Ok, so I was supposed to write a blog post for my friend Firgs’ blog… Well, unfortunately I’m somewhat tapped out right now in the creative writing department, so I decided to simply release a special episode of Photoshop Quicktips, exclusively for the readers of this blog. This tutorial takes you through how to quickly and easily simulate tilt-shift photography in Photoshop using gradients and the Lens Blur filter. I love tilt-shift photos, but unfortunately I can’t afford the fancy equipment needed for that type of shot, therefore I give you… The poor man’s solution to tilt-shift photography. Enjoy!

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For more videos from Justin – click here, or you can visit his Twitter or Facebook account. And be sure to stay tuned this Friday for a special announcement from Justin here on Design By Firgs.

Thank you Justin!!!

Vignetting is a photo processing trick that has been around long before Adobe Camera Raw made it popular. It’s the process of putting a dark or light gradient-like coloring on the surrounding edges of your image – think along the lines of dodging or burning the edges of your photo. It’s actually a really nice effect and can really set the mood for your shot or make a relatively average or boring shoot more dynamic. The problem with ACR is that it only gives you two colors for vignetting – black or white – and sometimes, it just doesn’t always work out very well.

So here’s a trick to try instead – do your vignetting in Photoshop. You can choose to sample a color from the photo and then put a stroke around the image (under the Edit menu) and add a heavy Gaussian blur to it, or you can use the image itself and set copies of the image to the multiply blend mode and then add a mask. (see examples below) Either method is effective and can take seconds to complete.

The point is, that if you use the colors in the image rather than just black or white, you will end up with a more natural, and complimentary vignette.

This tutorial is presented to you by Janine Smith who is also known as Landailyn on Twitter. (more…)

“Dear Firgs, I love your site and would like to build one like it. Where do you suggest I start?”

This is the second most popular email that I receive, and I have to say, it’s one of the ones that I love to answer. When I started this website I had virtually no clue as to what I was doing. I had taken web development in college and I also had some computer programming under my belt from high school, but for the most part it was a new adventure for me. (more…)

Recoloring objects is one of the most popular Photoshop tricks in the history of the program. However, I have always had issues with Replace Color ever since it’s arrival. I have never felt like it does a good job when recoloring an object. Sometimes it works great, but it’s almost never a sure thing and mostly I end up frustrated. In my opinion, it’s just one of those tools that still needs improvement.

So, when recoloring an object, I tend to use Adjustment Layers. But, for extra touches of realism try this Quick Tip along with your favorite Adjustment Layer:

First select the area of your image that you wish to recolor, then apply a Photo Filter layer adjustment – (the icon looks like a camera in the Adjustment Layers pallet.) When you go to the Photo Filter Adjustment Layer you have two options. One: choose from a list of preset options, or Two: Choose your own color. Which of these you wish to use is up to you and will depend on the new color you wish to make your object. But once you have made your selection, then slide your “scrubby” all the way to the right until the number = 100%.

Then using the same selection, add your main color adjustment layer (Solid Color, Hue/Saturation, Gradiant Map, or whatever you like) and set it’s Blending Mode to Soft Light or Overlay.

After that, it’s just a matter of cleaning up your masks with the Paint Brush tool. It’s quick, easy, and you will end up with loads of color combinations that give you more control than the Replace Color tool will ever give you.

But let me explain why adding the Photo Filter first is a good idea.

Image you are painting a wall in your house. In order to get a good rich and true color, you are first going to apply a base coat. After that, you add a top coat of your color and that’s when your wall comes to life.

Recoloring in photos is the same principle. In order to get a true and rich color, adding a base coat will always help your top coat come to life. It helps give the color a boost of light and a dynamic color range that it wouldn’t normally have. Check out the examples below. In each case I showed you what the Adjustment Layer would look like with and without the Photo Filter.

In short – play with your Photo Filters! If you have any questions, let me know.

I get multiple emails asking for my advice on several things but the one that I continue to get repeatedly is “I am starting a new business – do you have any advice for me?” So rather than just continuing to write the same email over and over, I’m going to post my advice here.

First of all, I want to impress upon people that starting a new business is not something you should take lightly. Owning your own business is one of the hardest jobs you will ever have, but it can also be one of the most rewarding. There is a lot that you will need to think about and learn before you can even begin to announce that you are open for business. It’s more than just getting your business cards printed and handing them out. You will need to have a real commitment to doing not just the fun stuff, but also the behind the scenes back end stuff that can become boring, confusing, and often annoying. Make sure you have the time, energy, and commitment needed in order to make it work. If you are lacking in just one of these areas, you can close up shop right now. But, if you really feel that this is something you want to do, then read on…

For anyone looking to start their own business, I would highly suggest getting to know Small Business Administration website: http://www.sba.gov/ – it’s everything you need to know about starting and owning your own business. On it you will find all you need to know from taxes, local laws, forms you will need for just about everything, how to’s on things like – writing a business plan, managing partnership agreements, hiring employees, growing your business, incorporating, and more. If you are tossing around the idea of going into business for yourself, start here and go over every area of this site. And for those of you working from home, I would also recommend that you go over it with your family or significant other so that you can get their feedback on it as well. This will be your business, but it will also effect them. The more they know about what you are being faced with, the better.

Many people ask me if I think becoming incorporated (like an LLC) is a smart move. My answer is, yes!  It sets your business up to become more protected against theft, or being sued by a client as well as gives you several tax breaks that you wouldn’t get otherwise. But you may want to do some homework on the area that you live in first. Each state has different rules and fees when it comes to the LLC or incorporation process. For example: in Chicago, becoming an LLC is priced around 600$ + processing fees that will eventually make the cost to be about 900+. In other states however, it can go as low as 140$ or lower depending on the location of your business. These fees are also subject to change, so it’s a good idea to keep an eye on them as well as get some professional legal advice on what your next move should be. If the incorporating fees in your area are out of your price range – there is something else you can do. It’s called a DBA (Doing Business As) license. Typically, a DBA license is about 10 to 20 bucks and can be set up in one day at your local court house.

Another website to check out is http://www.entrepreneur.com/ and more specifically, this article on the basics of starting a business. That article, “7 Essential Startup Steps”, goes over some really great ideas of where to start and will also give you a good idea of what you might be getting into.

However, I also strongly recommend that you don’t rely on internet links alone! There is a group called SCORE: http://www.score.org/index.html – that is a non-profit organization that will assign you to your own business mentor for free and they have offices spread throughout the US. If you get hooked up with SCORE, you will be able to meet with your mentor face to face on a regular basis. They will let you know what areas of your business will work, what will not work, what you will need to know, and where you can go for further information. The group is run by successful retired entrepreneurs that know all the ropes that you will need to learn when it comes to running your own business and is a highly valuable resource because if you ever run into something you have questions with, you will be able to call or meet with your mentor to discuss things.

Another question I get is how do I decide on my pricing? As for that – I recommend you check out two things: The Freelance Switch Rates Calculator and this Article written by Larry Becker. Pricing is a delicate balance between what you need to have in order to survive, versus what kind of budget your client has set aside for the work. There are a million links out there that can give you advice on this topic, but ultimately it will always come down to those two things. Every designer prices things differently, you just need to find what works for you. In addition, to help decide your rates, it’s a good idea to create a plan and a budget for your expenses, as well as how it will change after you begin to accept jobs. Some things will be a one-time fee, while others will be ongoing. It’s a good idea to know what these are and if they will change over time. On a related topic – make sure you also read This Article by Larry Becker on SPEC work. Too many beginners get caught in this trap and it will only do you and your clients, more harm than good.

Next, I can not stress enough how important it is to research your Target Audience. Thinking that you are just going to promote to everyone in the hopes that it will widen your client base is the wrong way to go about it! Although this idea seems like the right one, the lack of structure and lack of limitations will actually make it harder for you to gain clients and will eventually drive you crazy. Discovering who your Target Audience is will help you define your business to suit the needs of your clients and make you more successful. It will also help you to figure out what kind of business you would like to run and will eventually fine tune your product into something that will be much easier to market.

Lastly, don’t forget to develop a brand identity for yourself and make it a good one! A good solid brand identity can take you very very far. Things to think about when choosing an identity/logo/tagline are: 1) Can my target audience relate to it? 2) Would people be able to spell it without looking at it? 3) Is my identity expandable (ie: would it work as a sticker, a t-shirt, a button, etc?) 4) Is it a good representation of who I am and what I can provide? 5) Will people recognize it in a two second glance? 6) Is the meaning of it clear and easy to remember?

If you can’t design one for yourself, then develop a budget to hire a professional. For more on that I would suggest you read This Article produced by Fuel. It talks about hiring a designer from a client’s perspective. It will not only teach you what to look for in a designer, but also what you will need to think about when dealing with your clients. It’s a great article and one to bookmark.

But above all, the best advice I can give you right now is to do as much research as you can, take as many notes as you can, and ask as many questions as you can. The more you know, the stronger you will become.

And as always, feel free to email me via datchicfirgs on gmail with any further questions. I’m happy to help if I can.

This tutorial will teach you how to create two stage lights in the on and off positions from scratch. It is part two of a tutorial series. Part three will include taking your lights and the curtain from part one and putting them together for animation. This tutorial is compatible with Photoshop versions CS2 and higher.

Ok, let’s get started!

Open up a new document 300 x 300pxl at 100dpi and name it show-lights and click OK. Then click the eye on your background layer to turn it off.

First, we are going to draw the wood base of the light fixture. So grab your rectangle shape tool and draw out a rectangle somewhere at the bottom of your screen. Don’t worry about colors, but I chose to use the default settings of black and white to keep it simple.

Now, select everything by hitting Ctrl+A or Cmd+A on your keyboard and then with your move tool selected click on your "Align Horizontal Centers" button in your tool menu at the top. Your rectangle will center to the document.

Now, we are going to add a bunch of layer styles – so to bring up your Layer Style pallet click on the FX button at the bottom of your Layers pallet or go to Layer>Layer Style through your menu bar at the top. First, we are going to add a wood pattern. Again, to keep it simple, I went with the default wood pattern called "Wood".

Next, we are going to add a Gradient Overlay with the following settings. Below is your gradient.

And here are your settings. (It won’t look like much until we add the other effects.)

Next, a Bevel & Emboss with the following settings. Color codes are shown in red.

Now, an Inner Glow with a custom gradient of a redish gray to white fade. The color I used is shown in the second screen shot below.

Once you have these effects complete, click OK. You should see something like the picture below.

Ok, so it’s starting to look like a wood base, but let’s kick it up a knotch and add some more defined grain to it. First, Ctrl+click or Cmd+click your Shape One thumbnail to load it as a selection. Then on a new layer, using your paint bucket tool, you’re going to fill that selection with white. Make sure to keep your selection active when you are finished!

Ok, now we are going to paint some stripes in our white box. So using a small soft brush, choose your black color but set your brush opacity to 30%. This way you can vary the darkness of your strokes as you go over them without having to change your colors.

Now, we’re going to draw some diagonal lines throughout the white box. A neat trick is to get perfect lines all you need to do is click once on one end, and then hold Shift while you click your brush on the other end. Make multiple lines in various sizes by changing the size of your brush with the right and left bracket keys on your keyboard. [ ] 

Go over some of your strokes several times to mix up the lights and darks of the painted gray lines. Do not, however, cover all of your white. Leave some of it showing like in the picture below.

Next, go up to your Filter menu and choose the Liquify tool. Using the Forward Warp Tool, push and nudge your strokes until they begin to take on the look of heavy lacquered wood grain. When you have something you are happy with, click OK.

 Then set your layer’s blending mode to Overlay with an Opacity of 50 to 60% (depending on what you like) and deselect your layer.

Now that we have our wood base, let’s move on to our light bulb. Start with your elliptical shape tool and draw a circle. If you hold shift while you drag out your cursor, your circle will stay proportionate. The base color for your bulb is shown below in red. Make sure to use the "Align Horizontal Centers" button as you did before (move tool option) to center your new shape.

Now we are going to add a Drop Shadow Layer Style with the following settings. Be sure to UNCHECK your "Use Global Light" box before you set the Angle or it will adjust all of your settings on your wood base. When you are done, click OK.

Now, in your Layer pallet, right click on your Drop Shadow effect to pull up the following menu and choose "Create Layer".

Your Drop Shadow will fall to a new layer below your shape. Because we only want to see this shadow on the wood and not the background, we are going to add a Layer Mask in the shape of our stand. Crl/Cmd+click your shape one thumbnail to load it as a selection and then Ctrl/Cmd+Shift+click your shape two thumbnail to add to your selection and then click your Mask icon at the bottom of your layers pallet. (It looks like a rectangle with a circle in the center.) If done right, you should have an image like the one below.

Now we are going to go back to our Shape Two layer and add a few more layer styles. Bevel & Emboss, Inner Shadow, and Satin with the following settings. Use default colors unless otherwise noted in red.

When finished, click OK. You should now have an image that looks similar to the one below.

Now, on a new layer, we are going to add a white highlight to our bulb using a 45pxl soft brush. Pick a spot in the upper left and click your brush 2-5 times in the same spot to create your highlight.

Now, we need to create the inter wires of our bulb. For this we are going to use "Ornament One" from the Custom Shapes from the Ornaments preset collection.

Once you have Ornament One selected, draw it out across your bulb making sure to make it somewhat thin like the one shown below.

Now going to your Edit menu, select Transform> Rotate 90degrees CW to stand your ornament up right.

Then using your move tool, position it in the center of your bulb. It should look something like this…

Now, obviously our wires are supposed to be inside the bulb so we are going to add a mask by clicking the mask icon at the bottom of our layers pallet and then using a black to transparent gradient, fade out the bottom of your new shape. Then set your Blending Mode to Soft Light and you will have something as seen below.

Congratulations! You now have a stage light in the off position! But now we need a second light and we need to turn it on. So first, highlight all of your layers except your background layer and hit Ctrl/Cmd+G on your keyboard to add them to a group. Then label this group "Off". Next, drag your group to your new layer icon at the bottom of your layers pallet to make a copy of it and then change your "Off Copy" label to read "On." Then click the eye next to your Off group and turn it off for now.

Now, first drag your Drop Shadow copy layer to the trash. You won’t be needing it now. Then for the time being, turn off your Shape Three copy layer so that we can focus on changing the bulb. Going into your layer styles on your Shape Two copy layer, you are going to add the following effects with the following settings. use default colors unless otherwise shown in red.

Color Overlay

Satin

Bevel and Emboss

Inner Glow

Outter Glow

and Inner Shadow

When done, click OK. Your bulb should now look something like this.

Now, turn your Shape Three copy layer back on and apply the following Layer style effects, again the colors are shown in red.

Color Overlay

Inner Glow

and Outter Glow

If you bulb now looks like the one below, congrats again! You now have a stage light in the On position.

Now, save this file as is, and then be sure to check out Part Three of the Setting The Sage series as I will be showing you how to use these two lights along with the curtain from Part One to create an animated stage graphic.

Hope you enjoyed this tutorial and if you have any questions on anything, let me know! See you next time!

This tutorial will teach you how to create a red curtain that might resemble one that you would see on a stage. It is part one of a tutorial series. Part two will include stage lights and how to create them from scratch. This tutorial is compatible with Photoshop versions CS2 and higher.

Ok, let’s get started!

First, open a new document 700 by 500 pixels, at 100dpi and name it Curtain – as seen below. Then click OK.

Next, pick the base color for your curtain. For this tutorial I chose a bright red, but really, this tutorial will work with just about any color you choose.

Now, using the paint bucket tool, fill your background layer with the color you chose. Or use the keyboard shortcut of ALT+BACKSPACE on a PC or CMD+DELETE on a Mac. You should now have a canvas of solid color. Now press ‘D’ on your keyboard to set your colors back to the default of black and white or click the default icon located on your tool pallet as seen below.

Next, click your brush tool and choose a soft round brush with a diameter of about 45px and a hardness of zero.

Create a new layer and on this later we are going to draw in our curtain folds. To draw a strait line with the brush, all you need to do is click once at the top, then press the shift key and click once again at the bottom. However, if you’re good with freehanding things go for it. Start with just a few and make sure to space them out. You should have something like what you see below.

Now, reduce the size of your brush by tapping the left bracket –> [ key on your keyboard twice. Then make a few more lines just as before, again spacing them out. Then, reduce the size of your brush by again tapping the left bracket –> [ key on your keyboard twice. Now add some really thin lines. When done, you should have something like what you see below.

Now these lines are a bit harsh and we want our curtain folds to look soft like fabric so we’re going to add a Gaussian Blur (found under the Filter>Blur menu) of about 4.0. (see below)

And now we need to lighten our shadows back up a bit so we need to reduce the Opacity of our layer to about 50%. (see below)

Ok, our shadows are complete for the time being. Now, let’s move on to our highlights. They are going to be a bit different than our shadows, so start with a 15px brush that has a hardness of zero. Set your forground color to white, and create a new layer. On that layer, draw some straight white lines on a few of your folds. Make sure you paint over red areas and not your shadows. I didn’t make as many white stripes as I did black, but feel free to add as many or as few as you like. (See the image below for an example.)

Now, we really need to blend these lines out. So again going to your Filter>Blur menu, pull up the Gaussian Blur and add a 9.0 blur to your white stripes. (see below)

Ok, we’re starting to get there but our lights and darks still aren’t looking very blended so we’re going to use a little trick that I use quite often. Click SHIFT+CTRL+ALT+E (on a PC) or SHIFT+CMD+OPT+E (on a Mac) to stamp all visible layers onto a new layer above everything else. And then make a copy of that layer (Layer 3 and Layer 3 copy). Now, set the blend mode of Layer 3 to Soft Light. (see below)

And set your Layer 3 copy layer blend mode to Darken. What this does is gives all of your colors a nice even blend and smooths out any hard edges you may still have. (see below)

Now we need to make a stage. So first choose the color of your stage. I chose what I thought to be a nice rich brown color as you can see below.

Now, using your Rectangle Shape Tool, on a new layer draw out a thin long rectangle at the very bottom of your curtain. It’s OK if you go beyond the edges of your canvas, just make sure your "stage" goes all the way across the bottom. (See the next two images.)

Ok, now, Double Click your new shape layer to bring up your Layer Style pallet (or click the FX button at the bottom of your Layers pallet). First we are going to add a Drop Shadow but not your typical drop shadow. This shadow is to add depth to the bottom of our curtain. So, first – make sure to UNCHECK "Use Global Light", then set your Angle to -90, Distance to 5, Spread to 18, and Size to 68, and your Opacity to 100%. This should throw a nice heavy shadow onto the foot of your curtain.

And now to take care of the stage itself, we are going to add an Inner Shadow. Again, make sure to UNCHECK "Use Global Light", then set your Angle to -120, Distance to 5, Spread to 28, and Size to 27 and your Opacity to 75%.

You should then have something like what you see below. If you do, Rock On to the next step.

Now, we’re almost done, but our curtain still isn’t looking very dramatic. So we’re going to enhance our lights and darks by adding a Curves Adjustment Layer (adjustment layers can be found at the bottom of your Layer pallet under the icon that looks like a half white, half black circle – once you open the adjustment layers menu just click Curves to add it on top of all existing layers in your Layers pallet.)

Then, I changed my settings to read: Output = 170 and Input = 188, but feel free to play with this part of the tutorial until you get something that you like. The objective is to darken your curtain color and shadows, and softening, but not loosing, your highlights.

If you have something that looks like the image below, congratulations! Your curtain, and part one of setting your stage is complete!

In Part Two of this tutorial we will be making our stage lights – one for "on" and one for "off" (see below) to go across the bottom. So be sure to check back as that tutorial will be coming soon! And as always, if you have any questions with this tutorial please let me know!

This is a downloadable PSD file that is compatable with versions CS3 and higher due to the use of Smart Filters. If you pick apart the PSD you will see how to recreate a simulated silver glitter texture using filters and layer styles. This is a psd with no notes so be sure to take a look at all the settings and mess with them to see how they change. If you have any questions working with the file, please drop me a comment here and I will help walk you through it.

Download Here >>>

Having your flowers silhouetted on a black background can be a very dramatic effect. It is also one that is quite popular as it really makes the details pop out at you. But who has time to make all of those detailed masks and selections? With this quick trick, you’ll be able to get this look in just a few simple steps using your adjustment layers. This tutorial also covers the use of layer masking, and is for versions CS3 or higher. Although this trick can be used on most any flower image, for this tutorial you’ll want to head on over to stock.xchng and download the "Daisy Summer" image for practice.

Once you have your flower image open, you will first need to add a Channel Mixer adjustment layer. Adjustment layers can be found at the bottom of your layers pallet. Look for the half black, half white circle icon next to the folder. (see below)

Now for this trick, it’s quickest to just use one of the presets available to you in the drop down menu at the top. What you are looking for is one that will give you a dark background, and a light flower in front. It will be different with each flower, so be sure to scroll though and see what one works best for your image. For the Daisy Summer image, the preset used is the "Black and White with Blue Filter" shown below.

Once you have your preset picked out, click OK. Now if you are using the Daisy Summer image, you will see that we will have some nice bright white petals, but the centers of our daisies are almost a full black and this will never do. So we’re going to add a mask to our Channel Mixer adjustment layer. If you look to the right of your Channel Mixer layer thumbnail, you will see a white box. This is a blank mask. All layer adjustments are automatically supplied with one once you apply them. All we need to add to our mask is a soft round paintbrush, set to a black paint color. Then, making sure you are clicked on your adjustment layer mask – just paint over the centers of your daisies until the yellow centers begin to show back through. If done right, you should see something like the image below.

Basically, a mask in Photoshop is just like a mask you would ware on your face. Some of the mask will show parts of your face, and some of the mask will hide parts of your face. In Photoshop, it works the same way. A mask will hide or show parts of a layer with black and white paint. Black will hide, white will show. But masking can often confuse and trip up a lot of people. So, if you find you are having a hard time with this part, please drop me a line in the comments and I will do my best to help you out.

Ok, right now our daisies are a bit stark due to the Channel Mixer adjustment, so we’re going to warm them back up. We will do this by adding a Hue and Saturation Adjustment Layer.

And setting it to the following settings (aka – a nice warm gold color like the one you see at the bottom of the screenshot below):

And then click OK. But now we don’t want to add more color to the centers of our daisies so we will want to repeat the mask we created above only now on the Hue & Saturation Adjustment Layer.

Ok, now comes the fun part. We are going to add a Curves Adjustment Layer to make everything fall into place. So, go to your adjustment layers and select Curves from the menu.

Working with curves can be quite easy as long as you remember that your shadows (or darks) are on the far left, midtones are in the middle, and highlights (or lights) are to the far right. Now we want a really dark background so we are going to create a curve that looks something like this:

This is going to make our background really dark and add some depth to our midtones that until now, were looking a little flat. You should now have an image that looks something like this:

But, we’re not done yet. If you look closely you’ll see that we have a spot of light in the upper right corner of our image. And that top daisy is looking a bit distracting. So, we’re going to take them both out by adding a new layer under our Curves adjustment layer and just paint over them with black paint.

That’s it. You should now have a beautiful daisy on a black background with minimal masking. Click the pic below to see a larger version.

To show that this trick can be used on more than just this photograph, I applied it to a photo of a rose. For the rose however, I used the "Black and White with Red Filter" preset for the Channel Mixer adjustment, and applied a rose color for the Hue & Saturation adjustment layer.

There you have it. Hope you all enjoyed this little trick and if you have any questions, let me know.