FREE Photoshop Express Online!

For the past few years I have heard of the ADOBE guys working on a FREE online version of their most popular software, Photoshop.

Today, finally, there is news of the release.

https://www.photoshop.com/express

This online version gives you the most basic of tools. You’ve all been acquainted with the massive variety of tools that CS3 has to offer so I don’t know how this online tool will impress you. It is completely FREE. If you register, you get a 2GB storage space, tools like crop and rotate, also tint and distort, among a few others are available in this version. If you don’t wish to register you can still take the program for a test drive. No installation needed, only an updated version of your Flash Player that is installed on your browser.

Click the image bellow for a screenshot view:

Take the test drive today!

…long overdue posting.

WEDNESDAY MARCH 26TH, 2008

First let me post our coming work. Since we’ve got just weeks before the end of our school year, the deadline for these projects is set for your last week of school.

Project #7 – Art Show Project:
You decided the size on this project. We’ve talked about the time you have available and the limitations the computer might have if you go too big. So I recommend a size of about 8×10 for your project. The DPIs have to be at 300. We agreed in class that this project will be presented in SESO’s 2008 Art Exhibit, April 9th. The design will need any filter or style that replicates the texture of a painting. On the technical side I want at least 5 layers for this project and it must be turned in either the 7th or 8th of April, printed and framed.

Project #8 – “Scanner Darkly” Project:
I want this project to resemble the 2006 movie Scanner Darkly. You may use one layer, or several to make your design. The most important part of this project is that the image must not come from the internet. You must supply the picture. It will be at a resolution of 800×600 and at 300DPI.

Project #9 – Tattoo Project:
You will use pictures taken by you and paste them onto your skin. The idea is to give yourself a tattoo. Anything from the neck up, from your shoulders down to your hands and from the knees down to your feet are allowed. Anything outside of these areas will not be allowed. This is an 800×600 size project at 300DPI.

Project #10 Surreal Project:
This project will be a little bigger. A resolution of 1024×768 and 300DPI is required. I think this is going to be a beautiful project. If you’ve taken the time to learn about Surrealism Art you know exactly what I’m talking about. Salvador Dalí, one of my favorite artist, is an example of one of the greatest surrealism artists that ever lived. I encourage all of you to find more information about this type of art and the artists that keep it alive.

Project #11 Drawing Project:
You will provide a hand drawn image, or images to be scanned. Once you’ve gotten the image or images onto Photoshop it is up to you to color it, modify it or alter it in any way you please. The size should be 800×600 and a resolution of 300DPI. No other images will be allowed in this design. Only hand drawn images.

REMINDER: You have a Pop Quiz coming up, also your Second Written Test and you will have to make a Presentation of one of your projects talking to the class about what tools you used, the inspiration for the project and the style.

With all of this said, I hope that all of you enjoyed this year’s Photoshop Class. It has been extremely fun for me to have done this a second year and I hope I will have the chance for many more.

Good Luck to you all, and remember to enjoy your work.

Another Tutorial Page.

I came across psdtuts.com and was very impressed with a lot of the tutorials they have there. Hopefully you guys will enjoy their work.

About PSDTUTS.COM

PSDTUTS is a blog/photoshop site made to house and showcase some of the best Photoshop tutorials around. We publish tutorials that not only produce great graphics and effects, but explain in a friendly, approachable manner.

New Projects for March.

• Project #5 is going to be our Post Card Project. Create a traditional, vintage, or your own style postcard using you own images in conjunction with images found on the internet.

Size – 5inch x 4inch @ 300DPI – 1 PSD + 1 JPG

• Project #6 is going to be a Movie Poster. Be the star of your own movie, or in one of your favorite. Pick your co-stars and crew. Use your own images in conjunction with images found on the internet.

Size – 8inch x 10inch @ 300DPI – 1 PSD + 1 JPG

These two projects have a deadline for Tuesday, March 11th, 2008.

• Project Alpha is something we’ll all enjoy. This project will be worth 15Points for everyone who participates. We discussed in class about the popular Photoshop Tennis. If you take the time to browse the internet looking for pages related to Photoshop Tennis you will see this description that somewhat describes what goes on in he game.

Photoshop tennis is a game played through sequential alternating photoshopping of an image. It is generally played with two players, though doubles matches, as in the sport tennis, or other multiplayer matches are theoretically possible. The players pick a starting image, or one is “served” by a player, then another player makes some sort of alteration to the image in any graphics manipulation package that they like. He or she then sends that altered image to the other player or players, usually via email or by posting the image to a Photoshop tennis forum, who then edits that image and sends it back to the first player. This process goes back and forth until a predetermined number of rounds have elapsed, or the players otherwise wish to end the game. When the final round is over, there may be an independent judge who determines who has played the best shots, and declares that person the winner, or players may play without a clear winner. Sometimes extra rules can be enforced, such as sticking to a particular software package, or keeping to a particular theme. Posts have been known to be deleted by moderators even though the “Vote” option has been turned off. Photoshop tennis was invented by Jim Coudal.

In our case the game will be played in a multiplayer arena. Everyone will have a chance to participate and make their own changes. It will stay as a PSD file; we will not compress the image to a JPG. When it’s your turn give the layers your name. There will not be a limit in how many layer you can add, but you need to at least add 2 layers. A pen drive containing the starting image will be handed off to the first contestant; all changes will be saved onto that original file. Every time a contestant is done making changes a name will be picked out of a hat and the pen drive is handed over to the next contestant that has been picked. This project does not have a deadline, it will go on until the last person finishes and turns in the final product.

Size – 800×600 @ 300DPI – 1 PSD

Good luck to you all, and enjoy the work.

Important dates for February.

Greetings everyone!

During this month we’ll have our first written exam. FEBRUARY 28TH, 2008 you will be tested on the tools you have been using in the past few months and keyboard shortcuts. All of this information is on the papers I gave out the first week of class. The documents are posted on this page for you to download just in case you happen to misplace the papers.

Also, I will present to you two more projects next week, but I’ll live it as a surprise for when you get back from taking your Senior Pictures.

The Family Fair Project and the “Talking you myself” Project are due FEBRUARY 22nd, 2008.<-Feb 25th, 2008.

We’ve been doing a lot of work in class and with your first few projects turned in and graded I have to say I’m very happy with the progress you have all made.

Good luck to you all, and enjoy the work.

2 NEW PROJECTS

Project #3

I’d like to start talking about the FAMILY FAIR Project first. This project already has a deadline. By the end of this month your design has to be printed out, framed, and ready to exhibit. What are the specifications?

• 1 PSD || 8×10 RES || 300DPI

• 1 JPG || 8×10 RES || 300DPI

The project consists of LANDSCAPES. Local landscapes would be best. I’d like this project to be very “earthy”. Have it be very natural looking with lots of panoramic shots. And, YES, you will be taking the pictures. No internet pictures this time.

It is required of you to have this work printed out. I will suggest some great places that make quality prints at a low price. Once you have th prints done it would be best to frame the image so it can be exhibited in SESO’s 2008 FAMILY FAIR.

Project #4

This is a project I’m calling TALKING TO YOURSELF. The image will consist of 2 or more images of yourself, combined to look like your having a conversation with yourself. The idea is to make a story board, but I am perfectly happy with at least one image. If you decide to take on the challenge of creating the story board, it would be a max of 3 frames. What are the specifications?

• 1 PSD || 800×600 RES || 300DPI

• 1 JPG || 800×600 RES || 300DPI

The Story board, would be a little different.
What are the specifications?

• 1 PSD || 2400×600 RES || 300DPI

• 1 JPG || 2400×600 RES || 300DPI

This particular project does not have a deadline yet. I’ll use the progress of your work as a guideline to let me know when your ready to turn this project in. Remember you can email me your questions or just catch me in class and I will help all of you with your projects.

Good luck to you all, and enjoy the work.

JANUARY 31ST 2008

Today you will continue with your work. I have decided to give you some more details on the process of creating an image for the DRUG AWARENESS WEEK.

I posted a design yesterday for you, but I felt that I needed to offer more information. Click and download the Microsoft Document in the bottom here to see a full tutorial of the process. It is almost 8MB big so it may take a few minutes to download. I made a new design with a different artist, but it does not mean you have to make a second design as well.

Take your time and read this information and
hopefully it will help you develop your design.

This is my new design:

(Click on the thumbnail above to see the full size image)

Good luck to you all, and enjoy the work.

PS- Here’s a tutorial on how to install FONTS onto your computers.
Click on the icon bellow.

JANUARY 30TH 2008

I have been ordered by my Doctor to rest for the next 5 days. I will hopefully be back on monday.
I will be teaching the class through this webpage. You are expected to visit this webpage everyday.
If you have any questions or comments, email me at rsanabria@sesolion.com.

Hopefully you all brought with you things from your favorite artist. Recently I read to you a quote from one of my favorite artist, Salvador Dalí. The quote read “Have no fear of perfection – you’ll never reach it…”

In this Project, which you will name PROJECT 2, you will use what you learned on our first project and apply it in this one. Integrate images and text into a design for SESO’s 2008 DRUG AWARENESS WEEK.

The difference in this project is that your own creativity should be your guide to creating the design. Create a canvas of 1280×800 at 300dpi.

You will notice your computer’s response time will be slower. Your patience is also required.

Search the internet for images and quotes if you need to.

Here’s an example of my design:

This is the 1280×800 size JPG.
Click on the thumbnail above to see the full size.

Later on I will take you through the process on how to create the other sizes. But first things first, commence thinking of ways to integrate what you brought from your favorite artist . You will notice that we’re not doing anything different. This is all practice. The more you practice the better you will learn.

I will filtrate bits of information that are more advance in the work that you do, while you do the same techniques and procedures. You won’t even notice the work getting harder because it will all be repetition and practice.

I really wish I could be there with you, but sometimes these things cannot be avoided.

Good luck to you all, and enjoy the work.

MONDAY JANUARY 28TH WORK

Good Morning !

As you all know I am taking care of a few things today.

I have a few medical appointments and will not attend school.

I promised you a twist on the work we’re doing and here it is.

Once you finish your design you will add TEXT into it.

Here is the design I showed you last friday:

(Click on the thumbnail above to see the full image.)

Use your FONT TOOL to add text into your design. Choose the font style you most like and make the text how ever big or small you want as well. Your ability to organize LAYERS will be a factor. The way you integrate the text into an already made design will make or break the image. Think about balancing and overall “niceness”. In the end, the image is not done until you are satisfied.

Here is the design after I’ve added text to it:

(Click on the thumbnail above to see the full image.)

This design is due for TUESDAY JANUARY 29TH, 2008 when we’ll discuss how to create a great JPG and all the options Photoshop CS3 gives us to render the final work.

Salvador Dalí use to say “Have no fear of perfection – you’ll never reach it…”

Good luck to you all, and enjoy the work.

My favorite tutorial pages.

In class I discussed how important tutorials are. They show you a step-by-step process on how to do things in Photoshop. So here are a few links that will give you access to a lot of tutorials for you to read and learn from.

Tutorialized.com is an amazing page and my most favorite one. Displaying 10 tutorials per page and a total of 852 pages full of tutorials, that gives you 8,520 tutorials for you to learn from!

AbsoluteCross.com does a fine job in separating all of it’s tutorials through categories. Sometimes you just want to do something specific, so Absolute Cross does a great job in putting everything organized for you. Maybe it does not house as many tutorials as the previous link, but it sure does have a lot to offer.

YouTube.com has an immense community of people sharing their Photoshop tutorial videos. Following a tutorial step-by-step is great; but being able to listen to someone explain the steps and actually get to see the work is even better!

I hope you take the time to view these links. Following and reading tutorials are a great way to learn your way around Photoshop and a great tool to get your creative juices flowing.

Enjoy!