Julieanne Kost's Blog

In this video tutorial (Tilt-Shift, Iris and Field Blur in Photoshop CS6), you’ll discover how to create photographic blur effects in a few clicks using intuitive, on-canvas controls in Photoshop CS6. Julieanne demonstrates how to soften select areas using the Tilt-Shift blur, uniformly blur your entire image and then sharpen a single focal point with Iris blur, or select multiple focal points and then let Field blur vary the blurriness between them.

There are several new features in Photoshop CS6 that make working with layers more efficient.

• In previous versions of Photoshop, we could select the Move tool (or the Marquee, Lasso, Quick Select etc. – basically any tool that didn’t have an Opacity setting), and use the numeric keys on the keyboard to change the opacity of a layer. Tapping one number assigns the percentage of the tapped number (1 = 10%, 2= 20% etc. and 0 = 100%). Tapping two numbers quickly will give you that exact amount (5 + 4 = 54%). In Photoshop CS6, tapping 0 + 0 quickly will set the Layer’s opacity to 0 (zero). This works with either a single layer or multiple layers selected.

• With multiple layers selected, you can now change the Blend Mode for all selected layers.

• If a layer is targeted (selected) in the Layers panel, but hidden (the eye is toggled off) the Opacity and Blend Mode are now visible.

• With multiple layers selected, you can now lock all selected layers by tapping the lock icon.

• With multiple layers selected, Command + J (Mac) | Control + J (Win) will duplicate the selected layers. This shortcut works for Layer Groups as well.

• With Multiple layers selected, Control -click (Mac) / Right Mouse -click (Win) on the eye icon in the Layers panel to change the color label of all selected layers at once.

When renaming layers in the Layers panel, double-click the layer name to rename it. Then, without pressing the Enter/Return key to apply the new name, simply tap the Tab key to move to the layer below. This makes it much faster to rename a larger number of layers.

Shift + Tab moves to the layer above.

Join Senior Digital Imaging Evangelist Julieanne Kost, Thursday, May 3, 2012, 10 a.m. and 5 p.m. PT,  as she shows off some of the new features of  Photoshop CS6 Extended, part of the new Adobe Creative Cloud. See the blazingly fast performance of the new Mercury Graphics Engine and the imaging magic of Content-Aware Patch Content-Aware Move. Also explore the intuitive video editing capabilities of Photoshop CS6 and 3D capabilities of Photoshop CS6 Extended. See why Photoshop CS6 Extended is a whole new experience in digital imaging.

Click here for registration and more information.

The ability to search (filter) layers based on a variety of criteria has been added to the Layers panel in Photoshop CS6 which should make working with multi-layered documents much easier. Choose a “Filter Type” by clicking the drop down menu at the top left of the Layers panel and choose from Kind, Name, Effect, Mode, Attribute and/or Color. Then, use the corresponding options that appear to the right of the Filter Type to narrow down the search. The “light switch” to the right of the Filter options toggles the filtering on and off. Note: when filtering by Kind, you can click on more than one icon at a time in order to narrow down the search. Click an icon again to toggle if off.

If you download the latest  Lightroom Release Candidate 2 from the Adobe labs site  you will notice that you can now export JPEG files from the book module!

In case you didn’t watch the video in yesterday’s post, here are some of the changes made to the Layer Effects/Styles in Photoshop CS6:

• The menu order of the Layer Effects/Styles has changed. Although it might not be obvious at first, they are now in the order in which they are applied to the content in the layer. For example, the Drop Shadow effect is applied (or will be rendered) below all other Effects, the Bevel and Emboss will rendered on top of any other Effects. This should help when visualizing how several effects are going to be applied to the contents of a layer or group.

• Layer Effects/Styles can be applied to Groups. As you can see in the illustration below, the layers on the left have a Stroke effect applied to each layer individually. The layers on the right have the Stroke effect applied to the Group. Applying the Layer Effect/Style to the Group has a different result because the layers are all treated as one (as if they are flattened) before the Layer Effect/Style is applied to the Group.

• Option -click (Mac) | Alt (Win) -click the disclosure triangle on the Layers panel to the right of the “fx” icon to hide/reveal all Layer Effect/Styles in the document.

• Both the Gradient Overlay and Stroke Layer Effects have a “Dither” option. Note: to apply a dither on a Stroke, first change the Fill Type to Gradient.

• There is a new command (Layer > Rasterize > Layer Style) which renders the layer effect into the layer (think of it as merging or flattening the Layer Effect/Style  with the content of the layer).

• If any changes have been made in the Layer Style dialog under the Advanced Blending area, a new Blending Effects icon is displayed on the layer in the Layers panel.

Adobe is rewarding its loyal customers with a special introductory pricing for Creative Cloud. 

Here’s the deal – if you already own Creative Suite editions or individual products, version CS3 or later (CS3, CS4, CS5, CS5.5 or CS6) you save US$20 per month for the first year on a Creative Cloud membership. Just sign up for an annual plan by August 31, 2012 and get Creative Cloud for just $29.99 per month for the first year.

In this video (Julieanne’s Favorite Enhancements for Working with Layers in Photoshop CS6), you’ll learn time-saving techniques to boost your productivity as Julieanne reveals essential enhancements that will improve the way you work with Layers, Groups, the new Properties panel, and much more!

If you’re a beginner to Bridge, Adobe Camera Raw and Photoshop or, if you simply need to brush up on some of the features that you use less often, then this is the perfect training course for you!  With 150 crisp, concise videos, Julieanne makes it easy to find information on exactly the topic you’re looking for so that you can get professional results as soon as possible. To see a table of contents and more information, click here.

For more information on how to become a Lynda.com member, click here.

Tom Hogarty posted information about the  Lightroom 4.1 Release Candidate 2 on the Lightroom Journal including corrected bugs and new camera support. Download the Lightroom 4.1 Release Candidate here.

Be sure to check out the new Color Fringe Correction Controls and please provide feedback on your experience with Lightroom 4.1 Release Candidate in our Feedback Portal.

You no longer have to wait for the progress bar to creep across your screen when saving large files because Photoshop CS6’s Background Save feature can save files in the background while you keep working on other projects.

Auto Save, another new feature of Photoshop Cs6,  can help recover your file if your computer crashes before you’ve had a chance to save. To select the time interval for automatically saving your files, select Preferences > File Handling and choose from every  5, 10, 15, 30, or 60 minutes.

Both of these features are on by default. To disable either of these options choose Preferences > File Handling and uncheck Save in Background and/or Automatically Save Recovery Information.

As you have probably already noticed, Photoshop CS6 had a major interface overhaul. The entire application was re-skinned and, as a fun fact, that means that over 1800 icons and 250 cursors got a makeover!

There are 4 “Color Themes” or levels of brightness that you can choose from. By default, the second-to-most dark theme is selected. You can change the theme by clicking on the color swatches in Preferences > Interface > Appearance, or use the shortcut Shift + F2 to move to a lighter Theme or Shift + F1 to cycle to a darker theme. Note, on the Mac, you might have to ad the function (fn) key).

Previous versions of Photoshop used the lightest theme. It took me a few days to get use to the change but I now prefer the darker, default interface as I feel that the Photoshop interface now takes a back seat to the image that I’m editing.

In this video (Camera Raw Enhancements in Photoshop CS6), Julieanne will show you how to create the highest quality photographs by taking advantage of new and improved global and local adjustments in Adobe Camera Raw. Julieanne will demonstrate the best way to recover detail in shadow and highlight areas, make sophisticated tone curve adjustments on a per channel basis, apply chromatic aberration on the fly, and selectively paint color, tonal and noise reduction adjustments.

Tune in here on Monday, April 23 at 10 a.m. PST to join Adobe for a live webcast about the release of Adobe Creative Suite 6 and the Creative Cloud!

Click here for more information on Creative Suite 6.

Click here for more information on Creative Cloud.

Click here for more information on Photoshop CS6.

Click here to learn more about Adobe’s products on Adobe TV.

Jeff Tranberry, Chief Customer Advocate at Adobe also provides answers to many questions you may have about upgrade paths and recent purchases of Photoshop CS5 and 5.5.