How to Create a Super Shiny Pencil Icon

The Pencil is one of the visual metaphors most used to express creativity. In this tutorial, I'll show you how to draw a pencil icon. We'll have a look at gradients, selection tools, and basic transform operations. Let's have some fun with this.

Step 1
Create a New Document 950 pixels wide by 600 pixels heigh, set the Resolution to 300 pixels/inch, and the Background to white. Make a rectangular selection with a Style of Fixed Size, a Width of 400 px, and Height of 100 px. Click to View Full Tutoruals

Realistic 3d Photo Effect

Realistic 3d Photo EffectBy spdfreak_95Published:
This tutorial will quickly show you how to give a photo a 3D realistic touch.
This is an example of what we can do after following this tutorial:

First you need an image. I have chosen the one below.
Now we are going to crop this image to give it a boarder. (But not in the traditional form)Grab the Crop Tool and while holding down both the Shift and Alt keys at the same time, drag one of the corner handles out from the centre until you are happy with the amount of boarder you have obtained. Press enter to confirm your selection............... More Click Here

Color and Effect Management

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Creating the effect For our image, we're going to be using the "Hue" Mode because it's the most subtle. It doesn't produce the most vibrant results usually, but it does allow you to match the subject to the overall lighting of your composition. In other words, it looks the most natural. We're going to set the Sampling to "Continuous" because, typically, it's the easiest to work with. We'll set the Limits to "Contiguous" so that we don't accidentally affect our background. My brush size will be set to 150.

3D Ice Cube Design from Photoshop

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In this tutorial we'll try to build a realistic 3D ice cube. Usually this kind of stuff is done with the help of some 3D software like Maya or 3DMax, still we'll try to use Photoshop tools to do the work. To make the job easier I searched the Internet and found

this Lightwawe tutorial, and try to emulate it's final result using only Photoshop. To do that we must have a closer look at the way a 3D software works. First the 3d object is build, then a proper illumination environment is build around object, and finally some material texture is attached on the surfaces of the object, with respective illumination rules working on i

Beautiful Snowy Sky

Today we are going to design a beautiful snowy sky that can be used for either a nice Christmas header or banner. This is a relatively simple tutorial but it brings out a nice beautiful result. In my belief, any beginner in photoshop can work around the tutorial and achieve the same results.

Lets begin by establishing our working environment in other words a background. You may use mine however its relatively simple to create; all i did was grab the dodge tool and set exposure to 50% and went over the darkish blue color. It creates a nice effect that will help us further in the tutorial. Click Here

3D Hourglass. 45 min project

Finally I came up with a new project! Actually, nothin’ special. Just simple hourglass.

What thing we value more than anything? Time. What thing we waste? Time. This simple subject caused me get thoughtful(what’s not happening to me very often) and I decided dedicated my time depicting a time holder… Click here to get it.

3D Fishtank. 3 hours project

Once superintendant of the building I live, got to the sea and caught Goldfish. The little one started to ask bastard let her go. She promiced to fulfil any three wishes, that come to his head. He thought for a while and then exclaimed:
Just finished new “Goldfish tank” project. Click here to see it.

3D Chocolate. 30 min project

Today is a day of confession. I am an chocolate addict. I eat 2 bars a day on a regular basis. Probably can do more.Most definitely. Just never ‘ve been brave enough buy more… Once I was in Paris and stuck in amazement at a door of a little belgium choco store(somewhere in Saint-Germain, somewhere at a corner of Rue Cuvier & Rue Jussieu. It was just like a golden bonbon dream… But well my digital chocolate lesson not actually about chocolate itself, but rather I invented how to create metallic foil effect in Photoshop. At least, I have never saw this effect made by somebody else… So, here you are… eat my choco right here!

Using Mask To Improve Landscape Images

In this sample chapter from his new book, Photoshop CS3 Essential Skills, Mark Galer shows you Photoshop techniques that use selections and Photoshop masks to create amazing effects that can be applied to landscape images. As a bonus, you can also download high resolution versions of the images that are used in the tutorial, so you can work along with Mark.

This tutorial is an excellent way to become more familiar with Photoshop's powerful masking and selection tools.

Adjusting Exposure in Adobe Camera Raw CS3

For those digital photographers interested in the dark side, an old SLR loaded with a fine-grain black and white film is a hard act to follow. The liquid smooth transitions and black velvet-like quality of dark low-key prints of yesteryear is something that digital capture is hard pressed to match.



The typical DSLR camera is, however, a pessimist when it comes to clipped highlights and ignorant of what is possible in Adobe Camera Raw. Adobe Camera Raw can recover at least one stop of extra highlight information when the Exposure slider is dragged to the left (so long as the photographer has used a DSLR camera that has a broader dynamic range than your typical fixed lens compact digicam).

The Displace Filter & Displacement Maps

UseThe Displace Filter & Displacement Maps To Mahe A Realistic Flag: By using the blend modes By using the blend modes the flag in this project can be modified to respect the color and tonality of the undulating silk beneath it. The highlights and shadows that give the silk its shape can however be further utilized to wrap or bend the flag so that it obeys the material’s shape and sense of volume.

This can be achieved by using the Displace filter in conjunction with a ‘displacement map’. The ‘map’ defines the contours to which the flag must conform. The final effect can be likened to ‘shrink-wrapping’ the flag to the 3-D form of the undulating silk.

Masking Tutorial - Extraction Tips

Select & Extract Hair- Masking Tutorial - Extraction Tips: One of the most challenging montage or masking jobs in the profession of post-production editing is the hair lift. Get it wrong and, just like a bad wig, it shows. The first secret step must be completed before you even press the shutter on the camera. Your number one essential step for success is to first shoot your model against a white backdrop, sufficiently illuminated so that it is captured as white rather than gray. The post-production is the easy bit - simply apply the correct sequence of editing steps and the magic is all yours. This is not brain surgery — but follow these simple steps and you will join the elite ranks of Photoshop gurus around the world. Celebrity status is just a few clicks away.

How to Sharpen an Images

How to Sharpen an Images in photoshop - Advanced Sharpening Techniques:

Most if not all digital images require sharpening, even if shot on a state of the art digital megaresolution SLR with pin-sharp focusing. Most cameras or scanners can sharpen as the image is captured but the highest quality sharpening is to be found in the image editing software.


The best sharpening techniques are those that prioritize the important areas for sharpening and leave the smoother areas of the image well alone, e.g. sharpening the eyes of a portrait but avoiding the skin texture. These advanced techniques are essential when sharpening images that have been scanned from film or have excessive noise, neither of which needs accentuating by the Unsharp Mask. So let the project begin.