Isolate the subject, create a glow

Now we've finished work on the background, and it's time to highlight our subject, and create her glow. Fitting, don't you think?

Now activate the view of your outlined subject. (Turn the layer on.) Cmd/click or ctrl/click the layer icon for her to generate a selection based on her outline. You should see racing ants appear. Now, choose Select > Modify > Expand and add enough pixels to cover at least part of the "glow" we'll be making. (There are other ways of doing this "glow" but this is the most straight forward and mechanical -- for a teachable moment.)

Creating a Custom Drop Shadow

THIS IS A SIMPLE WALK-THROUGH for producing drop shadows by hand. In some cases you'll want to know and understand this process because you'll need a shadow that does not "drop" from the entire object, or one that you can manipulate as a separate object rather than part of the layer as in the Drop-Shadow layer effect.

This is an object, rastered on its own layer.

simple object

The first thing we'll do is duplicate that object to another new layer. 

* Drag the layer to the "New Layer" icon at the bottom of the layers palette, or, 

* Use the "Float" command: Command/J, or Control/J for Windows.

Photo tricks: Depth of Field

Add Depth of Field to Perk up Dull Photos... 

Perk up Dull Photos...

The life of a designer is often complicated by customer supplied photos. Many times there's little you can do to save them. One rule you can always count on is. . .

Isolation

One of the tricks I've always depended on is isolation. You can almost always add drama or focus the readers' attention by isolating the subject of an image. While there are many ways to do this, in some cases the best way is through depth of field.

 

Photoshop: Crop with Aspect Ratio

PHOTOSHOP PHOTO CROPPING is an essential part of preparation of most photos. Photoshop's cropping tool helps you refine the impact and message of your photos by cropping them to the task. Using the Crop Tool, you can crop your photos to specific photo sizes like 4x6, 5x7 or 8x10 by entering the width and height values into the Options Bar before dragging out your cropping border. You can also select a preset crop size from the Preset picker. However, you need a shortcut for cropping while keeping the width-to-height ratio the same as the original.

Without even looking at the size of this image, we wanted to zero in on the girl and the boat while trimming out most of the unnecessary background. How???

 

GOOGLE Gotcha

All those who wanted to monetize their web sites had a big boost a couple of years ago when Google rolled out their AdSense program. I jumped on board, just like I jumped on the new upstart named "Amazon" when they first appeared on the scene. Amazon has cut its affiliates commissions back to near-oblivion, in the interest of their profits -- why did we think Google wouldn't do the same?

But, as it goes on the web, most players weren't content with running an honest web site with honest content. I've complained and complained to deft ears about how so many sites are 'cheating' by stacking their links and all manner of other tricks to increase their clicks. Google finally caught on.