Graphics Programs Reference
In-Depth Information
The magic of this plug-in is its B&W (and duotone) presets. They're listed along the left
side of the window, complete with a small preview of how the effect will look, but here's
where I always start: on their High Structure preset. Eight times out of 10, that's the one I
choose, because it has its own high-contrast, sharpened look that is wonderful for so many
images. However, if I'm converting a portrait, I'll often wind up using a different preset,
because High Structure can be too intense when your subject is a person. So, I click on the
top preset in the list, and then click on each preset below it until I find one that looks good
to me, then I click OK in the bottom-right corner and I'm done. That's all I do. It's fast,
easy, and it looks fantastic. That's just what I want.
Photoshop Killer Tips
Why the Fill Dialog Shows Up Sometimes, but Not Others
If you have a flattened image (so, it's just a Background layer), and you make a selection
and press the
Delete (PC: Backspace) key
, the Fill dialog appears (Content-Aware is
selected in the Use pop-up menu, by default). But there are times when hitting Delete
won't bring up the Fill dialog. Instead, if you have a multi-layered document, it will delete
whatever is inside the selection on your current layer, making it transparent. (That's either,
“Yikes!” or “Great!” depending on how you look at it.) Also, if you have only one single
layer (that is not a Background layer), you'll again delete anything inside your selection
