leI had to research to be able to bring you Tip Thursday and I know that I am not alone in wanting to know how to do this.... so for my future reference and yours:
How to make www.scrapartist.com into a clickable link that looks like this:
[XXurl=http://www.scrapartist.com]ScrapArtist[/url]
I have added the XX to show you the link – removing the XX will give us
Tracy
I've really gotten into stamping lately, and here is a page in progress featuring Nancie's Messy Chalked Alpha on Weeds & Wildflowers Taking Notes paper:
Now, you could leave it at that and call it a day. But I'd really like to see that stamping blend into the background more realistically. Blending Options to the rescue!
Select "Blending Options" for your stamp layer to bring up the Blending Options dialog.
Find "Blend If" at the bottom of the dialog. Here's where the magic happens. Fiddle with the Underlying Layer settings until you reach your desired effect. Here, I've set the black range from 70-100 and the white range from 200-225. (Alt+Click to drag each slider in the black or white ranges separately.)
You may notice I fussed with the opacity of the stamping layer, too. I set it at about 92% here.
Feel free to PM me (nennikers) if you have any questions about this technique. Hope you enjoy playing with it!
Jen
Here's a tip on how to quickly get the Eyedropper tool any time you're painting in Photoshop.
Any time you're using a paint tool (Brush, Airbrush, Pencil, Eraser, Paint bucket, etc.) and you want to sample a color from an image, just hold down the Alt key (Mac: Option key) and the paint tool temporarily switches to the Eyedropper tool.
You're not limited to sample a color from the document you're working on. You can sample a color from all areas of your screen (not just within Photoshop). Just click and hold within the document first, and then drag outside of that window and onto the object you'd like to sample.
If you are anything like me, you take a lot of photos in bad indoor lighting, thus needing to use a flash. So I use an external flash which is usually pointet upwards as to have the light bounce back off the roof. Well, sometimes this makes for some bad shadows, or extra dark circles under the eyes, if you will. So here's a tip on how to quickly get rid of them (or other miscolorations for that matter) in Photoshop. Here's what you can do:
Select the Clone Tool
Up on the menu bar, change the setting of the Clone Tool to Mode: Lighten, Opacity 20,
and make sure Sample All Layers is checked (this is so you can do the corrections on a separate layer).
Make a new layer above your photo layer.
With the Clone Tool, sample a lighter area (by holding down the Alt key/Option key and clicking) close to where you'll be correcting.
Now you can easily brush over the dark circles and watch them disappear.
Lastly, I would suggest lowering the opacity of the adjusted layer to make it look a little more natural, you know, not too polished. :)
Here is a before and after example:
Just a couple of simple type tips today:
While I'm writing text on a layout I often find that I want to reposition the text, and I would usually change to the Move tool, reposition, then change back to the Type tool. Not since I learned about this little tip. While the Type tool is active, just move the cursor away from the text and it temporarily changes into the Move tool. You can then click and drag the text where you want it and then move the cursor back to the text to continue your writing.
And have you ever tried to create a new line of text close to an existing one? When you click where you want your new text to start, it seems like Photoshop assumes that you want to keep typing on the same ol' Type layer. What you can do is hold down the Shift key while you click. This will ensure that a new Type layer is started.
You know, when you want to use the Burn/Dodge tool in Photoshop, for it to work properly you have to use it directly on (let's say) the photo layer you are working on. This tip lets you use the Burn/Dodge tool without manipulating the original photo layer. Here's how you do it:
- create a new layer above the photo layer
- fill the new layer with 50% gray (Edit, Fill, 50% Gray)
- set the blend mode of the layer to Overlay (for a softer approach you could use Soft Light)
Now you can work the Burn/Dodge tool on this new layer, keeping the original photo layer intact.
If you want to zoom in on a specific area of your image quickly, hold down the Control (Mac: Command) key and the Spacebar, then use the mouse to drag a box around the area you want to zoom in on. When you release the mouse button, the area you selected will fill the screen. To return the image to full screen, hold down the Control (Mac: Command) key and press 0 (zero).
Okay, I know Tip Thursday is usually all about the technical tips, but this week I thought I'd mix it up a little with something more in the nature of a design tip. Actually, a link to a blog that has some great multi-photo layouts for your inspiration! It's called the Multi-Photo Scrapbook Layout Gallery. If you're anything like me, it can be tough to work multiple photos into a layout - I tend to be a one photo kind of girl. So, I love looking at the great layouts at this site for ideas on how to work in more than one photo without getting overwhelmed! You can check it out HERE.
For today’s tip, I’d like to share one way of protecting your images that you post on the web. I have heard of a number of incidents where a photo was lifted from someone else’s blog or profile and used as their own. It is particularly troubling when you post images of your family and kids.
So, one way to deter such people from lifting your images is to stamp a watermark onto your image.
Extra tip: Instead of typing in your copyright info onto your photo each time, you may type your info on a new file and save it as a .png file. So, when you need it, simply drag the file onto your photos.
Joy
It's late, so I just have a simple one for you today :) But, it's a keyboard shortcut I use alot! When you need a new layer, you can just hit shift +control+n and just like magic - a new, blank layer! Much easier than using the pull down menu :)
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