According to our design needs in both category web and graphic designing we mostly prefer some additional tricks as we talking about Adobe Photoshop Brushes, thousands of incredible Photoshop brush sets are over the web, some of Abstract brushes are listened here for your design inspirations, you can add these patches for your design needs of abstract typography, abstract floral effects, abstract vectors, abstract swirls, abstract digital art and other art works which you want in your design assignments.

Hope you will follow those resources term and conditions for use these listed brushes for personal or commercial in projects.

Beser Brushes by rubina119

Evasion Brush Set by ShiftyJ

Descent Brushes by Axeraider70

Crystalline by m0nica

Party Brushes by Edelihu

CS4 Brushes by Edelihu

25 Abstract Light Free Photoshop Brushes Vol.1 by You the Designer

Lighting Brushet 1 by deep–blue

motion by m0nica

Morphism by Beyond-Placid

Attack Brushes by rubina119

Bitter by m0nica

Phobia Brushes by Axeraider70

Unreal Brushes v.2 by Edelihu

Unreal Brushes v.3 by Edelihu

Inner Universe Brushes by Axeraider70

Life Brushes by Axeraider70

Darius Brushes by Axeraider70

Winter Breeze Brushes by Axeraider70

Godspeed Brushes by Axeraider70

Abstract brush pack vol. 8 by forty-winks

Serenity Brushes by Axeraider70

Fortune Brushes by ShiftyJ

Veruct brushes by Disporatik

Abstract brush pack vol. 10 by forty-winks

Cosmic Lights by PSD Box

Revnart Smoke by revn89

Dimension Brushes by Axeraider70

extremelyABSTRACT by env1ro

absbrushes by megatron-fx

Ecol Brushes by rubina119

Raging Dawn Brushes by Axeraider70

Gradient Shape Brushes by Fresh eMedia

Abstract Brushes Vol 8 by ~rubina119

Silicon Brushes by Axeraider70

28 Abstract Curves Brushes by Fresh eMedia

Christmas Brushes by Edelihu

Abstract Brushes VOL 7 by rubina119

Neutron-Collapse Brushset HQ by IHEA

Enigma Brushes by Axeraider70

Radial Brushes by rubina119

Quantum Brushes by Axeraider70

A b s t r a c t i o n by JavierZhX

Unreal Brushes v.4 by Edelihu

Bluyow Brushes by rubina119

Refresh Brushes by Edelihu

Unreal Brushes v.1 by Edelihu

Abstract brush pack vol. 7 by forty-winks

Century Brushes by Edelihu

Hyper Brushes by Axeraider70

Lighting Brushset 2 by deep–blue

Euphoria Brushes – Brush Pack by ShiftyJ

Kinetic Brush Set by ShiftyJ

Just follow them and increase your creativity.

1: How to Create a Greek Mythology Inspired Photo Manipulation

2: Create an Angelic Sculpture Made of Ice in Photoshop

3: Easy HDR Technique by Cristian Iancu

4: Create a Magical Four Piece Stardust Composition

5: Create a Digital Camera With Wooden Accents Using Photoshop

6: How to Create a Highly Detailed Hi-Tech Power Button

7: Concept Art: Create a Sci-Fi Interior Using Digital Painting Techniques

8: Create a Shiny Psdtuts+ Folder Icon in Photoshop

9: 3D Water Text Effect with Repoussé in Photoshop CS5

10: Playing with Inflate in Repoussé in Photoshop CS5 Extended

11: Mixing Brushes and Layers in Photoshop by Josh Overton

12: 3D Type with Repoussé in Photoshop CS5 Extended

13: Clash of the Titans Text Effect in Photoshop

14: Melting Girl in Photoshop

15: haunted castle movie poster

16: Super Easy Neon Style in Photoshop – Screencast

17: Photoshop Quick Tips: Neon with Layer Styles

18: Super Easy Typographic Portrait in Photoshop

19: Lost in Space Typography in Photoshop

20: create water drops

21: Easy Digital Painting Illustration in Photoshop

22: Abduzeedo 2010 Light Effects in Photoshop

23: Wind Blow by Francesco di Pietro

24: Very Easy Heroes Eclipse in Photoshop – Screencast

25: Create a Knife in Photoshop – Screencast

26: Create a Realistic Soda Bottle in Photoshop

27: Create a Retro Urban Gig Poster in Photoshop – Screencast

28: How to Create a Nuclear Disaster Landscape – Basix

29: Create a Beautiful and Dramatic Scene With Photo Manipulations – Basix

30: glossy buttons for website using photoshop

31: Create a Chalkboard Icon Using Photoshop and IconBuilder – Screencast

32: Quick Tip: Create Metallic Text on a Concrete Background

33: Create a Photo Realistic USB Cable in Photoshop

34: Create a Sleek and Stylish MP3 Player in Photoshop

35: convert photo in a hollywood movie poster using photoshop

36: Create a Bulletin Board With Realistic Shadows

37: Turn a Flawless Blonde Beauty Into a Sword-Wielding Fantasy Action Hero

38: How to Draw a Watch in Photoshop

39: How to Create an Incredible Typographic Illustration

40: convert a photo into polaroid effect using photoshop

41: Create a Cardboard Box Filled With Glossy Icons

42: Create a Dark and Surreal Poster Using Your Own Portrait

43: Make a Freezing Cold Snow-themed Abstract Piece

44: How to Create a Stylish Media Player in Photoshop

45: How to Create a Realistic Fountain Pen

46: How to Create a Shiny Paint Bucket Icon

47: How to Create a Stylish Pair of Headphones

48: Create a Fantastic Abstract Fan Poster

49: Create an Abstract Cloud Jumper in Photoshop

50: Create a Face Paint Dripping Effect

51: Create a Vibrant Colorful Alcohol Product Ad in Photoshop

52: Achieve Brilliant Lighting Effects in Photoshop

53: Combine Renders and Light Effects for Awesome Results

54: Design an Underwater Omega Code Poster

55: Create A Beautiful 3D Text Composition

56: Create a Funny Wooden Type Treatment in Photoshop

57: How to create a retro-style text effect in Cinema 4D and Photoshop

58: Jungle 3D text in Photoshop

59: Draw a 3D Umbrella with Photoshop

60: Make a Surreal 3D Outdoor Room Scene in Photosho

61: How to Create a Matte Painting Inspired Scene

62: Make a Vivid Flaming Skull Conceptual Composition

63: Create Detailed Letters of Gold and Diamond

64: Create a Cartoon Car Similar to Cars Movie

65: Paint an Iron Man’s Helmet Digitally in Photoshop

66: Creating an Impactful Disco Party Poster

67: Creating an Ecological Fairy Tale Wallpaper

68: Combine 3D Shapes and Vectors for a Dynamic Composition

lets get started.

Step 1: Create new file with white background.

Step 2: Click Channel Tab and create New Channel. The file will become black.

Step 3: Select the Text Tool and type the text. Deselect it with CRTL+D. We have selected a script font to make is more real.

Step 4: Select paintbrush with hard edge and create some drops to add more spice or keep as it is.

Step 5: Now go to Filter > Sketch > Plaster

Step 6: Apply the settings given below:

Image Balance: 25
Smoothness: 2
Light Direction: Right

Now our image is looking like this:

Step 7: Select RGB Channel.

Click Layer Tab and Select the Background layer.

Step 8: Got to Select > Load Selection > Alpha1

Step 9: Select any desired color for foreground & Press Alt + Del once to fill foreground color into selection.

You can press Alt + Del once more to concentrate the fill to get proper gel effect.

And here’s my final result:

Thank You!

Now these days best and attractive images are the part of every articles. I can say image is useful for your posts. Images made easy to understand to readers what you want to say in the post.

Many wordpress blogger go to google for images and find the images. They put the image into there blogs. Some time that will cause you serious legal issues.

There are very good places to find good free images for your blogs. Here is the list of that.

1. Flickr: Flickr is a really great source for free pics, however make sure to contact the owner of the picture and ask permission before using it. I have done this a lot in the past and a lot of people are willing to share their pictures. Give them a good reason, maybe a quick complement and offer a link back to their Flickr profile.
2. Stockvault: Stockvault has a lot of nice stock photos, just be warned that this site is filled with adsense.
3. deviantART: This is a huge community of artist sharing all sorts of images and graphics. Again, checkout the license of the graphic as a lot of these aren’t free, yet it is still a great source for free images if you become familiar with the site.
4. Stock.xchng: Saving the best for last here you’ll be able to find a lot of great stock photos as well as PSD’s, templates, background images and more. Please checkout the restrictions before using
5. Free Images – Free Stock Photos:
   FREE digital photographic images for web, dtp, and design. Royalty and cost free stock photos. Free stock photographic library.
6. gettyimages: Getty Images royalty-free gives creative freedom to crop, manipulate and combine stock photos for your project needs. Simple, affordable pricing, unlimited use.”

Step 1: Open Photoshop & open your image in Photoshop which you want to create spotted border. Double click on the Background Layer & press OK to work on it.

Step 2: Select the Rectangular Marquee Tool and make a selection around the image like below. The closer you place the Rectangular Marquee to the centre of the image the greater the spotted border effect, and the further away to place the Marquee the smaller the border.

Step 3: Choose Select > Modify > Feather (Alt+Ctrl+D) and give a feather radius of 5 pixels. You can increase the radius if you wish to create a more rounded border.

Step 4: Hit the Q key on the keyboard to enter the quick mask, and you see a red border around your image like below.

Step 5: Select Filter > Pixelate > Colour Halftone and set the max radius to 10 pixels. If you wish to have larger spots on your border then increase the size of the radius.

Step 6: Exit the quick mask mode with the Q key then choose Select > Inverse (Shift+Ctrl+I) and hit the delete the key, don’t do deselect the selection.You should get a spotted border like below.

Step 7: Now fill the selection with any color you like & deselect the selection(Ctrl+D), I filled it with white color:

And you done it..

Here’s my final result:

Thank You!

This is the pic I used for this tutorial:

Lets get started.

Step 1: Open Photoshop & open your image in Photoshop which you want to add a glow. Double click on the Background Layer & press OK to work on it.

Step 2: Copy the layer by pressing Ctrl+J & select the copied layer.

Step 3: Go to Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur and set the value which I given a below image:

Step 4: And finally Change the blending mode to Overlay.

And you done it. The image is retouched.

Here’s my final result:

Thank You!

This is the pic I used for this tutorial:

Lets get started.

Step 1: Open Photoshop & open your image in Photoshop which you want to convert into sketch effect. Double click on the Background Layer & press OK to work on it.

Step 2: Go to Image > Adjustments > Desaturate (Shift+Ctrl+U)

Step 3: Make a duplicate of the desaturated layer by pressing Ctrl+J. Keep the duplicate later selected.

Step 4: Now go to Image > Adjustments > Invert (Ctrl+I)

Step 5: change the blending mode to “Color Dodge”

Step 6: Finally go to Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur & set the radius as per your satisfaction. Here I set radius 5.1 px

And you done it..

Here’s my final result:

Thank You!

Step 2: Create New Document with 3 pixel width, 3 pixel height and transparent background.

Step 3: Select your foreground color dark yellow(#ff9900) and draw 3 square using Pencil Tool.

Step 4: Select All using Ctrl + A & Create a pattern by Edit > Define Pattern. Name the pattern.

Step 5: Close the Pattern file and go back to image file. Create New Layer. Keep it selected.

Step 6: Go to Edit > Fill
(Choose “Pattern” from “Use” drop down menu and again in “Custom Pattern” you will find newly created pattern)

Step 7: Select newly created pattern and fill the layer. Change the layer mode to “Multiply”

And you done it.

Here’s my final result:

Thank You!

Lets get started.

Step 1: Open Photoshop & open your image in Photoshop which you want to convert into dust effect. Double click on the Background Layer & press OK to work on it.

Step 2: Go to Channel Palette and Create New Channel. Fill the channel with white color.

Step 3: Go to Filter > Noise > Add Noise and apply the settings given below in image:

Step 4: Then go to Filter > Stylize > Emboss & set the values given below in image:

Step 5: Go to Layer Palette. Create New Layer.

Step 6: Go to Select > Load Selection and choose (Alpha 1)

Step 7: Fill the selection with white color using Alt + Backspace & press Ctrl+D to deselect.

Step 8: Select Eraser Tool. Choose Spatter type of brush and erase the part of an image in such way that it should look as if the dust portion is cleaned off.

Here’s my final result:

Thank You!

Lets get started!

Step 1: Prepare the Document.

In Photoshop open a new document at 1000 x 1300 with resolution set to 300 dpi and using RGB color.

Place the image of the castle into the document and resize it. Place the image with the castle prominently in the centre and toward the bottom of the document like this:

Step 2: Cut Out the Sky

With the castle layer selected go to channels and find the channel with the most contrast which is the blue channel here. Duplicate this channel by dragging it to the new channel button just like you would a layer.

Go to Image > Adjustment > Levels. Bring the right slider along to 205 and the left slider to 210.This brings out the contrast of the castle against the sky so we can cut it out.

Grab a hard black brush and cover over the castle trees and moat with black. Then do the same with a white brush on the sky. If you need to make a selection around any left out bits do so and fill with the correct color.

Next Ctrl + click the blue copy channel to make a selection go back to you layers  palette and hit Ctrl + shift + I to inverse then Ctrl + J to bring the castle and trees into a New Layer by Copy & Paste and rename the new layer castle.

Select the image of clouds by google images and place it in the image and resize it . Put this layer under the castle layer.

Step 4: Balancing the Poster

Add a color balance adjustment layer.

Set the midtone to + 70 giving the image a red tint.

Add a levels adjustment layer and change the midtone input to 0.80 .

Add a hue saturation adjustment layer and reduce the saturation to  21.

Step 5: The Eyes

download the face image by google images & place it in the document and cut the eyes out using the marquee tool. Select just the area around the eyes including the eyebrows and bridge of the nose but exclude the ears. Then hit ctrl shift and I to inverse the selection and delete.

Step 6: Making the Eyes Dramatic

We’ll now work on the eyes and make them more dramatic and other worldly so they fit in with the theme of the movie. Hold Ctrl and + Key to zoom in the image of the eyes so you can work on the pupil’s and eyeballs.

We’ll start by reducing the color, go to Image > Adjustments > Hue-Saturation and reduce the saturation to around -32.

Step 7: Eyes

If you need to and grab the Dodge Tool set to midtones and exposure set to 75 % then brighten around the pupil and the white of the eye. Bring out the color of the eyes and keep going until the eyes look more dramatic.

Step 7: Adding Colour to the Eyes

Then add a New Layer fill with a red color #da2411 and set to color burn with the Eraser Tool on soft round brush erase away the red on the castle and sky leaving the color only on the eyes like so.

Next grab the Burn Tool set to midtones with a 10 – 15 % exposure and darken a little around the eyes.

Step 8: Reducing Shine of Castle & Trees

Use the Burn Tool set to midtones and 70 – 80 % exposure to reduce the glare on the castle walls and spires. Cover all the areas where the sun is hitting the castle. Do the same for any shiny areas on trees.

Now my Image is looking like this:

Step 9: The Skull

Get the image of the skull from google images and resize it so it covers the bush this takes away a random looking element and adds drama.Set this layers blend mode to Lighter Color and the layer’s opacity to 55 %. Label the layer skull.

Step 10: The Starring Man

Get the image of a horror face from google images place it in the document now resize and place it on the left. Change the blend mode to Linear Light. Now reduce the opacity down to 75 % and you should have this.

Step 11: The Title Text

Choose the type tool and the font Decrepit (BRK) at size 20 type ‘THE HAUNTED CASTLE’. If you don’t have this font already download it from here. Place the text over the line where the eyes layer meets the cloud layer. Then to give the text some depth  copy the  text layer (ctrl + J ) and  rasterise it reduce the opacity to 36 % and nudge it down and to the right 2 pixel .Place the copied layer below the original.

Step 14: The Credits Text

Create a box with the marquee tool to boom of the poster and fill this with a dark red I used #6f0303.Put this layers blend mode on Darken.

Add lettering with the Type Tool to make the image seem more like a film poster. Type the names in a larger font and the titles such as director in a smaller font. Then compress the whole group of text by highlighting it and reducing the horizontal scale in the character palette to around 44. I also added a small symbol in white. This all gives the text a movie poster feel.

You should end up with something similar to this:

Step 15: Adding More Text

Add ‘MASTERPIECE’ in Trajan pro with double quotation marks. Then use the shape tool to create 5 small 5 sided stars (create stars from Basic Shapes by using Shape Tool) in dark red with the name of a magazine you like. Then add academy award winner 2010 and place in the lower right hand side.

Step 16: Fill with Light

To lighten up the image add a new layer at the top and fill it with white, change the layer’s blend mode to Overlay. Reduce the opacity to 50% (Shortcut key is 5).

Step 16: Adding Some Red

Then add a gradient adjustment layer with the colors stops set from #a3060b to #f60c0c, linear and 90 degrees. Set the blending mode to Luminosity and reduce the opacity to 10%.

And you done it!

Here’s my final result:

I hope you learned something new and had fun.

Thank You!

Step 1: Open your image in Photoshop which you want to convert into canvas print. Double click on Background layer and press OK to work on it.

Step 2: Press Shift+Control+U to desaturate the image:

Step 3: We now colorize this layer. For that, set the foreground color to #C78C66 and background to #F0E6A9.

Step 4: Select the Gradient Tool and select the Gradient:

Step 5: Create a New Layer and fill the image with this gradient from top to bottom. Now set the Blending Mode to Color this layer.

Step 6: Duplicate the layer by pressing Ctrl+J. Set the Blending Mode to Linear Light & reduce the opacity to 55%

Step 7: Now, press Ctrl+L to open the levels dialog box and set the values which I shown in the below image:

Step 8: Press Ctrl+Shift+E to merge all the layers. Now, we will use the texturizer filter to give it a canvas look. For that, go to Filter > Texture> Texturizer and give these values:

Now our image is looking like this:

Step 9: We will now apply lighting effect to give it more classic look. Go to Filter > Render > Lighting Effects and apply the settings as shown in the figure below:

You have successfully converted your picture to a canvas print.

Here’s my final result:

Thank You!

Here’s the first photo I’ll be using:

Here’s the image I want to blend it with:

Step 1: The first thing we need in order to blend our two images together is for them to both be in the same document. To do that, with both of my images open on the screen in their own separate document windows, I’m going to grab my Move tool from the Tools palette, or I could press the letter V on my keyboard to quickly select it:

Then with my Move tool selected, I’m going to click anywhere inside the image of the couple walking on the beach to make that document window active, and I’m simply going to drag the image into the other document window:

When I release my mouse button, both images appear inside the same document, one on top of the other. I can also see both images now on their own separate layers in the Layers palette:

Step 2: Now that I’ve dragged the beach photo into the other document, I need to resize it, and I can do that easily with Photoshop’s Free Transform command. With the beach photo layer selected in the Layers palette, I’m going to use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl+T (Win) / Command+T (Mac) to bring up the Free Transform box and handles around the image.

Problem is, this image is in “landscape” mode, meaning its width is longer than its height, and I’ve dragged it into a document containing an image that’s in “portrait” mode (its height is longer than its width), so even though Photoshop has placed the Free Transform box and handles around my image, I can’t see any of the corner handles because the sides of the image are extending out beyond the viewable area of the document. To do that press F on your keyboard and you can move your image where you want.

When I’m happy with the new size of my image, I’m going to press Enter (Win) / Return (Mac) to accept the transformation.

Your background layer means couple layer is locked to work on it double click on background layer in a Layers pallete. Now the warning message is telling me that Photoshop can’t move the image because the layer is locked, press OK to work on it.

Step 3: Now we can begin blending them together. The first thing we need is a layer mask, and we’re going to add it to the layer on top (“Layer 1″), which is my case is the layer containing the beach photo, so I’m going to click on that layer in the Layers palette to select it. Then, click on the Add A Layer Mask icon at the bottom of the Layers palette:

We can now see the layer mask thumbnail added to the top layer:

Step 4: Select your Gradient tool from the Tools palette, or press G to quickly access it with the keyboard shortcut.

Then, up in the Options Bar at the top of the screen, click on the down-pointing arrow to the right of the gradient preview area, which will bring up the Gradient Picker. Click on the black to white gradient in the top row, third from the left to select it:

Now drag the Gradient like I shown in below image:

Now my image is looking like this:

Step 5: With “Layer 1″ still selected in the Layers palette, press Shift+Ctrl+Alt+E (Win) / Shift+Command+Option+E (Mac) to merge both layers onto a new layer above it, which Photoshop will name “Layer 2″:

Step 6: We’re going to remove all the color from the image at this point so we can add our own color, which we’ll do in a moment. To remove the colors, press Shift+Ctrl+U (Win) / Shift+Command+U (Mac) to desaturate the layer:

Step 7: Let’s add a little noise to the image to help the two photos blend more seamlessly together. Go to the Filter menu > Noise > Add Noise. This brings up the Add Noise dialog box. Set the Amount to somewhere between 1-6% depending on the pixel dimensions of your image. I’m working on a low resolution image for this tutorial, so I’m going to set mine to 1% just to add a hint of noise. Make sure Distribution is set to Gaussian, and also make sure the Monochromatic option at the very bottom is checked:

Step 8: All that’s left to do is add our own color to the image. For that, we’re going to use a Solid Color fill layer. Click on the New Fill Or Adjustment Layer icon at the bottom of the Layers palette. Then select Solid Color from the top of the list that appears:

Photoshop’s Color Picker will appear. Choose the color that you want to use for your image. I’m going to select a light orange for my color:

Click OK once you’ve chosen a color to exit out of the Color Picker. Don’t worry about choosing the “right” color at the moment because you can always change it later.

Step 9: Go to Blending Mode and select Color:

Your image will now be colorized with your chosen color rather than being blocked from view by it. If you decide you’re not happy with the color you chose, just double-click on the Solid Color fill layer’s color swatch icon in the Layers palette:

When you do that, the Color Picker will pop back up and you can choose a different color. Since the Solid Color fill layer is already set to the “Color” blend mode, you’ll be able to see a live preview of how your current color choice looks with your image.

Here’s my final result:

Thank You!

These instructions were written for Photoshop version 5.5. Later versions introduced more templates and options, but these instructions should be enough to get you started. :~

*******************************************************************************************************************************************

1. Prepare your photos for the Web by rotating, cropping, resizing, and color correcting, if necessary. Refer to the related information in the links below for tips on prepping your pictures.
2. Places the photos you want to include in the gallery in a folder on your hard drive.
3. Choose an empty folder or create a new one to use as a destination folder for the files created by the Photo Gallery command.

*******************************************************************************************************************************************
Step 1: Open Photoshop & Go to File > Automate > Web Photo Gallery to open the photo gallery dialog box.

Step 2: At the very top of the window, take some time to choose the template you like best under the Styles drop down menu. Keep in mind that the Flash Template will take more bandwidth, require more time to load, and must be supported by a flash plugin (which most web browsers have anyway). With this in mind, the Flash-based styles do look very modern and attractive. You can see below in this image:

Step 3: Below that, insert your email address if you want it to be published on your site. If not, then just leave this segment blank.

Step 4: Now you have a photo gallery dialog box on your computer screen, click the “choose” button and select the folder containing your images. If thefolder contains sub-folders with images you want to include, check the box to include subdirectories.

Step 5: Next to Destination, click the “choose” button and select the empty folder. (I created it on my desktop)

Step 6: In the Site Name field, type a title that will appear on all the pages of your gallery. This is the text that also appears in the title bar when the page is viewed in a Web browser.

Step 7: If desired, fill in the Phototographer and Date fields. This information will also appear on the Web pages if it’s filled in.

Step 7: Click OK in the photo gallery dialog box.

And you’re done it!

Your Photo Gallery should automatically launch in your Web browser.

Here’s my Web Photo Gallery:

~: Thank you! :~

On February 10th, 2010, Photoshop turns twenty. To mark this anniversary, we’ve come up with an article that takes you through the evolution of Photoshop from its modest beginnings as a bundled program sold with scanners to its current version.

For each version and major feature listed, we couldn’t help but think “did Photoshop ever exist without that feature?”.

Some of the minor details are fun too, such as the one-liner Easter Eggs that Photoshop developers hid in some versions and the fact that the most current versions of Adobe Photoshop CS are equipped with anti-counterfeiting measures for multiple world currencies.

Please join us in thanking the Knolls and Adobe for making all of our lives more awesome, every day.

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One of the most impressive things about the company is the fact that one gifted family, consisting of an engineering prof, a PHD engineering student, and a talented special effects whiz working at Industrial Light and Magic came up with the core idea of Photoshop.

Thomas Knoll, the PHD student, is still heavily involved with Photoshop years later.

Glen Knoll was a college professor with two sons and two hobbies; computers and photography.

He had a darkroom in his basement, and an Apple II Plus that he was allowed to bring home from work.

Thomas Knoll adopted his father’s photography habit throughout high school, while his brother, John Knoll, purchased one of the first Macs available to the public.

Fast forward to 1987: Thomas Knoll was a PHD student studying Engineering at the University of Michigan. His brother was working at Industrial Light and Magic.

Thomas Knoll wrote a subroutine for a program to translate monochrome images on his monitor to grayscale.

The successful subroutine led Knoll to create more and very soon he had a number of processes for achieving photographic effects on digital images.

After his brother John saw what Thomas was doing, he recommended that Thomas turn what he was doing into a full-featured image editor.

The combination of Thomas’ programming abilities with John’s pragmatic design background led to a collaboration between the two brothers to develop more processes and improve on the initial application.

Even though the process led to interruption in Thomas’ thesis work, the brothers released “Image Pro” in 1988.

John suggested that they begin to sell Image Pro as an application.

Within six months, the brothers had a partnership with a company that manufactured scanners, Barneyscan.

They purchased 200 copies of the program to ship with their scanners.

They called on Supermac and Aldus, but were turned away at both, a move that Aldus would come to seriously regret.

Shortly after, the Knoll brothers struck gold when they won over Adobe management with their product, and formed a licensing partnership with Adobe that was to launch their software and Adobe into the stratosphere.

In February of 1990, Adobe 1.0 was released.

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This video, shot in January of 2010, is a great interview with John Knoll about the early days of Photoshop:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iItTsYmy8lQ&feature=player_embedded[/youtube]

o~~~~~o~~~~~o~~~~~o~~~~~o~~~~~o~~~~~o~~~~~o~~~~~o~~~~~o~~~~~o~~~~~o~~~~~o~~~~~o

Photoshop Through the Years; Version Changes

We’ve included major changes within each version and some minor ones. This is meant to be a fun stroll down memory lane rather than a complete version catalogue.

If you have a particular version change that got your hackles up or a feature that you’d to mention, feel free to add it to the comments section.

1990 – Photoshop 1.0

John Knoll, Thomas’ brother, wrote “special effects” for the program which were frowned upon by Adobe staff as being too “gimmicky”. Thomas and John found a way to sneak them into Photoshop as plugins, giving rise to what is now a huge cottage industry in add-ons to the popular program.

John and Adobe staff constantly pushed Thomas to make improvements until the final product shipped.

The first version of the Photoshop splash screen features just four Photoshop programmers. In subsequent versions, more and more names are added to the list. In more recent versions, a limited number of Adobe VIP’s appear in the splash screen.

o~~~~~o~~~~~o~~~~~o~~~~~o~~~~~o~~~~~o~~~~~o~~~~~o~~~~~o~~~~~o~~~~~o~~~~~o~~~~~o

1991 – Photoshop 2.0

Photoshop 2.0 included the Path feature, which allowed users to trim around an object easily and to save that path for future use. This feature was added by a second engineer, Mark Hamburg, that Adobe hired to work on the application.

Up until 2.0, Thomas Knoll was the only engineer working on it. Adobe called Mark the “Path Man”. 2.0 also featured rasterizing for Illustrator files, support for CMYK colour which led to widespread Photoshop adoption by the printing industry, and the Pen.

Photoshop 2.0 also required 4 megabytes of RAM to run rather than 2, which really helped program stability.

Photoshop 2.5, released in 1992, was notable for being the first release for the Windows operating systems.The code had to be completely changed in order to accomplish this goal which meant that the first effort was slow going.

16-bit file support and palettes were added to this version as well. The initial Windows release had a “memory bug”, a bug which actually saw Mark Hamburg offer to make house calls. The patched version was released as 2.5.1. Filters got their own menu in 2.5 as well. The workspace shot below is of Photoshop 2.5 for the Mac.

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1994 – Photoshop 3.0

The big story for Adobe Photoshop 3.0 was layers. Layers were and are a lifesaver for any marginally complex design.

Prior to their introduction, designers would save different versions of designs so that they could go back and grab them if needed; layers made this practice redundant.

Layers are individual slices of the image that go together to make the final “sandwich” of the image. Different images, such as those used in the image above in the 3.0 splash screen, are assigned their own layers, making it easy to work on those images without tampering with other areas of the image.

Thomas Knoll, the original creator of the program, was responsible for their development. Other engineers made improvements in the program’s performance with Power Mac chips and bringing the Windows version up to the same level as the Mac version. Tabbed palettes also had their debut in 3.0.

Adobe engineers included Adobe Transient Witticisms (ATW) with this version. They were little Easter Egg funny one-liners that would appear only when you pressed obscure combinations of keys.

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1996 – Photoshop 4.0

Adjustment layers and macros were the two most notable features of Photoshop 4.0.

Adjustment layers allow the designer to apply one effect to a group of layers. Macros, or actions in Photoshop speak, allow you to map a series of commands to one command. This allows you to perform the same operation in much less time if you have a bunch of images to work on.

The most important change to 4.0 was the unification of the user interface with other Adobe products, a feature which Adobe has stayed consistent with right up to present-day incarnations of the program. This meant a less steep learning curve for Adobe products, a blessing for those who got their start with Photoshop 4.0.

Loyal users of Photoshop were not amused with the redesign, the common question from the community being “Why did you break Photoshop?”.

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1998 – Photoshop 5.0

The two most important features released with 5.0 were editable type and the ability to undo actions multiple times in the “History” palette.

Previous versions of Photoshop allowed text to be added, but the fuzzy rasterized type didn’t make for pretty magazine mastheads or decent web menus. This was a huge step forward. Multiple undos via the History palette were very helpful, especially since designers were starting to use the new Adobe tools for increasingly complex designs.

Color Management made its debut with 5.0. Like other major changes to Photoshop, it was greeted with equal parts of praise and condemnation. It allowed colors to be managed natively within the application rather than relying on third-party tools that had been used, a huge improvement.

However, it also automatically converted the colors when opening files, a “feature” that engineers quickly eliminated after multiple user complaints. The magnetic lasso tool debuted in 5.0, making selecting areas of an image to work on much easier.

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1999 – Photoshop 5.5

Photoshop 5.5 featured the huge time saver, “Save For Web”. This feature allows those who choose it to save the image in a preset specifically designed for web use which allows the user to adjust image quality to achieve a smaller image.

Version 5.0 had failed to take the Web into account with all of its other major feature changes on the table. It was also bundled with ImageReady, a standalone program that was purpose-built to edit web graphics.

Most of the features of ImageReady were later incorporated into the full version of Photoshop and the idea of a simpler program was reborn eventually in the form of Photoshop Elements.

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2000 – Photoshop 6.0

The layer styles panel made working with layers even easier in Photoshop 6. Vector shapes were also added in this release; the ability to draw vector shapes such as arrows into a bitmap was lauded by users.

There was also a new custom shapes palette that allowed the user to draw using vector shapes rather than just using lines. Text could also now be typed directly onto a picture, rather than being typed first into a text box.

Multi-layer functions made their first appearance with version 6.0. The Blending Options dialogue was also introduced which made blending various elements of an image much easier. 6.0 separated the crop tool from the marquee tool, making it that much easier to get to this commonly used command.

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2001 – Photoshop Elements

With the increasing complexity of the tools available to users, Photoshop was risking losing a significant market share that didn’t understand or need some of its more advanced tools.

In order to combat this, they released Photoshop Elements in 2001. The new product was a success, and designers continue to recommend it to clients for simple image resizing and other non-design tasks.

While its current interface, shown below, isn’t intuitive for those trained in traditional Photoshop, it is highly usable and labeled clearly for the average user. If there are any problems with it in terms of functionality, the simple answer is to upgrade to the full-featured Photoshop.

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2002 – Photoshop 7.0

Version 7.0 introduced the healing brush and text that was fully vector-based. More importantly to veteran users, it introduced a new file browser that let designers easily pore through folders to find the graphics that they wanted.

Files within a folder could be renamed using Batch Rename, plus a bunch of other helpful commands that made working with a high volume of files much easier.

Workspaces could also be created and saved, allowing you to save your file locations and groups for future use.

The brush palette also featured a number of changes, including the new healing brush tool, patch tool, and the ability to create custom brushes. Spell check and a find/replace feature rounded out the updates to the text tool.

A number of enhancements were also included for web use, including the addition of rollover effects for images and a web gallery feature.

One of the most important upgrades was under the hood; 7.0 was optimized for use with Mac OS X, virtually eliminating crashes in the middle of working on large files. The tool presets palette let users program presets for commonly performed tasks, increasing efficiency.

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2003 – Photoshop CS

Photoshop CS was the first to employ the CDS (counterfeit deterrence system) which recognized and refused to allow duplication of paper currency.

Scripting support for various web languages, including JavaScript, was also new to this release.

Layer groups were introduced with this version, which allowed various layers to be grouped together for effects to be applied to some and not others.

Improvements to the File Browser made images easier to work with, and the 16-bit and better large file support made CS much easier to work with for designers who constantly worked with larger images and photographers.

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2005 – Photoshop CS2

The red eye removal tool, previously exclusive to Elements, was popular enough to make an appearance in the core version of Photoshop. Smudging options and the ability to select multiple layers also added to the functionality of Photoshop.

The Vanishing Point tool allowed users to edit images in perspective. The largest moment of panic when upgrading to PS2 came for most when they tried to find the Paint Bucket tool, which had been classified under the Gradient tool. There were other significant changes to the UI that prompted one writer to put out this “Where’s My Stuff?” column.

Layers and the layers palette were other areas of note. The “links” column was removed because CS2 included a link button rather than the small chains beside each layer. The “Smart Object” feature was introduced, which allows the user to scale a layer up without significant loss of quality.

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2007 – Photoshop CS3

A faster load was probably the most noticeable feature of this 2007 release. It included fine tuning to a number of its existing tools rather than focusing on new ones.

The most notable new feature was graphic optimization for mobile devices, a feature which many web designers focusing on mobile design were thankful for. This version also saw significant feature updates to Adobe Camera RAW, a Quick Select tool, alterations to core commands like Brightness and Contrast and Black and White conversion.

CS3 shipped in Standard and Extended editions. The Extended version was intended for high end video and scientific users. Improved performance for Intel-based Macs significantly improved the speed of Photoshop, while Windows users also enjoyed performance upgrades. The new Quick Selection tool put the rest of the selection tools in Photoshop to shame with easy object selection with one or two strokes.

Cloning became easier in CS3 with the birth of the Clone Source palette which increased the options available to the Clone Stamp tool in an easily accessible palette.

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2008 – Photoshop CS4

The smoother pan and zoom allowed for fast drill down on the areas of an image that you wanted to look at. Prior to this, there was a lag time of a few seconds (depending on your system) if you wanted to zoom in or out on an image.

The Masks and Adjustments panel was added, making working with masks easier. CS 4 also dealt with edges on masks more effectively. Colour correction took a huge step forward with this release.

The user interface was significantly simplified in CS4. The support of tabbed documents made it much easier to use and the main tools were added to the title bar for easier access. Quick access for common actions was made available in the panel area.

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Where Are The Knolls Now?

Thomas Knoll
Thomas was the lead developer of Photoshop right up until CS 4. He now leads up the Camera Raw plugin for Photoshop, which allows Photoshop to develop a smooth handshake between different models of camera raw image formats.

John Knoll
John is still employed by Industrial Light and Magic as a Visual Effects Supervisor. He was the Visual Effects Supervisors for the recent efforts on the first three Star Wars prequel films. He also supervised work on two Star Trek movies, Star Trek episodes, and the Pirates of the Caribbean movies.

Glenn Knoll
Their father is a teacher at the University of Michigan in the Engineering Department.

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Step 1: Once your image in Photoshop, duplicate your background layer by choosing ‘layer>duplicate layer’ or simply drag your background layer to ‘create new layer’ button in the layer pallete.

Step 2: Now apply gaussian blur (Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur) to your background copy. Try to drag the slider slowly to the right until you see the freckles are no longer visible.

Step 3: If you can’t find your history pallete on the screen, go to window > history to bring up the history pallete

Step 4: Now click on the duplicate layer state to return your photo to what it looked like when you haven’t applied the gaussian blur. Also click in the first column next to gaussian blur state.

Step 5: Choose the ‘History Brush’ from your tool pallete. Change the History Brush’s Mode to ‘lighten’ to keep from simply painting in a blurry version of our photo.

Step 6: Start to paint your photo to remove the freckles. If you find that the person looks ‘too clean’ you can always undo your step, and lower the opacity of the brush and try again.

Here’s the original image to comparison:

And here’s my final image:

Thank You!

Step 1: Open an image in Photoshop you want to add rain in it. & Create a new layer by pressing Shift+Ctrl+N.

Step 2: With the new layer selected go to Filter>Render>Clouds.

Change the Opacity to 60%

Step 3: Go to Filter>Noise>Add Noise. Apply the settings given below:

Amount – 60

Distribution – Gaussian

Check Monochromatic

Step 4: Click on Filter>Blur>Motion blur. The Motion blur window appears. Give the values Angle – 78 and Distance 10 px as seen in the snapshot below. You can try varying the values and when a suitable image appears you can click OK.

Step 5: With ‘layer 1′ still selected, go to blending mode option which is top of layer panel and set the blend mode to ‘screen’.

Check your image now. You done it!

Here is my result with the realistic rain effect!

Thank You!

Step 1: Start a new document of any size you want in Photoshop.

Step 2: Create a new layer by pressing Ctrl+J, and fill it with a Linear gradient of dark blue to lighter blue.

Darker blue: #395D9E
Lighter blue: #6A9BC9

Step 3: Create a new layer. & Press D to reset your color pallete.

Step 4: Go to Filter » Render » Clouds.

Step 5: Then again Filter » Render » Difference Clouds.

Step 6: Press CTRL+F twice. & set the clouds layer blending mode to: “Screen”

Step 7: Go to image » Adjustments » Levels.
And set the input values to: 20, 1.00, and 120

Step 8: Duplicate the cloud layer (Press CTRL+J).

Step 9: Go to Filter » Stylize » Extrude & apply the settings given below:

Step 10: Reduce to Opacity of the original cloud layer to 70%, and the extrude layer to 50%

Step 11: Now finally select the extruded cloud layer and apply a gaussian blur with 5.0 px setting. (Filter » Blur-Gaussian Blur)

And you done it!

Here’s my final image of the clouds:

Now I will show you how to use it in an image.

I got this image below which I removed the sky in the background.

Now this image, I create the clouds and put it behind the mountain, but it looks rather fake because its too flat.

Now we need to distort the clouds a little, so merge the Gradient layer,  extruded clouds layer and the original clouds layer together.

Then finally go to Edit » Transform » Perspective.

and drag the clouds image outward like I’ve done here:

Now our image is looking more realistic clouds.

Here’s the final result:

Thank You!

Step 1: Create a new document of any size in Photoshop.

Step 2: Create a new layer by pressing Ctrl+J. Name this layer ‘Layer 1′. Select Rectangular Marquee Tool and make a square selection as I’ve done here:

Step 3: Go to Select->Modify->Smooth with a setting of 30 pixels:

Step 4: Set your foreground color to: #373fa4 and your background color to: #8dddf8

Step 5: Now select a Gradient Tool(G), and set it up with a foreground, to background gradient as I’ve done here:

Now fill in your selection with a dark to light gradient as I’ve done here:

Do not deselect the selection.

Step  6: Double click this layer, and apply the following blending options:

Do not deselect the selection.

Step 7: Create a new layer, by pressing CTRL+ SHIFT + N on your keyboard.

Your selection should still be active, if not hold down the CTRL Key on your keyboard, and click the layer named “Layer 1″.

Select Rectangular Marquee Tool. Now while holding down the ALT key on your keyboard deselect the bottom half of our selection as l’ve done here:

Step 8: Set your foreground color to white (#FFFFFF), select Gradient Tool(G) and set your gradient style to “foreground to transparent”:

Step 9: Now fill in this selection with our gradient, with a white to transparent, like I’ve done here:

Press CTRL + D on your keyboard to deselect the selection.

Step 10: Next press CTRL + T on your keyboard to get out the free transform tool.
Here’s how your screen should look:

Step 11: Now hold down the SHIFT + CTRL + ALT keys on your keyboard, place your cursor near the node (small square) in the bottom left corner of the box and drag it slightly inward as l’ve done here:

Press ENTER on your keyboard to finalize the transformation, result:

Step 12: Now press the V key on your keyboard to get out the move tool. and tap the DOWN ARROW on your keyboard once, to nudge the gloss down one pixel, result:

Step 13: Drop the opacity of this layer down to 80 percent as I’ve done here:

This should lighten it up, just a little bit.

Step 14: The only thing left to do is add some text. I select the 36pt Verdana, with the SHARP setting:

Here’s my final result:

Thank You!

Step 1: Create a new document of Default Photoshop Size.

Create a new layer and paste the leaf picture into it.

Step 2: Now get your Elliptical Marque Tool hold shift and drag so that you get a circle like this.

Step 3: Now go to Filter -> Distort -> Spherize.
You’ll get a popup window and then apply the settings given below:

Step 4: Get your marque tool and rightclick on the “marking” and press “select inverse”.

Step 4: This will mark everything else but your current “circle” or “sphere”, now press delete.

Now you should have something like this:

Step 5: Lets set some blending options to the layer.

Rightclick the layer you’ve got the sphere in and press “Blending Options” or just double click the layer and set the following settings.

Step 6: Now duplicate the layer so that you have 2 sphere layers. Create yet another layer between the two.

Step 7: Now press the newest sphere layer and merge it down to the empty layer by pressing ctrl+E

Step 8: Then get your Elliptical Marque Tool once more, but this time just make a marque that covers about 40 percent of the sphere like this. Use the gradiant tool to create a nice gradiant that goes from white to transparent.

Step 9: Go to Filter->Blur->Gaussian Blur and set the Radius to 3.9 pixels.

Now your sphere should look something like this:

Step 10: Now use the Dodge tool to lighten up some parts of the original “Sphere-layer”.

Step 11: When you’ve done this you’ll have to create a new layer that will be beneath all the other layers except the background layer. Here you will paste your original leaf picture.

Here’s my image after pest original leaf picture in a new layer:

Step 12: Now merge both sphere-layers by pressing Ctrl+E.

Step 13: Go to Edit in the menu then -> Transform ->Warp. Press+hold and drag your mouse down to the right, you can change the shape of water drop.

Step 14: Copy the water drop layer and change the shape by applying step 13

Here’s my final result:

Thank You!

Step 2: Create a new layer by pressing Ctrl+Shift+N, & rename this layer as “eye1 base”.

Step 3: Select the Eliptical Marquee Tool and draw a circle in the left eye of the monkey while holding SHIFT to get a perfect circle.

Step 4: Now fill the background with any color & press Ctrl+D to deselect it.

Step 5: Right click the “eye1 base” layer and choose Blending Options, use these settings:

Step 6: Create a new layer by pressing Ctrl+Shift+N, & rename this layer as “eye1 color”.

Step 7: Select the Eliptical Marquee Tool again and draw another circle over the last circle a litle smaller while holding SHIFT.

Step 8: Now fill the background with any color & press Ctrl+D to deselect it.

Step 9: Right click the “eye1 base” layer and choose “Copy Layer Style”.

Step 10: Right click the “eye1 color” layer and choose “Paste Layer Style”. We will use almost the same settings.

Step 11: Right click the “eye1 color” layer and choose Blending Options to change the color to blue:

Step 12: Create a new layer, & rename this layer as “eye1 black circle”.

Step 13: As before select the Eliptical Marquee Tool and draw a circle over the last circle a litle smaller. Fill the background with black color.

Step 14: Move the layers as per your satisfaction to get a funny eye effect.

Step 15: Duplicate the 3 layers to make the right eye in the same way and you are finished!

Here’s my original image of Black Monkey:

Here’s my final result:

Thank You!