25 QUICK FIXES FOR PRO DESIGNERS
- ORGANISE YOUR
PROJECTS
As a busy art director and designer, Alexander Otto
(www.alexanderotto.com) knows the importance of
being organised to create an efficient workflow for his
professional work. “With every new update of
Photoshop, our lives as designers are made much
easier than ever before. For example, with the help of
Content Aware, common tasks are happening almost
automatically. If you look at the internet, there are
thousands of free ready-to-go templates, mockups
and plug-ins that make you produce work even
faster,” he explains. “But for me, personally, I have
noticed the biggest improvement after I organised
and approached projects just a little bit differently to
usual. It’s all about how you manage your time
day-to-day and optimise your workflows. Break
down your tasks for the day and what you want to
accomplish. Then start with working on the biggest
problems first.
“For example, compare the sketch/concept version
versus the final artwork that I did for Fotolia. In just a
few hours I had put together a quick and rough version
to see what works best. I played with the general mood
and tone, tried many different compositions and
thought about basic stuff like perspective and lightning.
It’s important to distill down your ideas and then bring
in elements that help you tell your story. I kept it all
rough and dirty in the beginning, so I could easily jump
around with ideas and things I wanted to explore.” - CLEAN BACKGROUNDS WITH SURFACE BLUR
'2!0()#ď$%3)'.%2ď(!229ď,%%ď˴777(!229$,%%#/-˵ď%80,!).3ď(/7ď
4()3ď(!.$9ď&),4%2ď#!.ď(%,0ď15)#+,9ď2%4/5#(ď02/$5#4ď3(/43ď&/2ď
53%ď).ď#/--%2#)!,ď02/*%#43ď
Use the tool:background by any means you “Select your
like – the Quick Selection tool would be my first choice – then
choose Filter>Blur>Surface "LURď4HEď2ADIUSďWILL ďOFďCOURSE ď
depend on the size of your IMAGE ďBUTďYOUďCANďAFFORDďTOďBEď
generous with it”Why Surface Blur:“Photoshop’s Surface Blur
filter does a great job of removing unwanted marks
ANDďSOFTENINGďTHEďLIGHTING ďbut retaining gradients
ANDďSHADOWďDETAILS ďWHICHďprevent the image from
looking flat”Other retouches:Content Aware Fill in the corner “I used a
and boosted the Levels before applying the Surface Blur for a
silky smooth background”The goal:up backgrounds on product “I’ve found cleaning
SHOTSďTOďBEďAďCOMMON ďLABORIOUSďTASKď)ďDON
TďOFTENď
have access to studio-quality LIGHTING ďBUTďSTILLďWANTďANď
EVEN ďSMOOTHďBACKGROUNDPhotography:was shot for a commissioned “This ice cream
EVENTďPOSTERď)TďWASďphotographed on coloured
paper using just a mounted flashgun and ambient lighting”- LOCK THE TRANSPARENCY
- COPY CAMERA RAW SETTINGS IN BRIDGE
If your work involves digital painting, then you will
know how important it is to be precise – one wrong
stroke can hamper your workflow and take up
valuable time getting right. Graphic illusionist and
digital artist Valp, aka Maciej Hajnrich (www.valpnow.
com), has this simple solution to the problem, and it’s
hidden in your Layers palette: “Hit the slash key (/) or
click Lock Transparent Pixels’ in the Layers palette to
speed up your digital painting process. This simple
trick allows you to paint only on the pixels that are on
your currently selected layer. First you set up a shape
for your layer – this can just be a doodle – and then, by
locking transparency, you can add details and be sure
not to paint outside of [the] selected layer.”If you work a lot with RAW files, then you most
likely spend a lot of time processing your images in
Adobe Camera Raw before you even enter
Photoshop. When you open an image from Bridge
CC in Adobe Camera Raw, you can make as many
tweaks as you like and these are saved back to the
file in Bridge. Images that have been processed in
ACR have a symbol next to them in Bridge. WhenAfter Beforeyou have your next batch of images, you might
want to make the exact same edits in ACR as you
did with a previous image. Luckily, you can copy
and apply the ACR settings to save time. Ctrl/
right-click on the original image and choose
Develop Settings>Copy Settings. Select your new
image (or even multiple new images) and do the
same, but choose Paste Settings instead.© Harry Lee 2015
© Valp