Photoshop CS5 now offers the ability to successfully make cut-out masks of complex subjects against busy backgrounds. This isn’t something new as there are a number of third-party plug-ins that have been able to do this type of masking, but this is the first time Photoshop has provided an effective, built-in solution. OK, there was the Extract command (which no longer ships with Photoshop), but this method, using the new improved Refine Edge command works much better. Click here to view the movie.

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This movie extract is from  Adobe Photoshop CS4 for Photographers: The Ultimate Workshop.

Here is an interesting challenge that I was presented with recently. I shot the model shown above for an advertising job and was asked by the client to make sure that the skin tone and nails looked flawless. After they had seen the initial retouch work they also asked if I could clean up the hair outline. At first it looked like this would be impossible to achieve. After all, how on earth can one use the clone stamp or healing brush to tidy up the fine hair strands against a background which consisted of a busy wallpaper pattern? As it turned out, the solution to this problem was staring me in the face!

Please note this video is in Quicktime format. A player can be downloaded from apple.com.

Some image editing habits become so ingrained that it is hard to unlearn them when newer ways come along and make the old favorite methods redundant. An example of this is the subject of setting the output Levels in Photoshop for the print output. For many years Photoshop users were taught to set the output levels for the shadows at a slightly higher value than 0,0,0, even though (as you will read here) it has not been necessary to do so for quite some years now. Then came along Camera Raw and Lightroom and some photographers have been agonizing over how to set the output levels for an image when there is no output levels control in Camera Raw or Lightroom. Hopefully the following article will help shed some light on how Photoshop is still able to manage the output levels for you and why the solution is really a lot simpler than you would think.

This tutorial is all about the relationship between Photoshop Curves and how all non-dissolve, per-channel Photoshop blend modes are equivalent to some kind of curve.
It has often been said that there is always more than one way to achieve an identical result in Photoshop. The trick of course is to work out which method is best for you or which is the most efficient.

Of all the new features in Photoshop CS3, those that stand out for me most are the ones that have been built around the new Align Content feature, engineered by Jeff Chien.

Adobe has posted new white papers and primers available as PDF downloads. The PDFs are available from the Digital Imaging Solutions for Pro Photographers page (scroll to the bottom) and from the More Papers and Primers page.

Press Release: Chicago, IL – April, 7th, 2005 – PixelGenius, the makers of the PhotoKit™ series of Adobe® Photoshop® productivity and workflow plug-ins, announces that by the time Photoshop CS2 ships, they will offer free updates to PhotoKit, PhotoKit Color and PhotoKit Sharpener.

PixelGenius’s product PhotoKit Sharpener was rated “Highly Recommended” in the What Digital Camera Magazine 2004 awards for software in the January 2005 issue. Tied with IView Multimedia Pro, it was bested in the software catagory only by Photoshop CS which was named winner.

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