If the landscape photos you’re working with aren’t quite what you need, supplement nature with Adobe Photoshop. You can combine elements from two different photos and create a new image that’s perfectly suited for your particular project. In this tutorial, you’ll learn how to combine the middle ground and foreground of one picture (number 1 […]

Photoshop CS5 introduced the Puppet Warp tool. This useful new tool lets you set “pins” that act like joints. Moving one pin moves the pixels around it in relation to the other placed pins — imagine lifting the hand of a marionette with a string attached to the hand at one end and a bar […]

Why should we limit the fun in Adobe Photoshop to the digital world? You can combine old-school art with digital darkroom techniques to create Photoshop brushes for painting and masking. By painting on actual paper first, you’ll create original Photoshop brushes that look more authentic than purely digital art. Then you’ll vary size, angle, and […]

The makers of the Fanta soft drink are running a multi-part ad campaign that uses an interesting effect that’s very easy to achieve: The white stroke both makes the photos of the women stand out from the background while also tying them into other elements of the design. In this Photoshop tutorial, which works in […]

In my article “Add Energy and Interest with Layered Images,” I showed you how to mimic the look of online advertisements for the SoCo Music Experience, a music festival sponsored by Southern Comfort. In this tutorial, we’ll tackle another real-world example: promotional materials for the Beatles Rock Band game. Using Adobe Illustrator, you’ll learn how […]

You can’t always work with perfect photos. But with a few ingenious Photoshop techniques, you can turn so-so into something really special. In this tutorial, you’ll learn how to add effects to a mediocre snapshot and combine it with a free public-domain photo. The end result is a design that boasts a rugged Western style. […]

Using Adobe Illustrator and Adobe Photoshop together to create masked patterns takes a little time but no money, and with this tutorial, you’ll quickly learn all you need to know to take your images beyond the same-old same-old. First, I’ll show you how to create repeating patterns with various shapes in Illustrator, then combine them […]

When you post a photo online — for example, on a portfolio site — you’re taking the risk that unscrupulous people will steal the file and use it without your permission, and maybe even claim the photo as their own. Watermarks are one way to protect or at least brand your online images. While adding […]

When you mix photos and text, it’s most common for the text to be on top of the photo. But if you want to really get noticed, make an image sandwich, with part of the photo behind the text and another part of the photo in front of the text. This simple yet effective technique […]

In Part 1 of this series, you installed and set up a WordPress blog, then created or edited a blog page and post. In this second and final series installment, you’ll learn about adjusting the settings; adding and activating plug-ins; themes; widgets; and editing templates and stylesheets. Step 1 Part of fine-tuning your site is […]