Photoshop Tutorial - CC 2014 Preferences

This video is available Free for Everyone.
Running Time: 8 minutes

Eager beaver beginners usually just want to start editing photos without even giving much thought to settings and preferences. This is a big no-no, which is precisely why amateurs make this mistake all the time. Preferences greatly affect the workflow of your photos depending on how you want to edit them, so your road to Photoshop excellence starts with the “boring” settings people so often skip.

There have been a ton of versions for Photoshop over the years, but here we’ll be talking about the Preferences for the latest version called Photoshop CC. If you’re interested to find out about the older versions’ Preferences, you can check out the videos for Photoshop CS5 and CS6 right here on my website.

 
Read More

Photoshop Tutorial - Palettes and Navigation

This video is available Free for Everyone.
Running Time: 7 minutes

Once you’re inside Photoshop, you come face to face with all these tools, palettes, and seemingly random symbols. Add that to a boring interface and you just might give up on Photoshop right from the start. I’m telling you now that there’s nothing to be afraid of, because we’ll tackle basic navigation through all these palettes to ensure that it’s easy-breezy. And when we’re done, you’ll realize that the interface is no more daunting than a fluffy little bunny.

 
Read More

Camera Raw Tutorial - Super Basics

This video is available Free for Everyone.
Running Time: 10 minutes

So you took a lovely shot of the perfect night sky, and now you want to start retouching it. When you drag this image onto Photoshop, the first thing it does is not really open it up in Photoshop but in Camera Raw. You’re taken to this interface that all seems foreign to you, with buttons and sliders and you’re thinking, “What in the world just happened?”

I’m going to clear up your confusion straight away. Camera Raw is an extremely easy-to-use raw processor that’s built into Photoshop. It handles your raw image before you open it up in Photoshop, and believe it or not, most of the time when I’m done teaching Camera Raw to my students, they don’t even want to use Photoshop anymore. Counterproductive, or just incredibly awesome? Don’t just take my word for it—let’s dive right in.

 
Read More

Photoshop Tutorial - Portraits and Smart Objects

This video is available Free for Everyone.
Running Time: 14 minutes

After all of the techniques and tools that we talked about, you are now ready to see all these concepts applied into a single image. This tutorial will show you how to actually retouch a photo using all the knowledge you’ve just acquired, all done in a truely non-destructive workflow.

 
Read More

Photoshop Tutorial - Smart Objects Inside Smart Objects

This video is available Free for Everyone.

We’ve discussed the wonder of Smart Objects, but it does get confusing for some people, especially for a beginner. This tutorial will teach you workarounds when it comes to working with Smart Objects, and will get rid of your fear of meddling with these seemingly tricky situations.

 
Read More

Photoshop Tutorial - Smart Objects and Smart Filters

This video is available Free for Everyone.
Running Time: 10 minutes

This session will tell you all about the magic of Smart Objects and Smart Filters. For any retoucher, it’s important to develop a non-destructive workflow. Smart Objects and Smart Filters will give you the ability to go back and forth between your actions without permanently damaging your photo.

For example, after many hours of work, I had 7 images needed to be blown up approximately 170%. The client failed to mention that part. Instead of having to blow up pixel data, or start over again; I was able to simply go back to Camera Raw, and output the images blown up (which were way sharper than Photoshop’s pixel data). Simply dragging over the existing Adjustment Layers, Masks, and Smart Filters; I was able to give the sharpest image possible, without much trouble.

 
Read More

Camera Raw Tutorial - Output Options

This video is available Free for Everyone.
Running Time: 10 minutes

Because of all the fancy tools that Camera Raw comes packed with, it’s easy to overlook certain settings that are actually very important. This tutorial will briefly go over the significance of knowing how Camera Raw exports images to Photoshop. Determining your output options will make the work that you do, whether it’s for printing or for magazines or simply for web display, much more convenient.

Below your image in Camera Raw, you will see a line of blue text that tells you specific details about your picture. Clicking on this blue text opens up the “Workflow Options” dialog box, where you can set up your color profile, bit depth, image size, etc.

 
Read More

Camera Raw Tutorial - Local Adjustments

This video is available Free for Everyone.
Running Time: 16 minutes

This Photoshop tutorial teaches you how to isolate certain areas of a photo using Local Adjustments in Camera Raw. Does one cheek of your model look a little too flushed? Is a particular part of the leg covered in unnecessary shadows? You can make your changes specifically to that section alone, without affecting the other areas of your image.

 
Read More

Camera Raw Tutorial - Open Image vs Open Object

This video is available Free for Everyone.
Running Time: 4 minutes

This Photoshop Tutorial teaches you the difference between opening up a raw file from Camera Raw as “Open Image” or as “Open Object”. While the former opens up your image as it is, the latter lets you make changes on your raw files , even after you have started working in Photoshop.

It does this by opening up your images as Smart Objects. Even if you do not fully use the power of Smart Objects, this tutorial will show you how, even in the simplest method possible, it will easily change the way you work on your images in Photoshop.

 
Read More