I’m packing for a week-long motorcycle ride into the wilds of Idaho, Montana and Eastern Oregon with my good buddy Ben, but, before I took off, I wanted to get Matt’s latest video up on to the site.

Getting a Bronzed Skin Effect shows you some different methods for adding that special toned look to your portraits, and it’s another great tutorial to help you get comfortable with layers. Even if you don’t like the look, you’ll want to watch, just to see Matt’s awesome tip for adjusting the opacity of a layer mask — it’s near the end of the video, and it’s pretty cool! (There’s also a cheatsheet for the video, check the “Related Links” section of the page.)

While you’re on the site, don’t forget to check out Matt’s previous video, Using Lens Flare as an Artistic Effect. Lens flare is one of those things we’ve been conditioned to think of as a ‘mistake,’ but there are definite times when it works. I know I try to get it in some of my shots, but Matt’s tutorial is yet another great technique for the digital darkroom.

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Our latest DVD, “The Best of Photoshop Elements Techniques, Vol. 4,” is now available, and we’ve put it on sale for $39.95 –$20 off its regular price — through Sept. 3.

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This week’s video — Adding Whimsical Scribbles to a Photo — is a fun one, and ripe for all sorts of experimentation. It’s also nice because it doesn’t take a lot of time to achieve a great effect. (There’s also a ‘cheat sheet’ with the video, listed in the download section of the page.)

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The dog days of summer are definitely upon us here in the Pacific Northwest and I’m about done with them; currently, it’s in the high 90s for the third time this summer. I know that’s standard-issue weather for a lot of you in the South and the Midwest, but one of the reasons I moved to Oregon was to escape the sticky weather of my youth.

Despite the weather, it’s been a nice month, with lots of company. My brother and his son came to visit for a week, and we had a lovely time taking him around the state (here’s a pic of them at Multnomah Falls, one of our must-see destinations in the Columbia Gorge; this week, a dear friend of my wife’s–from their high school and college days–has been visiting. They’ve also been doing lots of fun stuff.
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I just uploaded Matt’s latest video, Create a Reusable Photo Frame, which is a nice quick tutorial that will exercise your layer and Magic Extractor chops. There’s also a cheat sheet available in the Related Links section. Read more »

Here in Oregon, the summer finally kicked into gear over the past couple of weeks, although I’ve been so busy that I really haven’t had much chance to get out and shoot. I’m getting ready to take a few days to head out to the coast–my brother and his son are coming for a visit from Florida–but I wanted to get one last blog post out before I left town. Read more »

We’ve added a new tutorial from Wendy today: Making a Metal Slide, which you can use as an embellishment for ribbons and more on your scrapbook pages.

Wendy just sent me the second part of this series, which details adding the slide to a ribbon, and I’ll try to post it next week.

If you like these types of tutorials, don’t forget to check out our Scrapbooking topic page, where there are tons of other great projects.

Dave Cross’ latest video showcases a quick-and-dirty technique for creating a silhouette from a photo. It’s a fun little video, and you can use the style for all sorts of things, from backgrounds to cards and more. One of the things that I really like about it is that it shows you that there are plenty of times when you don’t need to be perfect when making selections.

In conjunction with the video, we’re trying out a new feature we’re calling “the cheat sheet.” This is a short PDF that has a very basic outline of the things done in a tutorial. It by no means is as detailed as some of the Web or magazine tutorials, but we’re hoping that it gives enough info that you won’t have to keep stopping and rewinding the video to figure out what’s going on.

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The July/August 2010 issue should be arriving in subscriber mailboxes in the coming week, and I wanted to let you know that we’ve posted all of the print extras for the issue on the V7N4 magazine page (just check the Extras section of the page). If you’re still waiting for your copy to arrive, you can download the full PDF of the issue from that page as well. Read more »

Happy Friday!

I hope your summer is going well. We’ve (all three of us!) been pretty busy here at Photo One central, but I wanted to let you know that we’ve posted Corey Barker’s latest video, Creating a Composite Image With Layers, which is a nice exercise for working on your layers and clipping group chops. Read more »

The July/August issue of the magazine should be arriving in subscriber mailboxes over the next few weeks, and it has an awesome feature by Diana Day that tells you everything you need to know about Elements’ brushes. Read more »

Just a fun, quick post for today.

Jens Langhans won the cover contest for the March/April 2010 issue of Photoshop Elements Techniques. He was so excited that he decided to make his own T-shirt; last week, he dropped me a photo of him modeling the shirt. Read more »

I just posted Matt’s latest video, “Fairy-Tale High-Key Photo Effect,” on the site. This tutorial shows you how to get this vintage-style, high-key effect quickly and simply by adjusting a few sliders inside the Camera Raw dialog box. (One of my attempts is below.) Read more »

One of the things I love about Corey is that he’s very much a “design guy,” and he has a great eye for those little things that really add some interest to a collage or image montage. Read more »

I just posted Wendy’s latest tutorial, “Making a Deckle-Edged Mat,” which is a fun and easy way to create a unique background for scrapbook pages, greeting cards and more.

I’m also working through Wendy’s back catalog, and finished updating two older tutorials that got lost in the Web site transition, “Making a Checked Pattern” and “Making Charms.” I have a bunch more I’m working on, and will let you know as I post each batch.

Enjoy!

Just a quick post to let you know that we’re catching up on a few missing tutorials from the previous version of the P.E.T. site. Today, I added five tutorials from Wendy Williams, and should have another 10 or so up in the next week. They’ve been added with the approximate date they were posted, but here’s a list, so you won’t have to go on a wild goose hunt to find them:

• Making Alpha Embellishments
• Making A Keychain
• Adding Rings to Ribbons
• Making a Pencil
• Making a Simple Scrapbook Page

Two new Wendy tutorials are in the works, and should be online fairly soon. I’ll keep you posted.

Thanks, and have a great weekend!

Rick

By now, most Photoshop Elements Techniques subscribers should have received our (now monthly) “From the Editor” email. The May 2010 edition, written by Kelly, has some great links to cool bug photos, Wordle.net tutorials and more.

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The May/June issue of Photoshop Elements Techniques should start mailing to subscribers this week. When your issue arrives, don’t forget to check out the extras for the issue on the website.

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We added a new search feature to the site this week, letting you search within any topic or category (including videos, Web tutorials and PDFs).

If you go to any of the topic pages (I took a screenshot of the Elements Add-ons page below), you’ll see a “Search within” box right above the list of articles. Simply type the word or phrase you’re looking for and press Enter or Return, and you’ll get a list of results only within that topic.

Use the Search within box to limit your searches to a specific category.

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Last Friday, we sent out our latest Editor’s Note email–from yours truly–which most of you should have received over the weekend. If you didn’t get it, you can check it out online as well.
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