Get Creative with Adobe Bridge

Many people, understandably, think of Adobe Bridge as a visual file browser, and of course, that’s its strength. But thanks to the Output module, Bridge also offers some interesting design possibilities. In this example, we’ll use Bridge to create both a filmstrip of images and a mosaic.

1 SELECT PHOTOS IN ESSENTIALS VIEW
In the Essentials module of Bridge, navigate to the folder of images you want to use and select the photos you want to include in the filmstrip. You can either simply select them, or label/rank them.

2 SWITCH TO OUTPUT MODULE; CHOOSE PDF
With the photos selected, switch to the Bridge Output module: Window>Workspace>Output or click on the Workspace drop-down menu (down-facing arrow at the top just to the left of the Search field). You can also click on the double dotted line to the left of the Workspace menu and drag to the left to display the main workspaces, and then just click on the name of the workspace you want to use.

3 SET DOCUMENT SIZE
Click on PDF at the top of the Output panel. In the PDF options, go to the Document settings and enter values for the Width and Height of the document. As we want to create a filmstrip of photos, the document has to be very wide and not very high. Based on the number of images, we guessed at 12×2″ (as you’ll see, it’s okay to guess, because we’re going to be working with a preview). You also enter the Quality (resolution): for this example, we used 150 ppi.

4 SET LAYOUT OPTIONS; REFRESH PREVIEW
In the Layout section, enter 10 for the number of Columns (because we have 10 photos) and 1 for Rows. Leave everything else at zero, press the Refresh Preview button, and a preview will be generated based on the information you’ve entered. Once the preview is finished, you can alter any values and press Refresh Preview again. For our example, we added a small value (0.13 in) for the Horizontal spacing.

5 TURN OFF OTHER OPTIONS; SAVE AS PDF
In this example, we don’t want Filenames, Page Numbers, Playback options, or Watermarks, so make sure all of these are turned off (no checkmark) or set to None. After Refreshing Preview one more time just to be sure, press the Save button at the very bottom of the panel, name it appropriately, and click OK.

6 PLACE PDF FILE IN PHOTOSHOP
In Photoshop, open or create a document, and then use File>Place, navigate to your PDF file, and click Place. In the dialog that appears, choose Page rather than Image, and click OK. Use the transform handles to resize the placed graphic, if necessary, and press Return (PC: Enter).

7 ADD A LAYER BELOW; FILL WITH BLACK
Press Command (PC: Ctrl) and click on the Create a New Layer icon at the bottom of the Layers panel to add a layer below the filmstrip layer. Using the Rectangular Marquee tool (M), make a selection a little larger than the “filmstrip,” adding some extra space above and below. Press D to set your Foreground/Background colors to their default Black/White and press Option-Delete (PC: Alt-Backspace) to fill the selection with black.

8 START CREATING FILM SPROCKETS
Add a layer above the black layer, and grab the Rounded Rectangle Shape tool. Press X to switch your Foreground color to white, make sure the Shape tool is set to Fill Pixels (the third icon in the Options Bar) and that the Radius value (for the rounded corners) is 2–3 px, then click-and-drag to create the first sprocket. Hold down the Command (PC: Ctrl) key and click on the sprocket layer’s thumbnail in the Layers panel to load it as a selection. Using Free Transform in copy mode (Command-Option-T [PC: Ctrl-Alt-T]), hold the Shift key and click-and-drag the sprocket to the right, leaving a space between the sprockets.

9 FINISH CREATING THE FILM SPROCKETS
Press Return (PC: Enter) and then Shift-Command-Option-T (PC: Shift-Ctrl-Alt-T) repeatedly until your sprockets are all the way across. Command-click (PC: Ctrl-click) the layer to select all the sprockets. Using the Move tool (V), hold down Shift-Option (PC: Shift-Alt) and drag a copy of the sprockets to the bottom of the filmstrip. Command-click (PC: Ctrl-click) on the sprockets layer to load both rows as a selection, click on the black box layer to make it active, and press Delete. You can now drag the white sprocket layer to the Trash icon in the Layers panel. Press Command-D (PC: Ctrl-D) to deselect.

10 CREATE A SMART OBJECT; APPLY SMART FILTER
In the Layers panel, select the black box layer and then Shift-click the photos layer so both layers are active. Right-click on either layer and from the menu, choose Convert to Smart Object. Then go to the Filter menu, and choose Distort>Wave. Take advantage of the preview in the Wave dialog to enter settings to apply a slight curve to the filmstrip, then click OK.

11 VARIATION: MOSAIC OF MANY SMALL PHOTOS
Bridge Output can also be used to create a mosaic of many small photos. First, go back to the Essentials module and choose a folder with many different photos, ideally containing many different colors. If you wish, you can filter the results—in this example, we used only JPEGs in landscape orientation. Press Command-T (PC: Ctrl-T) to show only the thumbnails and get an idea of what you’re going to get. (You may wish to drag files around to change the order.)

12 EXPERIMENT WITH SETTINGS AND REFRESH PREVIEW
Switch to the Output module and experiment with the settings. Because we had 140 photos, we chose a layout of 14 Columns and 10 Rows, with a document size that forced the images to be small with very little space in between. (This is an example of where you can take great advantage of the Refresh Preview button.)

13 OPEN THE PDF AND CREATE A PATTERN
Save the PDF file and open it in Photoshop. Under the Edit menu, choose Define Pattern, naming the pattern if you wish.

14 APPLY AS PATTERN OVERLAY
Now we can apply the pattern in different ways: Either by using the Edit>Fill command (to fill with the pattern at the size you created it) or with the Pattern Overlay layer style. Here, we created a Text layer and used the Pattern Overlay—click the Add a Layer Style icon at the bottom of the Layers panel, choose Pattern Overlay, and select your new pattern in the Pattern Picker—to add the mosaic pattern at 50% of the original size.

(Tip: Why you’re still in the Layer Style dialog, you can click-and-drag inside your document to reposition the pattern.)

ALL IMAGES BY DAVE CROSS UNLESS OTHERWISE NOTED

If you’d like to download the images used in this tutorial to practice these techniques, visit www.layersmagazine.com and navigate to the Magazine section. All files are for personal use only.

Sharpness is an important element in any photograph, but a creative use of blur—whether from shallow depth of field, motion blur, camera motion, or applied with the Lens Blur filter in Photoshop CS4—can also work to enhance an image. In this article we’ll take a look at several ways to take advantage of the beauty of the blur.

Controlling Sharpness in the Camera

1 KNOW YOUR MINIMUM SHUTTER SPEED
Creative use of blur begins in the camera, but before you can effectively use “unsharpness,” you need to know how to control sharpness. So let’s begin with a look at a few ways to ensure that the photo is sharp. For handheld shots, use a fast enough shutter speed so that camera shake doesn’t render an unsharp image. A common rule of thumb is to calculate minimum shutter speed using the focal length of the lens. For example, with a 100mm focal length, the shutter speed should not be less than 1/100 second.

2 VIBRATION REDUCTION TO THE RESCUE!
Lenses that have image stabilization or vibration reduction let you get by with much slower shutter speeds than lenses without this feature. As the old saying goes, your mileage may vary, so you should test your lenses to get an idea of what the slowest usable speed is. Any form of camera motion is more likely to be apparent in shots made with a telephoto focal length, so brace yourself or the camera as much as possible when taking the shot. If it fits the situation and your photographic style, a tripod is often an essential component.

3 DEPTH OF FIELD PREVIEW
Regardless of what the aperture is set to, when you look through the viewfinder of an SLR, the widest aperture is used to allow as much light as possible for composition. It doesn’t stop down to the specified aperture until the moment of exposure. So you may think that you have a soft, shallow depth of field, only to find later that much more is in focus than you intended. Fortunately, most DSLRs have a Depth-of-Field Preview button that will preview the actual depth of field using the current aperture setting. Find this button and use it!

Creative Use of Subject and Camera Motion

4 SLOW SHUTTER SPEEDS TO BLUR SUBJECT MOTION
The combination of a tripod-mounted camera and slow shutter speeds can create intriguing motion blurs from the movement of the subject. Night photography is well suited for motion blur since the lower light levels require longer exposures. During the day you can use a solid neutral density filter to cut back on the amount of light entering the lens and force a longer exposure. In Dresden Streetcar above, the image was exposed for 10 seconds as the illuminated streetcar passed by, creating a ghostly blur. Because the camera was on a tripod, other elements in the scene remain in focus.

5 SLOW SHUTTER SPEEDS + CAMERA MOTION
Slow shutter speeds can also create interesting motion blurs through the purposeful movement of the camera during the exposure. In Cowboy Poet above, both camera motion and subject movement were used. The exposure time was 4 seconds and the camera was panned to the right during the exposure to follow the man as he walked through the scene. Sharpness isn’t a part of this image but the unexpected combination of subject and camera motion made it the most interesting photo I took that night.

Creating Shallow Depth of Field with Lens Blur

6 [LENS BLUR: CONTROL BLUR WITH A DEPTH MAP]
The Lens Blur filter provides a way to create the look of shallow depth of field after the fact. To control how the blur is gradually applied to the image, you first have to create an alpha channel that can be used as a depth map. The intricacy of the depth map will vary depending on the needs of each image, which makes the Lens Blur feature as much about good masking as it is about blurring. Open an image where you want to add a gradual blur to the background or you can download the image used in our example.

7 DEPTH MAP 1: QUICK MASK
Select the Gradient tool (G); click on the Gradient Picker in the Options Bar; and choose the Black, White gradient (third swatch from the left in the top row). Set the style to Linear Gradient (the first icon), Mode to Normal, and Opacity to 100%. Click the Quick Mask icon at the bottom of the Toolbox or simply press Q on the keyboard. Click-and-drag in the image to apply the gradient. Where you begin is where the blur will begin and where you end is where the blur will be applied at full strength.

8 DEPTH MAP 2: COPY THE QUICK MASK
The red overlay that appears indicates the black areas of the mask. The area where it fades to clear is where the blur will begin to appear. The totally clear areas will be fully affected by the blur. In the Channels panel (Window>Channels), copy the Quick Mask by dragging it to the Create New Channel icon at the bottom of the panel (or you can choose Duplicate Channel from the panel’s flyout menu). Return to standard selection mode by pressing Q and then choose Select>Deselect. Double-click on the Quick Mask copy channel’s name and rename it (ours is Background Blur Mask).

9 DUPLICATE THE BACKGROUND LAYER
Click on the RGB channel to make it the active channel and turn off the visibility of the new alpha channel by clicking on its Eye icon. Normally, to keep a filter effect flexible and protect the original version of the image, we’d apply it as a smart filter; however, Lens Blur isn’t available as a smart filter. So, let’s go to the Layers panel and make a copy of the Background layer by clicking on that layer and using the Command-J (PC: Ctrl-J) shortcut, then choose Filter>Blur>Lens Blur.

10 APPLY LENS BLUR
In the Lens Blur dialog, open the Depth Map Source menu and choose the channel you created. If the blurred areas are reversed, click the Invert checkbox. You can also click in the preview where you want the image to be in focus. In the Iris section, the Radius slider will control the amount of blur (in this example, we used 30). Blade Curvature, Rotation, and the Shape menu will determine the visible characteristics of the virtual lens iris, but this will only be apparent in images with bright points of specular highlights. Click OK if you like the effect.

11 EDITING THE DEPTH MAP CHANNEL
If you decide the depth map isn’t creating the exact effect you want, click Cancel and return to the Channels panel. Click on the depth map channel to activate it and then turn on the RGB channel’s Eye icon so you can see the mask as a red overlay. Use the Gradient tool to create a new gradient to replace the existing one. When you’re satisfied with the new gradient, click on the word RGB at the top of the Channels panel and then apply the Lens Blur filter again to preview how the mask edits affect the blur.

Combining Hard and Soft Masks

12 COMBINE HARD AND SOFT MASKS 1
The key to an effective use of the Lens Blur filter lies in the accuracy of the masks you create for the depth map. Each image will have its own challenges, depending on the area that needs to be masked. For photos where a foreground object extends up into an area to be blurred, you’ll need to create a depth map mask that combines both hard and soft edges. In this rough road example, we started by making a gradient mask using the Quick Mask method shown earlier.

13 COMBINE HARD AND SOFT MASKS 2
Using the Pen tool (P), create a precise path around the sign and then click on the Load Path As a Selection icon in the Paths panel. With the gradient mask alpha channel active in the Channels panel and black as your Background color, press Delete (PC: Backspace) to fill the selected area with black, then deselect (Command-D [PC: Ctrl-D]). This creates a mask with both precise and gradual transitions that can then used for the depth map in the Lens Blur filter.

Creating a Fake Tilt-Shift Effect

14 THE TILT-SHIFT EFFECT
The Lens Blur filter can also be used for creating a fake, tilt-shift effect. To create this optically, you need to use a tilt-shift lens—a fairly pricey purchase. These lenses are commonly used for architectural images to control perspective. On the right type of scene, such as looking down on a city or landscape, the very shallow depth of field can create a sense of looking at a miniature scene. If used too much, it can become gimmicky, but I’ve seen it used to good effect on fine art photographs and even in editorial illustrations.

15 CREATE A WHITE ALPHA CHANNEL
To try this, you can open one of your own images looking down on a scene or you can download our example. First, hold down the Option key (PC: Alt key) and click on the Create a New Channel icon at the bottom of the Channels panel. In the New Channel dialog, under Color Indicates, choose Selected Areas, and click OK. This will create a white alpha channel. Turn on the visibility for the RGB channel by clicking where the Eye icon should be. Since the new alpha channel is all white, no red overlay will be visible.

16 ADD TWO GRADIENTS
Select the Gradient tool, make sure that the Black, White swatch is selected in the Gradient Picker, and Opacity is set to 100%. Drag the cursor from the bottom of the image about one-third of the way up. Where you stop dragging, the image will be in focus once the Lens Blur is applied. Now, change the blend Mode of the gradient to Darken and drag down from the top about one-third of the way. The Darken blend mode lets you add a new gradient to the channel while preserving the first one.

17 WHY NOT USE THE REFLECTED GRADIENT?
You could also use the reflected gradient style to get this same effect, but it doesn’t offer as much control. I often have to drag it several times to get it right, and the areas that will be rendered in focus (the white areas) are typically much narrower than what I want. I prefer to use the method shown in the previous step because it gives me maximum control over which areas will be in focus and which areas will be blurred.

18 APPLY LENS BLUR, INCREASE SATURATION
Click on the RGB thumbnail in the Channels panel to make it active and turn off the alpha channel’s Eye icon. In the Layers panel, copy the Background layer (Command-J [PC: Ctrl-J]) and then choose Filter>Blur>Lens Blur. In the Lens Blur dialog, choose the new alpha channel as the Depth Map and adjust the Radius slider to taste. If the wrong areas are blurred, simply click in the preview on the area that you want in focus. Click OK to close the dialog. Finally, add a Hue/Saturation adjustment layer and increase the Saturation to make things look a bit more plastic and toy-like.

ALL IMAGES BY SEÁN DUGGAN UNLESS OTHERWISE NOTED

Recently, I attended a seminar taught by wedding photographer David Ziser. While I learned a lot of good photography tips, one thing that caught my attention was an app David showed for laying out wedding albums. Typically, a wedding photographer has to narrow down his shoot to about 100 photos and then lay them out in a book that will be printed for clients to either purchase or buy prints from. So how would I do this in InDesign?

1 CREATE A NEW DOCUMENT
Choose File>New>Document. The size and number of pages will depend greatly on what your photo lab supports. In this example, let’s set up a 30-page album in spreads with page sizes of 12×12″ with a .25″ bleed (click the More Options button to access the Bleed and Slug options). Again, contact your lab and find out what size the pages need to be for the albums they print.

2 BRING UP THE PAGES PANEL
The next thing we’ll want to do is set up our master pages, so bring up the Pages panel (Window>Pages). Double-click one of the A-Master page thumbnails in the panel to make it the active page. Press Option-Command-0 (PC: Alt-Ctrl-0) to invoke the Fit Spread in Window command so you can see both master pages.

3 DEFINE YOUR FIRST MASTER PAGE SPREAD
Typically, you’ll want something behind your images on each page. It could be as simple as a solid color, such as black, or an image. It’s probably best to create a default color behind all the images. Using the Rectangle Frame tool (F), drag out a new frame across the entire spread. In the Swatches panel (Window>Swatches), click on the Fill icon at the top left and click on the Black swatch (or another color if you prefer) to fill the frame with black.

4 ADD YOUR FRAMES FOR IMAGES
At this point, you’re ready to start building your pages. Switch to page 1 by double-clicking on its thumbnail in the Pages panel. This page will be your cover. Using the Rectangle Frame tool, drag out a frame for the main image (we covered about two-thirds of the page). You can also place a smaller frame on the page that you can later duplicate for supporting images if you like. Use the Rotate tool (R) to rotate the smaller frame about 15°.

5 SET YOUR FRAME FITTING OPTIONS
We want to make the placement of images as easy as possible once the structure is built. The Frame Fitting Options in InDesign CS4 can be used to scale the images that we place so they automatically fit the frame. Select your first large frame with the Selection tool (V), then choose Object>Fitting>Frame Fitting Options. In the Fitting drop-down menu at the bottom of the dialog, change the frame to Fill Frame Proportionally, and click OK. Do the same thing for the smaller frame, too.

6 STROKE YOUR FRAMES
To give your album photos a little more depth and to make them stand out from the background, let’s add a stroke. Select your large frame and give it a white stroke of 4 pts. You can add the stroke either from the Control panel or the Stroke panel (Window>Stroke). To make the stroke white, click on the Stroke icon at the top left of the Swatches panel and click on the Paper swatch.

7 DUPLICATE AND FREE TRANSFORM YOUR FRAMES
The frames you’ve created can be used over and over again throughout your document. Because they already have the Frame Fitting Options applied to them, all you need to do is duplicate them as needed. Let’s start by making two duplicates of the smaller frame. Using the Selection tool, simply hold down your Option key (PC: Alt key) and drag it to the right. This will make a copy of it. Make one more copy and then use your Free Transform tool (E) to slightly rotate each frame.

8 USE DIFFERENT SHAPES FOR FRAMES
Using rectangular frames on every page can quickly become very boring. Take advantage of the fact that InDesign can use any vector shape as a frame. Try using either the Ellipse Frame tool (nested under the Rectangle Frame tool) to break things up a bit, or if you feel a little more confident, create custom frames with the Pen tool (P). Also note that you can copy over vector shapes from Illustrator as frames, too. Don’t forget to apply your Frame Fitting Options to these frames, as well.

9 LET’S SEE WHAT WE’VE GOT SO FAR
We could keep building our pages, but you’re probably getting anxious to see what things are going to look like. Let’s drop in some images so you’ll feel better. First, click the Go to Bridge button in the Application Bar to launch Bridge, and navigate to the folder of images that you want to use. Select a few images and choose File>Place>In InDesign. Once you return to InDesign, just drop the images into the frames you want them to go into. Tip: Use the Arrow keys to cycle through the thumbnail images in your loaded cursor to select an image to place in a frame.

10 NOW ADD SOME TEXT
Pretty pictures are great, but we need some text to make it personal. Try using a script font, such as Bickham Script Pro, for the larger text and then a simpler sans-serif font, such as Myriad Pro, for any paragraph/body text. Using the Type tool (T), drag out your frames where you want text to go, then key in your text. If you want to see what your layout looks like without the distracting guides, simply switch to the Selection tool and hit the letter W on your keyboard to enter Preview mode. Hitting W again will switch you back to Normal mode.

11 EXPORT YOUR PAGES AS JPEG
Unfortunately, most labs that print these wonderful books are still only accepting the layouts as single-page JPEGs. So this means that you’ll have to take your wonderful layout and convert the whole thing to a series of images. Luckily, InDesign lets you Export to JPEG format. Just choose File>Export, select JPEG in the Format drop-down menu in the Export dialog, and click Save. In the Export JPEG dialog that appears, specify the resolution that your lab recommends, and click the Export button.

12 ADD COLOR PROFILES FROM THE LAB
Many labs provide color profiles for you to use so that the printed results will match more closely to what you see onscreen. Although InDesign supports color management and profiles, you may want to open your exported JPEGs in Photoshop and assign the color profile provided by your lab so that you’re sure they’re correct. Once you have the JPEG open in Photoshop, choose Edit>Assign Profile and select the profile provided by your lab in the Profile drop-down menu. Then save the file.

13 EXPORT A PDF
You may also want a PDF for client review or for those labs that can print from PDFs (we love those labs). Go back to your original InDesign file, choose File>Export, this time select Adobe PDF as the format, and click Save. In the Export Adobe PDF dialog that appears, choose either High Quality Print for sending to the lab or Smallest File Size for sending as a proof to the client. You can even put the word “Proof” in big letters on each page in InDesign using layers if you’re concerned about security. In the Security category of the dialog, you can also specify that the PDF can’t be printed without a password.

14 SAVE AS A TEMPLATE
Now that you’ve done all this work, chances are you won’t want to do it again from scratch the next time you have an album to lay out, so let’s save it as a template. It’s probably best right now just to do a Save As with a different name so that you don’t mess up the original. Then delete the pictures from the frames using the Direct Selection tool (A), and delete the text using the Type tool. Once you’ve emptied the document, you can then use the Save As command again, but this time choose InDesign CS4 Template as the format.

Corey has some resolution tips for large format printing out of Photoshop. RC sits down with Dreamweaver author and instructor Janine Warner to talk about her upcoming courses on KelbyTraining.com

Franklin McMahon experiments with the paint tool in After Effects and demonstrates how to paint on top of a video using overlay with a color mode.

This video requires Adobe Flash Player.

Showcasing the Design Work of Our Readers

Would you like to gain exposure by having your work featured in an international design magazine?
 Of course you would!

The staff at Layers magazine appreciates the time and effort involved in the creative process, no matter how large or small the project. With this in mind, we offer you the opportunity to display your work within the pages of Layers.

Please submit your print, Web, or packaging design (in PDF, JPEG, or EPS format) to Cmain@LayersMagazine.com for consideration. Be sure to include the name of the piece, client name (if applicable), the applications you used, and a Web address where our readers can view more of your work. What are you waiting for? Submit your best work for consideration today!

In the meantime, here are some pieces that we’ve published in past issues of Layers magazine for your enjoyment.

From the January/February 2010 Issue:

Hey everyone, Happy Monday! Today I am happy to hear that there are two really cool additions that I think you’d be very interested in.

Topaz Adjust 4
Topaz Adjust is one of those products that sits on the computer of many a digital artist (myself included). it takes a regular picture and just makes it pop out an incredible amount. I spend a lot of time doing creative photography, so for me the unique look of detail enhancement and color manipulation that it brings to the table is just awesome. Theyve revamed the UI, added new algorithms, and have created additional presents in this new version – Topaz Adjust 4.
“Topaz Adjust 4 uses unique technology that automatically adapts to different image conditions like light, detail, and color,” said Albert Yang, president of Topaz Labs and original designer of Topaz Adjust. “This has important implications. Other tools make the same standard adjustments to every single photo they’re applied to.In contrast, Topaz Adjust 4 tailors the adjustments specifically to the photo in question. This gives it the flexibility to ditch the cookie cutter enhancements and create some truly fantastic and unique photo effects.”

For more information, click on the More link below. I cant wait to start playing with it!!

Wacom Releases the Cintiq 21UX
Very quickly on the gearlust list for me is this one, the new Wacom Cintiq 21UX. I happen to thin that the change that Wacom did to the Intuos4 made me a constant tablet convert. Where i would only use the tablet for very specific things before, it has become that thing that just never leaves my table. The only complaint that i’ve ever had on it is just “I want more.. bigger.. sharper.. better.. I want to make my retouching workflow faster”

The Cintiq 21UX is poised to deliver that in spades. Theyve taken things like sensitivity (1 gram of pressure for really smooth response), 2048 levels of pressure, Rear mounted touch strips on a rotatable, reclinable color accurate surface. The pen even responds to tilting for crying out loud! I am stoked to see the color on the display!

Click here to go to the Wacom website and see more of the new features!

Topaz Adjust 4 Press Release
DALLAS – (Business Wire) Topaz Labs announces a major upgrade of the Topaz Adjust Photoshop plug-in, which features new presets, a completely redesigned user interface, and upgraded image processing algorithms. With these improvements, Adjust 4 offers a new way for photographers to improve their photos quickly.

“Topaz Adjust 4 uses unique technology that automatically adapts to different image conditions like light, detail, and color,” said Albert Yang, president of Topaz Labs and original designer of Topaz Adjust. “This has important implications. Other tools make the same standard adjustments to every single photo they are applied to. In contrast, Topaz Adjust 4 tailors the adjustments specifically to the photo in question. This gives it the flexibility to ditch the cookie cutter enhancements and create some truly fantastic and unique photo effects.”

Topaz Labs’ marketing manager, Eric Yang, explains how this technology is great news for the industry: “Digital photographers regularly spend hours post-processing their photos to get the perfect look. Adjust 4 makes this process easy by merging this extraordinary adaptive technology with many presets and an intuitive workflow. It’s an invaluable tool for photographers who demand quality photo effects, fast.”

In addition to the effects that Topaz Adjust is already known for, like pseudo-HDR, detail enhancement, and creative exposure, Adjust 4 includes a wide variety of new customizable presets that range from mild to extreme. This gives photographers a new flexibility to quickly choose and fine-tune the exact look that they are going for in any given photo.

Topaz Adjust 4’s other new features include a completely redesigned and improved user interface, enhanced image processing algorithms, and greater stability. It also works well with a variety of host programs.

Topaz Adjust 4 is a free upgrade for existing customers and retails for $49.99. It is compatible with Windows and Intel-based Macs. For more information please visit the Topaz Adjust homepage at: http://www.topazlabs.com/adjust.

The Wacom Cintiq 21UX
Press Release
Wacom Introduces New Cintiq 21UX Interactive Pen Display

New Cintiq provides enhanced pen performance and innovative ergonomics, providing an intuitive and natural-feeling pen-on-screen workflow for the very best in creative control, comfort and productivity
Today, Wacom® introduces the much anticipated Cintiq®21UX, its newly-redesigned interactive pen display delivering state-of-the-art pen performance and innovative ergonomics in a color-accurate LCD display. Designed specifically to meet the demanding needs of professional photographers, designers, artists and animators, the new Cintiq 21UX offers unparalleled creative control, comfort and productivity.

The Cintiq 21UX experience starts with its amazing new pen performance, capable of capturing the slightest nuance of pen pressure against the LCD surface, as well as offering 2048 levels of pressure sensitivity. Other innovative enhancements include rear-mounted Touch Strips that are ideally placed for fingertip access while working. Each Touch Strip has an accompanying thumb-controlled Touch Strip Toggle button that controls up to four different user-assigned functions per application such as zoom, scroll, brush size adjustment and canvas rotation. In addition, the overall design has been refined and updated in an all-black color scheme, providing a sophisticated and handsome look.

2048 Reasons to Work Directly On Screen
The Cintiq 21UX Grip Pen features Wacom’s new proprietary Tip Sensor technology, offering users near-zero (one gram) starting pressure for the most sensitive interactive pen display performance to date. “Now, pressure-sensitive support can start with an incredibly light touch, emulating the same organic feel, response and result derived from working with traditional brushes, markers and pens,” said Don Varga, Senior Product Manager for Wacom Technology Corp. Additionally, the Cintiq pen delivers 2048 levels of pressure, doubling the resolution of the pen’s pressure curve and greatly improving the accuracy of pressure-sensitive effects such as controlling line weights or opacity adjustments. The Grip Pen also features a pressure-sensitive eraser and two customizable side switches that can be customized for commands such as double-click and right-click.

New Design Elements Improve Workflow
With a new ergonomic design and productivity features, the Cintiq 21UX is the ultimate tool for creative professionals. The customizable, application-specific ExpressKeys™, eight located on each side of the display’s bezel, are instrumental in helping improve workflow and boost productivity by placing commonly used commands at the fingertips. Pressing the top ExpressKey brings up an on-screen display showing the settings of all the ExpressKeys and Touch Strips. The close proximity of these tools to the actual work area is efficient and comfortable and helps save valuable time by minimizing dependence on the keyboard without taking focus away from the pen hand.

Also new to the Cintiq 21UX is the introduction of two user-defined, four-function Touch Strip Toggle buttons which control the function of their associated Touch Strip, located on the back of the bezel. The position of an illuminated LED located along the perimeter of the Toggle button indicates the current function of the Touch Strip. Fully application-specific, the Touch Strips can be used for up to four functions such as zoom, scroll, brush size adjustment and canvas rotation per application. This new ergonomic treatment is also extremely practical, allowing users to “toggle” with their thumbs while using their forefinger or middle finger to control Touch Strip speed and variation. “The four-function Toggle combined with the new location of the Touch Strips provides increased comfort and measurable increases in speed,” says Varga. “Additionally, locating the Touch Strips on the back of the pen display rather the front helps prevent accidental contact with the pen hand when, for example, flowing brush strokes are employed and extend beyond the screen’s border.”

Stand and Deliver
The Cintiq 21UX’s patented stand allows users to recline the pen display at any angle between 10 degrees and 65 degrees to match the users ideal working posture. In addition to reclining, the Cintiq 21UX can be rotated up to 180 degrees in either direction to take advantage of natural drawing movements or offer a different viewing angle. If desired, users can easily remove the Cintiq from the stand for use on a table top or to attach it to an articulating arm (not included) using the standard VESA (Video Electronics Standards Association) mounts located on the back of the display.

A new weighted pen stand is not only a convenient pen holder, but doubles as a handy twist-off storage compartment for pen nibs and handy nib removal tool. Standard, felt and stroke nibs are provided, allowing users to simulate the feel of working with a variety of traditional art and design materials.

Included Software
To help users get started right out of the box, the Cintiq 21UX ships with valuable creative software from several of our software partners:

• Corel® Painter™ Sketch Pad for recreating the natural feeling of sketching and painting by hand
• Nik® Color Efex Pro™ 3.0 WE6 for selectively applying lighting and photo enhancements with the pen
• Wacom Brushes 3.0 for 81 customized brushes for use with Adobe® Photoshop® CS + and Photoshop Elements 4 +

Additionally, Cintiq 21UX users will also benefit from Wacom’s powerful driver software, including radial menus for quick “pen-point” access to additional customized shortcuts.

Creative Accessories
Wacom has a line of accessories to complement the Cintiq 21UX that address the specific needs of individual users. The Art Pen, for example, supports the barrel rotation feature within such applications as Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator® and Corel Painter 11, allowing users to create natural brush effects by rotating the pen, much like a calligraphy pen. The Art Pen is newly designed and features a round barrel with two nib options, standard and chisel-tip. The Airbrush pen offers users a digital airbrush that has a similar form and wheel-based control as a traditional airbrush. It provides creative, fun effects when combined with select applications. Cintiq 21UX accessories can be conveniently purchased at the direct.wacom.com Internet site.

Availability
The new Cintiq 21UX (DTK-2100) priced at $1999 USD is intended to begin shipping in the United States, Canada and the majority of Latin America countries in late March or early April. It will be available in Argentina, Brazil and Chile in early summer due to certification requirements in those countries. Consult your local electronics retailer or visit www.wacom.com for the most current information.

About Wacom
Founded in 1983, Wacom’s vision to bring people and technology closer together through natural interface technologies has made it the world’s leading manufacturer of pen tablets, interactive pen displays and digital interface solutions. The advanced technology of Wacom’s intuitive input devices has been used to create some of the most exciting digital art, films, special effects, fashions and designs around the world and provides business and home users with the ability to explore digital content creation in a comfortable, natural way. Today, millions of customers use Wacom’s cordless, battery-free, pressure-sensitive pen technology to express their creativity.

Follow along with Corey as he creates text that appears to be made from this worn texture by using displacement maps, filters, and layer styles.

RC has a tutorial about how to create a simple flash banner using Flash CS4 templates and Action Script 2.0. Corey shows viewers how to create a star field in Illustrator using the flare tool and a color dodge.

I Left My Heart in San Francisco
Hey everyone! Im finally back in the saddle from San Francisco and hanging out at the Photoshop 20th Birthday celebration! I had such a great time out there meeting the engineers of one of our favorite applications, as well as some of the luminaries using Photoshop today. All in all it was great, but you don’t have to take my word for it!

Click here to see Scott’s Review of the Photoshop event in San Francisco
Click here to see Terry White’s coverage of the event.

Special thanks to Terry White for not only reporting on it, but also doing a kick butt job on the presentation.

Now moving onto Photoshop World!
One of the things that I liked about being in San Francisco was the amount of camraderie that existed between engineers, fans, and presenters. This is something that will happen again very very soon at Photoshop World in Orlando on March 24-26!

Click here to go to the Photoshop World website to register for it.

We Now Have an Iphone App!
To be able to answer the calls of many people trying to get their heads around the Photoshop World conference, its classes, instructors, and social events, we were able to get out there and develop an Iphone app that you can use for it! Exciting!!

Click here to go to itunes and download the App

Special thanks to Shawn Welch for the app design!

Keep in mind that on Friday the early bird special is gone, so if you want to save 100 dollars on the registration, you better do it soon! Pro Pass and Party tickets are also getting scarce!!

Jeff Witchel demonstrates the options available in Illustrator when placing text onto a path.

This video requires Adobe Flash Player.

Showcasing the Design Work of Our Readers

Would you like to gain exposure by having your work featured in an international design magazine?
 Of course you would!

The staff at Layers magazine appreciates the time and effort involved in the creative process, no matter how large or small the project. With this in mind, we offer you the opportunity to display your work within the pages of Layers.

Please submit your print, Web, or packaging design (in PDF, JPEG, or EPS format) to Cmain@LayersMagazine.com for consideration. Be sure to include the name of the piece, client name (if applicable), the applications you used, and a Web address where our readers can view more of your work. What are you waiting for? Submit your best work for consideration today!

In the meantime, here are some pieces that we’ve published in past issues of Layers magazine for your enjoyment.

From the November/December 2009 Issue: