Graphics Programs Reference
In-Depth Information
Photoshop Killer Tips
Need Help Finding the Right Colors?
Back in CS4, Adobe introduced this very
cool little utility called “Kuler” which was
designed to help you find, mix, match, and
try out different color schemes, and it was
so popular that it spawned its own online
community, with users sharing and rating
different sets of colors based on themes.
You can find Kuler built right into Photo-
shop in its own panel. Just go under the
Window menu, under Extensions, and
choose
Kuler
, and browse some of the
most popular color combos right within
Photoshop. If you see a set of colors you
like, double-click on it to see them as
larger swatches in a panel. To make any
of those color swatches your Foreground
color, just double-click on it.
you don't have to mess with the Angle
or Distance fields whatsoever. Instead,
move your cursor outside the Layer Style
dialog—over into your image area—and
just click-and-drag the shadow itself right
where you want it.
Getting Rid of Your
Empty Layers Fast
a cell phone photo in Camera Raw, just
find it on your computer in Mini Bridge,
then Right-click on it and, from under
Open With, choose
Camera Raw
).
Using the HUD Pop-Up
Color Picker
If you've ever thought, “There's got to be
an easier way to pick colors than clicking on
the Foreground color swatch every time,”
you're gonna love this: It's a pop-up color
picker (Adobe calls it the HUD [Heads-Up
Display], because you keep your eyes on
the image, instead of looking over and
down at the Foreground/Background color
swatches). First, choose a Brush tool, then
press
Command-Option-Ctrl (PC: Alt-
Shift)
and
click (PC: Right-click)
on your
image. It brings up a simplified color
picker where you can choose your color
(I find it easier to choose the hue first,
from the bar on the right, then choose
the tint and saturation of the color from
the box on the left).
In CS5, Adobe included a built-in script
that will go through your Layers panel and
remove any empty layers (layers with noth-
ing on them) automatically (once you get a
large multi-layered project going, you wind
up with more of these than you'd think). To
have Photoshop tidy things up for you, go
under the File menu, under Scripts, and
choose
Delete All Empty Layers
.
Putting Your Drop Shadow Right
Where You Want It
If you're adding a drop shadow behind
your photo using a Drop Shadow layer
style (choose
Drop Shadow
from the
Add a Layer Style icon's pop-up menu),
Removing Noise from
Cell Phone Photos
Since Photoshop is a pro tool, most of us
probably wouldn't even think of using
Camera Raw's built-in Noise Reduction
feature to remove the noise from our cell
phone camera's photos, but…why not?
Cell phone photos are notorious for color
noise, which Camera Raw cleans up really
well. Try it one time, and I'll bet you'll use
it more than you ever dreamed (to open
