Photoshop Is Hard.

[midnghtraver]

Its probably not...



Halp.

[supermousie]

So.... What do you want to do with it? O.o

Whatever it is, I'll do it for free.

[ddrxero64]

My graphical skills suck haha. I actually agree with the thread title. :P

[Spenner]

You could be an expert in every program but still suck balls at creating original artistic pieces.

If you're too lazy to look up/use tutorials, I suggest you just immerse yourself in good design pieces and analyze what's good about then, for a little bit just replicate the looks of the good design pieces so you get a feel for it.

It's very good practice to be browsing a site, seeing an awesome art site or something, then going into photoshop/fireworks and replicating it, plus or minus things that you would improve on.

yo

Also, learn to mask and use the Refine Edge function in photoshop for your crop job. Works swell.

[supermousie]

I just use a 3rd party plugin for the more intricate work... It beats the Quick Selection Tool 95% of the time.

[midnghtraver]

Originally Posted by Spenner

Also, learn to mask and use the Refine Edge function in photoshop for your crop job. Works swell.

Stuff I don't know. ^^^

Thats what I meant by halp.

Tutorials are good, but I was hoping for more direct answers that where specific to that picture right up thar.

[darkshark]

You didn't specify what you even want to do with that picture so what the hell do you want us to say.

[midnghtraver]

Like what spenner did. You can obviously see my idea. I just wanted advice about things to do to make it more professional looking.

[Xiaounlimited]

i don't see any Thing wrong with It Man ...... Y R U askin stuff ......... its prety Good

[NocturneAunamic]

Use a better looking font, you can find alot on dafont.com. Don't use that overlaying teal color it looks stupid.

Go on the blending options for your font, experiment with them all, try embossing, gradients, contours, drop shadows, strokes. That stuff, learn from trying yourself.

[PrawnSkunk]

good times watching "you suck at photoshop" series

:B

[midnghtraver]

Originally Posted by PrawnSkunk

good times watching "you suck at photoshop" series

:B

He's hilarious.

[Spenner]

I can't read the word after "DJ"

If it's supposed to be, and not just for decoration, readability should come first. Try reading whatever you make left right, from bottom to top, etc. If someone can't read it at first glance it's probably because you need to make it more readable!!!

Basically what I'm saying is don't go all out making your text so funky, you want them to be elements someone reads, not elements someone simply looks at as if they were a photograph or something abstract.

Composition. The girl and the text behind her have a weight in this image that makes no point when looking at it seem relaxing and visually appealing. Maybe even move the E 1 all the way to the left as far as you can, being cropped by the circle, with the E still remaining readable. Don't always remain within the boundaries of even symmetrical balance, asymmetrically balanced pieces are for the most part always more interesting to look at, and have a much more hierarchical composition that lends the reader or viewer not to be lost. It would be like opening a magazine ad and seeing the fine print first, doesn't work that way. It's designed to draw you to the images first, then the headlines, then the subtitles, then the first letter of the column. So yeah, always keep visual flow in mind yeah kinda out of it sorry

[darkshark]

^^^ This.

It's also why 99% of all graffiti sucks too. You can't read any of it.

Best advice I can give you; Don't use fonts/effects that look cool, use fonts and effects that look right.

Head over to Katy Perry's website, look at fonts she uses, that would be a good step in the right direction.

[Izzy]

Crop your images better. I'd start which some rendering tutorials.

[midnghtraver]

But I don't want a usual font.
And i'd like to think of graffiti as just abstract art, not font.

http://i973.photobucket.com/albums/a.../Djmilaera.jpg

[Spenner]

Use hi-res images for textures ALWAYS-- and when you find a hi-res image, view it at 100% before you take out a chunk, because it's likely artifact'd to crap at that size and you'll have to scale it to get a good quality view of it.

If you're going to have a grungy font, think letterforms are rarely going to work because you can't read the letters/tell letters apart as easily. I'm still not sure what your little branding says "DJ MrJJa?"

And while I can accept graffiti as an abstract art in some cases, abstract art still has a quota to meet in terms of principles of design.

http://www.typographyserved.com/?con...=appreciations
http://www.webdesignserved.com/
http://99designs.com/logo-design/contests

Immerse yourself :]

By NO means is every example on those sites good. See if you can pick apart the good from the bad. And spend a good time looking at examples of good design. Like I said, copy it. Replicate it. Make up your own tutorials based on what you're seeing-- research something if you don't know how to do it. Don't just do your own thing when you have no direction if you haven't got the design-mind set. ESPECIALLY dive deep into the typography-served site, look at ways people can make text interesting WHILE STILL MAINTAINING READABILITY. That is a biiiig issue and it won't be cured overnight.

goodluck

[Phlegmatism]

DJ who? Aside from the text, I think it's of utmost importance to recognize unwanted grainy artifacts created from stretching/distorting. Ask yourself, "Would I see something like this extremely out of place on an Apple device?" Unless you're sweet bro or hella jeff, never expand, only shrink.

Learn in-depth and know how to function: Gradients, brushes, filters, layer blending options, shapes, masks, colors, complementary colors, hues, saturation, brightness... the list goes on
Not necessary, but aesthetically moral: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rule_of_thirds
To those who complain about how tutorials suck--why would you put down something that has direct invaluable information in the style of a learning environment? Either you have ADD or believe that there's some magic Photoshop button going to do it for you.

[Nullifidian]

You can still have an unusual font. You just have to pick one that doesn't detract from readability.
Also, really search up some basic design principles and then start using photoshop. If you use photoshop without any basic knowledge of design, it's like putting make-up on a hooker.
No matter how much you try to cover it up, it'll still look like shit.

Once you have some basic knowledge of design, just check out a few tutorials to get accustomed to the tools of photoshop. Then start experimenting on your own and see what button gives what outcome.

It's not photoshop that is hard. It's the designing part that's hard.
Photoshop just takes some messing around with it to know how it works.

[makdaddy]

this turned into a surprisingly decent thread

good job guys! haha