Website Make & Take

What is a Website Make & Take?

noreply@blogger.com (Nicole Ryan) — Thu, 16 Jun 2011 03:35:00 +0000

While the name was inspired by an old fashioned "Make It & Take It" craft gathering, the concept of a "Website Make & Take" is the same.

The basics ingredients include: Some sort of gathering (i.e. a class), a common interest (that of creating your own website), and finally some hard workers (you!). So if we have those things and a decent Internet connection we can accomplish great things.

Best of all the Website Make & Take is a low cost concept. For the cost of a domain name we can setup and take advantage of a myriad of free services to create a highly functional, easy to maintain website.

Services like Blogger, Flickr, Diigo and more make it easy and affordable to setup and maintain your own site and look like a pro doing it.

I will have more to come as I intend to migrate the resources I am currently using to help others setup and maintain their own websites to this blog.

Check back again and I will see you soon! ~Nicole

10 Minute PhotoShop: Getting More Creative

noreply@blogger.com (Nicole Ryan) — Thu, 21 Oct 2010 05:16:00 +0000

The Make & Take header demonstrates how you can use PhotoShop's features to get more creative and forge custom designs from simpler elements.

Observer the layers panel for the header file (below).

The layers on the top of the panel are the foreground, while the each item below it is farther in the background, placed behind the other elements.

This combined with some filters and effects helps us achieve our end result.

Our Make & Take text is positioned on top of the paintbrush graphic allowing it to stand out and be readable.

Our paintbrush graphic has been "Smudged", "Dissolved", "Duplicated" and given a semi-transparent opacity level.

Behind that we have rectangular shape which has been filled with color and has a number of effects that can be seen in the indented list below it.

The combination of the layers, filters and effects are what create the finished product, our header!

10 Minute PhotoShop: Adjusting, Resizing and Retouching

noreply@blogger.com (Nicole Ryan) — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 05:09:00 +0000

Another very commonly used menu in PhotoShop is the Image menu.

In this menu you can find things that will help you resize an image or document, change your canvas size or make quick adjustments such as Crop and Reveal All.

You will also find adjustments for light and shadow levels, colors and brightness and contrast here.

PhotoShop offers a wide range of touch up features which take some time to learn and practice, many of which you will find right here in the Image menu.

10 Minute PhotoShop: Layers

noreply@blogger.com (Nicole Ryan) — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 05:04:00 +0000

The Layers Palette is located at the bottom of all of the docked palettes on the right hand side of the PhotoShop workspace.

Layers allow you to organize content in your PhotoShop files from front to back. What this means is that you can get really creative by layering objects and experimenting with filters and effects.

You can also use layers to create simple objects such as buttons, text boxes and custom headers.

Notice the layers listed here for our sample file, the header for our website and blog (MakeandTake.me).

10 Minute PhotoShop: Selections

noreply@blogger.com (Nicole Ryan) — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 04:47:00 +0000

In PhotoShop there are many ways to manipulate shapes and photographs. Usually manipulation starts by simply selecting the object, layer or area of an object that you wish to change.

To the left are the selection tools used by PhotoShop. The arrow at the top of the Tools Palette is called the Move tool and it allows you to move, or select an item the you wish to rotate or resize. The marquee tool and the lasso, the second and third items down on the Tools Palette allow for the selection of photographs or raster graphics.

The next item, the Quick Selection tool\Magic Wand allows raster graphics (photographs and bitmap images) to be selected by using a range of pixels that are similar to the area clicked on by the user.

Beneath that are the Crop and Slice tools. The crop tool is used to edit out portions of images by hiding them, and the slice tool is use to section designs that will be exported for use on the World Wide Web.

10 Minute PhotoShop: The PhotoShop Workspace

noreply@blogger.com (Nicole Ryan) — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 04:09:00 +0000

The PhotoShop Workspace is complex, but powerful. It has been carefully organize and enhanced over the years to offer the broadest variety of features of common photo editing/design programs.

To overview the PhotoShop workspace, it is divided into four main areas which are labeled in the corresponding snapshot.

(A) The Options Bar displays different options and fine tuning for the tool that is currently selected.

(B) The Tools Palette is the PhotoShop tool box. It has a tool for every purpose, each in its place. Different tools are selected by clicking on icons on the Tools Palette. Observe the Options Bar as you select different tools in the Tools Palette. Notice that hovering over an icon displays the name of the tool in question.

Also notice that the small triangular shape in the bottom, right corner of a particular tool represents hiddent options. Click and hold on a triangle and an additional small window will be displayed with other versions of the selected tool.

(C) The Document Window contains the files that you are currently working on.

(D) The Palettes on the right side of the page contain groups of things that are commonly used to manipulate drawing objects and photographs. Palettes are designed to be reorganized in the workspace to the user's liking.

10 Minute PhotoShop: Getting Started

noreply@blogger.com (Nicole Ryan) — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 03:58:00 +0000

To get started with PhotoShop:

Open PhotoShop by going to Start -> All Programs -> Adobe [Web Premium] CS3 -> Adobe PhotoShop CS3.
After the program has loaded, open a New File by clicking on the File -> New, or by pressing CTRL + N.
A 'New' document dialog window like the one below will be displayed.
Enter your desired dimensions and click Ok to open your new PhotoShop document.