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Anyone who plans on spending any length of time wandering the halls of Photoshop should consider learning how Photoshop layer sets work.

Layers are crucial to the entire mechanism of Photoshop design and enhancement.

The Photoshop “Layers” palette maintains a precise history of all your keystrokes… so you don’t have to remember anything.

Layers can be likened to your command post, so it behooves you to spend some time in there. Let’s take a brief look around right now.

Hmm, looks complicated, doesn’t it? Well, unlike a lot of other functions inside Photoshop, Layers really is pretty simple.

Basically, it isolates different sections or transformations so you can work on them without affecting the rest of the image.

Which really comes in handy when you find yourself up against the wall and need to start that particular enhancement over: just throw that layer away.

Your Photoshop Layers box will automatically create a new layer for you for some changes, but you can also create a new yourself.

On your top menu bar, click “Layer,” then “New.” You’ll see a brand new, empty layer appear inside your Layers box. Notice that it has been highlited and the “background,” or original, layer is not.

The highlighted layer is the active layer, meaning that’s the one you’re presently working on. To activate a different layer, simply click on it, and Photoshop highlights (activates) it for you.

Becoming aware of this one function is essential for successfully working in layers.

(Note: Photoshop CS2 lets you activate multiple layers.)

Once you have a few layers inside your Layers dialog box, try clicking the eyeballs next to each one.

You’ll see that in this way you can visually isolate layers so you can tell exactly what it is you’re working on.

At times, you will find yourself creating many, many layers for a single image. When that happens, it gets difficult to find the layer you want to affect.

The solution to this problem lies in creating groups, or “layer sets.” Grouping layers allows you to place them into a folder. (In Photoshop CS, first link the layers, then choose “New Set from Linked” on the side menu of the Layers box.)

In Photoshop 7, you create a group by choosing each one, then clicking “Group with Previous” inside your Layer option in the top menu. Or you can click the tiny folder icon at the bottom of the

Layers palette and drag the layers into that layer when it appears, then click the collapse arrow to the left of the set folder to hide the layers inside the folder.

If you want to get rid of the set folder later, highlight it, then click Layer, Delete, Set, then choose either “Set and Contents” or “Set Only.”

Some versions of Photoshop require you to choose your layers and then “Shift-Click” on the bottom folder icon to create a set folder. In Photoshop CS2, you can align layers by choosing View > Show > Smart Guides.

Like all the other fabulous Photoshop functions, Layers offers almost limitless ways to affect your photos and the way you maneuver around inside Photoshop itself.

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If you had chosento learnabout photography;20 yearsago you wouldhavehad to learna great deal more about film speed,exposurevalue, shutter speeds,and focal length.You may haveneeded;to haveyourown darkroomin order to developyourphotosas wellas needing;muchmore equipmentin order to get great photos.Today\’s budding photographerhas it mucheasiersincethe adventof digital technology. Whilephotography;is stillconsideredan incredibleart it is mucheasierto do.

To developphotosyou had to deal withchemicalsand a drying process thatwas timeconsuming.The chemicalsweretoxic and dangerousto breathein. Withthe digital cameras thatare in use todaywe haveinstantaneous photogratification and can immediately see whetherthe photowe took was goodor bad.The simpleact of hookingyourcamera up to yourcomputer willenable you to print yourphotoswithno more waitat the photoprocessing stand.

Whilevery few professionalphotographers;actuallyuse film and darkrooms;these days, every one of themstilledittheirphotosto createprofessionallooking results. No matter theirskill or the expenseof theircamera, professionalphotographers;rarely takephotosthatrequire zero editing;. The secrettoolof professionalphotographers;is AdobePhotoshop.

The incrediblearray of tools;and featuresof AdobePhotoshopis what makes it numberone among professionalphotographers;.

Photoshopcontains all the necessarytools;to turnan average picture intoa photographthatlooks as if it was taken;by a professionalin the bestlightingcondition possible. Every toolthata photographerwouldneedto edittheirphotosis contained within;thisprogram.

One of the nicest thingsabout Photoshopis its simplicty.Thereare no hazardouschemicalsor poor lightingconditionsor delays in development;. Everything you needis easily accessible and quickly learned;.

No one can predict the weatherand lightingissues are one of the main thingsthatcan ruin a photo. Regardless of the lightingsituation, you can make every photolook as if it weretaken;under the bestlightingcondition possible withAdobePhotoshop. Another commonproblem is red-eye and Photoshopallowsyou to removered-eyesquickly and easily. You can also removeobjects in the photographas wellas replace it withsomething else as if it was reallythere.For example, you can removeoverhead electricalwires from the photosyou takeof a particular landmark. You can evenremovecompletestrangers thatcan potentiallyruin a perfectgroupphotoof yourfriends.You can evenchange out the background in a particular photographwithAdobePhotoshop.

Quickly and easily restore cherished photograhs;witha simplescanner and the tools;in Photoshop. Print yourresultsout on high quality photopaperand fool yourfriends and family withthe actual age of the photographitself.The taskis simpleand is not timeconsuming.Thissimplejob is mucheasierwithPhotoshopthanif you had to manuallydo it usinga darkroomand chemicals.

These are only a few of the thingsyou can do withthisprogram.If photography;is yourhobby, then you willdefinitely see thatAdobePhotoshopwillbe able to help you out in waysthatyou never thoughtpossible. Withthissoftware, you can be sure thatyou willbe able to make any photosyou takelook professional.

Adobe Photoshop is an incredibly powerful program this can do some pretty amazing things. There are a variety of tools included that allow you to turn any ordinary photo into an incredible image. And the most important thing is that you will have so much fun with this program that time will fly by. Before you know it the simple task of removing a zit will turn into transforming the background into the Taj Mahal and the subject a crowd of clones.

One of the most popular tools is the smudge tool that allows you to quickly and easily erase wrinkles, pimples, scars, zits. etc. Photoshop has found the fountain of youth and the people in your photos will look years younger. You can also remove the shine from oily faces, improve skin tone, and remove additional weight, turning everyone into super models.

One of the most common problems with photos is the phenomenon known as “red eye” and regardless of how advanced your camera is or how great your skill as a photographer it is difficult to avoid this problem. Red eye is caused by light reflecting back from the pupil of the subjects eye once the flash is reflected. Even though you can find cameras that have advanced flash settings that claims to conquer the red eye occurrence, there is really no 100 percent guarantee to remove it. Photoshop has a red eye tool built in, so with a click of the mouse you can easily and quickly rid yourself of one of the most common reasons photos are discarded. In fact, you can even remove the red eyes even those of your pet car or dog.

There are a variety of other tools that allow you to clean up your photos, including fixing lighting problems. The brightness and contrast tool, color enhancing tools, and sharpening and blurring tool make the process of editing photos quick and easy. Shadows can often cover your subjects faces, again ruining your photos. Photoshop will help you brighten up the photos simply by using the sliders on the brightness and contrast tool. Also, it can bring out the vibrant colors of a particular photo. Shaking hands can create blurred images however with a few clicks using the sharpening tools you can easily straighten items out and give you amazing results.

Another, often unavoidable, flaw in photos is the appearance of strangers or other objects in the background that distract the viewer from focusing on the subject. Sometimes you might even find that a stranger has actually posed for the photo but don\’t realize it until its too late and you can\’t retake the picture. Using Photoshop, you can crop elements out of the picture. Regardless of whether it\’s a stray dog, an airplane going across the sky, or a complete stranger ruining the great moment, you can easily cut them out of the picture and fix the portion where you edited out the element as if nothing was there before.

Feeling creative? Using Adobe Photoshop you can give in to your artistic desires. Change colored photos to black and white or make them look as if they were taken 60 years ago by applying a sepia effect. Turn a photo into a water color or pencil sketch. All that is takes is a good imagination.

Take your skills to the next level and swap out your background. Always wanted to be in Paris? Paste a photo of yourself onto a layer that has an image of the Eiffel Tower on it.

These are only a few things you can do with this program. Regardless of your photography skills you easily create professional quality images with this powerful program, and by viewing Photoshop video tutorials.

If you had chosen to learn about photography 20 years ago you would have had to learn a great deal more about film speed, exposure value, shutter speeds, and focal length. You may have needed to have your own dark room in order to develop your photos as well as needing much more equipment in order to get great photos. Today\’s budding photographer has it much easier since the advent of digital technology. While photography is still considered an incredible art it is much easier to do.

To develop photos you had to deal with chemicals and a drying process that was time consuming. The chemicals were toxic and dangerous to breathe in. With the digital cameras that are in use today we have instantaneous photo gratification and can immediately see whether the photo we took was good or bad. The simple act of hooking your camera up to your computer will enable you to print your photos with no more wait at the photo processing stand.

While very few professional photographers actually use film and darkrooms these days, every one of them still edit their photos to create professional looking results. No matter their skill or the expense of their camera, professional photographers rarely take photos that require zero editing. The secret tool of professional photographers is Adobe Photoshop.

The incredible array of tools and features of Adobe Photoshop is what makes it number one among professional photographers.

Photoshop contains all the necessary tools to turn an average picture into a photograph that looks as if it was taken by a professional in the best lighting condition possible. Every tool that a photographer would need to edit their photos is contained within this program.

One of the nicest things about Photoshop is its simplicty. There are no hazardous chemicals or poor lighting conditions or delays in development. Everything you need is easily accessible and quickly learned.

No one can predict the weather and lighting issues are one of the main things that can ruin a photo. Regardless of the lighting situation, you can make every photo look as if it were taken under the best lighting condition possible with Adobe Photoshop. Another common problem is red-eye and Photoshop allows you to remove red-eyes quickly and easily. You can also remove objects in the photograph as well as replace it with something else as if it was really there. For example, you can remove overhead electrical wires from the photos you take of a particular landmark. You can even remove complete strangers that can potentially ruin a perfect group photo of your friends. You can even change out the background in a particular photograph with Adobe Photoshop.

Quickly and easily restore cherished photograhs with a simple scanner and the tools in Photoshop. Print your results out on high quality photo paper and fool your friends and family with the actual age of the photograph itself. The task is simple and is not time consuming. This simple job is much easier with Photoshop than if you had to manually do it using a darkroom and chemicals.

These are only a few of the things you can do with this program. If photography is your hobby, then you will definitely see that Adobe Photoshop will be able to help you out in ways that you never thought possible. With this software, you can be sure that you will be able to make any photos you take look professional.

Many young photographers today are choosing digital photography as their profession of choice. Unfortunately it is a difficult field to enter and many find difficulties at the outset which preclude them from making it big. The main problem people run into is poor photo quality which easily fails to impress potential clients, as revealed in this free adobe photoshop elements book.

What many new, young photographers are unaware of is the hidden tool that professional use, Adobe Elements. Adobe Elements is a photo editing software program that enables you to take an ordinary photo and manipulate it into something incredible. If you are unfamiliar with this program I have listed a quick glimpse at the tools contained in this program that enable you to create amazing works of art.

Photo editing begins once you have finished taking the picture. When you open your photo inside Elements you always want to create a new layer from the options menu. This is important as you will be making any editing on the new layer and not on your original photo and in the end will make your job much simpler. If your photo is too dark or too bright you will next want to enhance this by using brightness and contrast. You can also accent the color scheme by using various brushes. You can choose from the paint, spray and air brush. You will want to play around with this until you achieve your desired effect.

Once you have selected the brush you want to also choose the stroke size as well as brush size. After choosing the brush tool from the menu press your right bracket key on your keyboard to increase its size and the left bracket key to decrease its size. If you want to not have to go through this process each time you use Elements you can select the sample size option to maintain the consistent size of the brush. The next step is to figure out how dark you want to your brush strokes to be.

Using the opacity tool will give you the freedom to increase or decrease the darkness to improve the clarity of the picture. You should see a slider on the opacity tool which gives you the opportunity to increase or decrease the color intensity of your paint brush from 0% to 100%. Elements has a variety of color schemes and you can play around until you find which will work best for you. Experiment with your colors in different layers and then keep only the layer you are satisfied with.

Once you have mastered Photoshop Elements you may want to move to the professional version called Photoshop CS4. CS4 is more difficult to learn but comes packed with more tools and brushes for you to use. You have more than twelve hard-edged and soft edged brushes to play with. You also have a variety of different brushes, including a star, spatter, air brush, spatter shaped and natural brushes. If these are not enough, you are also given the provision of downloading more unique shaped and sized brushes.

Adobe elements is easily the most accessible and function powered program out there in the current market with regard to managing and modifying images to perfection. The advanced features are intuitive as well as very easily accessible designed for an amateur photographer aiming to generate some nice earnings coming from their photography hobby. Photoshop elements is unparalleled in terms of the very skilled tools and features that makes your photo picture perfect with remarkable quality as well as advanced image resolution.

Photoshop elements work big with features and functionality which makes ones photo editing task as easy as child’s play. The highly advanced enhancing; developing and sharing functions help to make Photoshop elements a superior program meant for image editing. Several of its outstanding features that make it highly accessible among users are its simple navigation tools, an extensive manual about the usage of the functions and resources, Internet functions plus a very superior image merging tool.

This Photoshop Elements training is going to now expose its primary features;-

The operation of applications on image editing including, image organizing, launching picture guides, collages, slide displays, organizing calendars come extremely simple even for any beginner. The Adobe Photoshop Elements applications not only have got easy accessibility to image projects, but in addition offers uncomplicated applications to share images on Flickr, electronic mails, CD and social network Internet sites such as Myspace, Orkut and so on.

You simply need to apply the basic rules of dragging and then popping images into your Edit Function. Upon launching this mode, you will be exposed to diverse, easy to access enhancing resources with numerous tricks and alterations for you to enhance your editing, at your disposal.

The internal Fast solution device provides you with enhanced comfort for auto-correcting your photos, in the event you consider manual features a bit complicated at the very first go. This option will immediately boost the resolution and repair the color schemes of the image.

The top function of Adobe elements will be the extensive Guided editor which carefully acquaints a person with every feature ranging from correcting photos to cropping to coloration setting.

Adobe Elements have made importing far less difficult like never before. Photoshop elements allows the importation of the actual images to the “My pictures” folder by default as well as lets you perform the enhancing procedures such as brightness manipulations and red eye removal within the organizer.

The unique photograph browser for Photoshop elements enables you to access all of your photos stored on the computer’s desktop inside one window. Additionally, it has the capacity to show images on other extractable forms of media such as a Compact disk.

In the event you’re new to Adobe elements, it is strongly advised that you simply download the latest function focused version of Photoshop Elements to help make your image editing encounter delightful, and find out the very best Photoshop Elements training strategies which in turn permit you to create genuine quality digital photography collections.

Choosing photo-editing software can be difficult. Windows comes with rudimentary tools that will help you with your photos. But you’ll need more if you plan on doing more than resizing and rotating photos. Also, cameras usually come with editing software. However, these probably lack essential features to editing your photos. For the average user, Photoshop is overkill. The learning curve is steep, to say the least. It will allow you to transform a photograph completely. However, its tools are aimed at creative professionals. Even experts struggle to master it! If you have outgrown lesser photo-editing programs, Photoshop may be for you. There are no other programs in the same league. The first thing you should look for is ease of use. Try editing one of your photos. With any program, there will be a learning curve. But, you should be able to find the controls you need fairly easily.
New and expert photographers alike have experienced it. You take an otherwise perfect picture of friends or family but there’s one major flaw: glowing red eyes. Here are some reliable tips for avoiding red-eye in the first place: whenever possible, try not to use a flash. If you have to use a flash, ask your subject to look toward the camera, but not directly at the lens. Also, use additional light sources in the room. You can also take pictures during the day, because at night the pupils will dilate meaning red-eye will be a certainty. Lastly, you can stand farther away from your subject.

At some point or other you’re likely going to want to change the size of a digital photo. This will usually be to serve an intended purpose such as emailing a smaller sized version of your original photo. A common size change for a digital photo is cropping. This can be done to either “zoom in” on a section of the photo (create a new photo of just a portion of the original photo) or to change the aspect ratio of the photo. Cropping involves selecting a portion of the image and removing the rest. This creates a new smaller image with just the portion of the image that you want. Cropping can be used to remove annoyances in the photo, to “zoom-in” on a selected portion of the photo, or to change the aspect ratio of the photo so that it can be printed full frame on a selected paper size. Most good photo programs have a cropping tool.

If you have a rather plain photograph, or a black and white picture, there are ways to manipulate the colors to make the picture more interesting. Your editing program will probably have a way to enhance the color of a picture, or you can completely change the color of an object. If you learn to use the tools well, you could be able to convert a black and white picture to color. You can also create aged effects, or make a picture grayscaled. Experiment with your program and find out what you can do to improve the coloring of your pictures.

Unsharp masking is an image manipulation technique now familiar to many users of digital image processing software, but it seems to have been first used in Germany in the 1930s as a way of increasing the acutance, or apparent sharpness, of photographic images. The “unsharp” of the name derives from the fact that the technique uses a blurred, or “unsharp”, positive to create a “mask” of the original image. The unsharped mask is then combined with the negative, creating the illusion that the resulting image is sharper than the original. Digital unsharp masking is a flexible and powerful way to increase sharpness, especially in scanned images. However, it is easy to create unwanted and conspicuous edge effects. On the other hand these effects can be used creatively, especially if one channel of images in RGB or Lab colour space is selected for unsharp masking.

What’s the “right” size for a picture? Well, that depends on the photo. Most monitors display at 72 dpi (dots per inch). So, if you want the picture to be 5 inches wide (probably about the biggest you would want for an e-mail message), the picture would be 360 pixels wide (5 inches x 72 dpi = 360 pixels). Pixel is short for “Picture Element” and is the smallest unit of visual information used to build an image. If you have ever zoomed in on an image, Pixels are those little squares that you see. The more pixels in an image, the better the resolution.

Final compression and using the right format can be as important as taking good photos and scanning them correctly. Macs and pc’s – and other types of machines – are readily mixed in today’s computer environments. This means that proprietary file formats are no longer useful, because you want to be able to exchange files with other people using other types of computers. Web formats are excellent exchange formats, but unfortunately not well suited for archival purposes. This list covers the most common file formats and comments on their characteristics. BMP is the format that is the native Windows format, but it has no advantages over TIFF apart from support in Windows Paint. It is accurate but compresses poorly and has nothing close to the flexibility of TIFF. Use TIFF for archiving in stead. Useless on the web. TIFF is the best format for storing originals and transporting files. TIFF is accurate and compresses well without loss of quality. TIFF can store all types of pictures – simple and complex, B/W and color, photos and logos. TIFF is platform independent and works on both Mac’s and PC’s. Edit Your Digital Photos
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Learn How To Use Adobe Photoshop To Quickly And Easily Edit Your Digital Photos Like The Professionals. This covers the more advanced content of adobe photoshop and you will learn so much, so easily and such a short time. You will be amazed at the things you can actually do with Adobe Photoshop and edit some awsome photos. There are several good free digital photo editing software programs available for download that can fit the bill for most common photo editing needs. All you have to do is perform a search for “free photo editing software” and you should have plenty of results to choose from. But there are two programs for sale that seem to meet the needs of most average photographers whether novices or even serious hobbyists, and they are Adobe Photoshop Elements and Corel Paint Shop Pro 9. Both of these programs are very highly rated in most independent and consumer reviews as being very easy to learn and use, while also handling most any editing task that the average photographer could need.

With Photoshop you can easily make yourself or anyone look better. You can even change the colors of the clothing people are wearing. You will be amazed by the results you can achieve with Photoshop. You will not only be able to improve the appearance of people but you will be able to completely remove people from the photograph, add people from other photos or change the background. Master these Photoshop techniques and you will be in demand for photo editing and graphic design projects. People with these types of skills are in needed for photo retouching, web design work, logo design, advertising, and more. Not only can you have fun touching up your own photos but you could start a business doing photo enhancements.

Pixel parity. Never judge a digital photo without looking at the actual pixels. Image editors often squeeze the image down to the size of your screen (or, even worse, down to the size of a window on your screen). No matter how good the software is, it can’t remove a lot of pixels and still show you the same image. Your image editor should have a menu choice for “Actual Size,” “Actual Pixels” or “1:1.” Slide your chair back a few feet if you need to get a longer view when you’re looking at the actual pixels. And be sure to view your images full-screen; all good editors let you do that.

The display resolution of a digital television or computer display typically refers to the number of distinct pixels in each dimension that can be displayed. Some commentators also use this term to indicate a range of input formats that the display’s input electronics will accept and often include formats greater than the screen’s native grid size even though they have to be down-scaled to match the screen’s parameters. An example of pixel shape affecting “resolution” or perceived sharpness is displaying more information in a smaller area using a higher resolution, which makes the image much clearer. However, newer LCD displays and such are fixed at a certain resolution; making the resolution lower on these kinds of screens will greatly decrease sharpness, as an interpolation process is used to “fix” the non-native resolution input into the displays native resolution output.

So what are the mechanics of this “through the lens” shot to achieve the ghosting effect? 1. Stabilize the camera – using a tripod is best, a stable surface is a second option or, a steady hand as a last resort; 2. Set number of multiple exposures you require for the frame to (N) – usually 1 to 9; 3. For the roll of film in your SLR, determine the film speed (S); 4. Reset the camera film speed (Yes, you can override the setting) to (N S) or, if not an exact match, set it to the absolute closest speed ((N S) adjustment); 5. Take your picture, depressing the shutter button for a total count equalling the number of camera exposures you set in step “2″. Example: 1. You want 6 exposures on the frame (N=6) so set the number of multiple exposures to ’6′; 2. You’ve determined the film speed is 200 (S=200); 3. Reset the camera film speed to ’1200′ (= 200 6); 4. Depress the shutter button 6 times (for 6 exposures). REMEMBER: Check and reset the SLR film speed and number of exposures to their original settings before continuing with your next shot. Some SLRs will automatically reset the number of exposures back to ’1′ before advancing the film to the next frame. It’s always better to verify this.

Photoshop has opened up many new and vibrant ways to change and edit your many photos. Photoshop and other editing tools are the photographers best friend for photos that are perfect except for one thing or just for experimenting on colors and variety. Frame; There are unlimited ways you can put frames around your photos in Photoshop. Vignette; Vignette is a popular effect that involves a soft fade, usually in oval shape, where the photograph is light in center and fades gradually into the background where it gets darker. Vibrant Color; By adjusting the saturation you can turn an otherwise dull photograph into a masterpiece of vibrant color. You can even work with particular color channels while leaving others alone. As you learn Photoshop and start experimenting with adding special effects to your photos you will learn many more techniques as well as different ways to achieve the same effects.

Some things you are going to have to do to start up a photography business are: you have to do is get all the equipment that you’re going to need. This is going to vary depending on what kind of field you want to get into. For example, if you’re planning to become a photographer who specializes in stock car racing, then you are going to need a lot of equipment for taking high speed photos. The good news is that you’re not going to have to spend a lot of money on lighting since these photos will be taken outdoors. Conversely, if you’re planning to photograph fashion models, lighting is going to be critical to your photos and your lighting equipment expense is going to be quite high.

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Image editors (also known as photo editors) allow you to create and modify graphics and photographic images. This includes tasks such as painting and drawing, color correction, photo enhancement, creating special effects, converting images, and adding text to graphics. Your image editor will probably be your most frequently used tool for working with graphics so it should be flexible and intuitive. Many software programs are available for enhancing and otherwise working with bitmap images, but unless they can perform all of the tasks above sufficiently, they should only be considered as companion tools to your primary photo editing application.

The display resolution of a digital television or computer display typically refers to the number of distinct pixels in each dimension that can be displayed. Some commentators also use this term to indicate a range of input formats that the display’s input electronics will accept and often include formats greater than the screen’s native grid size even though they have to be down-scaled to match the screen’s parameters. An example of pixel shape affecting “resolution” or perceived sharpness is displaying more information in a smaller area using a higher resolution, which makes the image much clearer. However, newer LCD displays and such are fixed at a certain resolution; making the resolution lower on these kinds of screens will greatly decrease sharpness, as an interpolation process is used to “fix” the non-native resolution input into the displays native resolution output.

While it might be neater to store digital images, you aren’t done with organizing and storing images. There are various options for data storage, and no one answer is right for everyone. In fact, there may be more than one right answer for you. However you store your images, be sure to file them so they are easy to organize and find. Choose one system and stick to it. Create named folders on your hard drive or name compact discs, for instance, to store them. ALWAYS make copies of your images, leaving the originals intact, before you edit, alter or crop them. The hard drive is where most people store the bulk of their images. This is a good option, but isn’t without problems. For instance, if you have all of your images on your hard drive and it crashes, you’ve lost all your precious images. A horrible thought, of course! Do use the hard drive, but also back up all images right as you transfer them to the hard drive by any secondary method. The compact disc is a wonderful way to store images; it can be rather efficient and it is relatively easy to set up. The downside is you need a CD-burner to use this method. If you do have one, simply keep a running backup of all your images. Be sure to pay special attention to organization so you don’t wind up popping ten CDs in just to hunt down one photo. When you burn a new CD of images, write down the dates and descriptions of the photos on the CD. Or name the CDs and keep a notebook that lists what is on each CD. Better yet, make an index print of images on each CD and write the name on top of the print.

When it comes time to touch up your digital photos, you will need a photo-editing program. You can choose a low-priced, consumer-oriented program or a high-priced program targeted at professional photographers. For most of us, the consumer-oriented programs are more than adequate-and, in fact, you might have received one with your computer or digital camera. Depending on what you do with your photos, you may not need a lot of the bells and whistles when it comes to photo editing. Explore your options and find out which software is best for you. If you’re a beginner, you may be happy with a package that offers only the basics, like cropping and red-eye removal. Or, perhaps you need something with more creative effects. For the ultimate in photo-editing, you may consider investing in a professional editing suite. Be warned though, software like that is going to cost you. Adobe Photoshop, for instance, has become the industry standard among professional photographers everywhere. It allows functions like level adjustment, advanced compositing, and RAW image processing.

Sharpening is one of the most impressive transformations you can apply to an image since it seems to bring out image detail that was not there before. What it actually does, however, is to emphasize edges in the image and make them easier for the eye to pick out — while the visual effect is to make the image seem sharper, no new details are actually created. The first step in sharpening an image is to blur it slightly. Next, the original image and the blurred version are compared one pixel at a time. If a pixel is brighter than the blurred version it is lightened further; if a pixel is darker than the blurred version, it is darkened. The result is to increase the contrast between each pixel and its neighbors. The nature of the sharpening is influenced by the blurring radius used and the extent to which the differences between each pixel and its neighbor are exaggerated.

Digital cameras, even relatively cheap ones, take incredibly large images. However, looks can be deceiving and, while the pictures may look big onscreen, they may look disappointing when you try to adjust them for printing, emailing, or long term storage. They’re best left untouched, if possible, so that you have more flexibility later. All photo editing software will have a command for changing the pixel dimensions of an image. Look for a command called “Image Size,” “Resize,” or “Resample.” When you use this command you will be presented with a dialog box for entering the exact pixels you wish to use.

Cropping is the process of selecting and removing a portion of an image to create focus or strengthen its composition. Even the best photographers will often get back to their computers to view their photos and find that they are not ideal for one reason or another including distracting background elements, framing mistakes, or unbalanced images. While the temptation might be to delete such images the beauty of shooting in the digital format is that editing images after shooting them is relatively quick and easy. Cropping is one option for fixing such problems. This is usually done in photo editing software. Cropping images give you a second chance to frame your images. While you can never really add to the photograph to put more space around your subject (or recover the ear you clipped), cropping the image even tighter can take the focus away from the clipped part of your subject and make the image quite dynamic.

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Adobe Photoshop is not cheap. There are certainly more affordable photo editing software applications available on the Internet but there are reasons why Photoshop is so popular among professional web designers, photographers, and graphic design specialists.

The ability of Photoshop to allow you to work in layers makes otherwise complex designs easy.

If you are learning how to use Photoshop to do your graphic designs than make sure you pay special attention to the section on how to use layers.

To illustrate how layers work imagine you have a piece of paper. This piece of paper is your background. You could leave the background white or paint it any color you wish. Now, lets assume you want to add a photograph of a sunset.

Your photograph of the sunset is on a transparent paper and you lay it over the top of your background. The sunset image is on your first layer. Now, lets assume you want to add some text.

Your text is on another sheet of transparent paper and you lay it over the top. This is your second layer. You can add as many layers as you wish. You can also change the order of the layers.

For example, if you decide you want the text layer to be behind the sunset layer you can move the layers easily with a few clicks of the mouse.

This is essentially the same way you create graphics and complex images in Photoshop.

The beauty of layers is that if you decide for instance that you dont want a sunset and you would rather have an image of a beach you can simply delete the sunset layer and add an a new layer for the beach image without disturbing the background or the text layer.

Working in Photoshop with layers allows you to experiment without fear of damaging your original image. Layers also allow the user to make changes without disrupting other elements of the image.

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