Yesterday I posted a free Photoshop PSD template you can use to give your cover photo on Google+ a little bit of awesome sauce. It was kinda fun, and people seemed to like it … so I thought I’d make even more awesome sauce to share!

I created a template that makes your photos look like instant prints! Here’s a link to download the PSD file. I created it using Photoshop CS5, but in theory it should work with any version of Photoshop CS2 and above (I don’t have them all so I can’t check).

Here are instructions on using the template:

1. First, download your template and unzip/extract the file. (Here’s the link to download the file.)
2. Open the template file in Photoshop.
3. Have a folder of images you want to add to your cover photo.
   NOTE: If you want them to size perfectly to the images in the template, prepare your images so they fit within 600px x 600 px, If they are larger or smaller, that’s okay … you’ll just have to resize the smart object to make it fit. (Click “Edit > Free Transform” to resize the image immediately after replacing it.)
4. In the Layers panel, click on the drop-down arrow of the Group to show its contents.
5. On the Smart Object layer that says “REPLACE ME!!!”, right-click on the description text (not the thumbnail), and select “Replace Contents…”
6. Navigate to the photo you want to replace, select it and click “Place”.
7. Your photo should now be in the border (if it is sized funny, see step 2).
8. To save your file, click “File > Save As…”,  select where you want to save it, and make sure you pick JPEG from the “Format” drop-down.

The last step is to replace your new perfectly-sized cover photo on your profile over on Google+! :)

If you’re on Google+ you may know that they recently changed the type of cover photo you can use. I thought it would be fun to do something simple, yet a little different than just a standard photo, and the image in the screen-shot above is what I have on my page right now (and very likely to change around in the future). :)

I also thought it would be fun to share my template with other users, so if you want something similar to the layout I have on my Google+ page (with your own photos, of course), then here’s a link to download the PSD file! I created it using Photoshop CS5, but in theory it should work with any version of Photoshop CS2 and above (I don’t have them all so I can’t check).

Here are instructions on using the template:

1. First, download your template and unzip/extract the file. (Here’s the link to download the file.)
2. Open the template file in Photoshop.
3. Have a folder of images you want to add to your cover photo.
   NOTE: If you want them to size perfectly to the images in the template, prepare your images so they are sized to 600px x 400 px (horizontal) and 400px x 600px (vertical). If they are larger or smaller, that’s okay … you’ll just have to resize the smart object to make it fit. (Click “Edit > Free Transform” to resize the image.)
4. Right-click on the Smart-Object (image) you want to replace in the Layers panel (the description text, not the thumbnail), and select “Replace Contents…”
5. Navigate to the photo you want to replace, select it and click “Place”.
6. Your photo should now be in the border (if it is sized funny, see step 2).
7. To save your file, click “File > Save As…”,  select where you want to save it, and make sure you pick JPEG from the “Format” drop-down.

The last step is to replace your new perfectly-sized cover photo on your profile over on Google+! :)

It’s official! Photoshop CS6 Public Beta has been announced and can now be downloaded! (Here’s a link to download the beta software.) Below are some of the features I’ve noticed as standing out and thought I’d share with my readers:

New Look and Feel: The interface for CS6 got a much needed update. No longer do you need to be stuck with just one light-gray theme—the interface can be darkened with four different settings ranging from the same light-gray you had in CS5, all the way to a deep, dark, near-black-gray.

Panel Updates: A few notable updates to the panels are in the Layers panel and the brand-new Properties panel:

• In the Layers panel you are now able to sort your layers by kind, name, effect, blending mode, attribute or layer color. This is a very useful addition to the software and will be extremely helpful for photographers who do composite work and also for designers who have several layers in one document.
• The new Properties panel shows information about your layer, specifically for adjustment layers and masks (it has replaced the mask panel, and the adjustment panel no longer changes when you add a new adjustment).

Video Editing: Adobe made a really great move with this one—you no longer need to have Photoshop Extended to view, edit and export videos! There are some enhancements to the timeline, but overall they just made the entire video-editing process much more approachable.

Lighting Effects: As an NAPP Help Desk Specialist, one question I get all the time is “what happened to the Lighting Effects filter?” The answer was always that it’s there, you just have to switch Photoshop over to 32-bit to use it. Now, in CS6, they’ve updated it to work in 64-bit and also gave it some updates.

Content-Aware Move: This is one of my favorite new features in this suite. It’s like the “patch tool meets content aware” (but better … since they also added the content-aware patch tool, lol). :) I’ve had a lot of fun playing around with this and have even found it useful in my images.

Adaptive Wide-Angle: The new wide-angle corrections go beyond the existing lens-correction filter. With this new filter you are able to correct the “bulbousness” you can get with a wide-angle lens by telling the program what areas you want to have straight lines … and then it does the rest of the work for you.

Blur Gallery: This filter allows you to add specific locations of focus, while pushing the rest of the image out of focus to simulate shallow DOF. It’s a good start, but onOne Software’s Focal Point still does an amazing job and I’ll be sticking with them when I want to add a tilt-shift look (or any software-created shallow DOF look) to my images. In other words, don’t upgrade for only this feature (buy onOne Software’s FocalPoint instead!) :)

I have several “Two Minute Tip” videos on many of the features I listed above on the way, so stay tuned and watch the blog!

Last night I photographed a beautiful electric storm from my balcony. I got some really great bursts of lightning, and while analyzing them I realized that three of them would work perfectly as a composite. I haven’t had a huge opportunity to photograph lightning since I was a kid living at home, and actually got one of my best lightning photographs in my backyard with my Nikon F4 film camera. (Here’s the link to that image in my archives if you want to check it out: http://nicolesyblog.com/2005/07/11/favorite/)

The composite was relatively simple to put together, the only tricky part was blending the main “bolt” and its surrounding clouds in with the rest of the sky (the layer called “lightning strike”) because it was a different color of light. I ended up just adjusting that layer so that it had some massive contrast (with a levels adjustment), and then changed its blending mode to “screen” so that only the lighter parts showed through. Then, I added a solid color fill layer that was the same color of the sky, change the blending mode to “color”, and masked it in around the bolt.

You can click on the image to see a larger preview, and feel free to ask questions in the comments if you’re curious about any other methods I used to photograph or put this image together in Photoshop.

I oftentimes will see photographers say (with their nose slightly upturned?) “I NEVER use actions with my photographs!”. This always kinda makes me chuckle. I think I understand some of what they’re saying, I really do. Yet I don’t think there’s anything wrong with using actions, or with not using actions … and maybe it would be helpful to have an honest conversation with one of these photographers to pick their brain on the topic.

You see, my guess is that when they say they never use actions they mean they never us other people’s actions. You know, the ones you can buy and install into Photoshop, press a button and “voilà!” their photo is magically transformed into Photoshop “awesomeness”. But … could they also mean that they don’t use actions at all? Do they never open up the actions panel out of some inner principle that they shouldn’t automate anything in Photoshop?

You see, while I don’t use pre-created (by other people) actions in my work in Photoshop, I do create my own actions all the time (many of them are in screen-shot above of my actions panel). There are a lot of things that, even if I had to do them to a hundred photos, they would be done exactly the same. Since most of what I create are stock photographs then a lot of the edits I do are similar … some things like levels adjustments will always be different, but if I want to whiten teeth, add a dodge burn layer or even sharpen my image then they are all going to be the same steps repeated over and over. So, the way I see it, it would be time-consuming for me to not use any actions with my photographs.

The more you can automate repetitive and mundane tasks in Photoshop, the more time you have to push your brain cells towards being creative. This doesn’t just apply to actions … I use keyboard shortcuts, sync RAW edits in Lightroom and use some of the Photoshop scripts, like merging photos into a panorama. In my opinion it’s best to work smarter, not harder. :)

(For tutorials on creating your own actions in Photoshop, check out my video tutorials section here on my blog.)

In this tutorial I demonstrate how to create basic actions using Adobe Photoshop.

Actions, Part 1: Creating Basic Actions
Actions, Part 2: Merge-Visible Command with Actions
Actions, Part 3: Helpful Keyboard Shortcuts with Actions
Actions, Part 4: Selecting Tools with Actions

Click here to view this video on YouTube.

In this tutorial I demonstrate two ways to add film grain: one by using Photoshop, and another by using the new “Effects” panel in Adobe Camera RAW.

Click here to view this video on YouTube.

The Orange County Convention Center in Orlando, Florida (photo taken w/ iPhone 4)

For the past two days I’ve been hanging out at Photoshop World in (sunny?) Orlando, Florida! As usual, these events are so much fun. PSW has classes on Photoshop, photography, design, digital painting … and then there’s the expo with even more classes and booths. If you’re into digital art then this is something you should really check out.

Here are a few more photos from the first full day (Wednesday) and a few from this morning (and be sure to head over to Scott Kelby’s blog with more info and photos!):

Scott Kelby at the opening ceremony.

Rob Sylvan giving a presentation at the Peachpit booth on the expo floor.

Photographers at the Westcott Booth.

RC chased down this woman to sign her book at the Peachpit booth. :)

Balloon drop at the opening ceremony.

Larry and RC filming an episode of D-Town at the Tweetup on Tuesday night.

Felix rockin’ the bass at the after-hours party.