drop shadow

Martini Hour 093, In Which We Release You From Your Bad Photoshop Habits

Submitted by colleen on 2 December 2010 - 12:15am.

Stop it people. (Don't stop listening to Martini Hour, there are so precious few left. But do stop doing these things that you don't need to do in Photoshop.) Whether it be laziness, or convention, or excitement over tools or techniques to the point of employing them past all earthly reason, this week's show comprises a list of bad habits that Deke and I have collected in our travels (and Deke admits to having occasionally collected based on personal experience). Inspired by this blog post of things photographers can stop shooting already (sunsets, homeless dudes, . . .) we delightfully discuss our candidates for the things you are free stop doing in Photoshop. With our blessings. Not to mention, our insistence. 

Martini Hour 093: The Photoshop Bad Habits Show

Here is our list of "don't do"s: Read more » 

. Tagged with:

Remember the Sun?

Submitted by deke on 29 June 2010 - 12:15am.

After a long day of recording Martini Hours, my sidekick Colleen and I were sitting on the balcony of my hotel room in Pacifica, California, watching the sunset. In fact, here's that very sunset, as captured with my Olympus E-30.

Sunset over Pacifica

And we noticed a few things: Read more » 

. Tagged with:

Blurring Live Text with a Drop Shadow

Submitted by deke on 15 July 2008 - 12:01am.

I realize I owe you lovers of the graphic arts a Part 2 to my Illustrator Transparency, Photoshop Resolve article. (If that sounds familiar, it's because I copied and pasted that sentence from last week.) But given that not a single person has expressed a problem with my delaying Part 2 -- which makes me cry real, actual, enormous crocodile tears (below) -- I'm guessing you're okay waiting.

In the meantime, I discovered something quite by chance today that made me geek out and do the d'oh, slap-my-head, I-can't-believe-I-never-figured-that-out-before thing.

Here's the idea: Photoshop does not let you blur live text. Well, all right, that's a lie. Photoshop does let you blur live text if you first convert the text to a smart object. But that's a Big Italicized If. Converting text to a smart object restricts your access to it and requires you to edit the text in a separate window, which is an increduloppus painoloopamus in the hippopotamus. Read more » 

. Tagged with: