View Site News

Channel Inversion actions

Posted 29 days ago by Graffi | | | Post a Comment | Technorati

There’sjust so much crazy stuff you can do with channels that there really should be an entirely new set of actions devoted solely to them.  (Hmm,  note to self……. !)

*For the folks who have written me and asked about channels, I promise I haven’t forgotten you!  My “real” job has been very busy lately, and with so many other things going right now (end of the school year, several trips, baseball season starting…) I honestly haven’t had time to respond - please accept my apologies for my delinquency and accept these freebies as a peace token!

add-o-friendlyThis set of three actions will invert, individually, the three channels in an regular RGB image (i.e., a photo from your digital camera).  They duplicate the image, flatten it, and create a duplicate layer to work on, allowing you quite a bit of flexibility in going further with blending modes, masks, isolations, blah blah blah.  As with most everything in Photoshop & Elements, the only real limits are your imagination and willingness to play!

Install them easily by just dragging them into the box on your Add-O-Matic v7 (or install them the old-fashioned, long way that takes forever and is so easy to mess up in so many different ways if you don’t have an AOM yet…!)

The original image for this sample is just above; there are samples for each of the actions below.  As you can see, they vary from a cool cross-processed look to an almost alien look to a wonderful 1970s-era snapshot that’s been stuck on the fridge just a little too long, and has faded from too much sunlight:

Have fun with them, and don’t be afraid to post some results to the Photoshop Elements Techniques Pool - love to see you there!


Invert Channels Wow! Downloaded 42 times so far!

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

Tag links: Actions, Add-O-Matic, Downloads, Elements, Fun Foto FX, PSelements, Photography, Photoshop, Photoshop Elements Techniques Flikr group |

Using the Graffishop and the Add-O-Matic

Posted 1 month, 9 days ago by Graffi | | | Post a Comment | Technorati

 

Here’s an updated video (flash) on using the Graffishop and the Add-O-Matic.

Cheers!

 

 


If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

Tag links: Actions, Add-O-Matic, Downloads, Elements, PSelements, Photoshop Elements Techniques Flikr group, Video, graffi |

Splitter final Beta - free for the weekend

Posted 2 months, 25 days ago by Graffi | | | 6 Comments | Technorati

Splitter_shot

Here’s the new Splitter pack:  16 action effects that split, cut, slice, chop, divide, partition, separate and otherwise make multiple parts of your input images. Note that this pack is for Photoshop Elements for Windows 6 & 7 only.  There’s not a Mac version, or an installer for earlier versions of PSE. Also note that this free download is intended to solicit feedback, and the link below will go *poof* on April 12!

This installer also features a brand new engine on the inside that makes installation faster and much more reliable. You’ll barely have time to blink before it’s finished!

Once these are installed, restart Photoshop Elements and allow plenty of time for the internal workings (PhotoshopElementsFileAgent.exe, to be precise) to locate these new additions and write them to the data files before they appear in your Effects palette.

Once that’s happened, split away!

This pack is the final release before it appears in the Graffishop - please report any issues, conflicts, bugs, tweaks, alien invasions, or seismic activity you may experience - thanks, and enjoy!



Coming early May 2009 to the Graffishop


If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

Tag links: Actions, Downloads, Elements, PSelements, Photoshop, Photoshop Elements Techniques Flikr group, Splitter |

New set of actions with installer: "Splitter"

Posted 3 months, 21 days ago by Graffi | | | 2 Comments | Technorati

Anew set of 16 actions with installer for Windows Photoshop Elements 6 & 7 is coming to the Graffishop:  “Splitter”, which contains 16 actions that split, chop, slice, divide and otherwise splinter your images into separate pieces for various effects.

Splitter features several of the actions I’ve sprinkled around this blog, along with a few from other action packs already released. It has new thumbnails and will create a new category - “Splitter” - in your Effects palette.  Use the drop menu to navigate to the new actions.

 

In addition, it will place the complete set in the Actions Player in Photoshop Elements 7, so if you prefer to edit using Guided Mode, these actions will be there ready for you.  They all create a duplicate of your original image, so you don’t need to worry about losing your “digital negatives”.

Look for it in the shop soon, at a value price.


If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

Tag links: Actions, Downloads, Elements, Fun Foto FX, PSelements, Photoshop, Photoshop Elements Techniques Flikr group, Splitter, graffi |

Pseudo-Hockney (Polaroid Stack) action: Portrait version

Posted 3 months, 29 days ago by Graffi | | | 1 Comment | Technorati

This
action
will divide your portrait-oriented image into numerous evenly-sized “Polaroid picture” pieces and space them around the canvas, allowing you to tweak and alter and transform them with the various color overlay, saturation and levels adjustments individually, if you desire. You can also easily change the background layer from the default white to another color or texture. Adding drop shadows, adjustments, or other effects to the individual pieces is also easily accomplished, as each piece is on its own layer with its own color adjustment layer. Also, you can turn on or off different layers for more emphasis or different effects, plus rearrange them for a “distorted” look.

This is the same as the previously posted action, only set up for use with portrait-oriented images.

It’s been tested on Photoshop Elements 6 & 7 with no problems.  It’ll also work fine in Photoshop CS or greater, since it utilizes “Smart Objects“.

Anyway, grab the action, throw it at your Add-O-Matic v7, fire up Elements and you’re ready to roll.



If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

Tag links: Actions, Add-O-Matic, Downloads, Elements, Fun Foto FX, PSelements, Photoshop |

 


Where are those Actions I installed?

Posted 15 days ago by Graffi | | Post a Comment

Here’s an answer to another common question I receive from users:  “Where are the effects that I just installed?” Since all of the action sets in the Graffishop install themselves (and do it so quickly), some folks have trouble figuring out where they went. Each and every set installs itself in the Effects palette; more specifically, in the Photo Effects section of the Effects palette.

So where is the Effects palette?” is often the next question.  Ok, first you need to open the Effects palette.  You can find it by clicking Window>Effects, or if you prefer to use the sidebar on the right side of the Elements workspace, it will appear as a palette there (I prefer to not use the sidebar:  it takes up too much real estate for my liking, so I drag my palettes out away from it so I can group them together and resize as needed, like in my screenshot below).

ShowGraffiEffects Once the palette is visible, click the third icon on top to show the Photo Effects section.  Once there, you can use the drop menu to navigate through the various effect sets that you have (note that the Add-O-Matic section won’t have any effects in it until you add some actions to it.  I have a lot of freebie one-off actions I post in my blog from time to time if you want to experiment with them):

Finally, another common question isHow do I use all of these things I just installed?“  For using the various actions and tools, there are numerous tutorials available all over the web (for example, Google “Photoshop Tutorial Channels”, and you’ll get a lot of articles and tutorials about using some of the Channels actions in Handy Actions;  Google “Using Layer Masks” for info on different ways to use the layer mask tools, etc.)

There are a few excellent online forums for help, too - I’m a member of a few, and the members there are very friendly and helpful:

Elements Village

Photoshop Creative Elements

Also, YouTube has a ton of video tutorials about Photoshop & Elements, and Flickr (including the Photoshop Elements Techniques group, among many others) has many groups for and about Photoshop Elements - check those out, too, for good, free resources!


If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

Post Tags: Add-O-Matic, B&W, Elements, Fun Foto FX, Glam, Handy Actions, PSelements, Photoshop Elements Techniques Flikr group, Raves, Sketchy Paint, Splitter, Video, graffi, links |

Channel Inversion actions

Posted 29 days ago by Graffi | | Post a Comment

There’sjust so much crazy stuff you can do with channels that there really should be an entirely new set of actions devoted solely to them.  (Hmm,  note to self……. !)

*For the folks who have written me and asked about channels, I promise I haven’t forgotten you!  My “real” job has been very busy lately, and with so many other things going right now (end of the school year, several trips, baseball season starting…) I honestly haven’t had time to respond - please accept my apologies for my delinquency and accept these freebies as a peace token!

add-o-friendlyThis set of three actions will invert, individually, the three channels in an regular RGB image (i.e., a photo from your digital camera).  They duplicate the image, flatten it, and create a duplicate layer to work on, allowing you quite a bit of flexibility in going further with blending modes, masks, isolations, blah blah blah.  As with most everything in Photoshop & Elements, the only real limits are your imagination and willingness to play!

Install them easily by just dragging them into the box on your Add-O-Matic v7 (or install them the old-fashioned, long way that takes forever and is so easy to mess up in so many different ways if you don’t have an AOM yet…!)

The original image for this sample is just above; there are samples for each of the actions below.  As you can see, they vary from a cool cross-processed look to an almost alien look to a wonderful 1970s-era snapshot that’s been stuck on the fridge just a little too long, and has faded from too much sunlight:

Have fun with them, and don’t be afraid to post some results to the Photoshop Elements Techniques Pool - love to see you there!


Invert Channels Wow! Downloaded 42 times so far!

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

Post Tags: Actions, Add-O-Matic, Downloads, Elements, Fun Foto FX, PSelements, Photography, Photoshop, Photoshop Elements Techniques Flikr group |

Using the Graffishop and the Add-O-Matic

Posted 1 month, 9 days ago by Graffi | | Post a Comment

 

Here’s an updated video (flash) on using the Graffishop and the Add-O-Matic.

Cheers!

 

 


If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

Post Tags: Actions, Add-O-Matic, Downloads, Elements, PSelements, Photoshop Elements Techniques Flikr group, Video, graffi |

"Why Won’t My Add-O-Matic Start?"

Posted 1 month, 27 days ago by Graffi | | Post a Comment

Oneof the many available freeware and shareware virus scanner utilities must have recently done an update…

I always know, because I receive emails along the lines of “Add-O-Matic used to work, but now it stopped“  or  “I tried to reinstall Handy Actions, but my scanner says it’s infected with a virus“.

Kaspersky_Virus_Scan The easiest way to get past these using your virus scanner (and I highly recommend using a virus scanner, even on the Graffi stuff!) is to add an exception to your protection.  It’s generally a pretty easy task - simply follow the directions in your application’s Help files.

I scan each download monthly using two of my favorite online resources:  VirusTotal  &  Kaspersky Online Virus Scan. Both allow you to upload a file and have it scanned (Kaspersky limits file size to 1Mb, however).  VirusTotal scans your upload using 40 different services, including Avast, AVG, McAffee & Norton/Symantec.  Each month, the Graffi utilities come back clean. In fact, I’ve never had a bad result, other than the AVG issue from a few months ago (read here). 

I ran a scan this morning, and I’m posting this month’s results here.  Click the screen shot above for the Kaspersky results, and you can have a look at the TotalVirus report by clicking here (46k PDF ).

Sometimes other things block the installers from starting, and these are almost always a result of other utilities running in the background on your system, More often than not, this problem is fixed by doing a system restart. Sometimes it gets more involved than that, however, and you’ll need to do a one-by-one task removal until you locate the blocking utility. Use your Task Manager for that process - there’s really no other way.

Finally, if you’re unsure as to whether your system will run the Action Packs in the Graffishop and / or Add-O-Matic v7, or if you just want to see how simple they all are to install, try the free Sampler Pack first.  It runs off the same internal engine as the regular action packs, and it  will quickly let you know if there’s a potential issue on your Windows system.


If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

Post Tags: Add-O-Matic, B&W, Downloads, Elements, Fun Foto FX, Glam, Handy Actions, PSelements, Photoshop, Photoshop Elements Techniques Flikr group, Rants, Sketchy Paint, Splitter, graffi |

Futurama Cityscape (Photoshop CS4)

Posted 1 month, 29 days ago by Graffi | | Post a Comment

Ithought this was extremely cool - so look for my take over in the Photoshop Elements Techniques Pool on Flickr -!  I’ll put it in the Pack of Lies pool, too….



If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

Post Tags: A Pack of Lies, Elements, PSelements, Photoshop, Photoshop Elements Techniques Flikr group, graffi, illustration |

How to install New Fonts

Posted 2 months, 17 days ago by Graffi | | Post a Comment

This question comes up pretty frequently, surprisingly.  The answer to the question “How do I add a font to Photoshop Elements so I can use it in the program?” is - you don’t add it to Elements (or Word, or Draw, or Gimp).  You add a font to your system, and then all of those programs can use it.

 font-truetype-128x128 Next question:How do I add it to my system?

How to install a font
Unzip the font files you have downloaded, then:

  • Windows Vista: Right-click on the font files > “Install”
  • Windows XP: Put the font files into C:\Windows\Fonts
  • Mac OS X: Double-click the font file > “Install font” button.

     

    Hope that helps - !


  • If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

    Post Tags: Musings, graffi |

    Automatic Database Rebuild for Photoshop Elements 6 & 7

    Posted 2 months, 19 days ago by Graffi | | 2 Comments

    Here’s a quick solution for getting the databases (Media & Thumbnail) databases rebuilt in Photoshop Elements 6 & 7.  It renames them for you and prompts you to restart Elements to complete the rebuild process.

    This is usually a last resort, when items you’ve added that require the database to rebuild (particularly actions, styles & graphics) need a kick start to show up.  Please read the info in the utility for details -


    Rebuild Photoshop Elements databases Wow! Downloaded 121 times so far!

    If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

    Post Tags: Downloads, Elements, PSelements, Photoshop Elements Techniques Flikr group |

    Older Posts