Amy Courtright-Elmer

Graphics Fundamentals: Understanding Photoshop File Formats

Adobe Photoshop gives you more than 20 different file formats from which to choose. Using the right one can spell the difference between a file that prints perfectly and one that looks like it's been processed with a blender. In this story find out which formats do what and learn when to use them.

Photoshop How-To: A Warped Sense of Sight

If you want to add, not subtract, curve to your images, get to know Photoshop's Spherize filter. Here's an introduction.

Photoshop How-To: Eliminate Barrel Distortion Caused by Camera Lenses

Barrel distorion -- the slight convex curve that appears on straight lines in images -- is the necessary artifact of a camera's zoom lens. But you can use Photoshop to minimize barrel distortion in your images. Here's how. Or, conversely, you can add a spherical flare to your images. Here's how.

QuarkXPress How-To: Transform Text into Art

The powerful text and type controls in QuarkXPress have always been impressive. Now combine those with XPress's expanded graphics capabilities, and you can make sophisticated word art right in your page layout. Here's how.

Photoshop How-To: Quick-and-Easy Collages

There are many ways to make composite images in Photoshop, but using layers is your best bet. Here's how to craft a digital collage with layers, layer masks, and other collage-specific effects.

Digital Pop Art: Unleash Your Inner Warhol

When you think of pop art, what comes to mind? Probably the repetitive prints of soup cans and Marilyn Monroe created by Andy Warhol or maybe the bold comic-like paintings created by Roy Lichtenstein. In this article we're going to show you how to create artwork similar to that of Roy Lichtenstein.

Inside Photoshop: Kaleidoscopic Effects

When creating background settings, digital imagery, Web pages or even screen savers, a simple solution for a unique graphic is to turn a regular photo into a kaleidoscopic vision.

Inside Photoshop: The Color Lab

Color has always been a strong factor in image editing and graphic design. When working in Photoshop, there are many color modes to choose from. The more common modes that are implemented are RGB and CMYK. Undoubtedly, you've noticed that these color modes are a bit, shall we say, sketchy.

Inside Photoshop: The Spectrum of Gradients

In this article, we'll show you how to make your own gradients and we'll go over a series of techniques used to create interesting effects, by incorporating gradients. You'll discover a whole spectrum of opportunities for your designs by using gradients to their full potential.

Inside Photoshop: Enhance Your Images with Photographic Edges

An easy way to add impact to an image is by creating photographic edges. This technique originally stems from photography, but in Photoshop you can create similar effects like those shown in our cover image. In this article, we'll demonstrate how to create interesting edges by using a Quick Mask and a series of different filters.

Create Out-of-this-world Effects with Layer Styles

Have you ever wondered how makeup artists and special effect creators actually turn actors and actresses into space aliens or bumpy, frumpy monster-like beings? The truth is it's a time-consuming process that involves a lot of skill and expertise. However, we can produce similar effects on a much smaller scale, comparatively speaking, using layer styles in Photoshop.