I thought I would collect some of the Photoshop tutorials you may need in order to use your Photoshop actions. These are all very basic skills that you may already be using in Photoshop and some of these tutorials may bring about an ‘aha!’ moment (we love those). I will try to keep adding to this list and make sure it’s an easily accessible reference for you for the future.

//BASIC PHOTOSHOP TUTORIALS//

Photoshop CC interface-A short video going over the new interface.

Brushes tutorial-Where to find your brushes and how to adjust the size and hardness.

Layers palette tutorial-A super thorough + basic overview on how to access the layers palette, what layers are and how to work with them.

//INTERMEDIATE PHOTOSHOP TUTORIALS//

Layer mask tutorial-How-to use a layer mask

Batch processing-How-to use your actions on multiple images at once!

//RESOURCES//

Photoshop CC

Adobe TV (tons of free, high quality Photoshop videos)

Photoshop CC getting started videos

P.S. The photo above was one of the those ubiquitous above the cloud images taken from an airplane window. I wanted to enhance it so with our Foto Rx actions I ran ‘add a little pep’ (to bring out the cloud details) and our ‘warm rosy glow’ action. The ‘warm rosy glow’ adds a bit of a dreamy/haze with both golden and pink tones.If you would like to be notified of the launch of our Foto Rx actions you can sign-up here!

I have received emails asking whether or not our Foto Rx actions will help with line art/lettering scans and photos (some people shoot their lettering/line art with their smartphones then upload to edit in their computer). Since I can’t answer all my emails individually at this juncture, I thought I should address it here. The answer?–it depends.  If your image has a color cast like mine did in the example above, Foto Rx will be able to assist you with the removal of the cast, with our brighteners you can bring up the white a bit more as shown. Of course we have discussed a lettering Foto Rx edition, but realistically that wouldn’t happen for awhile and no matter how simplified I could try to make it there is some work involved with Photoshop for lettering. I hope this answered the question though!

And when is the darn Foto Rx launch?  We are shooting for next week, fingers and toes crossed! We are wrapping up our visual instructions/pdf. I don’t know if we will be able to record all the tutorials for you that we’d like to launch with, but we will at the very least find links and sources for those we can’t do that would be helpful. As long as you have basic Photoshop knowledge (like how-to open Photoshop, access your layers palette), you should have no problem!

If you have any other questions, leave them in the comments, you’ll get a much faster answer than my email (I feel like I am about a year behind!)

If you would like to be notified of the launch of our Foto Rx actions you can sign-up here!

It is with great fanfare, excitement & delight that we announce that the incredible Maybelle Imasa-Stukuls, the doyenne of modern calligraphy herself will finally be teaching an online calligraphy workshop!  Queue the angels singing, I am so excited that I am about to pop out of my desk chair (very hard to do in my current injured state). I make it no secret that I adore Maybelle, she is talented, kind, generous and exactly how you’d imagine her to be–wonderful. We met when Maybelle consulted* with me when she came out of ‘retirement’ three years after having her twins (trust me it will probably take me twice as long to get back to ‘normal). I have watched Maybelle soar and my heart explodes with joy whenever I get to witness her hit another pinnacle of success, she has earned it. Maybelle teamed up with San Francisco based online workshop purveyors Creative Bug to film a month long series of her consistently sold out workshop. I have never been able to attend one of Maybelle’s live workshops so the opportunity to take her course at my own pace, whenever time permits is ideal. Maybelle has also put together some (insert whistle) fine calligraphy kits for you so you don’t have to scour the interwebs or city to get your supplies to get started. She created three options the luxe (of course I am going to have to have this one!), mid-level (but still luxe to me!) and dabbler/beginner kit (for those who aren’t sure if they will love lettering, you will so just get the luxe!)

For those unfamiliar with Creative Bug it is an online resource for creative craft classes taught by many familiar and popular artists (I just took the Lisa Congdon series). It is subscription based, but it is one click cancellation if you feel like it isn’t for you or you have powered through all their classes in a month (a pretty hefty feat to accomplish). Maybelle’s workshop launches today and will continue for the month, I am anxious to get started, if you take it let me know what you think!  You can sign-up here!

P.S. Creative Bug has a promo that you can sign-up for 14 days free and cancel anytime, so you could technically watch half the workshop for nada! Now you have nothing to lose!

*For those that have no idea what I do in my ‘real’ life, (I have mentioned it in passing), I build brands, specifically I work with luxury brands to maintain continuity, advise on brand development + new product offerings and of course packaging.  I have been doing this for longer than most of you reading have been on earth. I am pretty darn good at it now.

photo by elizabeth messina

I must own as many fonts as I own BB & CC Creams, I have quite the collection!  Even though I am deep into my 365 lettering project (I actually made it through an entire month!), I can still get giddy over a new font offering especially if it has a realistic hand lettered look to it! I loved the one above and saw it was on sale for 50% off! Which is perfect because there are so many new fonts that I think are worth taking a look at right now to add to your collection.

Michelle and I liked the new Sudtipos offering  Distillery, it’s a nice monoline casual script, good for display. I also noticed there was some new really well priced modern calligraphy scripts that might be a good alternative to some of the more expensive similar versions. Salt & Spices has the same easy going vibe of Jacques & Gilles.  If you are looking for something a little more sophisticated don’t forget about Feast, I just LOVE it and I think it would be great if you wanted to be able to get inspired for your own lettering projects. Speaking of sophisticated, Copperlove is stunning, perfect for a wedding project and really nicely priced for what a beauty it is!

If you ever end up using any of the fonts we suggest in a project let us know, we would love to take a peek!

P.S. It’s not too late to jump on board and start your own 365 lettering project with me, we’d love to have more people on board (makes me accountable!) Lisa Mavian of Post Calligraphy has been joining in and it’s so inspiring to see her beautiful, flowy hand each day. Sabine Pick (a reader fave) is on board as well, both are worth a look + follow!

As we ramp up for our Foto Rx launch we know that it would behoove us to provide some tutorials for those not as well versed in Photoshop. All of our actions are non-destructive and completely adjustable via an opacity adjustment in the layers palette, that may sound like gibberish right this second but trust me it’s much easier than it sounds! I do plan on creating some screencasts (I’m pretty terrible at them), but until launch I thought I would provide some visual step-by-steps.

My photo above was looking like it needed to get some light stat, so…

• I ran our ‘lots of light’ action.
• This created a new layer which is evidenced by the blue highlight in the layers palette.
• On the images above I circled where you can find the opacity slider in the layers palette.
• Slide the slider to the left or right to minimize or maximize the effect.
• In my example the highlighted layer was set to 100% opacity (for Foto Rx purposes that would be considered full strength)
• I decreased the opacity/strength (by moving the slider to the left) until it was at 65% (see photo sample).
• You can keep editing after this or wrap it up!
• Congrats! You now know how to- 1) identify an ‘active’ layer 2) Find the opacity slider 3) adjust the opacity slider! You are on your way to Photoshop ninja status!

Feel free to ask questions in the comments, let us know if this made sense to you. We know the screencasts may be a lot easier to follow so bear with us as I try to overcome my learning curve.  If you would like to be notified of the launch for our Foto Rx actions you can sign-up here!

Tip: Michelle read that putting the image all together in a long vertical graphic is what is preferred by Pinterest users for pinning, so there you have it!