Newbie Website Design » Screencasts

Screencast #4: Make a negative space logo in Photoshop

David Radtke - Admin — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 14:30:49 +0000

In a previous post called Creative use of negative space in logos, I presented a list of very cool logos that use negative space (a.k.a. white space) to bring out hidden letters or shapes. The graphic used at the beginning of that post wasn’t something I found on the Internet but rather something I created in Photoshop.

In this screencast, you’re going to learn how to create one for yourself. In addition, I threw in a few more ultra-convenient keyboard shortcuts to help you get around Photoshop in style!

Click the “Read on…” link below to view the screencast:

Screencast #3: Make a fake tag in Photoshop

David Radtke - Admin — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 10:00:18 +0000

I received a few e-mails about a photo I used in the “What is an HTML attribute, tag, & element?” post from a few days ago. Some wanted to know where they could buy that sort of dog tag / keychain in the photo. Unfortunately for them, it isn’t real — just a figment of my creation.

In this screencast, you’ll learn the steps I took to make that fake tag. Since the screencast is small and a little hard to see, I’ve included the larger, final image.

Click the “More…” link below to see the screencast:

And here’s the final result:

Screencast #2: Useful keyboard shortcuts for Photoshop

David Radtke - Admin — Sun, 05 Jul 2009 08:21:18 +0000

I received quite a few e-mails and even a comment on NWD about some of the “unseen” things I was doing in the very first screencast — namely, some of the keyboard shortcuts in Photoshop, how I could “nudge” things around in the Photoshop layers, how I could quickly create rectangles to be used in a basic website layout, and some basic cut, copy, and paste techniques.

Which reminds me of a Photoshop joke…

Person A:
How do you know when a newbie has been using Photoshop?
Person B:
From the scissors scratches on the monitor when he tried to cut the image.
You:
Uncontrolled laughter.

All dumb jokes aside, in this second screencast I’ll take you through some of those unseen Photoshop keyboard shortcuts as well as the nifty little cut, copy, and paste tricks I was using. (You can put the scissors down now. )

Click on the “More…” link below to watch Screencast #2:

Screencast #1: Intro to Photoshop Layers

David Radtke - Admin — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 11:06:30 +0000

I can’t believe it — my very first screencast! In this first installment of (what I hope to be many) screencasts, I’m going to show you the basic concepts behind layers in Photoshop and Photoshop Elements (the little brother to Photoshop.)

Just to let you know, this is “Reality Screencasting” — which means it is completely unscripted. You’ll see my little mistakes, my periodic goofs, and hear the word “Ummm…” at least a thousand times. I did this for two reasons: 1) to let you see the real work flow when using Photoshop, and 2) I’m just too lazy to do multiple takes and then edit them together.

You won’t see any award-winning graphic designs in this screencast (I’ll save those for later) but you will learn exactly what you need to get started using Photoshop.

Without further ado, here it is!