Alpha To Omega Or, Alpha To Alpha?

So, where does something begin and where does it end? In Photoshop, for me, as a user I would have to say that an image both starts and ends with Channels, and the middle would be all about Alpha Channels. Yes, the channels palette in Photoshop is one of the most important tools when it comes to color correcting, well aside from various techniques, effects, and tools. Where would one begin in color correction? The same place one would end, (Alpha) Channels. To the right, you'll see the Channels palette for the images above it. The color changes in the far right image were aided very much so by the use of Alpha Channels.

Channels are incredibly useful things. Every document you create or open in Photoshop guaranteed has three to four channels already made. This number is of course dependent on your color mode; one would notice four channels if they were working in CMYK, and three when working in RGB or LAB. (yes, there are actually a couple of uses for LAB color out there). So, consider those channels to be gifts, in a sense they are! If you have an image and need to make a difficult selection, for example, a selection of hair – take a look into each color channel (this works a heck of a lot better in RGB, it’s not hopeless in CMYK, just not as obvious). Often one of the channels will help you out allowing you to easily isolate something based on it’s color channel.

So that explains channels, sort of. Well, you might now be wondering what about this Alpha channel business you speak of? Well, an alpha channel is an additional channel to the 3-4 already existing. You of course get the chance to name your own, for simplicity I recommend you do. One cannot feel completely aware of what they are doing if they look over to the right (or wherever you house your palettes) and see and endless list of Alpha 1, Alpha 2, Alpha 3, and so on. Just like the layers palette, you really want to keep it organized. What do you do with these alphas? They save and store your selections!

Selections are very important as well when working in Photoshop if you are color correcting, or even just fiddling. Actually, just going to put this out there, most things of regularly use in Photoshop are important. Let’s say you have a perfect path around a bicycle wheel, spokes and all. Now, you want to change the color of tires to hot pink without affecting the spokes at all but your path includes all of them. WHOA. No, no “whoaing” alpha channels can & will help you accomplish this. Take your beautifully constructed path, which you have of course named and saved and select it!
(command+ click on Mac) You have a selection, of course you just want the tires, there are a few things you can do to reach this goal. I would say the easiest by far would be Quick Mask!

Oh Quick Mask, what a good friend! While you have your selection marching-ants away on your screen, hit “Q” on your keyboard. Welcome to Quick Mask my friend! Notice how your channels palette has added Quick Mask and that everything outside of your path has been masked away. Now you can use your Eraser Tool, or your Brush to mask away the areas you don’t want affected by what you’ll do next, which is create a brand new Alpha Channel of your beautiful path without all those spokes you slaved over. So go ahead, depending on what you are masking you may want a hard edge or a soft edge on your Brush/Eraser.

So, you have a Quick Mask you are happy with – great! Now select that Quick Mask (command+click for Mac), head up to Select and click Save Selection, now choose a name for your new Alpha Channel and there you have it, a brand new Alpha just for you.
Now you are free to alter the color of that wheel while maintaining the natural luster of your spokes! Guess what? You can also use this channel in combination with your path to alter the spokes as well, that my friends - will be for another time.

I hope you have enjoyed my long rant/quasi-tutorial on the importance of Channels and creating Alpha Channels, I think you’ll agree that they are most helpful when color correcting.

In The Skies, In The Skies!

Oh, the heavens. A source of much fascination for me all throughout my life, to sit and watch the wonders of the universe, to experience the show of stars, the turbulent shifting of clouds in severe weather, or just enjoying the pleasant contrast between land & sky. Well, many of these beloved phenomena are nowhere to be seen during the dead of winter. Gee, could be a contributing factor to my annual bout of disdain. Being a Wisconsin native I certainly must work on that.

Have no fear fellow watchers of the great dome above, winter can still yield some fascinating sites. Surely, there are a great many constellations to appreciate year round. In fact many of the biggest & boldest constellations are visible this time of year. Whether or not you are familiar with the well-known constellation Orion, this is the time of year to really get to know it, it is certainly at its brightest. Orion contains seven bright well-known stars, one of which being Betelgeuse, which represents “The Hunter” Orion’s right shoulder. Betelgeuse is a red supergiant star, it’s celestially ruddy complexion can be viewed by the naked eye this time of year. This is the 12th brightest star in the sky, oftentimes mistaken for a higher position on the list of the brightest 25 stars. The reason for the confusion is that due to old age & the end of life approaching, this stars’ size morphs fairly regularly, when Betelgeuse pulsates, it can become the size of planet Mars’ orbit!

Speaking of Mars, the planet will be the closest to the Earth its orbit will take it until 2014. And tonight, January 27th – one should be able to see this lovely red celestial body clearly in the sky. According to National Geographic, the planet will pass within 61 million miles of our gorgeous Earth. In August of 2003, Mars came within 35 million miles of Earth, the closest it has been in nearly 60,000 years. Surely we’re not that close, but it is said that tonight – even with a pair of binoculars one can view Mars as not a star, but rather a disc shape. Additionally, one can view the surface of Mars’ rocky terrain and ice caps with a 6in telescope at the least.

Winter apparently means red this year, take a look outside towards the east and you should pick up on red planet Mars passing along its orbit to the other side of the sun, or look around for Orion, his red superstar Betelgeuse will surely give you a show and perhaps teach you a little something.

If Astronomy interests you, check out the link below for a listing of weekly celestial events gracing our heavens. Enjoy!
http://www.skyandtelescope.com/observing/home/82407167.html

Smarticles.

So I have this simple joy in life, combining two words into a new non-word I may or may not make a part of my vocabulary. Most recently I made up the non-word "aswayzing” while viewing the film Dirty Dancing. I am pretty sure one can figure out why, he was after all pretty great.

So today, I made up the new non-word “smarticles”, this word describes what I feel would be smart articles. They were smart to me in the sense that they brought up a lot of questions for me, provoked many thoughts things I truly need to consider while embarking on a journey through the wonderful world of web page design.

I walked away learning just how much one has to consider when putting together a website. Whether taking information away from the dissection of a simple website format in Web Design Layout Principles, or taking information on the ever so sarcastic How NOT To Display Your Artwork On The Web I learned once again that less is typically more. There are reasons web designers have streamlined the sites we visit each and everyday, because they work for the user. That may be a lot to consider but it makes sense to me.

Looks like my non-words just aren’t going to fly. Or could they? Now that’s something to consider.

A Beautiful Beginning, A Wonderful Start...

So, we’ve got this brand spanking new-year. 365 new days labeled 2010, well I guess 354 new days. My views on new years are always sprinkled with dreams and doused in optimism, I have grown fairly optimistic in the past three years, I have to say it makes life a heck of a lot better. All the lovely clichés, “you reap what you sow” and the like are in a sense correct, if you believe in good, you’ll see good.

Thus far, I have seen a lot of good. Knowing that 354 more brand new days await me, I think this trend of good days will continue. Last year like many people in my field I lost my job. I have, for the past nine months enjoyed what has been referred to as “funemployment” ~ I know about 30 other folks who’ve experienced the same thing. Sure, it’s fun. There is another side to it all though, the side that begs, “hey, what in the hell are ya going to do now?” Ah, yeah that side. It’s a question I haven’t heard once, I have heard it everyday for the past nine months – sometimes multiple times a day. I know I am not alone in that one. Surprisingly, losing my job did the exact opposite of what most thought it would do, it inspired me, it made me look beyond the job I thought I would have for a few years, it made me look at what I really want to do. I want to create.

I was working in pre-press, it certainly was fun ~ in fact, I loved it. I was learning so much all of the time, adjusting images, photographic products. But, I wasn’t creating I was altering. I want to create. Creating is a blast, in creating ~ for me anyway ~ it gets a little tough somewhere around that lack of a real deadline and managing my time. But, I’m learning.

So with this new month of January, this new year colored 2010 and this new decade I say it’s time to create, it’s time to learn. Surely, I am bringing in a plethora of ideas and creations with me from 2009 ~ but they feel brand new. I am creating art, experience and love sweet love. With the addition of web design classes I am creating new connections in my brain (AWESOME!) as well as a new set of skills to add to my ever-growing arsenal of tools.

However late it may be Happy New Year! Now do what I am going to do and get off of your butt and create. Create something new, no matter what it is. Make it happen.
Most of all enjoy the process, the process is half the fun.