Mastering Photoshop: Unknown Tricks and Time-Savers - Smashing Magazine

We all have shortcuts that are essential to our daily workflow. A majority of them are staples such as Copy (Command + C) and Paste (Command + V), but occasionally we stumble upon a shortcut we wish we’d learned years ago. Suddenly, this simple shortcut has streamlined our process and shaved quite a bit of time off our day. Collected here are some lesser known but extremely useful shortcuts. Many of these are not documented in the “Keyboard Shortcuts” menu, and some of them don’t even have equivalent menu options. Please note that all of the shortcuts listed below assume that you are using Photoshop CS4 on OS X. Layers Link Selection Link Sifting through nests of layer sets to find the layer you need quickly becomes tiresome. Changing auto-select behavior. There will be times when you want to select a layer that is located below a number of other layers. Right-clicking to display all layers beneath the cursor. The keyboard can also be used to select layers. Sorting Link Viewing Link (al)

Changing Hair Color in Pictures Home » Photo Editing » Changing Hair Color in Pictures Skill level: Time Required: 0 hrs 20 mins So you want to try out new hair colors? Open up a photograph - I chose a beautiful Asian girl! Choose a soft edge brush. Press "Q" to enter in quick mask mode. Press “Q” again to leave the quick mask mode. Now we have a selection around the hair, however we need is the selection in the hair. To do so, go to Select > Invert. Now we dye the hair. Layer > New Fill Layer > Solid Color Under the basic properties of the new fill layer, change the mode to Soft Light, then click OK. Next you pick the new hair color . And walla, done! By Colin C I don't do much since I get John to do my work. Photoshop Light Effect Tutorials I’ve selected various Photoshop tutorials that I’m liking at the moment for light effects, some have quite cool techniques on how to achieve the end result that can be applied to a million different designs (try and experiment with them), check them out below. You might also enjoy: Design a Vista Styled Wallpaper Windows Vista Aurora Effect Design a Vibrant Blackberry Inspired Ad NoPattern “Jumper” Effect Mysterious Lighting Effect How to Create Brilliant Light Streaks Creating a Mac-Type Background Luminescent Lines Create a Glowing Light Painting Effect Abstract Dust And Spray Effect Make a dreamy abstract background Digital Bokeh effect Abstract Lines Background Abstract Light Rays Drawing an Abstract Lightbulb How to create 3D abstract circles Comments Do you have any favourite tutorials that you have seen for light effects?

Adobe Photoshop Tutorials VFX Titans Remember Ray Harryhausen "When we grieve Ray Harryhausen's passing, we are at least in part grieving perhaps the last living link to the earliest days of movie visual effects," says Creative COW's Debra Kaufman. She spoke to many of today's VFX giants who were inspired by Ray, including Phil Tippett, Richard Edlund, Jeffrey A. Okun and ILM Animation Director Hal Hickel, who says, "Ray Harryhausen's impact on an entire generation (several actually) of filmmakers cannot be overstated, each of them trying again and again to reproduce the wonder they first felt as a child watching Jason fight those skeletons." Editorial, Feature, People / InterviewDebra Kaufman