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Archive for October, 2007

“Scraps of Pink” for a Good Cause

Posted on: Oct 29th 2007 | Posted by: Graffi

OK, digi-scrappers - there’s a cool new pack for you, available from the Digiscrap Review blog.

For $10, you can get a great scrapping kit - I should say a great BIG scrapping kit - and also help raise a bit of cash for the Susan G. Komen beast cancer foundation.

The goal is to raise $1000 - so kick in a few bucks, get a great scrapping kit, and help out breast cancer research. 

It’s really a win-win-win proposition!


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Filed in: Downloads, Elements, News from around the graphics world, Raves, Uncategorized | 385 views | 4 Comments |

Action Effects Bundle Pack updated - that’s all of ‘em!

Posted on: Oct 23rd 2007 | Posted by: Graffi

5 Action FX
Packs bundled
up in one!
A total of 244/
267 effects!
Here’s your chance to get all 5 of the ever-popular Action FX packs for Photoshop Elements for one low price - a total of 244 effects and add-ons for Elements 6, or 267 actions (plus Add-O-Matic!) for Elements 5  - actions and effects specially designed for Photoshop Elements to boost creativity, efficiency, fun, and add a lot of additional power to Photoshop Elements 5 or 6!


XP and Vista
Compatible!

Purchased individually, the total would be nearly $72. This is five of the best-selling, best-visited, best-known Photoshop Elements Action Effect Packs from Graffi, complete with their individual installers and complete documentation, in a single downloadable format for about $8 apiece.

This pack contains ALL FIVE complete action packs with documentation:

  • Handy Actions 3 (with 70 actions in PSE5 version; 65 in the PSE6 version)
  • Fun Foto FX 3 (with 66 photo effects)
  • Sketchy Paint 3 (with 29 watercolor, paint & pencil effects)
  • B&W Lab Conversion 3 (58 PSE5 / 41 PSE 6)
  • Glam Photo 3 (with 44 glamorous effects)
  • Plus - the PSE5 Bundle now includes Add-O-Matic!


    Grab the Bundle Pack here


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    Filed in: Actions, Add-O-Matic, B&W, Elements, Fun Foto FX, Glam, Handy Actions, News from around the graphics world, Photoshop, Raves | 517 views | Add Comment | Tags:

    Sketchy Paint 3 is finally ready!

    Posted on: Oct 23rd 2007 | Posted by: Graffi

    29 effects for paint, watercolor, pencils and comic book styles!

    It should be in the shops this evening, and the Bundle Pack will be updated as well with all new v3 action packs.

    Sketchy Paint 3 is for Elements versions 3-4-5, or for version 6 - same effects, different installer.  There’s a bunch of samples down below - check them out, and look for the upgraded pack in the Graffishop tonight -



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    Filed in: Actions, Elements, News from around the graphics world, Photoshop, graffi | 797 views | 1 Comment | Tags:

    Using Lab mode in PSE 5 (from Handy Actions 3)

    Posted on: Oct 18th 2007 | Posted by: Graffi

    Ihad a question about Lab mode (which can be accessed with Handy Actions 3 for PS Elements 5) in another blog post earlier, and I thought it merited its own blog post - here’s my answer to that one -

     

    Lab mode is another image mode that you can use to edit your photos, like RGB mode (which is Red-Green-Blue - the standard way images are composited in cameras & on computers, by blending the Red, Green & Blue channels together) or Grayscale mode (which simply removes the color information and displays images in various degrees of black - yep, black!)

    It’s awesomeness comes from it’s non-destructive way of doing things. It composes images based on a “Lightness” channel & two color channels - “a” & “b” (hence the name, “Lab” mode)

    Images converted to Lab mode can be edited and manipulated in many ways, but the most common are sharpening, conversion to B&W and color correction.

    There’s a tutorial about Sharpening in Lab mode here:
    http://www.luminous-landscape.com/tutorials/instant_photoshop.shtml

    A tutorial about B&W conversions here:
    http://www.photoshopessentials.com/photo-effects/lab-color.php

    and another about color correction here:
    http://www.photolinks.com/resources.html?p_page=color-white.html

    and a video about sharpening & Color correction here:
    http://digital-photography-school.com/blog/a-color-correcting-and-sharpening-tutorial-in-photoshop/

    (By the way, there are actions for these techniques in the Handy Actions pack - as well as access to all the tools to achieve them!)

    So there you go. Lab mode, quite simply, absolutely ROCKS for digital photographers - and now you can get it in Elements 5 with Handy Actions 3 for Elements 5!


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    Filed in: Actions, B&W, Elements, Handy Actions, links | 814 views | 2 Comments |

    B&W Lab 3 is now available for Photoshop Elements 5 & 6

    Posted on: Oct 16th 2007 | Posted by: Graffi

    Easily create
    B&W effects
    and frames in
    Elements 5 & 6
    Graffi’s B&W Lab Action Set for Elements

    These actions offer a variety of ways to convert your color photos into Black and White (including utilizing multiple saturation adjustment layers, various color channels, additional color layers and several combinations of them all), and many of them delve into Lab mode (an image mode available to full Photoshop users).

    These actions are all fully compatible with Photoshop Elements 5, Photoshop Elements 6 and Photoshop CS +. There are 58 different actions in the Elements 5 version, and 41 actions available in the Elements 6 version - actions that color adjust, color tint, desaturate, manipulate color channels and several additional actions that even frame your images in a variety of ways,

    from gallery frames, to elegant line frames to solid borders. Now you can create stunningly crisp Black and White images - and frame them - with just a click. What’s more, in Elements 5, this pack unlocks Lab mode - a powerful image mode only available to Photoshop users. (*Note: Lab mode is not available in the Elements 6 package).

    The download includes an installer as well as an uninstaller, so you don’t have to waste time moving files here and there. Simply download, unzip, run the installer and fire up Elements. That’s it.

    Some folks offer you one or two effects for far more than the cost of this self-installing pack, which brings 58 powerful actions to Elements 5.

    Elements 6 users will enjoy 41 actions - everything except the Lab mode actions.


    Samples?

    Want to see some samples?  John Gray has some nice examples in his gallery. So does dondiego.  You can also just check out some of the sample images scattered around here, including the installer interface above.

    Check out this new action pack - I’m sure you’ll be happy with both the results and the price!
    Note: this action pack is for Photoshop Elements 5 & 6 only!


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    Filed in: Actions, B&W, Elements, Photoshop, Raves, links | 585 views | 5 Comments |

    "What does this button do..?"

    Posted on: Oct 16th 2007 | Posted by: Graffi

    Dang kids, running around the workshop all the time, pushing buttons, changing things around.

    Consarn it, it took three days to get this blog back up and running again.

    Anyway, sorry for the interruption - but the blog is back online and working.

    But if something goes wacky, post a message to me - ? Thanks.


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    Filed in: Musings, News from around the graphics world, Rants, graffi | 412 views | 3 Comments |

    Fun Foto FX 3 now available

    Posted on: Oct 11th 2007 | Posted by: Graffi


    XP and Vista
    Compatible!
    fffx3_palette.png
    Fun Foto FX palette

    Fun Foto FX 3 is available for Photoshop Elements 3, 4 & 5, plus a special edition with the same effects that installs directly to Elements 6!
    Over 60 self-installing Fun effects for your Photos!

    Check it out here

    So What’s New?

    Full Effects Listing


  • 2 Color poster
  • Blueprints
  • Bullet hole
  • CinemaScope
  • Chrome
  • Clear Tape
  • Color Grade
  • Color Shift - Grainy
  • Cross Frame
  • Cross Processed
  • Cubism
  • Fade Away
  • Fade to Pixels
  • FFFx Comic Style
  • Fake HDR
  • Fast Polaroid
  • Foggy Morning
  • Ghost (part I)
  • Ghost (part II)
  • Fuzzy Velvet Painting
  • Graphic Novel
  • Horror Show
  • Metal Paint
  • Misty Morning
  • Mosaic Background
  • Movie Poster Fade
  • Movie Poster
  • Nice Slicer
  • Night Vision
  • Ocean Mist
  • On the Big Screen
  • Paper Crumple
  • Photo Mount Corners
  • Rain
  • Rainy Sidewalk
  • Retro Gradient
  • Rounded Edges
  • Saturday Cartoon
  • Sci-Fi Color Blast
  • Separations
  • Smokin’ Hot
  • Smokin’ Icy
  • Snow
  • Spin Fade Zoom
  • Split Frame
  • Sticky Tape
  • Strange Color Texture
  • Text- Cheetos
  • Text-Reflected Text
  • Texture Paint
  • Texture - Retro Water
  • Texture - Water Backdrop
  • Texture - Water Droplets
  • Texture-BG_Dots
  • Texture-Colorful Worms
  • Texture-Forum Sig Maker
  • Texture-Neon Space
  • Texture-Sandy Beach
  • Texture-Wood Texture
  • Three Easy Pieces
  • Torn In Half
  • Torn Photo
  • Underwater
  • Warhol Pop Art
  • Weaver
  • Watercolor in Progress
  • This pack installs over 60 photo effects automatically to Windows versions of Photoshop Elements 3, 4, 5 and/or 6.

    …if you are a Mac user, you’ll be happy to know that this pack can be installed in your OS as well…

    If you are a Mac user, you’ll be happy to know that this pack also can be used in your OS as well (just like most of the action packs in the Graffishop); however, manual installation is required (and full instructions are included).

    In addition, an UN-installer is also included that will remove this action pack automatically (Windows only) from versions 3, 4 or 5 of Elements.

    The Actions Bundle pack has also been upgraded to include this new action effects set. Now there’s five complete action sets in there.

    this release  really utilizes some of the unlockable features only found in
    Photoshop CS3
    This release really utilizes some of the unlockable features found in Photoshop CS and CS2 - Curves and Channel Mixer steps are used in some actions, as well as harnessing some of the editing capability of Lab mode. As a result, some of the included actions will only work in Photoshop Elements 5.0.

    The specific actions that are PSE 5-only are “Cross Processed”, “Metal Paint”, and Horror Show. They will function in earlier versions of Elements, however, but with slightly different results than originally programmed.

    This pack will remove previous editions of Fun Foto FX if you use the auto-installer. This is a feature, not a bug! It will clean up after itself by getting rid of earlier versions and removing the clutter, making navigation easier.

    So What Effects are in this thing, anyway?

    Glad you asked! A gallery of example images is here.

    The effects in this pack will create a duplicate of your current image so you don’t inadvertently lose an original (your “digital negative”). This makes it easier to add multiple effects, essentially layering the actions on top of each other (running the “Saturday Cartoon” effect, followed by a “Torn Photo” effect, and finished with the “Orton“, “Polarize” or “Letterbox” effect, for example).

    The images are always left with layers intact, when that’s applicable - so further manipulation or fine tuning is easily possible, as is running other actions on top as mentioned above.

    Fun Foto FX 3 is now in the Graffishop


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    Filed in: Actions, Elements, Fun Foto FX, News from around the graphics world | 575 views | Add Comment |

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