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Photoshop Creative January 1st, 2019 Digital Back Issue Cover

Photoshop Creative (Digital)

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52 Articles

One of Photoshop’s central features is the Brush tool. This wildly useful tool can help you with pretty much any project. Whether you’re creating a painter-like portrait from scratch or need to use the brush to touch up a photo project, learning how to make the most of the Brush tool can be immensely useful. In addition, you’ll find your usual great variety of inspirational tutorials, including a surreal city of books, a mesmerising ice-cave landscape, and a digital illustration made with the help of Google SketchUp alongside Photoshop. Also, we have our usual great collection of product reviews, interviews with artists, and stunning galleries to draw inspiration from. We hope you enjoy the issue! Free step-by-step tutorials online photoshopcreative.co.uk Join thousands of like-minded creatives search for photoshopcreative Tweet us…

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HDR Ready Control contrast and tamper with tone, using these actions So many brushes Splatter and spatter your work with this bumper pack of Filament in These quirky textures can be handy in a range of projects On the FileSilo this issue… • 610 Paint brushes • 500 Pen and pencil scribbles • 15 Filament textures • 5 HDR Pro actions = A total of 1130 premium assets plus hundreds of tutorial files Log in to www.filesilo.co.uk/photoshopcreative Register to get instant access to this pack of must-have resources, videos and tutorial assets The home of great downloads – exclusive to your favourite magazines from Future Publishing Secure and safe online access, from anywhere Free access for every reader, print and digital Download only the files you want, when you want All…

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READERS’ CHALLENGE

We challenged you... In Issue 168, we challenged you to get creative with the set theme of Adventure. You were allowed to create whatever you wanted, so long as it incorporated the theme somehow. Marc Dhaeyer Jumping from God’s Window This is an image that uses layers, masks and a lot of blending. Adjustments were key in tying everything together to make it feel surreal, yet rooted in nature. Honourable mentions See some honourable mentions from this issue’s challenge at facebook.com/photoshopcreative…

READERS’ CHALLENGE

TRENDING IMAGES

There’s nothing more inspiring than surfing the internet and seeing what other artists are creating, and we encourage you to do so. Here are some of our favourite pictures that caught our attention recently, from some of the world’s most exciting artists and designers. Jon Juarez harriorrihar.myportfolio.com During a trip to Iceland, I walked through some landscapes that seemed to be drawn, so I photographed them, but the images did not do them justice. Now that I have drawn them, I have a more faithful memory of that fictional reality. Rafael Varona www.rafael-varona.com This illustration was created in Photoshop CC following 7Up’s colour palette with different brushes, some of them made by myself. The background is a stone wall texture, which I altered with a Gradient Map. Diego Salas www.diegosalas.net…

TRENDING IMAGES

READERS’ IMAGES

Sylvia van der Velden Image of the issue This work was made with texture layers and layer masks. I changed the blend modes and added some curves and lighting effects. For the model I used only dark and midtone colours and made some layers for these. Bob Parsi I focused on the lion’s face and masked out the rest. Then I used gradients and brushes to colourise the face and outer areas. At the final stage I used various adjustment layers to make the colours more vibrant. Lakshmikanta Patra This is a self-portrait that I created in Photoshop. I used many solid colour layers, some adjustment layers and replicated my body parts with the Pen tool. It was kept simple for a vector style. Caroline Julia Moore I created this…

READERS’ IMAGES

Learn to draw with the BRUSH TOOL

So you have Photoshop, you’ve downloaded some brushes, and you’ve checked out some tutorials on how to create digital artwork. But what if you’re not very good at drawing? Well, we’re here to help! Drawing is one of the simplest hobbies you can practise: all you need is a pencil and some paper. But some of us don’t have the natural artistic talent of being able to put down on a page what we visualise in our minds. Getting better at drawing is first and foremost a matter of practise – as with most skills – but to help you start off on the right foot, we asked our favourite digital artists for their top drawing tips. Over the next few pages, we’re going to be looking at some simple…

Learn to draw with the BRUSH TOOL

Create classic oil paintings

It’s incredible what you can create on a computer these days. We should know too: we spend most our days trying to push the boundaries of that. But sometimes, there’s nothing more satisfying than evoking the past. We live in an age when everything around us is inspired by something that’s already been, whether that’s in music, fashion or art. We’re constantly inspired by things that have influenced us, and that’s the thinking behind many classic-looking digital paintings. In this tutorial, we’re going to look at how to create something that has that sense of depth to it in terms of age and style, as we explore how to take on oil paintings. From using the golden ratio to playing with textures, this can be a fun and fulfilling project…

Create classic oil paintings

Layer an atmospheric metal design

Music is an art form oftentimes accompanied by another important type of art: visuals. These can greatly enhance the fan’s appreciation of the music. Take CD packaging. The artwork emblazoned on the cover is typically a manifestation of the album’s theme or a rendering of a key subject in a featured song. The lyrics and liner notes can be accompanied by art and textures that are complementary to these themes and subjects. To form cohesive branding, the visuals are repurposed for posters, promo kits, stage design and digital experiences. Thus, this associated artwork can be very important to the overall music experience. Here, you will tap into a variety of Photoshop features and tools in order to create an atmospheric skull-scape for promoting a fictional metal band’s latest album. Masks…

Layer an atmospheric metal design

Non-CC alternatives Not everyone has CC, so here are some workarounds for older versions. There’s no fill property for layers in Elements, so lower the Opacity and adjust layer styles. The ability to link assets is CC-only, so place the independent PSDs and other files, and re-place them as needed. Instead of Camera Raw Filter, use Shadows/Highlights and your favourite sharpen filter. In place of the Blacklight Poster lookup, try working with your preferred method of boosting contrast. Stay nondestructive When working with imagery that may be moved around on various screens and surfaces, keep things as non-destructive as possible. Resist rasterising smart objects and filters to save disk space. When using the Shape tools, ensure you set to Shape in the options bar to produce shape layers versus pixel-based…

Use linked assets

Place linked 01 To bring in something as a linked asset, go to File> Place Linked, or hold Option/Alt as you drag something directly into an open PSD. Update linked asset 02 If you have both the original asset and containing PSD open, you can make a change in the asset document and it’ll update (upon save) in the main PSD. Watch for alert 03 If you make adjustments to the linked asset and the main PSD isn’t open anymore, you’ll be prompted via a yellow alert icon on the layer when you open the PSD. Update, relink or embed 04 To update the asset, right-click on the layer, choose Update Modified Content. To relink to another file, choose Relink to File. To embed the placed asset, choose Embed Linked.…

Use linked assets

Since a young age, I’ve always had a special taste for the dark, gothic and dramatic aesthetics of art,” says Ana Cruz, a Portuguese designer and artist. “My biggest inspirations are secret realms and my passion for themes such as death, macabre beauty and deeply romantic emotions.” Ana is an artist drawn to the darkness in art, but for this picture, Ana chose to mix darkness with a light of light, bright colours and natural effects such as foliage. The finished result is something that feels very much rooted in this fantasy genre, but it has a mysterious undertone to it. “In my personal art, I always aim to achieve a mixture of dark fantasy and dramatic romance, occasionally with a surreal twist,” Ana says. “I always aim to portray…

Create an epic ice-cave composition

If you think layers are made to pile an image on top of each other, it is time to think again. Layers are the most basic and yet a powerful feature in Photoshop. Without them it would be difficult to achieve anything in Photoshop. In this tutorial, you’ll master layers on every level. You’ll learn how to blend images and to control the level of transparency of a layer using Layer Masks, plus how to make tonal corrections and other adjustments utilising Adjustment Layers. Finally, you will learn how to create fantastic effects using Layer Styles. As you can see, layers are more complex than you think. When you understand how layers works, the results are nothing less than an epic composition like the one you are about to create.…

Create an epic ice-cave composition

Displacement map Merge the layers 01 Select all the Layers. Merge them (Cmd/Ctrl+E). Ctrl/Right-click on the layer thumbnail and choose Duplicate Layer. Set Destination/Document: New and name it ‘Displacement map’. Desaturate the image 02 First, grab the Rectangular Marquee Tool and select the entire image, and go to Image> Crop. Now, create a greyscale image. Press Shift+Cmd/ Ctrl+U to desaturate it. Adjust the contrast 03 Press Cmd/Ctrl+L to open the Levels. Set the Inputs to 20, 0.40, 240 and click OK. Go to Filter> Sharpen> Unsharp Mask. Set Amount: 250%, Radius: 6px and click OK. Save as PSD 04 Use Camera Raw filter to fine-tune the contrast to the image. Press Shift+Cmd/Ctrl+A to tweak the settings. You must save your documents as a PSD file. Press Shift+Cmd/Ctrl+S.…

Light effect After placing the people, you can add a lighting effect to enhance the composition. Create a new layer on top of the Layer Stack and fill with black. Change the blending mode for the Layer to Screen. Set the Foreground colour to a light bluish colour. Grab a large soft brush, and paint the effect on the canvas. Press Cmd/ Ctrl+T and resize the image if necessary and move over the highlight area under the T-rex. Reduce the layer’s opacity to 20% or 40%. Duplicate it if you want to place more light.…

Galaxy in an eye

They say the eyes are the window to the soul, but in this tutorial they become windows into the deep recesses of space. Thanks to amazing technological advances with telescopes, humans can now see farther than ever before and capture stunning images of galaxies, nebulae and all the wonders that the universe has to offer. Luckily, NASA shares many of their truly awe-inspiring images and videos with the world, offering them free to download from their image and video library at www.images.nasa.gov. Using masks, blend modes and adjustment layers, you can use some of these amazing images to replace a normal iris with a star-filled galaxy, swirling toward the pupil. With a wide array of images to choose from, you could also opt for a more cloud-like galaxy, or a…

Galaxy in an eye

Star brush Load star shape 01 To add some extra stars and variety to your image, try customising an existing brush. Start by loading an appropriately shaped brush, such as Photoshop’s “Starburst- small” in the Assorted brush set. Adjust Spacing 02 Open up the Brush Panel to access the wide range of adjustable settings and characteristics. First increase the Spacing, then tick Shape Dynamics. Increase the jitters 03 Increase Size Jitter and Angle Jitter up to 100%. Increase Roundness Jitter, but only to around 35%, or set a minimum roundness to prevent the stars losing their recognisable shape. Scattered stars 04 Tick Scattering, increase Scatter and adjust the Count as desired. Now apply your stars with a light colour on a new layer set to Screen.…

Know your hotkeys To improve your workflow, it’s a good idea to find out the relevant hotkeys for your most commonly used tools, and the Brush Tool is probably one of these. The most ideal hotkey when using the Brush is the square brackets [ and ] to alter brush size up and down. You can adjust the brush opacity using the number keys, 0 to 9. Another ace shortcut is X to switch between the foreground and background colour, which is useful when working on a layer mask to switch between black and white.…

Transform, blend and mask creatively

Fancy creating an intricate mix of colour and blended detail but lack a ton of hours to commit? Inspired by new-age mysticism and forged with key Photoshop features, this tutorial image will illuminate a method of rapidly self-blending fractal imagery in the quest to create a dazzling backdrop or even a stand-alone design that will draw viewers into its entrancing embrace. Here you’ll compose a vibrant representation of a meditative inner-journey. The power generated is so intense that the essence is forcefully projected outward from the fellow at the centre of it all. To form the colourful blends and undulating lines of energy, you’ll take some fractal images and apply a quick flip-’n’-blend to produce a series of symmetrical panes. Blend these together to form an increasingly complex metaphysical mélange.…

Transform, blend and mask creatively

Pattern Overlay blends Create shape 01 Use the Ellipse tool (set to Shape in Options bar) to create an ellipse covering the area you want to dress with the pattern overlay. Apply Pattern Overlay 02 Click the layer palette’s fx button, choose Pattern Overlay. Set Blend Mode to Overlay. Pick the Tie Dye preset (or something else). Max out Opacity and Scale. Click OK. Adjust opacity/fill 03 Drop the shape layer’s fill to 0% (above Layers), leaving the layer style to stand on its own. To reduce, drop layer opacity (here set to 50%). Add more colour 04 Use Free Transform (Cmd/ Ctrl+T) to reshape the colouring. Duplicate and transform to add more colouring. Try other patterns or even put Gradient Overlay to use.…

I was actually not really into the idea of making this at first,” says Anders Wik of his Wolf Moon composition. “It was one of those evenings that I could not find any inspiration, so I decided to do a simpler project. It later turned out to become an eye-catcher.” Anders is known for speed-art tutorials on YouTube and says he uses Photoshop to relax. This image came about though after finding the wolf image by accident. “I could not help but feel some sort of ‘longing’ in its eyes,” he says. “So why not make it long for the moon? Since this composition was more about making an animal fantasy poster, I did not have to worry much about scale and angles. Cutting out the two main images I…

Create a realistic fantasy scene

It’s always great when you wake up and a new idea pops into your head, but unfortunately this is not always the case… sometimes it’s hard to find something that inspires you to create something new. When this happens to me, my trick is to read a book and open up my mind. It’s amazing how our brains can get into a story and picture the scenes you can discover and explore. In that vein, today we’re going to create a scene where a traveller has just discovered a wondrous location beyond their wildest dreams! And of course, said location is surrounded by books; where everything can happen. As we create a scene with many pictures, it’s important to keep in mind that the scene must look as real as…

Create a realistic fantasy scene

Set the details Use the Warp 01 Let’s bring together the two parts of our lake here. Activate the Warp tool (Edit> Transform> Warp) click on the small squares and adjust the shape, just like the image. Enhance the colours 02 Let’s enhance the colours from the white flower. To do that, follow the step 03, link a Brightness/Contrast adjustment layer and set it to 50/0. Add the shadow 03 Duplicate the tree layer, place it under, activate the selection, paint it black and flip it vertically. Use the Perspective tool (Edit> Transform> Perspective) to set the shape and change the blend mode to Soft Light. Add some movement 04 Add ‘movement_edges.psd’ and change the blend mode to Screen. Finally, add the folders movement and movement_02 from ‘movement.psd’, place it…

Brush Settings Here, you saw how to add a fog into a scene. But you also can do that by exploring the brush settings panel. So, create a new layer (Cmd+Shift+N), set the foreground color to white and click on the Brush Settings panel icon. This panel will give you options to customize the brush your way. To create a fog brush, enable the options Shape Dynamics, Texture, Transfer (set the Flow Jitter to 61%), change the blend mode to Soft Light and the Opacity to 50%. Keep exploring this tool to discover new possibilities.…

Merging nature and digital illustration

Nature has influenced so many artists from so many different eras and walks of life. Despite the fact that Photoshop is a digital medium, it can still be a useful tool for artists in the 21st century to convey their appreciation and wonder of Mother Nature. When Reshakh Mahmoud, an artist specialising in motion graphics decided to focus on a collection of pieces highlighting the beauty in nature, he turned to Photoshop and Illustrator to bring his artwork to life. The result was something that looked modern, slick and cool, but also colourful and evocative of the world around us. We asked Reshakh to tell us more about the project and how he made it. How long have you been using Photoshop, Reshakh? I’ve been using Photoshop for over ten…

Merging nature and digital illustration

Create a vector pattern with Capture

For many, digital artwork has replaced traditional drawing. Gone is the need even for a sketchpad to take on the go since Adobe introduced their Sketch app; though with the Adobe Capture app, it’s easier now to transform full sketches into digital works in no time at all. Adobe Capture is fairly straightforward. It revolves around the idea of taking aspects of the real world for your creative projects, whether that’s a colour palette, a brush or the case of this tutorial, a pattern drawn onto a notepad. Though in this tutorial we’re going to simply add a gradient and keep the pattern low-key, you can choose to create all kinds of bright and exciting cartoons by creating the line-work by hand and filling in the shapes with the Paint…

Create a vector pattern with Capture

Create a realistic packaging CAD

When pitching a design to a client, presentation is always crucial. Showing a clean and polished design at any stage of the process is a given, but there are other ways to help it outshine the competition. Making a 3D mock-up to display a packaging design is a great technique that can give any designer an extra edge on their competitors. When done right, mock-ups can enhance a design and help show clients what the design would look like if it was implemented in the real world. 3D packaging mock-ups are not the final product that you’re selling to a client; they should be used as a visual tool to display your work. In this tutorial you will discover all the handy tip and tricks in mastering the art of…

Create a realistic packaging CAD

Moe Hezwani I needed to find a quick and easy way to create 3D-packaging CADs for my clients to three-dimensionally visualise my designs. Photoshop is usually my go-to platform, and I discovered how easy it was to create realistic packaging using the most basic of tools. I was happy with the results and so were my clients. I’m a professional graphic designer/illustrator, and Photoshop is my usual platform for my designs. I enjoy playing around with Photoshop to mix the composition between photography and illustration to build up a piece of artwork.…

Adding extra details Place the box layers in a folder and paste ‘pex_242236_paper-texture. jpg’ from FileSilo. Select the Multiple blend mode and create a clipping mask on the folder. Hide the background layers and create a new merged layer. Make it a Smart Object and go Filter> Noise> Add Noise and set Amount: 7%. Finally, create a reflection, with the background still hidden, and create another merged layer. Then, cut out the bottom part of the box into two separate layers. Go Edit> Transform> Vertical Flip and Screw the layers to place. Place them both into a folder and add a mask. Brush away the reflection’s bottom part.…

Master Perspective With Google SketchUp

SketchUp is an impressively versatile program: simple to use, and an absolutely integral part of any illustrator’s workflow. Plus, some versions are free, so there’s no reason you shouldn’t add it to your collection. You can download it from www.sketchup.com. 3D modelling can be an intimidating new skill to broach for newcomers; there are a lot of new techniques and tools to pick up, and the learning curve can be quite steep – just one glance at Maya’s UI will make that clear! No need to worry though; SketchUp is built for ease of access, and is easy to pick up, but offers enough functionality and versatility to equip you with all you need to make 3D buildings and objects for your projects. In this tutorial, we’ll be drawing the…

Master Perspective With Google SketchUp

Character Proportions The convenient thing about using SketchUp is you are then free to position your subjects. I repositioned the character sketches for this piece multiple times; you too should experiment with ways of creating interest and framing the piece. You’ll have noticed that your SketchUp file contains a flat caricature of a woman. You can move this and use it as a size reference. Take screenshots containing this caricature and you can use it as a perspective reference while drawing.…

Blending In Flat colours first 01 A tip for making your character’s colours suit the background. Start by colouring them in with their normal palette as if they were in white light. Apply the overlay 02 Create a new Clipping Mask layer set to Overlay and fill it with a colour that is prevalent in the background. In this case, we’ll use a dark blue. Cast shadows 03 Using another Clipping Mask layer set to Multiply, use a large airbrush of the same colour to add broad shadows. Erase with an airbrush in lighter areas. Highlights 04 Create a final layer set to Colour Dodge. In the areas you erased, select a colour from the background and airbrush over your character.…

Get to grips with blur

MASK CAREFULLY When you’ve blurred a layer, hit Mask and use the brush to give more focus to specific areas of your image. In Photoshop and Elements, it’s important to give your artwork and photos a clear focus. Sharpening tools exist for that reason, and highlighting certain parts of your image canhelp give a picture shape, draw attention to the right areas, and add dynamism. With this in mind, it’s important to remember the role of a blur filter. Blurring your images can help direct the viewer’s focus towards the main subject of your photo, such as the centre of the star trails in the image above. You can sharpen this subject to draw more attention to it, granted, but another way that you can show some depth of field…

Get to grips with blur

A bit of a blur

Average Blur 01 The most basic of all the blur functions, the Average Blur takes an average of all the pixels in your selection, and fills with this colour. This is most useful when you’re creating a composition; create an Average Blur layer to get the overall tone of the piece. Blur and Blur More 02 Blur and Blur More are the simplest options for just smudging pixels together. They’re not overly effective, and can be fairly subtle in a bigger picture, but they can be repeated to build up more dramatic effects. Shortcut Hit Cmd/Ctrl+F to repeat a filter again Lens Blur 03 The Lens Blur option produces more sophisticated blurring effects based on actual cameras. You can choose the shape of your blur, add noise and be far…

A bit of a blur

Get creative with photos

It’s fun to create a beautiful composition using your holiday photos or any other images you have in hand. In the following steps, you’ll learn how to use filters, masks, adjustments and other editing techniques to tweak the photos and get to grips with Photoshop Elements in Expert mode. First, you’ll start creating the background using basic selection tools and masks. Next, you will learn how to apply filters to create a realist snow texture. Then, you’ll work with layers styles to add subtle effects. Finally, you’ll use a preset to create the snow falling from the sky. These techniques are essential for all those who want to get serious about digital art and Elements has some fantastic tools and filters to help you create a perfect photo composition and…

Get creative with photos

Essential techniques

Create a blank file 01 Open up a blank canvas. Go to File> New> Blank File or press Cmd/Ctrl+N. Name your project ‘Snowman’. Set the Width to 222mm, Height to 300mm, Resolution: 300ppi and click OK. Create the background 02 Go to File> Place ‘pix_1041542_sky. jpg’. In the Tool Options check Constrain Proportion and set the Width to 100%. Drag the image up, and then press Return/Enter. Now reduce the Saturation. Go to Layer> New Adjustment Layer> Hue/ Saturation. Set Saturation at -25 and click to clip to layer. Mask the house 03 Go to File> Place ‘pix_3088488_ house.jpg’ and press Return/Enter. Grab the Polygonal Lasso Tool (L). In Options, set Feather to 1 pixel and select the house. Now add a layer mask, go to Layer> Layer Mask> Reveal…

Essential techniques

Create a Northern Lights effect

GO FOR GREEN The most common Northern Lights images that you’ll see are a shade of aquamarine and green; use this for ultimate realism. HARMONISE COLOUR Duplicate the Northern Lights layer to the top of the layer stack, set to Soft Light, 30% and Filter> Blur> Average to harmonise colours. You’ve booked the flights, and your stay at a hotel that has a glass roof. You’ve packed your warmest clothes, and arranged to visit when Aurora Borealis is passing over. But there’s still a chance that the Northern Lights could be a no-show. Whether or not you’re going to Iceland to see the magnetic phenomenon, this is a project that can really brighten up your night shots, whether they’re taken in the upper reaches of the northern hemisphere or otherwise.…

Create a Northern Lights effect

Let there be light

Set to Screen 01 Start by opening your nighttime image and dropping in a Northern Lights-supplied image into your document. Set it to Screen, and using Transform (Cmd/Ctrl+T), resize it so that it’s positioned over your image. Alter blend modes 02 Reduce the Northern Lights layer to 80% opacity and duplicate it. Set this duplicate layer to 50% opacity and set to Soft Light to bring out a little more colour. Group these layers together by selecting them and hitting Cmd/Ctrl+G. Shortcut Hit Shift and either + or - to scroll blend modes Mask a little 03 Hit Mask on your group. Use the Quick Selection (A) to select the trees and the subject, and fill with black on the mask. Use a soft 50% opaque brush to touch a…

Let there be light

Other night-time phenomena

Fireworks Everyone loves a firework display (except perhaps, your pets). Create amazing firework effects without the big bangs by dropping in stock photos of fireworks against black backgrounds on your pictures. Clip Hue/ Saturation layers and up the saturation to give them even more kick. Moon Adding a moon or planet to a dark sky can be a great way to add intrigue or realism; you can create an amazing planetary scene or even just resize the moon – like we have here – for a surreal effect. Add your moon, set to Screen and adjust the Levels (Cmd/Ctrl+L) to complete the effect. Nebula A nebula can look pretty, and really brighten up a dark sky. Set it to Screen and place over your image, then select the rest of…

Other night-time phenomena

Create a forest in your lounge

What makes a picture surreal is simple. Surreal compositions are ones that place something somewhere that it doesn’t belong; this could be quite a simple premise or you can take it to ridiculous extremes. For this image, we’re going to go with something quite silly, but it’s not something so surreal that you can’t create with some of your own images. Bringing the wild indoors is quite a simple idea but for this, we’re going to need exactly the right blend of rocks, branches and moss to mask into the photo. Elements and Photoshop are both great for masking tasks, and perhaps the easiest way to complete these are by using brushes. Soft brushes are good for relatively soft edges such as water, and harder brushes can be used for…

Create a forest in your lounge

Place your background 01 Create a new document (Cmd/Ctrl+N). Start off by inserting the supplied file of the living room – or your own chosen living room if you’d rather! Hit Transform (Cmd/Ctrl+T) and resize the background image as you wish. Mask the sofas 02 Grab the Quick Selection (W). We’re going to select around the outside of the sofas and fill with white on a new layer, so that when we need to mask around the sofa, we can just Cmd/Ctrl+click this layer preview to select quickly. Hide this layer once you’re done. Shortcut Use [ and ] to change the size of your brush Blend in some rocks 03 Now you can insert some rocks, and with the help of the hidden layer you’ve just created, mask out…

Epson EcoTank ET-7750

Price £699.99 $649.99 US Web www.epson.co.uk 3-IN-1 Print, copy or scan, and do it double sided. The ET-7750 prints your photos in either A4 or A3. PAPER TRAYS The dual paper trays at the bottom are very stiff. You can select the specific type of paper you are using on the screen. HIGH INK CAPACITY Print up to 3,400 photos with the included ink, creating album images that will last up to 300 years. Epson promises excellent savings in return for this hefty investment. With enough ink included to print you up to 3,400 photos and ink-efficient duplex printing, it’s easy to see how this will pay off over time. The ET-7750 is Epson’s top-of-the-range multi-format printer. Being three-in-one means you can copy, scan and print, but not fax (the…

Epson EcoTank ET-7750

5 best features

No mess refill 01 Each bottle has a drip-free nozzle that will only fit in the correct cartridge, meaning you don’t have to worry about accidentally mixing inks. The super-high capacity tanks mean you’ll hardly have to think about refilling anyway. LCD screen 02 The 6.8-inch LCD display is on a hinged control panel at the front. From here, you can navigate through network and prints settings through bright and straightforward UI. However, it isn’t a touchscreen, which loses points. Diverse media handling 03 The ET-7750 handles automatic duplex printing for your day-to-day printing needs. It also handles borderless photo printing for a crisp and professional finish. You can also print onto DVDs/CDs and envelopes. High quality 04 Scan with a 1,200x2,400dpi compact image sensor and print with a 5,760x1,440…

5 best features

Price £49.99 / $65.00 US Web photomirage.io APPLY MASKS For greater precision when defining areas to be animated, freehand masks can be painted onto the image - a familiar functionality to Photoshop users. ANIMATION TOOLS Add and delete Motion Arrows and Anchor Points to incorporate and exclude areas from the animation respectively. Adjust the speed of the animation. PLAY AND SHARE Review your animation effect by pressing the play button and make adjustments if necessary. Directly share your animated image to all main social platforms. Novelty plays an important role in the evolution of modern photography. The images we produce are used for a seemingly endless variety of media and functions, so it is not surprising that new hardware and software effects come in and out of fashion on an…

Create your first animation

Open your image 01 Click Open and Navigate to the correct file, or use the File menu in the top left of the screen. Add Motion Arrows 02 Click on what you want to animate and drag in the direction of movement. Add more arrows for greater motion. Add anchor points 03 Select the Anchor point tool and add points around objects you’d like the movement to flow around. Create precise masks 04 Choose Mask and paint over areas that require sharper transition between animated and unanimated. Crop, adjust and output 05 If your image is unedited, try applying the auto adjust feature, for better exposure and colour.…

Create your first animation

Price £229 (approx) / $299.99 US Web palettegear.com PALETTE CORE The cube with the screen on it indicates which profile is being used by the Palette Kit, and it’s the one that connects to the computer via micro USB. SLIDERS AND DIALS Alter quantitative values such as brush hardness or volume with the slider and dial-style cubes. ARCADE-STYLE BUTTON This button can control simple hits like switching colour, but it can also connect to programs like Microsoft Word and Chrome to make menu shortcuts. Photoshop may be fairly straightforward to pick up, but that doesn’t stop us looking for ways to make it even simpler. From using actions to speed up your workflow to seeking out the quickest way to do something, we’re all guilty of looking for the easiest…

StudioMagic I & II

Price £75 (approx) / $95 US Web studiomagic.co/ FITS NEATLY INTO PHOTOSHOP The StudioMagic plug-ins can be compartmentalised usefully into the sidebar in Photoshop for ease of use. SLIDERS AND PRESETS StudioMagic is comprised of filters and sliders like most other plug-ins, and it’s really simple to alter effects once they’re applied. CREATE VARYING EFFECTS From weather effects to reflections and adding a background to a subject to grunge filters, there’s something for everyone. Photoshop is one of the most sophisticated software packages on Earth, photo-editing or otherwise, and depending on the project, you can spend hours compositing or editing photos simply because you get sucked in. Shortcuts can be your best friend in this scenario; knowing how to do something in half as many clicks, or even just one…

StudioMagic I & II

Five great features

Compositor 01 Add stock photos and other elements into your image with the Compositor section of StudioMagic II. This includes rainbows and birds, and can be a cool way to finish off a photo you’ve edited with other sections of plug-in. Hyperzap 02 Add filters to your image using these effects. This is a good final step if you need one after adding compositing elements. Increase the intensity of the effect in order to customise the filter depending on the image. Lighting Effex 03 Similarly to Photoshop’s own Photo Filter adjustment, this part of StudioMagic II is particularly good to use with the weather effects just to give an overall warming or cooling effect to your image. You can choose your own colour to use, too. Reflections 04 Creating reflections…

Five great features

Price Free (£38.99 for full version) Web x.photoscape.org TABS The tabs that sort the categories of PhotoScape X are located at the top of the interface. TOOLS The tools, presets and features of the program are coherent, precise and powerful. MAIN PREVIEW WINDOW The main preview window is big enough to see your edits taking shape. There are plenty of Photoshop-esque programs out there that offer photo-editing tools for both beginners and sophisticated users. There can be all manner of reason for trying them to: sometimes you might find a tool you prefer in another program, and sometimes you can use these programs as companions to Photoshop itself. Photoscape X is among the finest of the lot. With tools such as blemish removal, Liquify, Spot Healing and a Clone Stamp,…

Price Free Website hde7.com SAVE IMAGE Use the arrow icon in the bottom right to save and share your image. SMALLER WINDOW Fotogenic doesn’t maximise, and can sit over your Photoshop window so that you can refer back and forth between the two programs. EFFECTS To find all the effects that Fotogenic offers, click on the P button in the centre of the window. Photoshop’s a little daunting sometimes. With this in mind, there are plenty of smaller, more modest apps that can create simple edits for your photos; you might just want a quick filter before putting it on social media, or retouch a model slightly before importing them into a Photoshop composition. Fotogenic is the perfect Mac app for such editing needs, despite doing that annoying thing of…

Photodirector Photo Editor

Price Free Web cyberlink.com SLIDER Control anything in your picture using the sliders. The settings are simple to use and can create pinpoint results easily. Cyberlink’s Photodirector app is one of the more powerful photo editors available for your phone. You could see it as an extra Photoshop add-on to use on the move: yes, it’s an extender. It contains all the basic photo-editing abilities that most apps have, such as saturation and tonal tweaking tools, but it has features far more polished than the average phone app. You can remove objects from photos with content-aware technology and there’s an intuitive skin retoucher too; the Android version contains a Curves-like tool just like Photoshop itself, and there are HDR effects that can make your images pop with colour and texture.…

Photodirector Photo Editor

Art from the Imaginarium

God is in the detail when it comes to Photoshop work, but Gary Nicholls has really taken that to a whole new level. The photographer has spent 40 hours a week on his Imaginariumproject – a fine-art photo book – for the last six years. We asked him about how he creates his work, his tips for fellow Photoshop users and what he’s up to next. How long have you been a Photoshop user? I started using Photoshop properly in 2007, after buying my first entry-level Canon DSLR. I now own a Canon 5D Mk IV as I need the resolution to create my art. I use Photoshop on average for 40 hours a week. Photoshop enables my imagination to come to life and I never use stock images. All…

Art from the Imaginarium

Mauricio Xavier

My name is Mauricio Xavier and I live in the Brazilian city of São Paulo. I am passionate about digital art. I always like to learn and share any new techniques I discover – it has become one of my favourite hobbies! My passion for digital art began when I first used Photoshop, I was just amazed by the massive amount of tools and the myriad creations that can be made with this program. NEW DAY This is a concept piece that I created, inspired by the game The Last Of Us. The story takes place in 2030, in a world in which humans were almost extinct, wiped out by an unknown epidemic. MAGIC PLANET This was a 3D piece with digital painting. The idea was to create a planet…

Mauricio Xavier

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