Free Teeth Whitening! (in Photoshop)

Check out this quick tutorial on how to whiten teeth in Photoshop!
Click the play button below to begin.

Learn more cool tips and techniques in one of our fun Photoshop classes! Click here to register.

Intensify and Emphasize with the Dodge and Burn Tool

If you have been using Photoshop or taken one of our classes, you know the importance of non-destructive editing. This is best explained in the use of adjustment layers and masking. However, with the dodge and burn tool, non-destructive editing is a little less intuitive.

This quick tutorial will show how to use the dodge and burn tool non-destructively to intensify the clouds and water in the picture below:

Just a few simple steps...

1. Download the picture.
2. Create a new blank layer on top of the background layer.
3. Click Edit --> Fill
4. Where it says Use:, select 50% Gray, and click OK
5. Now, on your layers pallette, change the blending mode to Overlay. Your layers pallette should resemble the screenshot below.

Now, select the Burn tool and paint over the clouds and water. Use the Dodge tool and paint over the sun and clouds right under it. A brush size of about 90 works best.

To see exactly what you've done, turn off the visibility of the background layer. Good work!

Fancy gradient for your webpage

In this tutorial I will show you how to create a gradient in Photoshop and then add it to the background of a web page you are making in Dreamweaver. To learn other awesome skills like this one, sign up for our Dreamweaver of Photoshop Foundations class.

Make Path from Selection

Q: Is there a way to take a selection (made from one of the selection tools) and turn it into a path? Or even just a way to define a path in the same way the magnetic lasso tool works?

A: Yes! Absolutely! It is actually quite easy. First, once you have a selection made, open the Paths palette (usually grouped behind the layers palette). Click the button that says "Make Work Path from Selection" (see picture below).Then, double click the new "work path" in the palette, and click okay. It is now a path!

Typically, paths are created with the pen tool. To use the pen tool like one of the lasso selection tools, click and hold on the pen tool in the tools palette, and choose "Freeform Pen Tool." Unfortunately, there isn't a way (at least to my limited knowledge) to use the Pen Tool in the same way the Magnetic lasso tool works. If you find out there is, please leave a comment correcting me!

To learn more about the many selection tools, including my personal favorite - the quick selection tool, click here to sign up for the free Photoshop Foundations class! It is sweet!

Adjustment Layers: Make other brides jealous

I got married two weeks ago today and am enjoying going through the MANY pictures taken of my sweet bride and I, as well as my family. One common thing that photographers will do with a picture of a bride holding her bouquet, is make everything black and white but the bouquet. This is very simple to do in Adobe Photoshop, and the video below demonstrates how. These skills and more are taught in our Photoshop Foundations Class. The class is free and usually meets two or four times over two weeks. To sign up for this, and other Photoshop classes, click here!