Photoshop CS5 – Using the Healing Tool

This is my latest video tutorial on tips and tricks on mastering the healing tool in Photoshop.

Photoshop CS5 -Creating a Half-tone Screen for Retro or Cartoon Photo Effects

Well, I have been gearing up on the video production and Photoshop vid tutorials.  This is my latest installment on building your Photoshop skills tutorials.  This video tutorial discusses how to create a half-tone screen to apply to your photos or designs for a cartoon or retro effect.

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How to Cartoonize An Image For Use As a Website Avatar

Using Liquify Feature in Photoshop CS5

With spring just around the corner,perhaps it’s  the general warmer weather,it motivated me to  dustoff the cobwebs and provide my readers with a video tutorial that shows you how to use the “liquify” feature in Photoshop CS5 so  you can play around with the feature a little.  It a little fun and games plus instruction for serious applications as well.

On an other note, the first of March, marked my third anniversary since signing up with Youtube and although I was slow to adopt the platform for small business marketing, I’m glad I eventually did.  The website exposure is truly beginning to pay off and all you visitors have made the journey possible and  worthwhile.

So, hope you enjoy this vid tut and there is enough instruction for you to add one more skill set to your Photoshop arsenal.

Non-Destructive Photo Adjustments Using Photoshop CS5

Just when you thought most people know the basics around Photoshop, you find out not everybody does know the principles that can improve your work processes when photo editing and keep from  destroying your original photos.  This is my latest vid tut on Photoshop CS5.  I basically cover the steps on using adjustment layers in order to retain your original photo or photos.

Youtube Upgrades Their Youtube Creator Playbook

Youtube has upgraded their Youtube Creator Playbook or guide book.  This is their third revamp of their guidebook since the few short months beforehand, when they had released their “updated”  playbook in  February  of 2012.  However, as you well know,  things change quickly on the internet.  With all the new Youtube interface changes, internal analytics panel changes and general interaction changes that have occurred since February 2012, they definitely needed to upgrade their guidebook to be a one stop kickstart resource for creating great video content on Youtube.

They now have a dedicated link for the Youtube Creator playbook, and  they provide a supporting blog that is geared mostly for  Youtube partners, but it’s still a good idea to check it out on occasion  to keep informed of all of Youtube’s ongoing changes.  The site is an easier read than before and at the end of every unit they provide a downloadable checklist so you can use this information to use as a set of guidelines to follow when creating your videos and to boost the effectiveness of your video content.

One of the key factors that has changed (and is reflected in the Video Manager Analytics area of your Youtube account) is that Youtube now tracks the number of minutes that your viewers are engaged with your video content.  They are not solely counting video hits any longer.  Youtube provides an actual count of the time or how  many minutes your viewers are watching your content and provides a top ten list of your most popular videos for the content creator to evaluate in your analytics statistics.

I have a previous post with the old playbook that was filled with a lot of the how-to’s in video creation.  But that playbook  was on a Slideshare type of presentation format, and I wanted to upgrade the blog with this newer information.  By the way, they do provide a link in order to download the 114 page guidebook as a pdf file, if you prefer.

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Youtube Makes Video Guide Ebook  Available to Youtube Publishers

How to Create Your Own Brushes in Photoshop CS5

This is my most recent tutorial. Thankfully, a few minutes, shorter than I usually record them in.

I cover step-by step instructions on creating brushes in Photoshop CS5. Hope you find it informative.  And if you are not already a subscriber on my Youtube channel, I encourage you to do so.  (Of course, that’s if you find the information I share helpful.)

How to Create Buttons in Photoshop CS5

Buttons are probably one of the most used and functional web graphics that are designed for web pages, landing pages and your typical website.  So, I developed a psd vid tud (Photoshop Tutorial) for all you graphic designers who want some quick tips on how to design a Web 2.0 button.

The video has a 4 minute introduction to what buttons are, how they are used and why you need to know how to design them.  It covers how popular website such as Disney and the NFL use clickable image and buttons as web graphics that lead you to landing pages or other sources of information.

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5 Tips to Make Your Online Banner Ad Design More Attractive and Effective

Adobe Software and Apple Computers : A Graphic Designer’s Tools of Choice

A Star is Born: First Apple Computer

As Apple announces the release of it’s  new mini-ipad , there are several reports that the iPad mini has a 7.9-inch non-Retina 1024×768 resolution display!  It is just 7.2mm thin, 23 percent thinner than the regular iPad, yet many industry watchers believe that Apple will have an asking price of $329.   The scheduled release date is November 2, 2012.

I have always been a fan of Apple products, especially as a work and productivity tool.  I know this sounds  a lot like the making of a glowing testimonial, but I have been a satisfied customer with the brand.

I can remember getting into heated discussions with PC users at a previous  place of employment, it was the PC end users that were cranky.  It’s really too funny.  But in my opinion, most graphic designers agree that Apple computers and Adobe software are the industry’s tool of choice.

I can barely remember the first day, I started using Apple products.  As a graphic designer, it has always been the graphic design’s industry top tools to use,  so there hasn’t been a day in my working life that I have thought of or used any other product as my workhorse computer.  As a matter of fact, I believe the Adobe software was created initially for Unix computers.

However, Photoshop’s ( Adobe software) developers, Thomas and John Knoll began development on Photoshop in 1987. Version 1 was released by Adobe for the Macintosh in 1990 exclusively.

The software program was developed in order to enable users to manipulate images that were digitized by a scanner.  Check out this article on The First Version of Photoshop, if you are curious to know the history of this software.

Yes, I know the PC platform is quickly catching up, but I think I’d still be loyal to the Apple brand.  So, in the spirit of all things Apple, I created this Photoshop CS5 video that gives step by step instructions on creating a modified morph using the Apple logo to show the transition of Apple’s brand.

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How to Morph A Face Using Photoshop CS5

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Photo Credit:  Wikipedia Commons

Why Storytelling Videos Are Popular Ways to Advertise Small Businesses

When it comes to online web video content, “Once Upon A Time” is not the phrase you usually associate with small business online marketing. But the growth of online video content and popular “storytelling” videos are providing growth for this part of the industry even during  a downturn in the economy.  Interestingly enough, according to a recent  Web Video Marketing council’s article, the development of  web video content for advertising has contributed to a growth in jobs for 2011.  Their study, commissioned by the IAB found that…

“Research from the Harvard Business School claims that the entire ad-supported ecosystem of the Internet contributed $530 billion and about 2 million U.S. jobs to the economy last year. The work was commissioned by the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB), a global non-profit representing over 500 media and technology companies.

The IAB claims its members collectively sell 86 percent of all online advertising in the U.S.

The Harvard Business School research notes that much of the growth occurred among small businesses, in reference to the job creation figure.”

While many types of video content is being produced, videos with storytelling from the customer’s point of view are becoming a more popular way of associating a brand with its product.  What are these videos exactly?   Whether it’s an auto manufacturing company showing customers reflecting on past memories of when  they bought their very first (insert brand here) car, or a mom reflecting on the cupcakes she baked from a brand mix and how it made her feel, in essence brands are encouraging consumers to be a part of the story by recalling their own experiences.

These videos are showing up on corporate websites to humanize or personalize the corporate website’s brand.  Most of these human interest stories are so popular that they show up on Facebook, Twitter and other popular social sharing sites.  Take for example, Dollar Shave club’s popular video that went viral and ended up with 5 million views.

According to a Search Engine Watch blog post , what Dollar Shave Club achieved  was nearly phenomenal!  Search Engine Watch calculated  how much this type of advertising coverage was worth to the startup business in terms of its potential advertising costs via a traditional medium.  They compared it to the results that Dollar Shave Club would have gotten had they chosen to go down the more traditional and less creative way of competing within the market.

“ The average CPC (cost per click) for a group of “shave” related keywords is currently around $1.

If you’re a start-up, you don’t really want to be spending $5,140,887 in PPC within your first month. You’re unlikely to make it past the end of your first week at that rate!

But what Dollar Shave Club has achieved is to get in-front of just as many people/eyeballs, but without the associated costs that come with each click.”

Another example of an engaging small business Youtube hit, and this in the UK, was the one pound fish man as seen in the video below:

This is the power of compelling video and stories that have do to with the customer or client interacting with the product in a positive way.

The three reasons these videos are successful and what you need to consider and apply when producing your video content are:

1. The videos come across as authentic if they are not done in a salesy or corporate speak way.  The subject matter is believable and  the informal way the person shares his memory makes the video content a lot more authentic.
2. The endorsement is provided by the customer in a warm, friendly manner. When the subject in the video is telling a compelling story the endorsement seems credible even when he or she is recalling a 10 year old memory of interacting with the product.
3. This type of “storytelling” video content personalizes the brand. They bring the brand down to the consumer level, which is appreciated by a prospective consumer, and proves to be very motivational.

And what small businesses and other advertisers have found is that these videos are a lot more shareable.  You are not likely to send a friend or loved one a traditional commercial; but a video that is either funny, or tells a unique story with subtle branding is more likely to be socially shared.

It will be interesting to see more small business success stories as they find ways to incorporate “storytelling” videos in their small business marketing.

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Photo credit: Design by Itzik Gur

Photoshop CS5: Mastering the Pen Tool in Photoshop

This is the second installment of my first video regarding Mastering the Pen Tool in Photoshop.

I get into the reasons why this tool is so important and why learning this skill and gaining mastery is transferable to many other software applications.

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Photoshop CS5 Photoshop Secrets and Tool Tips – Exploring the Pen Tool