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Multi-media presentations, training and tutorials

Bruce Philpott does multi-media presentations

I gave multi-media presentations to organizations such as City College of San Francisco, the North Bay Adobe Users’ Group and the Sacramento Adobe Users’ Group. I offered new techniques and workflow methods for graphic designers and photographers.



I've written a couple of dozen
short tutorials and articles for you.


(They're free.)

When I'm asked the same questions repeatedly, I answer them in tutorials.

Free photography and Photoshop tutorials and articles More Photoshop techniques & tips Combining Two Exposures Photoshop Techniques & Tips The VERY Basics of Photoshop Applying an Adjustment Layer to a Selection Creating Cast Shadows Masking and Select>Color Range Getting the most out of your Digital Camera
... and MORE!

four icons Notice these articles and tutorials are marked with Photoshop, Photography, Video Production, Cricut, and/or Planet Earth icons indicating their topics.

Many of you don’t require state-of-the-art image editing software, so you don’t want to pay the monthly subscription for Adobe Photoshop. You might be using a “legacy”version of Photoshop. Otherwise I encourage you to download the GIMP image editing software for your computer for free here. It’s free open-source software with no hidden costs. Here’s a video I found about installing GIMP on a Mac. The gimp.org web page will detect which operating system your computer has and offer the appropriate version of GIMP. Be careful not to click on anything you don’t want. If you want to learn more to harness the power of GIMP, I suggest this book: Beginning GIMP; From Novice to Professional by Akkana Peck.

I began writing these tutorials more than 15 years ago and will continue as long as you show an interest. If you have further questions when you've read one of them, please email me and refer to which article/tutorial and what page, and I'll get back to you as soon as I can.

>
The Very, Very Basics of Photoshop (3.25 MB PDF) includes:
Photoshop
  • For real newbies! (others, too!)
  • Basics of the Layers palette
  • Painting on a layer
  • Some selection methods
  • Basic exposure modification
  • Layer masking
Photoshop Techniques (2.25 MB PDF) includes:
Photoshop
  • How to straighten your photos
  • Cropping made simple
  • Selectively lightening and darkening areas of you photos
  • Making areas disappear and reappear!
  • Blurring foreground & background
  • Saving for Web
The Stuff I Left Out -More Photoshop tips (2.6 MB PDF) includes:
Photoshop
  • Who your friends are
  • Shortcuts I use a lot
  • Keyboard shortcuts made easy
  • Let Actions do the boring stuff
  • Fixing perspective distortion
  • "Why won't this work?"
Masking Made Simple and Select>Color Range! (6.5 MB PDF) includes:
Photoshop
  • Making parts of a layer "disappear"
  • Masking an adjustment layer
  • Selecting using Color Range
  • Working with transparent objects
  • Painting on a mask
  • "Dedicating" an adjustment layer

Adjustment Layers for a Selection  (2.5 MB PDF) includes:

Photoshop
  • Requested by Robin Brickey
    for one of her students.
  • Your selection creates
    a mask on your layer!
Creating Cast Shadows  for isolated subjects (5.4 MB PDF) includes:
Photoshop
  • Perspective shadows
  • Making it more subtle
  • Using an existing shadow
  • Enhancing the shadow
From my article in the November/December 2006 Photozine
A Cloning Tip (192KB PDF) includes:
Photoshop
  • Making distracting things disappear

  • Continuing the lines in the background
Written at the request of Landis Major on the Photozo:
Adobe Camera Raw (3MB PDF) includes:
Photoshop
  • Using the other third of the twelve bits your camera is capturing
  • Recovering highlight areas you thought were too overexposed
Combining Exposures  (5 MB PDF) includes:
Photoshop
  • A way to capture extremes of
    lighting in your photo
  • Demonstrated in Camera Raw,
    but can be two exposures.
Snowflake Generator  (3-page PDF) includes:
Photoshop
  • An Action and a psd combine to enable you to make snowflakes
  • An infinite number of six-sided snowflake crystals
Holiday Ribbon Spheres  (3-page PDF) includes:
Photoshop
  • A Photoshop template with
    two sides
  • Customizable for both sender
    and recipient
Photographing & Photoshopping Transparent & Reflective Objects 
Presented to the North Bay Adobe User Group February 22, 2010 (438 KB PDF) includes:
photoshop and photography
  • Eliminating distracting reflections
  • Creating reflections which describe
  • Lighting the object appropriately
  • Making the image look plausible
  • Masking to reveal a background
  • Distortions through clear fluid
Written at the request of Robin Brickey on the Photozo:
ImageReady Rollovers (1.8 MB PDF) for versions prior to CS3 - includes:
Photoshop
  • Creating rollover links for your
    web site
  • ImageReady: The "other side" of Photoshop
From my article in the January/February 2009 Photozine
Creating Animations in Photoshop (1.24 MB PDF) includes:
Photoshop
  • Create animations for your web site
  • Attract your viewer's eye with motion
Repetitive Task Escapes (118KB PDF) includes:
Photoshop
  • Let your computer do the boring stuff
  • Assign complex tasks to a single key
Create your own Calendar Printable Perpetual Calendar kit includes:
Photoshop
  • Templates for each month of every
    year for the rest of your life!
  • With an index of which calendar to use in which year.
Making Mini License Plates for the Kids includes:
Photoshop
  • Finding and using the official font
  • Even for unusual names!
  • Creating the emboss
  • Laminating the project with holes
Making Larger Signs Than Your Printer Thinks It Can
(PDF) includes:
Photoshop
  • Using Photoshop to create large images
  • Changing Canvas Size
  • Printing your sign in sections
  • Putting your sign together.
Making a replacement jigsaw puzzle piece (1 MB PDF) includes:
Photoshop
  • Using your computer and a printer/scanner
  • You can do this with Photoshop
    or with GIMP

Making Custom Pop-Up Cards (6 MB PDF) includes:
Photoshop
  • Using Photoshop or GIMP
    to add graphics and photos
  • Engineering your pop-up
  • Adding a whole new dimension to cards!
Get the Most out of Your Digital Camera (2 MB PDF) includes:
photography
  • How to choose a digital camera
  • What's a megapixel?
  • Exposure options... you decide!
  • Deep or shallow depth of field
  • Shutterspeed choice
  • Picture taking tips
  • Composition tips
  • Easy professional portrait lighting

Izzy Learned to be a Photographer - and you can, too
Look over the shoulder of an 11-year old as she learns to operate a DSLR (8MB PDF) includes:
photography
  • The basics of photographic exposure
  • Balancing f-stop and shutter speed
  • When it's OK to disagree with the camera
  • Photography is an art and you're the artist
Balancing the Exposure Triangle (jpeg) includes:
photography
  • A single page chart of the three exposure basics
  • What these 3 exposure variables do
DINFOS logo
Photographing Art
for submission to publications and the web
(2.51MB PDF) includes:
photography
  • Avoiding reflections in flat art
  • Preventing motion blur
  • Lighting for 2-D and 3-D art
  • Showing your art as it really is
Portrait Lighting - a VERY short explanation (174KB PDF) includes:
photography and video production
  • Showing texture and the depth
    of your subject's features

  • Avoiding "flat" light
A quick note about Quick Release Plates (110KB PDF) includes:
photography and video production
  • Simplifying your workflow
  • Speeding up your process
  • Allowing you to concentrate
    on creativity
My Eye in the Sky - a higher perspective (772KB PDF) includes:
photography and video production
  • For places drones aren't permitted
  • Ways of triggering your camera remotely
  • Using an iPod as a remote viewfinder
  • Creating an ad hoc network
 PocketWizard™ asked to use this tutorial for their customers:
Using a Ray Flash with a PocketWizard™ MiniTT1 (379KB PDF) includes:
photography
  • Two terrific lighting accessories which
    seem to be physically incompatible
  • A workaround using two other
    commercially available accessories.
Enable Your Jib To Do More  (for filmmaking - 24 minute video) includes:
video production
  • Over 42,000 people have watched this.
  • Setting up your jib boom efficiently
  • Remote steering of the fluid head
  • DIY wired follow focus
  • Building a dolly and track
  • LOTS of performance tips
Building a Dolly & Track (for filmmaking 2 MB PDF) includes:
video production
  • Building the wheel "trucks"
  • Aligning the trucks
  • Securing the stand to the dolly
  • Making a variable-length track
A video tutorial
Build Your Own Teleprompter (Six minute video) includes:
video production
  • Free software to download
  • Simple, inexpensive construction
(Not a tutorial, just a technical thought)
An iGlobe for home or school (115 KB PDF) includes:
Earth
  • This is just a product that's been
    bouncing around in my mind.
  • It would be a fun learning tool for schools,
    home, or anywhere.
Making a huge US map puzzle with your Cricut (4 pg. PDF) includes:
Earth
  • .png files for cutting either 12"x12" card stock or letter-size
  • Files for four different colors so neighboring states are different colors
Relative sizes of the earth, moon, etc. (1 pg. PDF) includes:
Earth
  • Using everyday objects to imagine
    the scale of satellite orbits
  • Getting a feel for the relative distances of the International Space Station, etc
Relative sizes of the planets of the solar system (5 pg. PDF) includes:
Earth
  • Continues from the previous article (above), using the same scale.
  • Includes a transparent scale overlay to put on a map of your own area.

These PDFs may be Saved to your own computer by clicking Save to Disc in the upper left of the Adobe Reader screen.
Feel free to
Print these articles for your own private use. They are Copyrighted, however, and may not be used for profit.

If you do not have Adobe® Reader,
click here:
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Please let me know if you find any errors in these publications:


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