layer Mask Fundamentals & Basic Lasso Tool Techniques

photoshop-tutorial-save-selection-use-layer-mask
By On September 9, 2011 In Tutorials & DIY's With No Comments Permanent Link to Layer Mask Fundamentals & Basic Lasso Tool TechniquesPermalink
Tutorial Introduction and Overview

Rather than focusing on WHAT you want to accomplish while editing images with Adobe Photoshop, it’s better to focus on HOW to accomplish it.

The idea of “layers” and what exactly they do is often difficult to grasp until you know how to use and edit them properly. So, the idea of a “layer mask” can be even more strange, but learning the foundation of masking with Photoshop and applying it to a practical situation is one of the first steps in becoming proficient with the software.

While there are many tools that enable you to make selections in Photoshop, this tutorial will introduce and give guidance specifically on the “magnetic lasso tool”. Making good selections/paths goes hand-in-hand with using a layer mask so the two techniques will be discussed simultaneously in this beginner’s tutorial.

Recommended Software:
  • Mac OS X 10.5+, or Windows XP+
  • Photoshop CS or higher

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Creating Actions in Photoshop – Automating common processes

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By On July 20, 2011 In Resources, Tutorials & DIY's With No Comments Permanent Link to Creating Actions in Photoshop – Automating common processesPermalink

Learn: What an action is, how to create your own action, Adding borders to photos, Adding Watermark/Signature to photos.

Anytime you’re going to be posting your pictures on the internet its a good idea to add your name/watermark/copyright to help deter people from stealing them and its a good form of “advertising” for yourself/website. And anyone who has processed photos for web-use knows how redundant it can get, thankfully Photoshop has a feature to help automate some of your everyday routines. This feature is called ACTIONS.

One important thing to remember when creating a new action is that you literally have to do things STEP-BY-STEP, and be very tedious in adjusting certain parameters to ensure that Photoshop knows the EXACT task you are trying to perform. This concept will make more sense if you play your action later on and it behaves strangley

Your Action’s palette is usually close to or attached to your History Pallette(To make active: Window>Actions).

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How-to Partition a hard drive for use on two Mac’s with Time Machine

time-machine-working
By On July 20, 2011 In Apple & Mac Related, Resources, Reviews, Setup & DIY With 1 Comment Permanent Link to How-to Partition a hard drive for use on two Mac’s with Time MachinePermalink

Got two Macintosh Computers? One external hard drive? The desire to seamlessly backup all of your information using Apple’s Time Machine application? Keep READING!…

Apple’s “Time Machine” is a highly effective and user-friendly back-up program that allows you to not only easily back up your hard drive but allows you to go back to EXACT instances and recover files. From Apple.com:

“Time Machine is the breakthrough automatic backup that’s built right into Mac OS X. It keeps an up-to-date copy of everything on your Mac — digital photos, music, movies, TV shows, and documents. Now, if you ever have the need, you can easily go back in time to recover anything.”

Objective: Divide (Partition) an external hard drive to be used for TWO separate Apple computer’s utilizing Mac’s Time Machine Backup feature.

What you need:

  • An External Hard drive big enough to support both (or all) of your existing hard drives. In my case both of my machines have 250 GB Hard drives so I opted to buy a 500 GB Western Digital ‘My Book’.
  • Mac OS X 10.5.2 or Higher
  • Two or more Apples/Mac Computers

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ESata Express Card, External Hard Drive on MacBook Pro

PNY ESata Expresscard on Two Mac's Partitioned for 2 Time Machines
By On July 20, 2011 In Apple & Mac Related, Resources, Reviews, Setup & DIY, Technology Articles With No Comments Permanent Link to ESata Express Card, External Hard Drive on MacBook ProPermalink

My Mac Book Pro has an express card slot, and my Western Digital MyBook 500GB Hard Drive has an Esata Cable connection…. lets take a look at what these two features are and how they can be combined to provide for some pretty impressive transfer speeds.

Things you’ll need:
ESata Cable
Esata Expresscard(Unless of course your computer has an Esata port built-in)
Hard Drive with Esata connection

Just like any other piece of technology, you can find Esata Express Cards at many different resellers and there are a number of available brands. They range anywhere from $15-$100(and probably more in some cases). Being that I’m forced to eat Top Ramen 6 days out of the week, I opted for the cheapest card I could find – The PNY Express Card eSata II – 2 Port. I purchased this card(pictured below) for $20 at a local Best Buy – happened to be the last one on the shelf, not a regularly stocked item according to the salesperson.

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Apple: Magic TrackPad

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By On July 4, 2011 In Apple & Mac Related, Resources, Reviews With No Comments Permanent Link to Apple: Magic TrackPadPermalink

I’ve never been a big fan or user of trackpads – laptops being the forced exception. For certain(more common) inputs, track pads are ideal – but until recently the idea of using a trackpad for hours on end, everyday was unreasonable, especially when taking into consideration how graphic designers(and other field-specific users) & certain programs utilize input devices. For example, using a trackpad with Adobe Illustrator(ie: pencil/pen tools) is almost impossible because of the nature of the “click, hold, drag, draw, release” process – a standard mouse(or drawing tablet) is far more ideal for ease of use, accuracy and efficiency. In Steve Job’s quest to “kill the mouse” – integrate intuitive iOS type ‘gestures’ and create a richer user-experience – the “necessity” of a mouse may be dwindling, and the outlook of such a prospect is being embraced by many – but as with any such push for phasing out a hugely popular tech tool, there is some understandable resistance.

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