NAPP Interview Series

How I Got Started Teaching Photoshop

I recently did an interview with the wonderfully creative Elizabeth (aka Firgs or Firggy) of Design by Firgs. She's a successful graphic designer in the Chicago area and a very active NAPP member (Nat'l Assoc of Photoshop Professionals). She had the brainchild to create an interview series with NAPP instructors, of which I was very honored and pleased to take part.

Click here (or the subhead above) to visit Firggy's site and read the full interview. It's loaded with all kinds of interesting tidbits! Plus you'll get 10 free, high-resolution iStockphoto images!

Photo credit: Joe Selkey of Peek Photography

Blur Baby Blur!

Creating a safe background blur in Photoshop Elements

Few techniques can draw a viewer’s eye to a focal point—or save a busy photo—like selective blurring. However, what we're really talking about here is creating a shallow depth of field, which is the result of shooting in macro or portrait mode, or from using one of your camera's manual modes to specify a small f-stop (f1.8, f2, f2.8 and so on). This opens your camera’s lens (or aperture) wide, thereby... more

Spotlight on Collages

How to make cool collages in Photoshop CS2, CS3, and CS4

One of the most rewarding projects you can tackle in Photoshop is combining images. Whether you're swapping skies, creating a collage, or building a panorama, it's a useful procedure that's also a lot of fun.

In this tutorial you'll learn how to fade one image into another using a gradient mask, and then you'll discover a new twist on the classic oval vignette collage... read the full article on CreativePro.com