DigitalFelix.net Newsletter, Volume 4, Issue 1, January

Volume 4, Issue 1
January-March 2015
Publisher’s Notes
We have a new name and a new look to better reflect
who we are and what we do: we are the Digital Felix
Design Software Academy and our mission is to teach
you the skills you need to do your best work with our flexible,
live, instructor lead, online learning programs. As a member of
the Academy, you’ll continue to receive our quarterly newsletter
packed with tips, techniques, reviews, tutorials and news.
We welcome new members so please share our spring issue with
your friends and colleagues.
Enjoy and Happy Spring everyone!
ASK FELiX A QUESTION
Send an email with your question to:
felix@digitalfelix.net. The answer to the most
interesting or the most common question will be
posted in the next issue of DigitalFelix.net newsletter.
To register for our Newsletter, click here.
How to use Layer Comps in Adobe Photoshop?
Layer Comps are remembered states of the Layer panel. They are
used to show various versions of a design with one button click –
and that is priceless, if you are designing a website, or a poster, or
if you are creating any kind of illustration with any variants at all.
HOW TO MAKE LAYER COMPS
WHAT’S INSIDE:
Page 1: Felix answers your question
on Adobe Photoshop Layer
Comps.
Page 2: Photoshop guru, photographer and high quality art print
specialist, Ron Giddings, gives a spin to Macphun Intensify
app – part 1.
Page 4: Illustrator and graphic designer, Bradley Hansraj, reviews
Wacom Inkling Sketch Pen.
Page 5: Internationally recognized painter and graphic artist,
Zenon Burdy shows you a digital linocut technique in
Adobe Photoshop for printing with spot colours.
Page 6: Industry Tidbits features another useful Macphun app
called Snapselect … and much more.
You can find all published newsletters to date on our site at
www digitalfelix.net/archives
We welcome any questions, opinions or suggestions you may have.
Please contact us at: Lidka@digitalfelix.net
It’s best to start making layer comps only when all layers
are in place, and your vision is clear about the versions of your
design. Adding new layers after Layer Comps were made will
result in warnings (double click the exclamation mark icon to
update). Deleting layers after Layer Comps were made is even
worse, because it can result in losing parts of states.
1. Open the Layer Comps Panel from the Window pulldown
menu.
2. Make a New Layer
Comp either by using
the New Layer Comp
command from the
panel’s flyout menu,
or by clicking the New
Layer Comp icon on the
Figure 1. The Update Layer Comp (round
bottom of the panel.
arrows) and New Layer Comp (page) icons.
[Figure 1].
3. Name the Layer Comp and check the options you want in the
Continued on page 6
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in Adobe InDesign, Illustrator and/or Photoshop. And, if you take it with
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down even more to $90 per person. This offer goes away by July 15, 2015.
http://digitalfelix.net/specials
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DigitalFelix.net Newsletter Volume 4, Issue 1, January-March 2015
Page 1
Macphun Intensify, an App True to Its Name
by Ron Giddings
Plug-ins. Since Photoshop first came
out, hundreds, perhaps thousands of
plugins have been launched. Most take
one particular Photoshop menu item, and
enhance it way beyond what Photoshop
does. For example, there are multiple
plugins just for noise reduction and
each one offers a slightly different set of
image noise controls. There are plugins
for creating high dynamic range (HDR)
images, and there are plugins for creating
textures. There is even a plugin to create
your own Photoshop filters. What’s more,
for repetitive tasks or for template tasks,
there are Actions. Actions are recorded
sets of executable Photoshop commands
to do complex tasks with one push of
a Play button.
However, Plugins offer limited controls
(often the only choices are “Psychic Surreal”
or “Plasteroid” looks) and while Actions can
be adjusted and re-recorded, this misses the
point of the ‘one button’ approach. In short,
neither offer much room for creativity. But
that’s not the case with Macphun Intensify.
Macphun Intensify is a stand-alone
app that can also be installed as an Adobe
Photoshop plugin [Figure 1] - a plugin that
opens all files, including RAW and that
easily works in 16 bits per channel colour
mode. Since not many plugins and actions
can do that – I was already impressed.
I opened Intensify and saw the usual
row of Presets [Figure 2].
Another
group of Action Selections, I mistakenly
thought. I picked the first one called
Architectural Details and within seconds
I was blown away [Figure 3]. There’s
a slider for each preset that blends it back
to the original image. Well, now we’re
talking, since that seemingly small action
of blending the new pixels with the old
pixels does make an enormous difference
in the final look of an image.
I tried several other Presets. Each one is
a truly new and unique, top quality image
enhancement idea. B&W, Landscape,
Detail Enhancement, and … wait for it …
Image Tune. That’s where I found Pro
Quality controls. Wow! Now I’m seeing
details and sharpening that I didn’t believe
possible, even at a high zoom level. Then I found the Adjust tab [Figure
4] that showed me the real guts of
Intensify: a detailed set of controls for
each preset. There are controls not only
for Colour Temperature and
Basic Tune (Exposure, Contrast,
Highlights, Shadows, Vibrance
and Saturation), but also in the Pro
Contrast panel, there are precise
and separate contrast controls for
Highlights, Midtones and Shadows.
Plus there are controls for Structure,
Details,
Micro
Sharpness,
Vignette and Opacity. My jaw
dropped and I was overwhelmed for
a moment. Then I was back to poking
around Intensify with even more joy …
Structure panel: this panel gives you
Global and Micro control over the tone
values of highlights, midtones and shadows.
Details panel: imagine breaking the
control over sharpness into Small, Medium
and Large detail, either globally or just
in Highlights or Shadows! And then fine
tuning that detail in the Micro Sharpness
panel below the Details panel. Vignette: These controls are also pretty
extensive: size, roundness, feathering and
luminosity of a vignette can be adjusted
individually.
Of course, each one of these adjustments
can impact all other adjustments. Slight
changes in colour or noise often, if not always,
require us to rearrange other effects. And
for that, Intensify also offers layers, and
layer masks. Each panel has a slider called
Masking that can globally change the
strength of each effect and its influence on
the image. And there is the Brush tool and
the Eraser tool to paint effects in areas of
your choice. That’s another WOW! from me.
So far the only functionality that I found
missing is the option of saving edits into
a Preset from ALL layers, not only from the
Figure 1
Figure 2
Figure 3
Figure 4
TIP: When you find a Preset that is really close
to what you want, click the Adjust tab, or
the Adjust icon in the top right corner of that
preset’s panel to take you to the adjustable,
detailed controls of that preset.
Continued on page 3
DigitalFelix.net Newsletter Volume 4, Issue 1, January-March 2015
Page 2
Macphun Intensify Pro, an App True to Its Name …
top one. For example, it would come very
handy while working on individual parts of
a panorama, before combining them into
one panoramic image.
Image controls in Macphun Intensify are
so comprehensive that I spent over a month
learning what each slider can do and I’m still
learning. You don’t even need Photoshop or
Lightroom to use it. Intensify can open all
Continued from page 2
bitmap file formats, including RAW, and you
can print directly from it. I ended up going back to many images
I played with earlier and re-edited them. In the coming issues I will share this
knowledge with you – one or two panels at
the time – since I think this app is well worth
it, especially for its amazing price of $59.99 US.
Have Phun with it! https://macphun.onfastspring.com/intensify-pro
TIP: Intensify, true to its name, can make an image look simply too
vibrant and too surrealistic. Keep the
original image. Once you are done
with adjustments in Intensify, you
can always blend the original image
with the adjusted image using Layers,
Layer Masks (with Brush work – if
needed), and Adjustment Layers in
Photoshop. These final hand touches
add a personal and unique signature
to art photography and they give the
viewer a breath taking art experience.
LEFT: Full image after Intensify adjustments
TOP: Detail of the house before adjustments
BOTTOM: Detail of the house after adjustments
Photographed by Ron Giddings in Gaspésie, Quebec
TAKE IT FURTHER, LEARN WITH US! FOR CLASSES WITH RON, CALL US AT (+1) 647 799 8893, EMAIL US , OR VISIT WWW.DIGITALFELIX.NET
DigitalFelix.net Newsletter Volume 4, Issue 1, January-March 2015
Page 3
The Wacom Inkling: Experience The Future of Digital Drawing Devices, Today!
by Bradley Hansraj
WISH LIST
As always, where there are pros, there are cons. For example,
there aren’t many options available in the Sketch Manager. Basic
editing is about all you can do. You must always remember to fully
charge your pen before usage. There’s nothing worse than having
your creative process halted mid-stroke due to lack of battery life.
Continued on page 6
Pencil sharpeners, eraser smudge marks and crumpled paper
balls scattered across the table are rarely a standard look of an
artist’s studio these days. Although traditional artists will always
exist, most illustrators are now using digital tools rather than real
brushes and pencils. The Wacom Inkling Digital Sketch Pen is one
of these new tools.
If you are an illustrator of any sort, you probably have used
one or another model of a drawing tablet with a pen. The Inkling
Sketch Pen package includes a pen with a tracker ballpoint, a
separate receiving sensor unit that stores the data, and a USB wire.
The beauty of it is that you don’t need a tablet - you can draw on
paper - just as long as the sensor is clipped to the drawing pad
within a certain distance and angle of the pen.
Figure 1.
Inside Sketch Manager image
browser where you can organize
and preview sketches. From here
you can save sketches in various
file formats.
Figure 2.
Inside Sketch Manager image
browser: editing capabilities are
pretty limited.
SET UP
Set up is simple. First, you have to install the Inkling’s Sketch
Manager on your computer. Then, place the receiver in a
comfortable position within its 8.5 by 11 inches range and turn the
power on in order to begin drawing. You’ll have to experiment
with the position of the receiver. I achieved the best results when
I placed it on the left side, but Wacom says to place it on either the
top or the left side.
DRAWING
Drawing with Inkling pen needs a bit of getting used to.
I’ve found that drawing as smoothly as possible with long, defined
strokes increases artwork quality. Once your drawing is complete,
simply plug the device into your computer to view your work in
the Sketch Manager [Figure 1 and 2]. And here comes the real
value of Inkling pen, and its superiority for artists over an ordinary
scanner or camera: the artwork can be saved in various bitmap
and vector file formats [Figure 3].
DigitalFelix.net Newsletter Volume 4, Issue 1, January-March 2015
Figure 3.
Use the SVG (Scalable Vector
Graphics) file format to open the
sketch as traced vector paths in
Adobe Illustrator.
Page 4
How to Create a Digital Linocut in Adobe Photoshop: PART 1, Using Spot Colours
by Zenon Burdy
Zenon Burdy is an internationally acclaimed,Toronto based
artist. His work is exhibited around the world including this
year’s FIG Bilbao in Spain and 2nd Global Print 2015 in Portugal.
This is the first part of his two part series about creating
digital linocut. In part one, he shows you how to create a digital linocut
graphic for colour output true to the original way of printing
linocut graphics: spot colour.
In the next issue, Zenon will show you how to achieve the
same linocut graphic effect for output on any desktop printer
and on any printing press that uses process colour.
Figure 1
Six steps for creating a
digital linocut using spot color
channels in Adobe Photoshop
It took 100 hours to create this linocut using traditional techniques, most of the time spent cutting the design into a piece of linoleum. It took
only four hours to re-create it using desktop
software.
Figure 2
1. Create a separate black and white line drawing for each stencil. You should make one drawing for each color that you want to use in the final image. Use any draw or paint program, or
scan the hand drawings (or you can also draw
directly in Photoshop channels).
2. Open a new Photoshop document and in the
Image pulldown menu choose Multichannel
from the Mode submenu. Regular color channels will change into spot color channels (Figure 1).
Figure 3
3. Paste your line drawings (or draw directly) in
individual channels. You can add a new channel
by choosing the New Spot Channel command
from the Channels palette flyout menu. You
should end up with as many channels as colors
you want to use (Figure 2).
4. Double click on a channel icon to get the
Spot Channel Options dialog window and assign
a specific color to the channel. Repeat this for
every spot channel you make (Figure 3).
Figure 4
5. You can preview the color effect simply by
making more than one channel visible at a time
(Figure 4).
6. If you want to output the file to a desktop
printer, this is when you will stop and print. But
if your destination is a printing press, you must
save the document as a DCS2 file to color-separate it correctly.
The original linocut titled “Two Red Lines” by Toronto artist
Zenon Burdy was displayed at the 2000 Sapporo
International Print Biennale.
DigitalFelix.net Newsletter Volume 4, Issue 1, January-March 2015
Page 5
The Wacom Inkling: Experience the Future …
Also, you must remember that it’s extremely difficult to pick up
where you left off after saving a piece. This is because your work
is not visible on a screen as you draw. And unlike its tablet and pen
combo predecessors, an eraser tool is not included, meaning you’ll
have to get your sketch right the first time; either that or modify it
later once uploaded onto your computer.
Continued from page 4
and bounds forward while simultaneously bringing us along for
a ‘sketch’ of a ride.
To summarize, I find that the Inkling Sketch Pen is perfect for
drawing rough sketches to be modified and coloured later in a paint
or draw program of your choice. The pen is fairly simple to use, once
you become accustomed to it. It will certainly take some practice,
but if you like to draw, the Inkling is the tool for you. So don’t let its
small size fool you. While only in its initial stage of evolution, the
Wacom Inkling is an excellent preview of amazing drawing tools
to come. It’s proof that technology is continuing to make leaps
Industry Tidbits
Ask Felix a Question: Layer Comps
MACPHUN SNAP SELECT
This one is a photo organizer that works seemlessly with Apple
iPhoto, Apple Aperture and Adobe Lightroom.
4.
http://mac360.com/2015/01/snapselect-find-photos-kill-dupes
http://www.macnn.com/articles/14/12/19/clear.out.duplicates.and.
manage.your.huge.photo.library.better
FIX IT WITH IFIXIT.COM
5.
This is kind of a Wiki of all manuals. iFixit is a global community of
people helping each other repair things. “Let’s fix the world, one
device at a time”.
https://www.ifixit.com
13 TIPS TO OPTIMIZE OS 10.10 YOSEMITE
If you don’t zap PRAM, reset the System Management Controller,
and change some default settings – your system may slow down
and keep crashing.
http://www.hightechdad.
com/2014/10/23/13-tips-optimize-mac-yosemite-installation
8 OF THE BEST TRICKS FOR APPLE MAIL APP IN MAC OS X
Many users don’t know how to organize their email, and how to
receive email in one program from all email addresess.
http://osxdaily.com/2013/06/03/mail-app-tips-mac-os-x
ADOBE PHOTOSHOP ACTIONS AND PLUGINS
Below are just a few links to endless Photoshop actions and plugins:
HDR PLUGINS:
NOISE CONTROL PLUGINS
http://hdrguide.com/hdr-plugins
http://designbeep.
com/2012/02/07/5-best-photoshop-plugins-for-noise-reduction
230 PHOTOSHOP PLUGINS:
http://www.autofx.com
50 FREE ACTIONS:
http://www.creativebloq.com/photoshop/
43 FREE PLUGINS:
http://www.creativebloq.com/photoshop/
photoshop-actions-912784
DigitalFelix.net Newsletter Volume 4, Issue 1, January-March 2015
6.
7.
8.
resulting New Layer Comp
options dialog window
[Fig. 2, page 6]
Click the Update Layer
Comp icon [Figure 1,
round arrows].
Hide/show, reposition, layers
and/or apply or edit layer
effects to create the next
version of your illustration
or design.
Make a New Layer Comp.
Click the Update Layer
Comp icon.
Repeat for each version.
Continued from page 1
Figure 2. New Layer Comp Options:
visibility, position, appearance and
layer style of layers can be remembered
by the program. There is also a very
handy text field for notes.
HOW TO VIEW A LAYER COMP
Figure 3. Layer Comp icon. Clicking on
1. In the Layer Comp panel,
this icon loads the corresponding Layer
click on the Layer Comp
Comp.
icon (square icon on the
left side of the name) [Figure 3].
NOTE: Clicking on the name of a layer comp will not load that layer
comp. You must click on the Layer Comp icon itself to view it.
FOR CLASSES CALL US AT (+1) 647 799 8893, EMAIL US , OR VISIT WWW.DIGITALFELIX.NET
DigitalFelix.net Newsletter is published by
DigitalFelix Network Inc.
P.O. Box 552, Beaverton, Ontario, L0K1A0, Canada
Publisher: Lidka Schuch
Contributors: Zenon Burdy, Bradley Hansraj, Ron Giddings,
Lidka Schuch
Editor: Heather Hodgman
Page 6