The folks over at PhotoshopTalent.com and TutCast.com show how to use distort and displace in Photoshop to add realistic texture to an image. In this case, the demonstration uses a flat flag image, and adds a nice dynamic flowing look.
David Appleyard of AppStorm has rounded up his favorite 50 Mac applications for digital photographers. The list includes a range from free open source applications, up through some fairly expensive industry standard apps. If you are looking to explore more post production with your images, this is a great place to start exploring available applications.
Tags: Applications, digital photography, Free, HDR, NEF, open source, Programs, RAW, roundup
Having a variety of brushes in Photoshop gives you more options, and having them very high resolution will allow you to create designs that can be printed and used in large format. Here are 75 collections of free brushes for you to choose from!
Tags: Brushes, creative inspiration, CS3, CS4, Design, High Rez, Photoshop, Resolution
Here are 10 bits of code that you can include in your PHP development to do some cool stuff. Why program it from scratch when you can use these?!
Tags: code, PHP, programming, Web Development
Chase Jarvis does it again, explaining how he executes a high speed photography production with post production composting to produce magical results.
Tags: Chase Jarvis, Compositing, High speed photography, Photoshop
Would you like to include a web-based tracking solution for your next project that can report your GPS coordinates from your cell phone? Do you want to do it for free? Here’s a great solution.
InstaMapper is a free application that you install on your phone, which continuously sends your GPS coordinates to their website, where they use the Google Maps API to generate a real time map of your location. You can choose the refresh rate to balance accuracy with battery life in your phone.
This would be a great tool for someone who might be doing something like bicycle across the country to raise awareness of lung cancer and to encourage followers to quit smoking. Whats more, they even have a Facebook app to embed the animated mapping software in your facebook account.
Tags: Facebook app, Free, Google Maps API, GPS, tracking
http://www.tutorial9.net/resources/250-free-hi-res-splatter-paint-watercolor-photoshop-brushes/
Don’t have the time to buy the right materials and create your own traditional-style-painting Photoshop Brushes? Maybe you just don’t know where to start? No worries - we’ve found nearly 250 of the best Splatter, Paint, Spray, and Watercolor brushes that we think you’ll love!
http://designreviver.com/freebies/400-time-saving-photoshop-actions/
Photoshop Actions are extremely useful in both saving time as well as learning new features that you may not know. They can be used to help standardize your final project better, cut down on repetitive tasks, and to assist you in a bit of creative inspiration. We have collected a handful of great (and free) downloadable PS Actions in this article and also included a nice tutorial on creating your own Actions.
Are you familiar with iStockPhoto.com, a popular website for buying and selling stock photography? iStockPhoto also has a”Steel Cage Battle” section to their forums, where designers battle it out over several days. As part of the rules, designers must incorporate portions of the opponent’s most recent design into their next visual attack. (For an example of a steel cage battle, check out these images, created by the MPC’s Brian Palmer and Instructional Technologist Nick Smerker. Images also shown below)
Now for the point of this post… iStockPhoto is getting ready to hold it’s yearly Battle Royal. This is 85 days of design battles, head to head with other designers, until only one designer remains. First prize? $5000.00!
How can you get involved? If you don’t already have a free account with iStockPhoto, go get one. Don’t waste time, because I think there is a day or two waiting period before you can post to the forums (to help prevent spamming the forums), and the Battle Royal is part of the forums. Better yet, if you email me, I can “invite you”, which will get you 3 free credits for downloading stock images, video, audio, flash, and vector images.
The battle begins this Thursday, July 17th, and runs for 85 days. So even if you just wanted to follow along with the design mayhem, that would be fun too. You’ll be seeing some of the world’s best designers in action, always good inspiration for your next Photoshop project.
Have fun, and good luck!
Images from the battle between Nick Smerker and Brian Palmer:
Round one:
Nick’s first attack:
Brian’s response:
Round two:
Nick’s response:
Brian’s response:
Tags: Battle Royal, design competition, iStockPhoto, Photoshop, Steel Cage Battle
Here are several Photoshop tutorials to produce some amazing effects. Enjoy!
Tags: Adobe Photoshop Tutorials, Digital Imaging, Effects, Photography, retouching