For instance, say you are a Photographer with little or no interest in most filters. Navigating that menu every time you want to make a Lens Correction or Smart Blur is a pain, and until this version you had to suffer through it. You may also have wished there were an easier way to find specific commands or filters in the menu systems. If only there were a way to both highlight the commands you use regularly, AND get rid of those you don't use at all!

Wish no more, fellow Photoshopper... your dreams have come true! Photoshop CS2 gives you the power to do both!

Allow me to demonstrate. Within Photoshop CS2 open the Edit Menu. At the bottom you will find a selection called Menus.

Clicking this opens a HUGE dialog box with 2 tabs: Keyboard Shortcuts and Menus (which will be active). In this dialog box you can select colors to highlight the Application Menu commands and/or Palette Menu Commands, simply by expanding the menu in the dialog box and selecting a color for those commands.

As an Actions guy, I'm always working in that palette or with Automation in some way. I'm going to apply some color to a few commands dealing with Automation by selecting it in the Set field, and changing the 'Menu For' field to Palette Menus.

I have opened the Actions Menu arrow, and a list of every command in that menu is listed. Here I can click on a color (to the right of the eye) and select/change it to any color I want. You may even apply no color at all if you like.

Once you have clicked OK to accept the change, open the menu you have just edited. All the colors applied to the commands will be visible.

Also, any other commands in other menus that relate to the edited menu will also have color applied.

From this same dialog box you can also 'shut off' commands. For instance, I find I rarely, if ever, use the default actions that ship with the software. I can simply tell Photoshop CS2 that I no longer want to see these in the Actions Menu by turning off the Eyes in the Menu editor dialog box corresponding to these selections.

When I again open the Actions menu, those selections are gone.

If at any time I want them back, The 'Show All Menu Items' command at the bottom of the edited menu will bring them back once clicked.

One recommendation: have a color coding scheme in mind to help you navigate to those items you use frequently even quicker.

Until next time, I'll see you at ActionFx.com. Take care!
Al Ward, http://actionfx.com

Just for fun, let's make a quick, cool text style:

1) Open Photoshop. I'm using PS 7 for this tutorial.

2) Create a new image. If it isn't already, fill the background layer with white.

3) Create a new Layer.

4) On the new layer, enter some large type with the Type Mask Tool.

5) Select 2 somewhat opposing colors for the fore and background colors.

6) Fill the Text Selection with one of the colors.

7) Let's set up a style for this layer. Click the Add Layer Style icon on the bottom of the layers palette, and click on Bevel/Emboss.

8) Apply a bevel with settings similar to those seen in the capture below.

9) Now some Inner Shadow:

10) Inner Glow:

11) Lastly, let's add a Stroke:

Here's our type thus far:

12) If you like the style, open the Layer Styles Dialog Box. On the right hand side, save it, name it, and then it will appear in the Layer Styles Palette.

Ok, that was exciting... but what does it have to do with the original premise of this tutorial? In this case, probably not much... yet. But say I have another layer with styles applied above the type layer? Case in point, take a look at this.

In this case, I've added a beveled and drop shadowed wavey pattern over the face of the text. The idea here is to add to the type's illusion of transparency by having the drop shadow for the wavey layer seen inside the text. The problem is the drop shadow also appears outside the boundary of the text, an effect I do not want. Solution? Here it is!

Right click on the layer style inside the Layers Palette. In the menu that pops up, go down the list and select 'Create Layer'. This will drop all the style effects in their own individual layers where you can manipulate them.

Command/CTRL+Click the text layer in the palette to bring up the type

selection again.

Go to Select>Inverse.

In the Layers Palette, select the layer that now holds the Drop Shadow from the style, and hit Delete. This will wipe away the excess drop shadow from outside the type boundary, while still allowing it to show up inside the plastic/glassy text.

That's about all this week. Until next time, I'll see you at Action Fx!

http://actionfx.com

Ok, enough techno talk. What can this thing really do?
To start, let's open a picture of many faces. Here's one of 3 ladies... let's see if we can't create triplets.

Select the Patch Tool from the toolbar.

In the options bar, you will see a couple of radial buttons that allow you to set the patch selection you are about to make as the source or destination. Let's set it to source for this run.

Pick a face, any face. Draw your selection around the perimeter.

Now go to Select>Feather, and put in a setting of 2 or so.

You should now have a selection around the area you want to patch..

Now this part may seem a bit confusing... it was for this old man anyway. Though we set it to source, what actually happens is we drag the selection to another face, and the face we dragged it to is pasted into the original selection.

Now when we choose 'destination' and drag the selection, the face in the selection is pasted to the new area:

Looky there... Triplets!

Until next week, see you at Action Fx!

http://actionfx.com

The cheese question will have to iron itself out. As for reproducing the effects in Actions, that I can help with and hopefully clarify any sticking points you may have.

Ok, say I have found an action online or etched on a CD that came with some ancient tome I purchased from Joe's Online Ancient Tome Emporium. This incredible little script allows me to take an everyday photograph and convert it to a creepy yet intriguing seamless background that looks nothing like the original photo. For example, it takes this...

...and turns it into this.

I LOVE THAT ACTION!

Wish you had an action that did that? Sorry, that is reserved for members of my website. I know, it's yet another shameless plug, but a guy has to eat, right? What I will do it show you is how to get a print out of another action to use as a personal tutorial. I have an action that makes type look as though it was created from pipes.

To begin, make sure the Actions Palette is not in Button Mode. To do this, click the small arrow in the upper right corner of the Actions Palette, opening the Actions Menu. In the List you will see 'Button Mode'. Make sure there is no check mark next to it. If there is, simply click Button Mode to uncheck it and switch to Edit Mode.

Now you want to clear out all other action sets except the one you want to print. You can do this by either going to the menu again and clearing all actions then reloading the one you want to work with, or simply click and drag the extras to the trash icon at the bottom of the actions palette.

IF YOU DON"T DO THIS, then when you save the action as a printable text file, every action in every loaded set will be included in the saved file. This often results in thousands of extra pages with endless commands. Ok, an exaggeration. But it certainly will feel like a small forest was killed when the printer goes nuts!

In order to save the action as a text file, you need to have the SET selected in the actions palette, and not the individual action. The set name appears at the very top of the list. For those of you used to creating actions this should be second nature, as actions can only be saved in sets.

You are ready to save the action. This may require a bit of dexterity. Click and hold down the Command/CTRL + Alt Keys with one hand. Now open the Actions Menu again with the mouse and select 'Save Action'.

Now when the save dialogue box pops up, instead of the action having a .atn file extension, it will have a .txt extension. Name it and save it to the folder of your choice.

Now you can open the file in your favorite text editor, Word or whatever, and have a complete, step-by-step listing of the process to create the effect.

See you next time!

http://actionfx.com

This week I'm going to give a personal twist to the ol' seamless background creation niche. I've warmed up the digital cam (my trusty Mavica... forgive me Jim Patterson, but I love that camera) and snapped a few shots. Let's see if we can't create something interesting.

I call this one 'Spikes On Cinderblock'... my attempt at industrial photography.

1. First off, duplicate the background layer by dragging it to the new layer icon on the bottom of the layers palette.

2. Select the copied layer. Go to Edit>Transform>Flip Horizontal.

3. Click the 'Add a Mask' icon on the bottom of the layers palette.

3. If you are unfamiliar with masks, you will notice that the foreground/background colors are white/black respectively. We are about to apply a gradient to the layer mask, which will render half the layer visible (that covered with white) and have will reveal the layer beneath (the black portion of the gradient).

4. With the Mask selected, click the gradient tool. Click inside the gradient in the options bar to bring up the gradient editor.

5. Click the white color stop and manually enter '35%' for the location. Select the black color stop and manually enter '65%' for the location.

6. Click the Mask field for the copied layer in the Layers Palette. As strait as you can, draw the gradient from left to right across the layer.

7. Take a look at your image. You should see something like this.

8. With the top layer still selected, hit Command/CTRL+E to merge the layers together.

9. Duplicate the background again. We are going to follow the same procedures as above, only this time we will flip the new layer vertically instead of horizontally. Also, this time apply the gradient to the mask from top to bottom rather than left to right. When completed, it should look like this:

10. Merge the layers again.

11. Go to Image>Adjust>Image Size. Deselect 'Constrain Proportions' and enter identical measurements for the width and height.

Here's the image:

So is it seamless? Well here's a quick test. First. I'll reduce the size again. Next, I'll go to Edit>Define Pattern. Third, I'll create a new document. I'll then test my background by filling the new document with the new pattern.

Try saving the above tutorial as an action. Here are a couple additional examples:

I hope you have fun with this one. Take care, and I'll see you next time!

http://actionfx.com

A few weeks ago, my good friend Richard Lynch (author of 'Using Photoshop 6' and webmaster-mind of http://ps6.com) brought up Elements in an email conversation. My first thought was that he was joking, but it soon became apparent that he was totally serious. After a few more emails, my interest was piqued and I rushed to the local Staples store and picked up a copy of Photoshop Elements. Boy, was I surprised.

What I had passed over as a simplistic, basic editing program is a far more powerful tool than I'd given it credit for. In fact, many of the functions available to Photoshop 6 users are included with Elements, including all the filters. Some items have been omitted which I miss... in particular the Curve adjustments and Channels. But this program is no lightweight, so let's take a quick look at some of the features I find particularly interesting.

When you open Elements, you will see several items docked in the bar along the top.

To begin, we have a File Browser. I find this incredibly convenient, as wish that this were included in the full version as it makes finding those image files you lost very easy to locate.

Next on the list are Recipes. In short, these are simply HTML pages that can be viewed right inside the program as tutorials. When you open the Recipes Palette, you see a drop down menu at the top from which you can select the effect or process you would like to learn.

Once you select the tutorial, you will get a series of links with all the tutorials on that subject. Click on the specific tutorial, and a page with the step by step process for that effect springs into view.

The next in line is a Filters pop-up. Though you can access the filters the conventional way, this particular window gives you an added advantage in allowing you to see thumbnails of the image if the filter is run... sort of a before-after effect.

The Effect Palette is the Elements incarnation of Actions in Photoshop 6. Though you cannot create/save new actions from within Elements, you can still apply existing pre-recorded effects to your image.

Again you are given a drop down menu with several categories of Effects, and once selected thumbnails of those effects are loaded into the palette. Simply click on the effect, choose 'Apply' and the effect is applied to your image.

One other item that I find to be an excellent tool, especially if you are on the learning end of the curve, is the Hints Palette. Selecting any of the other folders causes a set of Hints to appear for that palette. Very cool!

To close, I thought I would go through the tutorials I covered here over the past 2 weeks, but use Elements instead of Photoshop. Here are the results:

Glass Sphere:

Water Ripples:

Though not as beefy as it's big brother Photoshop, Elements is still a force to be reckoned with.

See you next week!

I have been working on several actions (I think I'm up to 30 variations now) for getting some use out of these photos. Most of these first turn an image into an artistic rendering and then warp said photo into something seamless, giving it a Goth-like quality that on occasion is pretty creepy but generally always cool. How could I describe the process without taking a full month of tutorials is the question. I think I've found an answer. Why not use an existing online tutorial for the first portion of the process, and then complete the effect here? I'm not sure if this will work, but we can surely give it a try.

For the first part of this tutorial, please direct your browsers to an excellent Photoshop Tutorial Resource, Access Denied (http://www.axxessdenied.com/). This site is fantastic and has quickly become a personal favorite of mine. In the upper right corner of the main page you will find a navigation menu. Go into Tutorials, then Click Photoshop. Scroll down through the long list of tutorials (maybe stopping to perform a few on the way) until you find one entitled "Photo -> Sketch by axxessdenied".

Open an image/photograph, preferable a head shot as these work best for the rest of the tutorial I'll be covering here.

I've just gone through the tutorial, and here is the before image alongside the after image:

I love the process the author of the tutorial uses to create the subtle brushing in that effect. Nicely done!

Ok, now to my portion of the tutorial.

1) Once you have your image ready, collapse it. Duplicate the background layer.

2) With the duplicate layer selected in the Layers Palette, go to Edit>Transform>Flip Vertical.

3) This next part of the process is basically covering the seamless tutorial we did on texture photos a few weeks ago, but wait until you see the result! With the duplicate layer selected, click the 'Add a mask' icon on the bottom of the layers palette. The foreground/background colors should default to Black/White respectively.

4) Before we apply the mask, let's square things up a bit. Go to Image>Image Size and set the size to 3 inches x 3 inches, resolution 96 DPI.

5) Now select the Gradient tool. Set your gradient up so that there is a fairly stark division between the 2 colors.

Also, make sure the Linear Gradient is selected.

6) Starting at the top edge of the image, draw the gradient down to the bottom edge. Use a strait vertical line… any variation will mess up the end effect. Your image should appear reflected, like this example:

7) Go to Layer>Merge Visible. Duplicate this newly merged layer. Select the Duplicate again and go to Edit>Transform>Flip Horizontal.

8) Again, Click the Add a Mask Icon. This time draw your gradient from the left edge to the right edge, as strait as possible. Here is the result:

Have a great week, everyone!

http://actionfx.com

If you have surfed around graphics-related websites for awhile, you have certainly come across those fancy little 88x31 pixel buttons. They are the standard for linking websites these days, as they are functional, stylish and save space over those huge banners of yesteryear. Granted, you can't display entire ads on the buttons; their size is a bit restrictive in this regard. When done right they can be incredibly attractive, just begging a person to click and see the wonders beyond.

I receive several requests for a link button through the course of a week, but had procrastinated in generating one because, quite frankly, I couldn't seem to achieve the resolution that so many of these buttons displayed. Animating the thing wasn't a problem; Image Ready takes care of that rather nicely. The problem stems from creating text that a vie

wer can actually read. Even crisp fonts set to 6-8 points would turn out fuzzy or otherwise unimpressive when applied to the buttons.

So what is the answer? Well, for me it was choking down a bit of pride and actually asking another webmaster how they did it. The response I received was a real head-slapper... I should have known.

First, the fonts: The primary concern here is resolution, something the true type font style has a problem with when reduced to 6-8 points. This is resolved by downloading a few bitmap or pixel wide fonts; these were designed to give you great resolution in a small viewing area.

Here are a couple resources to download fonts of this caliber:
http://www.miniml.com/

http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Shadowlands/7677/

http://www.xs4all.nl/~remcodek/fontpage.html

http://techfonts.ellicit.org/

http://www.04.jp.org/extra/bitmap

Another trick used by the 'Button Masters' deals with single pixel offset beveling. Say you want to add a bit of texture or depth to your button... too much is going to distort the image beyond recognition. The size simply doesn't allow for much in the manner of styles. When you decide to apply a bevel, reduce the bevel settings to a single pixel... this will still give the illusion of depth. The eye expects subtlety... you brain will recognize the size of the image and say' hey, that's small, so the effects should be small'.

The last tip deals with the Highlight and Shadow modes for the bevel. Instead of using the standard Screen/Multiply modes, use the Color Dodge/Color Burn modes respectively. This helps to further draw contrast out of small characters, creating legible text.

After all this, here's the button I came up with for http://actionfx.com:

Crisp, stylish, and catchy... just what a button is supposed to do.

Until next week, Caio!

1) Create a new image. Fill the background with Black, and create a new layer.

2) Select the Type Tool. Using a large font with the color set to white/light gray, type your text.

3) Create a copy of the type layer by dragging the layer to the new layer icon on the bottom of the layers palette.

4) Decide which type layer is going to be the reflection. Select that layer, and go to Edit>Transform>Flip Vertical.

5) Move the reflection down so it is separated from the type.

6) Select the 'upright' type layer. Click on the Type Tool again, and in the Type Options Bar click on the 'Create Warped Text' icon.

7) In the Warped Text dialogue box that pops up, click the menu icon and select ARCH. Enter a Horizontal Bend setting of -10.

8) Select the Type layer to be used as a reflection. Again, click the Warp Text Icon and select ARCH, but this time enter a Horizontal Bend of +10. Click 'OK'.

9) Try applying the same layer style ( pick one, any one) to both type layers.

10) Drop the opacity of the reflection type to 40-45%.

That's about it... nice and easy! Take care, and I'll see you at Action Fx.

http://actionfx.com