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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
If you need help learning Photoshop or Lightroom we provide both Photoshop Courses and Lightroom Training in Brighton, Sussex.
What is 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.
Adobe Lightroom 3 - click for larger image
Once you turn it on, you’ll never go back.
Posted by Heather Buckley in Adobe Lightroom, New Free Resources, Photography, Photoshop on November 9th, 2010| 1 Comment »
by Stéfan Le Dû on Flickr
You have finalised your design and it needs to go to print, you may be experienced in print design or you may be new to it all. Either way, can you guarantee that the design you see on your computer screen is going to come out like that at the printers?
If you would like to learn more then try our InDesign Training, in Brighton, Sussex, or you may fancy our Photoshop Training Course or Illustrator Training.
Most of the time, what you see on the screen is what comes out of the printer, but every now and again it just doesn’t look quite as good as it did on the screen. So here is a list of things to check before you send your design to the printers –
- Your images, at their actual size, should be at least 300dpi (dots per inch) and, preferably, saved as tiff or eps files. When you enlarge in image in Photoshop, you are decreasing the image resolution, but if you enlarge a vector image in an Illustrator file the image will not deteriorate as the files are resolution independent.
- When printing in colour, check and double check that your files are in CMYK (Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, Black) format as RGB (Red, Green, Blue) and other colour systems can be misleading and not print the same as they appeared on the screen.
- Avoid small text at all costs, especially if they are thin or elaborate fonts.
- If you are going to have pages of small text then stick to black or choose a spot colour, it can just turn out messy otherwise.
- Be aware that if you publication has a large amount of reflex blue (pantone colour) then when it is printed and it has dried, it will appear more red.
- When very thin parts of an image or text are printed on uncoated stock, it can spread, so it would be best to steer clear of that. Uncoated stock is very absorbent, that’s why it can run.
- If you have high percentage tints in your publication, these can also spread on uncoated stock, this is because the printer has to put more pressure on and it can result in spreading and a loss of detail.
- When you publication has high percentage tints and they are combined with solids, this can be a difficult job for the printers. They will have to bump up the colour otherwise it won’t look very good. In turn this will affect the tints and makes the whole process more difficult.
- And the simplest of all tips – Spell check! Spelling mistakes are the most common problems in printing and can ruin a great publication and cost your business a lot of money. Most printer companies will check your publication but in the end, it’s not their responsibility if you have typed something wrong.
If you think about these little pointers the next time you are creating your publication then your printer will thank you for it! It will make the whole procedure much smoother and should allow for a smooth printing process without the need for re-prints or an overall product you aren’t happy with. Most skilled printers should be able to resolve the problems I have listed here but if you follow these simple tips it will only help you to produce a great publication.
Did you know we also provide Business Training, including PRINCE2 Training, Leadership Training and Management Training.
Posted by Faye Binfield in InDesign, News, Photoshop on November 3rd, 2010| 3 Comments »
Photo editing software you can download for free
They may not be as snazzy as Adobe’s Photoshop CS5, but here’s our list of free photo-editing software that make great substitutes to Photoshop if you’re not yet ready to splash out. They can also be a great choice for those who photograph or blog on the go and need a quick and easy way to edit images.
If you want to learn more about how to start using Photoshop, check out our Photoshop Training in Brighton, Sussex, for Beginners, Advanced and Web Graphics. Also see this post on What’s new in Photoshop CS5 and our many free Photoshop resources.
Read the rest of "Free Photo Editing Software: who needs Photoshop CS5!"
Posted by Faye Binfield in New Free Resources, Photoshop on May 19th, 2010| 1 Comment »
Why has Adobe CS5 ditched the Web Standard Suite?
By Hawken King
Adobe CS5 is due out at any moment, with mid-May the expected release date – find out what’s new in Photoshop CS5 and what’s new in Flash CS5. But there’s one big change on the cards for web designers: Adobe is no longer offering their popular and accessible Web Standard suite, although Design Standard will still be available. New HTML5 Training courses now available.
New to Web Design? We offer a wide range of beginner and advanced Web Design Training and Photoshop Training in Brighton, Sussex, including our popular Web Design Training week. We now offer a great HTML5 training course for those who need to update their existing development skills.
“Adobe Creative Suite 5 Web Premium” is up and coming, ready to pre-order by tomorrow – but it’s no more for Web Standard Suite… You won’t find much information about this on Adobe’s website and they would justify their change as a similar suite is still available. But will people pay more? If not the established web design combo of Dreamweaver, Fireworks and Flash could be about to change (compare the Adobe Suites here or see Wikipedia on Adobe Creative Suites).
If you’re buying Adobe Web Premium new instead of upgrading from your current version, expect to pay a whopping £1679.08 inc VAT in the UK. Of course Adobe Web Premium will include Flash Catalyst, Illustrator and Photoshop Extended, but will the bigger price tag put off new users? For starters, many HTML/CSS web designers don’t wish to dabble in Flash. What’s more, Adobe risk putting off new users who wonder how to fit these tools into the picture when Fireworks already does the job with web graphics.
Read the rest of "Why is Adobe Web Standard unavailable for CS5?"
Posted by Andy Trainer in News, Photography, Photoshop, Web Design on April 28th, 2010| 6 Comments »
Nadine was delighted to win our Twitter Re-Tweet competition!
At the end of last year we had a fantastic response to our Twitter Re-Tweet competition – the prize was a free place on any of our public training courses.
Our lucky winner was Nadine Burzler (@NadineBurzler) who works at Cactus Language Worldwide.
Nadine was delighted to win the competition and has chosen a free place on our 2-day Dreamweaver course as her prize. She also chose to extend this to come on the whole Web Design Week package, which includes our Web Design training and Web Graphics Photoshop Course.
When she told us why, we realised that there couldn’t have been a more worthy winner…
Read the rest of "Twitter Competition – A Fairytale Winner!"
Posted by Andy Trainer in Competitions, News on January 7th, 2010| No Comments »
Once you’ve taken some great photos why not consider our Photoshop training in Brighton, Sussex, for Beginners, Advanced and Web Graphics?
1. What is Shutter Speed?
In the most basic terms possible, shutter speed is the length of time that that your sensor is exposed, ie. The time that the shutter is open.
Shutter speed is set by fractions of a second as follows:
3″, 2″, 1″, 1/30, 1/60, 1/125, 1/250, 1/500.
Note: on Canon Cmeras the camera does not accurately display a fraction of a second. So 30″ means 30 seconds and 30 in the LCD refers to 1/30 of a second and NOT 30 seconds.
2. Why Does Shutter Speed Affect Motion in a Photograph?
The shorter the time your shutter remains open, the more motion it will freeze.
1/250 sec f16
Read the rest of "Shutter Speed Made Simple"
Posted by Heather Buckley in New Free Resources, Photography on January 6th, 2010| No Comments »
The first control we are going to get to grips with is your Aperture Priority control, the easiest way to control the aperture of your lens is by setting your camera to AV mode. In AV mode you can control the aperture value by turning the dial at the top right of your camera.
What is Aperture Priority – AV Mode?
When you change the aperture value you are increasing or decreasing the amount of light the lens lets in to hit the sensor of your camera.
Understanding Exposure
a wide aperture allows a small depth of field - you choose the bit that is in focus
A wide aperture can be set by choosing small numbers like F2.8 -F5.4 (the lowest value will depend on the quality or speed of your lens). Setting a wide apperture will let more light into your camera. If you have your camera in AV mode (aperture priority) you choose the aperture and the camera will calculate the right shutter speed to get a balanced exposure. A wide aperture (small numbers) also means that the amount of your image that will be in focus is limited. This is useful for portraits when you want your subject in focus and the background blurred. Or for picking out detail in a macro image like flower or insect photographs.
The out of focus background is sometimes called bokeh the above image is an example.
Read the rest of "Aperture Priority or AV Mode – made simple"
Posted by Heather Buckley in New Free Resources, Personal Development, Photography, Photoshop on December 21st, 2009| 2 Comments »
So you have got your first DSLR, congratulations. Here is a list of 5 things to do before you start snapping. Later I will post about what to do with your camera when you start snapping!
Setting up your New Camera before you start shooting
1. Charge the battery overnight: It is important to charge the battery for at least 6 hours before using it.
2. Download the software: Get ready to transfer your images to your computer by installing the software that comes with your camera. There are some things you can configure on your camera that you can only do when it’s connected to your computer.
3. Set the date and time: You will need this information to date your pictures, the information will show in your EXIF data, that’s a little file that is attached to your image but you don’t see unless you ask your computer to show it. If you right click your image and select ‘properties’ your computer will use this information to tell you when you took your picture.
4. Reset the numbering: Then if you are using an old memory card from another camera make sure you format it first otherwise your camera may pick up the numbering system from the old camera.
5. Dioptric adjustments: Don’t be put off by the jargon! There is a small dial next to your viewfinder. This dial will adjust the viewfinder to match your eyes. After adjustment if your image is sharp in the viewfinder it will be sharp in your image. Hold the camera to your eyes and turn the dial until you the text in the viewfinder is clear.
6. Set the owner information: Add your name in the camera so that it will also appear in the EXIF data, its like a digital signature. It may also help if your camera gets lost or stolen. In Canon this is done by the EOS Utility software so you need to be connected to your computer to do this. Nikon camera’s have an in-camera menu where you can place your name and copyright statement and that is added to the EXIF at the time of shooting.
Now you are ready to go get out there and start shooting. I will be writing more about understanding the controls of the camera later, once you have mastered these you may be interested in our Beginners Photoshop Training in Brighton, Susse.
Posted by Heather Buckley in New Free Resources, Photography on December 21st, 2009| No Comments »
