Photos and article written by our guest poster Prajneet Singh.

The amount of detail that can be found in nature, no human creation can ever match. The beauty, the freshness, the colors of nature, it is all just so amazing; no wonder so many people take up nature photography as a hobby or maybe even a profession.

But with the kind of flora and fauna out there, you are left with a wide variety of subjects to choose from: beautiful landscapes and seascapes, to little flowers and insects, to big cats, to creatures of the air – birds. Bird watching has always been a popular hobby with nature lovers, and with the advent of digital photography, bird photography has turned into a sort of extension of birding. But the fact remains that like other wildlife, birds are a very difficult subject to photograph because: they are hard to spot, harder to get close to, and you have virtually no control over them. In this tutorial I will provide some basic tips for people getting into bird photography and hopefully try and make their birding experience more enjoyable.

Know your subject; Observe; Plan

I personally prefer to emphasize the bird aspect before the photography one because my experience tells me that the better you know your subject, the better your pictures, even if your equipment isn’t as fancy. Whatever birds you wish to shoot, spend some time reading about them, and studying them in the field if possible. This gives you a fairly good idea of where you can find them, how they react to human presence, and the like. Also, if you have a nature park or a zoo, go there for a walk. That will refresh your mind as well as give you an opportunity to know the birds around you. This done, you should plan your shoot according to the time of the day (and the year) when you’ll get a chance to capture the majestic creatures in all their glory.

The Equipment

Lets face it, getting within arm’s reach of ANY bird is close to impossible unless the bird belongs to a very friendly species or is a pet. So to get good pictures of birds, you need a lens that offers you a good zoom range. A 300mm or better would be ideal, but try and get at least a 200mm lens. Also, if you wish to capture birds in flight/taking off/landing, a fast lens with a wide aperture (f/4 or lower) would really help. A tripod is very essential here because you’ll be zooming in towards your subject which highly amplifies camera shake. If you have a camera/lens with Image Stabilization, that’s even better.

Approach Your Subject

Once you have the equipment in hand, and the subject in sight, you need to get close. As a rule of thumb, for any kind of photography, try and get as close to your subject as possible. Problem: You move towards a bird, it flies away. Solution: Be very slow, very cautious, and very patient. If you see the slightest hint of the bird moving away because of your presence, stop right there and let it get used to you. Make absolutely no sudden movements when near a bird. There have been times when after a lot of effort, I got pretty close to a bird and the bird flew off, not because of my being so close but because of the sudden movement of my camera strap falling down from my arm! So make sure that nothing is hanging loose. If the bird still seems uncomfortable, leave. Come back later. Always remember: the bird is more important than the photograph. The same goes for its habitat as well. Disturbing the creature or its environment to take a picture defeats the whole purpose of bird photography. The challenge lies in capturing the bird in its natural environment, and its own character.

To photograph a bird, you need to be like a bird. Birds react very quickly to any movements around them. So, when you’re in range, you need to be ready with your camera and react very quickly lest you should miss your shot. This is where a high speed dSLR with a fast lens will help. So, move slowly, and react quickly.

Aim for the Eye

A picture that is brilliantly framed, with a great subject and wonderful colors, but low sharpness is of no value. On the other hand, a photo that is nothing great in terms of subject, but has decent framing and is sharp, is much better. The key to a good picture is sharpness. When taking pictures of wildlife, especially birds, try and get the eye as sharp as possible, even if you end up getting the feathers slightly less sharp. This is because whenever you look at a photo of an animal, bird or even a person, your attention is automatically directed to the eyes as they display a lot of emotion.

To get the sharpness that you need, try and use a smaller aperture (a higher f number). Most lenses offer sharpest pictures in the range of f/8 – f/11. Also, since you’ll often be shooting in the middle of lots of trees and leaves, use manual focus wherever possible because the camera will find it hard to focus in these conditions. Also, if your camera has RAW support, use it. This way you’ll be able to get more detail in your picture, and make adjustments to white balance and exposure later during post processing.

Capture the Moment

When observing animals and birds, there come moments when you stand there looking, spellbound. The courtship displays of birds of paradise, the mating of Albatross, a Swift feeding its young in mid-air. These are once in a lifetime moments – endeavor to capture them. Of course there are other stunning shots that are easier to capture, like an eagle swooping down on its prey, a hummingbird hovering in mid-air to savor the sweet nectar of a flower. These are moments that make priceless pictures, and these are moments you should try your best to capture.

A couple of other things you should keep in mind when clicking birds are:

• Don’t try too hard to approach nests when there are eggs/young. There is a chance that the bird might abandon the nest.
• When capturing birds in flight, use high shutterspeeds and boost your ISO if needed. Try to take shots from above or eye level.
• Where the background is distracting, use a wider aperture to blur the background. This particularly lends a nice feel if there are leaves/grass in the background, giving it a soft green look.
• Know your camera well, so that you know what settings to use where.

That is it for this tutorial. This should give you a jump start with bird photography. Remember, you will not get instant results. So be patient, keep practicing, and eventually you’ll get there!

Focus is critical, pixels are cheap

If you are shooting wide open, which is at the camera’s largest aperture, your depth of field will be correspondingly shallow.  That means your focus is going to be even more critical than otherwise.  Pick a point that needs to be sharp and really pay attention to keeping that point sharp.  Generally, if you are shooting people, the most important thing to keep sharp is the eyes.  When I am shooting people I focus on the eyes, shoot, re-focus and shoot again …and then do it all over again.  I can’t tell you how much I hate to be editing and find that I have a potentially great shot, but out of focus eyes ruin the picture.  I have found that if I am worried about an image not being sharp, I am usually right.  Pixels are cheap…shoot enough to make sure you have your shot!

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Shooting for stock, know your equipment, know your agency

If you are shooting with a stock agency in mind it is good to know just how high you can push your ISO before you reach the point where the agency is going to reject the image.  That means you have to know both your own equipment and the standards of the agency.  I was once shooting from the interior of a jeep on a mountain road in China.  The scene, road-building equipment clearing a landslide, was lit by the headlights of the cars waiting for the road to be cleared.  I shot the scene, hand held, but braced against the head-rest, at an ISO of 1600 with a Canon 1ds.  Man did I work on that image in post (processing the digital files)!  They accepted it too.  With the newer cameras I have no qualms about shooting at 400, I am comfortable shooting at 800 and don’t think 1600 would really be such a stretch.  But don’t take my word for it… do some testing!

Exposure and more

RAW (the file format native to the camera) has been talked to death, but keep in mind that it is more akin to negative film than transparency film and I personally find that I can safely get another stop to a stop-and-a-half in post-shoot processing.  Shoot RAW, not jpeg! As far as exposure, keep your histogram as far to the right as possible without clipping (going off the edge).  If you loose your highlights (which are on the right hand side of the histogram) you probably can’t get them back.  I guess in that way a digital file is like transparency film.

I am not a big user of on-camera flash, but it can be a real life-saver.  I suggest a good starting point is to set your flash to under expose by two-thirds of a stop.  That can help bring out details without overpowering the image…and looking like you used on-camera flash!  If you do use on-camera flash it is generally a good idea to bounce it or at least put some sort of diffuser over it.

Use movement to your advantage

Another thing to keep in mind is that a little movement in your image isn’t necessarily an image killer. Sometimes you can make it work to your advantage. A year ago I was shooting in the train station in Mumbai, India.  The station is indoors and while it wasn’t exactly gloomy, it still qualifies as low light.  I put the camera over my head as high as I could hold it and fired off a half-dozen frames at an eighth of a second.  I only shot six frames because at that point a machine gun carrying police officer politely but firmly informed me that photography in the train station was forbidden.  That image, in which everything has movement, even the lamp posts, has already sold a number of times as a stock picture with Getty Images (1377).  Sometimes movement can make an image more dynamic and help it convey a mood or message.

Guest post by John Lund Stock

There are a few ways to make money online with Photoshop, but it is only with tutorials that I have noticed that the money is almost guaranteed. In the following article, I will explain how I generate quite a lot of money every month by creating Photoshop tutorials. Of course I make it just because I love photoshop and want to share my knowledge, but it can be a potential passive income channel if you are a webmaster.

The greatest thing about this method is that the income is recurring and will slow down but won’t stop for many months after you put in the work and effort. People will keep linking to you, recommending your website to others and more and more databases will pull your tutorial back to the surface once they notice it. You can just relax, sit back and see the income flowing in. Here is a step-by-step overview of the process.

1. Buy a domain name.
Whatever it is, just be sure to work the term “tutorials” into the domain name and avoid the term “Photoshop” to make sure you won’t run into any copyright issues later and have your domain taken away from you. Many hosts give a free domain with each annual sign u: Dreamhost.com,  HostGator.com and others.. Just check the web for good deals, or any of the hosting comparison websites to make sure you won’t pay much, at least not at first.

2. Create a website to showcase your tutorials.
One of the easiest methods is to download WordPress and set it up with a nice template for showing the new tutorials you create.

3. Create a few tutorials for Photoshop. (doh..)
The tutorial does not have to be super fancy; however, the better and more sophisticated the tutorial, the more traffic you will get. Be sure to also include screen captures to help explain the tutorials for every step. You can see some examples of my tutorials, and traffic they generate, good tutorials receive over 10,000 hits in half a year, and this is just ONE tutorial submitted to ONE tutorials database site!

4. Add Adverts.

This is the most important step, be sure you didn’t skip it. Add your Adsense code inside the body of your tutorial or at the end.
If you are not an Adsense member, then sign up and become one, because this technique works best with Adsense. You can also try this with Affiliates (on PSwish.com I am promoting Lunar Pages — they give a lot of bonuses so it’s easy to make people sign up as well as Text Link Ads, you register free and sell ads, very easy to refer people since they don’t need to pay!), although I have noticed that overall, I have made more income from Adsense than from direct sales so far on this blog. Another alternative would be so sign up to a banner sales website that measures hits, such as BuySellAds.com, which I recently discovered to be very profitable, and having a massive flow of hits can bring you a few good sales.

5. Upload and submit your tutorial.
After creating your tutorial, upload it in WordPress to your website. Get the URL for the tutorial and then submit it to the tutorial submission websites. You can find a fantastic post by toptut.com with a few dozens of high traffic Photoshop Tutorials websites.

After you have done the above 5 steps, just wait for your tutorials to get accepted by the tutorial submission sites. Once they get accepted, your tutorial URL will be featured on their sites as a direct link. You will then begin to get clicks on the Adsense ads. Even with a click-through-rate of about 1% you will still see the revenue flowing in. You may even be shocked to see how much traffic these tutorial submission sites will generate for you!

Good luck!

Most people don’t use Photoshop to its fullest capabilities. Here are just ten uses to which you could put this highly versatile software. Even a simple domestic use of Photoshop in your leisure time can do wonders, and let’s see how..

1. Restoring Old Photographs. Have a look through that old family photo album – the really old one from up in Grandma’s attic. Inside there are probably a few photos from way back when that haven’t stood the test of time so well. They’ve got cracks and tears that really spoil their appearance. Scan them into Photoshop, and then set to work with the Clone Stamp, Healing Brush, and Patch tools. The Healing Brush in particular is a great tool for this purpose as it samples data from one part of the picture and blends it in with what’s already there.

2. Correcting Mistakes. We’ve all done it: Had an attack of “finger over the lens syndrome,” or got too close with the flash, so our subjects suffer from “red eye” and look like extras from a horror movie. Use the crop tool to salvage something usable from your obscured photo, and the enlarge wizard to blow it up to a reasonable size. For “red eye” and “pet eye,” use the eyedropper tool to sample color from around the iris, and a brush to paint away the red.  See also my “Pure Glamor” tutorial.

3. Adding Graphics to Videos. It’s a little known fact, but many domestic and professional nonlinear editing systems (especially the Mac based ones like Avid or Final Cut) enable you to import Photoshop .psd files directly into the timeline.

4. Creating Text Effects for Print and Web. There’s an almost unlimited amount of things you can do with text in Photoshop. Use the Type Mask Tools to create picture filled text, then upload the results to your web page – or print them out for a one of a kind T-shirt.

5. Turning a Photo Into a Work of Art. Everyone likes to have nice things to look at. Most of us like to have pictures on the wall, and something that looks different from what other people have on their walls is a definite plus. Unless you’re blessed with artistic talent, though, this can be very expensive – until now. Use one of Photoshop’s many Artistic or Brush Stroke filters to turn your photos into “new masters,” then print them out on quality art paper. You can see some of my fantasy art tutorials for further reference: “Sleeping Sun“, “Renaissance Canvas“, “Glowing Monsters eyes“, “Mysterious Moonlit“.

6. Designing Web Banners and Buttons. Photoshop comes with a predefined web banner sized canvas. Photoshop’s sister application, Image Ready, comes with several – and lots of tools for animating text and pictures. You can also create interactive buttons that enhance a web browsing experience.

7. Adding Text to Photographs. Impress your boss by putting the company name on the side of an airliner, building, or racing car. Use the Move Tool to skew the text to fit the contours of the picture, adjust the opacity a little, and hey presto! The text will look like it’s always been part of the photo.

8. Combining Pictures, Text, and Graphics to Make Covers for Books, Reports and CDs. Photoshop contains many of the image manipulation capabilities of high-end DTP applications that cost thousands. Use the “Layer via Cut” command to make your title text go behind part of the picture – just like on the cover of “Rolling Stone.”

9. Designing Web Pages. Did you know that Photoshop and Image Ready can turn your photograph or artwork into a web page? Use the slice tool to cut your work into easily downloadable pieces, then the rollover function to embed website URLs.

10. Combining Pictures to Make the Impossible Possible. Come on! You didn’t seriously think that Michael Moore and President George W. Bush really stood hand in hand on the White House lawn for the Fahrenheit 9/11 poster, did you? I don’t know for certain that they used Photoshop to fake that picture, but they certainly could have done. With Photoshop you can remove the background from one picture, take some elements from another, and combine them with the background from a third to create a picture that could never have been taken for real. Who says the camera can’t lie!

Author: Shaun Pearce

The Photoshop program is the leading product of the Adobe Systems Incorporated. Adobe specializes in digital imaging software. In its recent incarnations, the Photoshop application has been merged with other Adobe programs under the Creative Suite enterprise. The most recent version of the Adobe Photoshop is CS3, meaning that it is the third version of Photoshop since it was included in the Creative Suite umbrella of software.

Like most digital imaging applications, Photoshop has several plug-ins/add-ons or additional tools that can be used in creating and editing digital images. Aside from the standard cut, paste, select, draw and color fill tools; additional options and effects can be loaded as well. Once the add-ons and plug-ins are added, they can be used to enhance the creations that can be made using the programs.

Several software programmers and designers have also taken the time and effort to build on the existing Photoshop program to enhance its capabilities. These downloadable plug-ins and add-ons are often available for free from a number of online sources. What’s important is to make sure the program being downloaded as a Photoshop add-on is compatible with the Photoshop program version you already have installed as well as the safety and security of the file.

Most Photoshop add-ons focus on certain functionalities such as layer styles, actions, scripts, brushes, patterns, gradients, frames, textures and displacement maps. These are made to add to Photoshop’s existing library of tools.

One example of a widely available Photoshop download is Harry’s Filters which is a free downloadable add-in that was created by Harald Heim. The latest released version of the application is version 3.01. What the application does is it allows users to create effects for images by using its own menu box separately from Photoshop. The program has 69 filters available and ready for use once it is downloaded to accompany the Adobe Photoshop. The Harry’s Filters program can then be used to create several image effects, particularly some very realistic ones.

Another useful tool to add to Photoshop would be one that removes the red-eye effect in pictures. The red-eye effect happens when light is reflected by a subject’s eye as a photo is being taken. It is one of the most common things that happen when you are taking a picture of a person in the relative darkness.

The program to remove the red-eye effect is called RedEye Pro developed by Andromeda Software. The plug-in removes the redness of the eyes while retaining the original eye color and the shiny and reflective surface of a typical eye. It does the adjustment without making it look as if the eye has been retouched. The RedEye Pro application also works on eyes that are not perfectly circular such as animal eyes. It is available for free download from selected sources.

Do you oftentimes feel confused what to use for your web images– GIFs or JPEGs? And more importantly why? Great. You deserve kudos as confusion leads to comprehension. Here is what you have been looking for all the way! Essentially, they are formats in which web images are created in. Any file with a .jpeg or .gif extension is recognized, by a browser, as an image file. A good web site is partly one that will load quickly into a browser. Agreed? Well, for this to happen, your web page has to be small in file size. The GIF and JPEG file formats compresses images so that it is web worthy.

This is vital for you that you don’t mess around when it comes to decide what to use when. Here’s what you need to know (a subtle reminder and congrats for tech guys who know it)

GIF ( Graphics Interchange Format)

JPEG ( Joint Photographic Experts Group)

• JPEG uses a lossy compression schem. This means that you will, in fact, lose some data during compression. The more you compress, the more quality you lose. You will, therefore, have to strike a right balance between image file size and quality.
• JPEG compression rate can well be controlled . The higher the compression rate, the lower the size of the image. And as you have guessed, eh? The lower the quality.
• JPEG is optimally used for photographic images . The more colors and subtle gradients an image has, the better.
• Browsers take a longer time to display JPEGs.

Demarcating features of JPEG and GIF

One of the worst mistakes (hopefully you won’t make any longer) a web designer can make is to opt the wrong format for a particular type of image. As a thumb rule, for images with few flat colors, choose GIF. Images with lots of colors and gradients, you may go for JPEG.

Simple enough. Here is your turn to appreciate a couple of somewhat tricky tech understanding with regard to JPEG and JIFF’s. Pertaining to JPEG, if the horizontal rows of pixels undergo change frequently without patterns, then a JPEG may allow for a smaller file even if it is having few colors only. For designers if they can save a few kilobytes on each image, it can drastically improve the loading time of image-loaded pages intended for users with slow connections.

Further, though you can have animated GIFs, this is rarely a good idea in terms of design.

There are a few things you can do with GIFs that you can’t do with JPGs. The best way to get the smartest web images and graphics is up to you: technology is at your disposal only to be selectively used for spectacular results. So get going to harness tech understanding! People who work with a Web Design and Development always know these little tricks, now you do also.

Dramatic Effect with False HDR – Photoshop Action

One thing I discovered during my experience with digital photography, is that digital photography is very well suited for the portrait photographer. So why are we the last to jump on the band wagon? Many commercial shooters have known about and mastered the use of digital in their business’s for far longer than the portrait photographer.

My guess is that we’re afraid. Afraid of the learning curve and afraid that the quality just isn’t there unless we spend an ungodly amount of our hard earned cash on some scary looking gigantic array of confusing and awkward, let alone “how am I going to learn how to use this stuff” equipment.

Truth is, you can easily get away with as little as a 3.5 megapixel camera. I know, I used my Canon D30 for the first eight months of my digital journey. That camera created more memories, more sales and more wall portraits that I ever thought imaginable.

Whoa, wait a minute you say, wall hangings? Can’t be!! When I put on my seminars I routinely display many large wall samples for all to see, with some of the older samples I created with the 3.5 megapixel camera; and the reaction I get is usually disbelief. The quality is there. I’ve proven it over and over and I know anyone can replicate the same results. Yes, even with a 3.5 megapixel camera.

You’ve just got be careful, that’s all. We have a collection of images at our studio, even large wall hangings captured with our dinky little D30, and they are “jaw-dropping” stunning. I know other photographers who have had amazing results as well. I know that it works and file size is secondary.

There are many reasons, but I’ll work with the main list. Here they are:

Quality.

The quality of images captured with a high quality lens, properly exposed and well posed is more than enough, even if you shoot JPEGS. Yes, JPEGS. Over 90% of the more than 30-40,000 exposures I put through my camera every year is shot in JPEG mode. Why? Why would anyone in their right mind shoot in such a “low quality” mode? The answer is simple: It works.

I like to compare JPEG’s to shooting with portrait film. It is slightly softer (although not even noticeable to the human eye) and muted, ideal for skin tones, right? Besides, we slap on “softar” filters in front of these outrageously expensive lenses and degrade the image even more. Don’t bother. Shoot with a good lens, in JPEG mode, expose properly, pose and create as usual, and it will all come together. Add any effects later. Look at what else portrait photographers have been doing to their finished images besides purposely degrading the image with “softars”. We retouch the surface of the print, sometimes extensively. We canvas mount. Add texture sprays.Oils. Linen laminates…on and on. My point is simple. Portrait photographers do not need to create the very sharpest, highest resolution images available. If they have in the past, they’ve always degraded the image through these other means. It’s kind of ironic don’t you think? You can still shoot in RAW mode if you wish, but it isn’t really needed.

If we needed the absolute highest quality image at capture we would have all been shooting with Kodachrome 64 or Velvia on a 4?x5 camera. But we don’t. JPEGs work. I have many 30? prints, and even a 70? print, that was captured in JPEG. And they look amazing. Your can too.

Control.

People want their photos fast. We live in a drive-through world and minutes count. In our studio we create a slide presentation for our sessions and we show them to the clients within 20 minutes of every shoot. Clients love it. They get to see the results instantly. If you fight this you’re fighting basic human nature. We want, want, want, and want to see it sooner than later. Sales go up, the client is already in the studio ready to see the images, and ready to spend. Their is ample evidence that when you show the images sooner, and you create large projected images, which is a cinch with digital, sales go up. Digital gives the portrait photographer more control over the sales process, and ultimately it means more profits. For instance, this photo was taken by digital camera :

Retouching.

Let’s face it, people want to look good. What used to take hours and whole lot of aggravation with spray booths, smelly and dangerous lacquers, is now possible with absolute ease. Even when I decided to farm out all my retouching because I had had enough, it still took weeks or months, and huge retouching bills.

Not to mention the loss of control I had over the retouching aspects. It was up to the subjective interpretation of the retouching artist to enhance the images the way I wanted them retouched. Now, with a few basic skills, and all those years of retouching experience all transferred over to the new darkroom, my computer, I can easily retouch to any degree I like. In mere minutes. With absolute astounding results. This ultimately translates to satisfying a basic need that needs to satisfied in our clients, their vanity. They want to look good, and they want it fast.

Innovation. I could go on for days when it comes to what new products, ideas, services, sales processes, packages, etc, etc…I have been able to create because of digital photography. Suffice it to say for now that I am excited and alive again with passion about my photography and about the possibilities. When you apply the power of digital, and get a handle on it in your workflow, you can create new and exciting products like never before.

I’ve seen it and experience it every week in our busy little small-city studio. The proof ultimately boils down to net profits, doesn’t it?

After all, we are in business first, and creative artists second, right? Right? Are you with me on this one? We are in business to make money and survive. We need new and exciting angles, ways to stay afloat, so we can pay our bills, keep the bankers happy and provide for our families. No one can predict will total accuracy how digital photography will ultimately evolve, but my betting dollar is with it all the way. I’m not taking any chances.

Anyone remember when colour film and paper was introduced as a mainstream commodity? I don’t, I was just a wee lad, but I heard stories about the many studio owners closing their doors and packing it in because they didn’t want to keep up with the demand and latest craze that colour film and colour paper had created. Dinosaurs. Every last one of them. Their loss, all because of a thick head and mis-guided egos. Don’t be a dinosaur.

My biggest discovery: Who the true expert is!

Ultimately the true expert in our business is not ourselves, or our peers. The real expert is the client. They open up their hearts and wallets and fork over hard earned cash for the memories we create for them. Do they care if it is shot on a JPEG? In RAW mode? Do they care if we use the biggest, best, strongest, fastest computers and software? Of course not. When you get into your clients head and listen to the conversation that goes on these things are totally irrelevant.

Far more important to her, and to us, is the fundamentals of good photography. In a whirlwind of technological advances nothing seems to ever stay the same. Truth is, the fundamentals of good photography will never change. That’s where is all starts. Master that and you have 99% of your digital photography challenges mastered.

If you use Photoshop then you must be aware of its fine printing capabilities. People create images with Photoshop mostly for web design or printing purposes. Let’s discuss how you can print an image through the Photoshop interface the right way.

When printing through Photoshop there’s one thing you need to be aware of, the dots per inch (dpi). This refers to how many dots per inch of paper, your printer can print. If you want a clearer image then you want more dots per inch. The more dots a printer can print in an inch of paper the better the quality. Printers are clarified according to the dots per inch they print. A printer which prints more dots per inch is generally better and more expensive.

The most commonly used dpi value for image printing is 300 dpi. Meaning that the printer will print 300 dots per inch of paper. That is, if your printer can actually print in that resolution which is very likely, unless you own a really old printer.

You can set the dpi of an image through the Photoshop menu:

Image ? Image Size..? Resolution

In the Resolution input box enter the value you want for your image. Your version of Photoshop might not mention dots per inch but pixels per inch, which is the same thing.

Now let’s talk about the quality of ink for your image. This depends on your printer type. Inkjet printers for example can be cheap and they use jets of ink that they spray on paper. Ink quality is medium. Dye printers are more expensive than Inkjet printers and use a system to melt dots of dye that can generate over 16 million of colors. Ink quality is medium to high. Laser printers are very popular these days and they print in good quality. Ink quality is high. Last but not least there are the Thermal Wax printers that use blocks of wax that melt on the paper.

Now let’s say you want to print an image through Photoshop. Before doing anything else go to:

File ? Print with Preview

A dialog opens. Through that dialog you can set all kinds of properties for your image. For example you can define the position of the image on the piece of paper. You can specify the space you want to be left blank from top or bottom or you can let Photoshop center the image by ticking the “Center Image” check box.

Then you can define the scale of the image, it’s height and width. I use the “Scale to Fit Media” check box a lot, since it lets Photoshop automatically adjust the printable size of the image.

Depending on your image you might want to print on portrait or landscape. You can change that through the “Page Setup…” button on the right of the dialog. A new dialog will appear that also allows you to choose the type and the size of paper you will use for printing.

Well, that’s about it. All you have to do now is click the “Print…” button. Depending on your printer, a dialog will appear that will let you customize printer properties. For example you might want to print three copies of the image or tell the printer to use more or less ink. It’s really easy to print images through Photoshop. I use this software all the time mostly for the “Scale to Fit Media” check box I mentioned above.

If you are eager for more Photoshop and would like to master it, go grab this Photoshop Video Learning System that will show you step by step how to use Photoshop like a pro. The authors of the system claim that they can teach you everything about this popular software in two hours only! There’s also a free report that explains how their learning system works. Check it out.

Have an object with edges you want to isolate? This is one way to use the Background Eraser tool.

The Magic Eraser is often used to blast large areas that contain unwanted pixels. It certainly can be effective if you want to get fast results, but it is less than subtle. This works well when you want to eliminate big areas of color that you don’t need. It is not always as useful when you are working with areas that are more intricate. This is one of the reasons that Photoshop is so great. This program provides the user with lots of selection tool choices. Each tool has its own options that can be customized.

Now, there are some kinds of selection jobs that work better with the Background Eraser than with the actual Magic Eraser. The Background Eraser is more versatile and gives you greater control over some of the more difficult tasks. For instance, if you are selecting intricately shaped objects, the Background Eraser may be the tool for the job. Let’s say you want to isolate your image in your picture by removing the sky. The sky consists of edges that may prove difficult to work with. Remove the sky along with the detailed edges using the Background Eraser tool. Some selection tools would not be able to handle the job because of the position of the crenelations and the arches of the towers. This makes it very tricky when you want to try to remove the sky that is hidden among all of that other stuff.

Here is the way that you can work with the Background Eraser tool to accomplish the above task. You can cut out the complex shapes easily using the Background Eraser. Now you may need to spend a little time fiddling with the options to get the most use of the tool when you are working on a complex project such as this one.

Begin by selecting the tool from the toolbox and in the options bar you will want to set the Sampling option to Once. Sample a section of the blue sky by clicking and the background swatch icon will change color.

This lets you know the pixels that are headed for deletion. If you hold the mouse button down and spray the eraser’s brush around the image you will be able to get rid of all the pixels of the same color.

Pixels of other colors will not be removed as you spray around the edge of the building. If you want the best results you can tweak the Tolerance setting. This is just one of many things you can learn when discovering the Photoshop tutorials for beginners, good luck!

Always Streamline and organize your Layers palette by creating and labeling groups of related layers. Layers are powerful tools, but things can get confusing if you don’t keep them under control by labelling them and placing them in sets.

When layers appeared back in version 2 of Photoshop, designers wondered how they had ever managed without the facility to create artwork on multiple editable layers. Although we now take layers for granted, there are some useful management options that many users may not be taking advantage of. Working smarter with layers means labelling them for a start; this saves you having to scroll up and down the Layers palette, trying to guess where a particular element is stored.

Grouping related layers into sets, and colour-coding them, will help you to further streamline your workflow.

Creating Layer sets:

To quickly create a layer set, click on the chain icon link a group of related layers together. Open the Layers Palette menu and choose New Set From Linked. Layer sets can be opened for editing purposes and then collapsed to display a single folder icon, saving valuable screen space. Another way to create a layer set from linked layers is to click the Create a new set icon at the foot of the palette. When you create a new layer, colour-code and label it for easier access.

You can easily remove and reorganize layer sets. Right-click on a set’s icon to delete the set while retaining the individual layers.
Quick tip: if you are working on a project and you are working in minimized mode, this will help you not to cullter your workspace and helps keep all the layers out of sight, but immediately accessible.