Learning Photoshop and Site Headers
By Marika on Jun 7, 2009 in My Progress
I’ve always been afraid of Photoshop, ever since I got my hands on a very old version of this software, I found it very difficult and awkward to work with. My favourite software for any image manipulations used to be Paint Shop Pro. Recently I managed to get hold of a very discounted version of Photoshop, and since my favorite past time (except making jewelry) is setting up blogs to sell, obviously customized headers for these sites are a must. And they need to look darn pretty too, to differentiate from the average ‘logo’ style cookie-cutters out there.
When I first started learning Photoshop, about a month ago, I only intended to learn to ‘touch’ a bit here and there the headers that my designer did (changed the font to this or that header, or added another gradient color as background). However the more I learned, the more I started enjoying this software.
Yes, making headers takes some time and skill to do, but after a few headers I’ve done, I’ve realised that it’s really 3-4 main techniques that one must employ to put the images together in a nice composition. One needs to learn to adjust various blending modes, to increase/decrease the opacity, to resize, select and crop properly. One of my major pet-peeves is still not knowing how to correctly take an item (or person) out of an existing picture to add it to another. But I’m learning.
Why on Earth was I so afraid of Photoshop anyway? I truly love it now! Working with different layers to modify a picture without actually destroying the original is a darn good invention if you ask me!
So here are a few of the headers I’ve done recently. Any comments are welcome.
Hi! Saw you on Kate’s forum. (I’m Absolutelee.)
I can do absolutely everything pertaining to blogs except create decent looking headers. I’ve been using Gimp.
Your headers give me hope!
Lee | Jun 9, 2009 | Reply
Hey Lee, nice to see you here
I haven’t tried Gimp but I’ve heard that it’s quite a powerful free tool that people are using successfully instead of Photoshop. And it has pretty much all the abilities of it too, so give it a shot - make sure that you learn how to make a collage of different images, to blend them well together. That’s one of the major secrets of making a header, as far as I’ve learned so far!
Admin | Jun 17, 2009 | Reply