Hair Selections & the Search for the Holy Grail

Hair Selections & the Search for the Holy Grail Everyone’s looking for the easy path. The internet is filled with so-called experts doling out “tips, tricks, and techniques,” and they may sound like they are the answer, but when you try them on your photos, you just get frustrated because they don’t work. You think there’s something wrong with you or your retouching skills, but maybe that technique only worked on that one photo and background combination! It’s not as easy as learning one tip or technique. Hair is more complex than that. A blonde on a dark background must be treated differently than a blonde on a light background.

Each year Adobe comes out with new features, so what changed in Photoshop CC 2019? We’ll cover the most important changes we think you should know about.

Changes to Multiple Undo

Prior to Photoshop CC 2019, Cmd–Z (Mac) or Ctrl–Z (Windows) acted as a toggle. It would undo, and then redo the very last thing you did. I always thought this was because of Photoshop’s roots in photography. It was useful to compare the before and after states to see if the retouching/color correction you just applied looks good. Regardless of the reason, it did make Photoshop different than other Creative Cloud apps. CC 2019 changes the keystroke to work like InDesign, Illustrator, etc.

• In CC 2019 each time you hit Cmd–Z (Mac) or Ctrl–Z (Windows), you will go farther back in your file’s history.
• To redo, you now hit Cmd–Shift–Z (Mac) or Ctrl–Shift–Z (Windows).
• Miss the old toggle-style undo? Use Cmd–Opt–Z (Mac) or Ctrl–Alt–Z (Windows).

If you don’t like the new keystrokes, you can revert back to the prior behavior as follows:

1. Go into Edit > Keyboard Shortcuts.
2. Check on Use Legacy Undo Shortcuts and click OK.
3. Restart Photoshop.

Each year Adobe comes out with new features, so what changed in InDesign CC 2019? We’ll cover the most important changes we think you should know about.

New Properties Panel

Properties panels have been added to Photoshop and Illustrator, and now InDesign has one. The Properties panel is meant to put many useful features into a single panel.

By default, the Control panel (at the top of the screen) has been hidden, in favor of the new Properties panel. While I like the idea of the Properties panel, I find that the Control panel does a better job of showing you more options in a smaller space. You can show the Control panel again by choosing Window > Control.

Each year Adobe comes out with new features, so what changed in Illustrator CC 2019? We’ll cover the most important changes we think you should know about.

Freeform Gradients

In addition to Linear and Radial gradients, Adobe added a new kind of gradient called Freeform gradients. Freeform gradients are similar to a gradient mesh, but are easier to work with and the color blending acts differently.

You can add color stops (places where you choose a color) anywhere in an object and move them around. These color stops can be points or lines. You can switch between the two modes in the Gradient panel, Properties panel, or Control panel.

IMPORTANT: The information in this post has since become outdated. Read our more current article on this topic.

When designing digital products such as websites, apps, etc. there are many apps to choose from. Which one is right for you? While some people use Figma, InVision Studio, and others, in this article we’ll focus on what we consider the three industry front-runners: Sketch, Adobe Photoshop, and Adobe XD.

Sketch

While some designers are just now making the switch to Sketch, it’s been around since 2010. Sketch is a Mac only app, which is fine with most designers, but PC users will need to look at Adobe XD or Photoshop.

Sketch is great for UX/UI design. You can design wireframes or finished visual designs, and turn those into clickable prototypes using Sketch’s recently added prototyping tools or InVision’s Craft plugin.

Sketch has very powerful symbols and styles, which enable you to easily create complex design systems that are flexible and manageable across large projects. It also has decent exporting options.

Sketch costs $99 (USD) and you get a year of updates as well as Sketch Cloud. After the first year, you can continue using your last update for as long as you want with no other payments. However, if you want another year of updates and Sketch Cloud, you must renew your license for $69 (USD).

Sketch is a great option for Mac users that want an affordable and powerful design app.

Learn more in our Sketch class.

How do we animate in this day and age of HTML5? Should you use animated GIFs, CSS, or JavaScript? Animation is coming back to the web in a big way, and the trend is to make things move. You can even add animations to emails. Learn about creating animations with CSS, JavaScript (GreenSock), Photoshop, and After Effects in this free class!

View the Presentation Slides
Download Demo Files & PDF Exercise

LEARN GREENSOCK:
Videos + Book Training:
Class (attend in New York City or Live Online)
Book (eBook or Print)
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LEARN ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS:
Classes (attend in New York City or Live Online)
Books (eBook or Print)
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LEARN ANIMATED GIFS:
Class (attend in New York City or Live Online):
Book (eBook or Print)

Learn to start using Adobe After Effects to create motion graphics/animation video in this free tutorial.

LEARN MORE:
After Effects Classes (attend in New York City or Live Online)
After Effects Books (eBook or Print)

If you’re not saving your vector graphics (icons, logos, etc) as SVG for use in your webpages, you should be! Instead of using pixel-based PNGs, keep the graphics as their native vectors (so they download faster and can be used at any size). As great as that is, you can even use JavaScript to animate them!

Download the Presentation Slides
Download Demo Files

LEARN MORE:
HTML5 Animation with GreenSock Class (attend in New York City or Live Online)
HTML5 Animation with GreenSock Workbook (eBook or Print)
Web Design Classes (attend in New York City or Live Online)
Web Design Books (eBook or Print)

When should you use Photoshop or Lightroom? Photoshop is well known for editing photos. Lightroom was created for photographers who need to catalog and edit large batches of images. We’ll show you their strengths and weaknesses, so you’ll know when to use each app.

LEARN MORE:
Photoshop Classes (attend in New York City or Live Online)
Lightroom Classes (attend in New York City or Live Online)
Books on Lightroom or Photoshop (eBook or Print)

Learn how to composite artwork drawn in Illustrator with various effects and photos into a unified color scheme.

Continue learning more in our numerous Illustrator Classes (attend in New York City or Live Online). Or check out our Illustrator Book (eBook or Print).