Automator World has posted a Photoshop Action Pack for Mac OS X 10.4's Automator, an app that allows you to automate many OS and application functions. The actions you can add to Automator workflows is fairly extensive:
Add IPTC Captions to Photoshop Documents
Apply Unsharp Mask to Photoshop Documents
Apply Watermark to Photoshop Documents
Assign Color Profile to Photoshop Documents
Close Photoshop Documents
Extract IPTC Captions from Photoshop Documents
Flip Photoshop Documents
New Photoshop Document
Open Images in Photoshop
Resize Photoshop Documents
Rotate Photoshop Documents
Save Photoshop Documents
Trigger Photoshop Action
Trim Photoshop Documents
The action pack is provided free and looks like a handy addition to any Mac + Photoshop user's workflow.
The O'Reilly Network has taken the wraps off of Inside Adobe Lightroom, a new site featuring articles, a blog and a podcast covering Adobe's professional photo management app. Tips on color correction, adding music to slideshows, how to migrate images from iPhoto and more are all on the menu, so swing by and find out how much you really didn't know about Lightroom.
Jennifer Apple over at The
Photoshop Blog posted a great tip for getting
that perfect selection when you're having a tough time with other methods, possibly due to backgrounds or surrounding
elements that are stumping Photoshop and its various selection tools.
Jennifer's idea is to give your
selection tool of choice a helping hand by using a Levels or Curves adjustment layer (Layer > New Adjustment Layer)
to increase the image's contrast. Using an adjustment layer (instead of applying the changes directly) will allow you
to preserve the image the way you want it, make the selection you need and then throw out or turn off (for later use)
the layer in order to go on about your business.
This method is both a great technique and a prime example
of the power of adjustment layers that should be incorporated into nearly every Photoshop user's toolbelt as soon as
possible.
Episode 21 of Photoshop TV
has landed, and in addition to the usual roundup of handy tips and tricks is a special guest: Eddie Tap, who
demonstrates some new greyscale conversion techniques. Further, if you'd like to play along with a restoration tutorial
from Scott, you can grab a copy of the image he uses from their site. Neat.
John Nack has linked to a few tutorials that will
teach you how to tweak Photoshop for a better output to the web and Flash. One set of video-based tutorials in Adobe's
Motion Design Center (which I recommend checking out if, like me, you're into motion) covers the
topic of color - and how to maintain it - when moving an image from Photoshop CS2 into Flash 8. Another set of Photoshop Flash tutorials John links
to hail from Michael Ninness, a friend of John's, and they cover quite the gamut of go-between topics including PSDs,
JPEGs, Flash's bitmap features and pre-import optimization tips.
With so many tutorials lined up, you have
your work cut out for you. Go forth and learn the mighty ways of the Photoshop and Flash Color Ninja™.
In the latest episode of Photoshop TV,
they mention a book you can pre-order, written by their own Scott Kelby, Editor of Photoshop User magazine. The book's
title is, unassumingly, The
Photoshop CS2 Channels Book, and its Amazon description sounds like it brings a fresh, project-based perspective to
the somewhat abstract concept of channels. Practices of using channels for selections, masking, color correcting and
more are all covered. I'm not sure when the book is available, although it should be soon.
I've been loosely trying to figure out how to
use Photoshop's eyedropper tool to sample any on-screen color for a while now, and I'm so glad Jennifer Apple over at
the PhotoshopSupport
blog ended my search by posting the simple trick. In Photoshop 7 and later, you can just click in an open Photoshop
document, then drag out to any other on-screen color to sample it - Photoshop document or not. This handy tip should
make mince meat from the process of grabbing that perfect color from anywhere but Photoshop.
Now here's a colorizing plugin
I'll have to file away in my "bookmark for that day you might have money to spend on this" folder: AKVIS Coloriage 2.0. This handy plugin for Photoshop, Photoshop
Elements, Photo-Paint, Paint Shop Pro and more, makes
mince meat out of adding color and color schemes to everything from B&W photos to hand sketches (pictured) and even
interior/exterior designs. From the screenshots it looks like Coloriage offers a simple set of drawing and selecting
tools to help delineate the areas of your image you'd like the plugin to work its magic on.
Version 2.0 is
the first version to offer both Windows and OS X support. A 10-day demo is available, while a "home" version
will cost $97 and a "business" version will run $250.
Automator World has posted a Photoshop Action Pack for Mac OS X 10.4's Automator, an app that allows you to automate many OS and application functions. The actions you can add to Automator workflows is fairly extensive:
The O'Reilly Network has taken the wraps off of 
Jennifer Apple over at The
Photoshop Blog posted a 
In the 
I've been loosely trying to figure out how to
use Photoshop's eyedropper tool to sample any on-screen color for a while now, and I'm so glad Jennifer Apple over at
the 
