A blast from the past with some logo inspiration from the hazy days of the 1970's.

It's no secret that Photoshop CS4 is in the pipeline but someone has leaked what looks to be an internal copy of the latest version. Codenamed Stonehenge!

Wordpress plugin for creative commons images

Anyone that runs a blog will tell you that getting photographs to add to a blog post is a bit of a hit and miss affair. A new plugin for Wordpress is about to change all of that for good.

Tinting a photo in Photoshop

Ask 10 seasoned Photoshop users to tell you how to tint a black and white photograph and you will get 10 different answers. Each and every one will have merits and there is no best way to do it. It all depends on what the subject of the photograph is, and what personal tastes you have regarding the amount of tint to apply.  A recent  booklet I received as part of my NAPP membership has a nice tint formula that I found I liked straight away so I thought I would share it with you.

Fake Tibetan Antelope Photo

Some clever detective work by internet users has resulted in the resignation of the chief editor of a Chinese newspaper.

Turning your photograph into a postage stamp with Photoshop can be a bit fiddly. Most of the techniques and tutorials I have come across involve opening up the brush preset options, setting the spacing on the brush, creating a path, stroking the path .... A little too much work for something that can be done very quickly.

Life doesn't have to be this hard and a Free Photoshop action will accomplish the task in one simple step.

Vintage style in photoshop

This tutorial on how to create a vintage effect in Photoshop takes less than one minute. There are no awkward instructions to follow as it is all accomplished thanks to a wonderful Free Photoshop action.

Free Photoshop Gradients

Photoshop Gradients are a great way to create Web 2.0 style icons and logos. Although it is easy enough to create your own gradients in Photoshop, why re-invent the wheel, when a great collection of Free Gradients for Web 2.0 is already available.

Over on Scott Kelby's blog is the news that the recently launched Kelby Training website now has 2,200 subscribers. This far exceeds the 300 to 500 that had been expected. I am not surprised to hear the subscriber base has reached such a number and here are the reasons.

1. Laser sharp focus. There are plenty of online video training sites out there which cover everything from blogging to crochet skills (only joking about crochet skills). Most of them have plenty of Photoshop courses, but they don't have the same focus that Kelby Training does. The site has one mission and that is "To be THE very best at helping photographers of all levels get the most from their use of Photoshop". There are a few non-photoshop courses in there as well which add to the mix and round out the offering. Kelby Training has focused on a niche to great effect.

2. The tutor line up. Don't really need to say much more about this other than A-LIST... I signed up for Fay Sirkis' "Paint Like a Master" and for Katrin Eismann's "Colour to Black and White Artistry". Scott is there also along with other great names such as Matt Kloskowski, Dave Cross, Bert Monroy, Terry White, Eddie Tapp (legends all!). You just can't get better than this.

3. Video quality/site accessibility and user friendliness. I've been blown away by the quality of the videos on the site. More than that is the way it all integrates nicely with links to additional resources and files based on what video you are playing at the time. Click on the Lesson file and play the video and another panel of the interface provides you with links to necessary files to work along with the instructions. This is a very nice touch.

4. Price. The price is $199 a year ($179 for NAPP members) or $19.99 a month ($17.99) for NAPP members. This compares favourably with other offering out there.

Don't take my word for it (or the 2,200 exisiting subscribers) - check it out for yourself and take advantage of the generous trial run. You can access the first 3 lessons of EVERY course on offer for FREE. Can't say fairer than that, can you?

http://www.kelbytraining.com/online/free-trial.html

There are 9 million bicycles in Beijing, that's a fact... So sang Katie Melua and the words of this song could well be changed to "There are 9 million ways to enhance your photographs in Photoshop". It's not far off the truth, and you can replicate pretty much any effect you like using the built in tools in Photoshop but there are hundreds of plugins that make life a little easier for you. With some of those plugins costing up to $300, this absolute gem of a plugin offers fantastic enhancements for your photographs at zero cost. Yes, a free photoshop plugin is what we're talkin' bout here.