Advanced Photoshop and Depositphotos stock photo agency (http://depositphotos.com) have joined up to offer you a great chance for you to use your creativity and Photoshop skills to win a massive prize worth over $500.

Depositphotos has supplied you with 10 high-resolution photos from its online collection. Your task is to create a Photoshop masterpiece using at least one of the images provided (but you can use as many of them as you like). The style and genre is up to you, so whether you are into digital painting, illustration, photomanipulation or typography, then we want to see your best work.

Accessing the competition images

Please register at http://depositphotos.com/advanced-photoshop-competition.html to unlock the images from the competition lightbox (http://depositphotos.com/lightbox_view.php?id=747344). Current Depositphotos’ members need to write an email to advancedphotoshop@depositphotos.com and specify their login to unlock the competition images.

How to enter

To be in with a chance of winning, download the images and create your Photoshop masterpiece. Please ensure that the image is 300dpi and at least 300mm high. To enter your work, send a low-res JPEG to advancedpshop@imagine-publishing.co.uk with the Subject line ‘Depositphotos comp’. The winner will be selected after the closing date has passed. You may enter up to five images in total if you wish.

Closing date

Entries must be received by 6pm (GMT) on 2 March 2012.

The prize

The winner will receive a one-year subscription to Advanced Photoshop magazine, plus a three-month subscription worth $460 for Depositphotos, which allows the user to download up to 30 images per day (up to 27,00 images in total).

To find out more about the competition, visit the competition web page.

Imagine Publishing has launched the digital publication The Complete Photography Book, an accessible and in-depth guide to mastering your shots. Available now on Amazon’s Kindle Store, it’s an essential look at how to take creative control of your camera, including expert tips on a variety of areas from landscapes to action. The Complete Photography Book is the ultimate resource for photographers.

“This is a really fantastic product that will be a great help for photographers of all levels,” said Editor in Chief Debbi Allen. “Packed full of useful tips and suggestions from the pros, it will help readers make more confident and creative decisions in their photography.”

Comprehensive, accessible and stylish, Imagine’s Book series provides readers with expert advice on a range of cutting-edge consumer products. Offering a complete advisory service for enthusiasts with a wide range of experience, Imagine’s acclaimed Book series is the indisposable solution for anyone who wants to get more from their new passion. Simply, Imagine’s Book series is the ultimate consumer companion

The Complete Photography Book is available from online retailer Amazon (http://amzn.to/lwt9bZ) priced at just £5.81.

For more in the series, as well as other great books, visit www.imaginebookshop.co.uk.

Imagine Publishing has launched a new digital-only, Multi-Touch ebook, iCloud For Beginners, specifically designed for Apple’s iBooks 2. Featuring slideshows, interactive images and more, it is one of the first ebooks of its type in the world.

Using iBooks Author’s revolutionary Multi-Touch technology, iCloud For Beginners teaches everything users need to know about iCloud, the free new back-up and sync service. From how to set-up your free iCloud account to sharing your information across your Apple devices, the ebook uses cutting-edge technology to deliver enhanced, easy-to-use tutorials.

“At Imagine, we’re always excited by cool new ways to deliver our world-leading content.” said Editor In Chief Aaron Asadi “iBooks Author is another great opportunity for us to create more products we love for a whole new type of audience. It’s this sort of game-changing innovation that makes us do what we do. ”

“With the speed that the publishing industry is changing, there’s nothing more exhilarating than grabbing hold of new technologies and seeing how we can get the most out of them to serve-up the content we’re so passionate about” added Ross Andrews, Head of Design “What could be better than going from saying ‘we should try that’ to a fully published product in just a few days? It’s hard to think of a more exciting time for the industry.”

iCloud For Beginners is available now on iTunes and iBookstore worldwide.

Imagine Publishing is one of the UK’s fastest-growing multimedia content producers. Formed in May 2005, Imagine now publishes 20 regular print magazines, 30 digital apps, 25 websites and thousands of articles every month in the technology, videogames, photography and knowledge/science markets. An Imagine magazine is purchased every ten seconds.

Imagine Publishing
01202 586200
www.imagine-publishing.co.uk

Advanced Photoshop 92 is on sale from today via www.imagineshop.co.uk or in stores

Main features

Striking type effects
Learn how to create our stunning cover image

Photoshop to WordPress
The basics of design and slicing

Self publishing
Create your own art book

20 ways to make money with Photoshop
Earn cash from your design skills

Also inside…

Designers reveal their 2012 resolutions
Studio profile: Raw
Reader’s Gallery
The Raster Group’s 50th Chapter
Interview: Tim McDonagh
Workshop: Master pro compositing
Tool focus: The Transform options
Workshop: Paint sci-fi characters
Trend focus: Vinyl toys
Workshop: Creative retouching
Workshop: Decorative vexel art
Product, app and book reviews
Top 10… Scanners

Advanced Photoshop comes with a free disc, packed with essential resources:
Tutorial project files
75 minutes of pro video tuition
20 landscape photos
180 brushes
Textures
Steampunk photo pack
WordPress theme worth $39
Wallpapers
Inspirational images from the online gallery
Links to our social networks

In this tutorial we will combine a basic 3D render and composite an entire wildlife scene in Photoshop using a variety of royalty-free photos. Your final image will probably look quite different from ours depending on what sort of photos you choose to use, but the steps you take to create your composition will remain the same.

It’s important to try to match your light source in the pictures you use. Most of the pictures used in this composition were taken on an overcast day where the shadows were very soft. If you are able to find overcast shots, it will free you up to composite the pictures without having to be too concerned about matching a strong light source and shadows. Photoshop is the weapon of choice and the app where we will spend most of our time.

We will also be creating a very basic 3D render of typography using Cinema 4D R12, however you can download 3D renders online to work with in your piece.

01 Create 3D type in Cinema4D

Cinema4D allows you to type 3D text live and update without needing any other software. You can access the fonts that are active on your system. Within the Attributes Manager, you can control the depth of your text along with the size. You will want to create a Fillet Cap using the Caps tab of the Attributes Manager. You want a larger Radius than what looks natural because it’s going to serve as outer layer of bark on our tree typography. The actual Radius size will vary depending on the font size.

02 Create tree textures

Start with a photo of tree bark and use Photoshop to create a duplicate image that will serve as a ‘bump map’. Convert the image to black and white and adjust the Levels so that the darks are very dark and the whites are very white. This mono version of the bark will be used to displace the textures applied to the type in C4D. Create a new material in C4D and apply the photo of the bark to the Color channel and the mono version to the Bump channel. Adjust the height of the bump to suit.

03 Apply tree textures

First you will want to make your Motext editable. You will notice the text is separated into five parts: Cap 1, Cap 2, Rounding 1, Rounding 2 and P (or the letter you made editable). Apply your texture to the outside pieces of your letter leaving the front Cap. Once you’ve applied the texture, you will want to adjust the Projection (in the Attributes Manager) to Cubic and adjust the scale by choosing the # of Tiles for U and V until the bark is the size you want it. Create and apply a new texture to the face of the P by repeating Steps 2 and 3.

Read more in issue 92 of Advanced Photoshop, on sale from 26 January 2012 via www.imagineshop.co.uk

WordPress is the best-known blogging platform around and it’s perfect for setting up your own blog site to promote your work and services. However, if you really want to make your site stand out, then it pays to use custom themes. There are loads of them out there on sites like www.studiopress.com and http://themify.me (in fact, we have a fantastic theme from Themify.me on our free disc in issue 92 worth an amazing $39, which you can try out). However, if you really want to make an impression, then you could use your Photoshop know-how to create your own WordPress themes from scratch, adding a personal touch that really shows-off your creativity.

Over these eight pages, we will take a look at the key design rules of a good WordPress theme, slicing a theme ready for coding and even show you a plug-in that turns a PSD into a WordPress theme without the hassle. We don’t go into the coding aspect of this, but be sure to take a look at our sister magazine Web Designer (www.webdesignermag.co.uk) for some great advice on this side of creating WordPress themes. Being able to design your own WordPress themes in Photoshop can be great for two reasons. First, you can personalise your blog just the way you want it and this will catch the eye of potential clients. Second, you can sell your themes or theme design services to help make extra cash on the side.

There are some general rules that you should bear in mind when you are looking at designing a WordPress theme. Learn these and you will be churning out winning themes in no time.

Read more in issue 92 of Advanced Photoshop, on sale from 26 January 2012 via www.imagineshop.co.uk

In an increasingly competitive marketplace, it’s hard to stand out from the crowd. We look at whether creating your own books and zines is as tempting as it first appears.

It’s no secret that the way we create and share artwork has dramatically changed over the past decade. Portfolios of work, once printed to proudly show off in massive A2 folders, are now stored digitally and shown via websites, iPad slideshows or even through professional-looking self-published books and zines.

This change has stemmed from a variety of factors, not least the current economic situation. A few years ago it was commonplace for artists, photographers and authors to be approached by publishers to write books, receiving payment for their work. Nowadays, it’s much harder to get a book deal, and if you do you have to consider time-scale, lack of creative control over content and the process in general. One way to avoid these potential publishing pitfalls is to self-publish your work.

Like the photobook market, the market for self-published materials has exploded and companies like Blurb and Yophoto are at the forefront of this revolution. In fact, by the end of 2011, over 400,000 people had created books with Blurb, with authors making over £1 million through sales on the Blurb Bookstore alone.

However when you’re already working hard creating artwork, illustrations or other content, why should you bother to take on the hassle of self-publishing a book too? The main benefit for the artist is that self-publishing enables them to maintain complete creative control of the process. From deciding the date when and how the book or zine launches to the tone, quality and creative content of the product, there’s no publisher who has invested money telling you what to do. Teresa Pereira, vice president of European market development for Blurb (www.blurb.com) continues the list of self-publishing benefits: “Authors are able to decide when they want the book to be published rather than being held to a publisher’s release schedule. With self-publishing the time to market is literally days or weeks, rather than months or years. Also with Blurb you can have one copy of your physical book in your hands in about a week, or instantly if you choose to make an eBook.”

With the introduction of eBooks, the ways to create, buy and share your work have increased once again. The eBook market opens up a new world of opportunity where you as authors are unrestricted by traditional conventions of printing such as page numbers, paper sizes and the constant worry of what you see on screen being accurately represented in print.

Read more in issue 92 of Advanced Photoshop, on sale from 26 January 2012 via www.imagineshop.co.uk

Be it big or small amounts, there are many ways to cash in on your creativity. Here we present some of the more accessible ways that ensure regular commerce with advice and real-world projects from our industry experts.

Make money from post-production retouching

Scott Kelby, founder and president of the National Association of Photoshop Professionals (NAPP) explains: “[My advice] would be to get really good at retouching… I’m talking about being a retoucher who is really good at compositing and creating associated effects, which are popular at present.

“There are a lot of photographers… who don’t have the time to do their own post-processing anymore. They do the photography then partner with someone to do the retouching and compositing for them.

“I think this is going to be a growing trend, because there’s so much going on in photography today, and there’s so much happening with Photoshop that for most it’s hard to become a master of both. But a team of two working together is a tough combination to compete against.”

There are many sources for improving your skills, such as Kelbytraining.com and Advanced Photoshop, supplying printed tutorials. If you’re seeking freelance work, try sites such as www.freelancer.com and www.modelmayhem.com.

Read more in issue 92 of Advanced Photoshop, on sale from 26 January 2012 via www.imagineshop.co.uk

There have been some great advertising campaigns that use really nice melting liquid effects, where it looks as if the image is running into its environment.

This technique is simpler than it looks to achieve; it just requires some custom brushes and plenty of layers. You can make time to create some of your own splatter effect brushes, which will no doubt come in useful for future projects, or if you’re short on time, then try some ready-made brushes from a free stock site such as www.brusheezy.com.

With your downloaded brushes loaded into Photoshop, select the image that you would like to work with. Now duplicate the Background layer and hide the bottom layer, drawing a selection of splatter shapes, with each shape on an individual layer. Position one of the brush layers over the area of the photo you want to add the effect to, Ctrl/right-clicking onto the shape layer to make it an active selection.

Add a mask to your start photo layer and make sure the colours in the side bar are adjusted to Set white foreground, black background. Click on the mask thumbnail and hit Delete. If the wrong part of your image is deleted, hit ‘X’ to switch the black and white and press Cmd/Ctrl+I to invert the mask.

Repeat this process with many different splatter shapes, so areas of your start image are deleted, and keep rotating the shapes so the effect looks more random. To add the drip effect coming out from the image, simply sample colours from your image using the Eyedropper tool and add new colour shape layers. Alter the brush angles in the Brush Tip section of the Brushes palette.
Lastly switch the original layer’s visibility back on and select the Stamp tool. Sample a clear area of the sky and carefully go over the areas underneath the deleted sections. This will allow the original colour to show through the splat shapes.

Image credit: iStockphoto.com, image number ‘519879’

For a tattoo to look realistic if must follow the skin in form, texture and lighting. Begin with slightly blurring the tattoo layer and changing the mode to Darken or Multiply. To achieve the form, focus on wrapping the design along the curve of the skin by using a greyscale copy of the base image for a displacement.

To match the skin texture, make a copy of the base layer and use sharpening techniques to make the skin pores stand out. Clip this to the tattoo layer and set the blending mode to Overlay. To mimic the skin’s sheen and lighting, use a Luminosity selection – Ctrl/right-click on the composite channel in the Channels panel, and fill the selection with white on a layer set to Soft Light that is also clipped to the tattoo layer.

Likewise, using the same selection inverted provides a good fill for a shading layer. Use a Multiply blending mode for the shading layer and always remember to adjust the opacity of any layer that’s overpowering the effect.

Image credits: iStockphoto.com, image numbers ‘13525508’ and ‘5260804’