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D E S I G N P H O T O G R A P H Y V I D E O E D U C AT I O N

THE HOW-TO MAGAZINE FOR EVERYTHING ADOBE SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2 0 0 8


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www.layersmagazine.com
DISPLAY UNTIL NOVEMBER 18, 2008
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'.S Design Makeover:
Bright Ideas—Jake Widman

((S Artistic Expressions:


Q J K J E H ? 7 B I S Reflecting Details—Bert Monroy

*&S The Digital Camera:


**S Adobe Photoshop Lightroom: Love That Daylight Fill-In Flash
Local Control—Chris Orwig —Rick Sammon

+&S Adobe Photoshop CS3 ,*S The Art of Type:


for Photographers: A Walk on the Wild Side
Mirror, Mirror—Seán Duggan —James Felici

+*S Adobe Photoshop CS3 ..S Digital Video Solutions:


for Designers: Custom Background Animation FW][(,
Repeat After Me—Dave Cross —Rod Harlan

+.S Adobe Illustrator CS3:


Feelin’ Groovy—Corey Barker
Q : ; F 7 HJ C ; D J I S Q E D J > ; 9 E L ; H S
,,S Adobe InDesign CS3:
Create an Interactive Portfolio .S Letter from the Editor Chris Clor has more than 27 years’ ex-
—Mike McHugh perience as a commercial photographer
'(S Layers News
working with clients such as Coca-Cola,
-(S Adobe Acrobat 9 Professional:
(,S The Digital Canvas Ford Motor Company, and DuPont. Chris
Optimizing PDFs—Taz Tally
uses color, contrast, and composition to
(.S Photographer Spotlight
-.S Adobe Dreamweaver CS4 tell a story with every image he produces.
Public Beta: '&.S Tips & Tricks Look for Chris’s unique imagery through-
CS4 Test Drive—Janine Warner out the magazine.
''(S Creative Suite Q&A
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.*S Adobe Flash CS3 Professional:
Out of the Box—Lee Brimelow
')&S Design Contest

/&S Adobe After Effects CS3:


You’ve Got the Key—Steve Holmes
Q H ; L ? ; M I S
/*S Adobe CS3 Production Premium:

(.
Great Green Screen and Virtual Sets '&&S Poser Pro—Bruce Bicknell
—Richard Harrington
CHRIS CLOR

'&'S NTI Media Maker 8 Premium—Dave Huss

'&'S DesignMerge for InDesign—David Creamer

'&(S Eric Meyer’s CSS Sculptor—Cyndy Cashman


Q 9 E L ; H  I J E H O S
'&(S BannerZest Pro—Cyndy Cashman
)&S Protecting What’s Yours
Are you a designer or photographer? If yes, then we’re willing to '&)S AKVIS Enhancer 9.2—Dave Huss
bet that you have at least one, if not hundreds, of your images
somewhere on the Worldwide Web. With today’s technology, it’s '&*S Sorenson Squeeze 5 Pro—Erik Kuna
more important than ever to protect your copyright. We show you
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all the steps you should take to do just that.—Rob Sylvan '&+S modo 302—Bruce Bicknell

'&,S Toon Boom Studio 4—Marcus Geduld

'&&
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'&,S deskUNPDF—David Creamer
),S Large Format: A Matter of Size
As a designer, it’s important to have the skills to design for any type
of media your clients throw your way, and that includes large-format
projects such as billboards and bus wraps. Learn the secrets of Whenever you see this symbol at the end of an article, it means there’s either additional material or a download
creating large designs with very small file sizes.—Corey Barker FW][)& for that story at www.layersmagazine.com. So be sure to visit the website and check it out.
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Q J K J E H ? 7 B I S
We’re always adding new tutorials to the Layers website,
so be sure to visit often. And don’t forget to sign up for our
graphics tip of the day and to read RC’s daily blog, Living
in Layers. Here’s a small sampling of some of the tutorials
that you can find at the site now:

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www.layersmagazine.com/category/photoshop
Retouching Eyes in Photoshop CS3 (Video): The eyes are
the most important part of your subject. Learn how to
remove a catch light, recolor, get rid of red streaks, and
much more.—Chris Alvanas

Q?BBKIJH7JEHS
www.layersmagazine.com/category/illustrator
Blending Gradients in Illustrator (Video): How do you make
a gradient in Illustrator bend to the shape you’re creating?
The answer can be found in the Blend tool.—Corey Barker

Creating 3D Shapes in Illustrator (Video): Need a really cool


background graphic? Create a stroke in Illustrator and apply
3D effects. We’ll show you how.—Corey Barker

Q<B7I>S

(.
www.layersmagazine.com/category/flash
CHRIS CLOR

Flash Buttons with ActionScript 3 (Video): Creating buttons


that call to URLs has changed from ActionScript 2. RC
explains these changes and guides you through the latest
version of ActionScript.—Rafael “RC” Concepcion
Q B 7 O ; H I  J L S
Hosted by Corey Barker and Rafael “RC” Concepcion
www.layersmagazine.com/tv Q:H;7CM;7L;HS
Be sure and join Corey and RC in their weekly video podcast. From www.layersmagazine.com/category/dreamweaver
killer tips and tricks to full-blown tutorials, Corey and RC cover all of Feathered Transparency with Photoshop & Dreamweaver:
your favorite print, Web, and video apps.
Most Web designers are very aware of the difficulties of
working with transparency, but with the latest technology
Q : ; I ? = D  9 E D J ; IJ S and CSS you can achieve some amazing transparency
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www.layersmagazine.com/designcontest.html effects.—Geoff Blake


Every issue, we have a new Layers Back Page Design Contest where you
can show us your skills. Be sure to visit the Layers website for all the details
and to see the cool prizes that you could win.
Q < ? H ; M E H A I S  NEW SECTION!
Q D ; M I B ; J J ; H S www.layersmagazine.com/category/fireworks
Fireworks CS4 Overview (Video): You’ve been asking for
www.layersmagazine.com/category/enewsletter
Want to keep up to date on all the latest tutorials on both the Layers web- Fireworks and we’ve delivered. In this 10-part video series,
site and in the magazine, as well as all the latest industry news? Visit the you’ll learn everything you need to know about the new
Layers website now and sign up for our monthly e-newsletter. Fireworks CS4 Public Beta.—Rafael “RC” Concepcion
&,
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T D P U U ! | ~ ! L F M C Z

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It wasn’t that long ago where if you created an illustration or produced a photo for a client, chances
were your final image would end up in print—a brochure, a flyer, an annual report, or maybe an
ad in a magazine. So the only person you were really concerned about stealing your work was your
client. You just wanted to make sure he didn’t repurpose or reuse your brochure cover image for a
direct mail piece or a nationwide ad campaign without first compensating you for the usage.
But today, more than likely your image is going to wind up at some point, in some form or another, on the Web—
usually with your consent (even if it was designed for the client’s brochure) and often under your direction. But now
you’ve got a new worry: You’re not just worrying about your customer misusing your image; you’re worried about your
customer’s customers (people who visit their website) using your images.
Although there’s a lot of pressure being applied in Congress, and plenty of talk about photographers’ rights and
changes to the copyright laws, I’m still amazed at how little (if anything) is being done to educate the public, or even
other designers, when it comes to what they can and can’t do with other people’s imagery. Because there’s so little

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information on the topic, and nobody is seriously trying to educate our industry or the public, the
best thing to do at this point is learn how to protect your images yourself.
That’s why our feature story this issue, “Protecting What’s Yours” (by Rob Sylvan), looks at some

i[h_ekibojho_d]je[ZkYWj[ strategies for protecting your images online, from registering your work with the copyright office to
watermarking your images, and even tracking down unlicensed uses of your work. It starts on page 30.
(Note: If you’re a photographer, make sure you check out two live interviews I did with intellectual
ekh_dZkijhoehj^[fkXb_Y" property attorney Ed Greenberg and photographers’ copyright advocate Jack Reznicki on my daily
blog, Photoshop Insider at www.scottkelby.com.)

j^[X[ijj^_d]jeZeWjj^_i Also in this issue, our own Corey Barker takes a look at designing for large-format output. (Corey
knows this topic inside and out; before he came to us, he worked at a large-format service bureau.)
We also have in this issue special guest writer, Mike McHugh, who not only works for Adobe as a
fe_dj_ib[Whd^emjefhej[Yj Creative Systems Engineer in Australia, but also hosts the podcast Creative Sweet TV, and is author
of the book, How to Wow with InDesign CS2. Mike has a fascinating tutorial on how to create inter-

oekh_cW][ioekhi[b\$S active PDFs right out of InDesign. This interactive design is really getting lots of buzz right now, so
if you haven’t had a chance to see what all the fuss is about, turn to page 66 to check it out.
In addition, Janine Warner gives you a tour of the recently released Adobe Dreamweaver CS4 Public Beta to get you
up and running fast (it starts on page 78).
One last thing: We’ve been continuing our popular “Designer Spotlight” column where we interview a designer or
photographer, and then showcase his or her work throughout the entire magazine. This issue, we’re honored to present
the amazing images of photographer Chris Clor.
Of course, all your favorite columns and tutorials are here, along with our reviews on all the latest gear and software from
a review team that has become one of the most trusted sources for straight, no-nonsense, to-the-point, product reviews. We
appreciate the trust you’ve put in us. Your support has helped the magazine grow and thrive, and I’m glad you’re with us
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as we head into the fourth quarter, where I’m thinking some very exciting things are headed our way. Can’t wait!

All my best,

Scott Kelby
Editor and Publisher

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!$  $ $ EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Scott Kelby

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$  ASSOCIATE EDITOR Mike Mackenzie
ASSOCIATE EDITOR Barbara Thompson
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ASSISTANT EDITOR Issac Stolzenbach
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TRAFFIC DIRECTOR Kim Gabriel


DYNAMIC MEDIA EDITOR Rod Harlan
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GRAPHICS/NEWS EDITOR Aaron Westgate
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All contents © COPYRIGHT 2008 Kelby Media Group, Inc. All rights reserved. Any
use of the contents of this publication without the express written permission of the


   publisher is strictly prohibited. Layers magazine is an independent journal not affili-
ated with Adobe Systems, Inc. Adobe, the Adobe logo, Acrobat, Adobe Premiere,
After Effects, Dreamweaver, Flash, Illustrator, InDesign, Lightroom, and Photoshop are

 
   either registered trademarks or trademarks of Adobe Systems Incorporated in


"2,+-/-0&/" +((&*$"!+2. 
the United States and/or other countries. All other trademarks are the property of
their respective owners. Some of the views expressed by contributors may not be the
representative views of the Publisher. ISSN 1554-415X
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Bepcf!bewbodft! Although search engines already index static text and links within
SWF files, RIAs and dynamic Web content have been generally difficult

!!!!sjdi!nfejb!tfbsdi!po!uif!Xfc to fully expose to search engines because of their changing states.


Moving forward, RIA developers and rich Web content producers
won’t need to amend existing and future content to make it searchable—
Adobe Systems Inc. is helping search industry leaders to improve they can now be confident it can be found by users around the globe.
search results of dynamic Web content and rich Internet applica- Google has already begun to roll out Adobe Flash Player technol-
tions (RIAs). The company is providing optimized Adobe Flash ogy incorporated into its search engine and can now better read the
Player technology to Google and Yahoo! to enhance search engine content on sites that use the technology, helping users find more
indexing of the Flash file format (SWF). The aim is to provide more relevant information when conducting searches. Yahoo! also expects
relevant automatic search rankings of the millions of RIAs and other to deliver improved Web search capabilities for SWF applications in a
dynamic content that run in Adobe Flash Player. future update to Yahoo! Search.

Bepcf!sfmfbtft!! Lightroom 2 gives users multiple viewing and comparison options,


as well as the ability to adjust and enhance color, exposure, and tone
Qipuptipq!Mjhiusppn!3 curves nondestructively on more than 190 RAW file formats. It also can
track image changes automatically, allowing users to explore possibili-
Adobe has released Photoshop Lightroom 2, the photographers’ ties and return to any version of a photo with a single click.
software for managing, adjusting, and presenting large volumes The estimated price is $299 for new users, with an upgrade price
of photos. Enhancements include dual-monitor support, advances of $99 for registered users. (For more information, visit the Adobe
in nondestructive localized image correction, and streamlined Photoshop Lightroom 2 Learning Center sponsored by the NAPP at
search capabilities. As Adobe’s first application to support 64-bit www.photoshopuser.com/lightroom2.)
operating systems, Lightroom 2
provides improved memory perfor-
mance for dealing with large images.
Lightroom 2 continues to improve
the digital photography workflow,
allowing photographers to batch pro-
cess, convert, and apply metadata to
photos upon import. The new Gradu-
ated Filter allows photographers to
create graduated areas of adjustment
MIKE MACKENZIE

over large portions of the image,


including Exposure, Sharpness,
Saturation, Clarity, and more.

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The Fireworks set comes with many different colorful designs,
to which users can apply effects, modify colors, and combine in
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! Gjsfxpslt-!Jmmvtusbups thousands of ways. The radial set also comes with documentation
hints and tips.
Graphicxtras.com is a resource site with hundreds of products for The company also released a new pack of 130 vector radial
use in Photoshop, Illustrator, Painter, and many other applications. symbols designs for use in Adobe Illustrator. The radial symbols
The company recently announced the release of 130 unique radial come in many different high-impact designs, and all the symbols
and solar symbols for Adobe Fireworks. are stored in native AI format. The set comes with documentation,
The new royalty-free symbols pack includes many different radial a gallery, and scripts. Users access them via the Symbols panel in
designs that are all stored in PNG symbols libraries format for use Illustrator, and they can be modified and turned into brushes.
in Fireworks and can be imported simply via the Libraries folder. Find out more by visiting www.graphicxtras.com.
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Nikon (www.nikonusa.com) introduced the D700 digital SLR
that offers several key features taken directly from the pro-
fessional D3 camera, but at a fraction of the price. The two
cameras share the same 12.1-megapixel CMOS full-frame
sensor; EXPEED processing chip; ISO range; 51-point
autofocus system with 3D tracking; 920,000-dot LCD
screen; and scene recognition system.
Despite sharing many of the D3’s features, the D700
is smaller, lighter, and significantly more affordable at
$2,999.95 for the body alone or $3,599.99 bundled with a
24–120mm VR lens, compared to $4,999.95 for the D3 body alone.
Nikon also rolled out the SB-900 Speedlight, offering higher light
xxx/qipuptipqvtfs/dpn0mjhiusppn3 output, wider zoom range coverage, and more advanced light-pattern
The Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 2 control than the popular SB-800. The new flash, which should be
Learning Center produced by the NAPP
available now for $499.95, offers three selectable light patterns and
the ability to move the flash tube and reflector system independently,
allowing the system to tailor the light pattern to match the subject.
In further camera news, Nikon introduced the new PC-E Micro NIKKOR
45mm f/2.8D ED and PC-E Micro NIKKOR 85mm f/2.8D lenses, expanding a
series of lenses that allows photographers to effectively correct perspective
and depth of field.
When shooting subjects, such as tall buildings, with a conventional lens,
composition often calls for tilting the axis of a camera. This can result in distor-
tion of converging lines. The PC-E NIKKOR lens shift control provides correction
for this type of distortion.
Their versatility makes these the perfect lenses for myriad applications, including photo-
xxx/mptuboeublfo/dpn graphing architecture, nature, interiors, and still-life, especially product photography.
High-quality, free textures for your graphic The PC-E NIKKOR 45mm and 85mm lenses should now be available for an estimated
design and photography projects price of $1,799.95 and $1,739.95, respectively.

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Canon (www.usa.canon.com) introduced the EOS Rebel XS, which Canon is marketing as an
entry-level digital camera for consumers looking to begin shooting with an SLR. According
to the company, the EOS Rebel XS was designed as a fast, nonintimidating, lightweight,
easy-to-use camera that produces excellent images and starts emerging photographers off
on the right foot.
The new model boasts an Optical Image Stabilized kit lens for crisp focus, as well as Canon’s
xxx/qtcsvtift/ofu0joefy/qiq DIGIC III image processor; 10.1-megapixel CMOS sensor; Live View; Auto Lighting Optimizer;
Photoshop brush sets from animals 7-point, wide-area autofocus (AF) sensor; and 3 frames-per-second continuous JPEG burst rate.
to outer space The estimated retail price is $699.99.
Canon also unveiled the new Speedlite 430EX II, which succeeds the 430EX. The new
model realizes an approximately 20%
reduction in recycling time
compared to its predeces-
sor. Like the 580EX II, the
430EX II allows users to
control flash functions
and input settings using
the camera’s LCD monitor,
and also offers a quick-lock
attachment system.
iuuq;00wfdupsuvut/dpn The new Canon Speed-
A blog and tutorial site covering vector- lite 430EX II will carry an
editing programs, such as Adobe Illustrator estimated price of $329.99.
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Atlanta, GA (September 22, 2008)
! tfdpoe!hfofsbujpo!Espcp!
For those managing and storing digital information, Data Robot-
Charlotte, NC (September 23, 2008) ics has launched the second generation of its award-winning
www.kelbytraining.com Drobo product. The enhancements include an upgraded core
processor; two FireWire 800 ports; dramatically increased USB 2
performance; and newly optimized firmware that addresses the
<EB?E0i^em(&&. needs of any user seeking a reliable method of managing vast
September 22–24, 2008 amounts of data without sacrificing performance. Drobo is ideal
for use as primary storage for media applications, such as photo-
Chicago Marriott Downtown
graphy and video editing, as well as secondary storage.
Chicago, IL The second generation Drobo is priced at $499 and also
www.foliomag.com/show08 comes in a 2-TB version for $899, and a 4-TB version for $1,299.
All are available for immediate purchase from www.drobostore
.com. For a list of vendors or to learn more about Drobo, visit www.drobo.com.
F^ejei^ef9I)9h[Wj_l_joJekh
September 23, 2008
Virginia Beach Convention Center
Virginia Beach, VA
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www.kelbytraining.com gps!Qipuptipq!boe!Bqfsuvsf
There’s a new black-and-white photographic plug-in from
Nik Software on the market. Silver Efex Pro, which runs under
F^ejei^ef9I)Fem[hJekh Adobe Photoshop and Apple Aperture, uses a range of advanced
Pittsburgh, PA (September 26, 2008) imaging algorithms that protect against unwanted artifacts. It
Covington, KY (September 29, 2008) also features a collection of 18 emulated black-and-white film
www.kelbytraining.com types, and a state-of-the-art grain engine that Nik claims will truly
mimic the silver-halide process for the highest quality black-and-
white images from scanned or digital color photographs.
F^ejei^ef9I)\eh Silver Efex Pro begins by presenting photographers with a basic
neutral conversion of their color image to black and white. One-
f^eje]hWf^[hiJEKH
click adjustments can be made from a choice of more than 20 pre-
Kansas City, MO (September 26, 2008) sets that emulate the most popular film types and shooting styles.
St. Louis, MO (September 29, 2008) In addition, color filters, variable toning controls (including sepia, selenium, split-toning,
www.kelbytraining.com and user-defined colors for maximum flexibility), and vignettes are included.
Additional sliders for global brightness, contrast, and structure, as well as smart filter
compatibility within Photoshop and multi-image support in Aperture, provide the ultimate
8[ij_dj^[IM0cej_ed&. level of control.
October 12–15, 2008 Silver Efex Pro is available for $199.95. For more information, visit www.niksoftware.com.
Albuquerque Hyatt Regency

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Albuquerque, NM
www.motionconference.com

fejujoh!qmvh.jo!gps!Bepcf!Jmmvtusbups
9h[Wj[9^Wei(&&. Artlandia, Inc. has released Artlandia LivePresets, a new plug-in that allows for simultaneous
October 13–17, 2008 interactive editing of multiple objects in Adobe Illustrator. By introducing a variety of formerly
Orlando World Center Resort “static” Illustrator presets, such as symbols and pattern swatches, LivePresets is designed to
Orlando, FL increase productivity and open new possibilities for the use of repeating design elements in a
wide range of applications.
www.createchaos.com/08
LivePresets allows the designer to interact with a single editable copy of the symbol and
apply edits simultaneously to all instances of the symbol in the artwork. Live pattern swatches
:_]_jWbL_Z[e;nfeM[ij supplied by LivePresets similarly allow for editing and modifications of repeat patterns.
In addition to live symbols and pattern swatches, LivePresets features unlimited snapshots
November 4–6, 2008
that are automatically added to the Symbols and Swatches panels in Illustrator, a special mode
Los Angeles Convention Center for insertion of new objects, instant linking and unlinking from the artwork, as well as support
Los Angeles, CA for editable complex objects in pattern swatches.
www.dvexpo.com More information is available at www.artlandia.com. 
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of Marketing, asked if Layers could come up with a more effective
design for the sheets.
Csige likes several things about the current sell sheets: the layout
is neat and clean, and the angled rules makes them look modern.

D anergy started in the renewable energy business about four


years ago, specializing in photovoltaics (converting solar
energy to electricity). In the U.S., they market their products to con-
But they’re inconsistent and not terribly eye-catching. One problem
is the color scheme. Because the current logo is red and blue, she
says, they had a hard time coming up with a background color to
sumers through catalogs such as Hammacher Schlemmer, in-flight work with it. They decided against green because it’s such a cliché
magazines, and televised home shopping networks. Outside the U.S., in the renewable energy field; the yellow they settled on is meant to
their markets are primarily in third-world countries, which they reach suggest sunlight, the source of the power for their products.
through organizations such as the United Nations or UNICEF. The corporate image Csige would like to project is informal and
The company also sends representatives to trade shows and friendly, but at the same time polished and high tech. “More Apple than
overseas trade missions where they distribute sell sheets describ- IBM,” she says. We gave three designers a pair of spec sheets and the
ing their products. Typically, several sell sheets will be inserted in cover of a four-page brochure and asked them to generate a new look
a folder with a cover letter. Eva Csige, Nanergy’s Vice President that could represent Nanergy’s efforts across the entire product line.

cfgpsf!! Brochure cover Sell sheet

= raphic design is about organized communication. In the case of


commercial design, it’s vital that information is clear and acces-
sible. The challenge is to distill simplicity out of complexity and reduce
My approach to the Always Light data sheet was to repeat elements
from the brochure for consistency, to soften the stark feel of the original,
detail to the essentials. and to organize the information and highlight the important details.
I started with the Solar Home Systems brochure cover. It needs Placing all the information into one vertical space, starting with a list
to entice viewers to investigate further—to make them interested in of product features and ending with the tech specs, makes it easy for
the product and to draw them in. I decided to take a magazine-cover someone who is scanning to find the most important points quickly.
approach, using large images and treating the product features as bold The background has a subtle grid pattern over a gradient tone that
“story subjects.” As for the design details, I tried to pull together ele- softens the look while adding a “technology” feel. This was my attempt
ments that subtly suggested the product and the brand: the translucent to address the slight conflict in the client’s request for a warm, casual
blue of photovoltaic panels, with bits of the logo swirl in the top bar image and a modern, high-tech look.
echoing the logo at the bottom. I set the type in Avenir Black, Medium, Nanergy makes some interesting and relevant products. I wish them
and Light for its modern feel and clean, easy-to-read characters. good fortune with their business.

Q 7 8 E K J  J > ;  : ; I ? = D ; H S
Sell sheet
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Greg started as a photographer in 1990. He worked for agencies and design studios shooting images for ads,
annual reports, lifestyle marketing pieces, and catalogs. The years of crafting images honed his eye for the
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important details. He found himself drawn to the entire design process, and a combination of self-instruction,
trial by fire, and a Design and Advertising Certificate program at Rhode Island School of Design enabled him
to expand his skills and services.
Going into business as gwcreative in 2000, Greg began to design and produce appealing, user-friendly, and effective websites,
print projects, and photography. He now stays busy with freelance work, wedding and event photography, and a day job as the
Brochure cover lead Senior Graphic Designer for GTECH Corporation’s Sales and Product Marketing Department in Providence, Rhode Island.
Sell sheet
He lives in Pawcatuck, Connecticut, with his wife and two teenage children, who are his favorite people in the world.

Q
Jake Widman is a writer and editor who lives in San Francisco. He’s been covering the intersection of computers and graphic design for about 20 years now—since back
when it was all called “desktop publishing.”
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Sell sheet front

Sell sheet

Sell sheet back


Brochure cover Sell sheet
The Always Light sell sheet was challenging if only for placing

D anergy’s current look is not only inconsistent among their mar-


keting materials, but also in communicating a clear brand mes-
sage (which starts with a suitable and successful logo). The original
Besides inconsistency, I thought the sell sheets suffered from lack
of hierarchy, poor interaction of elements, and weak use of photogra- Brochure cover
so much information in too small of a space. Our team decided to
transform the page into a two-sided one sheet; the front displays
the simplicity of the product and the back details the product speci-

M
phy. Nanergy’s mission combines compassion for humanity with envi-
logo’s brush stroke effect makes it look either artistic or handmade, ronmental awareness, and this became the force behind my concepts. hile reviewing the existing Nanergy marketing collateral, sev- fications. We capitalized on the fact that the product emits light to
and the colors are harsh and misleading. I set out to create a mark that I decided to use typography and negative space in a very pure and eral issues became very clear, most notably that the company make the top half of the front of the sheet (starting where the light
illustrates the main characteristics they use to describe themselves: simple manner to communicate an overall feeling of expansiveness and wasn’t capitalizing on aesthetic communications for green energy, is) a pale gray, while the bottom part of the sheet is dark to create
high-technology, environmental, polished, and people-focused. clean energy. I wanted the product sheets to organize the information, the product capabilities, or the refinement of solar technology. When contrast and ground the design.
My revised logo uses crisp lines that suggest energy being dispersed but have some dimension and hierarchy. I did this by establishing a you leave any piece of material with a potential customer it should The previous Solar Home Systems brochure cover also contained
as rays of light. The combination of bright green (representing both the grid, assigning levels of importance to type through size treatment, always be eye-catching and clever. The new design needed to be too much text. Continuing the clean and simple presentation estab-
environment and the vibrancy of the sun’s energy) and blue (symbol- and bringing out specific features in bold sidebars. The type in the modern, sleek, and refined, communicating to a market of sophisti- lished with the Always Light sheet, we removed all the product informa-
izing the sky and solar panels) evokes a feeling of freshness. I set the sidebar sits between parentheses and remains lowercase, maintaining cated customers with the interest and funds to invest in clean, green tion from the front of the brochure and simply showcased the product.
company name in lowercase Futura to complement the icon and pro- the techie-yet-friendly nuance. Different colors selected from the same energy for their homes and lifestyles. To accomplish this, we took a The information inside the brochure is presented in a similar format
vide a friendly but sophisticated tone. The rays-of-light theme is carried overall palette distinguish one product from another. I added images minimalist approach, drawing on Swiss Modernism, and reduced the as the back of the Always Light one sheet. The design should remain
through on the brochure cover where the use of ample negative space that evoke feelings of well-being and attention to the environment and color scheme to shades of gray and sky blues. The resulting design is consistent in this way between all collateral items, creating a standard
communicates an overall feeling of expansiveness and clean energy. the betterment of humanity. modern and elegant. design for the brand.

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Fueled by her passion for designing the art of meaningful communication, Cristy Vallee established her own DYKEMAN’s Graphic Design Services, located in Everett, Washington, provides clients with print, Web, and
design studio, vallee:design, in 2003. environmental design services. Notable clients include Safeway, ICON, Krispy Kreme, Top Foods, and Hous-
Cristy received her Masters of Fine Arts in Graphic Design from Boston University and worked as a designer ing Hope.
for a number of design studios, an advertising agency, an exhibit design firm, and as a freelancer. Her expe- Andrea Jensen has worked in the design industry for the last four years as a copywriter, marketing manager,
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rience covers a wide range of media, including branding, print and marketing collateral, and large-scale and graphic designer. Her myriad skills assist DYKEMAN Graphics in design, as well as business development
experiential design projects. Cristy also enjoys teaching graphic design at Bridgewater State College, where she’s continuously and marketing ventures. Andrea has worked with the Washington State Ferries, PEMCO Insurance, and the
reminded of the importance of meaningful and fresh design. Urban Mobility Group.
“What I enjoy most about design is the creativity and collaboration, but even more the point at which successful design does Michael Olson has worked in the design industry for the last eight years as a graphic and Web designer.
more than simply attract a viewer, but reaches out to inform and inspire. It’s at this point that I believe design shows its true strength As a graphics director at DYKEMAN Graphics, Michael contributes his award-winning talent and entrepre-
and power to ignite change and growth.” neurial experience. Michael has worked with PEMCO Insurance, Ignite Analytics, and the Diocese of Olympia.

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Making things look real is what I always strive for in
my work. I never guess at how something should
look: I really look at things in the world around me.
You might be tempted to make it up, but if you’re
off by even a tiny bit, that mistake will stand out and make the image
look wrong. So, if you want to create something realistic, study the
world around you. Understanding how things should look is a matter
of going through life with your eyes open. Raven

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In my studio, I have many objects and toys that serve as models when Pic n Pac
I’m trying to figure out how something will cast a shadow and how
it will reflect other objects around it. And reflections are what we’ll
focus on in this issue.
J N B H F T ; ! ª J TUP D L Q I PUP ! ! J M MV TU S BU J P O ; ! UB G G Z ! P S MP X T L J!

How you handle the surface of an object that you’re creating in


Photoshop will be determined by what it’s made of. Photoshop isn’t
a 3D application: it won’t automatically create shadows or reflections
within a scene. Sure, there’s a layer style that creates drop shad-
ows, but these are shadows cast by an object onto a surface directly
behind it. In a three-dimensional space, shadows take on a shape of
their own. For instance, an object sitting on a tabletop won’t cast a
shadow onto the air behind it; the shadow will travel along the surface
of the table. Also, if an object falls within the area where a shadow’s
being cast, the shadow will change direction and follow the shape of
the object blocking it. But let’s talk about reflections (we’ll cover the
Raven closeup
concept of shadows in more detail in a future issue).
If an object is made of glass, polished stone, or shiny plastic, it will you’ll see that I took the Pic n Pac painting and flipped it horizon-
reflect other objects that lie beside it. There’s no layer style, easy trick, or tally for the reflection. (Fortunately, no one has sent me an email [to
button to push to accomplish this. This detail needs to be handled with date] complaining that there’s no such place across the street from
a little effort and skill. You might say, “I’m a photographer, not a painter!” the Raven movie theater.)
But what if you’re combining two of your photographs into one and
they contain reflective objects? If a reflection doesn’t exist, the image is Nbojqvmbujoh!b!sfà!fdujpo
Pic n Pac closeup As mentioned above, there will be times that require some manipula-
Q?\oekmWdjjeYh[Wj[ lost and you’ll have to go in there and create the reflections.
Many times, it’s simply a matter of making a copy of the object and tion to make a reflection look right—the painting, marble and
flipping it horizontally to make your reflection. Other times, you have to Here’s the layer for the reflection: matches, at the top of the next page, is one of those instances. In the
iec[j^_d]h[Wb_ij_Y"ijkZo take your time and do a little manipulation to make it look right. a rough drawing I made with the closeup, you can see that a reflection of the matchstick is visible along
Brush tool, depicting a reflection the edge of the marble that faces it. The marble is smooth glass; the
j^[mehbZWhekdZoek$S Xjoepx0hmbtt!sfàfdujpot of me standing by my car taking the matchstick is right next to the marble; therefore a reflection is needed.
When the reflections are on a window, then they need to be subtle picture with my old Nikon camera. As The surface of the marble is rounded so it will distort anything
so as not to clutter the scene behind the window. Just a hint of a you can see, there’s not much detail; that’s being reflected onto its surface. Don’t believe me? Go look at
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reflection might be all that’s needed. This painting, Pic n Pac, at just enough to get the point across. a marble!
the top of the next page, was the first I created after I moved to In the Raven painting, the movie Here’s how to manipulate this: Duplicate the layer containing the
California in 1993. theater has a ticket booth that faces matchstick onto a new layer (Command-J [PC: Ctrl-J]). Then apply
The store has big, plate-glass windows in front and, in the closeup the street. It’s glass and of course, a spherical filter (Filter>Distort>Spherize) to the duplicate layer.
of the window facing the viewer, you can see the interior of the shop. it’s reflective. How did I create that One important consideration is that the Spherize filter creates the
There’s also a reflection from some object outside that’s out of our reflection? If you take a good look distortion outward from the center of the overall shape of a layer or
field of view. It’s not necessary to create that reflection from scratch. at the closeup of the ticket booth, selection. So, to get the proper distortion of the matchstick, place it
Reflection layer

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marble and matches Shoe Repair

offset it to the right, then lowered the layer opacity and clipped it
with the layer containing the orange plastic letter shapes.
But…there are places where the neon tubes are bent to either
travel under other tubes to form the letters or to connect them
into the sign. In these cases I had to do a little modification to the
reflection layer. The closeup below shows one of these instances.

at the far right of the layer being distorted before going into the
Spherize filter.
Next, lower the Opacity for the layer of the distorted matchstick
and place this layer in the Layers panel above the layer containing
the marble. Use the Move tool (V) to position the distorted match-
stick where the reflection should be in the marble. Then Option-click
(PC: Alt-click) on the line between the matchstick and marble layers Notice that the neon tube is bent to travel beneath another tube
to turn them into a clipping group and complete the effect. This will and then connect into the sign. The original reflection traveled in the
“clip” out any of the matchstick outside the marble. same direction as the tubes. The reflection of the tube being bent
toward the plastic has to look as if it’s being reflected outward to
Nbovbm!npejß!dbujpo meet the reflection of the bar connecting it to the sign.
At other times, it might require some handwork to modify the layer Another factor in this example is that you’re looking at it from
for a reflection. Say you wanted to show someone looking at himself an angle, which will cause the shape visible within the reflection to
in a mirror. If you duplicate the layer with the person on it and flip it appear longer than the tube that’s being reflected. Try this: Hold
horizontally, you’ll get that reflection; however, if the mirror is being your finger against a mirror so that it’s pointing at an angle similar
held at an angle, then you’ll need to distort the reflection. And if to the tube in the painting and you’ll notice that you can see more
the mirror is below the person, then you’ll need to do some major of the finger reflected in the mirror than you can see of the actual
work, because you’d see the bottom of the person’s chin and the finger. In the closeup, the angle and size of the tube has been modi-
nose in the reflection. fied to look the way that it should.
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In the example at top right, the Shoe Repair painting shows a


neon sign with the word “PAUL’S” suspended over orange plastic, So, is there a science to all this? Do you have to go out now and
which is smooth and thus reflective. The basic reflection was easy to study physics? No! Just study the world around you. Open your eyes
create: I simply duplicated the layer containing the neon tubes and and look at how things work. The answers are all out there.

[Bert Monroy is considered one of the pioneers of digital art. His work has been seen in many magazines and scores of books. He has served on the faculty of many well-known institutions, written
many books, and appeared on hundreds of TV shows around the world.
ALL IMAGES BY BERT MONROY
]
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Illustration: Z06 ] [ Personal Work ] [ Designer: Edward Eksi ] [ Software: Adobe Illustrator ] [ Website: www.edwardeksi.com

Illustration: Lethargy ] [ Personal Work ] [ Designer: Megan O’Brien


] [ Software: Adobe Photoshop CS3 ] [ Website: http://starsandtea.blogspot.com

Children’s Book Illustration: Mandy and Pandy and Their Friends


] [ Client: Mandy and Pandy Co. ] [ Designer: Ingrid Villalta
] [ Software: Adobe Illustrator ] [ Website: www.wallsforfun.com

Illustration: Follow You ] [ Personal Work ] [ Designer: Megan O’Brien


] [ Software: Adobe Photoshop CS3 ] [ Website: http://starsandtea.blogspot.com

©2008 MANDY AND PANDY CO.


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Children’s Book Illustration: Mandy and Pandy Visit Great Wall of China Design: Book cover for Whispers from the Bay
] [ Client: Mandy and Pandy Co. ] [ Designer: Ingrid Villalta ] [ Client: John Tkac ] [ Designer: Marcus Laurinaitis ] [ Software: Adobe
Illustration: Ghosts Lay Here ] [ Software: Adobe Illustrator ] [ Website: www.wallsforfun.com Photoshop CS3, Adobe Illustrator CS3 ] [ Website: www.firstteamadv.com
] [ Personal Work
] [ Designer: Megan O’Brien
] [ Software: Adobe Photoshop CS3 The staff at Layers magazine appreciates the time and effort involved in the creative process, no matter how large or small the
] [ Website: http://starsandtea.blogspot.com project. With this in mind, we offer you the opportunity to display your work on The Digital Canvas. Please submit your print, Web,
or packaging design (jpeg or eps format) to: cmain@layersmagazine.com. Please include name of piece, client name (if applicable),
Illustration: Jack Be Clever ] [ Personal Work ] [ Designer: Megan O’Brien applications used, and any website where our readers can view more of your work.
] [ Software: Adobe Photoshop CS3 ] [ Website: http://starsandtea.blogspot.com

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B O O J F ! | ~ ! D V T I J O H

Layers: Your images seem to tell a story. Do you stumble across these Layers: What applications do you work with regularly? Do you have
without forethought or strategically plot them out? a favorite?
Clor: I typically sketch an idea on paper first, then begin the process Clor: I use Photoshop CS3 the most for image editing, as well as
of photographing the individual elements and backgrounds. Some- Corel Painter for certain projects. For the computer generated (CG)
times I’ll come across unusual backgrounds, objects, or people, and elements you see in some of my work, I use Maxon Cinema 4D,
these will be the impetus for an image. I also have a cinematography 3ds Max, and Vue d’Esprit. I’ve been incorporating CG-rendered

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background and try to instill a cinematic feel in my work. elements into my work since 1993.

Layers: Do you have a typical workflow you use to process your images? Layers: Do you have a favorite lens you shoot with? If so, why?
was sporting an illustrative style long before digital manipulation was available. His photos are Clor: Of course, I capture in RAW for digital and process these in Clor: My favorite lens is my Canon 300mm f/2.8 IS lens. It is unbeliev-
products of his imagination and are sometimes dark and other times more humorous. Lush lighting and color dominate his work, which is often either Adobe Photoshop CS3, LightZone, or Canon software. I also ably sharp, and I always shoot it wide open. Unfortunately, I can’t use
described as cinematic. shoot film, utilizing a fluid-mounted, HDR-scanning technique that’s the 300 for everything. I have most of the Canon glass available but
incorporated into the scanning software. would have to say the 24–70 and 70–200 see the most use. They are
Layers: How long have you been working as a commercial photographer? How early did great workhorse lenses.
you know you wanted to be a photographer?
Layers: Do you rely more on lighting and camera settings
Clor: I’ve been working as a commercial photographer for more than 27 years. I became
or digital manipulation to achieve the signature high-
QIec[j_c[i?¼bbYec[WYheii interested in photography at the age of 12 and have had a camera in hand ever since.
contrast effect that marks your images?

Layers: How did you discover your current style? Did something in particular serve as Clor: It is really a combination of things. Generally, my
kdkikWbXWYa]hekdZi"eX`[Yji" the creative impetus? lighting is justified—meaning there is a natural or practical
source for the light to be there, not just edge lighting for
Clor: I did a lot of darkroom printing early in my career, learning from a master printer
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no apparent reason. The makeup, lighting, and contrast


ehf[efb["WdZj^[i[m_bbX[ who taught me how to interpret a negative and really understand it. Dodging, burning,
ratios are designed to support the digital manipulation
and color correction were always part of the creation of every print. Pulling detail from
later. This allows for the greatest degree of control in post-
shadows; darkening areas of the print to lead the eye to the subject; creating lush, beau-
j^[_cf[jki\ehWd_cW][$S tiful images that were often mistaken for paintings…This was the very beginning of what
processing. Contrast is added in various layers with masks
that are painted in or removed precisely. I build the color
has become the illustrative look evident in my work to this day.
in much the same way, utilizing many colors and overlays
I also used montage techniques and multiple exposures to create my compositions—
to define the palette.
yes, even during the film days. Now, of course, I use the computer to assemble the
images. But I rely on my earlier darkroom experience to guide my hand. [CONTACT] Chris Clor www.clorimages.com ALL IMAGES BY CHRIS CLOR

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I With Bridge and Photoshop, here’s how to create a metadata
SK

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KO template that contains your essential copyright and contact information
LOS
TK
MA
T (feel free to add more information) and easily apply it to all your photos:

1. Open a photo in Photoshop, or select one in Bridge, and go to


File>File Info to open that dialog.
2. Choose Copyrighted from the Copyright Status drop-down menu
and then enter your Copyright Notice and Copyright Info URL.
3. Select IPTC Contact from the list on the left side of the dialog and

What’s Yours
fill out all fields.
4. Select IPTC Status and fill out the Rights Usage Terms.
8OHE8IOBL7D 5. Click the flyout menu arrow at the top of the dialog, choose Save
Metadata Template, give it a name, and click Save. Then click OK
to close the File Info dialog.

In the future you can easily apply this metadata template to all your

Many designers and photographers use the Web to


work via that same flyout menu.

share their work with as many people as possible. But for hire”) without having to register it and without having to affix a
copyright notice on the work. Registering your work with the U.S.

once your images are on the Web, how can you protect Copyright Office creates a public record stating that you’re the
copyright owner. In this digital age, everything you can do to cement

them? Here are some of the best ways to safeguard the connections between you and your work is in your best interest.
While this won’t prevent your photos from being misused, it’s a

your copyright online. required legal formality before you can file a copyright infringement
suit. If you register your work within three months of publication, or
prior to an infringement, and a court decides an infringement took

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place, you’ll be able to recoup legal fees and punitive damages in
he Worldwide Web is awash in images and I expect that In trying to get a handle on how much of a problem unauthorized addition to actual damages. If you register your copyright after an
some are yours, as there’s probably not a digital camera image usage is, I spoke to Niran Amir, the Director of Marketing & infringement has taken place, your award is limited to actual dam-
owner out there who hasn’t shared a photo with a friend, Sales for PicScout (www.picscout.com), a company that specializes ages, which means your legal fees come out of your pocket!
If you’re using Lightroom, it’s just as easy to create a similar
family member, or the world via the Web. Whether uploading to your in using its proprietary image-recognition technology for finding You can register both published and unpublished work through
metadata template that you can apply to every photo as part of the
own website, a blog, a stock agency, or one of the many sites dedi- its client’s rights-managed images being used online in commer- the U.S. Copyright office (http://copyright.gov) by mail for a fee of
Import process. Here’s how to do that from the Import Photos dialog:
cated to sharing photos, once your digital photo leaves your computer, cial projects. (Their client list reads like a who’s who of stock photo $45 per registration. With an eye to the future, the Copyright office
it becomes part of the vast growing sea of intellectual property that is agencies.) All matches found by their Image Tracker technology are is now offering an online registration service called eCO (electronic
1. Click the Metadata drop-down menu and choose New,
the Internet. I couldn’t guess how many photos are out there, but if passed on to the client, and if a use is determined to be unlicensed, Copyright Office), which is intended to be faster and cheaper ($35)
which will launch the New Metadata Preset dialog.
you want to start counting, I can tell you that the 2-billionth photo PicScout will assist in recovering financial compensation for that use. than the traditional paper-based method. Go to http://copyright
2. Complete all the fields in the IPTC Copyright and IPTC
was uploaded to Flickr last November. Let’s just call it billions and bil- According to Niran, 80–90% of the matches they’ve found were ille- .gov/eco if you’d like to give this new service a try. Keep in mind,
Creator sections.
lions (to misquote Carl Sagan). gitimate uses. (I expected the percentage of unauthorized uses to be however, that you’re limited to a 30-minute upload session, so your
3. Enter a name in the Preset Name field and click Create.
high, but that’s a staggering figure.) Reasons for unauthorized uses connection speed will determine the number of photos you can
The ultimate honor system by image consumers include ignorance of copyright, mistakes in the upload per $35 fee.
We put our photos online for many reasons, from simply sharing image acquisition and approval chain, and plain old bad decisions.
moments of our lives to earning our livelihoods. The problem is While it may be impossible to prevent a determined person from Pros: Creates a legal public record of your copyright ownership,
that the very nature of making a photo viewable on the Internet using your work without your permission, there are a couple of things required before filing a lawsuit, and increases amount of award
involves putting it into the digital possession of the viewer. Imagine you should do to protect your work: Establish yourself as the copy- when infringement is determined.
a shopping experience where instead of going to a store to pick right owner; make it harder for the wrong people to use your work; Cons: Costs a nominal fee and takes some time.
what you want to buy, you could have every item delivered right to and make it easier for the right people to find and contact you when Verdict: So, what are you waiting for?
your house for free, but with the understanding that you’d pay for they want to use your work with your permission. Compromises
the items you keep and throw everything else in the trash. That’s an may have to be made and costs considered, and although not every Embedding metadata
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extreme example of the “ultimate honor system,” but kind of how solution will be suited for every place you upload images, it’s best to Okay, I’ll be the first to admit that it’s all too easy for the end user to
the Internet works. focus your attention on the areas that are within your control—right strip out the metadata, but just because someone could remove it,
Even the act of displaying a photo on a monitor puts it a screen before you click the Upload button. shouldn’t prevent you from including your copyright notice and con-
capture away from being saved by the viewer, and a digital file can be tact information in every photo that leaves your computer. Plus if you’re
reproduced an infinite number of times without loss of quality. All the Register your copyright using Adobe Photoshop, Bridge, or Lightroom to manage your
files you view in a webpage are saved into a special file on your com- According to U.S. Copyright law, you own the copyright to your photos, you already have the means to add this to your workflow at
puter (the browser’s cache), which is periodically cleared out. original work the moment it’s created (assuming it’s not a “work no additional cost.

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You’ll see that your preset name appears sion. On the Web, the resolution of a photo is simply a function Pros: Easy to implement, resulting in smaller file size, which leads to
in the Metadata field back on the Import of its pixel dimensions (that is, x pixels long by y pixels wide). You faster upload time and less storage requirements.
dialog, which means that information will may often hear people say, “Only put photos at 72 ppi on the Web,” Cons: Too small size can reduce visual impact.
be applied to the metadata of all your but the term “ppi” (pixels per inch) is meaningless in regards to Verdict: Err on the side of being a little too small.
imported files. Just make sure that you Web display; it’s just a metadata tag that tells a printer how large to
always select that preset on future print a given photo. Onscreen, however, it’s pixel dimensions that JPEG over-compression
imports as well. determine the size (and usefulness) of the photo. While I’m not a big fan of this method, it’s used often enough that we’ll
Of course, the key here is not to For example, if you take a photo that’s 800x600 pixels into address it here. Some people use the lossy nature of the JPEG-compres-
strip this data out when saving your Photoshop and open the Image Size dialog (Image>Image Size), sion algorithm as a means to slightly degrade the photo in an attempt to
JPEG file destined for the Web. In you can uncheck the Resample Image box and set the Resolu- decrease its usefulness to others. While this can be effective to a certain
Photoshop, if you choose File>Save tion field to any number you desire. Let’s say we set it to 300. All extent, I find that degrading the photo quality usually runs counter to
As, then all the metadata is pre- we’ve done is set the document size to print that photo at 300 most reasons for why you’d put the photo online in the first place. It may
served, but if you choose File>Save ppi—the photo’s still 800x600 pixels. also give the impression that the quality of the original file is poor, which
for Web & Devices, only your copyright is the last thing you’d want people to think.
notice and copyright URL are left in Saving images as JPEGs is part and parcel of putting them online,
the metadata, unless you check Include There are a slew of free watermarking tutorials for Photoshop so choosing a compression level will always come into play. Generally
XMP from the Save for Web & Devices out there (including some at www.layersmagazine.com). Just do speaking, you always want to use as much compression as possible to
flyout menu. In Lightroom, just remem- a search for “watermark.” But the simplest way is to use the Type reduce file size (which has ramifications for file storage and bandwidth),
ber to leave Minimize Embedded Metadata tool (T) to enter the © symbol and your name. (To create the copy- but without introducing visible JPEG compression artifacting. If you
unchecked on the Export dialog, or it will leave right symbol, just press Option-G [PC: hold the Alt key and enter want to use artifacting as a theft deterrent, then you’d add a little more.
only your copyright notice, usage terms, and 0169 using the numeric keypad]). This is very subjective and you, as the artist, need to be satisfied with
copyright URL in the exported copies. Tip: If you When exporting photos from Lightroom, you can leverage how your work is displayed.
do need to strip out all but the copyright notice and the copyright metadata you already entered and check the Add The Save for Web & Devices dialog in Photoshop is great for getting
copyright URL for certain uploads, make sure there’s Copyright Watermark box on the Export dialog. This pulls the a visual on the effect of the amount of JPEG compression being applied.
adequate contact information for you at the copyright URL data you entered in the Copyright field and displays it as a small It even has five JPEG presets (Low, Medium, High, Very High, and
you designate. white watermark on each exported photo. For a more configurable Now, keep Resample Image unchecked and change the Maximum) that correspond to the Quality setting being used. The High
watermark option from Lightroom, I highly recommend the LR/ Resolution to 72 to set the document size to print that photo at preset uses a Quality setting of 60, which is often a good starting point,
Pros: Embeds your name and detailed contact information into the Mogrify Export plug-in (donationware) at http://timothyarmes.com/ 72 ppi. But it’s still the same 800x600-pixel image we had before. as it reduces file size quite a bit with minimal artifacting. You can then
photo, no cost involved, and easy to incorporate into your workflow. lrmogrify.php. And there are also low-cost watermark applications Nothing about the pixels has changed. adjust the Quality slider as needed. Here’s an example at the Low setting
Cons: It’s not permanent and easily removed after it leaves your control. for both Mac and Windows, such as iWatermark (http://scriptsoft- that works as advertised. Note: I’m referring specifically to settings used
Verdict: Make it part of your workflow now. ware.com/iwatermark) and Dropwatermark (http://dropwatermark for displaying your work, not for delivering to a client or stock agency
.com) that are great for batch watermarking large groups of photos. where high quality trumps file size and minimal compression is desired.
Adding a visible watermark
With the legal formalities out of the way, the next consideration is Pros: Literally puts your name on your work where people can
the application of a visible watermark, which can be anything (name, see it, and there are lots of options for how it looks.
logo, copyright symbol, etc.) that’s placed somewhere on the photo Cons: Can detract from the eye appeal of the photo; may not be
and “burned” right into the pixels. Ideally, adding a watermark appropriate for every place you upload photos to; and can be
should serve three purposes: making the photo less useful to those digitally cropped or removed.
who may download it; stating that it’s copyrighted; and identify- Verdict: Do it when you can, and as appropriate for that outlet.
ing the copyright owner. According to Carolyn E. Wright (a.k.a. the
Photo Attorney), a simple watermark that includes the copyright Diminish usefulness
symbol and your name works great to achieve those ends. Think of with diminished sizes If you saved a copy of that photo at 300 ppi and another copy at
it as digitally “signing” your work. With that kind of visible notifica- People can only use what you make available. The usefulness of a 72 ppi and put them both in a webpage, they’d both take up exactly
tion embedded in the image, it reduces the number of people who photo decreases as its pixel dimensions decrease, and of course 800x600 pixels onscreen. There would be absolutely no difference
can claim they didn’t know it was copyrighted; it further cements the eye appeal decreases at the same time. The sweet spot you’re in the quality of the two photos and anyone who downloaded either
the connection between you and your work; and it may facilitate the looking for is just large enough to meet the needs for which you’re one could just as simply set the resolution to any value just as we did.
mmm$B7O;HIC7=7P?D;$Yec

right people making contact with you for legitimate uses. uploading the image—and no larger. Whether you’re making So, how large is large enough will vary with your needs. After
Three key variables to consider when applying a watermark are: comps available to potential customers, posting photos to Flickr, polling some of the staff at Digital Web magazine (thanks to Nick
size, location, and opacity. While you want to deter people from or uploading them to your blog, the reason you’re uploading the Fink and Matthew Pennel), a slew of photographers, and the Photo
stealing your photos, you don’t want to turn off your paying custom- image is the determining factor in how big is big enough. Attorney, the dimensions of 800x800 pixels seemed to emerge as
ers, so finding that sweet spot between just enough and too much Before we go any further, there’s a huge point of confusion the upper limit you should consider making images available for Lightroom doesn’t offer a visual during export, but it does use the
is a subjective decision that we each have to make. around the word “resolution” that often enters this type of discus- display purposes. same 0–100 quality scale, so start with 60 and check your results.

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Pros: Reduced file size, speeds upload time, and decreases storage any work on the Web that you absolutely wouldn’t want to see
demands. used without your permission, you shouldn’t be afraid to share your
Cons: Too much compression can degrade visual impact. work with the world. Just remember that the power to protect
Verdict: Use with caution, as you don’t want to give the wrong impression. your copyright starts with you.

Finding your photos in use


Okay, so you’ve registered your copyright, embedded your metadata, Resources
applied a conspicuous (but not too obtrusive) watermark, resized
Copyright Office: http://copyright.gov
the photo to a size you feel will get the job done, applied a suitable
Photo Attorney: http://photoattorney.com
amount of JPEG compression, and released your photo to the wilds
of the Internet. Now what? How will you know if they’re used without Picture Archive Council of America’s Copyright Education
your permission? Admittedly this isn’t an easy task but there are some Program: http://pacaoffice.org/library.shtml
interesting technology solutions available. PicScout: www.picscout.com
We already mentioned PicScout and if you’re a photographer deal-
TinEye: http://tineye.com
ing with rights-managed work and not already using the service (or not
submitting work to an agency that is), you might want to consider giving
it a test drive. There are fees involved but there’s also great potential
Don’t Orphan Your Work!
to recoup losses on unauthorized usages. Go to www.picscout.com to
Have you heard about the Orphan Works bill that’s cur-
learn more.
rently moving through the House and Senate? The goal
For the rest of us, there’s an interesting alternative called TinEye of this bill is “to provide a limitation on judicial remedies
that’s currently in private beta release. This image search engine uses its in copyright infringement cases involving orphan works,”
own proprietary image-recognition technology to compare your photos which has huge implications for all copyright owners.
against its (growing) search index of images found on the Web. TinEye The original bill was born in 2006 after the U.S. Copy-
is constantly building its search index by crawling the Web and analyz- right Office released a study of the problems related to using
ing each image it encounters. With more than 1 billion images already so-called orphan works (meaning copyrighted material whose
indexed, Leila Boujnane (the co-founder and CEO of TinEye’s parent owners are considered impossible to identify and locate);
company Idée) expects to have tens of billions of images indexed by for example, an archive of photographs owned by a museum
2009. To use this technology, you just upload a photo, paste in a link, that lacks any identification of the copyright owner. The concern
or use a browser plug-in to quickly search the Web to see if your image is that fear of litigation over copyright violations keeps these
is found. Head over to http://tineye.com to learn more and request an works from being shown, reproduced, and used in new
invite. The days of wondering where your images are used online will creative works by those who would be willing to get permis-
soon be over. sion and pay the copyright holder—if they could find them.
Although the original bill died in subcommittee back in 2006, a
Putting your photos on the Web involves a series of decisions and com- new orphan works bill was drafted in 2008.
promises, but there’s a lot to be gained. While you should never put Advocates of the bill want to be able to use these
orphaned works after performing a diligent search for the
copyright owner, without fear of having to pay punitive
damages if the copyright holder comes forward; while
opponents of the bill feel it’s an encroachment on the rights
of copyright holders. The main concern expressed by those
opposed to the bill is that it’s too easy for works to become
orphaned in this digital age, and there’s no satisfactory way
to search for and find the copyright owners.
While the fate of the bill has yet to be determined, there is a
prevailing opinion that some form of an orphaned works bill will
be passed in the future. Whatever the outcome, it’s in your best
interest to take all possible steps to keep your work from being
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orphaned in the first place. Go to the U.S. Copyright Office


website (www.copyright.gov/orphan) to learn more about the
origin of the bill and complex issues surrounding it.

[ Rob Sylvan is a Help Desk Specialist for the National Association of Photoshop Professionals, host of Peachpit’s Lightroom Reference Guide, author of Lightroom for Dummies
and Site Director for iStockphoto. Check out his Lightroom tips and tutorials at lightroomers.com.
[
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IMAGES: ISTOCKPHOTO ILLUSTRATION: NICOLE PROCUNIER
By Corey Barker

Over the past several years we’ve been inundated with really
big images. They’re everywhere: billboards, buses, banners,
even on the sides of buildings. Of course, large-format print-
hen it comes to file preparation of
The Eye Plays Its Part
ing is nothing new (it’s been around for quite some time) but large-format imaging, there’s a differ- When you’re getting started on a large-format project, the very first
it seems until recently that it was the domain of only those ent mode of thinking. The traditional thing you must consider is how you got into this mess (just kidding)!
rules of file dimension and resolution No, you must first consider the viewing distance, which is perhaps
with virtually unlimited advertising budgets. Even today, used in standard offset printing don’t the most critical aspect of how you go about preparing your file.
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while the technology has improved tremendously, the process- necessarily apply. Where traditional
print methods have you working in
When I was working in large format several years ago, this was
always one of my first questions to the client. So let’s consider the
and-materials cost can be very high. So, if you’re going to the 300-dpi (dots per inch) range, large format basically reverses aspect of “viewing distance” for a moment.
that thinking altogether. This is where a number of traditional print The human eye is a curious and fascinating piece of biology: perhaps
venture into large-format production (or even if you just designers and desktop publishers find themselves in unfamiliar one of our most sophisticated and, at the same time, one of our
want to get a little more familiar with it), then you’ll want to territory. There’s a common misconception that bigger files need
more resolution than normal print jobs—this is simply not true. All
most flawed organs. That’s because the human eye is easily fooled,
especially when it comes to viewing color and tones. Consider a
learn some of the basic aspects. this does is give you a really huge file size. rainbow, for example: When you see a rainbow in the sky, it really

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isn’t there. The mist in the air from a rainstorm is bending the light Try it yourself: When you’re out in the world, get really close to art into a working Illustrator file but this would be a resolution-
that’s passing through it (like a prism), which in turn makes the a large print and examine the quality. It most likely doesn’t look dependent element that will print using the resolution settings from
spectrum visible. But here’s the kicker: It’s only visible to a processing that great. Then move away and look at it from a normal viewing the original file. Also, embedding raster art in an Illustrator file will
system like the human visual system, which can detect the sporadic distance. Simply put, the perceived resolution decreases the closer result in a ridiculously huge file size, which will take much more
wavelengths of light and generate the multicolored rainbow that we are, and increases as we move farther away. time to RIP (see “RIP What?” below). So you’ll want to use Illustrator
we all know. The point is that our visual system is responsible for It helps the large-format designer, therefore, to be aware of the for sharp, clean graphics and text and Photoshop for photos and
meeting us halfway by processing and rebuilding what we see. human visual system. When you find yourself in heavily populated continuous tone images.
Everything we see in the world is merely reflected or transmitted areas (big cities), take a really good look at the billboards, bus
light. The dimension and color of objects is the result of varying wraps, and mural prints and think about where they’re located. The
What Do I Save the File As?
wavelengths of light that enter the eye. production artist has considered the location and set up the file
Detail is lost, however, in an object seen at a great distance accordingly. If a large mural print is at eye level, then it’s been Well most typically, a TIFF or EPS file would be the preferred format
because, as your angle of vision to that object becomes narrower, output at a higher resolution than say, a billboard that’s 100' in the to save to, but you’ll want to contact your printer to determine
the eye cannot distinguish details, and simply clumps them together. air. Yet somehow they both have the same sharpness and detail. their file specs. And always save a copy. Don’t flatten your original
Now if the image is going to be viewed from a considerable distance—
The science of a large-format imaging exploits this visual phenom- That’s our remarkable and flawed human eye at work. file and then send it to print. Always keep an editable version
say 10' or more—then we can certainly decrease the resolution
enon to achieve its apparent clarity. somewhere. Believe me, you don’t want to have to rebuild a bus
to around 100 dpi. Now you’re looking at a 200-MB file. On some
Say you’re driving down the interstate and see a really cool wrap design.
occasions, you can go even lower than that. This is where some
billboard with a seemingly sharp photo. You may be surprised to
designers start to get nervous, but they don’t need to worry. Just
know that if you stood 3' away from that billboard, you would see
remember that the dot size is relative to the viewing distance. The
that the image is made up of very large scattered dots and the image
itself is barely distinguishable. Yet from 50' or more away, it appears
closer your viewer will be to the image surface, the smaller the dots RIP What?
need to be; the farther away he is, the larger the dots. Relative to What’s a RIP? Ah yes, the RIP. And no, it doesn’t mean,
sharp and colorful. Why is this? It’s because the clarity of this image
your eye, the dot is the same size.
relies on the functions of the human visual system. The farther we “rest in peace,” although many professionals who use
Just to give you an idea, a friend of mine recently completed a
are from the image, the narrower our angle of vision becomes to
banner print that was 6x84' and he set the Photoshop file at 20 ppi large format probably think it should. Anyway, RIP
that image and the dots appear to combine, resulting in a sharp stands for Raster Image Processor. It’s a computer
(he could get away with this because the banner was going to be
image. Conversely, as we get closer to an image, we can see more
viewed from 25' or more), which resulted in a file size of approximately system that’s either built into your large-format

COREY BARKER
details and the dots making up the image become visible. So the
85 MB. Now that’s a much more manageable size of document. printer or a standalone PC.
closer an image is to be viewed, the more resolution or dots per
That same file at 300 ppi would create an 18-GB file!
inch (dpi) are needed to make the image appear sharp and colorful. What does it do? It takes your final file and renders
You can also keep in mind that if you’re using Photoshop to build
your large-format file, Photoshop will only handle a maximum pixel
it to create the final print file for your specific printer.
dimension of 300,000x300,000. And since Photoshop CS, there’s a Because there’s a tremendous amount of data to
File Preparation process, it necessitates its own system—especially
Content and Design large-document file format designated PSB, which will support your
So why does the preparation of files for large-format output seem large files while maintaining layers, styles, etc. if you’re using a printer with more than the traditional
It isn’t just the viewing distance that needs to
to have traditional print designers scratching their heads in perplexity? four CMYK colors. Most large-format inkjets can have
be considered; it’s also the content and design Let’s consider how viewing distance factors into how we set up a
of the image. The interesting thing about large Photoshop file for large-format output.
What about Adobe Illustrator? up to 12 colors, sometimes more. The RIP station
needs to basically separate all the color plates inter-
format, especially when it comes to billboards Let’s say that we have a client who wants a 4x12' full-color banner We know that Photoshop is a pixel-based application, which means
with photos and text. The first thing to consider is: Where is the final that it’s resolution-dependent (you may have heard that term before). nally and tell which print heads to print where on the
and vehicle wraps, is that you have only a few
image going to be located and how far is it going to be viewed On the other hand, Illustrator is a vector-based application, which substrate. So as you can probably tell, an 85-MB file
seconds to grab the viewer’s attention. This
from? Well if it’s going to be viewed from less than 3' (like a wall means that it’s resolution-independent. will RIP much faster than an 18-GB file.
makes your design choices more critical. mural), then we’re going to need some detail in there—around
Here’s what to consider: 150–200-ppi (pixels-per-inch) Resolution. So a Photoshop file at
t.FTTBHJOH What do you want to say and 48x144" and 150–200-ppi will give us a file between 400 and 800 MB.
That’s a lot of data because there are so many dots in a single Of course, if you’re looking to outsource your project to a large-
what is the quickest way to say it?
square inch. format printing company, they’ll always be happy to answer your
t$PMPST are critical; the more contrast you have, questions. You should always find out what type of printer they’re
the more readable your image will be. using and how they want the files set up. The more they can sort
out on the front end, the less difficult the job is on the back end,
t*UTCFTUUPBWPJEDMVɆFS Don’t confuse people. and then everyone can see the big picture.
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Pixel-based art Vector-based art


You want it simple, clear, and to the point. Just
hook ’em and incite interest. You don’t have to There’s a wealth of information on large-format printing but we
Vectors are geometric shapes based on mathematical equations, could only fit a few of the basics in this article. My hope is that this
pour out your entire mission statement on a which means that they can be scaled to virtually any size without has provided a good primer for you to approach a large-format
billboard. Keep it simple. even the slightest loss of quality. So if you can get away with designing project with a little less confusion.
for large format with all-vector art, you’ll get very high-quality art
Corey Barker is an Education and Curriculum Developer for the National Association
and a very manageable file size. Here’s the caveat: This only applies of Photoshop Professionals. His expertise in Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Illustrator
to vector art. Yes it’s true: You can import raster- or pixel-based has earned him numerous awards in illustration, graphic design, and photography.

).
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Some newer digital SLRs provide darn good daylight fill-in flash

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Q J>;:?=?J7B97C;H7S pictures when the camera is set to the Aperture Priority mode; how-
ever, the aforementioned easy method offers more control over the
S J D L ! | ~ ! T B N N P O
scene’s lighting. If you want to darken the background, increase the

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shutter speed or f-stop so less available light reaches your camera’s
sensor. The flash exposure of your subject will remain the same (as
long as you’re within the flash’s range).
If you think that using daylight fill-in flash isn’t worth the effort,
here’s an example of what happens when you don’t use a flash and
Technically speaking, every picture in this issue of
simply set your camera to Program mode and point and shoot in a
Layers has the same main subject: light. Therefore,
backlit situation.
when we take a picture, all we’re doing is record-
ing light. It may sound simple but in reality, it’s not
that easy. Here’s why.
Our eyes have a dynamic range of about 11 f-stops, which is
why in a high-contrast scene we can see details in shadow areas
and highlight areas aren’t washed out. Our cameras, however, don’t
“see” exactly what we see. Digital cameras have a dynamic range of
about five f-stops. Sure, we can expand that range in Photoshop—
Here, I set the shutter speed at 1/125 to prevent camera shake
and expand it greatly with high dynamic range (HDR) photos, as
and subject movement. You’ll understand why I’m telling you this
illustrated by my Photoshop buddy Ben Willmore in his lectures,
when you see the motion blur example later in this article.
books, and articles.
Expanding the dynamic range of an image is only one option
STEP TWO: Turn on your flash and set it to TTL (through-the-lens,
to getting a good exposure: compressing the contrast range of the
automatic exposure). Now, on your flash (or in-camera), reduce the
scene is another. Photographers basically have three techniques for
flash output by –11/3. Take a shot and check your camera’s LCD moni-
compressing the contrast range of a scene: use a diffuser to soften
tor. If the subject is too dark, try setting the flash output at –1 or even
shadows; use a reflector to fill in shadows; and use a flash or several
–1/2. If the subject is overexposed, reduce the flash output until you
flashes to fill in shadows.
get the correct exposure. For my daylight fill-in flash portrait, I had
In this issue, we’ll explore using a single flash for what’s called
my flash reduced to –11/3.
daylight fill-in flash photography. To illustrate the technique, I’ll
share some photographs that I took on my recent photo workshop
to Papua New Guinea. The photographs were taken with my Canon
EOS-1Ds Mark III, Canon 24–105mm IS zoom, Canon 580EX II flash, EpoÖu!gpshfu!uif!bddfttpsjft
and Canon ST-E2 wireless transmitter. We can add to the natural look of our flash pictures by using a
diffuser over the flash. For this portrait (of the security guard at the
Cbmbodjoh!mjhiu
Q?jZe[id¼jbeeab_a[W Check out the picture of a Huli Wigman that opens this column. It
Ambua Lodge where our group stayed), I used the Micro Apollo
flash diffuser from Westcott (www.fjwestcott.com) that attaches to
doesn’t look like a flash picture because the light from the flash is the flash head with Velcro. A flash diffuser softens and spreads the
ÅWi^f_Yjkh[X[YWki[j^[ balanced to the ambient (available) light. Actually, that’s my goal light, which is useful when taking wide-angle photographs.

when I take flash pictures (indoors and out): I try to balance the
b_]^j\hecj^[\bWi^_i light so my pictures don’t look like flash pictures—pictures with
harsh shadows.
XWbWdY[Zjej^[WcX_[dj Following is the simple technique, illustrated with three pictures

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I took of a woman who lives in a remote village on the Sepik River.
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STEP ONE: Set your camera on Manual and adjust the shutter
speed and f-stop for the correct exposure of the background or
surrounding area. As illustrated in this backlit picture, the back-
ground will be correctly exposed but the subject will usually be too
dark. Keep in mind that the brighter the background, the darker
the subject.

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An essential accessory for the serious daylight fill-in flash shooter is Of course, the motion blur picture was not my first attempt to
a wireless transmitter. A transmitter fits in the hot-shoe of the camera create this effect during the photo session. I had to experiment with
and triggers a flash (or flashes) remotely. One advantage of wireless different slow shutter speeds and moving the camera at different
flash photography is that you have more control over where the light speeds to get the desired effect. If you like this technique, plan on
from the flash falls (i.e., the direction of the light). In this example, taking more than a few shots to get just the effect you want.
taken during a sing-sing (local festival), I positioned the flash high
above my head so that the light from the flash didn’t overexpose the
foreground elements (the shoulders of other Huli Wigmen).

As you can tell, I’m big fan of daylight fill-in flash. In fact, I never
leave home without two flashes and two wireless transmitters because
I always want backups.
I’m also a big fan of Papua New Guinea, mainly because the
country offers unlimited on-location portrait opportunities. I’m not a
big fan, however, of the travel time to and from Papua New Guinea:
basically 2.5 days each way. What’s more, the malaria medicine
(mefloquine) produces very strange dreams, and Imodium A-D kinda
dries you out. It’s great fun being a travel photographer!

We can also use daylight fill-in flash


to add a sense of motion and drama
to a still picture. In the sharp shot of
the Huli Wigman warrior at the right
(he’s actually a nice guy!), I used a
shutter speed of 1/125 to ensure no
subject blur. In the motion blur shot
(honestly not created with the Motion
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Blur filter in Photoshop), I set the shut-


ter speed to 1/15 and, just before I took
the picture, started to move the camera
from left to right.

[ Rick Sammon’s newest book, Face to Face: The Complete Guide to Photographing People, offers more tips on daylight fill-in flash pictures. Rick’s “On Location Photography”
class on Kelby Training (www.kelbytraining.com) also touches on this all-important topic.

ALL IMAGES BY RICK SAMMON


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Flow Amount 25
Same Brush, Same Effect — Lowered Exposure. Different Amount of Brush Strokes.
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Brush Strokes
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So what exactly is Flow? Recently, someone described Flow as “Flow- The brush Density controls the overall intensity, or transparency, of
pacity,” alluding to the idea that Flow works like Flow+Opacity in the effect. Think of this control as the “Boss” that has the final say in
Photoshop. In technical terms, Flow controls the rate of application of the matter. For example, if you have a low Flow amount and paint
the adjustment, and controlling Flow is essential for making seamless brushstrokes multiple times (as in the previous step), you can only
adjustments. Therefore, you can use a low Flow amount and then build up the effect as high as the Density control, which “trumps” or
paint back and forth to build up the effect for a more natural look. In determines all of the other controls’ overall strength. In this example,
this example, a low Flow amount of 25 was chosen and additional the Size, Feather, and Flow are identical. The only difference is that

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brushstrokes of the darkening effect were progressively painted in the Density is lower on the left and higher on the right.
from left to right.

There’s a groundswell of excitement surrounding the new local correction tools (Adjustment Brush and Graduated
Filter) that are now included in Lightroom 2—and rightly so! These new tools can make nondestructive corrections and
enhancements to specific areas of your image. Not only do they provide new raw processing functionality, they also dra-
matically speed up your workflow, as there’s no render or save time, and they don’t significantly increase the file size.

Adjustment Brush Pin

Feather - 100

Feather - 0 Auto Mask On

Auto Mask Off

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Begin by navigating to the Develop module and selecting the Now that you’ve been introduced to the Adjustment Brush, let’s The Adjustment Brush is smart too. The Auto Mask option proves Wondering how the effect in the previous photograph of Russell
Adjustment Brush (K) from the Toolbar that’s located just below learn how to control and work with the brush Size and Feather. You that the Adjustment Brush truly is the “sharpest tool in the shed.” Brown was accomplished? Actually, it was quite simple using the
the Histogram. To become familiar with the brush, select an effect can change the Size and Feather with the slider controls (shown This time, we made the same adjustment in both images but the Adjustment Brush. Decrease the Saturation to –100 and increase
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from the Effect pop-up menu. You can “add” to the effect by in Step 1), but since this is a tool that you’ll use frequently, you’ll Auto Mask limits the adjustment to a specific area. When you turn the brush Size, Flow, and Density to 100. Paint the entire image
modifying any of the sliders below (if you see + and – icons, click want to learn these shortcuts: press the Left Bracket key ([) on the on Auto Mask, Lightroom analyzes the area of the image that you’re to desaturate it. Next, click on Auto Mask, click the Erase button,
the Show Effect Sliders button to the right). Position the cursor keyboard to decrease the brush Size and the Right Bracket key (]) painting based on color, tone, contrast, edges, and more. It then choose an appropriate brush Size, and paint to erase the desatu-
over the image and you’ll see three concentric circles. The cross- to increase the Size. Press Shift-[ to decrease Feather and Shift-] proceeds to limit the adjustment to that area. While this example is ration (i.e., bring back the color). While this illustrates how you can
hair circle reveals the center painting area; the next brighter circle to increase the Feather. specific, keep in mind that Auto Mask works incredibly well with all erase any of the effects you’ve added, most often you’ll use the
denotes the brush size; and the final lighter circle reveals the of the different effects! Erase option to clean up or back off the effect rather than take it
extent of the brush feathering. out completely.

**
Adjustment Pin

Before

After

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I used the Adjustment Brush to clean up the wall in the background
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Burning refers to the traditional darkroom technique of darken-
of this photograph of my wife and daughter. The Adjustment Pin ing an area of an image to create visual interest. The composition
on the image not only shows where the painting began but it’s of this image is good, but the sky needs to be darkened. While
also dynamic. Hover your cursor over the pin to view a mask of the there are different ways to accomplish this, let’s use the Adjust-
affected area, or hover over the pin and click-and-drag to the left ment Brush with Auto Mask turned on (so that the hills won’t be
or right to decrease or increase the effect, respectively. Finally, to affected). Decrease Exposure and Brightness, and slightly increase
delete the effect, click on the pin and press Delete (PC: Backspace). Contrast. Using a medium-sized brush, with a medium amount of
(Note: To add additional Adjustment Pins, click the New button and Feather and Flow, paint back and forth across the sky. (We painted
begin painting in a different area.) the fields in this example as well.)

Before

After

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Dodging refers to the traditional darkroom technique of brighten-
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The Adjustment Brush can be used to work with color in really unique
ing an area of an image. Being able to do this from right inside ways. While this tip is creative, keep in mind that the technique
Lightroom is freeing, as it’s something that we need to do quite fre- can also be used to correct color problems. To modify or change
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quently. In this image, the natural light was soft, but the eyes were the color of an area in an image, it’s most important to lower the
too dark. After increasing the Exposure, Brightness, and Contrast Saturation amount to –100, choose a color from the Color swatch,
(increasing Contrast is key because when you brighten something, then paint over the image to change the color. For more subtle color
it tends to lose contrast), we used a relatively small brush with a effects, use a higher Saturation and a less saturated color.
medium amount of Feather and a low Flow amount.

continued on p. 48

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after

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After

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The Adjustment Brush can be used to make a wide range of special- Clarity adds extra midtone contrast to your photos. Think of it as
ized image enhancements, such as teeth brightening and whiten- adding more dimension or shape to the image—it has the poten-
ing. To whiten teeth, we’ll follow similar steps as illustrated above tial to make a subtle improvement that helps photos pop. First,
to modify color. First, change the Color back to white, then lower select the Adjustment Brush and choose Clarity from the Effect
the Saturation but be careful not to lower it too far as it will result in menu. Choose a medium brush Size, a high Feather, and a low
colorless or lifeless looking teeth. Increase the Exposure, Brightness, Flow. Paint back and forth in the image where it needs more punch
and Contrast as needed. Turn on Auto Mask and use a small brush until you’ve built up enough Clarity. Press the Backslash key (\) to
size with a low Flow to paint in the effect. toggle the before/after view of the image. To better illustrate the
effect of Clarity, this graphic has Clarity painted on the top half.

Before

After

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Recently, I photographed Ben Harper, the musician, and at the show,
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Softening skin can subtly enhance a person’s photograph, but
another photographer asked Ben to smile. He responded, “I smile over-softened skin can create a fake look. You can easily accomplish
with my eyes.” I thought that was a perfect answer, because the subtle yet significant skin softening with the Adjustment Brush.
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eyes tell us so much about a person. That’s why it often helps to add Select Soften Skin from the Effect menu and then choose a brush
sharpening to the eyes. Select the Adjustment Brush and choose Size and Feather amount that’s large enough to cover the skin area
Sharpness from the Effect menu. Choose a small brush Size, a but not affect areas that need to be sharp, such as the hair or eyes.
medium Feather, and a low Flow. Paint in the sharpness on the eyes Typically, it works best to use a medium-to-high Feather. Next,
and the surrounding face. choose a low Flow amount like 20 and turn off Auto Mask. Paint in
the softening effect with multiple brush strokes.

*.
QChris Orwig, photographer and author, is on the photography faculty at the Brooks Institute in Santa Barbara, California. His publications include a number of best-selling Lightroom
and Photoshop training titles at Lynda.com as well as his books, Adobe Photoshop CS3 How-Tos: 100 Essential Techniques and Adobe Photoshop Lightroom How-Tos: 100 Essential
Techniques by Adobe Press. For more inspiration, visit his website at www.chrisorwig.com.
ALL IMAGES BY CHRIS ORWIG UNLESS OTHERWISE NOTED
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Choose Image>Canvas Size. Use the Anchor grid to determine After adding the extra canvas area, make sure the top duplicate layer
where the original image will be placed in relation to the added is active and choose Edit>Transform>Flip Horizontal (use Flip Vertical
canvas. In this example, let’s mirror the image on the left side of the if the reflected layer will be placed above or below). Choose the Move
original, so click the right center square to denote this as the posi- tool (V), press-and-hold the Shift key, and drag the flipped layer into
tion of the original image. Uncheck the Relative box (if it’s checked), position to create the mirror effect. If the Snap feature is enabled
and change the units for the Width to Percent (the Height will under the View menu, the edges of the two layers should snap into
change as well). Enter 200% for the Width if you’re mirroring to alignment. You may need to zoom in for a close view to ensure that the

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the left or right (as is the case with our image) or 200% for the edges line up well. With the Move tool active, you can nudge the layer
Height if you’re mirroring the image above or below, and click OK. one pixel at a time using the Arrow keys on the keyboard.

Some of the most simple, yet very satisfying types of collages are image “mirrors” that are created by duplicat-
ing the image and flipping it to form a reflection. Landscapes, clouds, natural patterns and textures, as well as
architectural structures all work very well as image mirrors. Along the way, we’ll also use smart objects and smart
filters, and then finish up with a tip on using gradient masks to create reflections on polished surfaces.

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Cropping the file prior to the mirroring process is not required, but Start by opening an image you want to use for a mirror, or you can For this image, we’ll also apply a Shadow/Highlight adjustment. In Since the layers that create the mirror effect are grouped into a smart
for some photos it can produce a more interesting reflected image, download the Mono Lake file from the Layers website (if you do order to preserve flexibility and keep our changes nondestructive, object, we can apply the Shadow/Highlight effect as a smart filter.
and it’s always good to keep this in mind. For the Mono Lake use the Mono Lake image, crop it as shown in the previous step). we’ll first convert the two layers into a smart object. Click on the This gives us adjustment layer-type functionality, which means the
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example used here, I decided to crop it as shown since I knew this Double-click on the Background layer. Click OK in the New Layer bottom layer in the Layers panel, then Shift-click on the top layer to change isn’t permanent, allowing us to revisit the settings if needed.
would result in a mirror where the tufa formations would look more dialog that appears to turn it into a regular layer. Next, make a copy select both of them. Open the flyout menu for the Layers panel and Choose Image>Adjustments>Shadow/Highlight and click the Show
like an island. Study your own images to see if cropping will result in of the layer by choosing Layer>New>Layer via Copy, or by using the choose Convert to Smart Object. More Options checkbox. For both the Shadows and the Highlights,
more intriguing results. The more you play around with image mir- very useful keyboard shortcut Command-J (PC: Ctrl-J). set the Amount and Tonal Width to 40% and the Radius to 90 px.
rors, the easier it will be to see the possibilities that a certain crop Click OK to complete the image.
might provide.

[If you’d like to download the images used in this tutorial to practice these techniques, visit www.layersmagazine.com and navigate to the Magazine section. All files are for personal use only.]
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The clock in this example was photographed on a black cloth back- Reflections on polished surfaces are stronger and brighter the closer
ground and cast no reflection, but it’s very simple to add one. The they are to the object. To further fine-tune the reflection, we’ll add
basic steps are essentially the same as the image mirror shown in the a layer mask and use the Gradient tool (G) to feather the “lighting”
previous steps (the one difference is the addition of extra canvas area on the reflection. Click the Add Layer Mask icon at the bottom of
that’s black). Since we have already covered that, I have jump-started the Layers panel to add a layer mask to the top layer (the reflection).
the process and prepared a clock file with a reflection layer already in Choose the Gradient tool and in the Gradient Picker in the Options
position. To make the reflection more realistic, lower the Opacity of Bar, select the third swatch to set the gradient to Black, White. In the
the reflection layer in the Layers panel to 50%. Options Bar, make sure the style is set to Linear Gradient, the Mode
to Normal, the Opacity to 100%, and Reverse is not checked.

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Choose View>Screen Mode>Full Screen Mode with Menu Bar. As a final step, let’s add an adjustment layer to color the reflection
Zoom out (Command-–PC: Ctrl-–]) to see the entire image sur- a cool tone to suggest that the clock is resting on a colored surface.
rounded by the gray canvas. With the Gradient tool active, click To do this so it only affects the reflection layer, hold down Option
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below the image in the gray area and Shift-drag a line up to the (PC: Alt), click the Create New Adjustment Layer icon at the bottom
top clock. Let go between the number 6 and the center point of of the Layers panel, and choose Curves. In the New Layer dialog,
the clock (see illustration). The gradient in the mask now creates a click the checkbox for Use Previous Layer to Create Clipping Mask,
feathering effect so the brightness of the reflection fades out as it and click OK. In the Curves dialog, choose the Blue channel and
moves away from the clock. drag the lower part of the curve up a bit to add a blue cast to the
image. Click OK to complete the reflection.

+(
QSeán Duggan is co-author of The Creative Digital Darkroom and Photoshop Artistry. He teaches regular workshops on Photoshop and Lightroom for photographers. Sign up for his free
digital darkroom newsletter at his website, www.seanduggan.com. S
ALL IMAGES BY SEÁN DUGGAN UNLESS OTHERWISE NOTED
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Hold down Command (PC: Ctrl) and click on the rounded square Press Shift-Command-Option-T (PC: Shift-Ctrl-Alt-T) to make addi-
layer thumbnail in the Layers panel to select it. Press Command- tional copies of the square the same distance apart. Press the same
Option-T (PC: Ctrl-Alt-T) to activate Free Transform—with a twist: shortcut repeatedly until you get the number of copies that you
The Option (PC: Alt) key tells Free Transform to make a copy of the require. (Because the square was selected, all the copies appear
original. Hold down Shift and drag the copy of the square to the on the same layer.)
right as shown. Press Return (PC: Enter), but don’t deselect.

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Although it’s not a layout tool, Photoshop does have a very powerful step-and-repeat function—if you know
just a couple of tricks. Once you learn these tricks, you can create a whole series of evenly spaced objects in
no time at all.

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First, open a new (File>New), 16x12" document at 72 ppi. Click
on the Foreground color swatch in the Toolbox, choose a color for Hold down Command (PC: Ctrl) and click on the layer thumbnail This technique can be used for a variety of objects. Create a new
your background (in this example, R:98, G:109, B:139), and click to select all of the rounded squares on that layer. Press Command- layer, switch to the Ellipse tool, choose a gray color, hold the Shift
OK. Press Option-Delete (PC: Alt-Backspace) to fill the Background Option-T (PC: Ctrl-Alt-T) to copy the row of squares and enter Free key, and draw a circle at the intersection of the four top left squares.
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layer with your new color. Click the Create A New Layer icon at the Transform. Hold down Shift and drag the line of squares down Then use the same method to make multiple copies: Select the
bottom of the Layers panel to add a new layer. Choose a different until they’re the appropriate distance form the first row of squares. circle, press Command-Option-T (PC: Ctrl-Alt-T), drag while holding
color and use the Rounded Rectangle tool set to Fill Pixels in the Press Return (PC: Enter) and then press Shift-Command-Option-T Shift, and press Return (PC: Enter). Next, press Shift-Command-
Options Bar to create your first shape. (Our shape is 2.75x2.75" (PC: Shift-Ctrl-Alt-T) to make additional copies equally spaced Option-T (PC: Shift-Ctrl-Alt-T) to make additional copies. After
and R:65, G:36, B:40.) apart. Press Command-D (Ctrl-D) to deselect. you’ve made all of your copies, drag the layer of circles below the
layer of squares in the Layers panel.

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If you need to space objects numerically, such as spacing


lines 50 pixels apart, try this: On a new layer, use the Line
tool to add a line at the very top of the document (hold
the Shift key to keep it horizontal). From the View menu,
choose New Guide. In the New Guide dialog, click
Horizontal and then in the Position field, enter the distance
©ISTOCKPHOTO

you want for the spacing between all the lines. (The dialog
defaults to inches [in] but you can type “px” after the
number to measure in pixels.) Click OK. Now we’ll use the
same method to create and transform multiple copies.

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1. Hold down Command (PC: Ctrl) and click on the layer
Click on the squares layer in the Layers panel to make it active, and thumbnail to select the line.
use the Magic Wand tool (W) to select the top-left square. Hold 2. Press Command-Option-T (PC: Ctrl-Alt-T) to activate Free
down Shift and click on the three surrounding squares to add them Transform (with a copy).
to the selection. Open a photo, press Command-A (PC: Ctrl-A) 3. Holding Shift, drag the line until it snaps to the guide
to select it, press Command-C (PC: Ctrl-C) to copy it, and then (make sure View>Snap is turned on).
switch back to the layout document. From the Edit menu, select 4. Press Return (PC: Enter) and then Shift-Command-Option-T
Paste Into—this will create a layer mask in the shape of the selected (PC: Shift-Ctrl-Alt-T) to make additional lines spaced
squares. Press Command-T (PC: Ctrl-T) for Free Transform to scale 50 pixels apart.
the pasted photo to fit. Repeat this operation to add photos to
different squares.

IMAGES: ©ISTOCKPHOTO; DESIGN: TAFFY ORLOWSKI


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Add text and ornamental graphics to finish the layout.

Q Dave Cross is Senior Developer, Education and Curriculum, for the National Association of Photoshop Professionals. He is the author of Photoshop Finishing Touches and The Photoshop
CS2 Help Desk Book, and is featured on a series of Photoshop training DVDs. S
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If Illustrator is already open, quit and restart it to load the new font. Press Command-C (PC: Ctrl-C) then Command-V (PC: Ctrl-V) to create
Otherwise, go ahead and launch Illustrator. Select the Type tool (T), a duplicate of the type. Move the duplicate off to the side for now.
click on the artboard, and type “GOIN’ RETRO.” With the text Select the original type and set a really thick 30-point black stroke.
selected, go to the Font pop-up menu in the Control panel and
look for the SF Groove Machine Extended font. Set the Font Size to
about 150 pt and set the Fill to black. Switch to the Selection tool (V),
go under the Type menu, and choose Create Outlines. Ungroup

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the text (Shift-Command-G [PC: Shift-Ctrl-G]) and reposition as you
see here. Then regroup by selecting all the objects and pressing
Command-G (PC: Ctrl-G).

Okay, I admit it. I’m a retro fan. In fact, I caught myself watching I Love the 70s on VH1 just recently and was
inspired yet again. So this time around, let’s launch Illustrator and take our own trip back in time. Groovy!

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First, we have to start with the right font. For that we’ll turn to Next, you need to install the font into your system. To do this you Go under the Object menu and choose Expand. Make sure that With the Select tool, select both the shape you just created and the
one of my favorite sites: www.DaFont.com. Once on the site, enter can either simply double-click the icon for each font and follow Stroke is the only thing checked in the Expand dialog and click duplicate text that you created in Step 4. In the Control panel, click
the word “groove” in the Search field, and click the Search button. the onscreen instructions (PC: Right-click and choose Install), or if OK. This will turn that thick stroke into a regular shape. You can the Horizontal Align Center icon and then the Vertical Align Center
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When the Groove Machine font shows up, click the download button you use a font-management tool, go through the normal steps to see the original shape of the text as well. We need to combine icon to center the duplicate in front of the larger, original shape.
to the right. Notice you can download both Mac and PC versions. activate the font. the text and the expanded stroke into one shape, so go under
the Window menu and choose Pathfinder. With all the objects
selected (excluding the duplicate object, of course), Option-Click
(PC: Alt-Click) the Add to Shape icon in the Shape Modes section
of the Pathfinder panel.

+.
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Now that we have our shape, we need color. For this, we’re going to
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This is where you can get a little creative with the color. You can
use the built-in Kuler feed. Go under the Window menu to Adobe either use the same color scheme shown here or experiment
Labs and choose Kuler. Click the Accept button in the resulting with your own combinations. To apply a color, simply select
dialog and the Kuler panel will appear. We’re looking for retro colors, either the duplicate text in the front or the larger shape in back
so enter “70s” in the Search field. You’ll see a number of seventies- and click on one of the new swatches in your Swatches panel
style color schemes. Simply choose one (we chose 70s Purple) and (make sure that you’re applying it to the Fill and not the Stroke).
click the Add to Swatches icon at the bottom of the Kuler panel. For the background shape, we also added a new 10-point
This will put that set of swatches in your Swatches panel. stroke set to a bright pink.

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Now select the background shape and copy-and-paste a dupli-
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Position this shape in the upper right above the original shape.
cate like you did in Step 4. Double-click the Scale tool (S) in We’re going to apply a blend, and we want the blend to appear
the Toolbox and set the Scale in the Uniform section to 25%. behind the original shape, so go under the Object menu to Arrange
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Make sure that the Scale Strokes & Effects option is checked and choose Send to Back.
on and click OK.

continued on p. 62

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To apply a blend, first select both the original background shape
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One last thing: Grab the Direct Selection tool (the white arrow
along with the smaller duplicate. Double-click the Blend tool (W) in tool) and select just the small shape. Double-click the Rotate
the Toolbox. Select Specified Steps from the Spacing pop-up menu tool in the Toolbox to bring up the Rotate dialog. Enter –90˚ for
and set the number of steps to 20. Click OK. Then press Option- the Angle and click OK. There you have it. Oh, we also added a
Command-B (PC: Alt-Ctrl-B) to apply the blend. groovy disco girl for a final touch using the same Fill and Stroke
as the background shape. Groovy!

Groovy Rock
Radio!
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QCorey Barker is an Education and Curriculum Developer for the National Association of Photoshop Professionals. His expertise in Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Illustrator has earned him
numerous awards in illustration, graphic design, and photography. S
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one’s going to think they’re hand-drawn when they see identical
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Q J>;7HJE<JOF;S consecutive letters, such as the “m,” “e,” or “l” in this ad. Making
them look different is a first priority.
K B N F T ! | ~ ! G F M J D J InDesign can add a stroke to the outline of typeset charac-
Let’s start with the two “m’s” in Summer. For the first “m,” we
ters that can be additive or subtractive. In this example, a

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used the InDesign text Control panel tools to squeeze its width
(Horizontal Scale to 82%), raise the Baseline Shift 2 points above the lowercase Helvetica Bold “x” (top) has been stroked in three
baseline, and give it a slight slant (Skew) of 2°. ways. The middle row shows in red the stroke position when
For the second “m,” we’ll go in the opposite direction, bumping it’s aligned outside the character outline (left), centered along
up its Font Size a bit, sinking it 1 point below the baseline, and the outline (center), and inside the outline (right).
using a backslant of –1°. To make it chunkier, we used the Stroke The lower-left sample has been stroked on the outside with
Typefaces that imitate freestyle lettering aren’t black, making the character appear bolder. The lower-right
usually very convincing. But a little creative panel (Window>Stroke) to add a 0.4-point (Weight) black stroke to
sample has been stroked on the inside with white, making the
“tweakery” can create a fresh and unique look surround the character.
character appear thinner (Note: This only works on a white back-
to your informal type.
When it comes to setting type, I’m generally a law-abiding citi- Wbszjoh!dibsbdufs!tusplf!xfjhiu!jt!usjdlz! ground.) The blue lines indicate the characters’ original baselines.

zen…but not this issue. This time we’re going to break sacred rules, For letters that consist mostly of vertical strokes (A, l, r, in this type-
abuse glyphs, and toss logical alignment to the wind. Everything face, at least), you can simply make their set width greater. But this
will be eyeballed, and any resemblance to graphic coherence will doesn’t work for letters with strong horizontals (E and e, for example)
be strictly coincidental. The goal? To try to simulate a hand-lettered because horizontal strokes keep their original weight while the
look with an off-the-shelf font, to produce a subtle lack of consis- verticals get wider or narrower. Character proportions can become
tency so the characters don’t look like the cookie-cutter shapes seriously distorted.
they really are. Making characters bolder is easier, because you can use the
Stroke panel to add an outline to them. But you can’t apply a stroke
Bmufs!tibqft!boe!psjfoubujpot to an editable character that will make it thinner unless you first
convert the character to outlines, using the Type>Create Outlines
J N B H F T ; ª J TUP D L Q I PUP ! ! J M MV TU S BU J P O ; ! D I S J TU Z ! X J O U F S

InDesign and Illustrator give you several ways to alter the shapes
and orientations of individual characters, and by combining these, command. At this point, if you select the character outline, you can
notice our sample is heavily kerned. That’s because characters that
you can create the impression that every character is unique. Here’s now choose how to apply your stroke in the Stroke panel: to the
have been converted to outlines lose their side bearings, so they need
a list of the controls we used to customize the sample type: outside of the character’s outline (Align Stroke to Outside), centered
to be kerned to loosen up their spacing. Happily, when it comes to
along that outline (not too useful in this instance), or inside its out-
kerning, InDesign doesn’t distinguish between normal characters and
UÊœ˜ÌÊ-ˆâiÊ­
œ˜ÌÀœÊ«>˜i® line (see “Stroked”).
those that have been converted to outlines.
UÊÊ6iÀ̈V>Ê-V>iÊ­˜ iÈ}˜p
œ˜ÌÀœÊ«>˜iÆʏÕÃÌÀ>̜Àp
…>À>VÌiÀÊ«>˜i® To create a thinner version of a character, convert it to outlines,
UÊÊœÀˆâœ˜Ì>Ê-V>iÊ­˜ iÈ}˜p
œ˜ÌÀœÊ«>˜iÆʏÕÃÌÀ>̜Àp
…>À>VÌiÀÊ«>˜i®
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then apply a white (or “paper”-colored) stroke, and click the Align
Stroke to Inside icon in the Stroke panel. This has the effect of trim-
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All of the above shenanigans are best performed on informal faces,
UÊ >Ãiˆ˜iÊ-…ˆvÌÊ­˜ iÈ}˜p
œ˜ÌÀœÊ«>˜iÆʏÕÃÌÀ>̜Àp
…>À>VÌiÀÊ«>˜i® ming down the thickness of the character’s stroke by the weight of
such as those that mimic handwriting (for example, Tekton or Comic
UÊ-ÌÀœŽi\ÊL>VŽÊœÕ̏ˆ˜iÊ̜Êv>ÌÌi˜]Ê܅ˆÌiʈ˜ˆ˜iÊ̜Êψ“Ê`œÜ˜Ê­-ÌÀœŽiÊ«>˜i® the stroke you’ve chosen. Note that this “paper”-colored stroke will
Sans) or brush-painted letters (such as Dom Casual, or Flash). Avoid
UÊÊ,œÌ>ÌiÊ­˜ iÈ}˜p,œÌ>̈œ˜Ê̜œÊˆ˜Ê̅iÊ/œœLœÝÆʏÕÃÌÀ>̜Àp
…>À>VÌiÀÊ only be invisible against a paper-colored (read, white) background;
using these techniques with script faces that have connecting letters
,œÌ>̈œ˜Êˆ˜Ê̅iÊ
…>À>VÌiÀÊ«>˜i®Ê against any colored background it will apper white.
because variations in stroke weight will seem out of place. And by
/…iʺLivœÀi»Ê`ˆÃ«>ÞÊÌÞ«iʭŜܘʅiÀi®Ê…>ÃÊLii˜ÊÃiÌʈ˜Ê ˆÌ- Varying the baseline is another way to knock the stiffness out of
all means, don’t apply them to text faces, because the result will
stream’s Impress, a face designed to look like freehand commercial type, even if, like Impress, it’s pretty loosey-goosey already. The idea is
make a big mess, and I refuse to be held responsible. Here’s our
brush lettering. But as loose and free as the letterforms are, no to use baseline shift to push selected characters up or down. A random
finished type in a poster.

Summer
wobble is best rather than any patterned or calculated alternation.
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Xh[WaiWYh[Zhkb[i"WXki[ InDesign also lets you skew characters to give them a fake italic or
oblique slant. Using a negative value (add a hyphen before your

Free-for-All
numeric value) creates what’s called a backslant. Again, the light
]bof^i"WdZjeiibe]_YWb touch is the right touch—the variation you’re after is that which
you’d find in the range of normal informal hand lettering.
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S mm r
before Rotating individual characters also helps animate the line and

©ISTOCKPHOTO/JAMES THEW
knock some of the stiffness out of the setting. We did this to the
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two “l’s” in the word “All,” with the first “l” leaning to the left and
the second to the right. Alas, InDesign can’t rotate individual
characters—you have to convert them to outlines first. Illustrator

Fre -fo -A
can perform this trick, however, from within the Character panel.
Even in a whacky setting like this, spacing is crucial, and you’ll

[ James Felici is the author of The Complete Manual of Typography (Adobe Press), former managing editor of Publish magazine, and contributor to The Seybold Report, Macworld magazine,
PDFZone.com, and Publish.com. ]
after

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Using the same method as Step 2, we can create an email link in PDF bookmarks make it easy for viewers to quickly navigate through
our PDF. Instead of typing in a Web address that would typically a document. Here’s how to create them in InDesign. Use the Pages
start with http://www.someaddress.com, we simply type in some- panel to go to the page that you wish to create a bookmark for
thing like mailto:person@emailaddress.com. This will then link to and then choose Window>Interactive>Bookmarks. Click the New
the reader’s default email software when clicked. The New Hyper- Bookmark icon at the bottom of the Bookmarks panel. Rename it by

dsfbuf!bo!joufsbdujwf!qpsugpmjp!
link dialog also has some Appearance options. In this case, we selecting it in the panel and typing the new name.
don’t want the email link to have a box around it or an underline, Note: Bookmarks can also be generated automatically in InDesign
so we’ll select Invisible Rectangle from the Type pop-up menu in if you’re taking advantage of the Table of Contents feature (found
this Appearance section, then click OK. under the Layout menu).
Supplying your portfolio in printed form is so last century. Everybody who’s anybody is using PDF as the means
to deliver their portfolios. So let’s learn not only how to create an easy-to-email PDF but how to make it interac-
tive as well—with navigation buttons and even movies!

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Setting up master pages for your portfolio is a great idea and it InDesign has a Hyperlinks panel, so you can work with hyperlinks Select the object you want to convert into a button. You can select Choose Window>Interactive>States. The States panel contains
allows you to include items such as corporate branding, as well as the way you work with links, layers, and other features. Open the an imported graphic, an object you drew in InDesign, or a text only the Up state, which is the default state for a button. In order
navigation buttons and hyperlinks so they’ll appear on each page. Hyperlinks panel (Window>Interactive>Hyperlinks), select the frame. In our document, we’re using the navigation buttons that to change its appearance, we’ll need to create another state. Click
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In InDesign CS3, master page items are always in the back of object you want to be the button (make sure you’re on the master reside on the master page. The buttons are a single, placed Illustra- the Create New Optional State icon at the bottom of the States
objects on regular pages so, to overcome this, place master page page if it’s a master page item), then click the Create New Hyperlink tor file with multiple layers for different rollover states. Choose panel. InDesign adds a Rollover state to the panel. If you click the
items on their own layer. We can also easily recognize items on the icon at the bottom of the panel (or choose New Hyperlink from Object>Interactive>Convert to Button. If you’re in Normal View same icon again, InDesign adds a Down state to the panel. Don’t
master pages, because frame edges are displayed as a dotted line, the flyout menu). In this case, we’ll select URL as the Type and mode, InDesign identifies the button onscreen with a small button forget to repeat this for each button and then give each button a
rather than solid. Using master pages is also going to make your then type in our URL. This is a great way of creating a basic link to icon on the frame. (Note: If you can’t see the button icon, try going sensible name at the top of the States panel. In this case for navi-
document easy to update later. your website from a PDF. to View>Show Frame Edges.) gation, we chose Next, Home, and Back.

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Initially, each state is identical, but there isn’t much point in having
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Our buttons won’t be any good unless we can get them to actually
different states if the button doesn’t give any feedback. Select the do something. Anyone clicking the Back button expects to go to
Rollover state for our button in the States panel, then use the Direct the previous page, so let’s set it up that way. Choose Button Options
Selection tool (A) to select the button on the page. At this point we from the States panel flyout menu then click the Behaviors tab in the
simply need to change the button’s appearance and we can do this Button Options dialog. For the Event, we chose Mouse Up, so the
in a variety of ways. In this case, we selected Object>Object Layer Behavior will occur when the mouse button is released after clicking.
Options and chose a different layer to be visible from our placed And, because this is the Back button, for the Behavior we chose Go
Adobe Illustrator file. To see how your button works, select each To Previous Page. Click Add and then OK. Choose the appropriate
state in the States panel. Repeat for each button. Behavior for each button.

The board is a fantastically versatile


board that can be ridden as well
backwards as it can be forwards.
Designed by Birthday Boy

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You place a movie in an InDesign document just the way you’d
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Let’s create a hidden information field; for example, when the cursor
place any other file. Choose File>Place, and then select the movie rolls over an image, the related text should appear next to it. First,
file—QuickTime, AVI, and MPEG. (QuickTime 6.0 or later is required.) we need to convert the related text frame to a button. Select the text
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Click where you want the movie to appear. Select the movie with the frame with the Selection tool, and choose Object>Interactive>Convert
Selection tool (V) and choose Object>Interactive>Movie Options to to Button and give it a descriptive name in the States panel. By default,
set play options. Check the Play on Page Turn box to play the movie this button should be invisible. We only want it to show when some-
automatically when a viewer turns to that page in the PDF file. You can one moves the cursor over the graphic related to it. So choose Button
also provide buttons that will control it (Show Controller During Play). Options from the States panel flyout menu. In the General tab, choose
Click OK. Hidden from the Visibility in PDF pop-up menu and click OK.
continued on p. 70

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Now we need to convert the related graphic to a button as well, so


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This is where you really appreciate good naming conventions.
select it with the Selection tool and choose Object>Interactive> Click next to the name of the button you want to reveal when
Convert to Button. This will be the button that triggers the hidden someone rolls over the graphic; an Eye icon appears next to it.
text. Open the Button Options dialog again and click the Behav- Now the field we named “googgy egg” will show when the cursor
iors tab. Choose Mouse Enter for the Event, because we want the enters the button area. Click the Add button, then select Mouse
Behavior to occur whenever the mouse cursor enters the button Exit for the Event and Show/Hide Fields for Behavior. Click the
area, then choose Show/Hide Fields from the Behavior pop-up box twice next to the same button name and a red slash appears
menu. Don’t click OK yet. through the Eye icon. Now when the cursor leaves the button
area, the text field will disappear. Click Add, then click OK.

PAUL BURNETT

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When you’re done, it’s time to test your work. To keep this simple,
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Adobe is always looking to deliver innovative tools and solutions
let’s use the built-in PDF export preset for Smallest File Size. Choose and is currently working on technology that will allow InDesign
File>Adobe PDF Presets>Smallest File Size. With this setting we users to directly export a layout created in InDesign to a new

just need to make a couple of tweaks. Choose a name and location interchange format called XFL. You open these XFL files using the
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Adobe Flash authoring tool, which will make it extremely easy for
for your PDF in the Export dialog and click the Save button. In the
designers to publish their layouts to print and digital formats. Once
resulting Export Adobe PDF dialog, let’s increase the Compatibility
in Flash, a layout can have an unlimited amount of interactivity and
to Acrobat 8.0 and turn on Bookmarks, Hyperlinks, and Interactive
animation added to create sophisticated, engaging experiences in
Elements in the Include section. When done, click Export. Finally,
the Flash player.
open your PDF in Acrobat reader and test it out.

QMike McHugh is an Adobe Creative Systems Engineer in Australia. He’s also the author of How to Wow with InDesign CS2 and How to Wow with Photoshop Elements 5, both published
by Peachpit Press. Mike also hosts a popular video podcast, Creative Sweet TV (www.creativesweettv.com). S
-& ALL IMAGES BY MIKE MCHUGH UNLESS OTHERWISE NOTED
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Further reducing the file size of this PDF can involve a combina- To know where to concentrate your digital weight loss efforts, it’s
tion of removing document components, reducing the resolu- handy to know where most of the file size is contained. For many
tion of contained images, and compressing file components. PDFs, the majority of the file size is contained in the graphic files.
You’ll want to carefully consider which combination of these To see a detailed analysis of the content of your PDF, click on
techniques you’ll employ to decrease the size of the PDF. Your the Audit Space Usage button located at the upper-right corner
goal—and challenge—is to minimize quality loss while maximiz- of the PDF Optimizer dialog. For our example, you can see that
ing file size reduction. The PDF Optimizer provides plenty of 99.73% of the file size (45.8 MB of the 45.9 MB) is contained in

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control over file size and quality, so choose Advanced>PDF the images. So we know exactly where to focus our weight loss
Optimizer to open the dialog. program: the images.

PDFs are created with specific output in mind. Prepress-bound PDFs are usually large files with high linear resolu-
tions and CMYK color spaces that aren’t optimized for other uses, such as sending via email or viewing on the
Web. You can use Acrobat 9 to adjust the content and characteristics of a print-oriented PDF to repurpose it for
just such a use.
TAZ TALLY

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In Acrobat 9, open a commercial, print-oriented PDF (here a two- Choose File>Save As to save this PDF as another PDF (we named Click OK in the Audit Space Usage dialog and then click on The amount and kind of compression you apply will determine
page brochure with uncompressed, 300-ppi, CMYK images). To ours Brochure_Web_1). View this new PDF’s file size in the Docu- “Images” at the top of the list on the left-hand side of the PDF how much tonal or color values you’ll lose. To prevent image data
determine its file size, choose File>Properties (Command-D [PC: ment Properties dialog and it’s now 43.85 MB—about 40% smaller Optimizer dialog. This is where you control the amount and loss, try Zip Compression. This will result in less compression (thus
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Ctrl-D]) and view the Advanced section of the Description tab. than the original file. Performing a simple Save As will often result method of resolution reduction. For both Color Images and less file size reduction) and works best for black-and-white images
Notice the current file size in this example is 73.29 MB—fine for in the deletion of unnecessary file components that have been Grayscale Images, try 100 ppi in the Downsample fields. (Don’t (and okay for grayscale images too). For substantial compression,
commercial printing, but you’ll want to make this PDF substan- retained in the PDF, dramatically reducing the file size without any use 72 ppi, as this may not be sufficient resolution for display- assign JPEG, which typically varies from 5:1 to 100:1 compression
tially smaller to make it appropriate for sending or viewing over reduction in the PDF’s output quality. ing on a variety of monitors.) Also select Bicubic Downsampling and reduction in file size. For viewing only, you can often use
the Internet. You could create another PDF if you had the original To (the default choice) as your Downsample method to produce Medium Quality (substantial but not maximum compression). If
layout files, or you can use the following Acrobat 9 tools to repur- the smoothest tonal transitions in your image. For Monochrome you intend to use these PDFs for desktop printing as well, you
pose your PDF. Images, try 300 ppi. Don’t click OK yet. might want to choose High or Maximum. Experiment!

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To prevent the Optimizer from applying unnecessary downsam-
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In any type of PDF file optimization, you typically want to retain
pling or compression, be sure to check the Optimize Images the original font files that have been embedded to maintain the
Only If There Is a Reduction in Size box. Even with this option off, typesetting integrity of your document. Click on the Fonts list
Optimizer will automatically ignore any images that are lower than choice and check Do Not Unembed Any Font. While it’s true
the prescribed resolution, such as Web images or screen grabs you can reduce the file size of your PDF by unembedding fonts,
you may have placed in your layout (although there are none here the file reduction is usually minimal (here embedded font files
in the commercial print PDF, and there better not be!). Note: You command only 19 KB or .04% of the file size) and the typesetting
can protect delicate images from downsampling by saving them in consequences are often significant.
EPS format prior to placing them in the original page layout before
creating your PDF.

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Flattening transparency can help reduce file size in your PDF docu-
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Objects such as form components, JavaScript actions, and alternate
ment; however, this may have little or no effect depending on the images can add significant file size to your document. To selectively
amount and complexity of the transparent areas. If the Transpar- remove the various types of objects that can be included in a PDF
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ency box is checked on, this flattening will be applied prior to any document, click on the Discard Objects choice on the left of the PDF
other optimization, such as image downsampling and compression. Optimizer. (The PDF document we’re using doesn’t have many of
If you use this feature, try using the High Resolution setting to these objects.) Look through this list carefully though, as there may
flatten the transparent areas, as this doesn’t convert text or strokes be some objects that take up little space but may be very helpful,
to outlines, and then count on the image processor to control the such as bookmarks. Caution: Avoid checking the Convert Smooth
resolution and compression. Lines to Curves to prevent any unpredictable line alterations.

continued on p. 76
-*
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Just like Discard Objects, Discard User Data allows you to selectively
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The Clean Up setting panel allows you to remove document
reduce file size by removing various file components such as hidden content and apply compression to document components. But
layers, comments, forms, multimedia, and file attachments. In our the most important option here is to Optimize the PDF for Fast
document, this accounts for less than 1% of the document, but in Web View. This allows your website-placed PDF to be served up
other types of PDFs, this content may be significant. Again, pay one page at a time rather than demanding the whole document
attention to those document elements that you may want to retain, at once. This can really speed up Web viewing! Select Acrobat 5
such as comments. and Later from the Make Compatible With pop-up menu to pro-
vide all-around viewing and opening compatibility of your PDF.

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Once you’ve set up the PDF Optimizer to suit your output needs,
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Finally, convert your CMYK images to RGB. Choose Advanced>
think about saving these settings (click the Save icon located at Print Production>Convert Colors. Under Matching Criteria, choose
the top of the dialog). That way, you can easily use these settings Image for Object Type and Any CMYK for Color Type. Under
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again in the future. Now you’re ready to click the OK button to Conversion Attributes, choose Convert to Profile for the Convert
apply the PDF Optimizer settings. Acrobat will ask you to create Command, sRGB IEC61966-2.1 (for generic Web viewing) for the
and name the new PDF. After you save the new PDF, choose File> Conversion Profile, and Use Document Intent for the Rendering
Properties to view the file size. Note that our file size is now only Intent. Check the Embed option on to provide color profile guid-
728.88 KB—a 99% reduction in file size! ance when your PDF is displayed on various monitors. Click OK. This
doesn’t reduce the file size by very much, but it will give you a better
idea of how your PDF will appear when it’s displayed on the Web.

-, QTaz Tally is the author of Acrobat and PDF Solutions from Wiley Press, as well as numerous other digital imaging books on Photoshop, scanning, digital photography, and prepress.
Visit Taz’s websites www.taztallyphotography.com and www.tazseminars.com. S
DISJT!DMPS -/

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K B O J O F ! | ~ ! X B S O F S

Dreamweaver CS4 for Windows

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As soon as you launch the CS4 beta, you’ll notice the new interface, Dreamweaver has always made it easy to switch between different
which is now more consistent with other programs in the suite, and is workspace layouts, including a preset optimized for designers that’s
still quite similar on the Mac (shown in Step 1) and PC (shown here). different from the one for developers. In the CS4 beta, you’ll find even
According to Adobe, the gray color is intentional: The idea is to cut more options and more ways to customize your workspace, including
down on distractions and let the colors of your beautiful Web designs the ability to compact the panels at the side of the screen, making
dominate the screen. And if you miss those cute little colored icons, more room for your document. And you can save your customized
just run your cursor over any one of them and the color will appear as workspace layouts to use again anytime, just as you could in CS3.
your cursor hovers over it.

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The Adobe Dreamweaver CS4 public beta has a fresh new look and loads of new features, including improved CSS
support, a new preview environment called Live View, and better integration with all of the other cool programs in
the Suite. All that and more makes this an upgrade worthy of the 10th anniversary of Dreamweaver.

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If you loved the convenience of the Insert bar at the top of the work- To cut down on confusion when creating CSS, the Property inspector
space, you can always click-and-drag it back there, but before you do, at the bottom of the workspace now has two modes: CSS and HTML.
JANINE WARNER

try it out in its new location as a panel at the top of the panels section This division makes it faster and easier to create and use styles as you
(located on the right in the Designer workspace and on the left in the work, but it takes a little getting used to if you’re the kind of designer
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Developer workspace). Keeping all of your tools in one place has who simply adds formatting from the Property inspector without
some advantages, and you can now choose to view the icons alone or worrying about styles. If you’re that kind of designer, this change can
Dreamweaver CS4 for the Macintosh
icons with descriptions (shown here), which provides a handy reference save you from inadvertently creating styles with names like Style1 and
Q:EMDBE7:79EFODEMS for each tool. Style2 and help make it more intuitive to create styles intentionally as
you create your designs.
Adobe has made Dreamweaver CS4 available as a public beta, which means that you can download a copy right now by visiting http://labs.adobe
.com/technologies/dreamweavercs4/. Just beware that beta means “not quite ready for prime time.” Adobe makes no promises that it has
worked out all of the bugs and no software company will ever suggest you should use beta software for mission-critical projects. If you have a
serial number for Dreamweaver CS3, you can use the CS4 beta until the full program ships. If not, it’ll time out in 48 hours.
-.
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The CS4 beta’s new Live View makes it possible to render a page The new Code Navigator is a handy way to check your CSS code
as it would be displayed in a browser so you can see AJAX and as you work. You can Control-click (PC: Right-click) anywhere in
other interactive features in action without leaving Dreamweaver. a webpage and choose Code Navigator to open a small window
Live View uses the WebKit rendering engine (the same open source that details the CSS on the page. Roll your cursor over any of the
option used in Safari). Not only does this save you from having listed styles and you’ll see a little pop-up with details of the style
to launch a browser to test these kinds of features, you can also rule. Double-click on a style name and Dreamweaver takes you to
disable JavaScript as you use Live View to do things like freezing a the style in the CSS code, making it quick and easy to edit styles
drop-down menu in action so you can more easily edit the CSS as you work in Design view.
that controls its display.

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Just above the workspace, you’ll find the new Related Files bar with a
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The Spry menu was added in Dreamweaver CS3, but you’ll find
list of associated files and scripts for any open documents, including new additions and enhancements in the CS4 beta. Spry makes it
external CSS files, Server Side Includes, JavaScript files (such as those easier for nonprogrammers to add interactive AJAX features, which
created with the Spry features in Dreamweaver), and other pro- combine CSS and JavaScript, to create drop-down menus, collaps-
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gramming files. Not only is this a handy reference that can help you ible panels, form validation, and many other interactive features.
keep track of all the files in your site, it’s also a shortcut. Click on any
filename to automatically open the file, and you can edit and apply
the changes automatically to the HTML page you’re working on.

continued on p. 82

.&
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If you’re a former GoLive user, you’ll be pleased to find that Adobe
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Normally, if you click on the Split view icon at the top of the work-
added smart objects to the CS4 beta. Smart objects make it possible space (circled), the code and design views will be split horizontally.
to drag-and-drop a PSD file into a webpage in Dreamweaver and then If you'd like to see the Code and Design views side by side, try
use the Image Preview dialog (shown here) to optimize and resize it using the Vertical Split view (View>Split Vertically). If you’re not familiar
on the fly. Another great benefit is if you update the original PSD file with the integration between Code and Design views, here’s a tip:
later, Dreamweaver adds a little red arrow to the optimized version in Click on any element, such as the thumbnail photo selected here, and
your webpage. Click the Update from Original button in the Property Dreamweaver automatically highlights the corresponding HTML code
inspector and the changes are automatically applied. in Code view.

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Previous versions of Dreamweaver included a Check In/Check Out
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If you prefer writing the code yourself, Code Hints are your friends. In
feature to prevent designers from overwriting each other’s work by the Dreamweaver CS4 beta, you’ll find additions to the Code Hints
requiring that a page be checked out (thus locked to other design- for AJAX and JavaScript. As you write in Code View, these hints auto-
ers) before it could be worked on. The idea was great in principle, matically appear, making it easy to complete or verify your work.
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but the system was clunky and slow in practice and many designers
simply turned the feature off. Although I haven’t had time to test it
fully yet, the integration of Subversion software to handle this kind
of file management, as well as versioning and rollbacks, is a promis-
ing addition to CS4.

QJanine Warner has authored more than a dozen books about the Internet, including Dreamweaver CS3 for Dummies (and soon the CS4 version). She’s also the host of more
than 50 hours of video training in Web design for Total Training. A popular speaker, she has been working online since 1995. (www.JCWarner.com). S
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The TweenLite library consists simply of an ActionScript file that After downloading the TweenLite library, you need to import
you’ll be including in your project. Open a browser and navigate those files into your Flash project so that you can use them. Select
to http://blog.greensock.com/tweenliteas3. Click on the Download the first keyframe in the actions layer and open the Actions panel
Now button to download the latest version as a ZIP file. Unzip it to (Window>Actions). The way that you import external ActionScript
your desktop. Inside of the TweenLiteAS3 folder you should see a files into your project is by using the import command. Enter the
folder named “gs.” This folder needs to be in the same folder as code shown above into the Actions panel. This imports all of the
your FLA file. Since the orb.fla file is on the desktop, drag the gs ActionScript files found in the gs folder.
folder to the desktop.

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With each release of Flash, Adobe tries to add as many cool new features as possible. Despite this, there are many
community-based projects that have arisen to fill any missing gaps. In this tutorial, you’ll learn how to use the
open-source TweenLite library to achieve some effects that would be next to impossible to duplicate using
the Timeline in Flash alone.

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Download the project files at the Layers website and unzip it to Now you’ll create the movie clip that you’ll animate using TweenLite. Double-click on the orbButton movie clip on the Stage to enter
your desktop. Open the orb.fla file in Flash CS3. This Flash file Select the first keyframe in the clips layer and drag out a copy of the edit mode. We need to create a hit state for the button that will
contains two layers in the Timeline: one is named actions and will orb movie clip from the Library to the Stage. With it selected, give it trigger the animation. Double-click Layer 1, rename it “orb,” and
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contain all of your ActionScript code; the other is named clips and an Instance Name of “innerOrb” in the Property inspector. We need click the Insert Layer icon to create a new layer above it. Rename
will contain all of the visual assets. The frame rate has been set to to wrap this movie clip inside of another, so press the F8 key to open this layer “hit.” Get the Rectangle tool (R) and draw a rectangle
30 to make the animation nice and smooth. In the Library panel the Convert to Symbol dialog. Give this new movie clip a name of over the innerOrb movie clip. It should cover the clip, so look at
(Window>Library), you’ll see an image of a glassy orb created in “orbButton” and then click OK. Give this newly created movie clip the Property inspector to make sure it’s positioned roughly at X:0
Photoshop and a movie clip that contains the orb. an Instance Name of “orb1” in the Property inspector. and Y:0 on the Stage. Since this rectangle is only for the hit state
and shouldn’t be visible, remove any Stroke color and set the Fill
Alpha value to 0% in the Color panel (Window>Color).
[If you’d like to download the files used in this tutorial to practice these techniques, visit www.layersmagazine.com and navigate to the Magazine section. All files are for personal
use only.]
.*
.-

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With the rectangle still selected, press the F8 key to open the
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Select the first keyframe in the actions layer and open up the Actions
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Type the next function into the Actions panel. When the orbOut
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Now that you’ve successfully animated a single orb, you can dupli-
Convert to Symbol dialog. Name it “hit,” select Movie Clip as panel. The first thing you’ll need to do is import some ActionScript function is called we’re again calling the TweenLite.to( ) function, cate your work to create a row of orbs. This could be useful as a site
the Type, and click OK. Now give it an Instance Name of “hit” in classes that describe the various types of easing effects that you but this time we’re animating the orb back down to its original Y navigation element or quasi-Dock-look from a Mac. Click the clips
the Property inspector. In the final movie, when the user rolls over can use with TweenLite. These include effects such as bounce and position. Another difference is that we’re using Bounce.easeOut as layer in the Timeline, drag out additional orbButton movie clips
the hit movie clip, the orb will animate up, and when they roll off, elastic easing. Type in the second line of code you see above into the the easing type, which will make the orb bounce back into place. from the Library panel onto the Stage, and align them as shown.
the orb will return to its original position. Click Scene 1 under the Actions panel directly below the import statement that you entered Test the movie by hitting Command-Return (PC: Ctrl-Enter) and roll Give each an Instance Name of orb along with the next number in
Timeline to go back to the main Timeline. in Step 3. With these two ActionScript libraries imported into your your mouse over the orb to see the animation. In the next step you’ll the sequence. For instance, the next orb would have an Instance
project, you can now begin writing the code to handle the rollover duplicate your work to add some more orbs. Name of “orb2,” etc. In this example we’ve added a total of five
and rollout mouse events. orbs but you can add however many you like.

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There are two mouse events that Flash needs to listen for. The first
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Enter the next few lines of code into the Actions panel to assign your
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For each orb that you added to the Stage in Step 11, you’ll need
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I’ve shown you one effect out of potentially thousands that are
is the rollover event that gets fired anytime the user moves their function. When the orbOver function is called, the TweenLite.to( ) func- to duplicate some of the ActionScript code. Click the first frame in possible using this code. You can play with animating differ-
mouse over the object, and the second is the rollout event that fires tion is called to make the animation start. The first thing we pass to the the actions layer, copy lines 4 and 5, paste these lines for each ent movie clip properties besides the Y property. You can also
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when the user moves their mouse off of the object. Type the next function is the object we want to animate. In this case, it’s the innerOrb additional orb, and change the Instance Name for the two events. change the animations duration and easing types to achieve a
two lines of code into the Actions panel. In this code you’re telling clip. The second item is the time in seconds that we want the animation The functions were written in such a way that they don’t need to wide range of different effects. TweenLite is just one community
Flash to call the orbOver function when the rollover event fires. In a to take. Lastly, we pass in an object containing the destination values be duplicated. All of the orbs will call those two functions. That ActionScript library that makes things much easier for Flash devel-
similar fashion you’re telling Flash to call the orbOut function when for whatever properties that we want to animate. Here we’re animating way if you want to change something in the animation, you only opers. You should never reinvent the wheel unless you really
the rollout event fires. the Y position to –50. The ease property is set to Exponential.easeOut, need to do it in a single place. have to.
which gives a strong easing effect.

.,
QLee Brimelow is a Platform Evangelist with Adobe and an award-winning interactive designer. Lee runs the free tutorial site at www.gotoandlearn.com and a Flash-related blog at
www.theflashblog.com. He is also the author of several titles for Lynda.com dealing with Flash and After Effects. S
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HI:E;DJG/ Now we’ll add a HI:EC>C:/ To add a
Q :?=?J7BL?:;EIEBKJ?EDIS motion blur (Filter>Blur>Motion colorize layer, click on
! S P E ! | ~ ! I B S M B O Blur) with the following settings: the Create a New Layer
Angle 90˚; Distance 100. Click icon at the bottom of

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OK to close the dialog. the Layers panel. Click
on your Foreground
HI:E;>K:/ Press Command- color to bring up the
Option- –(minus) (PC: Ctrl-Alt-–) Color Picker, choose
to zoom out while keeping your the color you want to fill
Last issue, I showed how to create an After Effects- window the same size. (You might your layer (we used R:10,
like animation in Photoshop Extended that involved also drag out one corner of your G:140, B:210), and click OK. Press Option-Delete (PC: Alt-Backspace)
playing video inside the graphic of an iPhone. For window for better visibility.) to fill the layer with your new color. Change the blend mode of this
that technique, I used a background animation Make sure your layer is unlocked. If it has a little padlock beside it new layer from Normal to Screen in the Layers panel.
clip that I’d created in Photoshop CS3. Since then, in the Layers panel, then it’s locked, so double-click on the Background
readers have been asking how they can make their own animated layer, rename it Layer 0, and click OK. HI:EI:C/ Next, let’s apply
background—what filters to use, etc. So, I thought that would make Now press Command-T (PC: Ctrl-T) to bring up Free Transform. the Polar Coordinates filter to
a good tutorial for this “Digital Video Solutions” column. In the Options Bar, change the smart object layer. Click
the Width to 200% and on that layer in the Layers
the Height to 1600%. panel to make it active, then
Press Return (PC: Enter) go under the Filter menu and
twice to commit the choose Distort>Polar Coor-
transformation. This dinates. In the dialog, click
stretches your “fibrous” on the Rectangular to Polar
object vertically 1600% radial button and click OK.
and creates slightly fatter
J N B H F T ; ª J TUP D L Q I PUP ! ! J M MV TU S BU J P O ; ! D I S J TU Z ! X J O U F S

strands of fibers. HI:E:A:K:C/ The trick to


adding the cool vertical lines back into your animation is to edit the
HI:EH>M/ Using the Move tool (V), drag the stretched fibers down filter blending option for the Polar Coordinates control. To do this,
so that the top of the object is aligned with the top of the canvas. double-click on the little “lines” icon to the right of the Polar Coor-
This will be the starting point for your animation. dinates name in your Layers panel. Choose Darken or Darker Color

ROD HARLAN
Open the Animation for the Mode to get a similar effect to what’s shown here and click
panel (Window>Animation) OK. As always, feel free to try the other blend modes for lots of
and twirl down the arrow different-looking results. Click the Play icon in the Animation panel
Final image beside Layer 0 to see the to test your animation.
layer’s properties. Now, click
While I’ll use a specific set of filters in this tutorial, you’ll find that
on the Time-Vary Stopwatch
using any of the Render choices under the Filter menu and combin-
beside Position to set a Key-
ing them with at least one choice from the Distort folder will always
frame at the 0 second mark
yield interesting results. So, let’s begin.
in the Timeline.
HI:EDC:/ In Photoshop CS3 Extended, create a new document
HI:EH:K:C/ In the Animation panel, drag the Current Time Indica-
Q°WYkijecXWYa]hekdZWd_cWj_ed (File>New) at the size you want your final output to be (720x480
pixels in this example). In the Layers panel, this will give you a locked
tor (CTI) to the 10-second mark. Drag the stretched fibers straight
up so that the tail end of the object is aligned with the bottom of
Background layer that you need to convert to a smart object: Click
the canvas. This should automatically add a keyframe for the Posi-
m_j^_dÄd_j[bolWh_WXb[feii_X_b_j_[i on the Layer menu, go under Smart Objects, and choose Convert to
Smart Object.
tion property at 10 seconds.

j^WjoekYWdYh[Wj[ HI:EILD/ Double-click on the Smart Object icon that


appears on the layer in the Layers panel to work “inside”
oekhi[b\Wdoj_c[$S that smart object. Next we’ll fill the smart object with
50% gray. Press Shift-Delete (PC: Shift-Backspace) to
open the Fill dialog. Make sure Use: 50% Gray is selected
then click OK. And that’s all there is to a custom background animation with infinitely
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variable possibilities that you can create yourself anytime…and more


HI:EI=G::/ Press D to set your Foreground color to black, importantly, own all the rights too!
then go to the Filter menu and choose Render>Fibers.
In the dialog, type in 15 for Variance and 10 for Strength. HI:E:><=I/ Close the smart object (Command-W [PC: Ctrl-W]) and Rod Harlan is a video industry veteran and founder of the Digital Video Professionals
These low settings will give you smoother-looking fibers Save your changes. You’re now back in your regular document with Association. Through his company DriveDV Inc., Rod works on special projects for
with more “white” areas. Click on the Randomize button Fortune 500 clients such as Adobe and private institutions such as the NAPP. His
a single smart object layer containing your animation.
until you see about a 50:50 ratio of black to white fibers in popular industry blog is packed with tips, tutorials, and industry insight and can be
We’ll now add a layer to colorize the animation as well as bring
found at DVconfidential.com.
the Preview, then click OK. dimensions to our background clip.

[If you’d like to preview the final movie from this technique, visit www.layersmagazine.com and navigate to the Magazine section. All files are for personal use only.]

..
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Let’s work at the size this was intended for—NTSC Widescreen. So Select your Green_01 clip and drag it straight into the Timeline.
go to Composition>New Composition, and in the Composition Set- Now, when keying a large area like this with a small subject area,
tings dialog, set the Width and Height to 960x540 (16:9) with a Pixel it’s best to first remove as much of the background as you can
Aspect Ratio of Square Pixels (when working on keying, it’s easier to so the keyer has less work to do. In the Tools panel, select the
see clean edges and results when not viewing expanded rectan- Rectangle tool (Q), then click-and-drag a rectangle around the
gular pixels). Set the duration to at least the length of your clip (2+ subject to remove everything except our dancing Marina. This
seconds), then click OK. Finally, go to Composition>Background is removing all the “garbage” we don’t need—hence the name
Color, click the color swatch in the Background Color dialog, and Garbage Matte.
choose white in the Color Picker.

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With the accessibility of green screen setups these days, it’s easier to get keyable footage than ever before—
opening up creative options without set or color restrictions. Once you have your footage, After Effects has some
wicked tools to key and extract—and when combined they can create some wonderful results. [For techniques to
capture your own footage turn to the “Production Premium Tutorial” on page 94.—Ed.]

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Starting out in Adobe After Effects CS3 with a blank project, double- Go back to the main Selection tool (V) and scrub the Current Time With the layer selected, go to Effect>Keying>Keylight to apply
click in the Project panel to bring up the Import File dialog. Locate Indicator (CTI) in the Timeline to check that none of your subject gets the effect. In the Effect Controls panel (ECP), click the Eyedropper
and select the green screen clip(s) you plan to use and click Open. cropped during playback. In the case of people dancing, jumping, tool next to the Screen Colour swatch and click on a midrange
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Here, I’m importing three clips of our intern, Marina, shot in HD in and moving, arms, hands, or feet can easily go outside the garbage green in the image. Then, click on the Toggle Transparency Grid
the green screen studio. One of these clips “Green_01.mov” is avail- matte later down the line without you realizing. Simply double-click icon at the bottom of the Composition window to view the alpha
able (shortened) for you to download from the Layers website. Click on the edge of the mask border to resize and move it accordingly— channel—certainly not great at this point. To further illustrate this
the Create a New Folder icon at the bottom of the Project panel, but keep it as tight as possible to the focus on the shot. point, choose Status in the View pop-up menu in the ECP to view
name the new folder, and drag your clips into it to store them. the simple transparency information.

[If you’d like to download one of the clips used in this tutorial to practice these techniques, visit www.layersmagazine.com and navigate to the Magazine section. All files are for
/&
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Twirl down Screen Matte in the ECP, and drag the Clip Black until
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Turn the Transparency Grid off to return the white backdrop. This
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Reapplying the saved preset to other clips will either work per-
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In the ECP for Keylight, we adjusted the Clip Black value to around
the gray area around Marina is black (around 48–50). Drag the reveals that we have slightly jagged edges, but we can easily fectly, terribly, or be somewhat usable—depending on the clip. 20 to reintroduce some of the softness around the hair. Then, under
Clip White to get Marina as white as possible, leaving some green smooth them out. Go to Effect>Matte>Matte Choker, and in the We’ve added two more clips from the green screen shoot to the Matte Choker, we changed the Geometric Softness 1 to 10 and the
(around 80). Now choose Screen Matte in the View pop-up to see ECP adjust Geometric Softness 1 to around 4 and Choke 1 to Timeline, one medium distance and one close-up (you can use Choke 1 value to 1. This softened the edge of the matte for this
the actual matte, then adjust Screen Shrink/Grow to –0.2 to trim around 2 pixels (no more). This gives us a much better edge to your own footage or drag in the same clip that you used for the medium zoom image quite nicely. Now, moving on to the close-up
the edges of the alpha channel slightly. Now switch View to Final the key—perfect for an image like this at this size. If you scrub previous steps). To use your new preset, select a clip in the Time- Green_03, this is a true test of keying settings—loose hair transpar-
Result, and the first part of the key is complete. your Timeline now, the key is looking good, so let’s restore some line, go to Animation>Recent Animation Presets, and choose ency! Selecting the clip, we applied the same Animation Preset
color into the clip and give it some punch. Key & Color. In this example, the same settings from Green_01 once more.
are too harsh on Green_02, but the color adjustment matches
fine. A couple of tweaks then...

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Go to Effect>Color Correction>Auto Color to auto-boost the color.
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In the Curves controls, choose Blue from the Channel menu, then
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Now that you have your clip(s) nicely and very cleanly keyed,
Now go back and choose Levels from the same submenu, and in the drag a point from the middle of the graph slightly up and left to the hair softness back in. We adjusted the Clip Black to around the After Effects world is your oyster. Add new backgrounds,
ECP, adjust the Input White to around 235 to boost the brightness lighten the channel, bringing a little more red back into the image— 14, and then in this instance, turned off the Matte Choker effect new effects, type titles, movies, logos—whatever works to com-
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of the clip. To reduce the slight green colorcast that still remains, go perfect! As keys and color adjustments go, this is a good template by clicking the small fx icon next to its name in the ECP. Looking plete your project and present your keyed footage as cleanly
back to Effect>Color Correction and choose Curves. to use, so let’s save a preset for reapplication. In the ECP, Shift-select pretty good! As you can see, an initial key created for one clip can and strongly as possible. Enjoy! [If you arrived here from the
Keylight 1.2, Matte Choker, Auto Color, Levels, and Curves to select easily be reused and adjusted for each future keying operation, “Production Premium Tutorial,” return now to page 98 for some
them all, then go to Animation>Save Animation Preset. Name it “Key with the simple use of an Animation Preset. compositing techniques.—Ed.]
& Color.ffx” and click Save.

/(
QSteve Holmes is the creative director at Energi Design in Sausalito, California, creating award-winning motion graphics and Web design for clients worldwide. He also speaks at
various design conferences on the subjects of After Effects, motion graphics, and typography, and can be reached at steve@clickenergi.com. S
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You’ll need to get the video into the Creative Suite in order to work First, you’ll want to edit your clips in Premiere. Simply put, keying
with it. With Adobe Creative Suite 3 Production Premium, you have takes time—time to set it up and render. You don’t want to bother
Adobe Premiere Pro for digitizing or importing video. If working keying footage you don’t need. Create a new sequence and get
with tape-based sources, choose File>Capture and use your deck it edited in a rough form. It’s a good idea to leave one second
or camera to load footage. If working with tapeless sources (such of pad on both ends of the shots you want to key (this is called
as P2 Cards or XDCAM) simply choose File>Import and navigate to “laving handles”). This pad gives you overlap that you’ll use for
the clips on your hard drive. It’s a good idea to transfer the media transitions (wipes and dissolves). You’ll add these after you’ve cre-
first to an edit-grade hard drive. ated the composited image.

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The chroma key wall has come to be used for much more than just the weather. With improvements in both keying
technology and cameras, it’s possible to get professional results on tighter budgets. How you key will vary on the
footage you use, but Production Premium offers an integrated solution. Let’s explore how Premiere Pro, Photoshop,
and After Effects can work together to take advantage of great keying.

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Cameras often have auto features turned on that can make keying Adobe Dynamic Link works across many of the applications in the In order to key, you’ll need a backdrop. This can be a stock back-
much more difficult. Turn off auto-exposure, auto-white balance, Adobe Creative Suite Production Premium. It can significantly speed ground, a 3D rendering, or a photograph. One of our favorite tech-
and auto-focus. If any of these are left on, this means the green up your workflow as it provides the ability to create dynamic links niques is to use a panoramic photo. This gives you a lot of options
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you’re trying to key will constantly change as your model moves. between applications, without a need for exporting or rendering. as you can easily resize and reposition the backdrop for different
While you’re in the setup menu, be sure to turn off Sharpening. In the Project window, select the sequence you want to share and framings. To create a pano, use a digital still camera. Orient the
Keep your model and your camera as far away from the screen as choose Edit>Copy. Switch to After Effects and choose Edit>Paste. camera for portrait, then shoot three to five photographs. Be sure
possible. If your camera shoots progressive, take advantage of it. A new composition that matches the settings of your Premiere each shot overlaps the previous shot by 10–20% so the photos can
Fields definitely get in the way of a good key. If possible avoid DV sequence is created and the associated media is imported into After be stitched together easily. Load the photos onto your computer.
and HDV. Effects. Double-click the new sequence to open it.

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The easiest way to browse your photos is with Adobe Bridge. This
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The files you selected in Bridge are automatically loaded in the Use:
file navigation tool allows you to visually browse your media, which Files list. There are several layout options, but we’ve found that Auto
comes in handy when looking for your background images. If works very well most of the time. Be sure to check the box next to
needed, you can even rotate images in Bridge. Once you’ve found Blend Images Together. Click OK and be patient—each image has
and selected your panoramic images, choose Tools>Photoshop> to open. Photoshop will attempt to automatically align your images
Photomerge. If it’s not running already, Photoshop will launch and and use layer masks to blend them together seamlessly.
become the active application. The Photomerge dialog presents
itself and awaits your input.

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Once the image is built, you should optimize it for a video work-
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Unfortunately, there’s no Dynamic Link between Photoshop and
flow. If you’re happy with the Photomerge, you’ll likely no longer After Effects (but the workflow is still easy). Switch back to After
need layers. Choose Layer>Flatten Image to reduce the image to Effects and double-click in an empty area of the Project panel (or
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a flattened file. This will reduce render times and RAM overhead choose File>Import>File). Navigate to the file just created with
for the After Effects Composition. Crop the image to a clean Photomerge, select it, and click Open. Drag this imported file to
rectangular shape using the Crop tool (C). Save the file as a TIFF the bottommost layer in the open composition (placing it below
image to your project folder. your video footage). Now turn to the After Effects column on
page 90 for instructions on keying your footage using Keylight,
a powerful chroma keying plug-in from The Foundry. Then return
here to composite your background with your keyed video.

continued on p. 98
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Once you’ve nailed the key, you can tweak the background. The
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Chances are that your backdrop is a little too clear. Most photogra-
advantage with an oversized background is that you can position phers make it a point to take pictures in focus. But if this scene were
it to taste. This way, as your shot composition changes (such as a really being filmed with a video camera, the backdrop would be out
medium shot to close-up), you can change the size and position of focus due to depth of field. You can tweak this using a Gaussian
of the background. This also allows for a background to be reused or Lens Blur effect (both under Effect>Blur & Sharpen) to soften the
on multiple interviews with greater flexibility. To access position background and simulate depth of field. Gaussian Blur is faster than
controls, simply select the layer and press the shortcut key P. You Lens Blur if you’re in a hurry, but Lens Blur offers some realistic set-
can then tweak the layer’s X Y Position to suit. To use Scale, just tings you can tweak, such as Grain and Highlights.
press the shortcut key S.

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Your foreground and background elements will likely not match from
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It’s generally a good idea to invoke a full-quality RAM preview first
a color balance point of view, but it’s easy to tweak your colors. One to make sure the key works well. Simply mark out a work area of a
effective way is to apply an Adjustment Layer (Layer>New>Adjustment few seconds and check the key. When satisfied with your composi-
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Layer) with a Photo Filter (Effect>Color Correction>Photo Filter), tion, you’ll need to render it. This can be done via the After Effects
which offers useful presets for warming or cooling shots. Addition- Render Queue (Composition>Add to Render Queue), which allows
ally, Keylight offers color-correction controls to match foreground and you to create QuickTime, AVI, or FLV files. If further editing is needed,
background elements. Paying close attention to color will help make simply invoke Dynamic Link (copy-and-paste) to return the compos-
the composite more believable. Additionally, you can use any other ite to Premiere Pro.
Color Correction effects in After Effects to refine the shot. The profes-
sional workflow is to key the shot first, then tweak color and exposure.

/. QRichard Harrington is owner of RHED Pixel (www.rhedpixel.com), a visual communications company in Washington, D.C. Author of Photoshop for Video and co-author of Producing
Video Podcasts, Richard is Program Manager for the NAB Post-Production World Conference and a regular speaker at Photoshop World.
ALL IMAGES ©RHED PIXEL UNLESS OTHERWISE NOTED
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I’ve had the privilege of reviewing the past few versions of Poser and OUJ!Nfejb! gps!JoEftjho!
been pleased with the content and improvements made from the pre-
vious versions. Well, the newest version, Poser Pro, is no exception. The
new enhancements left me with a big smile on my face and just so you
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know, Poser Pro is targeted at users who want to take their creativity BMM.JO.POF!TPMVUJPO!GPS!BMM!ZPVS!NVMUJNFEJB DesignMerge is a plug-in that allows custom printing based on an
and work to another level. exported database file. Why should you spend that kind of money
Under new direction from Smith Micro Software, Inc. (which pur- Media Maker 8 Premium by NewTech Infosystems (NTI) is an all-in-
(approximately $1,000–3,000) on a database plug-in when InDesign
chased the Poser line as well as some other titles from eFrontier late one CD and DVD burner for Windows users. It provides a suite of
comes with Data Merge? Well, there are several critical differences
last year), Poser Pro was developed with a feature set and functionality easy-to-use tools for creating and recording data (audio, photos, and
between the plug-ins:
that’s geared for professional content creators in studio and produc- video) onto CDs and DVDs, plus Blu-ray support for backups and
First, DesignMerge merges the data during printing. Say your database
tion environments. This version offers pro-level application integration, creating data discs (but no Blu-ray video capabilities).
contains 1,000 records, unlike Data Merge, the InDesign document doesn’t
as well as a 64-bit render engine, COLLADA support, and advanced Media Maker 8 features a Video Converter that allows you to convert
end up with a 1,000-page document; it prints a single-page document
network rendering, which allows users to reduce their design and videos for playback on an iPod, PSP, Zune, and other portable video
1,000 times. More importantly, if you’re printing to a PPML supporting
production time while allowing them access to thousands of rigged players. It also includes the NTI Photo Maker, which enables users to
device, the common elements can be processed once, and only the
and textured models. quickly import, edit, and share their digital photos and slide shows;
changed data is processed per page. DesignMerge also supports multi-
Let’s take a look at the new features: the NTI Ripper for ripping and archiving music; and NTI Digital Jack
up layouts for gang printing, allowing users to create multiple layouts on
UÊ Unrestrictive Network Rendering allows you to use unlimited for playback of music collections
a single page and sequence the data to each template.
computers/nodes to render your images. (This is limited to three character content and scene data into third-party applications. All of these programs are opened from an application appropri-
Second—and perhaps the most important feature—DesignMerge
nodes in the Base version. The Base version is a sidegrade option (Limited to export of geometry and textures in the Base version.) ately called Launch Pad. Many of the applications use a Windows
supports conditional rules. Say the database contains information
available to Poser 6 and 7 users only.) Getting into the product was familiar and as usual, the interface is Explorer-style view that allows you to drag-and-drop files you want
about a person’s gender (or other condition), the text, graphic, or
UÊ Queue Manager is a powerful tool that lets you manage your very intuitive. Even newbies will be up and running once they familiarize burned or copied to a CD or DVD. Wizards, called EasySteps, guide
entire layout can change based on the supplied data. Also included is a
rendering process. themselves with the tools and take a run through the tutorials. I can you through the process.
PostNet font for generating USPS codes and an add-in that can create
UÊ Ê7ˆÌ…ÊBackground Rendering, you can work on Poser scenes in see where designers, animators, and modelers in professional environ- Perhaps the most important part of this program is its full-featured
retail-oriented barcodes.
the foreground while rendering time-consuming images in the ments will benefit greatly from the Pro version of Poser, as the new backup package called Backup Now 5. It takes only a few minutes to
Third, DesignMerge includes the CopyFit plug-in that allows text to
background. features rocked and integrated nicely into both Maya and Max without set up a system of scheduled backups to a hard drive on the network.
be resized according to set rules when the database text won’t fit in the
UÊ Ê/ …iÊ64-bit Firefly Render Engine takes advantage of today’s a problem. Backup Now 5 also provides disc spanning, so you can archive por-
allowed space. After you connect to the database file, just insert the
more powerful 64-bit systems. Current users will find that the new features are well worth the tions of a library across multiple DVDs. The selection setup is a simple
fields and apply any conditional rules to them. Then using the onscreen
UÊ Gamma Control lets you specify gamma and apply the values upgrade. The network and background rendering, along with the procedure to select which files or file types to back up, or to selectively
preview, you can inspect the setup of the merged data before printing.
to textures. 64-bit support, make this a must-have for anyone creating complex restore. So what backup devices does it support? The list is too lengthy
One minor issue: The database text must be an exported (typi-

Ài>Ìiʈ}…Ê ޘ>“ˆVÊ,i܏Ṏœ˜Ê“>}iÃÊ܈̅ÊHDRI support. ÃVi˜iÃʜÀÊ«ÀœiVÌðÊ``Ê̜Ê̅>Ìʜ̅iÀÊvi>ÌÕÀiÃ]ÊÃÕV…Ê>ÃÊ ,ÊiÝ«œÀÌ]Ê to include in this review, but if you can record to it, Backup Now 5
cally tab-delimited) file, as DesignMerge for InDesign doesn’t yet
UÊ ÊNormal Mapping support is a resource-efficient technique to add COLLADA import/export, normal mapping, and gamma correction, supports it.—Dave Huss
support direct database connectivity.
the appearance of complexity and surface detail to 3D objects. and this is a no-brainer for anyone wanting to create great content The product is not inexpensive and, although its ease of use belies
UÊ ÊDistributable Content is available with a set of four redistributable quickly and affordably.—Bruce Bicknell
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its power, DesignMerge can be worth every penny.—David Creamer


3D characters to help you save production time. Company: NewTech Infosystems Price: $79.99 (Upgrade $49.99)
UÊ ÊPoserFusion Plug-ins include hosting plug-in licenses for Maxon’s Web: www.ntius.com Rating: ● ● ● ●
CINEMA 4D and Autodesk’s 3ds Max and Maya. The plug-ins Company: Smith Micro Software, Inc. Price: $499.99 Hot: Covers every aspect of media creation and backup Company: Meadows Publishing Solutions Price: Quoted
let users integrate Poser Pro scene files within these production Web: www.smithmicro.com Rating: ● ● ● ● ● Not: No Mac version Web: www.meadowsps.com Rating: ● ● ● ●
applications. (These plug-ins are not available in the Base version.)
Hot: Integration with professional applications Hot: Variable data printing by conditional rules
UÊ ÊFull COLLADA support gives you unrestricted ability for import
and export via COLLADA to assist with the integration of 3D
Not: Not: No ODBC connectivity in InDesign version yet

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Focus mode selectively improves sharpness of mildly out-of-focus
areas of a photo, but it won’t convert an out-of-focus photo into a sharp
one. In some tests, the autofocus focused on the wrong subject or sharp-
ness was lost due to depth of field. To use Focus mode, isolate the area
to be brought back into focus by outlining it with the drawing tools. The
program made the blurry areas a little crisper if they weren’t too large
and there was sufficient detail to recover.
When using HDR mode from the standalone application, if you

BLWJT!Foibodfs!:/3
shoot RAW files, it’s necessary to convert them to a format that
Enhancer accepts (I used 8-bit RGB TIFF). My test images of the Colos-
seum in Rome resulted in a properly exposed sky while retaining details
EFUBJM.FOIBODFNFOU!BQQMJDBUJPO inside the tunnel entrances. Alignment of the different images is done
automatically. My test images were shot without a tripod, which made

Cboofs[ftu!Qsp!2/3 AKVIS Enhancer 9.2 is a multipurpose image utility that’s available as alignment problematic but still it did an okay job. It didn’t remove ghosts

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a standalone application or a Photoshop plug-in. The standalone ver- (subjects in the photo that move between frames). The finished HDR
sion has three modes of operation: Enhancer, Focus, and HDR (high- images were also a little oversaturated but can be corrected by fine-
GMBTI!CBOOFST!NBEF!FBTZ tuning the settings.—Dave Huss

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dynamic range), while the plug-in version doesn’t support HDR.
In Enhancer mode, the application attempts to enhance images by
If you’ve ever wanted to add a professional-quality, animated banner to intensifying color transitions between adjacent pixels. In testing, the results
a website or blog, you’ll want to check out BannerZest from Aquafadas. were uneven. Overall, most images were improved, but the default set- Company: AKVIS Software Inc. Price: $81 (App); $69 (Plug-in)
UFNQMBUF.CBTFE-!DTT!MBZPVU!DSFBUPS!GPS!ESFBNXFBWFS This theme-based animation software makes it easy to quickly add Flash- tings tended to oversaturate the images. Controls allow you to fine-tune Web: http://akvis.com Rating: ● ● ●
based slide shows and animated banners without owning or knowing the settings and save them as a custom setting. Enhancer also recovers
CSS guru Eric Meyer, in collaboration with WebAssist, has released CSS
anything about Flash. BannerZest is available in two flavors: Standard or
Hot: Simplifies HDR creation
lost detail in shadows, but the recovered areas exhibited an unaccept-
Sculptor for Dreamweaver. This easy-to-use extension makes creating Not: Excessive noise in shadow recovery
Pro. This review is based on experiences using the Pro version. able amount of noise for professional use.
CSS layouts in Dreamweaver a snap. The last two releases of Dream-
Creating a Flash banner using BannerZest is surprisingly quick and
weaver included CSS templates; however, users needed an in-depth
easy. Upon launching the program, the first thing you’ll see is a desig-
knowledge of CSS to modify the layouts. Enter CSS Sculptor!
nated drag-and-drop area. To create a banner, you must first select your
This template-based application makes it easier for both designers and
images and drag-and-drop them onto the designated area. This action
programmers to quickly design CSS layouts. It’s easy to install this exten-
launches an Inspector panel that allows you to choose the layout and
sion using the Manage Extension Command in Dreamweaver, and then
the application is launched by choosing File>New CSS Sculptor Page.
type of animation from a list of 27 themes. Once you select a theme,
you can adjust most of the theme’s attributes, such as dimensions, back- Where designers
learn Photoshop !
The interface contains six tabs: Layout, Box, Type, Design, Print,
ground colors, gradients, borders, fonts, and transitions. Even though ®
and Output. Each tab’s screen contains controls for customizing the
you must use a theme to create a banner, adjusting the settings allows
look of the final page. Layout (the first tab) contains 41 different CSS
you to create a custom look. Adding a URL link to the banner images is
layouts, including one-, two-, and three-column static, elastic, fluid, Every day, the National Association of
easy using the Media panel tools.
fixed, and hybrid layouts with optional header and footers. Users Photoshop Professionals teaches designers
The final step is to publish the banner. The Publish settings allow
can select from the included color schemes or create their own. The from around the world how to turn ordinary
you to specify whether you want to publish the banner to a Web
ability to customize almost all aspects of a layout from margins and into extraordinary and memories into
server or a local directory. Clicking the Show HTML button opens a
padding to borders and colors is a welcome attribute. masterpieces. We’re your ultimate resource for
window containing the code needed to integrate the banner on a
I have to say that when I initially opened the program, I was skepti- Adobe® Photoshop® training, education, and news.
server. Clicking the Show Banner button opens an HTML page
cal of how useful it would be…but I quickly changed my mind. CSS
displaying the banner.—Cyndy Cashman
Sculptor allowed me to generate a custom layout for a client that con-
formed to Web standards, was accessible, and best of all, contained
Join today and receive...
And, as a bonus, you’ll get
the code necessary to correctly display pages in Firefox, Safari, and
Company: Aquafadas SAS Price: $129 Pro ($49 Standard) “The Best of Photoshop User:: The 10th Year” DVD
Internet Explorer. CSS Sculptor is one of those programs where you
Web: www.aquafadas.com Rating: ● ● ● ● ● One -Year Membership $99*tTwo -Year Membership $179*
might find yourself saying, “I don’t know how I got anything done Use code NAPM-1UM for your bonus gift.
without it!”—Cyndy Cashman Hot: Easy to use; ability to customize settings
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Not:
National Association of Photoshop Professionals
Image Courtesy of Ciro Marchetti, NAPP Member and Photoshop World Guru Award Winner ©2008
Company: WebAssist.com Corporation Price: $99.99
Web: www.webassist.com Rating: ● ● ● ● ● w w w . p h o t o s h o p u s e r. c o m o r c a l l 8 0 0 - 7 3 8 - 8 5 1 3
Adobe and Photoshop are registered trademarks of Adobe Systems Incorporated. *Prices are for U.S. residents only. Corporate, Educational and International rates are also available.
Hot: Cross-browser compatibility
Not:

NAPP_HalfPG_0708.indd 1 8/5/08 2:59:20 PM


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Although I use a few of the more expensive programs, I was
pleasantly surprised with the number of features available in modo
302. These include 3D modeling, painting, rendering, and anima-
tion tools for artists who want to create 3D images without having

Tpsfotpo!Trvff{f!6!Qsp npep!413!
to resort to other software. It supports polygonal and subdivision
surface modeling and has impressive rendering capabilities along
with an awesome Sculpting tool. Features new to this version are

FBTZ.UP.VTF!DPNQSFTTJPO!BOE!FODPEJOH!TPGUXBSF 4E!TPGUXBSF!GPS!NPEFMJOH-!QBJOUJOH-! pretty impressive as well. The addition of PSD support, Physical Sun
BOJNBUJPO-!BOE!SFOEFSJOH and Physical Sky (which provide more realistic outdoor scenes), and
If you’re looking for compression and encoding software that’s easy a new Flex tool are only a few of the cool new features available.
modo 302 from Luxology is an amazing 3D program that honestly, I’d recommend this program to anyone who wants a very capable
to use and at the same time a fully featured professional application,
until this review, had me very skeptical about its capabilities and 3D content-creation program that has a very powerful set of tools.
look no further than Sorenson Squeeze 5 Pro. Building on Sorenson’s
position in the world of 3D. But after spending some time with it, —Bruce Bicknell
history of producing high-quality, easy-to-use, video compression
I have no doubt that it’s a pro-level 3D modeling solution.
software, Squeeze 5 has evolved into a one-stop shop for all your
I was up and running with the software in about an hour with the Company: Luxology LLC Price: $895 (Free upgrade from 301)
video encoding needs.
help of the tutorials available in the program. The tools were clear Web: www.luxology.com Rating: ● ● ● ●
Some may ask, “Why not buy a $23 shareware application?” Or,
and I was able to import models that I already created in other pro-
“Why not use the bundled encoder that came with my Suite?” I’ve Hot: Polygon and subdivision surface support
grams without any problem. modo also allows you to export your
used different encoders—shareware and bundled applications—and Not: No rigging controls for character animation
model to many of the top programs.
none but Squeeze has the accuracy in detail or clarity in compression,
while allowing control over file size and bit rate.
What does this software do so well? First, in version 5, searching
and sorting encoding formats and filters has been totally redesigned

A
to allow for a more efficient workflow. Also, Squeeze 5 allows for
simultaneous encoding across multiple cores, with up to 1.5 files per folders, Squeeze will encode any movie file that appears in the folder
When
ccuracy
core, which dramatically increases encoding times for multiple core using the compression setting you’ve assigned.
machines. And this version permits simultaneous multi-encoding of Now that Blu-ray has won the VHS/Beta war of the 21st century,
the same file with different compression settings. This lets you mix
Flash, QuickTime, Windows Media, MPEG-2, and much more in the
support for Blu-ray encoding in Squeeze will be an invaluable asset
Matters
moving forward. Also, the support for Microsoft’s VC-1 codec is a
same batch without having to baby-sit the application—a must for nice bonus since it has now been adopted as one of the encoding
anyone having to deliver multiple files in multiple encoding formats formats for Blu-ray.
efficiently. In addition, the improved H.264 encoder is one of the Finally, Mac users will benefit from being able to encode with the
best I’ve seen so far, producing accurate, high-quality MPEG-4 files WMV format using Squeeze’s WMV Component (available at an addi-
every time. tional cost) just in case you have a client who wants a WMV file.
The On2 VP6 Pro Flash video encoder cannot be beat. With 2-pass So, what’s the verdict? The new version of Sorenson Squeeze Pro
VBR capability (a feature that Adobe removed from their own Flash offers a complete video compression and encoding package for around
video encoder), VP6 Pro increases the quality of your FLV movies with- $600. Because of the cost, however, it may not be for the beginner.
out sacrificing precious bandwidth and bit rates. Also, if encoding in You’ll be hard pressed to find an easier-to-use, more comprehensive
Flash is important to you, the ability to encode in the new FV4 format program, while still having complete control over quality and output.
I Trust
®

will be a strong benefit if Squeeze 5 is added to your arsenal. Squeeze is definitely worth a serious look for anyone having to encode
If that’s not enough, Squeeze 5 has brand-new video filters (such as videos in a professional setting.—Erik Kuna
watermarking, sharpening, and saturation) that can be applied to your “ Dahle is the only name I trust when
trimming my photography. With the
files in Squeeze before encoding. And speaking of filters, Squeeze
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ability to shave the tiniest sliver from


includes new audio filters for adjusting volume. The Pro version Company: Sorenson Media, Inc. Price: Starting at $599 Produced by
my image, I'm always guaranteed to
get the results I need.”
includes Bias SoundSoap, a filter that will remove hum and noise right Web: www.sorensonmedia.com Rating: ● ● ● ●
inside the audio filters tab without leaving Squeeze. When precision is a must, Dahle Rolling
Hot: Simultaneous multifile encoding; ease of use; quality M A G A Z I N E
Trimmers will exceed your expectations.
Some other features worth mentioning are watched folders, Blu-ray
Not: Can be pricey for some users
support, and the optional WMV Component for Mac. With watched ®

Adobe is a registered trademark of Adobe Systems Incorporated www.dahle.com

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DPOWFSU!QEG!GJMFT!UP!EPDVNFOU-!XFC-!BOE!JNBHF
Uppo!Cppn!Tuvejp!5 deskUNPDF is an easy-to-use PDF converter with some interesting fea-
tures: It can convert PDFs to Microsoft Word, Open Document, HTML,
BMM.JO.POF!BOJNBUJPO!TPGUXBSF XML, Sony ebook, Excel, and image formats. It can also batch convert.
In my tests, I took three different PDFs—one created from Micro-
Be careful what you wish for: You might get it. That’s what happened
soft Word, one from Excel, and one from InDesign—and exported
to me when I moaned about Flash’s lack of pro-level animation capa-
them back out to Word or Excel in an attempt to extract the text.
bilities. I wound up with Toon Boom Studio 4, a power tool for anima-
deskUNPDF did an adequate job on both the Word and Excel PDFs,
tors that can export to several popular formats, including QuickTime
but the InDesign PDF was virtually useless, even though I tried all
and SWF.
the text formatting output options available (word processing, page
While Flash is easy to learn (if you skip scripting), Toon Boom
layout, line by line, per character, and unformatted) and changed
is a monster. But the flip side of the coin is that Flash doesn’t have
the default font settings to the same as the font used in the InDesign
many tools for the animator—that’s why it’s easy to learn. On the
document. (It should be noted that I only tested the Macintosh version;
other hand, Toon Boom Studio, as the name implies, is an entire
the Windows version may produce slightly different results.)
studio worth of tools: pro-level lip-synching, virtual cameras, vector
Based on my limited results, I cannot recommend this product
tracing, a rotary drawing table, exposure sheets, forward kinetics,
unless you use only conversions to Microsoft Word and Excel. Also keep
an advanced color palette system, and…well, you get the point; it’s
in mind that according to Docudesk’s website, “deskUNPDF was devel-
feature-packed.
oped in response to the feature most commonly requested by deskPDF
Those of you upgrading from older versions of the program will
customers—the ability to make changes to a PDF without the need
likely enjoy its new interface, which is very similar to the one in many
for Adobe Acrobat or Adobe Reader.” So if you already have Acrobat
of the Adobe CS3 applications, with dockable panes you can drag
Pro, a separate conversion utility isn’t really necessary because most of
to resize. Version 4 also includes feathered edges and the ability to
these features can be found in Acrobat Pro. Other than the Excel PDF,
import Illustrator files with layers intact.
Acrobat did a better job with the conversions.—David Creamer
Toon Boom Studio isn’t a use-out-of-the-box application; you have
to delve into the documentation (in addition to the docs that ship
with the program, the Toon Boom Animation website is loaded
Company: Docudesk Price: $69.95
with helpful tutorials and user forums). But the serious animator will
willingly climb to the top of the learning curve. The view is spec- Web: www.docudesk.com Rating: ● ●
tacular from there. [As we go to press, Toon Boom announced the Hot: Supports many conversion formats
availablility of Studio 4.5. Visit their website for more info.—Ed.] Not: Doesn’t work well with complex PDFs
mmm$B7O;HIC7=7P?D;$Yec

—Marcus Geduld

Company: Toon Boom Animation Inc. Price: $399.99


Web: www.toonboom.com Rating: ● ● ● ●
Hot: Swiss Army knife of tools for the pro-animator
Not: You actually have to read the darn manual

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D I S J T!D M P S
'&/
IM?J9>?D=JE%<HECJOF; output setting with Diffusion Dither, and Save As an LZW-

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Just as in InDesign, you can double-click with the Selection compressed TIFF file.
tool on text and automatically switch to the Type tool—and
Q J?FIJH?9AIS if you press the Escape key after typing, you’ll switch back
to the Selection tool.

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Here’s how you can create an auto-expanding box behind text:
1. Select the type with the Selection tool.
2. From the Appearance panel flyout menu, choose Add
New Fill and move the Fill below the Characters item.
3. Add a second Fill, but keep this one on top of the Char-
acters item. Select the top Fill and set it to the type color.
In InDesign, simply
4. Select the bottom Fill in the Appearance panel and use
place the image
the Effect>Convert to Shape menu. We’re using a rounded
(File>Place). Note:
rectangle in this example. Adjust the settings similar to the
It may not look very
ones shown.
good onscreen at
Typical Display so
set it to High-Quality
Display (View>Display
Performance>High
Quality Display), or
turn on Overprint

npsf!ipu!ujqt!gps!uif!dppmftu!bqqmjdbujpot

DAVID CREAMER
Preview temporar-
ily. Here’s a standard
grayscale (top) with
a dithered bitmap
5. In the Graphic Styles panel, choose New Graphic Style (bottom) against a gradient background.
Q7ZeX[F^ejei^ef9I)S pixels, so there’s no additional image degradation. Use the File>
Place command or Layer>Smart Objects>Convert to Smart Object.
from the flyout menu to save the settings (and to globally
JEEC7DOIFEJI
B Y P E T E R B A U E R update them if you change the colors).
If you like to use Pantone solid (a.k.a. spot) colors for process-
7::IJOB;JEOEKHI>7F;B7O;H color jobs, reconsider. You can’t use Overprint Preview or Separa-
When working with shape layers, did you know that you can tion Preview. Unless your job is actually using 10 spot colors
assign a layer style before you create the shape? Choose the (possible, but unlikely), consider using a Pantone Process
Shape tool from the Toolbox, go up to the Options Bar, click Guide, or at least the Pantone Color Bridge guide (formerly
on the Shape Layers icon, and pick your Style from the drop- called the Solid to Process guide).
down menu. Then drag the Shape tool of your choice and
you’ll see the shape develop with the style already applied. :EJ>;C7J>
The graphic style
PETER BAUER
When making a series of shapes, create the first one, add You may be aware that you can type different measurements
will auto-expand in numeric dialog fields; for example, you can type in 6p and
a style, and that style will be retained in the Options Bar as
based on content. have it convert to 1 in. Did you also know that you can add dif-
you create additional shape layers.
If you want the style ferent measurements? Say your field contains “3 in,” you can
7B?=D%:?IJH?8KJ;I;B;9J;:B7O;HI to be the same size regardless of the text, use the Absolute type in additional info, such as “3 in+18pt,” and InDesign will
With the Move tool selected, you can align or distribute Q7ZeX[?bbkijhWjeh9I)S Width and Height, rather than the Relative settings in the do the conversion and addition (3.25 in). You can also divide
the content of selected layers in relation to each other. For B Y D A V I D C R E A M E R
Shape Options dialog. Note: This cannot be saved as a Para- and multiply by using the slash (/) and asterisk (*), respectively.
example, if you want to space several shapes evenly in a In some cases, you can even use percentages (50%).
:E9KC;DJH7IJ;HI;JJ?D=I graph Style and should be used only on large point type.
row, select the (unlocked) layers in the Layers panel and These settings work just about anywhere, including the Tabs
choose the Move tool (V). Up in the Options Bar, align them as As a rule, you should use effects rather than filters (unless
panel. The units are as follows: in for inch, p for pica, pt for
you like using the first six icons (their positions will be aver- you have a good reason to do otherwise). That’s because
aged), then distribute according to edges or centers using filters become permanent when you use them (not counting Q7ZeX[?d:[i_]d9I)S points, mm for millimeter, cm for centimeter, c for ciceros,
and ag for agates.
B Y D A V I D C R E A M E R
the next six icons. When using the distribute commands, you undos). On the other hand, effects can be edited any time in
might want to start by positioning the first and last objects the future. Plus, effects are affected by the Effect>Document
JH7DIF7H;DJ=H7OI97B;
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manually as they don’t move horizontally; then the others Raster Effects Settings menu, which means you can work at Most users know that grayscale images can have a solid-color
Q7ZeX[7YheXWj/Fhe\[ii_edWbS
are distributed between them. low-res (72 ppi) to prevent slowing down your computer, B Y D A V I D C R E A M E R
background or, with the Direct Selection tool, be colored as a
KI;IC7HJE8@;9JI<EHB7OEKJI and then increase the setting when proofi ng and for the “fake” duotone. What if you need a transparent background? I9H;;D97FJKH;I
If you like to fiddle around with your layouts when creating final output. Technically it can be done and you can get good results with In case you missed it, Acrobat includes the ability to create
album pages or composites, use smart objects because you In addition, use the Effect>Rasterize menu command rather the following method: screen captures as PDFs. From the File menu, choose
can scale, rotate, or transform images as many times as you than the Object>Rasterize menu command. Just like filters, In Photoshop, convert the image to Bitmap mode (Image> Create PDF, and you have the option of the entire screen,
want, and each time Photoshop goes back to the original rasterizing objects is a permanent change. Mode>Grayscale then Image>Mode>Bitmap) using a high- a user-selected window, or a user-selected area—great for

'&.
capturing a “moment in time” on your computer. The only a ruler and a drop-down menu offers
downside is that you can’t capture menu selections, so it you common unit options that you
won’t replace a true screen-capture utility. can select.

9EDD;9JDEM 7::<B7I>M?J>EKJ<B7I>
One of the best new features of Acrobat 9 is the addition While most times you’ll be design-
of ConnectNow—an offshoot of Acrobat Connect and ing Flash assets within the Flash
part of the new Acrobat.com package. Start it by going app, sometimes you may need to make a quick button and
to the File>Collaborate>Share My Screen. You can have don’t want to spend a lot of energy in Flash. Try this: Click
up to two other people online looking at your screen or on Insert>Media and select Flash Button. You’ll then see
even taking over your programs (with your permission, of a dialog where you can specify the type of button you’d
course). Unlike Acrobat Connect, which was fee-based, like, linking options, button text face options, as well as the
ConnectNow is a free service. The major downside is that options to get additional styles to add to Dreamweaver.
ConnectNow is limited to three people, whereas Acrobat
Connect was limited to 15 (Acrobat Connect Pro has dif- I;J:;I?=DL?;MEDJEF
ferent package options). I get confused at times when
working with a Dreamweaver
EKJFKJFH;L?;M page in Split view because
Acrobat 9 has added of the code at the top of the
some improvements to page. If you click on the View
existing Output Preview Options icon at the top of
features (Advanced> the window, you’ll be able to
Print Production>Output choose Design View on Top.
Preview) and some As the code is now at the
new features too. For bottom of the workspace, this
example, there are more helps to provide an unobtru-
options to choose from sive way to design and code
when previewing certain at the same time.
types of image formats
(as shown).
Also, a new feature
Q7ZeX[<bWi^9I)Fhe\[ii_edWbS
B Y C Y N D Y C A S H M A N , P H . D .
called Object Inspector lets you click on individual images
or text and get detailed information about the object.
9KIJEC?P;JEEBIF7D;B
You can use the Customize Tools Panel to group paint and
fill tools. Just open the Customize Tools Panel by choos-
ing Flash (PC: Edit)>Customize Tools Panel. Click the
Paint Bucket icon. Select the Brush tool and click the Add
button. Select the Gradient Transform tool and click Add.
Click OK to close the panel. The Brush and Gradient Trans-
form tools are now grouped under the Paint Bucket tool.

Q7ZeX[:h[Wcm[Wl[h9I)S

B Y R A F A E L “ R C ” C O N C E P C I O N

KI;I9HEBBM>;;B<EHPEEC
Last issue, we had a tip on how to maximize desktop
real estate using Zoom; however, there may be times
where using the zoom is tedious because of the number EF;DJ;IJCEL?;?DJ78I
of mouse clicks you’d need. But did you know that if you Did you know that you can set your test movie to open in
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hold down the Command (PC: Ctrl) key, you can use your a tab instead of a new window? Choose Flash (PC: Edit)>
mouse scroll wheel to zoom in and out of the page? Tip: Preferences to open the Preferences window. Click on the
Remember to zoom back to full view so that you don’t General category and under the Workspace section, check
design really large pages. the box next to Open Test Movie in Tabs.

9>7D=;OEKHHKB;HI I7L;7D:9ECF79J
Rulers are a great way for you to position and lay out To permanently remove deleted items in a Flash document,
items on a webpage but sometimes your ruler won’t reduce the document’s file size, and decrease the amount
necessarily match what you’re trying to do. This is an of time it takes to publish a document, select File>Save
easy fix: Just Control-click (PC: Right-click) anywhere on and Compact.
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D I S J T!D M P S
'')

Q7ZeX[?d:[i_]d9I)S notes, you can also set a status flag for the note to control if

B 7 O ; H I  C 7 = 7 P ? D ;  S Q  I [ f j  %  E Y j  ( & & .
you want this note to appear as soon as the page is opened.
B Y D A V I D C R E A M E R
This is great when you want to alert someone immediately
Q9H;7J?L;IK?J;G7S of something on a specific page.
QGS How can I create an auto-expanding box with rounded
corners behind my text in InDesign?

You can fake it by creating a custom Stroke and using Para-


graph Rules. Starting in the Stroke panel (Window>Stroke),
QGS Dreamweaver files are now opened in tabs, so what are
the keyboard shortcuts to tab through the pages?

click on the flyout menu (at top right), and choose Stroke If you want to cycle through the open pages, press Com-
Styles. Then click on the New button. In the New Stroke Style mand-` (PC: Ctrl-`) to cycle forward to the page on the
dialog, name your style, choose Dotted for Type, set Pattern right of the tab. Pressing Shift-Command-` (PC: Shift-Ctrl-`)
Length to 0.0035 in, Preview Weight to 5, and click OK. will allow you to move back to the previous page on the
Now choose Type>Paragraph Styles, double-click on left. If you’re someone who doesn’t like to use tabs at all,
a style to open the Paragraph Style Options dialog, and you can turn them off by clicking on Dreamweaver (PC:
choose Paragraph Rules from the list on the left-hand side of Edit)>Preferences, and unchecking the Open Documents
the dialog. Click on the Rule On checkbox; then choose your in Tabs option in the General section.
custom stroke in the Type drop-down menu. Set the Weight
to larger than your intended point size of the text, and choose
the Color for the stroke that you want to appear behind the
QGS How can I validate my pages against different versions
of HTML?
text. Finally, change the Width drop-down menu to Text and
There’s a drop-down menu to the left of the Check Page
set the Offset to –0.125 in, and both Indents to –0.25 in.
option that allows you to validate the code for an individ-
Click OK. [To learn how create an auto-expanding paragraph
ual file, selected files, or the entire site. Clicking on one of
rule in Illustrator, turn to “Tips & Tricks,” page 108.—Ed.]
those options runs a check based on what you’ve chosen
in the Settings option. Clicking on the Settings option in
the drop-down will take you to the Validate Markup tab of
Q7ZeX[7YheXWj/Fhe\[ii_edWbS
txffu!botxfst!gps!tvjuf!rvftujpot
the Dreamweaver options, which lets you select the versions
B Y D A V I D C R E A M E R of HTML, XHTML, or other technologies you’d like to vali-
date your code against.

QGS Can I break a PDF into separate files at certain loca-


tions in the PDF?

In Acrobat 9, you can add Bookmarks to the PDF in strategic


Q7ZeX[<bWi^9I)Fhe\[ii_edWbS
B Y C Y N D Y C A S H M A N , P H . D .
locations and then use the Document>Split Document fea-
Q7ZeX[F^ejei^ef9I)S Q7ZeX[?bbkijhWjeh9I)S ture. It can break the file up by Top-Level Bookmarks.
B Y P E T E R B A U E R B Y D A V I D C R E A M E R If using Acrobat 8, you’ll have to use the Extract command
and do it manually or look into a third-party utility.
QGS How can I draw a glowing sun in Flash?

You could use the PolyStar tool and Glow filter to quickly
make a glowing sun. Click the PolyStar tool then click the
QGS Photoshop is stuck on the Hand tool. What did I do?

First take a look at the keyboard and make sure that there’s
QGS I’m using a Mac and when I copy my files to a server,
they become generic gray icons and won’t open
QGS Is there a more efficient way to add editing comments
when proofreading a PDF? It seems that constantly
Options button at the bottom of the Properties inspector.
In the Tool Settings dialog, choose Star from the Style menu,
when I double-click the file. What’s happening?
nothing pressing down on the Spacebar—it might be your using the Comments Toolbar isn’t the best way. enter 18 for the Number of Sides, 0.50 for Star Point Size,
Wacom tablet, the book from which you’re working, a plate Most likely, you’re not keeping the file extension on the and click OK. Then click on Fill Color and choose a Radial
of homemade cookies, that sort of thing. Next, check the filenames. When you first save, type the name of the Acrobat 9 has the ability to add popular editing comments: Gradient. To create the sun shape, just click-and-drag the
connection between the keyboard and the computer. If file before you navigate to the storage location. That Just highlight the text, and Control-click (PC: Right-click) to PolyStar tool on the Stage.
you’re using a wireless keyboard, it might be time to change way, the file extension is left intact. If you navigate first, bring up the menu choices. If you do lots of commenting in Now select Modify>Convert to Symbol, choose Movie
the batteries or there could be an electronic device between make sure you leave the extension intact or just type PDFs, that could be worth the price of the upgrade right there! Clip, and click OK. In the Properties inspector, click the Filters
the keyboard’s transmitter and the receiver. it in. If you add the extensions on the existing files, as tab, then click the plus sign, and choose Glow from the
long as you’re positive they’re the right program and filter menu. Adjust the glow settings until you’re satisfied with
format (for example, .ai versus .eps), the file will be Q7ZeX[Zh[Wcm[Wl[hYi)S
QGS Although I set my digital SLR to shoot grayscale, my
images show up in color in Bridge and Camera Raw. recognized properly. B Y R A F A E L “ R C ” C O N C E P C I O N
the results.

What’s up with that?


QGS Why does my Flash document Library panel contain
mmm$B 7O;HIC7=7 P?D;$9EC

Your camera always captures RGB. When you have it set to


Grayscale or Black and White, the camera simply embeds a
QGS How can I convert multiline point type to para-
graph text? QGS What are design notes?

Design notes (located under the File menu) are notes that
symbols named “Tween 1,” “Tween 2,” etc.?

Flash automatically converts objects or shapes to symbols


Desaturate command in the file’s metadata. That’s a nonstan- Select all the point type, copy, then click-and-drag a text box, you can save separately from a file, giving you an area when motion tweening is applied between two keyframes in
dard instruction, meant for use with the camera’s own software, and paste. Unfortunately, you’ll have to manually remove to make comments and talk about the specific project. the Timeline. These are the symbols you’re seeing in the
so Bridge and Camera Raw can’t read it. No worries! Simply all the point-type paragraph returns because the Find and The good part about design notes is that the information Library. It’s better to convert objects and shapes to symbols
create a grayscale image in the HSL/Grayscale panel in Camera Replace feature can’t find paragraph returns in CS3. (I’ll never doesn’t appear in the source of the page; the information before applying motion tweening; otherwise, you’ll have a
Raw, where you have far more control over the final appearance. understand how this was left out.) can only be seen from within Dreamweaver. In the design Library full of symbols with names that are meaningless.

''(
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WQ-!Tbmft!bu!924.544.3481!!Gby;!924.544.6124!
Fnbjm;!lbhsfoAlfmcznfejbhspvq/dpn!!!
Tfqufncfs0Pdupcfs!3119

J O E F Y ! P G ! B E W F S U J T F S T

4 Over, Inc.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .116–117


www.4over.com  Q<S MisterClipping.com. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .75
www.misterclipping.com

 Q7S Focal Press . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .57


www.focalpress.com
Mpix . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .49
www.mpix.com
Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 2 Book
for Digital Photographers, The . . . . . . .114
 Q=S  QDS
www.kelbytraining.com
GridIron Software, Inc.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .61
www.gridironsoftware.com National Association of
Adorama Camera, Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . .107 Photoshop Professionals . . . . . . . . . . . .103
www.adorama.com www.photoshopuser.com
Growll. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .129
www.growll.com
AMC Colorgrafix . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .121
www.amc-color.com  QES
 Q>S
 Q8S Hewlett-Packard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .11
onOne Software . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . BC
www.ononesoftware.com
www.hp.com
B&H Photo. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .97
 QFS
www.bhphotovideo.com
 Q?S
Berthold Direct . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .53 Pantone . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .77
www.bertholdtypes.com iStockphoto.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . IFC–3 www.pantone.com
www.istockphoto.com
Boss Logo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .123 Peachpit Publishing Group . . . . . . . . . . .71
www.bosslogo.com I.T. Supplies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .10 www.peachpit.com
www.itsupplies.com

 Q9S  Q@S PhotoPlus Expo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .126


www.photoplusexpo.com
CDW. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .9 Jakprints, Inc.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .63
www.cdw.com Print Factory, Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .128
www.jakprints.com www.GoPrintFactory.com
Copy Craft Printers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .120
www.copycraft.com  QAS PrintRunner . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .127
www.printrunner.com
Kelby Training . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81, 111
Corel. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .13
www.corel.com
www.kelbytraining.com
 QHS
cPanel. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .122  QBS Really Right Stuff . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .43
www.cpanel.com www.reallyrightstuff.com
Layers Magazine . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .125
www.layersmagazine.com
Create Chaos 2008 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .99
www.createchaos.com
 QIS
Layers TV . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .105
www.layersmagazine.com/tv Shutterstock. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .47
Creative Juices. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .122
www.bigposters.com www.shutterstock.com
LC Technology, Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .IBC
www.lc-tech.com
 Q:S Smith Micro Software . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .35
www.mysmithmicro.com

Dahle North America . . . . . . . . . . . . . .105


 QCS
Softpress . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .83
www.dahle.com
Machine Wash Image Filters www.softpress.com
from Mister Retro. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .15
Data Robotics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .129
www.drobo.com
www.misterretro.com  QMS
Markzware Software . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .69
Digital Room . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .118–119 Wacom. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .7
www.markzware.com
www.digitalroom.com www.wacom.com/americas
Media Lab, Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .17
 Q;S www.medialab.com  QPS
eprintFast . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .124 Microsoft . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .25 Zoo Printing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .122
www.eprintfast.com www.microsoft.com www.zooprinting.com
Every attempt has been made to make this listing as complete as possible. However, its accuracy cannot be guaranteed.
GO BEYOND
P H OTOS H O P ®

As a creative professional these days, you Layers is the only magazine that brings you exclusive
need to be multifaceted. You need the tutorials and in-depth articles for every application
skills and versatility to create stunning in the Adobe® Creative Suite®. And with the latest
designs, vibrant Web content, and industry news, product reviews, feature articles, and
dynamic video. You need to be a contests, you’ll find yourself more inspired, creative,
Photoshop guru and so much more… and competitive than ever before.

Subscribe online at www.layersmagazine.com/gobeyond


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pricing can be found at www.layersmagazine.com or by calling 877-622-8632. Layers is produced and published by Kelby Training, Inc. – www.Kelbytraining.com.
Adobe, Photoshop, and Creative Suite are trademarks or registered trademarks of Adobe Systems Incorporated.
Q:;I?=D S B 7 O ; H I  8 7 9 A  F 7 = ;

9EDJ;IJS S M ? D  7 D  ; F I E D  I J O B K I  F H E  ) . & &

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7D;FIEDIJOBKIFHE).&&
Q J > ;  C ? I I ? E D S
'S Download the image of the tiger (at right) taken at Big Cat Rescue in
Tampa, Florida, from www.layersmagazine.com/designcontest.html.

(S Use any portion of the tiger in conjunction with elements of your own
creation to compose a unique Flash banner for a website. You can use
illustrations, photography, animation, or video in combination with the
tiger (just make sure that you either own all the copyrights to anything
you use for your final design or you get permission to use any images
that you don’t own).

)S Finally, upload your Flash banner at the Layers website for a chance
to win.

SCOTT KELBY
J^[J^[c[S Protecting What’s Yours (which also happens to be this
issue’s cover story). Create a Flash banner advertising a fictitious company or
piece of software that protects a photographer’s or designer’s images from
being stolen online.

J^[Fh_p[SThe winner will receive an Epson STYLUS PRO 3800 valued at more than $1,200! This professional 17"-wide printer uses
Epson’s UltraChrome K3 inks and will produce beautiful images every time. But don’t forget that if you really want to claim the prize, your
final piece has to make our judges jump up and say, “Wow!” The overall design and level of creativity is what they’ll be looking for.

J^[:[WZb_d[S November 3, 2008. (The winner will be announced in the January/February 2009 issue of Layers magazine.)

<EH9ECFB;J;:;J7?BI"L?I?JMMM$B7O;HIC7=7P?D;$9EC%:;I?=D9EDJ;IJ$>JCB$

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J_jb[S Leap Responsibly


:[i_]d[hS Mark Riggan
Fh_p[S $300 Kelby Training
Shopping Spree
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