Ben's blog and portfolio » photoshop

Grunge Brushes #1

Ben — Fri, 17 Dec 2010 18:00:03 +0000

Grunge Brushes for Photoshop

Spatter Photoshop brush

The worst fountain pen or tire tracks through the mud? The Spatter brush drops random blots with delightfully sloppy results. Compliments On The Line, Ceroxa

Cement Press Photoshop brush

The Cement Press brush creates layers of dense masonry, sampled from real walls. The more it’s applied, the stronger it becomes. Compliments Concrete Salsa, Distressed Display Pack.

Pox Photoshop brush

There’s no missing the Pox brush. Its reliable distribution and lack of opacity ensure infection in every swipe. Compliments Smack, XXII Black Block

Rotten Stucco Photoshop brush

Based on photos of real walls, the Rotten Stucco brush captures the decay found in neglected buildings of the American Southwest. Variable opacity leads to varying amounts of texture. Compliments P22 Stanyan, Bootstrap

Fabrick Photoshop brush

Is it cloth or is it masonry? While the Fabrick brush contains certain uniform qualities, it also holds blotchy, organic traits that leave people guessing and gains density with repeated use. Compliments Wickenburg, Woodchip

Tired of squeak-clean digital images? Download the brushes (.abr file)

Editing Opacity With Layer Masks

Ben — Thu, 09 Sep 2010 03:31:04 +0000

On screen, the colors of pixels are a mix of red, green and blue values. A fourth value, opacity, controls how pixels blend with pixels laid over them.

In image-editing programs such as Photoshop, changing the opacity of a layer is straightforward: Setting a layer to 50% opacity makes all of its pixels half-visible. If the situation calls for variable visibility, then layer masks are the answer.

Read the full article I wrote at Webdesigner Depot.

Above: Using non-destructive masks to replace a face.

Above: Looking for natural seams when mixing images.

Exploring Photoshop’s angle gradient tool

Ben — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 16:28:46 +0000

The angle gradient tool is an overlooked gem tucked away in Photoshop’s toolbar. Often passed over for its more popular sibling, the linear gradient tool, angle gradients create clockwise blends of color around the point a user clicks.

The angle gradients create clockwise blends of color around the point a user clicks. Most people stop there. But when combined with other techniques and some creativity, the angled gradient has some surprising uses.

Read the full article I wrote at Webdesigner Depot.

Save-for-web feature comparisons

bbb — Mon, 05 Jul 2010 16:26:43 +0000

Photoshop may dominate the image editing business, but it doesn’t stand alone. This week I looked at Acorn and Pixelmator, two lightweight image editors for the Mac.

This posts asks the question: Which app saves the best images for websites? I tested two images with Acorn 2.3.1, Photoshop CS3 (v10.0.1) and Pixelmator 1.5.1 to find out.

JPG file size

Image dimensions: 500×220 pixels.

Image dimensions: 800×533 pixels.

These charts show how small each app compressed two images. Acorn created the largest files at 100% and the most erratic results overall, but did well for in the teens, a size I commonly aim for on the web.

Photoshop’s files tended to be the most predictable. Its files were most efficient when highly compressed.

For both files, Pixelmator produced the smallest file sizes between 40% and 100%. But its file sizes doubled—or more—between 90% and 100%.

JPG quality

File size is only part of the equation. How do the final images look? Samples from 0% compression show how each app’s artifacts—the changes it makes to improve file size—vary from each other.

The results are subjective, but Photoshop seems to sacrifice the most detail, especially in the shingles and stone walls. However, at 0% compression Photoshop’s file is about 25% smaller than Pixelmator’s and 36% smaller than Acorn’s.

Based more on gradients than organic textures, the difference in quality for the second image was harder to spot. Pixelmator’s artifacts seem to match Photoshop’s more than Acorn’s, though it’s only apparent when the samples are overlaid onto each other.

PNG

Saving PNG files is a different story. Acorn can only save 24-bit PNGs, which result in enormous (if flawless) images. Pixelmator can save both 8- and 24-bit PNGs, but lacked the precision found in Photoshop. Photoshop enables users to choose the number of colors in a PNG, the type and amount of dithering, and the ability to manually change individual colors in the palette. Pixelmator, however, only has a slider for choosing the number of colors.

Pixelmator’s PNG resembled Photoshop’s PNG, sans-dithering. Pixelmator’s image was slightly larger than Photoshop’s non-dithered file, but significantly smaller than either of Photoshop’s dithered files. Pixelmator’s PNGs are better suited for images with relatively few colors—graphics and icons over illustrations.

Photoshop, no dither: 12,805KB

Photoshop, 88% dither (default): 15,554KB

Pixelmator: 13,812KB

Photoshop, 100% dither: 17,386KB

Overall results

Even before Adobe bought their competition, Photoshop was the favorite choice for image editing. Its 20+ years of development keep it ahead of the newcomers like Pixelmator and Acorn. Still, I’m looking forward to seeing how these low-cost, high-performance apps develop.

Photoshop Curves does more than change highlights and shadows

bbb — Tue, 22 Jun 2010 08:56:22 +0000

Photoshop’s Curves has long been associated with making images brighter or darker. But few people know that it can also change color with greater degrees of control than the Hue/Saturation or Color Balance controls.

From slight selection changes to creating great duotones, Curves is a powerful tool to master… if you’re willing to practice.

Read the full article I wrote at Webdesigner Depot.

Above: Using Curves to create a precise duotone from a grayscale photo.

Above: Curves is a grid of before & after. The horizontal axis represents an image’s current values; the vertical represents change.

Using opacity and Photoshop blend modes pattern magic

bbb — Tue, 08 Jun 2010 06:33:59 +0000

When it comes to creating patterns, the ability to duplicate, resize and turn a layer is one of Photoshop’s greatest features. Translucent shape layers can be very useful when creating repeated geometric “textures” of color and form. They’re easy to create, fun to play with and best of all, they can be uniquely yours.

In searching for interesting patterns, designers sometimes pass over basic shapes in favor of more complex geometrics. But simpler is often better. The trick is to pay attention more to how shapes interact than to how a shape looks on its own. The concepts are simple:

As translucent shapes overlap, they create new shapes.
Complex patterns emerge from apparently simple origins.

The question’s been asked: Other than looking pretty, what good is it? Like any tool, the strength of a pattern lies in its application. The examples here show how a pattern emerges from simple shapes and how patterns may be applied to text.

Read my article about about creative Photoshop patterns at Webdesigner Depot.