Flickr is just one of many websites protesting against SOPA and PIPA today by giving Flickr users the option to blackout their images for 24 hours. If you log in and view your Flickr images today (Wednesday 18th January 2012) you will see this box appear below your photo:
Unlike Wikipedia and a number of other websites, Flickr is not forcing its users to join the protest and is not preventing them from showing their content. This is because you own the rights to your images and so it should be your option. Respecting content ownership, nice one Flickr! If you choose to ‘darken this photo’ in protest of SOPA and PIPA here is how your photos will appear:
Don’t worry, you can change your photos back at any time and the darken effect should disappear after 24 hours!
Create images you are proud to show off and use to make a point by coming on a Photoshop Training course in Brighton.
At this point you may be wondering (if you’ve avoided newspapers and messageboards for the past week) what on earth SOPA and PIPA are, and why you should bother covering up your lovely photos for a day in protest against them. Read the rest of "Flickr Protests Against SOPA/ PIPA"
Our new Street Photography Competition gives you a chance of winning onOne Software’s superb Perfect Photo Suite - more details on this great prize can be found below.
The ‘Street’ theme is open to your own interpretation, just get your feet on the street and start snapping!
If you are after some inspiration have a look at Eric Kim’s work, Eric is a well known and respected Street Photographer from LA.
The successful winner will also gain lots of exposure through our Twitter and Facebook accounts. Follow us on Twitter to see if you’re mentioned as our own weekly favourite entry! It’s worth following Heather on Google+ too (the photographer of the image above).
Open up the template in Photoshop. We’ve left the images of my face in the template so you can see how it all works – but if you don’t want to see my face (and I can sympathise with your position if you don’t) then either hide or delete the “Colin” Layers!
Next you’ll want to import the image (or images) that you want to use in your own profile.
To do this, select File > Place and select your image file.
Drag and resize it so its in the correct position, and hit enter to place it:
The theme for our competition this time is ‘Environment’ so no matter where you live, or what you do, you can get out there and get snapping. You can photograph your own environment or others, just post your entries on Flickr to be in with a chance of winning our fantastic prize! If you don’t already have a Flickr account it’s easy and free to set one up, then you need to join the group, then just add your image/s (you can enter up to 2 images) to the Silicon Beach Training Flickr group.
To follow this competition head to Flickr, our Facebook page, and also follow our RSS Feed. The winner will also be announced on this blog and also on Twitter so don’t forget to follow us on Twitter @SBTtraining. We run regular photography competitions so keep in touch and let us know if you have any suggestions for the next competition theme.
The prize for the winning photographer is your choice of any public one or two day training course here at Silicon Beach Training in Brighton. You could try something creative like Illustrator Training, something practical like a Management Training Course, brush up on something more technical like HTML5 Training or expand on your social media expertise with a WordPress,Blogging or Social Media course. A full list of public courses can be found on our training dates page (only public courses in Brighton with a maximum duration of two days can be claimed as your prize).
The prize is for the training course only and winners will be responsible for any travel or accommodation costs incurred.
Winning will also result in exposure across our website and various social networking sites (namely Twitter, Facebook and our blog) – excellent free promotion if you want to build your profile online.
Find out how to create your own Photoshop lightsaber with this easy step-by-step tutorial!
Last weekend my good friend (and self-confessed Sci-Fi fan) Jen went to the London Film Museum, and had this great photo taken of herself brandishing a lightsaber in front of a piece of original Star Wars set. However the image was lacking a little something, which reminded me of a great trick in Photoshop to add a lightsaber effect.
To really get to grips with Photoshop, Silicon Beach Training offer Photoshop Training and Advanced Photoshop Training , as well as InDesign Training in Brighton, Sussex. And for all those programming geeks reading this – did you know that we also now offer JavaScript Training, jQuery Training and Ajax Training too?!
So – here’s how to add a Photoshop lightsaber effect…
How to Create a Lightsaber Effect in Photoshop CS5
Here’s the original image – as you can see Jen’s got her lightsaber, but it’s just a white stick, which looks rubbish.
If you want to use this image for the Photoshop tutorial you can download it here – but much better to use your own. If you don’t have a toy light saber it doesn’t matter – just strike the pose with something that looks like a light saber handle, and Photoshop can do the rest!!
Good luck to all those that entered, now over to Leigh Caraccioli to decide the winners!
The Theme for our competition this time is ‘Black and White‘ so get out there and set your camera to Black and White (or filter them in Photoshop later!), you could even scan your old black and white photographs and enter those too.
To follow this competition head to Flickr, our Facebook page and also follow our RSS Feed. The winner will also be announced on this blog and also on Twitter so don’t forget to follow us @SBTtraining. We run regular photography competitions so keep in touch and let us know if you have any suggestions for the next theme.
BBQ Sausages Brighton Festival by Brighton Photographer Heather Buckley - click image to buy
1st Place Winner will receive an Alien Skin Photo Bundle software package. The Photo Bundle gives you all five of Alien Skin’s award-winning photography plug-ins: Blow Up, Bokeh, Exposure, Image Doctor, and Snap Art. Each of these products enhances work-flow, saves time and provides creative freedom. Combining these products together is even more effective.
2nd Place Runner-Up will receive a £50 Park Cameras Gift Voucher. You could put it towards a nice new shiny camera, lens, tripod or anything else that Park Cameras have to offer. Read below for more information on Park Cameras and what they have to offer.
The winning entries will be announced on our Blog, Twitter and Facebook as well as other social media platforms – an excellent way to generate online exposure and increase traffic to your website! So if you’re an aspiring amateur photographer and like the sound of these fantastic prizes, then get snapping!
Are you tired of scrolling up and down the right side of Lightroom Develop module to get to the panel you want in Adobe Lightroom? – Top Tip – try Solo Mode
Adobe Lightroom Solo Mode automatically keeps only one panel open at a time. As you open another panel, the other automatically collapses. So now you don’t need to have 7 panels open and keep scrolling up and down to switch panels.
To turn it on, right-click on any dark gray area (the bits that surround your panels) in your left or right side panels.
A pop-up menu appears and Solo Mode will be one of the options.
Click it to turn it on.
Turning it on in the right side of the Develop module only turns it on for those panels – you need to turn it on for the left side too.
It’s also module specific so turning it on in Develop wont turn it on in the Library module.
The prize for the winning photographer is your choice of any public one or two day training course here at Silicon Beach Training in Brighton. You could try something creative like 
