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[daveofficer]

I honestly love this program. I know lots of folk use it already but seriously, it's amazing. Everyday I seem to find a new way to make my life easier using Photoshop. Maybe it's because I've not read the manual or had much tuition in it so no ones shown me the easy ways to do things but the day I worked out how batch processing worked was a majestic day. And I'm learning more about Bridge all the time. I've literally just saved myself days of work by finally figuring out something in Bridge.

So, anyone got any tips they'd like to share?

I'll start with a fairly easy one. If you're working in RAW and have a ton of images to play with from the same day which were all shot in the same lighting conditions then save the settings of the first one you do by clicking the little arrow in the top right of Adobe Raw. Saves a whole lot of time. You can also just copy the Raw settings in Bridge from your first one and paste them across a whole bunch of photo's by going to edit>apply camera raw settings>copy camera raw settings then hold down shift and go to the end of your photo's and select edit>apply camera raw settings>paste camera raw settings.

I know that might seem fairly obvious to some folk but no one had ever shown me so I'm sure it'll be helpful to someone. I should add that I'm using CS2 so earlier version of Photoshop may vary a bit.

[Andy Mulhern]

I did use photoshop but I then found THE GIMP!

GIMP - The GNU Image Manipulation Program

MUCH better IMHO!

but again it takes alittle to get into the way of it and im the same in finding new things every day!

[daveofficer]

Originally Posted by Andy Mulhern

I did use photoshop but I then found THE GIMP!

GIMP - The GNU Image Manipulation Program

MUCH better IMHO!

but again it takes alittle to get into the way of it and im the same in finding new things every day!

Yea I've heard of Gimp. I'd like to give it a try sometime but I spend so much time trying to learn Photoshop and other packages that it's hard to fit other things in. I'd also rather get on top of packages which are likely to help my future employment prospects before getting into other ones.

What do you find better about Gimp?

[Hogisbald]

Originally Posted by daveofficer

What do you find better about Gimp?

Photoshop is awesome. If you want to really see how deep you can go into it' realms then get a dvd from Guy Gowan. I went to his seminar in Glasgow, holy shit!

etntworld

There is also Yervant, he is basically the top wedding photographer in the world. Im going to his seminar in a couple of months time. Not only is he an amazing photographer, his use of Photoshop is awesome.

Yervant Photography

[daveofficer]

Originally Posted by Hog

Photoshop is awesome. If you want to really see how deep you can go into it' realms then get a dvd from Guy Gowan. I went to his seminar in Glasgow, holy shit!

etntworld

There is also Yervant, he is basically the top wedding photographer in the world. Im going to his seminar in a couple of months time. Not only is he an amazing photographer, his use of Photoshop is awesome.

Yervant Photography

that dvd looks quite interesting. i know a few retouching techniques but i've not practiced them much. i may check it out.

any photoshop tips hog?

[Red Neck Man]

I love photoshop.

Like you, I'm finding out new things about it all the time. I shoot in nothing but RAW and the amount of things you can do is insane. Mind you, I don't like to do too much via the computer.

The things I normally use are levels, curves and channel mixer for converting to black and white. Oh and the good ol' clone tool for getting rid of unsightly marks.

[Marsh]

Originally Posted by Hog

Photoshop is awesome. If you want to really see how deep you can go into it' realms then get a dvd from Guy Gowan. I went to his seminar in Glasgow, holy shit!

etntworld

There is also Yervant, he is basically the top wedding photographer in the world. Im going to his seminar in a couple of months time. Not only is he an amazing photographer, his use of Photoshop is awesome.

Yervant Photography

Both of those are top of the class. That's the sort of gubbins I aspire to.

It's a way of life for me - I've been using Photoshop for 8 years now - since version 3.0 - It never used layers and had hardly any interface - how it's changed over the years!

I don't think half the stuff I produce would be as good on a film camera. RAW + CS2 is an essential!

My motto is "you can polish a turd with Photoshop."

[Andy Mulhern]

Originally Posted by daveofficer

Yea I've heard of Gimp. I'd like to give it a try sometime but I spend so much time trying to learn Photoshop and other packages that it's hard to fit other things in. I'd also rather get on top of packages which are likely to help my future employment prospects before getting into other ones.

What do you find better about Gimp?

emm not sure, just more comfartable in certain ways for my purposes. I still prob only use/know about 10% of GIMPs power. Leaning all the time, and ture about job prospects etc for you.

what "other packages" do you use?

[Hogisbald]

Originally Posted by daveofficer

that dvd looks quite interesting. i know a few retouching techniques but i've not practiced them much. i may check it out.

any photoshop tips hog?

Depends what you want to know really man.

Here is one for smoothing face..

select areas around the face, section by section i.e. a cheek first, then the forehead etc. Use the lasso tool for this.

Then select the gaussian tool, I usually use it at around 1.7- 2.5. This blurs the skin and makes it smoother. Don't go near the eyes or the mouth, these should always be in focus, especially the eyes IMHO.

After you have done this, a little bit of diffuse glow helps smooth the face further.

I then use the unsharp tool. The unsharp tool should always be the final filter. It also adds a little bit of grain to the face, so it doesnt make the face look like a porcelian doll.

If you go to this guys site ..:: Atherton Photographic ::.. and visit the fashion section, he uses this process effectively (especially the model up a tree lol)

[emergency72]

I too love photoshop, however I use it for everything EXCEPT photos!