Level: Intermediate (useful for advanced users) Description: This is a tutorial on how to minimize printing anomalies like banding and odd color variations. Incidentaly, this tutorial covers some photo correction technique which can be very usefull for adding detail back to images. Photoshop Version: CS2 (Can apply to Earlier versions up to Photoshop 7) Tutorial: I have come upon a technique for reducing printer anomalies (Banding, color patches and ghosting) that is really quite simple. When I say “banding” I mean where you visibly see color changes in a gradient or image as you can see here: When I say “ghosting” I mean areas of light color around dark color areas which shows up when printing but not on screen. An example is shown here: The main technique is to add enough noise. Adding noise to a gradient will reduce printer banding. This is also true for areas of solid color — adding a bit of noise can make the color print very even. When it...

Level: Intermediate (useful for advanced users) Description: Have you ever tried to cut an image out of it’s background using Photoshop only to be dissapointed in the fact that it does no look good in its new background? This is one way to do photoshop masking. Here I go over 3 simple steps to make your cutout more realistic. This lesson was created for lower level users as well as advanced users. The technique used here to make the first selection is only used to keep the learning gradient easy. Advanced users would replace the selection steps shown below with what they know of with regard to making a selection. Photoshop Version: CS2 (Can apply to Earlier versions up to Photoshop 7) How to: First select the polygonal lasso tool. Click and drag around the outside of the image you want to cutout.    Next use the lasso tool to cutout the inside parts of the image. You do this by holding [Alt/Option] and click with the lasso, then continue until you have covered the part you...

  Master the Photoshop toolbox. Begin by knowing the basics. I am writing this tutorial to try to provide an easy way to get familiar with the Photoshop toolbox without overwhelming you with technobable. Level: Intermediate Photoshop Version: CS2 (Can apply to Earlier versions up to Photoshop 7) How to: This is a multi-part tutorial on the Photoshop toolbox. I was trying to think of what the most important thing to know in Photoshop and, I didn’t really come up with anything, but it made me think of the toolbox as the solid base for learning photoshop for real.  There are those that say they “know photoshop” but are they pro, can they move really fast and do what they want to do? Well, learning the toolbox is a great start to becoming a Photoshop speed demon. First of all is: What is the toolbox? The toolbox is the window that contains the buttons that control what your mouse does, it also contains the buttons most used when working in photoshop. I will now list and...