Hello! Hello! & PS Tips

Hi Everyone.... How are you all doing?! LOL!  I don't even know if anyone reads my blog much, but that may be beacause I have blogged anytime recently!  I always wonder if these tutorisals or my random chatter is boring!  :) 


I've been busy with life, mostly my kids!  They are trying to make me nuts - most of the time. The other times, they are so sweet and cute... then that evil smirk shows up on their faces!  LOL!  The sure do keep me laughing and happy though!  


Summer is here i full swing. It's been so hot... but I love not having homework!  Makes the summer worthwhile!  lol!  


So, here is a little tutorial for you.... bunch of random tips and tricks that you can use in Photoshop or Photoshop elements!  Some may be repeats, but I think there are a few new ones in there too!  


If you want to share your favorite tip, I'd love to hear it!  This was originally written by me, and posted at Scrap Orchard, on the blog and in the Scrap Orchard University. 

Tip #1:
Save your Workspace. I'm not sure about your household, but my husband and my kids are on my desktop, but no one else uses my laptop. So, when I want to use Photoshop, and use the menus my way, I save my workspace. It shows just the palettes that I want, and I don't have to make changes to what my husband uses. We can each have our own space. Once I had my workspace just as I liked it, I clicked on Windows > Workspace > Save Workspace. I named it Digi and saved it. My husband named his "Mine," lol! You can also click on the double right pointed arrows in the top left corner of the worksapce, and choose Save Workspace. You can save many - one for photo editing, scrapbooking, and designing. Saves a lot of time moving and changing the palettes! 

Tip #2: 
Marching Ants Go Round and Round. So, you have them and now you don't know how to stop seeing them march for a minute, but at the same time, keep your selection. Press Command + H (Control for PC) and they will stop marching, press the shortcut again, and presto, they are back exactly where they were before you hid them! So easy! 

Tip #3
Default Color Selections. This little box has easy shortcuts! All you have to do is press D to reset your color squares to default settings - which is black as the foreground color and white as the background color. If you press the X next, it will switch the foreground color and your background color. If you want a specific color in one of the squares, just click on it and the Color Picker pops up!

Tip #4
Where are the Palettes Hiding? You have all your palettes up, and all over your screen, but you need more space! Quickly hide your palettes by pressing the Tab key. To get them back on your screen, press Tab again. If you need your Toolbar, you can keep that one by pressing Shift + Tab. Here is a screen with my Palette's showing and a screen without. All by pressing that Tab key! 

Tip #5
Marquee Move. There have been times that I have made a selection using my Marquee Tool, and it isn't in the right spot. As you make your selection, don't let go of that mouse button! If it is in the wrong spot, just press the Shift key, and still holding that mouse button down, start to drag your selection to the correct place. When in the correct position and the right size, let go of the mouse button, and then the marching ants will appear - and in the correct location.

Tip #6

100% Zoom Zoom. Sometimes you want to get up close and personal in your workspace. Just click on the magnifying glass two times, and boom - you are viewing at 100%! Easy!

Tip #7
Fit to Screen. Now that you've just clicked to 100% zoom, you want to see the whole picture in your screen. Just click on the Hand Tool two times, and you've got everything that you are working on fitted into your photoshop workspace screen! Another Easy one! 

Tip #8
Fast Unhide/Hide. You want to hide about 8 layers and don't want to hide them all individually! All those repeated clicks could be done with a little single click and drag. Click on one layer's "eye" and hold that click. Next, drag the cursor over all the layers you want to hide, and you will see the "eye" disappear for each one. Want them all back, this tip works the opposite way too! 

Tip #9
Opacity by Numbers. The opacity for each layer can easily be change by using your keyboards number buttons. Want 90% opacity, press 9. Want 50% opacity, press 5. I use this one a lot - and easy way to quickly see the changes when working with blend modes. 

Tip #10
Quick - I need a New Layer. Command + N brings up the New Layer pop up box to create a new layer above the one selected in the layers palette! Fast! 

How about them apples?! Well, tips... lol! I hope you found something useful in all these tips! There are loads of shortcuts to make you work faster and easier in your scrapping! Learning just a couple that you can use all the time will really be a surprise!






Thanks for visiting... If there are any tutorials that you would like me to do, please let me know! 
Have a great weekend!
Jenn/jk703
The Typative Scrapper

Tutorial: Mixed Edges

Hi Everyone!  I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving!  I'm tired, and did lots of laundy today from our weekend away visiting family!  Today, I thought I would share a fun and new to me technique that I just recently learned.  We all love our digital scrapbooking papers, and Chelle sure has some awesome ones!  Here is a way to mix up the papers and get a cool effect for your backgrounds.  

For today's tutorial, I've used papers from Chelle's All Hallow's Eve kit.

Step 1:  Open up a new document and then one of the background papers. 

Step 2:  Using the Rectangular Marquee tool, select the area that you would like to have show a different background paper. This should leave a border on your paper with marching ants.  Here is the tool and my chosen selection.

Step 3:  Click on Select > Inverse from the Menu Bar.  This will inverse the marching ants to the edge instead of the inner part of the background paper.  

Step 4:  Next choose Select > Modify > Feather.  We are going to soften the edges on the selection.  A menu will pop up, and you can choose any value you like, but I found that it works nicely when between 100 and 250.  For my example, I chose 150.

Step 5:  Next, you will clicl on the half black/white circle on the bottom of the Layers Palette. Choose Levels (or from the Menu Bar you can choose Image > Adjustments > Levels.)  When the adjustments menu appears, you will slide the middle GREY triangle toward the right.  You will see the paper change all on the selection.  

Here is what my plain background paper looks like after playing with the adjustment level.

Here is another version with the slider closer to the right (towards the white triangle). 

Step 7:  Now, to incorporate more background papers, you can layer them and clip them to the adjustment layer. After you have opened another background paper, make sure the layer is above the adjustment layer.  Next, right click and choose Create Clipping Mask.  

Step 8: Clip the paper, and then you can play with the opacity of the top background paper.  Here I've lowered mine to about 47%. And the final background. 

Looks cool, right!  I can't wait to incorporate this in my next layout! Here are my layouts!

Originally created by me for Chelle's Creations: HERE!

Thanks for visiting and I hope you'll come back!

Jenn/jk703

Tutorial: Cross Processing

Cross Processing.... aka Light Leak Effect!

One of the great photography techniques is cross processing. It gives pictures a fun retro feeling that can be gorgeous, different, and striking all at the same time. Before digital photography (in the dark room) film was processed using chemicals. Different types of film needed different sets of chemicals. Slide film needed one set, a different set was needed for black and white, another for color . . . and so on. If you used certain chemicals with a different film, many times the photographs had both a high contrast and a color cast to them. Cross Processing itself is the procedure of deliberately processing film in a chemical solution intended for a different type of film. Although working hands-on with film is not something many digital scrappers do, we can achieve the effect using Photoshop.

The color cast actually looks quite artistic. There are many photographers that have made use of this processing to deliberately create an artistic look to their photographs. The look has become more popular recently because it's found its way into magazine advertising and for artistic wedding photography.

Here is one way to achieve that cross processed look:

Step 1:  Open and re-save your photo with a new name.  You can always pull the original if you need it. Here is my photo cropped:

Step 2:  Duplicate your image using Control/Command J.  Then on your duplicated image, run the Image > Auto Contrast.

Step 3: Add a levels adjustment layer by clicking on that button on the bottom of the Layers Palette.  It looks like a half white/half black filled circle.  Once the levels adjustment layer opens, you will be changing the color and sliders.  From the drop down menu, choose Red.  There are top sliders and bottom sliders. Now, slide the white triangle on the top slider to approx. 200.  The bottom black triangle on the bottom slider should be moved to 200 also.  Red is done.

 What your photo should look like at this point:

Step 4:  Now we will choose blue from the drop down menu. On the top slider, move the black triangle to approx. 100.  On the bottom slider, move the white triangle to approx. 150. Now, we have a bright yellow/red photo, that is a bit funny looking!

Here is what your photo should look like after this step:




Step 5:  Choose the Gradient Tool.  Most cross processed photos look as if the light leaked in on one side or in areas of the photo.  You can also access this tool by pressing "G."

Step 6: Click on the rectangular gradient on the Tool Options bar.  A menu will open.  Choose the first one, called Linear Gradient, which is a gradient from the foreground to background color. Press "D" to reset the color palette to the default black and white.

Step 7: Click, drag and release. You will click on one spot on the photo, hold down the mouse button and drag in another direction, and then release the mouse button.  Make sure that the Levels Layer in the Layers Palette is active when doing this.  Your first click will receive a full level of the adjustment layer, while the dragged areas will receive a gradient of the adjustment.

Play around with this step.  Try click, drag and release in a diagonal line, or with a longer drag, and don't forget a really short drag.  The look of your picture will turn out differently every time.

Short Drag:

Opposite Drag:

Diagonal Drag

Step 8:  When you find the gradient treatment that you like, you can adjust its intensity with the opacity button.  On my example, I lowered it to about 67%.  Find what appeals to you.

Step 9:  Last step... adding a bluish tint to the shadows. This is an option and may give it a more retro, film feel.  Add a new adjustment layer, and position it below the original Levels Layer.  Choose Blue from the Drop Down Menu and move the black triangle on the bottom slider to about 70 or so.

Here is my final image.

Here is another version where I added a vignette.

I'd love to see some of your photos and how they turned out!
Hope you enjoyed this technique... and thanks for visiting!


Jenn (jk703/The Typative Scrapper)

Tutorial: Content Aware

Photos that we take during our travels are always perfect, right? No way, at least not for me! I usually end up with someone in the background, a hand off to the side, or even a bird in the wrong spot. Whatever it is that has marred your photo, you can try to remove it. There are many options in Photoshop and Photoshop Elements, such as the Eraser Tool, Spot Healing Tool, and the Clone Tool. Photoshop CS5 or Photoshop Elements 9 and up offer a cool new feature to remove unwanted "pieces" of your photo: Content Aware. Content Aware is a function that, while not perfect, can really improve your photos with a little tweaking and patience. This single feature allows you to edit your photos without the visual signs that the edits were completed. Give it a try on a simple removal in one of your photos and you might surprise yourself!

Step 1: Open your photo in Photoshop, and be sure to save it as a new document. Here is my son, Shayne, climbing up the slide. You can see his little brother, Colin, in the background in blue.

Step 2: Choose the Lasso Tool and click around the item that you will be removing from your picture. Here is a close up of Colin and what I plan to remove from my photo. I stayed relatively close to the edge so I don't remove other parts of the photo that I want to stay.

Step 3: Choose Edit in the toolbar, and then click on Fill.

Step 4: A menu will pop up before you can continue. Within this menu, click on the drop down arrow under "Contents:" and "Use:" and choose Content-Aware. Click Ok.

Step 5: Here is a close up of the Content Aware fill that the software generated. Not too bad at all! Since I have played around with the Content Aware feature, I have found that sometimes there is a need to complete the fills by making a new selection and using the tool again (or maybe a few more times).

Step 6: Since I still have a jagged edge on the green slide, I will run a Content Aware Fill again by following the same steps as I did previously. If you need to complete a second round of the fill, you will press Control-D to deselect the area. Then begin again at Step 2 with the Lasso Tool. Here is my second go round of a Content Aware fill with the image from Step 5. 

Step 7: I like my image, but I am one who likes smooth edges and a continuous look. I decided to try using the Content Aware one last time. Here are my final results, still a little jagged, but after I zoom out, it will look great!

Final Image:

Remember, Content Aware is a feature to help make your photos better; it cannot make them perfect. I showed a picture that used multiple steps to remove the unwanted portion. You have the ability to step back or "undo" what you have filled in, so there isn't a worry about damaging your photo memories. Not all pictures will be difficult; some may be easy. Here are a few before and after photos with easy Content Aware removals.

Before, with a dock piling:



After, dock piling removed:




Before, fence and cell tower:



After, fence and cell tower removed:

There you go!  Hope that helps removing some of those unwanted background items!  I originally wrote this article for the ScrapMatters Quarterly Magazine!

Thanks for visiting!
Jenn (jk703/The Typative Scrapper)