Photoshopping My Way to Fame

Hello again my cyber friends and happy Friday the 13th (my favorite day of the year)! Oh! And after you're done reading my blog, you should go feed my fish at the bottom of the screen...pretty cool, huh? :) Anyway, recently in class we have been learning the basics of Photoshop and Dreamweaver. I've worked a little with Photoshop last quarter and basically self-taught myself. I created a poster and logo for a non-profit organization community event. It was a lot of work seeing as I had NEVER worked with the program before - let's just say, the Help button became my new best friend.

After learning some of the basic tricks and tips in class this quarter, I've actually learned some extremely helpful stuff that would have made my life so much easier last quarter. I'm pretty excited to start piecing together my website in the next couple of weeks. So, one of the biggest tricks about Photoshop that I learned in class was the magic wand tool. (Also, to aid me in class I found the website Photoshop Tool Basics at http://www.photoshoplab.com/photoshop-tool-basics.html which has a list of the basic tools on the left side that tells you which tool does what.) Okay, so the magic wand tool allows you to select sections that you want to delete without having to meticulously outline the images you want (hopefully that makes sense to you...) Also, I learned that in order to create a logo that "floats" (or has no background) you have to select the transparent button when creating a new page in Photoshop.

Knowing these two tricks has dramatically helped me in creating my website logo and homepage. Along with the tool basics website, I have also consulted the website Learn Photoshop: All of the Basics for Beginners (http://vandelaydesign.com/blog/design/learn-photoshop-basics/). This website has everything I need to know in order to get started. Now, neither site has specific details on how to do all the cool fonts and picture morphing, but they do have the essential tools I need in order to at least start my own site. The really cool thing about our time is that we have access to video tutorials on literally anything we could ever imagine. I mean, if you need help changing your battery in your 1998 Volkswagen Jetta, there is a tutorial for that (I know this because my roommate needed help changing her battery). So, I have been consulting YouTube's large selection of Photoshop tutorials in order to walk me through specific things I am struggling with.

I liked this tutorial because it shows you how to combine/morph two photos together. This is helpful because I have been thinking of putting two of my own images together, but wasn't quite sure how to do it. This video explained exactly how.

(Found at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tY2BBtPYips&feature=relmfu)

This video is helpful because aside from reading where all the buttons are, this video actually shows you and explains what they do. It's nice having someone slowly walk through where things are and how to manipulate images/text. It's just another jumping off point to get me started with my own site.

(Found at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SafSh_u1FF0)