Awesome Photoshop Fridge Magnets via ThinkGeek

When you have paying clients they will often ask for amends and if you plan ahead, you can make life a lot easier for yourself. All of the editing you perform in photoshop should always be non destructive.

What does this actually mean?

It basically means that any adjustments or changes you make in photoshop never permanently alter the original image file. You should be able to easily re-adjust the changes without any problems.
Think about this for a second, if you were to continuously edit the original image you really back yourself into a corner. If you make changes that you’re later unhappy with, you’ll wanna be able to go back and start over. But if you overwrite the original file it’s lost forever and you won’t be able to. Now this is a fairly simple concept to grasp for most people, but non destructive editing means a lot more than just keeping a copy of the original image on it’s own layer.

Any adjustments you make to brightness/contrast/hue/colour/saturation or anything else, should never be applied directly to the original image if you can help it. This includes any filters you may want to use or any erasing that needs to be done. It can all be done in a way that remains editable at all times. By taking the time to learn about Adjustment Layers, Smart Objects, Smart Filters and Layer Masks you’ll have a lot more control over your images.

Don’t worry, it’s easier than it sounds.

When I started writing this blog, I figured it would be quite a nice idea to pass on some of the stuff I’ve picked up along the way.

However, I haven’t updated the blog in quite a while. This is mainly due to the fact that I’ve become somewhat disillusioned with the world of educational blogging.

It’s really easy to get hold of a copy of photoshop these days and it seems that everybody wants to show you how to use it. I first started this blog because I felt like I had quite a lot of really good advice to offer. Trouble is, so does everybody else. So how will you, the casual reader know if my advice is worth taking or not?

See, I’ve discovered that the internet can be a hotbed of misinformation. There are so many people out there that think they are qualified to teach others. On the one hand they should be applauded for their effort and some people really seem to appreciate their tutorials. But on the the other hand I’ve seen a lot of people share their bad habits and poor techniques. They post poorly constructed and poorly executed videos bumbling their way through techniques that they really haven’t got to grips with yet. Can beginners learn anything from beginners?

I’ve seen my fair share of tutorials and I’ve spent a long time learning various techniques and discovering professional working practices and I’m at a stage now where I can see when someone is teaching something that demonstrates a basic lack of knowledge and understanding. But how can a beginner determine a good tutorial from a not so good one? How can they tell which techniques are best? How can they tell if the advice being offered is valuable or amateurish? How will they choose what information to absorb and what to disregard?

Well, chances are they won’t. They’ll read through and follow tutorials with blind faith and enthusiasm and for the most part won’t realise the bad habits they could be picking up along the way.

So what can I do to stand out in the crowd and be noticed? How will anybody know that my blog is worth reading? If the techniques and advice I offer are any better than anyone else’s?

Well, I had an idea…

I never really liked the idea of step by step tutorials, they seem so rigid and structured. Different images require a different approach. I’ve always preferred the idea of general tips, tricks and techniques and I figured the best way to show really good techniques…

Is to show really bad ones.

If I start out by showing you the way I’ve seen some people demonstrating certain techniques and then explain a much better way, hopefully you’ll understand exactly why it’s better to do things a certain way.

Saying you can spot something that’s been ‘photoshopped’ seems to imply some sort of failure with the program, when in fact the outcome of an image is actually wholly dependent upon the person using the program.

Adobe Photoshop is after all, just a program. An amazingly versatile, professional, industry standard program, no doubt. But a program just the same. It doesn’t actually do anything by itself. There’s no magic involved. Just a lot of hard work, passion and talent. Photoshop is just a tool. Much the same way that a paintbrush is just a tool. It can make a huge difference who’s wielding it. 
A bad painting doesn’t imply a bad paintbrush does it?

Of course the most successful work produced using photoshop will usually go unnoticed, but I guess that’s the true indication of success. That’s when you know you must be doing something right. My goal is to use photoshop to the extent of it’s abilities, or at least the extent of mine and create a little magic along the way.

I’m not too sure what specifically I’m going to write about here or how it will develop and evolve over time, but it should be interesting. If nothing else, it will eventually serve as a useful resource for me; full of tips and tricks and detailed accounts of any new techniques that I learn along the way. I’ll include links to anything that I find interesting or relevant, I’ll probably include some examples and screen shots and stuff. Hopefully in time, other people will find it useful as well.

So let’s get started shall we?