We’ll use various tools and techniques to create a vintage camera from scratch, from the basic Marquee Tools (to create simple shapes) to the Brush Tool (for highlights and shadows).

The tutorial has 23 steps, and it targets users with average Photoshop knowledge.

It was created by Callum Chapman from Circle Box Creative exclusively for Webdesigner Depot readers.

Feel free to share links to your own results in the comments section below… Enjoy!

Final image:

Step 1

First thing’s first. Open up Photoshop and create a new document. I’ll use a Web Preset document at 800×600 pixels.

We’ll be referring to a source image of this Halina camera, one that I took using my iPhone.

Feel free to use it or one of any other camera—in fact, I encourage this because you’ll be able to more productively experiment with the tools and techniques that I’ll show you. The choice is yours.

Once you’ve saved the photograph, go back into Photoshop and go to File → Place. Locate your image and put it in the center of your document.

Rename the new layer (i.e. the one with the source photo on it) to something appropriate, such as “Source.” Lower the Opacity of that layer to 50%.

Step 2

Our document and source photo are set up and ready to go. Before we get into the fine detail of the camera, let’s create the main shapes of the camera to use as a guide.

Make a new layer and call it “Main Body.” Grab the Rectangular Marquee Tool and drag a rectangle over the leather part of the camera’s body, as seen below.

Fill your selection with black using the Paint Bucket Tool, making sure the “Main Body” layer is selected.

We can no longer see the camera, which is why we’re about to uncheck the visible layer of the “Main Body” layer. Once it’s unchecked, create a new layer called “Left Main Body.”

Grab the Rectangular Marquee Tool again and make a selection over the left side of the main body, and then fill it with dark gray. If you’re not sure what I’m talking about, see the images below.

Repeat this last step, this time selecting and filling the right side of the camera. Don’t forget to create a new layer!

With the visibility of all layers enabled, we should see something like this:

As with any design, this one starts off looking… well, pretty rubbish. That will change, though; don’t worry.

While holding the Command key, click on the thumbnail image of our layer “Left Main Body.” Before doing anything else, hold the Command + Shift keys and click on the thumbnail image of the “Right Main Body” layer. The outline of both items should now be selected.

Select the “Main Body” layer and hit the Delete key. This will remove unwanted areas of the main body shape. We could have just visually checked that our main body shape was right to begin with, but this way tends to be much more accurate.

Select the Polygonal Lasso Tool and, with the visibility boxes unchecked on all of our shape layers, make a selection as seen below.

Right-click and select Inverse, or go to Select → Inverse. This inverts our selection so that we can remove anything outside of our original selection, rather than inside.

Click again all of the visibility boxes next to our shape layers and one by one click on each and press the Delete key. You should end up with this:

As you can see, we now have the basic shape of our camera. The reason we did this in separate layers is so that we can be much more creative in applying textures to certain areas. For example, we will be able to apply transformed or warped textured images to just one particular area.

Step 3

Although we haven’t yet created much of the main shape of the camera, we’ll start adding texture to the main body.

I find it much easier to work on one area first and then move to the next step, rather than tackle it all at once. Head over to Bittbox and download one of these leather textures (I used the last one). Put it in your document by going to File → Place.

Shrink the texture; the easiest way to do this is by hitting Command + T and dragging the corners down while holding the Shift key to keep everything in proportion.

Holding the Command key, click on the thumbnail image next to our “Main Body” layer. Right-click and select “Select Inverse.” Click on your leather texture layer (you can rename this to “Main Body Texture”) and hit the Delete key.

Move the “Main Body Texture” layer down so that it is directly above your “Main Body” layer. You can see now why renaming your layers is important; otherwise they would get very confusing.

Go to Layer → New Adjustment Layer → Brightness/Contrast. Bring the brightness level down to -75, and the contrast up to +10. Make sure the adjustment is above your “Main Body Texture” layer, and hit Command + E on the adjustment layer to merge it down to your texture layer.

This basically means that the brightness and contrast settings will be applied only to the textured layer. Warning: after merging an adjustment layer down, there’s no readjusting it, so be sure to get it right before merging.

Place the texture in your document (again), and go to Edit → Transform → Skew. Lower one side of the texture, making sure it lines up with the angle at the bottom of the left side of our main body, as seen below.

Position your texture so that it completely covers the left side of your main body. While holding the Command key, click on the thumbnail image next to our “Left Main Body” layer to make a selection.

Right-click and click on “Select Inverse,” select our new texture layer and hit the Delete key.

After renaming the layer to “Left Main Body Texture” and moving it directly above the “Left Main Body” layer, add another Adjustment → Brightness/contrast layer, this time adjusting the brightness to -20 and the contrast to +10.

Merge the adjustment layer down to the “Left Main Body Texture” layer by hitting Command + E.

Repeat the last step, this time for the right side of the main body.

You might be thinking that the color of each side of the main body looks a bit off. Don’t worry; it will probably look much more suitable once the source photo is gone.

If it still doesn’t look right, we can touch it up later. Put all of your main body layers into a folder labeled “Main Body.” This makes things much easier to manage later on; otherwise we could end up with hundreds of unorganized layers.

Uncheck the new folder’s visibility. Now we can move on to the next step.

Step 4

The next thing we’ll start is the lens. Select the Elliptical Marquee Tool, and make a round selection over the lens.

Create a new layer, and name it “Lens Shape.” Fill your selection with light gray using the Paint Bucket Tool.

Hide the visibility of our “Lens Shape” layer, and make several more circles. Use appropriate colors to fill in each circle, and remember to make each circle on a new layer.

Call them “Lens Shape 2,” “Lens Shape 3,” etc. In total, I have five lens shape layers. Here is what it looks like with all of the lens shape layers selected, and further below with all layers selected:

Step 5

Select “Lens Layer 3″ (this is my third circle in), and drag it down to the New Layer icon in the Layer Palette. This will duplicate the layer.

Hit the Command + T combination to open up the Free Transform tool, and in the menu at the top of your window, change Width and Height to 95%.

With the new layer still selected (it should be “Lens Layer 3 copy”) go to Layer → Layer Style → Blending Options. Apply an Inner Shadow using the following settings.

Repeat the last step until you have something that looks like this:

You’ll probably have around seven to nine new layers after what we just did, so put all those copied layers and the original into a folder labeled “Lens Shape 3.”

Step 6

Hide the visibility of all of your lens layers except “Lens Shape 1.” Go to Layer → Layer Style → Blending Options, and apply the following Gradient Overlay settings:

With the same layer still selected, duplicate it (as we did earlier), and reduce the height and width to 94%. Reopen the Blending Options, and darken each of the gradient colors.

We’ve covered a lot of the shaded and highlighted areas from these two simple gradients, but adding a little extra detail would be cool.

Zoom into the lens, and using a fine soft brush (using the Brush Tool) brush around some areas, as seen below. If you have a graphics tablet, this would be a good time to use it. Make sure this step is completed in a new layer labeled “Lens Highlights.”

Lower the opacity of your new highlight layer to 65%.

Repeat the last step, this time using a dark brush and painting in any shadowed areas. Do this in a new layer labeled “Lens Shadows.” Lower this layer’s opacity to 65%, too.

With all of our layers selected, here is what we have so far:

Step 7

Put all of your lens layers into a folder labeled “Lens.”

Create a new layer and name it “Inner Lens Shadow.” While holding the Command key, click on the thumbnail image of our “Lens Shape 2″ layer, which is my dark gray lens circle.

In the new layer, go to Edit → Stroke, and use the following settings:

I used a gray that is a little darker than the original gray circle.

Step 8

Our lens is starting to look pretty good. Make another new layer and call it “Lens Reflection” (all new lens layers should be put in the “Lens” folder).

Grab a soft brush and use a light-yellow color (I used #fffae5). Paint over some of the lens, as seen below.

Go to Filter → Blur → Gaussian Blur, and blur by about 10 pixels.

Change the Blending Mode of the layer to Overlay, and lower the opacity to 40%.

Step 9

Create yet another new layer (I know, there are

a lot) and name it “Flare.” Reselect the outer shape of “Lens Shape 2″ by holding the Command key and clicking on the thumbnail image of the layer, and fill the selection with pure black in the new layer.

Go to Filter → Render → Lens Flare, and use the following settings:

Change the Blending Mode to Overlay, and lower the opacity to 30%. Although this doesn’t make much of a difference, it adds that all-important detail.

Step 10

All we want to do now is add a little more texture to our lens. Create another new layer, and place in one of these textures. Scale the texture down, and place it over your lens.

Select the outline of the layer “Lens Shape 1″ (you know how to do that by now), and select inverse. Hit Delete on your textured layer.

Change the Blending Mode to Overlay, and lower the opacity to 50%.

If you feel the urge, you can repeat this step using a different texture. And you can rub some areas out using a soft eraser brush.

Step 11

Select the layer “Lens Shape 1,” and open up the Blending Options by going to Layer → Layer Style → Blending Options. Apply the following drop-shadow:

Download one of these textures (I used the last one), and insert it into your document.

Position the texture beneath your layer “Lens Shape 5″ (this is my actual lens, the glass bit).

Select the layer “Lens Shape 5,” select Inverse and hit Delete on your new texture layer (which I named “Bubble Texture”). Change the layer’s Blending Mode to Overlay.

After positioning the bubble texture over our “Lens Shape 5″ layer, go to Layer → New Adjustment Layer → Hue/Saturation.

Increase the Hue setting to +180, and hit Command + E to merge the hue/saturation layer with our bubble texture layer.

Lower the opacity to 65%. Our lens is complete!

Step 12

We’re getting somewhere now! Let’s move on to the lower area of our camera.

Using the same technique we used earlier to get the main body shape (using the Rectangular Marquee Tool and Polygonal Marquee Tool), select three different layers: “Left Bottom,” “Main Bottom” and “Right Bottom.”

Place these layers in a folder called “Bottom.”

Make sure your layers are arranged correctly, and place them beneath your lens folder.

Step 13

Open up the Blending Options for your “Main Bottom” layer. Apply the following Gradient Overlay settings:

Repeat this step twice, once for each bottom side. Use the colors from your original source photo for maximum detail.

Step 14

Create a new layer and place one of these textures into it. Place the texture over your bottom layers, like so:

While holding the Command key, select the outline of one of your bottom shapes, and then holding the Shift + Command key, click on the remaining two shapes.

This should select all of the shapes’ outlines, leaving you with this:

Go to Select → Inverse, and hit the Delete key while your texture layer is selected.

Change the texture’s Blending Mode to Overlay. Now we’re done with the bottom section of our camera.

Step 15

This is what we have so far:

The camera is pretty obvious by now, which is good because we’ve already built a huge number of layers, the total file size coming in at over 4.3 MB.

From what we have already done, you have most of the skills you’ll need for the rest of this tutorial, so I won’t go into too much detail from here on in.

Create a new folder and call it “Viewfinder.” In new layers, create the following shapes using the selection of Marquee Tools, which we’ve used several times earlier.

Use the Polygonal Lasso Tool and the Select Inverse feature to cut out the proper shapes from our existing rectangles.

Step 16

Using the same technique that we used for the circles in the lens, create a viewfinder.

This is easier than it sounds: just use the Rectangular Marquee Tool to create several rectangles, and fill them in with different colors on different layers.

Step 17

Apply some Gradient Overlays to your “Main Viewfinder,” “Left Viewfinder” and “Right Viewfinder” layers.

Step 18

Using the same texture that we used earlier for the bottom of the camera, add some texture to the viewfinder area. Make sure to use the exact same settings.

Use the Brush Tool on a new layer to create highlights in your texture.

Step 19

Using the techniques you learned when making the camera lens, spice up the viewfinder with gradients, shadows and the Brush Tool. I used Inner Shadows on every rectangle, as well as strokes.

I used subtle gradients, the Brush Tool (to add some reflection on both sides of the viewfinder) and a lens flare.

To make the circle a little dirtier, I added 6-pixels worth of noise by going to Filter → Noise → Add Noise.

Step 20

Using the Marquee Tools, draw the remaining shapes of our camera. Remember to do each shape on a different layer, and name them appropriately.

Step 21

With our shapes done, it’s time to add gradients and textures to the main body (we’ll do the buttons afterwards). Use the same techniques that we used earlier.

Step 22

Using the Brush Tool with a soft brush selected, add highlights and shadows to our newly textured shapes.

Set the Blending Modes of all of the shadow and highlight layers to Overlay (the shadows should be in black, the highlights in white).

The first screenshot is what you’ll see after applying shadows, the second after the shadows and highlights.

Step 23

We’re almost there! Apply some Gradient Overlays to our two buttons.

Use the same technique that we’ve used several times now to add lighting effects to your buttons (i.e. the Brush Tool technique).

Add some texture to your buttons to finish things off.

Conclusion

After all that hard work, we’ve finally finished! We have one pretty detailed camera that can be used as a stock image, as part of a photo manipulation or even as an icon.

Experiment with the Hue and Color Balances (you can see my modifications with the color settings further below).

Compiled exclusively for WDD by Callum Chapman, a freelance designer from Cambridge, UK. He is the creative mind behind Circlebox Creative and Circlebox Blog, and can often be found writing for design related blogs.

What do you think of this tutorial? Feel free to share your own results below…

If you find an exclusive RSS freebie on this feed or on the live WDD website, please use the following code to download it: T0tN5B

In this post we have compiled a list of great resources, that teach you how to create your own iPad icons, as well as a collection of ready made icons and PSDs.

To download the files, please click on the preview image to go to the source site and remember to check the terms of use before using them in your projects.

If you know of any other great iPad freebies, please add them in the comments section below and we’ll include them in this post when appropriate.

Enjoy…

iPad Tutorials

Callum Chapman’s iPad Photoshop Tutorial

In this tutorial, Callum explains the process of designing the Apple iPad from scratch in Photoshop using shape tools, layer styles and blending modes. You will also use the brush tool to create detailed chrome and lighting effects.

Chris Spooner’s iPad Photoshop Tutorial

Chris Spooner also creates an Apple iPad from scratch in Photoshop using simple modification tools, the pencil tool and transformation tools.

iPad Icons

Seeing how many great iPad icons are already available to download for free across the web is pretty amazing. Here is a small collection that will surely grow.

Enthusiastik iPad icons (2 icons; PNG format)

Chris Spooner iPad Icon Set (1 icon; PSD, PNG and ICN formats)

KR Design iPad Icon (2 icons; PNG format)

Sudhithxavier iPad Icon (1 icon; PNG format)

Chris Noakes iPad Icon (1 icon; PNG, ICO and ICN formats)

Adidadidu iPad Icons (18 icons; PNG, ICO and ICN formats)

TinyLab iPad Icon (1 icon; ICN format)

Bisiobisio iPad Icon (1 icon; PNG, ICO and ICN formats)

Santieldarlaine iPad Icon (1 icon; PNG format)

iPad PSD Documents

If you’re looking for something a little easier to customize, try out these iPad PSD documents.

Kevin Anderson iPad PSD

This PSD is completely editable. Every object was created using vector masks, meaning you can scale it up or down without any loss of quality.

Mppagano iPad PSD

This huge and incredibly detailed iPad PSD comes in at a whopping 2400 x 2400 pixels, large enough for almost any design project.

Geoff Teehan iPad GUI PSD

This one is for the application developers out there. The PSD was constructed using vectors, so it is fully editable and scalable. The workable screen design is formatted to 768 x 1024, so anything you design in the Photoshop file can easily be brought over to the SDK. This is a beauty of a document, coming in at around 24 MB. Start designing those apps!

Compiled exclusively for WDD by Callum Chapman, a freelance designer from Cambridge, UK. He is the creative mind behind Circlebox Creative and Circlebox Blog, and can often be found writing for design related blogs.

Feel free to share other iPad design resources below…

If you find an exclusive RSS freebie on this feed or on the live WDD website, please use the following code to download it: T0tN5B

On February 10th, 2010, Photoshop turns twenty. To mark this anniversary, we’ve come up with an article that takes you through the evolution of Photoshop from its modest beginnings as a bundled program sold with scanners to its current version.

For each version and major feature listed, we couldn’t help but think “did Photoshop ever exist without that feature?”.

Some of the minor details are fun too, such as the one-liner Easter Eggs that Photoshop developers hid in some versions and the fact that the most current versions of Adobe Photoshop CS are equipped with anti-counterfeiting measures for multiple world currencies.

Please join us in thanking the Knolls and Adobe for making all of our lives more awesome, every day.

Photoshop: Origins

One of the most impressive things about the company is the fact that one gifted family, consisting of an engineering prof, a PHD engineering student, and a talented special effects whiz working at Industrial Light and Magic came up with the core idea of Photoshop.

Thomas Knoll, the PHD student, is still heavily involved with Photoshop years later.

Glen Knoll was a college professor with two sons and two hobbies; computers and photography.

He had a darkroom in his basement, and an Apple II Plus that he was allowed to bring home from work.

Thomas Knoll adopted his father’s photography habit throughout high school, while his brother, John Knoll, purchased one of the first Macs available to the public.

Fast forward to 1987: Thomas Knoll was a PHD student studying Engineering at the University of Michigan. His brother was working at Industrial Light and Magic.

Thomas Knoll wrote a subroutine for a program to translate monochrome images on his monitor to grayscale.

The successful subroutine led Knoll to create more and very soon he had a number of processes for achieving photographic effects on digital images.

After his brother John saw what Thomas was doing, he recommended that Thomas turn what he was doing into a full-featured image editor.

The combination of Thomas’ programming abilities with John’s pragmatic design background led to a collaboration between the two brothers to develop more processes and improve on the initial application.

Even though the process led to interruption in Thomas’ thesis work, the brothers released “Image Pro” in 1988.

John suggested that they begin to sell Image Pro as an application.

Within six months, the brothers had a partnership with a company that manufactured scanners, Barneyscan.

They purchased 200 copies of the program to ship with their scanners.

They called on Supermac and Aldus, but were turned away at both, a move that Aldus would come to seriously regret.

Shortly after, the Knoll brothers struck gold when they won over Adobe management with their product, and formed a licensing partnership with Adobe that was to launch their software and Adobe into the stratosphere.

In February of 1990, Adobe 1.0 was released.

This video, shot in January of 2010, is a great interview with John Knoll about the early days of Photoshop:

Photoshop Through the Years; Version Changes

We’ve included major changes within each version and some minor ones. This is meant to be a fun stroll down memory lane rather than a complete version catalogue.

If you have a particular version change that got your hackles up or a feature that you’d to mention, feel free to add it to the comments section.

1990 – Photoshop 1.0

John Knoll, Thomas’ brother, wrote “special effects” for the program which were frowned upon by Adobe staff as being too “gimmicky”. Thomas and John found a way to sneak them into Photoshop as plugins, giving rise to what is now a huge cottage industry in add-ons to the popular program.

John and Adobe staff constantly pushed Thomas to make improvements until the final product shipped.

The first version of the Photoshop splash screen features just four Photoshop programmers. In subsequent versions, more and more names are added to the list. In more recent versions, a limited number of Adobe VIP’s appear in the splash screen.

1991 – Photoshop 2.0

Photoshop 2.0 included the Path feature, which allowed users to trim around an object easily and to save that path for future use. This feature was added by a second engineer, Mark Hamburg, that Adobe hired to work on the application.

Up until 2.0, Thomas Knoll was the only engineer working on it. Adobe called Mark the “Path Man”. 2.0 also featured rasterizing for Illustrator files, support for CMYK colour which led to widespread Photoshop adoption by the printing industry, and the Pen.

Photoshop 2.0 also required 4 megabytes of RAM to run rather than 2, which really helped program stability.

Photoshop 2.5, released in 1992, was notable for being the first release for the Windows operating systems.The code had to be completely changed in order to accomplish this goal which meant that the first effort was slow going.

16-bit file support and palettes were added to this version as well. The initial Windows release had a “memory bug”, a bug which actually saw Mark Hamburg offer to make house calls. The patched version was released as 2.5.1. Filters got their own menu in 2.5 as well. The workspace shot below is of Photoshop 2.5 for the Mac.

1994 – Photoshop 3.0

The big story for Adobe Photoshop 3.0 was layers. Layers were and are a lifesaver for any marginally complex design.

Prior to their introduction, designers would save different versions of designs so that they could go back and grab them if needed; layers made this practice redundant.

Layers are individual slices of the image that go together to make the final “sandwich” of the image. Different images, such as those used in the image above in the 3.0 splash screen, are assigned their own layers, making it easy to work on those images without tampering with other areas of the image.

Thomas Knoll, the original creator of the program, was responsible for their development. Other engineers made improvements in the program’s performance with Power Mac chips and bringing the Windows version up to the same level as the Mac version. Tabbed palettes also had their debut in 3.0.

Adobe engineers included Adobe Transient Witticisms (ATW) with this version. They were little Easter Egg funny one-liners that would appear only when you pressed obscure combinations of keys.

1996 – Photoshop 4.0

Adjustment layers and macros were the two most notable features of Photoshop 4.0.

Adjustment layers allow the designer to apply one effect to a group of layers. Macros, or actions in Photoshop speak, allow you to map a series of commands to one command. This allows you to perform the same operation in much less time if you have a bunch of images to work on.

The most important change to 4.0 was the unification of the user interface with other Adobe products, a feature which Adobe has stayed consistent with right up to present-day incarnations of the program. This meant a less steep learning curve for Adobe products, a blessing for those who got their start with Photoshop 4.0.

Loyal users of Photoshop were not amused with the redesign, the common question from the community being “Why did you break Photoshop?”.

1998 – Photoshop 5.0

The two most important features released with 5.0 were editable type and the ability to undo actions multiple times in the “History” palette.

Previous versions of Photoshop allowed text to be added, but the fuzzy rasterized type didn’t make for pretty magazine mastheads or decent web menus. This was a huge step forward. Multiple undos via the History palette were very helpful, especially since designers were starting to use the new Adobe tools for increasingly complex designs.

Color Management made its debut with 5.0. Like other major changes to Photoshop, it was greeted with equal parts of praise and condemnation. It allowed colors to be managed natively within the application rather than relying on third-party tools that had been used, a huge improvement.

However, it also automatically converted the colors when opening files, a “feature” that engineers quickly eliminated after multiple user complaints. The magnetic lasso tool debuted in 5.0, making selecting areas of an image to work on much easier.

1999 – Photoshop 5.5

Photoshop 5.5 featured the huge time saver, “Save For Web”. This feature allows those who choose it to save the image in a preset specifically designed for web use which allows the user to adjust image quality to achieve a smaller image.

Version 5.0 had failed to take the Web into account with all of its other major feature changes on the table. It was also bundled with ImageReady, a standalone program that was purpose-built to edit web graphics.

Most of the features of ImageReady were later incorporated into the full version of Photoshop and the idea of a simpler program was reborn eventually in the form of Photoshop Elements.

2000 – Photoshop 6.0

The layer styles panel made working with layers even easier in Photoshop 6. Vector shapes were also added in this release; the ability to draw vector shapes such as arrows into a bitmap was lauded by users.

There was also a new custom shapes palette that allowed the user to draw using vector shapes rather than just using lines. Text could also now be typed directly onto a picture, rather than being typed first into a text box.

Multi-layer functions made their first appearance with version 6.0. The Blending Options dialogue was also introduced which made blending various elements of an image much easier. 6.0 separated the crop tool from the marquee tool, making it that much easier to get to this commonly used command.

2001 – Photoshop Elements

With the increasing complexity of the tools available to users, Photoshop was risking losing a significant market share that didn’t understand or need some of its more advanced tools.

In order to combat this, they released Photoshop Elements in 2001. The new product was a success, and designers continue to recommend it to clients for simple image resizing and other non-design tasks.

While its current interface, shown below, isn’t intuitive for those trained in traditional Photoshop, it is highly usable and labeled clearly for the average user. If there are any problems with it in terms of functionality, the simple answer is to upgrade to the full-featured Photoshop.

2002 – Photoshop 7.0

Version 7.0 introduced the healing brush and text that was fully vector-based. More importantly to veteran users, it introduced a new file browser that let designers easily pore through folders to find the graphics that they wanted.

Files within a folder could be renamed using Batch Rename, plus a bunch of other helpful commands that made working with a high volume of files much easier.

Workspaces could also be created and saved, allowing you to save your file locations and groups for future use.

The brush palette also featured a number of changes, including the new healing brush tool, patch tool, and the ability to create custom brushes. Spell check and a find/replace feature rounded out the updates to the text tool.

A number of enhancements were also included for web use, including the addition of rollover effects for images and a web gallery feature.

One of the most important upgrades was under the hood; 7.0 was optimized for use with Mac OS X, virtually eliminating crashes in the middle of working on large files. The tool presets palette let users program presets for commonly performed tasks, increasing efficiency.

2003 – Photoshop CS

Photoshop CS was the first to employ the CDS (counterfeit deterrence system) which recognized and refused to allow duplication of paper currency.

Scripting support for various web languages, including JavaScript, was also new to this release.

Layer groups were introduced with this version, which allowed various layers to be grouped together for effects to be applied to some and not others.

Improvements to the File Browser made images easier to work with, and the 16-bit and better large file support made CS much easier to work with for designers who constantly worked with larger images and photographers.

2005 – Photoshop CS2

The red eye removal tool, previously exclusive to Elements, was popular enough to make an appearance in the core version of Photoshop. Smudging options and the ability to select multiple layers also added to the functionality of Photoshop.

The Vanishing Point tool allowed users to edit images in perspective. The largest moment of panic when upgrading to PS2 came for most when they tried to find the Paint Bucket tool, which had been classified under the Gradient tool. There were other significant changes to the UI that prompted one writer to put out this “Where’s My Stuff?” column.

Layers and the layers palette were other areas of note. The “links” column was removed because CS2 included a link button rather than the small chains beside each layer. The “Smart Object” feature was introduced, which allows the user to scale a layer up without significant loss of quality.

2007 – Photoshop CS3

A faster load was probably the most noticeable feature of this 2007 release. It included fine tuning to a number of its existing tools rather than focusing on new ones.

The most notable new feature was graphic optimization for mobile devices, a feature which many web designers focusing on mobile design were thankful for. This version also saw significant feature updates to Adobe Camera RAW, a Quick Select tool, alterations to core commands like Brightness and Contrast and Black and White conversion.

CS3 shipped in Standard and Extended editions. The Extended version was intended for high end video and scientific users. Improved performance for Intel-based Macs significantly improved the speed of Photoshop, while Windows users also enjoyed performance upgrades. The new Quick Selection tool put the rest of the selection tools in Photoshop to shame with easy object selection with one or two strokes.

Cloning became easier in CS3 with the birth of the Clone Source palette which increased the options available to the Clone Stamp tool in an easily accessible palette.

2008 – Photoshop CS4

The smoother pan and zoom allowed for fast drill down on the areas of an image that you wanted to look at. Prior to this, there was a lag time of a few seconds (depending on your system) if you wanted to zoom in or out on an image.

The Masks and Adjustments panel was added, making working with masks easier. CS 4 also dealt with edges on masks more effectively. Colour correction took a huge step forward with this release.

The user interface was significantly simplified in CS4. The support of tabbed documents made it much easier to use and the main tools were added to the title bar for easier access. Quick access for common actions was made available in the panel area.

Where Are The Knolls Now?

Thomas Knoll
Thomas was the lead developer of Photoshop right up until CS 4. He now leads up the Camera Raw plugin for Photoshop, which allows Photoshop to develop a smooth handshake between different models of camera raw image formats.

John Knoll
John is still employed by Industrial Light and Magic as a Visual Effects Supervisor. He was the Visual Effects Supervisors for the recent efforts on the first three Star Wars prequel films. He also supervised work on two Star Trek movies, Star Trek episodes, and the Pirates of the Caribbean movies.

Glenn Knoll
Their father is a teacher at the University of Michigan in the Engineering Department.

Let’s all get together to wish Photoshop a Happy Birthday!

Resources

• From Darkroom to Desktop – How Photoshop Came to Light
  Derrick Storyje
• Guidebook Gallery
  Photoshop Section
• 10 Years of Photoshop
  by Jeff Schewe, the artist who designed most of their splash screens.

Written and compiled exclusively for WDD by Angela West.

How has Photoshop impacted your design career over the years? Share your experiences and let us know which version you first cut your teeth on.

If you find an exclusive RSS freebie on this feed or on the live WDD website, please use the following code to download it: T0tN5B

You’ll find them accompanying many different styles. They’re handy effects for web designers because they’re attractive, useful and easy to create with any graphics program. But they have a dark side: they’re frequently abused.

Using amateurish drop-shadows or gradients is almost as bad as affixing a scarlet letter to your shirt to let the world know you’re a beginner or a hack. Even subtle, barely noticeable mistakes can create tensions that undermine otherwise beautiful and effective designs.

In this article, we’ll look at what drop-shadows and gradients do, we’ll talk about how to use them effectively and we’ll look at some examples of mistakes and how to fix them.

What Do Drop-Shadows and Gradients Do?

The job of a web designer is to create patterns of color for glowing two-dimensional screens. (There are a few exceptions to this: websites can be viewed on, say, a Kindle screen, which doesn’t glow; and websites can be printed out on paper.) These screens do not reflect the real world; they’re not even very much like the real world. For this reason, we have no real imperative to make the patterns on our websites bear any relationship to objects in the three-dimensional world we live in.

Operating systems like Unix and DOS have an interface that is nothing but colored text on a screen. Others, like Windows and Mac OS X, are filled with the illusions of real objects. OS X, for instance, has a dock that looks like a table with a shiny surface that recedes in the distance, a menu bar whose beveled edges make it look like it bulges out slightly, and scroll bars that appear to have translucent lozenges.

All of these effects are metaphors. They treat certain elements that we can interact with on screen as though they were three-dimensional objects that interact with light sources in the way that objects in the non-digital world do. It’s a funny thing to do, in a way: all of these light sources and edges and shapes are pure fantasy. Because the objects on the screen are imaginary, why should we relate them to the objects in the real world?

The illusion of space connects the imaginary to a world we are comfortable living in.

The most important reason why we relate imaginary objects to real-world ones is that we are experts at interacting with objects in our three-dimensional world. We have experience in dealing with three-dimensional objects, and we have accumulated knowledge of the visual code that tells us about the relationships of objects to each other in space.

It’s partially because the feat of interpreting light is so remarkable that we take such pleasure in illusion, or in creating the appearance of objects. We are often more engaged by dramatically life-like paintings of common objects like houses and apples than we are by the objects themselves. We humans have created drawings for thousands of years that are intended to present the ideas of objects. Illusory lozenges and tables on the screen are nothing but the most recent manifestation of this long tradition.

There’s more to it than pleasure, though. Shape and position give us information about how objects relate to each other. The long vertical lozenge shape of the scroll bar in the Safari window, for instance, creates the illusion that it sits “higher,” or closer, to me than the elements surrounding it. This gives it greater importance in the design, which is appropriate because the scroll bar is an essential interface element for navigating the page.

Visual metaphors create perceived affordance.

By appearing as an object, the scroll bar creates “perceived affordance.” That is, it links itself by way of metaphor to the properties of real objects that lend themselves to particular uses. A beveled button on a web page, for instance, communicates that it affords pressing. We can make anything on a page clickable, but associating a clickable element with the image of something pressable suggests its function in a clear, obvious and even pleasing way.

Drop-shadows and gradients are basic tools for creating the illusion of space.

Drop-shadows and gradients are two tools that help create the illusion of three-dimensionality and suggest the spatial relationships of objects on the page. When done well, this three-dimensional information makes a design more beautiful and more understandable.

In the real world, drop-shadows are created when an object blocks a light source from striking a surface that is behind it. This is one of the reasons why people say that drop-shadows make two-dimensional designs “pop”: because they make objects appear to stick out from, or float above, other elements.

Gradients appear when one part of an object is closer to a light source than another part. As a result, the closer part appears lighter, and the farther part appears darker. (Gradients get more complex, of course, when multiple light sources interact or when light sources have different colors.)

So, by mimicking the effects of light in the real world, drop-shadows and gradients communicate information about metaphorical objects, imaginary light sources and their relationships.

How To Use Drop-Shadows and Gradients Effectively

Here is one possibility: don’t use drop-shadows or gradients at all.

I mean this, seriously. This is the surest way to avoid drop-shadow and gradient mistakes, and the option should always be considered.

Because tossing drop-shadows on random objects is so easy, they can be an excuse to avoid simpler, better solutions to problems. For bits of text that need to be more prominent, for example, designers will often neglect color, size, weight of the type and many other elements in favor of a drop-shadow.

Similarly, designers often use gradients to make a field of color seem less boring, without figuring out why the overall composition is not dynamic.

If you’re working on a comp for a website, save three-dimensional touches such as drop-shadows and gradients for the end, if at all possible. Use spacing, placement and color to make the design effective before adding the final layer of polish. If you focus on making your designs work without these tricks, you may find that you don’t need them as often, and that they are more effective when you do use them.

Before you plop in a drop-shadow or a gradient, ask yourself, “Is a three-dimensional metaphor necessary for this design?” Am I using it to add useful information about the way objects are related or as an effective component of a sound aesthetic approach, or am I using it as an excuse?”

The Subtler, the Better

For drop-shadows, almost never use Photoshop’s default settings. Photoshop’s default drop-shadow is very dark and is cast to the lower-right corner of an object (the default global light source being 120°, in the upper-left).

Shadows tell you about the light in your environment. Suppose you’re in a dark room with no windows, and you turn on a flashlight. Any object that you shine it on will cast a shadow that’s almost black. That’s because the object is blocking light from the only light source, meaning that no other light is coming from anywhere else to brighten that area.

Now, the shadow won’t be completely black because of the reflected light. Some of the light from your flashlight will bounce off the walls and hit the shadowed area from a direction that’s not blocked by the object. And if you turn on a lamp in another corner of the room, the shadow will brighten considerably. The object will cast a second shadow: the new shadow will appear where the light from the lamp is blocked but will be filled with the light from the flashlight, while the area of the first shadow will still be blocked by the light from the flashlight but will be filled with the light from the lamp.

When we add drop-shadows to our designs, we suggest an imaginary environment for our web page. Dark, hard-edged drop-shadows suggest a dark room with a single light source. Light, soft-edged drop-shadows suggest a room rich with diffuse light.

A well-lit room is the most comfortable environment for users, because it is similar to the kind of environment where we use our computers: an office or study. Unless we deliberately want to avoid that comfort zone, we should bring the drop-shadow settings in Photoshop way down from their defaults. Bring the opacity down to 30 or 40%, or even lower.

Also, keep things simple so that people understand the metaphor without thinking about it. A light source at 120° does not makes much sense. Mac OS X, for instance, puts its light source at 90°, or straight above, which seems more logical. I like to make it even simpler and put the light source directly perpendicular to the screen. To do this, just bring the distance setting on your drop-shadow to zero (this represents the distance from the object that casts the drop-shadow to the object beneath it). At this point, global light doesn’t matter: it’s simply as if a big diffuse light source is coming from behind the user to illuminate the design.

This effect is very common in “trompe-l’œil” designs, the most common of which features the background image or frame of a desk surface, as if one were looking at it from straight above. Film directors such as Alfred Hitchcock, Martin Scorcese and Wes Anderson employ the same effect for their signature God’s-eye-view shots. Such web designs have a kind of effortless comprehensibility, and maintaining consistency across a design becomes easier for the designer.

If you’ve brought the distance setting down to 0 and the opacity down to about 30%, you’re at a good starting point for a drop-shadow. Play around with the size to change how far the surface of the object appears to be from the background on which it sits. Setting the size to 1 pixel, for example, gives you a beautiful effect that’s almost invisible but quite pleasing. Designer Dan Cederholm has made small, simple effects like this an integral part of his style (as demonstrated in his seminal A List Apart article on “Mountaintop Corners“).

You can certainly bring the opacity up if the effect is invisible, but starting subtle and then dialing it up is much better than the opposite. The effect should not be the slightest bit more overt than it needs to be.

For gradients, Photoshop has a lot of fancy defaults. These may have some good uses, but they certainly have unlimited poor uses, so steering clear of them is usually wise.

Instead, select the default black-to-white gradient. Then select both the black and the white and make them both the base color of your element. Now that you have a base, pick either the dark side or the light side and adjust it to be just slightly darker or lighter. Again, the subtler, the better. (Some of the best gradients I’ve come across I had to verify with the eyedropper tool in Photoshop to make sure they were there at all!)

The greater the contrast between the light and dark, the rounder the surface will appear. For some things, such as navigation menus and buttons, some roundness is appropriate. But for objects that should appear flat, keep the contrast low.

And remember, the lighter side should face the direction of your light source.

This kind of gradient is wonderful because it mimics the gradients we see around us all the time. Nothing in the real world is truly a single color field, because it always has some kind of relationship to a light source. Look carefully at the pages in a book or at the ceiling around your overhead light: you’ll find gradients everywhere.

Examples of Mistakes and How to Fix Them

The web has many obviously ugly gradients, but these are not usually done by professional designers. Rather than show egregious mistakes, I’ll illustrate a few ways in which subtle errors can create tensions in otherwise excellent designs.

Uniform Shadows for Overlapping Objects

Overlapping objects imply a difference in their distance from you (determined partly by their thickness). Designers, though, frequently use identical drop-shadows for overlapping objects. So, the information conveyed by the drop-shadows conflicts with the information conveyed by the overlap, undermining the illusion of dimensionality.

Seeing conflicts such as these makes me uneasy, and the more I focus on them, the more my head hurts. Users should take pleasure in your design, not feel pain!

You can read more about this issue in “Build a Better Drop-Shadow,” a guide by Jacci Howard Bear on About.com.

Abrupt Edges

The corners of real drop-shadows wouldn’t have hard edges unless they had absolutely no reflected light—which would be a very unusual situation. Rather, their corners are usually rounded by the rays of light that creep around them.

Here’s a drop-shadow with an unrealistically hard edge:

This otherwise lovely design has almost no dimensional illusion anywhere but has a drop-shadow along the right sidebar. The designer perhaps wanted to lower the sidebar’s hierarchy on the page, an effect that its blue background helps achieve. Not only is it unnecessarily dark, though, but the implausibly hard edge stares the visitor in the face.

At the bottom of the sidebar, you can see a rounded transition, where the designer has created a more plausible effect. But you can see why he didn’t repeat it at the top, because it would jar with the clean horizontal line set by the well-aligned top elements. Rather than demand the realism of this rounded transition, let’s fix it by toning down the drop-shadow as much as possible.

Here, I have made the drop-shadow so light that it does little more than suggest it is sitting farther back. Because it’s so light, the clean line of transition isn’t ugly or distracting.

What the heck is going on behind that object?

Sometimes, a drop-shadow goes nuts for no obvious reason, as with the blue box surrounding the W3C logo below.

Why is the drop-shadow so far back from the object, and so rounded? The more I try to understand the story being told by this drop-shadow, the more confused I get. My guess is that the designer wanted to give more prominence and weight to the logo, which the drop-shadow helps accomplish, but it disrupts the harmony of the page so much that it’s not worth it.

Don’t let your gradients suggest different light sources.

In this otherwise excellent design for WolframAlpha, objects on the page have gradients ranging from white to pale orange. The problem is that the gradient in the header region has white at the top, implying light from above, while the page elements lower down have white at the bottom, implying light from below.

You could argue that I’m over-thinking this, that gradients don’t have to match up with light sources. That’s possible, but subtle gradients like these have an inherent metaphorical relationship to the gradients we see in the real world. Let’s switch the direction of the gradients lower down on the page so that they imply a light source from above:

And we get light source harmony.

Ultimately, you’re free to do as you please.

Because the objects on a web page relate to real objects only by metaphor, their effectiveness is essentially subjective. The connection between an image of a button and an actual button has no reality beyond the mind of the user.

We designers are not required to make our metaphors consistent with reality, but being thoughtful and careful about the many levels of communication in a design helps us make our websites more harmonious.

And our care and consistency helps make the user’s experience of the website comfortable and even delightful.

Written exclusively for WDD by Nate Eagle. He studied philosophy in college, an education that prepared him perfectly to design and develop web pages for PBS KIDS. You can read more from him and his PBS co-workers at Design.PBS.

Do you think this level of detail is important when designing drop-shadows and gradients? Do you have your own pet peeves about how drop-shadows and gradients are used?

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The shade of the female model’s hair is dull, her eye color just isn’t doing it for you, and she has several pimples across her otherwise flawless face.

What do you do? Touch up the photo using Photoshop, of course!

The number of options available for enhancement are now sky high, but what’s the best way to clean the photo up?

To simplify the retouching process, we have highlighted the best and worst ways to create a clean, professional-looking photo in Photoshop.

DON’T Rely Solely on Clone Stamp Tool for Your Dirty Work

The Clone Stamp tool is commonly used to retouch photos, but overusing it can yield horrific results.

Using a high opacity and hardness can give target areas a lumpy feel, especially if the region you’re sampling isn’t a close enough match in color. Opt for a lower opacity and softer brush in most cases.

If you can’t avoid using the Clone Stamp tool or are just plain attached to it, don’t turn your back on other tools that could smooth out the kinks. A quick swipe of the Blur tool can make a world of difference.

DO Use the History Brush.

Over-blurring a subject is a common mistake. To fix it, use the history brush. It never hurts to take incremental snapshots in the history palette as you work. Doing so saves time and a lot of ‘undo’s’.

The history brush goes hand in hand with the history palette. You need to set the source of the history brush to know where it will sample from.

You can do this by clicking the open box next to a layer in the history palette. This is why it’s best to take snapshots using the icon outlined in red; this way, you know exactly what your image will look like before you apply the history brush.

DON’T Expect Gaussian Blur to Do All the Work, or Even a Clean Job

Gaussian Blur is overrated. Not only does it blur background colors with the subject, but it gives a mannequin-like feel if used incorrectly. Median is a happy medium for the blur filter technique. It keeps colors clean and intact. Never tried it? By all means, do (Noise → Median).

Blur is generally used to clean up blemished skin, not for clone stamping or healing. In general, put the picture through a blur filter, keeping a copy of the original directly above in the layers palette, and erase the features (such as eyes and hair) on the duplicate layer that you want to keep sharp.

DO Give the Pen Tool Some Love

The pen tool is as precise as you can get. When it comes to selecting a small area, such as teeth or eyes, it is by far your best bet.

Heck, any odd-shaped area would fall under the reign of the pen tool. Simply outline the object, go to the Path tab, right-click on the work path and then choose “Make Selection.”

You could also press the “Load path as selection” button while the working path layer is active under the Path tab.

DO Experiment With Other Tools You Wouldn’t Normally Use

This tip may sound absurd when you’re racing to get a project done, but finding a newer, faster way to perform a task will help in the long run.

For example, I recently discovered the wonders of the Extract filter, and ever since I have used it every chance I get. It’s especially great for hair, because you can quickly outline the area with the marker and fill it in.

Refining edges afterwards takes no time at all. With a swipe of the history brush, you’re good to go. Note: Extract is not available in CS4, although you can copy it from the CS3 plug-ins/filters folder to the CS4 directory.

DON’T Neglect the Many Selection Tools at Your Disposal

Although the pen tool does wonders, tracing around a subject can be slow. Use your judgment when choosing a tool for each selection.

The Elliptical Marquee tool is great for beginners. The Quick Selection tool set at a low size is great for large elements such as lips, hair and clothes.

Hitting the “Refine edge” button always helps if you need something extra.

The Magnetic Lasso tool is especially good for outlining, and its slower cousin the Lasso tool is excellent if you have a steady hand.

Lastly, the Magic Wand tool set at a low tolerance is great for clothes, especially when paired with the Quick Selection tool. Overall, the sheer number of selection tools available opens many avenues to you. The lesson is, don’t limit yourself to a small… er, selection of tools.

• When using a selection tool, hold “Alt” to subtract from the selection or “Shift” to add to it.
• Hold Shift to create a perfect circle with the Elliptical Marquee tool. You can also hold Shift + Alt to expand from the center of your mouse.
• Selecting the object you’re trying to isolate rather than the background is often easier when you want to remove it. Simply select the object cleanly and press Alt + Shift + I to invert the selection.
• When switching between selection tools, make sure to hold Shift before continuing your selection. Let’s say you have selected half of your goal with the Magic Wand tool. Then you decide to switch to the Quick Selection tool to finish it up. To add to what you’ve selected previously, hold Shift before selecting the rest of the area, or else you’ll start a new selection.

DO Let the Liquify Filter Work Its Magic.

If used properly, the Liquify Filter (Ctrl + Shift + X) can replace many tools. For instance, the Forward Warp tool, which is included in the filter, is much more accurate than the Smudge tool, and the Twirl Clockwise tool replaces the Twirl filter, which is found in Distort. These are just a few of many examples.

Not only could the Liquify Filter be your one-stop shop for distortion, it also allows you to freeze areas that you don’t want to be affected.

The best part about this filter is that if you go a little crazy bloating an area, you can always fall back on the Reconstruct button to correct it.

Note: be sure to make the grid visible before editing to get a better sense of how the tool is affecting the area.

Bloat (shortcut “B”) is a great way to enhance features. Using a low brush rate and density is your best bet for making changes that aren’t too extreme. Reconstruct is your best friend in this case. It normalizes changes in one click.

What’s the best part about Liquify? It can restore all without you having to exit the filter.

DON’T Overlook Quick Masks.

CS4 doesn’t have the Extract filter, unless you took my advice and copied the filter from an older version. So, what do you do when you’re in a rush to make a selection? Quick Mask, of course.

Simply press “Q” to activate the tool, brushing around the subject you want selected, and press “Q” again to make all unpainted areas become your new selection. Pretty nifty, huh?

Note: Don’t forget to revert your colors to the default by pressing “D,” so that black is your base color, before Quick Masking to your heart’s content.

Quick Masks are a fast way to isolate an area. Make sure to zoom in far enough (Ctrl +) to get the perfect outline when brushing around a subject. If you make an error, switch your brush color to white (using the “X” hot key if colors are default) to get rid of red where it shouldn’t be.

DO Heal Away the Pain

As mentioned, the Clone Stamp tool can be rough for matching colors. That’s where the Healing brush comes in. The idea is similar to the Clone Stamp tool (i.e. sample an area and brush away the blemishes), but it is far more intelligent.

The Clone Stamp is a kind of copy and paste, while the Healing brush blends the new area with the sampled area and takes into account tonal qualities.

The first thing to do upon opening the Healing brush is to change the sample drop-down to all layers. This is probably one of the most important steps because any changes you make won’t affect your original image (as long as you have created a new layer for your retouches).

Adjust the hardness to something a bit softer than the standard 100% for a cleaner heal with no visible edges. Don’t forget to adjust the diameter of the area you’ll be adjusting, using the [ and ] keys to grow and shrink the brush.

The skin here is fairly high contrast, so I was especially careful to sample the right spot. Best practice is to sample the area closest to where you will be covering up. I touched up the crow’s feet and blemishes around the mouth in a new layer; so the base image is intact in case I make an error.

DON’T Be Bashful With Creating Clipping Masks

Clipping Masks make your life a whole lot easier.

Here is a good example. Say you have four layers comprised of photos and an adjustment layer above them all. You want the adjustment layer to affect only one of the four photos.

Position the photo that you want affected under the Clipping Mask. Then all you have to do is right-click your adjustment layer, and select “Create Clipping Mask.”

Now, the adjustment layer will affect only the photo below. This simple technique saves a lot of re-arranging; and if at any time you want to remove it, just right-click the Clipping Mask layer and select “Release Clipping Mask.” Life was never so simple.

DO Eliminate Backgrounds With the Magic Eraser Tool

We’ve gone over several ways to select objects for removal or enhancement via the selection tools, but one tool remains: the Magic Eraser tool.

This tool shouldn’t always be your first choice, but it can come in handy. Its best use is for when you have a perfect photo except for the worst background imaginable (like a messy bedroom or bathroom).

The first thing to do is lower that pesky tolerance to something more bearable. I usually start with 15.

If Contiguous is selected in the toolbox, the Magic Eraser will get rid of neighboring pixels of the same color.

If Contiguous isn’t selected, it will remove the selected color from the entire photo. Using the Magic Eraser tool to remove all of the background isn’t wise, but it does give you a quick starting point for removing backgrounds.

Note: Press Shift + E to quickly cycle through the eraser tools. This also works with all tools that have stacked options. For example, Shift + G toggles between the Gradient and Paint Bucket tools.

DON’T Stop at Brightness and Contrast to Color Correct

Brightness and contrast can work wonders for color, but don’t stop there. Merely adding a selective color adjustment layer can do wonders for tones that are too warm or cool.

Select the color you want to adjust and use the slide bars to tweak it just so. You can choose from plenty of other adjustments, so have some fun with this one.

In this first example, I slightly upped the brightness because the photo’s lighting is poor. I also shifted the hue away from yellow and dropped the saturation. With these two adjustments alone, the photo already looks cleaner.

Using only the hue and saturation adjustment, I couldn’t completely remove the overbearing yellow tone. By using a photo filter with a cool tone, we can steer the lighting in a more natural direction. Lastly, tweaking the levels helps remove grays and add contrast.

DO Choose an Adjustment Layer Over an Adjustment

The reason for this is simple. If you decide that you don’t like an adjustment that you have made, you can just delete the layer.

This practice saves you from many Ctrl + Z’s and possibly losing a serious amount of work. Note: the adjustments I’m referring to are the options marked in Image → Adjustments.

A Few Quick Tips

• When working with a lot of layers, lock them.
• Always save in iterations.
• Use the history panel to navigate to previous or later states, rather than go crazy with Ctrl+Z.
• Clone in different layers to keep from damaging the original photo. It is as simple as checking “Use all layers” in the tool bar, with the clone stamp tool selected.
• Do most of your editing in RGB mode. It is far more editable than CMYK.
• Mind your DPIs. If you’re working with print, 300 DPI is standard. For concepts, 72 DPI is acceptable.
• Make a habit of naming your layers. Scrolling through 20 unnamed layers can get confusing.
• Ctrl + left-click a layer thumbnail to select everything in that layer.
• Use the Dust and Scratches filter (found under Noise) to get rid of unwanted artifacts.
• Feathering a selection never hurt anyone, and it sure won’t hurt for most selections either.
• Set your undos high by going into Edit → Preferences → Performance. You’ll see a history and cache area, where you can set your history states to a maximum of 1000. This comes in handy for larger projects, but beware: it eats up more memory.

Written exclusively for WDD by Heather Bartron.

Do you have any DO’s or DON’Ts to add? Leave a comment below and help us expand our minds.

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You can do virtually anything with Photoshop, from fantasy image collages to complete website designs, and everything in between.

Although while Photoshop is incredibly powerful, it can also be incredibly complicated, especially when trying to perform advanced functions.

Below are over 300 resources to get you on your way to Photoshop mastery.

There’s everything from cheat sheets to brushes to tutorials to action scripts, as well as collections of even more resources and tools. With the resources below, you should be able to do just about anything possible with Photoshop.

pCheat Sheets and Reference Guides

Keeping cheat sheets and reference guides at hand can speed up your design process and make you a more efficient designer. Below are ten to get you started.

Black & White Cheatsheet for Photoshop – This is a great reference guide that shows the results for different methods of converting images to black and white in Photoshop.

Adobe Photoshop Keyboard Shortcuts – This site offers a collection of cheat sheets for keyboard shortcuts for each version of Photoshop (as far back as Photoshop 5).

Adobe Photoshop Cheat Sheet – This is a six-page reference guide.

Creative Tip: Adobe Pen Tool Cheatsheet – A quick-reference guide to pen tool functions.

27 Adobe Photoshop Cheat Sheets and Quick Reference Guides for Adobe Photoshop CS4, CS3, CS2 and Below – A roundup of cheat sheets and guides from All Graphic Design.

17 Productive Photoshop Cheatsheets and Reference Cards to Download for Free – An excellent roundup of cheatsheets and reference cards from Speckyboy Design Magazine, primarily for CS4.

Photoshop Cheat Sheets – This page offers a collection of general and specialized Ps cheat sheets from Scott Klarr.

Photoshop Toolbox Reference – Here’s a quick reference guide to Photoshop tools.

Photoshop Secret Shortcuts – This post offers an excellent compilation of little-known Ps shortcuts from Web Designer Wall.

10 Tips for Photoshop Beginners – This is a great place for beginners to familiarize themselves with Photoshop.

Tutorial Collections and Resources

There are tens of thousands of tutorials out there. Finding the best ones can be tough. Below are some great collections, roundups, and showcases of some of the best Photoshop tutorials out there.

100 Wonderful Photo Effects Photoshop Tutorials – Here’s a showcase of 100 tutorials for adding effects to your photos.

Tutorialsphere.com – Tutorialsphere is a huge site with more than 3,000 Ps tutorials for everything from website layouts to photo retouching.

12 of the Best Photoshop Web Design Tutorials – Here’s an awesome roundup of web design tutorials from Creative Nerds.

99 Best Photoshop Tutorials for Effect – Here’s a huge roundup of awesome photo manipulation and effects tutorials.

22 Best Photoshop Text Effect Tutorials – A collection of tutorials for manipulating text in Photoshop.

Best Photoshop Tutorials to Boost Your Skills! – Ants Magazine offers a great collection of Ps tutorials for learning new techniques.

70 Beauty-Retouching Photoshop Tutorials – Smashing Magazine offers this roundup of 70 photo retouching tutorials for retouching portraits.

Worth 1000 Tutorials – Worth 1000 has a great collection of tutorials, including “How I Created a Raspberry Frog” and “Lighting a Giant Elephant.”

Good-Tutorials – Good-Tutorials offers up a huge variety of Photoshop tutorials on everything from photo effects and retouching to web layouts to animation. Tutorials are rated and users can comment on them, making it easier to judge the effectiveness of the tutorial before you dive in.

28 Technically Advanced Photoshop Tutorials—For the Graphic Designer Guru – Speckyboy Design Magazine offers yet another great roundup of really advanced tutorials, mostly for photo manipulations.

35 Basic Tutorials to Get You Started with Photoshop – Six Revisions has this great roundup of Photoshop tutorials aimed at beginners.

Photoshop Tutorials – This site offers tons of tutorials for Photoshop and Photoshop Elements. There are tons of advanced techniques and tutorials, as well as some basic tutorials.

2008 Most Useful Photoshop Tutorials – Abduzeedo offers this roundup of some of 2008’s best tutorials from Abduzeedo.

Photoshop Exchange Tutorials – More than 340 tutorials are included on the Adobe website, covering everything from 3D typography to creating color cutouts to creating a rain effect.

Tutorialized – Tutorialized offers tutorials in everything from creating abstracts to web layouts to photo retouching to digital art. There are thousands of tutorials included.

Psdtuts+ Tutorials – This site offers tons of mostly-advanced tutorials on things like photo manipulation, retouching and animation, among others.

27 Best Photoshop Web Layout Design Tutorials to Design Decent Web Layouts – DZine Blog offers this roundup post of web design tutorials.

Photoshop Roadmap – This site aggregates tutorials from tons of other sites all over the web. You can browse by category, which includes illustration techniques, graphics optimization and text effects, among others.

Adobe Photoshop Tutorials—Best Of – This post from Smashing Magazine showcases some of the coolest photo manipulation and effect tutorials from around the web.

PhotoshopStar – PhotoshopStar is a blog offering up tutorials on a regular basis, mostly focused on advanced techniques, though they do cover some basics.

40 (NEW) High Quality Adobe Photoshop Tutorials – This post from Noupe offers up forty great tutorials from a variety of sites, mostly focused on advanced Photoshop techniques, image manipulation, and digital illustration.

PSLover.com – PSLover.com is an aggregation site of Photoshop tutorials from all over.

PhotoshopSupport.com – PhotoshopSupport.com has a great collection of practical Photoshop tutorials, including ones for image retouching, web design, and working with Photoshop scripts.

Photoshop Lady – This site offers up a ton of tutorials for everything from creating textures and patterns to UI design to abstract effects.

40 Photoshop Tutorials to Create Fantastic Art – This is an awesome roundup from PelFusion.com of advanced photo manipulation and digital illustration tutorials.

60+ Vintage, Retro, and Pop Art Styled Photoshop Tutorials – All Graphic Design offers this great roundup of tutorials for creating retro-inspired designs from All Graphic Design.

75+ Huge Collection of Stunning Photo Manipulation Tutorials for Photoshop – Tripwire Magazine has this great showcase of photo manipulation tutorials.

PhotoshopContest.com Tutorials – PhotoshopContest.com offers a small collection of tutorials exploring different Photoshop techniques, including color correction, the liquify filter, and displacement water, among others.

TutorialKit – TutorialKit features tutorials for beginners to advanced users, including video tutorials.

60+ Amazing Poster and Advertisement Tutorials – While this post includes a mix of both Photoshop and Illustrator tutorials, it’s still a great resource.

Photoshop Essentials – Photoshop Essentials offers up a number of tutorials, all downloadable as PDF eBooks.

25 Most Brilliant Photoshop Video Tutorials Part 1 – Naldz Graphics has this great roundup of video tutorials compiled by Naldz Graphics.

Photoshop Tutorials Blog – This blog posts tutorials, tips and news on a daily basis.

Tutorial Outpost – Tutorial Outpost is an aggregation site that includes more than 5,000 tutorials from all over the place.

Photoshop 101 – This site includes tutorials on everything from basic techniques to textures to photo manipulation.

Free Photoshop Video Tutorials – Domen Lombergar offers a collection of free tutorials.

Photoshop Cafe – Here’s a huge collection of tutorials, mostly focused on photo manipulation and effects.

TeamPhotoshop Tutorials – TeamPhotoshop has a collection of tutorials on text effects, tools, and techniques. They also include some Illustrator, Flash, and general photography tutorials.

9tuts – 9tuts has a great collection of tutorials, mostly focused on retouching and manipulation, though there are tutorials for beginners and other topics, too.

AdobeTutorialz – Here’s another collection of tutorials broken down by category (including drawing techniques, photo editing, and special effects, among others).

eyesontutorials – Eyesontutorials has a collection of mostly advanced tutorials.

Small Tutorials – Small Tutorials covers everything from basic techniques and skills to text effects to manipulations, and everything in between.

Web Design Library – This site includes nearly 10,000 tutorials in categories like drawing techniques, web layout, and 3D effects, among others.

PhoNuts Tutorials – This site includes dozens of tutorials, among other resources.

Tutorial9 – This site offers more than 70 Photoshop tutorials, mostly focused on advanced techniques.

PSDFan Tutorials – PSDFan is a great site offering up tons of advanced photo manipulation and effects tutorials, among other resources.

How to Create an Abstract Photo Manipulation – Here’s a great tutorial for creating an abstract image that includes a parrot.

30 Photo Manipulation Tutorials for Photoshop – Here’s a great collection of tutorials compiled by Vandelay Design.

10Steps – 10Steps has a great collection of tutorials, mostly for photo manipulations and retouching.

Tutzor – A huge collection of tutorials for drawing, design, photo effects, retouching, and more.

PSHero – PSHero is a huge photoshop tutorial site with tutorials for graphic design, text and photo effects, and more.

50+ Ultimate Collection of Glow and Light Effect Tutorials in Photoshop – This is a great list of tutorials for creating different lighting effects from Naldz Graphics.

Planet Photoshop – Planet Photoshop has tons of video tutorials for creating all sorts of effects and manipulations.

20 Halloween Photoshop Tutorials – Here’s a collection of 20 macabre and horror inspired tutorials.

Photoshop Garden – Photoshop Garden features tutorials for creating buttons, designing, photo retouching and effects, and more.

PS Wish Tutorials – This site include a couple dozen Photoshop tutorials, mostly for photo manipulations and other more advanced techniques.

18 Fresh Photoshop Photo Manipulation Tutorials – Here’s a great post from Web Design Ledger featuring 18 really awesome photo manipulation tutorials.

You Suck at Photoshop – You Suck at Photoshop offers a series of video tutorials.

PSD Learning – PSD Learning has a collection of tutorials from a variety of other tutorial sites, as well as original tutorials.

Luxa – Luxa offers a handful of tutorials for intermediate and advanced techniques.

Abduzeedo Photoshop Tutorials – The Abduzeedo blog has a huge section of awesome Photoshop tutorials.

PSD Vault – PSD Vault has a huge collection of unique tutorials.

Adobe Photoshop: 50+ High Quality .PSD Files and Tutorials – This post from Noupe offers up more than 50 template files, elements, and tutorials.

70+ Sexy, Beauty and Glamour Photoshop Tutorials – This post from Design Live showcases more than 70 tutorials for photo retouching, effects, and more.

25 Photoshop Tutorials for Web Designers – Here’s a great roundup of web design tutorials from Six Revisions.

TUTfactory – TUTfactory is another site that aggregates Photoshop tutorials from all over the web.

50 Excellent Digital Photography Photoshop Tutorials – Smashing Magazine has compiled this great collection of tutorials for realistically retouching and improving the look of your photos.

40+ Greatest Web Interface Design Photoshop Tutorials, Part 1 – Hong Kiat assembled this great collection of web design tutorials.

Anothera – Here’s a small collection of really cool photo manipulation and other tutorials.

GoMediaZine Photoshop Tutorials – GoMediaZine has a great collection of tutorials for Photoshop, featuring tons of advanced and more basic tutorials.

20+ Photoshop Video Tutorials – Mashable collected this roundup of useful video tutorials for working with Photoshop from Mashable.

Individual Tutorials

There are thousands of great Photoshop tutorials out there, aimed at everyone from beginners to graphic design professionals. Some are just for fun while others are very practical for design professionals. Below are a selection of some of the best ones available.

Draw Fairy Tale Characters in Photoshop – Here’s a very complete, step-by-step for creating fairy tale characters.

How to Create a Piece of Heaven in Photoshop – Photoshop Lady created this simple tutorial for creating a floating island.

Handy Techniques for Cutting Out Hair in Photoshop – Here’s a great tutorial from Spoon Graphics for cutting around hair.

How to Combine Digital Painting and Photo Manipulation to Create a Platform Environment – PSDTUTS+ has this great tutorial to show you how to combine digital painting effects with photo manipulations.

How To: Make the Viget Inspire Background – Here’s a tutorial right from Viget for creating the watercolor scene header and background from the Viget website.

Design an Awesome Watercolor Style “City on Cloud” Artwork in Photoshop – Learn to create a floating city with a really cool watercolor look.

Old School Type—Line Gradients – Learn to create awesome old-style type with this tutorial from GoMediaZine.

Retro Photoshop Fun—From Dull Digital Photo to Sweet Old School Album Cover – Here’s a tutorial from Fortyseven Media for making a digital photo look vintage.

Interior Design Layout – Talk Mania offers this web design tutorial for creating a modern interior design site.

How to Create a Clean Web 2.0 Style Web Design in Photoshop – Six Revisions has this great web design tutorial for creating a modern web layout.

Ps Advanced Splatter Tutorial – Here’s a video tutorial for creating advanced splatter effects.

Reader Tutorial: Create Vintage Traveler Diary in Photoshop – This is an awesome tutorial for creating an antique-looking diary collage.

Create a Horror Portfolio PSD Layout in Photoshop – A comprehensive tutorial for creating a really cool gothic-inspired portfolio site layout.

How to Create a Fantasy Photo Manipulation – A super-comprehensive tutorial showing step-by-step exactly how to create a fantasy photo of a fairy.

Phoenix Hair Effect – Shows how to create fiery hair in Photoshop.

Colorful Spirograph Poster – Create a rainbow-colored, spirograph-inspired poster.

Gritty HDR – Shows how to add an awesome edgy HDR effect to your images.

B-Movie Poster Art – Create an awesome sci-fi B-movie poster of an alien invasion.

Create a Divine Angel Montage in Photoshop – Another tutorial for creating a fantasy scene, this time from Tutorial9.

Super Cool Watercolor Effect in 10 Steps in Photoshop – Create an awesome watercolor-inspired image using masks and watercolor brushes.

Eery-Eye Photo Manipulation – This is an awesome step-by-step tutorial for creating a spooky-looking eye.

Making of “Color Combustion” a Photo Manipulation – Step-by-step instructions for creating a very surreal image.

Arctic Face Photo Effect – A neat tutorial for creating an arctic-looking face.

How to Design a Dramatic Winged Dragon with Photoshop – Another fantasy image tutorial, this time with a dragon created from an iguana.

Photo Manipulate a Falling Angel – An excellent, comprehensive tutorial for creating a falling angel.

Alienize: Transform a Person into an Alien – A tutorial for creating an alien face with the photo of any person (Tom Cruise is used in the example).

Hell of Tutorial in Photoshop – A tutorial for creating flaming text.

The Scream Photo Effects – A great tutorial for a dark photo manipulation.

Age Progression—Photoshop Tutorials – A comprehensive tutorial for creating an age progression from a photo.

Modern Ruins – This is an awesome tutorial for creating a ruinous landscape from any modern city photo.

Creating a Smoke Fading Effect – A great tutorial for blending smoke into a photo.

Creating a Stunning Digital Smoke Effect – A basic tutorial for creating digital smoke.

Creating Fireballs and Explosions – A great tutorial for adding realistic fireballs and explosions to a photo.

Create Realistic Burn Wound – A tutorial for adding realistic burn to a portrait.

A Scrap of Notebook Paper – A tutorial for creating a scrap of lined paper torn from a notebook from scratch.

How to Create a Slice of Nature Photo Manipulation – A really awesome photo manipulation of a fantasy nature scene.

Creating a Ridiculous Tsunami in 8ish Steps – A quick tutorial for creating a tsunami image.

Create a Glowing Effect Scene in Photoshop – A cool, abstract photo manipulation tutorial of a woman.

Design a Wolf Howling at the Moon – Create a surreal scene with planets and a wolf howling at the moon.

How to Apply Textures to Uneven Surfaces – Another awesome tutorial from Psdtuts+, this time for adding a texture (bark in the tutorial) to an uneven surface (a face).

Making of a Floating Island – This is an awesome tutorial for creating an island hovering in midair.

Dark Grunge Photo Effect – A really cool grungy photo tutorial.

How to Integrate 3D Images into Dynamic Scenes – A complete tutorial for incorporating 3D images into your photo manipulations.

Midnight Magic – Create a realistic scene with a crocodile chasing a zebra through a living room.

Bringing Out Shadow and Highlight Detail in an Image – A great tutorial on using the shadow/highlight adjustment tool in Photoshop to bring out hidden details.

Water Effect Photo Montage – Create an image with water splashes coming out of a guy’s sleeves and pant-legs.

Fairy Night – Create an awesome fairy eye.

Improving Image Tone with Levels in Photoshop – A quick tutorial for using the level adjustments to improve the tones in your images.

How to Make a Stylish Glowing Box in Photoshop – A step-by-step tutorial for creating an amazing glowing box.

Fantasy Light Effects in Photoshop – A great tutorial for creating a variety of lighting effects for fantasy scenes.

Creating Energy Spheres in Photoshop – Another lighting tutorial for creating fantasy scenes.

Fantasy Art Photoshop Tutorial—Plasma in the Lake – A great tutorial for creating a plasma-like lighting effect and photo manipulation.

Add Another Dimension – A downloadable tutorial that shows you how to improve your overall images by using glow effects, color dodge, and neon.

Light in the Forest Photo Effect – Another fantasy photo manipulation tutorial.

Create a Dream Design with 3D Typography – A step-by-step tutorial for creating a dreamy scene with 3D lettering.

Design an Awesome Space Dancer Scene with Nebula Texture in Photoshop – A tutorial for creating an amazing dancer surrounded by stars and nebula lighting effects.

Tileable Patterns in Photoshop – A tutorial for creating your own tiled patterns.

Creating Custom Patterns – A tutorial for creating tileable patterns in Photoshop form Hong Kiat.

Complex Repeating Patterns Part 1 – A tutorial for creating complex tileable patterns from PSHero.

Seamlessly Combine Multiple Objects and Create Awesome Lighting Effect in Photoshop – A tutorial for combining photos into a single, seamless image.

Photoshop Brushes

Photoshop brushes are just one tool available to help designers. Below are some of the best brush sets and roundups out there.

4 High Resolution Assorted Maps Photoshop Brush Set – A cool set of high-res map brushes.

Z-DESIGN Tech Brushes Set v5 – A set of 25 techie brushes.

Smoke Brush Set – A set of 21 smoke brushes.

Grinder Sparks – A set of high-res brushes based on flying sparks.

Moon Brushes for PS7 v.2 – A collection of 45 moon brushes.

Eyelashes – A set of eyelash brushes.

Tea Stain Brushes – A set of 10 glass ring and other tea stain brushes.

Raging Dawn Brushes – A set of 8 brushes inspired by nuclear explosions and similar stuff.

Indian Paisley with Small Paisley Elements Brush – A collection of paisley Photoshop brushes for CS3.

Audio Lines Brushes – A collection of brushes based on sound waves.

Bitter – A collection of 9 ethereal, wispy brushes.

Kakii Halftone – A set of 22 halftone dot brushes.

Fairy Wings Photoshop Brushes – A set of fantasy wing brushes for creating fairies and other mythical creatures.

Steampunk Photoshop Brushes – A collection of 7 steampunk gear brushes.

Galaxy Set—By BLazteR – A set of five brushes for creating galaxy images.

Cobwebs Photoshop Brushes – A set of 30 lacy spider web brushes.

Grunge Brushes – A set of 36 grungy, dirty brushes.

Darkgarden Japanese 3 – 24 brushes of Japanese nature objects and ornaments.

Mad KID s Cloud 2 – A set of 9 swirly cloud drawing brushes.

Girls in Trouble and Rebel Teens – A collection of brushes based on vintage movie posters.

2Bit-Twilight Brushes – A set of 12 pixel brushes.

A3D Pieces of Tape Brushes – A great collection of 37 tape brushes, perfect for grunge and vintage designs.

Japanese Floral – A set of 65 Japanese flower brushes based on images in a Japanese book.

Label Brushes – 42 brushes that look like labels from a label-maker.

Grungy Wings – A set of 10 (5 pairs of wings) messy, dirty wing brushes.

Messy Abstracts Brush Set – A collection of 20 messy, grungy brushes.

brush.037 – A collection of high-res invertebrate brushes.

Decorative Brush – A set of 7 decorative medallion ornament brushes.

Cloud Brushes – A set of 10 realistic cloud brushes.

Brusheezy – A huge collection of free brushes in a variety of styles.

AppendixSquared – A collection of free Photoshop CS2 brushes.

Obsidian Dawn – Brush collections organized in categories like Fantasy, Nature, People, Textures, Sci-Fi, and Markings/Blemishes, among others.

Book Ornaments Brushes 3 – A set of 8 vintage book ornament brushes.

In Obscuro – Offers a wide variety of brush collections for everything from photographic elements to grunge to ornaments.

deviantART Brushes – deviantART has a huge collection of Photoshop brushes from a number of artists.

PSBrushes – A huge collection of categorized brushes.

Photoshop Exchange Brushes – The official Photoshop Exchange has more than a thousand brush sets in their collection.

QBrushes – QBrushes includes more than 240 brush collections.

Stuntkid – Stuntkid has a small collection of brush sets.

BlendFu – A site with more than 340 brush collections under categories like “doodle,” “splatters & spills,” and “silhouette.”

BrushKing – This post includes over 300 brush collections.

FBrushes – Currently has more than 5,200 brushes in 280+ collections.

Brushfed – A large selection of brush sets.

Shizoo Brushes – Another site with more than 100 brush sets.

DesignersBrush.com – More than 50 brush sets available.

300+ Vintage Style Textures and Photoshop Brushes – A huge collection of textures and brushes for vintage designs.

Vintage Birds – An awesome collection of vintage-style bird drawing brushes.

500+ Space Brushes for Photoshop – A roundup of space brush collections.

Acquired Taste – Features a large variety of brushes for free download.

50 Free Photoshop Brush Sets for Modern Design Trends – A roundup of brush collections useful to the modern web designer.

Arty.dk – They offer three collections of brushes—Art Birds, Arty Insects, and Arty Stains & Cracks.

75 Insane High Res Photoshop Brushes – A roundup of great high-res brushes from Elite by Design.

MyPhotoshopBrushes.com – They have a huge selection of free brushes.

Fractured Sanity [Dot] Org Brushes – They offer a large collection of categorized brushes for free download.

50 Free Photoshop Brush Sets Your Should Bookmark – A great roundup from Hong Kiat of excellent brush collections.

Bashcorpo Photoshop Brushes – Bashcorpo offers a small collection of unique brushes.

30+ Stunning Photoshop Brushes – A roundup of more than 30 awesome brush sets.

PhatBrush – Includes more than 250 brush collections.

40+ Halloween and Gore Themed Photoshop Brushes – A great roundup of more than 40 brush sets for creating horror and macabre designs.

500ml Brushes – Includes a wide variety of brush sets.

Patterns

Pre-made patterns are another great resource for speeding up your design process. Here are some good examples as well as sites for finding more.

Japanese Style Pattern – A collection of patterns inspired by Japanese paper.

Patterns 2 – A collection of seamless damask Ps patterns.

Floral Patterns 01 – A collection of unique, tiling floral patterns.

Winter Colors – A collection of 39 tiling patterns in cool whites and blues.

Black – White Patterns – A collection of 13 graphic black and white patterns.

Patterns.2 – A collection of two seamless patterns.

Victorian Dreams Pattern Set – A collection of Victorian-inspired patterns.

Obsidian Dawn – They offer a handful of pattern packs.

DesignersBrush.com – A collection of 25 patterns and sets.

The Ultimate Collection of Free Photoshop Patterns – A huge collection from Smashing Magazine.

498 Photoshop Background Patterns, and So Much More – A huge roundup of categorized patterns from AzAkers.

50 Free Photoshop Pattern Sets – A roundup of 50 pattern collections from Emma Alvarez Site.

Squidfingers – A collection of 158 patterns available for free.

Pattern4U – Offers more than 270 patterns in 7 categories.

Kaliber10000—The Pixel Patterns Collection – A collection of hundreds of pixel patterns.

milleseicentopercento – Offers 35 patterns for download.

Citrus Moon Patterns – A categorized collection of patterns.

DinPattern – Another large collection of free patterns.

Brusheezy – Has a few dozen patterns and collections available.

deviantART Patterns – Pattern packs from deviantART, organized by most popular.

Collection of Free Photoshop Pattern Sites – A roundup of sites with free pattern downloads available.

MyPhotoshopBrush.com Patterns – A collection of some really awesome free patterns.

Free Photoshop Patterns – Offers tons of free, tileable patterns.

Fractured Sanity [Dot] Org Patterns – A good-sized collection of free patterns.

Best Photoshop Patterns Ever Seen By Humans – A roundup of excellent patterns.

Plug-Ins, Filters, Actions and Scripts

Actions, filters, plug-ins, and scripts can do more to streamline your design process than just about any other tool available to Photoshop users. They can do everything from automating photo retouching steps to more advanced styling techniques.

deviantART Photoshop Actions – deviantART’s collection of actions for Photoshop, with the most popular first.

Photoshop Exchange Plug-Ins – Find plugins for everything from 3D photo collages to automatic photo retouching.

20 Cool Text Effects atn Files – A collection of Photoshop actions for working with text.

Photoshop Exchange Scripts – More than 80 scripts for automating your workflow are included here.

Photo-Plugins – A collection of Photoshop plugins aimed specifically at photo manipulation and retouching.

A-Z of Free Photoshop Plugins and Filters – A huge resource from Smashing Magazine offering up nearly 100 plugins and filters, plus plugin development resources.

Photoshop Roadmap Plugins – A plugin aggregator that offers up links to plugins from all over the web.

PluginsWorld.com – A huge collection of more than 550 plugins.

Free Photoshop Plug-Ins Collection – This post from Web Resources Depot presents more than 150 free plugins.

Free Photoshop Plugins – Another huge post offering up Photoshop plugins from Tutorial Blog.

Photoshop Actions: 124+ Free Photoshop Actions to Boost Your Designs – Another huge collection of actions to improve your workflow and make your designs better.

Free Adobe Photoshop Actions and Scripts to Download – From About.com, this collection includes scripts and actions for everything from red eye removal to cartoon effects to soft focus effects.

The Ultimate Collection of Photoshop Actions – A huge roundup post from Smashing Magazine of actions to improve your workflow.

400+ Time Saving Photoshop Actions – A great roundup of actions for retouching photos, adding effects, and more.

List of Top 10 Free Photoshop Plugins – A list of some of the most useful plugins available.

25 of the Best FREE Photoshop Plugins and Filters Resource Sites – A great roundup of sites to find plugins and filters.

Free Photoshop/ Elements Filters, Plugins and Resources – A collection of free filters and plugins from desktoppublishing.com.

5 Great Photoshop Actions – A showcase of 5 interesting, fresh Photoshop actions.

Filters and Plugins Free Downloads – A collection of plugins and filters from Richard Rosenman.

PsGalaxy.com Actions – A half dozen Photoshop actions for download.

Custom Shapes

Shapes are another valuable tool, though not as easily found. Here are some great places to start looking.

45+ Sources and Sets of Photoshop Custom Shapes – A great roundup of custom shapes from around the web compiled by Vandelay Design.

Obsidian Dawn – A handful of shape collections.

MyPhotoshopBrushes.com Custom Shapes – Offers a couple dozen free shapes.

30+ Useful Photoshop Custom Shapes Sets – A compilation post from Naldz Graphics.

PsGalaxy.com – A great resource for custom shape collections.

Templates and .PSD Files

Whether you’re looking for completed projects you can dissect and tweak for your own purposes, or just blank template files, the sites below have plenty of downloads available.

Photoshop PSD Files – A collection of 16 PSDs from SolidSnake Designs.

NEW Skateboard Template – A blank skateboard design template.

Photoshop Exchange Templates – More than 600 templates for everything from buttons to t-shirt mockups to login screens and more.

T-Shirt PSD – A great template for t-shirt designers.

Pinboard PSD File Download – A mockup of a pinboard, with pins, polaroids, and other images.

PsDeluxe Photoshop PSD Files – Includes a number of file downloads for objects and other elements.

PSlover.com Renders – A collection of PSD files of individual objects.

110 Ultimate Round-Up of Free Photoshop PSD Files and Resources – A huge roundup of free PSD files available, put together by instantShift.

PSD Freebies – A collection of mostly web design files.

FreePSD.com – A collection of PSD files, mostly for web and graphic design projects.

25 Amazing Free Photoshop PSD Files for Download – A collection of miscellaneous .PSD files for download.

iPhone 3GS PSD Files – Great for creating app mockups, skin mockups, or other artwork with the iPhone 3GS.

JackRebel.com PSD Files – A really great collection of mostly tech-focused PSD files.

deviantART .PSD Files – All the .PSD files on deviantART, sorted by most popular.

18 Places You Can Download High Quality Photoshop (PSD) Files – A roundup of sites offering free PSD files.

PsGalaxy.com – A great collection of PSD files and templates.

PSDfreebee.com – A collection of free PSD files and templates.

Designbum’s Project Source Files – An awesome collection of source files for a variety of projects.

download PSD – A great collection of PSD files, categorized to make it easier to find what you’re looking for.

Photoshop .PSD Files – A collection of files from Lord of Design.

Official PSDs – A community-driven PSD file sharing site.

Design Resource: 15 Sites to Download Free PSD Files – A roundup of sites offering free PSD files from Blogger.am.

PhotoshopCandy Free PSDs – Offers plenty of PSD files for download (they also have a

PSDs for sale section but so far only one file is featured there).

Alterform PSDs – A collection of PSDs of completed projects available for download.

Fractured Sanity [Dot] Org – A small collection of free PSD files for download.

Inspiration

Sometimes you just want to get some inspiration before starting your next Photoshop project. Here are some sites that can help.

17 Photo Manipulations with People – A roundup of manipulated photos feature people.

29 Really Creepy and Creative Photoshopped Self Portraits – If you’re looking for something a little different for your self-portrait—and you’re not afraid to scare the crap out of people—then this post might serve up some great inspiration.

Behance Network Gallery – A gallery of graphic design projects and artwork.

20 Amazing Examples of Conformal Photography. How Do They Do This? – A great collection of conformal (spiral) photos.

PSDTUTS Flickr Pool – A Flickr pool for PSDTUTS readers. Images sometimes show up on the PSDTUTS site.

Graphic-ExchanGE – A blog offering up graphic design inspiration.

Cool Showcase – An online gallery of artwork, including digital illustration and photography.

Before and After Photoshop Pool – A great Flickr pool showing the results of retouching in Photoshop.

21 Really Stunning Photoshopped Photos for Creative Inspiration – A roundup post from SmashingApps.

10 Inspiring Sites to Gain Photoshop Inspiration – A great post from Design Shard offering sites to find Photoshop inspiration.

Blogs, Articles and Other Resources

If you didn’t find what you were looking for above, the resources below might be able to point you in the right direction.

Marcofolio.net – This site has a huge section on their blog dedicated to Photoshop, including tons of posts offering up freebies (mostly textures). Be sure to check out the

Ultimate Photoshop Design Resources post.

Photoshop Toolbox – A great, comprehensive post form DesignM.ag.

22 Fantasy Tutorials and 125 Brushes – This post outlines more than 20 fantasy photo manipulation tutorials along with a number of brush collections for creating them.

Six Revisions: Photoshop – Six Revisions has an awesome Photoshop section on their blog. Don’t miss their

70 Excellent Photoshop Resources post.

Top 84 Photoshop Resource Sites—Toolbox for Designers – A great roundup post form Speckyboy Design Magazine. Be sure to check out their

Photoshop category archive while you’re there.

BittBox Photoshop Category – BittBox has a great selection of Photoshop articles on their blog.

60 Most Wanted Photoshop Tutorials, Brushes, .PSDs and Resources – A great roundup post from Noupe offering up some awesome Photoshop tutorials and resources.

Photoshop Disasters – For great examples of what NOT to do in Photoshop.

Photoshop Toolbox: 80+ Photoshop Tools and Resources – A huge collection of Photoshop resources from Mashable.

50 Photoshop Resources – A collection of fifty sites and pages devoted to Photoshop.

Photoshop Ninja – A huge resource offering tips, tutorials, downloads, and more.

Layers Magazine – Layers cover everything Adobe, with tutorials, reviews, forums, and more.

PhotoshopUserTV – A weekly online TV show dedicated to Photoshop, from the National Association of Photoshop Professionals.

Photoshop Lab – A great site with a blog, reviews, tutorials, tips, and more.

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The set was created by Grant Friedman from Colorburned exclusively for WDD readers.

These brushes are completely free for both personal and commercial use so you can create any type of project with them with no restrictions, with the exception that we do not allow the redistribution of the brushes in any shape or form.

If you’d like to share these brushes with your friends and colleagues, simply refer them to this page so that they can download their copy.

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But we have to understand they’re not entirely at fault.

Put yourself in their shoes: imagine what it’s like opening a Photoshop file (PSD), only to find a jumble of poorly labeled layers and folders, plus a heap of unchecked hidden layers and other half-baked ideas that didn’t make it to fruition.

The following tutorial outlines how to create organized, designer and developer friendly PSD files.

This is in no way the only solution, but hopefully it will encourage better practice in the web design world.

While writing this tutorial, I interviewed several developers who have a lot of experience working with multiple designers.

Their feedback was extremely insightful. I definitely encourage you to also reach out to the developers you work with, to find out if you can do anything to improve your PSD files.

1. Basic Folder Structure

For starters, I keep a PSD file on hand named “Website-Template.psd”.

This file contains the basics of each website, including the grid system, basic folder structure and common dimbroeensions (I use a 1000 by 1440 pixel workspace, with a site width of 960 pixels).

This template eliminates the need to set up a new file for each project.

Let’s take a moment to familiarize ourselves with the basic organization of these folders.

You’ll notice that my default folder structure contains only three core folders: “header,” “content,” and “footer”.

This simple set contains the basic folders that most websites use and gets me started on the right foot by providing an effective organizational platform.

You will notice I’ve labeled all of the folders as simply as possible.

These folders will house a slew of sub-folders. As your design grows, be sure those new folders are labeled just as clearly.

Expanding the “header” folder, you’ll see the organization of sub-folders.

Note that the “navigation” sub-folder is usually the most complex: keeping the developer in mind as you label and create this sub-folder and its contents is important.

One last step before jumping into the design is to group this collection of folders into a parent folder named “wireframes”.

This will help keep the content organized for when we begin designing and coloring. It’s also a good way to distinguish between various pages within the same PSD file.

2. Managing Layers for an Entire Site

When we designers get into a groove, forgoing structure for creativity can be easy. This is when self-discipline has to kick in.

We must force ourselves to take the time to organize the layers we create.

Now that the initial setup is complete, I’ll give an overview of how I group together various elements of a full design.

As you are aware, designing rarely follows a linear path, so please keep in mind that this is only one of perhaps countless solutions.

“If all designers followed a standard procedure of organizing their PSDs [organizing their folders by following a standard set of guidelines], you could easily knock off an hour of development cost, if not more. Not to mention you’d be filling a rift between design and development, cutting back on any wavering from the original design that is common in the development phase”
Matt Sears, Ruby on Rails developer

3. Folder Structure in Detail

We’ll start with an overview of the main body (the content), and finish with the header, because it has an important element (navigation) that needs special attention.

Opening up the content folder, you’ll notice I’ve divided the sub-folders so that the visual layout of the site’s design is reflected in the folder structure.

For example, because the content has a top and bottom section, I’ve labeled them accordingly: “top” and “bottom”.

I’ve also placed all of the background graphics (gradients and other images that will need to be sliced for the HTML) into their own folders.

Now let’s open the “top” folder (a sub-folder of the “content” folder), which contains several common elements, such as a space for text, a space for an image, etc.

Notice the use of yet another sub-structure for additional layers and folders.

Folders have been designated for fonts, images and background graphics (gradients, solid colors, etc.).

Because fonts can be distracting for developers as they sort through a PSD, let’s open the “fonts” folder to see how I’ve organized these.

I based my method on feedback I received from a developer who mentioned that it would be great to be able to click off the fonts to create slices without the text getting in the way.

I’ve taken an extra step and actually given the layer the same name as the font.

This immediately lets the developer know which font to use when coding the HTML.

For more complicated templates, you could create additional folders to specify other fonts and important header fonts.

(Hint: headers are typically labeled H1, H2 and so on in CSS/XHTML terminology, so labeling your header fonts the same way is good practice).

Anything related to fonts should be contained in the “fonts” folder, so that the developer has to make only a single click to remove all fonts and isolate the graphical elements of the site.

It could look something like this:

Always use your intuition and keep your labels simple and obvious.

This technique isn’t about hand-holding the developer; it’s about creating an easy-to-use file that helps everyone in the long run.

The more you distinguish the elements, layers and folders in your design, the smoother things will be in the development phase.

Use this method of organization throughout the entire process, and you’ll be surprised how quickly it becomes second nature.

4. Navigation and Roll-Overs

When setting up your navigation interface — whether you’re using tabs, plain text or something else — you’ll want to indicate to your developer how the tabs should look in specific states.

For example, should a tab change color when the user rolls over it? Is special JavaScript, such as for fading in, needed? The possibilities are endless, so don’t expect the developer to be able to read your mind. Folders go only so far in showing these details.

I encourage you to supplement your PSD with a design brief that gives specific directions on the more complicated and detailed aspects of your design.

Let’s assume the user interface (UI) of our design has a tab structure. Developers tend to use specific terms when referring to the various “states” of a tab (by “state” I mean the various ways in which a tab is displayed to the user).

In my interviews with developers, I found the following terms to be the most consistently used and recognizable.

Please note the image that corresponds to each description, and notice how the folder structure reflects my thought process.

5. Correct Label Your Tabs and Their States

On: The “on” state of a navigation item (in this case, a tab) indicates that its related page is currently being viewed. Typically, it should be the most noticeable.

Off: This state indicates that a tab is clickable but is not currently being viewed or hovered over with the mouse.

Hover: This state shows how the tab appears when the mouse cursor hovers or rolls over an inactive tab. The graphical treatment of this state is often the same as the “on” state, but it should still be given its own folder.

The key is consistency: no matter what you label your tabs, be sure to keep them consistent!

6. A Final Note on Tabs

Opening up one of the sub-folders in the navigation (the “off” folder in the screenshot below), you’ll see that I’ve once again grouped all text in a separate folder.

This is optional, because text is often a part of the graphical makeup of the tab.

If the text will be recreated in HTML, I recommend placing it in a separate folder so that the developer can click it off for easier slicing of the graphic.

7. Finalizing the Files

This strategy may seem a bit obsessive, and paying attention to structure and order when one is caught in the throws of a great design is not easy.

Nevertheless, take the time at the end of a project to organize and label your folders appropriately.

If you have complicated illustrations in your design, try to flatten them into a single well-labeled layer.

If that can’t be done (perhaps because of sophisticated blending methods), try converting the layers to smart objects and then rasterizing them.

Ultimately, the goal is to reduce the layers and folders to the bare minimum, and then label them all as clearly as possible.

8. A Step in the Right Direction

Developers and designers do not always think alike.

Whereas many designers work in a state of creative chaos, developers typically rely on order, structure, and logic.

As we design, a little organization goes a long way towards keeping developers happy.

There is certainly no one right way to organize PSD files, so reach out to your developers and see what you can do to create PSD files that keep everyone sane!

Josh Sears is a writer, illustrator and designer for a slew of web-based projects. He makes his living as Lead Web Designer, Creative Director and Co-Owner of Littlelines.com. You can check out his work here or follow his updates on Twitter.

Do you apply these tips when working with Photoshop?  What other techniques do you use to organize your Photoshop layers?

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While the effects are quite stunning, these images are actually very easy for anyone to produce.

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Have you tried this technique on your panoramic photos? Please share your comments  below, we’d love to hear from you…

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The set was created by Grant Friedman from Colorburned exclusively for WDD readers.

These brushes are completely free for both personal and commercial use so you can create any type of project with them with no restrictions, with the exception that we do not allow the redistribution of the brushes in any shape or form.

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Download 30 Photoshop Brushes ‘Drippy Sprays’ (10.2 MB)

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