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
Hi -
By chance do you have any documentation that might help me to use photoshop to build headers for xsitepro. That would be wonderful if you do. Just like you, I have photoshop, but have always been a little afraid to fully use it. Thank you so much, and here is hoping that you have something that might show step by steps in building headers. You can reach me at my above email, if you care to. I know that xsitepro has some headers, but would love to build my own to use. Again, thank you. Maria Mekus mekus@mekus.com
maria from cantongahomesforsale.org | Sep 21, 2010 | Reply