Dan Morton

Some years back, I was tasked with revamping a full training guide — a full-color book consisting of over 300 pages and approximately 1,000 images.

A major problem I ran across was that each image was in RGB mode instead of CMYK, which meant that I had to change each image to make it compatible with the printer’s specs.

Not knowing any better at the time, I arduously proceeded to manually… change… each… and… every… image — individually — to CMYK.

We’ve all had those situations where the same repetitive change is needed on a large group of photographs. Maybe you had to modify them to a manageable size, create a set of thumbnails, or apply a watermark to each photo.

Instead of opening each individual file and applying the same change over and over again, let Photoshop do the majority of the work for you.

Automate Batch is a tool that allows you to apply an action to a batch of images.

To start off, make sure your Actions Palette is open (Windows > Actions). For the sake of this tutorial, I’m going to modify the size of a group of vertical images to create thumbnails.

Open one of the images that are to be adjusted. Click on the Create a New Action icon on the bottom of the Actions Palette.

When the New Action window appears, give your action a name. Make sure it’s something that would easily identify your action for further use. Then hit Record.

NOTE: Each modification made to this photo from this point forward until you hit the stop button will be recorded to this action.

Now we’re going to input our settings. Go to Image > Image Size and set your resolution to 72 ppi and your pixel height to 125 pixels. Then hit OK.

On the bottom of your Actions Palette, hit the Stop icon, indicating that your action is complete.

Then go to File > Automate > Batch to open the Automate Batch tool.

Select the Action that you would like to apply to your images (the one we just created), indicate which source folder you would like to tool to be applied to (your image folder), choose your destination folder (the folder you would like to place the modified images into), and then press OK.

The Automate Batch tool will now apply your change to each image in your source folder and save the modified images to a new folder.

NOTE: While Automate Batch is a terrific tool, it does have its limitations.

With this tool, you’re applying the same change to each photo. A perfect example of this is when you’re resizing images. Modifying the height of a vertical image would have a different effect than when you apply the same height setting to a horizontal image.

Try it out and let me know what you think. If you have any questions please leave a comment.

Tags: Graphic Design, image, Intermediate, Photoshop, Tutorial

If you’ve ever worked in Photoshop, you’ve undoubtedly experienced that sinking feeling that occurs after you’ve completed a cutout, realizing too late that you’ve accidentally erased a part of the picture that should’ve remained.

There are many ways to avoid this problem when doing cutouts. This tutorial is going to focus on using layer masks to erase, but the overall theory revolves around protecting your original image. The least amount of destruction that an image goes through the better.

Using layer masks to erase in Photoshop doesn’t actually remove any part of the image – it hides the part that you don’t want visible.

Let’s take this picture of the St. Louis Arch against a cloudy sky background. Begin by selecting the background. There are many ways to do this but we’ll leave those for another tutorial.

Now we have to change the selection from the background to the arch, so inverse your selection (Select > Inverse or ctrl-shift-I). The “marching ants” should now encircle the arch. Then press the Add Layer Mask button on the Layers palette, which will apply a layer mask to the current layer.

Your layer palette should now show a layer mask applied.

 

With layer masks, black is hidden while white is visible.

What’s nice about this tactic is that the background is still there. The layer mask is just hiding the area that’s colored black. If you want to show any part of the background or if you noticed an error in your cutout, simply grab your paintbrush, make white your foreground color, and paint in the area that you want visible on your layer mask.

Tags: cutout, image, Intermediate, layer masks, Photoshop

The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn.

–Alvin Toffler

It just seemed fitting that I write my inaugural blog post about the skill of learning. And don’t be mistaken — learning is a skill that is too often lost the minute a person graduates from school.

The truest form of learning is born out of curiosity. It occurs when a person relentlessly searches for an answer to a question or problem and is not limited to the walls of a classroom. 

As adults, it’s important to adhere to lifelong learning, which is a self-motivated pursuit of knowledge that occurs throughout a person’s life. A lifelong learner voluntarily searches out new information and skills in areas of both professional and personal interests

Here are some tips on incorporating lifelong learning into your daily routine:

Read anything and everything

We live in the age of knowledge, at a time when you can google your search query and uncover thousands of resources. You can go on social media sites like twitter and get viewpoints, tips, and experiences from people all over the world. We are never at a loss for information. 

Find thinkers who challenge you

Surround yourself with people who make you think. If it’s obvious that you’re the smartest person in the room, then you need to expand your circle of influence.

Find people who can debate you on topics such as philosophy, foreign policy, business trends, and history.

Explore outside of your comfort zone

If you’re a print designer, challenge yourself to learn some web technologies. Make it a goal to not only improve your current skill set and knowledge base, but to develop new ones.

Set learning goals

Periodically set a list of goals that you wish to achieve. Set some goals that increase your proficiency in already learned skills and then set some in new areas that will teach you something new.

Challenge yourself

Make sure you set some lofty goals for yourself too, such as learning a foreign language or how to code a web site from scratch. Why? Because you can.

Practice new skills

It has been proven that most people retain knowledge best when they have a chance to apply it to an everyday situation. Find some way to replicate this kind of situation. A new HDR process tutorial will make a lot more sense and stick with you longer if you immediately apply it to an image.

Embrace social media

If you haven’t jumped on the bandwagon yet, now’s the time. There are some amazing resources available on sites like Twitter and Facebook. Some of the brightest minds in design are willing to share their experiences and knowledge.

Challenge your pre-conceived notions and assumptions

Question everything! I once had a Journalism professor whose favorite saying was, “If your mom tells you she loves you, get proof.”

Don’t take anything at face value. This isn’t being skeptical as much as it is just doing your homework. 

“Sit down before fact as a little child, be prepared to give up every conceived notion, follow humbly wherever and whatever abysses nature leads, or you will learn nothing.” 

–Thomas Huxley

Make learning a priority

Life is always busy. There’s always something going on that can prevent you from accomplishing your goals. You have work, house repairs, kids’ sports, grocery shopping, doctor appointments… The trick is to find snippets of time throughout the day to explore. Carry a book around with you or download a series of articles to your smartphone so you can review them during those brief downtimes.

Make it a daily routine

Learning is not an event that only takes place during down times though. It needs to be a driving force that consumes you, even when you’re busy and all is going well. The only way to keep up with current trends and technologies is by seeking out new skills and knowledge.

Plan some time into your daily routine to just sit down and learn. Review your RSS feed while having your morning coffee or read an article during lunch.

Maintain a list

Keep a list of what you want to learn, whether it be a new language or how to better organize your workflow within Photoshop. Keep this list handy and refer to it often.

Understand everything you read

If you don’t know what something means, research it until you understand it. If you’re reading an article and you come across a word that you don’t recognize, use the vast resources at your disposal to find out what it means. That one word or phrase can change the whole meaning of the piece.

Go ahead and learn the “unnecessary”

It may seem pointless to research, practice, and perfect the art of origami, but the more well-rounded you are the better prepared you’ll be to deal with the unexpected. Plus, the more reference points you have in your arsenal, the more likely you’ll be able to understand new trends.

“Anyone who stops learning is old, whether at twenty or eighty.”  

–Henry Ford

Tags: Education, Instructional Design, learning