Category Archives: Adobe

My favorite Adobe Mobile apps on my Wrist

watch

My favorite Adobe Mobile apps on my Wrist

I am a big fan of Behance, Adobe Color CC, and Adobe Creative Cloud. You can imagine how happy I was to see those apps on my Apple Watch. You are probably asking why I am so happy to see those apps on my Apple Watch. Here’s why:

Behance App:

behance
I am a HUGE fan of Behance. I love to share my work with the Behance community along with finding inspiration from other’s portfolios.
I always  have Behance  open on my iMac or MacBook Pro and if I am anywhere else away from my computer I am checking my Behance app all the time on my iPhone. But for many situations where I was not able to use my phone I also was not able to check my Behance. Now  with Behance on my Watch I can stay in touch with the Behance community (at a glance) all the time from anywhere without the need to take my iPhone out (even if I am walking my dog)

 

walking dog

What’s in the Behance Apple Watch app?:

  • Notifications
  • Inbox
  • My Work ( your portfolio or work in progress)
  • Nearby ( you can connect with all creative people around you)

color

I am absolutely in love with with this app. I’m using Adobe Color CC all the time. I am using Adobe Color CC when I travel (the colors I capture on the go are available in my CC Libraries when I get back to my desk). I can create  any shape using  Adobe Shape, for example, and I can continue  working on my shape later on using the colors that I captured using Adobe Color CC.
Since the Apple Watch doesn’t have a camera, it does the next best thing. Adobe Color CC on Apple Watch shows the TOP 10 color themes based on your location. You can choose to add 1, 2, or all 10 to your Library. Once you add one color theme it will create a Watch Themes Library and sync it to your Creative Cloud account.
cc

I am using my Creative Cloud app all the time.  I am using CC folders all the time with my workflows (mobile and desktop) and for me it is very important to be able to access to my CC account any time from anywhere.

With the CC app on my Apple Watch I can access to my:

  • Activity
  • Invites ( now you can stay in touch ALL THE TIME)
  • Comments ( you will never miss any comment)
  • Profile

SO with all those apps my busy life is a little less complicated…and I LOVE it.

Create Black and White image in 3 steps

Photoshop Tutorial

Today I will show you how to create black & white image in 3 steps using Adjustments Layers in Adobe Photoshop CC

Open your image you want to work with
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1: Adjustments > Black and White
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Using the black slider of each to the right/left you will  modify influence of the colors  in the resulting of black & white image.

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2: Highlight t your image layer ( Layer 1 )  > Adjustments > Selective Color
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Change number of the black slider of each color ( move the slider to the left or right)

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3: Adjustments > Color Lookup >2Strip.look from the 3DLUT File ( selected by default )

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5 reasons to use Adobe Stock

Painted with Adobe Photoshop CC and Wacom

I was looking for stock images for a many years and I was not impressed with what I could see on a market  until I was introduced to Adobe Stock.

I am professional photographer, digital artist, and educator. I am working and teaching  Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Muse, Adobe Dreamweaver, Adobe Premiere Pro, Adobe Lightroom, and all Adobe mobile applications and I found that Adobe Stock is the BEST source for my design, photography, painting, education workflow. Why?

Reason 1:
I’ve heard many people say: ” I am a professional photographer, designer and I am not using any stock images”. Hmmmm so if you need any professional  image, background, graphic image to build your clients “travel with us” website you will go around the world to take pictures of the places were your client offers services? And keep in mind that as usual our clients don’t know what image(s) they will use and they are depending on us to show them at least a few examples that they can choose from. So if you multiply all the costs of traveling around the world, and the time just to take pictures, your price for client’s website will rise up significantly and I am not talking about the extra time that you need to build the website. My question is: will your client wait at least 7 extra months and pay 99% more than he/ she should pay just to let you use your own images? The answer is NO and NEVER.
So reason #1: use Adobe Stock images to make your workflow more productive along with building great communication between you and your client.

Reason 2:
When you working on your client project and you’re not sure which image you or your client  will use with your design, simply download a “preview” version of the image(s) your want to use, finish your design, project, show it to your client and if your client approves your design simply click on Adobe Stock image > License image and you will visually see  that your Preview image will be replaced with high resolution, ready to use royalty free image. You don’t need to do any EXTRA steps that will increase your workflow time and your client will receive the final copy of the approved project in no time!
So reason 2: Fast and stress free workflow

Reason 3:
Quality
Adobe Stock is a worldwide library (40 million +) of the best photographers, digital artists, designers.  All images are with HIGH quality ready to use right away.

Reason 4:
The price
You have many optiosn to subscribe to Adobe Stock
1: As a Creative Cloud member you are saving 40% of the monthly plan!!!!!!
10 images a month
US $29.99 / mo
Annual plan, paid monthly

  • Add to a Creative Cloud subscription
  • Additional images at US$2.99
  • Rollover up to 120 images

2: 10 Images a month
US $49.99/mo
Monthly plan

  • Additional images at US$4.99
  • Rollover up to 120 images

3: 750 images a month

US $199.99/mo
Annual plan, paid monthly
  • Additional images at US$0.99

4: Single images are just US $9.99 without a subscription

Reason 5:
If you are a photographer, digital artist, 3D artist, graphic designer you can make money selling your work. You can sell your images, even the ones taken with your smart phone!! You can make money from your work just from your home using your computer!


 

 

 

 

ParticleShop Plugin for Adobe Photoshop

Geisha

ParticleShop is a brush plugin for Adobe Photoshop.

I was introduced to ParticleShop the brush plugin for Adobe Photoshop at Photoshop World 2015. I liked the demo and I decided to buy and try this plugin ( You can download the trial version to try first).

First of  all I want to point  out that if you are looking for a great painting plugin this in NOT your plugin. I can’t imagine using this plugin for my type of painting. My primary and one and only application for my all digital painting work is Adobe Photoshop CC and most of the time I am using the Mixer Brush Tool. Also I am using Adobe Sketch ( Adobe mobile drawing application) as well. So if you will ask me what is the best application for a digital painting I will answer: The ONE and ONLY Adobe Photoshop CC.

I am not using any third party plugins.   As an  Adobe Creative Cloud subscriber the main and primary reason for  me to use ParticleShop plugin is that this plugin is works with the newest version of Adobe Photoshop CC 2015 and the one one license you purchase will be installed for Adobe Photoshop CC  and Adobe Lightroom as well.

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The ParticleShop plugin is a great plugin for any type of artistic retouching. It’s amazing with hair and high fashion retouching, and if you like to apply any effects to your image you’ll probably like it. Because ParticleShop is the brush plugin for Adobe Photoshop you have access to all powerful Adobe Photoshop futures, including layers and if combine the plugin with other Photoshop features you will create a very powerful image. With the ParticleShop plugin you have control over your image, you can control the brush strokes:  light, color, and angle. You can apply multiple brush(es) effects in one image. Combine, change the  color,  and opacity of the brush. You can apply brush strokes effects and return to Photoshop and apply the layer mask, duplicate the layer and continue your workflow using Adobe Photoshop. If after that you want to  return to ParticleShop you can do it at any time.

I like the plugin and will use it for sure with my design and art workflow.
I have only two complaints about the Starter Pack Options:

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1: I wish I had at least two different types of each default brushes.
You can buy additional brush packs for $29.99 each but I am not sure I will spend $29.99 for each brush pack (each plugin has 11 brushes and  so it would be 11 packs) just after I spent $49.99 for the plugin. If I would have at least two different combinations  of each brush as a Starter Pack Options I would feel much better.
2: I had trouble making some of my brushes big enough for my image ( 6016 x 4016 ) even after I made  the Brush size by Maximum = 750 ( Starter Pack Options)
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Geisha

Before

Geisha

After

 

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How to share your Creative Cloud Folder

How to  share your Creative Cloud Folder

For me it is most important to have control over sharing my assets. I am a digital artist and my primary applications are Adobe Creative Cloud Apps. No surprise that I prefer to store and share my current files I am working with using Creative Cloud. I am very happy with all options to have control over my shared assets and permissions.

1: Click > View on Web

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2: Click on a folder you want to share

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3: Share >  Send Link

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1

3: Creative Cloud created your public link you can share with anyone you want to.

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4: Type the email address of the person you want to share your link with

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5: Click on Advanced Options

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All options are enabled by default but you can choose to disable   the options.

Allow Downloads > allows to download file
Allow Comments > allows to add comments
Allow to use of Extract  > allows to extract image info and assets (available only when sharing a Photoshop (.psd) file )

P.S. To make you folder private again simply click on Remove Public Link

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