Tony Aromando

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Ps|201Welcome to Photoshop Level 2Today we are going to review some techniques you should know before we start. Then we are going to learn about “Photomerge.

With “Photomerge” we can take two or more photos and merge them into a Panorama. We can also arrange the photos as sepa-rate stacked layer that have been aligned with each other.

Creating a Panorama or arrang-ing photos side-by-side to create a single image is also known as

“Stitching”. If you’ve ever tried to do this manually you may have been disappointed because the perspective of the pieces wasn’t quite the same or the exposures and colors didn’t quite match up.

Photoshop CS3 will take care of many of these problem. CS3 seems to do much better job than previous ver-sions. We will apply Photomerge to several scenarios and also do it through Photoshop as well as and often more easily through Adobe Bridge’s Tools menu.

mailto:tony@tonyaromando.com?subject=Adobe Illustrator Class

Tony Aromando

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Ps|202Vanishing PointThe Vanishing Point Filter allows us to Clone in Perspective. It also allows us to insert Text or an-other Image, perhaps a logo, and keep thing in perspective. So let’s keep things in perspective and have some fun.

If we had to retouch out the rope and the brush this photo we would have a hard time using the Rubber Stamp tool because of the line of perspective of the wooden deck. We can resolve this problem by using

the Vanishing Point Filter and creating a grid which corresponds to the perspective. Now retouching and inserting the text are a breeze. There a few caveats with the text though but we will see how to work with it.

mailto:tony@tonyaromando.com?subject=Adobe Illustrator Class

Tony Aromando

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Ps|203Working “Smart”Using Filters in Photoshop is destructive. Or is it? If we create a “Smart Object” we can have our regular filters become “Smart Filters” that we can modify later and even change the transparency and blend mode of the filter. We will also take a look some other cool advantages of “Smart Filters”.

We can “Place” an Illustrator file into a Photoshop File. When we do, it comes in as a “Smart Object”. We can also “Paste” as a “Smart Object” from an Illustrator Document.

Another big advantage of “Smart Objects” is that we can convert an existing Photoshop Layer into a

“Smart Object”. When we do this, Filters, which are normally destructive become “Smart Filters”. These “Smart Filters” become more like Layer Styles that we can turn on or off and in many cases modify.

These “Smart Object” become a kind of a File within a file. If, for example, you double click on one of the Illustrator Smart Object it will open in Illustrator independent of your original Illustrator file. You can then use Illustrator feature to edit it and it will automatically update.

mailto:tony@tonyaromando.com?subject=Adobe Illustrator Class

Tony Aromando

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Ps|204Movie Night!Today we will explorer Photoshop’s video editing capabilities. We will also see how to create a simple animation for a animated GIF for your webpage or a QuickTime Movie. We will also learn a few necessary step such, Custom Brushs and Cloning using the Clone Source Panel.

Custom Brushes:1. We will see how to modify an existing brush tip and how to make a Brush from Artwork.

Animation:2. Today’s website viewer has come to expect more than static pages with static images. We will learn how to make simple animated GIFs and also more sophisticated QuickTime movies right in Photoshop. I must credit Russel Brown. I am using the files from his Video Workshop Video. It is really good in demonstrating many of today’s topics.

Smart Sharpen:3. My new favorite way to sharpen a Photoshop image.

mailto:tony@tonyaromando.com?subject=Adobe Illustrator Class

The History Panel and 1. Layer Comps: They are kind of related. Layer comps lets us save various states of a Photoshop file, forever (unlike the History Panel). We turn Layers on or off or move layers around, turn off effects, disable layer masks and then save various combinations.

Calculations:2. Until recently, if I opened this menu item I would look at it, become very confused and close it again. Now, I’ve found a reason to open it. We can use it to create an alpha channel by combining color channels together. Then we can use it to create a mask or make a selection. It is great for areas with soft edges or intricate edges like the tree or the clouds.

Tony Aromando

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Ps|200Ps|205The “History” (panel) of Photoshop, Layer Comps and Calculations.Most of us are familiar with the History Panel. We will take a closer look at how we can control its behavior. Another way to save different states of Photoshop file is to use Layer Comps. As a plus, InDesign rec-ognizes Layer comps in its Object Layer Options menu. Lastly, we will try our hand at Calculations. We will use it to create an alpha channel that we can use to make a selection or Layer Mask.

mailto:tony@tonyaromando.com?subject=Adobe Illustrator Class

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